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

[User]
ELI5: "Cracking" a game

While reading threads about the new Arkham Asylum fiasco, I kept running across comments of people saying "just torrent it," followed by others saying the game couldn't be cracked yet. Why not?

What exactly happens when someone "cracks" a game? How come some "cracks" are preferable to others and more stable?

EDIT: You guys have been awesome both in explaining and in not being condescending. Thanks so much!

[Assistant]
Some games come with code that makes it hard to run a copy by just possessing the data for it. For instance, it may make you enter a serial number. You copy the CD fine, install it, and it asks you for the number. You don't know it, so the game refuses to work.

Well, somewhere inside the game there is logic like this:

1. Ask user for serial number
2. Perform some operation to check the number. For instance, all digits should sum up to 9.
3. If the answer is right, continue

Cracking is just interfering with this logic. You can modify the code to jump past the verification step. You can make it still ask for the serial number, but accept any number at all. You could flip the logic around so that it accepts only invalid numbers. Etc.

This was the early era of cracking. Then the companies started making things more complicated. The program may be encrypted and self-verifying, so not only you need to break the encryption and make the change, but also find how it checks itself and defeat that as well.

Some are more devious and don't make it obvious that they know something is wrong. Instead the game runs, but breaks something subtly in such a way that the 5th level becomes impossible to finish.

Any kind of protection is breakable, but with enough effort it's possible to make something that requires considerable thought and time to get around, and it's quite possible that if the protection is good enough the game will remain uncracked for months.


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

[User]
ELI5: How are coding programs coded?

I'm currently self-learning how to code / program (Python) - but how are these different systems programmed in the first place?

[Assistant]
They use another programming language to code up that one.

And they use another language to make *that* one.

And it goes on further and further back, until at some point they're writing the first text based programming language by putting punch cards in a machine.

But what reads the punch cards?  Go further back and they're programming by flipping switches on a big room sized box.

And what reads those switches?  Go further back, and they've **hard coded** the programming language directly into the computer's construction, like, the specific connections between the vacuum tubes are the programming language.  This, of course, a very, very simple programming language.


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

[User] [DC] If it was looking for a fearless champion of justice, why didn't the alien give the Green Lantern ring to Superman or Wonder Woman?

[Assistant] The ring doesn't really take power into account when look for a new Lantern. It looks for candidates that have incredible willpower and that can overcome great fear. Hal Jordan, despite not being as powerful as Superman or Wonder Woman, was the best candidate capable of using the ring to its fullest.


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

[User] ELI5: why do our bodies produce tells and signals when we lie?

[Assistant]
Lying is stressful!

Not only are people conditioned by society not to lie, but the situation that you feel requires a lie (whether that be a small lie such as you look great in that dress or a big one like I did not kill that man) is generally a stressful one. Furthermore, youre often thinking about what will happen if youre caught in it.

In other words, theyre not lie signals at all- theyre stress signals. And humans are social creatures for whom stress signals form an important part of social signaling.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] How were Anakin, Obi-Wan, and the Separatist High Council able to breathe on Mustafar?

A thought occurred to me while watching a video discussing the surface conditions on the planet Venus, basically, if Mustafar is an entire planet covered in constant lava flows, much like our Venus in its apocalyptic one in half a billion years global subduction event...shouldnt the air be filled with chemicals that are fatally toxic to humans and most living things in the Galaxy? I accept the Mustafarians being able to exist because the Galaxy has a wide array of both carbon-based and silicon-based life, however most inhabited/inhabitable planets seem to have at least Earth-like conditions which is why most can harbor a wide arrange of life, but the conditions of Mustafar should mean it has air quality comparable to Hadean Earth at best if not Venus at worst yeah?

In fact how are so many species able to breathe on so many different planets to begin with?

[Assistant]
Residual atmosphere from before it was all on fire, probably helped with a little terraforming or some kind of atmosphere-in-a-bubble set up.

In Legends Mustafar was once a lush jungle planet, home to several Jedi Temples. The Sith attacked, and the battle affected the local planet's rotations in such a way that Mustafar became transformed into a fiery hellscape.

It's also worth mentioning that the materials that are being mined on Mustafar are considered to be incredibly rare. So the atmospheric makeup may not be what one would expect from a lava planet, and besides that, there's probably quite a bit of money in keeping the planet usable, if not necessarily habitable.


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

[User]
[General Sci-fi] How accurate is the flickering lights and sparks flying everywhere when a spaceship is under attack?

In Sci-fi (specifically Battlestar Galactica and the Stargate series), whenever a spaceship is under attack, inside the ship there are giant explosions of sparks and smoke and flickering lights. How accurate is this? Would this happen to a real spaceship? Isn't this bad for the ship?

[Assistant]
It depends on the weaponry, in the event of high-energy weapons, this could cause not-critical uninsulated electrical items to surge (I.e. lights) and cause arcing of high voltage low amp sparks between surfaces.

So while it looks bad. All the critical systems are well insulated from the surges.


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

[User] [ELI5]: How do calculators find out the square root of a number?

[Assistant]
Depends on the calculator,  but heres one approach, illustrated for square root of 100

1.	Make a first estimate (eg half it, your calculator might make a better guess though) = 50.
2.	Add that guess to your target divided by that guess, and halve. So (50 + 100/50) / 2 = 26. Thats your next estimate.
3.	Continue until the difference between succeeding estimates is small (again depends on your device).

50 -> 26 -> 14.9 -> 10.8 -> 10.03 so its getting there very quickly.

Edit: as the other poster said, the actual algorithm used by any given calculator may be a lot more sophisticated.


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

[User]
[Legend of Korra] What changed random non-benders into airbenders?

From everything I've seen, there was no trigger or reason given for why these random people became benders. Supposedly Korra opening the portals created the new airbenders, but that seems like a random/non-sufficient explanation. Did specific spirits do it? What cosmic force was responsible? Was it specifically the portals that caused it, or did the portals just allow something else to affect the physical world?

[Assistant] Opening the portals was like a pressure release valve releasing spiritual energy back into the world- this is also why plant growth expanded significantly. The influx of spiritual energy remedied issues of balance, in particular, people who had ancestral Airbender blood became conduits for Airbending to return to the world.


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

[User]
Karl Poppers critiques of Marx

Ive seen someone say that if any Marxist read Karl Poppers critiques of Marx they would stop being Marxists. Ive only seen strawman critiques of Marx from most liberal thinkers. Could someone inform me on what Karl Poppers critiques of Marx are is there any merit to them?

[Assistant]
Although Popper does address Marxism specifically, much of his work focuses on the Hegelian idea of Historicism which heavily influenced Marx.

His two most widely-accepted books (The Poverty of Historicism, The Open Society and Its Enemies) offer a number of scathing rebuttals to Hegel. There are too many to name here, but here are a few.

Historicism has less predictive value than Hegelians like to believe. Past historical events cant be proven to predict future historical events and many of its tenets arent really falsifiable (Popper saw falsifiability as the hallmark of the rational scientific process since causal relationships are impossible to prove). Beyond this, there is simply too much information to be examined in any given society, resulting in a selection bias that cant account for societal changes or the ways that future scientific developments will shape societies. Finally, Historicism cant consistently predict at which point historical trends cease or change.

Popper is a very serious philosopher and among the greatest of the 20th century. His critiques are generally accepted to have merit.


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

[User] How do we know days were shorter in the past?

[Assistant]
Geological tidal records show the daily/seasonal deposits of silt. Which show that the hours in a day during the reign of the dinosaurs was about 21 hours

The moon is the cause of the elongated days. Slowly slowing the Earth down.

Edit: Just to clarify, the tides aren't the only contributor to the slow down of rotation of the Earth.  Angular momentum and the tides contribute.

The main relation the tides have in regards to OPs question is that they have left behind evidence.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is the nuclear power plant in Fukushima still not under control?

[Assistant]
You need to define "under control"

Since a few moments after the seismic detectors felt the earthquake and shut down the reactor, the nuclear fission reaction has been completely stopped.

The problem with certain types of nuclear power, is the radioactive waste in the core keeps producing large amounts of heat for a long time and needs cooling.

The cores are cooled down to non-boiling temperatures and are 'under control'. They have been for a couple months and are working to clean up the radioactive contamination and decommission the plants.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why isn't it mandatory for people to retake their drivers licence test every 5/10 years?

Aside from the potential hassle, I feel like so many more accidents could be avoided that it would be worth the trouble as it would force people not to develop bad driving habits.

[Assistant]
It's assumed that if you haven't gotten any major speeding tickets, been in any major accidents, etc. that you don't need to be retested.

The hassle of retesting everyone would be an enormous hassle. Look at how crowded DMVs and DriveTest Centres are already.

It's a cost-benefit kind of thing. If 1% of drivers are bad enough to have their license taken away, then is it worth the hassle of testing 100% of drivers?


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

[User] ELI5: Why are commercial airplanes all sub-Mach 1?

[Assistant]
The faster you go, the harder it is to push through the air - and the relationship is not linear. So, going a little bit faster needs a LOT more power which means more fuel, bigger engines, more noise, etc. etc.

Put your hand out of the car window at 30mph - easy. Now try 60mph - wow, the air is a lot more forceful! Now try 120mph (OK, don't really) you can't hold your hand up, the air is like a brick wall. At 600+mph you can imagine it's not easy!

