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

[User]
How do people do this for a living?

Let me start by saying I've worked a lot of shitty labor type jobs where the emphasis is always on productivity. Don't clock in a minute late, and every second you're on the clock you're expected to be actively producing X amount of some product per hour. You don't do a whole lot of learning on the job because the tasks are streamlined efficiently and generally not expected to be all that complicated.

I started my first job working remotely as a junior dev a few months ago and it's obviously a very different environment. Overall, it's fairly laid back and there are times when everything is going great, the objective is clearly laid out and I know how to, or at least have an idea how to, accomplish a certain ticket.

Then there are other times where I'm absolutely paralyzed for hours and hours by an inability to complete a certain ticket. I feel like in just the few months I've been here it's been a sort of firehose of information involving everything from trying to set up authentication to AWS services and other 3rd party integrations for analytics on top of writing code to remove bugs or develop features in languages and frameworks I've never used before. Not one of my teachers in school mentioned anything about JWT's, API's, Package Managers, etc. Prior to starting this position I had some exposure to maybe one of the 25+ technologies we use, and the tech stack is niche enough that it's difficult to find good information about how to set things up and use them properly.

All the same, I feel confident that I could figure out all of these things and be reasonably productive... if I were the only one writing the code. It is way, way, WAY easier to sit here and build entire applications from scratch and work on projects by myself. I've never been working on something by myself and not had some idea of how to proceed to the next step.

It is catastrophically more difficult trying to sift through a massive system that's already been built and try to read thousands of lines of code written by different people in a framework that's already quite counterintuitive to me that uses multiple different languages and syntaxes within itself. I can't read minds and guess what programmers were thinking when they wrote a particular line of code, what the context of this class is inside whole system, and there are next to no comments anywhere explaining anything. There are no UML diagrams or explaining the architecture of the models and their relationships, use cases, or the way the code is expected behave at a high level. My boss just expects me to be able to read the code and derive all that information on my own. But I constantly run into lines of code that are for very specific use cases and are completely unique to this company's structure and/or the problem the developer was trying to solve at the time of writing it.

The result is I just kind of shut down for hours and don't know what to do because I feel incapable of accomplishing what needs to be accomplished. If I ask for help, it's never significant help like a walkthrough of the system parts that actually gives me something I can learn from. it's just "here's one line of code that will move you from this brick wall to the next one". It's like that "give a man a fish rather than teaching them how to fish" idea.

Nobody has explicitly said anything about me being unproductive, but I get anxious whenever I'm in a position like this, and historically I've tended to just quit altogether. But I struggled for months to land my first junior dev job. Most places aren't hiring people with less than 2 years of experience (likely for all the reasons I've mentioned), and I know a lot of people I've graduated with who are still struggling to get positions. Additionally, I'm sure I would just end up running into all the same problems somewhere else. I don't dislike it, but I don't really feel like I'm cut out for doing this professionally and I've already invested a lot of time and money into going to school for this. It's not a lot of money, but it's also the first job that's paid me more than $16 an hour, and I don't really want to go back to those types of jobs.

[Assistant]
\> It is catastrophically more difficult trying to sift through a massive system that's already been built and try to read thousands of lines of code written by different people in a framework that's already quite counterintuitive to me that uses multiple different languages and syntaxes within itself.

This is the job! Welcome! It's why we get the big bucks. Dev salaries are not good for no reason!


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

[User] [Pokmon] so how do humans mature in the Pokmon universe? Is 10 the age of responsibility? What if the kid wants to be a Pokmon professor like Oak? Is there a Pokmon equivalent to PETA? Also, were any of the ghost Pokmon real people in life?

[Assistant] Yes, there *is* a Pokmon equivalent to Peta. They're Team Plasma and they want to steal Pokmon away from humans to end their tyranny of forcing people to make Pokmon fight >!on the surface. The group's leader Ghestis is trying to stop others from having Pokmon to stop them from fighting his plans for world domination.!<


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

[User]
Why does PCP (and maybe some other drugs) seem to give people superhuman strength?

I've never actually seen anyone on PCP but I've heard countless stories of people high pcp performing ridiculous feats of strength. Things like stealing a 300 lb. barber's chair and leaving it in the street.

[Assistant] I believe the leading theory behind these types of events is that PCP can have a bit of anesthetic (pain reducing) quality to it and that while in the midst of PCP intoxication a person may push their body past the pain threshold to perform an act that may otherwise be seen as physically improbable.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does plastic lighten in color when put under stress?

[Assistant]
When you bend a plastic, it's molecules change their positions and basically move away from each other.

The tiny holes (molecular size) mean there is more pigment, which changes the color of the plastic.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is old frozen meats from the freezer considered bad? What happens to the meat?

[Assistant]
1. Aging,
2. Bacteria,
3. Water crystals,
4. Freezer burn

*1. Freezing doesn't stop bacterial growth or meat "aging" completely. Enzymatic reactions are still happening, albeit at a much slower rate, this causes many of the proteins inside to change properties which confer flavor and texture, thus giving meat that "old" taste.

*2. As for bacteria, it will remain semi dormant but still reproduce unless the temperature is very low (at least -19C), and toxins or any other bacterial waste will still be present and unaffected, with the potential to make us sick when consumed.

*3. When you freeze meat, microscopic water water crystals are formed as the liquids reach freezing point. If that point is reached fast (As in a blast freezer, IQF or submersion in liquid nitrogen), said crystals will be small and not harm the meat's tissues and cells, on the other hand, slow freezing processes cause large water crystals to form. Large crystals act as blades that rupture cell membranes and let the juices inside out, drying the meat and making it tougher.

Lastly, temperature changes in frozen meat also affect quality. Expansion and contraction caused by temperature changes make the tissues grind against the water crystals, and the jagged edges cut the muscle fibers, eventually leading to a pulpifying effect that turns meat into sludge over time.

*4. Meat that is not vacuum packed or otherwise sealed completely in an airtight container will lose humidity in the areas that are exposed, those areas will turn black and dry, and even while not harmful per-se, freezer burnt meat becomes undesirable for consumption.

Source. Certified HACCP inspector with 12 years experience working at a processing plant.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why we shouldn't use 2 feet for the accelerator and brake pedals in a car.

I've always heard that when driving a person should use only 1 foot to control the pedals. Wouldn't using one foot on each increase reaction time for breaking and accelerating?

[Assistant] Consider the brain's confusion trying to differentiate the need to press hard with the left foot versus the right foot. If you need to brake NOW! you're likely to stomp both feet. If one is on the accelerator and one on the brake, you've got problems. It's far better to separate the accelerate and brake decisions by making you physically shift one foot fractionally.


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

[User]
ELI5 - How are color assignments made for remastered movies that were originally in black and white?

Is it by choice or is there are way to decipher color based on the tone of black and white?

[Assistant]
Sometimes there are surviving costumes or props or even sets that you can refer to to see what the original color was. Sometimes there are some color photos from the set, even though the film ended up in B&W. And sometimes it's an educated guess based partly on how dark or light an area appears in the B&W film, partly on what colors were fashionable at the time, etc.

And sometimes they really just have to guess. And for things like skin tones, or settings, it's easy to figure out. Like if part of the film happens in a desert, you can pretty much guess what color the sand dunes would have been, or if it's a scene filled with working-class people walking home from work (as an example) we know that the average worker wouldn't be wearing fancy clothes to go work in a shipyard or a butcher shop, so we'd assume that their clothes are very basic colors.

There are also loads of historical documents we can refer to, which can take a lot of time, but you can find really great info about clothing, building materials, popular paint colors, all kinds of good stuff.


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

[User] How does a spider pick where to put its web? Do they have the ability to 'sniff' out whether there's a lot of bugs in a certain location?

[Assistant] Air flow.  If you see a web in your house, there is air flow in that area.  Flying insects use air flow to move.  Spiders eat flying insects, so they set up shop where the highway for their food is.


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

[User]
If Coniferous trees are able to live year round without hibernating compared to Deciduous trees, why haven't Conifers taken over areas that go through seasonal change?

I am well aware that Deciduous trees don't "die" when they hibernate in the Winter, but this thought came up when wondering how efficient Coniferous trees are at producing oxygen year round, non stop, compared to Deciduous trees.

Does it really just come down to climate, location, and evolution? I Haven't found any good information online for this so an explanation would help.

[Assistant]
Geographer here.

Conifers are simply out-competed by deciduous trees in environments that favour them. Conifers are hardy (which is why they can survive in temperate climates as well) but are conservative with their growth. Deciduous trees are more aggressive in their growth but sensitive to the environment as a tradeoff.


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

[User] ELI5: How does radiation poisoning kill you, and why does it sometimes take weeks?

[Assistant]
Radiation is dangerous when its ionizing, which means a single particle has enough energy to ionize the atoms it collides with. That means knock an electron loose, which in turn means the bonds holding together the molecules it is part of break apart, which means it is causing chemical changes in what it hits.

DNA is the chemical in the cells in your body that tell it how to do everything, including reproduce new cells. It is also able to repair itself, but not without limit. If a cells DNA is damaged enough by radiation, it cant function properly any more and it dies. Or, it fails to reproduce, save dies later. Or, it malfunctions AND reproduces, so you have new malfunctioning cells taking over - thats cancer. Any and all of these can be caused by radiation and all can kill you in different time frames.


