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

[User]
ELI5 Why I should pay off my student loans rather than wait 20 years for the government to absorb them?

With the recent change in the law it lowers the age for loans to go away from 25 to 20 years. Right now I am on income contingent which if I stay at this rate I won't even be close to paying them off. Why should I pay more per month to try to pay them off when I could get an even lower payment and let it just go away?

[Assistant]
Fed here. The Income Contingent Plan is going to adjust with your income from year to year.  You'll need to re-certify. So if your plan is to never have an increase in pay, go for the Income Based Plan or ICR. However, if you start making more money in the next 20 years, your payment will go up and you'll most likely end up paying the loan off.

Here's the important part, you NEED to make those payments under the ICR or IBR. Forbearance/Deferment do not count as qualifying payments.  However, if you qualify for a zero dollar payment, those payments do count towards the forgiveness portion.

ELI5 Version - The final boss in your video game has 300 Hit Points. You need to continually strike him with your payment sword each month to take him down 1 HP.  If you use spells Deferment or Forbearance or skip your turn, the boss adds more HP and becomes much harder to defeat. Upgrade your payment sword to do more damage and shorten the battle.


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

[User] ELI5: What's so special about Counter Strike? It doesn't look very different from Modern Warfare. How does it draw such a dedicated community?

[Assistant]
1. When you die, that's it, you're dead. As a result, matches are very short, and every encounter is very intense. No five-second countdown to respawn. A lot of people prefer this to more drawn-out gameplay.

2. Builds progress over a series of matches, with winning teams getting more money. So round 1 you might skip body armor or grenades so you can afford a better gun in round 2 instead of having to wait for round 3. With no need to rank up, you can have that sick sniper rifle the same time anyone else can in the match.

3. Longevity and stability. COD changes its formula in various ways all the time, adding new guns, new killstreaks, messing around with death streak bonuses and the like. Gameplay in Counterstrike is largely the same as it has been since its inception, meaning that people who have been following it for years can still make sense of it.

4. Lower barrier to entry/upkeep. CS:GO is $15, and has been the latest version of CS since 2012. In that time, COD has released 3 new entries at $60 apiece. So if you're broke, you can play CS for a relatively low entry.


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

[User]
[Night at the Museum: Smithsonian] With everyone running around everywhere, wouldn't security cameras catch the footage? Or even the plane landing in middle of the road?

Heck, Abraham Lincoln (and the full weight of all that cement) was walking around and even smashed through the window.

[Assistant]
Can the museum afford security cameras with their financial trouble? They couldn't even afford three elderly guards.

If there was a security system, those same three guards probably would have sabotaged it to keep their secret.


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

[User]
If Meditation raises GABA levels, does it mean that over time it would lead to downregulation of GABA receptors?

I've read that about supplements that raise GABA. If you keep using them the receptors get downregulated. However woudnt the same have to happen with other GABA-ertic activities?

[Assistant]
If the supplement straight up raises GABA levels, then yes. However, there are many molecules that activate GABAa receptors that are not GABA, and these molecules have varying affinity for the receptor, as well as varying degrees of activation of the receptor. For example, alcohol is a full agonist at the GABAa receptor, meaning it binds and completely activates the receptor. Full agonists like alcohol (ethanol), benzos, and barbiturates also cause GABAa receptor downregulation, making them incredibly dangerous to stop cold turkey.
However, if a molecule fully binds to but doesnt completely activate the receptor, called a partial agonist, then downregulation may not occur or not to the extent of full agonists.


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

[User]
Eli5:How do people with dual citizenship pay taxes?

Do they pay taxes to both the countries they have citizenship of or the country they reside in.

[Assistant] The USA is the only major industrialised country on the planet that has a rule which says "if you are an American citizen you need to pay American taxes". Every other major country have rules which are more like "if you live and/or work in our country, you pay our taxes. If you don't live here, you don't". So unless one of your dual citizenships happens to be American, there's no conflict - you simply pay your taxes like any other resident of the country you live or work in.


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

[User]
Why is tritium radioactive, even though it's nucleus is not dense at all?

I thought the reason elements were radioactive were because their nuclei was too dense to be stable, so to become stable it ejects particles in the form of alpha/beta particles and energy in the form of gamma rays.

Tritium has a measly proton+2 neutrons. Why is it radioactive?

[Assistant] Radioactivity doesn't depend on density.  It depends on stability of the nucleus (which does depend on density a bit but there are other factors).  Basically can the neutrons and protons stay bonded together.  If they can't, then some form of decay will occur to make it more stable.  Tritium is not as stable as He-3, so the neutron decays into a proton in order for the system to reach a stable arrangement.


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

[User]
cmv: the egg came first.

everybody knows the famous question,which came first the chicken or the egg. now i may not be the brightest bulb but due to evolution and darwins theory it is scientifically correct that the egg had to have came first. a species evolves and changes depending on their surroundings. ex: darwins finches. darwins finches went through a drought cycle where most of the population of finches died off there due to the lack of traits in order to eat the food that was there. so what happened to the finches you ask? they evolved and became better suited for their environment just like the ancestor of the chicken. the egg came first. c. m. v.

[Assistant]
This would imply there was some essential instance in evolutionary history in which a creature we wouldn't classify as a chicken layed an egg containing a creature we would classify as a chicken.

The only coherent answer is to reject the premise that either an egg or a chicken has a definitive essence that we can encapsulate in order to theorize a beginning.


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

[User]
CMV: Flag burning should not be illegal in the United States

This is an odd position for me as I've changed over the years.

Early on, I was for the idea of making flag burning (in the United States) illegal. My opinion was based on the fact that it shouldn't be allowed because if you don't like America, then don't live here and don't visit. (I realize that there are other reasons people burn the flag, but I think this is one of the typical attitudes of people doing it: to show a dislike of the country and/or its current government.)

I still have that mentality, for the most part, but I have since more so disagreed with making flag burning illegal.

Ultimately, I see it as something that is covered under the 1st Amendment, and while I heavily disagree with someone burning the American flag, I would never do it myself, and I think they're an idiot for being so unpatriotic and sometimes ironic, at the end of the day, I believe it is their freedom and right granted to them by our nation's Constitution to express themselves in this manner. Just as it's perfectly legal to speak out against the President, Supreme Court Justices, or any other member of the government or the government itself, so is flag burning, in my opinion.

The 1st Amendment is just one of many reasons I'm proud to live in this country and expressing our dislike or disfavor is one way of expressing that right and sometimes that expression is done in more ways than just with words.

The only way I'd say it should be illegal is when it becomes more than flag burning, such as if they then use the burning flag to set a house or another person on fire. But at that point, it's no longer flag burning that would lead to them being arrested and charged with a crime but something like arson or attempted murder. The other way would be if someone was doing it on private property and the owner of the private property didn't want it, then they should not be allowed to do it there either.

So I'd like to get some feedback from others why I should change my mind.

[Assistant]
Many flags are made from polyester or other man made material.  Burning these produces toxins such as dioxins and other carcinogenic chemicals.
Sure you have a right to protest, but not at the expense of other people's health.


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

[User] [Star Wars] How does deflecting blaster fire with a lightsaber work? What keeps the blaster fire from splintering into a rain of smaller blaster bolts when it hits a lightsaber or getting absorb by the lightsaber entirely like the shots from a training remote?

[Assistant]
Blaster bolts are either plasma or high energy particles held in place by a magnetic bubble.  When they strike a target, that bubble dissipates, releasing its contents to "splash" the target with the plasma/particles.  Similarly a lightsaber is plasma held in place by a magnetic field.  When it strikes a target, that magnetic field is selectively disrupted at the point of impact and heat of the plasma is released.

When a blaster bolt strikes a lightsaber, the magnetic bubble of the blaster bolt and the magnetic field of the lightsaber have a fully elastic collision, so neither the bolt nor the lightsaber are disrupted.  Both bounce back from the collision.  However since the momentum involved is fairly low (momentum = velocity \* mass and the mass involved is incredibly low), the bounce back of the lightsaber is easily compensated for by the muscles of the wielder, while the bolt is reflected back at the shooter or another target guided by a combination of physics and the force.

Ray shielding works against blasters in a very similar fashion.  The magnetic bubble of the blaster bounces off the magnetic field of the shield.


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

[User] [Futurama] Are the Niblonians leftovers from the previous Universe, since we know for a fact it's identically cyclical? Why are their Kitten-Class Attack Ships so ineffective in battle? Is it just a coincidence Lelia named her's "Nibbler," or is it the other way around?

[Assistant] Niblonians are a hold over from the previous universe. But not by much. Iirc they say they're only a few weeks older than the universe. Kitten class ships are effective against everything but the brains who are able to counter them. Lela gave him a nickname since his actual language is impossible for others to speak.


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

[User]
ELI5: If the densest element a star can form is iron, then where do other denser elements come from?

Uranium is the densest naturally occurring element, or so I've been told. A star can form elements in it's core through fusion, and iron is as dense as it gets.

So how do we end up with elements denser than that. Where are precious metals and rare Earth metals, among other things, formed?

[Assistant] Iron is the densest element a star can form through fusion.  Fortunately, that's not all stars do.  At the end of their lives they blow up, and that generates all the heavier elements as it distributes everything else into space.


