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

[User]
What determines the speed of sound? Why is it not equal to the average speed of a particle in the given medium?

Today I learned, that the average speed of gas molecules in the air is around 500 m/s (at a temperature of about 30 C). I thought soundwaves are particles bumping into each other progressively. This seems to be wrong of course... But what does determine the speed of sound, if not the average speed of the particles themselves?

[Assistant]
The speed of sound is given by c^(2) = dP/d, where P is the pressure of the medium, and  is the density. (And it should be a partial derivative, not total.)

In other words, it tells you how much the pressure changes when you change the density a little bit.


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

[User]
How did pouch evolve on marsupials?

Edit: And by "how" I mean "how", not "why" (yes it's for babies, everybody knows that :D). How did it evolve? What/how did it used to be before they have pouch like the one they have in present time? I tried Googling but all of the results appear to be creationism sites. Help!

[Assistant] There are even marsupials today which don't have pouches.  The babies just hang on to the fur next to the teat.  If the skin is a bit loose in that area, it's probably easier to grab.  A bit looser still, and you have a nice little fold.  Expand the fold, and viola, a pouch!


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

[User]
[DC] How does the Anti-Life Equation work?

I've read plenty of comics and have gone to wikipedia several times, but I still don't get it.  From what I understand, if Darkseid got the ALE he could make everyone see that life is futile any bow to his will.  How?  Let's say the ALE turned out to be "2+2=5A".  Can he just hold up a piece of paper with that written on it?  Can he tell it to someone?  Does just knowing it grant him some sort of power?

[Assistant] The equation shows the futility of life, that there is no point in living, and is sued to control the minds of those that process it. It varies in the physical structure, but usually is mathematical.


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

[User]
Why does Tesla use an AC motor, requiring an inverter and associated efficiency loss, when Elon Musk's hope is for Teslas to ultimately be powered by solar energy (DC) that is stored in home batteries (DC)? Why not DC at the final step?

I apologize if this is the wrong place for such a question.

EDIT: Thanks for the responses! Those links are great reads. To clarify (just in case), my question was not meant to imply I thought a DC motor was a better solution-- rather, I was sure Musk/Tesla thought this through and I wanted to know their reasoning!

[Assistant]
Well, first is that with a brushless DC motor, you still need an inverter, so you still get the loss of efficiency.

Second, A DC brushless motor requires permanent magnets made out of expensive rare earth metals that are almost exclusively produced and controlled by China.

The DC motor gains a slight advantage in not generating as much heat, and therefore not wasting as much energy. But overall, the advantage is slight and canceled out by some advantages of AC, such as the ability to use an adjustable magnetic field to optimize efficiency. DC motors have a fixed magnetic field, and so lose some efficiency at smaller loads.


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

[User]
How do the 420 underwater cables that transmit all of the internet information work?

I read that they're no wider than a can of cola. How is it possible that they send all of that information on that relatively small amount of wire? Do the signals transmit in one direction only or in both directions? Why is there no interference between signals being sent? Any other information would also be greatly appreciated.

[Assistant] They're optical cables, very thin and very long glass strands. Lasers are shot through them and they bounce until they reach the reciever. (Ever tried shooting a laser through a running tap? It makes a "zig-zag" line by bouncing inside.) That reciever then "translates" it to electrical impulse. By changing the angle, you can fit many laser beams through the same strand, and that's why it doesn't need to be thick.


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

[User]
ELI5: 'Regular' Social Democracy -vs- the Nordic Model

The Nordic Model is a social democracy but how does it differ from traditional social democracy?

[Assistant] The Nordic Model is a particular flavor of Social Democracy, which is a fairly broad category of government. Nordic-style social democracy is characterized by stuff like the government, unions, and companies maintaining a very strong, friendly partnership with each other, the government taking part in negotiations, an emphasis on keeping corruption down, and an especially strong "safety net" for those at the bottom.


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

[User] Might be a dumb question, but since the planets are affected by the Suns gravity (orbit), does that mean we are slowly moving toward the Sun since gravity pulls objects closer together?

[Assistant]
It's not a dumb question. It's maybe a common question but here's an answer anyway. Imagine spinning an object around in a circle on the end of a string. What you're doing is pulling it in towards you as you impart rotational velocity on the object. Give it a try - you can really feel that you have to pull on the object to keep it in circular motion. But the object doesn't fall in towards you because you've given it (it already has) some tangential speed.

This is analogous to the sun 'pulling' the planets into circular motion. The pulling tension in the string is analogous to the gravitational pull of the sun on the planets. But the planets don't fall into the sun because they have tangential speed.


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

[User] [DC] Whats something that Superman can do that would piss Lex Luthor off as much as possible?

[Assistant]
Odd answer but...*help* him. Like, save his life or promote Lexcorp or lend him some alien technology or something. Not as part of some scheme where Lex has manipulated him or tricked him or forced him, but as a genuine, unprompted act of kindness.

The idea that the success of his plans might depend, even if only slightly, on Superman's largesse would be a greater insult then any hostile act.


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

[User]
[Lovecraft] What effects does Cthulu's presence have on the surrounding ocean?

Followup questions: how far-reaching are these effects? Would human seafarers notice something strange going on many leagues away, or does Cthulu's slumbering presence go unnoticed?

[Assistant] When he's truly asleep then there's very little activity, otherwise the location of Rlyeh would be common knowledge. When He is stirring, the City is raised (see The Call of Cthulhu). There don't seem to be many physical effects of this, but there are psychic waves coming from Rlyeh that are felt on a global scale.


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

[User]
CMV: Affirmative Action is Racist and should be Illegal

Definition of affirmative action:
the policy of favoring members of a disadvantaged group.

Definition of racism:
Discrimination or prejudice based on race.

Affirmative action is discriminating against the majority. Race/gender/culture shouldn't even be a factor in hiring and it should just be based off of skill. If all races are equal then why are we treating some worse than others. There shouldn't be any preference for race when hiring employees.

I find all the counter arguments unconvincing. How is being racist to one group/race helping get rid of racism? If anything, losing a potential job position to someone who's less qualified just because they fit into a minority group would make people angry and that minority group would be discriminated against more.

Affirmative action is racist in structure and promotes more racism.

[Assistant]
Let's take an extreme case. Suppose there are two people. They both successfully made a line-following robot. One of them used a Lego robotics kit and the help of their parents, who are engineers. The other used spare parts: motors, an LED, a photo-diode, an old PIC microprocessor, a breadboard, etc., and didn't have anyone helping them.

Do you think it would make sense to favor the second person over the first, even if your normal metric for success is how cool a robot final product the person made?


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

[User] ELI5, how come when you get an organ transplant, there's a chance your body will reject it and your immune system will kill it. But when you get infected by a new disease, it's difficult for your immune system to kill the disease.

[Assistant]
When you get an organ transplant, your immune system can try to attack the organ, recognizing that it does not belong in your body. The same is true for infections. The difference is that an organ does not fight back, it does not try to spread and create more of itself.

Its like the difference between getting into a bar fight (an infection) and going into a nursing home and beating up old people (rejection)


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

[User] ELI5: How are different kinds of cheeses, like cheddar, mozzarella, and parmesan, made? Is there a different process for each?

[Assistant]
Yes, there's a different process for each in terms of actually making the cheese, but also an important part of production is how the cheese is aged, too.

As for how each cheese is made - going into the details of each would be silly - easier for you to look them up. However, different milk from different animals, fed on different feeds, at different times of the year, treated differently after milking by skimming, semi-skimming, heating etc. Then there's how you curdle it with rennet, how you cut the curd, how you dry it, how you press it, how much salt you add, what bacteria you encourage, how you handle the pressed cheese, whether you wrap it in fabric or leaves or wash it or leave it in a cave or turn it or poke holes in it or cover it in wax....


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

[User] ELI5 Why Ireland has been fighting for independence for decades, but Scotland is able to plan a referendum on the matter.

[Assistant] Ireland is an independent country. Northern Ireland on the other hand is part of the United Kingdom. Some of the people there want to be part of the United Kingdom and some want to be part of Ireland. They can't agree on what to do.


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

[User] Do quantum particles experience time dilation?

[Assistant]
Yes, we know this for two reasons:

1. Classical objects do and they are still quantum objects.

2. We know individual quantum particles do such as muons produced in the upper atmosphere. You can experimentally determine this by calculating their half life, you will find it differs from the half life of muons at rest compared to you.

I lied, there's not just two reasons, but hundreds. Quantum electrodynamics alone is our most accurately tested theory in physics and it represents the marriage of quantum mechanics and special relativity so essentially any prediction in it requires the compatibility of everything SR says.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do numbers 11 through 19 have a different syntax to every other number?

As they don't follow the same formatting as twenty-(1-9), or one-hundred [and] (1-9) as examples in speech. Shouldn't they be named Tenthy-five, as an example. It's also partially true in other languages, such as French, why do we do this?

[Assistant]
Eleven and twelve are from old, old words probably meaning something like 'one/two left [after you take away ten]'.

Thirteen -- nineteen are basically 'three-ten' -- 'nine-ten'. You can think of them as being said with a strange accent.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do we enjoy certain foods in adulthood that we hated as kids?

