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

[User]
[Harry Potter] How are wizards so ignorant about the Muggle world?

Throughout the series, it's shown that wizards have television and live in areas where the majority of the population is Muggle.  Given this, how do wizards remain knowing so little about Muggles?  They don't know how to dress to blend in, they don't know how to drive or how any  Muggle inventions work, and most damning of all, they don't know what a gun is.

I pick these three things because to me, they seem to be common sense things to learn.   I can understand why wizards might not care much about driving since they have the Floo network and broomsticks.  And learning how to properly dress like a Muggle isn't that important (though you'd think wizards would pick that up through cultural osmosis), but not knowing what a gun is or does is downright dangerous.   The Daily Prophet has to explain to its adult audience that a gun is "a sort of metal wand Muggles use to kill each other" implying that most of the population has no idea what it is or does.  Which depending on when wizards started to isolate themselves from Muggles doesn't make sense since humans have had guns for centuries and wizards have adopted trains for their magical use.

[Assistant]
You have to understand one thing, Wizards are stupid. And for the most part it's not even there fault it is how there society is build up.

Look at there education system. They have 7 years of elementary school which they start at age 11 and that's it. Yes, yes it is in a luxurious boarding school but that doesn't change the fact that it is basically the equivalent of elementary school for muggels.

Compare this two system, on the one side you have muggels, which start education at age 6-7, they get elementary, middle school, high school up until age 18 and after that in most countries of the developed world you have free higher education. That means that a good chunk of the population has eighteen to twenty years of learning behind them.

And such a thing shapes the society as whole you live in, for as asking question, being interest in how stuff works, having arguments and discussion about different possibilities is natural and completely normal.

Now look at the Wizard society, only elementary school for seven years starting at the age of 11 and then maybe two to four extra years training in a speciality. Ta da! You are a mature member of our society. That has its toll. Wizards are not curious, Wizards don't have the need to explore (bah the only job having to do something with travel as far as we know is grave robbing), there is literally NO change in there society which wasn't somehow inspired by a muggleborn. They are dumm and ignorant. Ad to the fact that they are a much much smaller group so they will have statistically a lesser number of intelligent people (especially with all that inbreeding going on), they don't properly educate, and they are by design stagnant and stopped in there culture.

No surprise that they are ignorant about thinks that are not right in front of them and don't have anything to do with making there life comfortable.


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

[User]
Why does wood petrify?

Can someone explain why trees petrify instead of rotting away?

[Assistant]
Trees do rot. There are lots of them and they cover a good percentage of the surface of the planet. In some spots they get buried and isolated from oxygen, water and an environment that supports bacteria and bugs. Once they're in that position they become part of the sedimentary rock. Like all sedimentary rock they're available for metamorphis. They can be buried and bent. Their constituents can be leached out and replaced with silica as quartz.

Petrified wood isn't really wood at all. Its quartz. The shell of the wood is only there to define the structure of the quartz. The quartz replaces the water. The cellulose is leached out by the surrounding rock.


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

[User] Why doesn't Earth spiral closer and closer to the sun due to the sun's gravity?

[Assistant]
Because the Earth has enough velocity (that is, kinetic energy) to keep from falling into the sun.

**WARNING:  BUCKET ON A STRING ANALOGY APPROACHETH**

So you've got your bucket on a string, swinging around you.  Gravity wants to pull it towards the Earth, but it's literally standing straight out from you, perpendicular to where it should be.  That's because the rotational energy of the bucket is such that it counteracts the attraction of the Earth, in fact it completely cancels it.

The 'energy' of the Earth's orbit is the same concept - the Earth has enough kinetic energy that it doesn't fall (that's the energy of our orbit around the sun, the 'speed' that makes the year 365 days long).  If we were to suddenly stop, we would 'sink like a stone' plunging straight toward the center of the Earth-sun system.


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

[User]
ELI5, how important is it to wash fruit you bought from the grocery store? Aren't they pre-cleaned?

I've never washed an apple in my life besides the old breath and shirt rub. I had a work friend freak out saying how many poisons are on them. How true is this?

[Assistant]
Former produce clerk here. There's probably nothing inherently dangerous on the fruits and vegetables at your grocery store, and you could easily get away with eating them straight off the shelf. However, washing before eating just makes good sense; if you assume it's clean when you pick it up then you're assuming that everything went exactly as planned at every point in the process from tree to store. If one person, even another customer, with dirty hands touches that apple or it falls on the floor, then you're eating it. It's better off to be on the safe side and wash them yourself so you know for sure that it's clean.

TL;DR: Wash your fruit, just in case.


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

[User]
[Mortal Kombat] Why do most matches not result in a fatality before match ends?

If your opponent is about to lose, why stop with a knockout instead of outright killing him? You eliminate the chance he could defeat you in the next round or even commit a fatality on you.

[Assistant] Little did people know, fatility is actually a dedication ritual for Khorne! If you dare to perform the ritual before defeating the enemy in.. uh.. mortal combat, you are asking for an axe to your neck.


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

[User] [Pokemon] How have Pokemons such as Magikarp and Psyduck survived even though they have little to no way of defending themselves?

[Assistant]
Psyduck can actually defend itself just fine, it always knows Scratch and quickly learns Water Gun. They may also use flocking behavior for defense, like non-monstrous ducks.

Magikarp probably just run away all the time (they are pretty fast and have decently hard scales), and survive on sheer numbers like most schooling fish do.


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

[User]
I believe organic food production is a dangerous fad that has the potential to cause billions to die of starvation. CMV

Historically, human population growth went along with increases in food production and the switch from subsistence farming to larger scale farming and eventually industrial farming.

These increases in food production were made possible by a string of innovations and increases in productivity through technological and methodological advances in farming, like crop rotation, better plowing tools, use of animal labour, use of manure as fertilizer, breeding of crops and livestock, chemically produced fertilizers and pesticides, and, as of late, genetic modification of crops.

Today is the first time in recorded history that we deliberately use farming methods that decrease output under the moniker of organic food production.

I believe that the desire for organic food production is a symptom of rich and saturated societies, and is what we here know as a "first world problem". This desire has the potential to compromise the global food output if it becomes more wide-spread and increase the number of people living in hunger and dying from starvation.

I don't contest that chemically produced fertilizers and pesticides and GMO crops must be used carefully and in measured amounts to get the risk/benefit balance right, and yes, there are risks, hazards and dangers associated with them. I don't contest either, that early pesticides were rather poisonous and at times did more harm than good, especially when used naively.

However, science and engineering progress all the time, pesticides become better, more specific, fertilizers become better to handle, cheaper and less energy-intensive to produce, GMO crops continue what breeding programs have done in the past, that is improve a plant species for more and potentially healthier output with equal production cost.

And thus, I believe that organic food production is a dangerous fad, and that to increase food output and eradicate hunger and malnutriton we must use and improve industrial farming methods, using and improving all means available to us intelligently and wisely and without the prejudice of labelling something that came out of a chemical plant as "bad" while labelling something that came out of a cow's arse as somehow magically "good", and instead have a sane cost/benefit analysis that takes into account all that is availabe to us.

Quite simply, we must not throw away much of the food production techniques what served us well the last couple of hundred years because that could kill a large portion of humans alive today.

Change my view.

[Assistant]
You're correct that it's possible because we live in a first-world society where we have a glut of food available.  The reason this is correct is because this glut means that the food supply exceeds the demand, thereby leaving room for the lower yields that organic farming produces, because even with the lower yields, we still have too much food here.  If things were to progress to the point you fear though, where demand exceeds supply, then the market would push things back to the more efficient methods in order to cover this unmet demand.

So yes, it is a product of a luxury culture, but its existence is predicated on that luxury culture of excess food existing, and if this excess ever vanished, then organic farming would be forced to scale back accordingly.


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

[User]
how do doctors tell stem cells what organ to become?

from my understanding stem cells can become any piece of tissue so even if the put a mold in the right shape how do the cells "know" to be a kidney and not a liver or just skin?

[Assistant]
There are a number of different strategies right now:

* Small signaling molecules
* Inducing genes commonly expressed in the target cell type
* Fine-tuning surface hardness (soft surfaces promote neuronal growth, hard surfaces bone)
* Creating concoctions of growth factors and crossing fingers that THIS mix will be slightly more effective than the last one.

Cellular differentiation involves tons of genes talking back and fourth with each other, up regulating one, down regulating another. The biggest problem in the stem cell world right now is a lack of standardization. Some people have cell lines that happily differentiate into blood and liver cells, but take that same stem cell and attempt to make a neuron out of it and you're SOL. With other cell lines, the complete opposite may be true.

So how do cells know to become a kidney or a *"just"*  ಠ\_ಠ
 a skin cell? Cells have surface proteins that can bind to a large variety of molecules, these surface proteins start a signal cascade to some other part of the cell. So if a stem cell is surrounded by kidney cells, all making kidney proteins, in kidney salt concentrations, then it's probably going to assume it's a kidney cell.

So if we start off as a mass of stem cells why do we develop highly segregated organs instead of a massive kidney? Something about edge effects in the early embryo or something, fuck if i know.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does President Obama get paid? Does he get a paycheck like everybody else?

