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

[User]
CMV Chihuahuas are ugly & have shitty personalities.

Chihuahuas are a nuesence breed & idk why they're so popular. Going to the dog park, all the other dogs are chillin, playing, or sniffing. Not these little terrors. Their constant high-pitched chirp barks are piercing. And they're constant. They don't let up.

Chihuahuas are ugly and they have shitty personalities. Why would anyone ever do that to themselves, and their neighbors? Why do they exist? They look like large rodents.

When you love your dog, you put up with their annoying traits. But chihuahuas are objectively over aggressive. I wish they'd go live in their own separate community. Or at least have their own separate dog park away from the other dogs. They can go nuts shrieking in each other's faces all the live long day while the rest of us enjoy the weekend.

Edit:
To clarify, I don't like feeling vehemence towards these dogs or their owners so I wish I didn't have this view. I thought maybe some people would point out their better attributes & actually help me see them in a better light. Instead of resenting them & wanting them to go extinct

Edit:
There have been some really good points made here. I apologize if I didn't spend much time on anecdotes, although I'm touched by how much of you love your dogs. And you've shown me some undeniably cute chihuahuas, the long haired ones, and although they still have bug eyes, they were pretty darn attractive I cannot deny. And your stories about how well behaved, fun, and funny your chihuahuas are. All very cool. It makes me conclude "not all chihuahuas" are a pest to be exterminated; that your very special little guy or girl won the shit-bred lottery.

But a lot of comments only gave supporting reasons for why they are the way they are; greedy & unethical breeders and negligent owners. Chihuahuas lost the genetic lottery. Their defects cause their anxiety & aggression, and lots of owners don't care for them properly so you have the stereotypical "demon ankle biters" (if I may steal that term from one of you). I guess I don't dislike the breed any less, but I have been inspired to add some compassion & empathy along with my hatred. I can have both. And also, I now also hate greedy breeders & bad owners.

I still have to stay away from them at the dog park & have restraint when my niece brings her "dutchess" over; who's bark is like a thousands sparos piercing your brain (god forbid someone across the street sneezes). But I think I'm the problem. My hatred is not going anywhere, unfortunately. But I enjoyed discussion & insights. Oh, and also, fuck puppy mills.

[Assistant]
So, first genetics play a huge part in a dog's temperament. It's why labs are generally chill AF and Malinois are crackheaded working dogs. It's also why Chihuahuas are crackheaded demon ankle-biters for the most part. The breed is known for being high drive/energy and protective of their people. Sadly for them, it's wrapped up in a cute 5lb body that most people treat as if it's a barbie doll that needs the same mental and physical stimulation of one as well. So you have the typical lack of training/exercise/mental stimulation feeding into the problem.

The other side is that they are, by far, one of the most poorly backyard bred dogs out there and it's extremely hard to find one from a breeder that actually cares about the future of the breed and not just creating more "teacup" monsters. Most backyard bred ones are not health tested(meaning hip, elbows, and eyes are tested for faults and stored in a data base as well as genetic issues being ruled out) and are not breeding for a sane mind. So you have a lot of dogs that are bred from insecure, high anxiety parents and then put into homes with people that don't realize they have a high energy dog that needs both mental and physical stimulation and a good therapist. If you can find a decently bred one that the original breeder focused on a SANE mind along with the Chihuahua attitude, you would find they are still stubborn but also very smart and very quick on the uptake. Once you add a good owner to the mix, you have a very amazing little dog that definitely deserves NOT to go extinct. A good demonstration would be Ludvig, the IPO Chihuahua or the Chihuahua obedience class.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do humans get colds but our pets don't seem to? Why are cold-like symptoms in animals often an indicator of something serious, when for humans, colds are a mild annoyance at most?

[Assistant]
Dogs and cats do get colds and have the same symptoms we do. They just tend to hide their illness when sick and nap a bit extra so you probably wont notice.

They may also catch colds less frequently because not all viruses that affect humans can affect dogs and cats. Since dogs and cats are seldom indoors with other large groups of animals, they have fewer disease vectors.

But all animals get minor illnesses sometimes.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are there seemingly no sound restrictions on motorcycles?

Great answers so far. All I can say is I can't wait until all these fucking things are electric.

[Assistant]
It seems to me more a question of the noise restrictions not being enforced for anyone, but motorcycles tending to be run loud more often than other types of vehicles.

This may be a function of emissions requirements; many cars require exhaust treatments to "Pass Smog," while in many locations, motorcycles are not required to be tested at all.


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

[User] [DC] Could the Flash, and other speedsters, fly via helicopter dick?

[Assistant] A dick isn't shaped in the right way to push down air to cause lift. And even if it was the air would just push down on the body or cause a vacuum that can't be filled in time to cause sufficient lift. And that's not even accounting for the difficulty of keeping the balance enough to fly steadily without crashing, especially if we consider the massive hiprotatations needed.


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

[User] Are there any viruses that humans must have in/on our bodies in order to stay alive?

[Assistant]
Its possible that some bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria) are important for keeping gut bacteria in check, though it might be hard to prove that one way or another.

Alternatively, there are parts of the human genome that are theorized to have originally come from viral DNA, so if you count those as viruses still, they are very essential.


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

[User] [Firefly] Why do some folk on the outer worlds use such outdated weaponry? Where did they get those guns in the first place?

[Assistant]
If you want laser weapons you need clean rooms, high quality silicon foundries, high-tech assembly lines for high-density batteries and perfectly formed lenses. A laser weapon requires a massive technological infrastructure to build.

A slug-thrower gun can be made with 1800s grade technology, which even the backwoods moons have. People with bullet-shooting guns generally work around or behind the Alliance and will only face other bullet-shooting weapons, so there's no real need to get a far more expensive weapon with far, far more expensive ammunition in the form of a laser gun and its batteries. It's just not worth it when a regular gun will do just fine in the same role.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Did the Wizarding World have any awareness of the power of the nuclear bomb, and how dangerous it could be? Have Wizards and Witches put in danger or killed by nuclear weapons before?

I'm asking because Ronald Weasley appears to be pretty much one of the only Wizards who is interested in Muggle technology. And yet, it would seem that the Wizarding World (with its bureaucracies and hierarchies, some of which are explicitly kept around in order to keep watch on the Muggle world) would do well do fully understand Muggle technology, given that much of the world around them is disproportionately (in a very physical way) created, and changed, by Muggles using their technology.

So what gives? What about things like nuclear weapons, or Love Canal, and so on, things that affect the natural environment much more than most other things? Would a Wizard/Witch just magic the mess away or something?

[Assistant]
Nuclear bombs specifically haven't been used as actual weapons since the 40s, and even tests are rare. Most muggles consider them more abstract deterrents then something anyone would seriously consider using. You can't exactly blame wizards, who know less about the context and details, for assuming the same thing. Dangerous in principle, but not a threat worth seriously considering.

As for large scale alternations of the world via technology- the wizards know about it, sure. But what should they do? They're pretty secure they *could* magic the mess away, if push comes to shove, and that arrogance means they're mostly content to let the muggles do what they will.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do Commercial Hot Sauces Control the Heat in Every Bottle, Despite Peppers Varying Greatly in Their Intensity?

You can bite into one jalapeno and have it taste essentially like a bell pepper, and then bite into another and experience burning hellfire. How do companies that use peppers in their sauces keep uniformity throughout every bottle despite this natural variation?

[Assistant] I used to work in a lab that tested hot sauce, amongst other things. You can determine how spicy it is by chemical analysis, specifically HPLC, if you are interested. USP has a capsaicin method that is used to determine how spicy something is.


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

[User] Any news about the antibodies created when infected with the new Omicron variant? Since it has multiple mutations, are the natural antibodies from Omicron effective in fighting the earlier variants?

[Assistant] Pretty sure were still waiting for research to be completed on these questions. Weve only been aware of this variant for less than three weeks. Guaranteed someone is researching this now, but itll take a minute for enough data to be collected for them to be able to draw any firm conclusions.


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

[User]
Do hormones in toddler boys and girls really differ much?

As a parent I have heard people repeatedly make comments about how boys are so much harder to raise because of their hormones. Im not talking about pubescent kids, people make this kind of comment about my 3 year old and even my 1 year old. I always assume this is just sexist thinking but is there a big difference between biological boys and girls at such a young age? Thanks.

[Assistant]
There's a phenomenon known as "mini-puberty" where sex hormones increase temporarily early in life.  It's far more pronounced in boys than it is in girls.  This increase for boys starts at about 6 months and peaks around 2 years before dropping off to baseline by age 6. At 2 years old, testosterone levels for boys is almost half of what it would be at puberty.

Girls also have a mini-puberty, but the spike in estrogen is far lower at only about a 10th of what it would be during puberty.

It should also be noted that babies are flooded with sex hormones during gestation, with girls getting far more estrogen before birth than they do at puberty and boys getting almost as much as during puberty.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Can the Chasers outscore a snitch catch?

The Snitch is worth 150 points, and ends the game. If you have zero points and the other team has 160, but you catch the snitch, do you lose?

[Assistant]
Yes.

