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

[User]
I'm horrible at finding literature

This week I had a meeting with my supervisor for my master's thesis. One of the main points of feedback was that my literature review had to be more extensive and that I had to add way more papers. My supervisor was kind enough put ten minutes into searching literature together and found several relevant papers with no issue at all. Meanwhile, at home I'm using the same keywords at scholar and all I get are shitty papers. This kinda panicked me.

Apart from this I'm horrible in general at finding good & relevant literature. I just read some other theses and I'm amazed by the fact how smooth literature reviews can be (though I sometimes look up the paper to which was refered and I can't find the statement which was made at all). Right now I feel like a major failure who doesn't deserve his master's degree but I'm trying to keep myself calm. I was wondering if someone has some good advices regarding finding literature or maybe even know some good reads about finding literature (oh the irony).

[Assistant] Here's what works for me. Try to find a recent review paper of the topic you're interested in. Not only are these papers good for giving you an overview of the subject, you will have a list of references they used, which you can then look into yourself.


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

[User]
Why do we still use/need SIM cards?

Why do we still need a physical chip to access mobile network instead of an account?/ is it just because it would mean to modify the structure? int that case wouldn't it still be more convenient to emulate SIM cards with through an IC embedded in the phone?

[Assistant]
There are phones with an embedded SIM card. Its still the same chip, just a different package.

The purpose of the SIM card is to provide a secure way to authenticate the subscriber. A password would be insecure. Because people cant keep password secret.
The SIM card contains account data to identify on the network and a cryptographic code that is impossible to read, only the SIM card and the operator know this number. You can only ask the card to do operations with it. It is in fact a quite powerful little chip, not only memory.

If you want to login, the sim shares the account data, and gets a number from the network to do some cryptographic operations on. The sim performs this and shares the result. Since he operator also knows the secret number, it knows the right answer. And thereby it can validate this SIM.

The same technology is in your bank card, if you dont use the magnetic strip. And some RFID cards can do the same. The TPM guarding the encrypting code of your hard disk.

The advantage is in the fact that even if you put the card in a reader, you still cant read the secret code. The only way is to reverse a complicated mathematical challenge, or by physically looking inside the card, which is destructive and time consuming.

A password is none of this. Any process running on the phone can theoretically access it, until we write bug free code. Any website could spoof the enter network password dialog, and youd enter it.

I have to add SIM technology is quite old, and theoretically you should be able to spoof the older ones by now. By the network would know immediately, since there would be two devices asking for the same subscriber.


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

[User]
[General Superhero] How Much Does It Help a Hero or Villain Team to Have a Psychic Team Member?

Are there any psychic powers that are particularly useful for teams?

[Assistant] J'onn Jonzz/Martian Manhunter would regularly use his psychic powers to create a telepathic network between JLA members during missions so that they could communicate with each other in real time over long distances, and instantaneous plan and execute coordinated battlefield maneuvers in a seemless fashion.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why Do We Get Dark Circles Under Our Eyes

I've been told its because of lack of sleep, but that seems like a falsity.  What's the real reason?

[Assistant]
First we need to understand the *physics* before getting to the biological reason for it. The reason the area under your eyes are prone to **darkening** (be it dark circles or a punch to the face) is the skin under your eyes being thinner(0.5mm) compared to the rest of your body(average 2mm). Add to that the high density of blood vessels and capillaries in that region. And you have light reflecting off the back of the blood vessels sitting under that patch of incredibly thin skin, giving it a darkish appearance.

Now the biological reasons for the darkness increasing are not one but many; with genetics playing the more important role than others. Some of the causes are:

1. *Old age* : As people age their skin loses elasticity and the ability to regenerate and as a result becomes thinner. This is the reason older people predominantly have very prominent dark circles.
2. Preorbital Hyperpigmentation is a genetic condition in which more melanin is produced in the skin below your eyes.
3. Another curable illness causes damaged blood vessels below your eyes to leak small amounts of blood.
4. **Fatigue**: Yes fatigue can indeed cause dark circles but they are by no means the predominant factor. When the body is tired, production of the chemical **cortisol** is dramatically increased to help give you the energy you need to stay awake. Among many other things, cortisol actually increases the volume of the blood in your body, which causes the blood vessels (including the ones below your eyes) to engorge to accommodate it.

tl;dr: Yes fatigue can cause dark circles but genetics and ageing are  the most likely cause of developing them.

edit: improved the answer a little bit.


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

[User]
[LOTR] We know a lot about the non-questing life of Hobbits. But what do Orcs and Elves do in their time off?

I'd ask about Dwarves, but Gimli's dark hints and mad cackling have me a little ... reluctant to hear the answer.

[Assistant]
For Orcs at least, we get an idea in the Shadows of Mordor/Shadows of War games (non-canon as they may be). Hunting and taming dangerous beasts, getting absolutely shit-faced on communal grog barrels, and (IIRC) raiding outposts and settlements of others (be it of goblins, humans, or other Orc factions) to take their supplies (especially food, booze and weapons) seems to be their priority. There's not much of a cultural renaissance for Orcs.

Elves on the other hand are always shown to be on the more refined side of things. In The Desolation of Smaug (yes, that one) we see Elves having a pretty tight party with fancy foods, wines and culturally artistic outlets (IIRC music). Elves are also renowned for their top quality craftsmanship on weapons, armor, and *jewelery*, so likely practice their crafts well. This will also carry over to magic and architecture, both of which distinguish themselves from their less elegant human allies.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter][Independence Day] What would happen to the wizarding world if the aliens show up and start their conquest?

While Harry Potter and co. are trying to stop Voldemort and his cronies, the aliens from Independence Day show up and proceed to skullfuck the planet. What happens to Diagon alley, which is supposedly located in London, when the destroyer ships open up with their city destroying particle beams and reduce London to ash? What happens when alien fighters decide to scorch the countryside where Hogwarts reside? Can Harry's or Voldie's magic stop the aliens and their warships?

[Assistant] Why do you think humanity would be the only race capable of using magic? Obviously the Aliens would have wizards too..... space wizards. And while the alien space ships warred with the human jets, the Alien  wizards would war with the human ones.


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

[User]
[Metal Gear] What are Metal Gears, and why are they so important to the story?

From what I understand they're just bipedal tanks, what makes them so important?

[Assistant]
Metal Gears' primary function isn't to be a tank or anti-personnel weapon, but to be a mobile nuclear weapons platform.

The theory is that by being bipedal/walking machines, they can traverse terrain that is impossible for wheeled vehicles to cover. Imagine how terrifying a walking nuclear missile silo would be; that's basically a metal gear in a nutshell. A devastating weapon that could be anywhere in the world, that is highly mobile.


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

[User] ELI5: How can someone create a public library?

[Assistant] If you are serious about trying to get a library going, contacting the county sounds like a good place to start. Write up a proposalthe more specific, the better. Tell them exactly what you'd like to do (the building you want to use, how much it would cost, utilities estimates, insurance, volunteers or employee wages, where the books are coming from, who is going to run this library, etc.) and lay out clearly what you want from them (start-up costs, an estimate of ongoing yearly budget allowance, a link or page on the county website, whatever). If you can do research first, maybe contact one county board member and get an idea of what they might be looking for, that would be good.


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

[User] Why do people like Ronald Reagan so much and why do Republicans basically worship him?

[Assistant]
Reagan came to office after a really, really bad decade for America: losing the Vietnam War, a president resigning in disgrace, his replacement getting shot at a bunch, his replacement being nice but largely useless, stagflation, the oil crisis, disco. Reagan not only oversaw a, on the whole, better decade economically, but also ran on and provided an image of an American comeback. He had a campaign strategy of emphasizing a return to America greatness, while painting his Democratic opponents as pessimistic and out-of-date (not entirely inaccurate criticisms, mind you).

Republicans worship him due to all that, plus he was the first Republican leader of the new republican/neo-con/religious right era of the party. It was a distinct shift from the Goldwater/McCarthy/Nixon era of the party, and brought the Republicans back to dominance after a good half-century of being the minority party.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Is the Force a Lovecraftian entity

Let's see, an all powerful being that exists both outside of space and time, yet is a part of it, has no true consciousness, but does have a will, is incomprehensible by the five senses, its mere existence shapes reality, and, while no wars are directed *by* it, many are fought *because of* it. The Force sounds like your average Outer God, don't it. Also, once you see that the Will of the Force can either lead to atrocities like Order 66 or great deeds, like Palpatine's death, you can easily say the Force is above good and evil. Darth Traya even subscribes to a theory that the Force is a malevolent deity using jedi, sith, and all sentients as toys, and seeks to destroy it accordingly.

[Assistant]
The Force is far more distant, like the heartbeat of life, not a God.