Does he have to pay for his own food at the whitehouse? Does he have an account with a bajillion dollars in it? Also applies to other politicians high up on the pyramid.

[Assistant]
The president currently earns a salary of $400,000 a year. He has a $50,000 expense allowance, a $100,000 travel allowance and a $19,000 entertainment allowance (ie for entertaining foreign dignitaries).

He pays for his, his family's and personal guests' own food. State functions and the like are paid for by the government. The White House and all its facilities are paid for by the government.


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

[User] ELI5: Where does the saying "cats have 9 lives" come from?

[Assistant]
Easy explanation: Because they're really good with their reflexes. They jump and land from heights we would break apart from.

More history:

An old English saying goes "A cat has nine lives. For three he plays, for three he strays, and for the last three he stays". The first three are the times where the cat is young. The next three are where it is in it's prime time and the last three are where it's too old to even catch mice. So first it plays, then it goes around, hunting and then it just stays home.

Cats are thought to be magical and have been worshipped in the past. The greek thought nine is the number of the "trinity of the trinities".

Basically, people have always seen how sturdy these animals are and, back then, have thought they are magical.


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

[User]
Eli5 What is full metal jacket ammo used for? How does it differ from normal ammo

How does it differ from normal ammo and in what ways is it better?

[Assistant]
Full metal jacket ammunition has some mechanical benefits, but the real reason that full metal jacket bullets are still used is the 1899 Hague Convention.

For most of the 1800s bullets were all soft lead. However toward the mid-late 1800s better propellant was developed, which caused more lead to be deposited in the barrel with traditional bullets. Full metal jacket bullets were developed to address that problem by surrounding soft lead with a metal that was less likely to foil the barrel at high velocities.

Problem was, the terminal effect of full metal jacket bullets (ie the injuries they caused) were generally less significant than a soft lead bullet. So, the British in India, at the Dum Dum Arsenal (hence dum dum bullet) developed a bullet that had a partial jacket but a soft lead deformable tip. In theory, less barrel fouling, same wounding capacity as a traditional soft lead bullet.

The Germans decided to start a diplomatic kerfuffle over the use of the bullets, and that resulted in Article III of The Hague Convention which prevented the use of these expanding bullets in *war.*. So most militaries use full metal jacket ammunition as a means of complying with international law since FMV bullets arent designed to expand.


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

[User] ELI5: How does tap water remain safe to drink after traveling miles and miles in old pipes underground?

[Assistant] Water in pipes is kept at high pressure so if there's ever a leak water only flows out of the pipe and not into it. Furthermore, the water is cleaned properly before it is pumped into the pipes. That way, only clean water goes through the pipes.


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

[User] ELI5: If radiation exposure causes cancer, why do they use it to treat cancer patients? Won't it just guarantee they will develop more cancer in the future?

[Assistant] Radiation exposure damages cells, including their DNA.  Cells with damaged DNA can become cancerous because the damage can cause them to replicate uncontrollably, which is what a cancer is.  But enough radiation exposure will kill a cell outright, including those which are already cancerous.  So doctors administer radiotherapy in a carefully targeted way such that it only attacks the cancerous cells of a tumour, killing them but leaving the surrounding cells mostly undamaged.  Because of the requirement for careful targeting, not all cancers are able to be treated with radiotherapy.


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

[User] [Star Wars] If Obi-Wan cut Padme down in front of Anakin on Mustafar, would Anakin have had any reason to go along with Palpatines plans anymore?

[Assistant] I mean, Padme was dead a matter of hours later and Vader stayed as Sidious's apprentice. Because at that point Sidious ensured that his had nothing and no one left *but* him. He'd burned bridges with the Jedi, his family was gone, where else was he gonna go?


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

[User]
What is Albert Camus really saying? "It is a kind of spiritual snobbery that makes people think they can be happy without money."

Err what? I read that quote on the internet and without any context it seems hard to reconcile it with an absurdist world view. Can somebody please explain what Camus is getting at here? Thank you!

[Assistant]
Just to take it literally.

If we assume money is a stand in for material wealth(as we should), then it seems to be saying "There are material needs that a human requires to be happy".  Which certainly seems more plausible then 'even if you are starving and stricken with pain, you can still be very happy'


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

[User]
ELI5: If Crimean citizens voted in a referendum to join Russia, why is the West against it?

Is the West afraid that Russia will try to take more of Ukraine? Does leadership think the referendum is invalid? Genuinely curious.

[Assistant]
1. Use the search feature

2. The ballot did not contain an option for maintaining the status quo

3. This kind of referendum while under enemy occupation is illegal under international law

4. The results of the vote are incredibly suspicious

5. This referendum is illegal under Ukrainian law.


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

[User]
What makes honey "non-spoilable"?

Pretty much the title.

Once my uncle found honey jar in the basement of his house which was stored there by my grand grandfather in early 1900's presumably, we ate it ( and didn't die).

[Assistant]
Osmosis mostly.

Osmosis is what happens when two water solutions of different concentrations of solvents are separated by a water permeable membrane. The water moves through the membrane to equalize the concentrations in the two solutions.

Honey is a solution with a very high concentration of sugars in it.

Bacteria and other microbes are filled with water that contains a smaller concentration of dissolved substances.

Cell membranes surrounding microbes are water permeable.

so when a microbe contacts the honey, a water permeable membrane separates a high concentration solution(honey) from a lower concentration solution(microbe cytoplasm) and the water will move in such a way to equalize the difference. Out of the microbe, drying it out.

Honey is also slightly acidic and contains some hydrogen peroxide but those are small factors.

TL;DR: Honey is a desert for microbes that sucks them dry.


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

[User] [Legend of Korra] If I enter the spirit world through meditation and leave through a portal, what happens? Are there now two of me?

[Assistant] Your spirit crosses over into the material world at the site of the portal while your body remains wherever you left it originally. However unlike Spirits, you will be immaterial and invisible to all but the most spiritually attuned people. A ghost, basically.


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

[User] ELI5: How are animated films directed?

[Assistant]
From the script they go to storyboarding.  Storyboarding is when they do drawings of key moments in scenes to give an idea of composition.  It's from the story boards and animatics (which are crudely animated story boards) where the director picks which shots he/she likes and they begin to work on the timing.

Once major parts of the film are in animatic form and the director approves them the voice talent will start recording their parts to somewhat match the animatics.  The director and his crew will oversee the performances of the actors.

One they know which takes they want from the voices, the animators will animate the final scenes the match the performance of the actor.  These scenes are also overseen by the director and his animation leads.

Scenes without voice work, such as fight or chase scenes, will have more complex animatics that work out finer details so the director can get the performance he wants from the animated characters.

When all the scenes are mostly finished being drawn (2D) or rendered (3D) the director and his editor(s) will cut together the final cut of the film or show.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is it that when you cut a small part of plastic it makes tearing much easier?

[Assistant]
Making a cut produces a focus point that will have to absorb all of your applied stress, rather than spreading it more evenly across the entire surface.

The plastic is strong enough in bulk to absorb your strength, but not strong enough to stop all that force applied to a single spot.


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

[User] [Greatest American Hero] why doesn't anyone recognize Ralph in costume?

[Assistant]
They look at what's happened to him, but even he can't believe it himself.
"Suddenly Ralph up on top of the world?
It's got to be somebody else!"

You see, they don't believe that he's walking on air.
 They never thought he could feel so free-
Flying away on a wing and a prayer.
"Who could it be?"

Just like a light of a new day,
It hit him from out of the blue.
Breaking him out of the spell he was in,
Making all of his wishes come true.
"This is too good to be true!"

Believe it or not.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are movies so quiet during normal dialogue, yet so loud during music score or action scenes?

Constantly changing the volume is annoying. It seems pretty much all movies made in the last twenty years or so is like this.

[Assistant]
The movie sound recording is mixed for use in theaters, which have different standards for audio levels, having a large dynamic range. Its an artistic choice of sorts, to give impact to loud sounds like explosions, gun shots etc.

They could of course remaster these levels for home audio, but they don't because it costs money. You can fix this somewhat if you have a surround setup by boosting the center channel volume from your amplifier, where most vocals are panned. Its worse however if you just use the TV or a 2 channel system, because the center channel becomes a virtual channel only (it plays identical sound through both speakers, making it sound as if its centered). While boosting a virtual center channel is technically possible, it requires digital sound processing that would add cost to any playback device.


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

[User] If the gravity of the moon is strong enough to create tidal waves, why doesn't it lift up things like tree leaves or small animals?

[Assistant]
Surprisingly no one has gotten the right answer to this yet! Mass plays a role in tidal forces but what's really important is more often size, not mass. The reason you have a tide at all is the difference in the pull of the tidal body from one side to another. We get a tide on the earth because the side of the earth on the opposite side from the moon experiences less gravitational pull from the moon than the near side that is close to the moon. This makes a net force on the object which stretches it out toward and away from the object generating the tide. Not everyone realizes this but there is actually a high tide on the side of the earth close to the moon as well as the side on the far side from the moon. Low tides are at 90 degrees from the moon on either side.

The only time tidal forces can act on small objects is when the masses involved are extremely compact. Spaghettification in a black hole is actually caused by tidal forces. Basically your head and feet are getting a high tide while your waist is getting a low tide!


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are dogs way more happy/excited to someone, and humans aren't?