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

[User] [Christmas]How is santa able to deliver multiple presents to over 5 billion humans in the span of 6 hours?

[Assistant]
He doesn't. He delivers the gifts at midnight, which takes 24 hours to circle the globe.

But as to how he does that, there's multiple theories. Some say he he pauses time (and presumably unpauses it for an hour after he finishes each time zone). Some say he has help. And there's this crazy theory that it's actually the parents buying the presents.


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

[User]
[40k: Space Marine] How could Captain Titus of the Ultramarines be both immune to the warp and not a heretic?

I stress the last part because he kicked Ork and Chaos Marine ass well after this talent was discovered, so heresy can be safely ruled out. Im also a little skeptical on him being a latent blank without a connection to the warp.

What are your thoughts?

[Assistant]
We're talking about a man who single-handedly cut down *hundreds* of Orks in the span of a single day, then spent that evening carving his way through a whole (lost and) damned regiment of traitor guardsmen, fallen Astartes, and the daemonic hosts of Chaos Undivided, before finishing off the night's festivities by *beating a Daemon Prince to death with his bare hands.*

Several times, people witnessed him shouting a benediction, and driving the enemies of Man before him in a nimbus of golden light that seemed to make him incredibly strong and nearly invulnerable to harm. And stranger still, depending on who's telling the story, at least once or twice, people saw Titus fall under an overwhelming assault--and then suddenly everything went gold-tinted, he yelled some inspiring scripture, and he was back on his feet again as if the last minute or two had never happened!

The evidence, to this humble archivist, is quite clear: Captain Titus is ~~a Daemon Prince of the Emperor~~ one of the Imperium's glorious Living Saints!


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

[User] ELI5: How withdrawl from drugs causes severe illness? Sometimes death?

[Assistant]
The worst withdrawal symptoms seem to be from drugs that are sedating: narcotics, alcohol and benzodiazepines.

These types of drugs tend to alter the amount of signaling via various neurotransmitters and their receptors.  When one receptor is constantly activated by a drug then it will often be "down regulated" to try to bring things into balance.  Other counter regulatory pathways may also get upregulated.  But then when the drug or alcohol is suddenly stopped  - you generally get activity that is the opposite, more or less, of what the drug was causing.

With alcohol and benzo  withdrawal this can be really dangerous - marked increases in sympathetic nervous system activity (fight or flight) occurs, heart rate and blood pressure go up, and seizures may occur.  If these reactions are severe, death can occur.

Narcotic withdrawal may cause severe discomfort - but generally not life threatening without other health problems: anxiety, sweating, aches, diarrhea, nausea, cramps and dilated pupils - many of which are from nervous system activity that is essentially the opposite of what you get with the drug itself.

In contrast, after prolonged stimulant use, stopping leads mostly to sleepy folks who are in a bad mood all the time.  But not usually very ill from a medical / vital sign perspective.


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

[User] [MCU] What does the average person think of the Hulk - hero, villain, monster? How is he portrayed in the media?

[Assistant]
The first time a wide public audience saw the Hulk was in Harlem, when he arrived with the intent to direct all his rage toward Abomination.  Next was in the Battle of New York; again in control of his transformation.  Before those two events, those who saw the Hulk were involved in the fights or a rare person or two who managed to get some of it on a phone camera.

After his rampage and fight with the Hulkbuster armor in South Africa, Banner comments that "the world just saw the Hulk, the real Hulk, for the first time."  Due to that incident, public opinion of the Avengers as a whole was becoming more negative.

So, he's had some bad public moments, and people will certainly be startled if he rips apart an Ultron and roars in their face, but most of the time people see him there's a bigger threat that he's fighting, making him a good guy.  The fact that there are children's toys and masks and drawings of him speak volumes.  Usually, he's met with roughly as much praise and criticism as the other Avengers.


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

[User]
Should you use academic language at tenure-track job interviews?

When interviewing for work outside of academia, I carefully avoid academic "jargon." However, I'm wondering about academic language in tenure-track job interviews. When describing my research, is it okay to go full-on into academic explanations, or is that a moment to demonstrate my ability to put my research into plain English?

[Assistant] I think the thing to remember here is that though the whole search committee is in your *field* (perhaps-- some schools do have outside members on search committees), they're likely not in your *subfield*. So calibrate appropriately.


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

[User]
CMV: Federalism doesn't work in modern day populous countries and the founders of the U.S. would not have setup such a system had they known the implications at today's population levels.

_____

During deliberations amongst the U.S. founding fathers, two contrary views emerged as potential models for a federation of states: 1) a strong, centralized federal government, and 2) a decentralized federal system consisting of many strong, autonomous states. Of course the system our founders adopted is the former.

It is my opinion that it would have been impossible in the late-18th century for even the most intellectually gifted of our founders to conceive of a nation of over 300 million people, and could not possibly have considered the implications a strong federal system would have in governing such an immense population (the population of the United States in 1776 was roughly 2.5 million). Further, I think that had our founders been able to grasp the disconnect that exists today between our citizens and federal government, as well as the role of well-funded private interest groups, they would have been more likely to enact a system of strong, autonomous state-based rule-- a system which would be superior in the modern environment. Change my view.

[Assistant] The founding fathers did set up a system similar to what you are describing.  In the original constitution the federal government had the power to regulate interstate commerce (this has been reinterpreted to basically mean any kind of commerce) and establish diplomatic relations with other countries (including wars and such).  Basically if a power could be given to the states instead of the federal government it was.  Also, the State Legislatures used to vote for Senators, and while the president was voted for by the electoral college, the way the electors for each state were chosen was up to the state (it didn't have to be by the people).  It was only over time that through the Supreme Court, a civil war, and various amendments that the federal government gained the vast power it has now.


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

[User] Why do active volcanoes have such constant, violent waves?

[Assistant]
Can you give an example of what you're talking about?

I'll assume for the moment you're talking about lava lakes roiling and bursting. Two things cause the surface to be violent. One, the lake is convecting because lava is very hot and it's losing energy to the cold air (edit: and usually more importantly, by radiating!), becoming cooler and denser in the process. It convects because it has a low thermal conductivity, so it was to actually move to transfer it's heat effectively (unlike a metal bar, where the heat flows on its own by conduction). Convection makes for a violent sloshing surface as lava rises in some places and sinks in others.

The second process is gas rising. Gas is a necessary part of magma and you can think of many aspects of volcanic as just the gas trying to escape. The presence of gas does two things: it can help drive convection because gas is way less dense than lava, and it can explode when bubbles reach the lava surface.


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

[User]
[Castlevania] Whats with the croissant spaceship, the giant mecha, and the weird Aztec cyberpunk pyramid thing? And why is the moon shattered?

In the Netflix series, the travelling magician Saint Germain hurtles through the Infinite Corridor, looking for his long lost love who disappeared there.

While in the corridor, he catches glimpses things that were, or things that are meant to be. He sees a giant bipedal mecha thing stomping across what looks like a savannah. He also sees a big high tech Aztec pyramid looking complex with a couple of colourfully dressed people sprinting across a bridge in it. And he sees
a massive crescent shaped spaceship lifting off from a forest, while the moon in the night sky appears to be shattered.

Presumably, this is supposed to be Earth at some point in the future. Saint Germain, being a medieval era travelling magician, doesnt really understand or care about what hes seeing, and is quickly whisked away to some other vision.

Whats the deal with the spaceship, and the pyramid, and the mecha? Are they alien? Future human? Future vampire? And how did the moon end up broken? Are they possible alternate futures, or something determinate? Are they a reference to one of the Castlevania games, or something in the Castlevania lore?

[Assistant]
They were simply glimpses into other worlds and time periods.

The Infinite Corridor allows one to travel through space and time, to briefly experience universe's beyond their own. The ship could have been alien, or it could have been future humans. The shattered moon could very well not have even been Earth's. The mecha could be native to a world where organizations are in an arms race to develop new super-weapons. And the adventurers were just that; adventures embarking on a heroic journey all their own.


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

[User] Is there an intuitive way to understand the Gauss-Bonnet theorem?

[Assistant]
Gauss-Bonnet identifies a fundamental connection between geometry and topology. And, perhaps more crucially, between local properties and global properties.

In a sort of naive sense, topology is about ignoring geometry (topology is much more subtle and complicated than this, but roll with me here). Given a topology, what about a space/surface/what-have-you stays the same given continuous transformations, i.e. stretching and pulling and twisting? The classic example is recognizing that a coffee cup and a donut are the same topological "shape".

Geometry is generally much more concrete. You're measuring angles and curves and distances, the properties of an immutable object.

What the Gauss-Bonnet Theorem is saying is that the total curvature--defined as the integral of the Gaussian curvature--of a surface is directly proportional to its Euler characteristic, which is basically the number of "holes" it has in it. The first is a geometric property defined locally. The second is a topological property defined globally. This is a kinda ridiculous connection because you can do *crazy* things to a surface with continuous transformations. Completely change what it looks like. But because the Euler characteristic is constant, the Gauss Bonnet theorem says that the total curvature won't change.

Intuitively this really just means that, no matter how you do it, continuous changes to the curvature of a surface will be balanced out elsewhere on the surface, so that the total curvature remains unchanged.