In 1994, during the Final of the 422nd edition of the Quidditch World Cup between Ireland and Bulgaria, Krum from Bulgaria caught the Snitch, bringing Bulgaria's score to from 10 to 160 and finishing the game.

However, Ireland outscored Bulgaria and finished the game on 170.


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

[User]
I think that prices in North America should include taxes. CMV

We deserve to know exactly how much we're paying just by glancin at labels, besides, there's no benefit to the customer whatsoever in not including taxes.

[Assistant]
The benefits of sales taxes being added after prices is that:

1. Retailers can make their price appear lower, and thus more marketable.

2. We, as consumers, can see on our receipt EXACTLY how much is being added as taxes, and thus will be more sensitive to tax changes. If taxes are slowly raised without customers seeing them on the receipt, they will not be truly sensitive to exactly where their money is going.

3. Retailers might jack their prices up slightly when a new tax law is enacted, and people would attribute it to the tax.  Say their product was $30 and was to have a $5 tax added on. They might retail it for $36 when the new tax law came out, and consumers would barely know the difference, but are still paying more for the same product.

4. Ultimately, there is no disadvantage to showing sales tax separately from product price, and the advantage it confers is more information: the more information you have on where your money is going, the better.


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

[User]
CMV: There's no point in voting (for the major parties) if you and your significant other cancel each other out. (US politics)

I tried looking for something similar, and I'm sure it's been posted, but any key words I punched in didn't seem to bring it up.

Very specifically, I'm referring to the situation where each of the two opposing parties has a major candidate, and you and your spouse (or hell, even a trusted roommate) will be voting for the opposite. Under these circumstances, there's no difference between both voting and neither voting in any discrepancy between two major candidates.

Now, perhaps you're both voting for the lesser of two evils, in which case you could both agree to not cancel each other out and, instead, vote third party. Still, there's no reason for two people to hold directly-opposing votes, since they effectively cancel each other out. You're just better off finding the common ground on which you agree and voting there, even if it means wasting time with a third party (at least it makes third parties seem a little more viable in the turnout).

This doesn't apply for any elections in which there are more than two candidates, but anyone familiar with the US voting system knows that third parties in presidential elections are just wishful thinking, even the one time they almost worked.

[Assistant]
When you vote, you are *signaling*. Politicians count up the statistics on who votes for what to determine their policies. How often do people in your state vote? How often do people in your county vote? How divided is your district? These are all questions politicians consider.

Lets say the vote is divided 2-20 in an area (counting individual votes). The area is not "divided". Not at all. But what if 10,000 divided couples vote? Then the vote is 10,002-10,020. That's divided. But if two people don't vote, that's two non-voters political parties are not going to account for in making their platforms next year. In the grand scale, it makes a difference.


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

[User]
CMV: Drug addiction is mainly caused by mental health care not being easily accessible

Depression, PTSD, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia are common among drug addicts. Thats because mental health treatment isnt easily accessible. People think all drug addicts are useless scum, when there are some who are just trying to self medicate. Some people are out on the waiting list for a year before they are allowed to see a professional, mainly because they have crappy insurance and the clinics have a waiting list. I was one of those people. I have bipolar disorder and spent a year in jail for drugs. I was only trying to self medicate and never harmed anyone.

[Assistant]
You're right generally, but there is at least one exception:

Addiction to painkilers / opiates. The reason for addiction here is generally overuse due to chronic pain (which is generally another major problem of access to healthcare, but less of a mental one).


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

[User] ELI5: What is dry drowning, and how does it happen?

[Assistant]
I posted this in response to the top comment as their explanation was incorrect but just making a separate post to provide an answer to your question.

Your vocal cords, which sit at the top of your airway, are quite sensitive. In dry drowning, water hits the vocal cords which causes spasm - otherwise known as laryngospasm. In basic terms, the vocal cords snap shut in a protective reflex which seals off the airway and lungs. In reality, the victim suffocates rather than drowns - no water enters the lungs.

Many people here are describing secondary drowning, which is an inflammatory condition caused by water entering the lungs and causing irritation. Fluid build up occurs within the inflammatory response causing pulmonary oedema, or fluid filled lungs.

To confuse things however, laryngospasm can also cause pulmonary oedema. Our breathing works via negative pressure - when we open our rib cage, that stretches the lungs open and creates a small vacuum causing air to rush in. This is how we breathe - we don't 'suck' air in per se, we create a negative pressure environment with the muscles in our rib cage and diaphragm and air rushes in to equalise pressure between our lungs and the external environment.

When laryngospasm occurs, the victim may still be using all of those muscles to try to breathe but their airway is sealed shut. So, they are creating a negative pressure environment in their lungs, but with no way for air to get in to equalise the pressure. The victim then ends up drawing fluid from their tissues into their lungs instead, resulting in pulmonary oedema, or fluid filled lungs.


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

[User]
Would trash decompose in outer space?

If the trash was sent into orbit around the moon, or on the surface of the moon, or anywhere within the solar system would decomposition be possible? Also could we make a trash moon.

[Assistant]
Decomposition is basically a different process for certain kinds of refuse. If it's organic, or a compound that's "edible" by bacteria (bacteria don't "eat" the stuff they decompose, rather they release certain enzymes and chemicals that break down the matter, then they proceed to consume what they can), and the refuse is in an isolated system like a steel container full of air or something or has pockets of bacteria sufficiently isolated from the cold and vacuum, they can start breaking down the refuse. Like, if you throw a dead astronaut in a space suit out of an airlock, he could potentially (at least partially or internally) decompose.

Other kinds of decomposition require oxygen or acids/salts we have on earth. For instance, iron decomposes on earth due to it being oxidized (rust is oxidized iron), and after a long enough period of time it completely decomposes. Decomposes from its previous shape that is, it still remains as iron-oxide, which can be reworked back into actual iron (some of the biggest iron mines on the planet are based on collecting huge deposits of iron-oxide and reworking them into iron). Those processes take certain chemical reactions to occur.

So, in short, the answer depends on the trash, but all in all decomposition is not disappearance. It's just breaking down.


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

[User] Why can my Shop-Vac blow things that are 5 feet away but it can't suck things up that are 5 feet away?

[Assistant] When you suck, you pull in air from all around which creates a wide circle of negative pressure rather than a column of negative pressure, so the range is short. When you blow, air molecules are being shot straight out and will only slow down once they hit other molecules, so the positive pressure will be in a column resulting in a longer range.


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

[User] ELI5: Why can babies spend weeks head down in the womb, but it becomes dangerous to hold them upside-down for longer than a few moments once they are born?

[Assistant] I asked the doctor about this. In the womb, the amniotic fluid supports the whole body. When the baby is upside down, it's never been right side up. it's heart is used to no direction. when the body has been out for a while, there is no support by the fluid, and the heart rapidly becomes used to prone and upright.


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

[User] [Marvel/DC] What are some defining points between Hawkeye and Green Arrow?

[Assistant]
Green Arrow
>**intelligent planner**

>trained computer hacker

>Superb archer

>Peak human physical and mental condition

>Highly-trained martial artist, athlete, marksman, and swordsman

>has high tech vehicles, gadgets, armor, and recurve bow with a variety of
>trick arrows

Hawkeye
>Grandmaster archer

>Uses a variety of trick arrows

>Superb athlete

>Exceptional arm strength

>Enhanced eye-sight

>Master martial artist, tactician, acrobat, marksman, and swordsman

>**Experienced pilot**


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

[User]
ELI5: What's stopping us from fully curing Anxiety disorders?

I've always had a stressed mental life, with anxiety disorder, depression, and the symptoms that come along with them. Loud noises, unexpected contact with others, and even small arguments put me into a panicked state and I can't operate normally. I have adrenaline running through my body most of the day and it leaves me depleted.

I've been on Xanax for the past 6 years because my 2 psychiatrists just threw prescriptions at me for the most part. I've paid thousands of dollars for Neuro-feedback Therapy and it barely did anything for me. I've tried meditation, exercising, and socializing but I have lost control of my mind and body.

Why is Anxiety/Depression such a difficult disorder to find a cure for?

[Assistant] We don't fully understand the mechanisms that cause anxiety and depression, and we don't fully understand how certain drugs (anti-depressants mostly) work to counter the effects. It really is a case of observing symptoms, applying something, and hoping it works.  Then there are individual reactions to different medicines, which mean that you can't just develop one cure and have it work for everyone.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does oil not evaporate like water does?

My face gets really oily and when I touch my glasses in the morning (8 hours since warring them) the oil hasn't evaporated like water would have. Does it just take really really long to evaporate?

[Assistant] Yes, it takes a long time to evaporate. Oils are usually comprised of very big, rather heavy molecules, which is most of the reason that oil is liquid to begin with. So oils have high boiling points/low vapor pressure compared to water, but oils don't have *no* vapor pressure. Other organic molecules miscible with oils but closer in size to water molecules, like acetone or ethanol, have much much higher vapor pressures and evaporate even more quickly than water.


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

[User]
[Archie Comics] Can someone explain to me the dynamic between Archie, Betty and Veronica?

So these two girls both adamantly chase Archie and seem to be totally in love with him. Do the comics go into why at all or is it just kind of the way it is?

Also they seem to be good friends, are they rivals and competitive with each other? How does their dynamic work?

