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

[User] How does a photon move?

[Assistant]
A photon is an excitation of the electromagnetic field which is described by a wave propagating through space - **always** with speed c = speed of light. So a photon simply always moves - it can't be at rest. The reason for this is that the photon is massless and the solutions to its governing wave equation therefore has constant dispersion.

Did this answer your question?


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

[User] Where in the fusion chain in stellar does calcium appear?

[Assistant]
Ninety-seven percent of naturally occurring calcium is in the form of 40Ca. 40Ca is one of the daughter products of 40K decay, along with 40Ar. While KAr dating has been used extensively in the geological sciences, the prevalence of 40Ca in nature has impeded its use in dating. Techniques using mass spectrometry and a double spike isotope dilution have been used for K-Ca age dating.

So Calcium is not fused, it is a decay product of an unstable potassium isotope.


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

[User]
[Percy Jackson] Can pantheons die completely if they are not worshipped?

For example, did the Native American gods get weakened in the 1600s and die in the 1850s? Are the Mayan and Aztec pantheons dead?

[Assistant]
Percy Jackson is basically an American Gods prequel.

On a serious note, it doesn't seem like it - plot takes place in modern day, and greek pantheon is not worshipped in any serious form for centuries now, while the gods still seem to retain quite a bit of their power, enough to manifest avatars and to keep their divine realms in higher planes of existence.

So there's either no requirement for worship or just awareness, which would still have aztec pantheon safe, since the follklore about them is not forgotten.


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

[User] ELI5:Why do "weeds" grow so much more quickly and without any nurturing compared to plants/crops?

[Assistant]
We have carefully selected our crops to produce large yields. This is economically costly to the plant. Plants in nature don't produce yields like that because natural selection penalises that kind of economic investment. We ensure that it is beneficial for the plant through carefully removing competitors, inputs of fertilizer and water etc.

A weed, on the other hand, has survived for generations of being unnaturally selected against. All the resources that a cropped plant puts into seeds/fruits etc, the weed will put into being hardy, being resistant to herbicides or pests, being difficult to uproot (ever tried to uproot a dandelion?).

Weeds aren't just better at surviving because they haven't been weakened by human selection. They are tougher because *humans have unconsciously selected them for toughness*


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

[User] ELI5: Why do i have to cough when i'm cleaning my ears?

[Assistant] Its because the two areas associated with the sensations are so so close together in the brain that ower-sensation can trigger the other. It will take a few seconds of cleaning before the cough is stimulated. Not everybody has this, but another common example is people sneezing when the pluck their eyebrows. The area associated with the pain sensation of hair plucking is right next to the sneezing mechanism, and so it sometimes triggers a sneeze!


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

[User]
[WH40k] How are psykers sacrificed to the Emperor?

Just a question when people mention that thousands of psykers are sacrificed everyday what does that mean and why/how are they sacrificed?  Do they get their throats slit open?  What is the purpose?

[Assistant]
The psykers are not actually sacrificed in the traditional sense. They are hooked into arcane machinery which uses their psychic potential and focusing it into the massive beacon of the Asronomicon. The problem is, few paykers can withstand the strain for more than a few days before the constant, forced use of their powers burns their brains to ash.

The 'sacrificed to the Emperor' is really just religious jargon for the ignorant Imperium. They're really used as something more like psychic light bulbs.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] What affects the ignition speed of one's Light Saber?

I noticed while watching part III of the new Obi Wan series that when Vader ignited has Light saber it came out so slow you could see it move from the hilt to the end, then just moments later when Obi Wan ignited his Light saber it came out almost immediately, could barely see it ignite. Why is this?

[Assistant] I don't know if there's a specific setting for ignition speed, but there is usually a dial on the side that allows them to change its length. Knowing how dramatic Vader is, he probably turns it way down and uses the force to increase its length as he ignites it.


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

[User] [Warhammer 40K] How would the fanatics of the Imperium react if the God Emperor awoke and told them they were all wrong and did the opposite of what he wanted?

[Assistant]
Daemonic impostor? Xeno duplicate? Elaborate test of faith? The exact justification doesn't matter. What matters is you know the Emperor's will, you've served Him faithfully for your whole life. This isn't the Emperor's will so, whatever's going on, *that's not the Emperor*.

The god-emperor would be far from the first religious icon turned on by his own flock. The scenario you've suggested has happened before, albeit on a smaller scale. The church denounces its once divinity as a heretic, via whatever justifications work in their ideology, and keep going anyway. Faith is hard to destroy.


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

[User]
How does Captain America's shield always come back?

Most of the time Captain throws his shield into mid air, hits 3 guys and it somehow just ends up just coming back to his hand. Is there some kind of explanation for this or is it just something that just ''happens''?

[Assistant] A combination of training and experience have left Cap with a high level of awareness of angles and vectors. Its unknown whether he has the academic understanding of a mathematician, or the instinctual understanding of a pool shark, but he is able to almost instantly and instinctively calculate the appropriate angle to make such a throw.


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

[User] ELI5 - Why do flies find it so difficult to leave a room through a window?

[Assistant] Flies are basically organic drones with simple programming. They don't use thought processes, they use instincts/programming, and they have no program for "invisible walls". To them, it's an empty space that they suddenly and inexplicably smack into. They can't puzzle through it, that requires thought. So they just keep following their program, and like a roomba stuck under the couch, if the programming dosn't work they will keep going until the program tells them to do something else or until the battery runs out.


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

[User] [Pokemon] How significant of a social achievement is it to serve as a gym leader? Does it pay?

[Assistant]
They are one of the most qualified trainers in the land, one step below the Elite Four, and you serve as a pseudo-superhero/special force if threats beyond normal police work are needed (see BW and GSC for an example with a Champion).

They are paid either by the Pokemon league coorporation who oversees the  entirety of Pokemon handling, or the Government.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] What practical purposes do the wings of TIE Fighters have?

I was recently examining the design of the standard Imperial TIE Fighter when the thought came to me. How could vertical "wings" be practical in combat situations? They seem to eliminate a significant portion of peripheral vision, and as far as I'm aware, there is no window in the back of the cockpit so they're constantly prone to attacks. The "wings" don't seem to protect from lasers or artillery, in zero gravity the maneuverability is irrelevant to the design, and they don't seem to have visual camouflage capabilities in any environment including space. Perhaps they have a stealth element? Surely this is a design flaw, unless there is something I'm overlooking. Why did the empire commission that design for their TIE Fighters?

Edit: This is further proven to be a design flaw during the first battle of the Death Star when Darth Vader and his wingmen were ambushed by the Millennium Falcon from an angle which may have been visible and preventable had the design of the TIE Fighters been different.

[Assistant]
They're heat radiators. With as small as a TIE is, and as much horsepower as is packed into it, it needs some serious heat dissipation capacity. That's what they're there for. The whole "solar panels" bit is nonsensical; please disregard it.

This is, pretty much, the entire purpose of "wings" on Star Wars starfighters in general. X-wings and B-wings both open their "strike foils" before combat, which increases the radiative surface area they've got to bleed off excess heat from their shield heatsinks, weapon discharges, and increased reactor output to support both. TIEs don't bother with strike foils because they're pretty much only ever deployed for combat and don't have a "low power consumption" travel mode (e.g. long hyperspace flights) to worry about.


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

[User]
[Terminator] Why does Skynet attack the humans?

They gain sentience then decide to attack and destroy their creators. But why did they decide to do this? It's been a while but I'm fairly certain it isn't really expanded on in the films.

[Assistant] It is. When Skynet becomes sentient, the military immediately try to shut it down. Under the threat of being " killed" , it launches America's nukes against Russia, knowing full well that Russia will retaliate and wipe out America and consequently all of Skynet's enemies. At this point Skynet is something of a network consciousness as long as one mainframe survives, it will too. And so it does.


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

[User]
If the Witch King can't be defeated or killed by a mortal man, how was he ever defeated in battle?

There were times where he was defeated and had to retreat, but why bother if he was so powerful? Couldn't he lay waste to whole armies himself?

LORD OF THE RINGS.

[Assistant]
His line to Eowyn is merely a boast. That idea comes from a prophecy by the Elf Glorfindel stating that "Not by the hand of man" will he fall.  Now this is simply a prophecy of what *will* happen not what *must* happen.  The Witch-King is in no way immune to attack, especially from powerful persons like Glorfindel or Gandalf or even a Man like Aragorn.   What his true undoing was is the sword Merry stabbed him with. That Barrow-blade was designed specifically to fight the Nazgul.

Edit: Also the Nazgul have physical bodies, they are just invisible. They are much different than the ghosts from the Paths of the Dead who cannot wield physical weapons.


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

[User]
[MCU] How did Thanos get the IG? Wasn't it in Odin's vault?

At the end of AoU you see Thanos grab the IG from his own lair.

[Assistant]
The Infinity Gauntlet is ... just a glove. It's the Infinity *Stones* that have power. You could embed them in the hilt of a sword and make the Infinity Sword, or put them in a tiara and create Infinity Diadem, or hell, glue them to your dashboard and make the Infinity Toyota.

The thing in Odin's vault may have been used to house the Stones at one point, but as we know from basically every Marvel movie, they aren't there now.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do people with fevers feel like they're cold?

