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

[User]
What is daily life like for an atom in the sun?

Of course I don't mean 'life' literally. I'm wondering about the quantum state of e.g. a hydrogen atom/nucleus in the sun. Is it constantly changing? What does it mean to be a hydrogen atom in a plasma, is it always gaining and losing electrons? Or is it like a sea of electrons with a bunch of nuclei floating in it, and those nuclei are the same from moment-to-moment?

Of course some atoms are undergoing fusion at any given moment, but most of them are not. What is life like for the atoms that are not being fused?

(I do not know anything about quantum physics).

[Assistant]
As you already have suspected, the atoms inside of the sun are completely ionised, so we only have nuclei and electrons floating around.

These nuclei are about 75% Hydrogen, so mostly just a proton, and 25% Helium. Of course there are some others but in more or less negligible amounts.

For our sun, only the hydrogen in its core gets fused, the nuclei in the surrounding radiative and convective zones dont have any nuclear reactions taking place. The life of a nucleus here should be pretty boring.

In the center we have fusion. This can take place in different ways, but in all cases the actual probability for a specific nucleus is really tiny. On average, a proton lives for 9 billion years inside the sun before it undergoes fusion. In the most common reaction two protons fuse to produce hydrogen-2. one proton needs to be converted to a neutron, for which a weak interaction is needed, hence the low probability. Hydrogen-2s lifetime in the sun is much shorter because it can just catch another proton to become helium-3. Two 3He finally fuse to a helium-4 and two protons. This step also takes much less time than the initial step. There are other reactions happening, but those only account for less than 20% of the suns energy output.

So Tldr; most of the nuclei and electrons in the sun just float around, lightly bumping into each other, maybe absorbing and re-radiating some photons, but the exciting stuff is pretty rare.


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

[User]
eli5: how do beauty marks that show up later in life, form ?

like Im 18 and Im slowly getting a small darkening beauty mark on my cheek that only showed up about a year ago! So whats the biology of it?

[Assistant]
Cells on your body are constantly replicating and regenerating, they do this *a lot*.

Sometimes, they get it wrong.

The effect of this is often benign, but sometimes can be serious. This is how cancer starts for example. But a mole, freckle, or beauty mark, is not cancer. Hurray!

Basically, what happened is that the cell whose job it is to maintain your skins pigment, called a Melanocyte develops a fault in the instructions it gets when it tries to do its job. Basically what happens when a mole has formed, is that a cell receives different instructions to the other cells around it, begins spewing out a disproportional amount of melanin pigment in the affected area. The more melanin in the vicinity of the faulty cell, manifests as a brown or black mark.

That's all! It's just a cell that has gone wrong somewhere, and is overproducing melanin, making that very specific area of your skin appear darker than the rest.


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

[User]
ELI5: How is it possible to restore species when there's just a few (10+) animals left?

Would not the gene pool be too small?

So I've read about conservation attempts at saving animals that are nearly extinct, and I'm trying to understand how is it not too late if there are so few of them left. Would not their cubs be eventually suffering from from being, well, inbred?

[Assistant] I don't know where everyone suddenly got the idea that inbreeding is some sort of impossible hurdle to reproduction. Sure, it's not optimal, and will result in offspring that are sometimes mildly less fit than the alternative, but it's still successful reproduction and will rapidly increase the size of the gene pool so that inbreeding is no longer a concern after a few more generations. It is what it is. Sometimes you have no choice.


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

[User] ELI5: If I move a 1 lightyear long "stick", why wouldn't the other end move instantaneously?

[Assistant]
Because there's no such thing as a perfectly rigid material.

The compression wave from you pushing one end would travel through the stick at the speed of sound, so even if you could push enough energy into your end of the stick, there'd be a huge lag before anything happened at the other end.


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

[User] What would happen if i was going 99.9% the speed of light which would slow down time and I had a phone call with someone not moving?

[Assistant]
So first of all, there's no such thing as someone 'not moving'. All movement is relative. So it's just as valid to say that you're stationary and they're moving at 99.9%c away from you.

What would happen is that you wouldn't really be able to hold a conversation too well, because the signal between the two of you would take longer and longer to get back. At the moment you passed them you'd be like "hi!" and they'd be like "hey". One second later, there'd be a ~one second before their voice (encoded in light, presumably) reaches your phone. One minute later, there'd be a ~one minute delay. As such, actual conversation would be difficult.

As for what you'd "hear", you'd likely hear their voice just as you normally would, depending upon how the signal from the phone conversation was recorded. In all likelihood, once the signal from their phone reaches yours, it's decoded into sound, which you hear in the usual fashion -- because remember, it's perfectly valid (and physics works identically) if you consider yourself to be stationary and them to be moving away from you.


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

[User] How is the U.S. allowed to be 14.5 TRILLION dollars in debt? Where is all that money coming from? What's preventing us from defaulting/economic collapse? And why is our currency still considered to be strong?

[Assistant]
The US government offers Bonds, which is basically a peice of paper saying, pay us $xxx and we'll pay you back $xxx+y in z years. Thats where the debt comes from.

Other countries by these bonds, or pensions, or investors or whatever. The bonds are typically very low interest because its seen that governments will always pay back the money they owe people.

The US debt isnt actually that big, as a percentage of GDP its like 60-90% depending on how your measure things, Japan currently has 225% GDP.

What's preventing you from defaulting is the fact that the government can raise taxes, or sell assets or cut services in the future to pay things off.

The strength of the currency is more a factor of the US economy than the debt.


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

[User]
[LOTR] Why do wizards look like men?

From what I understand, wizards aren't mortal men, so why do they look like old men? Are there no dwarf or hobbit looking wizards?

[Assistant]
The five Wizards, or Istari, were sent by the Valar to guide and inspire the people of Middle-Earth to combat Sauron.  The short answer is they outwardly appear to be old Men so that they can be most effective in this task.

The longer answer has to do with the reasoning of the Valar and their views of the races of Middle-Earth. Since the Elves are immortal, they were present during the Last Alliance of Elves and Men against Sauron and thus have firsthand experience with him, therefore needing little inspiration to form an opposition.  Dwarves are largely self-involved and only interested in gathering and crafting treasures from the Earth, thus being significantly more difficult to rally and inspire.  Hobbits, as is frequently the case, are entirely overlooked.  That leaves Men.  As Gandalf echoed to Elrond, the Valar came to the decision that they must place their faith in Men to resist and defeat Sauron.  To that end, they sent their Istari to guide and inspire Men to do this.  To engender feelings of respect and trust, the Istari appeared as wizened old Men, rather than strong young warriors.


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

[User] ELI5: What is the "heel and toe" driving technique and why is it useful?

[Assistant]
It's a technique for downshifting smoothly, and is useful when you need to downshift mid-corner and do not want to upset the balance of the car and risk losing drive-wheel grip from a jerky shift. You see it a lot in "decreasing radius" corners, which means they get sharper as the corner goes on requiring you to slow down.

You use your big toe to press the brake, your left foot to press the clutch, and downshift. Before releasing the clutch, you rotate your foot to tap the throttle (with the other side of your foot/pinky toe) while still braking. This revs the engine a bit, so when the clutch is released, the revs match the road speed and the change is smooth.

You don't actually use your heel most of the time, it's just the term that's been applied, because "big toe and side of foot" doesn't roll off the tongue quite as well. Some cars with a throttle hinged from the bottom (like Nissan Z cars, or an Acura TL) do let you use the heel. Top-hinge throttles like most cars have require the side of your foot or little toe to be used because your heel won't reach.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does my stomach growl?

What causes the noises it makes when I'm hungry and after I eat?

[Assistant] Stomach growling is the sound of peristalsis, the process of the muscles in your digestive system doing its thing to move food through you. Normally you can't hear it because the sound is muffled by food in your digestive system. But when you're hungry, the body triggers peristalsis to remind you to eat. You can hear it at this point because there's nothing within your digestive system to muffle the sound.


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

[User]
[Big Hero 6] Question about Dr. Callaghan (full spoilers)

I'm utterly confused about Dr. Callaghan's plan and his approach towards executing it. When he was walking around the science expo, was he prepared to steal a piece of tech that could successfully destroy Krei, and was he fully committed to fake his own death at a moment's notice? He didn't know Hiro was going to bring tech that could be a powerful weapon. When he got dressed for that evening event, what was going through his mind? Did he have the building rigged to explode, or did he have some convenient device that could quickly start an inferno so intense that he would stand no chance of being rescued? Did firefighters not find it odd that they couldn't find his body afterwards?

Even more confusing, if Callaghan was so absolutely consumed by his hatred for Krei, why didn't he just wait for him to arrive that night and stab him from behind? Or do the same thing months earlier? He obviously had the means to rig a building for either a fire or an explosion very quickly. Why didn't he just get a tour of Krei's new building and explode it?

You might say that Callaghan wanted to kill Krei in a method that would guarantee his anonymity, but one could easily argue that the plan he chose was far less anonymous than the stab-in-the-back technique. For one, tens of thousands of people in Sanfrantokyo would have recorded the masked Callaghan, and dozens of respectable, trustworthy students and professionals would later come forward and say that the only place they saw that tech before was at an expo in which only two people died: Tadashi Hamada and Robert Callaghan. Even if the police didn't make this connection, however, after Callaghan successfully executed his plan it's not like he could just stroll back onto campus.