Lovecraft's entities sleep, and could regain consciousness. There are those that worship them, and seek to awaken them.  When 'The Force Awakens', it is a metaphor. It is through mortals that The Force awakes, or mortals are awaken by The Force. There is nothing more. There is no Force made Flesh to remake or remold Creation, no monstrosity to fear, no angel to dread, nothing too horrible or too wondrous to look apon. The Force binds us as brethren, not as a church of the Force.


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

[User]
Eli5: How come films and tv shows from the 60s to the early 2000s look so different from films today?

What I'm trying to say here is: why the image looks so unique? I don't know if it's because they were not filmed with digital cameras and they didn't have the great picture qualities we have nowadays, but they definitely feel like they were from the past, like if you're watching Back to the Future you think "this is definitely something that was filmed in the 80s" no matter if you're watching a remastered 4K edition or something, it always looks different. Just to give you a clue, whenever someone tries to make a modern film "look old" they barely resemble the aesthetic (most of the time it looks like if an Instagram filter has being applied).

[Assistant]
35mm film has a very high resolution if properly scanned, but many videos from that time period were scanned to be shown on television so they were scanned at 480p.   Hence they look blurry.
They are rescanning the old films, but some they haven't done yet.

Take a look at the 1080p versions of some of the old TV shows they have rescanned, like Perry Mason, and Andy Griffith, you'll be amazed at the clarity.


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

[User] [The 100] Am I crazy, or is floating a hilariously poor form of execution considering their limited available resources? Wouldn't it be smarter to use a method that lets you reclaim the resources from the condemned?

[Assistant] Depends on how good your recycling is.  They don't really need fertilizer with hydroponics being the main agriculture.  You can't eat human flesh long term without severe negative side effects let alone moral and ethical concerns.  Most other uses for a corpse aren't great since you'd need more resources to break the body down into usable parts than would be effective.  Most realistic uses would be suffocation followed by stripping the clothes for reuse and draining all blood for a blood bank.  You could harvest organs but there doesn't seem to be surgeries very often on the ark so you'd probably end up tossing any blood or organs before needing them.


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

[User]
CMV: In the current world the present form of protests and marches would not lead to any changes. This type of expression of frustration by the general public is more or less used by the ruling classes as a way to exhaust the public and delude them to think they have done something.

I am not sure I have done justice to the title and hence would try to explain it a bit more in the text.

**Background :** I am Indian (country touted to have got independence due to Gandhi's non violent protest) and currently live in Europe.

**Reason for this CMV :** The public uproar and protests due to Black life matters, currently Roe v/s Wade, CAA (India), Klima Streik (Germany), MeToo (does not entirely fall on this category).

I see people getting out on the street to protest but fail to see any long term change these protests, marches etc have done to ameliorate the victims except just give them an outlet to expend their frustration and then fall back in line.  The reason why I mentioned my nationality is though Gandhi and his non violent protests were considered to play a significant role in our Independence, I think that is more of a propaganda than reality. The reason why Indian subcontinent got independence is more nuanced than that which includes decreasing power of UK, increasing influence of US&A and their idea of independence post WWII etc.

Time and again I also hear about the Ireland Women strike and the change it brought . Since I have not consciously perused the topic so I am not sure how much did that strike really lead to the change.

Thus, I believe that the ruling classes are very aware that these forms of protest and marches etc won't threaten them enough to make changes but actually gives the aggrieved party an outlet to express their frustration and delude themselves that they did something. These protests and strikes  actually work for them instead of against them (the ruling class).

**What I am looking for in my CMV:** I am looking for more recent examples of changes (20-30 years ) that was led on by such mass scaled protests.

[Assistant]
Massive systemic change takes time. The Indian independence movement took decades.

The problem with the examples that you give is that they are all flash in the pan protests. In many cases they have no coherent agenda and the majority of those who take part will just move onto the next cause when that generates more buzz.

On the whole people with power feel they can ignore 99% of these protests because the protesters lack focus or an agenda and therefore will not achieve much. 99% of the time they are correct.


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

[User]
[The Boys] If Vought really wants to start making money off the military...

...wouldn't it make sense to start manufacturing military clothing and field gear out of whatever the Seven's outfits are made from? Those costumes take an incredible amount of punishment, and those outfits never seem to need fixing. A soldier wearing BDUs made from the same material as Homelander's outfit would still be knocked over by gunfire but it would be less likely to penetrate, and would be resistant to shrapnel, sharp edges, fire, etc. Queen Maeve's outfit stood up to being shoved through an armored car and didn't look any different, and Stormfront's clothing took no visible damage from gunfire.

[Assistant] You have to remember that these outfits are few and far between with decades of research and development leading to the material used now. Each supes combat suit likely costs several million dollars in final product form. The pentagon loves wasting money but not that much. Iirc an average soldiers gear costs around 10-12 thousand dollars. So a super suit would realistically cost 100k or more which is too much for an otherwise disposable outfit.


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

[User]
[X-Men/Marvel] How would a world with a mutant majority (like House of M) even work? Even w/mutants being only a tiny minority they wield such awesome power (e.g., Magneto can reverse the polarity of Earth's magnetic field). Is the idea that everyone's powers would cancel each other out?

Just seems hard to have a functioning society where billions of inhabitants can mind control, walk through walls, cause earthquakes, etc.

I guess they could use power-dampening technology, but I feel like that's typically used by humans against mutants and wouldn't fly with a majority-mutant population.

P.S. I am not a member of the Friends of Humanity, Project Wideawake, the Sapien League, the Reavers, the Purifiers, etc.

[Assistant] Any mutant that stepped too far out of line would get quickly taken out by the governing body's teams of extremely powerful mutants.  Any infrastructure destroyed in the mean time can be quickly rebuilt with mutant powers. Even lives lost can be revived as we can see from what's currently happening on Krakoa.


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

[User]
If someone is paralyzed from the neck down, how can they still breathe or have a heartbeat?

If the spinal cord is damaged to the point where a person cannot use their arms or legs, why can their heart an lungs still function? Are they connected to the brain in a different way?

[Assistant]
First, your heart does not need any nerve signals from your spinal cord in order to function.  The heart will beat on its own regardless of the status of the spinal cord.

Next, you do need nerve signals from the upper cervical spinal cord (C1-C4) in order for your diaphragm to contract and for you to breathe.  If the spinal cord in this part of the cervical spinal cord is completely transected (cut), you will not be able to breathe on your own - either you'll die from the injury or you'll need a respirator to mechanically push air into your lungs for the rest of your life.

The lower cervical spinal cord (C5-C8) gives rise to most of the motor innervation of your arms and hands.  A spinal cord injury in this part of the cervical spinal cord will impair the use of the arms and hands.

So, it's entirely possible for a person to have a spinal cord injury that is below the part of the cervical spinal cord that innervates the diaphragm (C1-C4) yet is still above the part of the spinal cord that innervates the arms and hands (C5-C8) - this person will be able to breathe on their own, but will be unable to normally control their arms, hands, or any other voluntary muscles below the level of the neck.


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

[User] [MCU] How would King T'Challa stop the outside world coming to Wakanda to take Bucky Barnes?

[Assistant] Wakanda is a UN recognised country with no extradition treaty with the US, Russia, France or any other country that might have a claim to him as they are extremely isolationist.  So there is no legal way for them to come get him except negotiations.  If T'Challa still says no after negotiations it would be an act of war to try to come get Bucky, something most countries wouldn't want do for one man.  If someone did violate Wakanda, at least in the comics, they are very technologically sophisticated and easily defensible.  You would not be able to fight your way into Wakanda with standard military hardware found in MCU.  It would take a group of War Machine armors finally being developed by someone not named Stark.


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

[User] ELI5:How does file compression work? (.rar, .zip)

[Assistant] Ok, say you have some file whose content is (way simplified) AAAAAAAABBBBBBBBCCCCCCCCDDDDDDDD.  This takes 32 characters to represent.  Compression works by compressing it into 8A8B8C8D.  This takes only 8 characters to represent.  This is an incredibly simplified compression algorithm though.  Most work by replacing common strings (lets say "the") with one character like 'a'.  They must also append a decompression dictionary (because the most common word in one file isn't the same as another) which tells winzip/winrar how to decompress the file.  This is why you can never get a file to be smaller than a certain size, no matter how much you compress it.


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

[User]
[Pacific Rim: The Black] Why did we destroy our satellites over Australia after Operation Blackout was initiated?

Whats the logic behind us destroying our satellites that were over Australia after the PPDC initiated Operation Blackout and abandoned the continent?

If anything, why wouldnt we keep them where they were so that they can keep track of and monitor the continent in order to gain any potential new information and intelligence about the Kaijus occupation of Australia and any plans that the Precursors may have in our world?

[Assistant]
Not much to go off of right now, and we never know if it'll be left at what we have. But speculating;

Satellites are compromised? Kaiju-controlled groups, or splinter groups of humans could get into them and, doubled with the intentional apocalypse they enacted on Australia, it'd lead to them just laying waist to whatever we couldn't get out.

even weather satellites watching the area could be used to watch anything big enough - like caravans or any Jaeger that stayed behind.