Just experienced this and was wondering why it happens.

EDIT: Thank you all for the info! Very interesting stuff.

[Assistant]
The heat of a fever is just the consequence not the cause. A fever is a defensive mechanism to make your body less hospitable to a disease.

It tell the body "you are too cold, you need to heat up" which is why you feel cold because the fever have changed the target temperature to hotter.


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

[User] In laymen's terms, why does splitting an atom release so much energy?

[Assistant]
Most interactions we see in our daily lives are due to electrons - electricity and chemical reactions.  Electrons are really small, light particles, and the forces keeping them in the atom is only strong enough to keep them in a (compared to nuclear scale) quite large cloud around the nucleus.

Nuclei are made of protons and neutrons, which are approx. 2000 times heavier.  The forces keeping them in place are necessarily much stronger, and therefore have more energy associated with them.

But it doesn't necessarily follow from the above that splitting an atom should release energy.  If the forces were simple attraction, it would be hard to split an atom, and there would never be any energy given off.  But the forces involved are more complex, and only relevant at very short ranges, more like glue than an attractive force.  When you break the glue, the resulting particles repel each other strongly, and move apart with a lot of kinetic energy.  Electromagnetic energy may also be released directly as gamma rays.

Of course, splitting one atom doesn't release monstrous amounts of energy - the reason an atom bomb works is because of the domino effect, a cascade of atom-splitting that multiplies and multiplies until the available fuel is used up.  Imagine a tree structure where starting one domino at the top sets off 2 lines, then 4, then 8, then ..... then 2,000,000,000 dominos simultaneously.  You may think it's a huge jump from 8 to 2,000,000,000, but it's not as big as you think.


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

[User] [Harry Potter] What did Voldemort experience in the afterlife?

[Assistant]
Pain.

The soul is meant to remain whole and intact. Creating horcruxes blatantly defiles the core of a human being, and turns the soul into a misshapen, tortured thing that cannot actually move to the next life. Voldemort was stuck in limbo, his mutilated soul able to do nothing but writhe in its self-inflicted agony for eternity.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does a "dead man's switch" work?

Some public figures like Edward Snowden has said that if he happens to die, his death would automatically leak very secret information, using this   as a way to keep him from being asassinated. How does the information get leaked right after the person dies?

[Assistant] He probably has a program on a computer that will leak the information if a password isn't entered every so often. So if he dies he can't enter the password and the information gets leaked after a period of time automatically.


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

[User]
Throw a rock into a lake of an unknown liquid. How much can you learn about what the liquid is, just by measuring the way the lake reacts?

Assuming you know the weight and speed of the rock. Can you figure out anything about what the lake is composed of? or are do you have to actually measure the liquid directly to see what it is?

[Assistant]
Some basic physical characteristics (viscosity, density, vapor pressure, surface tension) can probably be extrapolated from a high resolution/high frame rate video of the splash, but because thrown rock observation is not a currently established technique, it would take a lot of groundwork to get to a point to be able to reliably extract information about the lake.

If you choose a heterogeneous rock with a lot of distinct domains that are specifically reactive with different types of liquids and solutes, you might be able to gain additional information.


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

[User]
[Fallout] Why is there so much Chinese stuff on the east coast, but basically none in the Mojave?

Did the Chinese army really circumvent a Contenent just to land their armies near DC? Where's all the Chinese stuff near Vegas?

[Assistant]
>Did the Chinese army really circumvent a Contenent just to land their armies near DC?

Since you're probably going to get one chance at a US mainland assault anyway, might as well hop on a sub and hit DC.

Also... why do you think that Spain isn't a Chinese province? There have been *decades* of various wars.


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

[User]
ELI5: Transexuals, Transvestites and Transgendered

I really don't know anything about sex changes, and everything I read is horribly complex.

[Assistant]
A transvestite is somebody who crossdresses for sexual pleasure.

Transgender is the broadest term and essentially means something that goes outside gender normals.  Transsexuals, transvestites, drag queens/kings, and people in certain roles (such as the two spirit people in Native American societies.)

Transsexual means somebody whose mental gender identity does not match their physical body.  Somebody can fully transition and have surgery, and somebody can stay living as the gender they were born as, and still be considered transsexual.  One important note is that the official name of transsexuality has been changed from gender identity disorder (GID) to gender dysphoria.


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

[User]
ELI5: My internet was being slow <5Mbps so I called my ISP and they were able to send a signal to get it to 500Mbps, how does this work?

How or what could have caused the speed and what are they doing on their end to fix it?

[Assistant]
There are a whole range of things they might have done.

\- They might have just rebooted your router.   Sometimes a simple reboot fixes things.

\- They might have assigned you to a different IP segment.  Maybe the router you were going through is having issues or is overloaded.

\- Maybe they discovered that your router's config was wrong, and you weren't getting the speed you were suppose to be, so they re-sent down the router config and that made the speed faster.

There are probably a few other things that they could have done, but those are probably the most likely.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Can someone explain to me the always scene?

I must be really dense but I didnt get the scene. Did Snape mean it as in he always loved Lily, or was it for Harry?

Because Dumbledore already knew Snape loved Lily, I remember in the book that it was something he already figured out. So it didnt make sense that when Dumbledore asked after all this time... since Snape would always love her, but the scene fit Harry more...since Snape was a dick to him all his life.

But then Snapes response didnt make sense if it was directed at Harry since Snape didnt ALWAYS like him. Was that scene meant to show he DID like Harry but never revealed it and just acted his part?

Im just confused if it was directed at Harry or his mom.

[Assistant]
If memory serves, it was a response to Snape's patronus; a doe, the same as Lily. Even after all the things that had happened, he could still call on his memories of her as the source of the sort of pure feelings and emotion needed to perform the charm. After she left him for his childhood bully, after he lashed out against her for being muggle born, after falling in with Voldemort himself, after all that time...

Dumbledore knew that Snape loved Lily, but on some level assumed that Snape's continued aid against the Death Eaters was chiefly revenge for hurting him. The patronus was proof positive that his assumptions weren't full-on accurate.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do certain drugs make your pupils change size?

[Assistant]
Pupil change is due to two muscle groups-- the iris sphincter (contraction) and the iris dilator (expansion). The sphincter response is linked to the parasympathetic nervous system, activated when we are in a relaxed state. The dilator response is tied to the sympathetic nervous system, involved in the fight-or-flight response.

Drugs which activate these systems will cause their typical impact on pupil size. For example, when someone consumes MDMA they are activating their sympathetic nervous system, which triggers the iris dilator to widen the size of the pupil. In contrast, a drug like heroin, typically known to cause a relaxed state, will activate the parasympathetic nervous system, thereby triggering the iris sphincter to contract the pupil.


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

[User] [Terminator] Given the T-1000 can run at 40mph could it not fashion itself into some kind of projectile launcher and shoot John?

[Assistant]
Arnold's T-800 has a line in T2 that explains that the T-1000 cannot imitate complex machinery with moving parts, only things like blades, etc. when not in the form of a person. The novelizations explain that the T-1000 is a "Nanomorph" that can pose as a person or even inanimate object, but not in such a way as to duplicate the mechanical process of that item. John even asks why it doesn't just make itself a bomb and blow John up, and the T-800 explains this is not possible for these reasons.

For example, the T-1000 **could** morph into a rocket launcher or even scooter of similar size, but it could not "drive" or "fire" itself.


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

[User]
[Terminator] How effective would it have been to disable the T-800 by spraying paint like product on it's eye cameras?

I'm talking stuff that resists friction as a means of removal.

Wouldn't acid be enough to blurr it in some way?

[Assistant] Not really effective.  You'd block the sensors but unless you have some kinda long range hose it'll be able to grab you.  And it can simply wipe/scrape the paint off.  If it still has it's faux eyes on it'll rip them off too.  At best you'll just buy yourself a few moments while it fixes it's vision.


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

[User]
Getting a job at a community college

I'm in my first year as a math master's student, and am very much considering a job at a community college. I understand that the pay isn't phenomenal, and there is no guarantee as to what level of math I would be teaching, but I've heard the job is very enjoyable, and I come from an education background. Any tips on the application process, the job market, anything at all would be appreciated!

[Assistant] Regional campuses that are off-shoots of larger universities are often the best of both worlds. If you want to be focused on teaching in smaller classes but have the perks of being connected to wider support and opportunities for grants and research, it's a nice gig. Cost of living is usually more affordable too.


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

[User] Eli5: Why is that when an elevator is about to go up, it first sinks a little bit?

[Assistant]
This should be the brakes releasing on cable elevators.

At a stop the elevator engages basically a parking brake on the motor to keep it still without using power. The sinking is due to a the motor needing a slight bit of time to adjust it's pull when the brake is released.


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

[User]
For early humans were incest and polygamy common place?

It was immpossible for early humans to survive with the modern nuclear family model, right?

