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

[User]
ELI5: What is the Bose Einstein Condensate

Reading the wikipedia article didn't really help me get the full picture. What is it, how do you get to temperatures that low?

[Assistant]
BoseEinstein condensate is a state of matter, like solid or liquid, that happens when certain types of particles called bosons are made to have low energy. Basically this means "made really cold", close to absolute zero (0K or -273C), which is the coldest temperature possible.

A BoseEinstein condensate has 0 viscosity, which means it is as slippery as you can possibly be. Because the particles have such low energy, instead of them bumping around randomly like in a liquid, the particles all move in an identical way. This is called a "giant matter wave".

To get to this very cold state, scientists usually trap particles in strong magnetic fields to keep them from moving too much, then use lasers to push them around and slow them down even more.


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

[User] [Star Trek]Grand Nagus Zek goes senile, and doesn't have Ishka to help him, the Ferengi Alliance goes into a recession. if the Ferengi Alliance runs on laissez-faire capitalism, why would how competent the head of state is, effect the economy?

[Assistant]
The Ferengi don't have the same separation between government and business that historical Earth governments had.  You see that when the Nagus wants to open up trade with the gamma quadrant, he personally negotiates the purchase of specific goods rather than creating trade treaties like a human government would.  If his personal business fails, then it takes a good chunk of the economy with it.

EDIT:  To put it another way, just like the Queen of England owns a lot of land as her private property, the Grand Nagus owns a lot of business as his private property.


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

[User]
[Warhammer 40k] So I discovered a Lost Colony....

Hi, I'm a Rogue Trader that has rediscovered a colony that was supposedly lost during the Age of Strife by following some old maps that I bought from an antique collector. I as expecting to find nothing, or maybe a primitive feudal world, but instead when I got there I found a bustling Hive World-looking place. All their stuff is super-shiny and reeks of xeno-tech, but they say they built it all themselves! Apparently during the age of strife they killed all their psykers and banned all warp-related technology when they lost contact with the Imperium, and they just assumed everyone else was dead. Now here is the real kicker: they said they have a fully intact STC(!) and have been *improving on it for the last 10,000 years*. The only bad thing I've found so far is that they've stopped worshipping the Emperor and aren't keen on starting up again. Something about it "being the exact opposite of what he wanted". They were incredulous when I mentioned the Ecclesiarchy, actually.

So my question is this: What do I do with this information and how rich am I about to get? Also what's going to happen to these guys?

[Assistant]
Well, you have two basic options.

Firstly, you can exploit the hell out of them. If their technology is that advanced, trade could prove awkward - but if they're anything like regular humans, they'll be interested in foreign cultures; you should be able to trade music, vids, literature etc. for some extremely lucrative tech. Just make sure you sell it on well away from the prying eyes of the Machine-Cult, and you'll be buying your own gold-plated battlecruiser within a few years.

Secondly, you could sell them out - alert the Ecclesiarchy and the Adeptus Mechanicus, then try to charge through the nose to transport Missionaries and Magi to this new world. This will be less profitable in the long run (not least because the world will almost certainly be targeted by a crusade within the next couple of decades), but much safer for you.

If you do choose option one, it would probably still be a good idea to put down some missionaries (although it might be in your interests to find the most ineffectual and/or corrupt churchmen available), so you've got a defence in place for when you or your heirs are inevitably found out.

Whatever you do, eventually the Imperium will find this world. And then probably invade, unless they're willing to give up all their heretek and also to embrace the Emperor's light.


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

[User]
ELI5 what is happening physiologically when a muscle knots up?

Are muscle fibers welding together, and/or literally contorting into a knot? Does heat soften it; if so, why would ice be a good idea? Would myofascial release therapy be helpful only if regularly treated, like massage?

[Assistant] A "muscle knotting up" is called a "tetanic contraction", which means the muscle contracted by a constant stream if nerve impulses telling it to do so. The causes can vary from phycological to chemical to pathological. Psychological reasons usually involve stresses and panic. The most common chemical reason it happens is because of a buildup of lactic acid inside of the muscle tissue. The act of contracting a muscle is mostly a chemical reaction started by a nerve impulse to where the muscle tissue uses glucose, then releases lactic acid into the blood to be carried away and (hopefully) neutralized. If your blood flow cannot move it away fast enough, the lactic acid builds up in the muscle tissue and makes the nerve impulses go haywire. "Warming up" before exercising is a way to get your blood flow to your skeletal muscles increased BEFORE the muscular exertion so that this doesn't happen. Pathological (relating to sickness or diseases)  can be infections like Tetanus ("Lockjaw") or diseases like Parkinson's.


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

[User]
Is Having Several Files Named the Same Bad?

I'm currently making my first website and noticed that I have several files similarly named. It's going to possibly be my portfolio so I have access to the programs I want to share all being routed (using express.js) through a file called `routes/programs.js` These programs have information stored in a MongoDB, so the model schema is called `models/program.js` There's a file to verify the fields entered when adding a new program called `public/javascript/program.js` And there's a file that contains functions relating to the programs, such as finding one by name, changing parameters, etc, called `tools/program.js`

I personally don't have any trouble when working with this and it's intuitive enough for me, but I'm not sure about a team environment, I'm still in school so I haven't really had that experience yet. I'm wondering if this is perfectly fine or if I should be naming them all different things.

Note: This is ignoring naming conventions that workplaces set. I'm aware that every workplace has their own naming conventions, but I'm just curious on in general what the convention is, or if there's none a all.

[Assistant]
I like to keep them distinct. That when when the file name shows up in an error message it's immediately obvious where the problem is.

I would have, for example, program-router.js, program-model.js, program-service.js, etc.


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

[User] ELI5 - why do data breaches cost millions of dollars?

[Assistant]
There are a combination of reasons that combine to result in those numbers.

Depending on what nation the company is in, there are regulatory penalties that can be applied if its shown the company didn't take required precautions to protect the information.

There are potential civil law suits from the people affected by the breach.

There is a loss of business after a breach too. Customers are less likely to do business if they are worried their information is at risk. Other companies become more reluctant becuase they don't want the association.

All of these factors can result in significant financial loss to companies that experience data breaches.


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

[User] ELI5:Why the gas pedal is on right side and brakes on the left? is there a specific reason ?

[Assistant]
When cars first appeared, there was no standard for the pedals.  In fact, many cars operated in a very different way altogether.  The first car with pedal layouts like you find in modern cars was the Cadillac Type 53 from 1916.  It wasn't immensely popular, but, for some reason, the Austin Seven copied its control layout, and the Austin Seven was one of the best selling cars of all time.

There's a Top Gear segment about this.


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

[User]
Why does a compressed natural gas tank have expiry date on it? Does it mean it's no longer safe to use after the expiry date?

I live in a country where I could use compressed natural gas (CNG) as my vehicle fuel instead of petroleum. So I have a CNG tank installed in my boot 9 years ago.

The CNG tank's expiry date is reaching soon, I should definitely go for inspection, but does the expiry date means anything at all?

I already Google the question, but the top results don't really provide any information about what happens when the CNG tank "expired".

[Assistant] the expiration date realistically means the safety features are at the beginning of the end of their expected life cycle. these dates are set heavily in favor of "replace it before it's an issue" because pressure vessel failure can easily kill someone.


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

[User]
Why is prostitution illegal?

Let's say I want sex and am willing to pay $20 for that. There's a woman who wants $20 and will have sex for that. Why can't we make each other happy? Who is being hurt by prostitution? I understand why pimping should be illegal, but why straight-up prostitution?

[Assistant]
Prostitution hasn't always been illegal in the US. Look at the stories of the Wild West and the "dance hall girls." Tell me Ms. Kitty wasn't a madame.

Along around the turn of the 20^th century, women started looking for causes to support. The idea was that if women could make a social change, they would be granted the right to vote. Among some of the changes that women proposed were public education free to all children and mandatory for them. Improved laws to control drunkenness. And the point of your question, laws to control the exploitation of women.

In the 1890's as rights were being fought for over the newly freed slaves, women didn't have many rights. In a lot of places they couldn't own property or argue in court. That left women without a man to take care of them in a bad situation. A lot could not find work in the factories, and working the fields was left to those who owned the land and could hire workers, so that left selling the one thing that women were born with.

It was exploitative because the laws were shaped to not give a mature single woman any chances. Add to that the fact most were uneducated because public education was still a few years off and you can see the trouble these women would end up in.

There were plenty of men who would take these women under their support and expect them to earn a living for them in the only way they could. Prostitution.

Some of the women looking for social causes to support decided to fight for the rights of the exploited women and make prostitution illegal. The idea was that if selling sex was illegal, the women would have to be accepted into the traditional workforce. That idea was a lot slower coming than making sex workers criminals.

The reason prostitution is still illegal is mostly moral. The guys (and now women) who make the laws will have a hard time campaigning on a pro-prostitute platform. Everybody wants prostitution. Nobody wants it in their back-yard.