If you look at Concorde, it's a tiny cramped thing that burns massive amounts of fuel, which makes it expensive to run and you can't fit many passengers on it.

Additionally, stuff happens the faster you go - stuff heats up, shockwaves happen, the whole airplane has to be made to withstand the extra forces & strains, lifespans of components get shorter, stronger stuff is heavier and bigger, etc. etc.

*Please don't put your hand out the window and then sue me because you hit something*


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

[User] [Superman] could Krypto the Superdog kill the Superman the way a normal dog can kill a normal man?

[Assistant] Theoretically, if they had the same amount of sun exposure, then yes it should be possible. He's to Superman what a regular dog is to us. But he hasn't had nearly as much exposure and not as much time to acclimate to his powers, so at base Krypto probably couldn't even leave a dent in Clark.


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

[User] ELI5: What are REITs(Real Estate Investment Trust)?

[Assistant]
So lets say that you are an investor, and you would like to purchase a Skyscraper or a Shopping Mall but you either don't have the millions of dollars it would cost to buy one or you don't want to spend the millions of dollars required on just 1 building.

A REIT is where you and other investors can get together and pool your funds to purchase either a single building that you would otherwise not be able to afford or to invest in a range of properties that you would otherwise not be able to afford.

There are 2 other important advantages to REITs:

1) They are liquid - once you buy a shopping mall or even just a single residential investment property they can be very difficult to sell. It can take a long time and cost a whole lot of money. Often REITs are listed on Stock Exchanges so they can be easily bought and sold just like a stock in a company.

2) REITs are professionally managed so you don't have to worry about personally managing the property.


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

[User] Actual ELI5: If dogs have such a good sense of smell, why do they stick their noses up our butts?

[Assistant] Dogs have a scent gland in their behinds that can tell a lot about a dog. It can tell the sex, their general health and the dog's temperament. So, it's instinctual for a dog to smell another dog's behind. This extends to humans because we're part of their pack.


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

[User]
Why do Virologist use Vero(Monkey Kidney) cells to culture respiratory viruses and respiratory tract cells?

Edit: *And not Respiratory tract cells*

[Assistant]
Think of vero cells as the factory to make virus in vivo. It doesn't need to be the perfect target for infection, it needs to make more virus.

Vero cells are an established immortal cell lines. You can grow them (nearly) indefinitely and keep a stock going all the time. They grow dense and have good yields of viral products. Respiratory tract cells are more specialized and a little harder to keep going and die before producing a lot of virus. Respiratory cells are also hard to scale up for large production runs because they need more space in the flask.


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

[User]
CMV: Praying for things to happen doesn't make sense as it presumes that you can and should question God's plan.

And that God might potentially change his plans based on an individual's wishes. This isn't a question of whether god exists or not, I just don't understand the logic of asking an omnipotent omniscient creator to change things and divert from it's plan for you or your family. Say you have a family member that is sick, and assuming you're all perfect Christians, it doesn't make sense that God would decide to heal the family member if you asked for it and not heal them if you didn't. Would he not look more favorably on those who didn't question his plan already in place? I just don't understand the logic of it and I'd be happy if someone could expand my view on it and have it make sense to me. The specific thing that would most change my view is if you could explain to me why it could be logically consistent to have some sort of expectations that your requests matter and might impact the decisions of a God who set the entire universe in motion. Especially if he knew what your every request would be before you were even born.

This isn't about praying in general as I perfectly understand it's spiritual benifits to the well-being of a person, so if your response is something like "while it might not effect God's decisions it makes the person feel less helpless which is valuable" it wouldn't change my view.

[Assistant]
CS Lewis has a quote about this:

I suppose the solution lies in pointing out that the efficacy of prayer is, at any rate no more of a problem then the efficacy of all human acts. i.e. if you say It is useless to pray because Providence already knows what is best and will certainly do it, then why is it not equally useless (and for the same reason) to try to alter the course of events in any way whatever  to ask for the salt or book your seat in a train?

In other words, God already knows what you want and need, and that stuff is part of God's plan.  But you should still ask anyway, because the point isn't to accomplish something direct, necessarily; it's to connect with God.


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

[User]
ELI5: How can people demand constitutional carry yet not be a member of a well regulated Militia?

The Second Amendment states (in full): "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
People are demanding constitutional carry (mainly in Texas), but few if any of them are part of a militia like that State or National Guard.

[Assistant]
The stated reason is a militia, but it is the right of *the people* to bear arms. The right is not assigned to the militia. The right is assigned to the people. Militia is formed from the people at the time of need, not before, and when that time comes the founding fathers thought the people should already be armed and familiar with the use of their weapons.

Is the militia needed to secure the free state against outside invaders or against abusive leadership of the state itself? Does it matter?


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

[User] [Star Wars] Was there a period BBY in which seeing a Jedi/Force wielder was rare?

[Assistant] All through it, honestly. A lot of the stories may focus on Jedi, but remember this: There are thousands of worlds. Only a few hundred, maybe a few thousand, Jedi at any given time. There are TRILLIONS of beings out there who were born, lived, and died without even seeing a Jedi Knight or a Force Sensitive.


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

[User] ELI5: How did Galileo manage to calculate the moon's mountains' height ?

[Assistant]
Put a stick in the ground.
As the day goes by the sun rises and sets.
Now watch the shadows the stick casts.
As the day goes by the shadows change.
If you know the angle the sun is at , you can use that to calculate how tall the stick is from the changes in the shadow.

Galileo did that with the mountains.
As the month goes on the angle the sun is shining on the moon changes.
Galileo knew that angle.
He then tracked how the shadows of the mountains and craters changed and calculated their relative height.


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

[User] What does a hot shower do for your health?

[Assistant]
It really depends what you're taking the hot shower for. Let me address your concerns first. Hot showers will not give you wrinkles. Wrinkles are a result of aging, and have more to do with hydration levels and collagen breakdown.

Hot showers also won't kill more bacteria. If the water is hot enough to kill more bacteria, it's hot enough to burn you pretty badly. That's why we have to boil water to kill bacteria. In fact, the way bacteria gets off your skin is from the "bubbly" action of soap that lifts the bacteria off our skin, and the water flushes it away. *ASIDE* this is why antibacterial soap is not doing anything but creating superbugs. The antibacterial soaps would have to be left on your skin for so long to kill bacteria that it wouldn't be reasonable to use.

Hot showers are great for relaxing muscles that are chronically tight. Don't use heat on acute injuries, it will only increase the inflammatory response. Using heat on chronic muscle stiffness or soreness will be effective though.

As far as what it does for your skin, not a whole lot. Hope this helps.


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

[User]
[Star Wars, but most Scifi] Why are ship engines always going?

From Warhammer 40K to Star Wars, despite the fact that there is no drag in space, those engines are always blaring full blast. My question is why?

[Assistant]
Because the universe is not a vacuum in these universes. The reason a starship in real life is able to fire its engine to get the desired speed, and then coast forever at that speed, is because there's no force acting upon it to stop it.

This is obviously not the case in star wars or warhammer 40k, or starship troopers, or most space movies, really.

So what's in space, if not a vacuum? Well, luminiferous Ether. Just like waves travel in water on the ocean, and just like sound travels in air, light travels in luminiferous Ether. It also interacts with matter though, and it applies drag to starships, forcing them to maintain their engines on at all times, lest drag bring them to a halt.

It also explains other things from Star Wars and consorts. For instance, in real life asteroid fields don't look like that at all. The asteroids are so far apart from each other that you'd need a good telescope to see one from the other. If they were that close, they would coalesce into a planet very rapidly. That is, if they were in a vacuum. Because luminiferous Ether is slightly viscous, it hinders the movement of asteroids and prevents them from making contact with each other. An asteroid field is kind of like bread, where the asteroids are the bubbles and the luminiferous Ether is the bread.

It also explains strike fighters banking to turn, they have wings that have specially designed coatings and or electromagnetic properties that make them interact very strongly with the luminiferous Ether, which allows them to use it to turn harder, much in the same way that an aircraft uses the air to do banking turns.


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

[User] If I took a picture of a sunrise over the ocean and a sunset over the ocean, is there anyway for someone else to tell which picture is which?

[Assistant]
Not for certain, but you can often make a good guess.

Over the course of the day, the sun heats the air and evaporates water, creating clouds and fine suspended water droplets. The humidity, and droplets scatter blue light, making the sunlight that reaches your eyes redder.  At night, the water condenses and the air dries and clears.

So sunsets tend to be redder and cloudier, sunrises more yellow and clear.  But there's enough variation in daily weather that it's not a sure thing.


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

[User] [star wars] let's say obi wan grabs Anakins nub body before he burns up on mustafar. Can he rehabilitate/save him and bring him back to the light?

[Assistant]
At that point? No. Anakin was in too deep, that was the whole point. He saw Obi-Wan as the centerpiece of all of his problems, which is why when Obi-Wan showed up on Mustafar after Padme did, Anakin immediately choked her.

Obi-Wan represented all the things that Anakin hated and resented. He wasn't ever going to be able to rehabilitate Anakin, no matter how hard he tried.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Why didn't the weaslys build a bigger nicer house?

Why not use magic to build a really nice house?

[Assistant]
They kind of already did... the house was built by Mr and Mrs Weasley from the ground up and mostly held together with magic - they loved it and the location, and expanded it as they saw fit. Obviously they where not architects so if they did decide to build again it would probably have the same ramshackle appearance.

