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

[User]
CMV: GenZ is going to have it worse than other generations in recent history

Obviously our lives are a lot better than people living 500,200, or 100 years ago, but when it comes to recent generations (baby boomers, Gen X, and Millennials) we will have an overwhelmingly lower quality of life and get screwed over in pretty much every category. Income inequality is higher now in America than it was in the French Revolution with skyrocketing inflation in nearly every country combined with high gas prices, high food prices, high real estate prices,and stagnant wages. Most in my generation will never be able to afford a home or have enough money to start a family. Our political landscape (at least here in the United States) is getting worse as well. We are more polarized than ever before and for the first time in recent history the Supreme Court is taking away human rights rather than expanding on them. Republican politicians want to establish a theocratic fascist state since they are voting against legislation that guarantees basic rights like access to contraception and interracial marriage. This is all happening simultaneously as right wing organizations like the Proud Boys and others gain more popularity amongst young white males. Lastly is the climate change issue which is one that could very likely cause the complete collapse of society this century. Droughts and poor crop yields will increase food and water prices even more over the coming decades while natural disasters become costlier.   I would love for someone to change my perspective on this because Im not the doomer type but these 3 trends are extremely worrisome for the future.

[Assistant]
When Boomers grew up, they were usually living incredibly modest lifestyles. Their family had one car. There was no air conditioning in the house. They'd only run the furnace in the morning. Dinner might be a chicken thigh with a scoop of canned peas on the side. Their toys consisted of a hobby horse and a baseball mitt. There was a black and white TV in the living room and it had four channels.

And then when they turned 18, a lot of them were shipped off to Vietnam to fight for nothing and die in the mud. And when they came back, hippies shouted at them that they were babykillers, because a ferocious culture war was being waged across the country.

And yet this was considered affluent. The American Dream in action.

Gen Z has grown up in two-car air-conditioned houses with Wi-Fi and video games and smart phones and the entire world's knowledge at their fingertips, eating fresh food three times a day. And they've known nothing but relative peace at home, and they're going off to college instead of war.

From an objective point of view, we're doing better than we have been at any time in history. And yet we're lonelier, more depressed, and more pessimistic than any generation before us. It really is something of a paradox, isn't it.


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

[User]
[Star Trek:Into Darkness] How did Admiral Marcus have the USS Vengeance constructed?

Hi all,

How did Admiral Marcus have the USS Vengeance constructed without anyone noticing?

Because surely someone in Starfleet would have noticed a lot of resources and personnel along with ships transporting the resources and personnel  being sent to Jupiter's moon Io.

'

[Assistant]
Section 31 has a LOT of freedom to do what they think is necessary. We've seen them straight-up kidnap Starfleet officers with zero legal repercussions, so having hidden bases and construction facilities would be a very simple matter. Remember that they do things that Starfleet and the Federation can't or won't be willing to do in pursuit of their own security. So they have tons of leeway. And the big question is if they have too much, or if more people should share in their philosophy.

Also, it's possible Marcus had a few other higher-ups within Starfleet agreeing with his paranoid world view. He had a crew with him on the Vengeance after all, which means he had people on his ideological side. So combine his already massive power as an Admiral, his unprecedented freedom with Section 31, and perhaps some kickbacks from powerful friends, and he can construct a ship in total secrecy.

As for the aspect of people perhaps seeing the base or the transports moving materials, just remember how insanely large outer space is. Even within our own solar system. If you don't want to be found, you won't be. Even with 23rd century sensors. Add sensor-masking technology and other stealth techniques, and it's dead easy to hide entire construction efforts on a moon.


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

[User] ELI5: How can a game like FFXV be in development for 10+ years and stay graphically up to date?

[Assistant] In the modern age, code and code-based projects are incredibly modular. You can work on gameplay systems without touching graphics systems. In fact, gameplay systems that are affected by graphics systems would likely be poor design as a change to the graphical system could mess up code in other areas.


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

[User]
I have my first oral presentation at a national conference today and Im so nervous

I always get nervous speaking in public or even in front of my cohort for class presentations. But I know this is important. Any tips or advice for getting through it?

[Assistant]
Know your topic well but learn by heart just the opening line. Rehearse word by word the first few sentences, and then you'll flow through the presentation naturally.

Speak slowly and finish on time, even if that means leaving something out - that normally leaves a better impression than speeding through and cutting into somebody else allocated time slot.

Good luck!


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

[User]
What would happen if your brain floated in water instead of cerebrospinal fluid?

I think it's safe to say we wouldn't be able to function as humans, since the CFS apparently provides some pretty vital functions like protecting the brain against blood pressure spikes. That's the extent of what I know though, so can anyone tell me *exactly* what would happen if all the CFS in our skulls were suddenly replaced with pure, distilled water?

[Assistant] Water would follow the osmotic gradient into the neurons in your brain and they would rupture from the volume change. Your brain would squeeze out the skull into the spinal canal due to this volume change as well. The end effect would be a rapid onset of mental status change, brainstem herniation, and death.


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

[User] [Marvel] Is it just a coincidence that all the symbiotes's abilities are basically the same as Spider-Man's?

[Assistant] It took a liking to them when the symbiote was with Parker. Part of the reason they are enemies with Spider-Man, from the ultimate rejection of the symbiote. Also why Spider-Man's spidey sense doesn't work with Venom.


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

[User]
CMV: I think Hideo Kojima is supremely overrated

Ok, here's what I suspect is genuine a controversial statement on here, because I know Reddit has a massive boner for Hideo Kojima, but here it goes...

The guy is simply mediocre. That's already a concession from my part already; my default view was that he's kinda crap, but I didn't want to be super harsh without having all the facts that I'm sure are about to hit me like a firehose.

The Metal Gear series is all over the place. It gets retconned, takes nonsensical plot turns, the characters aren't especially endearing (I'll admit that there's probably a few touching moments in there, but touching moments does not equate to a strong, well designed character - anyone/anything could have a touching moment)... everything feels incoherent and incohesive. You know your plots aren't well-crafted when you need a freaking wiki guide to walk you through what the hell is going on. And not in the brilliant "Shakespeare needs to be translated into modern vernacular" kind of way - most characters and situations are nonsensical, in a sort of improvised way that makes me think Hideo had no damn clue what he was doing with them.

Hideo is treated as some industry god, but he's only done one real series worth note. I suppose he had some influence over Silent Hill (another meh series, imo), but he didn't conceive it, he just helped. That's not god-like. Look at Shigeru Miyamoto as comparison - the guy invented Mario, Donkey Kong, Zelda and Link, and had a major hand in creating stuff like Star Fox, Metroid, and Pokmon. Fucking Pokmon, man! They make TV shows and movies about his shit.

Kojima made Snake, a man with a juvenile codename and almost zero personality. Also he made Raiden, so yeah, undo any credit he gets for the other Metal Gear characters right there. All his other characters are either stupid (fat guy on rollerskates as a boss? Nanomachines, son? ugh) or fan service (she breathes through her skin? come on...)

I've played most of the Metal Gear series (Silent Hill too), so please understand that this doesn't come as an outsider opinion. I just don't think the guy deserves all the praise he gets like he's one of the videogame gods. He shouldn't be listed alongside Kojima or GabeN or Romero or Wright as major innovators. CMV, please, because I WANT to like the guy, but just can't because I feel he's overrated.

[Assistant]
Hideo Kojima is neither a particularly great game designer (compared the likes of Shinji Mikami or Hidetaka Miyazaki) nor a particularly good movie director. What he most definitely is, though, is an auteur with a vision and ability to convey it. His scripts are bad according to even the lowest screenwriting standards, his cinematic direction is silly according to cinematography and his game design is just all over the place. But these elements combine into very special and unique experiences in his work that is way, *waaaaay* more than the sum of its parts.

And let's not forget that his stuff is meticulously, *meticulously* crafted. From MGS 1's codec calls (long before, and way different from, the idiotic and useless modern radio companions) to MGS4's weapon commercials, Kojima's games are hand-crafted down to a pixel \*and\* everything in them serves the aesthetic purpose. You may or may not like the resulting games, but mediocre they aren't.


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

[User]
If light photons have no mass, how can a black hole exert a gravitational force on them?

Maybe I'm misunderstanding the idea that light can't escape a black hole because of the immense gravity. Someone please explain.

[Assistant] Because gravity isn't *actually* a force that acts between two massive bodies (though that's a very good approximation, for the most part). It's what happens when mass and energy curve spacetime. When spacetime is curved, anything that tries to travel on a straight line will end up on a curved path, and we see that curved motion (through space *and* time) as gravity. So photons are affected by gravity simply because they, like everything else, live in spacetime.


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

[User]
[The Last Jedi] If Snoke and Kylo Ren arent Sith like the Visual Dictionary suggests, why does Kylo Ren say...?

Hows it going, yall?

So according to The Last Jedi Visual Dictionary, Snoke is not a Sith. In fact, it goes on to say that there is a Sith prophecy about the end of the Sith but not the end of darkness and that Vader was the last of the Sith.

But then if Snoke and Kylo Ren arent Sith, why does Kylo Ren tell Rey to, Let the past die. Snoke, Skywalker, The **Sith**, the Jedi, let it all go. If the Sith are truly gone, why would Kylo Ren refer to the Sith as something that hasnt died out yet?

