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

[User]
I do not believe legal consequences should exist for any other purpose than to influence future behavior. CMV

In general, I believe that every action we take or decision we make is nothing more than the product of a series of chemical reactions/propagations in the brain ultimately triggered by external/environmental forces. Therefore, I do not believe anyone can truly be held accountable for any action they take. To take this notion further, I believe that the purpose of legal consequences is (or should be) to influence aggregate behavior and not for the purpose of vengeance, retribution, or as some kind of counterbalance for a given transgression. For example, punishments solely designed to appease victims and/or their families do not benefit society and any minimal benefit does not warrant the cost of performing them.

.... buuut, Im just another imperfect ape roaming this rock and probably havent considered a lot of things. Change my view.

**Update:** As has been pointed out, there is a distinction to be made between civil law and criminal law. For the purposes of this topic, I am only focusing on criminal law. I haven't given much thought to the civil side of things, at least enough to have an opinion on it (and also whether or not it should be viewed in the same way).

[Assistant]
>For example, punishments solely designed to appease victims and/or their families do not benefit society and any minimal benefit does not warrant the cost of performing them.

Such punishments, by providing a sense of closure to the victims, discourage vigilanteism and encourage people to seek prosecution; both of which are valuable for society.


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

[User]
[Doctor Who] What motivates the Weeping Angels?

Most of the Doctor's enemies want to enslave, destroy, or EXTERMINATE. Not the Angels. They just want to kill and reproduce. Why? To what end? What is self-actualization for a Weeping Angel?

- They are at least as intelligent as Time Lords, since they understand time travel, the nature of time, and how to work a TARDIS
- They cannot even look at each other so direct teamwork is impossible, as in no means of industry of organized society

I feel like Angels could function well embedded within other societies. Encased alone in bunkers where they could live comfortably and work remotely. Communicating over electronic audio with other being and contributing to society this way.

[Assistant] Weeping Angels have a big problem; they are very long lived and need to feed in a very strange way. They can't live in isolation from other species and they can't really work together very well without risking seeing each other and they could only communicate with another species by stripping out someone's nervous system and voice box. They might not even be able to use the TARDIS, just feed from it's energy. So their only motivation is to survive and thrive, like any other species because their defences mean that they can't really do anything else.


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

[User]
ELI5: F = ma

If you fell out of a plane and hit terminal velocity, why do you still die when a = 0?

Why can you push a box at a constant velocity?

[Assistant]
You are right -- a  = 0 when you're falling. But it's not the fall that kills you. The acceleration (or, rather, DECELERATION) that occurs when you hit the ground is immense, and provides the force to kill you.

You'll have to explain the second question a little bit better for me to answer.


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

[User]
Is there a certain philosophy that says nothing holds any inherent meaning, only that which you give it?

I was wondering, is there a certain type of philosophy that states nothing has meaning until you decide that it means something to you? I guess it's similar to nihilism, but I can't find a proper definition of a philosophy like that.

[Assistant]
Existentialism is the belief that through a combination of awareness, free will, and personal responsibility, one can construct their own meaning within a world that intrinsically has none of its own.

Nihilism is the belief that not only is there no intrinsic meaning in the universe, but that its pointless to try to construct our own as a substitute.

Absurdism is the belief that a search for meaning is inherently in conflict with the actual lack of meaning, but that one should both accept this and simultaneously rebel against it by embracing what life has to offer.


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

[User] [Dune] What about Paul is so immediately recognizable to the Fremen as the fulfillment of prophecy after the Atreides land on Arrakis?

[Assistant]
the missionaria protectiva is a set of superstitions, planted by the bene gesserit, to protect members of the BG.

the goal of the kwizatz haderach program is to produce a male BG who can tap into male ancestral memory. he would be the male child of a BG, so the missionaria would have superstitions particularly focused on any such male.

the fremen knew jessica was BG. i don't recall if the book explains how the fremen knew jessica was BG, but it certainly fits her character to advertise it, to protect both herself and paul.


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

[User] ELI5: How can the Hubble Space Telescope keep its lens pointed in the same spot to take long exposure shots when it's orbiting the Earth every 97 minutes?

[Assistant]
Hubble uses six gyroscopes to know exactly where it's pointing. These are devices that act a bit like a compass, and always point in the same direction even when the telescope is orbiting.

Next it has four reaction wheels which actually move the telescope. These just use Newton's 3rd law of motion; if the wheel spins one way then the telescope spins the other.

Finally when it's observing, an instrument called the Fine Guidance Sensor will lock on to nearby stars, and make sure the telescope stays precisely pointed in the same direction/orientation.


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

[User] ELI5: why do airline mics sound so bad?

[Assistant]
Depends on which Mic?

The one who hear in the cabin?
These are played out over cheap loudspeakers. There main purpose is to signal an evacuation. They will do this fine when a pilot loudly and clearly calls for it. The chit chat pilots  do and all the other attendant announcements are really only a secondary function. As the evacuation announcement is considered safety critical there is a minimum amount of speakers required. So it really is quantity over quality. A typical A320 has 30 rows, a speaker every 3 rows on both sides is around 20 speakers not including the toilets and galleys. To swap them all out to a higher quality one adds up fast.

The ATC mics?
Depends on which radio they are using. Long range ATC comms is done with HF radio which is terrible sound quality. Easily interfered with due to weather etc and is AM modulated so old tech but still has better range then VHF.

VHF is the main ATC comms radio. It is actually pretty clear most of the time and shows the Mics can be pretty good on aircraft. It is affected by reception issues so terrain etc and has a much shorter range that can affect its quality.

Cockpit voice recording mics?
There is usually 4 / 5 mic recordings. One for each radio in the cockpit and one "Area Mic" in the cockpit to record everything. But this is specifically designed to be a wide area mic picking up more sounds but at a lower quality, again designed to be quantity over quality.

With all of the above (except for the area mic) it is usually the same microphone used but the different systems affect its quality in different ways. Modern airline microphones are actually mid to high range mics and not cheap at all. They do get dropped and banged around Alot so they are usually beefed up physically at the cost of some performance but would still be a higher quality of most common consumer microphones.


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

[User] ELI5: How can 1 strand of optic fibre hold more then one phone call at a time?

[Assistant]
There are actually a few ways that this is accomplished, used simultaneously.

One is "time division multiplexing".  Computers are able to process signals much, much faster than is required to recreate a human voice.  A voice call needs only about 8 kilohertz (8 thousand samples per second) to get reasonable quality.  Since computers are so much faster, they can simply transmit the bits from Conversation 1, then C2, then C3, ... eventually going back and transmitting the next bits from C1, then C2, etc.

Another way is by "frequency multiplexing".  You take one stream of calls as described above and transmit it on one carrier frequency...one particular color of light.  You take another stream and transmit it on another color of light.  And so on.  Since you can send many, many colors simultaneously, you can transmit many streams of data on the same fiber.  And remember, each of those streams carries multiple phone calls.

And finally, fiber optic cables used for telecommunications are rarely made of one strand; they are typically bundles of many strands.


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

[User]
[The Purge] How do Canada and Mexico spend Purge day?

Given that their biggest neighbor goes fucking crazy for a day, how do these countries react?

I'm thinking a complete lockdown of the borders (no one in or out) and full military presence in the bordering towns, just in case.

Canada is way more affected since its major cities are very close to the border.

Would they close schools and business for 24 hours? Or the people just don't care and go about their day?

Edit 1: some are saying the USA government wouldn't let anyone leave. How?? Desertion is not a crime during the Purge.

I'd expect every soldier and even more so police officers to just go home to take care of their family instead of guarding the borders.

[Assistant] Likely they'd close the ports for the day and increase security but assuming that US laws keep people inside the borders on purge night more than likely it'd be a minor influx of poorer people fleeing rather than lunatics chasing them into another country.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do companies design bottles in such way that you can't get all of the product (e.g. Ketchup or shampoo) out of the bottle?

[Assistant] function is one of the lesser priorities when designing a product that is going to be seen on store shelves especially. The aesthetic is going to drive more sales than the amount of product that gets stuck in the bottom of the bottle. Also there is a shipping aspect, fitting as many of the product into as small of a box as possible, which means designing the bottles in a way that lets you stack them efficiently.


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

[User]
ELI5: How come fascism is growing in Europe when Europe's bloody history have taught us fascism is really bad?

In the shadow of recent Swedish government elections where the neo-fascist party got almost 13% of the votes and this seems to be a trend throughout all of Europe. I'm curious, why this is happening? Anyone have any theories or hard facts?

[Assistant] Is it really so difficult to understand? There is no neo-fascist party in Sweden. They are nationalists, meaning that they don't want open borders and they don't want the European Union. In other words, they want Sweden to be an independent sovereign state. The reason that they are growing is because the problems of immigration are becoming more and more surfaced, and the government has no plans to change anything. It is not because of an economic recession, or because of "fear". Highly educated and well-off people are voting for this party, and the party is most popular where there are a lot of immigrants. Not everybody wants multi-culturalism.


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

[User]
Should I give up?

So I graduated with 2.53 gpa from a state university, which even though I did better in my philosophy courses, is very much subpar. I want to go back to school and get a masters in either Chinese Philosophy or Social Science, however I'm sure with my gpa that will be incredible difficult.