Also the size of the place wouldn't have been an issue if Molly swallowed.


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

[User] ELI5 Whats the difference between white noise and red noise (and other color noises)?

[Assistant] White noise is equally intense at all frequencies. Red noise is more intense at lower frequencies, blue noise is most intense at higher frequencies. The colors basically say where on the spectrum the peaks of the intensity are. Then there's grey noise, which *isn't* equally intense at all frequencies, but sounds like it is because human ears aren't equally sensitive at all frequencies.


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

[User]
[Marvel/DC] Just how aware is the average human on Earth of alien life and the interstellar community?

Say I'm a 9-5 fast food employee in a small town in semi-rural Nebraska. Just what do I know about aliens, gods, heroes, and supervillains? Do I know there are other planets full of life with advanced technology?

[Assistant]
In the 616, as long as you have a TV you'd know about quite a bit just from the news and stuff. First of all, you're living a state away from Asgard. You may not know names besides Thor, but you'd know they exist. You'd also know about Captain Ultra, Gadget, and Paragon, heroes stationed in Nebraska for the Avengers Initiative program.

Everyone around the world probably knows about the Skrulls due to Secret Invasion. Same with the Phoenix. It might be vague knowledge, but AvX was worldwide.


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

[User] [The Simpsons] What if Bart and Lisa had never exposed Sideshow Bob?

[Assistant]
Krusty would go to jail and likely stay there. Sideshow Bob would complete his takeover of the show... only to find the average American child isn't looking to sit down in front of the boob tube and watch his high-brow presentation. They don't want culture and poetry, they want to watch a cartoon cat and mouse butcher each other.

If he plays his cards right, he might be able to transition to more mature adult audiences, branding himself as the "thinking man's clown" (ironically, positioning him in a broadcast niche comparable to what Frasier occupied among 90s sitcoms), or the program will crash and burn. Either way, the merchandise gravy train Krusty represents comes to a stop; no one is going to be apt to buy their kids an entire room full of Bob merchandise.


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

[User] How does anthrax as a type of bacteria exist in spore form? Are there other types of bacteria similar to anthrax and can they be weaponized too?

[Assistant]
A bacterial endospore is basically a very, very tiny cell. It consists of preserved DNA an the means to transcribe proteins stored within an extremely resilient shell to protect it. So when the bacteria dies, this tiny spore remains safe and dormant until they reach the ideal conditions, similar to how a seed won't sprout until it has access to water and nutrients.

And pretty much any bacteria in the *Clostridum* genus is capable of producing endospores. Bacteria like *C. defficile,* (cause of C. dif infections) *C. botulinum,* (source of Botox toxin) etc. are common sources of human diseases. You probably could weapons them, but they're already an existing problem.

Ex. *C. dif* is an infection commonly seen in  hospitals and is a life threaning infection, especially in immune-compromised people, and *C. botulinum* is the source of the most lethal toxin to human beings on the planet, and commonly is sourced from food thought to be sterile, like canned goods, preserved meats, and honey.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is it frowned upon to overcook steak?

It is an accepted fact that well-done steaks are for low-brows, but I might be a low-brow and I have been secretly wondering why there is such judgement in the steak community.

[Assistant] Much of the taste of a good steak comes from the taste of rare beef. This taste disappears when the steak is heavily cooked. If you only like the taste of well-done beef, you are wasting your money buying a good steak.


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

[User]
If time slows the closer to the speed of light someone travels, what is the effect on an airline pilot over the course of their career?

Of course, we'll have to do some assumptions her, and I'll start.

1. The pilot has a 50 year career.
1. The average speed of the pilot over their career will be 300MPH.

Any more assumptions and I'll edit them in with an asterisk.

*And please show the reasoning behind it, so that I can further understand the concepts.

[Assistant]
Since you asked for a step-by-step approach with actual numbers, I'll try to break this down a bit.

The easiest thought experiment here is to imagine a laser-clock that is defined by two mirrors `A` and `B`, separated by a distance L:

    mirror A   mirror B
       |         |
       |--------|
       |--------|
       |         |
       |(---L---)|  # mirrors separated by distance L

The clock ticks once every time a laser pulse leaves A, hits B, and returns to A. From the point of view of someone watching the clock when it is at rest relative to them, how long does it take the clock to tick once?

Before we answer that, let's answer a slightly simpler question. You roll a ball towards a wall that is 10 meters away at 4 m/s. The ball bounces off the wall and rolls straight back towards you. How long does it take the ball to return?

Well, if the wall is 10 meters away, then the ball traveled a total distance of 20 meters. And if the ball travels at 4 m/s, then that means it took **5 seconds**, since `20 m / 4 m/s = 5 s`. In other words, we can use the simple kinematics expression of

    distance / speed = time

to decide the answer. Likewise, with our mirror clock, the light pulse travels at `c`, and the distance is `L`, so the stationary observer measures the clock's period as

    t_0 = 2 L/c

A moving observer, however, sees something different. This time, the observer moves at a speed `v` parallel to the observer's frame of reference.

        mirror A   mirror B
           |         |
         X |--       |
           |  --     |
           |    --   |
           |      --|
         W |(---L---)| Y
           |       --|
           |     --  |
           |   --    |
         Z |--      |
           |         |

This time, the light traced a longer path, from `X` to `Y` to `Z`. Clearly, this is a longer route than `2L`. What is the total distance it traveled?

Well, we see that `X`, `Y`, and `Z` form a triangle. Let's call the distance `XY` (which is the same as the distance `YZ`) `h`. Notice that `h` is the hypotenuse of the right triangle `XWY`. Now `h` is easy to calculate. It's just:

    h^2 = XY^2 =      WY^2 + XW^2
    h^2 = XY^2 =      L^2  + XW^2
    h          = sqrt[L^2  + XW^2]

So, similar to before, the light takes `t' = 2 h/c` for a moving observer. But what's XW^2 ? Well, if we moved with speed `v`, then this is `1/2 * v * t'` -- half the distance covered by our movement at speed `v`. So we can express `h` as

    h = sqrt[L^2 + (1/2 * v * t')^2]

If we substitute this into `t' = 2 h/c` and solve for `t'`, then we get the time dilation equation, which is

                 t_0
    t' = --------------------
          sqrt(1 - v^2 / c^2)

Since the denominator here is a number that will be less than 1 for `v > 0`, a moving observer will observe that the clock ticks more slowly relative to the stationary observer's measurements.

Now, onto actual numbers. Let's pick some nice round numbers so the math will be easier. Also, by picking extremely generous numbers we'll wind up with an convenient upper bound.

So, to be extremely generous, let's say you're a spaceship pilot who travels at a constant 250 m/s for 50 years. Relative to a stationary observer, how much time has passed? Let's crunch the numbers:

    t' = t_0 / sqrt[1 - v^2 / c^2]
    t' = (50 years) / sqrt[1 - (250 m/s)^2/(300,000,000 m/s)^2]

Right away, we can see that 250 m/s divided by the speed of light is not a very big fraction, and so will not have a very big impact on the difference in time the two references measure. Let's keep going:

    t' = (50 years) / sqrt[1 - 6.944  10^-13]
    t' = (50 years) / 0.999999999999652777...
    t' = 50 years + ~5  10^-4 seconds

In other words, a stationary observer would measure about **an extra 500 microseconds** of time relative to your own clock if all you did was travel at airplane speeds for five decades. To put that in perspective, 3,000 microseconds is roughly the time it takes for a housefly to flap its wings once. Sorry! Relativity's a bummer sometimes.

-----

Perhaps a more satisfying answer to the question would come if we reworded it a bit. What if we wanted to know how fast you need to go before there was an appreciably large difference in times measured? Let's say that we want to have a time difference of at least one year. How fast would our pilot need to travel?

     51 years = 50 years / sqrt[1 - v^2/c^2]

Rearranging this equation and solving for v gives us

     v = ~59,000,000 m/s, or about 0.0002 c

The fastest rocketships we have can go about 15,000 m/s, so if you had one that was about 4,000 times faster, you would be able to gain an extra year after traveling for 50 years.


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

[User] ELI5: How do baseball sized hails stay supported in culumonimbus clouds long enough to form that mass before they fall in hailstorms?

[Assistant] The hailstones travel up and down inside the thunderhead, gaining mass and size on each leg, cycling up & down several times.  They are trapped in the updrafts, and at some point get so heavy that they fall to the ground.  The updrafts in those storms are very powerful, and provide a lot of lift.


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

[User] ELI5: When you have a cold, why does your nose stop running while asleep?

[Assistant] Sometimes it doesn't, people have been known to wake up with snot all over the pillow. When it does stop it is normally because the nasal passages swell which prevent both snot and air from going through them. The nasal passages tend to swell completely shut when you are laying down. When you treat a cold with advil + sudafed you are dramatically reducing the swelling in the nose so you can blow the crud out of your nose more easily.


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

[User]
If white blood cells are constantly dying and being replenished, how do new ones know what antibodies to produce?

How does that memory work?

This comes from a friend asking whether the protection from a COVID-19 vaccine would be diluted somehow by a blood transfusion from an unvaccinated person.

[Assistant] When a T- or B-cell is activated by it's associated antigen, it proliferates, and those daughter cells differentiate into effector cells (helper, cytotoxic, regulatory for T's, plasma cells for B's) and memory cells. When the immune response is complete, the memory cells go dormant in your lymph nodes. If they are presented with a previous antigen and reactivated, they proliferate, and differentiate back into those same effector cells.


