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

[User]
Can dogs observe and recognize aging in adult humans? Do they differentiate between young adult, middle-aged and elderly humans?

I guess I should also specify: If they do, can they make these distinctions instinctively, without training by human handlers?

[Assistant]
Im not sure about this specifically, but the most common way people find out whether animals and babies can differentiate between things is by using a habituation test.

A habituation test is an experimental procedure where you show images or objects to the subject over and over until they get habituated to it (like getting bored).  The most common way to measure this habituation is by measuring how long they look at the object.

If you show a baby a picture of a cat thirty times in a row, theyre not going to stare at the thirtieth cat as long as they did the first one.  But if you switch to a dog, they go right back to paying attention.  Thats how we know that babies can tell the difference between some kinds of animals and objects.

If you wanted to objectively study whether dogs can tell how old a human is, this is probably the easiest way to do it.  Show them pictures of older people until they stop paying attention, then switch to an infant.


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

[User]
How many Homo Sapien ancestors do I have (approximately)?

I have 2 parents + 4 grandparents + 8 great-grandparents + ....

This is a pretty broad Fermi question, but I was wondering if anyone could take a whack at it, and what assumptions they would make.  Some things to consider:

* What is your bin-size?
You could use the average lifespan for our entire species over its entire history for all areas of the world, or you could use the average age over every 5000 years on each continent, etc.

* What do you assume about my ancestors continental migrations (out of Africa)?
I am of Western European descent (only applicable if you separate average lifespan by geographic area).

* What do you assume about inbreeding?
How far back would you go until the number of ancestors per generation starts to shrink, rather than increase by a factor of 2?  Do your inbreeding assumptions conform to your geographical bin-size (inbreeding in Europe vs. Africa)?

* Do you take into account possible non- Homo Sapien ancestors (Neanderthal) ?

If any more clarification is needed, let me know.  I realize the answer will probably be a range of orders of magnitude.

[Assistant] Funny thing about that. If you just use the simple geometric progression  you, parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and so on when you get to 37 generations, you've exceeded the total number of human beings who are estimated to have ever lived in the entire history of the universe. That's about a thousand years.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are you able to jump higher when running than when standing still?

Please, explain it to me like I'm 5.

[Assistant]
It takes no effort to redirect momentum.

A ball hitting a 45 slope will bump up. Yet the ball has no muscle!

You intuitively know that, and you will put your leg almost 45forward so that your forward momentum get converted to upward momentum by simply keeping your leg straight.

But because you have muscle, you can actually use them to add even more jump. So instead of keeping your leg straight, you bend them then stretch them with strength. Not only does it redirect your momentum, but you add even more.

If you don't have speed, all you can do is use your strength to jump.

Note that preserving momentum is easier than creating it. If we had wheels it would be almost free. See "humans with wheel" on Wikipedia (aka. cyclist).


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

[User]
If a gas giant roughly the size of Jupiter impacted our Sun, what would happen?

As in what would happen to the Sun itself and the hypothetical gas giant. I'm also interested in what sort of effects would happen to the earth if any, but that is secondary to the question.

[Assistant]
The gas giant would get absorbed, and part of its atmosphere would get blown off into space. Depending on how it played out, the Earth might well experience something similar to a powerful coronal mass ejection, which would pose a hazard to satellites and possibly even to terrestrial electronics.

The Sun would quickly return to normal.


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

[User]
CMV: I don't believe that artists owe anything to society other than self-expression.

In a conversation with a friend about Kendrick Lamar, he said that Kendrick "owes" his listeners and the young people of America a certain message. In other words, if he (Kendrick) had released an album of party songs about innocuous nonsense, he wouldn't be fulfilling some kind of obligation to society of elevated, socially conscious art. I think that any artist should make whatever they want, and public reception is ultimately irrelevant at the time of the art's creation. (Obviously, this does not take into account commercial success or appeal.) EDIT: This does not include acts that break laws such as child pornography, selling pornography to minors, etc.

[Assistant]
Conscious message-oriented art suffers when the message is forced on the consumer of the art.  However if the message the artist is trying to convey involves socially conscious stuff, you can't avoid that or the overall art will suffer.

For instance Kendrick's vision for music, art, and self-expression is socially conscious.  That's great.  He makes great music.  If he tried to make exclusively party rap, it wouldn't be as good because he'd be neglecting part of what he felt in his vision.

Take somebody like A$AP Rocky on the other hand.  He makes primarily anti-"conscious rap" about partying and all that good stuff.  That's great.  It works because that's part of his artistic vision.

In summary, an artist owes a positive message to society if that's the vision the originally conceive.  If not, then nah it doesn't matter.  Society deserves an accurate manifestation of the artists vision.


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

[User]
Why did the I-5 bridge in Washington collapse?

Can someone also describe "functionally obsolete?"

[Assistant]
It was designed in the 1950s and was an obsolete and dangerous design. Structural Engineering back then was downright primitive compared to today. That bridge design was "fracture critical" meaning failure in a single area could cause the entire bridge to collapse. Modern bridges are designed to sustain damage to multiple critical areas before failure.

Think Jenga - if you build a tower without any middle blocks, removal of a single block anywhere will cause the tower to fall. Modern bridges have all 3 bricks and can survive lots and lots of bricks being removed.

An oversized truck struck and damaged a crucial part of the bridge which caused it to collapse. This was a series of human errors. The truck had a lead car to look for obstructions and didn't spot the low clearance, the trucking company was issued permits for the route saying it was safe, and the bridge wasn't marked as a low obstruction. Only overhangs lower than 14' were required to be marked, this bridge was 14'7", and the truck was 15'9".


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

[User] [The Purge] What would foreign relations and world opinion be of America as a result of the yearly purges?

[Assistant]
Most of the world would keep doing business... on the conditions that A) their embassies and consulate offices are on the list of "no-go" government facilities and B) their citizens could seek protection if needed.

Foreign travelers would be able to take refuge in their respective embassies (as well as the facilities of friendly nations, due to mutual support agreements), and would be among the few groups able to present themselves to a police station or military facility seeking sanctuary. For those too far out in the sticks to get to a proper facility, or who wait too long to seek shelter and get caught out during the event, the last resort is being temporarily named a consular officer, sent a PDF file so they can print out appropriate signage and take their best chances hiding out at home.

An individual foreigner caught out on the street is as much fair game as anyone else.

As far as participating in the Purge, yes, they do. In a situation comparable to American sex tourism, foreigners who come over to Purge aren't breaking any American laws during Purge Night, but are still beholden to their home governments; if they get caught on camera engaging in violent crime, they may find a trial waiting for them back home. For nations that don't approve of the Purge, travel plans for the States that overlap Purge Night tend to be heavily scrutinized, and questions will be asked if the individual didn't check in with an embassy or consulate before the start of "festivities".

Nations that approve of or are neutral towards the Purge would be less rigorous, and travel agencies in those nations might go as far as advertising Purge travel as a form of adventure or extreme sport, either as observer ("Sit safely atop the embassy and watch the fireworks") or participant ("All overseas guests will receive a briefcase containing a mask and a weapon. Please consult the price list below for weapon options.")


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

[User]
Why doesn't aluminium fuse directly to copper? What determines the kinds of metals that can be fused or amalgamated among each other?

Hey there kind scholars!

My girlfriend and I have a strange habit of watching old episodes of that Discovery channel show, "How it's made", to relax and sleep. Last night we watched one episode on "Thermal machines" (such as air conditioning units and refrigerators). On a certain moment during the fabrication of the air conditioner, the narrator said that a certain piece of the aluminium "net" component had to be welded to copper using a zinc-aluminium alloy.

The question(s) then is (are):

Why can't the copper and aluminium be welded directly?

What characteristic on a metal determines it to be able to be welded or amalgamated to another?

Edit 1: a comma.

[Assistant]
If you weld copper and aluminum directly, the resulting alloy in the middle is likely to form brittle Al-Cu compounds. Also, welding copper is expensive. It needs a lot of power because it's such a good heat sink and you generally need to use expensive helium as a shielding gas.

Aluminum-zinc is a brazing alloy. It allows you to join them without having to melt the base metal. It melts at a lower temperature than copper and conventional Al alloys. It dissolves the surface of the surface of the base metals to bond with it, but if done correctly, not enough to form any undesirable compounds. This is essentially the same thing as soldering, just at a higher temperature.


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

[User]
[Saw] If you fail to solve one of Jigsaws puzzles but survive whatever death trap it sets off, will Jigsaw let you live?

Im talking about the John Kramer Jigsaw. Iirc his entire backstory was that he survived a deadly car crash and targets people who dont appreciate life.

I know it doesnt apply to every victim but assuming you do survive his death trap, would he show you mercy and let you live or just finish you off?

