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

[User]
Do humans still possess the parts of the brain/nervous system responsible for movement and sensation in the tail?

I'm wondering if it would be possible to poke around in the brain and make someone feel something in their "tail" which no longer exists, or if they could be trained to move their "tail" for use with brain-computer interfaces.

Or do these brain pathways no longer exist because the limb doesn't?

I suppose the same goes for ears that can be independently moved and folded like many other mammals can do.

[Assistant] The brain in general, but also the motor cortex, is incredibly plastic. "Connections" between regions of the motor cortex and muscles (or muscle groups) are strengthened with repeated use. Without "input" from tail musculature, there would be no stimulus to devote part of the cortex to the tail.


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

[User]
[General Superheroes] What's with the overabundance of alliteration with superhero names?

I mean, think about it: Billy Batson, Peter Parker, Reed Richards, David Dunn, Matt Murdock, Wally West, Freddy Freeman, Guy Gardner, and so many more I'm forgetting. Is this some sort of pattern?

[Assistant]
I like to think that people with special, wacky names are bound for special, wacky destinies. Name a kid Lois Lane and she's all but coded for a life of adventure and dazzling success. Name a kid Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot, though it's more assonant than alliterative, and... you can just imagine what that kid's gonna have to go through to end up on top.

Why? Because first impressions count for everything. Lois Lane goes in to interview for the Daily Planet, and her interviewer goes "LLLLLOIS LLLLLANE," they're gonna remember it. That's the kinda name that'll make a byline really sparkle on the front page.

They're also gonna remember "OSWALD C. COBBLEPOT," but see, that's more of a joke to text a friend about. "Interviewed some poor bastard called Oswald Cobblepot today. What a dumb name lol"

It also just so happens that the exciting, adventurous jobs that people with such names end up in, tend to carry a risk of picking up a few superpowers along the way. Occupational hazards and all. You don't see your average Tom, Dick, or Harry heading occult archaeological digs or tuning up experimental particle colliders.


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

[User]
ELI5: What was the original motivation behind the F-35 program that would have justified how much it's been funded?

Setting aside the infamously ridiculous amount of delays, ballooning costs and hardware problems the program has had, I've been wondering: what possible motivation could the Pentagon have had for sponsoring a program designed to spend tensif not hundreds of billionsof dollars even by its original estimate? What was wrong with the current fighter jets like the F-22 and USAF fleet that they needed to be replaced with hundreds of these new fighters? Why was this necessary when most of the conflicts the US finds itself in now don't seem to rely much on fighter superiority?

Not being partisan and not looking for partisan answers about government bureaucracy or whatever: I'm just trying to understand the Pentagon, Lockheed and Congress's motivations in commissioning this thing in the first placeand why they thought it was worth sticking with.

[Assistant]
Jets have a limited lifespan; as they fly and pull Gs, heat up and cool down, their materials eventually fatigue, crack and break.

The F-16, Harrier, A-10 and F/A-18C/D are all approaching their use-by dates. The F-16 in particular is the main jet of the USAF, the F/A-18C/D makes up half the Navy / Marine air combat fleet and the Harrier is the only jet that can operate off Marine Corps LHDs / LHAs.

In addition, Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, etc have continued to develop new weaponry (tanks, jets, air defences, etc). Sure, the US is not at war with either, but militaries are designed to fight the wars you can't afford to lose. That means you're just wasting money if you intend to buy more of the same old aircraft.

A big factor in all of this is that it takes a long time to develop a modern fighter - the first US jet fighter took <18 months to go from concept to flying. A modern fighter (F-22, F-35, Typhoon, Rafale, PAK-FA, J-20, etc) takes about 20 years to go from concept to in service. To just manufacture an already-designed fighter takes about 2 or 3 years.

Combine that with the expectations that a near-pear war (eg NATO vs Russia or China) would be a lot quicker than WW2, and also the fact that the supply chains of these jets reach around the world, and you end up with a situation where if you're going to fight a war, you're only going to be able to fight it with what you already have.

In the case of the Joint Strike Fighter (F-35), the US is building a "5th generation" (same as the F-22) strike fighter that provides qualitative (it's been getting >20:1 kill ratios against F-15s and F-16s) and quantitative (the US + allies are buying >3000 F-35s; that's more than Russia and China's fighters combined) advantage to ensure that the US / NATO can control the skies and win any conventional war.

If you're thinking about nukes at this point, you have to understand that the understanding of the global and military effects of nuclear weapons today is much different to what it was 30 years ago / during the Cold War. The Soviet Union believed that after they and the United States exchanged nuclear missiles and bombs, that they'd be able to have a considerable number of forces survive, with those forces then being sent out across Europe to try and conquer as much as possible.

Today we're aware how unrealistic that scenario is and so even if WW3 broke out, there's a decent chance that nuclear weapons would be used in a more sparing fashion, if at all (look up NUTS - Nuclear Utilisation Target Selection). If you're Vladimir Putin, etc, you'd probably like to retain the option of having you and your family escape to some secluded island or 3rd world country without worrying about radiation and dramatic climate change destroying your hope of survival.


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

[User] [Fallout] Is there an equivalent to Walt Disney World / Land and if so what happened to it after the apocalypse?

[Assistant] Not that we know of. But the Vault Dweller lived in the same general area where a hypothetical media-empire-theme-park might have been built in the mid 20th century. If one did or did not exist, it would have met the same fate as everything else on the entire continent: complete annihilation. (I'd even guess China targeted big American landmarks second, after political and military targets, since that would have been a solid hit to American morale. So any Disney analogue would have just been a crater, while smaller local theme parks survived.)


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

[User] How does North Korea have such a large military power if they are one of the poorest nations?

[Assistant]
North Korea spends a large percentage of the little money they have on their military. That's part of the reason why millions there are underfed.

As of 1997 they spent 25% of their GDP on the military. This compares to 4.7% for the United States.


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

[User]
I suspect something is wrong with my PI

I think my postdoc mentor has always had some memory issues. I remember when I first started 3 years ago it seemed like he was repeating himself a lot and restarting some of the same discussions (with no new content or ideas), forgetting things we talked about a week ago, and so on. However in the last two months he's gotten much worse than usual. For an example, we were testing a new protocol. We decided one reagent worked best and we were going to use that. Two days later he reopened the issue and it was confusing because we'd already discussed this and then reached the same conclusions. Then he brought it up again after the weekend and it was like he didn't remember anything we'd talked about previously. Occasionally he keeps coming back to it and I have to remind him we settled on a protocol. Then on Tuesday I had a conversation with him about a collaborator and preparing samples, ran the samples over to their lab, and returned to relay a message and have another discussion related to this. This morning he asked me if I'd taken the samples over and if I'd ever met our collaborator. I tried to gently nudge a reminder but he had absolutely no recollection of our conversation the previous afternoon and was visibly confused.

I think he's in his late 40s, *maybe* early 50s. He doesn't seem drunk or like he gets into drugs. I know his father died 2 years ago in a care home of Alzheimer's related complications. I'm not sure if there's an actual issue or if I'm reading too much into things, but it's honestly getting so frustrating dealing with someone who keeps forgetting these things and I can't help but wonder if something is wrong. It's not like he's so busy he's forgetting or late to a meeting, forgot an email, or any of the other small things everyone tends to forget now and then, these are recent conversations that were not insignificant that he can't recall. And none of them are of the nature where it could be reasonably justified as something he's pretending to deny happened.

I'm not sure who to talk to or how to bring up this concern or if I even should. There are clinicians and researchers in our department who study Alzheimers and dementia and I know a few, but I'm not sure if it's my place to bring up suspicions.

[Assistant] I think it's better to be kind than to withhold kindness to avoid being inappropriate. I'd talk to one of the specialists you mentioned for advice. Couldn't you do that without saying that you're asking about your PI in particular?


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

[User]
[MCU] Why is Thaddeus Ross still the Secretary of State after his monumental fuck up in 2016?

Also why the hell did he even get the job when he was the main reason of the destruction of Harlem and the creation of the Abomination?

Who's balls has he captured so tightly that he gets away with so much?

[Assistant]
The Abomination incident is so classified even SHIELD would have a hard time proving it happened, much less laying any blame at Ross's feet.  All anyone remembers is two of those superpowered *things* had a fight in Harlem and the US military put a stop to it.  If anything, it helps Ross since his version of events proves that superpowered individuals are a menace, and that they can be effectively stopped by the military.

By Monumental Fuckup, do you mean the signing of the Sokovia Accords and the resulting Super Hero Civil War?  That one just plays into his hands as further proof that these individuals are an uncontrolled menace that need to be brought to heel.


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

[User]
The earth rotates eastward, but what causes it to rotate? If it were to rotate in the opposite direction instead, what would be different? Do all celestial bodies rotate eastward? If not, then why?

Sorry to make that all sound like an essay question, just thirsting for some knowledge. :)

[Assistant] If you take North as being "top", and look at the Solar System from "the top", all planets orbit the Sun counter-clockwise, and also rotate around their axes counter-clockwise.  Except for Venus.  Venus orbits the Sun in same direction as other planets, but it rotates clockwise.  It does so very slowly, such that the Venusian day (the time it takes the planet to spin once around its axis) is longer than a Venusian year (the time to make one orbit around the Sun).