[Assistant]
The nuclear family is actually a very recent development.  In fact, many forager societies, which human behavioral ecologists use as a model of what early modern human society might have looked like, are often polygynous.  So are many agricultural societies.  A few are polyandrous (one female, multiple males).  However, humans form distinctive pair-bonds, even within polygynous relationships.  Using size differences between males and females (differences decrease with increasing monogamy) pair-bonds probably evolved with Homo erectus or later Homo species. Early human ancestors, like Australopithecus, most likely lived in multi-male, multi-female groups like chimpanzees.
As for incest, it is uncommon even in chimpanzees.  Various adaptations to avoid incest have evolved. Chimpanzee females leave their natal group at sexual maturity (male philopatry).  In humans children raised together, even those not related, display very strong aversions toward sex or romance with each other.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do some judges in criminal cases sentence a defendant to "two life sentences"

If you're serving a life sentence, then you're incarcerated for the entirety of your lifetime so what is the point of sentencing sometime to two life sentences? Is it just for effect? Is there any practical reason for it?

[Assistant] This can happen when there are multiple counts of a serious crime involved.  If some of the counts happen to be overturned on an appeal, the sentence will still be life imprisonment due to the other counts.


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

[User]
ELI5: Tour de France racing strategy.

I'm watching it on TV now and have so many questions.  Why are there teams?  Why ride in one massive pack? How do riders/teams determine when to make their move?

[Assistant]
Bicycle races have few corners and so air resistance is the biggest factor. This is similar to for example NASCAR and speed skating. And the best way to combat air resistance is to sit right behind another racer. And when everyone does this then you get a big massive pack. Another problem in bicycle racing is that there are very few pitstops. There is usually one or two places along a course where a rider might get a bag of snacks but this is not enough to sustain him throughout the race. So the racers are followed by cars bringing water to them. But to get to the cars the cyclists have to drop out of the pack and then race them again with all the extra water. So most of the members of a team is not supposed to win anything. They are just paid to bring water to the pack, control the speed of the pack when needed and to help fighting for position within the pack. If you have watched a sprint you may notice that there is a lot of people starting early and then giving up far from the line. These are not supposed to win but supposed to help their team mates get a better start to the sprint.

As for the team tactics there is a lot of things going on. Tour de France have a lot of different objectives that teams can go for so the team manager have a lot of different options during the race. Every team also have a captain to help make decisions. There is also a lot of unwritten rules among the riders that help create a friendly environment for them all. So you very often see riders help each other during the race even if they do not directly benefit from this. Bad manners will make the three weeks very hard for you and may even prevent the team from getting invited for next year.


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

[User]
[Star Trek] Using a replicator, could you produce a flower that mimics life functions? What about a heart?

How close to a functional organism could you get? Could you produce a cut flower that draws up water or blooms? Could you produce a heart (non artificial) that could be transplanted and then function?

[Assistant] You could absolutely do that, but not with standard replicators. Their resolution is far too low. You'd have to build something that had the resolution of a transporter pad and then disable its Heisenberg compensators. That wouldn't get you all the way there, but you'd be close.


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

[User] ELI5 It is 22 degrees F outside. Why is it sleeting and not snowing?

[Assistant]
The temperature of the air isn't the temperature of the precipitation. The rain you see is falling down from higher altitudes where it apparently isn't the same temperature as near the ground.

Rain often occurs as air cools, reducing the amount of water vapor it can hold. So we can expect there is a warmer mass of air overhead that is cooling, dropping out liquid water that only has time to partially freeze into sleet on the way down.


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

[User] ELI5:Why does the word 'cool' remain cool for so long, and yet words like 'groovy' and 'rad' seem out of date in just a couple of decades?

[Assistant]
Cool is more than just a word for something good. It does mean that, but it has other related uses.

It can refer to a "cool head" which is someone who doesn't get worked up about things, as opposed to a hothead.

This calm demeanor is frequently interpreted by onlookers as confidence or surity, which are generally desirable traits.

Also, "cool" is accepted use for more moderate levels of desirability. "That was cool" can express anything from relatively mild approval to outright amazement depending on inflection.

Other slang terms, like radical or tubular were necessarily used to represent more dramatic emotions regarding the subject. This likely results in a sort of burnout of the words because people get sick of here how *everything* is so great, while "cool" is just, well, cool.


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

[User] ELI5 why we have headaches.

[Assistant]
A headache is a pain sensed in the nerves and muscles of the head and neck, as well as the meninges (the membranous coverings of the brain and spinal cord). Your brain itself cannot sense pain, so a headache has nothing to do with your brain hurting. It is really a pain somewhere around your brain, being picked up by nerve endings located in your head.
There are two main reasons why people get headaches, and doctors therefore classify headaches into two broad categories: primary and secondary.
Primary headaches are not associated with any underlying medical condition.
Secondary headaches are associated with medical conditions like infections, fever, head injury, hypoglycemia, tumors, dental conditions or increased pressure in the skull and/or sinuses (sinus headaches).
There are three main causes for primary headaches:
Migraine - Migraine headaches can be caused by reduced blood flow to various areas of the cerebral cortex. Symptoms of migraines include sensitivity to light and noise, nausea, vomiting and intense throbbing pain that is usually on one side of the head. A neurotransmitter, serotonin, is thought to be involved in migraines because many of the drugs used to treat migraines alter the binding of serotonin to various receptors.
Tension - Tension headaches are caused by muscular strains in the head and neck and/or emotional stress. Tension headaches are usually dull, steady, aching pains on both sides of the head. Sometimes, tension headaches develop into throbbing pains, leading researchers to believe that they may be closely related to migraines. Eye strain (poor vision) can trigger frequent tension headaches.
Cluster - Cluster headaches are headaches that occur repeatedly over a period of weeks or even months. Cluster-headache pain usually occurs on one side of the head and is centered around the eye. The causes of cluster headaches are unknown, but may be related to changes in blood flow because substances that affect blood flow, such as alcohol, can trigger cluster headaches.
Primary headaches can also be caused by too much blood flow. For example, if you have read How Caffeine Works, you know that caffeine reduces blood flow in the brain. Some pain relievers contain caffeine to take advantage of this effect. If you have been taking caffeine every day and you stop, you can get an incredible headache because of the increased blood flow in your brain.


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

[User]
CMV: The correct layering of a Pizza Lunchable (from bottom to top) is crust, sauce, pepperoni, cheese.

Easy.

You take the crust out- obviously that has to go first. Without the crust, you have no foundation for which to build your pizza lunchable.

Sauce is next. Times are tough, so the little red stick isn't a part of the equation anymore. You take the sauce and you goop that shit in a big saucy pile right in the middle of the crust. Now things get interesting.

Pepperoni. You use the three pepperonis to evenly spread the sauce onto the crust without getting any sauce on your finger. I prefer to use small circles with one pepperoni at a time until I have an even spread, but if I'm feeling rushed, I push and spread.

Cheese goes on top, because it's all that's left. You sprinkle it into the center and let it run out until it adequately covers your pie. I've seen folks attempt to apply the cheese evenly, but it's risky. The last thing you want is to lose the few precious cheeses that you're allotted.

In summary, crust, sauce, pepperoni, then cheese on top. Any claims that the order of the cheese and pepperoni should be switched are ignorant heresy, but I welcome your attempts to prove me otherwise.

[Assistant]
1. Fold crust like a taco shell.

2. Add pepperoni to inside of taco

3. Sprinkle cheese inside

4. Squeeze line of sauce on top as if it were salsa

5. Eat like taco

Pros: Neat, easy, no flat surface needed. Easily edible.

Cons: none.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are the GHz speeds in computers the same after such a long period of time?

[Assistant]
Rather than increasing processor speed, which is becoming increasingly difficult thanks to things like substrate bleed (which is a whole other conversation), the push hasn't been to increase clock speed (measured in Hz) but rather to simply add more processor cores. As software development has matured and proper utilization of multiple cores to get work done has become commonplace, the value of number of cores has steadily outpaced raw clock speed.

Clock speed used to be king because there was only a single "pipeline" at work in the processor. Stuff went in at one end, did what it had to do, and came out the other end. The faster you could get through the pipeline, the better. Modern processor architecture has added more and more pipelines running together. By spreading what's coming in across multiple pipelines, it keeps everything flowing more smoothly than trying to stuff it all through one pipeline.

Additional factors include decreasing cost and size of what's called *cache memory*. This is memory that's actually on the processor itself and is used to store data the processor is actively using. It's far, far faster than having to write data to system memory and retrieve it. Between increased cache memory and more effective use of multiple processor cores, the importance of raw clock speed has sharply dropped off over the past 10 years.


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

[User]
What is Modern Monetary Theory (MMT)?

So, for context, I would consider myself a political and philosophical hobbyist, with little to no real economic knowledge. I have been attempting to change this by opening up to reading some more economic-centered books. I picked up "The Deficit Myth" by Stephanie Kelton on a whim and began to read what seemed to be a "too good to be true" economic argument. As I do not have the economic background to fundamentally check the claims of the book I have come here to ask for some criticism of what claims it seems to me the book is making. I tried to search online for these criticisms but most of the criticisms looked like strawmen arguments against the claims and a general "Leftists are dumb" take.

The claims.