A dog might go halfway psycho, run around the house, and jump on the person to smother them with kisses. But we will simply say "hey." What's with that?

[Assistant] Dogs take a lot less to be happy. When you're gone, all they do is wait for you to return. If you're gone for a few hours, that's a lot of time for them to sit and get more and more excited for your return. Humans will keep themselves busy, and don't spend hours anticipating your return.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Would Boba Fett ever accept a job from the Rebellion?

If Mon Mothma or someone was willing to pay him a lot of money (maybe even more than his usual rate) to get a really important job done, would he accept?

[Assistant]
[Expanded Universe]

It's possible there's something contradictory in one of the many stories somewhere, but it seems very unlikely: Boba Fett repeatedly expressed the view that working for the Rebellion was a dead end, both in practical (he did not believe the Rebellion *could* win, and felt working against the Empire would be cutting off his main employer) and personal (at one point expressed a distaste for what he saw as the Rebels' thoughtless lashing out at authority).

By the time it became clear the Rebellion not only could but was winning, he had already made deep personal enemies of far to many high-profile figures in it.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do some planes leave long white streaks in the sky and others don't? And what exactly is that gas?

edit: So, if I've learned anything from this, its that the clouds are chemicals the government uses to control us all. And anyone posting any other explanation is likely a government shill. Thanks Reddit!

[Assistant] That "gas" isn't actually a gas. It's really just ice that formed because of the combustion in the engines. The low pressure and cold temperature cause the water vapour to spontaneously depose into ice. This effect doesn't happen when for example the pressure is high enough and/or it's not cold enough for this change to occur.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does Microsoft want me to upgrade to Windows 10?

[Assistant]
The sooner Microsoft gets everyone moved over to Windows 10, the sooner they'll have a single platform to support, meaning they don't have to support previous versions anymore, making their development easier.

Plus it's their shiny new baby and they think it'll be a better experience for their users.


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

[User]
CMV: Blaming your own FOMO on someone else is ultimately just entitlement

FOMO = fear of missing out

I'll come right out and acknowledge that companies use the power of FOMO to compel people to buy their product/service. I believe it is still the responsibility of the consumer to choose what they do and do not buy. I'm aware that compulsive shoppers exist, so for the purpose of this CMV I'm excluding them.

I've noticed more and more people acknowledging their own FOMO and acting as though a company offering a product/service that results in their FOMO is somehow plotting against them or scamming them into paying more for something than they want to.

Where the entitlement comes in is the idea that if a company offers a product/service someone wants (not needs), the consumer decides how much it is worth to them. If the consumer cannot get the product for what they feel like paying, they believe the  company has done something wrong. They believe the company should not even be allowed to offer the product/service for that cost because it's unfair to people that want to buy it but can't. If they cannot acquire the thing they want, they would rather it not exist for everyone else than simply not buy it themselves.

We "miss out" on many things because they are beyond our means. Yet we pick and choose which of those things to be angry about. Something I may have strong FOMO feelings about, someone else may not care at all they do not have. So for me to say this particular thing should cost less or be easier to obtain because **I** *want* it is just purely entitlement imo.

As stated above, this applies to wants, not needs. In some cases though the line of want/need is a bit blurry. Something like affordable internet access has arguably become a need in many places these days. You cannot CMV by giving an example of something that is a want for some people and need for other people in certain cases. This view applies only to things that are clearly wants.

[Assistant]
>I'll come right out and acknowledge that companies use the power of FOMO to compel people to buy their product/service.

Doesn't this completely undermine your view? If companies are intentionally choosing to use the power of FOMO, doesn't that mean we can blame them for that choice? Why would it be entitlement for us to hold companies responsible for their own choices?


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

[User] [Mulan] What happened to "The Great Stone Dragon"? And how did none of the other ancestor spirits notice?

[Assistant]
Mushu was the Great Stone Dragon, when the ancestor told him to "awaken" it he was telling him to redeem himself and reawaken the guardian inside.

When he got back the ancestor remembered how irritating he was and was visibly annoyed by him.

(Disregard the sequel)


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

[User]
[DC] What aspects of the DC universe have gotten worse since Flashpoint?

Everyone talks about how the character went grimdark, but how much of that is true? How many origins were darkened, and how bad have things gotten in-universe since the N52 began? I'm trying to see how badly Pandora dropped the ball.

[Assistant]
The Flash and Green Arrow families took the biggest hit. A large part of their history and legacy was completely erased. Also, Green Arrow's character is very different that his Pre Flashpoint counterpart. Part of Rebirth is bringing back a lot of that history and legacy back. Some other characters that suffered:

Tim Drake (say goodbye to over 2 decades of character growth)

Superman (a lot of the writing was bad and the titles were poorly managed)

Superboy (Just blame Lobdell)

Kid Flash (There was Bar Torr and there was black Wally. Both were terrible)

Black Canary (this goes to bad writing for the Birds of Prey and Black Canary titles)

Donna Troy (she was ok in Titans Hunt, terrible in Finch's Wonder Woman)

Teen Titans (Once again: Lobdell)


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is charcoal used to make fire starting easier?

In my mind, dry wood lights quicker, so for example on a bbq, what does charcoal do a better job than a few sticks?

[Assistant] Charcoal *is* dry wood. It is wood that has been heated without oxygen (to prevent it from burning) which removes absolutely all water and decomposes parts of the wood, leaving mostly carbon residue which is much more volatile than dry wood.


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

[User]
[DC] Does Cyborg need to poo?

I mean, he eats food, right? How does he take a dump?

[Assistant]
Sometimes there is nothing better at reminding you of your humanity than sitting down on some cold porcelain and just letting loose. Cyborg kept around his biological functions for just that reason. Sneezes and Yawns and Hiccups are just part of being human.

However, if need be, he can switch them off in times of crisis. Waste recycling goes into effect, non-essential functions are put on hold. but where is the fun in that?


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

[User]
How should I handle a fellow student that is hijacking our lab meetings?

My five fellow students in marketing and I have a lab meeting with our advisor every two weeks in which we discuss papers in our field. I love our meetings because they have very high quality discussions and i want to keep it that way.

Our department is mixed with several other business related fields, including management info systems, which is different in terms of theory, methods, and journals. One of the MIS students, X, in the department has a project that she wants to be more marketing-related, although it absolutely is not. She has been asking our advisor for his advice and he graciously did. However, ever since this started a year ago,  X has become a complete nuisance. Examples: she asks our RA to design her studies for her (phd students should do this themselves) and takes up at least four hours of meeting time with advisor every week whereas the more junior students get far less (X has two advisors of her own in her own field, and our advisor has four students himself). This was not my problem so i let things be.

Now, however, she has started attending our lab meetings, which does affect me directly. Im ok with 'outsiders' attending, but only if they keep the discussion within the field. X is not doing this by consistently asking unrelated questions, refuses to alter her way of thinking, refuses to acknowledge other viewpoints, and talks over others. As a result, the quality of the discussion has plummeted.

I am the most senior student in the group, so I have something to say about what happens in these meetings if it really affects the group. I do not think our advisor can / will do anything about this (he is working with her so competing interests). He is also very polite and sincerely wants to help those that ask for his help, and she capitalises on this.

I am not afraid of confrontation and plan to confront X directly, but i want to come up with a smart strategy that involves not burning bridges with advisor or anyone else except X. What can i do to make this situation better?

[Assistant] Write and circulate an agenda for each meeting. This should include a timeline for each topic. Appoint a firm but fair chairman (yourself) to regulate the discussion according to what is on the agenda.


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

[User]
How to get involved with media or big research groups in STEM?

Hey everyone, I'm currently studying in STEM (biology) and a second passion of mine is media. Ever since I was little I would see these documentaries produced by BBC, Disney, etc. Or YouTube/Netflix shows produced by research teams like Nautilus, OceanX, the people that made Chasing Corals, etc. I've realized that I would love to combine my two passions in one (along with teaching, which I love) to be able to reach a larger audience.

My question to those people in the field, how does one go about getting their foot in the door for this kind of career? I would like to somehow work production as well as be part of these research teams. I'm assuming most of them are private sector so should I get out of academia the minute I'm done my PhD and start looking at joining and applying to these research firms? Or would it be possible to do a documentary of my own research or a topic of my choosing and somehow get a company to distribute it?

I'm assuming this is an even bigger gamble than  trying to be a professor at a university but I would think it would be amazing to do. At least have it on the side as a passion project. I had a biology prof once who participated in tons of documentaries and when I asked him how he did it, he said he just had connections prior in the entertainment industry. Would this be something I need as well?

[Assistant] Do you want to appear in documentaries or help produce them? The prof you mention who appears probably is being interviewed for them and not making content or editorial decisions.  Different set of skills for each, though doing some work in science communication may help for either.


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

[User] [Jurassic World] Why can't the T-Rex catch a woman running in high heels?

[Assistant] The T-Rex is kept well fed and doesn't need to catch the woman for any particular reason, she's not a threat and she's not going to provide much in the way of food, it's possibly toying with her by letting her think she's going to escape while trying to keep its hunting instincts from atrophying.


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

[User]
ELI5: How "Noise Reduction" headphones work

Like the Bose ones, or any others.