[Assistant]
It's all about sex and manipulation.

Archie is a straight male.

Veronica is a bisexual female who prefers women.

Betty identifies as a straight female but is secretly bisexual with a preference for men.

Betty and Veronica are friends.

Archie wants to be with Veronica. Veronica wants to be with Betty. Archie knows this, so he dates Betty in order to get closer to Veronica.

Veronica knows Archie's plans and plays along, figuring that one way to get into Betty's pants is through Archie, so to speak.

Betty finds herself oddly attracted to Veronica but chooses to be with Archie because that's how she was raised. She has every reason to shut Veronica out from her life but she doesn't because of this odd attraction.


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

[User] Can oral vitamin B12 work effectively if taken sublingually?

[Assistant]
Oral absorption of B12 is variable and requires several cofactors to transport it across the intestinal mucosa. A sublingual formulation may increase absorption a little, but clinical evidence is really inconclusive on that.
If you have a deficiency your best option is to get your levels up to the normal range via IM or SubQ injection, then you can use oral supplementation to keep those levels where they need to be.


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

[User] ELI5: why does an air bubble in your blood kill you?

[Assistant]
First lets cover some basics.  Almost every part of your body needs oxygen to survive. Blood is what delivers that oxygen, and heres how:

When blood comes through our lungs it loads up with oxygen and flows immediately to your heart. To get all that oxygen to your body, the heart pumps the blood through vessels that get smaller and smaller until the blood delivers its oxygen. Once the blood gets through the really tiny vessels, it has delivered all the oxygen and the vessels start getting bigger again and heading to the heart to load back up on oxygen.

This system normally works great, but you can have major issues if something gets into the blood that isnt supposed to. For instance lets say a piece of fat come off of the inside of a large vessel near the heart.  The piece will keep flowing in the blood until it gets into a vessel that gets too small for it to get through. It gets stuck in the vessel and slows or completely blocks the blood flow behind it. Now the part of the body on the other side of that blockage cant get oxygen and starts to die. Depending on where the block is, and how big of an area is blocked, this can be REALLY bad. For instance If the blockage happens somewhere in the brain, its called a stroke.  Parts of your brain are literally dying.

So how does can an air bubble kill you? Believe it or not it does the same thing as the scab in the paragraph above. Our blood carries oxygen from our lungs inside special cells. It wont form a bubble.  But if a bunch air enters our lungs in another way, the air can form a bubble big enough to block a vessel. Depending on what part of are bodies the bubble is keeping oxygen from, and how big the area is, the bubble could potentially kill us.


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

[User]
How would you measure the Marginal product of labor for someone like a janitor?

We learn that wages are paid at the rate of marginal product of labor. However, since janitors dont really produce anything or contribute to production for a firm, how would you even measure that or determine their wage? Would you simply need to use the market wage instead?

[Assistant]
Presumably having a janitor generates value for the firm, or the rational firm would not hire them. So ask yourself why a firm would hire a janitor. They keep the place clean, which almost certainly improves labor productivity of other workers. People are less likely to get sick or injured in a clean and well-maintained workplace. Janitors will also perform certain repairs, which also improves labor productivity, and potentially the productivity of capital as well. A clean workplace will also attract better employees who are not willing to work in a dirty environment.

So a janitor definitely generates value for a firm, even if they're not 'producing' anything. In theory, estimating how much more productive labor is because you have a janitor is difficult to do. But a market wage would be a good estimate.


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

[User]
Why are quadcopters not used for full scale applications the way that regular helicopters have been for a long time?

It seems like quad copter drones are the all the rage, ultra stable flight machines for miniature use. Are they useful for applications that regular helicopters are currently used for? Why/why not?

[Assistant]
If your are taking about one a human is piloting the big difference is the computer.

Helicopters and basic planes can be flown with manual controls.

A quadrocoper depends completely on a computer to balance the props.

Now high ends jets also depend on computers but often have three way redundancy and cost a lot of money.

The toys also fly using electric motors with variable speed, there are a few out now that use variable  pitch in the blades.

Electric motors probably would be too heavy including power.source at full size. Gas motors would probably work with variable pitch blades but be expensive.

Tl;Dr: safety, power to weight ratio, cost/ complexity.


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

[User] [Vampires] So do they make wounds with their fangs and then suck the blood, or are there straws inside their fangs. And what if I used a needle to inject fresh blood into a vampire's buttcheek, would that satiate them?

[Assistant]
Vampires use their fangs to piece the skin. They drink the blood through a combination of suction and the victims own heartbeat.

injecting a vampire in the butt with a needle is just going to wind up with you missing a face.


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

[User]
[MAD MAX FURY ROAD] Why does Immortan Joe want another son?

He already has two sons. (Three if the video game is considered canon.) Admittedly, one of his sons is a mutant, but Rictus Erectus is strong and healthy.

And follow-up question: Who is Rictuss mother? The five wives all look younger than him.

[Assistant]
Rictus Erectus is mentally challenged with a mind like a child, and his brother Corpus is weak and deformed but has a strong mind.

Immortan Joe wants a healthy son who is both physically and mentally strong.


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

[User]
ELI5: "30% chance of rain"

When a weather report says that there's a 30% chance of rain, does that mean that they expect it to rain for 30% of that day (so a 30% chance of rain at any given time during the day), or a 30% chance of getting any rain at all during that day (so it might rain for 10 minutes and be dry the rest of the time) or something else?

[Assistant]
From The Weather Channel:

>The 'Chance of Precip' describes the likelihood of precipitation (maybe not even measurable) in your forecast area. The chance is based upon a series of 100 instances of identical weather conditions.

>For example, a 40% Chance of Precip means that precipitation occurred 40 out of 100 days with the same type of conditions expected in your area.

No way to direct link, but you can go to your city's forecast and click on "Chance of Rain."


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

[User]
When particles collide in the LHC, does it make a sound?

Edit:  Thanks for all the replies everyone!

[Assistant]
No. Sound needs a medium to travel through. The LHC pipes are vacuum except for the proton projectiles which are focused into a beam with diameter of approximately 50 microns. The rest is vacuum.

Even then, sound is a macroscopic phenomenon. It involves orders of 10^23 particles moving in a particular way. A proton on proton collision starts as two particles and decays to, at most, 100(not sure, exactly).


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

[User]
ELI5: Is a virtual reality headset worse for my eyes than staring at a computer screen?

If the headset is so close to the eyes, is it so much more worse for the eyes? Recommended breaks every 45 minutes or more frequently?

[Assistant]
A decent VR headset will actually set the focus of the screens to infinity so your eyes are relaxed.
The problem with screens and TV are that you are focusing quite close, and straining your eyes.  A VR headset has the capability (with projection to project the image so that your focus point is quite far, thus relaxing your eyes).
This infinite focus is seen on Red dot/reflex weapon sights which keeps the red dot in the same place even at different angles of viewing, they also used in HUD in aircraft and cars, so that you can focus in front of you and still read the display.


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

[User] [Harry Potter] If a highly visible child, such as a direct Royal heir in line to the throne was to manifest magical abilities how would that situation be approached by the Wizarding community?

[Assistant] Assuming that the family was not aware of magic, I'd guess that the standard of "Send someone to talk to the parents and explain what's going on" would happen, and then it'd be up to the parents for whether they wished to send the kid off to school and lie about sending them abroad or whatever, or whether they'd prefer to simply hire someone to teach them in the comfort of their own home where they wouldn't have to be hidden away from the public.


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

[User] [Star Wars] What is force ghost Obi Wan up to these days?

[Assistant] I've always pictured that dead Jedi are kind of in a state of Nirvana, being one with the force and just chilling peacefully. Then Jedi with force ghost abilities can conjure up a visible form when they need to but 99% of the time they just go back to being "one with the force."


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

[User] ELI5: What could theoretically happen if the new fusion reactor has a problem when it's turned on in two days?

[Assistant]
Well, first thing, the new fusion doesn't even fuse (for the moment). It runs on simple non-fusing plasma (hydrogen).

Anyway, the worst that could happen is some short circuit or cooling failure in the superconducting magnets, which results in a few million in damages and a bunch of very disappointed scientists.


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

[User]
[Avatar] Is Koh still stealing faces or did Aang squash that bug?

He could pretty big threat and could cause a lot of mayhem if he chooses to.  He definitely seems like a problem that needs to be stopped before he becomes a major issue.

[Assistant]
He's still out there. While Koh may be malevolent and has made himself the enemy of the Avatar before, he isn't outright hostile. He, like most spirits, has rules that he plays by, and these rules don't necessarily make sense to the mortal world. Aang even receives important wisdom from Koh; he just needed to play by Koh's rules to do it.

Some spirits, like Father Glow Worm, were actually contemptuous of Koh for being so willing to help mortals who were able to pass his tests. Koh is one the of the oldest and most knowledgeable spirits in existence, seeking out his wisdom is often worth the risk.

Likewise, Koh tends to only actively seek out a fight against people who deserve it. (Albeit, he's willing to harm innocent people to achieve this goal.) One of the reasons Kuruk's wife had her face stolen was because Koh had became angry with the Avatar for his campaign against the spirits. Stealing Ummi's face was a punishment, and Kuruk wasn't able to kill Koh in the end because he realized doing so would also permanently take Ummi away from him.