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

[User]
CMV: I am not comfortable referring to people with the pronouns it/its

I am perfectly fine with referring to anyone with how they want to be referred to as but I've kinda drawn the line at it/its. "It" has traditionally been used as an insult to degrade those within the lgbtq community so while I try to be as inclusive as possible it just kinda sucks that people willingly adopt it. I get that "it" kind of truly implicates that there is no gender as opposed to they/them but then xe/xem exists which kind of implies the same thing but it doesn't feel like I'm actively insulting someone. It just sucks that in order to make someone comfortable I make myself uncomfortable in the process :/

[Assistant]
Im just responding particularly to your worry that using it for someones pronoun was historically degrading.

You can probably, without me even saying them, think of a few words that were historically degrading but were appropriated by those victimized by it into a non derogatory term used within the group in question.

Id venture a guess if you asked folks who prefer to use it as their pronoun they would likely feel the same.

So with that said, if those who prefer it as their pronoun ask you to use it, but you refrain because you think it is harmful or demeaning, are you really acting in their best interests, or are you inadvertently propagating the same demeaning usage of the very word they are seeking to appropriate and whose harmful history they are trying to delegitimize?

TL/DR: Minority groups have appropriated hurtful language in ways that benefit them by using it in non-harmful ways, we should encourage and enable that to minimize the bigotry originally associated with it.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why we use chip readers.

Chip readers seem a lot slower to work, and the swipe method really doesnt have anything significantly wrong about it.

[Assistant]
The magnetic stripes on the back of payment cards are easy to read and easy to program, making them extremely easy to clone. An attacker only needs about 2 seconds with your card to read the data off the mag stripe, which can then be programmed on to a card of theirs and they can make payments with your (cloned) card.

Chip and PIN introduces a few new factors. Not only is it extremely difficult to clone a chip, but you also need a PIN code to authorise the transaction. It makes it a hell of a lot harder for an attacker to fraudulently clone cards, and as long as the majority of banks issue chip cards and the majority of merchants have chip and PIN readers, fraud levels go down.

EDIT: Never even considered that OP could be in the US, and apparently there is no PIN associated with chip payments in the US. The same thing stands about it being harder to clone though.


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

[User]
In the Israel v. Palestine conflict, Israel is by far in the wrong and the US should cut ties with the country. CMV

It seems all that I've seen about the conflict, is Israel either taking over Palestinian territory that isn't rightfully there's, imprisoning innocent Palestinian people, and making Palestine out to be the bad guys.

To me, it seems like all of the violence caused by Palestine is just an attempt to raise attention to their cause. I would necessarily agree with that, but their point is still valid.

[Assistant] It's irrelevant whether Jews or Palestinians are more native to Israel. Israel is a sovereign nation with the right, like any other nation, to protect its citizens and to self preservation. These rights are not more contingent on meeting anyone's idea of ethical perfection than any other country's right to exist is. Meanwhile the Palestinians have continuously aimed their attacks at Israeli civilians for decades. Israel is right to do whatever it can to keep weapons out of Gaza for that reason, and before the wall Israel suffered from constant suicide bombings... The Palestinians could have made peace at various times, but they, or a large constituency within them, want all or nothing. Since Gaza is ruled by terrorists who have vowed never to make peace, the Palestinians as a whole lack the political ability to make peace now.


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

[User] ELI5: Do petitions actually have an affect or do they do just express that people want change?

[Assistant] Expressing that a lot of people want change *is* an effect. In a system where popular vote determines who obtains and retains power, an expression of popular support for a movement or cause is something that can motivate change.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] I am an incoming freshman at Hogwarts. However, I come from a poor Muggle family so, can a Hogwarts degree help in improving my family's living quality of life in the future?

In other words, would learning magic make me rich enough to support my family in the Muggle world?

[Assistant] In the second book Hermione's parents are seen exchanging Muggle money for galleons at Gringotts. It should be possible to exchange back from galleons to Pounds (as it's in the UK) and therefore provide for your Muggle family.


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

[User]
CMV: saying may or may not together is unnecessarily redundant. May and may not each separately imply that the opposite could be true, therefore you only need one of them!

I hear people say these types of phrases very frequently,
I may or may not agree,
she may or may not help you,
I have a late meeting so I may or may not be there
This may or may not work

I think this is totally redundant and not at all necessary.  I simply dont think that you need both.

If I say, I may not be there it has the same effect as I may be there, I.e. both phrases imply that the opposite could be true, therefore you dont need both.  I *do* think one has more of a positive feel to it vs the other having a more negative feel, but it also depends on the context.

Regardless of this, including both may and may not in the same phrase would negate the positive or negative feel that each of them would have, and including both just adds extra and unnecessary redundancy.

Im totally willing to consider Im wrong about this, but every time I hear someone say this, I cringe a little thinking to myself, why say both?

[Assistant]
It is necessarily redundant.

You're correct that 'may' logically entails 'may not', and vice versa, so from a viewpoint of pure logical statements, saying both is redundant.

However, the point of communication isn't to make logically accurate statements. The point of communication is to accurately convey intended meaning to a listener.

And unfortunate, listeners are often imperfect.  It's a well established fact  in the cognitive science and communications literature that people don't estimate probabilities very precisely or reliably from short verbal descriptions, and they use verbal cues that go beyond the literal meaning of a sentence to make those estimates.

Saying something 'may be true' or 'may not be true' convey the exact same information, technically.  But someone who hears 'this may be true' probably thinks that it is, like, 90% likely to be true, and someone who hears 'this may not be true' probably thinks that it is 90% likely to not be true, because they're reading into the choice of words and framing that the speaker used (and this isn't always wrong,speakers*do* make those types of choices to convey relative certainty, beyond the literal meaning of the words).

So given that human listeners will interpret 'may' and 'may not' to mean different things, how do you communicate to them that the probability really is around 50/50, or that you really have no clue about the probability at all?  That's when you chose to say 'may or may not.'  Even though it still doesn't logically mean anything different form 'may' or 'may not' alone, the listener will casually interpret it to mean 50/50 or very high uncertainty; so if that's what you want to communicate to them, then that's what you should say.

So, it is *necessary* redundancy, to convey additional information beyond the literal meaning of the words.


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

[User]
CMV: Gab should not receive backlash.

I personally feel that Twitter, PayPal, GoDaddy or any other service/social media giant has no moral right to ban or avoid doing business with Gab.

I am under the impression that Gab was blamed because the terrorist was a registered/active user there. But how many shooters, terrorists, literal Neo-Nazis(the actual Hitler worshipping kind) have social media accounts on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and so forth? #KillAllWhiteMen was a damn trending hashtag, I believe? Even our own Reddit is not free from degeneracy, we have our own cesspool of trash that we must deal with.

It makes no sense for us to have taken action against Gab. If we felt it was justified, then why not also ostracise the "giants" of the social media circle?

If your argument is that Gab promotes and covers up for violent people, I would like to remind you that the management of Gab has repeatedly stated that the condemn violence. They backed up all the posts by the recent violent nutjob and handed them over to the F.B.I. They then issued another statement condemning the attacks. Meanwhile, Twitter and Facebook will defend their users when they post stuff like "Men are trash", "All whites are racist", "All men are rapists" and sometimes even hire these people as writers and administrators?

[Assistant]
Whatever Gab's original intent, it has quickly become a safe haven for white nationalists/supremacist and, due to its lax moderation, a safe place to advocate for the annihilation of an entire people. This goes beyond expression of ideas and into a realm of inciting people to act.

There are screencaps - now deleted - of members advocating to kill Jews every day from this point forward in lieu of the recent massacre. And that's just the moral point -- most of these advertisers are likewise smart enough to know that their bottom line is hurt when they associate with known bigots.

Gab cannot tout free association and free expression as virtues and then be held out as a victim when businesses decide not to associate with them and people decide to express disdain for their forums.


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

[User] ELI5 how does medicare work and why is it so complicated for elders?

[Assistant]
It's partly complicated because the 'main' Medicare doesn't cover everything that needs to be covered, and so a lot of little stopgap plans were added to plug the leaks.

And it's partly complicated because conservatives want to save money by making it hard for people to use the system.  This is why most welfare systems are hard to use.  When they complain the government is inefficient, it's mostly because people are trying to *make sure* it's inefficient.  It doesn't need to be.


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

[User] ELI5: When we increase the volume, does the speaker produce more sound waves or it's the same amount and they only get longer/shorter?

[Assistant]
If you look at a graph of the wave, it would be taller, but the shape stays the same\*. The horizontal length is how long the sound lasts.

\*: Only if your amp and speaker are perfect. In reality, the shape can change a little as you turn up; this is called distortion.


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

[User]
What do software architects use to plan in advance? (UML tools?)

I'm a self taught Python dude (Biotech pivoting to bioinformatics) and I've been learning through building a procedurally generated video game. As the game gets larger, progress gets slower. I spend (imo) too much time drawing out class architecture and the flow of data, only to have things change the next time I add a feature. There's got to be (free) tools out there to make this easier, but  I really don't know what those would be. My googling usually leads me to  "3d modeling tools" or "software tools for architects/civil engineers". Even looking at the "best UML tools 2020" I don't know if that's actually what I want, or what the difference between a good and bad one is. I feel like I'm suffering from "I don't know what I don't know" syndrome since I've never taken actual classes or had a mentor. Any help is appreciated.

