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

[User] [Marvel] I can get a superhero suit made from vibranium or adamantium but I have to pick one. Which is best?

[Assistant]
Vibranium. It'll dissipate and redirect the forces applied against you. Stand next to an explosion in an adamantium suit, and you certainly won't be pierced by any shrapnel, but it won't help when you get knocked against a wall, you'll still get whiplash, concussion, etc.

Stand next to the same explosion in a vibranium suit, and you might be able to stand your ground as most of the force is dampened and passed around your body harmlessly.

Ultimately an adamantium suit *itself* could take more punishment, but the vibranium one will generally protect the human inside more.


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

[User]
[LOTR] What happened to the other races of Middle Earth?

At the end of Return of the King, the Elves sailed off into the Undying Lands and any Elves that stayed would have become mortal, dying off eventually. But what about the others? Since Middle Earth is an ancient Earth, and there aren't any Orcs, Goblins, Hobbits, or Dwarves (as a unique race, not as in little people) wandering around today, what happened to them? Or for that matter the other species like Worgs or giant spiders?

[Assistant]
Hobbits were related to men in a distant, unclear way. Over the eons of trade, migrations, and even conflict, their population would mingle with humans until hobbits were a memory. The people who currently inhabit the countryside of England can trace a very distant ancestry to their short cousins.

Orcs without strong leadership descend into chaos and easily-destroyed warbands. Those that weren't killed in later military action by humans preyed on each other until nothing remained.

Dwarves already had a very low birthrate and a tendency toward extreme isolationism. It's possible a few small communities survived the centuries, but they have no interest in further contact. And we'll never find their last enclaves.

The terrifying megafauna mostly met the same fate as other species that came into contact with a rapidly expanding humanity: hunted to extinction. Whether it be for food, for sport, or to make the local area safe for habitation. Humans destroyed their habitats and only left the familiar, mundane creatures behind.


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

[User]
[Stargate] Who's the best Goa'uld boss?

Which of the canon Goa'uld treated his subjects more fairly and kindly? Of course they would still torture enemies and murder traitors, perhaps punish failure pretty severely. But which Goa'uld treated his warriors and other subjects the best?

With this I mean, not a Tok'Ra  or other "not really a Goa'uld", but, just, which Goa'uld was best to serve, even if they were evil psychopaths.

I'm leaning either Hathor, who "loved" her subjects, or Ba'al who in general seemed to prefer efficiency over sycophants, up to Lord Yu who seemed to inspire loyalty. Any facts or known events that would put one over others?

Thanks!

[Assistant]
I'd suggest that Yu might be the best; while both Ba'al and Yu are among the more "reasonable" system lords - less prone to random bouts of violence and cruelty, and less likely to needlessly expend subordinates in needless displays of pride or grandiosity - Yu is less proactive and more conservative.

As a subordinate, this is actually better: Yu is less likely to embark on some grand and risky plan which will put you in a dangerous position. While Ba'al wasn't one to flippantly expend lives, he would still embark on aggressive campaigns and accept certain losses as the costs of his victories; Yu was simply content to sit on what he had.


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

[User]
Microwaves and radiowaves, how do they penetrate different material?

I was curious at how microwaves dont pass through the metal mesh on the window, I understood this was due to wavelength but it didnt make sense how the waves just can just slide throughthe holes until I read that one should imagine the wavelength doesnt form in one direction but in all like a blob, so the long wavelength disallows it from passing through. That is until I was curious how radiowaves can pass through walls and small bits of earth when they have wavelengths much longer than that of microwaves.

Also how would microwaves penetrate food? Or do they simply heat from the outside?

I did slme reading but nothing seems to click or make sense, is there some kind of sweet spot between wave speed and wavelength?

I havw no background in optics or whatever physics concentration this is, I am simply curious.

[Assistant]
Many materials are nigh useless for attenuating EM radiation. For example, like you say, radio waves will pass through many common obstacles in our world. Likewise, high energy gammas will pass straight through your skin and into your body.

Certain materials, however, such as the mesh on the microwave and also lead, are able to stop electromagnetic radiation. In the case of lead, this is because on the atomic level, the particles of material are very large (lead has a high Z) and it's very easy for the gamma to hit the particles and be absorbed or scattered then absorbed.

In your example, the mesh screen is effective as shielding because the wavelength of a microwave is relatively large. Think about it like trying to feed a rigid S-shaped material through a hole without tilting it or moving it up or down to help it pass through. The holes simply aren't large enough to allow passage, and the waves are reflected. In this way, the microwave acts as a sort of inverse faraday cage for your food.

So you might ask why doesn't visible light also get prevented from leaving the microwave? Visible light has a much smaller wavelength, so it is able to be transmitted through the holes.

EDIT: the reason why radio waves, with an even longer wavelength than microwaves, are able to pass through so many materials anyway is that there are relatively few conductive and or attenuating materials placed around our world, whereas the mesh is both to a degree.


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

[User]
[Orville, Star Trek] What in God's name possesses the main ships to carry their families with them?

Both *The Orville* and *The Enterprise D* have extensive family units aboard ship, despite the fact that these ships **often** get into shooting wars with others that put the entire ship at risk.

Even the Klingons, with their rich history of fighting and battle do not let their kids ride shotgun. So what gives?

And for that matter, why do other Federation ships, and even other versions of *The Enterprise* **NOT** have kids on board? TOS, Voyager, and Discovery don't have kids. (DS9 doesn't count, since it's a space station more than a ship. I don't see Jake manning the comms on the *Defiant.*)

Honestly, *Voyager* should have, considering the plot.

So, why expose your kids to inevitable danger?

[Assistant]
Both The Orville and The Enterprise D are supposed to have rather peaceful missions - they're not military vessels they're diplomatic vessels with a secondary purpose of exploration.

That they end up in shooting wars so often is pure bad luck. Sure, they're equipped to be able to fight, but they're not well equipped for it because it's not their job - they're heavy on defence, light on offence.

So with their relatively peaceful *intended* function they're a good place to station those fine officers who happen to have children - you don't want to bench any medical officer who has kids for 18 years after all; that would be devastating to their career and significantly reduce your recruitment pool.

TOS is heavier on the exploration and combat side of things, Voyager was on its first mission having been crewed with the intention of going straight into combat, Discovery is a vessel with such an experimental design that it could easily explode at any moment.


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

[User]
CMV: Dave Chappelle is a jester. let him be one

A lot of people feel attacked by Chappelle's jokes about Trans people. I understand what they are feeling but they're targeting the wrong person.

Stage comedy is the one podium that is meant for making jokes about any kind of people. It's not reflecting on the views of the person who makes the joke. It's an opportunity to put any subject in any light without judgment of the content of what's being said.

Stand up what society desperately needs to reflect on itself. By prohibiting comedians from taking a stage because of what they're saying on the stage, society is lacking in one of its most important tasks: being able to take a blow.

Comedians are the jesters of modern day society. They have the specific task to make a mockery out of anything and everything. When someone doesn't like to mocked, that's who they'll mock.

Comedians are not politicians. Comedy shows are no political rallies. If you go to a comedy show and you expect to hear someone's personal views on things, you're in the wrong place.

Comedians need a carte blanche. The only thing they should be judged on is whether they are funny or not. Everything else is within limits.

If you don't think it's funny, then don't go. Just don't take anything a jester says personally. If you feel attacked, if anything, it's a call for self reflection.

Edit - delta because Chappelle should view himself as a jester. But he defends his points off stage and therefore he jeopardizes his role as a comedian.

[Assistant]
>Stage comedy is the one podium that is meant for making jokes about any kind of people.

You say that, but he doesn't. He doesn't make racist jokes, and in fact has previously walked away from comedy because of the impact of his own comedy that centred on race.  He understands the impact that comedy can have on vulnerable populations, and despite your claim about "no limits" he places limits on himself, so as to avoid hurting people he cares about.

The difference between jokes about race and jokes about trans people, is that he doesn't give a shit about trans people, and is happy to hurt them, because he doesn't care about them.

So no, he doesn't "joke without limits".


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

[User]
Does the universe have a non-zero angular momentum?

Does the universe spin? Is this a question which even makes sense? Do we even know / have any way to ever find out?

[Assistant]
There's a set of common assumptions made in cosmology that the universe is (on reasonably large scales) homogeneous and isotropic. Homogeneous means that every large patch of the universe looks roughly the same, regardless of where the patch is. Isotropic means that there's no preferred direction.

There's no inherent reason to make these assumptions other than they make math easy. But it would be weird if, for example, the universe had a preferred "center." It would raise questions like "why there? Why not anywhere else?"

And since we haven't seen any evidence to disprove these assumptions, for the time being it's probably safe to continue assuming them.


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

[User] ELI5: How does a computer know how long a second is/tell time?

[Assistant]
There is a quartz crystal oscillator inside a timer chip that vibrates at a regular beat -- it needs a battery to run even when the computer is turned off.

The timer can drift,  so every now and again (in the US) the computer will contact the NIST (national institute of standards and technology) internet time service and re-callibrate itself.