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

[User] ELI5: How do fruits ripen after they are picked from the trees?

[Assistant]
There are two kinds of ripening, climacteric & nonclimacteric.

Nonclimacteric have seperation issues and can't grow unless they are connected to their parent because they are too lazy to produce their own sugar.

Climacteric don't have seperation issues instead they like to get high off of a hormone called "ethylene" which activates enzymes which break down starch into sugar. So basically they can produce sugar on their own without a parent tree.

Hope that helps.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does a room being kept at 70 degrees via air-conditioning feel colder than a room being kept at 70 through heating?

[Assistant]
Human's perception of temperature is relative. You can only tell if something is hot or cold relative to something else. The air-conditioned room will feel cooler because you're comparing it to when the room was warmer. The opposite is true for the room being heated.

There is a simple experiment you can try to prove this.

Line up three bowls that your hands can fit into. Put very warm water in the bowl on the left and put cold water in the bowl on the right. Put room temperature water in the bowl in the middle. Now stick your hands in the left and right bowls and keep them there for a few minutes. Now stick both hands into the bowl in the middle. All the water in that bowl is the same temp but one hand will feel cold and the other hand will feel warm.  Pretty shocking if you've never tried it before.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does Japan have such an affinity for baseball?

[Assistant] Baseball has been popular in Japan since the late nineteenth century. It certainly was not something first introduced only after World War II. Since the 1920s there's been regular baseball championship games among Japanese middle schools and universities. Babe Ruth visited Japan in the 1930s to great acclaim.  Even during World War II, colleges held farewell baseball games for students drafted into the military, right before they shipped out to fight Americans in the Pacific. Incidentally, baseball is also popular in Taiwan, mostly because it was introduced there by the Japanese during colonial times.


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

[User]
ELI5: Limited Slip Differential

How would one describe this and the advantages it brings?

[Assistant]
A differential is used to allow the wheels on a car to turn at different speeds. A basic differential goes from no difference (both wheels moving at the same speed) to maximum difference (wheels spinning in opposite directions).

The problem with a basic differential is that it requires both wheels to have traction. If one slips, then all the power from the drive train will go to that wheel. If you jack a car with a differential up on one side, and then run the engine, then the lifted wheel will spin in the air, while the car stays in place. This is bad in muddy or snowy environments where it's easy to lose traction on one wheel and get stuck.

A limited slip differential limits the difference between in speed between the wheels. This allows the wheels to move at different speeds as required by the turning radius of the car, but does not allow one wheel to spin freely while the other wheel stays still if one wheel loses traction.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] I'm Palpatine. I've just told Anakin I'm a sith, he is going to the temple to tell on me. Right after he is gone, Kamino sends me a message that due to a malfunction clones won't follow any order integrated in them except, coincidentally, the one that disposes of me.

Can I still turn things around?

[Assistant]
Of course, its just going to be much harder.  First off, bad you for not verifying that the integrated orders worked properly.

First off, the Jedi are arrogant.  Except for Mace Windu, you can probably take 3-4 Jedi Masters at a time.  Windu is going to be a problem though, but if you've got Anakin convinced that Padamame?  Panda Bear?  whatever her name is, that she is still going to die he'll turn at the last minute.

Next you got to lay on the Senate HARD.  The Jedi's attempted a coup, that still happened.  You can use that.  Don't send Anakin to kill the Jedi in the temple, 'rescue' them instead.  Get them somewhere safe where you can 'protect' them.  Issue the order anyway, but expect many of the units not to follow it.  Though some of them still will, or will capture the Jedi instead.

Then its just playing the blame game.  If you can get Yoda out of the way, everything should till be clear for you to go full empire but its going to be much more challenging to keep it intact.  Instead of a hard decade and then a few easy ones you are going to have a monster of a reign.

You might want to keep the war going for more time.  Build up Anakin more now that he's your apprentice.  Try to get the other Jedi to anchor to him instead of the traitor Jedi.  Worth a shot.


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

[User]
[Lord of the Rings] Why is Shelob hurt/blinded by the Phial of Galadriel?

So after learning more about LotR lore and how Shelob's mother, Ungoliant, fed off the light of the Two Trees, why does the Phial of Galadriel affect her if it contains the same light Ungoliant fed on.

Is it because she is not from the Void and just a daughter of Ungoliant or is it something else?

[Assistant]
Ungoliant eating the trees did two things - empower her, and remove their light from the world. When she ate them, her hunger overcame the pain she endured bathed in their light.

Shelob had been living in darkness for some time at the time of her confrontation with Sam, she was probably just taken by surprise and not willing to stand up to the light injured as she already was.


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

[User]
[HP] Can you just Avada Kedavra a horcrux?

The killing curse "strikes at the soul"  ^(or some drivel like that) and leaves the body intact. A horcrux is a soul without a body locked in an object.

So: Can you avoid all the "bathing of ancient artifacts in the venom of slain monsters" business and just AK the damn things?

[Assistant] Not normally. The Killing Curse separates body from soul, but a horcrux is part of a soul already separated from the body. To unmake a horcrux, it must be damaged beyond all magical repair-- however since there is no repairing death, if the horcrux is a living thing, like Nagini or like Harry himself, then yes.


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

[User]
[Lord of The Rings] Would Sam have been a better ring-bearer than Frodo?

This is based off the movies. Havent read the books yet.

Im doing a marathon of the trilogy right now and it seems like the ring doesnt have much of an effect on Sam.

Would he have been a better ring-bearer? At first I figured he wasnt effected much because he wasnt wearing it like Frodo was but throughout the movies it shows that Boromir, Faramir, Gollum, Bilbo, and I think even Galadriel at one point tried to take the ring from Frodo.

Was Sam immune to the effects of the ring somehow?

[Assistant]
Hobbits in general aren't very susceptible to the ring's effects because the ring works by promising you a lot of power to do whatever it is you want to do and hobbits aren't typically super ambitious or very powerful to start with. Gollum was only as corrupted as he was because he had the ring for centuries. Also, it was by and large safe in Gollum's possession. He didn't really do much with it. Bilbo was a similar case. He lacked ambition and didn't do much with the ring. He was able to actually give it up eventually, and he attacked Frodo after the ring had been wearing him down for decades. In the books, Frodo had the ring for 17 years before embarking to Rivendell.

So Sam would probably be about as good a ring-bearer as Frodo, maybe slightly better. (I think the ring might have tempted Sam with the ability to turn all of Middle Earth into a garden or something like that?) On the other hand, Sam seemed to me to have a more proactive personality than Frodo did so maybe he'd be a little worse.

But Tolkien was a Catholic and according to the Christian understanding, people can't defeat evil on their own initiative, only divine intervention can help. So nobody could really decide to cast the ring into Mount Doom by themselves. There *had* to be a "coincidence" (wink wink) that meant the ring fell in.


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

[User]
[WH40K] I'm a human servant of the Chaos Gods and I have been tasked to travel to Terra and assassinate the Emperor. How would I do this?

I am a very influential politician from a major fortress world. Money is not an issue and I can rely on the generosity of the Gods to help me with this undertaking. I have not yet been to holy Terra but I have several contacts there.

[Assistant]
Give up. The Dark Gods don't want the Emperor assassinated as the current state of the Imperium benefits their survival.

The mission is impossible anyway. Let's say you managed to scheme your way into the Palace, you cannot reason with the Custodes, and you certainly cannot fight them (and live).

And your lack of any hope of success only proves you aren't supposed to win. If Tzeentch were omniscient, why would he send you on an impossible mission? Because you're not supposed to succeed, merely to die and provoke the Imperium.


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

[User] ELI5 How do we know what percentage of marine life/insects/mammals/etc we've discovered if we dont know how many there could be overall?

[Assistant]
Let's say we discovered 500 new species of large fish between 1800-1850, 400 between 1850 and 1900, 300 between 1900-1950, and so-on..

We can then model that we're unlikely to discover more than ~50 new species in the future, so the discovery rate is about 97%.

Of course, in real life, data is messier, but the same sort of general analysis can be made to estimate how many species we'll discover, based on how many we have discovered so far.


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

[User]
ELI5: What part of an explosion is the deadly part? The fire, the shock-wave hitting your body, or the shrapnel it creates?

In tons movies and TV shows (Sons of Anarchy being the one that made me think of this) people are killed from explosions, but they are usually far enough away where the heat itself doesn't touch them and they just get thrown in the air about a foot. So what actually killed them? The shock-wave, the blunt force of hitting the ground, shrapnel, or something else?

[Assistant] The shockwave is typically the deadliest force, especially with large explosions. However, the shrapnel will also be quite lethal, and small explosives such as IEDs often incorporate extra metal bits to extend the lethal range beyond that of the shockwave.


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

[User]
Do I deserve to be proud of this small accomplishment?

So I started really learning how to code in python only a couple days ago, and since then I decided to code something up in my own time. The problem was that someone posted a large .txt file of something that i'm sure no one would take the time to parse through by hand. I decide to write a program that looks for word occurrences and matches them to a specific string in the .txt file. I'm sure that it is easy for many programmers, but I just started this and I was able to write something I felt was decent. As a beginner, should I be proud of writing something small?

I'm also looking for ways on how to make it a better program; Maybe write the program so that you can search certain strings by category? Also, should I post it to github?