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

[User]
Do all links in a chain experience the same force when carrying a load?

Hey lovelies!

Imagine a steel chain, suspended with a weight attached on the end. Would the links further up have greater force acting on them as they would be holding up more links or would the 'equal and opposite' thing balance everything out.

And now imagine a chain drawn horizontally with a force applied to both ends - would gravity have a greater effect in the middle of the chain as there would be more leverage there if you see the chain as pivoting from the ends? And what if you had the same situation without gravity?

If there are different forces on different links could you strengthen those links and efficiently increase the overall strength of the chain?

I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

[Assistant]
If the chain was dangling vertically, links near the top would be experiencing higher stress because it is supporting both the load at the end of the chain and the weight of the chain itself.

If the chain was holding two things in tension horizontally (two ships pulling against each other), the stress would be the same everywhere as long as the chain is pulled taut. The stress would be higher in gravity vs. a zero-g situation (two rockets pulling against each other) because again, the chain would be bearing both the load at either and end and the weight of the chain itself.


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

[User]
[DC] Can somebody explain to me why Lex Luthor has such an intense hatred for Superman?

I want someone to explain to me in detail the reason that Lex goes to sleep at night with dreams of crushing the Man of Steel.

[Assistant]
There are two layers to this answer.

The top layer is what others here have posted. That the existence of Superman makes human achievement meaningless. That he's an alien and we can't trust him. That Lex's genius could have ended disease and created utopia if Superman would just stop his endless interference.

Lex probably even believes that stuff - but he's lying to himself as much as he is to everyone else.

The real reason Lex Luthor hates Superman is that he is an egomaniacal narcissist, and he wants everyone in the world to recognize him as the greatest man in history. As long as Superman exists, Lex can't be the best. So Superman has to die.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is mobile data so expensive? Is it really costly for the companies?

Why do companies need to throttle speeds or charge large amounts of money??
Are they just run by greedy evil bastards?

[Assistant]
Is it expensive to the mobile carriers for data? Yes, it very much is expensive to build, run, and maintain their infrastructure, however, its also super valuable to a consumer, so they can charge a ton of money for it, because you will pay. Mobile service is really profitable.

Throttling is different. It's really meant for 1 main thing, to prevent a very very small amount of users who use a wildly huge amount of data for ruining it for everyone else.  Secondarily, and much less important, is to charge some users more for using more data (this can be really profitable, but its really meant to curb those very few ultra-high users)

Yes they are greedy bastards, just like every capitalist corporation in existence, they exist to make money.


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

[User]
What's the difference between rechargeable and non-rechargeable batteries?

Why are the rechargeable batteries more expensive than normal batteries?

Edit: thank you everybody for the answers!

[Assistant]
There are many differences between rechargeable batteries (a group of secondary cells) and non-rechargeable batteries (a group of primary cells) the main differences being the materials used as cathode, anode and electrolyte in the battery as well as the shape, construction and purpose of the battery (pacemakers, emergency lighting, portable power tools all have different energy requirements and associated costs).

A primary cell is a battery that is designed to be used once and discarded, and not recharged with electricity and reused like a secondary cell (rechargeable battery).

In general, the electrochemical reaction occurring in a primary cell is not reversible, rendering the cell unrechargeable. As a primary cell is used, chemical reactions in the battery use up the chemicals that generate the power; when they are gone, the battery stops producing electricity and is useless.

In contrast, in a secondary cell, the reaction can be reversed by running a current into the cell with a battery charger to recharge it, regenerating the chemical reactants.

The processes and materials required to produce secondary cells are more expensive than those of primary cells so rechargeable batteries have a higher initial cost but tend to be more economical in the long run as you can usually recharge the battery up to 1000 times.


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

[User]
ELI5: how do dust baths work?

Like I know chinchillas do it but how does it actually clean them? Like wouldn't it just cover them in dust? And don't they have really dense fur? Won't the dust get stuck there?

[Assistant] They don't do it to clean themselves of dirt and debris. Because their fur is so dense, if it gets wet for any reason it takes a long time to dry and mold and other things can grow in the fur. The dust helps keep their fur dry by absorbing moisture so they don't get moldy.


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

[User]
How do we know the point where species truly divide to the point that they can no longer breed with each other? I was under the impression from biology class that to be a different species that means they can no longer breed with other species.

So looking at large cats and the equine family you can see that some members of the species can breed with each other.

Some examples include mules which are sterile. We can also see ligers as well as other crossbreeds the feline family. So two questions: if two species within a genus can breed together why are they considered separate species? I thought that goes against the definition that defines each member within the taxonomy.

Askscience: what is the defining factor to make a species distinct if it isn't the inability to breed with another branch of the same family?

[Assistant]
Defining a species can quickly become problematic so we actually have a few different 'species concepts' to try to accurately describe the relationships between closely related species. The concept that you're referencing is called the biological species concept. According to this idea, two organisms are conspecifics (the same species) if they can interbreed *and produce fertile offspring*. So the horse and the donkey are not conspecific because the mule is infertile. The same thing is usually true for the lion and tiger hybrids.

But that concept doesn't cover a lot of things and there are some things that would be really hard to fit into really any concept. For instance, the biological species concept can't very easily define asexual species. And there's something called a 'ring species' which confounds all definitions. In that species complex there is a kind of gradient where any apparent conspecific can freely interbreed their neighbors over a large geographic range, but two individuals at the extremes of that range will not be able to mate.

Other species concepts attempt to group less obvious species using their ecology, morphology, phylogeny, etc.
As an example, the polar bear and the grizzly bear can produce fertile offspring and very rarely they do so in the wild. But they occupy very different habitats and the two populations are only very rarely in contact with one another; so even though they would fit the biological concept, they are different species because of their ecology.
Mallard ducks can hybridize with around 50 other species of ducks and around 20% of the offspring are fertile. But again, because of ecology they are not likely to mate, or because of genital morphology they're just usually incapable of physically coupling.

So to answer your question of what is the deciding factor, it really depends on why there is even a question. No one ever looked at two white tail deer and wondered if they were the same species, so it's never really been a problem to try to fit them into a 'species concept'. But asexual species can often only be distinguished by their ecological niches or with molecular genetics.

So it really depends on the animals in question.


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

[User] [Fallout] America or China - who launched nukes first?

[Assistant]
China shot first. Back in fallout 2 President Richardson told about it but you could've figured he's an enclave puppet and therefore lying or something.

I figured it was rather nice to not really know who did shoot first because in the Aftermath, it matters little.

But in New Vegas on Black Mountains there's a terminal telling us that they initiated the response scenario and several terminals in fallout 4 tell us the same, so now we know for sure that the chinese started it. Not that it maes much of a difference. For all we know the Chinese had a faction in their midsts acting similarly to the enclave and they wanted to prevent the enclave from taking over the US government.
Choosing the most moronic course of action to do so as is par for the course in fallout games.


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

[User] ELI5: How deep drilling(oil, etc) avoids drill twisting on its axis? Wouldn't kilometers long steel drills be akin to licorice?

[Assistant] The pipe is quite strong in that axis. There will still be some amount of twisting but no permanent deforming. It just means that you need to spin the pipe a few times before the head starts spinning at the bottom of the well. The pipe is selected to be strong enough to withstand these forces.


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

[User] ELI5: How is it safe to have a nuclear reactor on aircraft carriers and submarines when they are a potential military targets?

[Assistant] If an aircraft carrier or a submarine gets attacked and sunk then the problem of the reactor is likely to be quite a distance away from anywhere people regularly live. You know, because they will be somewhere out in the ocean. So the reactor will sink with the rest of the ship deep underwater and while it of course isn't going to be great for the patch of the ocean floor it ends up at, it isn't a problem for the country that deployed the craft.


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

[User] ELI5: why are water boilers much faster at boiling water than a pot on the stove?

[Assistant] The heating element is in  much better contact with the water than in a pot on the stove.  The pot sits on a rack suspended above a burner, or touching part of the heating coil.  That's much less efficient than having the water directly in contact with the source of heat.


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

[User] How does gravity slow time?

[Assistant]
There are a number of ways to think about this, but here's one.  This is basically a variant of the twin paradox.  Suppose there are two twins and one gets in a spaceship and travels to Alpha Centauri at very close to the speed of light.  The other stays home.  Due to time dilation, the one that stays home will have normally aged ~8 years whereas the one that went to Alpha Centauri will have hardly aged at all.  This is just your standard special relativity time dilation.

But remember that everything is relative, so according to the twin in the spaceship, the twin on Earth was the one that was traveling close to the speed of light.  In the reference frame of the twin in the spaceship, he was standing still!  So he should have aged ~8 years and the twin on Earth should hardly have aged at all.

Why does this not happen?  Well, the twin in the spaceship had to turn around when he got to Alpha Centauri.  When he does this, he is subjected to enormous accelerations.  These accelerations basically forced the time of the twin on Earth to "catch up" relative to the twin on the spaceship.  In other words, just prior to turning around, the twin on the spaceship would have thought that the twin on the Earth had hardly aged, but in order for the twin on Earth to have aged ~8 years by the time he got back, all this time had to "catch up" during the acceleration phase.  So the twin on the spaceship would notice that time was moving much more rapidly for the Earth twin during this acceleration phase.