Of course it could also be a full conspiracy and the precursor side's the one that arranged for the whole thing. get off the island and don't watch us, this was totally your plan too.


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

[User]
What are the epistemological qualities of Bayesian priors?

In statistics class we were taught assuming a coin lands 50% heads is a Bayesian prior. Why do Bayesian priors need to be assumed a priori? Why arent they measured like other statistical claims, making them stronger through repeated observations?

[Assistant]
> In statistics class we were taught assuming a coin lands 50% heads is a Bayesian prior.

It might be, if you used it as a prior, but it would be a strange one. Priors are *distributions* over parameters, not just a guess about what a parameter might be.

> Why arent they measured like other statistical claims, making them stronger through repeated observations?

They can be; this is essentially what sequential Bayesian updating does. One of the strengths of Bayesian modelling is that priors can be updated as new data come in, and the resulting posterior can be used as a future prior.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does splitting an atom create energy? And why is it so much energy?

[Assistant]
Well, energy can't be created or destroyed, but in this case, it gets released from one 'form' to another.

Imagine you are holding a heavy ball tied to a string, and you spin the ball above your head. You are adding energy into the system, but not creating it. You are sort of an atom.

What would happen if someone cut the string? The ball will fly off and smash into a window. The heavier the ball y, the worse the damage will be.

What if you had 245 heavy balls attached to strings, and each ball has a small blade attache to it? As long as only you are spinning them, it probably will be OK, though once in a while a ball mich get cut off and fly away. This is kind of what radioactive means, but very simplified.

And if you have hundreds, thousands, millions of people standing, each spinning 245 heavy, bladed balls above their head, things are bound to get messy! As long as each keeps a distance, it might be OK, though stray balls will fly off once in a while. But once you get enough people to smoosh together, their balls all fly off, setting off a chain reaction of flying, spinning, heavy, bladed balls everywhere!

This is a nuclear chain reaction.


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

[User] eli5: What does it mean by the state artificially maintaining a currency?

[Assistant]
Most currencies are floated on the market. That means that their value is decided by people buying and selling the currency using other currencies. If people are generally trading 120 Japanese Yen for 1 US Dollar, then that's the exchange rate for Yen to Dollars.

A government can put their finger on the scale, if desired, by also engaging in this trade. Say the Japanese government wants to strengthen the Yen against the Dollar. They may put a standing offer to sell 1 US Dollar for 110 Yen. This influences the market, because people who have Yen but want Dollars can go to the Japanese government to exchange 110 Yen per Dollar, as opposed to the market rate of 120 Yen per Dollar, saving 10 Yen for each transaction. So long as the Japanese government offers this rate (and has the US Dollars to pay for the trades), then the exchange rate will move towards 110 Yen per Dollar instead of 120 Yen per Dollar as it was before.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is it so hard to port programs to a different instruction set?

As I understand it, a program compiled for x86 for example can only run on x86. But if a compiler was ported to ARM, why can't the program just be compiled for ARM? Is there more to it than that? And if there isn't, why does it take so long for companies and projects to port their programs to a new platform? Isn't it just as easy as compiling, which in the worst case could take a couple of hours?

[Assistant]
This mostly depends on if the program was originally written with portability in mind. There are plenty of assumptions to make and shortcuts to take if you only target a single architecture.

Modern programming languages eliminate a lot of this, but for anything in the C-family, making assumptions about something as simple as endianess is very common.

Different architectures may also have completely different performance profiles, meaning stuff that's fast on one architecture is slow on another and vice versa. This means you have to figure these differences out and do alternative implementations if performance is necessary for your program to function properly (think games).


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

[User]
How are the vaccine for animals different than for human?

For example, my coworkers had to take like 7 shots of rabies vaccine when she got bitten by a bat, but my cat gets a yearly dose. What factor changes from species?

[Assistant]
The development of vaccines is a whole sub-field within immunology and there a many many factors which influences the vaccination schedule for different animals. But the specific case of your cat vs your  coworker is pretty simple. They are optimized for different things.

The yearly vaccination for your cat (or you) is is optimized to give a long term protection at a low cost and with a minimal risk of side-effects. It is slow acting but generally effective.

The treatment given to your coworker is an heroic effort to boost the immune system as quickly as possible in case there is an ongoing rabies infection. Typically it is a combination of rabies immune globulin and an accelerated vaccination schedule. This is expensive, uncomfortable and can have a lot of side-effects. But cost is much less of an issue, discomfort is fine and non-fatal side effects are acceptable when the alternative is a high risk of developing rabies, which is fatal.


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

[User] ELI5: Why you should put pasta into boiling water and not throw it into cold and boil them together?

[Assistant]
The rate at which the pasta absorbs water depends on the water's temperature.

If you add pasta to cold water and then heat it, the rate at which the pasta soaks up water will change depending on how much water you put in the pot, how high you turn the burner on, and other variables. This makes it hard to time it and get a predictable result.

If you add it to boiling water, the water is always at the same temp through the cooking process, and you get very predictable results.

tl;dr: It's easier.


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

[User] [Star Wars] Is Starkiller Base a former planet?

[Assistant] Yes it was a planet. Theres strong speculation that its a planet called Ilum since it was an ice planet where Jedi, and empire, usually got their kyber crystals from, and because of an Easter egg in the newest Star Wars game that implies that while mining kyber for the Death Star the empire basically dug out the trenches for Star killer base, but it hasnt been confirmed if thats really the planet or not.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is Switzerland so rich compared to other European nations?

I've read that it used to be an extremely poor country. What changed?

[Assistant]
Imagine Europe is a playground. You know how sometimes a friend might share their snacks with you from their lunch? Or people who simply get along might trade their lunches so both people will have something they like more? Well there are also bullies who might fight and steal lunch money from people they don't like. Well if you stay friends with everyone you can and you don't get into fights with the bullies you will eventually end up with more snacks from your friends, more lunches that you like, and you also won't ever have your lunch money stolen.

Now that you have all this extra food you could sell that. You can also let people know that if they share a little with you you will hold on to their lunches/lunch money so that it will be safe. Lastly since you get along with everyone teachers don't check your pockets so you could even hold on to the money the bullies steal for a small cut. If people forget you are holding the stuff at the end of the day you get to keep it too!


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

[User] [Harry Potter] Before they use the time-turner, Dumbledore warns Hermione and Harry not to be seen. Why? What happens if they're seen?

[Assistant] Time paradoxes are a strange thing. Its best not to think too hard about them but lets just say the less interaction with your prior self the better. You dont want to throw yourself out of the loop.


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

[User]
ELI5: Skin wrinkling after getting wet.

To expand on that, why do layers of skin peel off after the skin is wrinkled?

[Assistant]
This is actually a fun bit of evolution!

First, let's talk about the ridges in your finger tips, the little guys that make up your finger print. If you didn't have those bumps, your finger would be all smooth, and it would be harder to grab things. The bumps make it easier to hold things, because your finger can conform better to what you are holding (in math terms, we would say your finger has an increased "surface area")

When your hand gets wet, it makes your skin slipperier. So, similar to how the ridges help, your skin reacts to getting wet by getting even more ridgey: they wrinkle up (increasing the surface area of your skin). This makes it easier to hold things when your hands are wet.

and as rmx_ mentioned, this response only happens if the nerves in your finger are working, which means your finger is wrinkling up because your brain told it to.


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

[User] [Star Wars] Say there's a pair of Sith, where the master is crazy powerful, and the apprentice just sucks by comparison. But: the apprentice is great at poisoning, and kills the master like Pai Mei. Aren't the Sith getting weaker if they often kill each other in cheap ways like this?

[Assistant]
The Sith master should be on the look out for his apprentice to kill him.  If he knew his apprentice was good at poison he was weak for still allowing himself to be poisoned. If he didnt know this, he was weak for allowing his apprentice to hide this from him.

Also remember if the master is this much stronger than his apprentice he should easily be able to read the apprentices thoughts and emotions which would make it a lot harder for the apprentice to assassinate him like that.

Its not just about being strong in the force but the master also has to be clever.  He should be smart enough that his apprentice cant cheaply kill him like that.


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

[User]
When should we defer to our intuitions and when should we challenge them?

If I were to advance a moral argument that, for example, torturing others for our own pleasure is acceptable, most people would reject it out of hand as in conflict with our basic moral intuitions. Induction (correct me if I'm wrong) is usually defended on the grounds that it is simply intuitive for us to believe in, or at least I think this is Hume's argument. But we know that in other areas such as physics the facts of nature conflict with our intuitions, e.g. special relativity. It also seems antiphilosophical, even going back to Socrates, to trust our intuitions when much of the point of philosophy is to challenge our received notions of what is true. What frameworks or approaches should we think about to decide when to support our intuitions in deciding whether a philosophical position is plausible, and when we should say "the fact that this position is implausible (e.g. panpsychism) is no argument for not considering it"?