[Assistant]
Who is to say what you can and can not be proud of?  If you are proud of yourself, take the win!

Also, the size of the code base is unimportant.  If you set out to solve  a problem and succeeded then of course it's a win.

As for github:  why not? There is no harm in keeping it and it may be useful again someday.

good job :)


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

[User]
[star wars] Why didn't Yoda and Obi Wan team up against the Emperor first and deal with Vader later?

They would've probably had a better chance of defeating Sideous together. Without Sideous Vader would've had no direction. Yoda and Obi Wan could've taken Vader easily.

[Assistant]
I say that if they had managed to kill one the other would have felt it through the force and become aware of an imminent amount of whoopass coming their way and would have been a lot more difficult to kill.

Besides as yoda says obi was not powerful enough to make a dent in the emperor.


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

[User]
ELI5: What is happening in my brain when I'm trying to remember something and I feel myself getting close?

I was trying to remember a song lyric. Typically I take moments like these as a challenge, refusing to look it up until I'm absolutely frustrated. When I get close I can often sense that I'm right on the edge of remembering. What is happening cognitively? Or am I just weird?

[Assistant]
Memory is really complicated and we still don't really fully understand the process.

To our knowledge what is happening is, when your brain receives a cue it will pull out information relating to that cue that it received. When you get something "on the tip of your tongue" it is usually due to an inadequate mental cue to retrieve the information you are looking for.


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

[User] ELI5: How did we come to agree that working 8 hours a day for 5 days a week is the norm?

[Assistant]
That's all thanks to unions - before people started unionizing, there weren't really rules on workers' rights - people could be worked until they collapsed, every day... or maybe with Sunday off for church.

Once industrial workers started unionizing, they had enough pull to work out a deal that's mostly held up ever since: two days of rest, 8 hour days.  The 8 hour days because things could be easily split: 8 hours work, 8 hours sleep, 8 hours for whatever else you want to do.


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

[User]
What happens to a bee that is transported a long distance? Can it find its way home?

We're on a cross country road trip, and found we had a stowaway bumblebee. We got it out of the car maybe 100 km away from where we likely picked it up, but if it hadn't been noticed it would have been taken a good 700 km away. Assuming it made it out of the car okay, what would a bee do in these circumstances? Would it try to find his way back to its hive? If so, would it even be possible for it to make its way back?

If there's no way for the bee to get back to its own hive, could a beekeeper integrate it into a new hive?

[Assistant] Bumble bees are often solitary creatures, without hives or anything like what we normally associate with bees. Assuming it was unharmed when it got out, it's entirely likely that it went on with it's bee life as though little had changed.


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

[User]
ELI5: Is there social/psychological reason for people trying to bait you into asking a question?

I work with people that are particularly guilty of this, and it's something that sometimes I find rather frustrating, so I'd like to try and understand it better.

I sometimes find that people will try to get you to ask for an elaboration, rather than just coming out with what they want to say. For example someone might get off the phone and say something along the line of "Well that was a funny phone call", or "This is a stupid question".

[Assistant]
There's a similar tactic in sales. You lead with just enough to get them to ask you a question.

The reason is when people ask a question they're more likely to listen to the response than if you just came out and said something.


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

[User]
[Fallout] Which timeline is more advanced: Our timeline vs Fallout timeline?

I am not that familiar with Fallout timeline and events. But what I have seen of the series and the games is that Fallout universe seems rather retro and primitive compared to our own. How advanced do you think the fallout timeline pre Great War 2077 is compared to our own?

[Assistant] They simply took a different path of advancement. While we have focused on miniaturisation they focused on bigger and more complicated. So while they don't have smartphones they do have advanced A.I, laser guns, fully realised virtual reality and mass produced robots.


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

[User] [Star Wars] Since Chewbacca fought alongside Yoda during the Clone Wars, did he ever get into arguments with Han Solo over the existence of The Force?

[Assistant]
Probably not. Firstly because fighting about politics or religion is a great way to end relationships once thought solid. Second, Chewie seems to respect people's beliefs whatever they are. Besides, Han is much younger than Chewie and spent most of his formative years in a very different galaxy. If Han heard anything about Jedi in his youth, it was that they were crazy religious nuts who tried attacking the chancellor that one time, and that's about it. He might have even thought the galaxy was better off without them for a time, at least until he met Luke.

Chewbacca knows what he saw, but so does Han. Besides, in the grand pre-Yavin days of their adventures, it was pointless to talk about it. The Jedi were long gone, and the smugglers had much more important things to worry about.


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

[User] [Harry Potter] During some scenes in Harry Potter we witness that Dumbledore can tell that Harry is there using the invisibility cloak. Like the time in Hagrid's hut. That is something even Death could not do according to the legend. Is Dumbledore more powerful than death?

[Assistant] That whole Death thing was a childrens' story.  The Deathly Hallows are just three particularly powerful artifacts.  There are multiple examples of the Cloak being seen through, Moody could see through it.  It's special not because nothing can see through it, but because of how durable it is. Most invisibility cloaks tend to break down and need to be reenchanted.  Likewise, the Elder Wand passes on to who ever defeats it's wielder. It being defeatable is right there in its design.


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

[User] [Mario] So I'm pretty this guy prescribing me antibiotics is my plumber - where did he get his medical degree from?

[Assistant] Listen, not everybody gets life handed to them on a platter by their rich parents. Some people have to work their way through med school, doing whatever jobs they can. If the price of a career saving lives by prescribing massive quantities of hastily yet carefully positioned pills is spending a few years crawling through pipes, unclogging drains, and kicking tortoises to death, then we regular folks just buckle on our kicking boots and crawl into the sewers.


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

[User] [Warhammer 40k] Are there any democratically run planets? Does the Imperium allow this?

[Assistant]
Yes. There are even democratically run sub-sectors. In one of the Eisenhorn novels he mentions the election of a new governor for the Helican sub-sector.

Individual worlds are actually given a lot of autonomy. As long as they pay their tithes and don't fall in with Chaos planetary governments can pretty much run their worlds however they want. In practice this usually means the rich and powerful take control, but democracies are not unheard of.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is it said that milk is good for heartburn if milk is acidic?

[Assistant]
While milk is acidic, it's only very slightly so and while you're experiencing heartburn it could reduce the acidity level.

However, milk is actually **bad** at treating heartburn. It *temporarily* reduces the symptoms, because the stomach acids have something to attack for a while, but it actually causes your stomach to *increase* acid production in the long run. So, in effect, milk will make heartburn *worse*.


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

[User]
[DCEU] In the movie 'Shazam' (2019), what powers did the other siblings get, exactly?

Fred got flying, but just flying is not enough

Darla got super speed, cool

That green t-shirt wearing guy get super strength

video game guy got electricity manipulation

what did Mary get?

Did they get multiple powers?

Is everyone Shazam, but each only specialises in only one?

[Assistant] I was under the impression they all got the same basic powers that Billy got but each of them intuitively knew how to use a different aspect (to use a real world example one kid may find it easier to understand and use maths while another may be better suited to languages).


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

[User]
For those of you in highly interdisciplinary fields, how do you appreciate the fundamentals of the fields you weren't actually trained in?

As an example, my background is in psychology and behavioural neuroscience, and now I'm working in a field that combines clinical pharmacology and pharmacoepidemiology. But I also do cognitive work (tying in my psych/neuro background) and even some clinical chemistry. (For context, I'm a second-year PhD student.)

[Assistant] Interdisciplinary work requires a team approach. You have team members with the areas of expertise that you need. Aa a second year PhD student, you should be working in teams mostly, while your primary/thesis project should be in your own area.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do people in the UK/CA and many other places say "in hospital" instead of "in the hospital" yet, they don't say "In library" or "in supermarket?"

[Assistant]
I live in the UK and never thought about this.

Trips to hospital imply a long term event but a trip to a shop is more temporary.

I guess it's because you can be hospitalised but not libraryised or supermarketed. When you are being educated you say you are in school not in the school.

Essentially it's our language and we will do whatever the bloody hell we like with it (joking)


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

[User]
What gives narcissists moments of clarity?

And can it possibly be replicated?

[Assistant] Through therapy, more so than normative life experiences, someone with NPD could derive insight from understanding the cause of their problematic behaviours and begin to see how their actions hurt others. Its a tough nut to crack because part of NPD is lower empathy for others, but in theory truly seeing the pain of others thats been inflicted unintentionally by the person with NPD are the moments youd hope to find in therapy that may promote change.


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

[User]
CMV: It should be illegal to run ads for prescription drugs on tv

Prescription drugs almost always say to ask you doctor about xxxx. This results in people asking and potential pressuring their doctors to prescribe them something they might not need, or might do more harm than good. Doctors went to medical school, and they dont need the opinion of someone who saw a one minute ad telling them how to do their job. Additionally, these ads must work since I keep seeing ads for random drugs on cable tv and drug companies would air them if they didnt work, so people really are getting their doctors to give them drugs that they wouldnt otherwise have prescribed/are not necessary, which would do more harm than good.

[Assistant]
I think youre over-estimating how difficult it is for a doctor to say no and explain why when confronted with demands for a particular drug. Youre also over-estimating the proportion of drug demands that relate to TV ads.