Because of this line in the movie, I find it hard to believe that Snoke and Kylo Ren arent Sith. Perhaps a new breed of Sith? But it seems to me they still follow Banes Rule of Two. Anyhow, is Snoke and Kylo Ren truly not Sith? And if not, why would Kylo Ren mention them in the first place as something of the past that should die?

[Assistant]
Because the Sith were to Kylo Ren what the Jedi were to Rey. Both institutions were idealized, almost worshipped. Kylo Ren strove to be a Sith even though it was impossible, just as Rey did (although with Luke alive her goal was much more attainable).

Its not Sith or Jedi he was proposing to let die  it is *the* Sith and *the* Jedi; the concept of Sith and Jedi, and the idealization and near-worship of the respective institutions.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why can't cats or dogs recognize their young after awhile and will often times even mate with them?

Often times when a dog or cat has a litter after a year or two of separation the dog or cat has no notion of who it is. Sometimes these animals will even mate with each other. Is there no instinct or evolutionary factor that would enable animals to deter from inbreeding?

[Assistant] It is not that they do not recognize their offspring, it is as you say that there is no instinct to avoid inbreeding. In the wild inbreeding of a population is often the only thing that keeps a species alive in a given area. Particularly if that area is remote or hard to get to.


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

[User]
[General Fiction] What are some of the best ways or weapons to kill immortals.

So i'm a reasonably powerful superpowered being who has recently discovered i can travel to other universes. My universe has this new villian who happens to be immortal and we have no clue how he got this way. He doesnt age, and heals everything thats been thrown at him (up to the nukes we tried last week).

If i could go to other universes, what weapons/items would be the best for me to borrow/bring back from other universes to kill an immortal.

[Assistant]
It depends very much on the nature of immortality - whether it's true "until the end of time", or merely "ages as slow as politicians react to people's misery".

In general?

- stasis field generator: put the man inside
- black hole generator: godspeed trying to escape it, even if immortality is involved
- anything that might kick his butt into different dimension
- in one of Superman comic books (IIRC "The man who had everything") there was a parasite of sorts that gave its host the illusion of living in a paradise while his body was out cold - similar thing might be relevant
- this is interesting: accelerate him so much that he is going to live between fractions of seconds, that the time between seconds will take him billions of billions of years - he won't age, and eventually he will get to you back, but so what? After such a long time he won't even remember what is what and probably won't pose a problem.


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

[User]
Is it a bad time to be in higher education?

There are obviously a million personal factors that go into deciding to get a undergrad/masters degree, but from a broad economic standpoint, is it bad to enter higher education in the US right now? If we are entering a recession (as a layman, idk if we are), is it a good idea to get a degree in the meantime or to wait it out and save up a bit with a random job for a couple years before going back to school?

[Assistant] From a labor economics perspective, when the economy contracts is the best time to invest in human capital like going back to school. Mainly because the opportunity costs of education are lower. Say you can find a job paying $60k a year. Your opportunity costs for going to school are the $60k plus the costs of education. If the economy enters a recession and that $60k job now only pays out $50k, your opportunity costs are $10k dollars less per year than before. Another thing to consider is that students who graduate during a recession earn less over the lifetime of their career. Thats a hard one to predict because no one knows what the economy will look like in 2-4 years down the road, but because the economy is changing rapidly, it will be different from what it is today.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] What precautions did the Rebellion take against Double Agents joining the Rebellion and learning important Rebel secrets?

Star Wars Rebels shows that the Rebellion allows Imperial defectors to join the rebellion. (Wedge Antilles himself was an Imperial once!) How did the Rebellion know they could be trusted? What safeguards were in place to make sure these defectors don't just go back and spill important details such as locations of rebel bases?

[Assistant]
Heavy compartmentalization was a big piece of it: very few people knew the whole layout of the Rebellion (if anyone did).  People like Mon Mothma, Bail Organa, and Admiral Raddus were some of the few to have a full understanding.  Signal security was big in the Rebellion.  They were careful about who they let send messages and what those messages contained.

Other things helped too: pilots would know where they're going, but not necessarily why they're going there, and the operatives or basic security people probably didn't know what planet they were actually on.

Even with all that, in the old EU there were Imperial double agents in the rebellion and they did some damage.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do babies know to make eye contact?

I'm a new father to my first baby, and I've noticed she makes (or atleast seems to make) a lot of eye contact. Why and how is this so?

[Assistant] One of first thing baby learns is recognising face amongst other patterns. Two eyes, mouth, nose. That's why there is so many saints on toasts or in the wall stains. It's one of first things we learn.


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

[User]
CMV: Polygamy should be legal.

Seems simple to me. If there is consent and everyone is of age, I don't see the controversy.

I personally couldn't handle more than one relationship, and would not be happy with my partner having other lovers. But for those that are into it, why should the government stop them?

I see that it's often oppressive. But no more than arranged marriages. This is a cultural issue  with some cultures thinking marriage can be decided for someone. They can't be forced to get married though, and if they are then the government needs to stop it.

Everyone seems in favor of polyamory. Something I think is frankly idiotic much like polygamy, but if that's their choice that's their life.

[Assistant] Under this system, could a husband have 2 wives and each of those wives have another husband? How would you file tax returns jointly between both your husbands? Which one of your spouses would have the right to make medical decisions in case you are incapacitated? How would your estate be broken up if you leave no will? How would child support and custody work in the case of divorces? It seems like a legal nightmare.


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

[User]
[The Boys] Question about the last 80 years of this universes history (mild spoilers)

Who did the supes fight before the super villains? Just petty criminals all the time? How were they able to keep people engaged in their stories if no one was ever able to challenge them?

I cant imagine there is an equivalent to Lex Luthor in this universe since Vought already personifies corporate evil. Similarly, Black Noir cant have a rogues gallery like Batman considering how quick he is to kill. And if the supes do have weaknesses (like kryptonite), they arent widely known or available (assuming the weakness is an item).

[Assistant] I am not sure how the show handles it, but in the comics Villains like Heroes, are just employees of Vought. They even parcitipate often in the same events as heroes, like their yearly party filled with drug use and orgies. Black Noir in particular is noted to have the darkest Villain gallery. But not in the sense that they are more dangerous, but that they have darker public origin stories.


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

[User] CMV: I think it is absurd to charge 90+ year old Nazi WWII veterans for their crimes.

[Assistant]
Do you believe there should be a statute of limitations on war crimes?

So if a Middle East dictator who kills thousands decides to run away and live his life out, he shouldn't be able to be tried once he grows old?

>They were practically kids, at least from a maturity standpoint.

The Nuremberg Trials already determined that "just following orders" is not a valid excuse for what happened.


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

[User] ELI5: Why did the U.S Air Force retire the LGM-118 Peacekeeper Missile?

[Assistant]
couple of reasons

when the Cold War ended, there wasn't a need for a massive number of land-based ICBMs. They have a fleet of various versions of the LGM-30s, and a new and expensive fleet of the LGM-118 coming into existence. It was easier and cheaper for them to simply do away with the LGM-118s for the continued use of the LGM-30s.

By the time the LGM-118 came out, SLBMs (specifically the Trident II), were just as capable as the land based ballistic missiles, and almost infinitely more survivable.

So due to budget cuts, and nuclear reductions following the end of the Cold War and SMART, the LGM-118s were the logical choice. They didn't offer any major difference over the LGM-30s, they costed far more, and the Trident IIs were far more survivable.


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

[User]
What Happens on the Atomic Level When You Touch Something?

Do the atoms touch? Almost touch? Are there small reactions? Give me the full rundown.

[Assistant]
They almost touch.

Electrons repell each other, this is called electrostatic repulsion. The closer they are together, the stronger the force that repels them is. So no atoms in your finger actually touch anything, they just get stopped by the electrons of the two objects repelling each other.

You need lots of energy for molecules to actually touch. Like in the Sun, for instance.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do hangovers get worse as you age?

2015 is upon us, meaning we're all a year older (but not necessarily wiser). Many of you are probably like me and are suffering a massive hangover from last nights festivities.

Why do hangovers get worse as you age? Is this some sick form of revenge by our bodies for years of abuse? When I was younger I could drink significantly more and be perfectly fine the next morning.

[Assistant]
Alcohol metabolism is a two-step process in the liver, where enzymes first break the alcohol down into acetaldehyde. Acetaldehyde is highly toxic  between 10 and 30 times more toxic than alcohol itself. The enzymes in your liver are next tasked with breaking down the acetaldehyde further, into a non-toxic substance called acetate. But your liver can only metabolize about one drink per hour  so if youre drinking more quickly than that, not all of the acetaldehyde gets broken down. In that case, the acetaldehyde is released into the blood stream to wreak havoc around your body, resulting in the awful feelings associated with a hangover.

The liver capacity to cope with the toxicity of acetaldehyde decreases as we get older.  Acetaldehyde is directly detoxified in the liver by an antioxidant called glutathione. As age increases, glutathione generation capacity is decreased, so cells may not be recovered or repaired rapidly.


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

[User]
Thoughts On Austrian Economics?