I'm wondering what my options are at this point. Is there a way to bring my gpa up through paying for online classes on my own through the school I graduated in? Should I look into getting a second bachelors and simply doing better in those classes?

Should I just give up on wanting to go to graduate school?

[Assistant]
You can for sure get an MA with a 2.53.  This is the wrong question to worry about.  You should worry about what such an MA would cost and what such an MA could do for you.

Why do you want the MA?  Do you want it for a later PhD or some other reason?


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

[User]
Could the asteroid belt ever form into another planet?

I know how planets form, but could the asteroid belt ever theoretically form into a new planet, or is there something about the gravitational pull of Jupiter and/or Mars that is keeping it from occurring?

[Assistant]
There's not nearly enough mass there. The whole thing has less than a fifth of the mass of Pluto.

One might ask, then, if it could form a *dwarf* planet and the answer is it already has. It's called Ceres. Ceres accounts for more than half the mass of the *entire* asteroid belt.

There's a theory that the belt was previously considerably more massive hundreds of times more massive  but that mass has been scattered over the aeons by the gravitational influence of the other planets. That may be true and it may not, but the bottom line is that the mass that's *currently* there is far too small to form a planet.


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

[User]
How long will two 12v batteries heat a small room for?

I would like to set up a bike with a car alternator, put two 12v batteries in parallel, get an inverter and plug a low power heater into it to say, keep my (small)room temperature 22 Celsius in winter. How long would i have to cycle for to charge them?, to heat my room for how many hours? basically is it worth doing, or would i be exhausted for little result?

[Assistant]
The voltage of the battery is only one piece of the puzzle and on its own doesn't say much about how much energy it contains. The second component is the amount of charge in the battery. This is often measured in Ampere-hour (short: Ah) or milli-Ampere-hour (mAh). 1 Ampere-hour is simply the amount of charge that allows a 1 Ampere current to flow for 1 hour.

The energy content of a battery can be calculated by multiplying the voltage with the charge content. The outcome is expressed in Watt-hour, Wh. 1 Wh is the amount of energy used in 1 hour with a power of 1 Watt. 1 Wh is equal to 3600 J (Joule).

So a 12 V battery with 10 Ah of charge (which through quick googling seems to be a decent amount for a rechargable 12 V batterypack) will be able to provide 120 Wh of energy (or 432 kilo-Joule (kJ)). What can you do with this? Well, a 60 W lightbulb uses 60 Wh over the course of 1 hour. So you could run a 60 W bulb for 2 hours.

Small electric heaters that are intended to heat an entire room (as opposed to those that just blow hot air at a single person) use between 1 and 2 kW of power. That means that you're 12 V, 10 Ah battery would be depleted in about 4 to 8 minutes. Twice that if you use two batteries. This is not counting any losses due to inefficiencies in power conversion (which will be turned into heat, so they're not actually losses when heating up the place is the goal).

Suppose you use a heater that is designed to only heat you as a person rather than the room. You can find these at around 500 W. The 12 V / 10 Ah pack could power this for about 15 minutes in the ideal scenario. How long would you have to cycle to charge it?

According to Wikipedia, the best bike dynamos will provide about 6 W of useful power output. Ignoring any losses while charging, this means that you need to bike for just 20 hours to charge up 120 Wh of battery capacity.

So 20 hours of biking for 15 minutes of heating. Not really worth it.

A somewhat related point of interest is that you have a more effective long term space heater available. You typically fuel it with various forms of biomatter (most models take plant and animal remains, though some shun the latter) and averaged over the day, this heater produces about 100 W of heat.

That's right. The average daily energy consumption of a human adult is somewhere around the 2000 KCal, which is 8.4 MJ. That boils down to around 100 W. Of course, in periods where you're active this'll be higher than in the passive moments. But even in passive moments it's a non-trivial amount. Which is why poorly ventilated rooms can heat up noticably when people stay in them for an extended period of time.

That means that you can still heat up your room by cycling, without having to mess around with batteries and space heaters. As long as you do the cycling inside your room. Your own heat production will heat the room much more than any battery-based solution ever could.

edit: Several people have correctly pointed out that a bike dynamo is meant for powering a small light while the bike still has to move. If you don't have to move, you can of course generate considerably more power. Ultimately though, you won't be able to power a very moderate space heater (1 kW) directly yourself with a 1:1 charge:use time ratio. Even a personal heater at 500 W will take an extremely good physical condition to reach 1:1 charge:use time.


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

[User] How come mosquitos do not spread blood borne diseases like HIV and Hep C?

[Assistant]
Mosquitos do not inject blood when they bite. Just saliva. So for most blood borne viruses like HIV, the virus can not replicate in the mosquitos digestive system, and never makes it into its saliva.

Malaria on the other hand is essentially designed for transmission by mosquitos. it grows and reproduces in the mosquitos digestive system and move into the mosquitos salivary system to be injected the next time it feeds.


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

[User] [MCU] What was Nazi Germany's response to Hydra going rogue? Did they also have a special task force or department dedicated to fighting Hydra?

[Assistant]
Well, here's the thing:  by the time ol' Adolf and the Krauts learned their little science boys were going off the deep end, they were already up to their necks in true-blue Americans.  So while, sure, the Nazis were making chin music about tracking down what was left of Hydra, let's be honest, they didn't really have the borrowed brass to do so.

Besides, them crafty Krauts had already snuck a spy or two into seeing the USO shows and they knew what would happen if Adolf came anywhere near Cap.  Who wants to get a punch in the kisser by the real Ubermensch, anyway?


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

[User]
[Aliens] Is it possible to survive an alien bursting out of your chest?

What would it take? Multiple infusions? Heart and lung transplants? Radical thoracic surgery? Years of intense psychiatric therapy?

[Assistant]
It bursts from your stomach and through the ribcage, fucking up shit on the way.

You are now an open stew of your insides being decomposed by your own digestive acid.

There ain't nothing you can do for that short of....
Well, no, there is still nothing you can do. Just hope you die fast.


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

[User] ELI5: How come when we touch something hot, it takes a few seconds to realize its full hotness?

[Assistant] Heat is energy transfer from one object to another. Since it's not instant it takes some time for the energy to transfer. So you can grab something hot and your skin takes a moment to get enough energy or heat for your nerves to start going "TOO HOT"


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

[User] ELI5: Most countries in the world seem to be in debt. Who exactly do they owe? Are there any consequences for them being in debt?

[Assistant] They owe regular people mostly. The vast majority of US debt, for example, is owned by American citizens in the form of government bonds. It makes more sense if you recognize it's not the country, but the government that's in debt. Just like a company can borrow from banks or private investors, the government can borrow from people or other countries (in the form of government bonds).


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

[User]
[Star Trek] The Tamarians can only speak in metaphor, how did they develop warp drive?

A key element of working as a team (which presumably researching, developing and building a warp drive would require - along with all the preceding developments that enable it) is effective communication. Speaking only in metaphor, how did the Tamarians manage to build effective teams?

Further, since their metaphoric language depends largely on historical reference, how do we get from the "first" reference to the second and so on, in order to construct a language capable of expressing enough information to build anything? Where did the words come from in the first place?

A society which can only look back must surely not be able to move forward.

[Assistant]
1) Math is seperate in their language.  While they do not have direct words for numbers and operations, there is a system that is musical in nature (whistles and such) that can be used for math complex enough to develop Warp drive.
2) Children are taught language in school similar to Federation children, except teaching tends to consist of "plays" that bestow the meaning of more complicated phrases.
3) Their brains are fundamentally different from human brains and tuned to both understand and more importantly remember a vast number of such "metaphors".
4) Many people who learned English (or another language that uses Latin or similar letters) wonder how children of Asian cultures can remember such a vast array of characters to write with.  The difference between Tamaranian language and other Humanoid species is similar.


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

[User] ELI5: How do the underwater internet cables going across continents not snap to plate tectonics or by being suspended across oceanic ridges?

[Assistant] The cables are not that tight.  They're more like an extension cord lying across the yard. Lots of slack.  In fact, if they have to do repairs, they snag the cable with hooks and haul it to the surface.  There's plenty of slack.


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

[User] ELI5: Why was the historical development of beer more important than that of other alcoholic beverages?

[Assistant]
Beer (and wine and mead) come first. All other alcoholic beverages are products of refining (properly "distilling") the various beers into stronger mixtures.

So to make vodka, for instance, one makes a potato mash, then ferments that mash into potato beer, then uses heat and condensation to separate the alcohol from the water, concentrating the beer into a liquor.

So beer isn't "more important" as a comparison of equals, it's a predicate. So the invention of the wheel is more _significant_ than the invention of the tire, because you have to make the wheel _first_ and wrapping that wheel with padding makes it into a tire.

Without the predicate the follow-on technology never happens.

So without beer there are no other alcoholic beverages.

In general the historians talking about this subject are talking about the "big three" - beer, wine, and mead - when they talk about the discovery of beer. Since wine needs specifically grapes, and mead needs the domestication of honey, while beer can be made from any grain or sugar in general, it's something of an understood generalization.

There is far more beer-making land throughout the cradles of civilization than there is wine or mead producing land.