[Assistant]
I've been a professional software engineer for 12 years now.

I would say that it's not super common to use UML class diagrams in big software companies. As you note, these things change frequently. It's just a fact of life - you can rarely plan the entire system from the beginning. Often you don't even know what you really want until you build it. For your example with a procedurally generated game, maybe you start with just a collection of objects in the world. But then you realize that's too slow, so you need some tiling system to generate new tiles as the player nears them. Then you need a way to unload old tiles (and maybe save enough state to regenerate them the same later).
Experience will help you get better at planning ahead for these things, but there will always be surprises.

In general, such diagrams are most useful to communicate designs between different members of a development team. Usually the class structure shouldn't be super complex, so it can be documented in comments or design documents (usually explaining what the code is trying to accomplish and why is the more important task).

I will say that state machine diagrams or sequence drawings can be pretty helpful. For state diagrams, it can be really helpful to list and explain all of the possible states and show what the transitions are. For example, in a multiplayer game, you might have states for players waiting to join a game, in active gameplay, waiting for respawn, etc. This is particularly useful since many different systems might need to deal with the state.


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

[User]
Understanding the Wow! signal: Why does 1420 MHz point to an artificial source?

Wikipedia (Robert Krulwich, NPR, May 29, 2010) states "[...] The frequency 1420 is significant for SETI searchers because, it is reasoned, hydrogen is the most common element in the universe, and hydrogen resonates at about 1420 MHz, thus extraterrestrials might use that frequency on which to transmit a strong signal."

Why would aliens choose this frequency if it is so closely related to a natural resonation? For drawing attention, wouldn't it make more sense to transmit a signal in a frequency that does not or rarely occur in nature?

Edit: Thank you KToff and tliff for the reasoning.

So I assume when you are scanning / listening in the eletrocmagnetic spectrum you have to pick a frequency / frequency range. In case of the Wow! signal the received frequencies were 1420.356 MHz (J. D. Kraus) and 1420.4556 MHz (J. R. Ehman).

Follow up questions:
- How wide is the range SETI is (was?) listening?
- What is the significance of the Hydrogen frequency over others? Percentage-wise in the case for SETI listening.

[Assistant]
The Wow signal was not *on* the hydrogen line but near it.

Of course the mere frequency could also occur in nature. However, anybody making astronomic observations in the electromagnetic spectrum will be looking at the Hydrogen line anyways. So if you send it in that band, you have a high chance of being detected by someone who is looking.


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

[User]
Why does fever happen?

So I had a major infection two weeks ago and spent 4 days in a hospital, during which I had fever of 40 degrees celcius, that's why it stroke me, what purpose does this body reaction serve?

Thanks in advance for responses.

[Assistant]
Fever is an awesome topic as well as the constellation of things that happen during "sickness" or "acute phase response". A few things are at play during a fever.

1. Most human pathogens proliferate poorly above 39C. Almost none of them will die at this temp but their growth rate will be slowed.

2. Neutrophil activity and mobility increase

3. interferon production increases

4. cytokine release (that helps to maintain pyrogen release)

5. DECREASE in plasma iron concentrations. All microorganisms require iron uptake, the body starts sequestering as much as it can to reduce the availability to pathogens.

6. increase in triglyceride levels. Things like VLDLs are good at binding bacterial enterotoxins

7. increase in sleepiness. The sick need to sleep.

8. Decrease in appetite. Paradoxical since the basal metabolic rate needs to increase to produce a fever. Thoughts are lowered intake may be to reduce iron absorption and possibly from an evolutionary standpoint because resting animals usually survive predation.

How it happens, complex but cool...

1. your immune system produces signaling molecules (pyrogens) that travel to the brain in the blood when they encounter things like bacteria, viruses, etc...

2. a few small spots in the brain are not protected by the blood-brain barrier so they can "taste" the chemical makeup of the blood. One of these (organum vasculosum of the lamina terminalis for you anatomy nerds) areas lets neurons in the hypothalamus bind with the pyrogens. These neurons fire when your body goes above 37C so when we turn them off the signal that we're hot is now not as vigorous, our new "set-point" temperature will be higher...

3. Not the whole story though. Fever usually sets in about 30 minutes before pyrogens reach your brain...If you block the vagus nerve this 30 minute early onset doesn't happen. Most likely the vagus is stimulated in the liver and signals the onset of the fever while the pyrogens continue to maintain the new set point until the immune system's activity returns to normal.


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

[User] Why is it seemingly impossible (and so uncomfortable) to move your foot/arm when it is dead/has no blood flow?

[Assistant] If you are talking about the typical "foot falling asleep" thing, it is not that there is no blood flow to your foot itself, its that you compressed the nerve. When you compress the nerve, you temporarily cut off blood flow to it and compress the nerve cells within the bundle, so the cells that send signals that travel up and down your foot begin misfiring. Some signals aren't able to travel up your foot, others cant travel down, some nerve cells fire more rapidly, some fire less rapidly. This leads to the weird sensation. It goes away when blood flow to the nerve is restored and the nerve is decompressed, nerve cells start functioning properly and you regain sensation. If you sat on your foot for hours and kept it asleep, you potentially could kill the nerve from lack of blood flow, and the numbness would be more permanent until the nerve attempted to regrow.


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

[User] ELI5:What really happens when i push the power button on my computer?

[Assistant]
When you push the power button, an electrical signal is send to the motherboard, and something called POST (power on self test) happens, this is possible because a CPU once is powered it becomes nothing but a little machine that receive orders sequentially, so the only real problem is to send it the first instruction, the first instruction contains the direction of the second instruction an so on.

This signal does that, force the CPU to load the first instruction from ROM Memory (a memory that does not erases after you turn off the computer) that contains that first instruction and CPU starts reading that, this is what is called the BIOS.

The BIOS work is to discover all pc components(RAM, all your video cards and usb, hard disks, keyboard etc) by routines.

Once bios made an index of what the computer has, it reads an specific location of the hard disk where your operating system, like Microsoft Windows, starts and BIOS transfers all the data it recollected and the control of the computer to the operating system.

At this point Windows check what bios said your computer was and start charging their own routines to manage that devices, what ppl often call drivers, and Windows starts. :)


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

[User] ELI5: If skipping supposedly burns less calories than jogging, why doesn't anyone skip in marathons to conserve energy?

[Assistant] Skipping is horrendously difficult on your feet and legs -- 26 miles of skipping would destroy the arches of your feet, your knees, and give you the worst shin splints in human history. Much of the technique in a marathon is learning how to run in such a way to keep your feet and legs from wearing out or getting too sore.


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

[User] Why do people 'look' tired? What actually happens to our faces (physically) when we've gone without sleep for a substantial amount of time?

[Assistant] Primarily a combination of dehydration, blood vessel dilation, and hormone levels due to your body missing out on its regular re-calibration and balance mechanisms during sleep. The dehydration causes your skin to lose plumpness and elasticity from the inside, making it sag slightly and appear less smooth. The blood vessel dilation causes more of the darker blood to show through the thinner parts of your skin, causing blotchiness and dark under-eye circles. Cortisol levels also increase, causing low-grade inflammation that can exacerbate skin conditions like acne.


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

[User]
ELI5: Is there a correlation between a bird's weight and its wingspan? Is there a formula or pattern that is followed?

Similarly if you had a bird the size of an elephant how large would its wing span have to be to fly?

[Assistant]
What you're looking for is called "wing loading" and tells you the ratio between the mass of the object and the area of the wings.

Birds have wing loadings between 1 and 20 kg/m^2 . If you assume 20 then even a small 2500 kg elephant needs 125 m^2 of wing area or 2 8x8 meter wings. That's a lot of wing, more than an A320!


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

[User]
CMV: I believe being born into a low income family is less of a disadvantage than being born physically unattractive.

Like being born into a wealthy family, attractive people will always have better opportunities, pre-established social connections and status, will initially command more respect, the *potential* for more exposure to culture and education and a significantly easier time achieving long term goals due to the aforementioned.

* Because I have an ethnic name, I actually get a significantly reduced number of callbacks for interviews when using my legal name in my job application. I replicated this from a study that looked into the same issue, by creating two identities and using a neutral last name i.e. Smith, on the latter. I believe unattractive people face a similar problem of being able to get their foot through the door. Studies show that people will immediately notice the tallest person in a group, unless there is significant case of a person being short, e.g. dwarfism. Unattractive people are often overlooked, and people are less likely to remember them.
* Unattractive will have more issues regarding self-esteem. The detriments of being complimented on physical appearance aside, not being viewed in a favourable light, especially in adolescent to early adulthood can have long lasting ramifications - especially when people learn that appearance plays a big role in success. There are things people can do to even the playing field - wear nice clothes, consider the significance of scent to desirability, the use of wit and rhetoric - but these are things EVERYONE has to consider. Adhering to these rules does not give you an edge over anyone else observing them as well.
* People are nicer to attractive people, whether they realize it or not. Studies show that we want approval from attractive people, because we implicitly believe that their opinion is of more value. Just to add a tangential point, having attractive friends, like in one study where participants were asked to rate people based on their Facebook friends, also improves people's perception of you. So being attractive actually helps those around you.
* Unattractive people will always have to try harder, this goes double if you're not-good-looking and are of an ethnicity that is not of the norm of your country/region.