[Assistant] Adults actually have less taste buds than kids, so something bitter, for example, will have a more intense bitter flavor for a kid than an adult. And sometimes you just learn to like something after trying it a bunch of times.


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

[User] I've heard it said many, many times that modern economics lumps land and capital together when considering the factors of production. Is this true? Are the considered the same?

[Assistant]
In some introductory economics courses maybe but for the general field that hasn't been true since  the second edition of Wealth of Nations. Even Adam Smith decided to separate them really quickly.

The factors of production are Land, Labor, Capital.

Then entrepreneurship/knowledge/informed willingness to take risks is the fourth factor but this definition is not very well accepted. But to answer your question, no economics does not lump land and capital together.


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

[User]
[Marvel] With the collapse of the multiverse following Secret Wars #1 (2015), how have dimension-based powers survived (e.g., Nightcrawler, Cloak, Spot, Cyclops, etc.)?

For clarification, I specifically mean DURING Secret Wars and after. I know after Secret Wars ends with them slowly recreating the multiverse, but I doubt they started with all their friend's/enemy's dimensions so they could have their powers.

Extra credit: Did they talk about how or why Spider-Gwen's universe was unaffected by Secret Wars events?

[Assistant] I think there is a difference in the Marvel Omniverse between a "Dimension" and a "Universe". Like each Universe has its own version of the Nine Realms, but all those realms are different Dimensions.


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

[User]
Does entire youtube confuse multiple regression and multivariate regression? (Or do I?)

Hi guys,
I've always learned that basically one response & multiple predictor variables is a multiple regression problem (aka multivariable regression, with multiple variables). Next, multiple response variables & one (or more) predictor variables would be a multivariate regression problem.

Funnily enough, every single video I looked at on youtube which is said to discuss multivariate regression is just talking about multiple regression. Suprisingly enough, also video's with tags from different universities. (gotta admit after the first few pages of search results I kinda gave up, so it's probably not all videos)

Is this just too niche to be picked up as an error or something?

[Assistant]
I also learned that "multivariate regression" implied needing a multivariate distribution for the error term, not just having more than one explanatory variable.

I think the problem is mostly that so few people DO regressions with more than one response variable estimated simultaneously, that the terms aren't in common use.

Note, in contrast, that "MANOVA" still unambiguously refers to having a multivariate response, because terms like "2-way ANOVA" etc are well known for the more-than-one-predictor case.


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

[User]
Why do Hobbits seem more technologically advanced than the other Free Peoples of Middle Earth?

Hobbits make use of matches, mechanical clocks, glass windows, bound books, homes made of polished wood, doorbells, doorknobs with integrated locks and latches, and so on. Their technological level feels very much like 17th or 18th century.
By contrast, the rest of Middle Earth seems to use tinder boxes, scrolls, stone castles and houses with thatch roofs, and so on. It appears to be a much more Medieval technological level.
What gives?

[Assistant] I think its mostly due to the fact that they are so peaceful. Since they have never really been in a war and they dont make weapons of any kind they mostly turned their sites on farming and other forms of invention. WHile the rest of the world has been fighting each other/evil for thousends of years.


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

[User]
CMV: The fact that some celebrities can say something not in vogue with BLM, LGBTQ+ or MeToo movements/activists, and suddenly become subject to personal attacks regardless of how they explain their reasoning makes it obvious that the internet is intolerant and all the worse for it.

The more I see people try to take a stand and say something that isn't in vogue with the popular movements, without actually encouraging bad or violent behavior, then get shunted, shunned, shamed, attacked, and publicly humiliated, the more I see a complete lack of tolerance in so-called open-minded or "woke" people.

> "Before you judge a man, walk a mile in their shoes."

That is a statement so painfully ignored (or misused to justify actual criminal behavior) in the last 10 years that I cannot feel comfortable supporting any of the popular and sudden attacks on people.

I am not going to say that it happens that often, but... A straight man raped by a gay man should be allowed to be afraid of being left alone with a gay man. A woman who has been a victim of sexual harrassment should be allowed to react explosively when someone makes a derogatory comment. Bullying victims should be allowed to think anyone actually making a good-spirited joke of lesser flavor is an attack to them.

People have had different paths in life. Most people's deeply-ingrained opinions are dictated by those experiences. At the end of the day, attacking someone for a statement you decided was derogatory, then ignoring their explanation of why they reacted in such a fashion, is a proof of intolerance and apathy, and just following what's trending.

You don't combat poorly-shaped or bad opinions with hatred or backlash. You combat poorly-shaped or bad opinions with understanding and conversation. The most flagrant example of that, is when Daryl Davis managed to convince the Sorcerer Supreme of the KKK to actually be friends with him, and leave the KKK. If you attack someone, they shouldn't consider your opinion to be intelligently formed, or even logical, as your assessment of their person is that they are too dumb to reason, or too evil to care.

And all that kind of behavior online (particularly online, where anonymity is a saving grace for most people engaging in that behavior) is making the entirety of discussion forums all the lesser for it.

[Assistant]
You built a strawman to fight against. There is no uniform code of what "woke" people should do, nor there is an organized association of "woke" people.

The basic truth is - if you publicly state an opinion, you will get attacked by someone. More people listen to you, more attacks you will suffer. That is a thing that goes with popularity - and no matter the opinion a celeb voices, there will be pitchforks - just from different side.


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

[User]
When mixing liquids, do the temps average?

Or is there more to it than I don't understand.

Basically if you mix 2 liquids, 5 oz water at 120 and 5oz water at 100 will the resulting 10 oz liquid be 110?

What about if there's a drastic difference? Say 5oz@50 and 5oz@250, result 150?

What if there's a difference in volume? 8oz@200 and 2oz@100, result 180?

[Assistant]
If it's the same liquids in the same amounts, then the final temperature is the average of the two.  If you have different amounts, then it is the weighted average of the two temperatures.  If you have different liquids, then you need to use the more general formula:

m1c1(Tf-Ti)=m2c2(Tf-Tf)

Where c is the specific heat capacity of each substance.


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

[User]
Eli5 why plywood has random eye shaped thingys in them

Why does plywood have random eye shaped outlines in them?

[Assistant] Likely you are looking at a paint grade of plywood. They cut the knots and imperfections out of the outside veneers and replace them with filler. This achieves the grade requirements. You usually will not find that on construction grade, and will never see it on a grade or stain grade.


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

[User] Eli5: When you get so tired that you become physically sick (nauseous/headache/etc), what's actually happening to your body?

[Assistant]
ELI5: The body is telling you to slow down after experiencing stress. Seek a doctor for medical advice.

Ext'd: Overexhaustion of the body can cause physical and emotional stress, which puts strain on the body's vascular system and can cause hormonal or behavioural changes. This can cause headaches and feelings of being tired or unwell. When the body is in a stressed state, opportunistic ailments such as bacterial infection or chemical imbalances can cause physical signs of illness or experiences of symptoms such as fatigue or nausea.


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

[User]
CMV: Preventing people who aren't people of colour from portraying people of colour is also racist.

Mike Henry (a white male) has stepped down from voicing Cleveland Brown on Family Guy amid a growing call from the American public that characters of colour should only be voiced by people of colour.

But doesn't that just sound like racism with extra steps? It's basically saying that you and yours cannot do this particular thing because you and yours are not part of this particular ethnic group.

Also, shouldn't it go both ways? Should Christopher Judge (a black-cherokee male) step down from portraying Kratos in the God of War franchise because Judge himself isn't Greek?

Friends, Romans, Countrymen, change my view.

[Assistant]
It has to be understood in context.  In "the perfect world" you'd be right, but in our world the assumption here is that these roles aren't given to black people _because they are black people_ (or perhaps that the white guy has more gas in the tank in these circles because they are NOT black).

So...if you arrive at the place where  you think that had YOU been black you'd not have got the role that is a black person and that a black person also qualified didn't get it because they were black, then....well....that's not cool, eh?


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

[User]
[West Wing] Someone who used to work here disappeared

So I recently got this job in the Bartlett administration and so far everything has been pretty great. I feel like I'm really a contributing member to the team and that the team is more or less doing good work for our country. That said something is really starting to bother me. There was this woman that used to work here, Mandy Hampton. She seemed to be a pretty important figure in the administration, at least she was constantly in meetings and private conversations with the President's key advisers. I even heard that she was romantically involved with Deputy Chief of Staff Joshua Lyman.

Anyway, like I said, things were going pretty great around here and then the President got shot. Not only that but the Mr. Lyman was shot, too, and almost died. Things were pretty hectic around here for a while after the assassination attempt and I'm embarrassed to say it took me a little while to notice that Mandy wasn't around any more. Well, at least I haven't seen her since the day of the shooting. What's more confusing, and has me kinda frightened, is that I seem to be the only person that remembers her ever working here. No one ever talks about her, not even Mr. Lyman or any of the other senior advisers that she was always working with.

Why does no one seem to remember her presence at all? How could someone leave without a trace at such an important moment? I hesitate to say what I think is actually going on because the implications are scary... but I wonder if she had anything to do with the assassination attempt. Why am I the only person that remembers her at all? Is it time travel? Aliens? I'm really scared that there is something going on here, it's as if she never existed.