As a former libertarian, I've come to find that Austrian economics has ltitle to do with the facts of reality. The arguments of Rothbard, Mises, Hoppe and similar thinkers do not sound like they deserve to be taken seriously, particularly when Mises argues that his theory is unfalsifiable.

Do any of the economists here find Austrian economics worth looking into?

[Assistant] Anything worthwhile in Austrian thought was happily incorporated into the mainstream...  70+ years ago.  Anyone who still calls themselves an 'Austrian' has a pretty high chance of being a charlatan.  Modern economics fundamentally does not have 'schools of thought' any longer - we're all part of the mashed up new-neoclassical-new-keynesian-synthesis.  Anything useful gets used, no matter where it comes from, and the things that aren't useful or aren't true get discarded.


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

[User]
ELI5: what is happening in my brain when a random, insignificant memory pops into my head that i haven't thought of in years?

a lot of the time it happens when i am drifting off to sleep, which is probably a factor, but that isn't always the case. middle of the day, boom, i suddenly remember the time i ran into my friend's parents at sam's club six years ago. we said hello and went on our way. so why did my brain decide i should think back on it with seemingly no trigger?

[Assistant]
Well, the short answer is that no one knows for sure.

The longer answer has to do with your use of they word "seemingly". There probably was a trigger, just not one you were consciously aware of. It could have been the texture of a wall, a similar physical layout to a room, a scent, a drug in your system, your mood, or even your body position. Your brain codes all of these things into memory, even if you don't know about them. One of these things probably triggered the memory.


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

[User]
CMV: Black-owned businesses should not be amplified on social media

Recently, several platforms such as Instagram and Amazon have introduced a system to boost black-owned businesses. This includes pushing their products to more potential customers and offering more advertising for their brand.

I believe in a free market. I believe that business should be a fish-eat-fish world, with the hardest, and smartest working entities rising to the top. Whoever does better survives. It is quite simple, and I do not believe it is fair to offer any minority, or group of people for that matter, an advantage. Every race should have to play by the same rules. Its ridiculous to even have to make that statement in this day and age, with these e-commerce platforms seemingly opposing the work of every civil rights leader who strived for a future in which different races are treated as equals. I believe these practices to be examples of textbook racism, but I am open to having my mind changed.

[Assistant]
>Whoever does better survives

So if a business can identify and cater to an emerging market  such as socially conscious people who want to buy from minority-owned businesses  why shouldnt they reap the rewards of that marketing advantage?

If you work in a consumer product industry in 2021 and you havent realized that social and environmental factors play a huge role in consumer decisions then youre not very good at your job.


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

[User]
[LoTR] When Elrond tells Isildur to cast the One Ring into the fires of Mnt. Doom, and Isildur refuses, was Elrond not morally bound to kill Isildur? Is he not singly responsible for Sauron's return?

I refer mainly to the movies here, but perhaps the same thing happens in the books.

The scene I refers to happens in the middle of *The Fellowship of the Ring,* (extended edition DVD: 1:31:45), when Lord Elrond tells Gandalf that he witnesses Isildur standing over the fires of Mnt. Doom. Elrond says: "I led Isildur into the heart of Mount Doom, where the ring was forged, the one place where it could be destroyed..."

"Cast it into the fire! Destroy it!"

"No."

"It should've ended that day, but evil was allowed to endure."

He makes it sound like he was helpless to stop this, like it was out of his hands...yet in that one moment was he not obligated to attack Isildur and take the ring by force? Even if he wasn't able to foresee everything that'd happen, he knew the ring was treacherous and would inevitably be wielded by men to great evil.

[Assistant] I think that Tolkien said that no one could willingly drop the one ring into the fires of Mount Doom. Since the Valar certainly couldn't be arsed, that means than nothing on Arda could willingly drop the ring. No man, no elf, no hobbit, no dragon, no ent, no Balrog. That means that Elrond simply couldn't dropkick/push Isildur, as that would be the same as dropping the ring. Smeagol fell into the fires of Mount Doom fighting with Frodo (and Sam) trying to keep the ring, and then he fell, which means that he didn't intentionally do it.


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

[User]
How would an eliminative materialist explain gender?

I studied philosophy of mind as an undergraduate, and with recent discussions about trans issues in philosophy more broadly, I've been thinking about how different philosophers of mind would explain the experience of gender.

An eliminative materialist, it seems to me, might argue that the concept of gender is too interwoven with folk-psychological concepts to make much sense, and a more advanced neuroscience or cognitive psychology would result in a very different way of talking about gender.

Similarly, I wonder how an illusionist theory of consciousness would account for certain ways of talking about gender. Gender obviously involves much more than just a person's inner experience, but at least part of it involves a reference to some kind of inner quality to which we have introspective access. The illusionist wants to deny that this sort of thing happens, so what would the illusionist description of gender be?

Have any eliminative materialist or illusionist philosophers of mind discussed these issues?

[Assistant] Eliminative materialism is mostly just writing blank checks for future science to cash. They're not really in the business of explaining things. They're just suggesting that in the future, completed neuroscience will explain things. So to the extent there's anything to be explained here, it's not an explanation the eliminative materialist is going to say they can give you. That's a job for scientists years from now.


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

[User]
[Walking Dead] Why hasn't anybody been infected by blood splatter?

They seem pretty casual about the blood that goes flying when they brain a walker. Seems just as dangerous as a bite for some blood to get in the mouth or eye.

(I'm not caught up on the show, so don't spoil it if this happens in the more recent episodes)

[Assistant]
How far along are you?

If you've seen the end of season 1 then you should know that everyone is already infected. If you die from natural causes you still turn into a zombie.

The bites only serve to kill people faster by making them lose a lot of blood or through other complications since they don't have any hospitals.


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

[User]
[middle earth] How has man survived

I know this is more fantasy than science fiction but there is no askfantasy sub so hoping someone can shed some light on this question. Basically I'm wondering how man has survived in middle earth because as far as I can tell they are outmatched by every other race..

The orks are more brutal and can smell others scents. The elves live longer, are more agile and excellent fighters and can enchant weapons. The dwarves seem to be better engineers and can lift more than their own weight. Man just seems to be decidedly average in comparison. Then when you look at the dangers out there like trolls, stone golums, giant spiders etc it makes me wonder how man has prospered at all?

[Assistant]
All forms of speculative fiction is welcome here, don't let the name fool you.

For the most part, all the other races are too insular and bound by tradition or internal law to spread out in the same way men do. Elves are perfectly happy to remain in their forests and homes and not go outside places they've claimed and ruthlessly keep safe.

Dwarves and goblins/orcs generally keep underground, where men rarely venture. Dwarves prefer to mine than colonize or fight wars. Of all the good races, men and Dwarves probably have the least contact.

Goblins and orcs are also usually too disorganized to ever put up a major threat to men and their cities. Yes, they sometimes form armies that are the subject of songs and stories, but for the vast majority of time, they're content to fight each other and only manage to form small raiding parties to harass human settlements. They need a leader to organize them, and not any of their rank and file are ever capable of doing that. It takes an extraordinary one, or a dark lord to do it, and those generally don't exist for much of history.

As for the other dangerous creatures, we've also survived hundreds of thousands of years in Africa, Asia, the middle east and Australia without the aid of modern technology or even swords and armor. Elephants, lions, bears, tigers, etc, are just as dangerous as trolls, spiders and the like. Men either avoid them (which is often easy since most of those creatures live in areas men don't) or they go off in groups to exterminate them if they pose a threat.


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

[User]
[Marvel] How well are super-geniuses like Reed Richards and Tony Stark known outside their role as super heroes?

Like is Reed enough of a household name that the common person would recognize him for his scientific feats, or is he only notable within the scientific community? (Same for Pym, Stark, etc.)

[Assistant]
It really depends  Everybody knows who tony stark is in the same way they know who bill gates or Steve jobs are.

Reed Richards is an eccentric who is probably only known among the science community outside of his role as a member of the fantastic four.

Hank Pym is probably in a similar situation. Maybe a bit better known because of his company but nowhere near stark.


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

[User] ELI5: What makes it so your body can stay in a coma for years and just randomly wake up? Why are comas so unpredictable for how long you are asleep for?

[Assistant]
Imagine you're playing Dwarf Fortress. Your fortress is big, complex, and detailed levels stretch from surface to the underground caves. Suddenly there's a cave in that collapses a wide area of tunnels three quarters of the way down your whole fortress. This is a gigantic mess. The majority of your dwarves will be tasked clearing rubble, digging new tunnels, redigging old tunnels, basically repairing the whole fortress. It takes too many dwarves to spare any for trading or diplomacy or military, so you close up the fortress while the long repairs are underway.

Normally this would spell death as the fortress is not farming or hunting food for itself, but other fortresses in the area donate foodstuffs while the long repairs are underway. They don't know the progress of the repairs, but they're hedging that your dwarves can get it done.  If they do, if they manage to get things *just* to the point where the fortress can operate again, the gates will open and the dwarves will pour out to get things running again.

Sometimes they can't. The chasms are too big, the remaining stone too weak to build with. This fortress is never going to be up and running again. It's dwarves will live only as long as the food supplies last. But we can not know that, we can only judge by what we can see from the outside.