So the beer is though to come before the domestication of bees for mead, the domestication of the grape for wine, the domestication and enrichment of fruit trees for cider.

So the various grain beers was likely first and foremost, and certainly lead to the invention of the other alcohols.

There is some evidence that it also lead to the domestication of yeasts and so the baking of leavened bread.


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

[User]
How dense were insect populations 50,000, 10,000 and 2000 years ago?

Just wondering how fly covered things were and how irritated/bitten humans were back then. Is there evidence of coping strategies/insecticides etc?

[Assistant]
We know people used plants that are naturally insect repellent for bedding by at least 200kya at Border Cave in South Africa (Wadley et al 2020).

We also know that hunter gatherers pretty much the world over commonly kept dung fires smoldering to keep flies away.

There also have been arguments that land clearance for prehistoric agriculture in many tropical civilizations like the Maya may have contributed to dramatically increased mosquito populations, and that this may have even contributed to the abandonment of settlements (e.g Lucero 2006, but theres more sources out there on this topic). So its possible the enormous swarms of mosquitoes often seen in tropical areas today are more of an artifact of human activities and werent as dense prior to agriculture.

Lucero, L. J. (2006). Agricultural intensification, water, and political power in the southern Maya lowlands. Agricultural Strategies, 281-305.

Wadley, L., Esteban, I., de la Pea, P., Wojcieszak, M., Stratford, D., Lennox, S., ... & Sievers, C. (2020). Fire and grass-bedding construction 200 thousand years ago at Border Cave, South Africa. Science, 369(6505), 863-866.


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

[User] ELI5: Why Bashar al-Assad is so universally hated, especially his Arab neighbors?

[Assistant]
To better understand all things in the Middle East a great place to start is to know which countries are ruled by Shia vs Sunni. Sunni (think: many or "manni") are the **vast majority**. Shia is anchored by Iran. Sunni by Saudi Arabia. Both are oil-rich and both consider each other a top rival that practices the "wrong" version of Islam.

Assad is an Alawitte, who is a Shia minority ruling a 74% Sunni majority country. This alone divides him from Jordan, Pre-US Invasion Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and of course his own people.
However he is not alone, as Hezbollah in nearby Lebanon is Shia which is why they are assisting him in fighting.

Assad was the son of the previous ruler, Hafez Assad, who frankly was a dictator. Assad grew up privileged. Combine that with gassing his own people during the civil war and you can find many reasons why he is not liked.


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

[User] [DC] What did the Joker say to his psichiatrist that made her become Harley Quinn?

[Assistant]
He manipulated her into thinking he was her friend, then into thinking he genuinely loved her. Harleen never really had friends and never formed any strong attachments to anyone, so when someone seemed to be showing her genuine affection, she fell head over heels. It didn't hurt that she felt that if she successfully treated the biggest monster in Gotham history, she'd be famous, so she threw herself completely into his world to learn his "secrets".

In some universes, when she talks to the Joker for the first time she misinterprets what he's talking about entirely. He talks about meeting his equal, his better half, someone he truly understands and who understand him. She assumes, since she's the only other person in the room with him, that he's talking about her, especially since he speaks so warmly and with so much conviction. He's of course talking about Batman, but he never explicitly says so. However, he very quickly realizes she made that mistake and continues to intentionally mislead her so she eventually does whatever he says so he can escape. And by then she's at the point of never leaving his side.


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

[User] If Curiosity finds bacteria-like life on Mars, how could we prove it didn't ride up on the rover itself?

[Assistant]
The Curiosity rover actually won't be actively looking for _life_, but rather compounds required for life. So it wouldn't know if it has scooped up bacteria or a complex mix of organic compounds, as the analysis method will destroy the unfortunate bugger anyways - the mass spectrometer will break everything into fragments.

Of course, you can still ask the same question - how do we know the organic compounds aren't from Earth?

The Curiosity rover does have some calibration solids for this. These solid bricks are made with fluorinated organic compounds - very rare in nature - and Curiosity will begin by taking samples from these solids using the same method of sample collection and analysis, as if it were taking a sample from soil - drilling, GC-MS, etc. If the analysis shows that there are organic compounds other than the fluorinated controls, then we know there are stowaway organic compounds from Earth somewhere on the instrument.


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

[User]
Why do large objects appear to move slow?

As in movies, when you see two giants battling, everything they do seems so slow. Or when you're watching a movie centered on ants or something and the humans appear to move slow. Why is this?

[Assistant]
In movies, it's largely artistic, because we expect larger things to move slowly. We expect larger things to move slowly for a couple of different reasons. First, because we usually see large objects at long distances, and a large object moving fast at a long distance appears to be moving slower than a small object up close moving the same (linear) speed. Just think how small Mars appears to be moving in the sky, even though it is both massive and moving quite fast (compared, for instance, to something in low earth orbit, which appears to streak across the sky). Secondly, because of the issue of scale. The volume (and therefore, generally, mass) of objects goes according to the cube of the linear dimensions, so something that is twice as large (such as a giant compared to a human) has 8 times the mass. That means 8 times the inertia, as well, so we usually expect things that large to be slower both to start moving and stop.

In reality, the appearance is mostly caused by distance. Larger objects farther away can appear to be just as big as a smaller object closer, but since it's farther away, even if it is moving at the same linear speed, its angular speed (which is how humans usually measure speed) is lower, so it appears to be moving slower.


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

[User] ELI5: How come when someone holds a door open for someone or multiple people they still feel inclined to touch / push on the door even though they aren't doing anything to it and it's already pushed open?

[Assistant] It's a polite gesture to indicate that, should the person holding the door wish to pass on the responsibility, the person who's touched the open door will step in. A non-verbal way to say "Thank you, you're free to walk onward now" should they want to.


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

[User] If the Earth was shattered into pieces by a massive explosion at its core, would gravity pull the shards back together and more-or-less reform the planet?

[Assistant]
Yes, except for any chunks that received sufficient energy to achieve escape velocity. Those are not coming back.

Edit: and, any chucks that reach orbital velocity may or may not come back, depending on collisions and whatnot.


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

[User]
CMV: Bringing small children to an upscale restaurant is a major breach of etiquette and disrespectful to other patrons.

Let me be more specific on the parameters. Single digit age in a restaurant where one generally expects to pay around 50 dollars or more per person.

The best argument I've heard is that the restaurants wouldn't provide high chairs if this were the case. Though I would suggest it's a mere courtesy to a customer, frowned-upon behavior notwithstanding. And it's becoming a trend in upscale restaurants to place certain child restrictions.

Generally speaking I don't really like kids. I'll get that out if the way. But I'm completely understanding of kids on planes or in stores, or even a typical family diner. It's never fun hearing them go ape shit but it's also never worth complaining about because there's no reasonable expectation for those things to not happen regularly. Sometimes the kid must be on the plane, sometimes mom has to bring the kid grocery shopping on the way home. But in a fancy restaurant? It's pretty inconceivable why little ones *had* to tag along.

They scream. They run around. They throw shit. They break shit. They present a potential safety hazard. It's almost nonsensical for this to be a debate.

This is by no means anti-parent. In fact, if anyone deserves a night out at an upscale place it's parents. But to not be bothered by making separate arrangements for the little ones? Doesn't make much sense at all. Only potentially spoiling your evening and probably someone else's.

This isn't anti-children either. I was a kid once like everyone else. At age 6 if you gave me the choice to have mum drag me to a restaurant in a shirt and tie, only to be told to sit down and shut up; or to a night of Nana's home cooking and TV? Well, I think the answer is obvious. Face it, almost no kid has mature enough taste buds to truly savor a 50 dollar steak. They don't *want* to be there, it's usually why they're so prone to acting out.

[Assistant]
Your view makes  no sense.  Two situations:

1. You go to Ruth's Chris and the table next to you is a Mom, Dad and 8 year old child out to celebrate a great report card.  The family carries on normal conversation at normal volume.  They order their meal, eat, have dessert, pay their bill and leave.

2. You go to Ruth's Chris and at the table next to you is two couples who appear to be in their early 40's.  They sat at the bar for 90 minutes before being seated and are on their 2nd bottle of wine at the table.  They're loud, obnoxious, rude and a general disturbance to everyone around them.  They complain about their food and service, they yell to the waitress across the room and do nothing but draw attention to themselves.

By your view, scenario 1 breaches etiquette and is disrespectful by default, while scenario 2 is A-ok by default.

What is disrespectful and a breach of etiquette is to be loud and obnoxious in an area where loudness and obnoxiousness is not socially acceptable.  The age of the loud and disrespectful person is irrelevant.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Would it be feasible for someone using a double-bladed lightsaber to wear beskar gauntlets (or phrik or cortosis, or any other lightsaber-resistant material) to grab the blade and swing it?

The advantage of staff weapons is supposed to be the reach and the fact that you can effectively grab any part of the weapon safely.

This isn't the case with double-bladed lightsabers, as the hilt in the center leaves you with no more range than a regular lightsaber. In fact, it seems like it would actually restrict your movements as a lot of normally comfortable ways to hold a normal lightsaber would leave you skewering yourself with one end of a double-bladed.

 Could lightsaber-proof gauntlets mitigate this?

[Assistant]
No, for various reasons.