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

[User]
What makes an explosive effective at different jobs?

What would make a given amount of an explosive effective at say, demolishing a building, vs antipersonnel, vs armor penetration, vs launching an object?

I know that explosive velocity is a consideration, but I do not fully understand what impact it has.

[Assistant]
Something not mentioned yet is that different explosives have differing degrees of 'brisance'. Think of it as the 'shattering capability' - one explosion might 'push' an object away at high speed, where another might shatter it into tiny fragments but not necessarily propel those fragments as fast.

C4 has extremely high brisance for antipersonnel and anti-armour, and gunpowder has low brisance for launching objects.


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

[User]
[Batman] Why is Wayne Manor built where it is?

So I was watching the Gilded Age and that got me to wonder about Wayne Manor. The building's like a couple hundred years old and built on Ancestral Grounds the Waynes bought when they first moved to America before the Revolutionary War right? I'm given to understand that while they made money in the Fur and Real Estate trade, they didn't get really rich until the Gilded Age when Alan Wayne made the family fortunes in steel, oil, etc...

So that makes me wonder... why the hell would you build such a big house from the outskirts of Gotham? I mean, sure nowadays it's just a 12 - 15 mile drive I think, but back then that was what, a 3 hour carriage trip? And it's not like Gotham's stayed the same size either. It's gotten bigger and bigger through the years so the distance from Wayne Manor to the city would have been like 4 or 5 hours maybe considering how you'd have to take a ferry to the Financial Sector in the center of the city and how much smaller it was back then.

Why the hell would Alan Wayne build or stay at such a big mansion so far away that's a ten hour round trip when the man's running one of the biggest companies in America? Why wouldn't he just buy or build a house in Gotham City proper where he can actually socialize with people?

It's not like it's a summer home. It's too close for that. And the place is freaking enormous. Architectural Digest did a piece on Wayne Manor and holy hell the size of that place and that ballroom. Did they expect to hold a big party and have all the guests live in the bedrooms for a few days before going home?

And it's not like the estates have a village supporting it. I could totally understand if there was a small hamlet in front of the grounds but the place is totally isolated. Which means that the Waynes would have had what, 50 employees living full time on the premises minimum? What do these poor people do on their guaranteed weekly afternoons off or their holidays? Just read a book while unable to make a trip worth going out for?

[Assistant]
I mean, nothing you mention is all that unusual for a gilded age mansion.  It's undesirable for it to be too close to the city.  The whole point is to be on a lot of land out away from it, that's part of what makes it the demonstration of wealth that it is meant to be.

The distance doesn't matter because he'll have apartments in the city for business and weekends. The Manor is for the family to live at, and they don't need to commute.

Also, having 50+ live-in servants is not terribly unusual for the time.  More or less standard practice.  They'll be provided with quarters and recreational facilities for their down-time.


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

[User]
ELI5: if digital copyright material is considered property and piracy considered theft, why can't producers simply calculate the amount lost due to piracy and get a tax break for "stolen property"?

It seems like they could get a large portion of their money back without suing for damages.

[Assistant] Loaded question, and a wrongly loaded one; piracy (as in, copyright infringement) is *not* the same crime as theft, and intellectual property is not directly analogous to actual property. The two are governed by a different set of laws.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does constant pain never go away, while constant pleasure eventually fades?

[Assistant]
We get used to pleasure through a process called affective adaptation or hedonic treadmill. But this same process also applies to sadness. We need our emotions to make decisions, which means our brains apply the old adage that it's "No use crying over spilled milk" and forget about the past and how happy or sad we were; worry instead about the near future.

Pain isn't really the opposite of pleasure, so different mechanisms are at work. If something hurts you, you want to become more sensitive to it so you "learn your lesson" and can better avoid it. So the brain does what is called central sensitization to pain, so the pain can actually get worse if it persists for a long time. This is great for avoiding painful plants in the jungle but terrible for permanent injuries that cause pain.


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

[User]
ELI5: What would happen if you tried to land on a small Gas planet?

I know gas giants are made of nothing but gas, and have no solid surface. But what would happen if you were to hypothetically try to "land" on one?

You would obviously never hit the surface, but what would happen as you neared the core?

I understand that this is pretty much impossible for any existing spacecraft or probe to do for a variety of reasons, but lets say it is done in a vehicle impervious to damage. What would I see as I descended? What would it be like as you approached the core of the planet? Would you hit gas as dense as a solid?

[Assistant]
We don't really know the inner structures of gas giants, but they're thought to have solid or liquid cores. Usually, this would be any inner core of heavy elements and an outer core of liquid metallic hydrogen, but the behaviour of matter at those temperatures and pressures isn't really known.

They're not all gas all the way through.


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

[User] [Jurassic Park] If scientists knew that modern birds had a more common genealogy to dinosaurs than reptiles, why didnt they use bird DNA to fill in the missing gene sequences?

[Assistant] Because, as Wu explains in Jurassic World, they were deliberately fudging with the DNA to make them meet popular expectations. Frog DNA was able to get the desired results, so they used it to fill in the gaps. If that turned out to be non-viable they may have tried avians, but it wouldnt be their first choice.


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

[User] ELI5: What does the Black Lives Matter movement actually want? What is it they want to accomplish?

[Assistant] There stated goal is to stop the killing of unarmed black men in cities and the suburbs.  Black lives matter thinks that there have been years of systematic oppression of black people by the police causing them to be unfairly arrested, profiled, and killed. They want to make sure that people stop dying and that police officers who kill people without cause go to jail.


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

[User] (Narnia) Why isn't Susan allowed to return to Narnia?

[Assistant] She didn't truly believe anymore.  She became too entangled in the trappings of her world that she refused to believe there were other worlds.  She dismissed Narnia as a childhood pretend game they once played.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do we rely so heavily on bank loans, what happened to saving up money for a car or home over time?

[Assistant]
>Why is the idea of saving up for these large expenses not popular?

Well, for a house, it's almost impossible for anyone to save up enough money, because people generally need a house *now*, but need decades to save the funds necessary.  Plus, if you start saving for a house, you're going to have to pay rent for an apartment in the meantime, and that may be almost as much as a mortgage payment.  So saving up to buy a house rather than getting a mortgage can end up costing you **more** over the long run.

Cars are a bit different, but it depends on the buyer's financial situation.  For most people, they have to get their first car based on a loan, because they don't have any money (most people's first cars are to allow them to commute to their first job).  After that, it's entirely possible for *some* people to save up enough to buy their next car without a loan, but not all people will earn enough to be able to save that much money by the time that their old car is causing enough maintenance issues to indicate that getting a new car would be cheaper than maintaining their old one.


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

[User] [Vampires] So if an Atheist gets bitten, is he happy or disappointedly frustrated? Also, does holy-water and Crosses still work?

[Assistant] In a lot of universes, it's the holder of the object who gives the object it power, not the vampire. So, if a Christian believes a cross will keep a vampire away, then it will. If they lose faith, the cross is meaningless.


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

[User] [Lord of the Rings] Couldn't anyone put the ring in a molten iron bar mold, fill it, let it harden, and then have their best team take it to the volcano without telling them what's in the iron bar?

[Assistant]
You don't need to know what the ring is to feel its influence. Boromir was overcome by it and he only ever touched the thing once.

Although it would be hilarious to have a team take the iron bar to the volcano only to find out the blacksmith had pocketed the ring.


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

[User]
[MEGATHREAD] Cyberpunk 2077

Been a minute since the last time we had a megathread, huh?

I trust you know how this works, but just for posterity sake, please remember the following: With the hype and anticipation surrounding Cyberpunk 2077 there's bound to be a lot of questions that players have once they start playing in earnest. All of them must be put in here, with no exceptions. Any discussion of 2077 outside of this thread will be dealt with in the harshest possible terms, and anyone caught deliberately spoiling it will be subjected to a permanent ban, no warnings or second chances.

When this post is no longer stickied, our normal spoiler policy goes into effect-- meaning spoiler tags must be used until six months from the game's release. That's June 10th of 2021.

[Assistant] Dunno if it would come up in a question but... are there instances in Cyberpunk lore of people being unable to get cyberware installed for whatever reason? Like, they go to get a grip or something and are told flat-out their body rejected the aug?


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why did people just accept the transition from Galactic Republic to Galactic Empire?

 I know not everyone did, but it seems pretty crazy that most people would just accept Palpatine declaring himself Emperor. I guess there are historical precedents, though.

[Assistant]
They didnt, Palpatine had been easing them into it for years. The whole point of him instigating the Clone Wars was so that the Republic would vote to give him war powers. They kept asking him to come back long after his term should have expired since changing leadership during wartime would be difficult, and since he controlled both sides he could manipulate events to help ensure everyone stayed happy with him being in charge. And he kept using his position to grab more and more power.

Then finally he was ready he made his move. The Jedi technically did attack him and did plan to take over once theyd taken care of Palpatine, so he told everyone theyd become mad with power and were trying to take over. So now the Republic was left with the chaos of cleaning up after a massive war and theyd just lost their most trusted peacekeepers. So Palpatine offered a solution. Rather than having him step down since he no longer would have his war powers and deal with the chaos of transitioning leadership while things were already so chaotic, just make what had already happened official and declare Palpatine Emperor. That way he could keep doing what he was doing forever.