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

[User]
ELI5: why does it take time to fall asleep and we cant force it consciously?

Other brain activities like focusing, reading, remembering and so on, can be triggered actively whenever we want, but we cant decide when we fall asleep. Besides some specific conditions must be fulfilled, like being tired, in a relaxing position, appropriate light...

[Assistant]
Maybe because sleep is not the same type of brain activity. Quite the opposite, sleep is a major change in brain activity.

We are evolved animals but still animals. A lot of those conditions are evolutionary adaptation for survival.

On the other hand there are techniques and routines that help people fall asleep faster. A common problem is a tendency to engage in thoughts and worries. Thats a bad habit that can be trained out.


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

[User] ELI5 Hurricanes never seem to hit the west coast of the US, why is that?

[Assistant] The Pacific and Atlantic Oceans circulate in clockwise motions. So on the west side of the oceans, it brings warm water up the east coast from farther south, passes by the Arctic ocean up north and brings cold water down the east side of the ocean. So that's why the west coast of the US gets cold water (from the Arctic) and the east coast gets warm water (from the southern waters). And the warm water is more likely to breed large storms. That's why there's similarly lots of storms in south east Asia as well.


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

[User] [Star Wars] Han Solo falls asleep at the wheel and crashes the Millennium Falcon at lightspeed into earth. Assuming the Falcon doesn't burn up on impact, how much damage would this cause the planet?

[Assistant] At lightspeed, or in hyperspace? There's a difference. With the former, it will do massive damage. With the latter, not so much - it'll pull out of hyperspace and crash into the planet at much lower velocities - only the direct crash zone would be affected, not the planet as a whole.


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

[User] eli5 - how much better is the James Webb Space Telescope than Hubble ? Is it like a leap from SD to 4K or even greater still ?

[Assistant]
Its not just higher definition, but it will be looking at wavelengths that the Hubble simply can't see.

We will be able to see stuff from the birth of the universe. We will see galaxies that are moving faster than we could see before. Light that is older than we've been able to see previously.

It will be a massive difference. Greater than SD to 4K.

This is why it's such massive news. It's truly exciting.


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

[User] The entire plot of Jurassic Park is hinged on the investors wanting to ensure safety after a worker was eaten. Why would you send a paleontologist and a mathematician to assess physical security?

[Assistant]
The reason is actually a fairly simple, and fairly complex one.

At the time of the Isla Nubar incident, there were actually TWO parties investigating and exploring the park. As a means of alleviating investor fears, one party consisted of a group of engineers, veterinarians, politicians, and the other of a mathematician and paleontologists. The first party visited the island and left the island in relative safety. Only a few bumps and bruises from faulty tour cars, and a single incident of a politician touching a poisonous plant after consistent warnings were all of what the first party witnessed. A day after the first party, a second consisting of Dr. Alan Grant, Dr. Allie Satler, and Dr. Ian Malcolm arrived.

The purpose of the second party was two-fold. First, it was a marketing attempt by the investors at InGen. By having two world renowed paleontologists visiting the park, it gave it and what it contained therein credence. It also allowed for the safety of the animals to be seen as paramount, and also allow for the park to make any modifications to the pens and security measures as dictated by Dr. Grant and Satler. By having Dr. Ian Malcom aboard, and with his well known books on the Chaos Theory, it allowed for insight into problems that may not be seen.


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

[User]
[Chrono Trigger]What exactly are the blue waves that surround lavos? Is it water? Energy? Some type of weird visual field that prevents anyone too close from seeing anything too far away?

Is it something that actually exists in the world, or no?

[Assistant] Time and space are inextricably linked; the power of Lavos distorts time, and so too does it distort space. Within his shell, at the center of his power, the core of Lavos exists in a space that it has carved out where the walls of infinity are thin, and the sleepy parasite can view the passage of ages as an endless dream as it absorbs the life-blood of a world. The energies of the planet wash over Lavos' core as it drinks the planet's memories, which are reflected dimly all around it. Mortal eyes can only see the transition, the surge, the interference patterns created as it feeds, perceiving them as lapping waves.


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

[User] Why are Saturn's rings a circle? Shouldn't they be elliptical like how the planets revolve around the sun?

[Assistant]
Not all of them are circular, the F ring for example is eccentric. So eccentric rings are possible. However most of Saturn's rings are circular.

Essentially, in circular rings, the orbits of the particles themselves around the planet are not circular, they are approximately circular but with a combination of a small eccentricity and inclination. This gives the thickness of the rings (around 100 m). The argument of periapsis (position of the closest point) is actually a uniformly distributed random variable, and this makes the rings circular, even though the single orbits are slightly elliptical. This "thermalization" happens because sometimes the particles can interact through collision and this "spreads" variables uniformly through their allowed set of values over the course of very long times.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are Swedish and Norwegian considered two different languages but are completely mutually intelligible, while Cantonese and Mandarin are dialects of Chinese but are mutually unintelligible?

[Assistant]
It's a complicated one, but mostly it's to do with the fact that to communicate ideas, we humans try to put things into very neat categories, but real life is far more messy and complex.

So in normal, everyday speech, we say that "dialects" are mutually intelligible and "languages" are not mutually intelligible; but that's not how things really are.

For example, in the movie *Trainspotting*, the characters speak a Scottish dialect of English which is, in theory, mutually intelligible with standard dialects of English. But many British English speakers had difficulty with it, and for the North American market, the actors actually dubbed some of their lines into a "softer" version of the dialect.

Does this mean that Scottish English and American English are mutually unintelligible? If so, are they different languages? But then, if Scottish English and English English are mutually intelligible, and English English and American English are also mutually intelligible, how do we categorize them all?

German is another example of this. Start in Switzerland and work your way north village to village to Hamburg. You will never find a place where the people of one village can't understand the people of the next village, and yet by the time you reach Hamburg, the dialect spoken there is so different, they can't understand Swiss German at all -- Swiss German actually has to be subtitled on German TV.

That's why linguists avoid making a distinction between "dialect" and "language". They speak of "language varieties" and -- when describing something like German -- "dialect continua".

Such is the case with Danish, Norwegian and Swedish, which form a dialect continuum. The standard forms of those languages are *fairly* mutually intelligible. Norwegian has several different standard written forms, but no official standard spoken dialect. Norwegian dialects are grouped into northern, central, western and eastern varieties, and they can differ a great deal to the point that even native speakers have trouble with them. In Sweden, most people speak a standard form of Swedish, but some also speak a dialect which can be very difficult for an outsider to understand.

The Chinese languages simply have even greater variation between the different varieties. Many of them are mutually unintelligible, and the differences between them are similar to the differences between, for example, the Romance languages -- French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and so on.


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

[User] ELI5: what's the process that take place the moment i push a button on my controller until the movement is performed by my character?

[Assistant] You press button. Button closes circuit. Circuit sends electric signal to computer. Computer notices electric signal and alerts the OS. The OS takes note of what process has focus and puts a "Hey, this key has been pressed" in to the message queue of the process. The process checks message queue and sees the message. The process sets a flag that this button was pressed this frame. The code controlling your movement checks the flag when processing movement and starts moving your character.


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

[User]
[Star Wars TFA] Is it energy efficient for the Starkiller Base to harness the power of a star to destroy planets?

Wouldn't the process of absorbing, storing and firing the energy of a star require more energy than is actually stored in the star itself?  If you've got all the energy it takes to weaponize a star, shouldn't you already have more than enough energy to destroy planets?

Edit:
Crappy math example:
The star has 10 joules of energy and it takes 15 joules of energy to weaponize the star, wouldn't it be deadlier to use the 15 joules directly for the weapon instead of losing 5 in the star weaponization process?

[Assistant]
It may not be the most energy efficient, but with this they can destroy multiple planets from half the galaxy away. That way they don't need to be in orbit of the planet they want to destroy and don't need to deal with any defense forces that planet may have.

Also, the New Order (like the Empire) is probably all about the scare factor in their weapons. They can harness the power of an ENTIRE STAR and destroy planets parsecs away. That's some serious intimidation right there.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is the 1 note currency worthless in some countries.

In some countries like the United States, Canada, UK, Europe one (Dollar, Pound, Euro) has value and can buy you something. While in countries like the Nordic countries, Colombia, Czech Republic, and Poland one (Krona, Zloty, Peso) is virtually worthless, and in some cases it takes thousands just to buy something small like a bag of chips. Why is that the case in these counties even though some countries with high note values have extremely strong economies? and How did these currencies end up this way?

[Assistant] Imagine an economy is a pizza, and the currency is slices. You can cut the same size pizza into 4 huge slices, 8 normal ones, 20 tiny ones, etc. but its still the same size pizza. Same thing with currency and countries economies. Just because it takes 100 of a currency to buy something it takes 1 in another doesnt tell you much in regard to relative strength. What does tell you is how that ratio changes over time... did it also used to cost 1 and the currency has gotten much weaker? Or did it cost 150 and that economy is actually getting stronger relative to others?