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

[User]
How the Schwarzschild Radius Formula was found ?

I was wondering if anyone could explain how Karl Schwarzschild ended up on this formula( R=2GM/c^2) for the Radius to which you must reduce a object to make it a black hole . From what did he started ?

[Assistant]
Schwarzschild looked for a spherically symmetric solution of Einstein's equations; in other words, he was looking for the gravitational field of a spherical object like a star or a planet. What he found was the Schwarzschild metric, the general-relativistic version of F=-GMm/r^(2).

Intriguingly, the Schwarzschild metric 'broke down' at a radius 2GM/c^(2). This was no problem for stars or planets, because his solution was only valid *outside* those objects, and their radii are larger than their Schwarzschild radii. But if an object were smaller than its Schwarzschild radius, then something 'bad' would happen.

In fact, nothing 'bad' happens until you hit the singularity at r=0, but at r=2GM/c^(2) Schwarzschild's choice of coordinates became invalid. That was (in retrospect) a sign of the event horizon appearing, although it takes some more work to show it.


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

[User]
ELI5:  Explain to me how stocks work, what makes the price go up/down?

I know this question has likely been asked before, but I'm curious:  What determines a stocks price, and how does it rise/fall?  I want to start investing in some low-cost stocks to get a feel for it, but I'm curious what actually impacts the change, and rise/fall of the price.

thank you in advance!

[Assistant]
Also, you can think about companies like cows, and buying stock like buying part of a cow (and buying part not in the sense of the tail of the hooves, but owning a certain portion of the money the cow generates). The cow can make you money in two ways:

1) Whenever the cow is milked the owners of the cow can give you some of the money they get by selling the milk (this money is called dividends). alternatively, the rancher can choose to use some, or even all, of that money to improve the value of the cow, maybe by feeding the cow better food or having a veterinarian give it a check up (retained earnings). You may be okay with not getting even of the milk money if you trust the rancher to use that money wisely to increase the value of the cow (Apple's cow is worth a TON of money despite the fact that, until recently, they never paid out any of their milk money to investors).

2) At some point the cow can be sold (the company can be bought out) and you will be payed based on what percentage of the cow you own. Even if the whole cow is not sold, you can sell your portion of the cow to someone else if you want.

The value of the cow, and therefore your portion of the cow is decided by a couple things. First, the basic attributes of the cow are important. Is it a healthy cow? Does it produce a lot of milk? Does it produce good milk that people like to drink? Is it likely to grow in the future? How does it compare to other cows that are similar to it? These kind of things are the cow's (or company's) fundamentals.
In a perfect world, the price of the cow would perfectly reflect everything that you, or anyone else knows about the cow.

Second, what people think about your cow, and cows in general affects the price of the cow. Is there a mad cow scare brewing? Is veganism in fashion? Or on the positive end maybe you're expecting a hot summer where a lot more people than usual will want to barbeque hamburgers, or maybe you know of a new beef-based diet that you think will become all the rage and expect the value of your cow to increase. These kinds of things are the "behavioral" aspects of the price of your cow (or stock) and are important too, but much harder to see  or measure.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Were any podracer pilots in TPM force sensitive (excluding Anakin)? How many in general in the EU?

Concerning Qui-gon's quote "you must have jedi reflexes if you race pods", or is force sensitivity required to race species dependent?

[Assistant] You don't need precognition to race pods, rather the time from light from an obstacle reaching your eye to your hand moving the pod racer steering controls needs to be super quick. Quicker than is possible for a human nervous system. Anakin circumvents this by getting the information ahead of time using Force precognition and this gives his slow human nervous system more time to process and act on the information. Other species have faster nervous systems.


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

[User] [DCEU] How is Harley Quinn able to take out squads of bulky, armored and armed men with military/police training when she has no powers or training herself?

[Assistant]
How does she have no powers or training?

Powers: dipped in dionysium or whatever that chemical was called. Grants her and Joker some improved physical capabilities.

Training: its been years since Harley debuted. She went from just having some gymnast training but since then she's even been on teams like Suicide Squad for many years. By now she must have extensive training as well as a lot of experience.


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

[User] ELI5:How are cell towers able to transmit different information to every cellphone as opposed to broadcasting everyone the same information when listening to the radio?

[Assistant]
Excellent question. A bunch of people want to communicate at the same time. Since other people make a lot of noise, you have to speak louder. Everyone else speaks louder too and eventually you are shouting as hard as you can and nobody can hear you since everyone is shouting. To make this work, you need a system.

First comes FDMA (Frequency division multiple access) which is basically giving everyone their own frequency. This is analogous to putting everyone in different rooms so they do not have to shout due to lack of interference. We quickly ran out of rooms to use once we got more users so we abandoned the idea.

Then comes TDMA (Time division multiple access) which is basically giving everyone a short time slot to transmit their message. This is analogous to giving people turns to speak so they won't interfere with each other. This is how GSM network works.

CDMA (Code division multiple access) is when you encode your data into the white noise and then run the decoding algorithm to get it back. This is analogous to everyone speaking at the same time but in different languages. This helps to separate different people speaking, but when there are a lot of users, the speech still becomes impossible to differentiate from the noise. This is how 3G works.

OFDMA (orthogonal frequency division multiple access) is what LTE uses and is quite more complicated but is basically separating users by time AND frequency thus increasing capacity by a lot.


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

[User]
[MCU] As a Sokovian who lost my home, family, and country to Tony Stark's failed science project, do I have any recourse of suing him for damages?

Can I call a lawyer and drag him in front of a court to get some kind of compensation for my losses? Is he legally responsible because Ultron is his product? Do I sue him in a US court? Because the Sokovian courthouse is just straight-up gone.

If I can't sue, I have a backup plan involving an abandoned Hydra bunker, an EMP bomb, and a certain combination of words, but I would much rather settle this inside the law if possible.

[Assistant] Here is the grim reality. He is a wealthy and famous American businessman with an army of lawyers at his beck and call. You will never see him face to face, let alone get more than a modest settlement for your losses.


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

[User]
[MCU] In a what if story could Hyrda stand against Thanos?

As infinity war approaches, we will see the test of time for the avengers as they face their biggest and strongest enemy ever the mad titan. so let's reverse the clock before that. let's say world war 2. now in a epic showdown between cap and red skull, the Nazi gets a leg up on ol steve rogers and kills him. he safety takes the space gem and leaves the ship that will hit New York. this attack is big in the war and tips scale in fav for hydra. they win and shield dies. this ultimate throws the mcu outta whack. iron man isnt born because Howard is murder before so. bruce banner prob is a hyrda scientist. earths sorcerers would go to war with hydra, in this what if let's say they also win this war. hydra works with some magic (maybe dormammu). thor would come to earth and be murder. loki with kill odin and make a pack with hydra (with a ultimate goal to make them kneel at his feet) the guardian would mostly likely not come together.... etc but there is probably one anchor to all this. thanos he will come to earth and he wants his stones. and he has collect the ones scattered in the cosmos and ready for earth. what does hydra do they wouldn't just hand over these infinty stones to a insane space brute. who hydra form there own avengers? would they collect armies? what would happen?

[Assistant]
If HYDRA managed to conquer the world and had the luxury of operating in the clear, then they would have had access to the world's resources and best scientists.  In that scenario they would have been able to retrieve Hive much earlier, which was the whole goal of that organization.

They would have exposed much of the world to Terragen mist, creating hundreds of thousands of inhumans. They also probably would have perfected their super soldier formula and been able to boost the inhuman physiology too, making them that much more powerful.

Hive would have taken control of the world's inhumans and made the earth one super-organism. Thanos would have had to battle Hive-Earth, full of fully-integrated super-powered drones, slaves to the parasitic Hive.


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

[User] ELI5: How did they get the international space station in space? How do they keep it from crashing down into earth?

[Assistant] They took it up in sections and put it together up there. Most of the speed it needs to maintain its orbit was imparted by the rockets that put it there, but it does also reboost itself periodically to maintain the orbit.


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

[User]
Why can no programming language agree on 'else if'?

It seems every language I learn has a different way of doing it:

\- else if

\- elif

\- elsif

\- elseif

etc.

What's the story behind this and why did every language decide to implement it differently?

[Assistant]
In C, C++, Java and related languages there really is no "else if". It's just an "else" immediately followed by an "if" while leaving off the optional curly braces. For example:
```
if (something)
{
    print("hello")
}
else
{
   if (another_thing)
   {
       print("goodbye")
   }
}
```
Remove all the curly braces above and you end up with:
```
if (something)
    print("hello")
else if (another_thing)
    print("goodbye")
```

Other languages can't make use of this grammar hack (e.g., for example Python using indentation instead of optional curly braces to denote code blocks), so they have to have a dedicated keyword for "else if". Nobody has agreed on what this keyword should be yet.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is rebooting your computer/smartphone the go-to method for solving a problem with it?