He also had an insufficient number of microbots to execute his plan, and had to manufacture more. With this in mind, why didn't he just steal Hiro's idea at his leisure, and then produce the microbots in secret? He would then have an alibi and not have to incur the obvious risks of trusting a brand new technology to save his life in a broiling inferno. If this was a crime of passion, perhaps sparked by Callaghan unexpectedly running into Krei, all it would've taken for Callaghan to enact his plan is to steal the neurotransmitter and a handful of microbots, and he already had access to both of these. If killing Krei using the poetic justice of the Stargate was absolutely essential to his plan, it still doesn't explain why he didn't just ramp up manufacturing in his free time. Also, withdrawing money from your ATM and purchasing manufacturing equipment tends to raise eyebrows when you're supposed to be dead. (And stealing it is perhaps even riskier.)

[Assistant]
Consider this theory:

**Callaghan's entire plan (burn down expo, steal microbots, manufacture microbots, bring down Krei) was all accidental and ad-hoc.**

Callaghan had (mostly) moved on with his life. He was a successful professor, running a very popular program at a prestigious school. This is not the life of a man bent on revenge. He sees Hiro, young, with lots of spirit and potential, and he has just invented a rather spectacular, world-changing, invention.

Then in walks Krei (obviously uninvited). Krei makes a bee-line for Hiro: he wants those microbots. While Callaghan calmly deflects Krei, the entire exchange had to make him wonder. He knows (or at least believes) Krei will do whatever is necessary to get those microbots. He also might be worried that Hiro will eventually cave to pressure. The microbots are a great invention but they can't fall into the hands of a man like Krei; more people will just die. He has to destroy them.

Be begins trying to destroy them when something goes wrong. A fire starts and he can't contain it. He manages to survive/escape but then realizes that Tadashi died trying to save him. He's distraught. But rather than accept blame for his reckless actions, he blames Krei. This is all Krei's fault. Once again Krei has robbed him of someone whom he cared for. Krei must be stopped. Not just stopped, but publicly exposed. Not just Krei, but his entire enterprise. But how?

As he stands among the rubble of the rubble of the expo he looks down into his clenched fist and opens it:

Inside is a microbot.


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

[User]
Does a combustion reaction always need to have an organic compound and oxygen gas as the reactants and water and Carbon dioxide as the product?

What if there's no organic compound present in the reaction? Is that considered already as not a combustion reaction?

[Assistant] To an extent it depends on what you mean by "combustion".  If you take a "man on the street" interpretation of an intense reaction with visible "flames", there are plenty of examples that fit the description.  An obvious set of examples are the way certain metals will burn in air, for example magnesium.  The question is a bit difficult to answer scientifically, though, because "combustion" is not a terribly well defined term, and similar reactions can occur in different chemicals that in one case resemble combustion and in another case do not, but they are chemically similar.


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

[User]
How many of the stars we see probably don't exist anymore?

Light only travels so fast, and some of these stars/galaxies are millions or billions of lightyears away. Is it possible to estimate how many of these have died or ceased to exist, even if we just don't know it yet?

[Assistant] The only stars you can see with your naked eye are definitely in our galaxy, and our galaxy is only about 100,000 light years across.  Stars lives are on the scale of millions to billions of years.  So any star you can see with your naked eye has a pretty good chance of still being "alive".


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

[User]
ELI5: How do bongs work?

I know how to use them, please don't explain how to use them. I just want to understand what's happening when you're using a bong.

[Assistant] The smoke has some of the tars filtered out and is cooled somewhat when it's drawn through the water.  That's the whole point of using a bong or other waterpipe.  You apply suction (negative pressure) and it draws the smoke through the water.


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

[User] Does convergent evolution lead to similar genotypes in addition to the similarities in phenotype?

[Assistant]
It's possible, but very unlikely. It would be like if two people on opposite sides of the world both wanted to write a really popular novel and the books they wrote had not only the same themes but the same plot, characters, writing style, etc. A different analogy: if you and a partner were to both roll dice until all of your rolls add up to 100, would your series of rolls look anything alike, even if you reached the same result? When we're thinking of something like wings of insects, birds, and bats, it just doesn't make sense that the millions of base pairs coding for development of the wing would be anything alike, even if they form a similar structure.

Scientists (geneticists) use this assumption to make phylogenies. They more or less disregard the function of the genes and look only at the form (what letter is where, how many letters and chromosomes there are) to establish relatedness of species. This is the same thing we do (though less precisely) when we disregard the differing functions of a whale fin, a human arm, and a bat wing to look at the similar skeletal and muscular form to infer recent common ancestry.

Basically, the genes for a bird's wing are going to be more similar to those for a bat's wing than to those for a butterfly's wing, but that is because they are more closely related, not because they have a more similar function. By that logic, a hummingbird would have genes more similar to a bee (based on flight pattern) than a hawk.


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

[User] why doesn't an atomic bomb cause a chain reaction and start spitting and exploding other atoms around it?

[Assistant]
The same reason, more or less, that your fire doesn't burn the fireplace: the fireplace isn't made of fuel.

Only a few types of heavy atom are subject to neutron-induced fission. When neutrons hit (say) concrete, the concrete doesn't emit yet more neutrons.

Thermonuclear detonations (fusion bombs) are even more analogous to a very high temperature fire: they work by heating light elements very hot, and those elements fuse and release more heat that allows the reaction to continue.  Most light elements can yield energy through fusion, so in principle a large enough hydrogen bomb could fuse (say) all the nitrogen in the air.  But it turns out to be very hard to keep the heat  from fusion concentrated enough to enable further fusion, just like a firecracker going off in a forest doesn't necessarily set all the trees on fire.  Except worse, because fusion requires very high temperatures to achieve and it takes something the size of a star to keep the "fire" going.


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

[User]
Are we, by paying our taxes, complicit in imprisonment, torture, rape and murder?

Our government's agents regularly commit heinous acts of imprisonment, torture, rape and murder. By paying our taxes we fund such activity. Does that render us culpable?

[Assistant] Taxation, by definition, is compulsory - we don't get a choice whether or not we pay taxes (or, more accurately, our choice is between paying, or suffering a harsh penalty). This is the case regardless of the moral status of a particular government. Typically, being forced to do something is not seen as being ethically equivalent to doing something purely by choice, regardless of your ethical model of choice.


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

[User]
Is it too late for me to leave phd program?

I'm a PhD student that has realized (over the course of the last 2 years) that I do not want a career in research. I don't even want to do industry research and I certainly don't want to do academic research.

My issue is that I'm ABD. I passed my Qualifying Exam last semester. But...I don't have a proposal in sight. I've completed 2 research projects, and I'm working on something now that I *think* will lead to a proposal to bring them all together. My advisor never wants to talk about a proposal. She just keeps telling me not to worry about a proposal, but how can I not? I'm in the middle of my 4th year and I can only stay 1.5 more years after this. I need to propose within the year to have a reasonable chance of graduating within 1.5 years. I can't stick around indefinitely like some phd students seem to do.

If I stay, I *might* be able to graduate within 1.5 years, but nothing is guaranteed in research, and I haven't even started writing a proposal. Am I in too deep? Am I pot committed at this point? I dread meeting my with advisor, I constantly worry that I'm not working on something that will lead to a proposal, and I just feel all-around unhappy. The only things keeping me going are 1) I'm ABD with 2/3 of the work "done" and 2) I'd be interested in lecturing positions in the future and having a PhD would help with that.

[Assistant]
I research doctoral attrition. It's never too late, I've known people who finished their proposal and then never completed and left their programs.

I think you need to sit down with your advisor and have a blunt conversation about where you're at and what you're considering, as well as your timeline concerns.  That might help you to determine if you want to continue or not.


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

[User]
Why don't we see eclipses of external stars?

The question is pretty much the title.
Why don't we see a constantly changing night sky with stars popping in and out of our view through let's say star bound planets crossing our path of vision?
Shouldn't there be a significant amount of stellar eclipses happening all the time, visible to the naked eye?

I'm looking forward to being educated and thanks in advance, all input is appreciated :)

[Assistant] We do, that's how exoplanets are detected. But they're not visible to the naked eye, the drops in brightness are every few days (more more) and are typically less than a percent of the star's total brightness. The human eye can't detect that, it can't even see most stars.


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

[User]
ELI5:Do horses know they're racing?

I've been told that when they win they're spoiled with apples and treats and stuff, but how do you teach competition to an animal? how do you make it understand that it is supposed to go faster than the one in front of it? how do we know they're not all just running together and wondering why the little guy on top of them is hitting them so much?

[Assistant]
A racehorse usually doesn't need to be taught competition because they're born with it. Over hundreds of years people bred horses to be very fast, aggressive, and competitive.