[Assistant]
You are probably thinking of noise cancelling headphones.

In these headphones noise is passively and actively blocked. Noise is passively blocked due to the headphones dense padding. Thicker padding = less ambient noise will be heard.

Active noise cancellation is a lot more interesting. You know sound travels in waves right? Sound waves have crests (high points) and troughs (low points). The headphones detect the formation of these ambient waves (the outside sound that you hear) and cancel them out by projecting an opposite wave. You might be familiar with basic trigonometry. Think about what sin and cosine waves look like on a graph. The noise cancellation is producing sound waves that nullify the ambient waves.

When hearing outside noise, at every crest your headphones will produce a trough and at every trough your headphones will produce a crest.


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

[User]
[40k] How inept is the Imperium really with their tech?

Are we talking having one person for each button on a keyboard kind of inept or just general lack of knowledge?

[Assistant]
Inconsistent.  They do understand enough to build new ships and repair warp drives and such.  Various groups are also perfectly capable of building entirely new technology.  The other problem is that information travels slowly, and the cheapness of human life doesn't inspire innovation.

What is clear is that Mechanicus knows a lot more than they let on, For instance: it turns out the ancient Ark Mechanicus (of which they have several) used in their explorator fleets are full STC factories and **fucking overpowered* with an advanced man-machine interface that lets the pilot control a kilometers long ship like it's power armor, black hole guns, and casual time travel capabilities.  But individual Magos, Forge Worlds, and the Mechanicum themselves jealously guard all information and technology, beyond any reason really.

For this reason the inability of the Imperium to fix anything is somewhat overstated.  There are people who understand *almost* all the technology in the galaxy, and they do actually manufacture and repair it.  The problem is that since information isn't shared and Amazon Prime will be 2000$ a month by then, it only makes for a drop in a bucket in one of a thousand widely spaced buckets.  There are no doubt individual high Magos who have personal Skitarii around a thousand years more advanced than the Tau and a clean, safe, fast ship that is the envy of the Eldar(most of it understood, enough to be replicable). In the grim dark future of the 41st millennium, people are greedy fucking morons.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Harry used a spell outside of Hogwarts and wasn't punished.

In the third Harry Potter movie the Prisoner of Azkaban, in the beginning of the movie, Harry Potter was using Lumos Maxima spell in his muggle home, which clearly violated the rules of secrecy where any student bellow the age of 17 is not allowed to use any magic outside of Hogwarts. Why is that?

[Assistant] Enforcement of the Statute of Secrecy largely depends on whether the magic was performed in the presence of a Muggle, like when Harry used the Patronus Charm to save Dudley from Dementors in Order of the Phoenix. Under the covers alone at night doesn't qualify. And Muggle involvement isn't even a guarantee - Fudge in Prisoner of Azkaban says "We don't send people to Azkaban for blowing up their aunts," so we can infer that context and intent are important. Plus, the Dursleys were Harry's guardians and they already know about wizards, so even if they'd walked in on Harry doing Lumos Maxima they'd just be mad, not dumbfounded and shocked.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do employers want experience for entry-level jobs?

We've all heard of employers who demand a couple of years' experience for even entry-level positions, but I still don't understand why they do that. What's the logic behind wanting that much experience for an entry-level job?

[Assistant]
proof that you can function in a work environment.

seriously... look around you, sad fact is that a sizable portion of our society cannot be relied upon to even show up consistently.  Let alone perform semi complex tasks of some importance.

Truth is, they will always *want* experience, doesnt mean they require it.  But if they can get enough applications with experience, why wouldnt they.  there are internships and tertiary job fields that can provide the first foot hold.


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

[User] [DC] Why is Wonder Woman, a Greek Goddess named 'Diana' a Latin/Roman name?

[Assistant]
She was named Diana as a tribute to the goddess Artemis, who was also known to the Romans as Diana by that point and would later become Diana's primary patron god.

In the Post-COIE era, Wonder Woman was actually named after Steve Trevor's mother, Diana Trevor, who had crashed on Paradise Island before Diana was born, and sacrificed herself to help the Amazon defeat a Hekatoncheires.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is Holocaust denial (and other genocide denials) a criminal act in so many countries? Why is it considered dangerous and not just idiotic?

I'm not a Holocaust denier, I'm having trouble understanding why a thought crime is punishable by law. I think there has to be a reason beyond the scale - people who advocate other nonsense are generally just ridiculed, not jailed.

[Assistant]
Because the nations where it is considered criminal were so terribly impacted by the holocaust that the criminalization of that speech is intended to prevent any similar type of repeat acts from within that group.

Basically, the holocaust denial is uniquely damaging to the nations which ban that (or they don't have all that great freedom of speech protections) due to it's scale and direct impact.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is air invisible?

[Assistant]
Humans eyes only react to a pretty narrow band of radiation (visible light), on the whole electromagnetic spectrum its pretty small.

Different wavelengths of light pass through or get stopped by different materials (the radio waves for your cellphone can get through the walls of your room but sunlight cant). It has to do with the density and electron structure of molecules/atoms, they like to absorb certain wavelengths, reflect others, and just ignore the rest.

So the air ignores visible light, it passes straight through and that is what makes it invisible to us, no light bounces off it that our eyes can see.

This phenomena is actually the basis for global warming. CO2 ignores visible light and ultraviolet light from the sun, but loves infrared light from the earth. So it lets energy from the sun go through, but traps/absorbs heat escaping from the earth, because thats a wavelength that it likes.


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

[User] ELI5: why aren't latitude and longitude divided the same? One is slices like an orange and one is layers like a cake? What is beneficial about the difference?

[Assistant]
Because of how the Earth spins around the sun, and to make navigation math easier.

It takes the sun 1 hour to "move" 15 degrees to the West (actually, the Earth is moving).  If you have a really good clock, you can measure when the Sun is on your longitude line and work out what your longitude is.  This only works if you use the slices (we call them "great circles") through the north and south pole for longitude.

It's mathematically useful for latitude to have right angles to longitude for the same reason the x and y axes of a graph are usually at right angles.  It's not absolutely necessary, but it makes things easier for us to understand.

So, the reason for latitude being in layers is math.  But there are a lot of useful side-effects.  Over the course of the year, the sun wobbles from ~~22.5~~23.4N to ~~22.5~~23.4S.  In December it's near ~~22.5~~23.4S and its warm in Australia and cold in Norway.  In June it's probably relatively warm in Canada and cold in Chile.

A special bonus is that there's a star called Polaris that wobbles around very close to always being over the north pole.  If you can see it, you can make a very good quick estimate of what your latitude is.  Again - not a reason, but a useful coincidence.

You could make a coordinate system with poles at, say, Honolulu and near Dekar in Botswana, but it would be a lot harder to solve time problems, figure out where you were using the sun, and answer if it's cold in January at 75N.

**tl;dr**: North and South poles are special because of the sun, longitude and time are linked, perpendicular axes make math easy.


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

[User]
[General/Vampire] Would a vampire under an invisibility spell be immune to sunlight?

Invisibility makes light completely pass through the subject, so part of the spell must create an illusion of what the user would see (as no light would be absorbed by their eyes).

As invisibility would cause sunlight to completely bypass a vampires body, would it be a way for them to walk about in the daytime?

[Assistant]
In described circumstances, sure.

But as usual details would depend on exact circumstances - does the spell ACTUALLY makes someone transparent? Or maybe it just makes an illusionary image of  what's behind him. Or maybe it bends light around? And how exactly vampire is vulnerable to sunlight? Is it physiological burn at UV-light, like in Blade, or an ancient curse of some kind that affects just the light of day regardless? That one wouldn't care about being transparent for example, if sunlight would hit even if it goes through... And some vampires are not harmed by sunlight at all too...


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

[User]
Eli5: Why are commercial planes never black?

I've seen jet planes of several colors. Almost always white but never black. Is it a heat absorption thing?

[Assistant]
Heat plays a factor but the largest factor surprisingly, is weight. Dark-colored paints weigh more due to larger amounts of pigments. When you spread that over multiple layers for the size of a large aircraft, it's significant enough that there isn't really a benefit to doing it. Additionally it can be harder to spot damage on dark surfaces, which is bad.

It's used by the military in some instances because it's easier to hide a plane at night if it's dark-colored.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do two single digit integers that equal 10 when added together both have the same last number when squared?

0^2 and 10^2 end in 0

1^2 and 9^2 end in 1

2^2 and 8^2 end in 4

3^2 and 7^2 end in 9

4^2 and 6^2 end in 6

5^2 ends in 5

So if

>x + y = an integer ending in 0
>x^2 and y^2 have the same last number

Is there a reason for this? It feels like this makes the unit of 10 mathematically unique.

[Assistant]
Let y = 10 - x. Assume x is an integer.
Then y^2 = (10 - x)^2 = 100 - 20x + x^2

Notice that in the expression 100 - 20x + x^2, since x is an integer, 20x will end in a zero, just like 100 does. That means that the last digit in the sum will be 0 + 0 + whatever the last digit of x^2 is.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Wizards posses the capability for magic because of the magic gene(s), is it possible to genetically engineer a pure muggle into a wizard?

By pure muggle I mean someone whos lineage is completely separated from wizardkind.

[Assistant]
The (s) at the end of gene is a huge factor in this.