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

[User] ELI5: Why do your hands become less precise and harder to control when they get colder?

[Assistant] Your body automatically pumps less blood to your extremities (feet and hands) when you are cold so that your internal organs continue to function. Your hands are kind of asleep from lack of blood flow.


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

[User]
If the speed of light is constant, how does Red Shift happen?

The speed of light is always constant, regardless of the position and relative speed of the observer. In that case how come light is subject to the Doppler effect and gives us Red Shift?

[Assistant]
The red shift is a shift in wavelength, not a shift in speed. Speed and wavelength are entirely different properties. They are related according to the equation:

frequency = speed/wavelength

Since the speed is constant in all frames, an increase in the wavelength (a redshift) must be accompanied by a decrease in the frequency.

The Doppler shift makes the most sense if you think of light as a wave. When a source is traveling away from you, each wave peak emitted at subsequently later moments in time is emitted at farther and farther away points in space. Therefore, the wave peaks that reach you must be farther apart, i.e. the wavelength has increased. But each individual wave peak still travels towards you at the same speed. People often think the Doppler shift should change the speed because they are picturing photons as literal little balls being shot out of a moving cannon, which is a false picture.


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

[User]
Eli5: Why in the movies do criminals always ditch the murder weapon rather than keep it and hide it

surely it would be easier to take the thing home and stash it/destroy it rather than leave it nearby the scene of the crime?

[Assistant]
First, obligatory "movies are not real life" disclaimer.

Because the last thing you want to happen is to be caught with the murder weapon.  That's irrefutable proof that you did the crime.  Better to get rid of it ASAP.


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

[User]
[Mario] Why isnt Bowser imprisoned or executed for his crimes?

Throughout all of the games, he frequently kidnaps Princess Peach and causes major destruction and turmoil while trying to take over the world. Mario always comes in and stops him and rescues the princess, but he leaves Bowser to fight another day and do it all over again.

Why isnt this turtle being arrested and taken to trial for his crimes against the Mushroom Kingdom? He should either be given the death penalty, or imprisoned for life with the crimes he has committed.

Why does he always get to walk away? Why isnt there a full blown civil war between the two kingdoms?

[Assistant]
Bowser has been thrown into lava countless times. Thrown from outer space. Thrown into an endless void. Beaten to a pulp. Burned alive without lava. He has had the entirety of his organs, skin and flesh removed.

He HAS been getting executed, OP. In every fucking game.

It just hasn't worked.


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

[User]
How do you stop a someone from using a currency?

I've recently read news about Boris Johnson discussing the possibility of cutting access to foreign currencies (GBP & USD) for Russian companies. How is this done in practice? What would stop a Russian company from using foreign currencies? Does it have something to do with the physical location of the FX marketplaces? Or is it related to SWIFT? Could someone please explain this to me?

[Assistant] Nothing can practically stop them from using foreign currencies if they really want to. But they can be stopped from using the infrastructure (the banking system, the electronic payments systems, public financial markets, etc.) that makes using those currencies a feasible thing to do. For example, imagine trying to sell $5 billion worth of oil a day in exchange for USD, but you can't accept wire transfers or cheques or anything like that because those require using a bank, so you can only take hard currency. That's an insane amount of cash to be trying to transact with, to the point of being entirely infeasible.


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

[User]
Question about time at the Event Horizon of a Black Hole.

Gravitational time dilation states that time slows down in the presence of mass. In the extreme time (as observed from a remote location not affected by the gravitational field) stops for an object at the Event Horizon of a Black Hole. This is described as "From the point of view of a remote observer an object falling into a Black Hole takes an infinaite amount of time to pass through the Event Horizon".

However, the usual explanation if this that I have seen is that time does not slow down from the point of view of the falling object. From it's reference frame it passes through the horizon normally. Only an outside observer sees the time dilation.

My problem with this is that there is infinity involved. If, from the point of view of the outside observer, the object NEVER makes it through the horizon how can that be squared with the idea that from it's frame it proceeds normally?

Edit: Thanks for the replies. But none of them, so far, address the issue of infinity. It is like one point of view says Yes but another point of view says No. If it takes an infinite amount of time (from the view of an outside observer) that means it will never happen (No) but it does happen. How is this reconciled?

Also, if the object is "smeared" on the Event Horizon then it must lose its structural integrity. How can that be reconciled with the statement that "The transition from outside to inside is totally smooth."

[Assistant]
That picture is essentially correct. There's nothing special about the event horizon as seen by an observer falling into the black hole. Time doesn't stop, it doesn't feel something new or exciting happening. The transition from outside to inside is totally smooth.

*But*, the horizon does have some funny properties, the most famous of which is that it's the point at which the escape velocity is the speed of light. This means that light can take a very, very long time to escape if it's emitted from a location very close to the horizon.

So let's say you have an astronaut falling into a black hole, emitting light pulses at regular intervals, according to her onboard clock. According to an outside observer observing these light pulses, the interval between these pulses gets longer and longer as the astronaut gets closer to the horizon and light takes more and more time to climb out of the gravitational field. Of course, that interval can get arbitrarily long, depending how close the astronaut is to the horizon when she sends her last signal before crossing the horizon.

So yes, there's an infinity for one observer, and a finite number for the other. And that's fine! Physics doesn't forbid that sort of thing. In particular it comes from the fact, crucial to relativity, that time isn't absolute. Time to two different observers can be two very different things, and as long as there isn't a contradiction when these observers go to compare their measurements (if they even can do that), then there isn't a problem.


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

[User] [Star Wars]My child has a high midi-chlorian count. As a good Galactic citizen, I am sending him to the Jedi Order to train. Will I be able to visit him?

[Assistant] No. Your presence would adversely affect his training. He needs to be relatively free from desires and wants lest he falls to the dark side of the Force. Don't worry. Your child is strong in both will and the Force. Knowing that his parents are alive is enough for him, and much better than constantly reminding him of the lost opportunities of a different life.


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

[User] ELI5: I'm laying naked in bed when someone breaks into my house, steals something and leaves. I bolt out after them without any clothes on. Can I get into legal trouble for being nude while chasing a criminal?

[Assistant]
Legality is a difficult subject, because the legal system was designed to be at least somewhat subjective. The law itself states whether or not you are legally allowed to do something, but the judicial process, including getting "caught," serves as a way to evaluate whether or not a punishment is actually deserved for the crime. For example, indecent exposure (being naked in public) is technically illegal, yet it is unlikely that an elderly person with mental deficiencies would be punished for running naked from a nursing home in an episode of delerium, even if the law did not have any written exceptions for people who were mentally compromised. They *could* get in trouble for it, but most of the time, no one would try to press charges.

So, while technically you *could* get in trouble for being naked in public in this case, there would have to be other circumstances to warrant most people seeking to punish you for this, like if you happened to run by an elementary school with a bunch of children outside, because then it could be considered exposing oneself to a minor, or something like that. If, while chasing the criminal, a police officer stopped you, and you explained that you were chasing a burglar, it is likely that any police officer with good morals and priorities would just respond, "Well I'll try to catch him, here's a blanket so you can cover up, now go back home and wait there," because your actions were not really "criminal" while still being technically illegal. Hope that makes sense.


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

[User]
ELI5 : How do services like Netflix decide how much money their originals make? Like, if a movie was released in theaters theres a set amount of money each person pays for a movie, but how would that number be set for streaming?

I just wanna know how its decided the amount of money a project gets if youre not paying to see the project specifically.

[Assistant]
Nobody knows for sure since Netflix is one of the most opaque streamers when it comes to viewership data.

Presumably they have a method of assigning a value to viewership statistics that takes into account the idiosyncrasies of streaming (does a person who stops watching before the end count as a view? How many views do you count for someone who watches it multiple times or across multiple sessions?)


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

[User]
ELIF: How does a person develop an allergy/ intolerance late in life?

I just recently saw someone talking about how they just now developed an allergy to certain fruits and I dont understand.

[Assistant]
Two simple answers, both of which can be happening at the same time:

1. Your body changes over time, including your body chemistry. Cells are aging, they're less efficient and so forth. Boom, you're newly intolerant to something.
2. You were *always* intolerant, but in your younger days, you either didn't notice or you recovered so quickly that you didn't notice. Now your body is aging (see No. 1, above), and the chemistry that allowed you to shrug off a problem is no longer preventing the negative symptoms from occuring. Boom, you *think* you're newly intolerant to something. But it was really there the whole time.


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

[User]
ELI5: If the sensation of "pain" in the body is produced by the activation of nerves, how can one person describe differing "types" of pain when, no matter the injury, it's the same nerves being stimulated?

ELI5: If the sensation of "pain" in the body is produced by the activation of nerves, how can one person describe differing "types" of pain when, no matter the injury, if it's the same nerves being stimulated?

[Assistant]
It's *not* the same nerves being stimulated.

Pain comes, essentially, in three major types (but there are different "feelings" of pain within each type).  There's pain derived from overstimulated sensory nerves, there's pain from nociceptors (that's nerve-endings that are *specific* to detecting damage and reporting it as pain) being stimulated *at all*, and there's pain that doesn't correspond to a stimulus at all and originates inside the nervous system.