[Assistant] Each program and process in a computer is constantly using memory space, registers, temp files, swap files, etc.  You can think of all of these as a giant whiteboard where the program or process is continuously writing and erasing things that it needs to remember.  When a program or process erases something, it may not get all the marks off the board.  After awhile, the white board gets pretty messy and hard to read and that can cause problems.  When a computer reboots one of the things it does during the start-up process is to thoroughly erase the whiteboard so it is ready to use.  This will often fix a computer problem.


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

[User] [LOTR] How did Gimli not know of the demise of Moria? It is told that the dwarves released the balrog some 900 years before gandalf took the fellowship beneath the mountains. How did Gimli not know of the demise of Moria?

[Assistant]
Remember when they found the tomb of Balin, son of Fundin, Lord of Moria?

Remember Balin from *The Hobbit?*

Same guy.

He lead an expedition from the Lonely Mountain to Moria - another fallen and abandoned home of the Longbeard clan. They had established a colony there, sending letters and even starting up mining again... but then the letters stopped. That's one of the reasons Gimli (and the other dwarves) were in Rivendell. They wanted to talk to Elrond about the situation, then see if they could reconnect with their brothers and find out why the letters stopped arriving.

He was expecting to find his kinsmen.


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

[User]
[Iron Man 2] Why didnt Tony Stark use an external power source?

In Iron Man 2 we learn Palladium is poisoning him. He was searching for a replacement and couldnt find one until the end of the film.

My question is why didnt stark do what was done in Afghanistan. Connect an external power source to his heart so while he searches the poisoning is slowed down?

[Assistant]
It would compromise his ability to be Iron-Man. He couldn't be in the field if he's connected to an external battery on a desk.

To him at this point, Iron-Man is worth it. He is the only hero on Earth at this time, he has "successfully privatized world peace". If he goes away then it all comes undone.

At this point, Tony thinks without Iron-Man he's useless. He says it in the hearing, he & the suit are one.


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

[User] [DC] Jack Nicholson's Joker was deformed by chemicals. Heath Ledger's wore makeup. Which is the case for Leto's Joker? Romero's?

[Assistant]
Leto's jumped into Ace Chemical's vat at LEAST once, as we've seen. That could account for his pallor and possible toxic brain chemistry.

Romero's was all makeup, as we saw with the painted mustache. He's a harlequin from the vaudeville era.


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

[User]
CMV: In this era, a teenager should absolutely have a smartphone

So I'm 16 years old but have never had a smartphone, and I believe that I should. My parents won't get me one, because they think I would use it too much, and that I would get "addicted" to it. Although I have assured them plenty of times that I wouldn't, they refuse to get me one. I just have a keypad phone now, which I can literally just use for calls. I get really jealous, because all my friends have smartphones and can use social media and stuff all the time. I feel like I'm missing out on a lot cuz I don't have one.

I really want my view changed, at least so I can feel better about not having one.

[Assistant]
Is it better to have one? Almost always. Should everybody "absolutely" have one? Nah.

With a parenting situation like that, it's likely that any kind of social media presence would be heavily monitored/policed by your parents anyway, so it'd be difficult to have an authentic social media experience regardless. While the situation ain't great, the silver lining is that you can continue "figuring yourself out" so that when you move out and get your own stuff, you can put forth a more consistent "you" online.


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

[User]
CMV: Gameplay is generally more important than story in a game

I think generally, good gameplay should always take priority over a good story.

I don't think narrative and story are unimportant to a video game, far from it. But I will always prefer a game with good mechanic but bad story over virce versa.

What defines good gameplay is subjective I will admit. Interactivity is the most important part of a video game because it's what seperates them from all other mediums like movies and books. So a game should allow as much player interactivity as it can without compromising the experience as a wholem

There are many ways of achieving interactivity. Games like the Elder Scrolls series and Breath Of the Wild offer interactivey through player freedom through almost limitless exploitation of large worlds. at their own pace.

Minecraft offers interactivey by giving players the ability to mend the world  to their liking and build any structures.

Games like Mario series and Crash Bandicoot give players the ability to overcome obstacles with their own skills.

And lastly, RPGs like Fallout and Baldurs Gates allow players to shape their own characters and how they interact with the world.

There are games however that neglect and/or under prioritise player interactivey and gameplay in favour of telling a good story or narrative. Telltale Games like The Walking Dead season 1 told a good story but there's hardly any gameplay and the choices that you get to make have little impact and consequences. I think the game was a good experience in my opinion but it didn't utilise what separates a game from a movie or a book so I honestly can't say it's a good game despite the good story and it would be better off as a TV series or a graphic novel imo.

Another series which has this problem are the Uncharted games. They do offer a lot more interactivey and gameplayn than Telltale games but it's still under prioritied in my opinion. What I mean is that the narrative and presentation are prioritised more than delivering good engaging gameplay. For the most part, they don't test the player's skills and except maybe  on the highest. It's mostly basic shooting galleries and occasional small puzzles. There's two parts to the Uncharted games, there's the story and presentation and there's the gameplay. The former is given a lot more priority. I don't think they coexist but the gameplay in these games don't enhance those those aspects much.

I think ideally gameplay should be used to enhance stories in video games rather than being two separated aspects that don't mesh well. I can't think of any examples off the top of my head atn

My post is is a mess, I'll try clarify things in the comments.

Edit. I should differentiate between a good game and a good experience. You can have a good experience with games like the Walking Dead and other story exclusive games.

[Assistant]
Why is gameplay more important? You dont really go into that, you just say you prefer it.

Lots of people prefer the opposite and may like games that are closer to an interactive graphic novel. Not everyone plays games for the same reason and not everygame is trying for the same target audience.


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

[User]
Is it ethical for me to visit a student at their dorm?

I work as an academic advisor at a community college. My supervisor sent me a text message earlier this afternoon giving me a student's name, ID number, and dorm room number telling me that the student has been struggling hardcore. Apparently the student has not been attending any of his classes or turning in any of his work. The student is also one of my students in my seminar class.

Well, it seems like other professors have contacted the student via phone/e-mail, and now administration wants me going to this student's dorm in-person to check in on them. My supervisor has told me the student is known to lie about what's going on in his life.

Is it really ethical for me to go to the student's dorm and try to convince them to come to class? I'm not sure I have the proper training to negotiate with students who may be in distress or having problems, to the point where the student is lying to his other professors. Is there a "professional" way to decline what my supervisor is asking me to do, or at least mention that I don't think I am the right person to try and convince the student?

[Assistant]
You mention that you're an academic advisor... Is this a faculty role, or a role in student affairs?

You may not feel comfortable doing this, but this is a role that someone in a similar job position in student affairs would be responsible for doing at the universities I've worked at.

Perhaps you could say this isn't something you've done, and ask if there was someone else who could go with you?


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

[User] [Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy] How Is it possible for you to visit Milliways multiple times in your time stream without ever running into yourself?

[Assistant] Because running into yourself would just be too embarrassing. People like to try and avoid embarrassing themselves, especially when at a nice place/event. So it's only natural that you can be guaranteed that you won't run into yourself despite multiple visits to Milliways.


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

[User]
[Stranger Things] When a psychic uses their ability, they often get a nosebleed. What is happening here?

Why are psychic powers so incompatible with having intact blood vessels in your nose?

[Assistant] Overstimulation of the brain. Results in elevated blood pressure and potential for a stroke. The sinus cavity has a lot of blood vessels running through it so will begin bleeding before the larger vessels in the brain would.


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

[User] Are there any predators or parasites that feed on intestinal worms, when they're in the intestines?

[Assistant] There are many hyperparasitic bacteria that use nematodes and cestodes as hosts. Most forms of multicellular life on earth can serve as host for at least one species of parasite, and that includes other multicellular parasites. The term you are looking for is "super-" or "hyperparasitism".


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

[User]
[Toy Story] Do horror movie villain toys try to murder their kids/other toys?

We know toys seem to have a "default" personality, and that the default personality is that of the character they're based off of.

So what happens when a kid gets a Jason Voorhees action figure for Christmas?

Also: Would, say, a Reed Richards toy have super intelligence?

Would a Deadpool toy know that he's a toy from the start, or think that he's still a comic book character?

[Assistant]
Horror movie villain toys will probably try to murder other toys, but not their kids.  Note that Zurg did try to fight Buzz Lightyear, so it stands to reason this antagonism still exists.  They're unlikely to kill their kids, because all toys seem to abide by the 'act as a toy' phenomenon amongst humans -- including devious toys such as Lotso.

The Reed Richards toy will think he has super-intelligence but it's not clear whether he actually will.  Much as Buzz Lightyear initially thinks his lasers work, but they don't.

The Deadpool toy is harder to read, and is likely tied to some of the earlier threads on toy sapience. [Toy personalities are likely shaped by how they are perceived at some point in their creation, and thus tend to correlate well with their characters.  It depends on how the Deadpool is made sapient.]


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

[User] Weve hybridized things like ligers. If ethics werent an issue, what could humans themselves hybridize with, if anything?

[Assistant] Naturally - nothing. Our closest relatives are still too incompatible genetically to produce viable offspring. Perhaps we could manipulate/insert some genes in human egg/sperm and do an in-vitro fertilisation, but that wouldn't really be a hybrid, just a genetically modified organism.