If it was one gene that was an extra cellular, free floating blood stream protein (Im thinking like a magic-conduit protein), the answer is absolutely yes. Thats simple.

You isolate the gene, over express it in a skin graft, surgically attach the graft, then BAM, youre a wizard.

If it is even a little more complicated than that, we dont have the technology to say whether or not it would possible (though there are scenarios that are still feasible).

If its a lot more complicated, no way. There are some theoretical solutions to that, but if its multiple genes that are controlled by multiple pathways, we are not technologically there.


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

[User] Why are so many medications dangerous when taken with alcohol?

[Assistant] Actually, the reason certain medications are dangerous when taken with alcohol, is because they are metabolized by the same first pass enzyme in the liver - CYP2E1.  Now depending on how much of this enzyme is available, your body may become overloaded by both the drug and the alcohol, leading to adverse effects.   Same goes for other compounds. For example, you can't take statins (cholesterol lowering drugs) with grapefruit juice, because they are metabolized by same enzyme in the liver - CYP2D6.  This all comes down to the amount of readily available enzyme, needed to metabolize the drug.


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

[User]
[Lord of the Rings] Why does the One Ring make Frodo and Bilbo invisible, but not Sauron?

For that matter, why does it provide invisibility at all? It seems a rather odd and irrelevant power for the ring designed to control all the others. This heres the Master Server. From here, with the right admin credentials, you can control any computer in the buildings network. Every piece of data from the outside flows through here. Oh, and it also makes toast. I mean, thats great, but... why?

Its been far too long since I read the books, so Im basing this off the movie (which Ive paused to write this). In the opening montage, we see Sauron march into battle with his enormous mace, completely visible, but hes wearing the Ring.

[Assistant]
Sauron is a Maia, one of a race of powerful pure unseen beings - his body is in many ways a construct to allow him to interact with the physical world. The One Ring contains part of his power, and as a side effect shifts you to his world.

So the invisibility is an untintended consequence of what the Ring is, but it wouldn't have that effect upon Sauron since there would be no "shifting" of him to the Unseen "wraith world" because he's already from there.


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

[User]
I know that pi is infinite, but why couldn't we calculate pi so we could find the exact area of a circle?

I basically mean why is pi infinite? Why wouldn't it end once we could use it to find the perfect area of a circle?

[Assistant]
Pi is not infinite.  It is a finite number between 3 and 4.

It cannot be written as a fraction, and thus if you write a decimal expansion for the number, that decimal expansion will never end or repeat.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do balloons deflate over time?

[Assistant]
Gas molecules are small and rubber, particularly thin rubber like that used for balloons, is very slightly porous. Because the pressure inside is greater than the outside air, molecules will diffuse through.The rate of diffusion is governed by

1) the size of the molecule so something like helium which is just single atoms and therefore tiny will escape quicker than molecules like nitrogen consisting of two atoms per molecule.

2) the porosity of the skin so a Mylar balloon, and particularly one with a metal coating, will deflate more slowly.


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

[User] [MCU] Since he kept Pym Particles a secret, what sort of tech did Pym industries provide?

[Assistant] Pym Industries was under contract from the government doing R&D into quantum computing and high density information storage. In the 70s they developed magnetic reel technology that had substantially higher information density and waaay faster read/write speeds, and by the late 90s they were miles ahead of their competitors in  developing quantum-computing aided metadata analysis to make predictions on a given populations capacity for infiltration and subversion by extremist groups, or even more benign issues like whether access to water rights could lead to unrest in local populations.


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

[User]
CMV: THE IRA are nothing but a terrorist organisation.

First thing first, yes I am British. My mum was born in Northen Ireland and lived through The Troubles. She told me about how IRA members used car bombs and other bombing methods which killed innocent civilians. Doing this helped spread terror. I don't understand how people can label these people who did these acts a "Freedom fighters". There are many other ways to spread your point which don't include killing random civilians. I am open to see the other side of the view to people who see these people as freedom fighters and not terrorists.

[Assistant]
Freedom fighter and terrorist arent mutually exclusive.

In fact, a lot of the the time throughout history, terrorists have justified their actions as necessary to defending their home from foreign occupation.

From the American Political Science Review:
> The data show that there is little connection   between suicide terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism, or any one of the world's religions. ... Rather, what nearly all suicide terrorist attacks have in common is a specific secular and strategic goal: to compel modern democracies to withdraw military forces from territory that the terrorists consider to be their homeland"

This isnt to say that the IRA werent terrorists, just that they arent just blowing stuff up because it looks cool.


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

[User] [Harry Potter] Did the Dursley's have plans for what to do with Harry long-term? Were they planning to keep him as a basement slave for the rest of their lives? Were they going to kick him out when he became too old and disavow all knowledge of him? What were they actually thinking?

[Assistant]
Keep him alive until he's 17. That was the only thing they cared about.

Dumbledore's letter when he left Harry was short but to the point. Petunia and Vernon were far from the most knowledgeable muggles, but Petunia had been familiar with the wizarding world for nearly a decade by that point and Vernon was well aware of its existence. Despite their determination to avoid all things magical, a letter detailing how your sister and brother-in-law were just killed by Wizard Hitler and kicking your orphaned nephew (who also just defeated Wizard Hitler) out of the house before he's 17 will make you a target for all of his followers is the sort of thing that puts the fear of God in you. So they did what they had to and nothing more. Keep him alive with a roof over his head.

Once Voldemort returned Harry was on borrowed time with the Dursleys. Petunia and Vernon received several updates from Dumbledore himself warning of dire consequences should they kick Harry out before he's 17 but by that point they really had no choice in what to do with Harry. While Dudley and Petunia may have grown a bit attached to Harry over the years, once the Order showed up prior to his birthday to evacuate him and get them all into hiding, they were pretty much ready to be rid of him.


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

[User] ELI5: What makes the impossible burger taste like meat? Is it healthier to eat vegetables that have been manufactured to taste like meat?

[Assistant]
What Impossible Foods did that was clever is they experimented on which elements of beef gave it the flavor we associate with hamburger, and they sought out plants that had the same or similar elements.  So they figured out things like heme (part of hemoglobin, and what gives blood its red color) is very common in animal muscle, and contributes to it's taste, but it is also found in certain bean plants (beans have long been used as a meat substitute).  By identify multiple different elements such as this they built had the building block flavors to emulate meat without needing meat.  They also worked very hard on their texture, to make it's mouth feel as similar to a burger patty as possible.  All this research has lead to a plant based foodstuff that is fairly close to a beef patty.

An impossible burger isn't going to be meat eating celery for lunch.  It still has a decent amount of fat and calories in it.  It's more like a turkey burger than anything else.  Healthier, but not healthy exactly.  But it does allow people with religious, ethical, and some dietary restrictions on eating meat to enjoy something pretty close to the real thing.


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

[User] [MCU] Since Ultron was so intelligent, didn't he secretly put a copy of his A.I. into every computer on earth connected to the internet, so that he could never truly be killed?

[Assistant]
That takes a lot of processing power. Presumably there weren't computers with enough power to run an AI.

He tried anyway though, and while he didn't succeed in replicating his mind, the new windows OS is slightly more evil than previous ones.


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

[User]
[MCU:GotG] Why is Earth left alone?

Interstellar travel is a casual thing, where smugglers, pirates, and wanna-be galactic overloads all have their own ships fully capable of interstellar travel. These ships are cheap, readily available, and capable of long distance travel in short periods of time.

Yet for some reason Earth is left more or less completely alone. Sure, there is the occasional pirate that wanders by and abducts people for snack-time, but these are isolated incidents. Why have none of these pirates stayed? Why just have one snack for one day when they could use their superior technology and firepower to claim Earth as their own private fiefdom.

Considering how much technology goes in to these ships along with the weaponry they possess, why is to stop someone from trading for Earth's resources or outright trying to conquer Earth? Earth has almost no planetary defenses to speak of. About all Earth has for orbital defenses is Tony Stark (assuming his space capable suit isn't malfunctioning and that he isn't too drunk). Anyone with a spacecraft capable of interstellar travel is also capable of dropping rocks from orbit. Simple, ordinary rocks. They'd hit with the yield of hydrogen bombs. Wipe out a few major cities with rocks from space, and the planet's remaining leadership might be willing to negotiate.

Even going the non-violent route, what is to stop an enterprising merchant with a ship from showing up, trading worthless technological baubles to piles of gold bricks or other valuable resources? To this merchant any technological items he's trading would be cheap consumer goods. But for people on Earth they'd be technology far in advance to anything that exists, and thus, they'd be worth a fortune. This merchant could trade them for anything and everything he wanted. Even if Earth's technology level isn't all that impressive, its got resources that will be useful.

It only takes one enterprising smuggler, pirate, merchant, or warlord to try to do this. Just one. Their impact would be huge. Yet for some reason Earth is completely unaware of any alien presence.

The corpses resulting from the Battle of Manhattan are one thing. They're dead, and could be explained as some sort of genetically engineered robot thing. But a living, breathing, talking alien who wants to trade a chest full of shiny baubles would instantly make the news worldwide.