But according to the general theory of relativity, you cannot distinguish between an acceleration and a gravitational field.  So, for all the twin in the spaceship knew, someone just turned on a really strong gravitational field.  But if time for the Earth twin moved more quickly during the acceleration phase, then time for the Earth twin would also have to move more quickly if he was outside of the gravitational field.  Hence, time must move more slowly for someone inside a gravitational field.


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

[User]
[General] What's behind the 'One Man Army' phenomena?

How come there's people, usually one, that are able to take onto whole army's singlehandely, devastating anything that comes forth and coming out alive?
There's records of people carrying themselves through heaven, hell and harsh places alone?
What's behind their power?

[Assistant]
Typically willpower and a lot of luck. A strong desire to live and fight that carries them through even the most ridiculous odds. Also, by virtue of their survival, they usually have the kind of strength and battle experience that most could never hope to achieve. It's a law of exponential growth, contrary to common sense the more battles you are in, the more likely you are to survive once you've gotten past the first few. The weak die early, leaving only the strong. Any extra motivation which serves to motivate their particular quest only reinforces this.

Guts, from Berserk, spent his youth going from one hopeless battlefield to the next actively searching for a death that took as many people with him as possible. By the time he overcame his nihlism and had a purpose to fight for, he was already an incomparable badass by virtue of living where he should have died. Kratos (God of War) was born into a culture that actively purged any weakness from itself, and he managed to become a leader of them. By the time revenge became a motivator, he was already nearly unstoppable amongst humans.

It's the trial by fire that tempers the warrior, both in strength and will. Then, given a sufficient cause to apply them to, they can achieve great things.


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

[User]
[DC/Batman] In some sick way, does Batman take pleasure in not killing his enemies just to see them come back so that he can stop them?

I'm looking at this from the perspective of Bruce Wayne who lost his parents and is always reminded of that. Surely as Batman he could easily put down the bad guys once and for all, but his "no kill" policy and his fear that he might not be able to stop killing if he starts, stops him from doing so.

So I'm wondering, does he get some kind of smug satisfaction from constantly hurting his enemies, almost EXPECTING them to come back? I mean, he's fought against his enemies many, many times, he can just say "fuck it, end this once and for all", but no, he just locks them up in Arkham or something. Almost as if he WANTS them to return.

Has this ever been explored or am I just thinking too much into this?

Edit: I'm not questioning his no-kill policy, I'm just asking that knowing the no-kill policy is in place, does that give Batman freedom to cause more and more harm to his enemies without actually killing them? Pretty much a torture.

[Assistant]
People are complicated, people like Batman even moreso. We can never rule out that some small sadistic part of him doesn't get a rush from beating up repeat offenders.

It's probably why he has such strict rules for himself: he knows that if he starts killing people, not only will he be unable to stop, he'll be having *too much fun* to stop.


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

[User]
ELI5: If laptops have been around since the early/mid 90s and they had LCD screens, why were LCD TVs not developed sooner?

Why were CRT TVs used for so long after the invention of the laptop monitor being so thin?

[Assistant]
A lot had to do with price.

Laptops were expensive, and there was no way to do one with a CRT. LCDs were still developing fast, and were very expensive. On the other hand, the CRT makers had long since amortised all their capital costs, in contrast to the LCD makers who were paying for expensive tooling up. TV is a very price-sensitive market, so the CRT makers chased the LCDs down in price and maintained their advantage.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] How does one request visitation to Azkaban?

Is it the same as any other prison, or are there special steps or anything? Is it possible for a kid to visit their parent?

[Assistant] Visitation is strictly prohibited except by high-ranking officials in the ministry on official business-- Even Barty Crouch Sr. had to pull a lot of strings to get permission for him and his wife to visit their son as part of their plot to swap him out for the terminally ill Mrs. Crouch.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why can't we terraform Mars and Venus?

Why can't we terraform Mars and Venus by taking the greenhouse gasses from Venus and moving them toward Mars? That would raise the temperature or Mars and lower the one on Venus, right? Or do greenhouse gasses not work in that way?

[Assistant]
There are different reasons for each of the planets, but the main reason for both is that, while theoretically possible, it isn't economical in either case.

For Venus, you have a surface temperature and atmospheric pressure so high that even the most resilient materials only last a few moments before disintegrating. Also, Venus has a runaway greenhouse effect, where its thick atmosphere and surface temperature actually caused a further increase in levels of CO2, leading to even higher pressure and temperature. Terraforming Venus is likely impossible, but an interesting idea is to have platforms in Venus' atmosphere. The planet's atmosphere is so thick that it could possibly support massive dirigible-like platforms large enough for people to live and conduct research. Think of a much smaller scale verson of Cloud City from Star Wars.

Mars has pretty much the exact opposite thing going on. Mars has a runaway icehouse effect, where its thin atmosphere and cold temperatures have led to greater decreases in atmospheric gases and even colder surface temperatures. The exact reason for this is unknown, but it's likely that Mars at one time had a magnetic field which it has since lost.

A planet's magnetic field protects its atmosphere from cosmic rays and the solar wind, both of which can excite atmospheric particles and cause them to escape the planet's gravity. So, even if you did introduce an atmosphere to Mars, you would have to have a magnetic field, otherwise the solar wind and cosmic rays would just cause all of the new gases to quickly escape.

Finally, neither planet has plate tectonics the way Earth does. Plate tectonics are responsible for introducing and sequestering many of the greenhouse gases people need to survive, so you would have to devise some kind of work around to keep the same mixture of gases on either Mars or Venus.


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

[User]
Is there an optimal ratio between iPod volume and car stereo volume in terms of sound quality when listening to an iPod in the car?

I have noticed that different volume level ratios sound different to me in my car. I tend to turn up my iPod volume all the way up or close to max, and then just control the volume with my car volume knob. What is the science behind this? What would be the best strategy to take in order to improve sound quality?

[Assistant] For the best quality, turn up your iPod until it starts to cause distortion. Then, go a little below that. This will give the stereo's input the highest dynamic range and a better SNR to work with.  If you have some bizarre effects or non-additive noise, there could be problems, but generally, it is best to amplify signals as early down the chain as possible.


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

[User] [Destiny] If we Guardians are the only reason that Humanity isn't going extinct, then why the hell do we have to buy our own weapons and armor?

[Assistant]
Typical political bickering results in substandard equipment being purchased and a one size fits all approach adopted.

Earth higher ups realised this and so the guardians operate more as private contractors than soldiers. Blackwater and other private security firms led by example in demonstrating that the best materials should be used regardless of manufacturer lobbying.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does the government NEED to charge interest on student loans?

Every politician seems to agree that college is too expensive nowadays, but at the same time none of them seem to consider eliminating interest from all student loans (I know some are interest free, but they are hard to qualify for). So can someone explain to me why collecting interest on these loans is more important than allowing recent grads some financial security?

[Assistant]
Part of it is inflation. 100 dollars today will probably buy you more than 100$ ten years from now. If you lend someone money and they pay it back over a period of 10 years, it'll be worth less by the time you get it back. So you compensate with interest.

Part of it is administration. Lending money costs money. You need to keep track of who borrowed, under what agreement, when it's being repaid and how much remaining debt there is. You simply need to pay for people and material to keep track of all that.


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

[User]
ELI5 (US) What impacts do raising/lower interest rates typically cause in relation to both the economy at large and just to day-to-day life of an individual?

Seeing some news about the Fed potentially raising interest rates (not here to talk about the likeliness or not of this) and just curious what effects on the economy adjusting interest rates might have and what effects it might have on my life.

[Assistant]
When a bank lends money to someone, they charge a fee for the use of their money. Simple enough. But banks themselves need to obtain currency to lend. Before central banks existed, that money came from depositors, and to some extent, it still does. But what do you do when all your depositors want their money back at once? You've lent that money out, it's not just sitting in a room somewhere.

So, enter central banks, like the Federal Reserve. They have the legal power to create money from nothing, but lending it to qualified banks. But the banks borrowing from the central bank also pay interest. That rate of interest is called the 'prime rate', or in the case of the Federal Reserve, America's central bank, the Federal Funds Rate.

In the U.S., the Federal Funds Rate is set by the Open Market Committee of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, basically a meeting of the various government appointees and private bankers who make up the Fed. They analyze economic and employment data, and decide what rate they want to set. When they raise the rate, banks pay more interest to borrow funds, and those costs are passed down to other borrowers, so that the bank can continue to protect their margin of profit. When they lower the rate, bank borrowing becomes cheaper, and they're (arguably) induced to lower rates paid by their clients, making it less expensive to borrow money.

So, in general, expensive debt is a disincentive to invest, and cheap debt is an incentive to invest. This works through two different mechanics. Expensive debt encourages savings, because you're going to earn money just from depositing money into a savings account or other bank instrument, like a CD (Certificate of Deposit, effectively a loan you're making to the bank). Really, what the Fed (and other Central Bankers) want is stability. They want a stable rate of inflation, (typically they target 2% per year), and unemployment below 5%. If the rates are kept too low for too long, you can overheat the economy with cheap debt, and you start debasing the currency and creating asset bubbles. This is what happened in the lead-up to 2008 (among other problems). If you keep interest rates too high for too long, you can stifle the economy, effectively paying people for holding cash, and driving more leveraged businesses (those carrying more debt) out of business.