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

[User]
How cold would it have to be to slow data packets transmitted over wire? Does temperature even have an effect on this?

My friend and I were joking about the cold weather in Canada. I remarked that it was "so cold packets were freezing and ping was timing out."

While humorous, it got me thinking -- is this possible? How is our data transmitted over wire? Can it be affected by temperature? If I cooled a section of the wire to just above absolute zero -- what would happen to new data as it flows into that area? Would it just be a giant traffic jam?

[Assistant]
Many metals become more conductive at lower temperatures, which would reduce the voltage or wattage requirement in order to transmit.

Although not all materials become superconductors when cold, all superconductors must be cooled to be superconducting.

So, no. There would not be a traffic jam. It would make things easier.


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

[User] If everyone in New York City went outside would there be enough room for everyone to stand?

[Assistant] Yes, definitely. According to the 2010 census, there were 8,175,133 people living in New York City. Let's consider the area of Central Park alone, which is 843 acres = 36,721,080 square feet. That gives each person approximately 4.4918 square feet. Considering there's clearly much more "outside" area than just Central Park, everyone in NYC can easily fit outside with no trouble.


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

[User]
Is the speed of sound a relative measurement?

For example, the sound barrier is broken by a jet flying in the same direction as the earth's rotation, does the rotation speed effect to the speed needed break the sound barrier?

Edit: I'm on mobile so I don't know how to mark it answered but thank you everyone for the help!

[Assistant] The speed of sound, or of any mechanical wave that travels in a medium (*ie*, not including light) is with respect to the medium.  In your example, all that matters is the speed of the plane through the air.


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

[User]
ELI5: How are betting odds calculated?

Is it genuine insider knowledge from the betting companies, a fancy algorithm or something else?

[Assistant]
1: From historical trends and past performance, take the population of contenders and figure out the likeliest performance of each against the other. This is easy in a sports team oriented game or boxing match where there's a published record and only two contending teams/players. It's more complex when you have a field of racing horses.

2: Convert the results into a percentage. So for horse X, it 20% chance they'll take the prize; for horse Y, it's a long shot that's likely a 2% chance. Divide each number into one. 1 divided by 20% = 5, so the odds on that horse are "5 to 1" if a perfect payout is desired. And it would be 50 to 1 for horse Y.

3: Now mark up your payout so you are going to earn something out of it. Instead of paying 5 to 1, you make your payout 3 to 1, meaning if that horse wins you keep 40% of the overall bet pool. The more illegitimate your betting business, the greater the markup you'll put on it.

4: Next, for each contender, estimate how many people are going to bet on it compared to the others. In a race where one horse is clearly clearly superior, most people will bet on that one. So adjust the winnings on that one way, way down (1.2 to one, for example) to encourage people not to bet on that sure thing.

5: Finally, if you can, repeat 4 by analyzing how many people are betting on each horse or team as the bets come in. Almost everyone is betting on horse #3? Cut its odds from 4 to 1 down to 3 to 1. (This is why bet payouts shift at racetracks).


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

[User]
[Halo] Why did it take the jackals so long to start speaking English

So in Halo infinite jackals now have English lines.  I had never really thought about it before, but that made me realize it was kind of weird they didn't in any of the other games when grunts have been doing it since ce and brutes, prophets and elites have since 2.

[Assistant]
So someone posted in a halo sub that after Halo 1 Cortana got some of the covenant language info. This is why elite and prophets and brutes are understood. Its possible that jackals to be added by infinite.

Also logically it means chief is fluent in grunt since you can understand them in CE.


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

[User]
Is it possible to have an orbit that doesn't bisect the planet?

An orbit around just the middle of the northern hemisphere.

Most satellites I see appear to go right around the "middle" of the planet. I figure that is just because it is easiest, but is it the only realistically possible way to have an orbit without continuous adjustments.

[Assistant]
An orbit must have one focus on the centre of the primary body. Also, orbits lie in a plane (orbital plane) and the focus lies on this plane. So this plane must intersect the equatorial plane. In particular, unless the orbit lies exactly on the equator, part of it will be in one hemisphere and part in the other. The points where the orbit crosses the equatorial plane are the nodes (ascending and descending) and the line connecting them is the nodal line, which is also the intersection of orbital and equatorial plane.

No escaping this!


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

[User] ELI5: How do we know counting rings in a tree is a definitive "1 year"?

[Assistant]
In places with seasons, trees go through a predictable growth-dormant cycle that produces the distinctive ring pattern.

Since most of these seasonal trees go dormant regardless of what the actual winter temperature was that year (they're timing the day lengths, not responding to unpredictable temperature swings) a ring is produced even if the year's weather was very unusual.

You get big rings for years with optimal growing conditions and weak rings for drought years.

Rings are less pronounced and more difficult to count in trees that prefer more tropical climates, since they may grow all year instead of stopping entirely on a regular cycle.


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

[User] ELI5: How am I able to cross seemingly vast distances in video games in only a few minutes of real time driving/riding? (GTA, Red Dead Redemption, etc). How do they achieve that illusion?

[Assistant]
You can move slightly faster in the game and still feel like your going at a reasonable speed due to visual effects that happen IRL that show us speed.
GTA is an example where the game play effect's this. If you drove according to speed limits and traffic it would take you a lot longer than normal in GTA.


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

[User] ELI5: Why don't our hearts get stronger as we get older if its constantly exercising?

[Assistant] They also don't (hopefully) get to take a break and rest. Rest is an important part of building muscle. The heart works constantly. Sure it gets to slow down some while you're sleeping or lounging in a recliner, but even your resting heart rate is work.


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

[User]
ELI5:Why isn't Crystal Meth used in the UK nearly as much as the US?

Been rewatching Breaking Bad again and since i'm from the UK it got me thinking. Over here you never hear of Meth being a problem, where as in the US its a much bigger issue. Is there any reason why Meth isn't popular in the UK?

[Assistant]
Everything about meth requires a lot of wide-open rural spaces.  The manufacturers need the isolation to run the labs without being noticed, and the users definitely need space to be their batshit selves without being immediately arrested.  So meth is a big problem in like rural North Dakota, rural Texas, West Virginia, the Australian Outback, etc., but you don't find it as much in like urban New York, Boston, Chicago, etc.

This is sort of the same reason why crack cocaine isn't popular in the UK even though powder cocaine is: Crackheads lose control, and would get picked up pretty quickly in a highly structured, surveilled society, while coke is more of a party thing.

There was this feature article a while ago about the *handful* of crackheads living in Berlin, and the cops all know them and they're constantly being watched, it's kind of strange.

The pattern seems to be: Urban poor = heroin; urban rich = cocaine; poor sprawl (like Los Angeles or suburban Boston) = crack and opiate pills; rural = meth and opiate pills.


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

[User]
Why does the verb "to be" seem to be really irregular in a lot of languages?

Maybe this isn't even true, and it's just been something I've noticed in the small number of languages I'm aware of.

Edit: Wow, thank you everyone so much for your responses! I just randomly had this thought the other day I didn't think it would capture this much interest.  I have some reading to do!

[Assistant]
> ...high token frequency correlates with irregularity (Bybee, 1985; 1995). As Bybee notes, isolated morphological exceptions require high token
frequency to be effectively accessed; low frequency irregulars are more likely to be regularized, presumably because they are not sufficiently entrenched. But this fact should not be misconstrued to entail that the converse holds: that high token frequency necessarily inhibits generalization. ... In the case of morphology, high frequency forms
likely receive little internal analysis, as Bybee proposes. (This is possibly due to the fact that high token frequency leads to reduction, and reduction leads to internal opacity.)

 -Adele E. Goldberg. 2009. Constructions Work. [Response] Cognitive Linguistics. 20 1: 201-224.

who in turn cites

Bybee, Joan
1985 Morphology: A Study of the Relation between Meaning and Form. John Benjamins Publishing Company.
1995 Regular Morphology and the Lexicon. Language and Cognitive Processes 10, 425-55.

Basically, high-frequency words (like the copula) are more likely to be resist regularization, and thus to be *preserved* from older forms. This makes them irregular in a new paradigm.


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

[User]
Is DNA acidic?

Well, DNA stands for deoxyribonucleic acid, so is it actually acidic in some way?

[Assistant] Yep, it is. Mostly due to phosphates in the backbone. It's actually the basis for DNA electrophoresis - if it wasn't charged - it couldn't dissociate in solutions - you couldn't use an electric field to induce movement of the molecules in a gel.


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

[User]
[Urban Fantasy] So I ticked off some gypsies a fee years back and got curse put on me....

Didn't think to much of it until a couple weeks ago, When I drunkenly harassed a voodoo priestess and got a *another*, different curse put on me.

What happens now? Do the curses cancel eachother out? do they work together against me? Or do they join together and form some sort of mutant, super curse?

[Assistant] Well, are they contradictory curses? If they have exactly opposite effects, then they would cancel each other out. If, however, one made you grow boils all over your body, and the other turned you into a toad, then you would just be a boil-covered toad.


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

[User]
CMV: Elected officials should lose their rights to privacy.