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

[User] [Spider-Man 2: Far From Home] How do the hologram drones get rid of sunlight? It's one thing for them to make a dark room bright, but how does projecting an image turn a bright sunny day into a dark environment?

[Assistant] Probably some sort of interference pattern. Light sometimes behaves like a wave, so if you project the exact opposite wave, it should cancel each other out. Either that or some sort of anti-photon, since light sometimes acts like a particle and a particle colliding with an anti-particle results in annihilation of both particles.


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

[User]
[LOTR] Why did Sauron only make one One Ring?

If he can tie his power and existence to one ring, could he do the same with two, or seven, or fifty? Why take the risk of only having one soul-jar? Could he have made another one after losing the first?

[Assistant]
You misunderstand the nature of the One Ring. Sauron didn't build it as a horcrux. Sauron is an immortal angelic spirit, so he has no need for such a device. He is killed several times over history, and did not require the Ring to return. He built it to be able to command the Elven Rings, which otherwise he could not control.

In fact, far from preserving him, the Ring became the sole means of destroying him. He did lose some power every time he died, but not a shattering amount. He was always able to re-form his body, and his enemies weakened far more rapidly than he did. But the Ring was so tied up with his spiritual power that when it was destroyed, it took the majority of his power with it, leaving Sauron unable to interact with the world. He still isn't dead, he is just a spirit wandering the world, but unable to touch or impact it in any way.


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

[User]
[World War Z Film] The implications of the Zombies' special ability (spoiler)

So, the WWZ film zombies can instantly tell whether you have a deadly illness or not. Apparently, this is *any* illness, ranging from cancer, to a viral infection, to a bacterial one.

What are the implications of this miraculous discovery? How does modern medicine change after Z-day? Does this mean that every oncologist have a chained-up zombie in their office?

[Assistant]
Define illness though. Like sure it might detect cancer but what about a mild cold or a stomach bug or auto-immune disease or tapeworms or whatever.

Its not like the zombie will be like *growl snarl snarl snarl growl drool* and the doctors will go "oh, he has some T-Cell abnormalities, we should do a blood test".

So many humans have so many things wrong with them, a zombie that detects any and all is useless. One that detects specific kinds of illness i.e. cancer is actually useful but again how will it work since there are also benign growths that dont do anything and many people have them with no changes to their health.

Its useless if it detects any illness since most people have something wrong with their bodies all day every day, we just dont notice it.


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

[User] eli5: Does the ocean have "seasons" like we do on land?

[Assistant]
The deep oceans dont experience any real temperature changes because the heat sink of all that water is simply too massive to cycle in just a few months.

What does happen is the longer day length in the summer boosts the algae and plankton populations closer to the surface, which in turn causes a boom in all the deepwater populations from the much greater food availability.

Its no warmer in the summer, but animals will still have seasonal breeding and migration patterns to track the food availability.


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

[User]
Lucy: Why couldnt she just produce her own drug

In the film Lucy is chasing after CPH4 which is a drug that pregnant women naturally make to kick-start a fetuses development.
At 50 percent, shes coughing up teeth on a plane and growing new ones.

So she has total control of her own body. Why not just configure her own body to start producing CPH4?

[Assistant]
She has lots of knowledge and power, but note how distracted she was while she was finally taking you the scientists.  At her core she's still human, still fallible.  If she worked at maximum efficiency and logic the movie would be vastly different.

Only she isn't that type of person.  She tries to keep as normal as possible.  Using a gun when she could take out crowds with a thought.   As she reaches 100% she starts nearing that point.  She probably just didn't think to do that.

Meta reason:  Lucy had a restraining order placed on logic during filming.


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

[User]
Professors of AskAcademia who supervise grad students - do any of you lack expertise in your student's chosen research area?

I'm currently trying to decide between two CS programs for my grad studies. I was admitted to my top choice (Masters with Thesis) and will be working on machine learning in the context of autonomous vehicles - this is a research area in an interdisciplinary project that definitely has me excited. However, a former student has told me that while the lab and program is great and that I won't regret it, the prof has almost no expertise in machine learning. The school however is a top 10 for CS in North America.

The second program offers a PhD and is from a school that's not really known for its Computer Science program. However, the prof and his lab seem like amazing people to work with and I've been offered a very generous stipend. The prof also has published papers in the research area I'll be working on. However, while I do like the area of work I don't find it as exciting as the one offered by my top choice school above.

I'm mostly comfortable working independently and enjoy flexibility but I also like to have some guidance from time to time, especially when I get stuck. For this reason, I'm having a problem deciding between the first option and second and would really appreciate your perspectives on this situation. Thanks. :)

[Assistant]
You'll get a variety of opinions on this, but mine is that you should evaluate a PI on a managerial rather than an intellectual basis.

Most of the questions you'll need answered are contained somewhere in the literature if they can be answered at all.  No professor - no matter how brilliant - can ever hope to know more than a small fraction of what is contained there.  So the individual brilliance of your professor can easily be replaced.

What can't be replaced is your professor's ability to maintain a functional lab, help you through the hurdles of your career and secure stable funding.

For me, the easiest way to judge this is to take a look at your prospective peer group - the grad students you'll be working alongside.  If they interface well together, are generally happy in their work and seem to be advancing well in their careers, you want to work for those professor - even if they're not the leading expert in your field.  In contrast, if those grad students are working every other semester at Starbucks to pay their rent, hate each other and regretting their choice to attend grad school, you probably want to avoid that professor.


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

[User] ELI5:What will happen if I don't "eject" my flash drive before taking it out?

[Assistant]
The whole ejecting of removable media centers around write buffering. Modern operating systems save up a bunch of writes and then blast them all to the media (usb drive, disk etc.) all at once - it makes writing to the media more efficient.

Choosing the "eject" option "flushes" all pending writes (i.e. forces the writes to happen; and also closes any files that may be open), ensuring you dont lose any data.


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

[User] ELI5: What if I permanently decide to breathe using my mouth and not thru my nose? Any health effects?

[Assistant]
Biology student + Was a mouth breather

- Sore throat
- You'll inhale more microbes and bacteria since there is no filtration system  in your mouth
- Your teeth gum will be exposed more to bacteria, resulting in inflammation.
- Bacteria in your teeth will flourish since they have more oxygen resulting in more teeth decay
- Cold air will affect your vocal cords resulting in a change in your voice + inflammation in your vocal cords from inhaled bacteria, very dangerous, it can damage your vocal cords
- Tuberculosis !


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

[User]
What exactly is systemic racism?

Given the climate I have been thinking about this concept and have some questions.

I assume systemic racism as an idea isn't referring to an individual who holds racist views. We would simply refer to that person as a racist?

So that means we move into the realm of policy, here we have many examples of racist policies. Apartheid South Africa, segregation in the South of the USA, red lining and Jim Crow town planning policy. Or perhaps a corporations hiring policy could be racist?

However many of those policies, once coded into law, have been overturned. So those policies are no longer legally enforceable, and companies legally cannot discriminate against people based on race? Of course the law doesn't mean racists wouldn't be racist, so a person in HR might overlook a black candidate for reasons of their personal racism... but this seems to fall into the category of a person just being a racist?

Which means we move into the space of historical legacy... here communities which have been "shafted" by past inequalities are still struggling with the repercussions decades later. History is deeply influential on the present so I have no problem with the idea that a legacy effect can be felt in the present even though the historical cause was a long time ago.

So is systemic racism referring to this felt historical legacy or something else? I am unsure how I feel about labelling any historical legacy itself racist as legacies are not intentional agents... or are we saying that an unwillingness to address this legacy properly is racist?

Edit: If systemic racism and institutional racism  are referring to the same thing, or at least very similar, then I feel like I have a firmer grasp on the concept. Thanks for your responses.

I can see how a system could be biased without the explicit intentions of any particular actor within it desiring to be so. I can also see how the system continues to be bias in its uncritical application of "norms of practice" which favour and disadvantage people who fit/don't fit into those norms.

[Assistant]
>So is systemic racism referring to this felt historical legacy or something else?

No it's referring to a very concrete and clear set of material inequalities.  The fact that 27% of black men will go to prison in their lifetimes is clearly a result of present policy, especially ones that originated out of the drug war and the 90s crimes bills.


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

[User]
How does gravity create energy?

Say two big rocks suddenly appear in the middle of space with nothing else for...well, a far ways. They attract each other right? They would move toward each other maybe? Where do they get the energy to move?

...I probably won't understand the answer anyway.

[Assistant]
The problem with magic is it is hard to break a few laws of physics without breaking a whole lot of them.

In your example, the same thing that suddenly created them out of thin air chose to create them in a configuration that had potential gravitational energy.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why does the empire store data on tapes?

Like, why not just have that entire room filled with racks of HDDs? It would probably be much more space efficient. Also, it's hard to make the "security" argument because you could only allow acess to the drives from a central terminal, and then encrypt all the data. There's got to be a better way than tapes that are retrieved manually via robotic arm.

[Assistant]
Every storage medium has its tradeoffs. Hard drives are a nice sweet spot of cost, capacity, and performance. This makes them ideal for general purpose use when you expect to access data on a regular basis.

Data tapes can outperform hard drives significantly on price and capacity, but at the cost of performance. This makes them ideal for for archival purposes where they're expected to sit around for years before being accessed.

