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

[User]
Floundering after completing PhD

Hi AskAcademia,

Not sure what I'm looking for here. Advice? Support? Commiseration? Shared experience? I completed my PhD in wildlife ecology this spring. By all accounts everything went swimmingly. I enjoyed my research. My advisor was very, very hands off, distant, and offered no mentorship, but was generally manageable. I was funded by an NSF GRF, so I accrued no debt and I completed my program in five years. All well and good, right?

Unfortunately, now I'm several months out and still looking for work. I started applying for jobs here and there as early as last October but have been actively searching and applying for positions now since April. I have no intention of remaining in academia long-term (I have no desire to be a professor), but I have applied for some postdoctoral positions. Mostly, though, I've applied for research and wildlife management positions with state and federal agencies (i.e. USGS, USFWS, etc.) and research and program manager positions with non-profits and NGOs (i.e. The Nature Conservancy, university field stations, the Smithsonian institutions, etc.). To date, I've applied for more than 50 different positions, and... nothing. I've had three interviews: one for a fieldwork position for which I was overqualified, and that paid less than I made as a NSF fellow; a job that was advertised as a wildlife biologist position with a state agency but was actually management of timber sales and dealing with 'nuisance' wildlife; and recently, a foreign postdoctoral position with research that is very interesting to me, but with a supervisor that is notorious for being difficult and unsupportive, and who expects that postdocs work 50-60 hours per week under threat of not receiving good recommendation letters-- definitely not the type of environment for which I'm looking.

I have four publications, two first author, and three additional first author manuscripts currently in review. Of the published first-author articles, one is in Trends in Ecology and Evolution and has been heavily cited, and the other is in Ecosphere. I also have a second-author paper in another open access journal and a group review paper in Ecology. I've had friends and colleagues read through my cover letters and they've found no issues-- writing is one of my greatest strengths. I have a diversity of experience as an ecologist, with a range of field and analytical techniques in addition to some genetics work. My references are solid.

I honestly didn't have much in the way of imposter syndrome while in grad school. There were definitely times when I knew I was outclassed intellectually by someone, and I met a lot of people who were far more capable as an academic than I am, but I never really had trouble with anything. But this job application process has made me start to wonder if I've just been delusional about the whole thing and have been mediocre all along. What is it I'm lacking? What's missing in my research experience? Is it my lack of publications? Something about the ways I went about my dissertation? The methods I used? The questions I asked? Are my cover letters bad? Is my CV not compelling? Or is it just that I can't stack up against other candidates out there? As days go by without any response and with no promising leads I'm finding it increasingly difficult to maintain a positive outlook. I have my PhD! My work has been published! I have expertise in my field! That should all be worth something, yet somehow I've never felt so worthless.

[Assistant] I'll agree with some of the others that your background seems like it would land you a job or at least more interviews, which leads me to think it's your packet. You need to sell yourself in your cover letter so they know exactly how you would fit in that job. Address every point they make as a desired or required qualification and how you perfectly align with selected experiences and skills.


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

[User]
I believe that defendants in trials should not have their name released unless they are convicted. CMV

Given the media circus that tends to develop around high profile trials in the U.S., the quality of life of the defendant, guilty or innocent, is severely reduced by such exposure.

I spoke with a friend whether or not the defendant should be publicized and she said that it's society's way of punishing them." But isn't that what the jury system does? If you're found not guilty, then you shouldn't have your quality of life reduced because your name and face have been plastered all over the national media for several weeks for months.

[Assistant] What if that then leads to secret courts and an inability of the public to address injustices in the system itself?  What if publicizing the trial lets somebody get acquitted?  Or leads to information that causes a conviction?


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

[User] ELI5: How come British colonization fucked Africa up but led the Americas to greatness?

[Assistant]
The United States were originally colonized by English people looking for a land where they could exercise their religion in peace. They then proceeded to decimate the native population and take the riches of the land for themselves. In time, they had an independence war, severed ties with England, and started building their own country.

Contrast Africa (and Latin America also). Europeans didn't so much colonize these places, as they occupied and exploited them. They enslaved the native population, took their riches and used them to further the interests of European nations. When independence finally came, it was in the 19th and 20th centuries, and by then those countries needed to cope with centuries of exploitation, disease, no investment in education, local infrastructure, nothing.