Just to counter a likely argument I'll hear, I am aware character and virtue are more valuable traits in the long term. But my argument is the limitations set by a person's looks are much more difficult to overcome, create a massive gap in terms of social capitol assuming other variables remain constant, and is virtually permanent.

[Assistant]
I think the perfect way to change your view is to imagine 2 scenarios. You have a person born into a rich family who is unattractive, and a person born into a low income family who is attractive. In this scenario these 2 each are white, male and get identical grades in high school. Now it is very likely that the person born into a rich family goes to a much better school, because they either grew up in a better neighborhood or went to a private school. Attractive low income family person is immediately put at a disadvantage because even though he gets the same grades as the other person, his location effects the chances he will get. Because of this unattractive rich person has a much better chance of getting into a nice college, or any college for that matter. The attractive poor person can't afford a nice college, and even if they could their chances of getting into that college are small because their high school was weak. Unattractive rich person graduates from college with some degree, while attractive poor person can barely afford community college gets, in the best case scenario, an associates degree.

The amount of job opportunities for a 4 year degree are much higher than those of a 2 year degree. Yes the unattractive person may have a disadvantage in job interviews, but he would still earn far more interviews than the attractive person simply because of his status. Yes the attractive person may be better at job interviews, but once again he will get far fewer job interviews in the first place than unattractive person.


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

[User]
Eli5: Why do even high tech new phone cameras take great pictures of objects and people, but terrible pictures of landscapes and sunsets?

I often see beautiful views of mountains or sunsets and want to capture them, but the pictures are always incredibly underwhelming. Why?

[Assistant]
Landscapes are difficult to photograph with any camera. One big issue is that our eyes can see fine detail in a small area *and* moderate detail over a large area (peripheral vision) *at the same time*. So you can see fine detail in a tiny distant mountain peak *and* the trees surrounding you at the same time. Cameras don't work that way - it captures a rectangular area with equal sharpness (or at least everything that's in focus). If you try to photograph a landscape with a wide-angle lens, the central subject looks tiny and unimpressive. If you zoom in on the subject, you don't capture the wider area and this can be a boring photo as well. You really have to work at it to find a composition that works for a photo - e.g. you want to make sure there is interesting background and foreground in the same direction, and probably zoom in more than you normally would.

Sunsets pose an additional difficulty. The setting sun is incredibly bright. The foreground is very dark. Human eyes are great at seeing detail both bright and dark things at the same time (i.e. it has a large "dynamic range"). Cameras are getting better in this respect, but they still have much worse dynamic range than the human eye. So you end up with a photo with a completely dark foreground, or completely bright and featureless sky.

edit: For sunsets, if your phone has a HDR (high dynamic range) option, that can help, but for best photos you need to wait for a day when the setting sun is somewhat dimmed by thin clouds.  Sunset on a clear day are pretty, but not photogenic.


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

[User]
If philosophers really determine their position by evaluating the best available arguments and evidence, why do so many defend the same position for their entire career and so few change camps?

Many career academics start research at the age of 22-24 get their PhD at the age of 26-27 or so and publish until they're 60+, so they easily observe 3+ decades of development in philosophy and science.

If they really just evaluate the currently best available evidence, wouldn't we expect many more cases of prominent defenders abandoning their position in the light of better evidence? Like, there are 5 prominent defenders of position A, 5 of position B, 5 of position C, and none of them thinks the available evidence presented to them over 3-4 decades changes anything, they just happened to get it right all along? How plausible is this? Say between 1980 and 2010 they just didn't see anything that prompted them to change their take on the human mind, mathematics, science, logic, or whatever topic they philosophize about?

And aren't there all sorts of other forces at work? For example the fact that being an expert on position A for 2 decades is a pleasant position to be in, the psychology of admitting defeat, the fact that putting something to rest isn't great for maybe the PhD students of that person or their department, if those want to research this? Does anyone actually believe all that's going on is evaluating evidence?

[Assistant]
I know what you mean. Philosophers are known for a general position, even if there's refinement of what they believe over time. You have "idealists", or "scientific realists", or "Humeans".

One non-philosophical reason is probably to do with modern academia as it is. You're not gonna get published if you flip flop between positions. You'll lose credibility, in fact, because readers will think your position is just your flavour of the week. Someone who is a staunch defender of a philosophy fits much better in the modern system of journals and constant competition for promotion in a university. Philosophers are incentivised to maintain their positions in a world run by branding.

Philosophically/psychologically, people are maybe just not very open to completely overhauling their positions. It takes a tremendous amount of mental energy to accept that the foundations of the world as you previously knew them may be wrong, and to start from scratch. Wittgenstein did something like this (and lost a lot of Cambridge friends over it).

Eventually we all settle upon something, even if that something is very close to a "nothing".


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

[User] What percentage of 74-year-olds survive a COVID-19 diagnosis?

[Assistant]
This will necessarily be a very broad generalization.

All else being equal, in the US, since the start of the pandemic, of all people ages 70-79 who have tested positive for COVID-19, about 8% die before recovering. In other words, 92% survive.

There are many more variables than just age. Men with the virus are more likely to die of it than women are. Underlying conditions such as diabetes, heart failure, and obesity are linked to worse survival rates. Survival is better now than at the start of the pandemic because we have learned some treatments that are effective, and some other things that we should avoid doing.

Also, the above percentage only refers to deaths. There are other possible long-term effects. Even a relatively mild case can cause permanent damage to the heart, lungs, and blood vessels. The most severe cases can leave patients ventilator-dependent or with brain damage from lack of oxygen. So, "survival" may not be the best metric to pay attention to.


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

[User]
ELI5: what is actually happening when you get a "knot" in your muscle?

Edit: additional question...is massage the only solution? Or are there other ways to help them go back to normal?

[Assistant]
Massage therapist here;

Your muscles are made up of bundles of long thin fibres. These bundles are wrapped in a very thin membrane (fascia).

When you use the muscle a lot, the fibres stick together and to the membrane. Fibrous tissue feels "lumpy" and that's what you feel when you touch it.

So it feels good when someone massages it, because it breaks up the fibrous tissue buildup.


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

[User]
ELI5: What is all the hype around 3D printers and why would it revolutionize the way we make things?

I see all these articles about how 3D printers were used to build cheaper prosthetic limbs etc, and I wonder how this cannot be achieved with conventional manufacturing, which has been around forever now.

[Assistant] Most traditional manufacturing processes require you to make specialized machines and molds to produce the various pieces of your product. That's fine if you are going to make a lot of something because the cost of those machines can be spread out over the thousands or millions of the product you are making, but if you only need to make a few of something, it is very cost prohibitive. With a 3D printer you can use one machine to make virtually anything you need without having to build a purpose built machine or mold that you won't be able to use to make anything else. This makes it a great alternative for making things that are one off purpose builds, like a prosthetic that is made to fit a single individual, and also for short run products and prototypes.


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

[User]
Would it be possible for a planet with a 24-hour day to have seasons that last for years? And if so, how would it differ from our own planetary system?

Yes, I'm trying to find out if a George R.R. Martin *Song of Fire and Ice*-type world is possible.

[Assistant]
the length of the day is determined by the rotation of the planet and the length of the year is determined by the size of the orbit. So, yes, absolutely you could have a planet that rotates every 24 hours and has a very large orbit. However, a larger orbit means greater distance from the star, so it would have to be a hotter star* and prolonged seasons would likely mean that the cold and hot extremes are much greater than we are used to.

EDIT - *if the planet were to have a temperate climate as in the books. Rushed comment left some ambiguity.


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

[User] ELI5: If college tuitions have been steadily rising, but my classes are taught by temp professors making $3k per class, and construction is paid for by donors, where do the 100% tuition increases go?

[Assistant]
A lot of hot-headed responses already, but here is where most of it actually goes:

- Administration. There are far more administrators than there used to be - many of whom are business-type people who think in terms of "revenue" and are there to make money for themselves and their programs. It isn't like they're all cutting themselves huge personal checks, but each one has secretaries, a "program", spends money on outside contractors and advisors, creates costly 3- to 5-year projects that look great on their resume but cost the college in the long run, etc. This is called administrative bloat and is a huge problem.

- Advertising. The main issue with colleges nowadays is attracting high school students. They need to spend money on consulting, "crafting an image", employees to do recruitment, financial aid advisors, direct mailings, not to mention the maintenance involved in keeping the college in top-notch beauty condition so that parents of prospective students are impressed. You'd be surprised at how much those snacks and water, along with all the wait staff, add up in cost.

- Facilities. Yes the building was paid for by some rich alumni, but now you need electricity, water, garbage, maintenance (inside and groundspeople outside), upgrades, new technology licensing, a secretarial staff, etc. You need fancy dorms to attract those students and their parents, and keeping stuff clean ain't cheap.