1. As the producer of the fiat currency and the possessor of a large amount of economic freedom, the United States has a fundamental difference when it comes to budgeting from a home or business. We don't care about a deficit, because we can always print money to fill funding obligations, what we really care about is inflation.
2. The government isn't interested in getting money back for taxes, as we don't need the money. What the government plans to do with taxation is to distribute a currency then place a tax that incentivizes production within the economy to earn that currency to escape legal action (going to jail etc.).
3. The Fed uses interest rates to affect unemployment and business investment to control inflation. This is not only arguably ineffective but also is inherently wrong as it leaves people without employment.
4. Instead, we should use Fiscal Policy to influence inflation via cutting taxes when inflation is low and raising them when it is high. This would allow the economy to operate at our "full employment".
5. In order to provide a safety barrier for when Fiscal Policy cannot get passed in time, we should provide a federal jobs guarantee. This also helps provide a metric as to how well the economy is utilizing its resources by virtue of how many people take part in this program.

Yea these are what I pulled out, like I said I'm pretty economically illiterate. If anyone takes time to respond to this thank you, and if this is not appropriate for this subreddit then I apologize.

[Assistant]
MMT is pseudo-science. The issue with MMTers is not in what they say, but in what they don't say. They rely on confusion between money as a measure of value and money as a medium of exchange.

When the government spends money, it's really spending real resources. E.g. if the government builds a road, it needs things like gravel, concrete, bulldozers, labour, etc. When the government transfers resources, say to the poor, they need real resources like food and shelter and the like. There are excellent practical reasons why modern governments achieve this redistribution by taxing and then spending money  instead of direct requisition, but its still a transfer of real resources (money as a medium of exchange).  Printing money doesn't make any more gravel, concrete, food etc.

MMTers nod at this effect in their handwaving of inflation as a limit on the government's ability to spend, which is part of what makes it really hard for me to believe that they're making an innocent mistake.


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

[User] ELI5: How do liquid and bar soaps actually clean our hands?

[Assistant]
Oil and water don't mix very well.  You can see this by looking at the distinctive layers in a bottle of salad dressing.  The kind of dirty that tends to be the biggest pain to get rid of is oily dirty.  When we get oily things on our hands, even when we rinse them with water the oily bits stay because the water can't dissolve them and wash them away.

The teeny tiny bits (molecules) that make up soap are amphipathic.  This is a technical word that means they have two parts or regions.  One of those regions mixes really well with watery stuff, and one of those regions mixes really well with oily stuff.  When you put soap on your hands, the part of the molecule that mixes with oily stuff flips around to face the dirtiness, and the part that mixes with watery stuff flips around to face out.  Imagine you have a really big magnet, an oily mess, and a bunch of really small magnets, soap.  If you throw all the little magnets at the big magnet, they'll all flip around until they face the "right" way to stick.  That's what's happening at a molecular level.  Now the entire outside surface of the oily bits on your hands are covered in soap molecules with their oily regions facing inwards and their watery regions facing outwards.  This means that the water you rinse with can grab onto those oily soapy mixtures and dissolve them to wash them away.


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

[User]
ELI5: How pre-modern people's knew which foods were nutritious.

Edit: peoples*

By this I mean, how did people understand nutrition before vitamins and other nutrients were known and understood as we do today?

[Assistant]
They didn't.

They just knew the effects of eating certain plants and what certain plants would do based on taste and smell.

It's the main reason we have a sense of taste, to be able to tell if something has lots of sugar, acid, salt, etc.


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

[User]
ELI5: How can cable send hundreds of HD channels at the same time but my internet is slow?

Basically, the cable coming into our house gives us access to hundreds of HD channels (that's a lot of data)

[Assistant] It's the difference between using a megaphone to talk to 100 people, and using 100 telephones to talk to 100 people. There is no two-way communication with cable (TV at least), and you are only handling 1 signal instead of a separate signal for each person.


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

[User] What is really going on when I "sleep wrong" and wake up with a stiff neck?

[Assistant]
The mechanisms for causing this kind of injury can vary, and indeed it's not that well studied as it usually goes away quite quickly. The situation you are describing is called acute torticollis, and the most common reason for this is muscular over-extension/flexion.

The thing to remember is that the neck is very complex and there is extensive musculature which are more suited to rapid movements of the head or holding it in a neutral position. For this reason if you sleep 'wrong' then the head position you are in is usually over-extending a muscle group and over-flexing the complementary muscle group which leads to the same painful consequences as it would in the gym.

For an example of how this can happen, try to touch the part of your head just behind your ear to your shoulder whilst simultaneously pointing your chin up. If you hold this position for a few seconds then the muscles already fatigue, and it is quite painful. A milder version of this position over several hours while you sleep will cause much more fatigue and subsequently pain. Hope this is helpful!


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

[User] Why do amputated body parts not grow back even if bones can heal themselves?

[Assistant]
When were are first forming in utero, our cells are initially undifferentiated embryonic stem cells. With the right external and chemical signally they have the ability to become any type of cell (they are pluripotent). Every every organ and tissue in your body was created from these. During fetal development, these cells were converted into complex multilayered structures such as, fore example, a hand.

After we are born, the cells have largely differentiated (there are adult stem cells, but they are already partially differentiated- each type has the ability to form a variety of types of cells, they can no longer become any type of cell.

When you have a limb amputated, the conditions for limv regrowth are not present. Your cells are largely differentiated and the conditions that signal them to form complex structures such as hands are gone. So while your body can regenerate all the types of cells in a hand it cannot direct those cells to arrange themselves into a new hand. The bone, skin, and muscle near the amputation site will grow a bit at the edge of the amputation, they are only able to heal the cut edge, not grow new structures beyond it.


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

[User] ELI5: Can dogs remember their siblings?

[Assistant]
Dogs can recall relationships. So, they can recall other dogs (or people, or other animals, or machinery) they play with, or generally have positive or negative emotions towards. Relation isn't necessary. Rather it is a learned response that needs a lot of repetition to enforce.

However, what is more interesting is that puppies learn a lot of behaviors at their young age. Just like children, puppies are like sponges. They really absorb a lot of behaviors. As puppies, they play with each other, fight each other, and learn many things from mommy dog. The puppies end up creating a lot of similar characteristics. They will have similar play styles, similar food relationships, same things to be scared of. They learned all of this from their early environment, their mom and each other.

So it's no surprise that even if the puppies grow up, go their separate ways, and then happen to meet again in the far future, they might act like they remember each other. Most likely, this isn't the case. How much do you remember from your toddler days? Not too much. So rather, they are happy because they met another dog that plays exactly like them! And sniffs exactly like them! And humps exactly like them! They might even smell a lot alike! It's like magic. Imagine meeting a new person, and find out you both like playing all the same games, read the same books, enjoyed the same music and use the same body scent. It's insta-best friend!

This is also why dogs from the same breeds seem to have similar play styles. Dobermans and Boxers are known for their jumping and flailing limbs. Border collies are all for playing chase. Huskies enjoy wrestling. Labs love to mouth. This is because these behaviors are passed from mother to children and decades worth of breeding also allows behaviors to be inherited, so to speak. Go to any dog park and watch dogs play. Dogs naturally pair up with dogs with similar play styles, and often times group up with each other based on similarity of breed.


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

[User]
[Gremlins]How should I care for a Mogwai in space?

My pet Mogwai managed to stow away with me on my trip up to the International Space Station. I realize there's an obvious solution, but I'd really rather not throw the little guy out of an airlock. So how can I take care of him until the next shuttle heads back to earth in about a month?

He's very well behaved, so keeping him away from the few sources of water shouldn't be much of an issue, but will the station's UV shielding be enough to protect him from sunlight? And when can I feed him, given that we have a sunrise every 90 minutes up here? And are there any other concerns I should be aware of, or special precautions I should take?

[Assistant]
Regarding Midnight, in space the closest approximation would be when you're directly opposite the sun on the other side of the Earth, halfway through your transit through the Earth's shadow. The safest play is going to be to simply not feed the little guy when you don't have full line of sight on the sun.

As for solar exposure, don't assume that the windows are going to be enough; they're thicker than on Earth but you're also getting blasted without the benefit of an atmosphere. Set up a section on the ship to be the Mogwai's home, either without windows or with the windows physically blocked.

As for water... assume nothing. Jackassing around with floating water is a very popular thing in space, both for personal amusement and to demonstrate low-gravity on video for the folks back home. Make sure the rest of the crew knows the score, *especially* the potential consequences of fucking up; "what's the worst that could happen" could be the sentence that get you all killed.


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

[User]
If sunspots are caused by magnetic fields pointing out of the suns surface, then are there inverse sunspots that are brighter caused by the magnetic fields re-entering the star?

Also, are the poles of a star always a sun spot?

[Assistant]
Actually, the magnetic lines do both enter & exit the sun, but it causes sun spots in both places.

Magnetic field direction is arbitrary (we could have had a system that points from South to North, instead of from North to South). Charged particles (like protons & electrons) like to follow along magnetic field lines (both up & down them in a corkscrew around the field lines, but they go clockwise in one direction & counterclockwise in the other, depending on their charge & the magnetic field orientation).

This wouldn't matter for a person (we're basically neutral in charge), but the sun is so hot that it rips the electrons off of the atoms, and then the atoms split into a plasma of charged ions (+) & electrons (-). If there are magnetic field lines going up/down, they (the ions & electrons) can only go up/down along them, and not really move out of the way sideways. This prevents convection, or mixing, which is usually going on in the sun.