You've asked about the first of those, but you should be aware of the other two as well; these are still pain, and the last sometimes has nothing to do with sensory receptor neurons at all.

There are quite a few different sorts of sensory receptor neurons in the body, and each of them provides a potentially different pain-sensation when overloaded, just as they provide different sensations when working normally.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is Bart Simpson wearing a blue shirt in merchandise?

I know he use to wear a blue shirt back when the Simpsons were just shorts on the Tracy Ullman Show, but I never figured out why he'd still be wearing blue on dolls, toys, posters, etc. after changing to a red/orange shirt in show.

[Assistant] A lot of fake merchandise was doing the rounds in the 90s, and official merchandise featuring Bart was given a blue shirt. It was a way of telling the consumer that any orange shirt Bart merchandise was fake.


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

[User]
When you're struggling to stay awake, what is neurologically occurring in your head?

For example, is there a specific part of the brain that deals with keeping awake?

[Assistant]
There are some specific brain regions that are involved in regulating sleep/wake. Specifically, there are wake-promoting populations of neurons in the brainstem and hypothalamus with ascending projections to thalamus and cortex. During wakefulness, these neurons are active, releasing wake-promoting neurotransmitters (histamine, norepinephrine, serotonin, dopamine, acetylcholine, orexin). These neurons receive input form a sleep-promoting population of neurons in the hypothalamus (in the ventrolateral/median preoptic area). The sleep-promoting population becomes more active at nighttime and also after extended wakefulness, resulting in inhibition of the wake-promoting populations.

There are some descending projections from the higher brain to these wake-promoting populations, so you can control their outputs to a certain degree, e.g., forcing yourself to stay awake for a while.

However, sleep is also regulated locally throughout the brain. During wakefulness, certain sleep-regulatory substances accumulate in the extracellular space, including adenosine, prostaglandin D_2, and cytokines. We now know that when an animal becomes very tired, local regions of cortex can fall "asleep" while the animal is still behaviorally awake. When you are struggling to stay awake, you are therefore probably also fighting against a gradually failing neuronal network.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does the year zero not exist?

I learned it at college in history but I had a really bad teacher who just made it more complicated every time she tried to explain it.

Edit: Damn its so easy. I was just so confused because of how my teacher explained it.

Thanks guys!

[Assistant]
Just to add some clarification here. Yes, Dionysius Exiguus invented the anno domini system in what we now call 525 AD, but he only established the AD part of it, not the BC part of it. His intention wasn't to create an entirely new calendar starting from some date, but to merely create a way of tracking and logging Easter occurrences that removed references from a Roman tyrant (at the time, they tracked years relative to Roman Emperors).

Dionysius didn't take into consideration dates before the birth of Christ. It wasn't until other scholars decided to use Dionysius' system for other things outside of merely tracking Easter that dating events before Jesus (using a system explicitly created to date things after him) had to deal with the concept.

None included a year zero, but not because they lacked the concept of a zero, but because calendars in general start from "Year 1" anyway and the AD system is "in the year of our Lord."

That means, the year that Jesus was born would be the first year under his "reign" and therefore 1 AD. Whereas the year before Jesus was born would be the first year before Jesus and therefore 1 BC. Conceptually there isn't even a room for a Year 0.


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

[User]
[The Venture Brothers] Dr. Henry Killinger's methods

If I were to hire Dr. Henry Killinger to help me overcome say, depression or anxiety, would he somehow turn me into a super-villain in the process of doing so?

[Assistant] Bit of a loaded question. It seems that Dr. Killinger only takes on cases where the client has the *potential* for benefit to the Guild. So if he were to take you on as a dedicated client, then it's most likely because you have some deep-seated neuroses or festering hatreds that would turn into a Guild asset.


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

[User]
Why is there no E sharp or C flat?

I'm a musician and play and write music. I'm just wondering why there's no E sharp or B sharp in the musical alphabet. There must be a reason for it?

Edit: Thanks everyone. There are too many responses for me to want to try to reply to but basically it just comes down to the scale. I wasn't confused as to why there's no E sharp or C flat in the sense that they're not there (E sharp is F etc.), just why those two ended up being the odd ones out.

[Assistant]
There is an E sharp and C flat. It doesn't happen in the more popular keys, because of what sinisterphantasy discussed. Every scale must have one of each letter, no more. But if you want to have an F sharp major scale, there IS an E sharp. There has to be an F sharp as the last note, and the F natural as the half step below it, but because there can't be two F's, the F natural is rewritten enharmonically as an E sharp.

I hope that makes sense, a little.


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

[User]
Why is the flu seasonal?

Why is a simple thing like a virus not constant?

[Assistant]
There really isn't a great answer for this. You can find various explanations, but there isn't a good explanation that describes seasonal activity in the flu virus that applies to different climates. For example, in temperate climate regions the flu peaks in the winter while in more tropical climates the flu can be strong in humid, rainy seasons.

It's generally believed to be a function of three broad catagories:

* Weather - Is the virus more stable in the cold? How does humidity affect things?

* Social schedules - School is in session in colder months, colder months tend to concentrate people indoors, etc. all leading to increased transmission.

* Fitness of immune responses - Various factors can lower immunity in the flu host. Vitamin D is a common example, and it may be decreased in people because of lower sun exposure in winter months, therefore more flu.

But an exact answer of how these factors contribute is lacking. You can also find many other theories.


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

[User] ELI5 - Why do entire strands of Christmas lights not work if one bulb is damaged or taken out?

[Assistant]
most lights are wired cheaply in serial, each light is connected to the previous light, remove one light and its the same as cutting the cable with a pair of scissors, the electricity cant flow.

Electricity needs to flow in a complete circuit. If the electrical current can't get back to its source it doesnt flow at all, which is why it doesnt just light up all the lights prior to the broken one.

More expensive ones work in parallell (or have several parallelled groups of serial cables) these are evident by usually having multiple strands of cables. Removing one light will take out all of a group that are in that serial run but leave the others which are wired parallell to that run working.


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

[User]
How long does it take for ingested Carbs/Protein/Fat/Sugar etc to have an effect?

I've been watching my diet lately, and read plenty on how carbs are long term energy and fat is short term quick energy etc, but how long does it for those foodstuffs to actually become energy in my body, from mouth to use?

For example, if I eat a high carb food at 1pm, at what time will I feel the benefits of those carbs?

What about water from mouth to hydration?

[Assistant]
> carbs are long term energy and fat is short term quick energy

Actually, it's the complete opposite; fats and proteins are much more energy dense and are metabolised into energy more slowly than carbohydrates.


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

[User] A day is 24 hours. Earth's rotation is 23. 56 and change. Where do those 4 minutes go? And why isn't the time scale divided so it's 24 hours exactly?

[Assistant]
You have to decide what your reference point is: the 23hrs 56 minutes is the time it takes the earth to rotate 360 degrees. But it takes four more minutes for the earth to rotate on around to where the sun is at the same place in the sky, because the earth is also revolving around the sun at a rate of 1/365.25th of a revolution per day. There are 1440 minutes in  a day, and 1440/365.25=3.943

Hope that helps.


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

[User] [sci-fi] How can you tell when AI is sentient?

[Assistant]
You actually hit on a very difficult question to answer and a more recent "hot" area in philosophy. If interested look into the philosophy of mind and consciousness with maybe a close look on weak and strong A.I.

To answer your question in a somewhat unsatisfactory way, we don't know.


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

[User] [Marvel] Life on our world never occurs. How is the rest of the universe affected by the lack of humans and other Earth based species?

[Assistant]
It is the 21ist century. The Kree Reign over vast swaths of the galaxy, wiping out all lesser life forms. Millions of species are no longer seen, expect as slaves or experiments. The Mad Titian snaps his fingers, wiping out half of all life in the universe. Now content, he rests on an undiscovered world, his work fulfilled.

Meanwhile, in worlds unknown and immumeribale, forces the world cannot comprehend gather. many of them chaotic and formless, seek acces into this world. with fewer masters of the arts aviable to the universe, it will soon become the plaything of laughing, thirsting gods.


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

[User]
Why do women's figure skating outfits so prominently feature their crotches?

Is it a functional thing that makes movements easier?

I guess I'm not used to seeing this much camel toe on American television.

[Assistant] I was a competitive figure skater for 15 years. The design of skating dresses is for functionality. Clothing has to be tight so it is very easy to move in an won't throw off balance in jumps and spins. Skirts are added so we aren't just in leotards. It adds a little interest to the design as well as a bit of modesty. The skirt length and thickness changes for what type of skating you're doing. For freestyle, short skirts are much more aerodynamic for jumping. In ice dancing, longer skirts are used because they flow and look better on the ice as the skater uses graceful edges and complicated footwork. Sleeves/no sleeves, cutouts, backless, and rhinestones are added to aid to music interpretation and to give us a bit of style.


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

[User]
ELI5 Black-out drunkenness

How can I seem like I'm completely aware, hold a conversation, even seem like I'm not drunk ,while my mind is basically asleep?