Does this mean they understand when they've won a race? Not really. But they definitely want to show the other horses that they're the toughest and fastest. In fact, sometimes the jockey has to actually slow his horse down, because otherwise the horse will run too fast too early,  and get exhausted and lose the race.


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

[User]
To all Computer Engineering/Science students & graduates, what sorts of projects did you do during college and what do you recommend for the students currently in CS program?

I am not sure what field to enter after completing my undergraduates. I want to get a taste of all the options before considering something to do all my life.

I am a Computer Engineering student in my 5th semester. I wanna know what sorts of projects or things are my fellow CS students learning and doing in their university? Even the graduates can share their experiences and projects. Mentioning languages, tools and the benefits from those projects would be highly appreciated.

Any tips regarding how to figure out the topic for me would be great as well.

I am sure it is just not me confused with the mushrooming fields around CS to choose a career from. So, any help/suggestions from fellow students, graduates or even professors would be appreciated by a whole lot of us.

Thanking you all in advance!

[Assistant]
There are a number of things you can try to do, I'll just list some that come to mind:

Build an application that lets users upload an image, and it says whether that image contains a flower or a dog. Architecture this app as a web app with React/Vue/Angular on the frontend and Python/C# on the backend. Use a neural network to do the image classification to try your hand at deep learning. Make a CI/CD pipeline which runs tests and publishes your app as a Docker image to a Docker registry. Deploy your app to a cloud platform like AWS/Google Cloud/Azure using your Docker image. Bonus points if you try your hand at Kubernetes.

If you do something like that, you'll get a cross-section view of a bunch of software fields: frontend, backend, ML, CI/CD, cloud. You can decide for yourself which parts you enjoyed the most, and enhance your project in those areas.

Enjoy ML? Improve the accuracy of the model or give the users an option to add new classes of images (like boats).

Enjoy backend/frontend? Add more features like batch asynchronous processing, multithreading etc.

You can make a mobile client app for this.

If you enjoy the cloud aspect, you can configure GitOps, or improve your deployment by adding rolling deployments or redundancy. Learn about Kubernetes and Helm.

That's just an idea, you can take it anywhere you want.


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

[User] [Star Wars] Does R2-D2 recognize the significance of Anakin's fall to the Dark Side? Does he have moral agency and so fights with the rebellion, or is he merely "swept" into the fray?

[Assistant] I've always loved (and agreed with) the fan theory that R2D2 is one of the main spy agents of the Rebellion, working as the real operative while C-3PO is loud and obnoxious, and thus draws all of the attention. If you think about it, R2 has been at the heart of the Rebellion since the very beginning, and hasn't had a memory wipe since. Droids in Star Wars become more individualized the longer they go without a memory wipe, and he's way, way overdue. He can basically serve as the main hacker (slicer, in Star Wars parlance) that the Rebellion has access to without anybody thinking of him as anything more than an astromech droid.


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

[User]
Eli5 Why does saliva taste like blood when you exhaust yourself?

Why does your saliva start to taste like blood if you ride your bike up a hill or run fast for a while?

Edit: Thanks for the Awards and the nice Comments.
Also blew up bigger than I thought!

[Assistant] When you complete a quick, strenuous exercise, some excess hemoglobin is released from your blood cells into the lungs, which is then moved to your mouth during an exhale. Since hemoglobin is also made up of iron, that is what your receptors detect- hence the blood taste.


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

[User] ELI5: What are the results of the Indian Elections, and what does it mean?

[Assistant]
The Bharitya Janta Party (BJP; rough meaning Indian People's Party) recorded a solid landslide, gaining a clear majority in their own right in the Lok Sabha (People's house, analogous to the House of Reps), and with their coalition partners control a solid majority of the 543 member lower house. The Congress party that previously held government has been reduced to a fairly tiny 50 or so seats, and their leadership is in somewhat disarray. Most of the remaining seats are taken up by minor regional and small issue parties.

The BJP is the conservative party, right of Congress. In American terms, it is a thumping win for Republicans. Note however the Indian political realities puts the BJP somewhere around the Democrats, while the previous government could have been described as borderline socialist.

India hasn't seen a party with a clear majority for 30 years, so while the BJP are so far indicating they'll retain their coalition partners (mainly because they'll need them in the upper house, which isn't yet clear), they could push through their agenda without the compromises and delays that have dragged down politics in recent history.

PM designate Modi specifically: as a former chief minister (governor) for Gujarat state, Modi achieved significant economic growth, attracting business from overseas and other parts of the country to an area that hadn't had such development for years. As a result, he has been seen to bring a pragmatic and business focused reform agenda. India's middle class has been complaining of rising inflation with (relatively) low growth, so the hope is that he'll control the former while encouraging the latter. Modi is the _first_ prime minister of India born after Independence, though at 63 he is no spring chicken.

Modi has his critics. He is seen as being passive in the face of sectarian violence against Muslims in his state 12 years ago, and he hasn't quite shaken it. The BJP's association with the religious movements (like any Conservative party) is troubling to minorities, particularly Muslims, but with 150 million Muslims in India and two neighbouring Muslim countries in Pakistan and Bangladesh, the BJP would be suicidal to actually do anything that would be anti-Muslim. Other minorities are considered small enough or inconsequential enough as to not be worth ruffling (no perceived threat from Sikhs, Jains or Buddhists.)

Any more and you really start delving into history.


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

[User]
[General] Are there non-psychically capable people who have such natural mental strength and will that they can resist a psychic invasion of their mind?

Generally, psychic powers are portrayed with people falling into three general categories: (1) psychically capable; (2) neutrally capable/non-psychic; (3) actively anti-psychic powers.

In several universes there are examples of non-psychic people being taught techniques to resist someone invading their minds.

However, what Im wondering about is if there examples of non-psychic people who just have such strong mental will that they could resist a psychic? For instance, when we see Picard being tortured by the Cardassians we see his mental will in resisting them. Im thinking about a psychic trying to read Picard and his internal voice being able to resist them. Does anything like that exist?

[Assistant]
Storm in X-Men is considered extremely resistant to mental manipulation.

Superman has also had training to resist psychic influence, and Joker simply can't have his mind read because it's too much of a chaotic and unstable mess for anyone to make sense of.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why when you zone out(daydream), do your eyes go wide and you don't blink?

Why is it that happens? Or does it just happen to me and the people I see zoning out?

[Assistant] because your frontal cortex's neurons aren't firing at the same rate of the rods in your eyes leaving a blank image that repeats tricking your mind to think that it's seeing a still image when in reality it's seeing in real time with parts of the retina blurring it out and the blurring happens do to your eye widening.


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

[User] ELI5: When burning a CD, does a 4x vs a 1x write speed change the quality of the end product? Is there anything different about a 4x vs any other speed other than, speed?

[Assistant]
I always thought this harkened back to the old days of CD burning, where buffer underruns occurred frequently.  A buffer was created for the data being burned, and if the buffer emptied before the burning process is complete, it would fail.

  Burning at a slower speed (1x) meant you didn't empty the buffer and cause problems. However if your PC could handle it, you could attempt to burn at faster speeds (4x).


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

[User]
ELI5: after pulling you over, why do cops sometimes stand near your door handle, facing forward where you can't make eye contact, rather than standing at you mirror, facing you?

Sometimes an officer will stand closer to where your car door opens/where the handle is and face forward, making it impossible to make eye contact or even see their face.

What's the reason for this? Are the looking for something in particular?

[Assistant] They want to be able to see your hands and glovebox, places you might have a weapon. You also can't easily exit the car if they stand by the handle. They don't need to see your face until they know they are safe.


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

[User]
[General Sci-Fi/Fantasy] If a dragon lived long enough to make it to a futuristic world where gold had lost most of its value and people traded in 'credits', would he try and hoard the credits or keep with the gold?

Or would he do something else?

[Assistant]
I believe Shadowrun did exactly this - the antagonist of one of the games is a dragon who is a CEO of a major corporation with a lot of influence and money.
Said dragon can also shape shift to look like a human.

So, something along those lines. Power and greed are still there.


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

[User]
[LOTR] Why does Saruman have a tower? What was it built for?

The tower of Isengard is clearly way too large for one man to use, perhaps even too large to be practical at all. Why was it built and why does Saruman choose to live there?

[Assistant]
Orthanc was orinally built by Nmenreans or more so their coastal breathen Dnedain. It was both and outpost and a communication array. The stones of Orthanc or Palantr were gifts from the elves that were used to view far and wide, it can be assumed the tower itself helped in this function much like the Seat of Seeing on Amon Hen.
As to why he lived there it was a gift from Gondor after their power had started to wane. It was left abandoned and Saruman was interested in both the stones and he used them to often to view Mordor.


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[User] [ASIP] How does the gang do in a zombie apocalypse? What's the best and worst possible scenario?

[Assistant]
They would last a pretty long time. Frank would have stocked up on guns and water filters. Charlie is an expert at foraging and scavenging. Mac is a master of hand-to-hand combat and can conduct ocular pat-downs to assess if a person is infected. Dennis is the Face. He conducts trade and deals with other survivor groups. Dee is a drunk whore and will sell her body for bird seed.