The vast majority of I want drug X involves antibiotics where they arent needed, narcotic analgesics, my friend has these symptoms and took X and it helped, and things like that. These are drugs that arent advertised on TV these days. Using good clinical judgement before prescribing is a necessity, and would continue to be, even if TV ads stopped existing. Doctors that capitulate to pressure from patients (no bueno) will continue to do so for drugs not seen on TV. Eliminating those ads solves a minority of drug demand scenarios, and fails to address the core issue: a drug being prescribed to appease patients is first and foremost a failure on the doctors part, not the patients, not the pharma companys, not the advertisements.

On the other hand, people asking about a drug often opens the door to an issue they didnt realize was abnormal or treatable. For tons of the drugs you see on TV, there are established treatments for the condition that are cheaper, comparably effective, preferred for 1st-line use, etc. Usually people asking about a drug dont actually want *that drug,* they want treatment for an issue and that drug they heard about is the only thing they know of that treats it. Explaining your reasoning behind your clinical decision is usually enough. A good doctor can take advantage of the pharmas spending to advertise a drug as a means to get patients appropriate treatment for issues that might have otherwise been ignored.


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

[User] ELI5: What is so significant about a 'brick pizza oven' that it necessitates being mentioned whenever possible?

[Assistant]
Brick ovens allow a very, very hot fire to be built with charcoal - think like 700f.

The brick floor also heats up - allowing the pizza to be placed directly on it.

Very hot - even distribution of heat = yummy.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Can Sith have friends?

I was debating this with my friend. She says, at best, Sith consider everyone else to be expendable tools. I think everyone needs a friend. Case in point: Vader and Tarkin. Whos right?

[Assistant]
"Proper" Sith as Darth Bane would have them see everyone and everything as tools to be used, rivals to be destroyed, or too weak to be noticed.

With that in mind, Darth Vader is kind of an oddball Sith, since on some level he respected the stormtroopers that served under him, probably because they reminded him of the clones he served with during the war. And you mention Tarkin, Vader clearly looks at him as an equal, or at least within the same order of magnitude of himself, again because of the times they worked together during the Clone Wars.

And what ties it all together is that the Emperor never intended Darth Vader to be a proper Sith anyway - he replaced Bane's Rule of Two with his own Rule of One - that he would become immortal and rule the galaxy forever. As such, he probably never bothered instilling Darth Vader with the proper old-school Sith mindset. He just taught him how to use dark side force techniques, taught him to channel his rage, resentment, and frustration, and set him loose.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] How did Obi Wan and Luke escape from Vader by hiding out in his home zip code?

When Vader fell to the Dark Side, it was imperative that he never find his children. Leia makes sense; she was hidden under a false name, with a powerful family, on a planet unfamiliar to Vader, and left unaware of her own ancestry.

Luke on the other hand...

Out of the huge vastness of the galaxy, Obi Wan hid Vader's son with Vader's only surviving relatives, under his own original surname, in the same geographic area of the same planet where Vader himself grew up. Then, Obi Wan "hid" in roughly the same area, not even bothering to change his own last name, and doing such a bad job at keeping a low profile that the local farmers know him as the spooky old sorcerer Kenobi.

How did they manage to not get found right away, if not by Vader himself, then by the agents of the Emperor? Surely the ever-scheming Emperor should have thought to keep an eye on Vader's surviving family.

[Assistant] It's the classic "last place he'd look," move.  There are three planets in the Galaxy that Vader wants absolutely no part of anymore, due to their connections to his history.  Naboo, naturally, which will always remind him of his "ooops killed ya" wife.  The second is Mustafar for fairly obvious reasons.  The last is, of course, Tatooine.  He loathes that place at every conceivable level - so much so he doesn't even accompany the troops pursuing the stolen Death Star plans.  Obi-Wan was very aware of Vader's feelings towards the place, and knew his hatred and shame (over failing his mother) would cloud his vision where Tatooine was concerned.  As far as the Empire finding out - The Hutts ran the planet far more than the Empire ever did, and the troops kept fairly close to "town" except when they explicitly had to.  Even with Ben coming into town for supplies and a drink every now and then, he's only a few easy mind tricks away from total anonymity.  Honestly, it's perfect.


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

[User]
Schopenhauer's critique of Dialectic

I have a few doubts/issues regarding Schopenhauer's essay "the art of controversy":

On his use of the word Dialectic:

I'm probably wrong on this one, but to me it seems that he is equivocating (using Aristotle's definitions) Dialectic with Rethoric (he's really against the latter), as Aristotle talks about how Dialectic is the counterpart to Rethoric, the former of which which is about theoretical clarification and definitions rather than practical affairs. In Aristotle's words, Rethoric is "the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion".  Isn't this exactly what Shopenhauer talking about and critiquing when he says:

>To form a clear idea of the province of Dialectic, we must pay no attention to objective truth (which is an affair of Logic); we must regard it simply as the art of getting the best of it in a dispute, which, as we have seen, is all the easier if we are actually in the right.

In that same essay he talks about how Aristotle defines the object of Dialectic as disputation that involves the discovery of truth. Is he trying to argue that there is no such thing as Dialectic as defined by Aristotle?

I guess my question is, **why not call it Rethoric? Isn't this definition of Dialectic the same thing?**

A more general question I have is, **if according to**  **Schopenhauer** **there is no such thing as truth in Dialectics (just victory), why bother with it in the first place**?  (maybe he's being ironic and that's his point)

[Assistant]
He is calling it rhetoric. In one of his footnotes (mind you the essay was never published and there are multiple (3?) manuscript editions of it) he cites Aristotle's **division between** Dialectic & Rhetoric (whose aim it is  , to convince) **and** Analytics & Philosophy (which is aimed at getting to the truth) (diogenes laertius iii,48). Furthermore he cites Topics I,1 which, again, divides between logics (apodictical reasoning from true premises) and dialectics (reasoning from accepted premises).

In the essay he also acknowledges the medieval tradition (footing on Cicero and Quintillian) of using dialectic and logic synonymously (claiming it is getting into fashion again) juxtaposed to Immanuel Kant defining "dialectic" merely as "the art of sophistical disputation".

>Dieser Gebrauch der Worte Logik und Dialektik als Synonyme hat sich auch im Mittelalter und der neuern Zeit, bis heute, erhalten. Jedoch hat man in neuerer Zeit, besonders Kant, Dialektik fter in einem schlimmen Sinne gebraucht, als sophistische Disputirkunst

He is more on the side of Immanuel Kant appealing, amongst other things, to the etymology: Logics comes from 'to overthink, to calculate, word and reason' whereas Dialectics is derived from 'to converse'.

>Es ist Schade, da Dialektik und Logik von Alters her als Synonyme gebraucht sind, und es mir daher nicht recht frei steht, ihre Bedeutung zu sondern, wie ich sonst mchte, und  Logik (von , berdenken, berrechnen,  von , Wort und Vernunft, die unzertrennlich sind) zu definiren als die Wissenschaften von den Gesetzen des Denkens, d. h. von der Verfahrungsart der Vernunft  und  Dialektik (von , sich unterreden: jede Unterredung theilt aber entweder Thatsachen oder Meinungen mit, d. h. ist historisch oder deliberativ) als die Kunst zu disputiren (dies Wort im modernen Sinne).  Offenbar hat dann die Logik einen rein a priori, ohne empirische Beimischung bestimmbaren Gegenstand, die Gesetze des Denkens, das Verfahren der Vernunft (des ), welches diese, sich selber berlassen, und ungestrt, also beim einsamen Denken eines vernnftigen Wesens, welches durch nichts irre gefhrt wrde, befolgt. Dialektik hingegen wrde handeln von der Gemeinschaft zweier vernnftiger Wesen, die folglich zusammen denken, woraus, sobald sie nicht wie zwei gleichgehende Uhren bereinstimmen, eine Disputation, d. i. ein geistiger Kampf wird. Als reine Vernunft mten beide Individuen bereinstimmen. Ihre Abweichungen entspringen aus der Verschiedenheit, die der Individualitt wesentlich ist, sind also ein empirisches Element.

The Dialectic was, when he was writing the different editions of this essay (1830), an extremely fashionable word due to it's use by Hegel and other German idealists. By reducing it to mere rhetoric he is taking a jab them: **'why do you bother with it in the first place, guys?'**


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

[User] What causes the bend in a banana? Why don't they grow straight?

[Assistant]
It's believed that Bananas grow out and then bend later due to negative geotropism (growing against gravity). They bend upwards after growing for a certain period of time. Here is a quote from the Banana growers council (it's a thing apparently...)

"Bananas start life very, very straight but as the bunch emerges from the top of the plant and the bracts roll back (bracts are the leathery purple things that separate the hands of bananas) and fall off, the bananas begin to spread out and turn upward.
They do this because bananas are negatively geo-tropic. This means that they grow away from the pull of gravity, as opposed to turning upward toward the sun.
Because the Cavendish bunch is quite large and hangs almost straight down, the bananas generally have an even bend in them all the way round the bunch.
However Ladyfinger bunches sit almost at right angles to the plant and the bananas on the top side of the bunch grow straight upward while the bananas on the bottom side twist right around. Though there is no difference in the fruit the twisted bananas from the bottom side of the bunch generally don't make it to market, which is one reason that Ladyfinger bananas are more expensive because not all the bunch can be marketed."


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

[User]
[Marvel] Why are criminals not more scared of Spider-Man?