[Assistant] The alcohol basically turns off the part of your brain that makes long-term memories. You can still make some short-term memories, but they won't ever turn into long-term memories. (This stuff is done in the hippocampus)


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

[User]
Why do microwaves cook/heat things faster than ovens, when ovens reach higher temperatures?

e.g stick a Hot Pocket in the microwave and youre good to go in about 2 1/2 minutes, but put it in the oven, and it takes about 10-15. According to the box, anyway.

[Assistant]
A microwave works by directly causing heating in the food itself, which is a much more direct and efficient process. First a magnetron generates microwaves, which has some unintended energy loses that go to heating the magenetron. Next, the microwaves go into the cavity, and are absorbed by and heat the food. The air and microwave safe dish are transparent, so they don't absorb any of the energy and heat up. The walls are reflective, so they also don't heat up. So beyond the losses in the magnetron, the energy goes pretty much entirely into the food and it's the only thing that is heating up.

An oven is much more indirect. Firstly, an element is intentionally heated up to a few thousand degrees. That alone is a loss of energy simply to heating it up so much. The element then transfers heat either by conduction to anything it touches o by thermal radiation. The thermal radiation is much like microwaves, however the walls and dishes aren't transparent or reflective. Therefore a lot of energy goes into heating them to a few hundred degrees. The conduction happens to the air, which itself has to be heated to a few hundred degrees. Then the air has to move around the over by convection to heat the food. The walls of the oven are also quite a lot of surface, so a lot of heat is lost to the outside. Compare this to the much smaller surface area of the food itself you are heating in a microwave. In the end, it is a lot more inefficient as instead of slightly heating a magnetron in addition to the food, you've heated a substantial amount of metal, air, ceramic to a few hundred degrees as well as bleeding off more what to the environment.

A hot pocket is say 100g, and we'll say that's just water. So to heat that from say 0C freezing to 100C boiling, you need 42,000 joules of energy (4.2 J per g per C). You microwave consumes around 1000W of electrical power, so 1000 joules per second. Ideally, your hot pocket could be heated in 42 seconds. Due to losses, mostly in the magenetron, it takes 2.5 minutes. So about 30% of your electrical energy actually went into heating your food.

Your over on the other hand, let's say is also 1000W (though that's more like a toaster over). Assuming it's on broil, ie the elements are always on, it's using 1000W for 10 minutes. So that's about 8% of your electrical energy actually going into the food, the rest just heats the over and the air.

However, the oven is usually even slower. You usually don't use broil, but a set temperature, so the oven elements aren't on the whole time. They do this because both the thermal radiation and air heat just the skin of the food, potentially burning the outside and leaving the inside cold. The inside only heats by conduction of the beat from the surface, which takes time. As such, the elements turn on and off to maintain a lower temperature, slowing the cooking but allowing more even cooking. The microwaves however can penetrate further into the food, cooking it more evenly without the need for downtime to let the inside cook. In essence, the microwave is always 1000W, but the 1000W over may only be on half the time, being 500W on average.

So it's not just inefficiency of an oven heating a bunch of unnecessary mass in addition to your hot pocket, but also the oven needing to hold back on full power to avoid burning the outside of the food. Less power and less efficiency, means slower cooking times. However, a microwave isn't a magical quick and efficient solution to all cooking, as often the longer cooking time and slight burning of the surface that an oven causes are desirable. That's why your microwave hot pocket is soggy while the oven one is crispy.


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

[User] Why do some insects have hemoglobin while others have hemocyanin?

[Assistant]
One aspect would be temperature and oxygen availability, since hemocyanin is generally more effective than hemoglobin in cold and oxygen-starved conditions.

I also believe hemoglobin has greater/wider affinity for competitive inhibitors, ie. other ligands that can bind instead of oxygen. Sometimes that's desirable, other times it's undesirable (CO, cyanide, or sulfides interfering with oxygen transport). That could play a role as well.


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

[User] [ASTRONOMY] Do we keep finding tidally-locked exoplanets because being tidally locked is the more common state for planets, or because such planets are easier to detect?

[Assistant] Tidal locking is more likely the closer a planet is to its host star, and the exoplanets that are easiest to detect are those that are close to their host stars.  For the transit method of detecting exoplanets, the closer the planet to the host star, the more light it blocks (so it's easier to spot) and the shorter the orbital period (so it's easier to confirm).  With radial velocity measurements, which depend on how much the orbiting planet(s) tug on their host star, the closer the exoplanets to the host, the greater the effect, and thus the easier to detect.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does teeth whitening/bleaching work?

I'm wondering if someone could actually explain how it achieves whiter teeth, as my teeth are somewhat stained due to heavy caffeine consumption (lots of tea).

And also if there is any differences between whitening or bleaching.

[Assistant]
Whitening is usually used to refer to the mechanical removal of stains by some sort of physical action, IE using abrasives in toothpaste that will scrub off surface stains on the tooth enamel.

Bleaching is breaking up stains via chemical action, essentially using a chemical agent to break the stains down into smaller molecules.


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

[User]
Why not just buy the airlines and nationalize them instead of bailing them out?

The market cap of all these airlines is less than the purposed 58 billion bailout. Why doesn't the government just buy all the shares and then own the airlines?

[Assistant]
The bailout is in the form of secured loans which will be paid back eventually. It isn't just giving the money to the airlines. Buying the shares would be more costly.

The average American voter also probably opposes nationalization.


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

[User] ELI5: why is energy produced from both nuclear fission and fusion even though they are fundamentally opposite processes?

[Assistant]
Energy is released when something moves from a less stable state to a more stable state. For example, if you have something very high up, it is *unstable* because gravity is pulling it down. When it falls, it releases energy until it hits the ground and becomes stable, because at the ground it can't fall any more.

On the other hand, you have to put energy into something to move it out of a stable state. When something is sitting on the ground, you have to add energy into it to raise it up.

Atoms that are lighter than iron are in a less stable state than they would be with a larger nucleus. The strong nuclear force is, well...strong and like gravity it can pull *really* hard on protons and neutrons, much harder than the electromagnetic force is repelling the protons. When you fuse small atomic nuclei, they are becoming more stable, which releases energy.

Atoms that are heavier than iron are also in a less stable state. Although the strong nuclear force is much stronger than electromagnetism, it has a much smaller range. If the nucleus gets too big, the strong force isn't affecting all of the protons and neutrons in the nucleus, but the electromagnetic force *is*. The electromagnetic repulsion between protons is pushing them apart and the strong nuclear force is just barely holding them together. When the nucleus splits, it becomes small enough for the strong force to hold on better, so it becomes more stable and energy is released.

The opposite is true for fissioning small nuclei lighter than iron and fusing big nuclei heavier than iron. Fissioining small nuclei absorbs energy and fusing heavy nuclei absorbs energy. The lighter the atom is, the more energy you get from fusing it and the heavier the atom is the more energy you get from fission. You can't get lighter than hydrogen, and getting atoms heavier than uranium and plutonium is usually difficult because 1) they may not exist naturally and 2) they decay so fast that they don't last long enough to be useful. Iron is right in the middle and is in the most stable state.


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

[User]
ELI5: The Watergate scandal and why it brought down a president.

As above, bear in mind I'm British.

[Assistant]
There were offices in the Watergate complex in Washington DC.  One of those offices was used by the Democratic party in the 1972 election.  People working for people who worked for Nixon's Committee to Re-Elect the President (CREEP) broke into that office but were caught.

Subsequently there was a coverup to attempt to hide the link.  That coverup included improper suggestions from the President that the CIA interfere with the FBI's investigation.

In the end the House of Representatives Judicial Committee voted to send Articles of Impeachment against President Nixon to the full House for consideration.  The articles were based on abuses of power and interference with the legal system. They were virtually guaranteed to pass in the full House, and Nixon was informed that he did not have enough allies in the Senate to win the trial that would follow the articles being voted out of the House.  Rather than fight the trial and lose, Nixon elected to resign.


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

[User]
How come when my download speed doubles is doesn't cut the download speed by half.

Basically I jump in download spped from 2 megabytes a second to 4 but it only cut the 20 minute time down by like four minutes to 1 minutes. Why does this happen.

[Assistant] It depends on what program you are downloading with, but the most likely answer is that the time left is based on your average download speed, not your momentary download speed. So your download speed may jump around, but the estimate doesn't change as much.


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

[User]
Bad grad students?

Professors/instructors, have you ever seen grad students who looked great on resume and essay but later turned out to be absolutely unfit  for grad programs? What did you do if you saw one?

[Assistant]
It happens all the time.

In STEM the main thing to getting into grad school is good grades and a good GRE score.

You know what has zero basis on your ability to do research?  Being able to take a test.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Why did Barry Crouch Jr. (fake mad eye) bother with the triwizard tournament?

If he wanted to trick Harry to Voldemort, couldnt he have just invited Harry to his office and said hand me that pencil, with the pencil being a port key to the graveyard?

[Assistant]
Voldemort didnt want anyone but his followers to know he had returned at this point. So they needed to teleport Harry to Voldemort, restore Voldemort, kill Harry, and then teleport Harry back to where he was so that no one would ever know Harry had vanished and there would be some reasonable explanation for Harrys death outside of being murdered by Voldemort.