Killing spirits is no easy task, either. The Kyoshi novels make it clear that killing even relatively minor spirits poisons your own spirit. Part of the reason Kuruk was thought to be so useless as an Avatar, and why he died so young, was because he spent most of his time hunting spirits under the belief that he was protecting the world. He kept much of this to himself, including the mental and spiritual damage it caused him. The only way to deal with spirits and not eventually die from it is to either appease them, as Aang did most of the time, banish them, as Korra learned to do, or imprison them, as Wan was able to do.

But even so, most of the time appeasement is the easiest and most effective strategy.

Tl;dr: Koh's still out there, and not really a threat. Koh plays by different rules to humans. Don't piss him off and he won't be a threat, unless you're trying to get something from him like Aang.


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

[User]
eli5: Why does working out helps so much with mental health?

I have OCD and working out ALWAYS makes me feel better whenever I have spikes. How does that work?

[Assistant] Exercise had been shown in many studies to promote the production of serotonin and dopamine, the two neurotransmitters responsible for making you feel good. Evolution has selected for physical activity to make us feel good, making it more likely for us to be physically active, which promotes our physical health. This is called a positive feedback loop, and is an example of one of the many, many positive feedback loops employed in your biochemistry.


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

[User]
[Samuri Jack] If Aku has access to advance technology, why doesn't Aku just nuke Jack.

I'm assuming he doesn't care about environmental effects and collateral damage.

[Assistant]
Same reason you don't burn down your house if you see a spider. Aku fought for the world. He considers it (and everyone who lives in it) his property. He enjoys people's fear and respect and loves making them put up statues of him. And at the end of the day, he doesn't take Jack all that seriously.

If it were a total war situation Aku might nuke his own territory, but he clearly doesn't consider it that kind of situation.


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

[User]
[Pokemon] What kind of government does the world of Pokemon have?

And does it differ by region?

[Assistant]
I always thought that the government of pokemon was based off the strongest trainers in each region. The gyms are local authority, the elite 4 overrule the gyms, and the champion acts as the dictator of everything.

This explains why towns with gyms seem to look towards the gym leader as the local authority, and why trainers attempt to reach the elite 4 and become the champion themselves.


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

[User] Question regarding using the blood plasma of recovered people to treat sick people: When the plasma is injected, is it just the antibodies in the donated plasma that attacks the virus, or does the body detect the antibodies and create more ?

[Assistant]
I dont see the right answer yet so:

The plasma contains antibodies from the donor. Presumably there are antibodies in the donor that have neutralized the virus. Antibodies are just proteins that latch on to a target and help flag it so the hosts immune system recognizes the problem and eliminates it.

The donor antibodies will circulate for weeks to months in the host, but they cannot make more of themselves  they are just proteins originally made by B cells in the host. Therefore plasma infusions for these critically ill patients are just a temporary measure until their own bodies hopefully learn to eliminate the virus without help.


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

[User]
Economists, whats your opinion on the state of the worlds economy? A bank in Germany has introduced negative interest rates.

Not sure how negative interest rates works anyway?sounds like a theory that isnt great in practice as Id rather incur no interest than being charged.

<edit elaborate comment>

I should have mentioned, if you had savings, theyd charge you and hadnt  consider the alternative, if you had a loan.

[Assistant]
you're not being charged. They would give you money to take their money.

The reason this happens is because the ECB rate is negative too so as long as the banks charge higher than the ECBs rate they will still make money (even if their rates are still negative). A couple months ago a Danish bank started paying people to get a mortgage.

The answer to your question is no on really know because we haven't seen such low interest rates for such a long time. The question becomes what use would monetary policy in the case of a recession i.e. since rates are so low, how effective would it be for central banks to decrease interest rates in order to stimulate growth?


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

[User]
Considering the Higgs field permeates all of space how is it related to a vacuum?

Is the Higgs a by-product of a vacuum? I've read that the Higgs is "the energy of the vacuum from which all else came." Can someone explain this? Why did a vacuum exist in the first place? Does the universe exist within a vacuum? Any thoughts on the idea that matter is a 3-D representation of 2-D information?

[Assistant] In field theory, we work with it being given that there are space and time. The *vacuum* is the field configuration that minimizes the energy.  It turns out that it takes less energy to have a non-zero value of the Higgs field throughout space than it would to have no Higgs field.  Thus the vacuum in the Standard Model is space filled with a non-zero Higgs field.


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

[User]
Are stretch marks permanent?

There are a lot of products and home remedies, but what does science have to say?

[Assistant]
Stretch marks are similar to a scar from a wound. What happens is the skin is stretched by rapid growth (example: growing tall quickly or gaining weight quickly).

The skin (all layers) are stretched beyond the physical limitations of the cellular composition of the tissue. The skin and is unable to grow to keep pace. This causes subtotal tearing. It's not a open wound, the internal/external barrier is still intact (although weakened).

The body responds to this in a damage control response. Simply; Fibroblasts migrate into the voids left by the stretching and crudely begin to proliferate to increase the thickness of the barrier to the external environment. This is different than normal growth because these cells are not derived from semi-differentiated stem cells which are capable of forming more specialized cells. The various stem cells are able to form multiple cells of different types and give an organ like the skin its complexity. This is different from scarring as collagenous fibroblasts replicate and form cell types of limited complexity; these are unable to emulate skin that formed in utero.

This 'patch' never fully returns to its original state before the damage. The stem cells and underlying tissues are damaged, missing or both. However, over time the scaring becomes less pronounced as long as additional damage does not occur. These patches also have limited tanning, sensing and protective capacities.

Some topical treatments may increase the "elasticity" of the skin, causing it to pull in on itself more also reducing the size of the scars. If the marks are from rapid weight gain, weight loss may reduce their appearance. Exercise in general tends to make tissues more dense and stronger. Even the skin.


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

[User] Eli5. Why cant robots be programmed to click a box that says I am not a robot?

[Assistant] The button checks the micro movements of your mouse to see if it's predictable like a robot or random like a human. That being said, robots can defeat all types of captchas with reasonable accuracy, but defeating the ones that make you click on images of stop signs takes more expertise and is a higher barrier of entry for would be spammers.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do antibiotics and hormones make you gain weight.

I have heard that antibiotics and hormones are used to make cattle larger. I have also observed in my own experience that when I have taken antibiotics I gain a lot of weight without changes to diet and exercise.

[Assistant] Depends on the antibiotic you're using.  Some do cause an increase in appetite, but generally the newer ones have less side effects like that.  Hormones are completely different.  Depending on the hormone, you will see an dramatic increase in appetite.  Some hormones cause water retention as well this creating an increase in weight.  Not sure if that helps.


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

[User]
[MCU] Why didn't Captain Marvel snap away Thanos?

She is much stronger than Hulk or Thanos (maybe even combined) and absorbing radiation is kinda her thing. If any of the Avengers could use the Infinity Gauntlet without repercussions it would be her.

[Assistant]
The mission at the time Carol had it was playing keep-away.  They were planning to fling it into the quantum realm using the portal in the back of the van, not snap Thanos away.  The goal was to get it to the van.

It only got to that point of Tony snapping when that original plan failed and Tony's snap was the last ditch effort.  By then, however, Thanos had the gauntlet on his hand and Tony had the stones which he fashioned into his own nano suit.  There was no further opportunity to get the gauntlet off of Thanos' hand and the stones to Carol.


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

[User]
[Supernatural] When Lucifer and Michael were set to fight it was supposed to be world ending, how come fights involving even more powerful beings are so lackluster?

So two archangels are supposed to set 90% of the world on fire and kill most people. but

* Gabriel vs Lucifer didn't even knock a chair over
* Leviathins vs angels/eve/ etc were similarly low in scale
* Confrontation between Death and Castiel+all purgatory souls = no disruption
* Literal actual God with an army of demons, the hosts of heaven, the most powerful witches and an archangel against God's Sister the Darkness doesn't even break a window in the warehouse they chose to throw down in.

So what gives?

[Assistant]
Lucifer and Michael are more than just archangels, they're sort of on their own level. While Gabriel could have perhaps put up a fight, he really didn't stand a chance, which is why he gambled on tricks. We never got to see a real Gabriel vs. Lucifer fight.

Similarly, when we see leviathan fighting angels, it's full-on leviathans fighting lower-level angels. It took God to bottle them up, and even he couldn't destroy them. For leviathan, it was a cakewalk.

And perhaps that's part of the problem. When we see fights, often it's asymmetrical, so the more powerful being is just toying with the less powerful being. Or they have such different methods of fighting, like a witch vs. Lucifer, that they can't really meet in battle any more than an eagle can engage in battle with a virus.

As for Das and Death, was that even a fight?

...now don't get me started on the scythe and Death's death. Wtf...


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

[User] Why do planets tend to orbit their stars along roughly the same plane, rather than be circling around their star at all kinds of different angles?

[Assistant]
Stars form from big clouds of gas and dust.  The area of that cloud from which the star forms has some rotational motion;  the angular momentum (and therefore direction of rotational motion) of all the particles is conserved as the cloud collapses.