So it was actually *less* of a change than having him step down at that point.


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

[User]
[Lord of the Rings] What is the relationship between Sauron and other evil entities like Smaug, the Balrog of Morgoth, or Shelob?

Are they all sort of rivals looking for their own ends? I understand they hardly interact (AFAIK) and Shelob seems to maintain a "leave each other alone" connection with Sauron (at least based on how the Orcs react to Frodo being captured), but it seems like Sauron is Morgoth's deputy trying to take the reins in his stead. If they did cross paths in the War of the One Ring, would they (as evil power-hungry creatures) try to claim the Ring for themselves and rival Sauron for domination, or would they be subservient to an extent?

IIRC the hierarchy seems to be: Eru (God) > Manw, Morgoth and the other Valar  Apocryphal Entities (like Ungoliant) the Maiar (Angels and Devils like the Istari, Sauron, Balrog, Shelob)   Magic Creatures like Dragons or the Eagles > Higher Elves  Lesser Elves, Numenoreans > Dwarves, Men, Hobbits etc. I'm not sure if that hierarchy (probably incorrect) plays into how evil swears fealty, or if there's Tolkien lore I'm unaware of about their relationships?

[Assistant]
One of the reasons Gandalf wanted the dwarfs to take back their mountain was to make sure Sauron and Smaug did not forge an allience. Since that wasnt done yet, presumably there wasnt any relationship between them yet, and we dont really know if a fully fledged dragon would serve Sauron, which probably why gandalf would consider it an allience.

The balrog was hiding, and would probably not obey sauron. they dont take order from anyone except morgoth directly, even when they were in the same army as sauron they were never under his command. best sauron can hope for is that he weakens the dwarfs and elves and then goes back to hide in moria.

shelob and sauron on the other hand had a understanding. she guards the passageway into mordor, and he lets her eat orcs and whatever else she can capture there, and leaves her alone.


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

[User]
[Dresden Files] Demigod powers?

Since gods exist in the Dresden Files 'verse, I'm going to assume that demigods also exist. So, my question is: What kind of powers would a demigod have? If a human magic user and god had a child together, is there a chance that the child will also be able to use magic, either from their Wizard side or their godly side? Just FYI, my knowledge of the Dresden Files is slim, as I have only watched a couple of episodes of the TV series and not read any of the books.

[Assistant]
It would be more than just magic power . . . it would be power pure and simple. Dresden has a talk with Odin and was a little arrogant so Odin pinned him to the ground with just his will power. No magic involved. Hades, in the Underworld, can selectively stop time for some people while having a conversation with others and teleport them. He also has a crown of mordite, described as congealed antilife that makes nuclear waste look like 2nd hand smoke. The entire White Council had to focus all their power to suppress a mordite outbreak while Hades casually has a crown of it held in place through his will power.

So any demigod will have magic but it will also have power to some degree. And if the human parent was a magic user, then the child will most likely possess great magical power.


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

[User]
[Man of Steel] How physically strong are Kryptonians when they are in a Kryptonian environment?

So in the beginning of the movie we have a nice fight scene between Zod and Jor-El. How strong are these guys when they're on their own planet? Similar to a humans strength?

Also when Superman was held hostage in Zod's shit, he was handcuffed to a table. He obviously got super-weakened in the Kryptonian environment of the ship, but was he still stronger than the strongest human?

Is it this:

Human < Kryptonian on Krypton (red sun) < Kryptonian on Earth (yellow sun)

Or this?

Human = Kryptonian on Krypton (red sun) < Kryptonian on Earth (yellow sun)

[Assistant]
If we go by the classic comic book explanation than an Kryptonians in their natural environment are physically equal to humans (mentally they are supposedly in a different league). However the movie has already distanced itself from the comics in this respect so we can't be sure.

Based solely on what we see... eh... it's hard to tell. The annoying thing is that everyone we meet seems to have military training that could excuse how fast, strong and skilled they are in the opening sequence. What's more is that we don't know what the gravity was like on Krypton (although it appears Earth like).

To answer your other queries based on Superman on Zod's spaceship, you'll notice that Superman is incredibly ill to the point that he can't ever stand, so even if he was stronger than your average human at this point it wouldn't matter since he wouldn't be able to use it.


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

[User] ELI5: If dry friction does not depend on surface area, why do racing cars have wide tires?

[Assistant]
>If dry friction does not depend on surface area, why do racing cars have wide tires?

You are correct that static friction depends only on the coefficients of friction of the two surfaces, and the normal force between them.

But if the contact patch between the tire and the road is very small, slippage (which there will be some of with aggressive racing) can result in overheating that small contact patch and damaging/melting part of the tire, rather than the resultant heat being dissipated through a larger tire.

Further, softer tires have increased friction, which means better traction and faster acceleration.  But the force on the tire stays the same regardless of surface area, which means that smaller tires have the same force concentrated onto a small contact patch, which can shred the softer material.  A larger tire means that the force is dissipated over a larger are, so the force / cm^2 is lower, and you can safely use softer tires with higher coefficients of friction.


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

[User]
Are there any theories on what quarks are made of?

Are quarks actually the fundamental undivided particles from which everything is made of? Or we just don't yet have the technology to brake them into smaller pieces?

[Assistant]
According to our current picture of particle physics we have, quarks are elementary particles. Everything is made out of elementary particles, such as quarks, electrons, neutrinos, gluons, photons, and some more obscure particles. These particles don't have any substructure that we know of.
If string theory is true, then all of these particles are actually tiny strings, that vibrate in different ways. The exact form of these vibrations is what gives those particles their properties, such as charge, mass, spin, and so on. In this case, the only elementary object would be the string.


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

[User]
If you saw a Tsunami coming towards you, say 50ft waves, would it be better to run towards land, or just stay where you are to dive in and swim upwards?

So waves are coming at you, better to run away, or stay deeper out if you are a good swimmer?

[Assistant]
Unlike waves, tsunamis are not just water going up and down, but the actual displacement of water. All the water near the sea shore is going to be the water that will be flooding across trees and rocks in moments.

Basically, you are screwed either way.


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

[User]
[DC] How angry do I have to be to become a red lantern?

Okay so I just got trapped in this new universe after an accident during a lab heist in my old universe. Anyways I'm trying to gain some new powers to get a head start in this new life and I thought becoming a red lantern would be easy based of what I've read at the library, but I've lived in a cave for months now trying to get as angry as possible and all I've gotten was this horrible chest pain. What am I doing wrong?

[Assistant]
Here's the thing, it's not just about being angry. It's about being consumed wholly by rage, giving in to the madness it creates. It's about losing everything you ever have or ever will care about and not wanting to go another day. The red ring gives you a chance, a chance to get revenge and to stick it to those who did you wrong one final time.

And who knows? When you've had your fun, who's to say it has to end?


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

[User]
Whats it called when a small town relies on a big business?

I dont even know if it has a name or if this is the right place to ask, but Im writing a paper on small towns that rely on big business if that makes sense, and it would be easier to do research if I knew exactly what to look for. To try and give an example: everyone in the town works in a factory for one central purpose and if that factory were to close down, many would be unemployed. Thanks!

Btw. I know next to nothing about economics, so if someone wants to talk about this more, it would be greatly appreciated!

[Assistant] Monopsony?  That's a general term for "one buyer," but many of the relevant examples are small labor markets where one employer is the only big company in town and employs a large fraction of the town.  The relevant economics here is that this employer has an enormous amount of market power, so a perfect competition model is not a good fit for such a labor market.


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

[User]
[Batman] Does Gotham PD have something like a SWAT team that is trained to deal with supernatural/superhuman threats?

Or do they just wait for Batman to show up? What about in the iterations where Batman is being hunted by the GCPD?

[Assistant]
Yes. They have a QRT (Quick Response Team)- something they have in common with Baltimore, among other cities.

They are not armed/equipped the same way as Metropolis' Special Crimes Unit, however.

 This kind of makes sense- the Gotham PD's got different sorts of problems than Metropolis', and... they have something of a corruption problem. Giving heavy ordinance to those guys might not be the wisest course of action.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] How widespread is Holonet, and how similar is it to our Internet?

Do some planets simply not have Holonet, or have their own version of it?

[Assistant]
Depends on the era. It's fairly common in the Republic, but expensive for the average citizen to go interplanetary; slicing thorough hyperspace ain't like running scripts, kid. Each planet / star system would likely have their own local net, as well; it'd be cheaper to access. (Imagine if the WWW cost more when you accessed overseas information. It'd be like that, but on a planetary scale.)

The Empire shut most of it down and repurposed the rest for the military. This let them control the flow of information to a world. It also made the life of a slicer more exciting.

The New Republic started rebuilding it, but it took a long time for the infrastructure to reach pre Empire levels.


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

[User]
CMV: The Wakandans fight in a laughably unrealistic way

This applies to Black Panther and other MCU movies they appear in.

They are a highly advanced civilization, they have force fields guarding the city, city wide camouflage, hovercrafts, nanoparticle technology, and loads of other sci fi tech.

When it comes time to fight, they line up in classic formations with swords, spears, antiquated ranged weapons, and shields. Then when the fighting occurs, they **break formation** and fight single handed melee style combat.