[Assistant] Beating the traps aren't exactly the point of his designs. The point is to bring about a mental and philosophical change in you. A taste of your own medicine or having to face the consequences of your decisions kinda thing. So long as jigsaw feels the lesson was learned or at least imparted he'll consider it good enough. It's only his assistants that created kill only devices rather than puzzles and his own ideation of death and mortality to create deadly traps. The first film showed several traps that were easily survivable albeit they'd usually maim or disfigure anyone that disarmed them. Most jigswa originals while deadly aren't intended to kill the person just bring them so close to death they'll either give up and die or fight tooth and nail to live. Assuming you botched your escape but the trap didn't kill you he'll open the way for you to escape at leave it up to your own drive to survive. Maybe you fight hard enough to live maybe you don't. Jigsaw will take it as his goal being accomplished just not how he envisioned it.


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

[User] [Man of steel] If zod had the world engine that could literally terriform any planet into krypton why did he still choose to wipe out the human race? Why not pick Mars or any other uninhabited world?

[Assistant]
Because in spite of their technology, the World Engines never successfully created stable long term biospheres on any of the colonies.

His hope was that *starting* with a planet that supported life would make the difference.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do radio stations seem to all go to commercials at the same time?

Where I live (Orlando) all of the popular stations seem to go to commercial break at the same time. This is especially noticeable in the morning during my commute.

[Assistant] These answers are mostly wrong.  Arbitoron has always been the primary source for radio ratings.  They base their ratings on feedback from designated listeners who keep diaries of which stations they listen to throughout the day.  They log their listening activity every quarter-hour (on the hour, :15 after, :30 after, and :45 after).  So stations always want to have programming (music, talk, whatever) at those times.  It is very bad form to have a commercial break that runs over the quarter hour.  So consequentially, commercials are clustered during the rest of the hour.


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

[User] ELI5: How do equations explain the universe around us?

[Assistant]
Long story short; we have equations for describing the universe because we can measure so many aspects of the universe.

Imagine you're going to the shop to get a pie or something.  The shop is about one kilometer away (and you know that because someone measured it and put it on a map) and it takes you ten minutes to get there (and you know that because you checked your watch).  That means it took you 600 seconds to travel 1000 meters.  Work the math through and you get 10 meters every 6 seconds, 5 meters every 3 seconds or five thirds of a meter every second.

Hopefully that all makes intuitive sense.  If you look back through that paragraph you'll see we took a measure of distance and divided it by a measure of time to get a measure of speed.  In physics we measure speed in straight lines and call it velocity.  We can describe the relationship like this: **velocity = distance / time** or **v = d / t**

By taking careful measurements of other observable things we can discover all kinds of similar equations that seem to be pretty accurate descriptions of how things actually happen.  We can push weights around to discover the relationship between force, mass and acceleration.  We can play with electricity until we discover the relationship between current, voltage and resistance.

The cool thing about these equations is not just that they help us understand relationships between things but we can use them to make predictions about what's going to happen in future.  Understanding electricity allows us to plan computers.  Understanding projectiles allows us to bomb the enemy.  Understanding gravity allows us to plan trips to other planets.

So it's not that equations explain the universe so much as equations are an expression of our understanding of the universe that we've gleaned through careful observation and experiment.


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

[User]
ELI5:Why are most songs about three to five minutes long, and movies about two hours long?

Was this standard determined by commercial success?  Is it a matter of artistic expression?  Also, is there some threshold at which the average person can remain engaged through a song vs the same for a movie?

[Assistant]
In the good old age before Commercial Radio songs were a multiple of lengths. Take for example Meat Loaf's bat out of hell or Queen's Bohemian Rapsody which are long.

Commercial Radio required adverts to be inserted at specific points as the time was "sold" to investors. This meant radio required songs to fit a new rota system. In response recording companies had songwriters fit Radio Edit song lengths. That's why you will see Bat out of Hell Radio Edit which sort of just stops and rarely hear Pink Floyd tracks on radio.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do humans have to have water much more regularly than other mammals or other organisms?

[Assistant]
Mainly because  humans don't eat like most other animals.
The stuff animals eat usually has water in it.
It could be blood from flesh or juices contained in leafs or fruit.
Humans eat alot of dried, preserved, salted and/or cooked food, that doesn't have that much water in it.

Secondary to this is the fact humans sweat more than other animals. We're adapted for running down prey by having an more effective means of eliminating heat through sweat, it also means we lose more water that way.


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

[User]
ELI5: can someone explain timbre to me?

I know that it has to do with an instrument's sound but I'm still confused on this one.

[Assistant] Every instrument can play the same basic notes. Middle C is approximately 260 hz. But, you would never confuse a piano for trumpet, even if they're playing the exact same tone. The difference between the two is the timbre.


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

[User]
ELI5 why the American government is having so much conflict with Iran.

I'm a US citizen, and it kind of feels like my leaders are trying to steer us into a war with Iran.

What is the cause of general dickery between the two nations?

[Assistant]
First, you need to realize that Iran is home to strategic energy reserves. It has some of the largest petroleum and natural gas reserves on the planet. An estimated 10% of all the world's fossil fuels are in Iran. The possession of these resources make it a strategic asset.

In 1953, the CIA, with the help of the British, launched a coup in Iran that overthrew the democratically elected leader Mohammad Mossadegh. In his place, the US installed the Shah of Iran, who served as dictator.

The Shah's reign was brutal, and he sold out many national interests to the West. Many elements of Iranian society sought his overthrow. In 1979, an Islamic revolution, led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeni succeeded in overthrowing the Shah. Shortly thereafter, the Shah fled the country and the US offered him asylum.

The new Iranian government was furious about the offer of asylum, as they wanted to prosecute him in Iran and make him answer for his crimes. Iranian students stormed the US embassy, and took a bunch of Americans hostage. They held them for well over a year, which led to an escalation in hostility between the US and Iran.

The US was hellbent on weakening the new Iranian government, so they supplied Saddam Hussein, then president of Iraq, with all the weapons he wanted to invade Iran and take their oil.

In 1980, Iraq invaded Iran and they fought a 10 year war to a stalemate. During this time, the American and Iranian navies actually went to war against each other, with the Americans aiding the Iraqis. More interestingly is that the US supplied Iran with weapons to fight back against Iraq when it seemed like Iran was on the verge of defeat. This was because they didn't want Iraq to get too strong as a result of victory. Better to see Iraq and Iran lay ruin to one another rather than one win out and become a regional hegemon. That's exactly what happened. The war was fought to a stalemate.

So the Iranians survived the Iran-Iraq war, and refused to enter the West's fold. Basically, Iran remains hostile to the West because of all the shit they've pulled throughout history, and because they reject American dominance of the Middle East for practical and ideological reasons. What the West wants usually runs counter to the interests of the people in the Middle East, and Iran, being a populist government, doesn't oblige US interests the way states like Saudi Arabia and the UAE do.

Today's conflict centers on Iran's nuclear program. The West is worried Iran will obtain nuclear weapons. When you possess nukes, you can no longer be fucked with by anybody as you possess apocalyptic levels of destructive power. This would essentially ruin the West's ability to maneuver in the region and it could no longer coerce anybody into doing what they want, as many would probably prefer to seek protection under Iran's nuclear umbrella.


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

[User]
[Starcraft] How big are Protoss Interceptors?

So carriers are basically giant floating factories but in a way they are wasted. Why can't they have stargates inside the carrier? Why not have a probe warp in units or buildings inside the carrier, why not build scouts or cosairs instead of interceptors?

Anyway, assuming warp tech does not work on carriers, or for some reason they only have shields and no counter offensive measures, why can they only hold 18 interceptors? A carrier is freaking huge.

This leads me to believe that interceptors are actually the same size or larger than scouts, they are just misrepresented on the game screen for balance.

[Assistant]
(The limited number of Interceptors in game is just for gameplay balance.) The "real things" would most likely hold thousands, if not tens of thousands of interceptors depending on how big the carriers are. We know that Protoss send them out in "swarms" after their enemies, which implies FAR more than the paltry handful you can command.

Also, we know at least some of the space inside the carriers is dedicated to their giant purification weapon that can turn an entire planet into glass. The rest is most likely taken up by manufacturing facilities for more interceptors and repairing the ones that come back damaged.

The interceptors themselves are probably just a little smaller than scouts, since they still need to hold engines, weapons, computers and sensors. They just need to sacrifice a pilot's seat and controls.

The big advantage of using robotic interceptors over piloted craft is that they can be stored much more efficiently. Piloted craft need space not only for their pilots to move around the hangars and get into position, but also living quarters, medical facilities, etc. No pilots means no space sacrificed for creature comforts. Which means more storage for interceptors and/or maintenance.


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

[User] Eli5 why it is easy to cross my eyes, but impossible to move them apart from each other?

[Assistant]
Crossing your eyes is important in order to focus your eyes on an object that is very close.

"Splitting" your eyes isn't something that your brain has ever needed to do (there is never a case where an object can be focused on by "splitting" the eyes), so the muscles aren't trained on how to do that.


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

[User]
eli5: Do we actually start to get cooked when we get third degree burns?

No cannibalism intended lol. Completely out of curiosity.

[Assistant]
>No cannibalism intended lol. Completely out of curiosity.

You have been cooked the moment you suffer **any** degree of burns. The fact that you got burned means that parts of your body got hot enough to have components change irreversibly/have their proteins denature - to have been *cooked*.