The planets form out of the same cloud, all from gas and dust that had similar angular momentum.   So, not only do the orbits of planets tend to be in one plane, they are all circling the star in the same direction, so the angular momenta of their orbits line up.  On top of that, the spins of the planets, and the orbits of their moons, also tend to have directions that "line" up their angular momenta as well.  (Note:  collisions can mess this up.).

So, if you know which way the earth spins, you can figure out which way it orbits, and you can also figure out which way our moon orbits the Earth.   They all have (roughly) the same "sense of rotation", which we physicists call the "same direction of angular momentum".


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

[User]
How does the immune system store state?

Immunity and allergies are acquired, so the list of things to react to can't be stored in DNA. Where and how is it stored?

[Assistant]
After every "attack", some of the cells we use to defend ourselves turn into memory cells. These cells are basically trained to recognize and fight the thing they fought last time, and they just wait around until it comes again.

Immunizations are basically giving you just enough of the illness to cause your body to fight and create memory cells for it, but not enough for you to actually get too sick, so you can fight it a lot easier next time.


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

[User]
[Marvel] Is it true Iceman is an Omega level mutant?

If so how?
What would he be able to do?
Has he ever displayed this before?
Who knows this?
Who discovered/said/theorize/lied about it first?

[Assistant]
It was really exploited back in the '90s/Early 00s, when Frost jumped into his body during a freak accident. Then she basically found out that he'd been lying about a LOT of things because he'd been afraid of his powers.

She basically rode him like like a skinsuit, exploiting his abilities in way he never dared stretch himself, and revealed just how badly he'd been letting his own fears cap his powers.

It actually sets the stage, on a character development level, for the iceman is gay reveal that happened this year. It was heavily implied that she knew a lot of his secrets, and that he was hiding more than just that his powers were far more vast than he was letting on. She was not outting him because she either felt sorry for him / was saving it for blackmail material, depending on which writer was handling it at the time.


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

[User] ELI5: How does Solvent Abuse involving aerosol cans, kill the user instantly, as is warned on the cans?

[Assistant]
It depends. You can die in multiple ways from solvent abuse.

Theres lack of oxygen, frostbite, and cardiac arrest or failure. Most commonly is aspiration of vomit while they are unconscious and lack of oxygen.

It really depends on what one is inhaling, what methods they are using (using a bag is much more dangerous than just sniffing because you are limiting the flow of oxygen) and the condition they are in.

There are safer ways to get high than sniffing gasoline.


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

[User]
[Slasher Movies] Why do people run away from the killer after briefly knocking them out?

Slasher movies have this trope wherein the killer gets knocked out momentarily, and their victims just run away. Why not end it there? Stomp on their face a few times, put that adrenaline to good use.

I think the only time I've seen somebody take the opportunity was in Scream 3, when Patrick Warbuton beat the tar out of Ghostface before dying to the knife that was already lodged in his back.

[Assistant] You're right. The monkey reflex is to just keep hitting until the target is no longer a threat. (It's one reason self-defense with a knife is so problematic.) The best explanation in this case is that slasher-movie villains pick their prey really well. The victims are so skittish they run even when they have an advantage.


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

[User]
[generic zombie question] Even if the dead were somehow reanimated, how could they be strong enough to burst through six feet of packed Earth, not to mention emerge from the inside of a sealed casket?

Google says that dirt weighs 2,000 # per cubic yard. That means there's at least 4,000 # of dirt on top of a coffin.  How could a zombie even open the casket?

[Assistant]
Most zombies don't start in caskets. They start on the surface.

Even then, they have an advantage that humans don't. Being, they're already dead. Depending on your casket, it is, technically, possible to break out, but you then have to dig yourself to the surface, suffocating the entire way. Zombies don't have to concern themselves with air, and are able to continuously tunnel with no regard for pressure, discomfort or oxygen.

It would take a LOT of work, and no small amount of luck, to properly displace the earth in order to dig yourself out of a grave... but it is doable.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do guys have nipples?

It just randomly struck my mind, mid-walk. They have no function, surely? Help or I'm going to lose sleep over my pointless, pointless nipples.

[Assistant] Nipples develop in the womb before the fetus is 'sexed', the nipples have already firmly positioned themselves before that process starts, so prior to the fetus becoming male or female, they already have nips.


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

[User] [The Lord of the Rings] The gates of Mordor are quite impressive. Who designed/engineered them?

[Assistant]
Mostly gondorians who still remembered crafting mastery of Numenor. Black gate, towers alongside it, and Cirit Ungol were al built by gondorians to keep remaining forces of sauron inside of mordor after the war of Last aliance.

They were all maned by solders of Gondor that kept watch over the land of Mordor. But some 1000 years (not completly shure about the time) prior to events of LOTR a great plague decimated the population of Gondor and it could no longer properly guard pases to Mordor.


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

[User]
[General Superhero question] Tony stark admits that he is Iron Man. Thor, at least in MCU, is Thor with no alias. Everyone knows who captain America is and Black widow has no real costume.

Some have a secret identity and some do not. Why is it any different for someone like Spider-Man or Batman. People cant tell the difference between Superman and Clark Kent and all he needs is a super suit or a pair of glasses. Why do some heroes wear their name on their sleeve and others do not? Hasnt spidey had to fight off another heroes villain a few times?

[Assistant]
There are three primary reasons why superheroes adopt an alias/secret identity in the first place:

* So they can maintain a civilian life without constantly being hounded by supervillains or fans;
* So they can protect their family and loved ones from vengeful enemies;
* So they can protect themselves from the law, as vigilantism is quite often a crime in and of itself (especially when enforced via the methods employed by most superheroes) and their actions would normally make them quite liable for collateral damages and such.

Not having a super hero identity is the exception rather than the rule, so let's look at a few prominent cases:

* MCU Tony Stark - Ego. Pure ego. This explicitly puts him and his companions in danger which he later comes to regret and is motivation for a lot of his future ideas and upgrades. But at the time he "came out" it was basically narcisissm.
* MCU Thor - Thor lives on Asgard and his human friends are mostly superheroes. Those that aren't are offered protection by SHIELD when a Thor-related threat arises. So there simply isn't a need for him to adopt a secret identity.
* MCU Captain America - has no friends and family of note that aren't super heroes themselves that need special protection.
* MCU Black Widow - Black Widow is basically *only* a "secret" identity. She has no public persona that would need hiding or protection.
* Fantastic Four - Since the entire family and friends circle was made superhuman, there was simply no need to adopt secret identities for protection. They are sufficiently rich and powerful that they can distance themselves from the public without being needlessly harassed and generally deal in things at such a high level that legal entanglements are rare and they can afford lawyers to deal with the odd ones that crop up.


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

[User] ELI5: What more megapixels give you and what they do not (or, why more megapixels isn't necessarily "better")

[Assistant]
More megapixels means that you get images with more pixels.  This means you can make a larger image at a given resolution, or have better resolution for a given size.  Most people don't make prints large enough for this to really matter, as most cameras have plenty of megapixels.

More megapixels can be bad when you have to cram a bunch of them onto the camera's sensor.  This is a silicon chip that detects the light and makes the image.  If you try to squeeze in a bunch, you can limit the quality of the pixels.  For a point and shoot camera, it doesn't make sense to try to put in more than 12megapixels or so, because the camera's sensor is quite small.

A fancy DSLR will use a bigger sensor, some as big as 35mm film.  There are many reasons this can be better.  One of them is that you can increase the number of megapixels without degrading the quality of the sensor.  There are also optical advantages that allow for higher resolution.

None of this really matters, though.  There are other factors that are far more important than megapixels, like lens quality and skill.  Learning what sort of light is good for shooting or how to use fill flash will both get you better images than any number of megapixels.


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

[User]
ELI5: What happens when a non-fully grown tattooe'd body grows?

Does the ink stretch? Does it get some 'empty spaces' in its pattern?

I'm wondering this since a couple of days, but don't have any knowledge on the matter. May you explain me like I'm five?

Cheers!

[Assistant] The ink of a tattoo continually 'spreads' throughout the life of a person.  As cells divide or die off, the bigger chunks of the pigments/metals in the skin will break apart and generally migrate.  This just results in a blurry/faded tattoo.  That's why tattooed old folks have blurry tattoos.  The human growth isn't usually rapid enough to cause visible separations in the image... but rapid weight gain and pregnancies can do just that.  A stretch mark has the ability to completely ruin a tattoo.


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

[User]
Why does visible light not cause eye damage?

Since visible light is higher on the EM scale and has more energy than Infrared, then why does visible light not damage our eyes while infrared does (at long exposures)

[Assistant]
Because you blink if it's too bright. Infrared doesn't make you blink. In fact, if you're in the dark, your iris could be wide open letting in more infrared.

You start to notice problems after the damage is done. It needs to be very intense to cause damage. Anything which is incandescent enough to burn your eyes will also be bright in the visual range.

If the source is a laser diode, there's increased danger because the coherent light can be focused onto a very small area.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is Olive Oil always labeled with 'Virgin' or 'extra virgin'? What happens if the Olive oil isn't virgin?

[Assistant] Virgin refers to how many times the olive mash has been processed to extract the oil. Extra virgin olive oil can be skimmed right off the top immediately after the olives are mashed. Lesser qualities of oil are produced by heating the mash and performing other chemical processes to extract the remainder.