- Health care and related perks. Professors are really smart people, and don't get paid a lot, but in exchange they get lots of free time and all their needs taken care of. This means that, even though they're way cheaper than similarly-qualified employees in the business world, they need a good healthcare plan, retirement, dental, etc. All those things have gone up a lot, and in fact most businesses have dramatically cut them because they are so costly.

- Laws. Students need health facilities, safe-spaces, Title IX counsellors, up-to-code and beyond facilities, etc, and all of that requires staff (usually under a new administrator) as well as equipment and a budget to run the office.


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

[User]
ELIF: Why do symptoms of the common cold change as your body gets over them?

For example, the cold I'm getting over now started as sharp throat pain and body fatigue but is now mostly a deep cough and the sniffles.

[Assistant] Basically the beginning is the foreign bodies attacking your cells and vice versa, damaging the near by tissue (pain). The ending is the left over waste products remaining inside your body from the fight and your body finding methods to move them from essential functioning areas or just expelling them.


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

[User]
How does the stock market value grow faster on average (10 %) than inflation (2 %) over the long term? Does it mean the stock companies are gaining more of the total available money each year?

Where does it come from?

[Assistant]
No, not really.

You have to remember that in most years there is real GDP growth. That GDP growth is created by companies expanding. It is also created by more workers working, and working with greater skill.

I don't know what you mean by the total available money each year.


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

[User] I work as a barista in a coffee shop. A woman comes in every day, sits there for the entire evening and during her stay drinks 1,5+ bottles of wine. Is it morally incorrect for me to serve her every day since its obvious she has a drinking problem?

[Assistant]
The amount of alcohol your customer is imbibing will accumulate as health issues including fatty liver, cirrhosis, etc. But, if she isn't driving or potentially  harming others then her choices aren't necessarily at a level where they should warrant intervention on moral grounds. If the customer was overweight and eating unhealthy foods and quantities of it, would that be a similiar set of circumstances?

Yours is an interesting question and perhaps a good motivation to learn more about alcoholism, addictions etc. Maybe you'll learn or discover ideas that might help your customer or if not her, maybe someone else whom you know or will meet in the future.

Stay positive and give yourself a pat on the back for caring about someone you don't know well.


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

[User]
[Marvel] What if the super-soldier serum wasn't lost?

The sabotage fails and Dr. Erskine survives. He succeeds in mass-producing serum for the US Army. The ~~stuff~~ ^mass-produced ^version is stable and turns everybody peak human, without the weird personality-based side effects.

What happens to the war? What happens to Steve Rogers? What happens over the next few decades? Looking for alternate-history answers.

[Assistant]
Let's be clear here- Dr. Erskine's formula is *not* stable. Steve Rogers comes out well because of who he is as a person. Giving that serum to a soldier who is not as kind-hearted or brave or generally a good guy as Steve Rogers runs a serious risk of creating a monster.

No one has ever produced a serum as good as Erskine's, but don't let that mislead you into thinking that the serum works properly. Giving it en masse to soldiers in the Army would be potentially catastrophic.


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

[User] Eli5 how thousands of bats can live together without getting confused from other bats echolocation noises?

[Assistant]
Afaik the answer to this is not fully known, but we know that a combination of factors are involved:

1. Bats are capable of distinguishing between their own 'voice' and that of others, similar to how we can. Hearing their own voice is far more disorienting than hearing others' voices.

2. The brain is capable of rejecting information from sources that wildly contradicts its current world model. Even if you play them back their own voice, if the information contained in those echoes does not even remotely correspond to reality, the bat is capable of filtering it out as irrelevant noise.

The best way by far to disorient a bat is to play it back a recording of itself, slightly delayed. (This is also one of the best ways to shut up a human, incidentally)


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

[User] ELI5: Why were flash storages sold in doubles of the storage (1, 2, 4, 8... GB) and now there are SSDs with 240, 250, 480, 500... GB?

[Assistant]
Those SSDs will, in most cases, have a round 'doubled number' of flash memory inside them. However, flash memory wears out, so the drive has a pool of 'spare memory' that it can use to replace the parts of the memory that wear out.

So that 240GB drive probably has 256GB of flash, but 16GB is set aside for later. That 250GB drive is cutting it fine with only 6GB spare: but these are design decisions based on how reliable the manufacturer thinks their flash memory is.


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

[User]
[D&D] How much heat do items in a bag of holding lose?

Alright, so items in a bag of holding get shunted to a pocket dimension where they have no air and no contact with other objects.  That means no conduction or convection for heat exchange.  However, they will still radiate heat causing them to slowly cool.  The question is how quickly?

To do that we need to know the background temperature of the body they are radiating to.  So, are they radiating heat to an absolute zero cosmic background?  Or is it closer to background radiation of the universe (about 3 K)?  Is there one fixed temperature for the bag, or is it unique to each item?  Does that background source have enough thermal mass to treat it as static or does it come to steady state quickly?

I realize that I could conduct this research myself by procuring a bag, then precisely measuring the temperatures before and after a trip into the bag, but the first step in proper science is always to check existing literature.

[Assistant]
No mention is ever made of the temperatures inside being any kind of extreme.  No checks are necessary against it, and no reports of items coming out being particularly hot or frozen, regardless of time spent in the bag.
This leads me to believe that the boundaries of the pocket dimension are, in fact, the cloth of the bag itself.  Therefor ambient temperature inside the bag is whatever the current environment outside the bag is.


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

[User] When I "see heat waves" rising from a hot, dry street, what is it that I'm actually seeing?

[Assistant] The heat is changing the density of the air, because heat makes things expand.  This in turn changes the refractive index of the air, and hence the direction through which light rays pass through the air.  The ripple, reflection-type illusion is the light rays refracting differently through the air.


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

[User] ELI5: What goes into a whiteboard paint that makes it finish like a dry erase board and not a normal paint?

[Assistant]
Dry/wet erase markers are basically just an ink that dries into something that doesn't stick well to a surface - dry erase forms a film, wet erase is water soluble.

This works on any surface, in theory - you could use dry erase on rough wood, except that it would seep into pores and cracks and other rough spots before it dries, making it really hard to remove.

On the other hand, if you use it on something smooth and "non-porous" (which means it has no holes, even tiny tiny ones), it's very easy to wipe off the surface.

Similarly, you can use high gloss tile as a white board, but if you use tile that isn't high gloss, you will have a very hard time wiping it off.

Whiteboard paint is mostly just a paint that doesn't have those tiny holes. It's very very smooth, which makes it more shiny. It also has chemicals that make it have high surface tension (like a water drop) so that it dries nice and smooth, unlike normal paint that's designed to not hold together as well, making it flow into cracks better.


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

[User]
ELI5: In cooking what does a pinch of salt actually do?

Things like pancakes - does such a small amount of salt change anything chemically to make the recipe?

[Assistant]
For the overwhelming majority of human evolution sodium has only been available at trace element levels (Seriously, look into some of the historical examples of Hueculean efforts that went into trying to extract salt from natural environments) but our nervous system needs it for neurons and nerves to function properly. Because of this, human taste buds are designed to be very very sensitive to salt and if we detect some in food our tongue hammers on the signal button that says "Holy shit there's salt in this eat more of it put it in your face!" Or, simply put, makes it taste good.

Salt also dissolves so a little bit will more or less evenly distribute in a liquid (like pancake barter) so adding just a tiny amount of salt will make the entire batch taste much better.


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

[User]
CMV: The gender pay gap is largely explained by factors other than gender.

When I first started hearing about the general consensus that women are underpaid compared to their male counterparts, (sometime around 2015) I was quick to believe that it was a result of deeply-rooted, institutional biases by employers and business models.

Since then, on several occasions, I have deep-dived, to try and find my own sources of information and get a clearer picture of what exactly was happening and why.

Unfortunately, the more I read, the more I find that

A- The wage gap is nowhere near as large as the general twitter-sphere claims it is (as much as 18%) and in reality it appears to be closer to 2%.

B- Most of the reasons for this gap are explained by factors OTHER than gender, such as education, experience and industry.

So, I have arrived at the conclusion that essentially, people are making a mountain out of a molehill and any attempt I make to point out that the pay-gap is not as widespread and gigantic as social-media clickbait would lead you to believe, I am made to feel like an ignorant misogynist.

I really do want to have my view changed on this. I'm generally very progressive, and I want to be presented with information that will unlearn this viewpoint I have.

 I find myself at odds with my girlfriend over it and I can't bring myself to just lie and say "You're right, women are overpaid everywhere because sexism, the end".

Help me out, Reddit.

[Assistant]
It depends on what you mean by including gender as a factor here.

On average, the main drivers of the "wage gap" are:

* Women on average tend to favor flexible hours over money. More women work part time than men. This is likely because women are still expected to do unpaid house and care work for their family should the need arise.
* Women tend to only apply to jobs they are fully qualified for. Men will apply to jobs that they are underqualified for.
* Women tend to be less bold in salary negotiations.
* Women tend to make different subfield choices than men, usually preferring more "people-centric" lines of work. For example, a roughly equal number of men and women graduate medical school, but more women tend to go into pediatrics afterwards, while more men go into anesthesiology. The latter pays more, so men in medicine will tend make more (because of all the aggregate subfield decisions in this direction.)