They would wait out the first week or so in the bunker, then eventually get bored and leave. They still wouldn't go outside, just sit around Paddy's and yell at each other. By the time they need to venture outside, the worst part of the collapse will be over.

Worst case scenario is that Frank gets infected first while partying with Pondy under the bridge. He turns in the night and bites Charlie while he is unconcious from cat food and inhalants. Dee, Mac, and Dennis and unprepared and Mac and Dennis quickly decide to sell Dee for survival supplies. After a week of surviving together in close proximity, they both slowly start to go crazy and eventually let down their guard, allowing zombies to get in the bar and corner them.


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

[User]
If HFCS is fructose and glucose, and raw honey is also mostly fructose and glucose, what makes HFCS *that* bad?

Honey is often hailed as having medicinal benefits (or at least being not as bad as table sugar), whereas HFCS is in multiple nutritional black lists (figuratively) and is feared by many for its harmful effects being much worse than straight up table sugar.

Often the explanation is that HFCS has higher fructose which is the bad thing about it, when honey usually have similar if not even higher fructose content compared to glucose. So what gives?

I know that honey has enzymes, minerals and vitamins making it somewhat beneficial, but this doesnt change how the body absorbs and metabolizes fructose whether in HFCS or honey. So whats the deal here?

Is honey just as bad as HFCS or is HFCS not as bad as it is made out to be? Or am I missing something?

[Assistant]
The problem is not that HFCS is itself bad for you, the problem is that it is cheap and easy to put in foods so manufactures tended to put it in \*everything\*.  It's gotten better over the past few years, but for a while every processed food had HFCS in it -- potato chips, canned fruit, sausage, bread products, and every single beverage.

Think of it as pouring honey over everything you eat and in the water you drink.  That would be pretty unhealthy for you.


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[User]
ELI5: Why can we not change the colour of steam?

Why is steam always white, even when the liquid isnt? Maybe it is possible to change, but I couldnt find anything. I tried Googling but every search result was about Steam gaming.

[Assistant] The white you see is not steam but clouds of tiny droplets which have quickly condensed back to liquid water.  The colour comes not from the liquid itself but from the thousands of tiny surfaces of the droplets that scatter light around randomly.  Steam itself is largely transparent though it will often have a shimmering mirage-like appearance when we look through it due to temperature variations.


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[User]
[Watchmen] why does Rorschachs mask move like it does?

I saw a video on the news of Rorschach and his masked looked like it was moving is there any reason behind this does anyone know?

[Assistant] The mask has an outside layer, which is transparent, and an inside layer. Between the layers are two fluids, one black, one white, and about as thick as oil. The fluids are of a type that they never mix, and body heat/movement keeps them in motion. The design of the mask keeps the shapes made symmetrical down the center (I have no idea how that part works)


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[User]
[StarWars] Did Anakin get stronger after the fight with Obi-Wan on Mustafar?

I've been told Anakin's wounds (I.E. losing two legs and an arm) in his fight with Obi-Wan on mustafar weakened his ability to use the force.

If so, was Anakin at the peak of his power when he was defeated by Obi-Wan? or did Anakin become stronger during his time as Darth Vader? was Anakin in a weakened state when he fought Obi-Wan?

[Assistant]
Anakin's maximum Force potential was lowered by his injuries on Mustafar.  Had he not suffered his dismemberment and horrific burns, then he had the potential to eventually be approximately twice as powerful as Sidious.  As it was, though, after Mustafar his maximum ceiling was approximately three quarters of Sidious's power.

Keyword here is potential.  At the time of his duel on Mustafar, Anakin wasn't at his maximum power yet.  So after he was put in the suit, he continued to develop his Force abilities, and actually became stronger in the subsequent years.  But he would never be strong enough to challenge Sidious directly.

As for his combat skills, being put in the suit made Vader less mobile, which meant his saber skills had to be adjusted.  He adapted a more power-oriented style, compared to the fast and mobile Djem So style he practiced pre-Mustafar.  His new style was still devastatingly effective in combat, though, as evidenced by the fact that he defeated so many Jedi in the Purge.


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[User] elI5 Why are sleeping bags made out of such loud materials?

[Assistant] Sleeping bags are usually synthetic material (nylon) filled with more synthetic insulation or goose down. The priority for most sleeping bags is to minimize their weight and bulk as much as possible while still achieving the needed warmth. Thin nylon does this better than almost any material, but has the downside of making that annoying swishing noise. There are sleeping bags out there that have a liner made from linen or flannel like material thats much softer and quieter, but those bags tend to be a lot bulkier and more suited to RV camping rather than backpacking.


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[User]
Does gradual cold exposure(cold showers, ice baths,etc.) Increase your blood circulation over time?

It seems to spike your metabolic rate, at least that is what I heard. Anyone know if it helps with blood circulation as well?

[Assistant] It most certainly does. The reason why your metabolic rate increases, is because your body is trying to keep as warm as possible, (through pilo erections (goosebumps) and minute muscle contractions. This all requires ATP, and produces heat. So your metabolic rate tends to increase. When you're exposed to the cold, your body loses heat to the environment, this heat is lost from the blood. E.g, blood that leaves the heart at 37 degrees, may arrive back at the heart at 36.8 degrees for example. Therefore it follows that circulation of blood may increase, to make up for this loss of heat and to keep on providing constant heat to your body parts. All of these activites require alot of energy, and the body has to withdraw resources from other sectors "hypothetically". This is why you can get sick when you are exposed to the cold. Your body uses all of it's energy to maintain homeostasis leaving little else for immune response. However, this increase in circulation can only be sustained for a short period of time, If this cold temperature is maintained for long enough, the bodies primary energy sources are depleted and it then one becomes hypothermic, and a couple of fingers fall off, and that sort of thing.


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[User]
ELI5: How are billionaires able to pay such a low tax rate?

I know they write off stocks somehow, and some use something called the "variable prepaid forward contract" however this stuff makes my head spin.  Can anyone break down how this is possible?

[Assistant]
Billionaires make most of their money off various sorts of investment income (which affects a very small percentage of the population) rather than payroll taxes (which affect most people).

Given the total tax liability of a typical billionaire, it's usually very cost-effective to do some combination of restructuring their income to avoid taxes (relatively easy, since they're probably a CEO or major shareholder of a company that employs lots of high-level accountants), or lobby the relevant national government to add a few tax loopholes that benefit billionaires with their specific income structure.

In other words, you don't need to understand the details of the "variable prepaid forward contract;" the important thing to understand is that once you make a sufficiently insane amount of money, it's much cheaper to game the tax system than to pay your fair share.


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

[User]
If captchas are supposed to differentiate between man and machine, how does the server confirm I wrote the correct letters?

Aren't those pictures generated randomly? If a sequence is first created, and the picture thereafter, couldn't a bot just re-do the steps to get from the picture to the text sequence?

Edit: Thanks guys! So you it's not really hard to distort the picture in a way that is practically impossible for a bot to re-do. Also, the crowdsourcing thing looks really interesting. I'll look further into it!

[Assistant] Some processes are easy to do in one direction but hard to undo.  It's easy to take a series of letters or numbers and to apply a series of random effects to it, but it's hard to figure out exactly what those effects were.  Even if you knew that one of the effects was "draw a black line from one random point to another" it could be difficult to work out which pixels were part of that random black line and which ones were part of the original letters.


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[User]
ELI5: If space is a vacuum, how come it's so cold?

Wouldn't there have to be something there to be cold? What's making it cold?

[Assistant]
Unfortunately, space isn't just space. How "hot" or "cold" it is depends on where you are. It also doesn't help that heat "moves" differently in space than it does on earth due to the vacuum.

If you have a thermometer in your house and take it outside, it will warm up or cool down until it reaches the same temperature as everything around it, with "everything" mainly being the atmosphere or whatever rock/table/bit of ground you left it lying on. By coming in contact the atmosphere and the ground, the thermometer can easily exchange heat with the environment and will soon give you an accurate reading of the temperature.

Now let us imagine you're on the International Space Station and you do the same thing. You take your thermometer out of the ISS and leave it floating a little bit outside the airlock. Let's say you also did this "at night", i.e. when the ISS passes through earth's shadow so that the sun doesn't interfere with your experiment. The thermometer's temperature will barely change. This doesn't mean that the space is the same temperature as the inside of the ISS, it's just that your thermometer can't exchange heat the way it would on earth since it's in a vacuum. It will cool VERY SLOWLY by emitting so-called black body radiation (this is exactly the same as the light that metal gives off when it glows red hot, except that your thermometer is only at room temperature, so it only glows in the infra-red).

Now let's say you wait a little longer. The orbit will carry the thermometer out of earth's shadow into full sunlight. Now, the thermometer is giving off a little bit of IR light (which cools it down slowly very slowly) and absorbs large amounts of light from the sun (which heats it up rapidly). This means that your thermometer floating in space will get HOTTER! And for quite a while, it will continue to get hotter and hotter. However, as it gets hotter, it will emit more and more black body radiation until the radiation it loses is equal to what it gains from the sun. At this point, it will be showing the "correct" temperature, which is quite hot for the ISS. After all, when you're in orbit around earth, you receive more light per square meter than if you were sitting in the Sahara desert at mid day.