The "degree" of the burn only serves to measure the severity by giving a scope of how *much* of you got cooked.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] If Jango's Slave 1 fought Han's Millennium Falcon, which one had superior dog fight capabilities?

I recalled in EPII that the Slave 1 had some crazy shockwave bomb? But the Falcon, if equipped with a full rebel crew (Lando/ROTJ) could do some huge damage to an imperial squadron.

[Assistant] The slave 1 is a heavily modified firespray patrol cruiser, purpose built for dogfighting and packed full of firepower. The Millennium Falcon is a retrofitted freighter. Sure, it has fantastic shields and hyperdrive, but it's lacking in firepower and manoeuvrability. It's like pitting a souped-up u-haul against an apache helicopter. It's barely a fight. Slave 1 wins every time. Though the falcon would probably be able to escape relatively easily through hyperspace, it's not winning any dogfights.


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

[User] Shakespeare in the "original Klingon" question: Is this a Klingon joke that humans are unworthy of such a great poet, or have they been indoctrinated by the Empire that Shakespeare really was a Klingon?

[Assistant]
Like many authoritarian societies in Earth's 20th century, Klingon propagandists had a tendency to take credit for all sorts of historical achievements.

Of course, given the way Chancellor Gorkon said it, he was almost certainly making a wry joke about this very phenomenon, in an attempt to show that he was not a brainwashed ideologue, and ease the tension. (It was a pretty clever bit of diplomacy--but Kirk was too beef-headed to follow.)

Interestingly, Chekov does not seem as aware; throughout the historical documents, he claims pretty much all of human culture for Mother Russia.


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

[User] [MCU] Has Stark sent a remote Iron Man suit to the surface of the moon? Even traveling just 1000km/h, it would only take it two weeks to arrive. It could be piloted by relayed satellite, do a few experiments, take pictures, and maybe put up a tiny Avengers flag, then come home.

[Assistant] Stark's arc reactors and blaster/thrusters are great for space travel. The only reason nobody has started a moon colony yet is that right now all the money is in security against frequent alien invasions and rebuilding after giant monster attacks.


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

[User]
Can a black hole ever reverse itself; or can a singularity become normal matter again?

Can a black hole ever lose enough energy through energy emission (Hawking radiation or the like) that it become unable to maintain the gravitational force needed to hold itself together?

As always, forgive my username in this subreddit.

[Assistant] No. Once it's a black hole, it remains a black hole. Hawking radiation *is* its transformation into "regular" matter. Over time it evaporates away to nothing, in the process releasing all of these various "normal" particles.


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

[User] [Pathfinder] I am a Half-Orc. I remember my deceased Orc father telling me anything with the word "orc" in it is a traditional Orcish melee weapon. Now I'm confused. Does this include torches, floorcloths, orcas, forceps, orchestras and sorcerers?

[Assistant] It's based on pronunciation, not human language spelling. So pretty much just orcas and orchestras. But also storks, corks, dorks, and quarks, not Mindies but Morks, every different cut of pork, and the entire state New York (plus old York too, and their Duke to boot), Orcish Stew and the orc cook too.


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

[User] Lets say a planet is 200 light years away. How do we know? Do we actually keep a telescope pointed in that area for 200 years to get a reading? If not, why is information traveling faster than the speed of light?

[Assistant]
There's a couple different ways, but the 3 easiest to understand are brightness, parallax and redshift.

**Brightness** is straightforward. Things further away are dimmer. You can tell how bright a star should be by how big it is, and you can tell how big a star is by how things move around it -- the strength of the star's gravity is related to its mass. If you measure the brightness carefully with a telescope, and you know how bright it should be based on the mass, you can get a decent estimate of how far away it is.

**Parallax** is how things move relative to each other based on distance. So, for example, hold a thumb up in front of your face and look at it while winking with each eye. You'll see the thumb move left-right much more than the background. That's the parallax effect. Closer things move more than further-away things.

So for stars, we take a picture of them at opposite points in Earth's orbit. For example, we might take pictures in summer and winter, or fall and spring. The pictures are similar to your eyes winking back and forth -- and some stars move more than others. So from that we can tell relative distances between the stars. If you know relative distances from this, and you know an absolute distance for one of the stars (say from a brightness measurement), now you know the distances of the other stars.

Lastly, **redshift**. This is basically just the Doppler Effect for light. Doppler is what happens when a train or ambulance zips by -- you hear the high-pitched sound and as it zooms past it changes to a low sound. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEoooooooooooooo. The actual sound is the same the whole time, but what's happening is that as it comes toward you, the sound waves bunch up, so it gets higher-pitched. As it leaves, they get stretched out, so it's lower-pitched. The same thing happens to light at very high speeds. Stuff coming toward you really fast would look BLUER, and stuff moving away fast would look REDDER.

Because of the Big Bang, everything is moving away from everything else. So starlight is redder than it should be. The redder it is, the faster it's moving away. And because of some interesting math with the Big Bang, the faster it's moving away, the further away it is.


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

[User] ELI5 Unions. I've always thought they're worthless and counter productive, all the people I know in unions are constantly out of work), but upon further reflection I realize I don't really understand the pros and cons. Why are they good/bad?

[Assistant]
Unions aren't some broad/nebulous construct, different ones do different things, and have different pros/cons.

**Construction Unions** represent individuals that would otherwise be treated as individual companies/contractors by major construction companies. The union negotiates standard rates/fees for various services (bricklaying, sheet-metal work, etc.) so that individual workers don't engage in a race-to-the-bottom for prices. In big cities unions will also function as a job-placement service, so that elevator repairmen/electricians/etc can spend their time doing their job instead of looking for a job. The major drawback has to do with contract negotiations and cost controls. For example, a corporation may want to build a new building in a city but is forced by the cities rules to hire a certain number of union construction crew. This reduces their flexibility in being able to hire people at a lower cost. Union construction workers also have pretty stern regulations and limitations as to what they can/can't do. Much of what the unions fought for in the latter half of the 20th century, such as workplace safety, has now been made law. However, there are a plethora of rules/regulations that can frustrate contract managers. For example, a pallet of brick-laying material may sit idle for weeks on a construction floor because only a union employee and move it or work with it.

**Teachers Unions** serve to negotiate broad/standard contracts with local school districts or school boards. They help standardize pay and benefits for all teachers, and act as a firewall against aggressive school leadership that may want to fire a teacher without cause. The downside is that most teachers unions have adopted an "innocent until proven guilty, but still innocent anyways" approach at protecting their members. This has frustrated many jurisdictions, most recently Washington DC. They attempted to fire a slew of teachers they considered "bad" for a variety of reasons, but the Union took them to court and won.


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

[User]
CMV: a 0 to 4 GPA scale is a poor way to represent grades

At a glace the current grade scale makes sense, anything under a 60 is considered not worthy of passing so we divide the passing region into four equally sized quadrants and make those the 4 passing grades. You then assign the quadrants a number from 1-4 and since an A is more valuable than a D it gets a higher number score and your total GPA is just the average of all numbers per credit.

The problem comes from making the base zero occur at 59% rather than 0% on an exam. Going from a 60% to a 70% means you are going from a 1.0 to a 2.0 which means that a C is twice as valuable as a D despite being only a 10% difference in score. This is not an adequate reflection of the work necessary to obtain a C vs a D (or any other letter grade for that matter)

While one could argue that by simply understanding how the grading scale works they'll understand that a D is not half as valuable as a C, that still does not mean that the method itself is flawed.

[Assistant]
Former university teacher here.

First, keep in mind what grades are supposed to measure: retention and understanding of the material being assessed. (Hopefully there's good alignment between what is being assessed and what is being taught, but that's a different problem.) A 75% grade means you are able to show you understand 75% of the material.

Second, keep in mind what "failure" is: it says that a learner is not able to prove that they have retained or understood enough material to progress to the next course. Within a course, such as a mid-term or even a single assignment, grades are intended to give a simple measure of the likelihood the student will be able to keep up with future material.

That's why not all systems use 60% as failing: different courses, programs, etc, may have a better measure for that break-even point where a learner is likely to be unrecoverably behind.

So what would rebasing the grade scale to 0% for failure do? It would complicate what grades mean from "how much material is retained" to "how much material is retained _beyond the bare minimum to continue_". But that's what GPA already is, right? So the two different measures accomplish two different goals: grades are about overall retention while GPAs are about likelihood of continued success.

But notice that in neither case is anything said about the effort of the learner. Neither grades nor GPAs measure effort.

And what would an effort score measure? Would it measure the time a learner put in? How would you account for time learning alone versus with a tutor or study group? Or maybe we could come up with something that measured the "ease" at which a student absorbed one concept after another? And how do you measure the change of this score over time? And does it account for life events? Or social issues?

And would those be as effective as grades or GPA at indicating whether a student needed more time with material before progressing? Or whether they'd do well with more advanced or applied material in the future?

Grades and GPAs aren't perfect, but they're simple and clear and cover the basics well enough.


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

[User]
[MCU] How did the Tesseract end up on Earth in the first place?