[Assistant] Just to clarify something: philosophers who think that intuitions are evidence think that intuitions are merely *prima facie* evidence. Everyone thinks that, at a minimum, you can debunk certain intuitions such that their *prima facie* evidential value gets overridden.


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

[User] ELI5: What is at stake in the US Senate filibuster by Ted Cruz that has been going on all evening?

[Assistant] He is attempting to make a point about how serious he feels it is to oppose the Affordable Care Act, and holding up the business of the Senate, but other work can proceeded elsewhere and he is not preventing any votes from being held.  This can not effect the Affordable Care Act itself, as that is already law. It is purely a symbolic stance. The only thing at stake appears to be his dignity.


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

[User]
[Tolkien] Undoubtedly this has been asked before, but why has there never been any appreciable intellectual development over thousands of years?

Military examples: swords and siege equipment. Civic examples: lack of sewage, and heavy reliance on agriculture and domestication. Political examples: lack of a conceivable philosophical alternative to feudalism. Social examples: rampant speciesism and universal cis-heterosexuality...

[Assistant] Because Elves are immortal. The people in charge have been in charge pretty much forever and run things the way they want to. And it's pointed out numerous times that their civilization, as well as the dwarves (a tech-savvy group) are in decline. We never get to see them at their peak, where they were apparently very impressive. As for humans, you are looking at it the wrong way. Humans on our Earth have existed for 200,000 years and we've only seen appreciable technological and societal development in the last 3-4 thousand (recorded, at least). By all accounts humans in Middle-Earth seem to be pretty on curve, especially given that they live in a much more dangerous world in societies that have survived near apocalypses several times already. Hell, Gondor was created from the surviving people of Numenor, an advanced human civilization that was destroyed. They are effectively post-apocalyptic.


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

[User]
[DC Comics/DCEU] After Batman brands particular criminals, we see that such branded crooks are murdered in prison over it. If Superman took after this and started using his laser heat vision to brand his own logo into criminals that he arrests, would they be seen or treated any differently?

How about other assorted Justice Leaguers and Heroes?

For example, if the various Green Lanterns started doing it, how would that be perceived?
If Wonder Woman or other female heroes started branding or otherwise engraving their own logos into particular perps, would this have any effect?

And so on.

[Assistant] Lex Luthor was arranging the killing of those prisoners in order to fan the flames between Batman and Superman, so it would depend on whether or not Lexs scheme accounted for Superman or Wonder Woman starting to brand criminals.


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

[User]
What information does a dog glean about other dogs by sniffing their "markings"?

I am guessing that gender would be a given, possibly the age of the other dog and age of the marking. Anything else?

[Assistant]
They can learn the gender of the other dog, as well a reproductive status. Dogs that are capable of reproduction are more likely to mark and male dogs are more likely to mark when in the presence of a female dog in heat or her urine.

 It's like OkCupid, but with piss for profiles.


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

[User]
How long would it take two separate groups of humans to develop obvious differences genetically?

For example, one very large group of humans, say 250,000, went to another planet. Humans somehow are unable to contact them or send new supplies or people. If we assume that they all live, how long would it take for thee new group to have obvious differences in their genetics? By this I don't mean small things and I am just using the space example to explain what I mean. The groups could be separated by anything and this question could also apply to other animals. Also how long(or how many generations) would it take for the animals to not be able to reproduce?

[Assistant]
It would depend on how different the selective pressure were between to the two locations.

If your other planet had 10x the UV radiation, it might only take a couple generations for all the light skinned people to die off.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do you get caught counting cards?

How does a casino catch someone counting cards if the method behind it is keeping a count in your head, completely hidden from the eyes of the casino?

Edit: How often do casinos actually call people out on counting? Do they have to have real evidence or can they just kick you out on a hunch?

[Assistant] You can tell by the way someone is betting.  When the situation is favorable based on the count, that's when you want to start betting heavy.  Also, card counters often work in groups and so if additional people start showing up at the table and everyone is betting heavy, it's a pretty good indicator that something's up.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does your phone know your location by connecting to Wi-Fi?

When you connect you smart phone to a Wi-Fi connection, it finds you location really accurately, how does it do that?

[Assistant] It works by crowd sourcing WiFi addresses from smart phones. So when a device with GPS is near by your WiFi device, the address data is sent to Google / Other provider, which is later used to reverse the location from your WiFi address.


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

[User]
In the double and single slit experiment how small does the slit have to be before we notice the diffraction and interference patterns?

Does it depend on the radius of the beam of light as well?

[Assistant]
For a really pronounced effect, the slits should be somewhere in the order of the wavelength of the light moving through it (hundreds of nanometers to micrometers) but technically any slit size will have some interference effects.

This does not depend on the size of the beam of light.


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

[User] How do mosquitoes know where a human is at night? Do they have thermal sensors?

[Assistant] Mosquitoes (females which are the ones that suck your blood) are attracted to your breath (CO2 being exhaled). If you are big you expel more CO2 making you are a bigger target. They also smell your sweat and lactic acid, especially if you've been active.


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

[User]
ELI5: The number 'e'.

Hey. I was listening to a radio show in which they were discussing statistics, and they threw out "e" without any explanation.

In this case, they used it to decide that the statistically significant number of people out of a group of 100 was 36.

I have no maths knowledge beyond what I learned in high school, so all the explanations I found on google have been far beyond my comprehension.

So please, if you will, what is e? And what does it mean?

[Assistant]
e is one of the fundamental constants in math.

You probably know some of the others.  Like the arithmetic identity (0) - if you add the arithmetic identity to any number, you get the number back.  You probably also know the multiplicative identity (1) - if you multiply the multiplicative identity to any number, you get the number back.

e is what might be termed the 'differential identity'.  If you take the integral or derivative of the exponential function e^x, you get back e^x.  So just like you need to pay a lot of attention to your 1's and 0's with multiplication and addition, you pay a lot of attention your e's when you're using calculus.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do they use the color green for all the special effects?

[Assistant]
If you're refering to Green Screen, the truth is that really any color *can* work (and oftentimes they use blue instead). Green is typically used for two reasons:

1) It doesn't resemble any naturally occuring colors on the human body. Yellow, Orange, Red...these all are too close to human skin so the computer can't distinguish between the two.

2) Its intensity makes it easier for the computer to pick up than some other colors. It's very distinctive.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is it that some animals have not developed particularly effective ways of protecting themselves from being attacked by another animal, despite being hunted in the same way for thousands of years?

[Assistant]
Think about the flaw in your logic for a bit. If all deer were able to defend themselves against being eaten by wolves, the wolves would have died out of starvation a long time ago. If all deer died from being eaten by wolves, there would be no deer, and eventually no wolves.

Instead, the weakest deer, either because of poor genetics, injury, illness, or unable to recognize the threat of a wolf gets eaten. This way only the strongest, smartest deer survive. And for the wolf, the strongest, and smartest wolves survive, the weakest wolves get to only eat scraps, never mate and sometimes are driven from the pack.

They are both in a perpetual arms race, better deer survive, and only better wolves survive. If you took a herd of current deer, and somehow magically teleported them to 50,000 years ago, these deer might be top tier creatures compared to the ones of that era.

Other animals, like krill (small ocean shrimp like things) have a different strategy, reproduce so quickly that even though they get eaten by the tons, not all of them are eaten.


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

[User]
[Marvel] Could Iron man improve his suit with magic?

In other words is magic any better than technology or visa versa? Would someone who uses magic and technology be way stronger than someone who uses technology or magic by itself?

[Assistant] Yes, he could improve his suit with magic, but what happens if the suit gets damaged in the field or something goes wrong? Tony Stark is no sorcerer. If the suit relied on magic for something, then there's no way Stark could repair it without outside help.


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

[User] ELI5: The cost of the proposed NYC 2nd avenue subway line is $17 billion, or about $2 billion/mile. This is around five times as expensive as similar completed urban subway projects around the world even before inevitable cost overruns that have already occurred. What's the deal?

[Assistant]
There's a few main reasons:

* The age of NYC (it's been settled for ~400 years) and the tunnels mean that you run into all kinds of tunnels, utility pipes, and other objects that you don't know are there. This, combined with the fact that you have one of the most densely populated cities in the world above it makes construction both difficult and dangerous.

* The reason NYC can have so many tall buildings is that the island of Manhattan is essentially one huge slab of granite bedrock, as opposed to most cities on the water, which have relatively mud-like soil. This is very slow, difficult, and expensive to tunnel through, though it makes for better tunnels in the long run.

* Because of the danger associated with this work the labor unions have demanded high wages to offset the potential risk to workers, making for very high construction costs.