[Assistant]
Mandy felt her contributions were not being heard nor were they using her to her fullest ability. So she left in the turmoil post-assassination attempt to go back to the private sector and leave political life for good.

This was the second time Mandy abandoned the team like this so the rest of the West Wing decided to just forget about her. She wasn't part of the team so she didn't matter anymore. No sense dwelling on it.

Josh, who was closest to her out of them all, decided it best to leave things alone, but it did affect him. Let's just say that therapist he's  been rumored to be seeing isn't only there because of the PTSD.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are there so many Neo-Nazis in Russia?

I know from history classes that MILLIONS of Russians died in WW2 against the Nazi invasion from the west.

Isn't it ironic that there are so many cases of racism in Russia today attributed to mostly Neo-Nazis?  These people follow an ideology that led to the deaths of so many of their own people.

[Assistant]
Neo-nazism in Russia isn't about adherence to Germanic Nazism. "Nazi" is short for "Nationalsozialismus", German for national socialism. The neo-nazis in Russia are nationalistic socialists, who share an adherence to violence and ethnic identity.

It's like having a nuclear weapon, it's fine if you have it, but not when the other guy does, and their thinking makes for a lot of "other guys".

Edit :

Little-n nazism (nazism in general) tends to arise when there are harsh economic climates and people suffer as a result of those economic problems - when the government is unable to prevent widespread hunger, homelessness, illness, etcetera, and is seen as corrupt and unaccountable. Russia's government is just that way.


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

[User]
[Star Trek] Doesn't the Federation have laws against genocide?

In the TNG episode "The Survivors" we meet a Douwd who had been posing as a human. At the end we find out that in a fit of hatred and temporary insanity he wiped out the entire Husnock race.
Once Picard realizes the  truth he tells him.

"We are not qualified to be your judges. We have no law to fit your crime. You're free to return to the planet, and to make Rishon live again."

Yes, being a judge over such a trial would be a heavy burden, no doubt on that. And yes, having that responsibility would be too much for anyone.  But he also says they have no laws to fit that crime. Wouldn't it fall under laws against Genocide? Because that is what it was.

[Assistant] They probably do, and the punishment is probably death but the perpetrator here was a godlike being. The Federation, never mind the Enterprise on its own, might not have the ability to kill him, and worse, might trigger another genocide in the process of trying - he had already demonstrated that he might lash out under extreme stress. Picard must have decided warning Federation ships away and hoping the Douwd stayed put on the planet was the best course of action.


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

[User]
How do MMO economies differ from real economies?

As in the economies of online multiplayer games such as Eve Online or World of Warcraft.

[Assistant] As silly as this sounds... the fact that people don't need food clothing and shelter to continue existing in MMOGs is a major underlying difference that shapes the economies differently than IRL economies.


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

[User]
[Spoilers][No Way Home] Why does he care?

Why does Peter care about going to MIT? Doesn't he have access to Stark Industries research and development? Why can't he and his friends just immediately start working at Stark? You know what's cooler than the college experience? Working with Iron Mans nanobots. Does MIT even have a nanotech program, or an arc reactor program? He already has access to the most amazing technology and research in the world if not the universe.

[Assistant]
Theres just experiencing college life with his friends plus MIT has prob been his dream school since before he became spider man.

Getting a college degree at MIT would widen his opportunities in case he wanted to go into a different field other than what stark handles.

Also even though he has personal connections with Tony Stark and Happy and he knows how to use the tech, he and his friends definitely need at least a degree to be officially hired at the company.


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

[User] ELI5: If youre traveling at 50mph and get rear-ended by someone traveling 100mph, is it the same as someone at a standstill being rear ended by someone traveling 50mph?

[Assistant]
The immediate crash will be substantially the same.

What happens immediately after isnt because in the first case youre going to be traveling at over 50mph while injured and disoriented in a vehicle that may have lost the ability to steer or brake, so are at a high risk of additional crashes and other damage.


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

[User]
ELI5: how can black holes have greater gravitational pull than the stars they're born from?

A super-massive star blows off it's outer layer, and what remains collapses into a black hole.  Shouldn't the black hole then have less mass than the parent star, and therefore less gravitational pull?  Sure, the black hole has extreme density, but gravity is a function of mass and distance.

[Assistant]
>gravity is a function of mass and distance.

Exactly, so the black hole has the same (or less, if matter was ejected) gravitational pull at large distances.  The difference is that, at distances where you would be *inside* the original star (and thus experiencing reduced gravity from the outer layers pulling you up), you'll still be far away from the black hole, so the gravitational pull nearby the black hole is higher than anything the original star was capable of.


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

[User]
CMV: I feel that aspects of Pride are too sexualised

I've been going to Pride for years and absolutely love it. But there's always one thing that irks me every year. We're always regarded by some mean parts of society as a sexual circus rather than just a sexual orientation, and that image isn't helped by the fetish wear I see every year. I was on the tube heading to meet friends when a group of guys wearing nothing but jockstraps, harnesses and those leather dog masks got on my carriage. It was 2:30 in the afternoon and there were children on board! I get dressing scantily clad (especially in this weather) for a bit of fun but fetish wear just seems too much and, to me, doesn't really represent what Pride is about..?

[Assistant]
"What pride is about", is very explicitly NOT a carefully toned plea for mainstream acceptance, but an in-your-face declaration of non-conformity.

Like the slogan says, "We are here, we are Queer, get used to it!".

There are enough gay activists to make the Golden Rule based moral arguments about how gay people are totally normal and shouldn't be treated as some sort of sexual weirdness, but Pride has instead always taken the approach, that **it's OK to be weird**.

That the goal has never been for a small minority to sneak under the umbrella of "normal", but to tell off the public that they can all swallow their idea of normal and choke on it.


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

[User]
[Attack on Titan] Titans are invading my town, how do I survive this?

Scenario 1: I'm in the AoT world and so live in one of their cities. The wall just got busted the fuck down and Titans are pouring in and are eating people. Where do I run, what do I avoid, how long have I got before I'm ripped in half and put in a titan-sized taco?

Scenario 2: I'm in the real world, and Titans just appear from no-where, once the military shows up they'll be dealt with but how do I survive waiting for them? Do I hide inside, upstairs, downstairs?

[Assistant]
I round 1, follow your per-prepared evacuation plan. Since the Fall of Wall Maria, we've come to take this threat a lot more seriously, and implemented numerous civil defense measures. Follow those and you should be *just fine*.

For Round 2, enclose spaces are your best bet, unless you happen to have a helicopter in your back yard. Once the titans detect you, your fucked, so you need to stay out of sight. Fleeing in a vehlice comes to mind, but unless you live is a very small town, the roads will quickly become cloged and attract a large number of titans. A sub-basement is probably your best bet.

Don't forget to bring a radio, some food and water, and a bucket, as it may be some time before the military shows up, and a titan might collapse the building on you.

Modern personal firearms are largely useless against this type of threat, so hiding is your best bet. Let the trained professionals with heavy weapons deal with this.


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

[User]
ELI5: If you can change matter into energy, then is it possible to change energy into matter?

If so, how does this work?

Sorry if this is a stupid question, I haven't taken physics yet, but this seems really interesting.

[Assistant] This is exactly what the LHC does, you accelerate particles until they have lots of energy, slam them together so they burst into energy and out of that energy new particles pop out. This is why we need ever bigger particle accelerators, more energy means we can get bigger particles out.


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

[User] How close to Earth could a black hole get without us noticing?

[Assistant]
It depends on the mass of the black hole. A black hole with the mass of, say, a person (which would be absolutely tiny) could pass through the Earth and we'd be none the wiser. If one with the mass of the Sun passed by, well, the consequences would be about as catastrophic as if another star passed through - our orbit would be disrupted, and so on.

The important thing to remember is that black holes aren't some sort of cosmic vacuum cleaner. For example, if you replaced the Sun with a solar-mass black hole, our orbit wouldn't be affected at all, because its gravitational field would be pretty much exactly the same. Black holes are special because they're *compact*. If you were a mile away from the center of the Sun, you'd only feel the gravity from the Sun's mass interior to you, which is a tiny fraction of its overall mass. But if you were a mile away from a black hole with the Sun's mass, you'd feel *all* that mass pulling on you, because it's compacted into a much smaller area.


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

[User]
[MCU] HYDRA seems to be three bodies: religious, military, and political. What would the politics of the group look like?

In the films and shows, we've seen effectively three branches of HYDRA:

* Religious: ancient and mysterious and built around an Illuminati-type group of men, and ultimately around Inhumans and specifically the Hive alien life form.
* Military: the branch of HYDRA that used Nazi Germany to gain power and position, that nearly overthrew SHIELD, and who fell at last to the Avengers in Sokovia.
* Political: those that believe in the ideals and causes of HYDRA, their sympathizers, and the views shared on governance by those on either the religious or military side of things.

What would the typical political belief system and "party platform" of HYDRA supporters be?

[Assistant]
You seem to believe that Hydra branches operate like the US federal government, they don't.

There's only *one* Hydra, and it's the ~~Religious organization~~ pursuit of power.  The political, military, economic, (edit: religious,) and social organizations are all subservient to that.

The political organizations aren't themselves political parties, they're infiltrations into political parties.  A few politicians, a few political aides, etc.


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

[User] ELI5: How does the skin grow back with the same fingerprints?