The tournament allowed them to put Harry in a potentially lethal situation out of prying eyes so that Hogwarts and the Wizarding World would think he died in the tournament, which is something that is known to happen to tournament participants in order to camouflage Voldemorts return.


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

[User]
ELI5: How Does A mom and pop store help A community while A wal-mart hurts the community

Like where does the money go If you spend it at the mom and pop store and where does the money go when you spend it at a wal-mart or Target?

[Assistant]
When you buy from a large national or international retailer,  the profits go to the corporation wherever they happen to be located.

When you buy from a mom and pop shop, the profits are spent locally.


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

[User]
If I went back in time 2000 years would my immune system be any less effective?

I know that microbes can evolve fairly quickly so would 2000 years of change be long enough for our immune systems to not recognize the germs?

[Assistant]
it would probably be effective for some microbes/viruses but unlikely to be as effective as it is today.

Even going back a few decades and you had small pox, a few more and HIV did not exist and every winter bring new flu strains.Things change fast.

Don't forget geography ; Traveling around the world today, each new continent and country brings its own immunological challenges, ( hence travelers diahorrea ),  so its a safe bet that things were very different 2000 years ago.


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

[User]
Can too much capsaicin actually hurt you?

I mean, obviously it hurts like a bitch.  But is the pain you're feeling directly related to any actual damage, perhaps at a much higher level of concentration of the chemical?

Edit: Just to clarify.  I'm wondering specifically if the feeling of pain and burning is because you are actually being hurt in some way.  It is absolutely fascinating to hear all these stories, though.  Godspeed, super-hot pepper eaters.  I could never be so brave.

[Assistant]
Well, it's go an LD50 of 47.2 mg/kg, and if ingested it large quantities can cause abdominal pain and vomiting. Because its action upon neurones simulates a response to burning, the tissue at contact often becomes inflamed which can cause permanent damage, just like any inflammatory.

Dietary consumption is usually fine unless it's taken to extremes.


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

[User]
Whats stopping the water in lakes from seeping into the soil and disappearing?

Thought about this question when I was watering some plants and the water got absorbed by the soil. Whats keeping a body of water (e.g. in a lake) from being absorbed by the soil completely?

[Assistant]
Because theres already water in the ground. If you were to dig down beside the lake youd hit saturated dirt at the same level as the surface of the lake. The level at which this occurs is the water table. Water flows under ground and levels out so if you dig a hole and keep the hole open, it will fill with water up to the water table. We call those holes wells.

Of course nature is more complicated than that simple model, but thats basically it. Rivers can lose water to the surrounding ground as they flow or gain water. Perched aquifers above the surrounding water table can occur when there are pockets of impermeable material holding water like a bowl. Those impermeable layers are called aquatards. If there is a lot of rain in an area the ground above the water table can be permanently saturated, but the water is moving downward to the water table. Coasts are more complicated when tides are involved.


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

[User] ELI5: Why, as adults we are only prescribed pills for medication, when we're fully capable of taking liquids?

[Assistant]
Liquids go bad much (_much_) faster than pills because the liquid (usually water) provides an active breeding ground for germs.  Most of the long-shelf-life liquid medicines out there have a natural preservative in them:  alcohol (next time you're in the drug store aisle, look at the ingredients on that bottle of nyquil).

In the case of medicines, they don't want to pack in many preservatives because the chemicals could react negatively with the medicine.


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

[User] Is an aerodynamic object inherently hydrodynamic and vice versa?

[Assistant]
For the most part, yes.  Small models in water flumes are often used to simulate the behavior of large vehicles in air.  What matters is the *Reynolds number*: Re = U L / nu, where U is the velocity, L is the size of the object, and nu is its kinematic viscosity.  Situations with the same Reynolds number will have comparable drag, whether they're in air or water.  So the comparison of hydrodynamic vs aerodynamic-ness depends on size and flow speed, but generally speaking torpedo shapes are good in both air and water.

But there are some special cases.  For objects moving at the *surface* of the water, drag is dominated by wake wave formation, and so ships are designed to minimize that, but that's not relevant for aerodynamics.  Also, if something's moving through air at or above the speed of sound, there's a whole bunch of drag behaviors that don't come up in subsonic liquid flow.


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

[User] ELI5: How do actors who are unnoteworthy in a film credit themselves? Ie Lord of the Rings, random orc number 468?

[Assistant] However their part is listed in the film credits, usually. So if they are actually part of a group that got numbered, say Thug #1, #2, #3, they'll list themselves as such. Larger groups of extras such as in fight scenes might just be bunched up under a single heading like "Orc Extras" and so the actor would list that credit as "Orc Extra".


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

[User]
ELI5: could a hacker theoretically breach a bank and erase all the debt the banks have on file?

Could a hacker erase all records of mortgages and credit and if so what would the bank do?

[Assistant]
Technically, yes, but realistically, no.

Most companies have back up centers located in different physical locations.

They also have back up tapes (think VHS tapes, but the size of N64 cartridges) for storing computer data. These are take out of the backup machine and stored, so they cant be accessed virtually.


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

[User]
If we had a train suspended on magnetic levitation, in a vacuumed tube, wouldn't all thrust from the train be accelerative since there is no countering friction?

So my thinking was that the magnetic levitation would counteract the friction on the tracks and the tube being a vacuum would remove air resistance. Is there another source of friction working against force pushing the train forward.

I was thinking of this as a way to surpass the speed of light. Does this happens to rockets in space? I'm assuming the amount of fuel required for this could be a deal breaker. Even without reaching the speed of light, could we reach a speed to achieve meaningful time dilation?

Edit. Sorry for not replying yet guys, just waking up now. Absolutely stoked with the reception, thanks so much for all the answers. From what I've read, it seems that relativity has an answer for everything in terms of preserving the speed of light, you win this round physics. Keen as to read through all the comments though!

[Assistant]
The speed of light is not a limit to be broken. It is a conversion factor between dimensions in space and the dimension in time.

You can go very fast if you have very little mass, but you cannot exceed c because at c, transit time for you is already zero (all space no time).


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

[User]
[Spider-Man] How tall does he need a building to be to serve as a good swing point when traveling by webline?

So the webslinger can get around Manhattan fast and easy because there are plenty of very tall buildings he can stick a line to and get a good long arc from. But many of the less dense NYC neighborhoods and most of the boroughs aren't so looming, and for long stretches of Brooklyn and Queens there's nothing taller than four stories. How high up does the anchor need to be for Spidey to get a deep enough curve that will cover a good distance without splatting him into the ground?

[Assistant]
Its good to remember that Spidey doesnt rely only on being a pendulum to gain speed. His super strength allows him to propel himself forward quickly using his webs to zip forward. In addition, he can get a running start and jump high into the air before starting a swing to get a higher speed in places where he cant get enough height.

However, you are correct in that the higher the building, the easier it is to go fast.


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

[User]
Why are farmers politically powerful enough to get large subsidies despite being a very small part of the population?

E.g. in the US and EU there are large subsidies for farmers.

[Assistant]
There are various reasons, but one part of the explanation comes from the dependence of society on the resources provided by farmers. According to resource dependence theory, the power of social actors over others increases based on a) the value of the resources for the other and b) the exclusivity with which they are able to offer these resources to the other. Farmers provide society with an extremely valuable resource, namely food. Moreover, they (as a group) are the only ones 3ho can provide it.

Of course, there's more to it since farmers are not (always) a unified group. But this is definitely a factor contributing to their political power.

Source RDT: Pfeffer, J. & Salancik, G. R. (2003). The external control of organizations. A resource dependence perspective. Stanford Business Books, Stanford.


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

[User]
ELI5: Do the brain squiggles wiggle?

I bear the question of brain squigglies. I understand the brain is like electric jello soup in a bone bowl, but doesnt it ever move? Does it twitch when we think or move? Can complex things happen that make it move? Are there micro movements? Does it need movement, like other muscles and organs do?

[Assistant]
The brain does squiggle wiggle, but not on its own. There are no muscles in the brain so it can't move itself, but it is jiggly so if you whack it, it will be wiggly. This is what happens when people get a concussion, the brain is smooshed up against the inside of the skull by an impact.

Thinking won't make the brain move itself but it can increase blood flow, and the pulse of blood can create some small movement. In effect the heart can move the brain a little bit. Movement isn't required for the brain to think and in fact it is generally detrimental.


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

[User] ELI5:How can a file that is 0 bytes can be stored when technically it shouldn't exist because it contains no data?

[Assistant] Think of it as a filing cabinet.  You open the drawer and you pull out a folder.  The folder has nothing at all in it.  It is a file with no data.  If someone were to ask you how big the file is you would say it had no data.  Even though it has no data, there's still a folder there and it still takes up space in the filing cabinet albeit not nearly as much as the file with a hundred pages in it.


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

[User]
But what ARE divergence and curl?

When I took Calc III, we mostly talked about divergence and curl in the context of how they can help you solve surface integrals and line integrals with the divergence theorem and with Stokes' theorem. That was the extent of it. We also discussed how curl explains how 'spiraly' a vector field is at a certain point, but nothing behind the intuition. From further investigation I've learned that divergence is a measure of 'source vs. sink' and that both are kind of derivatives.