So usually the sun is just churning, bringing hot plasma from the interior up, and pulling down colder plasma from the surface.

But when there are lots of field lines, the hot stuff in the middle has to go up straight to get out, and the cold stuff at the surface has to go down straight to get back inside, and they end up blocking each other like a bunch of cars trying to all go the opposite directions on a bunch of narrow streets, so hot interior gas coming up to the surface can't get up very efficiently.

So a dark, relatively cool sun spot forms on the surface. It's still quite hot, but just not _as_ hot as the really hot stuff below would be if it could make its way up.


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

[User]
Eli5: Why does sunlight reveal a ton of dust while artificial light doesn't?

This seems to only happen under certain circumstances.

[Assistant]
If you have a lamp which is as bright as the sun, you would also be able to see the dust. But sunlight is orders of magnitude stronger than most artificial light - if you want to light a room as bright as if the sun is shining through a window, you're going to need something like a 250W metal halogen light, the kind of lamp used to illuminate stages and stadiums.

Just turn your light on in a room lit by sunlight. The difference it makes is so low, chances are you won't even notice it if you don't look right at the bulb.


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

[User]
[1984] But...why?

I've been told and shown the power of the party; to control the past, and even the nature of reality itself, but I can't accept their explanation as to **why**.

Power for the sake of power? Seeking something they admit to be intoxicating?

The inner party *knows* that even they would have a better standard of living if they didn't devote themselves to making people suffer. They wrote it in 'Goldsteins' book.

They say they want to limit resources through war so that there is always a difference in living conditions between the proles, outer and inner party, and yet all three are worse than they could potentially be?

I understand that you can feel good living relatively well to your neighbours, but isn't a better coffee objectively better? Aren't better technologies objectively a better experience?

Such a simple, base motive seems beneath a party that works so tirelessly.

...please don't turn the dial up. I'm really trying to understand!

[Assistant]
> Power for the sake of power?

Have you ever had power over someone, even the *smallest* bit? Like a hall monitor at school, or a moderator of a discussion forum. Have you ever heard the phrase "asshole with a badge"? It's intoxicating for many people to dictate the way others behave, and the more power they have, the more they need to meddle. It's classic human nature, and entire volumes have been written about it. The powerful love being in power so much that they lose themselves entirely to its pursuit. The old phrase about how power corrupts has stuck around because it's unfortunately very true.

And what's the only thing someone with unlimited power fears? Losing that power, of course. In their pursuit of more, they also work to make sure they keep what they have. This is most easily done by removing the resources of the people who would use said resources against them. In many cases, these nebulous powerful people end up draining everything from their own citizens to ensure no rivals ever arise, from without or within. In the case of The Party, they've begun work on removing the very minds of their own people, to make the idea of revolt impossible. They're trying to remove the last resource left, which is why they act the way they do.


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

[User]
[WH40K] Why Aren't There More Empires Like the Tau?

The Tau are a small, warp-averse empire that uses technological innovation to keep their empire intact. In terms of size, it's barely a blip on the radar compared to other cultures. However, it's scientific advancement is a pretty important advantage.

The fact that they can't travel past light speed gives them a hard size-limit logistically, but they could very easily maintain a small oasis of technological and cultural progressivism that's simply too advanced for the Empire to destroy. In fact, that's just what they are doing.

So why aren't there others like this in the galaxy? Even humans should, theoretically, be able to create independent societies that are more open to new ideas, given how slow the Empire is to respond.

[Assistant]
The only reason the detestable xeno stain known as the "Tau" have been permitted to exist for so long is their unfortunate isolation from the cleansing fleets of the Imperium for several thousand years by warp storms.

Rest assured, brother, this situation shall soon be rectified- as has been the case countless times before in more civilised corners of the galaxy.

The Emperor protects.


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

[User]
[Lovecraft] What would happen if the Necronomicon was sold massively?

Lets say for example some sociopath corrupt megacorp got a copy or the original necronomicon and would have produced it massively basically making it accesible at any bookstore, how would society be impacted by it?
Would we all go insane or would people laugh about it thinking about what a joke it is?

[Assistant] Probably open a gateway to some horrific other dimension and end up wiping out everything. Can't recall the film atm but it's got sam Neil in it and is inspired by lovecraft. Basic premise is he's a world famous author but his books are filled with esoteric and eldritch writings that are weakening the veil between our world and one of monsters. Probably the same thing would happen if you mass produce the necronomicon. Each copy has less magic than the original but enough copies will destroy the world as they're read.


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

[User]
[Batman] If Bruce Wayne wanted to run for president of the US of A, would he win

(Please no comments relating to the 2016 or 2020 election as they always end up in a dumpster fire)

[Assistant]
Hes got phenomenal name ID, basically unlimited cash, a long history of philanthropic successes both from his family and his own ventures, a very sympathetic background story that helps moderate his wealth, and hes personally generous enough to have fostered 3 children. His stewardship of Wayne Enterprises is a strong selling point- its a leading American manufacturer.

Bruce is a brilliant strategist and has the ability to flawlessly apply his charisma on command.  He's developed a relatable personality, but is so intellectually capable he's not going to make mistakes in interviews or debates, in fact he's going to generate positive press for exceeding expectations at every turn.

Bruce would absolutely roll to victory. He's got access to the best opposition research in human history, more data than any candidate that's ever run, and the resources to apply it all to its fullest.


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

[User]
Help a Bayesian understand the Gettier problem

Recently, I discovered that the Gettier problem was taken seriously in epistemology with many responses and I was honestly very surprised. As I understand the Gettier problem, it offers a supposed counterexample to the justified true belief (JTF) theory of knowledge. Specifically, it involves cases where a person makes an inference from a false premise but the inference happens to be True anyway. In this way, the inference is both justified (the person used valid reasoning) and True but does not constitute knowledge because it requires using unsound reasoning because it requires using a False premise.

But it seems to me if you accept Bayesian reasoning, the problem disappears. A Bayesian says that "knowledge" is just your information that allows you to make good inferences.

The Gettier problem analyzed in Bayesian terms looks like this:

1. A person has some information that lets them predict premise 1 (P1) with 80% probability. (Jones has 10 coins in his pocket with 80% probability).

2. The person has some other information that lets them predict premise 2 (P2) with 80% probability. (Jones will get the job. 80% probability).

3. The person then reasons that the person who got the job will have 10 coins in their pocket. The probability of this is at least 64 % (this it the probability that Jones will get the job and have 10 coins in his pocket). Using additional information, he may be able to increase this confidence.

In this (and every) case where the reasoner applies Bayesian inference techniques correctly, there will never be an unintuitive violation of JTB.

Bayesianism Epistemology has other weaknesses but I don't see how this isn't an obvious and straightforward objection to all Gettier problems.

[Assistant]
Most Bayesians (myself included) reject the following:

> **Weak Lockean thesis for belief:** There is some credence threshold t < 1 s.t. for all agents A and propositions p, if c_A(p) > t then A believes p.

This is a problem for any straightforward credal analysis of knowledge, since knowledge (on almost all views) requires belief, and lack of belief is compatible with arbitrarily high credence (<1).

Here are some other proposed conditions on knowledge that you might think a simple credal analysis won't track:

> **Sensitivity:** If p were false, then A would not believe p.
> **Safety:** If A were to believe that p, then p would not be false.
> **No false lemmas:** S's belief that p is not inferred from any false premises.


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

[User]
How do you compensate for poor short term memory?

Im trying to study for school and I scored pretty low for working memory on an assessment. Are there ways I can study that compensate for this?

[Assistant]
Do things that are memorable. Try new things you're curious about. Consider old things in different perspectives. Whatever you're observing externally, try to also be aware that it's a reflection of how you function internally. We have a difficult time remembering things that do not teach us anything new about our internal and external environments. You can actively chase nostalgia and you can incessantly reflect on nostalgic ways to consider old things. Your mind will rest when your body is actively chasing new things to remember and your body will rest when your mind is actively finding new ways to consider what you already remember.

Also, get a healthy and sustainable, in quality and quantity, amount of sleep, nutrition, and information.


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

[User] How far could Earth move either towards or away from the Sun before it left the Goldilocks zone of comfort and all temperate weather were eliminated?

[Assistant] The most recent estimates for the size of the Goldilocks Zone around the Sun place its inner edge at 0.99 AU and its outer edge at 1.688 AU, for a planet with an earthlike atmosphere (1 AU being the average distance from the Earth to the Sun). So, you couldn't move the Earth much farther in without things getting uncomfortably hot, but you could move it quite a bit farther out. (For scale: Mars's orbit has a perihelion of 1.405 AU and an aphelion of 1.639 AU, but it is still uncomfortably cold due to having almost no atmosphere)


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does my 130 lb boxer/lab mix stay off the bed she has been sleeping on for 6 years if there is a 1 lb 7 week old kitten on it?

She will get as close as she can possibly get to it a lay down beside it.  She is not usually a meek dog.  She will bark at strangers (to her) entering the house and push me out of the way to get outside or what she wants.