It was under lock\-and\-key by this seemingly religious order, and there's some connections to Norse mythology there.

This implies that the Asgardians, who've defended Earth from time to time, were at least aware of its existence. So why leave it on Earth and not in Odin's treasure room? Did an Asgardian just lose it, and did they not have the knowledge or technology to find it again? If they left it by choice, why would it be safer with a less advanced civilization than guarded by some of the most powerful beings in the galaxy?

[Assistant]
I believe they mention that Odin left it there for safe keeping. He thought a quiet out of the way planet like Earth would be a good place to hide it. It seems he was right, since it remained on Earth until another Asgardian came for it.

Presumably he wasn't aware that humans already possessed the Time Stone (or they didn't get it until later) or he wouldn't have, since the Asgardians seemed to consider keeping two infinity stones in the same place to be pretty risky.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why/How does bra padding come out a small hole in the wash?

Im sure the question seems silly, but I can't figure out the how and why padding would get pushed out a small slit in the fabric during the wash. I feel like there is something else this happens too, but I can't remember the example.

[Assistant]
Theyre designed to be removed through that hole before you stick them in a garment bag to be washed.

They come out because of the shape of the pad; its cupped, but also oval.  So as it gets pushed around in the wash, it moves like an inch worm out the hole, at the same time the bra straps are pulled in the other direction.


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

[User]
[Misc] Why doesn't Santa fight crime?

He obviously has some omniscience, seeing as how he can see when people are sleeping or awake, and knows who is bad and good. He has a safe base of operations with his own army, he can travel the world in a single night, and he has an armada of technological devices at his disposal - almost anything he needs, really. So, why is he wasting his time on a once-a-year shtick when he could be saving the world?

[Assistant] Do you know how many shamans *died* sealing him up in the North? We managed to get his manifestations down to once a year. Fortunately his hunger is easily sated on the first day. If there was ever a second day, though...


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

[User]
[Edge of Tomorrow] Why don't they reset the second that Cage locates the Omega under the Louvre?

Cage plugs in the device and is shown where the Omega is (in a parking garage under the Louvre.) They are on the run and being attacked. Why didn't Rita reset (shoot Cage in the head) as soon as they had that information? Surely it would have been easier to reset than escape the current predicament, especially after holding the General at gunpoint - there'd be no way that they'd get back into 'camp' and proceed with 'the next day' as usual unless they did.

[Assistant]
It would've made a lot of sense.  They were kind of occupied with the running gun battle and it was the first time they had learned that info, so maybe it hadn't sunk in yet.

Cage had probably grown somewhat complacent, used to getting 1000 tries at everything, that he didn't react quickly enough when he needed.  Rita might have wanted to make sure he had all the info before resetting.

Still, it was a major screw up that almost cost the war.


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

[User]
Why isn't the atmosphere of Jupiter homogeneous?

After what I would assume is a few billion years of mixing, why are there still such defined patterns in Jupiter's atmosphere? Why are the layers not homogeneous? Does it have to do with updrafts mixing more dense layers?

[Assistant]
Heavier gases tend to get to deeper layers, what you would expect with no activity is an equilibrium that doesn't have a homogeneous mixture, but heavier gases in deeper layers.

Jupiter's interior is still hot, while the outside is cooled by radiation (to space). In addition there is the "daily" cycle of sunlight. That leads to temperature gradients, and that leads to convection. Convection mixes up the different atmospheric layers in many individual cells and generates patterns in the atmosphere. There are many more things (interaction with the magnetic field, for example), but convection alone prevents an atmosphere in equilibrium.


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

[User]
[DC] What will Shazam/Captain Marvel look like when Billy gets older?

His Shazam form is like a buff version of him grown up. What happens when he actually grows up? Is he just going to turn into a buff version of himself?

What about when he's an old man? Will he always turn into a 20 something? Or will he start looking like that Merlin dude? Is he immortal?

[Assistant] His Shazam form is him in his perfect state no matter the age so it'll always look the same. If he stays in this form he will live indefinitely just like Black Adam who is hundreds of years old but looks like he's in his thirties.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do Third World Countries have problems with possessing water, when the earth is 79% of it and we have the technology to purify water?

[Assistant] It's not purification, it's desalination (taking the salt out of the water). And it's a very expensive process which requires a lot of energy. And even after you do that, you still need to deliver this water somehow - most places that suffer from a lack of water simply don't have the proper water delivery infrastructure.


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

[User] ELI5: How do humans hold their urine in so long while asleep, 6-9 hours, compared to only being able to hold urine for a couple hours while awake?

[Assistant]
The hormone responsible for the absorption of water is known as vasopressin, or the antidiuretic hormone (ADH). Synthesized in the hypothalamus, its activation signals the kidneys to reabsorb the water passing through it to ensure that we arent dehydrated, while its deactivation signals the kidneys to allow water to pass through, ensuring that we arent overhydrated.

the simple reason why we dont feel the urge to urinate when were asleep is that the brain, recognizing that the body is at rest, increases the production of ADH. The excess ADH forces the kidneys to reabsorb any water passing through and recirculate it into the bloodstream. As a result, absolutely no urine is produced.


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

[User] ELI5 Why do we store water in towers rather than underground tanks like we do with gasoline for ex.

[Assistant]
>Why do we store water in towers rather than underground tanks like we do with gasoline for ex.

Water towers are not for storage, water towers provide the local grid with **pressure**. They regularly get replenished by pumps, of course, but having a small amount of water in a tower at a relative height to its grid instead of in a large reservoir at or below grid level means you don't have to have those pumps running *constantly*.


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

[User]
How did phyla emerge rapidly following the Cambrian explosion?

Following the Cambrian explosion, phyla began developing relatively rapidly: within 6-10 million years. What drove such fast emergence of biodiversity?

[Assistant] For one thing, the phyla weren't nearly as genetically distant from each other as they are today; being only recently diverged. Biologists in the Cambrian would probably classify them several levels down, possibly even all as part of a single phylum or even order.


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

[User] ELI5: How does breathing in and out slowly help to calm our nerves?

[Assistant]
Firstly, possibly most importantly, it distracts and focuses the mind. Our minds are a bit like dogs, in that redirecting them distracts them.

Secondly, it saturates the brain with oxygen, which is the opposite of what stress/distress does.


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

[User] [He-Man] Who built Castle Greyskull?

[Assistant] Most versions revolve around a "Council of Elders" that existed in ancient Eternia and who were dedicated to discovering and preserving magical secrets into a Hall of Wisdom. One day they had a vision of a great danger coming (IIRC it would be Hordak trying to invade Eternia and his disciple Skeletor trying to get the magical secrets) and also of a champion who would defend it (He-Man). They then changed the Hall of Wisdom into a "resistant form" which is basically impregnable Castle Grayskull, and concentrated all their magic into an Orb of Power inside the castle. The Castle should be guarded by the Sorceress (which is a title, there have been many Sorceresses through the ages) until the coming of He-Man.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why didn't bad eyesight get naturally selected out?

A lot of people have awful eyesight that would make them almost useless in nature, and it's a high enough percentage of the population such that I don't think its survival can be attributed to the same reasons as, say, blindness being present. Did humans always have the ability to make corrective lenses, was it just not necessary for survival to have good eyesight, or is it something else?

[Assistant]
The same reason that nothing existing today wasn't selected out.  Enough people with the "defect" were able to produce children that produced children.

There are various selective pressures that act on any specific trait.  20/20 vision seems to me to be only really important once we have printable type.  Before that, you only have to see a few important things to avoid death.  The main thing would be predators, which you could also detect with limited eyesight, smell, and sound.  Hunting requires only basic eyesight, because we don't hunt like hawks from high in the sky.  Gathering might require sharper eyesight for picking the edible food from the poison, or edible from simply non-edible, but not by too much.  And as previous post said, we evolved in social groups, so a bad eyesight person would do non-eyesight related things, while someone else picked up the slack.

If there were a sharp pressure on excellent vision deciding between life and death, it would have been weeded out.


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

[User]
ELI5:How does screen resolution, size, and pixel density effect viewing?

I was doing some research into buying a new monitor and read that a standard monitor resolution of 1920 x 1080 means 1920 pixels horizontally and 1020 pixels vertically.  This would seem to mean that as you increase monitor size, you lose pixel density.  By my calculations, a 4k 55 TV monitor would have the same PPI (pixels per inch) as an HD (1920x1080) 27 computer monitor (about 80 PPI).  If I got a 19 computer monitor, it would have ~105 PPI.  The new Samsung smartphone has 560 PPI.  How does this work?  Why are larger monitors not manufactured with the same pixel density as smaller ones, and how does this affect viewing?

[Assistant] You forgot to take into account the viewing distance. Phones are held 20 centimeters from your face while TVs are normally viewed from a few meters away, and if you sit closer to the TV then a smaller TV is recommended.


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

[User] ELI5:Why was the Roman Army so effective/unbeatable?