Finally, let's imagine that you did the same thing from a space ship that was floating in deep space (i.e. well outside of our galaxy). Now the thermometer will lose heat through black body radiation as it did before, but there is no sun to heat it up. The only light it can absorb is the so-called "cosmic microwave background", which is the left-over light from the big bang. But otherwise, the situation is the same. The thermometer will continue to lose temperature (and hence will emit less and less black-body radiation) until it is giving off as much as it is receiving from the CMB. This happens at about -270C, which is very cold indeed. This is why people say that space is cold, but it's really only true for deep space.


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[User] Eli5: Why do some exercises (eg. wall sits) hurt intensely in the moment but cause minimal soreness, whereas others (eg. deadlifts) feel effortless in the moment then hurt terribly the days after?

[Assistant]
I kinda see where you're going with this. But, if deadlifts feel effortless, you may need to increase the weight.

To simplify, there is central, and peripheral muscle fatigue. Central refers to the motor neurons of the nervous system. This tells the muscles to contract. The more force you need, the higher the frequency.

For wall sits, it's a much lower amount of force. But, since you're holding it for longer, the lactic acid produced by muscles when contracting has longer to build up, causing that initial soreness.

The delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) you're referring to is still not totally understood, but believed to be a result of the damage we do to our muscles when we use them in ways they aren't used to yet. But, some people still get DOMS even after months or years of regular training, but it's usually much easier to manage.


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[User]
Question from a 10-year-old: How to bugs "know" which part of something matches their coloring so they can use it for camouflage?

[From him:] I saw a small tan moth in our shower this morning. The walls of our shower are made of slate that is mostly grey but with red and tan parts. This moth was on the tan part and it matched the wings great. How did the moth know not to be on the red or grey to hide?

Things I know: I know some animals see color differently than us. And some see black and white.

I also don't know how lizards know what color to change in to, but that is a different question.

[Mom again:]Thanks, askSci -- we appreciate any answers you can give us (the more kid-friendly the better, but I'll do my best to translate.

[Assistant] The insect doesn't have to 'know' what things match it's camouflage, it just as to prefer to stand/rest on certain colors.  Basically, it has to have a 'favorite color'. This is a fairly easy preference to evolve - insects already respond to many color and texture cues in their environment - and it happens like this: any insects who happen to prefer the wrong color, die.


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[User] ELI5 Why do MRI machines cost so much to shut off?

[Assistant] You need liquid helium cooling to keep the magnets working. The only way to shut the MRI machine off is to flush the helium. And then you need to pump in new helium to be able to start it again. That's not particularly cheap.


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[User] [Doctor Who] "A Time Lord's body is a miracle. Even a dead one. There are whole empires out there who'd rip this world apart for just one cell." Assuming this statement is true just what could somebody do with the body of a dead Time Lord?

[Assistant]
Time Lords are time sensitive  something that is presumably coded into their genes. They also have the capacity for complete cellular regeneration, and extremely long life in each single generation  as well as enhanced strength compared to many humanoid species, a respiratory bypass system that allows them to survive without air for quite some time and, of course a second heart.
There is also the Rassilon Imprimatur embedded into each cell  which allows travel through the vortex in ways that others cannot  mapping them into Block Transfer Computation according to some accounts, and they are a source of Arton energy.

Any of those traits could be highly valuable to any genetic engineers looking to reverse-engineer them  or simply to culture the cells to grow their own Time Lords.


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[User]
[Star Wars] Did Pong Krell ACTUALLY have a chance of becoming Dookus apprentice?

He seemed very insistent that when he got off of Umbara, hed find Dooku and hed be his new Master. But after his failure with Ventress, and his even WORSE failure with Savage, would Dooku seriously consider taking a former Jedi Master? Or would he just say Sorry, but were not taking applications at this time. And kill him?

[Assistant]
I doubt Dooku would make him a real apprentice, but Dooku and Palpatine might tell him they would just to manipulate him into doing something useful for a little bit before getting rid of him. Its unlikely Dooku would be able to keep it a secret he was training a former Jedi Master as an apprentice even if he wanted to, and Palpatine didnt even like Dooku having Ventress. And Krell doesnt seem strong enough that Palpatine would want him to replace Dooku either. And Krell would be unlikely to accept just being some tool for them.

So theyd probably just do what Palpatine did to Dooku; use him until hes not useful anymore, and then take him out without a second thought.


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[User] ELI5: How can televisions measure number of people who watch them?

[Assistant] The television can't, but a sample of families are given boxes which track what's on TV and who is in the room. They just press a button on a remote when they enter and leave the room. Then the company handing out the boxes (e.g. Nielsen in the US or BARB in the UK) extrapolates from their sample to estimate the total number of viewers.


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[User]
[Skyrim/Elder Scrolls] I was injured while adventuring, what are my options?

Medical care, Career paths, what am i looking at here?

[Assistant] You have basic healing magic, could wait for a while, or sleep, or if you have a healing potion, drink it. If you don't, then buy one at an alchemy shop, or make one, or eat food, or ingredients, which have healing properties ( blue mountain flower, for example).


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[User]
I don't think parents should lie to their kids about the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, etc. CMV!

My parents told me they were real, and I had fun with it and wasn't filled with feelings of betrayal or anything when I found out the truth.  Still, I'm not sure you can morally justify lying to your kids about something like that for years and years for the sake of them having more fun.  What are your thoughts?

[Assistant]
Imagination is an important part of the growth of a functioning human mind. As adults we look back on our childhood fantasies with fondness and loving nostalgia, and they lay the foundations for our entire imagination as adults.

You wouldn't deprive your children of fantasy stories in media, would you? And yet, these are so much -less- impactful and meaningful to children. Is it just that you don't want to get *your* hands "dirty"?

Children don't have the references to be truly moved by a powerful fiction like an adult can be. But even an adult cannot be moved the same way a child can be moved by the idea that there is some magic in the world-- while they are still young enough to believe it.

Such things do no harm their ability to be rational functioning adults, as it didn't for anyone else, but their absence could greatly harm their ability to be imaginative, optimistic adults, with a healthy appreciation for the childlike wonder of their youth.


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[User]
I'm interested in what *is happening* when we compose and read fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Which branch of philosophy and authors should I be looking at?

I completed my undergrad education in English and Philosophy, with a strong emphasis on literary theory on the English side and Philosophy of Religion and Language on that end.

It isn't surprising that this is where my interest is, then!

Questions like these have been on my mind:

* *How, if at all, does a piece of writing actually represent the reality it claims to represent?*
* *What does it mean for an author to "tell the truth?"*
* *What assumptions do readers have to make before they can engage in reading fiction, poetry, nonfiction, etc.? Are there any assumptions that, if not adopted before reading, make the reading incomprehensible to the reader?*

I did a bit of work involving the truth in fiction, so I've read David Lewis and his whole 'school' of similarly interested logicians. My interest is less in logic and semantics and more in pinning down a definition for the act of reading and writing.

Where do I go from here?

[Assistant] Check out Gadamer and Bruner and hermeneutics; going from there, Barthes is a good read. Hermeneutics is the study of interpretation, and addresses some of the questions you're asking, and Barthes famously coined "the death of the author," which is important to the contemporary understanding of hermeneutics and texts in culture.


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[User]
CMV: Modern capitalism cannot exist in a future society.

Now, before you start calling me a communist, I think capitalism can work in the future with changes such as UBI. In fact, that would be the best system for the near future in my opinion.

Now, the reason I'm saying changes need to be made is because of automation. Automation isn't something your grandkids or even your kids have to worry about. You have to worry about it too. Automation isn't something that will be here in the future, it's already here, and it's spreading quickly. By 2030, roughly 30% to 50% of jobs are going to be taken by automation, with some people saying the job loss could be even bigger. Keep in mind, the unemployment rate during the great depression was 25%! And remember, by 2030 that's supposed to happen. What about 2045? The unemployment rate then could easily be 75% to 95%, if not more. If no one has any jobs, how can people live? No money equals no food, no homes, no anything really.

I just want to know if anyone thinks todays capitalism can work in tomorrow's society.

Oh, and if you think your job can't be taken in the near future, go ahead and tell me why. I could probably think of a good reason why it could be.

[Assistant] There was a time that the bulk of people worked in agriculture. Not any more...what happened? Industrialization of agriculture; the use of machines to let fewer people do the same work. Automation is the same thing; machines allowing one or two people to fun an entire factory instead of a few dozen. So what will happen? Well, what happened with the extra agricultural workers? We created other jobs, more jobs; jobs in the tech industry, more entertainers, more social workers and other jobs that basically didn't exist at one point. The average level of education went up, and people found other functions. And, perhaps, the average person worker fewer hours per week. The same thing can happen here. Every truck driver that gets displaced, every factory worker, can maybe move on to something else; opening a small brewery, farming local chickens in their back yard, becoming an EMT, and so on. Is this the BEST solution? Heck, no. But it's perfectly plausible.


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[User]
Anyone here who now works outside academia, how did you alter your resume? Or did you just submit your CV on your applications?