In personal terms, don't worry about it. Nobody can predict the future, and that includes central bankers. Focus on developing your skills that someone will pay you to employ, and save money consistently, and do your best to ride out the economic weather.


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

[User]
[Iron Man 3] Question about the ending of Iron Man 3. [SERIOUS SPOILER WARNING]

At the end I the movie Tony gets the shrapnel removed. Could he not have done so during Iron Man 2 do remedy the palladium poisoning?

[Assistant]
I think he was more afraid of the shrapnel operation than the palladium poisoning. He's a narcissistic egomaniac who'd rather almost die but figure it out himself than trust his life to another who he can only guess about their skill level.

He may have also believed that the shrapnel is part of what made him Iron Man, he went through such a traumatic experience, it's hard to tell what his state of mind really is.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is the Asian last name 'Nguyen' spelled that way when it doesn't even remotely sound like that?

If translating it from a Vietnamese character-set to a Latin character-set and pronouncing it the same way, why is it not just spelled 'W-I-N?'

[Assistant]
400-500 years ago, Portuguese and French missionaries arrived in Vietnam.  At the time, Vietnam was using a form of Chinese characters as the written language.  In order to teach in Vietnamese, the missionaries wrote out the Vietnamese language using the Latin alphabet.  From there, the Latin alphabet was used for the written Vietnamese language.

As for the pronunciation of Nguyen, this is taken directly from the Vietnamese alphabet.  Pronounce the following together:

ng, as in si*ng*

uy, as in q*ui*ck

en, as in -en

I adapted that from the Wikipedia entry, which isn't as ELI5-friendly.


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

[User]
If the right thing to do is to reduce suffering, why is suicide wrong?

Negative utilitarianism is the ethical view that the right action is the one that reduces suffering most. The action that, not only reduces suffering, but actually eliminates it is: death. Furthermore, if the view isn't limited to one's self, but also encompasses all other life-forms, then the right thing to do is to eliminate all life; assuming that only life is capable of suffering.

Obviously I personally don't hold this view, but utilitarianism seems to be prevalent and I would like to see how this grim problem is adressed.

[Assistant] One issue is that ending your own life may actually not reduce suffering since the people you leave behind suffer rather a lot for your having passed.  For this reason the bigger problem for the NU is not accepting *prima facie* permission for suicide but, as you suggest, accepting the general goodness of a benevolent world destroyer who could end *all* life painlessly and instantly - thus leaving no one behind to suffer or cause any other suffering.


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

[User]
What causes the physical changes in pigs when they become feral?

I understand when a pig becomes feral it changes physically; theres an increase in size, longer coarser hair grows, and tusks develop.  What determines if other animals could have these changes?  Could a comparable transformation happen to humans?

[Assistant] Age. most domesticated pigs that you see are only yearlings, or occasionally 3-5 years old, if being used for breeding purposes. People don't usually let pigs get older than that because they get tougher to manage and more dangerous. Ferral pigs though, can live about 20 years. Also, domestic pigs have had their tusks removed, if they not going to be killed in the fall. It takes about 6 months before the tusks show up.


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

[User] If an alien civilisation at the same level of technological advancement as our own was to discover earth in the same way as we are now discovering exoplanets, would  they be able to tell there was life here? If so, how?

[Assistant]
If an alien civilization was looking at the sun, measuring its brightness and its spectrum over a very long time, they'd notice that it oscillates every 12 years or so. They could then conclude that Jupiter exists. If they measure the spectrum as Jupiter passes in front of the sun, they might be able to figure out what gasses are in Jupiter and how hot it is.

If they made even more precise measurements they might be able to make similar conclusions about the other planets, including Earth. But using the technology that we use, they could not detect us.


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

[User]
Is it possible for animals to make sounds other than the ones they do? For example, could a cow say "milk" if it were trained to? Why don't animals make a variety of noises/why do they sound the way they do?

Sorry, I know this is a jumble of questions, but I just walked in on my sister-in-law asking her dog to say "I love you." I know the dog isn't going to say the words but... why not?

[Assistant]
Range of vocalizations is mechanically constrained by shape of the larynx, shape of the vocal chords, shape of oral and nasal cavities, and tongue musculature, to name just a few factors. So even leaving aside the question of training (which gets into neuroscience), it's not a given that a specific animal can reproduce a specific human sound.

Interesting sidebar: while human upper airway structures are well-adapted for versatile vocalization, they are poorly adapted to protect against choking (in comparison to other animals).


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

[User]
[Saved by the Bell] why did a principal and three students all leave the same Indiana middle school and move across the country to the same California high school at the exact same time?

Principal Belding and three students, Zach, Screech, and Lisa, were all at the same Indiana middle school. What happened that caused the principal to take a job as a high school principal in Bayside, California, and for those three students and their families to move to that exact same high school at the exact same time the principal took the job?

[Assistant]
Alternate timeline. The middle school students were part of the first timeline. However, because Zach Morris screwed up the timeline in another one of his schemes, it had a ripple effect he could never have predicted. Instead of Indiana, he lived in Bayside. Mikey and Nikki never knew him. Instead, Kelly, Slater, and Jesse were created as part of the new timeline. After meeting with the Interdimensional Council of Zachs, they forced him to continue in this new timeline, as if the other one never existed. Slowly but surely, the previous timeline was erased from his mind, especially as Zach first laid eyes on Kelly, seeking a potential target. The Council of Zachs didn't interfere and save her from him, though, because his timeline was the anomaly. In their eyes, the creation of Kelly in his timeline finally righted a wrong centuries in the making, even if so many others were wiped from existence like they were nothing. The Council didn't care for all the lives they've irreparably altered, because despite the vast number of alternate universes, there was one multiversal constant:

**In every universe, Zach Morris is trash.**


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

[User]
[Hey Arnold] Who is Mr. Smith? What is his job?

He seems to have some government ties and is elusive enough to only be noticed in the house in two episodes, despite living there.

[Assistant]
He's there to spy on Arnold's Grandma and Grandpa. Did you ever stop to wonder how they know so much? How they seem to have a plethora of experiences outside of the ken of normal people? Grandma is a karate master, a former cop, a beekeeper, among other experiences. Grandpa is no different. They're very worldly people, despite giving off the aura of people who have never left the comfort of home.

In the forties, they were operatives for the OSS during the war. Grandpa's success at the Battle of the Bulge wasn't sheer luck, it was a OSS operation! Grandma was more of the infiltration type, hence why she knows skills like karate and is always coming up with new disguises.

They were so successful that the post WWII paranoia/Red Scare left them on J. Edgar Hoover's watchlist. Mr. Smith is the agent ordered to watch them, but as tends to happen, bigger crises come up, larger issues need to be sorted, and everyone seems to have forgotten about Agent Steely and Agent Gertrude, as well as their watcher. But Smith files his reports every week. They just get lost in the bureaucracy.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is the seed the spicy part of the pepper?

[Assistant]
The seed isn't the spicy part of the pepper, it's the membrane *inside* the pepper that's spicy.  Since the seeds are connected to the membrane, they get spicy oils on them & scraping them off often removes a bunch of that membrane so people erroneously believe that the seeds are spicy.

Why are peppers spicy?  To stop most animals from eating them and digesting the seeds.  Birds, OTOH, eat peppers because they *don't* taste the spice & seeds pass through their digestive systems unharmed.  This means a bird flies away and spreads the seeds over a larger area than something like a squirrel would.


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

[User] If you were to burn someone's body to ashes in a container where none of the ashes would fly into the air, would their body's mass be the same as the mass of their body before it was incinerated?

[Assistant] If you weren't controlling the exhaust from the container and only were making sure ashes didn't fly away? No, the mass of the ashes would be substantially less.  This is the result of two main factors: first, the fact that the human body is ca. 65% water by weight (less if you're obese).  If you cremate the body, most or all of this water will be driven off - evaporated by the heat of the combustion.  So let's say you take at least 50% of the mass off the top.  The second factor is the fact that when you burn hydrocarbons, like, say, the fat in the human body, the hydrocarbons themselves turn into gas, under complete combustion.  Complete combustion of hydrocarbons yields only CO2 and water (which will, like the native body water, be driven off by the heat of combustion).  So you lose a substantial portion of what remains to the combustion itself.  If you cremate a body, giving it all the heat it needs to burn essentially everything that will burn at reasonable temperatures, the mass of the ashes is only about 3% to 5% of the original corpse.


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

[User] ELI5: Why can blocked numbers still leave me voicemails?

[Assistant] Because the phone system is still quite outdated. When you block a number, it's only doing so on your phone by simply not alerting you, so as far as your phone carrier is concerned it's no different than if you simply didn't answer your phone, so it brings them to the voicemail system.


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

[User]
ELI5: What does it mean when it is said that a planet is made of gas?

Like, how is that possible? Is actual gas? Can I get to the other side of it just going through it? And more importantly, how the hell does all of that mass stay together if it's gas? Wasn't is supposed to just spread and try to occupy the maximum volume possible?

[Assistant]
Answering your questions in order

1. It means that the planet is made of gas

2. Gravity

3. Mostly, but if the planet gets big enough, the core becomes a super-critical fluid, something not quite gas, not quite liquid.