* New York City is one of the most expensive cities in the world to live in. Everything, from a cup of coffee to building a subway tunnel, is going to be significantly more expensive then just about anywhere else.

* Big cities, and New York City in general, are known for a ton of red tape being involved in construction projects, which increases the costs significantly.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does 11 inches of rain equate to devastating floods.

Recently the 11 inches of rain in Houston, Texas caused massive flooding. Floods which carried cars away and covered houses. I'm just trying to understand how XX inches can turn into XX feet of water.

[Assistant]
Eleven inches is a lot of rain. When it comes in a short amount of time, it exceeds the capacity of the rivers to drain it out to the sea.

Think about your bathtub. The faucet puts water in, and the drain takes water out. It's designed so that the drain can remove the water at least as fast as the faucet can put it in.

But imagine if, all of a sudden, the amount of water that came out of the faucet quadrupled, and you couldn't turn it off. What would happen? Your house would get flooded. Part of your house that never get wet would get soaked.

That's what happens in a flood situation. The rain falls faster than nature can remove it.


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

[User]
ELI5: I watched "Honey I Shrunk The Kids" last night and wondered: could a human being function if they were suddenly shrunken down to the size of an ant? Why or why not?

- Would their smaller size create an atmospheric difference in which their lungs could or could not function in?
- When the kids were eating the oatmeal cookie (which looked pretty tasty), would their bodies be able to digest it? I figured that since they're smaller, the molecules might be significantly bigger than what their body was made to absorb and they wouldn't be able to process food.

- Being that small, would the noises everything made have a lower pitch (such as when Wayne and Diane called out for their kids and their voices seemed deeper and lower to the shrunken kids)?

- Anything else involving the five senses, such as how we would see everything differently if shrunken to that size, how things would smell, how textures would feel, could we taste, etc.

[Assistant]
It depends on the proposed method of shrinking. If the space between the atoms in someone's body was condensed (because atoms have a pretty large amount of empty space) then the person would still weigh the same as they did before and therefore be extremely dense. Furthermore, because the surface area of their lungs would have dramatically decreased, but they'd still have the same number of cells requiring the same amount of oxygen, they'd rapidly suffocate to death.

If they were shrunk by removing a certain fraction of the atoms that contained them, equally, from their entire body, then there wouldn't be enough atoms left in their brains to maintain proper brain function and so on, so they'd be pretty screwed then too.

Other problems they'd encounter would be due to how different things don't scale equally with size. For example, when you're very large, water is easy to splash through, but at small scales, it would appear to have a tough rind on it due to water tension. Equally, human bones are the right size and density to support our weight as we are, but if, say, an elephant had bones of similar proportional size and density, it'd collapse under its own weight. It's the same logic behind why a model bridge made of balsa wood can stand up just fine, but an actual bridge, with the exact same proportions, would fall apart.


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

[User] ELI5:Have there been any good Dictatorships in the past? If not, why is the idea of a country ran by a dictator usually condemned? (in other words, why are pretty much all Dictatorships bad?)

[Assistant] Augustus Caesar and come of the later Roman emperors ran highly effective states (if without much in the way of political freedoms). Dictatorships tend to be bad as a rule because (a) bad rulers can't tolerant dissent, so a bad leader is more likely to move towards dictatorship, (b) most dictators came to power militarily, not through administrative skill, and (c) power tends to corrupt.


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

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

[Assistant] Odin decided to leave it there in a hidden place in Norway.  Earth is known as Midgard under the influence of Asgard, which is why other alien races haven't frequently visited it as much as other places in the cosmos, and it's unwise to have too many things powerful things in the weapons vault.  Its use by HYDRA, S.H.I.E.L.D. and Loki on Earth made him reconsider and relocate it to the vault when Thor used it to return after the Battle of New York.


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

[User]
ELI5: what happens if the U.S. government captures Edward Snowden?

I know there are a billion posts about this guy every day on reddit, but I want to know

1) why the government wants him so badly, even to the point of making themselves look bad.

2) what they'd do to him.

3) what the repercussions would be (in your opinion).

[Assistant]
1)  Because he gave highly classified information to a journalist, violating his secrecy oath.

2)  He will probably end up living in ADX Florence for most of (if not all of) the rest of his life.

3)  None.  The programs he revealed aren't new, aren't about to end because of his revelations, and he will probably be largely forgotten in a couple of years. We have all seen variants of this story play itself out many times over the decades.


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

[User] ELI5: How do "Producer", "Produced by:", "Executive producer(s)" and "Co-Executive producer" differ from one another in the opening sequence of a movie or series?

[Assistant]
Producer: They are the CEO of the movie.  They helm the ship from idea to distribution

Executive producer: They are the CFO of the movie.  They manage the accounting and finance for a production company, independent financier, or contribute the money themselves.

Line Producer: They are the managers of the movie.  They are in charge of the day to day details.

Any title that has Co- in front of it means there are more than one who share in the responsibility of the title.


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

[User] ELI5:why are plane propellers in the front and submarine propellers in the back?

[Assistant]
For planes having the props in front:

1. The weight of the engine in the front helps to balance the airframe versus the aerodynamic center for stability

2. Less chance of connecting with the tarmac on rotation

3. During takeoff the air coming from the props moves over the wings. This is faster than the speed of the aircraft. By putting the props in front you get an added bonus to lift, meaning shorter roll or higher weight

4. Your prop is acting in "clean" air, increasing the efficiency of taking power from the engine and putting it into moving air. If at the back, the air is more turbulent because it's moving over the plane first

Reasons this isn't a big deal for subs:

1. Balance is achieved through more components, so one big mass is less influential

2. Subs don't rotate, they usually bring the nose up and sweep up

3. Subs don't need extra lift over their drive planes

4. The viscosity of water is so much higher than air, and the velocity of subs is so much slower, that the water is marginally more disturbed than ambient

And for subs, silence is key. You want your prop wash to not hit anything or the cavitation bubbles that form on the tips of the prop will make more noise than they already do

There are likely more nuances, but those are the big hitters, imho.


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

[User] ELI5: What are Voltage, Current, Resistance, Energy and Power? And what relationships do they have with each other?

[Assistant]
We're gonna compare electricity to water in a hose.

Voltage is electricity's version of pressure, sort of like PSI. It's what makes electricity want to get from point A to point B.

Current how much and how fast water is flowing through the hose. Think gallons per minute.

Resistance is like a kink or blockage in the hose. It slows the flow rate (current) down. The pressure also goes up where the blockage is. A similar thing happens with electricity.

Power is the ability for that water to do work. Imagine you want to knock things over by spraying them. You need a combination of pressure and current (flow) to allow you to move those objects around.


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

[User]
How does electric eels discharge electricity into it's surroundings?

My very basic understanding is that electric eels stack their electricytes in series similar to many many tiny batteries together to generate hundreds of volts. But wouldn't the electric current just flow within their eletricity generating organ from one direction to the other? How does it circuit with the outside environment? What structure is insulating the anode from the cathode?

[Assistant]
Li-ion batteries have a plastic membrane inside that blocks electricity while allowing ions to flow.  The electrocytes in an electric eel are similar.

Electricity does still flow through the eel itself, but since the eel is not particularly lower resistance than the water, there are still high voltages developed outside the fish.  The eel has to avoid its own heart being exposed to excess voltage, which limits how long the chain of electrocytes can be.

Most importantly electric eels tend to try to wrap around their prey in a U shape, so the shortest path for the electricity (which travels between the eels "chest" and the end of its tail) is outside the eel and ideally through the prey.


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

[User]
Why don't photons that bend with gravity violate conservation of momentum?

Photons have momentum, gravitational bodies can bend light, thus their momentum changes. Doesn't this violate conservation of momentum?

[Assistant]
It's not violated because the bodies that bend the light experience a change in momentum equal in magnitude and opposite to the change experienced by the light.

Remember that light bends spacetime too.


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

[User]
What in rubber's structure allows it to stretch?

What is natural rubber composed of on a molecular level that allows it to stretch?

[Assistant] There are a few things that give rubber some "stretchiness". Long molecular chains comprise the majority of elastic materials. However, long linear chains alone don't make something "stretchy". More often, they just make it viscous, like a bowl of spaghetti. However, adding a crosslinker, which connects long molecules together in sparse locations gives the bowl of spaghetti some rigid structure, making it less flowable, so it can return to some original state. But the crosslinking connections (added to rubbers via vulcanization, as an example) are sparse and sporadic which still allows the molecules to move enough to straighten when stretched, and coil/curl/deform when retracted.


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

[User]
I think it is hypocritical/sexist for [US] gov. agencies to throw money into funding STEM fields to encourage more women but you never see them saying/doing the thing about no men in female dominated fields (vet, literature, etc). CMV

I think the title says it all.  Us in the STEM fields do not see many women and there is a bias in recruiting and helping for women while men are "expected" to show up for these majors.  While I see other departments of all women and no one cares or says anything about that.  Veterinary sciences used to be all men and now it is mostly women.  Why is there no uproar about starting equality in EVERY field?  Why is not sexism to ignore female dominated fields?