I'm a finishing PhD student in marine biology, and I'm trying to keep my options open. I have a CV I'm comfortable with, but I'm not sure how to cut it down to 1 page for a resume. Does anyone have any tips? Has anyone gotten a job by just uploading their CV instead?

[Assistant] No, you definitely have to make it into a resume. CVs are a totally different thing and will probably just irritate any hiring managers. Does your school have a career center that can help you out? This is a pretty common question, so you can probably find info online easily too.


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[User]
[Fullmetal Alchemist] How is the conservation of energy and momentum explained?

I know the first anime (I prefer this one) explains that souls from our world provide energy for transmutation. But in the manga/Brotherhood world how is energy supplied for transmutation? Alchemists have a pretty detailed understanding of the composition of matter they should know that moving bulk amounts of matter, undoing chemical bonds, forcing chemical reactions to occur all require energy, in some cases large amounts. How is this reconciled?

[Assistant] Alchemists harness power from the tectonic movements of earth beneath the ground. It's why Father can block their alchemy (but not alkahestry), because his construction extends beneath them and he stops them from getting access to that tectonic energy.


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[User]
Eli5 When forging what is the thing falling off the metal and why?

So when I see videos people or machines forging things there is always a part of the outer layer that will fall off after each hit. Pls explain!

[Assistant] That's called "scale". Most metals, and especially hot metals, like to react with oxygen. So the surface (where it's exposed to the air) forms a layer of metal oxides. Most metal oxides are solid and brittle even at very high temperatures, so they form "scales" that falls off as soon as you distort the underlying soft metal...like when you hit it.


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[User]
[Godzilla] If Godzilla emits radiation, has atomic breath, is powered by radiation, and was essentially created by atomic bombs, how is the entire human race still alive?

I mean I know its just a movie but were talking about a giant radioactive lizard titan created/fueled by an atomic bomb with literal atomic breath destroying cities and such. Like, you cant tell me that these yahoos created a mini ship that can warp into hollow earth but theyre blissfully unaware of the dangers of radiation exposure.

[Assistant] Well, in the new Legendary movies it seems the radiation he emits gets directed mostly into causing rapid growth in plant and some animal life, meaning every time he wakes up our ecosystem basically gets a refreshing boost.


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

[User]
How is mental illness treated in the third world?

Now when I say treated, I mean just that--treated. How is it taken care of? If we're to assume less resources are available to societies not of the developed world, how do they go about treating things like autism? Do these people just "cope," for lack of a better term? I started thinking about this the other day because I wondered if a hoarder can only exist when there's an abundance of goods. Then I wondered if hoarding is just a symptom and would display differently in a culture that doesn't have an emphasis on collecting stuff. Hopefully I didn't ramble too much.

[Assistant] Mental illness is treated much more at the family and community level than at the institutional level.  In Europe and the US, families are quick to hospitalize, institutionalize, and provide drug-based treatments to the mentally ill.  In Africa, India, and other rural regions with large populations the responsibility for care of the mentally ill lies with the family, or potentially the larger town or village that person lives in.  Violent or really bad cases are referred to hospitals, where they get care (which might be drugs, confinement, or therapy in rarer cases).


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

[User]
Why could I only see out of one lens in the 3D cinema where as my SO could see out of both?

So a few days ago me and my SO went to IMAX, which is a 3D cinema with "laser technology" , whilst watching the previews i noticed that i could only see out of one eye through the glasses, i asked my SO and she said she could see out of both, we swapped glasses and it was the same situation.
I am aware of light polarization and how it works but my question is why only I had the issue of only being able to see through one lens and not my SO.
What could have caused this?

[Assistant] Most likely you have suppression scotoma, a very common condition when people's eyes have a slight misalignment. This causes one of your eyes to suppress the image in order to prevent double vision. If you cover the seeing eye you should notice that the suppressed image appears. Sometimes this causes amblyopia, where the suppressed eye never forms proper neural connections and commit get perfectly clear sight.


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[User] [Elder Scrolls] Was Miraak ever mentioned in the lore before the events of Dragonborn? If not, who was the first recorded Dragonborn?

[Assistant] He's never mentioned prior to dragonborn but in previous games the first Dragon born was talos mentioned by name and unnamed nords having the power of the shouts.  Wasn't until skyrim that the shouts and dragonborn became interconnected to each other.


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[User] ELI5 If the bubonic plague was present throughout so much of human history, why was the outbreak from 1346 to 1353 (the black death) so much worse than the other outbreaks?

[Assistant] It was able to quickly spread across all Europe (and probably north Africa too) though the Mediterranean trade network. A lack of hygiene and previous starvation also worsened the situation. Moreover, it's wasn't only the bubonic plague, there was also its pneumonic form, which is much more contagious and deadly.


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

[User]
How to politely refute someone who has gone emeritus

Hi,
I work alongside an emeritus professor who has "gone emeritus". They've not published in their original field in over a decade (well they are emeritus). They're publishing material in a different field to that which they are an expert in. Their 5 publications in the last six years are not well received, with few citations (about one article per year - no books/chapters - 5 citations per year per article - good articles get over 100 citations a year in our field). Their talks on the subject garnered a lot of controversy, the professor has been told that "you can't do that" by many people who have spent their careers in the field.

If the professor took the position that their work was the personal opinion of a learned fellow then I would see that as a net benefit to humanity. However, the professor takes the position that their personal opinion is based on a more rigorous method and understanding of the subject than those who actually do the subject, have made mistakes and learnt from them, and follow best practice etc. At this point I admit, as everyone does, that there are problems in best practice, but that it is best practice for many reasons. Further, the differences between the professor's approach and that of the field as taught, practised, and presented in books and articles are not technical, interpretative, or a small matter. He would not pass a first year PhD continuation exam. This says a lot about the open-mindedness/low standards required for him to have passed peer review and become published. I am for open-mindedness and the ability to try-out new ideas without being chastised. However, whilst the external world operates approximately as a free marketplace of ideas, the politics of the institution mean that personal power rules here.

I have decided to refute the professor's position in writing. This is because he still has significant influence and is having a strong negative impact on many people, including myself. I understand the politics of doing such a thing are very risky to me. Even if he were simply insisting that 1+1=3, anyone who disagreed is painting a target on their own backs.

I intend that what I write will only be read by people within the relevant political circle. One of the leaders of this circle comes from the field which my supervisor falsely claims expertise in, and is very sympathetic to my position. This leader has pressed my case before, but is unable to change matters. The other three effectively support the emeritus professor whilst claiming no knowledge of the subject.

I have thought about the best way to present my case. The facts of the case are clear: the professor's work does not cite the major sources anywhere, does not include the major concepts, does not explain why his work does the exact opposite of/ignores best practice, does not explain how his "rigorous, transparent, systematic, objective" method is any different from having an opinion etc. This is not a matter of building a strong case, but of presenting a case in a sympathetic but forceful manner.

I intend to replicate his argument in as positive as light as possible. Then in my critique I plan on using the Principle of Charity (taking kind interpretations of his work, understanding, knowledge without putting words in his mouth).

I have spoken to the professor about my concerns. He takes no negative criticism. His initial response, years ago, was to repeatedly call me stupid. Now he does not call me stupid, but instead tells everyone else that my views cannot be trusted. I have tried to be polite and respectful but there can be no academic argument, for example he laughed at me when I asked his opinion of a set of operating principles that directly contradict his published approach. I wish this were a joke.

Ultimately, if the political positions are maintained then nothing will change, even if I have shown that the professor is deluded. However, I need to present my case for my own well-being and integrity. It is likely that I will move on from here if nothing changes and so I want to have done everything within my power before I call it a day.

What advice would you give in presenting my argument?

**TLDR**: How do you politely say "dude, you may have power but you haven't a clue"

[Assistant]
An unfortunate truth is that many professors slide towards senile dementia before they retire. Instead of regarding this fellow as a cantankerous colleague whose professional opinionfacts fly in the face of logic and good sense, consider thinking of him in a gentler light as a senile dementia sufferer. Then ask yourself whether it's worth your time and effort to discredit his non-work that no one in his current field seems to believe.

It could be that the people who still support him and claim ignorance of his field are just avoiding dealing with the reality that he's losing it out of politeness.


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

[User] [ELI5] how do people crack games?

[Assistant]
The game programmer wrote code that says roughly:

    draw_start_screen()
    licensed=get_license_status()
    if licensed==false:
        exit
    enter_game()

Cracking a game involves removing that 'exit' line. Since the end user doesn't have the source code they have to look at the compiled code which is much harder. Debugging tools can help track when the game makes the license check and then that instruction can be patched over.

Now of course contemporary games make this more complicated, so it is a battle of game developers making more complicated code to check the license status and people trying to disable it. Game makers might look for debugging tools and change their behavior; someone might use a VM to hide the fact a debugging tool is being used. The game might check for a debugging VM, people start hiding their VM status. It is a back-and-forth game.

Nowadays game makers might put a small but critical portion of the game online such that the game only works if the remote service is available and checks the license. Then the user has to guess at that functionality and reimplement, or figure out how to patch around it.