I think that as part of the requirements to run for office, candidates should have to fully disclose their personal information. Tax returns, birth certificates, arrest records, investments, etc. Basically any recorded information short of things like passwords should become public information. Furthermore, recording them without their consent should be legal, barring classified information which I hope they arent sharing in unsecured places anyway.

Since they are being elected to represent their fellow citizens interests, those citizens deserve to know who they are really voting for. In a sense, elected officials should be considered a different kind of citizen, because of the influence they wield and where their influence comes from.

I think that such a requirement would go a long way in weeding out some unsavory characters. Hopefully, under such a rule only people who truly have nothing to hide would be running for office. Their work is already largely transparent, with public hearings and sessions and laws that must be available for the public to read. Why not take it a step further and increase the transparency of the people doing the work as well?

I understand that even elected officials are still considered citizens and have the same basic rights as everyone else. Thus this proposal would be a direct violation of the constitution. But this change feels like its worth it, and exceptions have been made regarding other rights. The government taking rights away from the government just doesnt seem like a problem to me.

So, what am I overlooking here?

[Assistant]
You're talking about a group of people losing a basic human right. That's setting a very frightening president, the idea that people can have basic human rights taken away from them, people would use that as an example of why it's okay for other people to lose their rights as well.

You mention 'anything short of passwords' but passwords are by definition private. Would everyone be allowed access to whatever is being protected anyway? Why bother excluding passwords when the passwords would be useless?


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

[User] Why do some equations (like universal gravity and Gauss's law) require a proportionality constant, while others (like F=ma and V=IR) do not?

[Assistant] It has to do with the units. Gravity, and Gauss's law were both discovered, and describe physical phenomena. They require constants because they are not dimensionaly consistent. F=ma and V=IR are both true by definition. The units of force (and resistance) that we use were specifically designed so that they would fit together with the already existent definitions of mass, acceleration, voltage, and resistance.


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

[User]
ELI5: When to use "I" and when to use "me"?

A child I know uses "me" when he should use "I" and I'm struggling with a simpl way to explain the difference.

[Assistant]
"I" is used when the sentence is about you doing something:

>I see the dog.

>I want to go to the beach.

>I am running.

"Me" is used when something else is doing something to you:

>He saw me.

>The dog ran up to me.

>Can you take me along?


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

[User]
[Game of Thrones] Did Danys Unsullied army have any kind of support staff?

Like cooks, nurses, squires, etc?  Or were all 8000 of them self-sustaining?

[Assistant]
The Unsullied don't have any direct support staff, but Daenerys has other followers that serve in these roles. She has her remaining khalasar and other former slaves from Astapor, and eventually followers from Yunkai and Meereen.

In the books, she "buys" the 8,000 Unsullied, but also all the younger slaves still in training that have not yet become Unsullied. These younger soldiers can serve in support roles until they are old enough to fight. She also recruits many other former slaves into her army, as well as former pit fighters from Meereen.


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

[User]
Why does low blood pressure make you shaky?

Everything I can find is just listing shakiness as a symptom of low blood pressure, but what is actually happening at a cellular level that causes your muscles to not work as well?

[Assistant] There is a lot going on at the cell level. Cells are not getting enough of what they need. Blood is not moving fast enough and the body is being starved. Adrenal glands begin producing more chemicals to try and facilitate the lack of oxygen and nutrients carried by the blood to keep you standing. The kidneys and liver aren't filtering blood properly. The brain begins to reorganize priorities and starts reacting by releasing hormones to start increasing blood pressure. At this point, the calcium and sodium levels in the cells are becoming unbalanced and the neurons that control muscles are either leaking too much calcium and causing tremors and/or the neurons and nerves in the brain and down the spine are not receiving the proper chemical signals and cannot fire muscles properly. Basically, your whole body is not working properly. Its like if you don't put enough fuel in a plane and it starts to go down 30,000 feet in the air. Whats wrong with the plane its going down!? well, there's not enough fuel so everything is shutting down. The engine will likely rattle for a bit and then shut down.


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

[User] ELI5: When a phone app asks for permission to access your contacts, identity, etc. what data can they get from your phone?

[Assistant]
Potentially ALL of the information within the categories they are requesting and in some cases more than that.  You are trusting that the creator/company is only accessing the info to for use within the program but most agreements only imply this is the case.

Its within the realm of possibility that a downloaded additional keyboard can record key entries, that photo editing apps upload/save your images to their servers, that additional camera apps could activate/record from your camera when you did not intend it, the list goes on.

The apps are supposed to go through testing before being allowed to be published to the market, but where is the line on what you have agreed to in a user agreement you didn't read or additional content downloaded in an update or through the app itself after installed?

Malware detecting software can only detect methods which are already known to exist... Inevitably someone is always a guinea pig.


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

[User]
[Cthulhu Mythos] How did Cthulhu cult spread among "mixed-race sailors"?

(Aside from Lovecraft's apparent racism, of course.)

Also, they seem very organized, as people involved with investigating them got mysteriously murdered.

[Assistant]
They see a lot of the world. Travel is their job after all.

They have seen more of the world and thus seen proportionately more of the various remnants of prior cults of the Great Old Ones.

While being in harbor they can make contacts with others of their profession, learning even more of old rumors and whispered truths, maybe even the odd scholar trying to drink his eldritch knowledge away in a pub.

Last but not least they are constantly above the place where Cthulhu sleeps in the depth. Drinking and thinking on deck after a hard day work your mind may well wander. And some beings may use the occasion to spread their influence...


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

[User] ELI5: Why do we prefer music that is familiar, whereas we (generally) prefer books and movies that are new?

[Assistant]
The enjoyment of music tends to come from anticipation and deliverance, so your favourite part of the song is a rewarding experience. Having that build up and build up in your memory can make the sensation more powerful rather than less.

A lot of the joy in a book or movie comes from the surprise of the story, and a lot of the details in it will be most enjoyable when you experience it for the first time.


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

[User]
[Marvel] How do I keep my mutant powers from being weaponized?

A couple years back I found out that I'm a mutant, and I got sent off to the Xavier School. I've got enhanced reflexes, a healing factor, and I can shoot barbs from my wrists that can make people go blind, throw up, pass out, and if you get enough of them in you, you can die. I've actually heard a couple of the professors here refer to me a "living weapon." I think I heard Professor Logan say something about a "special curriculum."

The thing is, I abhor violence. The first time I accidentally barbed someone I pissed my pants and had screaming nightmares for weeks. The absolute last thing I want to do is get into a fight, let alone recruited into some crazy intermutant war.

What's my best move to live as quiet and normal a life as I possibly can?

[Assistant]
Luckily you're already at Xavier's school. Be up front with him and tell him that you dont want to fight. Beast or Forge can come up with something to prevent your barbs from hurting people.

It's worth noting though that all mutants, not just the X-Men or Professor X's students, are going to get into conflicts. You're better off knowing basic self defense including both physical and mental training (to protect against psychics).

Also in this post-Dawn of X world you can just hang out on Krakoa 24/7.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is push-back from power utilities against solar power such a big deal?

It seems to me that most of the strategies that utility companies are using to "push back" against the rise of solar energy is in the form of changing the way that they "buy" excess production from the solar panel owners.

Why do we have to sell it back to the utilities in the first place? Why not just use solar when you can, and use electricity when you can't? How is this a problem? What am I missing here?

[Assistant]
Interestingly, current power prices have a low fixed rate plus the variable rate based on usage. If you generate more power than you use, it credits back.

That fixed rate is *supposed* to account for grid maintenance and such, but the pricing used by most American utility systems doesn't charge enough in the fixed rate to cover those costs, and the balance is made up through usage.

Customers which use very little grid power thanks to on-site generation are therefore gaining the benefits of grid connection (more or less steady power at all times) without, necessarily, paying into the maintenance of said grid.

It's similar in some respects to the ways that electrical adoption in other fields is causing the breakdown of existing price structures. There's talk of switching the gas tax to a per-mile road tax, for example; the gas tax is a primary funding source for road maintenance, but high-efficiency vehicles pay a fraction of it and all-electric vehicles are effectively driving on roads that they're not helping to pay into.

It just means that the cost structure and pricing models associated need to adjust, and haven't done so yet.


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

[User] ELI5: If I have 'high blood pressure', why can't I just cut myself a little to reduce the pressure?

[Assistant] It is not the amount of volume.  It is the pressures inside your blood vessels...and therefore your organs.  Blood letting would not cure hypertension.  It might lower your blood pressure do to hypovolemia (loss of volume) for a period of time, but when your body recovers you will still have hypertension.  And those damaging pressures on your organs, kidneys and brain specifically.


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

[User] [Pitch Black] How does a species evolve that is allergic to sunlight on a planet with three suns and only experiences extended darkness every quarter of a century(ish)?

[Assistant] First, there is no evidence that the species is native to that planet. Maybe it's an invasive species brought there by accident or by design. Humans have been mucking about the Galaxy for centuries. Or maybe it's a mutation that proved to be beneficial because their prey was blind in the dark.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does a small amount of Spandex woven into a non-stretchable fabric like cotton give the entire garment stretch ability?