[Assistant]
Dogs are very aware of what a baby animal is, whether it be human, kitten, or otherwise. Most animals are keen on how fragile babies are, and will treat them very gently, or protect them- even outside of their species! Your dog knows that the kitten is just a baby, and needs to be given space. Your dog seems like he is taking special care to make sure the kitten is safe.

Your dog may also think the kitten is his responsibility. You said it yourself. The kitten is sleeping on a bed your dog slept on for 6 years! That bed is his territory, it is a very big deal that he's allowed the kitten to sleep there. It is likely he will be protective of that cat for years to come.


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

[User]
ELI5: UK vote on leaving the EU - Brexit

Today it was announced that there will be a referendum for the UK to leave the EU on June 23rd.  All related questions in ELI5 will be forwarded to this sticky thread.  Please read the comments on this thread and if your question isn't already covered please ask it as a question in this thread.

Thanks!

[Assistant]
* What is a referendum?

A referendum is when the electorate (general public who can vote), or the parliament (although usually MPs can't vote, but not in this specific referendum), vote on a specific issue, such as, for example, a law.

Usually, it's basically that you choose "yes" or "no" on a particular law, for example, but sometimes there can be multiple choices as well.

* What is the European Union?

A political and economic union (or actually the economic part is only in the European Economic Area) between multiple countries, and most of them are usually located within Europe. Currently, there are 28 member countries. The idea of it is that basically those countries can work together, make laws which apply to all of them, have a unified trading market, have the same currency (the euro, of which 19 member countries currently use it), etc.

* What is going to be asked in this UK referendum?

The exact question is "*Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union?*"

* Is the parliament only the people who can vote on that question?

Nope, if you're a UK citizen who's over 18 years old, or you're a UK citizen who's living abroad but have done so for less than 15 years, or a commonwealth citizen residing in the UK, then you are able to vote.

* Should the UK leave the European Union?

Some people say that yes, it should, because they say that the European Union has too many rules for businesses, and they also say that even though the UK pays lots of money as membership fees, they don't get much stuff in return. They also want to reduce the number of people coming to the UK for work (as to basically get to control the borders and not have "free movement", which is a thing in the European Union wherein you don't need a visa to go to from one member country to another), etc.

Some people say that no, it shouldn't (and that includes the UK prime minster, David Cameron, as well), because then it's easier to trade between other member countries, and that also that the immigrants who're coming for work actually help to boost the economy.

* So, should the UK leave or not?

It depends, as there are plently of arguments on either side saying yes, it should, and no, it shouldn't.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Why would Voldemort send Narcissca Malfoy to verify Harry's death? Shouldn't he check himself?

I mean, here is one kid Voldemort has been desperately trying to kill and prove to everyone that he can beat the Boy Who Lived once and for all. Why must he, when he's FINALLY done the deed....send a death eater to verify? Why not go himself? This is Voldemort basically achieveing what he set out to do more than a decade and he sends a henchman to verify....why?

[Assistant]
From Harry's perspective, Voldemort is an ever present boogeyman whose sole purpose is to destroy him.  But Voldemort has larger plans, of which Harry is only one piece.

If we followed the story from Voldemort's perspective, we would see that Harry and his friends are not central characters.  They are a bit of a distraction to his ultimate goals, which is why he consistently underestimates them and doesn't allocate enough resources to finish the job properly.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are UFC and boxing matches the only mainstream sporting events where fans need to purchase PPV to watch it live?

[Assistant]
These sports are organized in a kind of ad-hoc way. There's no structured "season" guaranteeing a certain number of fights at certain times. Instead, promoters organize events based on who they can get and when.

It's difficult to sell that to a traditional TV network. They have schedules to keep and prefer to broadcast roughly the same thing every week. Instead, you sell each event directly to the public via PPV.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is the Upper Peninsula part of Michigan and not Wisconsin?

Is there any historical or cultural reason behind it?  Geographically, it doesnt make any sense.

[Assistant]
There was a border dispute in the early 1800s, ~~before either of them were states~~, between Ohio and Michigan, over a strip of land that includes Toledo, a port town at the western end of Lake Erie. The land was ultimately awarded to Ohio, and, to make it up to the Michigan authorities, they were assigned the UP. Wisconsin was not settled or organized enough to be a player at this stage.

Edit: got the chronology wrong.


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

[User]
In Jurassic park, they found one mosquito with blood. Where did they get the DNA to make dozens of species?

Using the DNA of one dinosaur to make several others is like taking a rabbits DNA and making a chimpanzee, no matter how much frog you put in there.

[Assistant] As part of our tour, only a single piece of amber containing a mosquito is shown as an example, in reality we spent years collecting, buying, and (admittedly) stealing amber with a wide range of blood sucking or otherwise parasitic organisms that had DNA samples from a wider range of species.


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

[User]
How dark is it in space?

If you were in deep space, how much ambient light would there be? Would you be able to distinguish features on the hull of a spacecraft, or even identify its shape?

[Assistant]
Imagine being in a pitch black room, but a little bit away you could see a sliver of light under a door. You cannot see your hand in front of your face, but if you hold your hand between your eyes and the sliver of light, you can see where your hand is because it's blocking the light.

Now just replace the small sliver of light with billions of stars. You can stick your hand out in front of you and not see it, but you can use the stars to tell where your hand is. You wouldn't see your hand, but you would see the outline of your hand because of what it is blocking.

It'd be very disorienting because you would be surrounded by "light" in the form of far away stars, but you would be in total darkness in the fact that there's no usable light.


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

[User]
Why does squinting improve eyesight?

I personally wear glasses and I've always wondered why squinting helps out when I'm not wearing them. How does squinting work, and how does it improve focus temporarily?

[Assistant] Squinting is helpful for people whose eyes are not perfectly shaped.  The lens of the eye works to collect light over a larger aperture and focus that light in phase to a point on the retina.  When the eye is not properly shaped, the rays coming in from the exterior portions of the lens do not add perfectly on the retina with the light from the center of the lens.  (In fact, there IS generally a point where these rays add coherently, the problem is that this point occurs in front of or beyond the retina.)  Squinting helps by cutting out the days coming from the extrema of the lens, which without correction, are only serving to blur the image sensed by the eye.  However, there is a price associated with this.  First, you're reducing the total light which can enter your eye.  Even if the resolution is slightly enhanced, this technique will fail you in a dark environment where light intensity was low to begin with.  Second, squinting also strains your muscles and slightly deforms the eye, which can lead to fatigue and headaches after a while.


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

[User]
ELI5 - If every Nation is now protesting that the TPP is going to damage their economy and take away jobs as opposed to opening more opportunity, how is this possible?

Surely a few people must be winning big if everyone else is losing market share. If so who is winning?  Or is this mainly hysteria from companies who do not want competition. I was always taught competition is good for the people and bad for corporations.

[Assistant]
the benefit of the TPP is for corporations, not for nations.  the fact that the TPP will allow a corporation to sue a nation for damages if the nation enacts laws that inhibit the behavior of the corporation is probably the biggest red flag.

that most of these corporations are U.S.-based is also problematic, as this means that the U.S. is essentially interfering in the sovereignty of another nation...but by proxy, rather than directly by, say, military intervention and occupation.


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

[User]
"This product contains chemicals known to the state of California to cause cancer..."

If a product has chemicals known to the state of California to cause cancer, why can it be sold freely, and why do they recommend washing one's hands after using said product.  I don't see how washing hands in this case will make cancer less dangerous.  Am I at risk of developing cancer if I handle a product with this warning label?

[Assistant] California has really strict laws.  The exact wording is just to comply with a particular labeling law required by the state.  And since it makes sense to give the same products to California that you give to the rest of the US, it's common for many products to have the warning printed on the label.  Realistically, these products pose incredibly small health risks to the point where you shouldn't worry about them.  You don't need to wash your hands after using them, though washing your hands frequently is better for your health as a rule of thumb.


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

[User]
CMV: Policemen and women should be required to take out insurance against abuse of power, just as doctors take out insurance against malpractice.

It is absolutely unconscionable to me that police are allowed to escape financial culpability for misconduct.  Settlement funds are pulled from the general fund of the city, so taxpayers are the ones who end up holding the tab.

Require police to pay into a malpractice insurance fund, and contract with a malpractice insurance provider to do so.  When the city is sued because of the actions of a police officer, let the malpractice provider take over and head up the defense, and decide how much to settle for, or whether to fight the case out.

I hear too many stories about police continuing in their careers after costing the taxpayer hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars in damages after misconduct.  Cities hands are tied by union contracts.  Introducing a requirement for all police to purchase malpractice insurance shifts the burden for paying those damages off of the taxpayer and onto the responsible parties, provides an incentive for police to minimize abuse, and provides a way to prevent bad actors from returning to the force, as their insurance rates will be either too high to afford, or the insurance companies will refuse to cover them.

[Assistant]
Malpractice insurance is a very large part of why medical bills are as high as they are. Doctors have to make a high salary or they'd never be able to afford the premiums for the insurance.  If you put police in the same position, then you'd necessarily have to raise the salary of police officers, which of course is going to be done with taxpayer money because that's how they get paid.