Now the question is: are women making these choices because they reflect their authentic desires, or because they feel pressured to? If you think that the difference in choice is primarily driven by how women are socialized, then there is still an issue here that could be resolved. It just pushes advocacy back a step to advocacy for cultural and norm changes. We could normalize women not taking time off to take care of their families, being workaholics who work 50 hours a week, etc.

On the other hand, if you think that women and men have naturally different psychological tendencies on average, then you might say the world is close to being just, even if we have different outcomes.


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

[User]
What's the evolutionary impact of agriculture in the past 100,000 years. Is it enough to meanigfully change how our bodies process foods?

I was thinking about all the various popular diets that involve not eating anything cooked or processed, and was wondering if, in 100,000 years evolution changed our digestive tract in any meaningful way.

Edit: My mistake, I wrote that agriculture had been around for 100,000 years, but it's only been around for 12-10,000.

[Assistant]
One example of recent human evolution.  People in European areas generally have more copies of the gene for making the enzyme that digests milk.  DNA analysis shows this mutation occurred less than 10,000 years ago, and raising milk-producing animals was on the rise.
In areas where milk plays a less important role in diets, like Asia, they have less copies of that gene and are more likely to be lactose intolerant.
Scientific American did an article on recent human evolution about a year ago that covered this, and others, in more detail.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is it so hard in baseball to beat the shift?

Baseball just outlawed the shift, and people opposed to that will always lament why cant they hit it where the shift isnt?

Obviously, even for professional hitters, this is hard. Why is that? Does it have to do with the pitch type and pitch location? If not that, is it something else other than batter handedness and tendencies?

[Assistant]
Well, a big part of it is that the shift is tailored to an individual hitters tendencies.

If youve been a pull hitter your entire life, then the defense starts playing you shifted to the pull side, you cant just decide to become an opposite field hitter overnight.

Its like a default setting, for lack of a simpler term. The absolute best hitters are whole field hitters with no overt tendencies to use the shift against. The defense just has to play them straight up and hope the dont hit one into the gaps. Thats why theyre the best hitters.

Not everyone has the ability to be the best though.

Another often overlooked aspect is that the battery (pitcher and catcher) are working with the shifted defense to induce a ball hit into the shift.

For example, a left-handed pitcher facing a left-handed batter known to be a pull hitter will have the defense shifted towards first base. That pitcher isnt going to throw a slider low and away so the batter can poke it down the third base line. The pitcher is going to pitch him inside where all the batter can do is turn on the pitch and pull it towards first.


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

[User]
[X Men 3]What if Wolverine was shot with the mutant cure.

Who would "win"? his healing powers canceling the cure of cure cancelling the healing powers.

[Assistant]
He dies of adamantium poisoning.  The cure has to work in a way that avoids any powers entirely for it to work as advertised, so his healing factor would be a non-issue here.

Mystique controls her entire body on an atomic level, and she couldn't do anything about it, after all.


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

[User]
ELI5: how do VPNs keep me safe when I'm *supposedly* torrenting something?

Basically what the title says. I don't get how VPNs can keep me safe when I'm **hypothetically** torrenting. Can't ISPs or the company owning the copyright track me down if I were to?

[Assistant]
Your ISP can see that you're sending encrypted data back and forth from your VPN and that's it.

Your VPN can see what you're doing (including torrents), but part of the service that many VPNs advertise is that they don't keep logs. If they kept logs they'd have to hand it over to law enforcement upon request, and if customers started getting caught then word would spread and no one would want to use that VPN. So they are incentivized to keep their promise not to log, and if law enforcement complains to the VPN about customer activity, they can honestly say that they don't have any logs to give them. There's no law in the US that requires logs.


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

[User]
Is there any non graphic proof that when n appoaches infinity, |(x^n)| + |(y^n)| = r is a square?

I've been playing with online cartesian drawing tools. When n=1, it is a rotated square at half PI. Then it will transform into a circle while rising n slowly towards 2.

Then, an interesting thing began. Any increase in n will make it more square-y but will never become a complete square.

Will it became a true square when n reaches infinity? What is the proof?

[Assistant]
Let's use r=1. You can ask for which x,y does |x^(n)| + |y^(n)| converge to 1. Let's say x,y>0, r=1 and x=cy for 0<c<1, the other cases can be treated using symmetry or they are trivial. Then |x^(n)| + |y^(n)| = y^n (1+c^(n)). For y<1 this converges to zero, for y>1 this diverges, for y=1 this converges to 1.

If you use a different r then you never get convergence to r of a point, but you can still show that you get the closest to r at this square.


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

[User]
[Marvel/Spider-Man] Why does no one ever seem to question how Peter Parker is always conveniently nearby to take pictures of Spider-Man fighting crime?

Peter Parker always seems to conveniently be nearby whenever Spider-Man shows up to take pictures. People know that he's the Bugle's main photographer for Spider-Man, and has even been targeted by villains for that fact. But why does no one ever seem curious as to *why* he's *consistently* in the area whenever Spider-Man fights crime?

[Assistant]
TL;DR: They're friends.

Story depends on the universe.

In some universes, Peter is anonymous photographer, save for Jameson. Jameson asks no questions, the public doesn't know it's Peter, and they just assume it's because the Bugle sells itself on Spider-Man that they get so many shots of him.

But mostly, Peter is known to be a friend of Spidey. Why Spider-Man lets this happen is always point 1, sometimes point 2:

1: It's good publicity for Spidey. Sure, the libel from the Bugle, but not everyone actually believes that. Spidey ensures that Peter never takes pictures that can be used out of context, and any publicity is good publicity.

2: Peter splits the money he earns off the pictures with Spidey.

Hell, when Peter had his own company for a while, he officially hired Spidey as his bodyguard.


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

[User]
[MCU/DCU] Why and how all the superheroes decided to just defend status quo from massive changes for the worse, when a lot can be done to improve humanity?

Maybe superpowered individuals like Superman or Thor can't do much by themselves, but the likes of Reed Richards, Peter Parker, Tony Stark, Bruce Wayne hold the power to bring Utopia, but they don't bother. Is that an agreement or is it just (almost) all of them made the same decision?

[Assistant]
Well, in the MCU...

* Tony Stark attempted to make major changes to the status quo with his "suit of armour around the world" idea. That turned out to be Ultron.
* Thor doesn't really have a status quo to defend. By the time he came to terms with his heroic role, the Nine Realms were in chaos from Loki's usurpation of power; by the time that was dealt with, there was no Asgard. He then spent a few years in a state of alcoholic depression.
* Peter Parker really isn't in a position to improve the world much. He's a high school student.
* Captain America took a while to come to terms with being a man out of time. And then decided that, rather than attempt to fix SHIELD, it would be better to tear it all down. That's not exactly defending the status quo.
* Black Widow and Hawkeye are spies. Like Parker, they don't really have any power to effect major change.


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

[User]
Why is fatigue an adaptive response to anxiety?

This^

[Assistant] Theres a causative relationship due to the energy used to activate the sympathetic nervous system. Fatigue would also stop one from engaging in whichever behaviors or situations trigger the anxiety. This, along with the isolation and lack of motivation, is also commonly seen in anxiety disorders (and depressive disorders) as a protective mechanism to avoid the sources of harm or perceived harm.


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

[User]
[BTTF2] How does Biff know how the time machine works in BTTF2 as hes a moron..?

In Back to the Future 2 Biff steals the Delorean and travels back to give over the Almanac, seeing hes the classic goof bad guy how does he operate the time machine with no formal training or knowledge of its speed requirements etc..?

[Assistant]
Old biff flies off with the time machine, he doesn't time travel immediately.  He took as much time as needed to learn how it works. He could have spent a week or a month or an hour  figuring out, as his future self brought the time machine back to the moment earlier Biff flew off.

All he needed to know in a hurry was how to steal a car.


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

[User]
Do societies generally drink more alcohol in colder climates?

I always hear about Russians drinking all the time, or Norweigians, or Alaskans. Basically places where it isn't very pleasant to be outside, but I never hear much about a drinking problem in the Caribbean countries, or South America. At least not enough to be part of the cultural stereotype (although Aussies may be an exception). So beyond the realm of stereotypes, have their been any social studies to look into this? Are societies in colder parts of the world bigger consumers of alcohol?

[Assistant] If you compare the alcohol consumption per capita with two other factors - dominant religion and average income - you'll find that the warm/cold climate theory really doesn't stack up. The Spanish for example drink considerably more than the Swedes. The hard drinking culture in Scandinavia is predominately in the dark winter months and consumption is much lower in the summer time. Looking at whether a country has a Muslim majority or not and whether people have disposable income is a far, far better indicator of likely alcohol consumption rates than where it is situated relative to the equator.


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

[User]
How does the Pauli exclusion principle keep neutron stars from collapsing?

I read something about electron degeneracy pressure, but I have no idea what that is. Could I get an explanation of that, and how it relates to the question above?

[Assistant] Neutrons are fermions, and fermions obey the Fermi-Dirac statistics. This means that no two fermions can be in the same quantum state. This is called the Pauli exclusion principle. Now if you take a starfull of neutrons and start squeezing them, Pauli exclusion principle requires you to excite the neutrons to higher and higher energies, so there are enough distinct quantum states for them to occupy. This causes a force that pushes back against the collapse, and stabilizes a neutron star.