[Assistant]
Earth is kind of a galactic DMZ because it lies at an intersection of several major intergalactic empires and also at the boundary of several different dimensions, such as Asgard. Since its obviously important to a lot of different people it's treated as a sort of neutral zone, and since no one important lives there and Earth itself is of no real consequence its mostly left alone. Why bother visiting when all you'd fine is a world lacking in decent resources and full of technologically stunted savages who still think "The Internet" is super neat. Smugglers and outlaws will ocassionally "buzz" the planet for fun, spooking the locals, maybe pick up a hitchhiker and some contraband for kicks but overall there just isn't any reason for people to throw their weight around for no gain. Humans are "aware" of alien presence, we just don't have real contact with them.

Somewhat ironically, for a planet of no importance Earth tends to be at the center of a lot of important events.


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

[User]
[MCU]Why was S.H.I.E.L.D. pouring so much money into new Helicarriers when they should have been looking into creating space based vehicles/weapons platforms?

Given that they know there are some heavy hitters out there in the 'verse, having a first line of defense beyond Earth's orbit would make sense rather than a solely planetary based defense strategy.  And yes, I know that S.H.I.E.L.D. wasn't exactly fully in charge of that project but even that group had a vested interest in creating a space based defense vehicle.

[Assistant]
Spoilers ahead for Captain America: Winter Soldier.

The big reason is that HYDRA was pushing for the Helicarriers to subdue humanity. They had no interest in defending themselves from space at the moment, all they cared about was world domination, and the Helicarriers were the means to this end. Presumably once they have world domination, they would divert their attention to what is out there in the vast cosmos.

Another reason is that there didn't seem to be an immediate threat. Even the faithful to SHIELD, such as Fury worried more about threats on Earth, he was pushing for the Helicarriers just as much as HYDRA was.


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

[User]
Eli5: How is it that some birds can exist in such wide temperature ranges with no apparent discomfort?

I live in an area where it regularly gets to be above 100 F and today the temperature was as low as 31 F. I saw, what I think is, a Great Blue Heron standing in a river. I assume it was waiting to catch a fish. How can they deal with such wild temperature extremes? I would assume that the water felt even colder than the air.

[Assistant]
Feathers are extremely good at dealing with temperature regulation, a lot more so than fur which only insulates but doesn't cool an animal down. Feathers include multiple layers of insulation to keep the bird warm, but the feathers themselves can also flush blood through the shafts in the middle of them to cool a bird down.

This is part of why many birds can live in a larger variety of areas than similar mammals can.

As for standing in cold water, scales do give the legs some insulation but it wouldn't be very much, they just put up with being cold at that point.


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

[User]
[Cyberpunk 2020/RED/2077] If corporations are so evil, why do anti-corporate rebels buy their implants and prosthetics? Don't they essentially give up their body autonomy to whoever can control/hack their cyberware?

This goes beyond "Down with Capitalism! *Sent from my IPhone*" shit. If Apple decided to stop all anti-corporatists from using their products, then at worst the rebels would lose the use of their phones and/or computers. If it were body-mounted weapons (e.g. mantis arm blades) and optic implants, *at best* they stop working and all the rebels go blind and lose the use of their weapons. At worst, those weapons and implants explode and/or attempt to kill their owners. As seen in the recent E3 trailer, one's own cyberware can be hacked by a third party who's not even a corp agent. If someone with Kiroshi eyes attempted to kill an important Kiroshi executive, what's stopping the executive from turning off their eyes? If someone attempted to kill Kei Arasaka with Arasaka-manufactured mantis arm blades, what's stopping the CEO from turning the arms on their owner?

Why buy corp-manufactured implants and weapons if you're fighting against the very same corp, especially when such devices are proven to be hackable?

[Assistant]
It doesn't go beyond the iPhone communist.

Both groups were born into the systems they want to change/destroy and must participate in the systems if they want to accomplish their goals. The iPhone communist absolutely *needs* a device capable of connecting to the internet and he can't get one and use it without taking part in the capitalist system which created the device and makes it possible to connect to the internet.

The rebels need implants and augmentations to interact with the systems they intend on changing/destroying. They might get hacked in this war of theirs and die, they might not get hacked and still die but the only way to have a chance at winning is using the tech even if it's created by the thing they seek to end... like the iPhone communist (But to be fair he's probably not getting killed in his twitter war against captialism)


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

[User] ELI5: Why do these fancy restaurants all serve tiny portions or odd dishes I've never heard of?

[Assistant]
I've cooked in upscale restaurants. The reason for smaller portions is because most nicer restaurants serve in multiple courses, not all at once. If they served "normal" portions, you'd be super full before the end of the meal.

The idea behind eating multiple courses is that you get to really experience the chef's talent and style. Eating one single dish is like only hearing the chorus of a song. Can you really judge a band based on a chorus or a single verse? Eating multiple dishes is like getting to hear the band's entire album.

And the reason for odd dishes really depends on the chef. Some chefs want to be really wild and use crazy ingredients, other chefs want to be a little more traditional. Either way, the idea is to give you something you can't get at home.


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

[User]
[Terminator 2] How exactly is Sarah Connor's story so ridiculous when the T-800 walked into a police station and kill everyone inside

One guy got shot like 500 times and didn't even react while gunning down officers left and right WHILE a second person unrelated to Sarah Connor was telling the police about the terminator and Sarah Connor was in custody at the location.

[Assistant]
Come on.. a ROBOT? From the future? He mustve been wearing body armor or something. You know time travel doesnt exist right?
Did you use drugs? Sure theres a lot unexplained but we never found parts of a robot or any proof of that story.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does a company like Bethesda Game Studios program AI to be constantly changing?

Thinking about it is blowing my mind a little right now.  I understand that certain AI never move or do anything else.  I don't really understand the Radiant AI system, I guess.  Does the AI run on discrete time units?  How can a PC make that many choices that fast for the AI for it to be constantly shifting and changing?

[Assistant]
In the case of Skyrim, the chances are that while the NPCs are meant to *appear* to go about their lives in whatever fashion they want, keep in mind that they all behave according to a set of rules.

For example, Ysolda runs a shop in Whiterun.  Now, we can be pretty sure that she'll be on somewhat of a schedule and stay at the shop most of the day, but she still has to get there.  She owns a home, so each morning she'll wake up and have a set of goals for the day.  If the first goal is to go to work, Ysolda's AI will query the pathfinder to get a route from where she is to where she needs to be.

If you decide to interupt her on the way, she'll stop and talk to you.  Obviously this interupts her path to work and switches her goals to talking to you.  After your conversation is complete, she'll switch back to the original goal of going to work, query the pathfinder for a route, and get moving.

By having a set of goals with weighted priorities, you can sort goals by what is most important and execute them.  We stopped Ysolda with a conversation, but if we had attacked a town guard nearby or if a dragon attacked, that would have had a ripple effect onto her and triggered a new priority (fight or flight) until the issue was resolved.

NPCs could also trigger changes to priority with one another.  If two characters cross paths share some sort of relationship (assigned to them on the back end), the goal may be to stop, speak with one another briefly, then carry on.  Ysolda stops and talks to her daughter when she comes by the shop.

With other characters, the set of goals might not follow a schedule, but goals may still carry some weight.  A drunk would have a higher priority of visiting a tavern and would probably be found there at any point during the day whereas the shopkeepers would be more likely to be found there after work.

So, basically, even though they appear to do anything they want and sort of live out their own lives, the do likely have discrete sets of goals to accomplish.  Not every goal might need to happen every day, but if the AI picks a goal for them and sets them on the path via some subroutine, people appear to go about their lives.


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

[User]
[Marvel MCU/Avengers]What is the ceiling of the characters in the cinematic universe?

In the comics Thor could inflict planetary devastation.  What ceiling do any of the characters have the the cinematic universe?  We've seen some interesting feats but nothing utterly insane.  What do you guys think we will see in the upcoming films? Or what do you guys think we may not see but the MCU characters are capable of?

[Assistant]
Well, we already have Odin, who is a Skyfather.

We know there are Celestials because of Knowhere.

We know Thanos exists, as do the Infinity Gems, and he'll probably create the Gauntlet.

With these things... there is no ceiling.


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

[User] [Friday the 13th] Why don't they just chop Jason up into little pieces and scatter him all over the world?

[Assistant] Why take the chance that he could somehow still reassemble himself?  Wouldn't it be much safer to just stick him in cryonic stasis and blast him off into outer space where he could never harm anyone ever again?


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

[User]
Eli5 why the male seahorse gives birth.

What is it that makes the male seahorse male? Why do we labeled them male if they give birth?

[Assistant] Male seahorses have a pouch that they use to receive a female seahorse's eggs.  After receiving the eggs they supply sperm to fertilize the eggs.  It's counter to how other species function but they are labeled as male because they supply the sperm not the eggs.


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

[User] ELI5: why are some pans not allowed to go in the dishwasher? What happens?

[Assistant] Dishwashers use alkaline sodas to decompose fat. Pans are often partly or entirely made of an aluminum alloy because it is a good heat conductor and a soft malleable metal for parts like rivets. Aluminum reacts with sodas, especially at elevated temperatures. The surface of hard alloys tarnishes black and any coating may start to peel off even if it is itself unreactive. Physical abrasion may also occur if the pan comes in contact with other metals in the dishwasher and damage fragile coatings.