[Assistant]
They were well-organized, well-disciplined and well-equipped, but far from unbeatable. They sufferred defeats from both the northern 'barbarians' and the more civilized nations around the Mediterranean. By the time the bar of entry to the military was lowered to a 'head count' (prior to some reforms military service was a duty to free, land-owning men who had to supply their own equipment etc) the Roman state was wealthy enough to field permanent, professional armies who could march, drill and practice all-year round.

Much of their fighting style was formation based, and since the strength of a formation requires it to be intact they benefited greatly from having disciplined men who wouldn't crack under the pressure of a heated battle. The Romans also made good use of auxiliary troops from the nations they conquered/extracted tribute from, so if they were fighting one Gallic tribe chances were they had e.g Gallic cavalry support from another and so on.

The extensiveness of the Roman roads (all roads lead to Rome, remember?) and trade made it a logistical possibility for their armies to be supported even in remote regions where others might've struggled to feed and maintain the equipment of thousands of men.

**In essence, they had a big manpower pool to draw recruits from, they could afford to equip them and train them extensively and their infrastructure allowed them to deploy them across vast distances.**


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

[User]
[MCU] I have a lot of questions about the EXO-7 Falcon program.

Why did the Army shelve the EXO-7 Falcon program? If it was dangerous, why didn't they destroy it instead of putting it in a vault? Why haven't they restarted the program now that it is obvious how awesome it is?

[Assistant]
The original system was probably greatly limited in terms of range/flight time and payload, which made it of considerably less use for many military purposes.  Assuming the system was as expensive and difficult to use as it looks, they could have figured that it just didn't offer enough value over mature helicopter platforms *as yet*.  What's more, the appearance of weaponized consumer drones and other small+quick airborne threats has lead to an opposing proliferation of light point-defense systems for hitting small targets at close range.  A lightly armored human with no countermeasures who is several times the size might not fare so well against such systems.

Sam's wingman got taken out by some insurgents dumbfiring into the air, likely confirming assumptions that using the Falcon suit would be suicide in too many circumstances, unlike something more heavily armored and lower profile like Iron Man armor (which there almost certainly is/was an ongoing program to replicate). Sam seemed to prove that wrong by somehow evading the CIWS of the HYDRA helicarriers, but he is an exceptionally gifted pilot.

Tl;Dr: The system was very promising but seemingly ahead of it's time (and perhaps competing with a sexier program to replicate Iron Man-esque power armor) so after a performance that confirmed the concerns of the USAF brass they shelved it for a later date.  They didn't destroy it because it had some promise and there was no reason to do so, the military saves all sorts of abandoned tech just in case an application appears.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is it when you download something, it generally downloads at a constant rate, until 99% where it seems to stop and take a lot longer to reach 100%?

[Assistant]
because the file is most likely downloaded to a temp directory then copied in its final destination when it's finished.

the last 1% is longer because of the time it takes to write the file on your disk.

most likely, unless you use an SSD.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do so many businesses use computer programs that look like MS-DOS?

[Assistant]
Changing a business computer system is like rebuilding your house while you're still living in it. It seems like a good idea at the time, so you start building new walls around the outside of your house. Then when you get about halfway finished your wife gets pregnant and now you have to work an extra bedroom into the new house. So you move something here and alter something there and you can just about get a new bedroom in. But now the house will cost more and it'll take a few more months to get done.

So your wife now decides that since the new house won't be ready in time she needs to have a new kitchen in the old house, so you stop building the new house and put in a new kitchen. But now you see some benefits to the new kitchen, so you change your plans and tweak some things so maybe you can use bits of your new kitchen in the new house.

And then solar panels become a thing, so you decide you want them, which means redoing the roof.

And then you get a promotion at work and a company car (this is akin to a business getting a new client who works a bit differently from the old clients) so you need to build a garage.

And then you stand back having lost some weight and lost some hair, and realise that there wasn't anything really wrong with the old house in the first place, it just needed a bit of attention here and there. But now you have a mish-mash of old house and new house, and the garage is in the pool, and the nursery is nowhere near the main bedroom, and the kitchen is half upstairs and half downstairs, but at least the roof doesn't leak and you still have cable. Just.

And that's why businesses don't like to change their computer systems.


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

[User] ELI5: How is information inferred from mathematical formulas?

[Assistant]
Let's use gravity in space as an example.

We know (based on experiments on Earth) how gravity works. You release a ball, it falls towards the Earth. We also know that the larger the planet is, the more force gravity pulls with. This is why you can jump higher on the Moon.

These forces determine how planets orbit. It's the reason we orbit around the Sun; the Sun is massive, so it pulls on the Earth. We've seen this sort of behavior with a lot of planets, so we know exactly how orbits are supposed to look.

Now, let's say we see an orbit that makes no sense. Based on our understanding of gravity and all of the planets in the proximity of the new planet, we know what the orbit should look like. However, it looks entirely different!

There are a few possible explanations. One is that our equations for gravity are wrong. We may have misunderstood how things worked, and need to adjust the equations. A second explanation, however, is that there is an unknown object out there. This could be introducing different forces of gravity that would affect the orbit of our new object. Based on our equations, we could try to figure out where that new object should be based on how the orbit looks.


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

[User] [WH40K] How big was a Heresy/Crusade era Astartes legion?

[Assistant] It varied a bit. The smallest of the legions were the Thousand Sons who had only 10,000 marines due to their unstable genetics. Also fairly small were the Space Wolves who also had genetic issues. The largest by far were the Ultramarines with around 250,000 marines, the Sons of Horus with somewhere around 170,000, and the Iron Warriors with around 180,000. The rest of the legions were around 100,000 men with only a few being noticeably higher or lower than that.


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

[User]
(DC) Who put the Oan's in charge?

A race of immortal brings decided to police the galaxy by THEIR standards and built the Manhunters who became corrupt, leading to the Lantern Corps.

Who gave them the authority to be THE authority? Surely some 'sectors' or star systems had their own police authorities before the Oan's stepped in?

[Assistant]
The Oans basically establihed their power early on, when even some of the earliest civilisations were still in their diapers.

Since then, there's not really anyone who can dethrone them as king of the mountain. We've all seen how powerful Green Lanterns can be, imagine trying to take on an army of them.

As for star systems having their own police authorities, not way back when the green lantern corps started, but now they do. You can kind of compare the local star systems to the NYPD and the green lantern corps to the FBI. They only interfere in those star systems when they can't handle it alone, whatever's going on poses a threat to other star systems or are requested.

That's the theory anyway, reality is noone is going to go against the Green lantern Corps when they meddle because noone wants to lose their support.


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

[User] [Pokemon] Why was Brock never attracted to Jesse?

[Assistant] Brock has a *very* specific type he goes for. It's so specific a type, in fact, that he often will find no attraction and only suspicion if somebody dresses as a Nurse Joy when they aren't one. In addition, he doesn't tend to go for girls younger than him(his friends) and absolutely never anyone who treats Pokemon badly.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do wet clothes appear darker in colour when wet, even when water is colourless?

And further to this, why do some clothes appear see through when wet?

[Assistant] Water increases the scattering angle of light on fabric, and as a result, light is reflected and refracted in a greater number of "directions" than it is from dry fabric.  Your retina is therefore receiving less overall reflected light.  Since our sense of sight is simply a sophisticated means of making sense of a wide array of complicated light signatures, your brain interprets this as being darker.


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

[User]
[MCU] How do you think world leaders managed to not let everything collapse after the snap?

You would think society would completely collapse with half of the population gone, but it seems like the world in the MCU managed pretty well. How do you think they kept everything going until everyone was brought back? The easy answer would be it's just a movie, but I think we can have a little fun speculating.

[Assistant]
Having an enemy to blame is probably a big factor. People were not left in the dark to speculate what happened, pointing fingers at each other. They knew it was Thanos. So there would be a sense of cooperation.

Technological advancements from Wakanda and Stark Industries would help as well. Not having to worry about your lights turning off thanks to your city being powered by an Arc Reactor.

Captain America probably did a global broadcast to rally everyone together.

There were still some downsides. Criminal organizations trying to grab up every last bit of power that they could. Ronin dealt with some of them.


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

[User]
Did the advent of the Nuclear Age have a spectroscopic effect on our atmosphere if viewed from another solar system?

I have read about the effect that the detonation of atomic and nuclear weapons has had on the atomic makeup of certain materials, such as steel.

Would our atmosphere demonstrate a discernible effect from the atomic detonations that would be visible from a solar system that is several light years away using our own spectroscopic technology?

If so, would this indicate evidence of intelligent life, or can this effect be replicated naturally?

[Assistant] The closest thing you could look for would be the flash itself. It would  be nearly impossible to distinguish from the neighboring star, current tech couldn't do it, but it would be the easiest thing to see. there is not going to be enough radioactive isotopes produced to create a spectroscopic signature.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Are there any estimates on the number of wizards and witches out there with Horcruxes?

It seems the need to take a life to create Horcrux would make it painfully easy for lots of murderers in the wizarding world to make them. I know the knowledge wasn't easy to find, but if it was in the library of Hogwarts, then I bet it can be accessed in other places as well. Maybe some kind of Wizarding dark web (yes I know they don't have internet..).