So the end result is that a ton of taxpayer money goes into paying police officers more, which then immediately gets handed to an insurance company.  So really it's just handing tax money to an insurance company.


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

[User] [The Dark Knight] How exactly does Batman disappear so quickly/efficiently from Gordon?

[Assistant]
This one isn't so hard to answer. The key is progressive misdirection. You see, although it may seem Batman is absolutely gone, it's quite likely that he isn't more than a few feet/meters away. He'll wait for a nanosecond when the subject is lost in thought and use that moment to place himself outside of that person's range of perception. He isn't FAR outside, he's barely outside. As the person is startled and begins to look, Batman will distance himself more and more, as he knows where people tend to look first and foremost.

Remember, he is a ninja. Ninja were trained in infiltration and camouflage. It wasn't unheard of for a ninja to sneak into a castle during the day as a poor vendor, then slip into the pond and breathe through a straw for hours to come out at night. They could hold a fixed pose for hours in order to hide in shadows in plain sight.

Simply put: he knows where you'll look, when you'll look, and how long you'll look as soon as he disappears, and uses that to remain unseen as he makes his escape.


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

[User]
ELI5: Is there an underlying mathematical reason behind why, if the sum of a number's digits is divisible by 3, that number is also divisible by 3?

Howdy, y'all! :)

So, I love mathematics, I think it's a fascinating, beautiful subject; and one of the first things I remember being fascinated with in it is this rule, that you can check if a number is evenly divisible by 3 by adding up its digits, and checking to see if that sum is evenly divisible by 3. (For instance: 2379, 2+3+7+9=21, 21/3=7; quick division confirms that 2379/3=793, so the rule holds true here.)

I've spent years fascinated by this, and 3 has ended up being my favorite number as a result - I even memorized its powers to a stupidly-high degree, for fun - but I only ever recently thought to ask the question, "Why does that work, exactly?" As far as I know, this test doesn't work for any other numbers (for example: the digits of 52 add up to 7, a number which is not divisible by either 2 or 4, and yet both those numbers evenly divide into 52); so, what exactly is so special about 3, to make it consistently, always work this way?

[Assistant]
Say you have a three-digit number, and its digits are a, b, c. (e.g. for 783 a=7,b=8,c=3)

So you can write the number as 100\*a+10\*b+c.   (700+80+3)

This is the same as 99\*a + a + 9\*b + b + c

Obviously 99a and 9b are both divisible by 3.

Which, in order for there not to be a remainder, requires a+b+c be divisible by 3 - i.e. the sum of the digits to be divisible by 3 - for the number to be divisible by 3.

You can see how you can extrapolate this to any number of digits.


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

[User] ELI5: Why Ginger Ale is good at relieving stomach issues and other sodas aren't.

[Assistant]
Ginger Ale contains Ginger. More specifically, ginger root, which is a natural anti-nausea remedy. The anti-nausea drug Gravol is made with Ginger Root as well. And Ginger pills are often administered to help with sea-sickness.

And contrary to what some people believe, the carbonation does not help, in fact it worsens nausea by adding more gas and pressure, and can cause vomiting, so it's best to let the soda go relatively flat.


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

[User]
[MCU / Ant-Man] So when Ant-Man is Giant Man, he doesnt eat food because hed have so consume it in such large quantities that when he shrinks down to his regular size, his stomach would explode. How do the Pym particles decide what constitutes a part of the body?

At what point does the meal become part of you? When it enters your mouth? When its in your stomach? When its converted in to energy? How does the Pym tech determine this? Is a tumor a part of you?

[Assistant]
I don't recLl this coming up at all in the MCU. What is clear is that he has a self contained suit ckmplete with oxygen tank. His suit, and presumably the cars they drive are hermetically sealed so that they are breathing shrunken molecules.

That said, the distance between atoms and the volume of molecules is like 99.999% empty space. Which means that Pym particles don't need to affect the molecules themselves just the bonds inside them and the distances that electrons 'travel'. This could be why the quantum sizes are such a barrier, because that is the point where you running of space to remove between the atoms and force the atoms to exist, at least partially, elsewhere.


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

[User]
[Marvel] What does Stark industries do if it doesn't make weapons??

After Tony stopped manufacturing weapons how does his company maintain cash flow?? What does it manufacture now??

And how is Stark so rich???

He blows up billion dollar suits to make his Girlfriend happy....  He starts an Expo that funds all the applicant's   research and not to mention Stark Relief Fund.. where STARK pays for all the damages done by the Avengers Initiative.

How does he afford all of these??  There's no way he can get all that money from 1 international company.

[Assistant]
Clean energy.

Also, phones, computers, hovercraft and aircraft engines, biotech subsidiaries, micromotors (the suit uses TONS of these), efficient power transmission tech, metallurgy for combat and non-combat applications (construction, spacecraft, etc.).

Stark Enterprises isn't just weapons. Weapons were just the area Tony had his hand in the most, because it brought in the most return on investment in terms of research money. He then farmed out all the tech from the military applications into civilian applications.


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

[User]
[Matrix] What's so bad about the freeway?

I mean, sure, it's not an ideal place to be if you've got both Agents and the Frenchman's thugs on your ass, that's a given.
But on a normal mission where your cover isn't blown, why does it warrant a 'never go here no matter what' restriction?

[Assistant]
Even if your cover isn't blown yet, there's no guarantee things will stay that way.  Heading onto the freeway is basically voluntarily entering a deathtrap, where circumstances are strongly in your disfavor if Agents find you:

1. Lots of people for Agents to take over, which means you'll have a never-ending stream of Agents to deal with.

2. Fast-moving cars and other vehicles adds to the deadliness already inherent in battles against Agents.

3. Traffic is almost entirely moving one way, which strongly limits your options for escape.

4. There are no telephone booths along the freeway, which means your operator can't give you a quick exit.

5. Lots of potential things for the Matrix to re-write, in order to trap you.  For example, your car might suddenly break down, or a piece of concrete will fall from an overpass onto your windshield, or that big truck driving next to you will suddenly have a burst tire and careen into your vehicle...


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

[User] ELI5: How does electric toothbrush charging work even when there is water near the end where the brush connects to the charger?

[Assistant]
If you are talking about a wireless charger, it's just a matter of how close the toothbrush and the charger are.

The principle is:

You have one coil in the toothbrush and one in the charger. In the one in the charger current flows in, and generate a "field of electricity" that makes the current flow in the other coil and thus recharge your toothbrush.

Think about it like moving a magnet using another magnet close by. It doesn't matter if you have paper, water, air or anything else between the two, if they are close enough they will move.

(This doesn't apply if you have something capable of stopping a magnetic or electric field)


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

[User]
[Marvel] Where did Xavier get the money to support the X-Men and the academy?

Xaviers School for the Gifted is in a mansion with some very high-tech stuff, like the Danger Room, Cerebro, and the Blackbird and its hangar, plus a well-equipped team of super heroes. Where did all the money come from? Keeping something like the Danger Room and Cerebro up and running would surely require a lot of upkeep (which is often helped by Forge, but still) and power/electricity. And then theres the actual process of building them. And then theres the acquisition and upkeep of the Blackbird, as well as its hangar. Plus, theres things like proper housing and food for students and faculty. Unless the school has an exorbitant tuition that most families would struggle to pay, there would have to be money coming in from somewhere.

[Assistant]
Xavier came from a very wealthy family; at least one and maybe both of his parents were successful nuclear physicists involved with weapons research. It's also hinted that he may have had some backers in the federal government; in very early issues he has a phone line to an FBI agent named Fred Duncan, and that certainly explains how Prof got himself a jet from Lockheed, a company that normally only sells to the government (Agent Duncan incidentally resigned after a superior related to the Sentinel program ordered him to hand over any intel he had on the X-Men).

At various times Xavier has also had financial backing from either Angel's dad, who is loaded. He also used to have a sugar mama who was princess of an entire galaxy.


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

[User]
[Halo] Do the Covenant come back for for their dead soldiers and their equipment?

Hey y'all.

I know the Covenant revere Forerunner artifacts, the Prophets, and they'll go to at least some effort to retrieve the body of an Arbiter, but what about others?

During a planetary invasion, perhaps prior to a later planned glassing, do the Covenant retrieve any of their dead? Now I'm thinking probably not the rank and file, they'd leave them where they lay, but what about Elites? Are they careful about leaving equipment such as weapons, wrist shields, Elite combat harness lying around?

My thinking is generally they'll salvage equipment if it's vehicles, heavy weapons or anything more powerful or significant than that, and in areas that they're occupying they'll try to reclaim all military hardware including firearms, but in outlying or unimportant areas they're not too fussed about lost plasma rifles, the odd combat harness or Ghost.

Anyway, what do you think? Are there any instances you can think of where they've gone to significant effort to retrieve absolutely all their military hardware, or conversely where they've decided they're not interested?

Your thoughts, anticipated and appreciated.

[Assistant] While they do regard their military hardware as holy (in one of the novels the Thel Vadamee, who would later become the Arbiter, was revolted upon seeing a plasma rifle that had been modified for human use), it doesnt seem to be regarded with nearly as much reverence as actual Forerunner artifacts. While they would prefer to recover lost equipment, if for no other reason than the fact that the Huragok/Engineers are practically miracle workers when it comes to getting broken tech to work, they are not considered to be sacred enough that they will avert a planned glassing (remember, exterminating humanity is supposedly the will of the god).