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

[User] ELI5: Is it possible to create another internet?

[Assistant]
Yes, the current 'internet' is the fact that all of the computers (users and servers) that are connected to one another use the same protocols, thus are able to receive and send information (and understand it). If you invent new protocols, a new 'internet' could be created.
It'll be pretty interesting to see how things will be differently if the protocols would be written in this era all over again, probably a lot of 'cover ups' would be made more elegant.


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

[User] ELI5: (if possible) How bitcoins are given worth, who creates them, and how they are "created" or added into circulation?

[Assistant] How are they given worth? People wanting them, people trading things for them, just general hype around it. ; the network creates them as a reward for mining a block, they are created/added into circulation by people using computers/hardware/gpus to "mine" (perform calculations to find the right answer) a block, once the right answer to the block is found its then sent throughout the network and the block unlocks for everyone, depending on how much you mined the block you are rewarded some bitcoin. More people mining = more difficulty in the blocks = less bitcoin for hashrate.


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

[User] [Batman] Gotham City, thanks to funding and support from Bruce Wayne, becomes the most environmentally friendly city on earth. Does Poison Ivy go away or does she continue to hate humanity for simply existing?

[Assistant]
Environmentally friendly doesn't cut it for Ivy. Maybe she might see the good intentions behind it but she still thinks of us as wasteful nature abusers. I've been lucky enough not to run into her but she's one of the scary ones.

 The others seem to at least have goals, except for Him *shudders*, but you never know when she's going to launch a bio-attack on the city because we're "ruining"  something.


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

[User]
[Star Trek: TNG]: Why is prowess in hand to hand combat still regarded as an important valuable trait?

Worf's abilities as a warrior seem to be emphasized and respected as an important and valuable asset... Why?

[Assistant]
Well, firstly, count how many times Starfleet officers or crew have found themselves in hand-to-hand combat situations.  It's a lot.  Being able to handle yourself in a close-quarters fight still has its uses.

Secondly, by having someone like Worf on board, he becomes a very useful yardstick to gauge how tough an enemy is.  Basically, when your ship is boarded, send Worf along.  If he manages to deal with the situation, then everything's fine.  If he's beaten, then you know you need to step up your defensive measures.


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

[User]
ELI5: We have talking robots, we have self driving cars, we have the best technology that can do almost anything. Why can we not stop mosquitoes from killing tens of thousands each year?

Why is it so hard to stop mosquitoes? Why cant we create a solution to kill the diseases mosquitoes carry and distribute them to to the most affected people? I could be super ignorant but it seems like it would be fairly easy if multiple nations came together.

[Assistant]
Well robots that regurgitate speech and cars that sort of hold their lanes in perfect weather arent exactly the future tech theyre sometimes advertised to be.

Either way, these things are expensive and require significant human and financial resources - something the places that still struggle with malaria usually dont have.


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

[User]
What is diplomatic immunity?

Recently I was watching Lethal Weapon 2 and the bad guy was saying that because he had diplomatic immunity means that he can't be prosecuted for any wrong doings.  What is diplomatic immunity and can it be used in the real world like we see it on movies/tv/books?

[Assistant]
Just about every country on the planet has signed onto something called the "Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (1961)" which sets rules for how an embassy and its staff must be treated. At the center of these is the notion of 'Diplomatic Immunity.'

If you, coming from say, France, have full Diplomatic Immunity in the United States (as the ambassador would) then you cannot, under any circumstances be detained or charged with a crime by the United States Government. If the French ambassador were to walk up to a Macy's Store Window and smash it, in front of 40,000 witnesses and 20 police officers, he could not be arrested. Were this to occur, the United States Government would have two options:

- Declare him "*persona non grata*" which basically means 'unwelcome.' He would then have to leave the United States and couldn't return.
- Ask the French Government to waive his Diplomatic Immunity and allow the United States to charge him under their legal system.

There are different levels of Diplomatic Immunity and only a few people at any given embassy are likely to enjoy full immunity. Others might have immunity that extends only to crimes they commit while going about their duties. IE. The ambassador's driver cannot be prosecuted for running a red light while driving the ambassador to a formal function, but can be prosecuted if he's just cruising around on his day off.

Can it be used in the real world like it is in movies and books? Well, not really. Every time a diplomat pulls a stunt like that, it risks causing an 'international incident' and hugely embarrassing his home country. His home country isn't likely to put up with that for any significant length of time and is likely to either recall him (and fire him) or bow to pressure from the U.S to waive his immunity.

It should also be noted that huge, flashy acts of terrorism by the government officials of another country are basically acts of war against the United States. Most countries are more than willing to throw someone under the bus in order to avoid being put in that particular position.


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

[User] ELI5 How does plant seeds know to root downward and to sprout upwards?

[Assistant]
Plants have the ability of sensing gravity and orienting themselves accordingly. This is called gravitropism. In the roots, there are some small pouches in the cells which produce and store starch and basically pull down the roots through some specialized signaling mechanisms. Roots have positive gravitropism (they grow towards higher gravity) and stems have the opposite.

Additionally, both roots and stems orient themselves according to the amount of light. This is called phototropism. Stems are attracted by the light (phototropism), while roots are repelled by it.


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

[User] [Marvel] If Uncle Ben was raised from the dead due to Comic Book shenanigans, and begged Peter to stop being Spiderman, would he consider it?

[Assistant]
In house of m Ben is alive and doesn't beg him to stop.

But lets say Ben and aunt may did beg peter to stop. Peter would agree but keep being spiderman. He's done it with other people so no reason to think he wouldn't here.

Yes he's breaking a promise but Peter nows the greater good is more important.


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

[User]
[Redwall] When did otters invent shrimp and hotroot soup?

They don't use hotroot in *Mossflower.*

[Assistant]
It may not appear in *Mossflower*, but it appears in even earlier stories. Even the chronologically first Redwall story, *Lord Brocktree*, shows the dish in Chapter 6:

> The otter sat down in the shallows, chuckling merrily. "Now now, youse two, stop all yore argifyin'. Tell ye wot, d'yer like watershrimp an' 'otroot soup? I've got a pan of it on the goshould be plenty for three."

And again in Chapter 31:

> The feast was an epic triumph, with the centerpiece a great cauldron of shrimp'n'hotroot soup, cooked to Frutch's own family recipe. The Guosim cooks produced pear flans, apple pies, blackberry tarts and rhubarb crumble. Mirklewort and her hograbble contributed loaves and biscuits, hot from the ovens. Gurth placed himself in charge of drinks. He made mint and rosehip tea, a cordial of dandelion and burdock and a great deal of fruit punch. Brogalaw had the sentries relieved often, so that all could join in. Skittles tried to keep his eyes open, but he was so tired that he fell asleep with a ladle of crumble still in one paw. It was inevitable that singing and dancing would break out; there were many good dancers among the tribes gathered there. A sea otter shanty was started by Brog's two young singing otters, accompanied by drums, flutes and stone clappers. Amid much fancy pawstepping by hares, otters, hedgehogs and squirrels, the music rattled along at a breakneck pace.

Even by this point it seems to be fairly well-known, so it's safe to say that the original invention is probably much earlier than this.


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

[User] [DC/Marvel] If capital punishment became a possible result for villains in jail who dies? Who doesn't?

[Assistant] I imagine quite a few villains will die. Many of them multiple times. Arkham Asylum always gets flack because the Joker keeps escaping, but people always seem to forget how often Ra's al Ghul escapes the clutches of death.


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

[User]
[40k] Why do the chaos gods other than khorne want to kill people?

For example, shouldn't slaanesh cultists be handing out lsd and condoms to high school students?

[Assistant]
Slaanesh wants to kill people because the adrenaline rush from combat is AMAZING.

Nurgle wants to kill people because his happy little maggots and diseases need dead flesh to live off of, and he wouldn't want to deprive them. Besides, he can just reanimate the corpses and then they'll all live happily ever after.

Tzeentch wants to kill people because it's all part of the plan... until he changes it again.


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

[User] [Phineas and Ferb] Is Doofenshmirtz a genius? If so, how smart is he? Why does he always fail?

[Assistant]
He's a brilliant technical genius, evident by his numerous unbelievably advanced devices created to conquer the tri-state area. However he's a tactical moron. His plans are always far more complicated than they need to be and have no room for error lest the whole thing come apart. His tactical incompetence and personal pride hold his technical genius back from unleashing total dominance over the TSA.

That, and a certain well-dressed platypus.


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

[User] [Terminator] In Terminator 2 the T-800 is programmed to protect John Connor, and also has to do everything John says. If John were to demand the T-800 to kill him how would it react?

[Assistant]
Protection would have higher priority over obedience.

You'll note when he ordered the T-800 to not die, the order was ignored, because destroying itself was seen as a way of protecting John by destroying the CPU.


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

[User]
Why does the modern English language curiously lack diacritics compared to other languages that use the Latin alphabet?

Why does it lack accent marks, umlauts, breves, etc. Or, are there other, lesser known languages with this alphabet that don't use diacritics?

[Assistant]
The most surface-level answer is because English uses digraphs extensively instead. Sounds like th, the other th, ph, gh (which used to be a specific sound), Sh, and vowel combinations like oo, ou, and x_e (where x is a vowel), take the place of what might otherwise be , , , , , etc.