[Assistant] If you only damage the top layer of the skin, the epidermis, the underlying dermis contains the information to regrow the fingerprints in the same way. If you damage the dermis, you can cause scarring that prevents the fingerprint from growing back in the same way.


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

[User] [Fullmetal Alchemist] In the end, did King Bradley truly loved his wife?

[Assistant]
It's commented that taking a wife wasn't planned, it was something Bradley chose to do, and by the same token Selim liked his mother because she was willing to risk her life to protect him even before she knew him, something that confused him but gave him an appreciation for humanity.

I don't think we can ever really understand the nature of a homunculus, but we can say for sure if he didn't love her he at least had something resembling respect and admiration for her otherwise he wouldn't have stuck around since he had no obligation to even deal with her, let alone get married.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why not just use the Force?

For example, take Clone Wars episode "Lightsaber Lost". When Ahsoka finds the woman who has her lightsaber, the two engage in a prolonged chase sequence. Numerous times in that chase, she has the opportunity to use the Force to grab the lightsaber, but she just... doesn't. I get that she's a Padawan and therefore inexperienced, but using the Force to pull something towards you seems like a pretty fundamental Jedi skill.

Another example: "Hostage Crisis". There's a scene in which Padm and Anakin are talking to each other, and during that conversation Anakin gives Padm his lightsaber. C-3PO and Bail Organa walk in, and Anakin hides underneath the table before they tell Padme she has to leave. She does so, but still has his lightsaber. Why didn't he use the Force to pull the lightsaber out of her hand? This specific example is made even more nonsensical because of "Senate Spy", in which Padme, when trying to hide a disc from Rush Clovis, drops it, allowing Anakin to use the Force to stop it before it hits the ground and then pull it into his hand.

One more example, this time not from Clone Wars: Jango Fett and Obi-Wan's fight. Obi-Wan has the Force; Jango Fett does not. All Obi-Wan would need to do to beat him is use the Force to throw him into a wall a few times until he was knocked out. This applies to most Force-user vs non-Force-user fights in Star Wars, but this was just my example.

[Assistant] I think you're seriously underestimating the effort it takes to use the Force, especially when you're already focused on doing something else - like chasing after someone, or trying not to get killed by a guy with a vast array of weapons and being backed up by his son in a heavily armed ship.


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

[User]
[Matrix] Wouldn't feeding humans liquefied humans cause variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease

Wouldnt all the humans eventually die of human mad cow disease?

[Assistant]
The human isn't being fed human flesh. The dead humans are broken down and remade into safe components in order to be fed to humans.

It's like if you buried a body, planted an apple tree on the grave, and ate the apple you wouldn't get diseases.


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

[User]
How come doctors can pull people out of comas when they induce one, but it's almost impossible to pull them out if they go into a coma themselves?

Just think it's odd that comas seem to be irreversible, yet doctors put some patients into then purposely depending on the injury.

[Assistant] A medically induced coma is simply giving a continuous controlled dose of an anesthetic.  When you stop giving the anesthetic, the "coma" stops.  When an individual becomes comatose for other reasons, it is usually due to severe damage to the brain or other nervous system functions.  The damage usually must heal to some degree before the person becomes responsive again.


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

[User]
ELI5: How did the Navajo communicate and why couldn't enemies decipher the language in World War II?

What's so special about the language (besides its difficulty, I assume) that makes it so hard to understand?

[Assistant]
It's a bit more complicated than just being a language not spoken outside of the Americas. It's also because it's from a language family that's not spoken outside of a small group in the Americas. This is important because it makes it about 50 thousand (citation needed) times harder to translate it.

Take for example the English language. English comes from the Indo-European family of languages. That means that it has at least some similarities to other languages in this family, including all of the Romance languages and all of the Germanic languages, etc. So even with no understanding of English, if you know one of the many languages in that language family, you at least have a baseline.

Then compare Navajo. Navajo comes from a family called Na-Dene which, until very recently, was believed to exist only in the Americas. Even still it only existed in small parts of the Yukon and the North.

As an aside, we now know that there are tribes in Siberia who speak a similar language but that wasn't known at the time.

So, this being a language not widely spoken, from a language tree that isn't spread outside of our region, with no baseline for other countries to use in their codebreaking, made it a very convenient and efficient language to use.


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

[User] [DC] What effect do Superman/Batman have on crime statistics? Has their participation caused municipal governments to adjust police budgets (either reduce or increase), and if so, how do police and taxpayers in general feel about that?

[Assistant] I don't know if they reduce police budgets, but they'll sure as heck have to crank their public works budgets. So many roads repairs from super hero landings alone - and those will wreck the sub base. You can't just fill them.


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

[User] ELI5: Somewhat Thanksgiving themed question: Why didn't the American colonists decide to colonize Canada, and how did Britain come to rule over it?

[Assistant]
...I think you have it backward.

The English, French and Spanish colonized North America. The 13 colonies rebelled and gained independence to become the United States. England conquered France's territories in what is now Canada before that.

What is now Canada stayed part of the British Empire. The US did try to invade in the War of 1812, but they didn't win. IIRC there were also some skirmishes in the War of Independence as well. Canada eventually grew more and more independent from the Empire (a long and complicated story in and of itself). There were other attempts as well, such as the Fenian Raids, but none were successful.


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

[User]
[DC]Could Poison Ivy ever become the protector of The Green?

I know she's connected to it, but is she powerful enough to? Or is she too 'evil'?

[Assistant] Not only is Ivy not really "evil", but The Green doesn't give a damn about human morality. The thing is, an Avatar of The Green has to be chosen, and theres always only one, so unless Swamp Thing dies, she won't become Avatar. And then there's the powerful-thing. Ivy controls plants nearby. The Avatar of the Green *is* plants. As in, all of them. As in, absolute control. That's several levels above Ivy.


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

[User]
Can cancer happen in any organ?

I've never heard of renal cancer or heart cancer or bladder cancer, but is that just because they're incredibly rare?

[Assistant]
Theoretically speaking, any organ or tissue type can become cancerous.

Kidney cancer (such as clear cell renal cell carcinoma) and bladder cancer are uncommon cancers, but they are not extremely rare. In the US, there are about 70k new cases of kidney cancer every year, and about 80k new cases of bladder cancer every year.

Heart cancer exists, but it is **extremely** rare.


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

[User]
ELI5 why are so many Muslims pissed off with 'the west'?

I take this huge world shaping fact for granted without really wondering why...did we do something terrible?

[Assistant]
Many factors:

Relations between Islamic countries and the U.S. were profoundly affected by the west's cold war on communism.

The U.S. traditionally fought the growth of a pan-Arab nationalism in the region.

The U.S. traditionally supported Fundamentalist religious movements as an additional mechanism to fragment the Arab world.

Petro-dollars brought enormous wealth to many Muslim countries creating vast economic schisms and leaders that were autocratic, unelected, and not particularly accountable to public opinion.

Millions of Palestinian refugees have been created as a result of the 1948 and 1967 wars in Palestine.

Governments in the region tended to invest in major infrastructure projects, but not in education improvements or activities that would bring economic opportunities to the people.

In many Arab/Muslim countries, the youth suffer immense frustration, created by high unemployment rates, poverty, lack of education, and lack of hope.

Many Muslims object to American culture.


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

[User] When you break/snap something, (i.e. String, a stick, a carrot) what is actually making the noise that we hear?

[Assistant] By snapping something, you are destroying/deforming the physical structure of the molecules.  Just like with chemical bonds, there is an energy associated with the configuration of things like cellulose fibers in a stick or polymer chains in a piece of plastic.  Changing that configuration releases some of that energy in the form of heat and sound.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do horses get euthanized after injuries.

There was a report today that a former Kentucky Derby winner broke its leg and had to be euthanized. Why not give it the same treatment as dogs nag give it a cast? I assume it has something to do with the size of the animal, but isn't that roughly relative to what a dog would carry on a different scale?

[Assistant]
Horses pretty much have to stand. Lying down causes circulation problems and lead to organ damage/failure. They also really need to distribute the weight properly over their 4 legs. Doing otherwise can lead to muscle damage and other problems.

Horses evolved in such a way that they stand for pretty much their entire life. They're not built to re-distribute their weight across 3 limbs like a dog or cat. A horse puts about 60% of their weight across their front legs, so damage to just one of their legs either means increased weight on the remaining front leg, or having to carry more weight on the back.


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

[User] [Star Trek] To what extent would a Starfleet officer in the 2360s be familiar with the exploits of James T. Kirk and his crew from 100 years previously? Would their knowledge be comparable to that of a dedicated "Trekkie" in our world?

[Assistant]
In the U.S. military history is reinforced during professional development. It helps provide positive and negative examples of behavior.

So, assuming that Kirk had a significant impact on Star Fleet, or history.... yea, they would discuss him during academy.


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

[User]
[Muppets] Biologically and socially speaking, what ARE Muppets?

What actually are Muppets? Do Elmo and Big Bird etc. from 123 Sesame Street belong to the Muppet species? How do Muppets mesh with humans in society? Can they take on the same rolls and jobs in a community as a regular human can?