4. Yes, if you can withstand the pressure, fluid density, and can push your way out of the gravity well.

5. Gravity again.

6. Yes, and the maximum size is the size of the planet, because gravity keeps it there.

While it may seem like gravity only attracts small objects to big ones, everything is attracted by everything elses gravity, so if you start with a relatively small iron core that goes through a gas cloud, the attractive effect compounds, gathering more and more into itself, as long as there is gas to collect.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do game anti cheats, like BattlEye or GameGuard work?

What I mean is - I know they can check the processes which are running and are associated to the game that you're playing, but how do they know that those processes are actually cheating tools?

[Assistant]
There are different flags that can be detected to assume someone is trying to tamper the game, such as debugging another process (the game in this case), accessing the memory mapped to that game, running the game in a virtualized environment, tampering the binary or assets and many more.
Anti-cheat try to detect those abnormal behaviors targeting the game's process.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does breathing in eucalyptus or menthol help unblock my nose?

I have a cold and have rubbed Vicks ointment on my chest and it has instantly unblocked my nose, how does this occur?

[Assistant] They stimulate the "cold" receptors in your nose, causing the blood vessels in the area to constrict as a measure to preserve body heat. Since congestion is caused by dilated blood vessels, you experience temporary relief of those symptoms.


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

[User]
[Star Wars/SW: The Clone Wars] Shouldn't duel wielding lightsabers be forbidden to the Jedi?

As a Jedi while we are fighting this clone war, I've noticed that my fellow JKs are duel wielding lightsabers at the drop of a hat. What's up with that? I thought we were meant to only defend with the killer light tubes (learning to deflect deadly blaster fire first seems to suggest this, otherwise, why would we do it? Have you seen how fast a blaster bolt moves? Damn, we'd just use those guns instead but anyway...) and by using two or a double blade it seems to me that the purpose is more offensive?

[Assistant] The Jedi aren't fools. The Lightsaber is most definitely a weapon, designed with both offense and defense in mind. Is a double-bladed Lightsaber more deadly? Probably. But whenever a Jedi draws their Lightsaber, they must be prepared to take a life. If a particular Jedi is more effective with a double-bladed Lightsaber than a regular one, then you are simply making that particular Jedi less effective by arbitrarily restricting what kind of Killer-Laser-Sword they can use.


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

[User] Does the expansion of space also increase the distance between an atom's nucleus and its electron cloud?

[Assistant] Imagine that the expansion of space caused a 1 centimeter gap between your feet and the floor. What would happen? You would just fall back down until your feet hit the floor. The same happens with electrons around nuclei, and the planets around the sun. It's only on very very large distance scales that the effect of expansion of space is large enough to overcome the forces that hold things together.


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

[User]
[Alien / Resident Evil] You're a military science officer, tasked with evaluating the potential of the Xenomorph & T-Virus for warfare and make a purchase decision. What's your verdict?

You are a military science officer with years of experience, generals and politicians will listen to you.

Both Weyland Yutani and Umbrella have tested their bioweapon systems several times, unfortunately with catastrophic outcomes in each instance. You have most of the data (Resident Evil 0,1,2,3,CV and Alien 1,2,3,4) to create a report and recommend a purchase.

Your government is still adamant on secretly buying on of the two systems as a means for biological warfare, as nuclear weapons are difficult to procure and your military is not strong enough against threatening larger countries (think the USA, Russia or China).

So this is not an interplanetary war, you are on the same world and maybe even the same continent.

How do you rate both systems for effectiveness and safety? What changes or safeguards do you recommend? What is your purchase recommendation?

**OPTION A:** a freight container with five **Xenomorph eggs** in cryostatis. One Queen, four drones. No expiry date.

**OPTION B:** A large suitcase with 50 vials of highly concentrated **T-Virus** (can be multiplied in your own labs). No expiry date.

[Assistant]
They're both bad purchases and, at best,  will end in a major reordering of the status quo.  At worst you'll cause the extinction of humanity on your world.

The xenomorphs are probably more containable and you might get away with just nuking one city to clean them up, so that's the better choice if you're forced to choose.  You and your family have a better chance of making it through intact.


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

[User]
I understand the first 4 derivatives of position, (displacement, velocity, acceleration, and jerk) but can someone explain snap to me?

Everything up to acceleration is quite easy to understand.  Even jerk is somewhat easy: the change in acceleration.  But how do you explain snap, the change in the change in acceleration, in layman's terms...

[Assistant]
Let's add a layer of abstraction:

You have a foot pedal, and the position of that pedal perfectly controls the acceleration of a vehicle, Jerk is how fast the pedal is moving, and snap is the acceleration of the foot pedal.


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

[User]
Why do we stop being contagious after a certain number of days with a common cold?

I've read that the rhinovirus takes 5 - 7 days for it to be non-contagious after symptoms first appear. If this is true, why? Has the immune system simply knocked the virus on the head? Why do we still have symptoms but stop being contagious?

[Assistant]
Most every symptom of a cold is your immune system's response to it, not the virus itself. The virus quietly takes over throat cells and turns them into factories to reproduce more of itself. The first response of your immune system is to try and stave off the virus while it can search for an antibody.

A fever can turn up your body temperature and retard the activity of the virus, the infected cells being less tolerant of the higher temperature. A sore throat is caused by certain immune system cells depositing acid on to the infected cells to physically destroy them.

Once an antibody is found and the virus is stopped, you are still experiencing the effects of your immune system for some time.


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

[User] Why does blowing on a shallow open wound make it less painful?

[Assistant] Because the exposed nerve endings are now forced to transmit a different sensation (wind rather than pain) to the brain. A nerve functions best transmitting a single impulse, give it 2, and it does a poor job of either.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does Congress wait until something is about to expire to pass a new law.

To me it seems like if you had a deadline you know about why not start working on it, and find a better solution. Better then throwing a plan together before shit hits the fan? This seems to happen with a lot with big issues recently the debt ceiling , farm bill,  and the fiscal cliff etc..

The conspiracy theorist in me thinks its so they can hide more from the public to make a few rich.

[Assistant]
They often do pass laws in a timely fashion...they just don't earn enough press.

But largely it is a negotiation tactic, kind of a game of chicken.  Something bad is on the horizon, they try to whip up press blaming each other, then hopes the other side blinks first and gives up a little more in compromise.

The impending cliff is a little different.  There are a lot of things in it that either party *wants* to happen.  Politically speaking, it is easier to let them happen and blame the cliff, rather than having to stand up and vote for them.


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

[User]
CMV: Visible timers on traffic lights would be a net improvement

I thought of this as I drove home this evening in the rain. I crested a hill and saw a stale green light in a 45mph speed zone, which turns to a 55 immediately after the light. I slowed down a little due to the rain and the fact that the yellow on this light never seems to be long enough to make it through gracefully if you are going the speed limit.

I think if there was a visual timer for the green, yellow, and red lights it would make it easier to make good traffic decisions that would smooth the flow of traffic.

You could know to continue at speed through the light, or know the yellow is coming.

When approaching a red light without much time left,  you could know it was about to change and time it so you never have to stop, saving gas and smoothing traffic.

People shouldn't be jacking around at their phone at red lights, but they do anyway and at least with a timer they would have an idea of when they need to be ready to go, instead of holding up traffic.

It would add a little cost, but not much in the grand scheme of a whole traffic light installation.  This is not unprecedented,  pedestrian signals have had visible timers for years.

[Assistant]
>yellow on this light never seems to be long enough to make it through gracefully if you are going the speed limit.

That's because you're technically not supposed to make yellows, the point is to tell you to slow and stop even if most people don't.


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

[User]
Do average people really produce $115,000 of stuff per year, yet take home only $26,000?

OK, here's my math:

* The US GNP (amount of stuff we make) is $15 trillion yearly.
* The US has 130 million employed workers.
* $15 trillion worth of stuff divided by 130 million workers is $115,000 worth of stuff per worker.

Now, US median wage is about $26,000

So if I'm understanding correctly, normal people take home less than a quarter of what they produce.

Am I doing the math wrong?

[Edit] Many of these answers aren't quite getting at the crux of what I'm asking, so I'll rephrase.  It seems to me we're producing lots of stuff.  But ordinary (median) people aren't taking much of that stuff home.  So where's the rest going?

One obvious theory is that it's going to people whose wages are above median.  Another theory is that it's not going to wages at all - it's going to investors, as dividends and the like.  Another theory is that it's going overseas.  Another theory is that my math is completely wrong, we're not producing that much stuff at all.  A fifth theory is that we are indeed producing that much stuff, but median folks are receiving much more than I think.  Another theory is that I've completely misunderstood all these numbers, and I'm comparing nonsense to nonsense.   But I don't know which theory is right.

[Assistant] I'll also point out that median is not average. If you considered five guys who made $10K, $20K, $30K, $40K and $1M, you could say, "we made $1,100,000 last year amongst the five of us (or $220,000 per person) but out median wage is only $30,000. Where'd all the rest of it go?"


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

[User]
[The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King] - Was Gandalf the only commanding officer present at the battle of Minas Tirath?

Before King Theoden arrives with Reinforcements, it seems that Gandalf was the only person who was giving orders to the soldiers of Gondor during the siege. Why was this the case? It seems pretty inefficient for Gandalf to be riding his horse all over the city giving orders, and it didn't seem like the Gondorian soldiers had much morale to begin with. Where were all the other ranking officers within the army?