The specifics will of course vary with Star Wars tech compared to ours, but clearly in their world something analogous to modern data tapes is still the go-to option for long term archival storage.


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

[User]
CMV: In Black Panther Wakanda may be technologically advanved but its politics are barbaric.

Yes, Wakanda is technologically advanced. No denying that. But the political structure is so archaic it seems completely unrealistic to consider it enviable. In fact the failures of Wakandan politics are the source of each of T'Challas problems.

It is a monarchy, where the only viable candidates are of nobel birth and the king is selected through trial by combat. This is barbaric.

Hereditary monarchy's are incredibly problematic because there is absolutely no guarantee that a great leader will have great children. We've all seen it: kind, successful, hard working parents with morons for kids. Handing someone opportunity based on birthright and bloodline is just asking for trouble.

Trial by combat is also a bad idea, and the film itself depicts the problem when the antagonist claims the throne and the whole country falls into step behind him simply because he was an eligible candidate and (apparently) killed the former leader. The king isn't chosen the merits of his past accomplishments, his opinions and policies, his leadership qualities, or any other judgments a person may take into consideration before giving them ANY kind of power, let alone the keys to an army that could wipe out the planet.

It doesn't even make sense to select military leaders this way, because there is a substantial difference between being a good solider, thinking tactically, thinking strategically and being a leader. Chuck Liddell might be able to beat up every officer at the Pentagon but that doesn't mean he could organize and execute any kind of military campaign, let alone be the king.

Beyond the selection issues, there is no evidence of legal recourse for dealing with an unsuitable king, and there are no apparent restrictions on his power. If a person of poor character takes the throne, which is inevitable with this kind of structure, the only possiblity for change is bloodshed. How is that advanced?

Wakanda can easily swing from Utopia to dystopia every single time a new leader takes the throne, that kind of instability is not good, nor should it be lauded as praiseworthy.

[Assistant]
Is *anybody* lauding the hereditary monarchy of Wakanda as a good thing? The entire fucking arc of Black Panther is learning that the traditional rules of the ancestors are wrong and should be changed. The movie itself agrees with you.

This seems to be a common argument coming from people who want to treat liberals as hypocrites for liking the movie. Do you have some reason why you specifically hold this belief? Because otherwise you are just describing the text of the movie where our hero learns all of the things you describe above.


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

[User]
[WH40K] did any of the men of iron survive the DAoT ?

If yes how did the space marines fare against them ?

[Assistant]
Gaunt's Ghosts came across an STC which was still capable of constructing the Men of Iron, and built a few after it was activated.  Unfortunately, it was also corrupted by chaos, so the men of Iron and the STC had to be destroyed.

The Iron Men were powerful, but could be defeated fairly easily since they were still limited in number.  A larger or better armed force may have been troublesome for the Imperium.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] If Anakin hadn't turned to the Dark Side, how strong could he have become?

We know from George Lucas that Anakin had the potential to become the strongest Jedi ever. It is even said that he was twice as powerful as Sidious but if he remained on the side of the Light, how strong could he have become? What could he have been capable of achieving?

[Assistant]
His force potential had less to do with which side he was on, and more to do with the fact that he lost a lot of himself (literally and figuratively) after being interred within his iconic black suit.

He probably could have rivaled both Sidious and Yoda. He could easily have pushed the boundaries of what is thought to be possible with the Force.


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

[User]
[Avengers AoU] Why did Tony blow up all his suits at the end of IM3, only to build another one?

I thought this would be touched on in the movie, but it wasn't mentioned. He sounded like he was retiring for good at the end of IM3, but by AoU, he is even more invested in the superhero business than ever. So what caused the change of heart?

[Assistant] His revelation at the end of Iron Man 3 was that, as he puts it "*I* am Iron Man," with emphasis on the 'I.' He built those suits to cope with his stress and trauma from the Battle of New York. By destroying them, he was going clean slate and allowing himself to start over. He never intended to stop being a hero, and his suits are the best way for him to do that. He just wasn't going to let his suits define him.


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

[User]
ELI5: How much does it cost to have a shot at the presidency and where does all of the money go?

One of my dad's favorite things to say about politics is "You know that someone is corrupt when they pay all of that money to get a job that pays $500k a year." So I was wondering how much it really does cost and why. If middle class Joe was really smart, went to the right schools, studied the right things, and did everything right, would he ever have a chance at becoming president?

[Assistant]
You yourself don't have to be rich to be president, you just have to have a lot of people willing to give you money.

>If middle class Joe was really smart, went to the right schools, studied the right things, and did everything right, would he ever have a chance at becoming president?

That's essentially Bill Clinton's story.


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

[User]
[Avengers: Endgame] - Why didn't Dr. Strange use the Time Stone on Tony at the end to reverse his injuries just like he reversed the Apple from being bitten?

Or the pages on the book of Cagliostro from being torn?

I believe that after his encounter with Dormammu he must feel quite confident about handling time.

[Assistant]
Tony's injuries were inseparable from him making the un-Snap. If the injuries were reversed, then the un-Snap would be reversed as well. And that's assuming the Time Stone can override the full Gauntlet, which is doubtful.

Also, Strange probably saw this attempted when he looked at all the possible futures. The fact that he did not attempt it implies that there was a good reason not to.


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

[User]
Starting a job as a junior C developer

This is my first programming job and I would like to know on what things should I put emphasis on. I'll code hardware but I've never done anything like that. My knowledge of C theoretical mostly. I've done many puzzles though.

Is there anything more specific about C developement, other than the general differences compared to other languages, which should I know or start learning before starting?

Thanks for your time!

[Assistant]
Learning the language is one thing, learning how to use it is another skill.

A homeless man knows English very well, but the Asian man with broken English has a PHD.

Learn your tools, learn architectural methodologies, understand there is always a different approach.


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

[User] ELI5: If radio waves and visible light exist on the same spectrum, why can't you tune a transmitter to get it to shine?

[Assistant]
Your antenna isn't efficient at generating waves that small.

Antennas are optimized for a certain size range.  AM antennas are big and transmit around 1 MHz which is waves around 300 meters.  FM antennas can be much smaller and work around 100 MHz / 3 meters.  If you tried to get an antenna that's good at broadcasting FM to instead broadcast 2.4 GHz for WiFi it would do terribly and you'd barely get any signal out no matter how much energy you pumped in.

Similarly a microwave antenna is meant for 300 MHz-300 GHz, trying to get it to blast out Near IR at 400 THz is going to be terribly inefficient, and trying to get it to generate blue light at 770 THz is going to be even worse

You instead need to use transmitters and antennas optimized for the frequency you want to work with, its incredibly hard to build anything that can work effectively across an order of magnitude, let alone 6 (300 MHz to 400 THz)


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

[User] [Star Wars] Did Palpatine or any Jedi in the late Republic Era gain access to the Sith Shrine under the Jedi Temple? How would it be accessed?

[Assistant]
Palpatine actually did have access to the Shrine and used it quite regularly.

As to how it would be accessed, we don't know. A cancelled Clone Wars Episode would've given us the answers but as it stands we only know that you would need to get down to the dangerous and almost uninhabitable ground levels of Corusant first.


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

[User] [The Dark Knight] If the joker wanted to watch the world burn, why didnt he just pull really elaborate pranks? Why kill people? Instead of murdering people why not make them late for work or something?

[Assistant] Because his sadism wouldn't be satiated with that. Besides: the Joker wants to watch the world burn, yes, but not *just* that. He has a point to prove, "one bad day", remember. People aren't going to snap the way he did if he doesn't introduce real *terror* to Gotham.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does the space shuttle roll after launch?

[Assistant]
To keep the astronauts under positive g while headed up to orbit.

The shuttle doesn't go just straight up, it curves out over the Atlantic. When they make the transition from up to over, they roll the shuttle on its back so the crew doesn't black out from g-loc.


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

[User] ELI5: How do they decide how many dollars are in one Euro or vice versa?

[Assistant]
The more people want to have Euros, the more they will be worth. If no one wants them, then they don't have any value.

Some reasons for wanting more Euro in general:

* You live in a Euro country, and own lots of houses. You also think that the market for houses is going to become worse, so you prefer to sell them while you can get a good price, and when you sell them you want to get money (not seashells or beavers or wishes).

* If interest rates in a Euro country go up, meaning that you get more money by keeping money in the bank. Then if you own lots of houses, even if you don't think the house market is going to become worse, you may want to sell them to get money instead, because money in the bank will earn you more than holding on to the houses.

Some reasons for wanting Euros over dollars:

* You are/live in a country that use Euro.

* You belive that the value of the dollar is going to go down, or that the value of the Euro is going to go up. (As said, acting on these beliefs, not wanting dollars and wanting Euros, trying to sell dollars and trying to buy Euros - if enough people do it, it will make the dollar go down and the Euro go up.)

Since there is a lot of such guesswork, called speculation or gambling, the value of a currency can change a lot. This can be difficult for the people in the country, because if their currency suddenly becomes worth little, then they can't buy things from other countries, and if their currency becomes worth a lot, then no other countries can afford to buy things they want to sell, and no tourists want to come there.