In all the Spidey adventures Ive read, it seems the criminals never take him as serious as they should with a hero of his status, both early and later into his crime fighting career. They just call him web head or insect and try to crush him like the bug they think he is. Why are criminals not scared of him like they are of other heroes, like in other universes like Batman? Sure, he wears bright colors and jokes and quips during battle, and Batman using fear is apart of his whole shtick, but still, Spidey would be scary asf to encounter in real life. If I was an NY criminal and was thinking of robbing a bank, and there was a possibility that I would come face to face with the resident super human who can move fast as lightning, kill a full grown elephant with one super strong punch, and string up my broken body from the highest buildings in the city while simultaneously flinging out brutal insults, Id think twice about it.

[Assistant] I think they talk down to him because (1) they're bad people and (2) they know there won't be consequences.  Spider-Man's going to stay jovial and just web them up regardless.  He isn't going to knock someone's teeth out for being looked at the wrong way, let alone insulted.  So, the bad guys take liberties with their choice of words and talk down to him.


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

[User] [Hearthstone] Why does the Violet Teacher wear blue and not purple?

[Assistant]
Her description has nothing to do with how she dresses. She is a mage and the mages of the Kirin Tor have a thing for using the word "violet" in names.

Examples are "Violet Hold" "The Violet Eye" "Violet Stand" "Violet Rise" And the list goes on. Violet teacher is her rank not her name or a description of clothing.


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

[User] ELI5 why do humans need to eat many different kind of foods to get their vitamins etc but large animals like cows only need grass to survive?

[Assistant]
In addition to the 'efficiently breaking down grass' thing, and the 'they eat a variety of plants' thing, there's also the fact that species typically evolve the ability to make vitamins that they can't get easily in their diet. For example, humans make vitamin D because there aren't many food sources of it, but we can't make vitamin C, but can find it in food. But other species can make their own vitamin C.

It's a trade off between needing to find a variety of food and not needing the cellular machines to make more stuff.


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

[User]
Serious question: when did pooping become taboo?

Yes, some may consider this puerile, but I'm genuinely curious.  Animals poop all the time with no regard for decorum. Yet we, as a species, have developed huge, special boxes so that we may poop privately.  There are unspoken rules in bathrooms (avoid eye contact, etc) that reinforce the notion that pooping should be a very private function.

We avoid talking about it in 'proper' settings and yet many of us joke about it in more informal settings.  It's considered an offensive (or at least inappropriate) topic by many and yet it's one of the very few things that literally every human on the planet has in common with one another.

I believe every (or nearly every, at least) culture has the same basic privacy standards around pooping, so it doesn't appear to be culturally influenced, but rather something more endemic to human nature.

So -- why are we so uptight about pooping when all other living organisms on the planet seem to not give a rip?  Were we always this way?

[Assistant]
I Could point you towards Norbert Elias's *The History of Manners (The Civilizing Process, Vol. 1)* in wich he does, on a typical eliasian faishon, a sociogenetic analysis of the Manners on French and German society.

Tracing black to the development of the idea of *kultur* and *civilizacion* right at the begginning of the modern era, he also finds where our actual "good manners" come from. By developing a society where the bonds of interdependence are much tighter and because of that, the levels of scrutiny the higher strata of society puts between themselves are much higher, starting by their manners, shitting included, of course.

He explicitly says in the book that the reacionrio of disgust these societies developed to shitting comes from that era where "the civilizing process" was  pressed against the top layer of society, and adopted by the classes below them in an effort to emulate their practices, hence their power.


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

[User]
In the early two-slit experiment in quantum mechanics, why does the reader (which picks up the interference pattern), not lead to breakdown of the wave-function, as occurs if the photons are measured during the experiment??

This is about the breakdown of wave-function / indeteriminism during the classical two-slit experiments, in the study of quantum mechanics.

[Assistant] It does, which is why, when a single photon is sent through the slits,  the reader (a phosphor screen for example) picks up only a single isolated blip, rather than a whole wavey pattern. You only see the wavey pattern after you have sent hundreds of photons through the slits and counted hundreds of separate blips and made a histogram. If breakdown of the wave function did not occur (we would call it "collapse" of the wave function or "state reduction"), then each photon would produce a whole wavey pattern on the screen, but instead we see a blip at a random location on the phosphor screen with probability determined by the spatial distribution of the wave function's amplitude.


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

[User]
[Star Trek] Is it standard procedure for senior officers to leave ships on away teams?

Wouldn't junior crew members be sent and could report back? Surely there's a considerable risk with each of these missions..

[Assistant]
In the Kirk era, yes, it was very common for the Captain to travel with away teams. By the time Picard took the chair, the Captain tended to stay with the ship, and his Number One would go with the away teams.

The reason *a* senior officer tends to go on away teams is that the Federation missions are generally research- or diplomacy- centric. If you discover a new form of life, or some asshat steps on a flower, causes an interplanetary incident, and is about to be executed for his "crimes," you want someone of rank to deal with the situation.

However, away missions are dangerous enough that Starfleet no longer wants to risk the Captain by sending him planetside. Sending the First Officer is a nice compromise.


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

[User]
How would an array of Space Telescopes work?

The image of the Black Hole this week was made possible by connecting many ground-based radio telescopes, making an 'aperture' the width of our planet. What I wonder is; could a constellation of space radio-telescopes connect to make the 'aperture' larger, even solar system sized? Also, would increasing the number of satellites in the constellation increase the resolution of the image?

[Assistant]
Yes, and this is something astronomers would like to do. The science makes sense - you improve the resolution by having a much larger baseline, and if you want a baseline larger than the Earth, you need to start putting telescopes in space. But adding more satellites only contributes to the resolution if each satellite is further away than the previous one. Though more satellites will add to the sensitivity, and will help produce a more complete image.

However, there are a number of technical difficulties involved - this is an engineering and funding problem really. Interferometry involves collecting a huge amount of data and collating it all together, and it requires knowing your position down to about the wavelength you're looking at. For something like the Event Horizon Telescope, this is millimetre level of accuracy in your position, which is more difficult when everything is moving around in orbits in space.

Even on Earth, the data collation can be a challenge: the best way to get huge amounts of data from A to B is actually to ship the hard drives. One of the delays in building the EHT image was that it took a while to ship the data from Antarctica. Trying to do this wirelessly using something you can fit on a satellite is going to be pretty tough.


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

[User]
ELI5: How exactly do UN Peacekeeping forces (the deployed troops) ensure peace?

Couldn't unrest still persist even after their mandate is complete, and another conflict still take place?

[Assistant] It doesn't always work, but the idea is based around a show of force.  Essentially, the idea is that by having a large (sometimes larger than indigenous forces) peace keeping army in place, then whatever factions are warring will think twice before taking certain actions.   Essentially, it means that for fear of what ever retribution might be brought down on them by the peacekeeping force, should any of those  peacekeepers be injured, keeps the indigenous fighters from taking risky actions which might make things worse.


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

[User] ELI5:What is Black Body Radiation?

[Assistant]
A black body is an idealized perfect absorber of electromagnetic radiation. All of it, regardless of angle or wavelength. Including your wifi signal. Given that it doesn't reflect or scatter *any* of it, we call them black. What does it do with the radiation it has absorbed? It gets warm.

Each object emits infrared radiation according to its temperature. You are emitting right now at almost 37C.

A black body has absorbed all radiation, is in thermal equilibrium, has increased its temperature. What is the only thing it can do now? re-emit the absorbed radiation as infrared thermal radiation. Heat. That's black body radiation.


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

[User]
An injured caterpillar pupates. Will the butterfly be injured?

Let's assume a caterpillar is injured, but still strong enough to pupate.

I guess that during metamorphosis a lot of organs are rearranged or newly built. However if this rearrangement is based on organs that are not fully functional anymore then wouldn't there be traces of the injury?

[Assistant]
It would depend largely on what portion of the insect was damaged, assuming it didn't lose enough hemolymph to die outright.

For instance, if it suffered a substantial brain injury - one that inhibits the prothoracic glands, the corpus cardiacum, etc. - then even if it makes it to the pupal stage, the insect will not be able to produce the necessary hormones (prothoracicotropic hormone, ecdysteroids, juvenile hormone) to complete development and become a fully functional adult.

If the larva suffers an injury to the muscles that would eventually become the mouth region, it's possible that the the mouthparts and associated glands would not develop properly, preventing the adult from actually exiting the pupal case.

That being said, some muscles are destroyed during metamorphosis and not replaced. However, they would provide both energy and cellular materials for other developmental processes.


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

[User]
[GENERAL] How could Power Armor be used in Guerrilla Warfare?

Every time Power Armor has appeared in Science-Fiction, it has been used by the occupiers. It is dropped down in drop-pods on landing and It later it stomps down down roads with a squad or fire-team in a held town. Just look at Fallout, where occupied Canada was televised as a place where terrorist-rebels were shot down by Power Armored Troops, Warhammer, where Space-Marine chapters can are regularly put to use combatting insurgencies and terrorist-groups, Homefront, where KPA soldiers in power armor are put to use as back up to SWAT-teams, and many, many others.

What I'm asking is how could that be flipped around, if a rebel, guerrilla group far behind enemy lines took down a convoy, went through it's loot, and found a few suits of cherry, combat armor, how could they put them to use?

[Assistant]
Power armor provides two massive enhancements to asymmetrical warfare in mobility and logistics. Our hypothetical guerrilla can now carry a bomb that used to require a van, and he can escape quickly after his actions.

Unfortunately, I've rarely seen any power armour that can be concealed. The primary strength of a guerilla army is that they can disappear, and power armour doesn't allow that.