Wouldn't the cotton restrict any stretch from occurring?

[Assistant]
It's not really that the spandex is allowing the cotton to become more stretchy, it's that the spandex (until it is stretched) is retaining the tight/original shape of the garment.

Instead of thinking of a garment-with-spandex vs an equally tight garment-without spandex, think instead of a garment-with-spanex against a looser garment-without-spandex.  The looser garment is roughly as loose as the maximum stretch of the 'garment-with-spandex.'  The addition of the spandex keeps the garment/weave tight.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are the airlines complaining about profits when so many flights are so full?

Utterly anecdotal but I can't remember the last time I was on a flight with more than a handful of empty seats. Even the super-early and red-eye flights I've been on have been near full.

Am I just super unlucky and 90% of flights are nearly empty, or are they just incredibly bad at running their businesses?

[Assistant]
You're looking at the wrong thing.

Don't look at seats on a plane, look at financial statements.  These companies are barely able to keep their heads above water because they are so cutthroat competitive with each other, so their margins are razor thin.

And their greatest expense is also the most volatile - fuel.

In the end, for every $100 you spend on a ticket they might see a dollar or less in actual profit after all of their expenses are covered.  A single disaster of any kind, even just a small increase in oil prices is absolutely brutal for these companies.


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

[User]
[CW Flash] To hell Barry get drunk the gang creates a "500 proof" drink. How can something be 250% alcohol?

Edit : To help*

[Assistant] To be fair, Caitlin says "It's *basically* 500 proof." in that scene, and didn't say it was a literally impossible drink. What she did was probably make a solution of lab-made moonshine first (so she could precisely measure the amount of alcohol), and then mixed in a few other compounds and substances that are known to create impairing effects in tiny doses. She then increased the dosage of said substances to fatal levels for a regular person. But she knew Barry could metabolize super fast, and successfully gambled that he'd feel buzzed for at least a short time.


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

[User] CMV: I feel that many black Americans believe that they're entitled to things (job opportunities, college admission, etc) for the sole reason that their ancestors were treated poorly. Please change my view.

[Assistant]
I believe that it's no longer about "reparations" as much as it is now about endemic racism and intentional harmful actions of a majority in an effort to keep a previous status quo alive.

The people who are complaining about black kids not getting an equal shake of things are saying it's because their great great great grandparents were owned by other people.

They're complaining about the fact that US society has regularly *actively* prevented the majority of them from living a life to the same standards as would a white American.


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

[User] If someone has a fully sealed iris (like the One that recently reached front page), why can't doctors simply cut a pupil into the iris?

[Assistant] A pupil is not the lack of iris. If you were born with no lips they would not appear by cutting the area directly above and below the mouth hole. It would bleed and begin the normal healing process. This would work out far worse in the situation involving an eye.


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

[User] [Every fictional work involving orphans ever]Why is every orphanage staffed by people who apparently hate orphans? And why is every orphanage poorly-run? Is this some sort of conspiracy?

[Assistant] We never see the orphanages that get enough funding. Those are boring. In the orphanages we do see, every staff member is overworked and underpaid. Even if they loved kids, it's the kind of thing that wears away at you.


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

[User]
[Warhammer 40k] How much of their personalities do Space Marines retain?

Im your average pre-teen hive-scum and one day after an especially fruitful day of stealing twice digested mutant rat flavored rations from my neighbor when I was suddenly kidnapped by a giant hulking space man. Im sitting here on my way up to the terrifying sky-fortress and I was told in fancy-gothic something about there being surgery waiting up there for me that will make me just like them. I can see so far that all these space men act the same. Is this a culture that they develop amongst themselves or does the surgery change their personalities directly? And if it will change my personality directly will I be 100% a different person or will I keep small things like my favorite color and how I like to smear sewage mud on my face to fall asleep?

[Assistant]
Very nature vs. Nurture problem, but you will retain plenty of stuff that remains the same in your brain. Of course they change and add thousands of things over years, so the process itself is both nature- It might kill you and only some survive. Not to mention the ENTIRE point of the process is to change everything about you including your personality. And Nurture, they have tons of physical and mental techniques to mold you into the person they wish you to be.

How much of your past you meat/mental is left? Hard to say, but I'd  dare say not a whole lot.


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

[User] [Batman] Jokers done some pretty awful things in his time. Is there anywhere that hed draw the line? If he met a nazi, would he shake his hand, or break his fingers?

[Assistant]
There's been at least two events that instantly spring to mind:

One, the Joker once met Red Skull from Marvel in one of the rare cross-universe crossovers. When Joker found out he was a literal Nazi from WW2, he flipped out and was ready to start shooting at Schmidt.

Two, Joker (at least twice?) was adamant that even *he* won't cheat the USA's Internal Revenue Service.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does cough & congestion linger so long after the "cold" is long gone?

Why is it that when you get over a cold, the main symtoms of feeling "sick" go away but although you feel physically healthy sometimes the cough and congestion can last for weeks and sometimes months afterwards?  Thanks :)

[Assistant] Imagine you see a poisonous bug on the ground. You REALLY want to squish that bug. How many times will you step on it? Will you just tap it once real quick with your foot, or grind it in to the ground repeatedly to make sure it's definitely dead (even though the extra presses are probably overkill)? The second choice, of course - this is a poisonous bug! You want to be thorough! Similarly, when you get sick, your body doesn't just lightly step on the sickness. Your body hates being ill, and it will do everything it can to grind those germs it into the ground. This is why you may feel better fairly quickly after getting a cold (the bug is dead), but your body keeps coughing and congesting afterwards (to make sure that bug is actually gone for good).


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Why didn't any wizard tip off the press to the existence of magic?

Seems like it would have leaked at least once....

[Assistant] David Blaine, Criss Angel, Penn and Teller, David Copperfield... Whose to say they haven't? Hell, even Harry and Ron drove a flying car over a major metropolitan area and made the news. Even with the Ministry of Magic trying to keep things quiet the odd incident will slip through. That said if you saw that headline, would you believe it?


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

[User] ELI5: How come the south was democratic in Lincoln's time but Republican now?

[Assistant]
The Civil Rights Act and Nixon's Southern strategy in 1968.

A Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act signing away the racist white south, and Nixon promised to battle the liberal supreme court and took the South from the Democrats.  It has been that way ever since but likely not really due to race related issues anymore.

 The South used to be filled with "yellow dog democrats" as in they would rather vote for a yellow dog than a republican.  Funny how things turned out.


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

[User]
Is there a trick to reading economics papers?

I'm a 2nd year undergraduate of economics. In some of my modules there's a large emphasis on reading academic papers directly from sources such as Economica, Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Review.

To be honest, I struggle with them. The language seems very difficult and so does the theory. I find myself stuck in a circle - I don't know the theory because I don't really understand the article, and I don't understand the article because I don't know the theory!

Sorry if this type of academic question isn't welcome here. Is there a trick to it? Any advice from successful economists?

[Assistant]
Read the introduction first. Then write down

1. What is the question the author is asking? Why do we care? is the paper primarily pedagogical, or is it answering an applied question, or is it reviewing & synthesizing older results, or is it building a new theoretical model?
2. What is the author's strategy? Is she going to write down a proof? Will she be offering computational simulations? Will there be data and regressions? *These are basically the three methods we have. It's gotta be one.*
3. What are the author's results? Do they answer the question? Is the answer reasonable?

The (question, strategy, results) should, ideally, *exactly* be the first three paragraphs of the paper. Sometimes they aren't, and you have to hunt all through the intro to find them. If you can't find them in the intro, read the conclusion and hunt there.

So write these things down down! Write down in one sentence each, or perhaps two, the question, the strategy, and the results.

Once you have figured out the question, strategy, and results, it's time to tear the paper apart. Do you believe the results? Do they matter?  Do you believe the empirics? If it's a theory paper, are the assumptions reasonable? If it's computational, do you think the model is capturing the features of reality that the author wants to explain?


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

[User]
CMV: There is no system of government that is impervious to corruption and abuse of power

If youre in a monarchy, dictatorship, or other system that entrusts most or all decisions to one person, you rely on that persons morality and leadership ability to keep your human rights safe.  If the king is a good dude, this works, but if not you have an all powerful asshole at the helm.

The converse then is democratic forms of government.  Things might be better because you can vote an asshole out, but mob rule leads to things like the legislation of fear and possibly systemic exploitation of minorities (the southern us states pre civil war is an example).

Now regardless of what ethnic, economic, religious, or other principles a nation is founded on, its government is either elected or permanent.  It might be possible to clean things up and move closer to an open, uncorrupted system, but my conjecture is that no system can or should be expected to be the perfect one.

[Assistant]
You could have a system of government that operated entirely by chance, based on the roll of a pair of dice by a randomly-selected robot. The twelve choices that the dice select from would be selected based on a randomly-selected child (under the age of 12) throwing a dart repeatedly at a board with thousands of policy options pinned to it. The options would be written in a language the child can't read.

So, this would make policy selection pretty impervious to corruption. But it's plainly batshit.