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

[User]
How much money is ending up in unproductive wealth hoards?

The engine of a market economy is that my spending creates your job. But Ive heard a theory that a lot of money is ending up in hoards, just sitting there, never being spent or invested. As an example, tech corporations have a lot of money just sitting in their coffers, used neither for investment nor returned to shareholders as a dividend. The more money ends up in these pools, the less spending creates jobs, and the weaker the labor market gets.

Two questions. First, what data is there on the existence of such unproductive pools of wealth? Second, is this a reasonable theory of how such pools (presuming they exist) affect the job market?

Edit: thanks everybody for a lot of great answers!

[Assistant] The wealth is not in a Scrooge mcduck style vault. It is held in banks and bonds. That money is invested in the economy. According to the coase theorem it doesnt matter to the economy if original company invests the money or someone else. All it costs the economy is the bank fees.


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

[User] [Good Place] If people haven't gotten into the Good Place because of unintended consequences of their actions, regardless of relative goodness compared to others, how were people able to get in before 500 years ago when racism, sexism, slavery, genocide, rape and spousal abuse were common?

[Assistant] Because back then the world wasn't as interconnected as it is now. People living their lives in one part of the world had nothing to do with the slavery and genocide on the other side of the world, unlike today where you might unknowingly be supporting slave labor in another part of the world just by buying something at the grocery store.


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

[User]
What causes us to feel that a person is 'creepy'?

Despite having no evidence to support the idea that a person is untrustworthy or malicious we often feel like they are. Why is this?

[Assistant] Social communication is very complicated and partly quite primal. Just as animals communicate through subtle behavioral "dances" (classic: dogs smelling each other before they play), humans have particular social communication routines that are partly taught to us explicitly (e.g., manners), partly cultural and not directly taught (e.g., how much eye contact is appropriate), and partly evolutionary/cross-cultural (e.g., certain facial expressions, give-and-take, social responsiveness). "Creepy" people violate some of these social communication rules, in some way. It may be hard to articulate what they are doing if they are violating less explicitly taught social rules, but it will still FEEL just as "off." Someone making too much eye contact feels creepy. Someone who makes the wrong facial expression for the situation feels creepy.


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

[User] ELI5: How can a completely deactivated phone with no wifi connection still call 911?

[Assistant]
911 gets special consideration by the carriers due to FCC regulations.  This means a couple of unique things for 911 calls.

First, even if the phone does not have a service plan attached to it, it can still call 911.  No service/no bill, doesn't matter, your phone is still allowed to make 911 calls.  Keep in mind though, that since your no-service phone doesn't have a phone number attached to it, if you get disconnected the 911 operator cannot call you back.

Second, no bars doesn't necessarily mean you can't call 911.  For most numbers your phone has a minimum threshold of signal required for it to even attempt to make a call.  If the signal is less than what would represent 1 bar on the phone's display, the phone won't try a call because it knows that it's likely to fail/cause a bad experience for you.  For 911 though that rule does not apply.  Your phone could have 1 of 10th of 1 bar worth of signal, and it will still try and call 911.


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

[User]
Eli5: When buying lumber, why are the dimensions not accurate except the length?

If you go to purchase a 2x4 from the lumberyard, the actual dimensions are actually 1.5x3.5. However if the board is listed at 10 feet long, it is actually 10 feet long. Why are two of the boards dimensions incorrect and one correct?

[Assistant]
2" x 4" is the unfinished size...it \*was\* correct before we got into finished lumber.

And it's been that way for so long that it's way too confusing to change...everyone who deals with dimensional lumber is used to it.


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

[User] ELI5: What are the differences between different types of toothpaste (eg whitening vs enamel strength vs gum repair) and why doesnt one toothpaste just do everything?

[Assistant]
Dentist here. It's the additives. Pretty much all toothpastes are an abrasive and fluoride. The abrasive is to amplify the efficiency of your brushing and the fluoride to help fix the damage caused by the acid erosion from the bacteria. Under the enamel is the shock absorber of the tooth, dentin. The dentin has a matrix of water tubes originating from the root of nerve and blood supply of the tooth.
.
Everyone has a different thickness of enamel, sensitivity of the dentin, size of the pulp chamber etc.
.
The different toothpastes are made to focus on the individual's marketed advantage. Do you have gum disease? How about a toothpaste with an additive that will kill more fun disease bacteria? Want whiter teeth without paying for whitening? Want that old wives baking soda clean that got grew up knowing worked? Maybe a cool mint before bed because the strong mint wakes you up?   Do cold things bother you? How about a toothpaste that will seal up those dentin tubules to make the tooth less sensitive?
.
As you can see they have made a toothpaste for pretty much every preference. As a dentist, they all work great, except the charcoal. That will ruin your teeth.


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

[User]
[The Expanse] What level of gravity can Belters survive?

I know Belters can't withstand Earth gravity, so much so it can be used as a torture method on them. However, I want to know the highest gravity they can survive.

I read that their weakness to gravity limits them to acts of espionage and sabotage because they can't engage in open warfare. But later on the Free Navy shows up and they have ships that are able to fight. So I'm confused about that.

I also read somewhere else that ships in the Expanse typically travel at an acceleration of .3gs so Martians and Belters can survive it. So, is that what Belters can survive?

And on a related note, what can Martians survive? Can they survive 1g?

Thanks.

[Assistant]
You probably can't get an exact number because what is survivable isn't the same as what's livable or comfortable, and it will also vary from person to person.

For example, we know that there are treatments that let Belters survive 1G or higher long term, but Naomi didn't take to it.  But your sort of general guideline is that belters are comfortable in the sort of tenth to third of a G range, but some can stand higher.

For Martians, we know Martian marines do their training at 1G, and while not every Martian is a marine, the marines also aren't genetically or physiologically different from other Martians, so probably everyone can live comfortably in Earth gravity with some training.

Also as a side note: Everyone does high G burns, so everyone can survive 10 G or more for short periods with the juice.


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

[User] ELI5: What is Postmodernism?

[Assistant]
Art Graduate here.
Traditionalism - the more realistic it looks  the better the art is.
Modernism - anything with meaning can be art. It doesn't have to be representational.
Post-modernism - everything is art. Even meaningless things can be art.


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

[User] [Pokemon] Why did Professor Oak, a world renowned Pokemon expert tell Ash that there were only 150 Pokemon in the world?

[Assistant]
The same reason we teach children an atomic model that looks like a little solar system - easy to understand. The same reason the periodic table students learn in chemistry often lacks the Lanthanides and actinides:
Oak presumed that Ash would only encounter those 150 Pokemon and didn't want him to go crazy about those he would not find on his first adventure.


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

[User]
ELI5:Why isn't the horror genre as respected as other film genres?

Why don't studios ever invest big money into horror films? Why don't high caliber actors/directors/writers get involved in horror films that often? And why are most horror movies panned by critics? I know there are a few exceptions to this trend (Rosemary's Baby,The Silence of the Lambs, The Sixth Sense etc.), but for the most part it seems like horror films are a joke. Why is this?

edit-damn. glad to see I'm not the only person who would love to see some more high quality horror films.

[Assistant] Many horror films lack any kind of impactful storytelling. They often rely on gruesome visuals, jump-scares, and patently absurd plots. This cheapens the whole genre, and makes it harder for people to take them seriously. As you said, there are exceptions.


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

[User]
A PC uses 200W/hour. A heater uses 200W/hour. Do they liberate the same amount of heat?

#

[Assistant] Yes, any electrical device consuming a given amount of power will ultimately give off that amount of heat. I've seen electric space heaters advertised as 100% efficient, which is kind of hilarious when you realize that it is physically impossible for them to be anything else.


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

[User]
ELI5: why are actors allowed to take part in movies that they are not even allowed to watch?

For example kids in horror movies. Or that one girl in kick ass which was I think 16 at the time but the movie is rated 18 (at least in Germany)

[Assistant]
Movie ratings are almost completely irrelevant and hold no legal actions or anything to them. They are just made up "suggestions" by the film industry is all.

There are some rules about child actors in the entertainment world, but these are more focused labor enforcement rules and regulations.


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

[User] ELI5: How can a tennis player dominate so consistently over competition on a certain surface: Sampras/Federer on grass, Nadal on clay, etc. ???

[Assistant]
Clay is really slow and so you get longer rallies and so you need to be incredibly fit. Nadal is one of the fittest tennis players in the game.

Grass is really fast so it's all about accuracy to place the ball out of reach and/or big serves. Sampras probably had the best serve ever and Federer is probably the most accurate tennis player there has ever been (Federer's even better indoors where there's no wind and so he can place the ball to within millimetres).

Hard court is somewhere in between.


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

[User] Has nuclear testing during the 20th century contributed to climate change, and if so, to what extent?

[Assistant] For a short while; its proposed that it would have cooled our climate off slightly from suspended particulate matter scattering insolation. An interesting fact though, radioactive dust deposited fairly uniformly around the world, so we can still see this layer in ice sheets which helps narrow the window for dating older ice.