Beskar will melt. It can withstand *hits* of a lightsaber, but sustained contact will eventually reach its melting point.

Cortosis actually interferes with lightsabers on contact, so that one would just short out the blade.

Phrik is near indestructible (a container of it survived the Alderran/Death Star incident), *but* it's not going to protect the hand *inside* the gauntlet from the enormous heat it'll be absorbing. Your hand will combust inside the still-functioning gauntlet if you try and actually *hold* the blade. Anything more than brief contact is going to burn you.


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

[User] [Purge] During the purge is it legal to overthrow the government?

[Assistant]
No.

Some of the few laws that exist on Purge day include: government officials "ranking 10 or higher" must remain unharmed, the use of weaponry above "Class 4" is forbidden, and police and emergency services are suspended. Anyone who doesn't follow the rules is executed.

The whole point of the purge is so that America is "cleansed of its undesirables". Which means the wealthy and powerful can sit back in their fortified bunkers surrounded by heavily armed guards while the poor, minorities, and everyone who isn't part of the elite kill and maim each other. It's literally about keeping the government in power, and letting their friends reap the economic benefits.

A mob of people could certainly try to organize and march on the homes of those in power, but they'll be cut down by the best defenses money can buy. And if any of them survive to the next day, they'll be executed for breaking the law.


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

[User] [LOTR]How powerful were the Numenoreans under Ar-Pharazn?

[Assistant] We dont know a lot about their military cababilities. We know that they had very good ships, and metal bows that were superior to most other bows. Their army was strong and powerful enough that when they landed in middle earth, that was mostly taken over by sauron at that point, saurons armies fled at the sight of them, and Sauron straight up surrendered. They were powerful enough that the remnants of their kingdown, the middle earthian kingdown of that was ancient gondor and anor, had a strong enough military along with the elves to lay siege to mordor for 7 years, and defeat saurons forces.


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

[User]
[Marvel] Has Iron man ever made a suit out of Vibranium or Adamantium? If not, then would it be possible and what would such a suit be capable of?

Surely someone with his resources would be able to obtain the materials necessary to build one, and considering how strong and durable these materials are it would seem improbable that the thought had not occurred to Tony.

If the suit is made out of either of those two I don't believe weight should be an issue, since the hulkbuster must have been EXTREMELY heavy and he still managed to fly around.

In any event, what would the results be of such a suit and would making on from it even be possible?

[Assistant]
It would definitely be possible, since Ultron is made of Adamantium and it would be the same idea.

Hes made a suit of Uru before if youre interested in other super metals; it was awesome, but Odin took it back pretty quickly.


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

[User]
ELI5: How to "snap pops" (the little paper fireworks that go off when you throw them on the ground) work?

There seem to be little rocks (quartz?) in there, what part do they play?

[Assistant] They use a very small amount of a very volatile explosive called silver fulminate.  It takes little in the way or heat or pressure to get the explosive to go off.  In the case of snap pops, they also mix in gravel, that causes enough impact or friction power when thrown to cause the silver fulminate to explode.


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

[User]
ELI5: Single payer healthcare

With all this talk about healthcare in the US I'd like to understand what the single payer model actually is. Thanks!

[Assistant]
Currently, there are a bunch of different private insurance companies who provide health insurance -- BlueCross/BlueShield, Cigna, Humana, Kaiser Permamente, and so on. We get these private insurance plans either through our employer, paying premiums through paycheck withholding, or by buying an individual plan. In addition to these private insurance plans, there are also government run plans like Medicare and Medicaid.

In a single payer system, there is one insurance provider -- the government. Instead of paying premiums to the various companies, we'd pay a healthcare tax. Instead of doctors and hospitals having to deal with all these different insurance companies, and all the different plans they offer, there would be one SINGLE PAYER who pays all the claims. So the doctor is no longer submitting a bill to Cigna and getting $100 reimbursed, and $120 from BlueCross, and $75 from Medicare, and having to make sure claims are coded just-so based on each payers' requirements in order to get the reimbursement and so on. It's all the same requirements, all the same payouts.

In theory, the efficiencies from reducing overhead on billing through this streamlining, along with the lack of profit margins of private companies, and the larger negotiating power of a single payer, mean that the costs could be the same or reduced and yet cover everybody.

There are those who will counter with the "government is never as efficient as private business" but if you've ever dealt with health insurance companies, you know there are as bureaucratic as they come, and that they are not capitalistic businesses in the sense that they have to fight for our business -- typically our employer makes the choice and our options are take it or leave it, so they have no accountability to us as customers.


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

[User]
CMV: Tipping should be removed from the norm.

I strongly do not believe tipping is good for the world. Tipping introduces a lot of issues.

Issues like:
Making customers feel like shit if they can't tip or if they don't tip enough.

If customers tip why should the employer pay a fair wage.

Tipping shouldn't give you better service. If you receive good service, that just means they did their job.

Bonuses from the boss are not tips. Bonuses are just that, they are supplied by the boss. In turn yes you can argue that the client is paying in a way. But that's okay because their not tipping. Let's say a burger costs the company 5$ and charges you 8$. You then tip 2$ because the waiter is under paid.  Would it not be better to charge the customer 10$ for that burger and pay the waiter a fair salary?

If you tip based on salary why don't you tip places like video game industries or dentists etc. These industries are notoriously well known for housing interns. Most of the time these interns are not paid at all.

If you tip based off of effort then why is it restricted to the service industry?

[Assistant]
Tipping as a tradition traces its root back to 1920s Prohibition. A restaurant couldn't put "3 beers" on a receipt - beer was illegal. However, if they sold beer, they wanted to get paid for the beer. Thus, the tip was born - it was a way for restaurants to get paid for food items which they were legally barred from putting on the receipt.

The general justification for tipping follows similar arguments - the tip is supposed to reflect aspects of the restaurant experience - which were not built into the price. Witty banter, smiley faces, general helpfulness - this is what a tip is intended to reflect.

I agree - the weird - YOU HAVE TO TIP OR YOUR A TERRIBLE PERSON - that needs to end. However, giving a few extra $, when someone has gone out of their way to be nice - that makes sense to me.

I give you the money - You give me the donut - end of transaction - this justifies "full price". Going above and beyond, and making the transaction better for me, in a way which isn't reflected on the receipt - that is the purpose of the tip.


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

[User]
ELI5: What is the difference between Public Accounting and Private Accounting?

Do they serve different industries or is it simply a different kind of company they are doing accounting/financial services for? Is there a difference in education/degrees for Public vs. Private?

[Assistant]
It's more who you work for and what you have in your head as your main goal.

Private Accounting, you are there to protect the company you are working for, to ensure they remain within the law.

Public Accounting, you are making sure that other people are remaining within the law.

This is a VERY generalized view of it.


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

[User] ELI5: How come certain sodas (such as root beer or grape soda) are almost always caffeine free?

[Assistant] Caffeine is in colas because they were originally made with the kola nut, which has caffeine.  There's nothing in the ingredients of a rootbeer that would normally cause caffeine to be in the beverage unless you choose to add it.


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

[User]
ELI5: why does dental care cost so much, even in countries with universal health care?

Dental and oral health has been proven to be closely related to general wellbeing, and I would assume that dental care would be easier to provide (less intensive surgeries and overall simpler procedures) if it was cheaper and more easily available. So why does it cost so much, even in countries such as Canada and Sweden which have universal health care?

Asking because I'm shocked every time I get a bill from my dentist for a basic cleaning and check up, not to mention the costs of fillings or intense oral surgery.

[Assistant]
In Canada Dental care is not covered by the national healthcare plan, so it's one of the few things that still requires insurance to help cover. Others include physio therapy, chiropractors, and prescription drugs.

So the question is why? Given that dental care is so important to our health why isn't it covered?

Well the answer is political. When the Canadian government was pushing in Healthcare legislation in the 50's it was an uphill battle. As beneficial as the system was going to be there was a lot of resistance and fighting between Doctors and the Government regarding how the system would work and some compromises had to be made.

Similar to the resistance to moving towards single payer in the US right now. A lot of the same arguments were being made.

Dentistry wasn't nearly as advanced or common place as it is now, back then fillings were possible but the majority of the time Dentists would merely pull out teeth. So while it was discussed as an addition it was eventually dropped. The idea being that the government would look into it later...

Moving to single payer healthcare was such a step up from what we had before that people at the time just accepted it. Dentistry really was an after thought compared to being able to get emergency surgery without paying for it.

Well decades later it still hasn't happened. No government has yet championed the addition of Dentistry to the healthcare system, so Dentistry remains in a pre-50's state where costs aren't government controlled and insurance companies still reign.

This is a case of the field has advanced a lot in 50+ years but the healthcare system hasn't caught up. Dentistry, drugs, eye wear, prosthetics, physio, massage, chiropractic care are all examples of things that could and arguably should be added to our national healthcare system. It's merely a matter of having a government that will get this done.


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

[User]
[MCU] How would Infinity War unfold if Wolverine was in Wakanda and Deadpool was on Titan?

I realize the outcome probably wouldn't be much different, but I wonder if they would give Thanos any trouble or injure him more.