But ultimately it all comes down to the game checking on a license and taking an action, and the user tricking the game into thinking the check has passed.


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

[User] ELI5:Why is it when a tooth filling comes in contact with tin foil (that stuff you cook with) it hurts so bad?

[Assistant] You create a small battery and give a small shock to your tooth.  The aluminum foil is one electrode, your filling is the other, and your saliva is the electrolyte...the solution that allows electrons to move from one electrode to the other.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do most fast food restaurants specialize in hamburgers and french fries? Why isn't there more variety?

If you're in the mood for a cheeseburger and fries, you're in luck because you have your pick of McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, Sonic, Carl's Jr., White Castle... the list goes on.

Hot dogs are a well-known and beloved American food too, but off the top of my head the only place I can think of to get a hot dog is Nathan's, and I've only seen a handful of those over the course of my lifetime.

Why is this? How come so many restaurants can serve the same type of food with all that competition?

[Assistant] Tons of places offer hot dogs: street vendors, Sonic, Dairy Queen, and many more regional places.  Many places offer Mexican food.  Many places offer deli sandwiches.  Quite a few Asian places could be called fast food, even if they are rarely drive through.  I'd say they have competition.


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

[User]
[Star Trek/General Sci-Fi] Why aren't bridges embedded deep inside ships?

It doesn't make sense to have your bridge exposed if you don't even have windows. All it will take is one good shot and your entire command structure is shot. Why don't Starship Architects put bridges in the center of ships, where they aren't exposed?

[Assistant]
Watch the new BSG show, where the bridge is right at the middle of the ship.

In stuff like Star Trek the point is to keep the bridge as far from the warp core as possible though, because those are dangerous. Add in the fact that Federation ships are not designed as warships and we see why the bridges are up on the command saucers.

Star Wars, there's a similar distance from the reactor thing. Furthermore, big capital ships like Star Destroyers are designed to intimidate and having a big command deck looming above the rest of the ship communicates that quite well.


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

[User]
At what point do you tell a child something is impossible.

My son asked me what are the chances that you could flip heads 100 times in a row.

I told him it was extremely unlikely, then I worked it out to 7.88e-31.

So, although it is possible, at what point would you say something is impossible?

[Assistant]
I would think about it in terms of time.

If you flipped and counted 100 coins every second for the rest of your life, could you do it? What if you recruited a million people to help you? What if you asked a computer to do it for you at a million flips per second? What if you had a million computers doing a million flips per second? Etc.

Eventually either theres a combination that makes it plausible (albeit very expensive!) or it would take more time or energy than is available in the known universe. Then its impossible.


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

[User] If two sets of identical twins married each other and had kids, would the cousins be genetically similar enough to be considered "siblings"?

[Assistant]
Short answer: Yes.

Long answer: Since the Mothers and Fathers are genetically identical, then genetically, the children have the same parents. Of course, blood siblings can (theoretically) be as genetically distinct from each other as their parents are from each other, but that's *really* unlikely. (something like 2^-46 unlikely)


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

[User] ELI5: If the British monarch had a child while visiting the states, and then fulfilled all the requirements, could that child grow up to be President and the King/Queen of England?

[Assistant]
If a British monarch were to give birth abroad, they would most likely have declared whatever place she was to give birth in as part of "international territory". By doing so, the baby would be granted whatever citizenship the mother had.

This happened in Canada for the birth of Princess Margaret of the Netherlands. The birthing ward of the Ottawa Civic Hospital was "declared to be officially a temporary part of international territory, so that she would be born in no country and would inherit only her Dutch citizenship from her mother". This is also why there is now a tulip festival in Ottawa every year - the Dutch Royal family sends the bulbs to Canada every year in recognition of it.

TL,DR: Any place in the world can be declared international territory in order to avoid these problems.


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

[User] How do ocean animals "drink"?

[Assistant] they do not drink water like land animals do, as they don't risk dehydration from the sun. This goes for all the marine mammals like whales, dolphins, seals etc. The way they get water is through their food. - Google's Answer.


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

[User]
Is it okay to give a small gift to my professor?

Im transferring this fall. And I wanted to give a small gift to one of my former professors who took me under his wing and helped me fall in love with English and Journalism. I took 3 of his classes. He has helped me find the schools that would fit me best. Because of him, I became an English major.

I wanted to gift him a box of Nutter Butters (something that he always brought to class and snacked on) and also some nice carabiners (because he uses them a key chains and for outdoor activities), or if not the carabiners, an REI gift card. I will also write a little note thanking him.

Anyways, is this too much? I just wanted to thank him for being so kind to me, taking me under his wing, and ultimately allowing me to fall in love with English. Thanks :)

[Assistant] Be sure that you have your final grade for any of their classes before doing so, and don't be shocked if they decline any part of the gift. Many professors have strong policies against conflicts of interest. Some schools also have policies on gift giving. It's a nice gesture, though.


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

[User]
Why does 100C water feel so much hotter, more painful, and cause more damage than 177C air?

For example, submerging your hand in boiling water will cause severe burns, but you can easily put your hand inside a hot oven for much longer than you could in the boiling water.

Also, why does a soft rug at 0C feel warmer to your bare feet than a concrete floor at the same temperature?

[Assistant]
This is a common question.  There are two reasons water feels hotter (or colder) at the same temperature than air:

1) Thermal conductivity.  Water has a thermal conductivity about 25 times that of air.  That means that, given the same temperature difference between water and something else (for example, your skin) compared to air, the water will transfer about 25 times as much heat per second.

2) Heat capacity/thermal mass.  Water is also much more massive than air per unit volume - it's a little over 800 times as dense. Heat is stored in mass, so water being 800 times as dense as air means that it can hold about 800 times as much heat just on that basis.  In addition to the amount of mass, water also has a higher heat capacity (how much heat it takes to raise a specified amount of mass a specified number of degrees) than air - about 4 times as much. So because there's 800 times as much mass per unit volume, and that mass can hold 4 times as much heat per degree, water can hold over 3200 times as much heat per unit volume as air does.

In combination, (1) means water can heat you up a lot faster than air, and (2) means there is a *lot* of heat to dump into you - the water cools down a lot more slowly than air would.

A rug feels warmer than concrete basically for the same reasons - it's less thermally conductive than concrete and it has less thermal mass.  So you don't lose nearly as much heat when you're touching a rug as you would when touching concrete.


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

[User]
[Batman Beyond] What were the fates of the rest of Batman's villains?

We know about Joker, Ra's al Ghul, Mr. Freeze, and Bane. Whatever happened to the rest of them? How many actually reformed or were cured? Did any die during one of their schemes? (By accident or by another criminal, or even GCPD, of course.)

[Assistant]
Harley evidently survived Joker and doing a not so great job of trying to divert Dee & Dee from flowing her footsteps.

I don't like to count the Post Infinite Crisis DC comics as part of the DCAU continuity but if you wanted to, they also showed some other characters fates.


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

[User] (ELI5) Why do school busses have such a large overhang from the rear axle? There's at least 10 foot of school bus after the last tire. This seems odd, especially considering a semi truck has several axles spaced out and one near the rear.

[Assistant]
The only real advantage of this is the busses' turn radius. With a shorter distance between the front and rear wheels, the turning circle of the bus also shrinks in size.

Weight distribution is less of an issue here. The engine in the front is heavy and the rest of the bus is mostly empty space. The axle could be placed anywhere between the center of mass and the rear end.


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

[User] Are there any good books on how the scientific revolution of the 16th century brought about that "science" and "philosophy" started to mean different things?

[Assistant]
I can't think of a book that covers this topic explicitly (/u/wokeupabug might know one). It's a hard topic, in part because the change is not at all abrupt. "Scientia" has a distinct meaning before the 17th century (that's the century you want, by the way), but isn't really applied to science as we now understand it until Galileo's *Two New Sciences* and even after that not consistently. And the term "scientist" doesn't come into being until the mid-19th century, when it was coined by an anonymous commentator on Mary Sommerville and popularized by William Whewell.

What you see in the meantime is a slow disassociation of what we now think of as philosophical concerns from those of physics and biology. But this change didn't happen overnight. Critics raised philosophical objections to Galileo's work (and lost). They raised philosophical objections to Newton's work (and lost). They raised philosophical objections to Darwin's work (and lost). And they raised philosophical objections to Einstein's work (and lost). (You might note a pattern here.) So it's not a simple story by any means.


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

[User] When something is stuck in another thing, say a cork in a bottle. Why is it easier to twist and pull it out, than to just pull it straight out?

[Assistant] So in your example it is way easier to apply torque than a linear force with your hands. Further, the stationary friction between most materials is higher than sliding friction. So as soon as it is moving, it is easier to pull out.


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

[User]
What books should I read if I want to read books that reconciles/combines and charts out the differences between western and eastern philosophy?