The governments work a lot on trying to control these things, but if a large part of the country's money is being speculated in then it's very difficult for the government. One big problem is that many countries want the people in that country to decide what they should do in the country, but if a lot of their money is in the hands of speculators, and people in the country want to do something that they think is good for themselves, but could possibly be bad for the currency, then all the speculators will dump the country's currency, so the country can no longer import and so on. This means that a vote in what the country does, that goes above all the people and the president is in the hands of unaccountable investors.

In order to avoid that, there are some countries that say that speculation in their currency is not allowed, they don't allow it to be taken outside of the country. There are others who decide that their currency has a fixed value, like saying that it is always worth 3 for every dollar, no matter what the dollar is worth.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Can there be invisible lightsabers?

Most military lasers are actually invisible due to the fact that it is mostly ultraviolet light. Knowing that lightsabers can come in different wavelengths (red to violet) depending on the crystal used, are there crystals that create lightsabers in invisible wavelengths?

[Assistant] The "blade" of a lightsaber is made up of a few different components, and the interaction and combination of those components is what gives a blade a color. While this color is dependent on the crystal, it's not the only factor. A lightsaber blade is an ionized plasma contained in a forcefield. The fields interaction with the local atmosphere and the temperature and properties of the material contained by it will affect the color. While it should be possible to push the wavelength of radiation emissions outside of the common visible frequencies, it would be hard to eliminate anything in those ranges, as most gasses in atmospheres electroluminesce (sp?) on their own. Not only would you need an invisible forcefield, you would need a specific gas (which means you would have to ignite the lightsaber in a controlled atmosphere) inside the field as well.


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

[User]
[Spiderman] Don't get me wrong, it's a snappy suit, but why blue and red?

Are those particularly "spidery" colors?

[Assistant]
That menace doesn't just think he's above the law, but has to decorate himself in the red and blue of police sirens because he seems to think he is the law!

Or, it's a remnant from his pro-wrestling and TV stunt days.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do we require less sleep as we get older?

[Assistant]
Our body has a thing called a "Circadian Rhythm" which is a posh word for "I get tired at nighttime". It runs off various things like light and social cues (why eating at the right time can help you deal with jetlag). For most of our lives, this runs at 24hrs so over the course of a day, we get tired for about 8-9 hrs at night so we sleep but are less sleepy during the day (due to melotonin levels in the brain). As you get older, this extends, up to 48hrs in some cases. As such, your body only wants the 8-9hr sleep over two days as opposed to one.

The other, slightly less exciting explanation with fewer 'big words' is activity levels. Most pensioners work less and do less as opposed to say 25 year olds who work full time jobs and have a hectic social life. Therefore, when we are younger we do more stuff so need more sleep. As we get older, because our bodies can't do as much stuff anymore (illness, age, arthritus etc) we expend less energy so need less sleep.

Overall, the predominant factor is the circadian rhythm thing but the activity levels do play a role. If you are interested, look up "Siffre's cave study". Hope this helps!!


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

[User]
ELI5: How is new origami created? Do they grab paper and just start folding and see what happens, or is there a mathematical/formulaic approach?

Some origami pieces are insanely complicated, and I wouldn't think that the first person to figure out that unique combination of folds could do so just by folding and seeing what happens. So I wonder if theirs a more formulaic process behind origami creation. Unless it is just that simple. I don't know! Explain it like I'm five!

[Assistant]
Yes, there is a very mathematical aproach on how to create new and complex models. The easiest one is extending an existing base and adding new details, e.g. toes, mouth etc.. A base being the simplest way of representing a stick figure of the model you want to fold. Next comes circle packing. In it you use the advantage of knowing the correlation between the flat square and the finished model. Each detail represents a circle on the square. So if you add a few squares on a paper and follow the rules on how to combine them, you should get the expected result. Folding in further detail is a challenge to the creator. This works aswell with box packing, replacing the circles by squares, which allows even more complex models like Black Forest Cukkoo Clock or the amazing Ryu-Zin.
The best book to get into creating own origami is Robert J. Langs Origami Design Secrets, though it is very long and still pretty challenging.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does lighter fluid cause cancer and reproductive harm?

I got zippo lighter fuel today. It says on the back it can cause cancer and reproductive harm. I was wondering why, and how it happens? Do you have to touch, inhale, or drink it to do that? How does it work and is it safe to use? Thank you!

[Assistant] Lighter fluid is a hydrocarbon. Most of those are toxic in a variety of ways. When something gives you cancer or is a teratogen it damages DNA, either in your own cells or in the foetus. This causes birth defects or cancer. Lighter fluid is fairly safe if you are not spilling it on yourself or working in a chem plant making it. Don't huff it either. It is likely not good to inhale.


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

[User]
When you lose weight, where does it go? How does the mass leave the body?

I've been trying to get fit lately, and have lost three pounds. It got me thinking - where does "the weight" go when you lose it? In other words, how does the mass leave your body?

I understand that when you lose fat, the fat cells shrink, but the actual mass must escape the body somehow. I can only think of four ways mass could possibly escape the body - through the excretory system (urine or sweat), the digestive system (defacation), or the lungs (in the breath). So, when you lose fat (or muscle, in the case of muscle atrophy), where does it go?

Before you laugh, let me say that I'm pretty sure you don't *exhale* fat. But I'm curious. Do we know? How does it happen?

Thanks.

[Assistant] With the help of oxygen, cells eat carbon containing molecules like glucose and fatty acids, and respire CO2 and H2O. The CO2 is in solution in your blood and travels to the lungs, where you exhale it in exchange for more O2. A 140 lb person exhales about 1 kg (2.2lb) of CO2 each day from basal metabolism, more if they are active. The H2O either gets used in other places or goes out through your urine. The net loss is about 270 grams of carbon, and around 110 grams of H2O, per day.


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

[User] ELI5: Why can the human body absorb toxins thru the skin, but you can't rehydrate yourself by sitting in water?

[Assistant]
A large percentage of your skin is made up of a protein called keratin.

Keratin forms long chains and if you were to look at your skin under a really powerful microscope what you would see is a bunch of keratin chains crisscrossing together like a chain link fence.  But just like a chain link fence, those crisscrossing chains leave large holes between themselves that water, or anything else, could go through.

To stop water from passing through those holes, keratin absorbs a small amount of fat from your skin's oil.  That fat sits in those gaps in the keratin chain link fence, preventing water from getting through.

Because keratin absorbs fat from your skin oil like that, anything that is able to dissolve into that fat is able to use it to leapfrog past the keratin in your skin and be absorbed into your body.  There aren't a huge amount of substances like that but that's why very oily substances, like poison oak/ivy, are able to get absorbed into  your skin.


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

[User]
[Marvel/DC] - Joker finds himself in Latveria and makes it his mission to inject some chaos into the country. Could he possibly stand any chance?

Doom is second best at most things. Almost as smart as Reed Richards, Almost as good at magic as Dr. Strange, almost as good at technology as Stark. He has an absolute iron grip on Latveria and is second best at everything.

The Joker is a viscious genious capable of anything at anytime. He routinely plans 5 steps ahead and is yet chaotic as all hell. He takes affront to the overly ordered rulership of Latveria and wants to see Doom crumble into chaos.

Does his stand a chance, or would Doom simply wave his hand and the Joker would be dust?

[Assistant]
The Joker constantly loses to Batman, but Batmans morality keeps him alive. Doom has no such morality and his tech and magic are beyond Batmans capabilities.

Joker shows up, is spotted by Dooms surveillance bots. Joker tries to pull something and Doom kills him.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do batteries sometimes leak acid and/or corrode when left in electronics for extended periods of time and what actually happens that destroys the electronic's leads? Acid eats it?

[Assistant]
Alkaline batteries produce hydrogen gas inside the battery cell when recharged. This pressure pushes out a strong base (which is corrosive just like acid). This forms white fluffy stuff when it reacts with the air (Potassium carbonate).

Recharging batteries can be caused by two unequally charged batteries lined up in a row (set in series). This is why you should never use different brands of batteries together, or only replace some of the batteries.


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

[User]
ELI5: why do toxicology reports take so long?

It seems like if someone goes into an emergency room, they can get a toxicology report super fast depending on the emergency but if someone dies the toxicology report takes months. Why is that?

[Assistant] Because the lab prioritizes the ER patients.  In addition, there is no "oops, go get another sample" in an autopsy so they have to be very careful and test more selectively across a broader group of possible toxins as this report will become the "permanent record".


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

[User]
[Star Trek] Why does Riker sit down in chairs using such a weird method?

It seems like every time he sits down in a chair, he swings his legs over the back of the chair and sits down. This seems like an unnecessary way of sitting down. It's not a future thing, I've seen other people sit down normally, so why does Riker choose to sit down in such an odd way?

[Assistant] Riker is one of those people who walk up staircases two steps at a time, or carry in all of the bags of groceries in one trip. It's more of a personal thing, sort of a way to subtly make himself seem more daring.


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

[User]
[Fallout 4] Why is the Institute stealing and replacing people?

I understand their endgoal. It's similar to the Master in Fallout 1 in fact. The Synth is a net upgrade on the basic human. Immune to radiation, no need to sleep, physically stronger and more durable, etc... They are an existence capable of surviving in the wastelands and potentially rebuilding in a way that humanity has struggled to do over the past 200 years.