My question is: Sure, as mathematicians we can define whatever we want, but why? What are divergence and curl really? Are they only useful in the context described above or are there more? What was the motivation for defining them? How can I use them to solve problems? Why are they an interesting topic of study? Are there extensions to higher/lower dimensions? Etc.

[Assistant] Drop some puffed rice onto a point in a gently flowing stream.  If the rice flows away from that point or flows toward it, the water's flow (which can be described by a vector at every point on the surface) has a positive or negative divergence there.  It the rice swirls around counter-clockwise around that point as you watch it, then the water has a curl vector that points up away from that point.  If the rice swirls around clockwise, then the water has a curl vector that points down into the water at that point.  This is just an intuitive picture, of course.  In physics, the geometry of the electric and magnetic fields are specified entirely by the divergence and curl of their field vectors, and these are related to the electric charges (both stationary and moving) and time-varying fields that produce the fields in the first place.  The divergence and curl were developed to describe electric and magnetic fields by Oliver Heaviside in the 1890s.


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

[User] ELI5: How do astronomers describe where things are in space when the Earth, Sun and whatever object they are observing are moving?

[Assistant]
Yes, things are moving, but they are very, very, very far apart.  that means that there relative motion is only a small percentage of the distance.

Most measurements are made in the equatorial coordinate system called ascensio recta or right ascension. With declination, it makes a system like longitude and latitude.

The "equator" is the plane of the Earth's orbit around the Sun.  The Earth's north pole is inclined (giving the Earth seasons) but celestial North is the direction that's 90 from the Earth-Sun plane using the same right hand rules as we use on the planet.  Declination is the equivalent of "latitude", how far an object is above the Earth-Sun plane.

The "prime meridian" points toward the Sun at the vernal equinox.  Measured from there, right ascension is the "longitude".  It's usually measured in hours, where 00h = 24h.  Stars move up and down as they rise and fall, so this "time-like" angle measurement reflects when they are at the highest part in their arc using the Earth as a giant protractor.


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

[User]
CMV: Most major socialist movements are driven more by hatred of the rich rather than a desire to help the poor

The theory that I have is that most major socialist movements in history (as well as many contemporary movements) are primarily driven by a loathing for the rich.

While many people call the USSR/China to be "not socialism", IMO the founding principles and ideas that drove the Russian Revolution and the Cultural Revolution are generally socialist, and a large swath of people generally believed and popularly supported in the ideals -- at least initially.

My argument is that "hatred of the rich" is a unifying element of nearly all socialist movements, and many socialist movements accrue critical mass most easily by fanning the population's hatred of the rich. Even though not everyone in a socialist movement may agree on exactly on how to implement a socialist state after the revolution, everyone agrees that the downfall of the rich must happen *now*.

And that's precisely what happened in the communist revolutions.

The rich were evicted from power / persecuted / jailed, but the movements largely fall apart due to a lack of universal consensus on how to implement a socialist state. Initial popular support crumbles after the 'enemies' are removed, and resentment rises against the controlling group because most people don't get exactly the kind of socialism that they wanted. The revolution deviates from the original vision due to practical reasons and it becomes a perversion of what most people would consider "socialism" in its purist form.

I genuinely think this is probably what would happen to most major socialists movements, particularly those that are driven by hatred of the rich. Even if a movement claims that it does not hate the rich, this notion sort of occurs incidentally by the nature of socialism itself (whether by the rhetoric used or other features of campaigning for socialism), and it's the most salient and popular feature of the ideology.

I think if socialism remotely has a chance to work, I think it should be primarily motivated by a communal desire and widespread cultural values to help the poor. Rather than investing energy into 1% protests (which IMO is strictly all about hating the rich; everyone including people at the 51% percentile should be actively helping the poor), we should proactively be pooling resources into community chests and and community organizations to help the least fortunate members of their own communities. We should be encouraging people regardless of their level of income (whether you are at the 30th percentile or the 75th percentile) to volunteer and contribute to helping the lowest percentile.

[Assistant]
>We should be encouraging people regardless of their level of income (whether you are at the 30th percentile or the 75th percentile) to volunteer and contribute to helping the lowest percentile.

How would that lead to the workers seizing the means of production from the owner class?


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

[User]
[Silent Hill] What would happen if someone went to Silent Hill for "occult tourism"?

Let's say that a regular guy with a passion for occult things, a somehow well adjusted person without an overly tragic past, decides one day to go to Silent Hill because it's a nice vacation spot and he's heard some pretty interesting urban legends about it, so it's pretty much killing two birds with one stone.
So one day of summer he brings out a camera, a few books about the occult and symbolism, a pack of nice cold beers and start heading towards the city, with the intention of strolling through the streets, vising supposedly "haunted" spots and chill on the lake beach drinking and reading.

So... what would happen to this guy? Would the "other" Silent Hill manifest to him in some way, or would it remain hidden?

[Assistant]
First, Ive always seen it as there are *two* Silent Hills that appear - the kind that appears to Harry and Heather, and the kind that appears to James.

As far as the first kind, that Silent Hill is the result of the Order. They are a hidden organization that does a good job of staying hidden. They made themselves known to Harry and Heather, but those were special cases. A normal dude that travels to Maine on vacation doesnt warrant their attention.

The second Silent Hill type is the kind that creates illusions and strange manifestations of your past, specifically a past that is full of remorse and guilt and all sorts of negative emotions. But as stated, hes a normal well-adjusted adult without a tragic past. So he might see some weird things, but nothing as big as a giant occult organization. Probably no monsters, but things that are unsettling.


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

[User]
[DCU/Justice league] in the Justice league movie steppenwolf seems to fear kryptonians, so much that it seems he wouldn't have tried invading if Superman was still alive, is there a reason for this?

Is there somethings in the comics regarding kryptonians that they are to be feared, are the effects of a yellow sun widely known amongst other alien races or were kryptonians well known in combat even without powers?

[Assistant] Kryptians were once a spacefaring culture, traveling to many planets. Including Earth, many many years ago (hence the spaceship in the ice in *Man of Steel*). Steppenwolf being an interplanetary baddie *and* having been to earth before would mean there were probably many opportunities for him to learn about Kryptonians and how badass they were under the yellow sun.


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

[User] [Blues Brothers] The response leading to the arrest of the Blues Brothers, was it over exaggerating for comedic effect or because they've been through so much and been successful that they're basically invincible and the military see them as a genuine threat?

[Assistant] It's not really the military. It was the Illinois National Guard and they were called up because the Blues Brothers were causing so much chaos that the local and state law enforcement simply couldn't handle it. Hell, the Blues Brothers caused a 50 car pile-up of State Police cars. It's not uncommon for a State to call up the National Guard if Police can't get a situation under control.


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

[User]
[Spider-Man] How is J. Jonah Jameson a two time Pulitzer prize winner, for want I presume is journalism, when he's clearly an unethical idiot?

I was listening to Jonah's podcast in Spider-Man, and by god he is a fear mongering idiot.

For one, he used Spider Man dressing up punk-like as evidence that he's bad.

He blamed Spider man for the deaths of the work of supervillains.

He provided no facts or reasoning as to why Spider Man is bad.

He even accidentally admits he has an ego complex that Spider Man threatens.

How is this dude such an acclaimed Journalist?

[Assistant]
He has been in journalism for years before Spider-Man was around. Aside from Spider-Man, Jameson proves a be a good journalist. He distanced himself from big political players for his news to be unbiased, and even admits when he is wrong and when Spider-Man actually does something good.

He doesnt really hate Spider-Man personally, he just hates how Spider-Man cant be held accountable for any injuries or accidents that he causes. Remember, Jameson doesnt know Spider-Man from our perspective.

In any case, Jameson is probably one of the best journalists in fiction.


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

[User]
[X-Men] what's with Logan's aging?

Logan is hundreds of years old, and when he joins forces with Xavier near the turn of the 21st century, he appears to be in his early 30s, as he has for the vast majority of his life.

Fast-forward to (what I believe to be) ~17 years later. I can say this based on the aging of Xavier, whose mutation has nothing to do with longevity, apparently aging this much.  And what's this?  Logan also appears to be that much older.  What happened?  He still seems to be able to quickly regenerate from injury.  Even if it's not a quickly as he used to, I'd imagine it'd at least *slow* the effects of aging, rather than going from the perpetual trigenarian to a normally aging person.

What am I missing?

[Assistant]
One theory is that he isn't aging slowly, but rather healing from aging as well as other injuries.

Every time Logan got shot, or stabbed, or whatever, he would essentially heal to a point where he was metabolically younger than before he was injured.

When Logan retired and stopped getting seriously injured all the time, his healing factor wasn't kicking in, and his aging progressed at a relatively normal rate.


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

[User] [Lovecraft/WH40k] What would happen if the Elder Gods came to the Warhammer Universe?

[Assistant]
Things are put back into order.

The Chaos Gods, try as they might, can't fight Yog-Sothoth and his time-warping counterpart. They get merc'd by murderous deities who operate ten levels up. And Azathoth can wipe them away, because fuck logic he controls your existence. This actually a boon to humanity, as now warp is clean. The Outer Gods, however, would want these things dead, because they *might pose a threat eventually.