I think power armour would only really be useful in "loud" operations involving set piece battles and ambushes.


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

[User] ELI5: What causes water bottles to randomly pop in the middle of the night?

[Assistant] Two things can do that to a sealed/closed bottle: a change in ambient temperature or a change in ambient pressure. If it's just sitting there and you're not on a plane changing altitude or a cable car going up a mountain, pressure is unlikely to change. The most likely cause then is temperature. It drops over night for example, which cools off the bottle and it's content, this drops the pressure (because less temperature = less kinetic energy of gas phase water molecules and air in the bottle = less pressure these molecules exert on the bottle wall = atmospheric pressure no longer balanced with inside pressure = outside pushes inside = dent.)


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

[User] ELI5: when someone walks in the snow, how come those footprints disappear when it snows again? Why arent the footprints always there, just with more inches of snow?

[Assistant]
If the snow falls straight down sometimes youll still see the outline of the footprints.

Usually snow is accompanied by wind though, and the drifting snow fills in gaps and smooths out the surface layer again.


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

[User]
ELI5: How would terraforming Mars be possible?

I recall reading (somewhere) that the core of Mars is dead, and therefor incapable of producing the same type of magnetic field we have on earth.

How could life exist on the surface of Mars without the protection from damaging radiation provided by a functioning magnetic field?

[Assistant]
Magnetic field protects the atmosphere, atmosphere protects from radiation. Mars used to have air, but it all got blown away by solar winds.

The first step would be creating an atmosphere. It would stabilize the temperature and we wouldn't need pressure suits, only oxygen tanks. To do this we would have to rise temperature with greenhouse effect by producing fluoride compounds (some of them are much more potent than CO2). After a while, the frozen CO2 would start to evaporate, increasing pressure and rising the temperature. There is enough of it, so that the pressure will be comparable with that atop mount Everest.

Alternatively, giant mirrors to make it hotter.

Anyhow, once you have liquid water, you can start introducing algea and plants to make oxygen.


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

[User]
[MARVEL] Why are there so many super-criminals in NYC with the Punisher around?

Wilson Fisk, Bullseye, Vulture, Wilson "The Kingpin" Fisk, Hammerhead and have I already said Fisk?

Marvel's NYC is stuffed with criminals. I don't speak about supervillains far above human like Venom or Rhino, just not-bulletproof bad guys like Kingpin.

My question is: how fork are all these still alive with Frank Castle shooting around the city?

What's the canon reason (I'm sure there's one) why he doesn't just kill them all?

[Assistant]
He tries, and fails, because they're better at surviving than he is at killing.

Remember, Punisher is one guy. One guy trying to eat a whale and all he has is a shrimp fork. He's also a criminal himself and has to both avoid being caught by the "good guys" while also trying to take out the "bad guys" with the limited resources he has.

Compare to these guys who have entire support networks designed to insulate them from people trying to do them harm and, despite being notorious criminals, can generally walk around in broad daylight without fear of repurcussion.


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

[User]
How much would our climate change if the Earth's rotation were to slow by 1 hour?

Imagine if the earth's rotation were to slow by one hour, leading to 25 hour days. How much of an impact would this have on global ecosystems? What about seasons (as the year would have a fewer number of days, therefore leading to shorter seasons)? Would it have any significant impact on the existing phenomenon generally known as 'Climate Change', or better known as 'Global Warming'?

[Assistant]
An interesting scenario! An additional hour but maintaining the same day-to-night ratio may have some local meteorological impact on the short term. For example, there may be slightly higher maximum/minimum temperature because of longer daytime/nighttime. This may increase the chances of events such as forest fires. However, over one day, they should average out such that the longer term weather and climate is no different.

The length of a day is determined by the rate of rotation about the Earth's axis. The length of a year is determined by the rate of revolution of the Earth around the sun. Since the two are independent (think Mercury: 88 Earth-days to revolve around the sun and 58 Earth-days to rotate around its own axis), changing the rate of rotation will not impact the rate of revolution around the Sun, and therefore not affect the length of the seasons.

Extending the period of the diurnal cycle (i.e. the day-night cycle) should not have a visible impact on climate change, which is caused by the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. At least, if there is an effect, it is indirect, e.g. more forest fires leads to more greenhouse gases, or cooler nighttime temperatures cause people to use more heating and thus increasing carbon emissions.


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

[User]
ELI5:how can the universe be infinite if it started from a single point

how can something which was said to be the size of a watermelon at one point be infinite?

[Assistant]
There are infinitely many numbers between 0 and 1, but the size of this interval is only 1.

Somewhat similarly the universe at the beginning was infinitely dense but compressed down to a singularity. If something is infinitely dense you can expand it out to an infinite size.


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

[User]
[Warhammer 40k] How much does the Imperium know of Chaos?

I know the Space Marines and Inquisition know, but what of the Imperial Guard? How much do they know? Same with the common Imperial citizen.

I remember reading that the Inquisition wanted to exterminatus everyone on Armageddon for their knowledge of the Traitor Legions and the Space Wolves tole em to fuck off.

That begs the question of how much do they really know.

[Assistant] Generally, between not a lot to nothing. They only know that there are bad things and that if you see a mutant, heretic or alien that you should shoot it, repeatedly. The only guardsmen that knows much about chaos are either heretic or have fought demons and survived. And they basicly only know that they are bloody hard to kill and are something more then just a alien. Maybe they saw one getting summoned or getting possesed, or saw some warppowers, or a warp gate etc. They wont know anything about the gods, who likes what and if bloodletters serve khorne or nurgle, but they will know that its a demon.


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

[User]
Did our gut bacteria originally ride into our bodies on the kind of food it helps us digest?

Did bacteria that digests sugars first ride in on something sugary? Did fiber-eating bacteria originally ride in on fiber? Is that anything like the way it works?

Edit: If that is the way it works, does it mean we might be able to engineer symbiotic bacteria to help solve hunger issues?

[Assistant] That's not really the way it works. If you look at bacteria that are naturally present on food sources and then look at the bacteria in the gut that use that same food source, they are usually quite different. Often this is because of different selective pressures in the two environments. Outside the gut, the bacteria are usually in an aerobic environment, inside it is anaerobic. There will also be differences in pH, salt content, other bacteria that are present that may antagonize them and also the human immune system. Some of the early post-weaning colonizers may enter as you theorize, but they are relatively quickly out-competed by bacteria that are specialized in thriving in the gut. Those get in in a variety of ways, some have environmental reservoirs others are gut specialists coming largely from fecal contamination of the surroundings of a child when their microbiome is developing. The initial pre-weaning colonizers come from mother's vagina or skin depending on delivery mode. What you are describing for solving hunger issues is essentially a synbiotic approach of co-feeding a beneficial bacteria and its substrate. These have by and large not proven to be especially effective, though there may be some transient benefits.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is (speaking) censoring done with a beep in most cases

why not just mute the sound? I've seen both kinds of censoring and I dunno why there are different systems.

[Assistant] Bleep censoring was the best way to edit material in the early days of television. Sound editing after the video had been shot was essentially out of the question. Bleeping started as just covering up whatever profanity was spoken. As time went on though, you could actually edit the sound of a video. How censoring works depends on the tv channel that is airing it. The FCC does not have a rule that everything must use one form of censoring, only that certain material cannot be shown/spoken. Hope that helps.


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

[User]
[Marvel] Does Venom immunity to Spider sense work on Miles?

Venom and Carnage are immune to the spider sense of Peter Parker, but would they be immune to Miles Morales spider sense, or Spider-Gwen, or other alternate reality Peter parkers? What about Parker clones like Ben Reilly?

[Assistant]
Venom and his spawn would set off the Spider-Sense of Miles, Gwen or any spider person from another universe.

And it does not work on clones which is what gave Ben an edge when he fought Venom. If Kaine still had Spider-Sense he would also be fine, and any new clone would be fine.

They specifically have a natural immunity to Peter and only the Peter the black costume was bonded to at that.


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

[User]
A question about Australia and free trade.

Hi. I honestly know nothing about Economics so this might be a stupid question, haha.

Ive been taking a look at Australias economy and how it hasnt had a recession in more than 27 years, which is an amazing feat. I read that one of the measures they applied was implementing free trade, reducing tariffs (by 25% I guess) and all that.

Ive been thinking. Due to Australias distance to the rest of the world and sheer transportation costs, one could argue that national companies have an advantage over foreign companies because they wont have to deal with high transportation costs. Therefore, national products tend to be more competitive than their foreign counterparts. Sort of a natural tax, Id say. Evidently, there will be industries in which this doesnt apply (tech?).

Therefore, free trade wouldnt be damaging to the national industry in Australia as, lets say, Portugal. German products can be delivered in Portugal a lot more easily than Chinese products in Australia.

Thinking now, every country would have this advantage to some degree, but especially Australia because of the long distance.

Am I right? Partially right? 100% Bullshit? Teach me!

[Assistant]
It's not a bad hypothesis. The gravity model of trade (which emphasises short distance as a determinant of trade between countries) is near universal in the literature.

The problem is, when Australia removed it's tariffs in the 80s, the immediate response was the collapse of trade exposed manufacturing. We now make no cars, almost no clothes, not much steel etc. Australia is the poster child for trade and comparative advantage leading to specialisation. We dig things up and do services. We don't do low skill manufacturing (except for things you can't easily trade like food)