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

[User] Would all intelligent life in the universe evolve using the same visible light spectrum as us to see? Is our slice of the spectrum innately superior for vision?

[Assistant]
I'd say it's the most effective general range - yes, some creatures go a bit higher or lower than humans, but it's pretty close.

Visible light is pretty good at going a good distance through the atmosphere without diffusing too much.  It's passive - ambient light is used and we don't have to project anything and reveal our presence to a predator.  The wavelength is small enough that the sensory organs don't have to be particularly large.

I'd say given A) the spectrum of the light given off by the Sun and B) the atmosphere of Earth that it was more or less inevitable HERE.

Elsewhere?  Tell me what the most abundant wavelength of light is that reaches the creatures in question, with a high enough frequency to allow for small eyes... I'd suspect it'd be near our range, but maybe not identical.


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

[User] ELI5: What makes the body decompose? What is it that prevents us from decomposing while alive?

[Assistant] Decomposition is the breaking down of tissue and/or organic matter by microbes like bacteria. Your body, while alive, has an immune system to kill bacteria, as well as the capability to heal and repair any damage (within reason). Once youre dead, the immune system and healing stops, which means bacteria grow unchecked and whatever damage they do doesnt get fixed.


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

[User]
[Starship Troopers] I'm writing a paper for my Moral History class.

It's about the history of the Terran Federation, I've been instructed to use FedNet for information.

How did the Terran Federation form, what size territory does it control, and what caused the formation?

[Assistant] Nobody really can say where the terran federation came from it just kinda grew. See at the end of the XXth century many governments were collapsing and this created a vacuum of power which the veterans stepped in to fill. The first known case was in Scotland when some veterans got together as vigilantes to stop rioting and looting they had to hang a few people (including two veterans) and decided not to let anyone but veterans on their committee because they didn't trust anyone else. What started as an emergency measure became constitutional practice in a generation or two.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Does the empire pay exceptionally well? What is my motivation to become an Imperial Officer?

I mean forget regular job security, I have a good chance of being force choked to death by my commanding officer if I make a mistake.

Why would I enter such an environment? Are all officers megalomaniacs?

Why wouldn't I just be chill and go work in a bar on Tattoine, Coruscant, or Naboo?

[Assistant] The vast majority of imperial military is actually a pretty good gig.  Guaranteed pay food board and travel.  Something like 90% of the imperial enlisted forces are from worlds where the military offers the best chances of getting off their planet and out of living paycheck to paycheck.  The core worlds are well off and people have a decent amount of disposable income to pursue their passions and desires but the majority of imperial forces come from mid and outer rim territories.  Out there pirates and marauders are a common sight alongside slavery and extreme poverty. The empire offers at the minimum a chance to leave your homeworld and the possibility to bring order and stability to help others avoid the fate you've escaped by joining the empire.  At best you'll serve honorably and bring law and order to the worlds near where you've enlisted from and be generally seen as a positive force in the galaxy.  At worst you'll be sent to operations overseeing genocide or slaving operations or be sent far from your home to perform any number of unsavory tasks from death squads to interrogations to wholesale slaughter of aliens.  Only the upper echelons of imperial command and elite units had to work in close proximity to the moffs and vader and palpatine where the general murders happened.  So long as you stay below the ranks of Admiralty and General's you'd be able to truly help and be supported by the empire at large.  There's plenty of stories of soldiers being forced to fight losing campaigns on backwater planets but there's just as many have been assigned to aid the populace and ensure things like piracy and smugglers are out of business.


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

[User] How did scientists know the first astronauts spacesuits would withstand the pressure differences in space and fully protect the astronauts inside?

[Assistant] They built vacuum chambers on Earth large enough for people to fit inside. That way they could test the suits, with people inside them, in a hard vacuum before they actually sent anyone to space. If something went wrong during one of the tests the could open the door to the chamber and instantly repressurize it.


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

[User]
[MCU] Cost aside, how efficient would a vibranium car be?

What if all the metal in a normal car was made of Vibranium instead? How would it handle collisions? What about performance compared to a normal car of the same make and model?

[Assistant]
Well, you could have an extremely lightweight chassis (maybe even 1 mm thick), but to be honest covering the outside would be a complete waste, unless safety is your main concern. Yes, in a collision the energy would somehow be transferred away from you and into the vibranium, with minimal damage to the car, but even so the momentum from suddenly coming to a stop would still hit you, so you could still need air bags and other safety devices.

Unfortunately, the energy absorption properties of vibranium make using it in the engine a non-starter, as the pistons need to be able to release the stored energy, which vibranium cannot do, so it would have a totally normal engine. However, you could just put vibranium on the disk brakes, but you would still be limited by the rubber wheels wearing out.

tl;dr: Would be very safe if put around chassis, very wasteful though, you would be better off using vibranium disk brakes. Would be useless in increasing the efficiency of the engine.


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

[User]
[General] How would someone with the ability to tell when someone is lying register a statement that is literally untrue, but may or may not be metaphorically true?

Like, if Darth Vader said "Anakin Skywalker is dead. I killed him", how would that be registered?

Perhaps it would depend on whether the speaker really believes what he is saying.

[Assistant]
>Perhaps it would depend on whether the speaker really believes what he is saying.

This is the only real way for lie detection to work.  Otherwise you could use your magic lie detector, and have someone make wild guesses about basic physical facts until you discover all truth in the universe.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is it better to get uninterrupted sleep than the same number of hours of fragmented sleep? And why do some people require more sleep than others?

I'm tired, Reddit.

[Assistant]
Not all sleep is the same. You go thru stages over the hours, from light sleep (alpha) to REM.

During periods of relaxation, while still awake, our brain waves become slower, increase in amplitude and become more synchronous. These types of waves are called alpha waves.

The first stage of sleep is characterized by theta waves. The difference between relaxation and stage 1 sleep is gradual and subtle. As the sleeper moves to stage 2 sleep theta wave activity continues.

Stages 1 and 2 are relatively "light" stages of sleep. In fact, if someone is awoken during one of these stages, he or she will often report no being asleep at all. That's why fragmented sleep is not good, you don't go beyond stage 2.

As you continue to shut down your brain patterns change to delta wave patterns. Delta sleep is our deepest sleep, the point when our brain waves are least like waking.

After that you sometimes get to REM (rapid eye movement). It's theorized that REM helps the brain clean up memories accumulated during the waking periods (dreams). For that reason hormones are released so the skeletal muscles of a person during REM sleep are effectively paralyzed so you don't act out your dreams.

REM sleep a sleepers brain waves demonstrate characteristics that are similar to waking sleep, a combination of alpha, beta, and desynchronous waves.

In a normal night's sleep, a sleeper begins in stage 1, moves down through the stages, to stage 4, then back up through the stages, with the exception that stage 1 is replaced by REM, then the sleeper goes back down through the stages again. **One cycle, from stage 1 to REM takes approximately 90 minutes**. This cycle is repeated throughout the night, with the length of REM periods increasing, and the length of delta sleep decreasing, until during the last few cycles there is no delta sleep at all.

So you sleep for less than 90 min you don't complete a full cycle and without a few cycles you don't feel rested because your brain cleanup is not done.

>And why do some people require more sleep than others?

Genetics. Nothing you can do about it.


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

[User]
[Superheroes] What's the distinction between just a criminal and a supercriminal?

I'll take batman because I feel it's got the best examples at all levels, but you can do the same thing with virtually any super's rogues gallery.

* So on the one extreme, you have, say, Poison Ivy. She's a criminal, she has superpowers. She's unquestionably a supercriminal.
* Then you have Scarecrow. He's a normal human with advanced tech. Theoretically, anyone could have a vial of fear gas. But he's still able to do things normal technology can't. That's pretty super.
* Then you have The Riddler. He's very flamboyant and dramatic, but he's got normal tech and no powers. He's got a lot of showmanship and his crimes are clearly above and beyond normal criminal activities, but he's just a dude.
* Then you have The Penguin. He's just a crime lord. No powers, no tech, no gimmicks unless you count "liking birds and umbrellas" as a gimmick. He's just a mundane crime lord with a nickname.

Now, we know that supervilliany is a concept in universe (the phrase super-crime is thrown around in comic, and they talk about batman fighting supercriminals), and it seems all of batman's rogue gallery (and the less powerful flash rogues and Kingpin and the Toymaster and other such relatively mundane criminals) are considered supercriminals in universe.

So at what point do I stop being a standard criminal and become a supercriminal? Do I need a costume? A name? A gimmick? An archenemy? Where does my plan to rob gotham bank go from "call the police" to "call Batman"?

[Assistant] In the words of Megamind, "PRESENTATION!" You gotta have a gimmick. Powers are optional. If you do not pick your own name, the press will pick one for you. An archenemy will turn up eventually if you hang around long enough. But first, you really need a gimmick.


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

[User]
[Vampires] Do I have to be inside my house in order to invite a vampire inside, will a handwritten note suffice

Like if I were at a party and invited vampires to go in my house etc.

If yes, could I forge a note from an enemy of mine to invite vampires to their home?