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

[User]
[Interview with the Vampire] Why is a coffin unfortunately necessary?

At the beginning of the interview Louis debunks a couple vampire myths, telling his interviewer that he has no aversion to crucifixes and laughs at the idea of a stake through the heart.

But when asked about coffins, Louis makes a point of saying that coffins are "unfortunately" necessary.

Why can a vampire not simply sleep (or whatever it is that they do) in a bed in the basement, or in a blacked-out room?

Plus we know Louis and his "daughter" travelled to Europe aboard a ship where the crew and fellow passengers did not know their nature. I doubt they would have been able to maintain sleeping in coffins all day without anyone noticing.

Why is it then necessary for them to usually sleep in coffins?

[Assistant] Because during their "sleep" they don't really *sleep* they essentially become corpses, and on the off chance a living person finds them in that state, people tend not to fuck with corpses in coffins.


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

[User]
[Game of Thrones] How do the Wildlings feed their army? (Spoilers)

The Wildlings have an army of a hundred thousand people. They're consistently cold and consistently on the move. A 2000 calorie requirement per person per day would be conservative.

The climate of the region beyond the Wall is far from conducive to farming. So far as I'm aware, in fact, the permafrost conditions make all but the most hardy crops unfarmable, which leaves meat and fish as the primary sources of calories.

Venison from deer and elk has a calorie content of about 1440 kcal/kg. Salmon is a bit better, at about 2080 kcal/kg. So a Wildling would need to eat at minimum 1.5 kg of venison or 1 kg of salmon meat or some combination of the two per day. That comes out to about 150,000 kg of venison or 100,000 kg of salmon meat per day for the whole army.

A deer will yield about 25-50 kg of useable meat. More generally, a deer will yield about 65-75 percent of its living mass as useable meat. Salmon are about the same ratio, but obviously much smaller than deer. Your average salmon might be about 5 kg total weight, and yield about 3-3.5 kg useful meat.

To be generous, I will use the upper bounds of these ranges. So, 50 kg of meat per deer and 3.5 kg of meat per salmon.

In order to satisfy the caloric requirements of 100,000 people, they would need to hunt 3,000 large deer, or catch about 28,571 salmon, or some intermediate of the two, *per day*. Given the climate of the lands beyond the Wall, I just don't see how that is possible.

So: how do they feed themselves?

[Assistant]
In warfare from the time of the Romans until the end of the 19th century, the army would not usually be assembled all at once. Instead, it would be divided into groups of several thousand, scattered across miles of countryside for this exact reason. Any group of substantial number is going to strip the land bare in a matter of days. This is even more true Beyond the Wall, where game is scare and crops are all but nonexistent.

This was part of why Mance made the massive signal fire. It's likely that his forces were scattered across the land in order to keep themselves fed. The fire needed to be able to be seen from miles and miles away. That's what it did.

In addition, a majority of those in Mance's army are not warriors. Rather, they are what we'd call "camp followers." Women, children. The old and the sick and the young. They're going to bring with them a menagerie of animals. Horses, chickens, goats, pigs, and other livestock. These people are also going to bring food with them, and feed and take care of the warriors as much as possible. If foraging is not enough, they butcher a pig and cook it up.

The siege of The Wall actually took days, as waves of Wildlings came in and reinforced those already at The Wall. Later, this exact issue is addressed as groups of Wildlings come in from the defeated force looking for food, warmth, etc. The largest group being that of Tormund Giantsbane, who brought with him approx. 4,000 Wildlings when he came over.


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

[User] [MCU] Did Captain America and his followers ever get an official pardon or are they technically still fugitives?

[Assistant]
Well the government kinda collapsed after the Snap due to half of it turning to ash. And five years later, the Avengers are operating worldwide with no opposition.

So I'd say neither, everyone just kinda forgot about the whole thing.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do flash grenades work?

How do flash grenades work, and would they still work if somebody closed their eyes?

[Assistant] Flashbangs are a type of grenade with a strong casing to remain intact during the explosion, so that bits of shrapnel don't kill people.  The explosion releases extremely bright light that activates all photoreceptors in the eye, causing a "burned in" image and temporary blindness for a few seconds.  Closing your eyes may dampen this effect.  However, it also produces a tremendous noise that deafens nearby individuals, and disturbs the perilymph (inner-ear liquid) which causes loss of balance and disorientation.  Closing your eyes doesn't stop this bit.


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

[User] ELI5:How does an LED bulb work? How is it different from fluorescent?

[Assistant]
A fluorescent bulb works by using electricity to excite gas within the bulb, which releases photons (light particles) which then excite the bulb's coating which causes it to release photons in the visible spectrum.

An LED is a light-emitting diode. It's a little complicated to explain, but essentially there are two electrodes, one with an abundance of electrons, and the other with a lack of electrons. When you apply a potential across that it it allows electrons to flow from the material with abundance to the material with a lack of, which in turn causes photons to be emitted.


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

[User]
[DC] Why doesn't Lex Luthor fix his own hair?

He claims to be overqualified to be called a 12th-level intellect, so why doesn't he just put his hair back?

[Assistant]
Precrisis lex was too crazy building his next doomsday device to think straight about it. He blamed Superman for his hair and decided to be arch enemies so its probably the same reason why Doctor Doom doesnt fix his face even though he totally can.

Post crisis lex is bald because that not really a big deal. Yeah he doesnt have hair. Who cares? Lets kill Superman.


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

[User] ELI5: What happens when someone gets hit on the head so hard that they pass out?

[Assistant]
Bad things. It is much harder to knock someone out that it appears in the movies, and generally if someone does get knocked out you need to get then to a hospital or they could die.

If you get hit in the head enough to affect how think (you see stars, you can't remember what happened, or you lose consciousness) then that's a sign of a brain injury. The brain hits the side of the skull, or parts of the brain stretch. This causes the nerves in the brain to momentarily stop working and, depending on where it is, you can pass out.

The danger is that the brain injury can lead to bleeding inside the brain or swelling of the brain itself. And if the injury is severe enough that you pass out for more than a few seconds, it's very likely. If this happens the brain will push against the side of the skull, or prevent blood from flowing, which can be fatal (generally after a really nasty headache). This increased intracranial pressure can sometimes be treated with drugs, but sometimes it requires surgery to drain fluid or open the skull.


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

[User] [Time travel] Marty McFly gave Chuck Berry the inspiration for his own future song, Johnny B Goode. John Connor sent his own father into the past to impregnate his mother, ensuring his own birth. If no one created this idea/person originally, did the universe invent them?

[Assistant]
Marty got the song from the Chuck Berry from the previous timeline, where he came up with the song himself.

I am less clear about Conner. The best theory I've heard is that John Connor wasn't a single individual, and that Sarah would raise any of her children to be leaders of the rebellion.


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

[User] ELI5: what is actually happening inside my computer when a program freezes?

[Assistant]
Programs (under Windows anyway) are given a continuous stream of messages by the operating system. These messages include notifying the program when the user tries to close it, or when the window is interacted with in other ways. If the program is written badly, it may not acknowledge these messages. Windows detects that the messages are not being acknowledged, and marks the window as "Not Responding", as you may have seen.

As for why programs freeze in the first place, the program may be too busy to acknowledge the message right away, but given enough time it may catch up; or the program may be locked up completely and will never catch up. These are called infinite loops, because they will never end.


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

[User] ELI5: How do cotton candy machines work?

[Assistant] Sugar is poured into the center of a spinning drum and is heated to melting point. Once the sugar melts the spinning of the drum forces the liquid sugar through small holes outward towards the sides of the drum in small strings (imagine spider webs). These small strings of liquid cool and become non liquid sugar and then are wrapped around sticks as fluffy candy.


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

[User]
ELI5: How did blood letting survive as an idea for so long?

From what I understand blood letting existed as a medicine/treatment as far back as Ancient Egypt and didn't stop until the 1800s.
If there's no actual benefits for the most of the conditions it was being used for, how did it last so long?

[Assistant]
Placebo effect, combined with a lack of better options.

People believed it would help them get better, so sometimes they felt better after treatment  even though we know that the treatment probably did more harm than good, in all but a minority of cases. There are tons of things we as humans do that have no empirical basis, like knocking on wood, or praying, or wearing lucky underwear; we do them because doing them makes us feel better.

Combine that with the fact that for most of that time, it was kind of bloodletting or nothing. Especially if you were not of the highest socioeconomic classes. People believed it was better to have *some* treatment than *no* treatment, so they went with what they had.

There are tons of justifications for why we started in the first place  everything from women menstruating to hippo sweat  but the reason we continued boils down to it was the best we had.


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

[User]
ELI5: What is the scientific purpose of landing on the comet, and what are it's implications?

Besides, you know, because we can.

[Assistant]
The purpose is exploration and the testing our capabilities. If at some point in the far future we are going to harvest comets for resources (which would be more practical for building things in space as it takes far less energy to get resources off a comet as opposed to earth) this is the first step in a long process of making that happen.

Also there is basic exploration. We have never been on a comet before, therefor there is a lot to learn about the makeup and development of comets.