Guns? Artillery? Aircraft Support? How can they be so advanced but have tactics that would lose to Napolean? There weapons are enhanced, but they would get absolutely get clobbered by any modern army.  Surely they would do much better if they had guns?

[Assistant]
If you want to criticize Infinity War for that, you have to criticize all of cinema. Whether its a one on one fight, several on one, or a battle between armies, no one fights like they would in real life. The point of every fight in every movie isn't to show brilliant military strategy, its for spectacle. Its to look cool. Its to show off the skills of the heroes/protagonists.

No matter how much you train, no one guy is going to take on 20 guys at once like Batman. No one soldier is going to pull off an action movie feat and invade the island of a dictator and kill their entire army single highhandedly like an 80s movie. Movie makers are not going to concern themselves with whats realistic if it hurts the entertainment value of their movie of futuristic technology and aliens that have nothing to base off of anyways.

Even things like war movies rarely show the true experience of the real battle they are reenacting. It will always be exaggerated, or show the protagonist to able to take damage that would kill the hundreds of nameless soldiers on screen. Marvel movies are spectacles. They are meant to be unrealistic. They aren't meant to be 100% consistent with reality. They are meant to look cool and entertain. Following perfect military strategy doesn't always look cool.


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

[User]
[LoTR] In pure utilitarian terms, did Elrond make the right choice when he let Isildur walk off of mount doom with the ring?

Which has worse consequences: Elrond pushing Isildur and the ring into Mount Doom, killing Isildur & the ring while starting a war with Man, or letting him live and allowing all of the death & destruction of Saruon & Saruman with the possibility of Sauron's Resurrection?

[Assistant]
Elrond knew that if he killed Isildur, he would not be able to suppress the desire to claim the Ring afterwards. He could do nothing once Isildur refused to dispose of it. No one knew that Sauron would regain power either, and Saruman was firmly on their side at that point. It also bears repeating that the whole near-the-edge thing is a movie invention; they were on the slopes of Mt. Doom in the book, far from being able to summarily dispose of it. It is more likely that if Isildur and Elrond did both proceed to the edge as shown in the movie, both of them would be seized with the sudden and obvious conviction that the other was secretly planning to throw them in and keep the Ring, and then fight over it - the victor would then walk away with the Ring.

Without a doubt, though, the Ring would not have been tossed in. It would just be a war with Man, weakening the Free Peoples and hastening the rise of Mordor.


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

[User] ELI5: Even though other countries have cheaper labour and cheaper ways to produce goods, why is everything still "Made in China"?

[Assistant]
Chinese Labor is still very cheap, especially compared to most of the developed world.

But more importantly, China has all of the infrastructure already in place to manufacture goods on a massive scale. They have the factories, the organizational process, the business relationships, the shipping ports, everything you need to make and sell THINGS.

It's not as easy as it sounds to move a factory. There's huge expenses. It takes literally years to build one from scratch, and that's just the factory.


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

[User] What happens if you're driving in your car at the speed of light and you turn your headlights on?

[Assistant]
To move at the speed of light means that you and your car are shortened into an almost infinitely thin segment in the direction of your motion.  Therefore, you are inside your headlights- and inside the headlight switch and they are both inside of you.  You also have infinite mass, as do your headlights, and to activate the headlights you need infinite energy- which you have because you're travelling at the speed of light!  Unfortunately, having infinite mass and infinite energy means that a barrier called an "event horizon" forms between you and the rest of the universe.  Nothing from inside the event horizon can enter back into the universe, so the light from your headlights goes nowhere.

In other words, nothing makes sense when you try to answer this question knowing what we know of physics.


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

[User]
Help! Job offer withdrawn abruptly

Oh goodness where do I start. My research relies on having access to expensive ( greater than 5 million dollars ) equipment. I applied for and was offered a job for a search in this specific area. During negotiations I was given an offer that would have been reasonable except for the fact that I need to pay for access to this equipment, which makes my start up package more expensive than normal. I pointed this out and submitted my start up budget. I asked for what I need, and not more. The department called me today to withdraw the offer saying they understood that my budget was reasonable but that they decided it was more than they were willing to pay for. Is there any way to recover from this?  has anyone ever heard of something like this happening?

[Assistant]
Technically the offer wasn't rescinded. You declined the offer when you submitted a counteroffer, and they decided not to extend you another offer.

If you honestly asked for no more than what you needed, and they couldn't meet that... Then it seems reasonable for them to move onto another candidate, and the same is true for you.


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

[User]
ELI5: why does wool work at keeping you warm but cotton doesn't?

Edit: WET WOOL vs WET COTTON. Sorry can't type.

[Assistant]
Wool evolved on an animal which lives outside in places where it rains a lot.  The function of the wool is to keep the animals warm by trapping air in fibers protected from water by oils.  The purpose of wool is to keep the sheep warm and dry.

Cotton evolved on a plant where the objective was to permit a seed to be easily transported by the wind.  Once on the ground, the cotton's job was to collect water to hold the seed to the ground and enhance it's chances of sprouting.  The purpose of cotton is to keep the seed wet.

These purposes are the opposite of each other, so that's why they are different.


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

[User]
What is happening internally to make weight loss so beneficial? How does losing weight when obese improve health & obesity-related conditions like insulin resistance etc.?

This feels like it should be like, obvious. But for some reason...I dont REALLY know what happens to a body that loses excess fat.

How does weight loss improve health?

Reducing stress on joints makes intuitive sense. But how does weight loss improve insulin sensitivity? How does it improve cholesterol? How does it improve blood pressure?

Is it losing fat that does that, or simply eating less?

Etc.

Hope this question makes sense. Im on a journey to lose 100lbs and wondering whats happening inside o me to make me healthier (I hope!)

[Assistant] Hi, PhD student here. Excess fat in adipose tissue stresses out the cells. When they have too much lipid in them, they release cytokines. Sometimes they burst and call in macrophages to remove the debris, also releasing cytokines. This becomes systemic and you have a constant low grade inflammation throughout your body. Over time, this constant inflammation interferes with insulin signalling (Insulin signalling is what controls your blood sugar and is very important in preventing diabetes). It prevents proper activation of a key signal transduction protein called IRS-1 and also interferes indirectly in downstream processes. This is why you are more likely to get diabetes when you're obese. Your liver is one of the key organs affected by insulin . When your signalling goes wonky, the excess fatty acids from your diet and the fat you make through lipogenesis either gets stored in your liver, giving you steatosis (or a fatty liver) or gets exported into the blood stream through the use of very low density lipoproteins (or V-LDL or the "bad" fat). This LDL is small and can stick to the insides of your arteries, giving you high blood pressure or artherosclerosis, putting you at risk for a cardiac event. If you have diabetes, this is even worse as the constant high blood sugar damages the heart tissue making you less likely to survive the attack. When you treat the obesity early enough, you can heal the damage and have a much better quality of life.


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

[User]
I don't think members of the military should be treated differently than anybody else. CMV

I think it's just another career choice. I don't think they are "fighting" for anybody's freedom or peace. There's a lot of other jobs that require that people risk their lives to do it and they aren't given any special treatment and they shouldn't.

[Assistant] There's the slightly less noble, but pragmatic, reason for treating them differently which is that we need at least a small class of people who will willingly go stand in front of bullets, and what better way to convince someone to do that than to tell them its "honorable"?  If it was treated like a normal job you might have to try hard to find people willing to do it, but tell someone that they're the next best thing to superman if they do it, and they'll practically do it for free.


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[User] ELI5: How do overseas "tax havens" work?

[Assistant]
Companies need to pay company taxes on what they earn.

Different countries have different taxes, some high, some low.

To save money, the company says that it lives in "Tax Haven"

Company pays less in taxes.

_____
Tax heavens are often small island nations, who have no industry or tourism. So instead, they have really really low or no taxes at all (Cayman Islands). So the companies will move to their island, and then make them money, roads, houses, offices and so on.

It's a win for the 50.000 people living on the islands. But a huge huge loss for the other countries, who loose tens of thousands of billion dollars each year.


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

[User]
ELI5: What happened to Shia LaBeouf?

I've been seeing so many articles about him and the fact that he wore a bag over his head which read "I AM NOT FAMOUS ANYMORE" to something important.  His latest tweets also say that.

[Assistant]
Basically he 'wrote' a film for Cannes Film Festival last year which turned out to be plagiarised mostly from a graphic novel writer, who was not credited. He was found out, and savaged by the media. His apology tweets (really, thats insincerity in a nutshell) were also strikingly similar to text already about on the net. This was also picked up on by the media. As a result, he announced (by twitter, again) he was 'retiring from public life' - whatever that means.
*Apparently* it means wearing a paper bag on your head to red carpet events, saying 'I am not famous anymore' and walking out of your own film's press conference after making a ~~pretentious~~ enigmatic reference to a fellow disgraced celebrity.


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[User] eli5: How did old militaries (such as ancient Rome) manage to keep fed and hydrated thousands soldiers in long military campaigns over long distance and time?

[Assistant]
There are a number of ways armies fed themselves and they usually used any or all of them as the situation permitted or demanded.