[Assistant]
Wolverine would be a good soldier to have on the field during the battle of Wakanda, but he would not be able to kill enough of those shock troops to make any sizable difference. Then once Thanos showed up with most of the stones, he would not be able to put up much a fight.

However - on Titan, Deadpool would have straight up murdered Dr. Strange and made off with the Time Stone for himself before Thanos even arrived. He would then use his combined Time Stone / Teleporter from Deadpool 2 and absolutely obliterate all continuities. He would literally jump into the previous MCU movies and steal all of the stones for himself.


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

[User]
If we were to harvest asteroids, could we simply slow them down enough to just drop them into our oceans without causing significant damage?

Given advancements in propulsion technology, I can't imagine dropping a huge asteroid near terminal velocity would be that devastating to the ocean or cause massive tidal waves. We used to test nukes in the ocean and they didn't destroy the land around them right?

[Assistant]
If we slow down an asteroid so that it plummets onto the Earth, it will hit the Earth at something like escape velocity - about 11 km/s. It may slow down a bit during reentry, but that just means the kinetic energy is being transferred to the air directly instead of to the ground - the energy reaches the Earth's surface and atmosphere and causes damage regardless.

11 km/s means a kinetic energy of about 60 GJ/tonne. A megaton of TNT equivalent is about 4,000,000 GJ. So if the asteroid is around 100,000 tonnes of weight of less, its impact is in the range of megaton atomic bombs. But that is what you might expect from a typical near-Earth object, maybe <50m in size.

However, there is a wide range of asteroid sizes, and a significant number that are quite big - over 1 km in size. These easily get into the gigaton range of TNT equivalent, hundreds or thousands of times more powerful than the most powerful atomic bomb. These are not the most common type of asteroid, but there's a decent number of them. They're what we really need to watch out for.

Intentionally dropping smaller asteroids still probably is not *great* for the environment, but there we're getting into policy decisions rather than physics.


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

[User]
ELI5 What is umami?

Ive had it explained to me multiple times but I still dont think I understand. What exactly is it?

[Assistant] You may remember being told about taste buds and the flavors they can detect, sweet, salty, sour, and bitter. Umami is the fifth flavor group, usually referred to as savory by English speakers these days.


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

[User]
[LOTR] Do humans worship any Valar specifically?

I know that the Elves worship Varda and the Dwarves worship Aul. Do the humans also worship a particular Valar, and if not do they even know about them?

[Assistant]
The Valar tend to be hands off and religion is likewise similar in Middle Earth. Men don't seem to concern themselves with the Gods.

Easterlings and Southrons, however, tend to worship the current Dark Lord as they spread their influence over the lands outside of Middle Earth.


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

[User]
ELI5: If a vitamin C deficiency can cause old scars to re-open, why can't this be used to heal/remove scars?

I've heard multiple times that scurvy or vitamin C deficincy can cause old scars to open again, can this be used in a controlled way to remove scars?

For example, if someone had a bad facial scar that they wanted removed, couldn't a doctor monitor vitamin C levels until the scar reopens and then treat the injury?

[Assistant] Theres no localized vitamin C deficiency. So if you intentionally cause scurvy, your whole body would experience issues with collagen synthesis, your teeth would start falling out, your joints will hurt, etc etc etc. Probably not worth it to fix a scar


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

[User]
ELI5 what exactly am I eating when I eat eggs?

I've head before that it is a chicken's menstrual cycle, but I've also heard that shot down.

[Assistant]
You're eating an egg!  Here's the thing.  You know that to make babies the female reproductive thingy (an egg) and the male reproductive thingy have to get together, and when they do, babies happen.

In humans, when they get together it's one tiny egg and a sperm fertilizes it.  Then that single fertilized cell starts splitting.  If all goes well, it attaches and a placenta is formed, so all the energy and nutrients it needs to keep growing it gets from the mother while it's growing.

Chicken (or various bird) eggs don't do that.  They have to get all the nutrients they need to make a whole baby chicken from the get-go, they don't get any resupplies.  So that one egg (the female reproductive egg, not the breakfast thing) is one **gigantic cell** that has basically all the nutrients it needs to divide down into all the parts to become a chicken and bust outta the egg.

Now, if that egg doesn't get fertilized by a rooster comin' along and doin' the nasty, the hen puts a shell around it anyway and it'll come out as a breakfast food - one giant tasty cell.

So, ya.  You could say it's the chicken's menstrual cycle, but it doesn't *have* a menstrual cycle, so it's more like a chicken's *version* of a menstrual cycle.


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

[User] Are black holes the only things that cause physics to break down and math calculations extremely difficult? What other areas of reality lead to this?

[Assistant] Physics itself doesn't "break down" near a black hole. The equations we use to model the black hole do. There are other equations, presumably, which correctly describe the black hole in that region, but we just don't know the right equations yet.


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

[User] ELI5: What do people mean when they say that the "banks are screwing us over"? What are the banks around the world doing to screw people over?

[Assistant]
Banks are supposed to hold on to money and to loan money. In exchange for this they invest the money that they hold and give away some of the profits as interest. Meaningful interest from banks disappeared after 9/11 and doesn't' appear to be coming back. So for the longest time, banking money was good for both parties and now it just benefits the banks and not the people as interest is lower than inflation.

The lack of regulation has allowed banks to hold less money (liquidity) and to invest money in more and more risky things (in the search of more and more profit that doesn't get passed along to banking customers via interest). Because there aren't too many banks anymore they account for a huge concentration of our overall wealth (of lower and middle class not America as a whole). So banks holding less money and taking increasingly higher risks, they eventually loose, they've done this a couple of times and a few years ago they lost a fuck ton of money (or really couldn't hide that it was worthless as bad investments and lack of capital caused some banking institutions to fail).

So now they don't have money to keep the lights on, through their own doing, and the us government bails them out so the middle class didn't completely evaporate. This is enough to piss off most people as American's value work and earning quite highly. So people are angry because the banks got a free pass, with out money, that will cost us even more money, and in the mean time they don't have our money and won't loan us any of theirs so we are having trouble making more money.

For all of this trouble, the government throws money at them, they throw money at their executives, and the statute of limitations will be past before anyone mentions any criminal proceedings.

Banks are all about trust and appearance (you don't give your money to idiots or criminals to be safe) and it's pretty hard to see them as noble institutions when they're not keeping up their side of the bargain. \

Edit: if you're speaking generally, Banks make money by owning and people make money by working.


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

[User] If I had a quarter that was as hot as the surface of the sun in my hand, what would it do to the earth?

[Assistant]
Not much; the coin would vaporize, and the heat would disperse pretty quickly. You'd probably lose the hand. Maybe more.

The sun is not that hot on the surface, with an effective surface temperature of around 6000 K.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are there lines and "cracks" on our tongue?

[Assistant]
When it comes to bodily functions, surface area is king. That's why your lungs have millions of fibers, your colon has wrinkles and cilia, and your tongue has so many little "divots" and "cracks".

The increased surface area that comes with a rough surface allows your tongue to fit more taste buds into the same size surface.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is there such a high concentration of religious conservatives in the South in the US?

[Assistant]
The northern states were mostly farm colonies, and the southern states were mostly exploitation colonies.  Those kind of places in the world tend to be poorer, slave colonies that tend to not have had a strong secular system set up, so you get a larger amount of church control over things due to lack of qualified leadership.  Lack of secular systems and education, lead to an overall decrease in the education and knowledge base of the people, which can be more conducive to religious/fundamentalist groups.

For example, part of New England, Argentina, and other places were farm colonies.  People went there to establish institutions and become farmers and permanently live there.  So although church is important, fundamental craziness was kept in check.

Places like Mississippi, El Salvador, etc, were exploitation colonies, where rich nobility invested in heavy labor cash crops, slavery, and wanted to get their money and go home.  They had no interest in permanent institutions so they could get their money and go home.  People are kept in line with religion and other methods, but people are kept poor and uneducated and even when the colonists leave, there's no permanent institutions to run a functioning secular government, and when you have poor, uneducated, people without a functional government, churches do well in these areas.

Fast forward a few hundred years, and you still see the ramifications of farm vs. exploitation colonies, and you'll see areas of more powerful religious fundamentalism vs. more secularized areas where people tried to make a new world for themselves.

Look around the Western Hemisphere and the history of places in South and North America where there was exploitation vs. farm communities, and you'll see pretty much a corresponding level of fundamentalist religion vs. more liberal church participation in the current era.


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

[User] ELI5: Why can't compressed oxygen be transported to india on planes, only on roads and trains?

[Assistant] Containers filled with oxygen are generally not transported on board aircrafts as they are considered combustible and may pose a risk to the planes. Oxygen behaves differently to nitrogen and other inert gases. It is very reactive. Even a small increase in the oxygen level in the air to 24% can create a dangerous situation. It becomes easier to start a fire, which will then burn hotter and more fiercely than in normal air.


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

[User] Can dogs have recessive genes show up in later generations?

[Assistant] Dogs are diploid, so yes. Diploid means that they have two sets of every gene, like every animal. When a living thing has more than one set of genes, one version, or allele, can be dominant to the other. If an organism has one dominant allele and one recessive allele, they will look just like one that has two dominant alleles and no recessive, masking the presence of the recessive trait. When two  doggos mate and each have only 1 recessive allele, there is a chance that their offspring will only have 2 of the recessive alleles, displaying the trait, and skipping a generation.