So, is there any estimate how many other wizards are out there with Horcruxes of their own? Voldemort can't be the ONLY one I assume.

[Assistant] Interestingly, the hocrux didnt make Voldemort truly immortal. It just made sure he could be resurrected or possess peoples bodies. Maybe the reason why hocruxes arent common is because the users are essentially super ghosts. Without someone to help resurrect them, theyre pretty screwed.


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

[User]
CMV: There is no good reason why Biden would win the presidency and immediately resign to allow Kamala Harris to become president and the idea that he is planning to do so is a ridiculous conspiracy theory

As the title states, there's a theory going around among the Trump camp that Biden is planning to win the presidency and immediately step down in order to make Harris the new President and effectively "trojan horse" her into the presidency, subverting the will of the people in the process. I am not here to argue about whether Biden is actually planning to do this, as there isn't currently any substantive evidence that this is the case.

My question is this: Why? Why would Biden willingly step down as president to put another person in that office instead of doing what every other president did and just being president like he ostensibly planned? What is gained by Biden handing over the office to Harris instead of just staying president and pushing the same policies? I'm interested in seeing what the arguments are here and whether or not they hold water under scrutiny, because to me this seems like a ridiculous conspiracy theory from a camp that is desperately looking for reasons why not having another Trump presidency would be a bad thing.

Edit: A quick clarification to my argument: I'm not addressing the idea that, if Biden were to leave the presidency for any reason, Harris would become president and Pelosi would become vice president. I understand that that is a worst case scenario for conservatives, but I don't see how that is substantively different from a Biden/Harris presidency and thus why Biden would willingly step down as president in order to manufacture it. If you want to argue this point, please explain how a Harris/Pelosi presidency would be substantively different than a Biden/Harris presidency.

[Assistant]
> Harris would become president and Pelosi would become vice president.

Actually, the new president (Harris) would appoint someone as VP, who would need to be confirmed by Congress. Pelosi wouldn't become VP, even though she'd be next in line for president after Harris.


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

[User]
ELI5: Is a chicken egg (like what you buy at the grocery store) a single cell, like a human egg?

My friend says that the eggs in the store are more than a single cell, but i thought that unless it was fertilized, an egg would remain a single cell.

If it IS a single cell, are the cell parts proportionate to the size of the cell, such that you could see the mitochondria with the naked eye?

[Assistant] The white and yellow parts of the egg are nutrients. They are used to feed the embryo if it gets fertilized. They are somewhat like a placenta. Eggs from the store are not fertilized, though, so they don't have the whole cell, but contain only the female part.


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

[User]
ELI5, What's all the fuss about Megaupload? Do that many people really need file storage?

With massive hard drives on home computers is there really that much of a need for offline storage?  Is there something else it's used for?

[Assistant]
Online storage is generally seen as the way of the future. If you have a fire at home and your hard drive is destroyed, what happens to your data? If you collaborate with people on many projects, how do you keep your files in sync? If you work at home and on the road and in the workplace, how can you keep your data in check? All of these are solved by online storage.

Edit: also pirating.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do quick-service Chinese restaurants in the US all seem like franchises of a single giant chain, with identical menus, equipment, and seating?

[Assistant]
For most restaurants of a specific style - Chinese, Teriyaki, Tex-Mex, etc - there are actually entire restaurant packages you can buy from restaurant supply houses. These include everything you need to open the doors of your new place, from kitchen hardware to seating to appliances to signage.

Find a space, get a biz license, put a single $90k purchase on a credit card, and badda-boom-badda-bing yer in business.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is inflation necessary in a normally functioning economy?

[Assistant] It isn't "necessary." Central banks around the world, especially in the past three decades, have chosen to target low, but positive, inflation rates. There is no law of nature forbidding them from targeting 0% average inflation. A small positive average inflation rate has been judged to be an appropriate stance that balances several forces. Some considerations lead us to favor an average inflation rate of 0%, while other considerations might lead us to favor an average inflation rate of 4% or even higher. Most central banks split the difference and target 2% average annual inflation.


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

[User]
ELI5: How is suicide considered "selfish"?

I want to start by saying I am not suicidal. This kind of stems off of Robin Williams recent passing and some of the things I have heard said about him.

I understand the concept of killing yourself causes a lot of grief for friends and family that have to continue to live after you cut your life short.

What I **DON'T** understand is how it is not considered selfish for us to want someone to continue to live just so we ourselves don't have to go through the pain of loss and grieving.

I had a friend once who wanted to end her life and I told her that I am here for her and that I don't think it's a good idea, tried to explain to her that everyone would miss her and that it's a selfish and cowardly act (I am not a therapist obviously and I did try and get her help other than me). She responded with "Isn't it selfish for you to tell me not to do it just so you don't have to be sad?" Ever since then I have not been able to come up with an answer to that.

[Assistant] It's considered selfish because it makes everyone around you unhappy... Whereas you get to escape what makes you unhappy. It's just one way people look at it, it's not necessarily right or justified, but it's how it makes people feel sometimes.


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

[User] [Rick & Morty] If the parasites can only create happy memories, how did Sleepy Gary rudely interrupt Summer and Tinkles' pillow fight?

[Assistant] The parasites can only make good memories involving themselves. Mr. Beauregard made an unpleasant memory (nazi wizard kidnapping) but made his part of it happy by rescuing the family. The happy memory only applies to the part the parasite making the memory plays in it.


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

[User] ELI5: How does money work in prison? Are there things you can buy with cash? Do you have access to your bank account?

[Assistant]
There is no physical legal cash in prison, friends and family can put money in an inmate's commissary account, which they can use to buy things.

Other things become cash-like within prison, cup-of-noodles, packets of instant-coffee and such take the place of cash within prison, and are traded among inmates for other goods/services.


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

[User] ELI5: How is snow formed?

[Assistant]
way up in the clouds, it's very cold. Water vapour begins freezing piece by piece to tiny particles of dust (or something) called a "Nucleus."

Once those particles get too big and heavy, they fall to the ground. If the temperature is high enough, that snow will warm and melt as it falls to become rain.

If it is winter, that melting doesn't happen.


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

[User] What do antihistamines do? Why do some induce drowsiness and others not?

[Assistant]
Antihistamines block the H1 histamine receptor. This prevents mast cell degranulation and other effects that generally reduce inflammation.

Older, first generation antihistamines readily cross the blood-brain barrier and can bind central cholinergic receptors causing drowsiness, dry mouth, etc. The second generation antihistamines are less likely to cross the blood-brain barrier.


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

[User] [Star Wars] I've just been captured by the Emperor and he is giving me the Big Shock. Can I use my Jedi telekinesis to deflect the lightning?

[Assistant]
Telekinesis? Maybe if you are powerful enough, but there are other techniques you could do to deflect the lightning, what they are called is beyond me, and maybe it does fall under telekinesis.

The Emperor is an extremely powerful force user, very few can match his raw power and knowledge, but it is possible to defend yourself, just extremely difficult.


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

[User] [Star Wars] Was Palpatine trained as a Sith since childhood? Was he ever a decent person before falling to the dark side?

[Assistant]
Not since childhood, he was overlooked by the Jedi recruiters if even ever registered and was picked up by Darth Plaguis as a relatively young man.

He was never a decent person. He was a huge prick since birth.


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

[User]
eli5: How do lakes that feed rivers never go dry

How do lakes I.e a lake in a mountain that feeds a river flowing down the mountain never go dry? There is so much water being moved away from it how does it maintain its mass?

[Assistant]
Ever fill up an ice cube tray held at an angle under the tap?

The water starts down and fills one hole until its full, when full it spills over into the next. The relationship between the lake and river in your question is the same.

The lake is filling from small streams, rivers and sometimes even springs that are under the water. Once the water has filled the hole it move down the line causing your river. When there is lots of water coming in the river rages (like spring thaw) in the summer it might slow to a trickle. Just like the ice cube tray, the water in and the water out have  a balance.


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

[User]
ELI5:Why did primitive humans (e.g. Neanderthal) disappear?

I know that it can happen for a whole species to go extinct, but my impression is that every group is still represented by many different animals. Also, if non-human primates are able to survive in the wild, our ancestors who are supposedly smarter should still be out there. What caused them to disappear?

[Assistant]
Neanderthals were competing for the same environment as our ancestors. Our ancestors won. Neanderthals has to move to areas that were less hospitable to them, and could not adapt and survive.

That said, there's a lot of evidence that our ancestors and neanderthals did, in fact, interbreed. Many modern humans have traces of neanderthal DNA... so in a way, they never really disappeared.


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

[User] Why haven't we adopted and improved upon Nikola Tesla's designs for wireless charging and power?

[Assistant]
We have. Some applications of wireless power transfer are based on Tesla's ideas. For example induction cooking and wireless charging of various cordless and mobile devices (from electric toothbrushes to smartphones).

However, Tesla's plans to build a global system for wireless power distribution never came to fruition and the general consensus is that it's simply not feasible and that Tesla greatly overestimated the conductivity of the Earth's atmosphere and underestimated the energy loss with distance.