1) Supply trains - The army would bring food and water with it on the march, and several days behind them would be even more wagons carrying food and supplies, and on and on so you had a continual shipments of food, water, and anything else you needed. Obviously this tactic relies heavily on both the safety of the area and on the wealth of the army to pay for all this.

2) Foraging - Here the army uses some of their soldiers to hunt wildlife, gather wild plants, and even sometimes harvest crops if/when the original owners fled. This is a great way to supply your army cheaply, but this gathering will slow your army down and when you have several thousand men you very quickly drain the local area of any "free" resources.

3) Requisition - The army just takes the civilian population's supplies. Sometimes the army would provide a monetary compensation, but even when they did you were are the mercy of the general's generosity to get a fair price. And even then you can't eat money.

4) Pillaging - Basically requisition but without the possibility of compensation and with the addition of property damage and murder. Primarily reserved for when in enemy territory and you didn't care about local reputation.

Just like today a huge amount of effort went into logistics. Commanders knew that an unsupplied army was a weak army and used that to their advantage whenever possible.


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[User] ELI5: What are buffer overflows and how do people hack software with them?

[Assistant]
A buffer is a place where data is stored.  Buffers have a fixed size.  A program must be very careful to not put more data into the buffer than its size allows, or else the buffer will "overflow" and damage the data in surrounding memory.  It would be like if your toilet overflowed and water spilled onto your floor, damaging your flooring and drywall.

If a malicious hacker has control over the data that is put into a buffer, sometimes they can control what data overflows out of the buffer as well.  This allows them to replace *other* data in memory, with the data they chose.  This can change the behavior of the program, allowing the hacker to manipulate it to his/her will.

For a more concrete example, take a login and password box on a website.  Usually logins are less than 12 characters or so, so let's pretend the programmer made a buffer for them that only held 30 characters (to give a safe margin).  Suddenly a hacker comes along and enters 5,000 characters into the login box.  If the programmer hasn't checked for this condition, the program might end up writing 5,000 characters into a buffer that was meant for maximum 30 characters.  Those extra 4,970 characters can overwrite other data in memory, allowing the hacker to change the operation of the program.


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[User] Is element 118 a noble gas?

[Assistant]
In some ways, this is a meaningless question.

The term "noble gas" refers to chemical properties, and element 118 doesn't exist long enough to really do chemistry (in a real, macroscopic sense). Secondly, as you go down the periodic table to heavier atoms, all of the "rules" that terms like "noble gas" and "halogen" are based off of become a lot less fixed. For example, the noble gasses go from "doesn't react" to "yeah, you can make stable compounds of this and put it in a bottle". By that point, the term itself doesn't mean a heck of a lot.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why electronics need resistors?

Why are resistors used in electronics?

[Assistant]
People here are failing to address the main issue - explaining resistors assuming everyone already knows everything about a circuit.

Imagine a circuit like a bunch of pipes with water flowing. The water pressure is voltage, and the current is the amount of water flowing through. Now imagine you have something which is powered by water, lets say a garden hose. When you connect the garden hose, you dont want the water flying out at a crazy high pressure. It could hurt you, and damage things. This is the same in circuits. The components in the circuit cant all handle the high voltage, just like how your hose cant handle the high pressure. So whats done to fix this? You add a valve to the hose, or a resistor to the circuit. The valve on the pipe will restrict the amount of water that can flow through - protecting whatever the water is being used for. Just like this, a resistor is used in a circuit to protect components that could be damaged otherwise.

Of course, there are a lot more applications of resistors. However, protecting components is a common and simple use of resistors.


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[User] Is the universe infinite?

[Assistant]
We don't know.

And honestly, how could we? The nature of infinity is that no matter how big a number you can write down, infinity is *infinitely* bigger than that. Similarly, we have reasons to believe the Universe is pretty darn big, quite a bit bigger than the parts we can see. But that size still absolutely pales in comparison to infinity. We can't get information from arbitrarily far distances, because the speed of light limit prevents that, so we can never really tell whether the Universe is infinite.

Our best cosmological models do treat the Universe as if it's infinite, although for all practical purposes you could just replace "infinite" with "absurdly big."


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

[User] ELI5: What happens in the brain during a crush?

[Assistant]
From what Ive read, when you start crushing on somebody, your brain is flooded with two primary feel good chemicals: norepinephrine and dopamine.

The simple explanation is that norepinephrine effects how your body feels; the butterflies, heart fluttering.

The dopamine effects your mood.

These chemicals get released each time you interact with this person , be it in person or simply getting a text.

Coincidentally these are the same chemicals involved in drug addiction, except in this case, youre becoming addicted to a person.


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[User] ELI5: How come people dont die during the EMP attacks since our brains work with electricity?

[Assistant]
Our brains don't work on "electricity" like you seem to think, nerves aren't like electrical wires. Think charged chemistry, more like a lemon battery instead of wired circuit.

An EMP works by creating a powerful, changing electromagnetic field. An important concept with electricity is the idea of "induction", where a changing magnetic field will cause a current in a conductor, and a current flowing in a conductor will create a magnetic field. In the case of an EMP the pulse will create strong electrical flow in conductors exposed to it, and that induced current can break delicate electronics that aren't designed for such currents to flow in certain parts of their circuits.

The human body though doesn't have such conductors so the pulse can't induce a current, and our bodies don't have delicate resistors or semiconductors like those that would be damaged in electronics. It would be like sending a lemon through an MRI, it doesn't care about the powerful magnetic fields that would damage or destroy unshielded electronics.


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

[User]
Are there any known organism that is so photophobic that they can actually die from too much exposure to common sources of light?

And no, I dont mean the heat that usually comes with most light source. I mean *light*. And by "common" I mean not something that can only be produced in a lab or in space like gamma or x-rays. I mean sunlight or a torchlight.

[Assistant]
So related to your question, there was a famous tree in northern British Columbia called "Kiidk'yaas" or simply "The Golden Spruce". It had a mutation that would cause needles to die if they received direct sunlight even though the tree needed sunlight to survive.

This tree managed to grow quite large due to constant fog that essentially gave the tree just enough light to grow but not enough to kill it. Survival of this type of tree is extremely rare.

Sadly someone cut this tree down because some people don't want the world to have nice things.


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

[User] [Star Wars] Assume Revan is on the light side. Why didn't the Sith on Korriban sense his alignment?

[Assistant]
A. They probably weren't expecting a powerful light-side user to just waltz into their home planet, so it's not something they look for.
B. Hiding one's presence in the Force is an age-old technique. Seeing how Revan was someone who had spent a lot of time hiding recently (and in his past), this was probably a natural skill. He may have even been doing it without actively thinking about it. He clearly wasn't worried about it enough.


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

[User]
Does a typical throwing disc generate lift?

In disc related sports (such as Ultimate Frisbee) it is a common technique to throw the disc in such a way that it stops near its target, and sort of hangs in the air for a moment before dropping. I can only surmise that the spin of the disc is somehow generating lift. Is this correct?

[Assistant]
The disc lift depends on the angle of attack, when you throw a Frisbee on an upward angle it pushes air down lifting itself. Because you throw it up it also loses momentum to gravity, but because it is so light it can move super slow and still generate decent lift this is why it seems to hang before falling. The spinning does not generate lift but it gyroscopically stabilizes the Frisbee so it stays on its angle of attack and keeps generating lift.

Tldr only the angle of attack and horizontal velocity generate lift, spin stabalizes.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is Fission reaction so much worse than Fusion?

I don't understand why Fission reaction, creates radioactive waste; Whereas FUSION reaction, appears to be clean and happy?

Is this media spin? How does fusion not create nuclear waste? Why is one so much easier than the other?

[Assistant]
All the other answers are ELI15

Fusion is like two happy people getting married. Everyone is happy about the result.

Fission is like the divorce, the two split up. But both people have gotten overweight and have a lot of emotional baggage. When you split them up, lawyers get involved and during the process the two yell terrible things at each other.

Yelling terrible things = radiation.

Two people = two atoms.


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

[User]
ELI5: How can paparazzi stalk celebrities and harass them legally?

I've never understood how they can constantly stalk celebrities and then play the victim when someone loses their cool and throws a punch. I understand this is what they *want* to happen, but obviously it's not an isolated case. People are pestering them every day. I can't imagine that any sane person wouldn't lash out eventually.

[Assistant]
If someone is in public, they are fair game. The Paparazzi could camp outside your house and follow you down to the mall shooting photos all the way. Photograph you through the window of the restaurant with your date. They don't do this, because they can make far more per photo by doing this to a celebrity instead. A photo of a celebrity looking amazing, like they're hungover, happy, angry, sad... someone will pay thousands for it.

The most basic answer to your question though is: It is perfectly legal to stand in public and take photographs.


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

[User]
[Marvel Comics] Does the Klyntar symbiote change the host's personality or the other way around?

Hello everyone! I hope you're ok.

I have this question regarding the Marvel Comics Klyntar lore.

Does the Klyntar change the host's personality or does the host change the symbiote's "personality"?

Carnage is that violent and bloody because he bonded with Cletus' who is naturally an addicted to violence and blood serial killer.

How does this exactly work? It's a mix of both or what?

Thank you!

[Assistant] Carnage is special case, because Cletus bonded with it very soon after spawning, and It was so bonded that they're one being at this point. For others, when they Bond without consent most of the time, It's showed that bonded being is more or less possesed, when they are bonded together, and got best compatibility they usually try to bond to simillar hosts.