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

[User] [Mass Effect] Do the reapers turn living organisms into Husks or do they only convert dead bodies into Husks?

[Assistant]
If the person isn't dead when they're first impaled on the spikes (or "dragon's teeth" as the Alliance military calls them), the process that converts their tissues into cybernetic components certainly kills them.

I doubt they particularly care if they put a living being or a corpse on a spike. The body just has to be intact enough for the husk to be a viable addition to the reaper ground forces.


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

[User]
Of the 64 potential amino acids, why does the human body only utilize 20 of them?

Additionally, could "foreign" amino acids code for gene expression, or even physical manifestations of things we have never seen - or would our DNA repair techniques oust new amino acids that are introduced to our genome?

[Assistant] It's backwards.  Codons evolved to represent the 20+ amino acids.  Although there are 64 codons, many are duplicates, coding for the same amino acid.  There's no such thing as "foreign" amino acids becoming integrated into our cells as it's impossible to code them by the existing coding scheme.  Even if you somehow brought alien amino acids to earth, they would go unused as protein build blocks.


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

[User]
[ASOIAF] Why did Lollys name her kid Tyrion? And why's the little kid's last name Tanner?

You'd think he'd be a Stokeworth like Lollys or assume whatever Bronn's last name is.

[Assistant]
The closest thing Bronn has to a last name is "of the blackwater." Lowborn people in Westeros often don't have last names.

They named the kid Tyrion because Bronn is a cocky jokester. It was sort of in honor of his boss and almost friend Tyrion Lannister, but also just to freak out Cersei.

He's a Tanner and not a Stokeworth because he's a bastard. Nobody knows who the kid's father actually is, but Lollys was raped near a tanning shop, so they went with Tanner as a last name.


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

[User]
[Lord of the Rings] So middle-earth was flat in the beginning... how did it become a sphere?

It is my understanding that the first Middle-Earth that the sons of Eru created was a like a disc shaped flat surface, with two trees on each corner.
How exactly did it become a sphere?

[Assistant] The last king of Nmenor, Ar-Pharazn, was corrupted by Sauron, who convinced him to try to conquer Valinor.  The Valar had, at this time, lost any taste for fighting, appealed to Eru, who bent the world ahead of the Nmenrean fleet, sinking them and Nmenor.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why were some clones better than others? How were they ranked?

Why were some clones like Captain Rex and Commander Cody so much more skilled than other clones? How did they become much higher ranks than the others? Wouldnt all the clones be equally skilled since theyre all the same person that go through the same training?

[Assistant]
Clones are genetically identical but they aren't the same person. Their personalities vary - almost all have the minimum competence to be a soldier, but some are more competent and more determined to take leadership roles or specialize (clones often opted into specializations and received advanced training).

Edit: forgot to mention that clones were created in batches/generations. Older clones (like Rex and Cody) had more opportunity to rise up the ranks while Kamino was still pumping out fresh batches of shinies to serve as their subordinates.


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

[User] ELI5: How do they make controlled demolitions safe? Why is does dust/ash/smoke not fill the streets like it did with 9/11?

[Assistant]
Buildings undergoing controlled demolition are cleaned ahead of time.

Electrical wiring, wood, doors, furniture, carpets, glass etc are all removed ahead of time to prevent fires, debris, splinters etc.

Parts of the buildings are also wrapped to contain debris and dust.

You'll also often see water sprayers in the area, the increased humidity helps prevent dust from forming and spreading.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does a hot shower dry out skin when a hot bath does not?

[Assistant]
They will both dry out your skin, but some difference might be perceived due to this:

In a hot shower, youre rinsing the moisturizing oils off of your skin and theyre going down the drain. In a bath, the oils that you just rinsed off are now floating on top of the water. You retain more of the oil that way. Same concept for body wash and other products. The moisturizing oils from those products have a better opportunity to soak into your skin when youre laying in a bath versus rinsing them away with a constant stream of water.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do our cheap electronic clocks automatically change time when its spring forward?

I have a cheap electronic clock from Walmart. Did it get programmed for the next 6 years or how ever long it may last as an appliance? Or is this some circuit board clock embedded? I seriously have no idea.

[Assistant] Did it automatically set its time? There are radio stations that broadcast the time is a format that can be easily deciphered by electronics. This allows clocks to automatically set the time and change to DST.


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

[User] ELI5 Why human babies take so long to learn how to walk compared to other animal babies.

[Assistant]
Human babies take a long time to develop because they are born less mature than other animals. Why is this?

Humans have one major advantages over other animals: Advanced tool use. This requires a big brain and free hands to manipulate things. Walking upright gives us the hands free, and narrower hips help to walk upright. A big brain allows the smarts for understanding tools and complex visual processing.

But the brain needs to be protected inside a skull, and the skull needs to pass through the pelvis at birth. Now you have opposing demands: Narrow pelvis and big skulls! Everything is pushed to its limit in the competition of needs. The birth is painful and relatively dangerous, the skull isn't fully fused at birth so it can be squished, and humans are born relatively prematurely. It is OK though because humans can care for their offspring rather than requiring them to be able to run within hours like deer.


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

[User] ELI5: When animals appear to be smiling, are they really doing so out of joy or is it just a human misinterpretation?

[Assistant] Animal body language and signals are very different from ours.  Apes for example, can be taught to smile as we do, but in the wild, displaying your teeth is a threat or sign of aggression.  Their "happy" smile is an open mouth with no teeth showing.


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

[User]
[general sci-fi] Why is it considered a paradox when a person meets their past/future selves?

And why is it potentially universe/timeline damaging?

[Assistant] the past version has the opportunity to make changes in their life after meeting their future self which could lead to that future version not existing which means they wouldn't meet their past self which means they wouldn't make the changes which means the original future self would indeed exist etc etc etc...its just a bad idea.


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

[User]
[MIB][Independence Day] After the events of the first movie the MIB have to cover up the whole thing. What does this plan look like?

The entire agency got erased from existence by a powerful alien that wanted to watch earth burn. Other members of his race eventually notice this act. After they kill him they decide to undo his erasure but not the invasion of earth.

[Assistant]
At that point they wouldn't cover it up. The whole point of cover up is preventing humanity from imploding on itself with the knowledge of alien life. Given the aliens tried to commit mass genocide against humans, then the status quo is dying in ignorance or dying with full knowledge.

If MiB wasnt completely destroyed, they'd likely be restructured into a global diplomatic agency. Then seek out as much help as they could against the invaders. There's a good chance alien nationals from other worlds were killed in the invasion. Their respective government would not take kindly to someone killing their own willy nilly.


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

[User]
[Land Before Time] How does the Great Valley keep out carnivores?

Adults long necks like Littlefoot's grandparents got through so it can't be a size thing. Even if it were, it isn't just the T rex's being blocked out; raptors are blocked from coming in too and a small opening wouldn't stop them. So what stops carnivores from coming in?

[Assistant]
Herbivores in a herd are actually capable of killing a carnivore pretty easily.  This is why carnivores usually kill the old or the sick herbivores who can't keep up with the herd, and they usually hunt as a pack.

If there's only one entrance to the valley, and the herbivores are smart enough to speak and reason, then it's pretty trivial to just set up a bunch of guards near the entrance and bludgeon any carnivores who try to enter.


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

[User]
How does chickenpox keep re-appearing if it's so hard to get it twice?

All the comparisons of Delta COVID to chickenpox in terms of communicability made me wonder - if almost everyone gets chickenpox as a child and is then immune, how does it keep coming back? There must be a vector for it, I mean there has to be one kid who gets it and gives it to the rest - how do they come into contact with it if adults are basically immune? Does it just, like, exist in the air forever? How has it not been eradicated by herd immunity at this point? Would love an explanation for this.

[Assistant] The virus that causes chickenpox goes dormant after infection. Stress and other things can trigger reactivation which leads to shingles. People with shingles are contagious and can pass it to children who can then pass it to other children etc.


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

[User]
Why can a console run exclusive games better than an emulator with better specs?

For example; Wind Waker on a Dolphin Emulator with specs that definitely exceed a GameCube, yet runs perfectly on the GameCube.

[Assistant]
Lets say someone tried to teach you how to understand Japanese by giving you a book with all the rules of the Japanese language and all the words.  Every time you needed to understand something in Japanese you would have to look up in that book and determine what it means in your own language.  It would take you a lot longer to understand a simple Japanese sentence than it would be if it were said to you in your own language.

An emulator for a computer is like that book.  The Gamecube has a different processor than your PC and so it needs a translator (the emulator) to translate the Gamecube games into a language your computer understands.  There is a lot of overhead processing your computer has to do to understand the Gamecube programing so it takes a lot more effort for it to emulate a Gamecube game;  the same way it would take you a lot longer to understand Japanese by having to look it up in that book.  This is why it takes a significantly more powerful computer to emulate something technologically weaker in specs.


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

[User] Why do some gifs play completely smoothly, while others are so slow and jerky they're unwatchable? Is the problem with the gif, or with my device, or some combo?