The first thing that comes to mind is that these are not as 'critical' fields but that really seems like a cop out answer.  idk, CMV!

[Assistant]
> The first thing that comes to mind is that these are not as 'critical' fields but that really seems like a cop out answer.

Why is it a "cop out" answer? The thing is the *goal* of the specific programs you're referring to isn't equality or diversity. Whether your agree or not, the government believes that we need more STEM graduates. Explicitly courting females is a good strategy, because there's a cultural history of them not even seriously considering it as a career path even if they have the skill set. Make no mistake, we *also* want more men in STEM fields, but males are more likely to pursue it on their own. If you're looking for qualified candidates who otherwise would have pursued different careers, women are a good place to look.

On the flip side, right now the government doesn't care if we have more vets/authors/nurses, so why would they go out of their way to encourage men to enter these fields, *especially* if some of those men might otherwise have gone into STEM.

tl;dr It's about encouraging people to go into the fields we want to grow, not about equality.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why/How do organisms wake up from sleep?

What happens when you sleep that wakes people up?

[Assistant] Sleepiness is caused by a certain little kind of chemical in your brain attaching to neurons. That slows your nervous system down, and you feel like sleeping. While you sleep, your body stops producing that little chemical, and the little chemical slowly dissipates from your brain, allowing you to feel awake again.


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

[User]
[Jurassic World] Ride Safety: "I'm not making the same mistakes again." "No, you're making all new ones!"

I'm not sure if you can really help, but I have a few concerns over the safety at Jurassic World and how this stuff got approved.

1. The Gyrosphere: It leaves the station on a track, but by the time it is in the field with the herbivores, it's *manually controlled*. Giving control of this ride to visitors seems like a massive safety oversight.
2. There doesn't appear to be a foolproof evacuation plan in place, especially with regards to the more remote rides. Directing everyone back to the Monorail to return to the complex seems short-sighted. What if there is a power failure? In the event of an escaped asset, the monorail shuts down, stranding hundreds (?) of visitors.
3. All sensors direct back to the control room. And nowhere else. When the Indominus Rex vanishes from thermal sensors and the enclosure is investigated, why do they have to contact the control room to find the location of the tracking device? The enclosure had thermal detectors and a guard...but no way to locate the implant?

It seems to me like there was a lot of back-handed deals involved to get this "safer" version of the park open for business. Is Masrani any different to Hammond?

[Assistant]
If Disneyworld goes down, the guests walk to the entrance. They don't provide automatic transportation.

The Gyrosphere one really bothered me though. You'd think they'd have it automatically return to station in an emergency or shut down.

Also, it looks like there are ways for the people to reach the main complex besides the monorail. You can see that on the map during the movie since there are groups of people walking on the paths/roads back.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Did Tarkin need to get authorisation to blow up Alderaan?

In A New Hope, the Death Star travels to Alderaan in order to threaten Leia to betray the resistance. However, despite her (supposedly) caving to the threat, Alderaan was destroyed anyway on Tarkins orders. Now I understand the ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the force and all that, but blowing up a planet located in the Core Worlds seems a bit above Tarkins pay grade.

There is almost no hesitation from Tarkin in giving the order which suggests he knew he was going to order the strike long before it actually happened.

Did he request authorisation from the Emperor to do this or did the Emperor simply entrust to such an extent that he knew Tarkin would do the right thing by him? Or did he simply not care because the end result was still people living in fear, which allowed him to govern.

[Assistant]
> did the Emperor simply entrust to such an extent that he knew Tarkin would do the right thing by him?

Essentially this.

In essence, Tarkin was the third man in the Empire after Vader and Palpatine themselves, and Palpatine basically outsourced many details and minutia of his oppressive reign of terror to him. While it would be rather # empiredidnothingwrong to say that Tarkin was the source of the evil, but he was the guy who formulated Ruling by Fear thesis and presented  it to Palpatine, who enthusiastically signed off on it.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are bipedal walker/machine so difficult

What makes bipedal machines so diffcult to make, like is it due to it's stablity if so why can't an accelerometer fix it ? and also why can human do it so easy even though we have less computing power ?

[Assistant]
First thing i think we can remember is its not easy for humans to be bipedal. We have brains that have evolved for it, and it takes years for us to learn to walk and walk well. Have you ever seen a kid walk/run, they look clumsy, trip and fall, etc.  So its not easy to do for humans.

Second thing is that the human brain is an incredibly complex computing device. While it may not do math as fast as a computer, there are plenty of things it can do that a robot cant. We can solve Captcha's without much issue and do other things.

The final part is that calculating the center of gravity is tough with a lot of moving parts. The human body is good at small movements with muscle twitches, but robots require hydraulics or power to move arms and can't make small adjustments as easily.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Will the Marauder's Map use a deadname?

So, I'm trans, and I've had my name legally changed. Nobody uses my birth name, and the only people I really associate with that knew it were all family/hometown friends.

If I'm seen on the Marauder's Map, though, will it display my deadname or the name I go by?

[Assistant] Well, given that Fred and George never commented "Hey, look, Quirrel's dot has "Voldemort/Tom Riddle" overlaid on it, it probably works off of your current name. Or possibly whatever you're enrolled at Hogwarts under. It's not a very well explained arcane artifact.


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

[User] Why does wind whistle when it blows through objects like doors, trees etc?

[Assistant] Wind howls when its broken up from passing through or around objects, such as trees. The gust of air will split up to move around the tree and then comes back together on the other side. Due to factors such as the surface of the tree and the air speed, one side of the wind is going to be stronger than the other when the currents rejoin. The mixing of the two currents causes vibrations in the air, which produce that ghostly howling noise that gives us the creeps.


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

[User]
ELI5: what is the difference between auditory hallucinations and regular thoughts?

More specifically, the differences in thought process.

Example: is having a conversion with yourself something an average person would do?

[Assistant]
The thing about an hallucination is that, to the person having it, it's not distinguishable from reality. So an auditory hallucination is not a thought, it's not a voice "in your head", it's an *actual sound*.

Same way a visual one would be actually seeing something. And yes, you can have hallucinations with *every* sense.


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

[User]
ELI5: If fire isn't one of the states of matter (liquid, solid, gas, plasma), then what is it?

This is probably a stupid question, but I really don't understand it.

[Assistant]
Fire is the rapid oxidation of something that is the result of combustion.

A flame (visible part of a fire) may be plasma, however, for most fires we experience it's just the hot gases which are a product of the combustion.


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

[User]
[Marvel]Does Dr. Doom have diplomatic immunity?

I mean he is the leader of a country, so why wouldn't he? Thus, any Super"hero" who fights him is breaking international law, aye?

[Assistant]
Yes, Doom has had diplomatic immunity in the past.  To lose it, either his home country would have to waive it (unlikely), or the international community would have to be motivated to stop recognizing his immunity.

Diplomatic immunity means immunity to prosecution and lawsuits.  Sanctioned heroes and police can legally fight back against Doom if he's attacking their country.  The difference that diplomatic immunity makes is that Doom wouldn't be prosecuted for his crimes.  Instead, he'd be sent back to Latverian soil.


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

[User]
ELI5: How can rain forests have infertile soil yet such huge growth?

I've seen many documentaries that talk about rain forests having infertile soil. When they cut them down to grow soya beans, etc the problem becomes that the soil doesn't have enough nutrients.

So how can rain forests have such infertile soil yet have the biggest plants and trees in the greatest of volume of plants and trees in the first place?

I'm quite perplexed! Looking forward to your answers!

[Assistant] Because the trees pull up the nutrients as rapidly as they're deposited, there is no buildup of nutrients in the soil. The nutrient layer is very much in the surface, there's very little underneath. The trees are living on recycled nutrients of all the trees around them. The same matter goes around and around the cycle. Trees take in the nutrients, grow, make leaves, drop leaves, die, compost down in the top layer of soil, and the sequence repeats. If you have a crop which involves taking nutrients AWAY in trucks to be sold in towns, then there is a NET LOSS of nutrients. They have left the cycle.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does the sky turn green when a tornado is about to happen?

[Assistant]
I actually looked this up once since a coworker got me thinking.

And yeah, it's not just a tornado thing. It's the red sunlight from a sunset going through the stormcloud, which being water, will filter blue, and give you the green.

So big cloud, like a storm that would produce tornados + red light, like sunrise or sunset, will result in green light.


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

[User] ELI5: why do your eyelids get puffed up when you cry a lot?

[Assistant]
You have little sacs on your eyes called a lacrimal sac that store and create tears 24/7 and it pushes out those tears constantly to your eyes so when you blink you are preventing your eyes from drying out.

When you cry, you are suddenly making more tears than normal but they arent normal tears either, because its so much in such short of a time there is less salt in the tears.