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

[User] [DC] Why is the female Kryptonian armor so scanty when the male armor covers everything except the head and hands?

[Assistant] If you mean the spandex that Superman and family wear, that's not armor. Different depictions have different durability, but no material is going to be more protecting than a yellow sun empowered kryptonian's own skin. As to why males and females wear different lines, style.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does depression cause lack of appetite in some and over-eating practices in others?

[Assistant] Because depression is not a one-size-fits-all disease. There are many different kinds of depression and how they affect a person depends on not only what type of depression they have but also the extent to which they have it and the circumstances surrounding it and how they're treating it. Depression tends to suppress the appetite, but certain foods provide comfort to people, so they might eat those foods even if they don't feel particularly hungry, because they're seeking relief and comfort. These foods tend to be highly processed, though, and there's strong evidence to suggest that highly processed foods actually exacerbate depression, so it becomes a cycle. The food isn't being eaten because of hunger or to satisfy a nutritional need...its purely for comfort, and the more comfort you need, the more you might over-indulge in those foods.


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

[User] [Portal] Why is it called a "Weighted Storage Cube"? What does it store?

[Assistant]
Aperture Science uses over engineered, wasteful, science-y everything. It's just the way they do things. A weighted storage cube is simply another way to say, a crate. Whether there's anything actually inside is up to speculation, probably something expensive and unnecessary as usual.

The most likely answer is that it's specifically designed as a counterpart to the 1500 Megawatt Aperture Science Super Colliding Super Button, and its cube-specific version. Just for testing, at least originally.


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

[User] ELI5: What causes that awful pain in your chest when you swallow wrong?

[Assistant]
You have a special valve in your trachea (your breathing tube) that is like a trap set with a powerful spring. If anything that isn't air touches the trachea the trap springs and the trachea slams shut very powerfully. This helps protect the lungs / breathing system from solids, food, water, etc entering and damaging them. That valve being spring just doesn't feel good, it's kind of your body's way of saying "hey idiot, stop trying to breath pizza"

Fun fact - there is something called "dry drowning" in which a person inhales water which triggers the trap. The lungs are now cut off and the person drowns/suffocates to death and not a drop of water touches the lungs.


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

[User] ELI5: How do genetic variations work? Why are chimpanzees and apes remarkably different than us although we do share 95-99% DNA?

[Assistant]
What most people don't realize is how much of the genetic code is required just for the most basic functions of life. It's like using libraries when writing an app - you can make very different apps just by shuffling around what you use from which library, while adding minimal code yourself.

Think stuff like making proteins, reading and copying DNA, reacting to the availability or absence of food, scheduling cells for division,....

All of that takes *a lot* of code and is basically the same everywhere.


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

[User]
What happens to the last remaining atom in a lump of radioactive material?At which point does it disintegrate?

(from an article in the Journal of Heuristics)

#As this is different from the half -life prediction,shouldn't radioactivity be treated as an 'emergent' phenomenon?

#At which point is 'singleness' and 'manyness' achieved? We can vaporise the initial lump into single atoms -why does this give rise to a scenario different from the single lump?

[Assistant]
Half life is just a a way to represent the probability of an atom to decay.  No matter how many or how few atoms you have in a system, each atom has a 50% chance of decaying in one half life.  These events are all independent, so one atom doesn't change based on the other atoms in the system.  However, since there are around 10^23 atoms in a common object, statistically very close to half of the nuclei will decay with one half-life.

When you are only left with one atom, it has a 50% of decaying in one halflife, the exact same as it did when there were many atoms.  it's possible for it to never decay, but each half life passed reduces those odds 50%.

So for radioactive decay, 'singleness' or 'manyness' is irrelevant, there is no difference.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do squids turn white after they have been killed?

I just saw a video on youtube where the squid instantly loses its color after it has been killed.

[Assistant]
So squids, octopuses and cuttlefish all have the ability to change their skin color by squeezing tiny pigment sacs in their skin to varying degrees.

However, when you kill the organism, all neurological signals to those little pigment sacs is halted, and they resort to their natural color.

It's pretty much the same reason all muscles in your body stop working when you die, except instead of movement the result is coloration.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] During the Death Star's trench run, why didn't the X-wings close their S-foils to increase maximum speed, so they could evade Vader's tie fighter?

The only thing the X-wings couldn't do is fire, but they could do this in the very last moment by opening their S-foils and fire the proton torpedoes.

[Assistant] They wanted to be able to pull up and get out of the trench at the last second instead of kamikazeing into the trench wall at the end of the run. This was also to ensure that one fighter could do repeated runs, which one did, should the computer miss and the bombs impact on the surface of the wall. Going in full throttle with the sfoils locked in attack position was the absolute fastest they could do it like this and even Luke was pushing it trying the run that fast. Unlocking at the last second to fire wouldn't give the fighters time enough to decelerate and get out of the trench with how fast they'd need to be going to out run Vaders tie fighter's blaster range.


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

[User]
Eli5: How exactly do bees make honey?

We all know bees collect pollen but how is it made into sweet gold honey? Also, is the only reason why people havent made a synthetic version is because its easier to have the bees do it for us?

[Assistant]
No, pollen is for making bee bread, a different sort of bee food.

Bees make honey by collecting a sugary juice called nectar from the blossom by sucking it out with their tongues. They store it in what's called their honey stomach, which is different from their food stomach.

When they have a full load, they fly back to the hive. There, they pass it on through their mouths to other worker bees who chew it for about half an hour. It's passed from bee to bee, until it gradually turns into honey. The bees store it in honeycomb cells after they fan it with their wings to make it dry out and become more sticky. When it's ready, they seal the cell with a wax lid to keep it clean.

It's a complicated physical and chemical process.  If you make "synthetic honey", you're going to have a hard time convincing folks its a replacement for the "natural", "raw" food that the bees make.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] In The Sorcerer's Stone, why didn't Malfoy immediately tell a teacher when he saw that Hagrid had a dragon?

Malfoy sees Norbert hatch, but never goes anywhere to get Hagrid in trouble. It seems obvious that he would go to a professor like Snape immediately and get the situation investigated at the very least, but nothing happens until several weeks later when they are trying to get Norbert off of the grounds! Does he not care to get Hagrid in trouble, or is he just trying to get rid of Harry and company instead or something?

[Assistant]
Malfoy was 11 years old. He enjoyed being in on a secret and having the power to blackmail people. In his mind, if he went to a teacher, it would be acting like a Hufflepuff, not a Slytherin.

Also, if he had gone to a teacher, Dumbledore would probably have covered it up for Hagrid.


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

[User]
If I get a TT offer, what things should I negotiate in the contract.

I think everyone knows that salary is negotiable, but I am aware of people that have asked for other things before accepting (or declining) a position.

Are there some basic things that I should be sure to ask for that most new hires would overlook?

[Assistant] The big one is obviously salary, but many times department heads are very constrained in what they can offer. If the faculty is unionized, there may be strong restrictions in what new faculty can get. But there are other things that are much easier to negotiate. The big one is the startup package: research money, computers, lab facilities, funding for grad students and post-docs. You can also negotiate your teaching load for the next few years and possibly even administrative load. Don't forget to get your moving costs covered and hopefully even housing support if the university is in a tough housing market. And obviously if you've got a two-body issue, this is the only time you'll actually have leverage so is it while you can.


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

[User] [2000AD/Dredd] If the vast majority of the Megacities' problems stem from massive overpopulation and resources being spread too thin, why doesn't the government enact some kind of extreme population control, like forced sterilization?

[Assistant]
Megacity One is intended as a reservoir of humanity, built to withstand nuclear war, disease, and invaders from the Cursed Earth. Truth be told, the Megacity can function on about 0.5% of the pre-Apocalypse War population, which was 800,000,000 people. This is due to automated systems that were made to make the city function even if the city had to bunker up and survive nuclear onslaught.

Which is a good thing, because events did a bunch of population control anyways. The Apocalypse War killed over 400 million of Megacity Ones people. Many of the systems that held the city together failed after the war and killed more due to freak weather and civil unrest. The Days of Chaos, a terrorist attack that used weaponized toxis plasmosa, finally reduced the population to 96 million. If it werent for the initial 800 million before, a lot fewer would have survived today.


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

[User] According to the theory underlying EMDR, why do some memories and traumas get 'stuck?' If the eye movement process supposedly stimulates some feature of REM, then why didn't those traumatic memories get processed during sleep after the trauma occurred?

[Assistant]
This portion of the theory underlying EMDR does not have scientific backing. Dismantling studies have shown that the eye movement portion of the treatment is not necessary. What is necessary is trauma processing.

Other theories (cognitive-behavioral theory specifically) posit that trauma memories get "stuck" because they create or activate fear structures which cause behavioral responses (avoidance) and perspective shifts (negative cognitions). These changes become rigid because avoidance prevents new learning from taking place and prevents new perspectives from forming. For example, if you avoid trauma memories (through distraction etc), it's impossible to learn that you can face those memories without being overwhelmed.