[Assistant]
All Muppets are derived from the same primordial origins.   They simply evolved differently over the eons than us, and of course into different 'species' as it were... eg: Hairy muppets most commonly 'monsters' (think Oscar, Grover, Elmo, etc...)... the feathery muppets (eg. Big Bird)... felt textured muppets (Kermit, Bert, Ernie, etc)... to name a few.

Most Muppets are MORE than capable of socializing and mingling with humans, including taking on the same roles and jobs as humans in our society (physical size and limb strength not withstanding), Unfortunately ignorance and prejudice prevent many Muppets from being treated fairly in most areas of the US.  This is why Muppets seemingly prefer to reside in their own communities, not the least of which is the aforementioned *Sesame Street,* where they are accepted by others like them and by some more inspired humans.

They've even fashioned a coded song of sorts that, when sung, can direct those that seek refuge from oppression to said street.


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

[User] If you conducted an experiment where you spilled the same amount of liquid, from the same height on to the same flat surface, would the liquid land (and splash) in the same place every time? If not, why not?

[Assistant]
If you're asking "are the governing laws of fluid motion deterministic" the answer is yes for any kind of normal fluid at a scale where you can neglect quantum effects.

As a thought experiment, think of an eye dropper releasing a single drop of water onto a piece of glass. If you have *the exact same* initial conditions, it should always have the same end result. The reality is that turbulence, instabilities, and other such phenomena (like a droplet breaking apart when hitting a surface) are *extremely* sensitive to initial conditions, and it's quite impossible to reliably achieve the exact same initial conditions (outside of a computer simulation) in exacting detail.

Typically macroscopic, statistical or averaged descriptions of the drop impact will remain the same (X% of liquid is found within Y radius), but all the little minutiae will be rather different.


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

[User]
How to begin a career as an economic researcher

Hi, I'm an undergraduate rising sophomore and I'm interested in doing research as a career. I've read online that private sector/public sector research internships as well as research with professors is important. However, the only economics knowledge I have are my intro micro and macro classes. I have no previous experience with any kind of research or relevant work experience. How can I set myself up for a sophomore summer internship with this kind of minimal experience? Any wisdom is appreciated!

[Assistant]
1. Take intermediate micro, intermediate macro, economic statistics, and econometrics.

2. Talk to your econ department's Director of Undergraduate Studies. Ask about grad school. Ask about undergrad research opportunities. Ask about potential departmental or university-wide funding for summer research assistantships.

3. Look for internships at research-oriented firms (AIR, Westat, RTI) and public institutions (maybe the BLS/BEA/Census, maybe the Fed banks).

4. Talk to professors. Ask if they have any projects that they need help on. Express a willingness to learn statistics and programming, because those are likely to be your areas of comparative advantage.


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

[User]
Why does COVID-19 affect people differently?

This may have been asked here before, but Im trying to understand how a virus can show completely different symptoms in one person versus the next. For example, Donovan Mitchell, a NBA shooting guard for the Utah Jazz, tested positive for COVID-19 a week and a half ago. Hes repeatedly stated that he is completely asymptomatic and is feeling better than ever, even stating the he would be able to play in a 7-game series right now. But then I see stories of people in their mid-20s (around the same age as Mitchell), who appear relatively healthy, having to be put on respirators and checked into ICU. Ive never heard of a virus affecting people completely different like this. For example, if two people around the same age and health get the flu, it usually affects them about the same. And even if its not exactly the same, they both would experience negative symptoms to some degree. Why is COVID-19 so different? Any explanation on this would be appreciated! Thanks!

[Assistant] Physician here. The answer is the genetics and experience of your immune system. In laymans terms there are two important decisions your body must make. The first is how aggressively does the body want to fight the virus when it initially enters your body.  Usually this is at the level of your throat before it gets into your lungs. If your body succeeds in fending off the virus at this level, you will have mild to no symptoms. If your body fails to fight off the virus at this level, it will enter your lungs. This second part is where your body has to walk a fine line. There is a degree of variability of your immune system to decide how much ammoit wants to throw at the virus. If your immune system is filled with accurate snipers you will have no problem clearing the virus from your lungs. Now if it panics and starts throwing  grenades at anything that moves, it will kill much of your healthy lung tissue and clog up the airways with fluid causing you essentially drown yourself. Of course you might be saved if you medical professionals stick a tube down your throat and connect you to a machine that forces air into your lungs for days. Theres is nothing you can do to improve the accuracy or measured response of your immune system.  Covid 19 is no joke. Were all playing Russian roulette when we make contact with others.


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

[User]
Why does hair come in just a few colors? And why these colors?

As the title says - why can we only have different shades of a few specific colors of naural hair and why can hair only have one of these particular colors and not, say, green?

[Assistant]
Layman.

There are two major natural pigments found in hair. Eumelanin is black or brown. Pheomelanin yellow or red. Our hair colours are limited to what can be produced by mixing these two pigments in various quantities.

I can't say why we never evolved to produce another pigment (like a green pigment).


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

[User]
[Lego Batman] Is Joker a master builder?

As established by The Lego Movie, Batman (and several other DC superheroes) are skilled enough to be considered "master builders". In the new movie, Joker is able to convert Wayne Manor into a deranged carnival fairly quickly, but its unclear if this was completed by himself or with the help of his new army.

Or is this a silly question because Lego Batman and The Lego Movie are completely different playsets?

[Assistant]
> Or is this a silly question because Lego Batman and The Lego Movie are completely different playsets?

Lego Batman and Lego Movie are a shared universe. Lego Batman makes explicit references to the Lego Movie including the news reporters discussing the Infinite Abyss of Nothingness and showing a model of Gotham city on a table; also Batman tells the computer to activate Master Builder mode.

It's not clear if the Joker or any of the other bad guys are master builders, but it stands to reason at least one is.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is Singapore so successful when it's democracy index is 6.14 and oil industry is responsible just for 5 percent of the GDP?

[Assistant]
Trade.
If you want to get something from China to Europe you have to go past Singapore to the Suez Canal.
Want to get Middle Eastern Oil back? Singapore.
It also has some of the best port infrastructure on the planet.

Furthermore the founding father of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew did a bunch of good things.
1) Come down hard on even the slightest hint of corruption.
2) Encourage the people to keep using English, even after the British left.
3) Maintain good relations with both the USA and China.


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

[User] Why is Philosophy male-dominated?

[Assistant]
There are obvious socio-cultural reasons that has caused Philosophy to be male-dominated throughout history, like many of the other academic and high-ranking professions.

But there has been a deeper, methodological criticism that the profession has a bias in its approach and perspective that skews male or masculine, and in this way has failed to accommodate women and in turn a much needed perspective-- all the while under the guise of objectivity. Feminist Ethics, for example, in part seeks to undercover these implicit biases, countering what were once traditional views that women were unconcerned or not intelligent enough to comprehend their own moral duties.

Another now famous example in Continental philosophy is the claims of Phenomenology concerning embodiment. From Husserl's notion of *epoche*, the bracketing of phenomenal experience, to Merleau-Ponty's views on sexuality, there's been criticism that these popular or highly publicized views have actually ostracized perspectives that don't match what is taken as universal or common, or implies that men have unfettered access.


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

[User] At what point does the speed of air moving over a surface start heating from friction rather than cooling by carrying away heat?

[Assistant]
Aerodynamic heating is, in most if not all circumstances, caused by compression and not by friction. This principle is very pronounced in things like diesel engines and fire pistons, which use compression heating to ignite a fuel.

Any object moving through the atmosphere compresses the air in front of it, causing it to heat up. At low speeds this is negligible,see Bernoulli's Law, dynamic pressure is 1/2 density multiplied by velocity squared. Similar to Bernoulli's law for pressure we can calculate a parameter called Total Temperature, which is the highest possible temperature that an airflow can cause. The equation for total temperature is:

T_t = T_local * (1 + a M^2 )

Where M is the Mach number of the flow, and a is a constant of approximately 0.2. The local and total temperatures are measured in Kelvin.

Looking at this formula we see that, flying at the speed of sound, M=1, the air will be heated by, at the most, 20%. At standard sea level conditions this is a 60 Kelvin increase. At altitude the local temperature tends to be 50 or 60 Kelvin colder than at sea level, so your plane will hardly notice anything. Since the relation is quadratic the total temperature rapidly increases at higher speeds. At Mach 2 the total temperature is almost twice the air temperature, which is generally considered as the point at which designers have to start accounting for it in the design and materials used in the aircraft.

Do note that these extreme temperatures only occur at the front of the aircraft and wings, where the compression occurs. The flow past the aircraft fuselage and wing surfaces will only be partially compressed, and therefore only partially heated.


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

[User]
What range of atmospheric pressure changes can be sensed by the body?

Some of my joints swell up when atmospheric pressure drops before a storm. It only happens sometimes, and Im not sure why. Is this influenced more by the delta in pressure or by how quickly the pressure is changing?

[Assistant] The ears when they are hearing sound can detect changes as small as 20 micropascal. And you could go ridiculously high because if your body is obliterated by an explosion, you did technically notice the pressure change.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why can't we synthesize Ozone to fill up the holes in the Ozone layer?

Is it possible to synthesize ozone in the first place? If so, why not produce some and fill up the god damn ozone holes like the one near Antarctica  ? What are the limitations of this idea?