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

[User]
In a biological way, how are hallucinations really created?

With all the light on the retina and everything, it's like the inverse process- the brain sends message to the eyes to create something that isnt there. How does that happen?

[Assistant] Normally the eyes send signals to the brain to interpret. When you see hallucinations, your brain is either creating signals spontaneously which it tries to interpret, or your brain interprets real signals wrong.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do Americans seem to hate hate New Jersey so much? On the internet and in American TV shows I often see New Jersey treated in a negative light as if it's some kind of joke.

[Assistant]
Because many TV writers live in New York City, and New Jersey is right next door. So those people have a lot of topical references to throw around.

Oh yeah, Newark NJ was once considered the most dangerous city in America due to gang violence. And the state has more Superfund (environmental disaster cleanup) sites than any other.


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

[User] Eli5: when so much food packaging these days uses plastic or metal, how come flour is often just wrapped in paper?

[Assistant]
Several reasons.  Most notably, flour needs to be exposed to air after being milled in order to properly oxidize.  While this could be done prior to being packaged, companies save time and money by packaging it in a non-airtight package and shipping it sooner.

Also, this is apocryphal, it's a story I've heard, but can't find a specific reference to.  According to legend, there was a company that tried to switch to packing flour in plastic containers.  But the static electricity caused by flour rubbing against plastic as it was packed let off a spark and half the factory went up in flames, because flour is flammable and  light enough to get everywhere and into everything.


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

[User] ELI5: How do planets bend time?

[Assistant]
Gravity, as far as we know, is caused by distortions in spacetime caused by mass. Since it's a distortion of spacetime it impacts both: space...which is why things are "pulled" towards planets, and time...clocks run slower near big masses.

There's nothing special about planets in this respect, it happens with all masses, but planets are the largest masses except stars and black holes so it's more pronounced near them.

\*Technically\*, just moving your watch near a stack of free weights causes it to move a little slower, but it's such a small effect that you can't measure it.

On the other hand, GPS satellites have to correct their clocks for the distortion caused by being in earth's gravity well (and for the distortion caused by how fast they're going).


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

[User] ELI5 Why does human species look more or less the same, even among different races, while there are so much varieties in other animal species?

[Assistant] There is a theory that visual diversity is so low because at one point during human evolutionary history the population was reduced to 2% of what it was. This would drastically have reduced the visual variety, regardless of the population rebuilding.


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

[User]
[WARHAMMER 40K] How can the Tyranids ever beat the Necrons?

Let me set up this situation for you. The Tyranids we have seen were only the scouting units, and once the full fleet came through they murdered every other living species. In order to fully take over the Milky Way they need to wipe out all the Necrons. How can they do it?

[Assistant]
The Necrons are static, even more convinced of their technological superiority than the Eldar. They are socially fragmented, arrogant, and most of all, damaged. Not a single Tomb World is at 100%, and even Imotek's world of Mandigora has it's glitches.

The Tyranids, on the other hand, are dynamic. Battle after battle they adapt and change, becoming stronger. Each victory or loss, they learn and adapt. They would eventually create the perfect weapon against the Necrons, who themselves seem unable to develop anything new. Their last creation was the Tomb-Blade, and those are millions of years old.

Through numbers and their ability to adapt, the Tyranids would eventually win. Most importantly, though, all Tyranids are united.


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

[User] [Short Circuit] how the hell did Stephanie Speck think that Johnny 5 was an alien and not a robot at first? I don't think he could look anymore robotlike than he already does...

[Assistant]
Johnny 5 (despite his name) was one of a kind.

Given the timeframe of this period-piece, 'robots', especially 'robots that do not look humanoid' were a thing only seen in movies.

Furthermore, Johnny 5 was of an experimental military design, created by NOVA Laboratories, as part of the S.A.I.N.T. (Strategic Artificially Intelligent Nuclear Transport) program. In other words, a truly unique design.

On top of all this, Johnny 5 suffered a catastrophic reprogramming to give him both a sense of self, and one of free will. It took Johnny quite some time to 'integrate' himself, and had a collection of verbal idiosyncrasies (awkward grammar, repeated requests for 'input', malapropisms, etc).

So, in sum, Stephanie either had to make the deduction that Johnny was either:

* A fully sentient robot, ripped straight from the covers of pulp-scifi comics and movies, despite nothing even remotely similar to it existing prior in the real world/news/life

* "Something from Somewhere Else" (ie: an alien/extra terrestrial) which required much fewer assumptions on her part.

Imagine, if you will, travelling back to say, 1986, with your favorite smartphone/tablet and a collection of 'offline' applications/media available to you, and showing that to your average American.

With a touch/tap/slide of your finger, you have a device that clearly has roots in what you know (television, camera, radio, video games, books, computers, etc), but is so unbelievably advanced and different from what you've experienced or heard of in real life (fancy graphics, widescreen format, touchscreen, dozens of games, etc), that you either have to believe that you are somehow unaware of literally hundreds of 'technological advancements and capabilities', or this device is from 'somewhere else' (the future, alien technology, magic, an illusion, whatever).

In short, given the capabilities of technology at the time, especially with 'robotics', it made more sense to Stephanie to think "Extra Terrestrial" instead of "nearly-magical robot from earth".


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

[User]
[Witcher 3] I'm an amateur historian that got challenged by the White Wolf for a game of Gwent, after losing I realized: Why is the face of every important contemporary individual on a popular card game?

I'm a lowly enthusiast of the game--not good enough, but Master Geralt has challenged me out of boredom. Still, I can't help but wonder why the White Wolf himself and this Ciri fellow--among other esteemed individuals and unknown fellows are being represented in a card game.

[Assistant] Where do we play Gwent? Taverns.  What are the most popular tavern songs in the Realm? The songs written by Dandelion about the adventures of the White Wolf.   Clearly the people making the cards know these are all popular characters with people who play tavern games.


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

[User] ELI5: How do they make fireworks so that they explode in particular shapes like stars, instead of out in every direction?

[Assistant] There's a "How It's Made" episode on it... super fascinating and you should watch it! Basically they pack them in the cylinder with plastic pieces that help provide a platform for the metals/powder to explode from. Keep it seperated. Then how they position those pieces make the shape..hopefully.


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

[User]
How do beavers coordinate construction?

Do they all just go at it and organically combine efforts or is there some kind of lead beaver that directs the others?

[Assistant] A surprising amount of beaver dam construction can be boiled down to the simple rule "pile sticks on the sound of running water", though there's clearly more to it than that.  Still, there was an experiment where someone left a loudspeaker playing the sound of running water out in a field near a beaver dam, and the beavers buried it in sticks.  At any rate, it's unlikely there is any top-level control.


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

[User] [Lord pf the Flies] What happened to the boys back in civilization?

[Assistant]
Nothing special. The confused and at times contradictory accounts of what happened on the island were dismissed by the adults as childish exaggerations of a couple of unfortunate accidents. Most went back to their families; a few had been orphaned by the war.

When they grew up, Jack went into politics. He had a successful career and was noted as a charismatic speaker. He was in the Cabinet twice, and finished his career as Leader of the Opposition. Numerous biographies of the great statesman refer to his time on the island as an old-fashioned adventure in which his natural leadership skills helped keep his friends alive.

Ralph joined the army, had a respectable career, and married a girl of good family. Their relationship was stable and loving, but to his parents' disappointment they never did have children. In his later years, he was often contacted by writers working on books about Jack; he never responded to any of their letters.

Roger lives alone. He has a respectable job in an accounting firm and a comfortable lifestyle, and a basement containing four large freezers. Pretty soon he's going to have to buy a fifth.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do humans feel "lost and confused" after waking up from slumber?

[Assistant]
More or less because your brain was in hibernation mode and is booting back up to full functionality. While sleeping, your brain activity looks nothing like the activity while awake. The fact that you lose so much time while asleep is because the part of your brain which measures the passage of time is literally turned off. You don't form memories (Other than dreams, which usually only happen in the lightest form of sleep) while asleep because your memory centers are down for maintenance. You don't think because the thinking bits of your brain are scrambled and behaving very differently than while awake.

You more or less turn off when sleeping. Your body keeps running, but the stuff that makes you, you? Not functioning normally. Turning you back on takes some time.


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

[User] [Star Wars] What would the last moments of your life be like if you were on a planet destroyed by the Death Star?

[Assistant]
"Huh. Why is there a new moon in the sky?"

And then nothing, because the time from the Death Star's turbolaser hitting and the time of the planet was less than a second. And then Alderaan was space dust.


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

[User] ELI5: How does wood become petrified and turn to stone?

[Assistant]
As any other living organism can, in the right conditions, turn into a fossil.

Petrified forests mostly date back to a prehistoric time, the carboniferous, when there were no microorganisms capable of digesting cellulose and lignin, the main components of plants. This means that when trees and plants died, they simply laid there, without decomposing.

With time, the metamorphical and erosive action acting on earth's crust submerged these trees under ground, where they were surrounded by minerals.
Slowly, in the span of millions of years, inorganic compounds from such minerals started intercalating and substituting the organic compounds of trees, effectively turning them to stone.