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

[User]
[Lord of the rings] Why does legolas ignore frodo throughout the series?

I learnt some trivia that all he says to him in the movies is and my bow. Is that an oversight or a character motive?

[Assistant] [Books] Legolas doesn't really speak much to anyone beside aragorn, Gandalf, and later gimili. And when he does speak he is rather vague, cryptic and generally speaks as little as possible. He is a 3000 years old elf and can't really relate to issues that might concern hobbits. They are also seperated for entirety of the two towers and most of return of the king. They only spend about half of the first book together. So in other words he is an introvert who didn't get enough time to get comfortable with Frodo.


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

[User]
Why is it necessary to have eaten food prior to taking some pills orally?

And how is it beneficial for these pills, but not others?

[Assistant]
Two reasons: (1) sometimes pills irritate the stomach or bowel and eating food or drinking will protect them, and (2) sometimes food aids in the absorption of the active ingredient.

This is dependent on the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of each individual medication and is worked out either before or during phased clinical trials.


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

[User]
When a photon is emitted from an stationary atom, does it accelerate from 0 to the speed of light?

Me and a fellow classmate started discussing this during a high school physics lesson.

A photon is emitted from an atom that is not moving. The photon moves away from the atom with the speed of light. But since the atom is not moving and the photon is, doesn't that mean the photon must accelerate from 0 to the speed of light? But if I remember correctly, photons always move at the speed of light so the means they can't accelerate from 0 to the speed of light. And if they do accelerate, how long does it take for them to reach the speed of light?

Sorry if my description is a little diffuse. English isn't my first language so I don't know how to describe it really.

[Assistant] They don't start off at zero, and there's no acceleration. They start off at *c* and always travel at *c*. This is because, due to special relativity, any massless particle can *only* ever move at *c*, any other speed isn't allowed physically.


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

[User]
ELI5: how does DNA know when to do what?

If the DNA is a recipe to making a person, how does the DNA know that when youre a child it shouldnt produce a full size femur bone or foot or anything? How is it timing when we grow?

[Assistant]
The DNA doesn't "know" it's forming a bone. It includes the when and how, but not the end result.

Random example: the gene that is needed to form a hand is in every single cell. But the corresponding protein (wich has the name "sonic hedgehog" for whatever reason) is only created when the conditions are right, wich is - because of other DNA - only the case twice (once at each arm, in week X of pregnancy).

If you artificially duplicate the protein you can make additional hands, but only at the end of a limb, not everywhere (has been experimentally shown in animal tests)

So the "cooking recipe" includes the when and how, and kind of forms a chain of that. As a methaphor for a cake it would say something like "add an egg whenever there is a 50/50 mix of flour and milk" and the previous steps have to make sure those conditions are met some time.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do Americans put so much faith in their constitution? Why should a 200 year old document be the be all and end all of what is good?

As a Brit, it seems that in the US "unconstitutional" is pretty much the worst thing something can be. Why is this document so sacrosanct and why shouldn't something be a good idea just because it goes against it?

[Assistant]
It was the founding principles of this country, and it has served us well so far.  It's not so sacrosanct that it can't be changed though, this is what the amendment process is all about.  If we find that the constitution has failed us in some way, congress can create an amendment to it to realign it to a changing world.

It *created* the union - thus it is what created the United States, it was not a law we adopted into an existing country, but rather a law which established that country by its adoption by member states.  It creates congress, it establishes what powers states may *not* have (eg, states cannot mint their own money), it creates the presidency, it creates the judicial system, it makes all states equal, and importantly ***it explicitly allows itself to be amended***.  The creators of this document knew they were not infallible, and that they could not predict what the future holds, so they created a way for the document to evolve with time.

Why do we still use it?  Because it still represents the best form of government we've been able to conceive so far.  If we wanted to eliminate it, we could not claim to be the same country.


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

[User]
[Batman] I'm a small-time criminal in Gotham City. If I make myself useful to The Bat by supplying him with regular information on the Gotham Underground situation then how far do you think he will be prepared to overlook my own criminal activities?

Just to be clear I don't get involved in anything heinous, I avoid narcotics and anything to do with human trafficking or violence if it can be avoided. I don't personally carry guns due to having lost both my parents to them at an early age though the people I typically work with do and I never take advantage of someone who can't afford it. But that aside I still want to expand my operations as far as I can while staying below The Bat's threshold for shutting me down for good. I'm open to suggestions!

[Assistant]
>I avoid narcotics and anything to do with human trafficking or violence if it can be avoided.

Best make sure you can *always* avoid it or you and The Bat are gonna have words.

Those words will be "Biff!" "Pow!" and "Zap!"


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

[User]
[DC] Why aren't there more green lanterns?

More green lanterns would be able to police better and ensure all of them can get some rest, sort of like shift work.

[Assistant]
Space is, for the most part, big and empty.  For thousands of years, one green lantern per sector has been enough.

For the most part, it's only in sector 2814 is there so much shit going on, that they need more than one.


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

[User] ELI5: Would Giving a Dog EnChroma Glasses allow it to see more colours?

[Assistant]
No. Although a dog's vision is something like a human with red-green colour blindness, it's for a different reason than the type of colour blindness that EnChroma tries to fix.

A human eye has three types of colour-sensitive cells, which are most sensitive to red, green and blue. The most common red-green colour blindness happens when your red and green cells are too similar, so although your eye responds differently to red and green light the difference is very subtle. The glasses filter out some of the light which both the red and the green cells respond to, making a bigger difference between red things and green things.

A dog's eye doesn't have separate red and green-sensitive cells, it just has two types, so there's nothing the glasses can do. There's no subtle difference for the glasses to exaggerate.


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

[User]
[American Gods] Is donating blood a 'sacrifice' ?

The caduceus is used constantly as a symbol for medicine. It is also connected to Hermes, the Greek god of heralds. If people donate blood or organs to the Red Cross or other organizations, does that constitute a tribute or Hermes or perhaps some other God of medicine? People gambling in Vegas was enough to make an entire new deity, and blood donations tend to be a bit ritualistic.

[Assistant]
It's very ritualistic... the "blood drive!" Signs, the special bed, the cookie, the card, the pins for so many gallons...

If it's not feeding a god of medicine than at the very least it's summoned La Magua.


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

[User] Which modern economies (countries) do you find most interesting/fascinating/positively shocking?

[Assistant]
I have no freaking clue how Sweden works.

1. Best monetary policy response to the recession among the developed world
2. Corollary: they managed to appoint a top-5 monetary economist as their deputy central banker
2. First-in-class education system
3. High quality health care
4. And they maintain a top-15 presence in income per capita

I don't get it, but they're doing something right somewhere.


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

[User]
[Dungeons and Dragons] Where is the safest place to live in the Forgotten realms/Faern?

Most Dungeons and Dragons players know more about the lore but from YouTube, some critical role games and wiki searches, most of the creatures that live there are enough to scare the hell out of you and have you permanently living with anxiety. Is there an actual city, settlement, land that has low danger?

[Assistant]
Pretty much any city or larger town is going to be safe to live in, simply because if it weren't safe then there wouldn't be enough people living there to make a city.

Sure, tragedy can strike anywhere, war can break out, so ancient evil can awaken, these things can threaten even the safest places. But these are the exceptions, not the rule, and the vast majority of people living in civilized areas are fairly safe.

Adventures just never notice that kind of thing because a village or town that isn't under some kind of threat is just a place to spend the night and move on in the morning.


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

[User]
What Do I need to know to make a backend for an app?

Hi, I was wondering what it says in the title. What I need to know to make a backend? Which language is the best? In my work we use Java with Spring, but I didn't see much backend code because I'm mainly front, but besides a database, what else do I need to know?

[Assistant]
You'll need a language that lets your build an API of some kind. Each will have its advantages and disadvantages. Though I'd argue that many of those advantages and disadvantages don't really crop up until your project is somewhat large and high volume. In the short term, try to find a framework in a language you know or want to learn. You can always change your backend if it doesn't work for you.

If you are familiar with JS, then NODE.JS is an option. Spring with Java would work too.

In general, most of the time you want something that you can build an Http server in. You should be able to search "writing an API in Java" or similar to find tutorials and examples.

Don't worry about getting things written perfectly. Especially not while you are also learning the basics. Try to get something off the ground with whatever framework exists for your favorite language.


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

[User]
ELI5: The difference betweens the forms of classical music, like fugue, minuet, canon, opera, prelude, sonata, etc.

Title, and thanks.

[Assistant]
To some extent, this is like asking what's the difference between rap, gangsta rap, DJ, country, Electric Slide, drum solo.  Some of the terms can be compared, but some cannot.

An opera is a dramatic work that features mostly singing  Like a musical or a play, but the performers sing through most, or all, of it.  It also means the name of the group that performs that kind of work.  This is a big-picture term.  Some comparables might be "ballet" (classical work performed while folks dance)  or "symphony" (classical work performed by a larger ensemble... it sometimes has a regular form, but doesn't have to) or even "string quartet." (classical work performed by four string musicians)

"Sontata" is a type of work or a type of form, usually characterized by an A-B-A form, meaning there's a statement of a theme, there's a contrasting part, and then there's a "recapitulation" of the theme.  It could be a "sonata for strings," or a "piano sonata," or it could be a smaller part of a larger work (many movements of a symphony are written in sonata form).  Comparables to this are things like a Rondo/Rondo form (ABACABA).