[Assistant]
Making ozone is easy.

Making ozone in the stratosphere is hard.

Ozone is a common pollutant, a major smog component, and the gas responsible for turning your rubber tubes, tires, and belts to dust.

So the amount of ozone isn't really a problem, but producing it 19 miles up in any reasonable quantity is a daunting task.  It's easier to stop releasing ozone depleting chemicals than to try and mitigate the damage with more ozone.


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

[User]
If a pregnant woman is given a vaccine does the unborn child also gain immunity?

Just kind of popped into my head.

[Assistant] For some, yes. Flu shot and whooping cough vaccines provide some protection to the unborn baby for a period of time after birth (e.g. 6 months). That is part of the reason that pregnant women are encouraged to get those two vaccines while pregnant. Not sure about others.


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

[User]
Why corporate tax?

So with the Inflation Reduction Act, there is now a 15% minimum corporate tax. It got me thinking though, why do we even have a corporate tax at all? At the end of the day, all taxes are paid by individuals. Taxing a corporation just means taxing the shareholders, as the tax will be reflected in the share price of the company. It seems like it's objectively worse than just raising capital gains tax instead. My reasoning is this: Say there are two rich guys, Rich Guy A and Rich Guy B. Rich Guy A owns $100K worth of stock in a $1B company (0.01% share of company A). Rich Guy B owns $10M worth of stock in a $100M company (10% share of company B). Company A will be paying more corporate tax than company B, therefore Rich Guy A will be paying more tax than Rich Guy B, despite Rich Guy B being the wealthier of them. It seems like just creating higher brackets in the capital gains tax would do a better job at targeting the wealthy.

[Assistant]
Firstly, your premise is wrong - if the companies have identical earnings profiles, then the earnings per share and therefore tax per share will be identical

 - Lets say both companies are valued at 10x earnings before tax and the tax rate is 20%

 - Company A will have $100m of EBT and pay $20m of tax, so $80m after tax. However, Rich Guy A isnt entitled to 100% of the company, he only own 0.01%, so his share of net income is just $8k. If you abolish corporation tax, his income doesnt go up by $20m, it goes up by $2k, so

 - Company B will have $10m of EBT and $8m ok net income. Rick Guy Bs share is $800k, on which he effectively paid $200k of tax.

 - Rich Guy B has 100x the assets and paid 100x in tax as Rich Guy A

Secondly, youre assuming all the shareholders are US tax residents. If Rich Guy B is neither a US citizen and not a US resident, they will pay $0 in tax if you abolish corporation tax.


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

[User]
[Xmen movie universe] Whats up with mystique's nipples/vagina

Mystique wants to be seen in her true form because she is "mutant and proud" but does she change to hide her genatalia/ nipples under her scales? Does she not have nipples? is her cameltoe  naturally not as visable?

[Assistant]
Like anyone else, she prefers the option of only having those parts exposed when she needs to use them or wants someone to see them.

Unlike anyone else, she doesn't need clothing to accomplish that goal.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do insects continue to live and function without their heads?

I just saw a video of a decapitated wasp clean it's wounds and fly away with its head. I can wrap my head around how it could  still "move" without a head but I can't figure out how it's still moving with "purpose" (such as cleaning, grabbing its head, and then flying away with it)

[Assistant] Unlike humans, insects do not use their head to breathe, and their brains only control a few things. They have a nervous system throughout their body controlling many functions that the human brain would. They also will not die of blood loss because their blood simply doesn't work the same, and it will clot very fast at the seperation. It will, however, only live a few days at most, because it cannot eat or drink.


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

[User] ELI5: How does grass provide all the energy and nutritional needs of powerful animals like bison and horses?

[Assistant]
Many grazing animals don't really digest the grass itself. Take a cow for instance. When a cow chews up the grass and swallows, it ends up in a stomach chamber called the rumen.

This is basically a fermentation chamber. It's filled with microbes that digest the chewed up grass. These bacteria produce all kinds of lipids (fats), proteins, and so on as byproducts of their own digestive system.

The cow then regurgitates the cud from the rumen back into it's mouth where it chews up this mash of predigested material into a much finer particulate of broken down grass, bacteria and the bacteria's beneficial byproducts.

It then swallows this cud again, this time it's much finer and more liquid. It sinks to the bottom of the rumen and instead of remaining in the rumen, it's passed on to the cow's other stomach chambers. This mass of bacteria, byproduct, and predigested grass is then properly digested by the cow.

Without the bacteria and the byproduct of the bacteria, grass wouldn't be nutritious for the cow at all. But the cow feeds the bacteria and in turn, the bacteria feed the cow.

Most grazers have a system like that. Bovines usually have multichambered stomachs while animals like horses have extra long intestines where this process takes place.


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

[User]
ELI5: How are patients stable during heart transplants?

Obviously requiring a heart to transport blood throughout the body and brain, is a pump or something used as a submission for that?

[Assistant]
Theyre put on a bypass machine that is, in effect, a big mechanical heart. It connects to the veins and arteries that connect to the heart itself, so it just has to pump enough to keep the body alive.

And for breathing theyre on a respirator.

So yeah, the machines basically just take over the cardiopulmonary duties of the body durin the surgery.


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

[User]
[Star Trek]What were the Trill like before modern medicine?

For those of you who don't remember offhand, the Trill are a joined species. A slug-like symbiote is passed from one Trill to the next collecting memories and passing on it's hosts personalities to the latest incarnation of it.
One of the most famous examples is the Dax Symbiote who had hosts in Curzon, Jadzia and Ezri.

Now to my question; it seems that the procedure to transfer the symbiote is a pretty invasive form of surgery. How did the species deal with these operations before antibiotics?

Aditionally, how did this symbiosis originally form?

[Assistant]
The symbiosis originally formed the same way any symbiosis does really.  We have examples on Earth to draw from.
As for how they did it before modern medicine... well look at modern pregnancy and birth in humans.  One can be forgiven for assuming it *requires* a great deal of invasive surgery and antibiotics.  But it doesn't.  Ancient humans did just fine.  The simple matter is a lot more of them died during it.  The same is basically true for Trill.  The antibiotics and operations serve to make the process safer for all involved, but it's perfectly possible without it.


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

[User]
How can a currency be "backed" by something?

How can the value of a piece of paper be intrinsically tied to a given quantity of metal?

Suppose I want to start my own currency, let's call it Llamacoin, and tie the value of 1 llamacoin to 1 actual llama.

Would I have to keep a number of llamas, somewhere, equal to the number of llamacoins that exist? Would I need to have a system for people to exchange 1 llama for 1 llamacoin at an official exchange? Would I need to continually buy and sell llamas to make their value match the market value of my coin?

[Assistant]
A backed currency means that the value is tied to a commodity, usually silver or gold.

So if someone asks "what is a llama coin worth" the answer is "whatever is the current market rate for one llama".

And yes, that does mean you would have to have one llama per coin. That's why the US has a huge stockpile of gold at fort Knox: the dollar used to be backed by gold.

This is obviously a huge pain on the ass so nowadays almost every government has switched to fiat currency, which isn't backed by a commodity but is declared legal tender by the government. The value stems from the US government enforcement.


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

[User]
[ELI5]: What exaclty was the watergate scandal?

What was the watergate scandal, and why was it such a major scandal?

Edit: Thanks, DrRocketer for providing the simplest explanation that i've seen so far.

[Assistant]
Nixon hired burglars to break into the Democratic National Convention headquarters at the Watergate hotel, wanting them to bug their files, phones etc, so he could know what was going on within the party in order to help himself secure his re-election against the Democrats.

The Washington Post writers then discovered this with the help of "Deep throat", following the trail of money leading from Nixon to the burglars, thus leading to his resignation.


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

[User]
What is the future of computer hardware?

Processors will be faster, storage will be bigger and so on. But I'm not talking about that, I mean what will be a leap in computing? Do we see a hypothetical future where storage has become so fast that RAM no longer exists as a component? How do future file systems work?

[Assistant]
No one can really speak to the far off future because the future of computing likely relies on knowledge that literally doesn't exist right now. But as far as the near-ish (5-10 years) future goes:

Processors aren't likely to be that much faster. For years now, we've relied on just improving things like branch prediction, parallelism, etc. to increase the power of our CPUs but changes like those are riddled with limitations. We can't make them faster (as far as clock speed) because then they become impossible to cool. We could cool them if we could make them larger, but the speed of light is a huge bottleneck (thus why chips keep getting smaller because then the light has a shorter distance to travel) and that speed limit is never going to change.

>Do we see a hypothetical future where storage has become so fast that RAM no longer exists as a component?

No. Our fast storage right now is with SSDs but SSDs have a limited number of writes that they can perform. Program memory is *constantly* being read/written (millions or billions of times per second) and would kill an SSD immediately. Further, an SSD will never be as fast as RAM because as their speed/bandwidth increase, the speed/bandwidth of RAM is increasing too (which has advantages in speed that an SSD, by definition, can't have).

Power consumption is something that is getting better in a hurry thanks to the demand and rapid turnover of cell phones, so that's something we can probably expect though.


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

[User]
Presenting at a Conference for the 1st time...