[Assistant]
You definitely cannot, under any circumstances, invite vampires into other people's homes.
An invitation by writing might work if it was specifically directed to the vampire.  No general public party invites.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is growling such a common way to show aggression in the animal kingdom?

[Assistant]
Growling in dogs isn't a show of aggression. It is a show of unease - you're invading its space or you represent a threat and (s)he wants you to back off.

It's actually a sign the dog would prefer for this to not evolve into conflict.

Aggressive dogs attack without any growling.


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

[User]
What are the pros and cons of unions?

Also, what can be done to fix the cons of unions?

Can you provide examples of when unions helped/hurt a country/industry and why it happened?

Are there differences between public and private sector unions that affect their usefulness?

[Assistant]
I find it better to think of it as organized labor in the same way that corporations are organized capital. Neither is inherently good or bad (though they should increase efficiency). When either side has too much power, it's bad for the economy as a whole.

Corporations and unions, being run by people, will both tend to try to exploit the other for personal gain when they have the power to do so.

As such, having one without the other tends to be a serious problem in the long run, unless there's government mechanisms to keep their power in check. And the government has a historically bad track record with that, due to these groups' ability to influence politics when they do become powerful.


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

[User]
If matter can't be created or destroyed, how do pairs of quarks just "pop" into existence?

I was watching a video on subatomic particles and the narrator mentioned if two quarks get too far apart from one another, an entirely new quark will appear to form two pairs.  How is that?

[Assistant] There is energy in the field between the two quarks.  As you pull the quarks apart, you are doing work on the system, and so increasing its energy.  Eventually that energy is large enough to create a quark-antiquark pair.


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

[User] ELI5:Why are asian language scripts much more complex than european scripts?

[Assistant]
different culture, different way of doing things. All cultures have their quirks. English for example is an odd language in that it's grammar rules are complex and have a lot of exceptions.

East Asian languages (Japanese, Vietmanese, Chinese, etc) all have roots in the Chinese script (Except Korea, they're weird). This stems from China at some point owning pretty much everything around them at various points in history. They were also the cultural dominator in the region for a very long time - Think ancient times US level of cultural dominance. Written Chinese was the universal language, the English of today, back then. Everyone knew how to read and write it, even if when they spoke different languages.

That said, written Chinese is pictographic. It's just how the cultures chose to write and that evolved. To those unfamiliar with it it's incredibly complex and makes no sense. To those that are familiar with it there's a system behind it. It's not as simple as an alphabet, but it has advantages.

Since they are pictures, the characters represent what they actually are. For example, the character for person looks like a torso and 2 legs. Fire and water are stylized fire and water. The character for door looks like a door. One of the symbols used in the characters for student looks like a person wearing a hat.

Built on this, more complex characters are usually made up of other characters. A word describing a type of person may contain a modified person character in it. Basically, the parts of the character conveys meaning about what the character is. As a result, you can often figure out what a character is based off of the parts of the character and the context of the sentence around it. There are a number of these common elements and they are used in Chinese dictionaries to look up the meaning of characters.


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

[User] ELI5: how does the moon gravity only affect tidal forces and not anything in the land?

[Assistant]
It does affect the things on the land, but water is a more fluid substance than rocks and people, so it is capable of being pulled up higher than something more rigid.

This is because the moon isn't lifting the whole ocean. It is lifting a whole bunch of water molecules, which drags in more of them up. This creates a change in the pressure which rises the water level a bit, and lowers it where the moon's gravity is not affecting.

But land is stiff and bones are rigid, so when it tries to pull on stuff that is not as liquid as water, there is not as pronounced of an effect on the body.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is it easier to pull than to push?

[Assistant] There's a lot that contributes to it. When you push, you lean into the object and you tend to be applying force into a partially downward direction, increasing the resistance of friction, while you lean away and tend to lift up a bit when you pull, lowering said resistance. Due to that same tendency, pushing with that downward force takes some of your weight off of your feet, decreasing traction. The upward force of pulling makes you push down on your feet harder, increasing traction. Basically gravity is the enemy if you're pushing and your friend if you're pulling.


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

[User] What is the non-human animal process of going to sleep? Are they just lying there thinking about arbitrary things like us until they doze off?

[Assistant]
Sleep scientist here. We cannot know what they are thinking about.
However, in mice, dogs and cats at least, they become less active and usually move to their "nest" or dog bed. Here they move from an active wake period (a classification of wake), to a quiet wake period. From here they move into nrem sleep. This behavioral state is classified as really slow and big brains waves known as delta waves. REM sleep state happens less frequently than wake and NREM. When it does it happens after NREM sleep.

So animals transition much the same as humans, well depending on the animal, as some do not have REM sleep. Hell, some animals like ostriches have a mixed state of NREM and REM sleep. Really weird.

anyways, with respect to rodents (mice and rats) they transition super quick. Moving form wake to nrem to rem much faster as they spend less time in these states.

I can run down later and run a recording to show you the different muscle/brain activity that helps us differentiate states or just link to papers.


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

[User]
[Halo] How did the UNSC become so powerful after the Human-Covenant war and pay for massive ships such as the Infinity?

The war cost humanity billions of lives and lost dozens of planets, some of which were very industrial such as Reach. After a massive war like this shouldn't humanity face massive economic problems that wouldn't allow such military projects to be built?

[Assistant]
Automation?

It's kind of weird admittedly, but the way things sit, they've got huge amounts of leftover Covenant and Forerunner tech, a massive number of refugees, several lost planets and a need to find places to put all these people, human or otherwise. Why wouldn't they sink some cash in to projects like the Infinity, which was designed to go farther and faster than pretty much any ship before? Consider it a test run for a better class of Colony ship. Not to mention it was apparently being assembled mid-war and redesigned mid-way through to incorporate all this new stuff. Using it as a testbed for next generation tech beats leaving it a half-finished white elephant.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does the press to test feature work on AA batteries?

On some AA batteries, you can squeeze two points on the battery and it indicates how much juice is left. How does that work?

[Assistant]
They use a combination of colour changing and conductive ink.

The ink is conductive so that when you touch the two points, current can flow.

The colour change occurs with temperature.

So what you do is create a gradually widening strip of the colour changing conductive ink. The narrow part takes the least power to warm up and change colour, and as it gets wider, more power is needed. So it's a way of creating a 'fuel gauge' for the power that's left in the battery. The more of the bar that fills up, the more charge the battery has.


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

[User]
Are viruses alive or dead?

If so, can they die or are they more closely related to a chemical reaction such as fire?

[Assistant]
Virologist here. The alive or not alive thing tends to be a high school thought process in biology class as to what constitutes life. Im the real world of virology, we dont worry about that discussion. That being said, viruses are incapable of replication or metabolism on their own and require a living cell to do so. That would  mean that viruses are not life in the classical sense. Personally, Id describe them as biological entities, although that would mean that we now have to debate the definition of entity

Not alive, but they have a function and are not dead junk like a dead cell that will reprocessed or excreted. Hope that helps.


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

[User]
ELI5: 'Diet' drinks and how they have zero calories.

What is all that stuff in there and how is it, uh, nothing?

[Assistant]
Zero Calorie drink are actually drinks that have less the 0.5 calories. They choose to round down to zero.

Calories are a measurement of energy in food. Not every part of any food item can be used for energy. For example Celery has a extremely low amount of usable energy because of all the cellulose in it (Human can not properly digest Cellulose)

Diet Soda is mostly water, coloring, artificial flavoring and artificial sweetener. A common one is Aspartame which is 200 times sweet then sugar. This means you have to use so little of it that the total amount generates less then 1 calorie per drink.


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

[User] ELI5:How do we know the universe is expanding and what causes it?

[Assistant]
The reason why we know it is expanding is because the galaxies farther away from us are red shifted. Which means the wavelength of light is shifted to the red part of the spectrum. It is similar to the a doppler effect when a sound is moving away from you.

We know that part of the reason why galaxies are moving away is because spacetime is expanding. The redshifted galaxies led to the big bang theory. If the galaxies at far distances are moving away from each other now then at one point they were probably much closer than before.

The acceleration of the expansion of the universe is what we do not understand yet. We know that it is happening because of the redshift of supernovae. We don't know what is causing the acceleration so we assigned the name of dark energy to it until we can identify it.

Dark matter is the unknown matter that is keeping individual galaxies together.


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

[User]
ELI5: What happens to the proceeds of crime?

Say its drug money what happens to it ? After its been taken as evidence, and the case has gone through the courts what actually happens to all the money from crime? Does it go to the state or given to charity ?

[Assistant] The police get to keep it. It's called "civil asset forfeiture", and it gets rolled into the police budget. It's been a big sticking point lately because it has been used to seize money that almost certainly was not acquired or intended to be used illegally.


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

[User]
[Minecraft] How and why do dark, open spaces make those creepy noises?

Sometimes I'll just be minding my own business, exploring a cave or mining for iron, when I hear a rumbling groan or a high pitched whine. Usually, not long after I hear one of these noises, I'll find an unlit cavern not too far away from me.

What causes these noises? Do they serve some purpose, or are they just a naturally occurring phenomenon?

[Assistant]
That's not the rocks, that's the monster that's RIGHT BEHIND YOU! AHHHHH! AHHHHH! AHHHHHH!