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

[User]
[General Superhero] What are the best ways to maintain a secret identity? Are there any specific tactics that could help?

Are there any jobs that would be particularly advantageous? Or what if you were still in school?

[Assistant] Honestly the easiest way is to be menial. Who would ever expect the buff janitor or janitor to be a hero. You might get a couple people saying you look like hero X, but just laugh it off with "I get that all the time."


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

[User] ELI5: How is there nothing in space? I get that there isnt necessarily air like we have in our atmosphere on Earth, but how can there be nothing?

[Assistant]
Most theories think the universe started out as mostly gaseous, but particles of matter attract each other through the force of gravity (which is something you get for free, as a fundamental property of matter). When matter starts to clump together, voids are left in space - and over a very, very long time, those voids get very large.

There are still gas clouds out in space, but there is a lot of volume of space that contains nothing at all.


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

[User]
[Logan] Who was writing/making those X-Men comics?

When they were in the hotel room, Logan got annoyed about Laura having/reading X-Men comics and believing them to be accurate. Who was writing and publishing them? And why did they start? The general public was never particularly fond of mutants, which would limit their audience to mostly mutants who are mostly nonexistent by the time the movie takes place.

[Assistant]
Well, it is perhaps worth mentioning that Marvel Comics actually exists in the (mainstream, at least) Marvel Universe. You know how Watson just wrote down all Sherlock Holmes' adventures and Doyle was just the literary agent? It's sort of like that.

And while mutants aren't appreciated by establishment authorities, they have what you might describe as "counterculture appeal." Kids eat that stuff up.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do so many viruses have similar symptoms?

I was reading about how there are many different viruses that cause the common cold...why do all these viruses share the same symptoms? What makes a cold virus different from one that causes another viral infection?

[Assistant] Different viruses can have a common tropism, i.e. the type of host cells they infect. In the case of the cold viruses they recognise the epithelial cells of the respiratory tract. Moreover, the symptoms are due to the body's immune response, rather than to the viral attack itself. That is why the body's response to a cold or to the flu are similar even though the sickness can be caused by totally different viruses.


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

[User]
[General Fantasy] Do races with longer life expectancies get longer jail sentences too ?

Assuming the legal system in use is mostly intended to give fair sentences, it seems like it could make sense for humans and, for example, elves not to get the same jail sentences, since humans would have a larger portion of their free life taken away than elves if it were the same, right ? Which wouldn't be fair.

[Assistant]
I can't think of any fantasy settings that have set legal punishments like that. Having minium and maximum prison sentencing rules is a very modern concept, and didn't really exist in the medieval settings.

Punishments for crimes are usually decided by the local lord or leader, they were also usually more immediate, things like whipping/flogging, getting a hand cut off, or time in the stocks. If you were thrown in a dungeon it was to wait for something, either your execution day or for someone to pay a ransom.

Of course there's no reason you couldn't have a system like you're describing.


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

[User] ELI5: Why and how does putting a hairdryer in a bathtub electrocute you? Why wouldn't the electricity take the shortest path to ground through the water?

[Assistant] Electricity only takes the shortest path with no resistance. If there are multiple paths exist with none zero resistance, then more electrons go trough the path with less resistance and less electrons go trough the path with more resistance. However electricity goes trough all paths in second case.


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

[User]
[General Sci-Fi] Are there any despots removed through democratic/civil means rather than rebellion

So many evil emperor's get chucked down reactor shafts or shot in the head. Then their whole government disintegrates and a sparkly new democracy rises up.

But generally speaking, Rebellions are messy, and often do just as much harm as good, even if in the long term, it's for the best.

What I'm wondering though, have there been any Emperors or dictators who gave in to political pressure after a conflict or civilian resistance, and just peacefully resigned (and probably took their off planet bank accounts with them to retire on a distant planet where no one could exact revenge)

[Assistant] World War Z had Castro (yes, that Castro) accede to democratic pressures in post Z-War Cuba and sponsor the transition to democracy that would see him leave office. The narrator of that chapter notes that by doing so he ended up completely rewriting his legacy for the better.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do some websites tell you that they use cookies and have a 'got it' button, if almost every website uses cookies?

[Assistant]
The EU made it mandatory for websites in that region to inform users that they're putting a small file on the users computer, that can be used to track that users browsing habit on that and other sites.

Privacy laws are a big thing in Europe, so it was a long thing common. It basically means that you now consent to them doing that, whereas before unless you were tech-savvy, you have no idea.

If you're not in Europe, and/or browsing a European site, you might still see it, as it's easier to just make it a global site change, than to filter it depending on where the users are coming from.

tl;dr: EU made it mandatory to tell people they're being tracked by cookies, as most people have absolutely no idea what a cookie even is, much less what they do, and people ought to consent to that kind of thing.


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

[User] How do fatty animals like seals or walruses not get diabetes (from lipotoxicity) or coronary artery disease?

[Assistant]
They evolved to a state where the blubber is an insulator to keep their body at functional temperature.  They don't have the abdominal fat that accumulates around their organs like people do and they have a consistent diet of the food they're supposed to eat, hunt and swim.

 People on the other hand eat fried food, manufactured food, sweets and exercise less and less as time goes on. We throw off our bodies functions both environmentally and with our diets and exercise.  In 1990 to 2005 alone the rate of diagnosis of diabetes has increased 66%.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do we instinctively seem to hit machines / devices that aren't functioning properly? Where did this come from?

[Assistant] It's called "Percussive maintenance" and it's related to the old mechanical and analogue systems that used to drive machines where if they got stuck sometimes a sharp jolt to the machine could cause the stuck pieces to jump into their proper places.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is space dark?

I don't understand how it is light on earth but when you go into space it gets dark. Shouldn't it get lighter the closer you get to the sun??

[Assistant] Space isn't dark. Space is *empty*. You only see colors because light from the Sun is reflecting off of stuff here on Earth, or stuff in the atmosphere. But space is basically just emptiness, so there's nothing to reflect off of, thus it just appears black.


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

[User] ELI5: How does dominos pizza have a single number to call the most local place, while their landline number is much different?

[Assistant]
Back in the day, people had to pick up the phone and ask the operator to switch their call to the person they wanted to talk to. Now these jobs aren't done by people, they're done by machines in which we enter phone numbers into.

What's happening at your pizza place is pretty much the same thing that killed the operator - the call is being routed by a computer in a call center.  Here's the basic steps:

1.  Computer receives the call but does not answer.
2.  It uses your caller ID information to determine your location.
3.  It starts a new call and dials the local shop.
4.  When the local shop picks up, your call is immediately answered and connected to it.
5.  When either you or the shop hangs up, both calls the computer is dealing with are ended.

This makes it *look* like you called the local number, when in fact both you and the pizza place are actually talking through this call center.  You can imagine this "connection" to be like holding two phones together, mic-to-speaker, so other people can talk.


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

[User]
If rust is just oxidized metal then why can rusty metal transmit tetanus (a bacteria)?

I've never heard of someone getting tetanus from clean metal so what about rusted metal is different?

[Assistant] What's different is that the bacterium that causes tetanus (Clostridium tetani) cannot survive in an environment with high oxygen concentration (it's an obligate anaerobe). Oxygen easily binds to iron (rusting it in the process), so the surface of an iron object is actually low in oxygen, which facilitates C. tetani survival and growth.


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

[User]
[Marvel-616] We can all see that Venom has developed a mind of its own after many different hosts and can conflict with Eddie at times, but does the Carnage Symbiote have a personality of its own?

In comics involving Venom we always see Eddie and Venom each having their own internal monologue and even conversations at times, but whenever Carnage appears, it seems like Cletus and his Symbiote are essentially one in the same person. Does the Carnage Symbiote have an internal monologue, or thoughts? Does it talk to Cletus like Venom does to Eddie? Or is it mindless and infantile and solely act on Cletus's will?

[Assistant] Carnages mind, due to bonding with Cletus Kasady almost immediately after its birth and more deeply than most Klyntar do, is effectively a perfect copy of Kasadys twisted personality.  It is for this reason that Carnage usually refers to himself with first-person singular pronouns, as opposed to Venoms famous use of we and us, as, like you said, Kasady and Carnage are pretty much one and the same.


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

[User] ELI5: How can netflix be unavailable in Italy due to infrastructure issues, but it works just fine with a VPN?

[Assistant]
It's not a "netflix won't work in Italy" thing, it's a money thing. If you have broadband internet, netflix will work fine for you, regardless of where you are unless there's a giant firewall cutting you off ala china or something.

But if not enough people have fast enough internet, it's not profitable.

Some analyst looked at the number of people who have broadband access in italy, divided by the percentage of those people likely to buy netflix, and added together how much money they'd end up paying. Then they compared that total to how much it would cost to license all the movies and server expenses and so forth and decided that they wouldn't be making enough money to justify the cost until more people in italy have broadband and/or a desire for netflix.


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

[User]
ELI5:What is quantitive easing?

I am an intern at a financial institute and constant talk about bernacke and this policy have gone around but I don't understand it completely.