There is a saying in healthcare where salt goes, water follows; meaning that because those new tears dont have enough salt, they will flood into the cells surrounding your eyelids due to the salt inside them. Which makes them puff up giving you that classic look. Additionally your lacrimal sac and ducts become overloaded causing tears to spill down your face.

Sorry for the crap mobile formatting.


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

[User] ELI5: What is the difference between Advil, Tylenol, and aspirin? I know they're different drugs, but what is each one doing to my headache/ pain?

[Assistant]
Advil is ibuprofen, and Tylenol is paracetamol, for those unfamiliar. Both are proprietary brand names.

Ibuprofen and asprin are both considered Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflamatory Drugs (NSAIDs). Paracetamol isn't, but at the same time it kind of is- the mechanism is very similar, but it isn't very effective at being an anti-inflammatory.

All three act in pretty much the same way- they inhibit an enzyme (COX, paracetamol being very selective for COX-2) that is involved in a cascade of molecules that operate the pain pathways. The exact mechanisms are unclear though.

The ELI5 explanation is that basically they all do pretty much the same thing for your headache, but they all have different other effects elsewhere in the body, which is why people take ibuprofen when they've sprained their ankle, but not paracetamol.


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

[User]
[Black Mirror] What happened after cookies were given human rights?

**Spoilers**

In *Hated In The Nation*, we learn that cookies have been given human rights and are considered "people".

Considering that the story wasn't about cookies, we didn't learn anything else.

What happened?

[Assistant]
Well the business we saw of torturing them to make them compliant slaves to run peoples houses isn't gonna work any more.

You'd need to compensate them for being trapped in solitude forever to serve you. Which would probably mean high wages... which defeats the purpose of them.

Arguably it'll be illegal to keep all the cookies trapped in their own wee eggs as they haven't done anything wrong and its basically imprisonment.

A huge hub may need to be set up to allow them to exist in their own "society"


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

[User]
ELI5 why some actors get famous for one role and then are never in anything else, while other extremely famous actors keep getting large roles.

Thanks :)

[Assistant]
- Their agent hasn't sold them enough to other producers for films
- They're not that talented, or only skilled for one type of role
- They're not willing to commit/travel/practice etc.
- The market is over saturated with actors.


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

[User] Could a Solar system or Star exist outside of a galaxy?

[Assistant] There are plenty of "rogue" stars that are extragalactic! As for a solar system outside of a parent galaxy, it's possible - though we've yet to observe any for obvious reasons (our scope of view is limited to the Milky Way for any practical planetary observations).


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

[User]
What is the difference between fluorescence and normal colour?

How I understand it, an object has colour because it is hit by electromagnetic waves of various wavelengths, then the electrons in that object get excited. After some time the electron loses its gained energy and emitts electromagnetic radiation of a certain frequency unique to the chemical structure of the object.

My question is how fluorescence (and phosphorescence for good measure) is any different to this principle. And if there is no difference, what makes it special?

[Assistant]
Regular color: light is reflected from the surface, different colors occur because some wavelengths are absorbed and subtracted from the reflected light.

Fluorescence: light that is absorbed by the material is re-emitted at a different wavelength (e.g. things that glow under black light absorb UV light and re-emit it in the visible spectrum)

Phosphorescence: like fluorescence, except it has the ability to store energy and then re-emit it even after the original light source is removed (like glow-in-the-dark).


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

[User] Have our immune systems lost the ability to fight smallpox now that it is eliminated?

[Assistant]
Depends what you mean by "lost the ability"

Your immune system will still attack the virus. Assuming you are not immunocompromised in some way then if you contracted small pox you would have about the same chance of surviving/dying from it as anyone in the past (assuming no supportive medicine and that you haven't previously contracted something like cow pox which was actually how the idea of vaccination came about, that's a different story).

If you mean does your immune system "remember" the virus and would it be already primed to fight it, unfortunately the answer is no, that is sadly not how the immune system works. You body must encounter a pathogen and overcome it to know how to fight it in future (or at least a pathogen very similar, which is the whole cow pox/small pox thing)


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

[User]
[Daredevil] What does Matt do if he's out as Matt Murdock but someone needs help?

By that I mean he can hear from someone's heartbeat that someone is about to have a heart attack - he must be able to sense a lot of impending medical problems. But he's not a doctor - what can he even say if someone is not exhibiting obvious symptoms? Especially if he's with someone he wants to keep his identity from?

Or if he's doing his blind shtick but he hears a car about to careen into a child? It would be terribly unheroic to let it happen. But it would very quickly cast scrutiny on him and many would quickly believe he was lying about his blindness, or worse - connect him to Daredevil. Kingpin reading the paper - 'Blind attorney rushes headlong into traffic and narrowly saves child from a car. Oh. I guess he's the Devil of Hells Kitchen. I should have him killed.'

[Assistant]
Matt would do one of three things (in priority order):

1. If time permitting, make some BS excuse to whoever he's with, quickly put his mask on or find something to cover his face with, and help the individual

2. If he can't disguise himself in time, he'll try to pull some clumsy blind man routine and try to act like his act of heroism was just a stroke of dumb luck (i.e "stumbling" into a kid and getting him out of harm's way

3. Disregard what happens to him and save them, knowing full well he's about to get outed. Matt will always try to save the person.


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

[User]
[Clue - Board Game] Why don't they know what happened to Mr. Boddy?

In Clue, Mr. Boddy's guests try to figure out who killed him, where at, and with what weapon? Shouldn't the last one be obvious? It would be clear as day whether he'd been shot, strangled, or bludgeoned to death. Are all these amateur detectives just really incompetent?

[Assistant]
It could be Boddy was stabbed, shot, strangled, and bludgeoned. But which one caused the killing blow was the real question.

Either that, or clothing is hiding the wounds, and the guests are only thinking to check the neck or under the vest or the back of the head for wounds when various cards are revealed.


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

[User] ELI5: When a helicopters blades start spinning, how is the helicopter able to stay on the ground? Wouldnt the thrust generated from the blades push the helicopter off the ground?

[Assistant]
No.

The blades are adjustable.  When they spin on the ground, they have 0 angle of attack, so they produce no lift.  When they are spinning, a control can increase angle of attack (for some or all of them) causing the helicopter to lift up or fly to the side.


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

[User]
ELI5: How/why can antidepressants increase thoughts of suicide?

In most antidepressant advertisements, they say "_____ may increase thoughts of suicide in teens and young adults" or something in that vein.

I have a basic understanding of how SSRIs work, but what is it about these medications that can lead to more thoughts of suicide? Isn't that a major reason they're prescribed in the first place?

[Assistant] For some very depressed people, the only thing stopping them from committing suicide is the lack of motivation to do so, brought on by depression.  As the treatment works, it can, in rare cases, give them just enough motivation to actually go through with it.


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

[User] ELI5: why is it that so many animals have their brains in their head, rather than anywhere else in their body?

[Assistant]
Simply, the speed of transmitting information from the senses to the brain and back encourages a central nervous system that is focused on the primary sense gathering organs.  Eyes, Ears, Nose.

From there it's an evolutionary advantage having those in an optimal position to gather data, or a head.  Different species have different locations of not only their heads, but also their sense organs.  Fish and horses for example have eyes on the sides of their heads, while most mammals have forward facing eyes.  That's a bit of an aside, but it does go to show that their are evolutionary advantages to different configurations.


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

[User] [MCU] is SWORD supposed to be the successor to SHIELD or was SWORD also around before the SHIELD collapse?

[Assistant] SWORD was founded in 1995, so before SHIELD's collapse.  In the comics, they are a subdivision of SHIELD.  In the MCU, they are an entirely separate agency.  There is a lot of overlap in what they cover, so there were probably some fights over jurisdiction before SHIELD collapsed.


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

[User] ELI5: Why can I stay awake all night and feel pretty good the next day, but if I sleep for one or two hours I feel like shit?

[Assistant] In basic terms, when you go to sleep, your body sort of shuts down. If you don't sleep an adequate amount, your body has difficulty getting started again after you wake up. If you don't sleep at all, then you don't have the issue of having to get your body going again.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do most news sites for mobiles have a button along the lines of "click here to read the full article"?

I immediately thought it had something to do with advertising but I don't understand how.

[Assistant]
It's an acknowledgement that you are actually viewing the site and you weren't just randomly redirected or accidently clicked a link.
. It's a way to measure if the article is actually interesting to viewers and also verification that you are viewing their ads for more than just a split second, which is all general click counts are good for.


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

[User]
Thoughts on the increasing number of adjunct hires vs. full time/tt faculty?

Hi askacademia!

I hope to someday teach/research, and I have been tasked with writing a paper relating to my intended profession.  I am in my second year studying biotech at a community college (planning on molecular or chem), and would very much appreciate any insight/personal experience/opinions on the shift to adjunct faculty at colleges and universities in recent years.