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

[User] When looking into space with a basic telescope, most of what you'll see will be stars, right? So what is the magnification threshold you have to pass to where everything you see are entire, separate galaxies?

[Assistant]
It's not so much about magnification, but how much light you can collect. Galaxies are incredibly faint. Most of the stars in our own galaxy are impossible to see with the light pollution we have today.

The Andromeda Galaxy is several times the angular size of the Moon in our sky, but it is incredibly faint. And this is the nearest galaxy to us!

If you could see the whole sky with the brightness of objects magnified (or if you just take a long exposure shot of the sky compensated for Earth's rotation), you wouldn't need a lot of magnification to make out different galaxies.


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

[User]
Where does "sound energy" goes, in active noise cancelling headphones ?

My understanding of noise cancelling headphones is that the headphone will produce the opposite of the external sound, and when added, those two sounds will cancel each other. This will result in no sound.

The headphone uses energy to produce his sound wave. The external sound wave has an energy.
The resulting soundwave (which is the sum of the two others) has no energy since its amplitude is 0.

So, where do the initial energy of the soundwave and the energy of the headphone-produced soundwave go ?

[Assistant]
There can never be total destructive interference throughout all space if the source of the two waves are not spatially identical.

In other words, there will be destructive interference in a specific area, but there will be a corresponding constructive interference elsewhere such that total energy is still conserved.


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

[User]
CMV: Canada is generally better then the USA

I believe that Canada is generally better then the USA and that the average American would be better off Canadian. There are a few major reasons for this that I'll go over in the paragraphs below

**Universal Healthcare**

In Canada everyone receives government subsided healthcare rather then the insurance based system in the USA. This means that there are no $10,000 surgeries and nobody goes bankrupt from calling an ambulance which, in my opinion is much, much better then the US system where if you don't have insurance you could easily lose your life savings if you get sick. The benefits of this system is reflected in Canada's higher life expectancy.

**Government**

The government of Canada seems to work a whole lot better then the USA. They don't have the frankly garbage electoral college system that leads to minority rule (even in the House half the time) and they have a much easier time actually getting things done. There aren't any Trump's or Jan 6ths and the scandals are pretty tame from what I can tell

**Education**

Generally going to college in Canada is far cheaper then in the USA, which leads to more people getting educated. Indeed, the average cost of college per year in Canada is \~$6,700 while in the US it's over 20k, almost *3 times* the amount. While you could argue the US has better universities, really only the top \~30 are better then the average Canadian university and most students aren't going to the very top institutions regardless.

I've also heard there is a housing crisis in Canada but there's also a housing crisis here so it cancels out. While both the USA and Canada are modern, 1st world countries I believe that Canada is generally a much better place to live and the average American's life would be improved by being Canadian. CMV!

[Assistant]
> They don't have the frankly garbage electoral college system that leads to minority rule

are you sure?

In 2015, Trudeau's liberal party got less than 40% of the vote, but they got a majority of the seats (didn't have to form a coalition with any other party).

In 2011, Harper's conservative party pulled off the same feat.  less than 40% of the vote, but majority of the seats.

The US system election system sucks and all.    But, at least our head of state almost always gets at least close to a majority of the public's vote in order to take office.


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

[User]
ELI5: In traffic, why do cyclists by default have to use the road instead of the sidewalk? Aren't motor vehicles and cyclists a bigger danger to each other than cyclists and pedestrians would be?

Doesn't seem reasonable to me from a risk-reward-perspective.

Edit: I wrote this ELI5 from the perspective of a slow cyclist who is intimidated by cars and would feel much safer on the sidewalk. The regulations- and predictability-argument makes a lot of sense - but when I'm driving on a busy street with 15 km/h I feel EXTREMELY uncomfortable with cars (who might otherwise be driving with 50 km/h) lining up behind me (passing a cyclist still requires you to keep your distance, you can't just squeeze by)

[Assistant]
Bicycles and cars are supposed to follow the same rules, and both drivers and riders are responsible for maintaining situational awareness. This is intended to create a predictable flow.

As others have mentioned, while there are notions about how best to walk on a sidewalk, there aren't really any rules or regulations. A bike coming up behind a car can make a fairly accurate assumption about what the car is going to do next based on signals used by the car and/or the lane the car is in. Sidewalks are pure chaos.


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

[User]
[Brooklyn 99] Why hasn't Holt fired Hitchcock and Scully yet?

They're provably incompetent, they sleep on the job, and we know Holt has no qualms about firing employees who don't meet his personal standards (Coral Palms, part 2). So why is he letting these absolute deadweights bring down his department?

[Assistant] They get a phenomenal amount of paperwork done, which the rest of the precinct slacks on. They had their glory days out in the field; now they pull their weight as desk jockeys. Says a lot about their efficiency when they can nap and eat for half the day and still get their jobs done (yay tenure).


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

[User] ELI5 Why does sunlight darken skin but lighten the colour of other surfaces?

[Assistant]
Sunlight can breakdown the molecules that give things their coloring, lightening them. This works for objects because they are not alive, and so can't replace the destroyed color molecules.

You, however, are alive. Your body will actively choose to produce more skin pigment molecules if you get exposed to a lot of sunlight. It does this because the pigment protects you from the damage sunlight can do to you.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does keeping your eye focal point on one thing increase your chances of body balance?

Example, yoga poses or stretching on 1 leg. If you move your eyes to different focal points, but the rest of your body is stationary, you lose balance.

[Assistant] Because your mind and body are amazing.  Your head and eyes act like a fine tuned system to detect micro adjustments in your position, and your mind communicates that to your muscles to correct it.  Basically by having a focal point youre giving your balance system information.  You focus on the point, and your mind tells your body how to make sure your eyes stay on that point.  Any time it drifts, your mind knows exactly what muscle to use to correct it.


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

[User] ELI5: Why aren't we hungry anymore if we get anxious about something?

[Assistant]
Fight or flight syndrome. Your body shuts down all non essential functions to focus on dealing with something it considers a threat.
It's a very efficient machine, the body. Also a very stupid one sometimes.


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

[User]
[Supernatural] Are there any government organizations with any knowledge of demons and the like?

With the amount of ruckus they've been causing in resent years, and their affinity to cause trouble whenever they escape hell, you would think the FBI or NSA would have some knowledge of their existence.

[Assistant]
Before the recent opening of the Devil's Gate, almost all supernatural activities were purely local phenomena. Wendigos, hauntings, etc. didn't affect anything outside of a single town or park most of the time. There really wasn't any call for a big organization.

Often, a local sheriff, professor, council member, etc. knows enough about local lore to give hunters a hand when things get too rowdy. It may sound odd, but dealing with a local spirit is a lot like dealing with the town drunk: If you know the signs, you can manage it without too much trouble.

It wasn't until the Devil's Gate opened that there was a reason for even state-level responses to the supernatural. The couple hundred demons that busted out were coordinated at least nationally. Later, the leviathans were even more organized in trying to take over the USA.

I suspect that after these events the federal government is starting to wake up. Chances are that there have always been members of the FBI, CIA, NSA, Congress, Department of Defense, etc. who knew some lore. Now with the signs as big as they are, there's probably a growing movement to develop a modern supernatural response force.


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

[User] [Star Wars] is Emperor Palpatine a very present public official in the Empire akin to Hitler, or is he shadowy and mostly absent with a relatively low profile? Is it widely known that he is a Sith Lord or more of an open secret/maybe conspiracy theory that he may be one?

[Assistant]
He was a huge public figure early in his career as Chancellor, always in the spotlight and always on the holonet. However, unlike the loud and inflamed persona that Hitler presented, Palpatine gave off the airs of a kind, loving, yet stern and determined grandfatherly figure. Hitler stirred the anger of the audience and warped them down a dark path. Palpatine smiled and made everything feel like it was going to be okay, even as the galaxy went to hell around him. (of course, because he made it that way) He made grandiose speeches about how great things would be once the Clone Wars were over, and implored people to remain strong and united while he watched over them all.

No one knew he was a Sith, because no one knew what Sith were. In the thousand years since their last major defeat and the beginning of the Rule of Two, the Sith had systematically removed themselves from history. They not only plunged into the dark background of the galaxy in a physical sense, they broke into libraries and databases, hacked records, and removed themselves from the common galactic memory. Time did the rest as people moved on from the last great wars. Even the Jedi began to seriously think that the Sith were long extinct and no longer a threat, hence why their initial response to Darth Maul was so lukewarm.

Even if people knew Palpatine was affiliated with a religion called "Sith", it meant nothing to them. Just the private beliefs of an old man who needed a source of strength and comfort during a stressful time. In fact, this was another trap Palpatine had set for the Jedi. Because when they came to arrest him for being a Sith lord, he rightfully accused them of religious intolerance, which is hugely illegal in the Republic.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are dogs/cats noses so wet?

[Assistant] Because they lick them. The reason they lick their noses is to keep them moist. The moisture on the nose helps hold onto scent particles so the sensitive receptors in the nose can identify them better. It also keeps the skin softer.