But why steal and replace people? What possible motive could there be for willingly making yourself the villain of the Commonwealth?

[Assistant]
You can argue about the practicality of the plan, but it makes sense.

They want control of the surrounding Commonwealth area. But they're not very popular; certainly not enough to walk into Diamond City and openly run for Mayor. If they snatch up people of influence and replace them with perfect duplicates, then they get to discretely guide every settlement according to their own agenda. Everyone dances to the Institute's tune, without even realizing they're doing it.

Some of them might also be loose ends getting too close to the Institute, wrapped up to preserve secrets.


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

[User] Can blind people have a photic sneeze reflex?

[Assistant] I suppose it depends what type of blindness.  If they're blind from their eyes, completely, then they won't.  Though, if their occipital nerve is still sending proper signals, and the blindness is due to an irregularity in the occipital lobe, then it is possible, due to the reflex being a signal leak from the nerves in your eye and nose being extremely close to eachother.


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

[User]
[Legend of Korra] Why does Korra avoid using waterbending so much?

Why? She was trained by Katara, her father is an awesome waterbender, yet her go-to element to use is fire or earth.

It's pretty clear that whenever she uses water, her attacks are devastating, but she rarely if ever uses it, even in places like the South Pole, where water is in such abundance that the cities are built on it.

So what gives?

[Assistant]
Even Avatars usually identify with one element. This is usually the element they have since birth. However Korra, despite being born a water bender, felt way more comfortable with fire and was a natural at it (Likely due to her brash, hotheaded nature). She uses Fire and Earth because that's where her personality and feelings often align. This is also why Air was such a problem for her and took so long for her to finally master, just like Earth and Fire were difficult for Aang.

Since each of the elements have an opposition, it's obvious she settles towards the fire/earth end of the spectrum were Aang settles more towards the air/water end.


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

[User]
[Eagles: Hotel California] What's the deal with the Hotel California?

Is the Hotel California all metaphorical, as in it's just a depressing place where people tend to stay, or is it some Silent Hill type deal where you enter and can't physically leave due to some super natural hocus pocus?

[Assistant]
It's actually an allegory for Hollywood itself, and the culture there in. It lures you in with fanciness and upscale decorations (parties, drugs, etc), but soon enough turns sinister and you can see the shallowness of it all.

"You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave." Hollywood changes people, often for the worse. The idea is that even if you reject Hollywood's allure and glittering attractiveness, the dark parts stay with you. Being taken advantage of by record labels, destroyed relationships on the way to the top, drug abuse, etc.


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

[User]
What gives rise to the right-hand rule in electric currents?

Why does the magnetic field wrap clockwise around a traveling electron?

[Assistant]
I wrote this in response to a similar question a week ago:

>A magnetic field is not really a vector, like the electric field, it's really a bivector, pseudo-vector, or 2-form. As a vector has a direction, a 2-form lives in a plane. The thing is, in 3 dimensions, there are exactly as many dimensions (x, y, z) as there are planes (x-y, y-z, z-x). When we say a magnetic field is pointing in the z-direction, it's actually a bivector in the x-y plane. You can get the direction of a vector associated to a bivector by taking the vector product of 2 vectors in the associated plane.

>So essentially, the cross product appears as an artifact of us pretending that the magnetic field is a vector instead of a bi-vector.

>In d space dimensions, while an electric field would always have d components, a magnetic field would have d(d-1)/2, so in general we couldn't talk about the "direction" of a magnetic field.


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

[User] ELI5: Why when your stressed are you more susceptible to illnesses?

[Assistant] When you are stressed, your body is producing certain chemicals and hormones to deal with that. These hormones are good for handling something in the here and now, especially the sort of threats we used to face when we were hunter/gatherers, but over longer periods of time these hormones have the side-effect of suppressing the immune system. In addition to that, they also generally suppress your appetite (harder to fight off bugs if you are low on energy) and can wreak havoc on your sleeping (again making it harder to fight off disease)


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

[User]
[Marvel] and [DC] What fears and or hexes would Scarlet Witch use to take down the Justice League? What do each of them fear?

Let's say the members are:
Batman
Superman
Wonder Woman
Green Lantern (Hal Jordan)
Cyborg
Martian Manhunter
Flash (Barry)
Aquaman

Example is what she did in the AOU movie. No one catches her in the act like Hawkeye did.

[Assistant]
A lot of the leagues fears would be similar to Tony's, revolving around failure and causing deaths and what not.

Batman - Falling to corruption and breaking his no kill rule for good, effectively becoming what he hates most.

Superman - Bringing doom to his adopted world, something that came for him and stayed for annihilation.

Wonder Woman - Either being humiliated in defeat or not being accepted in both the human world and her home.

Green Lantern - His greatest fear is fear itself.

Cyborg - Becoming alienated from the human world and disappearing forever into his computerised half.

Martian Manhunter - Reliving what happened on Mars.

Flash - Not being fast enough, that's kind of a big deal to flashes.

Aquaman - A war between humans and atlanteans, resulting in the humans winning and atlanteans being tortured and experimented on. Similar to Thor, bringing doom to his people and all that jazz.


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

[User] [Metroid] Samus just blasts open every door she encounters with her various weapons. How did the designers of these doors/portals intend them to be *properly* opened by somebody?

[Assistant]
properly i think is basically exactly like she does.  The doors close up again after.

Basically the people who made these doors care so little about energy that blasting a killing bolt of plasma is as effortless to them as turning a doorknob or a key, or maybe even less.

Hell look at the space pirates, most of them seem able to emit deadly blasts from their biology alone, this means the doors are practically biometric locks keyed to your species.


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

[User]
[Batman] Bruce is KIA. What does Alfred do?

He has a Batcave full of stuff kicking around. Would he attempt to use it himself? Would he recruit a replacement? Or would he just retire?

[Assistant]
Depends if there's a Robin or not.

If there's a Robin, Alfred goes full mother bear. If not, he manages Bruce's considerable estate. Depending on the will, much of it may end up on the hands of a cousin on his mother's side: Katherine Kane.

Considering the man in question, Alfred probably has an entire library of contingencies for his death.


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

[User] ELI5: If species such as dinosaurs were around longer then humans (over 100 million years), why do they not evolve into more intellectual creatures?

[Assistant]
1) Dinosaurs are not a species. But a group of several different orders. (much higher up on the taxonomic tree)

2) Extinction is the natural result for most species on this planet.

3) Intelligence is not a inevitable route for all species.  It's just one of many possible routes for a species to take.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do computer hard drives start at C:\?

Exactly what it says. Why is there no A drive? Or B drive? And what would theoretically happen if I managed to get 25 drives into a system, at which point it would need something beyond "Z" drive.

EDIT: Rip Inbox, I've never gotten this many replies.

[Assistant] In the old days, "A" was your first drive, and it was a floppy disk drive.  Then you started getting fancy and having a second floppy drive, which was "B".  Eventually you got rich and bought a 10MB hard drive, which was "C", to go along with your two floppy drives.  Then floppy drives disappeared, but the convention that "C" was your hard drive remained.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does the spark produced by tesla coil or any electrical discharge shaped like zig zag and not straight?

[Assistant]
Air is normally an insulator, which doesn't allow electricity to flow through it. However, if there's a big enough voltage, it can rip electrons out of atoms in the air (called "ionization"). This creates a chain reaction: The free electron can knock out electrons from other atoms, ultimately creating a path of conductive plasma that the electricity can flow through. It's like an electric avalanche.

The reason it forms a jagged line is that it's a random process. It'll move into whatever direction the first ionized atom is, rather than moving in a straight line to the next best conductor it can hit.


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

[User]
How do fish know where home is? Do they have a set place in the ocean they always come back to?

How do fish navigate the oceans, and how do they not get lost along their way? Do they have a place in the ocean they would call home and always come back to?

[Assistant] Many organisms have magnetoreceptive organs or organelles that help them sense magnetic fields. These specialized structures have been found in numerous species of fish, birds, molluscs, insects, even bacteria. It is believed that migratory fish use magnetic fields to navigate.


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

[User]
ELI5: How did cats develop a taste for fish? It would seem like a very odd natural prey for them especially considering they don't like water.

My cat fucking loves fish and all those little fancy cat foods are like salmon and tuna and halibut and stuff but Id think cats wouldn't like fish at all as it's wouldn't normally be a viable food source for them.

[Assistant] Cats don't have a very sophisticated sense of taste.  What they like is determined almost purely by smell.  That's why anything that is oily and has a strong protein smell attracts cats (that's one of the reason they like ear wax.  It apparently smells better than it tastes)


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Where did Luke find the kyber crystal necessary for his green lightsaber?

Obviously, he didn't go to Ilum, which is under Imperial occupation, and also assuming he even knew how to get there. Was there any other planet where Kyber crystals appear?

[Assistant]
In legends he used a synthetic crystal that he made himself. There was a scene in Shadows of the Empire that featured him rebuilding his lightsaber in Obi-wan's old hut.

Not sure about canon, could be that obi wan had a spare laying around that Luke found.


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

[User] [Star Wars] How does the last wish of a dying Jedi allow Obi Wan to train Anakin and bypass the council?