English used to have four additional consonant letters to reflect sounds not in Latin but those were replaced with digraphs or w (th, th, gh, w).

An additional reason is because at the time that English spelling was starting to become entrenched (about 1450, invention of movable type), there were fewer vowels in the language, so there was no need (except to show stress, which English typists did not feel was necessaryeven in Spanish it only became widespread/obligatory later on). Because of the great vowel shift and other sound changes, vowels in English got REALLY weird, but the spelling more or less stayed the same. (Not entirely, there were some shifts in spelling.)

There are certainly other languages that do not use diacritics, and yes they are not as well known.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] why didnt Yoda have a closer relationship with Anakin?

Shouldnt the wisest and most powerful living Jedi probably have a close relationship with the chosen one? It seems like they barely ever communicated besides typically coworker levels.

[Assistant]
When Anakin started having nightmares about Padme's death, he felt ok going to Yoda to talk about the fears that were keeping him up at night. You probably couldn't do that with any random coworker.

Yoda probably recognized that Anakin was special and he DID always have his door open for Anakin when Anakin wanted to speak. But for most of the time we see them, Anakin is either doing Jedi training or busy fighting a war. There's not a lot of time for them to have lunch together.


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

[User]
As a diabetic, I always wonder what the real reason is that I can't think straight when my blood sugar is low. Can anyone give me a reason why my brain doesn't work as well without sugar?

One of my theories is that the glucose in my blood acts like a conductor somehow for the electric impulses my brain uses to communicate with itself. Without the sugar there is no conductivity...

So that's a dumb theory but its all I've got, which is why I'm posting here.

[Assistant]
Your theory is actually quite close to the truth. Glucose itself is not the conductor, it is necessary to produce the conductor, AND to produce the electrical charge.

Neurons in your brain can't store glucose, they can't use any other source of energy (ketones from fatty acids or protein), and they work 24/7.

Neurons thus need a constant amount of glucose in the blood stream. If this concentration gets to be too low, some of the functionality of the neuron is decreased. To be exact: synthesis of neurotransmitters is decreased, regeneration of damaged neurons is put on hold, and electrical transmissions in the neurons are more difficult. Especially that last fact costs a lot of energy. In order to polarize and quickly depolarize nerve cells, ions need to transported over the cellmembrane by active transport, consuming ATP. The production of this ATP costs a LOT of glucose. So if your glucose levels drop, this ion transport goes slower, diminishing the speed at which your neurons polarize and depolarize, thus effectively slowing your brain down.


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

[User] ELI5: How does the foods industry measure the amount of calories in food? Or is it an estimation? For example, how do we know that a cheeseburger is 900 calories?

[Assistant]
**Tl;dr:** For many recipes they look it up in a special tables for common ingredients. For other recipes they do some chemical tests to count fat-proteins-carbohydrates and then calculate using other tables.

Calorie is a metric unit of energy (symbol: **cal**). This is the amount of energy you need to raise the temperature of one gram of water by one degree Celsius (in normal conditions).

Also, there is an American Calorie^tm, which is bigger, of course (symbol: **Cal**) - it is 1000 standart calories.

The number of calories tells you what amount of energy you can get from the food. The method to measure this energy is known as direct calorimetry - you just dry food, burn it in a pure oxygen in a special device in a certain amount of water and measure the temperature change. But this method is not used nowadays on food labels, because humans will take less energy from food than there is (they do not digest fiber*, etc)

Now they do some standardized chemical tests (or look in existing tables for common products) to count proteins-fat-carbohydrate-etc quantity - the things we actually take from food. The results are converted into an equivalent energy value. For example one gram of fat will give you 9 kcal = 9000 cal = 9 Cal, alcohol - 7 kcal, proteins - 4 kcal, carbohydrates - 4 kcal.

Only fat, ethanol, proteins, carbohydrates, organic acids, polyols and fiber are caloric, so anything else is not counted.


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

[User] Eli5 how a "knot" in a muscle is formed, and how massaging the area gets rid of it.

[Assistant] Think of your muscle fibers as a bundle of spaghetti noodles, stretching and shrinking with each action that you perform.  Sometimes these 'noodles' (fibers) dont quite shrink back the way they should and get bunched up in a particular spot causing a knot. Massage helps to release this bundle by relaxing it so that your muscle fibers can return to a normal position within the bundle.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does limiting buying of certain stocks, but not selling, help Robinhood meet their clearinghouse deposit requirements?

I just got an email, as I'm sure many other people did, about how:

>For Robinhood to operate, we must meet clearinghouse deposit requirements to support customer trades.

and...

>We had to take steps to limit buying in those volatile stocks to ensure we could comfortably meet our deposit obligations.

ELI5 please!

[Assistant]
Robinhood doesn't buy $100 of CME when you place an order.  That's 1/3 of a share, and there is no other market in fractional shares.  Instead, they wait until they need 100 shares (a standard exchange transactional amount) and then they buy 100 shares and update their data base of which 300 people each own $100 worth (to extend your hypothetical).

When you "sell" your $100, they do nothing but put money in your account.  If enough people sell, then they sell 100 shares and "pay themselves back".

Here is a problem if the stock is super volatile.

You buy 1/3 of a share at $100.

The next person buys 1/3 of a share at $102.

...

The 300th person buys a share at $250.

Now Robinhood buys 100 shares at $250, and only collected half of the $25,000 from you and your 299 friends.  This is bad.

So, instead, they predict what's going to happen and maybe buy 100 shares at $110.  To do that, since Robinhood users have only contributed $500, they have to get the rest of the $11,000 from somebody.  That means they have to have cash.


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

[User]
At what point along their evolutionary chain is an organism considered to be a new species?

If you trace back the genetic lineage of human ancestors, how far back could you go and still have an organism that is homo sapiens? What is the "dividing line" and how is it scientifically defined?

[Assistant] It's like asking where one color on the spectrum ends and another begins, or where one ocean ends and another begins, or where space ends and the atmosphere begins.  Even when there are clearly two categories, there's not always a specifically identifiable point where they transition.  You can put in an arbitrary one, but it's still pretty arbitrary.


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

[User]
CMV: Abstaining from voting means you agree with the status quo

My gf and I both voted in the democratic primaries. I voted for Bernie Sanders and she voted for Elizabeth Warren. Now with both of our preferred candidates out we were talking about the presidential election. With both Warren and Sanders giving their endorsements to Biden I am comfortable with supporting him against Trump. I like his views on climate change even if his other views aren't as progressive he still has more policies I agree with then Trump.

She is not a fan of Biden especially with all the sexual assault allegations. I understand her points about how he is not seemingly all there cognitively and sometimes outdated views. But he is still professionally a much better candidate to me.

Her refusal to give support to the other candidate feels to me like an acceptance of the current one.

[Assistant] Being compelled to vote for one of the major two candidates is the status quo. It's what allows a party (in this case the Democrat Party) to put forth lackluster candidates that have questionable voting records. In that way, refusing to vote for Biden in this case actually actively goes against the status quo. It signals that even a would-be Democrat voter will not accept the establishment candidates that the party keeps promoting every election cycle.


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

[User] What's the truth when it comes to tooth enamel? I've seen commercials saying once it's gone, it's gone forever. I've also seen commercials saying their toothpaste helps rebuild tooth enamel.

[Assistant]
Remineralization of tooth enamel does appear to be a scientifically verified phenomenon. In fact fluoride does exactly this. It also seems that s peptide gel developed in the UK can create a protein scaffold on the teeth promoting New calcium deposits. In turn repairing and re-growing enamel.

I do not know however which products, if any, effectively turn that information into results.


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

[User]
What is happening to the air movement inside a tire as it begins to turn, as it is turning, and after it stops?

Does the air stay static as the tire moves around it or does the air begin to move with the tire? Then what happens after the tire stops? Does it continue to rotate for a small amount of time?  How does the air pressure impact the movement?

[Assistant]
Since air is not very viscous, it starts out roughly static, due to inertia. That is, it does not immediately spin in concert with the rubber of the tire and metal of the wheel. After some nontrivial time, the viscosity of the air and the non-slip boundary condition between the gas and the solid boundary means that the fluid within the tire will 'catch up' with the rotation of the wheel. You can actually gather all of these qualities together and determine a differential equation to describe the system in order to figure out a time constant that will describe just how long this would take. When the tire stops spinning the opposit is true. The air continues spinning for some non-trivial time after the wheel comes to rest.

If the fluid in the tire were more viscous, like honey, the lag time would be less. If the fluid is theoretically inviscid (having zero viscosity), then it would never begin spinning.

You can try this out yourself with a bowl of water with a few particles of ground pepper floating on the surface and a lazy susan. If you put the bowl of water centered on the lazy susan and spin it, you should notice that the pepper particles don't immediately start spinning with the bowl. If the bowl were full of honey, then the whole thing would start spinning simultaneously.


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

[User] [Star Trek] I'm the elected human leader of a large and powerful Federation system and we all want independence, what are our options?

[Assistant]
Announce that you are leaving the Federation. Membership is entirely voluntary, after all. There will be a period of bureaucratic wrangling to disentangle various elements of your system from the Federation but afterwards you could just... Leave.

Quite why you would **want to**, however.