But seriously, it might just be the shifting of the rocks as tectonic plates move. The unlit caverns may be due to the sound always being present, but only being audible when their is no soft crackling and popping of the candles.


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

[User] ELI5: How do animals know to look humans in the eye? Why do they do it?

[Assistant]
Even for animals the basic understanding of what eyes are is important for survival. How do you know if that predator is looking at you, or if the fellow animal of your species feels threatened? How does a predator know if it is being observed or which direction the prey is likely to flee? Even fish can recognize eyes which is why the fake eye spots on tails even exist!

So yeah, animals know to look at the eyes of humans because that is what we see with. Some important things they can get from our eyes is our direction of sight, from which they can deduce where our attention is directed.


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

[User] ELI5: if multiplying by Zero returns Zero, why does division by Zero return 'undefined'?

[Assistant]
Let's use a 1-pound chocolate bar.

Multiplication: if you have a 4 count of 1-pound chocolate bars, you have 4 pounds of chocolate. If you have no 1-pound chocolate bars, you have 0 pounds of chocolate. Makes perfect sense.

Division: If you cut the chocolate bar into 4 equal parts, each part is 4 ounces (1/4 of a pound). But try cutting a chocolate  bar into zero equal parts... conceptually that makes no sense. If you say that this means removing or destroying the chocolate bar, that would actually be subtraction. In effect, you want to collapse the chocolate bar into fewer than one piece but still expect all 16 ounces of chocolate to still be present in this space where there is no chocolate bar.


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

[User]
Does temperature of a body affect the light intensity produced by it?

So I have a question asking if a bulb which is at 2,500 K and the sun at 6,000 have different white-light intensities...

Does Stefan's law for black bodies apply to bulbs and stars?
If it does, then what exactly is a black body?

[Assistant] Yes. The radiated power increases with the fourth power of temperature, so something twice as hot is sixteen times as bright (Stefan-Boltzmann law). The peak wavelength of the emitted radiation has a reciprocal relationship with the temperature (Wien's law).


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

[User]
[MCU] So Ultron has defeated the Avengers, wiped out all biological life on Earth. Now what?

What are his goals now? Humanity has been saved. Does he take to the stars? Does he build an entire civilization of himself?

[Assistant] He repopulates, starting with his biological form. A race of superpowerful superhumans each individually able to defend themselves from an entire Chitauri invasion size event will be much harder to defeat than the current weako fleshbags.


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

[User]
[Superheroes] What sorts of drawbacks would powered people have due to their abilities?

Obviously the powers themselves have fantastic benefits, but I'm wondering what sort of short term + long term health effects some superpowers could have. For example, Marvel's Quake experiences micro-fractures if she uses her earthquake powers too much. What sort of drawbacks would other powers have?

[Assistant]
Besides the obvious ones, like Superman and Daredevil learning how to shut out all sounds and smalls on Earth : Decision fatigue is a thing, where people get worn out from answering too many questions.  That means Green Lantern would be a mental wreck by the end of the day.

Black Canary's sonic screams means she would never be able to let loose at a concert.

Atom and Ant-Man probably have wild headaches from constantly having to shift their perspective.


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

[User] ELI5: When saving a document on Microsoft Word "A file name can't contain any of the following characters: \ / : * ? " < > |". Why?

[Assistant] Windows uses these symbols for searches, command-line instructions, and the paths that define file locations. If you save using one of these then Windows does not know whether that is the file name or should be performing some other action.


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

[User] Looking at the the last few hundred years; is it safe to assume that humans will be 8-10 feet tall by the year 3000? Or does the human body have a height limit?

[Assistant]
A lot of evidence suggests our height is increasing due to better nutrition in childhood. Height did not increase continuously through our existence, it really kicked off around the middle of the 1800s, before then it was semi-stable.

For that matter, height has actually declined on occasion in regions and populations where access to nutrition has been severely hampered.

In essence, it seems like we likely have some general 'human height' and that we more often approach the 'maximum' now because a larger percentage of us get adequate nutrition to support growth.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does battery powered electronics (such as a remote or an electrical toothbrush) lose power as the battery is weakened and not work at full power till the battery is dead?

[Assistant]
A battery's voltage decreases as it is drained of energy.

Think of voltage (electrical potential) as water pressure. You hang up a bucket of water and open a hole on the bottom to shower. The water pressure at the start is strong from the weight of water pressing down. However, as the water drains, the pressure weakens and it gets more difficult to wash yourself.

This is the same thing that happens with the motors and lights powered by batteries. As the battery drains, these parts lose power gradually until they stop working.

One way to prevent this is to put in regulators that fix the pressure/voltage at some level rather than have it decrease over time. Newer electric toothbrushes have this. They will run at full power and only start weakening when they are low on battery.


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

[User]
[Aliens] Why do Xenomorphs kill people?

Do they eat them for nourishment? Just wondering if they have a point besides homicide?

[Assistant] It's just in their nature. They were designed and bred to become biological weapons by the Engineers to attack and kill anything that could possibly pose a threat to their ecosystem. It's kind of like what happens when you wave around a piece of string or a laser pointer around a cat - it's just instinct.


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

[User]
Is there any reason to suspect or way to find out if COVID-19 could cause adverse side effects long term after recovery?

Chicken pox, for example, lays dormant in the body for decades before potentially manifesting as shingles.

Any clues as to weather COVID-19 could do something similar?

[Assistant] We simply dont know yet. In general this virus kills through complications (compounds other health problems, increased chance of pneumonia etc). It might be hard to tell if the virus, or others things will cause long term damage.


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

[User] ELI5:Why is it so hard to properly replicate the quality of restaurant/takeaway food such as curries/chicken/pizzas at home?

[Assistant]
The biggest thing is that your home kitchen sucks.  A commercial pizza oven will be running at 7-800 degrees while most home ovens top out at 550F.  The wok burner in a Chinese restaurant is rated something like 100k BTU of heat while your home range puts out 5-10k.  Fried chicken restaurants have specialized chicken deep-friers while, at home, you have a little pot of oil that gets cold again as soon as you add the bird to it.

After that, the next biggest difference is that most home cooks don't put anywhere near enough butter & salt in their food.


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

[User] ELI5: why do we see colors and patterns when we close our eyes?

[Assistant]
Your eyelids may be closed, but your eyes are still on. You're looking at the back of your eyelids and whatever light that is seeping in. Skin is made up of tiny patterns. Also, when there is a lack of light, our brains try to fill in the gaps. If you've ever tried a psychedelic, closing your eyes will produce the most visuals.

Sorry for the shittyELI5.


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

[User]
The false vacuum theory and energy levels of fields?

So I have been reading a little bit about the false vacuum theory and am a little confused. From what I have read, the theory states that some mathematics suggests that the Higgs field is not in its ground state energy level and if something were to bump it out of the current stable state that it is in, it could fall to its ground state energy level and that would bring about all sorts of havok.
My question is this: Do fields, like the Higgs field, have actual ENERGY states? Much like an electron has discrete energy states in an atom and prefers to be in its ground state. The idea of a field having an energy level is confusing to me. I feel like it would not be an "energy level" like the energy levels of electrons that I am fairly familiar with.
EDIT: Spelled Vacuum wrong in the title...

[Assistant]
>have actual ENERGY states?

Fields have energy, though it isn't discrete like bound states (because you can also have unbound states).

You have to remember that every particle is an excitation of a field, so if a field couldn't have energy neither could a particle.


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

[User] [Batman TDKR] Where was the Joker during the events of The Dark Knight Rises?

[Assistant] Because most of his crimes were terroristic, and the federal courts use the M'Naughten test for insanity while Gotham courts use the irresistible impulse test, John Doe AKA the Joker was tried in federal court and convicted. He was moved under extreme guard to a super-max prison in Kansas, where he remains in administrative segregation to this day.


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

[User]
CMV: Gender-neutral pronouns reinforce the gender binary

Gender roles are outdated and there is no realistic reason in America for people to confine to a gender norm or gender roles. It is socially acceptable today in mainstream culture for both men and women to do many things that once traditionally belonged to only one gender. For instance, it is becoming more acceptable for men to show feelings, enjoy crafts, or to take on the role of homemaker and childcare. It is acceptable for women to wear pants, work outside the home, and abstain from childbirth and/or from being the primary caregiver of their children.

If we accept the notion that gender is a societal construct, then gender has been progressively becoming less defined through these changes. By identifying oneself as non-binary or "they," a person is implicitly defining what a woman (she) or man (he) is. This in turn reinforces the notion that to be a "real" man or woman, a person needs to have certain characteristics. By saying that you identify as "they," you are claiming that these characteristics do not define you...but in order for that to be true, you need to have a set idea of what it *means* to be a man or a woman. If "man" and "woman" (taken as gender) do not have set definitions, then "they" is a meaningless pronoun.

[Assistant]
>By identifying oneself as non-binary or "they," a person is implicitly defining what a woman (she) or man (he) is. This in turn reinforces the notion that to be a "real" man or woman, a person needs to have certain characteristics.

Can you explain more as to why you think it does this? These things seem completely unrelated to me, as using the word "they" doesn't mention any characteristics.