I have read eastern philosophy and to some extent it has always made me feel that the major difference between EP and WP is about the goal of life and the ideal life. EP is not bothered with material developments at all. It just wants people to live simple lives with very less needs. Whereas WP tries to advance mankind. This difference might also have to do with the the role of religions in respective regions. Eastern religions like Hinduism, Buddhism were/are extremely liberal and did not have insitutional control at all. Ideas freely flourished. But in West people had to break themselves from the shackles of Christian institutions and the religion itself. This is my current idea of it I might be wrong, but I would love to explore this thought more deeply.

The books should not be about history of western or eastern thought. Rather it should work a bit on conclusions and universals.

I would also love if you guys provide books by both Western and Eastern philosophers. As it would help me see the point from many angles and perspectives.

Thanks in advance.

[Assistant] I think it would be interesting to study Greco-Buddhism, for example the T.W. Rhys-Davis translation of the Questions of King Milinda.  There is a false mental model that West and East developed separately, which overlooks the stark historical fact of Alexander crossing Persia, Afghanistan, and eventually the Indus river; and the political interaction and cultural exchange that continued in the wake of the campaigns of Alexander.  In addition, although it does not discuss the Alexandrian exchange, Seth Segall's book Buddhism and Human Flourishing: A Modern Western Perspective (2020), which explicitly attempts to compare and to some extent accommodate Buddhist and Aristotelian cosmology and ideals of the good life, is a useful resource.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why do the Sith even follow any rules at all?

I mean, seriously, why do the Sith even have rules at all? There are only two Sith so it's not like there's a council to judge their actions. If a master wants to cowardly kill the apprentice before he's ready, who dares call him out for it? If a master doesn't want to take an apprentice and wants to selfishly live forever, who can stop him?! Plus, the Sith are supposed to be selfish, right? So why do they care if their knowledge dies with them?

[Assistant]
> If a master wants to cowardly kill the apprentice before he's ready, who dares call him out for it?

No one.  But, generally speaking, masters don't want to.

> If a master doesn't want to take an apprentice and wants to selfishly live forever, who can stop him?!

No one.  And, in fact, that's what Sidious was going for.

> Plus, the Sith are supposed to be selfish, right? So why do they care if their knowledge dies with them?

Some of them don't.  But most of them would prefer that their knowledge gets passed on.

You see, in contrast to the Light Side, which emphasizes surrendering to the will of the Force, the Dark Side of the Force involves imposing your will on the Force. In other words, Dark Side users embrace a philosophy of dominance and of using strong emotions to get what you want.  This type of mentality easily leads to conflict, which is why the early Sith Lords wasted a lot of time and effort fighting each other.

Darth Bane's Rule of Two cleverly channels this destructive nature in a productive manner.  There would only be two Sith Lords, a master and an apprentice: one to embody power, and the other to crave it.  This only works because a Dark Side apprentice *would* crave power.  A Dark Side master *would* want to embody power and make the apprentice yearn for it.  That's what Dark Siders do.  Contrast that to Light Side users like the Jedi, such as Yoda and Obi-Wan.  They're perfectly comfortable living as unassuming hermits, with no one having any idea of the actual power they wield.

So the master would train the apprentice, and pass on as much knowledge as they could, because where's the sport in dominating a weak opponent?  Let the apprentice become as strong as possible, and let them come after the master.  The master would simply take the opportunity to prove their superiority.  And the apprentice would absorb as much knowledge and skill as they can, while also being as clever as they can, until one day they can slay their master.  Sometimes it's because their powers in the Force or their skills with a lightsaber surpass their master.  Sometimes it's because they get cleverer than their master.  Sometimes it's because they discover a new (or rediscover an old) Force technique that they can leverage against their master.  And then the apprentice would become the new master, and take their own apprentice, and the cycle begins again.  However it happens, ideally speaking each generation of apprentice would surpass their master in some way, and the Sith would grow stronger.


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

[User] What are the differences between an expensive laser diode used for scientific applications and a cheap consumer grade laser pointer ?

[Assistant]
The term "scientific laser" is pretty broad, and encompasses many different technologies and requirements for many different scientific purposes.

Generally, two things drive the cost of a laser system:

1) Sustained (not peak) power output

2) Beam coherence (how little the beam spreads out over distance)

The two things that are common to most consumer laser pointers are that they are very low power (by design, for safety reasons), and they usually have pretty bad coherence (by design, because highly coherent lasers are expensive). The optical components tend to be integrated into the silicon itself or made from cheaper to manufacture plastic.

Depending on the needs of the scientific laser, you might need high power, high coherence, or both. Higher power lasers quickly start to need special cooling apparatus and all of the optical components need to be made of higher quality materials and with better workmanship, lest they absorb too much laser light and overheat. Higher coherence lasers need precision crafted lenses and mirrors that are adjusted to keep the beam tightly confined.

For examples, a high(er) power but low coherence laser might be found in an astronomical laser pointer used for education and teaching. A low power but high coherence laser might be found in measurement devices. A high power, high coherence laser might be found in a laser cutter.

One thing that makes many scientific lasers expensive is not their performance, but rather their calibration. The laser is adjusted and certified by the manufacturer to have a certain output behavior. The technology itself is not necessarily more complicated in this case, but the warranty by the manufacturer that it is suitable for a specific purpose is expensive. There are also many peripherals you find in scientific laser applications, such as cooling for continuous operation, or data measurement and acquisition hardware/software, that aren't present in a consumer grade product.

There are a few well known scientific lasers that are designed to achieve very high peak power, versus sustained power. An example of this is the laser used at the National Ignition Facility to do fusion power research.


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

[User]
[Marvel 616] Did Thanos really need ALL the Infinity Gems to accomplish his goal?

During the lead up to the Infinity Gauntlet saga, Thanos works his wrinkly purple butt off to acquire all of the Infinity Gems. In terms of achieving unlimited power this makes sense, but did he actually need all of them to do his famous finger snap and kill off half the universe?

Like, how did the Mind gem help this happen? Or the time gem, for that matter? Could he have done it with only a couple of gems?

[Assistant] Killing half the universe was probably the work of the Reality gem - possibly boosted by the Power gem - but it's been stated several times that if you want to use the Reality gem without catastrophic results, you need the other five gems for balance - and this has been shown to be generally true, as various efforts to use the Reality gem on its own tend to end badly, either by damaging the fabric of reality or leaving the user vulnerable. Even Thanos only used the Reality gem on its own *once*, and that was to fuck with the Collector.


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

[User] If low testosterone males experience chronic fatigue, why aren't women tired all of the time?

[Assistant] A woman's ovaries and adrenal glands will produce testosterone but on a much lower level than a man's testes. If a woman's body fails to produce appropriate levels (there's a sweet spot-not too much, not too little) of testosterone for the female body, she will probably exhibit symptoms. She could experience fatigue, hot flashes, mood swings, hair loss, lowered interest in sexual activity, and/or depression (to name only a few symptoms) if she doesn't have enough testosterone, and hair growth/loss, infertility, obesity, and/or menstrual irregularity if she has too much testosterone. There are many synthetic and bioidentical hormone therapy treatment options available to treat low testosterone for both men and women; however, insurance companies usually won't cover treatment for women.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is deflation worse than inflation?

I watched a documentary once and they mentioned the Fed likes to see a little inflation each year because deflation is much harder to combat, but didn't explain why. TYIA!

[Assistant] Deflation means things will cost less in the future. This means there is an advantage to not buying things now. Not buying things now means people cant sell stuff. People not being able to sell stuff means they cant make money. Not making money means people struggle and lose jobs. If that happens enough, the economy goes into as downward spiral.


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

[User]
Why do we care about the heavy elements like 119 and 120 that decay in like .00002 seconds? What could we possibly use it for?

why do we care tho? to prove we can?

[Assistant]
Producing and studying them allows us to constrain theoretical models of nuclear structure, and possibly atomic structure as well.

There are around 3000 known nuclear species and about 7000 predicted to exist. Many of these 4000 undiscovered nuclides are either producible using existing technology, or will be within the next few years.

Why *shouldn't* we study them?


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

[User]
ELI5: How exactly do we get some much power from engine now, than we did 40, 50, 60 years ago?

I know in the last 30 years turbos and superchargers have made it easier to make power, but I always hear about huge 7 or 8 liter engines made in the 70s or earlier, that will make like 200 hp at best. How is it possible to get so little out of so much displacement?

[Assistant]
There are a few reasons, but it mainly comes down to increased efficiencies at mixing air and fuel.

Older engines had carburetors. These were mechanical devices that mixed air and fuel for the engine to burn. Carburetors were not nearly as efficient as fuel injection, which is the technology cars use today. Fuel injection gets a near-perfect air-to-fuel ratio delivered into the engine.

Older cars had pushrods for their air intake and air exhaust systems. Modern cars have overhead cams with Variable Valve Timing (VVT). The way old cars let air into their engines was completely static - now, cars can control how much air the send into the engine *and* change the amount of air sent into the engine at different engine speeds to create more efficient fuel burning.

Due to advances in manufacturing, engines now also have higher compression and can withstand higher speeds.

Finally, in regards to the 70s specifically, environmental legislation that came in at that time caused some American manufacturers to detune existing engines (made before the environmental regulations) and make them weak from the factory to meet emissions requirements, instead of designing new engines right away.