A minuet was a dance -- like the Electric Slide -- popular in the 1700s, in 3/4 time.  It's a little bit slower and often more formal than some of the later fast 3/4 dances.  Comparables might be things like a gigue (jig-- in a fast 6/8) or a march (2/4 or 2/2), or polonaise (another 3/4 dance but from a different time and different place than the minuet), waltz (a faster 3/4 dance, popularized later).

A "canon" is a round, like "three blind mice," where mutiple people sing or play the same notes, but at offset times.  There are variations on this, and you can have an "accompanied canon" where not all performers play a part in the canon.  (The famous "Pachelbel Canon in D" isn't really a canon.)  Similarly a "Fugue" employs the same device, but each part usually starts on a different pitch.  While there can be entire pieces written as fugues (bach liked to do this) or canons, most often this is a type of compositional strategy-- a section in a piece--to add contrast or interest.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Was Anakin's turn to the Dark Side part of his being Chosen, and therefore Luke's story validated by the Prophecy; or did Anakin fuck up and the Force create Luke to fulfill the Prophecy later on?

The Prophecy read that Anakin would bring balance to the Force. Was Anakin's fall to the Dark Side contained within the mechanisms of prophecy, or was it an accident the Force had to clean up with Luke's storyline?

Asking for a friend with daddy issues.

[Assistant]
It was Anakin/Vader who actually killed Palpatine and thus restored balance of the Force - as we know, Palpatine caused this disbalance. Balance didn't last long though.
Prophecies are never clear - even if they tell *what* happens, the never tell *how*


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

[User] [Star Wars ROTS] The opening text mention "heroes on both sides" who were the heroes on the side of the Separatists?

[Assistant]
Basically all of them.

They were fighting against a corrupt inefficent government that allowed Jedi, religious warriors to subvert the whole system whenever they wanted and never get punished.

If you want specifics, I'd go with Count Dooku, Mand'alor Spar, and the countless clone deserters.


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

[User]
CMV: It is solely the rapist's fault if a woman gets raped and women should wear and act whatever they want.

A woman doesn't need to tone herself down as it is the rapist who is the decision maker who decides to rape women.

Women should not be held accountable for the rapist's actions.
They can still be held to a basic dress code in society but as long as they are meeting that dress code they should be free to dress any way they want.

A rich businessman wearing gold rings and bracelet on day to day basis in his normal life, later gets stalked and robbed of his jewels and money by a bunch of robbers. Do we blame him for provoking the poor robbers, showing off something they wanted but could not have? We don't.

We don't blame the victims of murder, robbery and other crimes.

If a rich man can by all means flaunt his assets because they are his to do with as he pleases, a beautiful woman shouldn't be blamed of flaunting her body with dresses of her choice.

It is utter nonsense to say that a woman was stalked and raped just because she was wearing "provocative" clothes.

It is the rapist who should be blamed and punished and not the woman who should be tormented to prove that she was modest.

[Assistant]
It's important to separate two distinctly different items here:

Blame & Responsibility are two separate entities that are closely intertwined in the discussion.

In your scenario of a rich man being robbed, he is 100% blameless and the blame is 100% on the robber who steals from him. *However*, he was not exercising personal responsibility because he voluntarily put himself in a situation of high-risk by brandishing his bling.

In a similar vein, if a woman is dressed promiscuously, it is 100% the fault of anyone who chooses to sexually assault her and she is at no fault for choosing to dress the way she wants to. *However*, if she is the one that chooses to dress like that in a bad part of town or puts herself in risky situations, she is not acting responsibly either.

Everyone is responsible for their own personal well-being and safety. It is everyone's onus to take care of themselves first and foremost, and avoid the risk or putting themselves in risk they know about.

*Should* a man be allowed to wear whatever he wants and not fear theft? *Should* a woman be secure and free to dress scantily and walk the streets at night without fear of a rapist? Yes they both *should*, but that is the hypothetical and the reality is not as pleasant as ideally.

I think often people are unable to differentiate between blame & responsibility and that's where the controversy arises from.


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

[User]
ELI5: what does it feel like to be elderly and over eighty years of age?

When you are in your late years and have lived an active life, do you tend to feel sleepy more often? But I've also read that elderly people also sleep fewer hours in general and sometimes wake up early in the morning. With all the years of memory, would I be able to retrieve them and easily talk about my experiences or would it all be a blur to me?

[Assistant] I am over 60 and here's the secret of aging.... You are exactly the same person you were at 20, same thoughts, interests, feelings but your body has fucked you over.  Look at an old man or lady and realize that they are as young mentally as you are, they just are wasting away.  Talk to one and you'll see.


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

[User] ELI5: why can you stick different parts of your body(head, hand, finger) in small gaps really easily but you can't take them back out?

[Assistant]
One of the reasons (besides the mentioned swelling) is that when you push, say, an arm through a gap, you are stretching skin and flesh (think pulling up a sock), which makes the limb thinner.

When you are pulling it out, skin and flesh crumples in the gap and makes the limb thicker.

To see it in an easier way: Wear a loose sock in your hand, and push it through a gap (for example between two couch pillows). Its stretches going it, but crumples when pulling out.


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

[User] If Felix Baumgartner had jumped with a wingsuit, how far laterally could he have gone?

[Assistant]
A typical glide ratio for a wingsuit is 2:1 when jumping out of an airplane.  This means the jumper can travel 2 meters forward for every meter of vertical fall.  Higher glide ratios, near 3:1, are reported for short BASE jumps.

This means that in a 128,000-ft. fall, Felix could theoretically travel 256,000 horizontal feet, or about 48 miles (77 km).

Once terminal velocity is attained, falling from a higher altitude does not significantly affect the glide ratio, which is numerically equivalent to a lift/drag ratio.  The wingsuit will have a much higher velocity in thinner air, but the horizontal distance that can be traveled remains the same.


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

[User] Does blowing on hot drinks really cool it down, or is it some sort of natural human reaction?

[Assistant] I've modeled it as a problem before in Comsol.  For a 98C beverage (8 oz cylinder in 1/4" ceramic open top) under still air it took ~950 seconds to cool to 40C while under a 20 cm/s cross current at 40C it only took ~370 seconds.


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

[User] Why is it on hot summer nights the temperature only cools down briefly at the break of Dawn? It seems counterintuitive. Why would it get cooler just as the sun is rising?

[Assistant] During the day, sunlight warms the surface of the Earth (and for this we'll kind of lump the actual surface of the Earth and the lower portion of the atmosphere in direct contact with the surface of the Earth). At night, this heat is radiated back into the higher atmosphere and space, and so the portion of the surface of the Earth experiencing night cools (the surface is also radiating heat during the day, it's just that at night there is effectively no source of heat to counteract the loss of heat to the atmosphere and space). At any given spot, the surface of the Earth has lost the most heat from the previous day shortly after the sunrises because incoming solar radiation is not really heating the surface of the Earth effectively until the sun is above the horizon (i.e. until light is shining directly on the Earth). A very simple analogy would be a pot of water on the stove that you heated in cycles, e.g., you turned on the burner for 30 minutes, turned off the burner for 30 minutes, turned on the burner for 30 minutes, etc. In this scenario, when would the water be it's coolest? Basically at the end of the 30 minute "burner off" periods and shortly into the next "burner on" period because it takes time for the water and pot to radiate the heat accumulated during the "burner on" period and a little bit of time for the water and pot to start warming up with the burner back on.


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

[User]
First time giving a long (45+ minutes) presentation on my research - What to talk about?

Hi everyone,

having been a graduate student for quite a while now, I have given quite a few 20-30 minute papers that give a general introduction to my research. What I normally did (I am a graduate student in history) for these short talks, is to first shortly introduce what my topic is, talk about the past literature shortly and what is new about my research, then discuss the themes that run through my dissertation and then focus on the most important aspects in terms of content that I focus on, before closing with the conclusion.

However, in a few weeks I will have to give a longer talk about my research for the first time (I was asked to speak for between 45 and 50 minutes) and I am not too sure what to focus on. The audience will be rather general, so not specialists in my field. Currently I am thinking of keeping the structure of my talk, but extending the last part (the content bit) further with a few more stories and by going a little more deeply into what I do in my dissertation, mainly as I always felt that I wanted to say more about that in previous talks and because I think that would be of greatest interest to the audience. But I am wondering what other suggestions people might have as to how to structure a longer talk about one's research?

Thanks.

[Assistant]
When you're speaking to a more general audience, you can / should spend some time elaborating on the context in which your research takes place, and also a bit more time explaining why what you did / found is important within that context.

So expand on your background discussion to help people unfamiliar with your subject gain enough familiarity to follow your research, and then spend a bit more time near the end explaining *why* that work is important, and why what you found is relevant within the context that you established during the earlier part of the talk.

Also remember that slides should be pictures, not text. Text bores the shit out of general audiences. Find good-quality pictures, or create good-quality graphics, or both, that emphasize your points and give people something to focus on when you're talking.