[Assistant] Denethor, the Steward, was in charge of the city. His sons Boromir and Faramir were the leading commanders of the city's defense. Boromir had already died and Faramir was sent to retake Osgiliath, which failed spectacularly. We can infer that the best soldiers went with Faramir, and were therefor killed or injured. These losses combined with Denethor's suicidal tendencies crippled the city defenses and the morale of the remaining soldiers, leaving Gandalf as the best choice left to command the remaining guard.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do humans, or other animals too, get blisters?

[Assistant] There's not a reason. It just happens that the outermost layer of skin, called epidermis, becomes "unglued" from the lower layer. The liquid that forms is just intersticial fluid - mostly water - that is normally held in place by the epidermis.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Was Voldemort winning the first Wizarding War?

If he hadn't heard about the prophecy, would he have been able to defeat the Order of the Phoenix and what I assume was a more competent Ministry that doesn't fold instantly?

[Assistant] It wasn't a war in the traditional sense, so much as it was a reign of terror. There was likely to never be a formal surrender of the government to organised forces. He was waging a "war"of ideals. He wanted his people, sympathetic to his beliefs, in positions of power.


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

[User]
eli5 why do we go forwards when we sneeze?

if you think about it, a sneeze is like a thruster, so shouldnt our head be propelled backwards instead of going forward if we look at basic physics.

[Assistant] We go forward because of the tensing of the muscles involved in the sneeze also happen to move our upper body forward.  Even if this wasn't the case, the force of a sneeze wouldn't be enough to actually move us in any capacity.


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

[User]
What's a quick/intuitive way to think about and understand Type II errors and statistical power?

I feel like it takes me a bit of thinking to identify these because I have to think through:

1. What's my null hypothesis?
2. Is the null true or false?
3. If it's false, did I reject it or fail to reject (Type II error)?

Is it normal to go through this thinking process? Sometimes it seems like people in my lab look at papers and are quickly able to identify and talk about the types of errors, whether a Type I or Type II would be worse in this case, whether the study has good statistical power, etc.

I feel like I'm slow at this and mentally running through a checklist of things to even determine what the Type I and Type II errors would be.

[Assistant]
Your thought process is fine. One way to think about power is to consider a situation where there is an ancient temple (some effect) buried underground. Obviously the larger the temple (size of the effect) the easier it will be to find. However, another thing that will affect your ability to find the temple is the digging equipment you use (the test). A shovel will not be as good as a million dollar drill. Power is the probability you find the temple assuming that the temple is there. Large temple (large effect) and really good equipment (good test) equal high power.

Edit: Extending this analogy, a type two error would be performing your dig and not finding the temple (but its actually there).


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

[User]
Infinite Tosses of Coin

If you toss a coin an infinite number of times, must you get some heads and some tails, or you could you get an infinite number of one side of the coin (e.g., tails)?

How does this apply to other probability problems ad infinitum? For example, if an infinite amount of time passes by, will every possible thing in the universe happen?

I was thinking about this but I can't really wrap my head around infinity. Thanks.

[Assistant]
> If you toss a coin an infinite number of times, must you get some heads and some tails, or you could you get an infinite number of one side of the coin (e.g., tails)?

You will get what mathematicians call an **almost surely** non-zero number of heads.  In this context, it means that, although getting all tails is possible (it's just one of the infinite possibilities), its probability is zero.  A probability of zero does not mean the outcome is impossible when you have an infinite event space.

In fact, *any* specific sequence of heads and tails will have a probability of zero if the tosses are infinite, but one of them *must* occur - so clearly they can't be *impossible*!


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

[User] [Lilo & Stitch] Why is Stitch able to breathe in space but not underwater?

[Assistant] Stitch was illegally genetically engineered and though made nearly indestructible Dr. Jookiba deliberately made him to be vulnerable to water.  Likely as a way to terminate the experiment if things did not develop to his liking.


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

[User]
[All] What's the largest known creature in any universe?

EDIT: In response to the smart mention of garbagephoenix, largest known **physical** creature.

[Assistant]
Azathoth is physical.

I quote from the learned H.P. Lovecraft:

> [O]utside the ordered universe [is] that amorphous blight of nethermost confusion which blasphemes and bubbles at the center of all infinitythe boundless daemon sultan Azathoth, whose name no lips dare speak aloud, and who gnaws hungrily in inconceivable, unlighted chambers beyond time and space amidst the muffled, maddening beating of vile drums and the thin monotonous whine of accursed flutes.

So you see, Azathoth is boundless.

That said, Azathoth is definitely physical, residing on a throne at the center of chaos, and the actual progenitor of the Old Ones. As a side-note, some say this makes Azathoth the ancestor of all things, although this is still an area of active (and hazardous) research.


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

[User]
Why are some forms of EM transmission line-of-sight and others are not?

I was trying to explain to a customer that their TV remote used infrared and needed to be pointed directly at the receiver while their PS3 remote used bluetooth and did not require line of sight when it occurred to me that both IR and radio waves are different forms of the same phenomenon.  Visible light and IR (UV as well, I assume) both require line-of-sight to transmit their "data."  You can bounce it off reflective material, but it will not penetrate most forms of matter (or if it does, not very well).

Radio waves, on the other hand, don't really care.  Sure, your cell phone might lose a few bars when you go inside a cement building and I know there are some places that do a very good job of blocking out radio signal but my PS3 remote will still function from the toilet (don't ask.)

At first I thought maybe it was because radio waves were smaller and could pass through the matter, but they're actually very large compared to light/IR waves.

What up wit dat?

Edit:  In the title, by "transmission" I did indeed mean "radiation."

[Assistant]
Your first instinct about absorption is on the track.  IR waves are absorbed by most matter, while radio waves are not.

This is due to how EM waves are absorbed by atoms.  If an EM wave "hits" an atom, there are a couple of things that can happen:

1) The EM wave can be absorbed, and the excess energy can be dissipated by vibration.  This is how the sun heats materials.

2)The EM wave can be absorbed and then re-emitted. The color of a material is dependent on what wavelengths are re-emitted.

3) The EM wave can pass past the atom without being absorbed, with the path maybe changed due to the polarizability of the atom. This is what usually happens to radio waves.

Which of the three options happens is determined by the energy level structure of the material hit by the radio waves.  In order to be absorbed, the energy of the incoming EM wave must be close to the gap between two of the energy levels of the material.

Radio waves have a long wavelength, and thus have low energy.  The band gaps of most materials are larger than the energy of a radio wave, meaning that only a small number of photons from the radio wave is absorbed.  This is why the drywall in your house will not stop the radio wave, but a foot or more of concrete probably would.


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

[User] [MCU] Why Didn't Nick Fury Call Captain Marvel When Loki Invaded Earth In Avengers 2012?

[Assistant]
Fury trusted his team, the Avengers in 2012.

He called Carol at the end of Infinity War because:

1) They lost Tony. Fury didnt know if Tony was alive or dead.

2) Hill reported that the energy signatures over Wakanda was way bigger than New York.

3) Since people were disappearing, he knew the Avengers lost.

Thats why he called Carol. His team had failed and he had no other option.


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

[User]
[Toy Story] What's the minimum definition of "toy" required for sentience?

The new *Toy Story 4* trailer has a plastic spoon with pipe cleaner arms. It looks like something a kindergartener would make. And it's as alive as Woody and Buzz. And Sid's creations were sentient. Could I make a self-aware paper plate by gluing on a macaroni smiley face? Is all that's required is a kid plays with it? All those Buzz Lightyears in the toy store were never played with.  Are there sentient twigs or rocks that Neolithic kids played with because they vaguely resembled animals or people? What's the crudest or simplest self-aware toy possible?

[Assistant] Spitballing here but maybe anthropomorphism? For example, wooden blocks or individual LEGO pieces are probably not sentient, nor are peripherals like Woodys lasso, Bullseyes saddle, or Bo peeps staff.


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

[User] [star trek]how does Earth's education system deal with races like Klingons who reach full adulthood in under 10 years?

[Assistant] They reach physical maturity, but the simple fact of it is that primary education up to Federation standards takes over a decade. We know that when Worf was 13 he was still playing youth league soccer-- and he accidentally killed another player.


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

[User]
[My Little Pony] How do surnames work?

In many cases ponies of the same family have the same last name, like Maud and Pinkie Pie.
The Cake family (Carrot, Cup, Pound and Pumpkin) all have the same surname.
Rarity doesn't use her last name, but I'm guessing it's less like Cher and more of an image thing. It's plausible it's Rarity Belle.
So how come Twilight **Sparkle** brother is Shining **Armor**? Is he adopted, or something?

[Assistant]
Good question!

It depends on the family, but surnames aren't exactly a mandatory "thing".

You get the Apples and the immediate members of the Pies who are an incredibly tight knight family, and most of then have either the surname "Pie", but there are also wxceptions. Instead of "apple" as a surname, instead the family has apple themed names (e.g. Braeburn, Big Macintosh, Granny Smith). Then there's, as you mentioned, Mr. and Mrs. Cake, of which it is known that Cup took her husband's surname and the two make a family off of the theme.

What can we deduce from this?