Other than that life may actually get better.

Tau probably start worshipping Azathoth (the ultimate power) or Shub-Niguroth (easiest buff). The Astronomicon goes down and GEoM dies when Old Gnarly gets bored and begins to fuck with people again. The warp is clean, and travel becomes viable. The Tyranids may be destroyed, especially if the WH40k galaxy becomes the seat of Azathoth. With the cult of the Emperor dead, technological advancement can be kick started, which may be necessary if the Mi'go also enter.


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

[User] [TMNT] How The Ninja Turtles keep the poop sewers odor from their headquarters?

[Assistant] The Ninja Turtles don't live in a literal sewer, they live in a storm drain.  That's why it's so spacious.  No sewage, just runoff rainwater.  And the section that they make their home out of had been taken out of commission and abandoned.


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

[User] If I didn't know how old I was and there was no documentation, how could my age be determined and to what degree of accuracy?

[Assistant]
Lets assume that there has been no strenueous aging done by extenuating circumstances like heavy drug use or osteoporosis and things of that nature. There are actually many ways to deteremine roughly how old somebody is. One of the most sure fire way is the skeleton (I am including teeth in this too as that is another good way). This is due to the human bones growth patterns. Children are easy to identify by size (obviously) and the fact that they will have closer to 210 bones as some bones fuse into one larger bone as we age. People who are of late teens to early 20's will have underdeveloped clavicles, as they do not finish developing until around 25-30 or so. Elderly people can be identified by loss of calcified bone cells, meaning their bones will be much softer and more brittle. The cranium actually yields some results as well. As one ages, the sutures (where the cranial bones fuse) fade and become less obvious. So this could  easily differentiate say a 20 year old from a 70 year old at first glance.

There is one way that can be seen microscopically. There are what are called 'osteons.' These are the individual functional unit of a bone, like a nephron to a kidney. As humans age, the osteons become smaller and larger in number, where younger humans have much larger individual osteons. Obviously these tests would have to be performed by a doctor in a suitable lab with suitable equipment.


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

[User]
Why do my shoes squeak when they are wet?

When the soles of my shoe are dry, they usually don't squeak (unless I'm, say, running on a basketball court), but if they are wet, then they squeak very easily. Why?

[Assistant]
In dry conditions the difference between dynamic and static friction are not that far apart. The sole of a shoe will transition between the two regimes (stick to slip) rather gradually.

In wet conditions a large difference between static and dynamic friction develops. When static friction breaks into dynamic friction, a surface will suddenly find itself suspended on a film of liquid which is very low friction until the film is interrupted and some solid body contact is made and a much higher coefficient of friction develops. This results in fast stuttering motions which translate into noise.


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

[User] ELI5: How is it possible that people are skeptical about The Sandy Hook Shooting? Are there not enough witnesses or locals to explain exactly what happened?

[Assistant]
The government has a recipe for gaining power, which is that a major tragedy occurs, and then the government says, "We need to take away your rights in order to make you safe." The connection between the loss of rights and the security promised is extremely tenuous at best and outright non-existent at worst. After Sandy Hook, Obama went into overdrive trying to ban many things that had absolutely nothing to do with the shooting at all, such as cosmetic components of various semiautomatic rifles.

Because of this, many people falsely assume the government staged the tragedy in the first place. Typically that isn't the case. There are just enough tragedies that happen naturally, the government always has something to latch on to.


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

[User]
[Marvel/Startrek] The Borg have launched an attack on earth 616.......

Some of the students here at Jean Greys have heard rumors that some sort of alien species called The Borg have begun to attack the Earth and 'assimilate' people into their collective.  What's going to happen if they assimilate people like us?

[Assistant]
The Borg are honestly not even a threat to Marvel Earth.  The Kree, Skrulls, and Shai'ar (Hell, probably the Snarks and the Badoon too) have better tech, and the Phalanx outdo them in the body-snatching department.

If Ultron happened to be on Earth at the time, he would overpower the collective singlehandedly in moments.

Truthfully, it wouldn't even rate as a summer event.  Best case scenario for them is to become the new Sentinels/Reavers.


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

[User] Are there examples of urban gentrification that also increased the standard of living for that city's lower class residents?

[Assistant]
Check out "There Goes the Hood" by Lance Freeman - an excellent qualitative study of gentrification in New York City.

"This book argues that indigenous residents do not necessarily react to
gentrification according to some of the preconceived notions generally
attributed to residents of these neighborhoods....Residents of the hood are sometimes more receptive because gentrification brings their neighborhoods into the mainstream of American commercial life with concomitant amenities and services that others might
take for granted. It also represents the possibility of achieving upward
mobility without having to escape to the suburbs or predominantly white neighborhoods. These are benefits of gentrification typically not recognized in the scholarly literature."


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

[User]
[MCU] What happens if Ant Man drops an enlargement disc into a pool of water and activates it?

Does the volume of water increase, do the water molecules get bigger, or something else?

[Assistant] It would increase the atomic distance between the atoms of Hydrogen and oxygen in the molecules only for the molecules that were touching the disc. So there would be a few million really big water molecules.


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

[User]
[Star-Trek,Wars,Gate] How is it that seemingly 99% of battle damage to ships can be repaired from the inside of the ship?

It seems along my travels that when a ship I'm on takes damage that knocks out the engines, weapons, shields, or similarly critical components, that all that is required is to reconfigure a console, swap a few crystals, and enter a few commands. How is it that there is never any external damage preventing a component from going online that would require a crewman to go EVA?

[Assistant] Starships inherently have a lot of risks because of what they're doing and where they fly. Because of this, ships generally have quite a few redundancies built in. Usually if, say, the shields were to get knocked out, it likely wouldn't be because the shield generator actually got destroyed, but because the main power connection from the reactor to the shield generator was broken. Usually there is a backup power line or two, and the captain/bridge crew should be able to easily reroute the power through the secondary line. Secondaries usually can't carry as much as the main line and the shield or such won't operate at full capacity, but it's much better than not having shields or engines at all.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are some hard drugs more harshly stigmatized in society than others?

For example: people make lighthearted jokes about coke and, from what I've seen, are much more willing to talk about it openly - even glorify it - but heroin is treated like a very dark, serious topic. Or how coke is fine, but crack is just for addicts sleeping in abandoned warehouses.

I understand different drugs have different side effects, but all hard drugs have potentially life-ruining consequences, right? So why is our culture selective about some hard drugs being okay, and some not?

[Assistant]
Social class. When a drug is associated with the poor, like crack and heroin, then society places a stigma to it. When a drug is associated with the rich/well off/middle class not so much, cannabis and cocaine come to mind.

With cannabis it's interesting. It was far more demonized in the past when it was associated with the "wrong" social classes. Now that it's mostly middle class college students not so much.

I put "wrong" in scare quotes because it's not always about rich and poor. It can be about any marginalized segment of society. Most of the time it's the poor, but it can be based on race or ethnicity.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does the Japanese language have English loan words for things they already have words for?

Words like "relax" (rirakkusu) and "hose" (hosu) seem like something that would have existed before contact with English-speaking people.

[Assistant]
The words often have slightly different connotations. For example, the English loan word *kyanseru* (cancel) is an informal, modern-sounding way to talk about canceling something. If you were talking about canceling a contract or other more formal arrangement, you would likely instead use the Chinese loan word *kaiyaku*. And if you wanted to talk about canceling in a more general or abstract sense, like taking back your words, you might instead use the native Japanese word *torikesi*.

Japanese is not unique in this regard. English has many French and Latin loan words for terms that already had native semi-equivalents: pain/hurt, rage/anger, response/answer, prior/before, commence/begin, creed/belief, abdomen/belly, corpse/body, fraternal/brotherly, construct/build, etc.


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

[User]
Does your body reabsorb urine?

If you hold your pee long enough, and don't drink water will your body reabsorb the water in your urine?
Basically, I guess the question boils down to this : can your kidneys work in reverse?

[Assistant] No. Once the kidneys release the urine to the bladder, no further water resorption is possible. The kidneys are highly optimized to filter and resorb water. The bladder is just an impervious storage unit until you pee.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do elementary school kids all over the country know the same playground songs/rhymes/etc?

Edit: Thanks for the responses. It makes sense to me how formal songs and things (Ring Around the Rosie, etc.) would be spread by teachers and media, but what about stuff just perpetuated by kids? Why do kids everywhere say "na na na na na, you can't catch me!" to the same rhythm, or sing "Joy to the world that Barney's dead"? I tutor 1200 miles from where I grew up, and a few weeks ago I had a kid come up and say, "Okay, say "I," and then spell 'cup'!" Is it really just the few who share with friends/relatives in other places that spread it to the rest of us?

[Assistant]
Memes were around thousands of years before there was an internet, and they spread ~~geometrically~~ ~~exponentially~~ quadratically.  ~~This means that one person tells ten people, each of whom tell ten people, each of whom tell ten people,~~ (up to a saturation point? Who even knows how quadratic growth happens?)

(But however it happens,) Within a few years, you have global coverage.