So, I'll be presenting a paper at a conference and as time gets closer, I'm dreading it more and more. I get incredibly anxious with public speaking, and I'm pretty sure my anxiety is not only noticeable, but also distracting. I swear that sometimes it probably sounds like I'm not even speaking English.

I haven't actually attended any conferences before, so I don't know how they play out. But, I assume that most participants will present their work in the same manner that they would present a lecture. I don't think I'm capable of doing that though, so I'm wondering if it's at all common (or at least acceptable) for a presenter to just read their paper verbatim?

Also, there's probably not anything to do to ease my anxiety other than to just try and get over it... but if anyone has some tips that they think would be useful, I would appreciate hearing them.

[Assistant]
Where is your lab/workgroup/advisor in all of this? You should definitely consider doing a practice talk in front of your lab group or close friends so you can get comments for improvement (or positive feed back!) and maybe a few questions that you might expect from the audience.

Write a script if you need to, practice the talk until you're comfortable, and push through when the time comes.

I have a colleague who is terrified of public speaking. She always sounds like she's on the verge of tears during her talks. No one in the audience makes fun of her, gives her a hard time, boos her off the stage, or anything that might worry you. Despite her poor delivery, she can easily and competently talk about her work in a one-on-one situation. If someone is interested in your work, they'll approach you in that way.


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

[User] ELI5: What sensation does an animal feel while you are petting it?

[Assistant] Probably the same you feel. Touch is very powerful. Cats and dogs (assuming we're just talking about them) will engage in grooming behaviors in the wild, or when left to their own devices. Just a way of bonding, really. Since bonding is good, they evolved to enjoy it.


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

[User]
Can an alpha particle and two beta particles be combined to form a Helium atom?

If this is the case, could other elements be formed by combining types of radiationfor example two alpha particles and sixteen beta particles to form Oxygen?

[Assistant] Sure, these things are possible, but extremely unlikely to happen in the real world. When an alpha particle is emitted into matter, it's surrounded in a bath of atoms, most with multiple electrons. It's very easy to pick up electrons from the environment. If you bring a beta source into the mix, the electrons emitted by the beta source are a needle in a gigantic haystack, the haystack being all of the other electrons in the environment.


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

[User]
[Superman] A supervillian has been sentenced to death. The only way to execute the super durable monster is Superman. Will Superman kill if required by law?

Basically the title. Some super villian attacked Metropolis, Superman incapacitated him and handed him to the authorities. After due process, the villian was given the death penalty due to multiple murders.

However, the super villian is super durable. Poison injections, electrocution, firing squad etc do not damage him at all. Its known superman has the strength to easily kill the villian, and the authorities request Superman's help in the matter.

Doea the Man of Steel kill?

[Assistant]
No, superman only really kill if forced too, like Doomsday. In this case, the authorities can clearly contain the supervillian, so there is clearly no need to kill him beyond revenge, which superman doesn't condone.

If really needed superman might send him to the phantom zone, but since killing isn't nessecary here, he won't do it.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do datacenters continuously use more water instead of recycling the same water in a closed loop system?

[Assistant]
It depends on what the water is being used for.

If it's being used for cooling, it is recycled in a closed loop.  The water comes in and pulls heat out of the cooling units, then gets pumped to outside radiators with fans blowing through them.  That cools the water, then it's pumped back inside, repeat.

However, datacenters also use a lot of water to control humidity, especially in dry regions.  That water gets evaporated and added to the air, because super dry air conducts static electricity way too easy, and static electricity is bad for computers.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do people have such varied handwriting when we all look at the same printed text daily?

[Assistant] Why does everyone have a unique voice when we all learned the same language? Writing is the same. There's differences in how we learned it, how much we've practiced writing, how good our fine motor control is, how much we care about perfecting our form, etc.


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

[User]
Does depression have common stages, which are recognizable through majority of patients? If so what would these be?

Hello, people of AskScience.

This question was on my mind and you find a lot blog/articles about this, but I wanted someone with scientific background to give me an answer.

Thank you either way.

[Assistant]
Hi there!

Mental illnesses are of course hard to define and categorize, but depression actually received a lot of attention.
the DSM (Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders) gives standard criteria to diagnose and classify mental illnesses. To diagnose a depression (and there are different types of it) you need to make sure the patient has a required number of symptoms. For example, in order to be diagnosed with a Major Depression state a patient needs to have 5 out of ~9 given symptoms, for at least 2 weeks, linked to a change in the patient's functioning compared with before the symptoms. At least 2 of these symptoms have to be "depressive mood" or " lost of interest / pleasure in things". And then, you also have several types of Major depression states, with several degrees of severity (low, average, severe without psychotic caracteristics, severe with psychotic caracteristics). The depression can also be described by its state: in a period of complete or partial remission for example.
As you can see, there are common traits in people with depression, although they don't all have every symptoms, and there are a lot of subtypes.
Someone can have some of the symptoms but not be in a depressive state.

There are some evidences that depression is better described as a continuum (like a gradation) than as a categoric illness (categoric = present vs absent) (Ruscio & Ruscio, 2000; Ruscio & Ruscio, 2002; Hankin & al. 2005).

Is it what you wanted to know?


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

[User] [Star Trek] Do the major civilizations agree on which direction is "up" in the milky way and always fly starships at that angle? Or do two ships orient to one another when they meet for the purposes of docking?

[Assistant] There likely is an accepted "Galactic Up" as far as navigation is concerned (where planets are and such,) although new or smaller civilizations will doubtlessly have their own weird systems. As far as starships always flying at that angle, no. Starships fly at whatever angle they deem best. Having said that, certain approach vectors present more of the starship's weapons to the enemy, making it easier to engage them at specific angles.


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

[User] [Star Wars] Can a planet covered with a lightsaber-crystal powered shield deflect or block a Death Star's attack?

[Assistant]
Probably not. Kyber crystals can only absorb so much before they go kablooie. And they tend to magnify the energy they take in to produce a higher amount of output.

If anything, a planet covered in kyber crystals should have less left of it after getting hit by a Death Star style superlaser.


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

[User]
CMV: People in organized crime do not deserve society's sympathy or understanding.

The vast majority of people in organized crime are cruel, greedy, self-serving people who commit crimes of all types, lie, steal, cheat, betray and kill people just for their own personal financial gain. Gangsters of all nationalities, races, and demographics have always been this way: the Mafia, the Cartel, the Triads, the gangs of the Wild West, pirates of the 17th century .... I could go on.

Gangsters try to convince people that they are a "brotherhood" in order to convince disenfranchised, impoverished, and quite often, stupid young men to join them. But their only true loyalty is to their own greed. Betrayal isn't the bug in these organizations - its the feature.

Some gangsters use the same old "I grew up poor" excuse to justify their base criminality. But the vast majority of people, poor and middle class alike, work hard and honestly in order to put food on their tables. And poor people are the ones who often suffer the most at the hands of organized crime. Gangsters do not do what they do because they have any sympathy for the impoverished communities they come from; they do what they do in order to get the money and pussy they feel entitled to. And the spoiled sons of mob bosses and wealthy gang leaders often follow in the same footsteps as their fathers.

What really pisses me off is how so many of these crime organizations base their membership on ethnic lines, pretending like they care about the ethnic groups they come from. And yet, they make the lives of the communities they come from a living hell. They inflict extreme damage upon their own communities by flooding them with drugs, extortion, and violence. All so that they can earn money which they blow on gambling, drugs, and whores. Look at what happens when wealthy gangsters corrupt the politics of a region and gain political leverage: look at Sicily today, or Columbia, or the regions of Liberia controlled by so called warlords (who are really just gangsters, since they too traffic drugs, weapons, and even human beings to serve their own interests). Look at what China was like before 1949, when warlords (aka gangsters) controlled rural areas and Shanghai was controlled by the Triads before they were driven out of the country by the CCP. As I mentioned earlier, gangsters don't even care about their own members and associates, who they routinely murder if they think they can make a buck from it.

Gangsters do not deserve the tolerance and sympathy of society.

[Assistant]
>The vast majority of people in organized crime are cruel, greedy, self-serving people who commit crimes of all types, lie, steal, cheat, betray and kill people just for their own personal financial gain.

How do you know this? You don't think a lot of them just fell on some hard times and got really desperate? Does society at large bare any responsibility for those that fell through the cracks of the system? Are we claiming that the system is good enough and anyone that falls into this lifestyle is not worthy of basic human empathy?


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

[User]
[Dune] Why are the members house Harkonnen such assholes?

Basically the title. I do not remember if an explanation was ever given. Were they just evil for the sake of providing an enemy for the plot, or were they motivated by something where they thought they were doing the right thing?

[Assistant] The Bene Gesserit had been intentionally cultivating these attributes for years. The Atredies house was bred to have all that was noble and pure; the Harkonnen to have all that was ignoble and devious. Combining the two branches was their ultimate aim, to reconcile these two human divisions with the birth of the Kwisatz Haderach.


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

[User]
[Marvel Universe Where Everyone Loves Hostess Fruit Pies] WHY does everyone love Hostess Fruit Pies?

What is it about them that makes eating them irresistible to even the most power mad supervillains, to the point where they'll blow off one of their schemes mid way through just to have one?

Speaking of which, have any villains ever tried the same trick on a hero, like a bank robber throwing a bunch of Fruit Pies at Spider-Man and the police as they're getting away?