I've examined work conditions and educational outcomes, but are there any other issues which you feel are relevant?

Viewpoints from anyone in academia, whether adjuncting at several colleges, or having secured tenure years ago, are much appreciated, both for my paper and for helping me to consider my career possibilities.

Thanks!

Edit:  Thank you all for your insight.  I decided to focus a lot more on administration costs in my essay.

On a personal note, it's all very depressing, I feel like by the time I'm qualified to teach, it will be adjunct or nothing :(

[Assistant]
Academia is being (or already has been) corporatized.   Vice Presidents of this, Vice Presidents of that, deans of nothing, and powerful HR departments.  With the price of education out of control, lots of people are cashing in. All of that money has to go somewhere.

Why would the head of HR ever be on a faculty search committee?  How could you hire a Dean of Graduate Studies that doesn't even have a Master's degree?  At some places, they're not even pretending that knowledge/research or education are top priorities.


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

[User]
CMV: While it is commonly argued that IP laws (in their current form) stimulate creation and innovation, we do not have the modern research/data/evidence to believe this notion as a fact (or even to believe it as highly probable).

I think that many people see it as some sort of logical no-brainer, common-sense idea that IP laws stimulate innovation.

The way many proponents talk about IP laws, its almost as if they see these laws as the thin line between a productive society and complete chaos.

Im not arguing that anyone is necessarily *wrong* when they suggest these possibilities. Im only asserting that people who suggest this concept do not have sufficient modern evidence/research/data/etc. to believe this as an actual fact.

And if we dont have enough support for these claims, it does seem rather extreme that weve built forceful laws and economic systems on ideas that are not sufficiently supported or proven.

On the other side of the coin, you have people who believe IP laws actually stifle innovation. These claims are generally based on the idea that property ownership exists because of exclusivity. A million people cant drink from the same exact cup at the same time. But a million people can use the same exact idea without impeding each other in any way.

Which is where many people think Well, youre forgetting that theyre impeding on market share, because, of course, the exclusivity in IP laws is really exclusive market share. This is granted to creators/innovators by the state, ostensibly to stimulate their future creations.

But, once again, when we actually research this topic, the answers are not so clear and we have no conclusive reason to believe that the flow of creation/innovation even follows these market indicators.

And this brings up another question that is rarely discussed if parallel thought occurs and two people invent the exact same idea, why should getting there first grant one creator exclusive market share when the other creator did the same great work and is now being prevented from joining the economy?

Its situations like that which prove that these laws can often stifle the creation of both new works and derivative works. Which begs the question: How can we support laws with demonstrable harm on the basis of an assumed benefit?

Meaning that we can clearly see where creators are stifled or oppressed with these laws, but we cannot clearly see that creators/innovators who make new works successfully would not have already made that same work in the absence of these assumed incentives.

We need to support the assumption of these incentives to satisfy the burden of proof.

**So, basically change my view by providing modern support (research/evidence/data/etc.) for the basis of modern IP law.**

Stories about how creators lived centuries ago are nice allegories, but they are admittedly outdated.

Logical thought experiments are helpful to branch out our thinking, but its always possible that the logic we use to base our assumptions off of is missing key factors, so getting some modern research/data/evidence would help to avoid that issue. Especially with such a big issue where there are thousands of factors that contribute to the end result.

In addition, logic also shows that IP has no natural exclusivity. The utilitarian view is that this logic does not trump the desire to promote innovation, but they are once again assuming that this will be the outcome without proving their claims.

Just looking for more research and evidence to learn more about this subject.

*Just a reminder, please post research/data/evidence that can actually be read and accessed online. Its difficult to discuss something that no one on reddit can actually see or read.*

[Assistant]
Before copyright and similar IP laws existed, creators had no protection. You could come up with a wonderful way to pave roads, build bridges, whatever, and someone could steal your idea with no recourse for you.

Now with protection you can nurture your ideas and let them take shape. If we all know ahead of time that our work is always vulnerable then 2 immediate effects happen. 1) people stop innovating because theyre always at risk. 2) Groups if companies/gangs that make vast sums based on stolen work pop up. Wealth accumulates in the hands of a very few.


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

[User]
Does concentrated effort to stay conscious increase survival chances from a knife\gunshot wound?

When the action movie heroes scream at their dying friends to stay with them or not to drift away, is there any point in that and any data backing it up?

[Assistant]
RN here. There is data that coincides with this, but does not back it up. People who are unconscious are much more likely to die than people that are conscious. But this has nothing to do with consciousness, but rather that people who go unconscious tend to have sustained more severe injuries (more brain damage, more blood loss, etc).

So, staying awake is correlated with better survival, but not because wakefulness has anything to do with it. More that being unconscious just usually means you're badly injured.

As far as the airway comments, these also fit into the above model. If you are lightly unconscious, you'll keep your airway, but if you are profoundly unconscious and not arouseable, you'll lose the airway an increase pneumonia risk. But again, profoundly unconscious is associated with greater injury.


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

[User]
[The Matrix] How did the Merovingian keep all of those powerful beings in line?

Why would they work for him, what did he have to offer and/ or threaten them with?

[Assistant]
To paraphrase the man himself, knowing "why" is power. As a veteran of previous Matrix cycles, he was alive for a time when these beings were a known fact, and knows the "why" of how they work. He knows their strengths, their needs, and most importantly if they get out of line, their weaknesses.

When they first got on his team, the sales pitch was simple; "join or die". The end of a cycle in the Matrix is in many ways an apocalyptic scenario for the programs within, and for any program not slated by the system to be a part of the next cycle, people like him are the only way to stay alive. As these fantasy creatures are 100% not part of the current plans of the Architect and the Oracle, clinging to the Merovingian is the only way to assure any given cycle isn't their last.

If they get out of line, he has options. They are programs, and programs have weaknesses that can be exploited. For instance, he had a number of henchmen who the Resistance effectively find unkillable... but that Persephone can dispatch in 5 seconds because she knows that they're vunerable to silver bullets. To outsiders they would be an insurmountable obstacle, but to those who know the score, they're just speed bumps.


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

[User]
ELI5: How did we figure out we can only see 3 different colors with our eyes?

 I imagine there was a gradual process of discovery and little by little we learned more about the way we process light and send it to our brains. But I'm still having a really hard time understanding how we even started to question how many colors we see in the first place. Would really appreciate an explanation.

[Assistant]
First we discovered that we have two different types of light receptors, rods and cones, by dissecting retinas and examining them under the microscope.

we were able to figure out that rods were responsible for low light, black and white sharp details and cones responsible for color vision by analyzing which parts of the eye are more sensitive to different types of vision, and comparing them to wear cones and rods are most dominant.

And after that, to answer your question, we found out that we have three different primary colors that we see because we we're studying rods and compare chemistry and we realized they have three different chemical receptors in them, each of which response to a different frequency range of light.

there actually are a very rare number of people that have four rather than three different photoreceptors, and those people can see a wider variety of colors as a result. they don't have a wider range of colors, but are able to distinguish between two different colors that look basically the same two people with just three photoreceptor colors.


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

[User] ELI5: What is controversial about Windows 10's privacy policy? How is it different from previous versions?

[Assistant] Windows 10 synchs much of your system status data/settings with a Microsoft Internet server.  The "purpose" of this is to have copies of this data because you're not trusted to backup your system.  The "side effect" of this is that Microsoft will know a lot about your computer, printer, ISP, and other things that connect to your computer.  They could use/sell this information in any way they want.


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

[User]
The element Oganesson has the highest proton count of any element , what is stopping us from artificially adding a proton to it to see what new element we have created?

I know that adding new protons to an element has been done before but that it is very expensive and usually produces a radioactive element but surely it would be worth the cost and risk to see what goes beyond the Oganesson?

[Assistant]
All of the nuclides which are easy to produce using currently existing facilities have been produced already. Given the way that Oganesson has been produced so far, it's not easy to just shoot another proton at it (or shoot it at a hydrogen-rich target) and measure the reaction products. The superheavy nuclides we've discovered have lifetimes on the order of milliseconds or so, which *is* long enough to run experiments with. But it would be very technically challenging to do the experiment you're suggesting.

These superheavy experiments run for a month or so at a time and hope to see *a few* events where a new element was produced. They are typically produced using low-energy fusion reactions. So you would either have to slow down the superheavy nucleus and bombard it with protons, or you have to speed up the superheavy nucleus and shoot it at a plastic target and hope it picks up a proton. These kinds of experiments can be done in principle; this is often how radioactive beam experiments are done. But if you get a few counts a month of the original superheavy nuclide, and there's a very small probability of proton capture, the experiment would take way too long to see any valid events.

There is no existing facility that could perform an experiment like that in a reasonable amount of time. You'd be much better off just trying to produce element 119 directly in the fusion reaction with some different combination of beam and target.