Well, Earth Ponies, it seems, have a much larger focus on families moreso than the other races. This is the race rhat *was*, and still is to some degree, the low/working class. They are the poorest of the three races and many of them have careers in agriculture that are passed down to their offspring. Thus, thier families are likely much more tight knit than those of the pegasus and unicorn races. Choosing themed names or use of a surname such as "Pie" or "Cake" names them as a certified member of the family.

It's likely that Unicorns and Pegasi don't do that as much as their innate abilities isially lend them to be far more individualistic in their life goals and may likely stray away from the family in their lifelong goals.


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

[User]
[Pokemon] Given how pokemon breed, why did some species become so male-dominated?

Was there ever an advantage to it? Most of the egregious examples can no longer be found in the wild. Of course, female-dominated species continue to thrive.

[Assistant]
Why do you suppose they can no longer be found in the wild?

Evolution doesn't take the most logical paths, especially in Pokemon, whose genetic structures inspire incredible mutations you would never see in ordinary creatures like us. Bulbasaur could once thrive in spite of its reproduction handicap. Not anymore.


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

[User] [Sam-Rami's Spiderman Trilogy] Why doesn't Mr. Diktovich evict Peter for non-payment of rent?

[Assistant]
Because Peter's an otherwise nice guy when he hasnt got a symbiote on his back, that is... but he's good tenant: quiet, doesnt disturb others or cause trouble, etc and that's hard to come by.

Regardless, Diktovich still has to stand his ground and demand rent when it's late.


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

[User]
ELI5: How is Bill Gates still the third richest person in the world?

Considering his work with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Giving Pledge etc. plus divesting himself from Microsoft (for the most part) how does he stay near the top?

[Assistant] It's because he has so much money, and money makes money.  When you have $100 billion and can earn 8% a year on it, you can give away $5 billion a year and still add $3 billion to your net worth every year (and it compounds from there).  He actually has about $118 billion in holdings, even though he's given away nearly $40 billion to his charitable foundation.  And he has an entire captive investment firm working daily to maximize the return on his wealth - this team knows how to uncover and pounce on opportunities, how to minimize frictional costs and taxes, etc.


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

[User]
[MULAN] What if mushu had managed to wake the stone dragon?

in the start of the movie the ancestors send Mushu to wake the Great Stone Dragon, instead, he accidentally destroys the statue. How would the movie change if the stone dragon was her companion instead of Mushu? Follow up question: why didn't he wake?

[Assistant]
He didn't awaken most likely because he realized he didn't need to wake up. Mushu was perfect for the job, considering that in the end, Mulan not only redeemed herself, but she saved the entire country AND the emperor himself. He was wise enough to not respond when the ancestors selfishly wanted him. That's the sign of true wisdom and a great protector. Dragons are FAR more wise than any human, no longer how old they are or how long they've been dead.

As for what would have happened? Probably a scene much like an angry father scolding their child. The dragon would have more or less dragged Mulan home, kicking and screaming, and would have dumped her in her home as she wallowed in misery. Then China would have fallen and her entire family might have been killed by the horde as it rampaged through the country.


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

[User]
What is meant when Germans talk about something 'as such'?

I've noticed the phrase 'as such' appearing in a lot of German philosophy, including Heidegger, Gadamer and Sloterdijk. I was also reading a translators introduction to Hitler's *Mein Kampf*, and they noted that, in spite of a general lack of knowledge of philosophy, Hitler wanted to portray himself as well-read, and so used the phrase 'as such' to associate himself with the broader German philosophical tradition. Hoping someone can maybe explain the German term and what's generally intended and point to some noteworthy examples (don't worry about explaining Hitler's use of the term :P). Thanks!

[Assistant] As such is often used to isolate a term that is usually joined to another. If a thinker writes they want to study being as such, they mean they want to study being. But we tend to use the word being in phrases (the being of a tree, human being, etc.). The as such often indicates that were attending to a given term as an object of study in its own right, not just as a component of some greater object.


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

[User] ELI5: How is world population calculated? And how accurate is the number? Is it possible that the number can be entirely wrong?

[Assistant]
In general, information about the world population is aggregated from information about each country's population.  From there, each country usually either conducts regular censuses or has some form of national registration to track people (or both) as it's a very important part of running a government.

These estimates are only updated so often though (IE, the US conduct it's census only every 10 years), so there is a little math done to the number to get the current estimate.  There are three big factors that matter when creating that current estimate: Mortality rate, Birth rate, and Migration.  The first obviously creates downward pressure on the number, the second upward, and the third can be either depending on if the new flow is out of or into the nation.

How accurate is it?  Well, the UN is one of the better sources, and they estimate their margin of error to within 1% or so for the entire world.  It varies HIGHLY depending on the country though, with less developed nations and especially wartorn nations being incredibly difficult to estimate due to difficulties in conducting censuses, and highly developed nations being very accurate.  Broadly speaking, you can trust the numbers though and there is very little to no chance that the number can be entirely wrong, unless you are getting a number from a shady source.


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

[User]
[MCU] How different is the world if Bucky fails and Howard Stark isn't killed on Dec 16 1991?

How does this affect Tony? And the avengers as a whole?

[Assistant]
Surprisingly similar.  Bucky follows up with a second attempt and retrieves the SSS, allowing the creation of more Winter Soldiers.  Three and a half years after he would've died, Stark and his wife are killed in a freak airplane accident caused by his partner Obadiah Stane.

Spurred on by his father, Tony would've finished his graduate studies, but his trajectory is otherwise unaltered.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do hackers find obscure bugs such as the recent iPhone messages glitch?

It seems too tedious to have been brute forced with no guarantee of actually finding anything, and too unlikely to have been discovered by chance.

[Assistant]
It was once said, "If you gave an infinite number of monkeys an infinite number of typewriters eventually they will write Shakespeare.

The is a very large number of people out there that love to play around & many of them understand the technology well enough that they want to see what happens if . . .


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

[User]
[X-Men] How do Adamantium bullets work?

Rewatching Logan. When the clone Wolverine is shot with an adamantium bullet his head explodes and he dies. I find this "unbeliveable". First of all, metal going through metal would leave a hole/bend around a hole, it wouldn't explode. Secondly, sure, his adamantium laced skull would be pierced, but so what? It should heal anyway. It's just that there would be no adamantium there anymore...

[Assistant]
Adamantium bullets work the same way most armor-penetrating rounds do.

It destroyed his brain, specifically, which is what did the actual killing.

The "explosion" was the bullet, having been deformed by its penetration of the front of his skull, impacting and penetrating the back of his skull. The brains and such were just expanding explosively out along with it.

Please note the difference between asking a question about how a particular thing works via in-universe information and rules, and just complaining about how it should *not* work.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is it that spicy food always seems so much spicier when hot (temperature)?

[Assistant] I forget the actual receptor name - its been a while (Trpv1 from a quick google search) but we call the sensation hot because it quite literally is binding to receptors on your tongue and in your mouth that relate to sensing/ regulating temperature (and can produce pain/irritability responses etc).  Eating foods that are hot in temperature (another trigger for these receptors/related thermal receptors) then is an additive effect for your overall sensation of sensing hot/increased temperature.  Menthol (like menthol cigarettes) has the opposite effect that works in a similar way in that it binds to tprm8 to create a cooling effect.


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

[User] If you kill an octopus while it is camouflaged does it remain that color or does it revert to its natural pigment?

[Assistant] The later.  Cephalopods camouflaging abilities are a function of the nervous function.  Killing the animal ceases that function.  If you look around on youtube, there are clips of Japanese fisherman killing freshly caught squids (to preserve freshness) and you can see very clearly the exact moment the animal dies by its color.


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

[User]
Eli5: How come immunization shots that a woman gets earlier in her life dont carry on/pass that immunity to her children when she gives birth?

E.g. if a woman has a tetanus shot, why does the kid need one? If she has an mmr shot, why does her child need to get one? If the lady also has a shot immunizing herself from chicken-pox, why isn't the child also immune from chicken-pox?

Wouldn't the child be immune from the diseases/ sicknesses that the mother already got her shots for?

[Assistant]
It does and it doesnt.

While in the womb, and while breatfeeding, antibodies from the mother do pass into the child and give that child extra immunity.

But, those antibodies dont last forever, and the cells that make the antibodies, B cells, do not pass to the baby, they stay in the mother.

So the babies own immune system needs to be activated later to start making its own antibodies.


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

[User]
ELI5 what the universe is not locally real means.

Physicists just won the Nobel prize for proving that this is true. Ive read the articles and dont get it.

[Assistant]
"Real" = an object and its properties continue to exist even when nothing is interacting with it. A basket of 5 apples will still have 5 apples even when no one is looking.

"Local" = in order to change an object's properties, something needs to physically interact with it. If you throw another apple into the basket of apples, the basket will not contain 6 apples until the apple you threw reaches it. It is assumed there is a maximum speed at which that apple can travel.

"Not locally real" = it has been observed that the basket registers that it contains 6 apples the moment you throw the 6th apple rather than when the 6th apple reaches the basket. The properties of the object have changed without direct interaction.


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

[User]
Did dinosaurs roam the entire planet or did they live in certain parts? And if so, where did they predominantly live and why?

For example, did they live near forest, water, hot/cold, etc.