Who owns Hostess in this universe? Because they must be one of the richest and most powerful people on Earth.

[Assistant] That is a canonically specific universe. The world their just works that way, they're irresistible, save the day and have a sales pitch. Nobody owns hostess, it's a universe whose rules only make sense to them.


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

[User] Why is Mitochondrial Eve dated to 150-170,000 years go?

[Assistant]
We know how fast genetic changes occur. If we look at all mitochondrial dna and count the number of genetic differences between all we have cataloged, we can follow backwards to they would all effectively be the same. Depending on fastest estimates and slowest estimates of genetic drift, it's roughly 150k-170k years ago.

And basically this means that we only know of one female at that point. We can see nobody else beyond her because we have no mitochondria that show genetic differences that come out older than that. Either they all died out, or they were bred out of the population.


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

[User] [Yu-Gi-Oh] What is "The Heart of the Cards" and what does believing in it do?

[Assistant]
Believing in the Heart of the Cards is, essentially, believing in the deck you have and putting faith in your actual cards. In this universe, cards are not just cardboard, they have actual spirits of their own. By putting your faith in the Heart of the Cards, you're essentially putting your trust in these spirits to allow you to pull exactly the right card at exactly the right time.

Basically cheating but in a way that sounds more inspiring, if you think about it.

A more mundane and more charitable way of describing it might also just be that you have faith that you've built a decent, well-rounded deck that is capable of performing well if played correctly. However, as we've seen, there are definitely some questionable deck-building practices by the protagonists here and there.


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

[User]
How 'complex' does life have to get to require sleep?

I don't think single celled organisms 'sleep', and know that humans, mammals, birds etc do.

What's in between? Is there a species that "kind of sleeps" but maybe is on the verge of needing it or not?

[Assistant] The closest borderline cases are probably animals very extremely short life-cycles, but even then there's evidence of sleep-like states. In general, the presence of a nervous system is likely all that is required.


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

[User] ELI5 Why when someone's not listening to a conversation and their name is used, they can usually remember the two or three words that came before?

[Assistant]
Every sound reaches your ear, whether you are aware of it or not. All of it is also processed in a way such that if you hear something of interest (e.g. Your name, a loud noise, your favourite game etc.), your attention shifts there. You suddenly become aware that the background noise are spoken words and actively pay attention and listen. Additionally, our brain kind of keeps a log of the last couple of seconds. This is important for stuff like predicting where someone walks, to understand a full sentence etc.

Now, since everything reaches our ears and is processed, and our brain basically keeps a log of the last couple seconds of information it got, when your attention shifts this log belonging to the conversation becomes active and the sound is identified as speech. The speech is then turned to single words and recognised. So you can hear a few words before the trigger that drew your attention.

This turned out more like a ELI10-15..


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

[User]
Just passed my defense and want to get my advisor a gift. He's been extremely supportive (financially and otherwise), so I need it to be really good. Any ideas?

I just passed my dissertation defense this week. My chair has gone above and beyond these past few years--mentoring me, co-authoring with me, reading and improving my work, and even giving me financial support ($9K) out of his chair position, which would have otherwise gone to his salary, and which allowed me to stay another year and finish the program.

I want to do something special for him to thank him for everything, but all my ideas are inadequate. He likes tennis, vacationing in the Northeast U.S. (where he's from), and reading up on business news. Any ideas on what I could do for him? Price limit would be around $1,000. It doesn't necessarily have to be related to any of the above interests.

[Assistant] Good deeds are their own reward. A large gift would normally be professionally inappropriate. Something small you know he'll like - whiskey, wine, choclates, a book etc, and a handwritten letter expressing your heartfelt thanks should be entirely sufficient and dearly appreciated.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] What kind of damage was actually sustained by the Star Destroyer hit by rebel Ion cannon shots during the evacuation of Hoth ?

The Ion cannon is supposed to disable the target, that's a given. But the result of a successful hit look quite impressive on screen, so : what do you think were the losses among the crew ? How fast do you think it took for the ship to be operational again, and how extensive were the reparations ?

[Assistant] Ships systems would be over loaded but most are hardened and redundant and would take no permanent damage. Auto shutdown of affected systems will save the ship but leave it inoperable until they can be brought back online. On a ship the size of a star destroyer this could take hours. Loss of life would be minimal, just the few unlucky blokes who happen to be working on or near overloaded super capacitors.


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

[User]
[Star Was] Why did Obi-Wan let Darth Vader kill him?

It seems like he could have put up more of a fight. Maybe even killed Vader...

[Assistant]
He wasn't fighting to win, he was fighting to buy Luke and the others as much time to escape as possible. When they're in spitting distance of the Falcon he no longer needs to do that. But if he kills Vader or flees, the stormtroopers are no longer distracted by the fight and probably kill everyone by sheer numbers-- Luke, at least, won't get in the ship if he thinks he can save Obi-Wan by standing his ground, and if Luke dies it's all over from Obi-Wan's perspective.

Edit: And surrender isn't an option either. Vader's spent 19 years wanting to kill Obi-Wan. It's his fault he had to kill Padme (and the baby, as far as Vader knows at that point)-- he turned her against him. And it's his fault that he's in the suit-- he mangled him and left him to die.


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

[User]
CMV: Cultural Appropriation as in Wearing clothes/accessories of minority cultures outside of their intended purpose is not bad enough to limit the freedom to wear what you want

This is coming from a member of the most privileged group of people in the world: a straight white cisgender male, 21 years old.

After having read a lot about cultural appropriation I understand that e.g. wearing a native american headdress as a festival accessory is considered a bad and offensive thing to do. This is because you use an object that is very important and has significant cultural meaning in a completely different way than originally intended.

And plainly, I agree. However, and this is my hot take, as long as you are not actively mocking the affected culture by e.g. performing/saying/acting stereotypical things, I think that is not bad enough to justify the restriction towards your freedom to wear what you want.

I am german. If someone would go around wearing leather pants and a checkered shirt, holding a jug of beer in one hand and a bratwurst in a bun in the other, and being overly drunk and annoying, i couldn't care less. In my opinion people can wear whatever they want (with restrictions on racism, fascism etc., which already exist in society).

Now maybe that is just because german culture isn't very important to me. A Person originating from the orient may hold their culture in high regards, and therefore see someone wearing the stereotypical disney belly dancer outfit as very much offensive. I am aware that it alienates minorities from their own culture, which is of course a bad thing. Maybe, it's just the perspective I am missing.

Staying with the example of the disney belly dancer outfit, this is a very good example for the mixing of cultures. Disney picks up on the works of Orientalism and creates their own view of this outfit. Now I only speak of the outfit, not the movie and the actions performed in that movie associated with it.
I love mixing of cultures. It creates interesting new things to see, explore and talk about. It gives people more artistic freedom. It's like adding a whole new palette of colors to a painters disposal. And it's the same with pieces of clothing and accessories. Because of this reason alone, offending a minority is justified. of course, the same goes the other way around, from minorities including majorities culture outside of it's originally intended purpose.

Now please try your best to rid me of that opinion, I sometimes have the feeling this whole viewpoint is very egotistic, and even racist.

TL;DR: My point being, for the sake of creativity and progression of human culture, wearing clothes/accessories of minority cultures outside of their intended purpose is justified. Not good, in fact a bad thing, but not bad enough to be a reason to infringe your creativity.

[Assistant]
It just really depends on what the garment is, and what it does or does not represent.

Something like a Japanese *kimono* or *yukata*, does not have a particular sacred or special cultural status. They are pretty, formal clothing worn for special occasions. For this reason, tourists visiting Japan will find rental companies offering the chance for visitors to dress up and take photos while wearing these. (This is very popular with visitors from other Asian nations like China or Vietnam)

Now take Thailand as another example. You might find a few shops offering rental of traditional Thai clothing. You will not however find orange monks robes offered for tourist pictures. Likewise, you will not find these items for sale in souvenir markets etc. This mode of dress does have a sacred connotation, and thus is only appropriate for a monk to wear.

When discussing this whole thing, it would help if we didn't just lump every type of cultural garb into one category. Wearing a Scots kilt, or a German lederhosen, or a Vietnamese Ao Dai is fine. It's just fashion. Wearing a police or army uniform, a priest or monks robes, or certain crowns, head gear or tattoos etc which represent particular statuses or achievements might not be.

>wearing clothes/accessories of minority cultures

What the hell is a minority culture? China? India? Arabic? There's a hell of a lot more of those guys than Germans.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does the action in old silent movies seem so fast?

[Assistant]
They were usually recorded at around 15fps. When you watch them now digitally, they have to be converted to 24fps or 30fps. 24fps only became standard when audio was introduced, as 15fps was too choppy for lip sync.

Even most animated tv shows are 12fps-15fps, as their is no fluid movement in the lips, and it saves a tremendous amount of time and money.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why have motorcycle outriders in a motorcade?

From a security point of view, what advantage do they provide to a motorcade over some extra cars?

[Assistant]
The motorcycles ride tandem and used to go ahead to block cross traffic.

The pair up front blocks the cross traffic. The back pair move up to the front. And the blocking pair join back in the rear.

4 bikes. 2 pairs. Continual moving traffic blockers.