[Assistant] Often, the image is just too large to fit in cache (rapidly accessible memory for your device) so the data has to be streamed into the processor/graphics chip from elsewhere, e.g., from RAM or from disk. This is much slower and if the rate of data transfer isn't fast enough (the application is "memory bandwidth starved"), it can't keep up with the desired frame rate.


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

[User]
[MCU]/[IRL] Between the Battle of New York, The Convergence (Thor 2), the Expansion (GOTG 2), and the Snap, MCU-Earth has been through multiple '2020s', sometimes back-to-back. In one decade the public has experienced First Contact, multiple alien attacks, etc... How has this changed culture?

At one point the President of the United States was kidnapped by fire-breathing terrorists. The Hulk broke Harlem. An evil AI tried to end life on the planet. SHIELD, one of the only beacons of stability, turned out to have been subverted by evil terrorists and self destructed.

Its only been one year for us and already 2020 has spawned entire new genres of meme (e.g 'explaining the pandemic/election/etc... to my past self') and sparked widespread debate on multiple issues.

MCU Earth has been going through this for years at this point. Children have been born and raised in a world where absolutely no one has any idea what might happen next, to the point where saying you're from an alternate dimension is now a plausible 'origin story' to claim.

The current state of their cultural consciousness must be truly ridiculous.

[Assistant]
Well people are terribly resilient, as long as they have air conditioning, beer, cigarettes, sex, television they can keep calm and carry on.

Also, people are stupid.

People were running up to Thor to get his picture when Loki was legitimately right behind him.

People are desperate to hold on to normalcy in the face of the terrible and the unknown.

If Dormammu succeeded guaranteed people would be committing suicide left right and centre.
That kind of thing is something that is to big for people to comprehend theres a reason people are scared of the dark.

In the aftermath of the snap, it was absolutely terrible, everyone lost someone they knew but some of the avengers survived and relayed what basically happened.

But life continued on.

Even when Graviton was ripping up Chicago the moment the SHIELD team arrived in the Zephyr they blared over the radio/loud speakers who they were and were here to help.

People are desperate to believe in heroes, heroes that will save them.


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

[User]
How did viral DNA become part of the human genome?

There are some answers discussing how it was detected, or what they do, but none touch the topic of how viruses become part of our DNA. Specifically by what mechanism can anything external get integrated in anyone else dna?

[Assistant]
The life cycle of a virus goes as follows. A virus attaches to their specific host, then inject their genetic material into the host. The host then gets "fooled" into reading this material and making more and more viruses. Once there's so many viruses that the host can no longer perform the function to keep itself alive, it essentially explodes and releases the next generation of viruses into the world.

Viruses can copy their DNA into their host for this purposes, but sometimes the virus is over powered or the cell survives infection and the genetic material the virus input is kept. If this happens in a gamete (sperm or egg cell) that goes on to be fertilized, that viral input is copied from the gamete to every daughter cell and voila, you have inserted viral genes into a multicellular organism.


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

[User]
ELI5: how is it that a domestic battery conviction does not kill a celeb's career?

like chris brown for example. he beat the shit out if Rihanna, but no one seems to care anymore that he's a shitty person. his career is doing fine. female artists keep collaborating with him. he's making tons of money. how is it that in this day an age people are so forgiving of domestic abusers in the entertainment industry?

[Assistant] Well, you see Brian, authenticity is valued in certain musical genres. If you're gonna make, um, art, depicting yourself slappin' hoes, you're expected to actually slap a hoe every now and again. It's just like in country music. Nobody wants to hear a song about drinking and driving in a four by four sung by a Mormon.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does the light on chargers remain lit for a couple seconds after it has been unplugged?

[Assistant]
Capacitors. The charger contains capacitors, which you can think of as being a bit like batteries (they're different in important ways, but the point is they store electrical energy). It uses them for things like smoothing over any irregularities in the mains power supply.

When you disconnect mains power, the capacitors are still charged, and the status light runs on that charge. Eventually it uses it up, and the light fades out.

Try turning off the charger while a device is still connected, as though to charge: you'll see that the light goes out much faster because the stored energy has somewhere to go beyond keeping the little light on.


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

[User] ELI5; How much diamond has not been uncovered yet? And how much will the price of diamond be when all of it is uncovered?

[Assistant]
Diamonds aren't particularly rare.

Most diamonds are held by a cartel named DeBeers which only releases as many diamonds per year as they choose to, so as to ensure an artificial scarcity to keep prices up.  The rest of the price is in marketing.

Besides, it's now possible to have lab-created diamonds that are functionally identical to mined diamonds.


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

[User]
[Guardians of the Galaxy] Why do the Nova Corps ships have the ability to link up?

It seems like there aren't a lot of reasons to use that ability. The Nova Corps can fight people in space when not ambushed, can put engines on any incoming asteroids, and wouldn't often need to stop someone from reaching the surface at all costs. What other purposes does the link-up ability of the Nova Corps ships have?

[Assistant]
Restraining target vessels nonlethally. Sometimes you want to grab a guy, not blast him to bits.

Also, space battles do in fact produce debris, some of which might be large enough to cause significant casualties.


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

[User] ELI5: Why cancer is so hard to cure.

[Assistant]
'Cancer' isn't like the flu, where a single disease is caused by a particular type of invader. It's more of a blanket term we use to describe a group of cells in a person's body that are going wild.

Think of a classroom where kids generally behave well, but every once in a while, there's a kid who gets bonked on the head too hard and starts acting badly. He recruits some other kids to join his group of misbehaving children (in reality, this is cell reproduction) and his group grows and grows. Suddenly, there are lots of misbehaving kids!

Now pretend you're the school administrator and there's 100 million kids in your school - how do you solve the problem? Usually, the teachers take care of behavior problems before they get too big, but every once in a while, the group of misbehaving children grows too fast to be taken care of. If the kids are all in the same classroom, you can find them and expel them as a group, but what happens if some of the kids sneak into other classes and start recruiting kids?

Often times, the kids all look the same when inspected individually. And they're still kids, so you can't just poison the school lunch to send them home sick because misbehaving kids eat the same food as normal kids.

That's what cancer is - normal cells that misbehave and multiply.


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

[User] ELI5: How do evolution deniers use the laws of thermodynamics to prove their case against evolution?

[Assistant]
They take the notion of entropy, and point out that current scientific knowledge points out two things. First, entropy is always rising. Second, complex biological organisms decrease entropy.

That sounds like a contradiction, right? That's the argument they make: there *must* be some divine intervention or, according to our best science, there would be no way for complex organisms to evolve.

As you may have already guessed, the people making this argument are *not* trained scientists. They're missing a crucial detail: entropy always rises in a closed system (one which has no energy coming in). The Earth is not a closed system. In fact, none of the systems discussed by evolution, or biology in general, are closed systems.

In a single sentence: creationists have forgotten that the sun exists.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do bath towels seem to get more absorbent the more they get washed over time?

[Assistant] Brand new towels (of all kinds) have probably been washed in their factory with some sort of fabric softener, which actually coats the fibers of fabrics and does make them softer, but it also makes them less absorbent. When you wash the new towels at home and dont use fabric softener, eventually that residue goes away and the towels are at full absorbent capacity. This is also why some towels seem to just push the water around for a while before absorbing ittheyve probably been washed with fabric softener that keeps them from being super absorbent as a side effect.


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

[User] [Looper] So Jeff Daniels' character was never going to be killed by his future self? He was sent back to stay until natural death?

[Assistant]
The Looper hitmen are all stupid opportunists who aren't very good at long-term decision making.  They get killed because they can't be trusted with knowledge of the future.  They'll fuck things up for everyone if allowed to run around freely.

Jeff Daniels is that perfect mix of competent, trusted, and lazy.  He isn't going to accidentally fuck everything up for the organization with his knowledge of the past, nor is he going to try to seize control for himself.  He's going to enjoy the relatively good lifestyle he has been handed on a silver platter, and hang out there until he dies a natural death.


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

[User] ELI5:What exactly is happening when a program is "not responding" but continuously consumes large portions of CPU and memory?

[Assistant]
In a graphical environment like windows, programs receive input like mouse clicks and keystrokes and they are required to respond to requests like redrawing the graphics in their window.  When a program starts failing to do that in a timely manner, the os deems it "not responding" and gives users options to wait or kill it.

Sometimes that happens because the program is calculating something complicated... but only when it's a shitty program.  Using threads and other techniques it's possible to have a program work on a big task without becoming non-responsive.

It can also just mean that the program has crashed, that is, gone into some kind of loop that it will never escape from.  There's no way for the operating system to tell the difference between those two cases, which is why it asks you.  (And there never will be.)


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

[User]
[DC Comics] What is Lex Luthor's end goal?

Through of all his criminal activities, Lex Luthor must have a larger goal in mind that he is working towards. We know he hates Superman but many of his goals aren't directed at making Big Blue go away. He's no eco terrorist, that much is clear, and world domination doesn't seem to be his end goal either. With all that power and cunning, what is he working towards?

[Assistant]
Lex wants nothing less than uncontested rule of the world. Now it's important to note he doesnt want to be a dictator or king. He simply despises the idea that others could tell him no, that his whims could be denied.

And he used to have this. Before Superman, before heroes, Lex Luthor was untouchable. He could do anything he wanted. He could not be denied
 Until Superman showed up and did just that.