[Assistant] Qui-Gon's last wish for Anakin to be trained didn't bypass the council at all. In the wake of his death, the council amended their decision, based on their respect for Qui-Gon and his conviction that Anakin was the Chosen One. It's hard to say no to a dead hero.


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

[User]
Is Thomas Aquinass argument for god on the basis of infinite regress not being possible a contradiction?

Hello!

Essentially the title.

Would being timeless not also be impossible by the same logic, as it does not have a beginning? Is the argument of infinite regress, that everything must have a beginning?

Thanks !

[Assistant]
Two things.

Aquinas thinks God is not just in time and infinitely extended in time, but rather that God is timeless. He's outside of time.

Also, God's timelessness wouldn't be an infinite regress in any case. Aquinas explicitly contends that the universe could have been infinitely old. He rather has a problem with infinite causal regression.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is it beneficial to measure the depth of water in "fathoms", rather than feet or meters?

[Assistant]
Sailors used to measure how deep the ocean was by dropping a weight at the end of a long rope. Then, when they pulled it in, they measured how far down it went by how many arm-spans worth of rope they retrieved.

One arm span, or about six feet, was deemed to be a fathom.

The measurement isn't necessary anymore, but it lives on.


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

[User]
CMV: the author of the current NYTimes OpEd should come forward if they really are a senior official in the administration

This person is making powerful allegations about Trump's fitness, and these cannot be ignored. Either Trump is removed from office quickly, or he is going to have to hunt the leakers and resistance. If the former, standing up gives more credibility. If the latter, the adminstration will be paralyzed by an inquisition and by new secrecy/security/loyalty procedures. That would not be good for America. So either way, this OpEd author has a duty to the nation to stand up and use their real name.

[Assistant] The media guaranteed their anonymity. They wouldnt have been frank had this assurance not been given. Coming forward now would only serve to get them fired, and therefore future people unwilling to talk. This reducing transparency even more than it already is.


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

[User]
How do large whales (Humpback, blue whales etc.) defend themselves when attacked?

So I read an article in a Danish news station, that for the first time it's been observed that a group of Orcas have attacked and killed a blue whale - something not thought as something they'd normally do. It was a group of up to 75 Orcas, and it took hours, but they still managed to kill and share the blue whale. It in itself is an incredible story, and raises many questions - but the one I was sitting back with was: How do large whales defend themselves? I've seen large mammals on land like Elephant defend themselves, but they seem to have some more directly defensive features.

Is it solely a question of size and the normally just don't get attacked?

Do they have any 'defensive weapons'? I.e. can their mouth, tail or something third be used to defend?

Something completely different?

Thank you in advance clever redditor :)

[Assistant]
I distinctly remember hearing that the big whales simply outdive or outpace orcas in pursuit. Its why orcas generally only take the calves which dont have the necessary endurance to escape.

Additionally orcan can attack the flippers which obviously helps when they get close enough in the first place.


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

[User] Why - despite having millions of people which have already been vaccinated - we don't really know if vaccinated people do transmit covid or not?

[Assistant]
The vaccine isn't really at it's 95% effectiveness until 1-2 weeks after the second dose, so we don't really have "millions vaccinated" yet.

And on top of that, they just got vaccinated, so there hasn't been much time for them to spread it. It's not like we say "ok, you're vaccinated, so let's purposely try to give you COVID and then have you breathe on people to see if they get it".


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

[User]
ELI5: What do we see when we close our eyes?

You know, when we close our eyes we see some random dots, lines and forms, what's that?

[Assistant] Theyre called phosphenes and researchers believe you are actually seeing light that is originating from your eye itself. Basically our eyes are capable of producing "biophotons" which is essentially the same thing fireflies use to light up. Most the time these are lost in the light of the regular day and your brain just processes them out, but when you close your eyes, it sometimes takes a while for you brain to process out the light signals as nothing more than "noise" from your own eyes, rather than something it is actually seeing in the real world.


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

[User] [Spider-Man PS4] In the last fight with Doc Ock Peter is shown to get multiple hits on him. Why doesn't he knock him out? Peter has super strength and Doc Ock is just a normal Man behind the arms.

[Assistant]
Because Peter isnt just going to beat his father figure to death.  He pulls his punches (a lot), because he doesnt want to splatter a middle-aged mans brains across Oscorp except as a very last resort.

Which, considering the stakes, might be noble bordering on idiotic.... but thats how Peter is sometimes.  He was more willing to get himself impaled for a shot at taking down Doc without permanent brain damage (more than hed already given himself, at least) than to risk killing or seriously debilitating him.


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

[User]
Where do I start...

Hey guys. Im new to the computer science world and by searching around on YouTube ive figured out computer science is way more complicated than I thought. Im trying to learn some comp sci so I can get into engineering in the future. Where do you recommend I start?

[Assistant]
Concentrate on your school work (assuming you're still in school). Make sure your math foundation is solid (algebra, trig, precalc). Introductory physics courses can be helpful. Become a good reader, writer, and communicator. Pick-up a hobby or two, and make sure at least one of them isn't related to engineering.

One thing to remember is that, outside of academia, all of that science and engineering theory that you're learning will eventually be used as a tool to apply to real-world problems that you'll be solving with other people. Having exposure to and interest in things other than computers while being able to communicate effectively will get you far.


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

[User]
ELI5: How people are injured by bombs?

I don't quite get how bombs are actually deadly. I understand that people can get thrown up in the air or against walls and be injured but what moves them? Shock waves? How? Is it the actual metal parts of the bomb exploding like shrapnel that can harms? Does dropping a bomb from an aircraft make it more powerful?

[Assistant]
To list out the various ways briefly:

1. Force: The detonation itself is very powerful. The force of the energy moving outwards can pick you up and throw you- provided it's a strong enough explosion.

2. Shrapnel: Some bombs are designed to put out more shrapnel- they have metallic bits in them. in fact, some home-made bombs have been packed with nails to embed themselves in people. Otherwise, debris around the area of explosion can act as shrapnel.

3. Heat: It burns. Nuff said.

4. Dropping bombs from planes: They're typically dropped from planes because of volume, and efficiency reasons. It isn't efficient to carry a bomb into a target zone and leave and detonate it.


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

[User]
Why so few urban raptors?

It seems like just about every city has a vast population of pigeons, seagulls, rats, etc - and not a whole lot of predators to pick them off.

This seems like an absolute goldmine for airborne carnivores, which could easily perch on rooftops and ledges, just waiting for a flock of pigeons to gather.

I know that there are a few hawks in a few cities, but I'd have expected the things to be everywhere. Vast amounts of food, and what looks like a decent amount of habitat.

Why aren't there lots of them everywhere?  Is it just too hard for them to adapt to the environment? What keeps them away?

[Assistant] There actually *are* a lot of them.  They're just really hard to find unless you know how to look for them.  Due to their evolution, they don't breed out of control, so they aren't filling the skies.  The abundance of prey generally means that they spend less time hunting, so you don't see them flying around as often.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is it painful to move your leg after it goes numb?

[Assistant]
I assume you're referring to the pins and needles feeling?

Your foot "falling asleep" results in pressure being put on different nerves or blood vessels so electrical impulses/nutrients and oxygen can't be sent to the limb. So when you adjust your position and relieve that pressure, the nerves start to function again. But it's like rebooting a computer, it doesn't all happen at once, so the pressure receptors and pain receptors go a little crazy for a few minutes until chemical equilibrium is restored. Just wiggle your toes to get the fluids pumping and will be over soon.


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

[User] [Fantastic beasts/Harry Potter] Why does Newt Scamanders name appear on the marauders map in The prisoner of askaban?

[Assistant] He was there to visit his old transfiguration professor, Albus Dumbledore. Perhaps they were discussing the possibility of publishing his book *Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them* for muggles, which he eventually did 7 years later.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do we get dizzy when we spin.

[Assistant]
There is a little bit of "jelly" in our ears that we use for balance. They tell us if we are leaning, upside down, etc.

When you get dizzy, the "jelly" in your ears are sending mixed signals to your brain, so it is having a hard time figuring out what is up and what is down, so you feel very disoriented until they can sync up again.

This is why roller coasters are very disorientating and cause people to vomit. The rapid twists and turns make it hard for our brains to keep up with where "up" is, and this can lead the body to think you've been poisoned, thus you vomit in an attempt to expel any toxins you might have ingested.


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

[User]
If entropy always increases, how did a uniform hot universe filled with spread out particles turn into stars and galaxies?

When i think about it, it seems that in the start there was hot mass all over the place in a uniform hot universe, but then it cooled and things started to form. It seems like going form less order to more order.

[Assistant] Increase of entropy is a statistical property, not an ironclad law saying "less order!". In particular, forces like gravity can appear to counteract increasing entropy. The early Universe wasn't completely uniform - it had tiny bumps, seeded by quantum fluctations just after the Big Bang, and those variations in density naturally collapsed under gravity to form structures like galaxies.


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

[User]
ELI5:Why do people want to eat when they are bored?

Why is eating the ultimate "thing to do"?? Why do our minds instantly go to food when we are bored??

[Assistant] Your brain is hard wired to seek out activities that release dopamine in the brain, because dopamine feels really damn good. Eating unleashes dopamine. Which is why if you're bored or depressed, food is always there for you.