[Assistant]
The only place non-avian dinosaurs didn't seem to live was in the ocean as all major marine reptiles weren't dinosaurs but some other archosaur or Mozasaurs which are related to modern day monitor lizards.

Dinosaurs have been discovered on every single continent including Antarctica, in every type of biome from desert to forest to steppe to river deltas. Some of the best specimens have come from river watersheds such as the hell creek formation or Morrison because the conditions on river banks is the best for preserving large body animals but plenty of other formations exist away from river banks.

EDIT: clarifications.
So I've seen a lot of the same comments so I'll leave a reply here to these questions.

Antarctica at the time of the dinosaurs (the Mesozoic) would not have been covered in ice, it also would not have been on the south pole, rather closer to modern day South Africa.
That being said, dinosaurs have been discovered in what would have been their Arctic Circle where it would have snowed regularly, experienced very cold temperatures in the winter and had 1-3 months of no sun. Dinosaurs that lived in this region permanently had special adaptations such as Truodonts in this region being much bigger than their southern cousins while a type of Tyrannosaurus (not THE T. Rex but a relative) had a smaller body. It's also worth mentioning that dinosaurs were not cold blooded rather a sort of in between called Mezotherm. To what extent depends heavily on the dinosaur.

Not all ancient reptiles that lived in the Mesozoic was a dinosaur and in short the different is taxonomy, the relationships between species. All animals classified as dinosaurs have a distinct common ancestor that separates them from all other reptiles. One interesting thing is the fact that all dinosaurs, from triceratops to deinococcus to modern barn owls have a very specific pelvis that is unlike any other reptile.

Plesiosaurs, Ichthyasaurs, Mozasaurs, and Ptarosaurs are not dinosaurs as they do not share the same ancestor as all dinosaurs, and in the case of the aquatic reptiles, split off from dinosaurs long before dinosaurs themselves became a distinct Clade.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do we blackout when drinking too much?

[Assistant]
"Captain! Contamination levels are at 75% and rising. Engineering is reporting that our mobility is reduced to 20%. Life support systems are at critical!"

"Divert all the power from our recording systems to life support."

"But Captain, we will lose all our reports of the voyage!"

"There won't be a report if we are not alive to make it!"


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do peoples eyes roll back when experiencing extreme pleasure?

Just wondering the reason for peoples eyes rolling back during intense pleasure like during orgasm or while on mdma?

[Assistant] Rolled back is your eyes natural / at rest position - your muscles keep them pointed forward.  During sleep, orgasm, moments of extreme distraction, etc these muscles may relax fully, causing the eyes to roll back slightly or completely.  Drugs may also interfere with these muscles causing a roll-back effect.


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

[User] If there is only one virus that causes COVID-19, how can there be so many competing vaccines in the works? Were there multiple possible vaccines for Polio and other viruses as well?

[Assistant] There are different ways to create a vaccine.  One is to creat a dead virus. Another is to find and create a strand of RNA that triggers antigens.  The dead virus method is slower and isnt always effective.  The RNA method has multiple different variations that are likely to work so you narrow it down to the antigen creating strands, test to see which create the right amount of antigens, and also figure out which will work without too many side effects, etc.  they are doing both RNA and dead virus versions simultaneously to save time.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why aren't refrigerators placed against the outdoor wall with a ventilator that just lets in cold air if the temperature is cold enough outside?

Wouldn't electricity be saved if refrigerators were cooled down with outside air when the temperature is cold enough?

[Assistant] Refrigerators, just like air conditioning, are not just about keeping things cold.  They also keep things dry.  By letting in outside air, the humidity levels in your refrigerator would rise, which would cause food to spoil much more quickly.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do people with much different accents than mine seem more charming?

For example, I'm an American, and all the videos I see of Australians and British people, they just seem so damn charismatic.  Why?

[Assistant]
Social status and media influence.

Ever wonder how nobody thinks the Indian or Asian accent is sexy in english?

Media told you Aussie accents are sexy and Indian accents are comedy accents.

Look at Russian accents....women speaking? Sexy....man speaking? Gangster or not sexy.....at least in the USA.

No surprise.....USA media is filled with violent Russian gangsters and sexy Russian women in need of a helpful american boy.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why was the electro-proton bomb never used again after the Battle of Malastare?

In the Clone Wars TV show, season 2 episode 18, we see the Republic use a brand new bomb that can disable electronics in a huge area. This EMP in the Battle of Malastare was extremely effective, disabling an entire army of droids in only seconds. This seems like it would be a huge game changer.

I understand that the bomb had two unfortunate side effects. One, it disabled all electronics regardless of side. And two, it released the Zillo beast, a huge monster capable of tremendous destruction.

But despite these drawbacks, I can see the weapon being enormously in space, detonating it in the middle of an enemy fleet would render them helpless.

So why was it never used again?

[Assistant]
Actually, electronics-disabling weapons are not uncommon at all in the Star Wars -verse. Remember the ion cannons used in defense of Hoth during episode 5, for example? *Because* they're common, however, most tech -- and certainly all military tech -- is shielded against ion blasts to some extent, and furthermore has automatic reset functionality that will restart a disabled vehicle or the like shortly after it's been shut down by EMP-like effects.

Since we don't know the full technological details of what made that bomb different, I'd wager part of it was its ability to ionize the air and thus effectively keep a constant EMP effect going on for a lengthy period of time, causing excessive damage to electronics and disabling them permanently. Thus, there's no guarantee that the device *would* work in space, or at least be comparably effective.


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

[User]
ELI5: How can France implement a new president in a matter of days when transition in the U.S. takes months?

Here in the U.S., transition is a huge deal, cabinet members need appointing, etc., but Emmanuel Macron just won an election and within days he was the active president. How is a transition like that managed so quickly?

[Assistant]
For one thing, the two jobs aren't exactly comparable: France has a semi-presidential system, with a President and a Prime Minister. The Prime Minister is the one that does most of the day-to-day stuff and is responsible for recommending cabinet ministers to the President.

In the US, both of those jobs are combined into one office, so the American president has a lot more on his plate.

Also, the Constitution says that Jan 20 is the inauguration day. There simply isn't much interest in changing that, though it probably could be moved up without issue.


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

[User] [General Fantasy] Why don't elves develop advanced technologies considering they have long life?

[Assistant] In *The Lord of the Rings*, at least, the elves do developed advanced arts that hobbits and men mistake for magic. Their light-bearing swords, nigh-invisible cloaks, and even their Rings of Power are created by craft, as all technology is. The reason their technology doesn't look like 20th century tech is because elves see power as a means to preserve life and increase their harmony with nature. They wouldn't want to rely on technologies that would destroy the world around them, so they wouldn't use fossil fuels or make indiscriminately destructive weapons like bombs. It's also worth noting that the elves have been declining for a long time before Frodo meets them, so they've lost the knowledge of how to build Feanor's telepathic televisions (the Palantir) and other advanced technology known in Valinor.


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

[User]
How do gender roles influence emotional expression?

At least in the western world (I don't know too much about other cultures) it is common to think that women are more emotional than men. The idea that men don't like to talk about their emotions while women do, and so on. While I have the idea that this is true in general due to biological reasons (but im not really sure), what influence do societies have in expressing emotions, and could it not be that by society not listening to men's emotions cause them to stay silent about them?

I can imagine for instance men who would talk openly about their feelings if it wasn't for a society where this was considered shamefull. But the balance between 'nature and nurture', biology vs gender roles, is quite opaque to me.

What information/literature is there about the subject, and is there a difference between different cultures?

[Assistant]
Theres actually a really great literature within Sociology called the Sociology of emotions, and one of its most influential books is by Arlie Hochschild - The Managed Heart (1983). She argues that, for example, female flight attendants have to perform a sort of emotional labor to effectively do their job. Its a great case in point as to how gendered job expectations drive emotional expression.

Theres also a pretty consistent through line in the Sociology of gender that argues that there is consistently identifiable patterns in gendered socialization that shape emotional expression. This hangs around the idea that children are socialized into norms related to ideal masculinity or femininity that enable or constrain types of emotional expression. For a good review, check out West and Zimmermans 1987 article Doing Gender. In it youll find a substantive overview of the topic that includes dated but empirical work covering all angles of the question.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Where is Darth Vader's former apprentice?

I've been searching through the histories, and all known information currently does not give an indication as to the whereabouts of Asohka Tano. We know three important facts:

(1) She was dispelled from the Jedi Order during the Clone Wars
(2) She declined to reinstate herself into the Jedi Order
(3) A mission report from the temple archives reports Asohka having a force vision of an older version of her self

Did she completely escape Order 66, and if so, how, and what is her current situation?

[Assistant]
As we're aware, Ashoka Tano does live to become an adult. So we can assume that she was able to evade imperial authority, at least for some time. Given what kind of a person she is, she likely traveled for a time in an effort to right wrongs, free slaves, and protect the innocent with the skills that Darth Vader actually taught her.

I strongly suspect that she was eventually culled, like the rest of her unfortunate religion. Vigilante upstarts rarely survive long. She probably taught, or tried to teach, an apprentice or two to pass on the Jedi way. And while it's very romantic to assume that She was alive by the end of the empire, she and any students she had were probably found and murdered by the empire.

(4th Wall breaking; She's probably going to make an appearance in the new Star Wars: Rebels, as a more learned Jedi and everything.)