So he want to kill Superman and return the world to that previous state. Its rightful state. The world with Luthor on top.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do we experience dry-heaving when we smell very bad smells?

[Assistant]
Usually if an animal was to encounter something which smelled very bad it was also likely harmful for them to ingest it. Throwing up what they ingested was likely to prevent them from experiencing even worse effects if they tried to digest whatever foul thing they ate.

Instincts like this address animals being incredibly stupid. "Oh, smells like shit... better eat it anyway!" The reflex would fix what they weren't smart enough to avoid. This is also why smelling people's vomit tends to make other people throw up: If one member of the group got sick from something they ate then probably others ate the same thing and need to purge it too.


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

[User]
[The Three Musketeers] Why is she a villain again?

Why is Lady de Winter considered a villain in The Three Musketeers? Arent they all French and isnt she acting on behalf of the Crown to support the French war effort?

Its been a while but I kinda feel like she did way more for the war than the protagonists did.

[Assistant]
D'artagnan might be the protagonist, but he has very few traits we'd consider "heroic" in the modern sense.

Milady de Winter is an antagonist because she works for the Cardinal against the queen. D'artagnan fights the cardinal because of what is essentially gang politics and he fights for the queen because the woman he is sleeping with(who is married to another man) wants him to. In many instances he's just barely not betraying the king by doing so.

Milady is also a villain at the time because she is sleeping with different men and not(consensually) with the protagonist. At the time the book was written that was enough for her to be evil.

So, by our modern understanding of ethics Milady de Winter did nothing wrong. She just had the misfortune of living in a time where saying no to the wrong man would get you killed.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do we pump our arms when we run?

[Assistant] The pumping motion counterbalances the swinging of our legs, making it far easier to keep our balance. Try running with your arms flat at your side sometime and you will find it is really hard to do without falling over.


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

[User]
Is it likely that we will or could potentially find large deposits of metal on Mars like we would on Earth?

I'm curious because Earth only has a finite amount of metals, if we colonized Mars or say a moon of Jupiter, how likely would it be to find the same metals there that we find here on earth such as gold, silver and iron? Would we potentially find a new metal or element?

[Assistant]
As others have pointed out, Earth and Mars formed from the same planetary disk, so the overall ratios of elements are probably pretty similar.

However, we aren't blending Mars into a smoothie- we only care about elements that are close enought to the surface to reach.

During planetary formation, most metals and heavier elements end up in the core, but some still get left near the surface. Meteoroid impacts also deposit more ores near the surface over time.

Edit: have been informed that the following last few sentances are incorrect, or at least nowhere close to the full story. Read on with healthy skepticism:

Earth is regularly resurfaced by plate techtonics (at least on long timescales) while Mars is pretty much frozen, accumulating more and more meteorite impacts. So Mars may very well have more abundant metal sources near the surface, conveniently marked by craters.


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

[User]
[DC/Marvel] Would Frank Castle be a good host for the Spectre?

The Spectre often chooses host who are both seeking vengeance and atonement.  The Punisher fits both. Discuss.

[Assistant]
Thing is Frank's had his own personal vengeance now, and doesn't have anything to atone for, he just punishes because he likes it.

Back in the day he was killed then brought back to life by some angels to become something like Marvels version of the Spectre, but according him he didn't like it.


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

[User]
What did Nietzsche actually mean when he said that we are being too Apollonian?

I am not a philosophy student so I could be wrong here but for a while now, I have been going into Nietzsche's philosophies and stumbled upon his philosophy regarding the Apollonian and Dionysian philosophical concept where he described that ancient Greece was better before Socrates and Plato came into being because they became too Apollonian

I know that most of the world of today *(at least of the world that I am familiar with)* is mostly influenced by Western philosophy including the philosophies and teachings of Socrates, Plato and others which most of the teachings are thought-provoking and even passionate.

But I did not really understand when Nietzsche said that we are being too Apollonian and neglecting anything that is Dionysian.

In some cases of today, I sometimes feel that we are being too Dionysian and little Apollonian

*(meaning too impulsive and emotional and less rational)*

[Assistant]
To make things overly simple: We deny our passions instead of embracing them.  Plato was a big preacher of self-restraint.  Nietzsche thinks we should utilize our passions rather than denying them.  Desire shouldn't be reigned in and ruled by the rational part of the soul as Plato proposed, it should be cultivated as force that has the power to push us to do great things.

I like to think of Helen of Troy.  Desire for a woman led to the accomplishment of great deeds.  If great men practiced too much self-restraint, they might never do anything great.


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

[User]
What field of Philosophy has the toughest barrier to entry?

"Philosophy" is an umbrella term that encompasses a great number of different fields, many of which have hardly any overlap. Given the diversity and richness of these fields, it's hardly possible for any single individual these days to be strongly competent in all but a handful of them.

My question is, which of the many different areas of philosophy have you found the toughest to get into? My own has been philosophy of mind. Despite my education, I only ever sat in on one philosophy of mind course, and had to stop attending half way because of looming thesis deadlines. I've still retained an interest in the field since, and have been slowly working my way through the most important texts alone (not in school anymore). Out of all the fields I've taken an interest in, Phil. Mind is hands down the most difficult of all to get into. The barrier to entry is tremendous, as you simply can't trudge along with only the general philosophical tools you've previously acquired at your disposal. To be competent in the field you seem to have to have a good grasp of not only cognitive and neuroscience, but also have to have a rather decent understanding of basic AI research and computer science.

Compared to a field like, say, normative ethics, where by and large you can get by without dipping into other fields, feeling your way around phil. mind is an extremely daunting exercise.

Now, this is just based on my own experience. There are other fields that I've never bothered to get into (Phil. Math, Phil. Logic, Phil. Physics, etc.), and so my sample size is quite small. Overall, however, I'd like to know which fields of philosophy you've made a concerted attempt to familiarize yourself with and have either failed, or have had a very difficult task at it.

[Assistant] I've found contemporary philosophy of language, starting with Frege, nearly impenetrable. So much of each work is interlinked with the technical problems of its predecessors that's it's practically impossible to get a firm grasp on any one work without a chronological basis in prior efforts.


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

[User]
Why don't solids like Voyager 1 sublimate in near vacuums like space?

From my understanding of phase diagrams, at least some external pressure is necessary for solids to remain solid. Is that correct? If a solid was placed in a perfect vacuum, would it sublimate?

[Assistant]
They do!

But keep in mind that even if a solid is sublimating trillions of atoms per second that's still only maybe 5 milligrams per century. But in actuality the vapor pressure of solid metals is extremely low at the typical temperatures of interplanetary spacecraft.


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

[User]
Is Academic Incest still a concern?

Good afternoon, all!

I am currently in the process of applying/(im)patiently waiting for PhD admissions and funding to be released. People in academia often discuss the negative implications with doing your Bachelors, Masters, and Doctoral degrees at the same university. I was wondering if this is still the case?

I went to a top 5 program (US, social science) at a R1 university and graduated two years ago with my Bachelors degree. Ive been doing research at other organizations and schools since then. Now as I apply to PhD programs, my top-choice school is my undergrad institution because of aligning research interests and potential PIs.

Would completing all three degrees at the same institution have any negative implications for finding TT jobs after graduation? Am I screwing myself if I went to this university?

I appreciate any guidance you all can provide!

[Assistant]
It's more of a general warning, not a hard-and-fast rule.

The worst case is one that I've seen play out a few times: A student completes all of their degrees at the one (middling or lower ranked) institution, within the one group, for whatever reason. It isn't a great university for their field and doesn't host conferences, so outside academics rarely visit. Their $3000 of conference and travel funding is quickly used up for only a few conferences. They learn a small number of techniques and schools of thought. By the end of their PhD, they've only meet a few people in the field and have worked directly with far fewer, so they can't be hired by their alma mater but they have little chance of being hired elsewhere either.

If the institution you're looking at it is a very prestigious place, is the best in your area of research, you're working with different people, and/or you'll go out of your way to make external contacts, it doesn't have to be a kiss of death or even a weakness.


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

[User] [ASOIAF/GOT] How would things have played out if Ned Stark had agreed to help Renly capture Joffrey?

[Assistant]
They'd probably have a verbal agreement to figure out who the legitimate king is after the coup and follow it up with similarly twisting struggles when Renly renigs on the agreement and cozies up to Highgarden and Stanis declares war from Dragonstone. Ned would probably die just because he'd likely be part of whatever attempt to put Stanis in power happens. Rob would declare himself king of da norf and hold the north because he'd have no reason to go south. If he did, the red wedding wouldn't happen.

Everything with Danerys and Jon Snow happens the same way.

Sansa is still a bitch. Tyrion probably becomes some sort of advisor/prisoner that ends up with Dany anyway when he escapes.


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

[User]
Is the debate about free will decidable?

Simply: are there any philosophers who think that the debate about the existence of free will is not decidable? In other words, philosophers who believe and try to demonstrate that we will never reach a conclusive answer about the existence of free will?

[Assistant] Yes yes. Kantians who are skeptical about metaphysics think all kinds of philosophical debates like about causation, personal identity, mind etc. are just out of reach. Perhaps for non-ideal reasoners like us, perhaps for anyone.