[Assistant]
One of the jobs of the Federal Reserve it to help set monetary policy for the United States.  One of the main ways it does this is by setting the Federal Fund Rate.  This is an interest rate that banks pay each other for interbank loans, but more importantly, almost all other interests rates (home loans, credit cards, etc) , directly or indirectly, are related to this rate.  The lower the interest rates, the easier it is to get a loan, which makes expansion (personal or business) easier, which generally increases growth.  When the economy is going along good, the Fed raises interest rates, which slows things down a bit, and when it's going poorly it drops interest rates to give things a boost.  What it's attempting to do is avoid boom/bust cycles (which obviously it can't eliminate given we are still recovering from a giant economic bubble bursting), and provide steady continuous long term growth.  In the wake of the housing bubble collapse, the Fed dropped interest rates from around 5.25% to it's current rate of 0.1%.  That's literally almost nothing, and it means that the Fed can't continue to use decreases in interest rates to spurn on the economy.  Given that the unemployment rate is still very high, and in general the economy is on unstable ground, this is a bit scary.  Basically the main nob that the Fed uses to push the economy into action got dialed to 11, and that's still not working.

That led the Fed to adopt an additional policy called Quantitative Easing (QE).  Basically the central bank purchases very large amounts of public bonds.  Bonds are traditionally a safe place to store you money, with low by reliable returns on investment.  By buying up large amounts of these bonds, they are denying people and companies from being able to have access to that safe place.  If you don't invest in anything (just keep a pile of cash sitting around) then the value decreases over time because of inflation.  So basically the Fed is forcing people to invest in some other project (like expanding business ventures) if they want a decent return on their investment.  This, coupled with historically low loan rates, means it's very good time to invest in those sorts of projects, which should increase their frequency, which should give the economy a kick in the pants.


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

[User]
If we know who the major drug lords are. Why haven't we assassinated them?

I know that a lot of the faces of major drug lords are public. I'm wondering why the country(any) hasn't assassinated them? I know it's probably not legal, but they've done plenty of dirty things. Why not this?

[Assistant]
Well for starters they usually have very high levels of security around them, assuming one can even pinpoint their location. Take Colombia for example, there is a lot of rainforest to hide in and you'd need to get pretty damn close in to actually have a chance of threatening their life.

Secondly, drug cartels do have command structures. Removing the guy at the top doesn't cause the whole organization to collapse upon itself. Another guy would simply take control and the organization would continue as normal.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are countries along the equator mostly low-income countries while countries in colder parts of the world are mostly high income?

Is there a direct correlation between temperature and wealth?

[Assistant]
Jated Diamond argues in his book *Guns, Germs and Steel* that Europeans and Asians got an enormous head start because of geography:

* some plants lend themselves to agriculture by producing energy-dense seeds which are easily harvested and which have a long shelf life after drying
* the Mediterranean climate was ideal for growing these plants
* Europe/Asia has a long east/west strip which allowed agriculture to propagate
* the Americas have regions with the same climate, but the dominant axis is north/south so those areas are separated and constrained; agriculture wasn't able to propagate the same way
* the Indigenous Australians could never have invented agriculture because the domesticatable plants simply weren't present, likewise with many other places
* agriculture meant that an individual could generate more food than they required, which enabled specialisation and a division of labour, which in turn enabled innovation
* certain types of animals lend themselves to domestication (especially important is a herding instinct); almost all these animals were present in Europe/Asia, and absent elsewhere
* domesticated livestock added to the food surplus, and added mobility
* living at close quarters with the domesticated livestock led to disease transmission, and after some time a "herd immunity" within the human population; the indigenous peoples who were later invaded had not acquired such immunity and were heavily impacted by diseases brought by colonists/conquerors

On top of that, the alphabet was invented in the Mediterranean region whixh enabled transmission of knowledge, which enabled growth of knowledge, which imparted military abd commercial advantage

With these advantages, the rest of the world didn't have a chance. At least, not for the first 10,000 years. But oil became incredibly important a bit over a century ago, and the existing empires were absolutely smashed by WWI.  We're at the beginning of a new chapter. A Chinese diplomat was asked what he thought of the French Revolution and he replied, "It's too early to tell". That's probably pretty true.


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

[User] ELI5: how did Ask Bongo and similar services that were popular a number of years ago find out so much information about me so quickly?

[Assistant]
I worked for one of these. We googled you. You'd be surprised what we could find out, especially when Myspace was still a thing and nobody had anything on private. Also remember it's not just your own profile, it's anyone else's that has your full name.

We also could see your message history with us. A surprising amount of texts came from people who'd texted the exorbitantly expensive service before. If you ask "Does John like me or does he just want to be friends?" then two weeks later ask us what we know, bam, we'll say you have a good friendship with John.


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

[User] ELI5: If alcohol helps kill bacteria and fights bad breathe (like mouthwash), why does your breathe smell like death after a night of drinking ?

[Assistant]
Because the alcohol doesn't kill ALL of the bacteria in there and those little greebly bastards reproduce right quickly.

Then there's good odds that you didn't brush your teeth before passing out into a drunken stupor. That means there's all sorts of dilute sugar solution from the beer or wine that you drank (the alcohol would have evaporated away), coupled with oily residues and starches from the full bag of Doritos and breaded chicken wings that you ate earlier in the evening. This is wondrous foodstuff for the bastards and they go right to town, producing all sorts of atrocious-smelling byproducts as they digest them.


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

[User]
CMV: The Army Should Not Make Their Fitness Tests Different for Each Gender

I read a story today about how the army is considering making their fitness tests different depending on gender. They found that women were not passing at the same rates as men, so they are considering lowering the bar / changing the tests that women do. I feel like this is a bad thing for 2 main reasons.

1. The fitness test getting easier means less fit people in the army which means a less qualified army, could lead to more deaths. I have no evidence of this, just seems like it would happen.
2. Everyone should be on an even playing field. If it's sexist to say that women are not as fit as men, it should be sexist to propose lowering the bar for women too, right? I'm not sure if I'm sexist for saying women should take the same tests, or sexist for saying they should take an easier one.

So they had two options from what I can tell; either accept that not as many women will pass as men (which might lead to really bad PR when some news outlet 'exposes' the military for letting men in more than women) or lower the bar (which might lead to really bad PR when some news outlet 'exposes' the military for suggesting that women need different tests).

I'm not sure there's a good option here. IMO they should keep the tests the same.

Talking about the Army ACFT fitness test here.

I maintain a belief that for specific roles where we need to set a bar for the safety of everyone, that bar should be the same regardless of gender. I'm not sure if there's any specific tests for specific roles that have different standards for men and women.

Edit 3: common points people keep making. "those tests aren't important for the job they are doing" - then stop testing for that in the first place. "doesn't matter how many pushups you can do to fly a heli" - then don't test for pushups! Not changing my view with that logic.

"they have different strengths that aren't in the tests and are important for their role" so include tests for those things that effect their score.

"fitness means something different for everyone, it's relative" - they apparently already account for body differences and adjust scores accordingly, at an individual level, for fitness. No issues here.

EDIT AGAIN! Removed some outdated stuff in the post now that I've learned so much thanks folks!

My view is now like this:
Testing for health / fitness? Test the individual while accounting for their body weight / size so that you get an accurate sense of how healthy they are. Not man vs woman, test on an individual level though.
Testing for a specific role? One, universal bar that is the same for everyone, because reality doesn't care about why you can't do something. Regardless, don't split it up between two sexes (sorry about saying gender when I meant sex so many times).

[Assistant]
Military fitness tests are a complicated issue.

On the one hand, ideally you want every soldier to meet the high physical standards required by frontline combatants. Any soldier *might* end up in actual combat, even if their job is something else, and if that happens, you need to be able to depend on them to perform. If they're not fit enough, bad consequences can happen.

On the other hand, if you *really* hold everyone to those standards, the results can be even worse. Some extremely competent and talented support personnel are simply not going to be able to reach that level of fitness, and if you end up kicking the support personnel out for failing those tests, then the remaining soldiers will suffer even more without backup.

While you want to push everyone to meet the physical standards required for combat, pushing too hard can create more problems if you're forcing out too many skilled soldiers.


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

[User]
Can I Make a Google Scholar Account If I Don't Yet Have Publications?

I need to make a Google Scholar Account to be linked in a paper, but I don't yet have a publication. Is this possible? Thank you!

[Assistant] There is a work around: Register for an Orcid ID. Sign Up for Academia or ResearchGate and submit a PrePrint with your Orcid in the document. Googles spiders should track it, then you can claim your scholar account when you search your name. Cheers!


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

[User]
[star trek] Who decided acceptable levels of nudity across so many species?

It seems like nearly all species, even shape shifters, conform to human standards of genital coverage. Who sets these norms across so many species? Is there cross-species body shaming going on across the galaxy? Are humans considered so cool that everyone decided to copy them?

[Assistant] From the hologram that the crew of the Enterprise recovered of the ancient humanoids, we can see that the species that seeded life across our portion of the galaxy wore clothes that covered everything but the head, hands, and feet. It's possible that they programmed an instinct for clothing into every species.