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

[User]
[Starship Troopers] What would it feel like having your brain removed by a brain bug?

I was thinking about it (ironically), and the conclusion I reached was that it would hurt from the impact, but if it didn't pierce a vital part of the brain you'd stay alive while it began sucking. It wouldn't hurt that much after the initial pierce, but your last few seconds before death would feel like your consciousness was being destroyed. Your memories, thoughts, it'd be literally ripped away, just for a few seconds, so you wouldn't even be able to process anything other than a sudden, gripping fear and sickening feeling in your stomach as everything you are gets digested.

Thoughts?

[Assistant] As soon as suction begins then all of your brain matter would displace due to pressure, destroying brain function. On top of that, the proboscis is WAY too big to enter the brain without hitting a vital spot. There's almost certainly no sensation after the initial trauma when the straw pierces the skull.


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

[User]
ELI5: I understand how much you are supposed to tip in the USA, but how exactly do the transactions happen?

Examples:
Restaurant, bill is $25, so you want to tip say $5 and you hand over $40....do you say "just give me $10 back thanks"?

Same price for a taxi ride?

Also, say someone takes your bags up to your room, or similar service. Is it awkward to just give them money? As an Australian, this seems patronizing, and I want to avoid that.

[Assistant]
At a restaurant you generally leave the money with the bill and then you can walk out, so you want exact change as often as possible. If you don't have it you can specify 'just give a $10 back' or whatever, or can get all your change then leave your tip on the table and clear out. For cabs it's generally just a case of asking for what change you want back. Bellhops? Yeah, just hand them something.

If you're paying by credit most places will have room on the bill for a tip amount to be entered before charging or the machine will ask for a tip to be applied.


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

[User]
ELI5: NSA vs company datamining?

Please don't get me wrong, I'm against all this datamining and privacy disturbing stuff.

I'm just wondering why are people surprised and upset, that the government is spying on them. When you use google, facebook or almost any online source, you are getting spied on.

For example, I wanted to download a flashlight application to my phone, and it took permissions to use the camera, take photoes, and send them via internet. Most of the people don't care, or don't mind being watched over by these, but really upset about NSA because woo-woo reading my emails...it has been done already...

Why do you feel its such a big deal that the government admits, what the companies have done already for ages.

*sorry for my bad english*

[Assistant]
It's because they do it without your permission. Your phone asked for permission to use your camera. And even for google and facebook somewhere in the terms and conditions that you agreed to it will say that they use your information. And if you don't like it, you just use some other service. They keep your personal info and in return give you free services.

But the nsa never asked anybody for permission of their personal info and they don't give anything in return. Also they can do much more with that info. Google or facebook don't care about you personally all they want to do is make money with the raw data, but the NSA is interested in the people instead of the raw data.


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

[User]
[Thor] Is Thor bulletproof?

Bonus question \[DC\]: WW seems to be able to take enough damage that she ought to be bulletproof. Why are the bracers necessary?

[Assistant]
In the MCU Loki was unaffected by bullets, so MCU Thor should be as well.

In the comics, absolutely. When he came back after Ragnork he was looking for the souls of the warrior three which was inside three soldiers in Africa. When he went there, an entire division kept shooting at him till they ran out of bullets and he was completely unaffected. In a much more recent example, Thor Jane Foster (Jane with Thor's power) was getting shot and she commented that the bullets kinda tickle a bit.


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

[User]
[MCU] What was with the focus on the "snapping" aspect?

Like, couldn't it have been any gesture, really?

A clap, a dab, an intricate breakdance? As far as we know, Thanos never explicitly mentions the snap, does he?

[Assistant]
He has all the power in the universe at his disposal so he'd have to be careful about using it.
He also has to be careful about what hes thinking about when makes the wish as well.

If he chose a word or a hand wave as the trigger, he would have to be careful not to say or do it as a reflex while in battle.

With snapping your fingers it's different. It's not something you'd normally do in your day to day life nor on the battle field either.

It's a specific action where you have to line your fingers up properly and do a specific movement at the correct speed with your fingers for the sound or snap to happen properly.

When he has a clear mind, without anger and he is focussing on what he specifically wants and the timing and situation allows it, he focuses all the power of the infinity stones into a snap of his fingers.

He may have even communicated with the infinity stones not to grant his wish until he snaps his fingers.


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

[User] [LOTR] Why didnt The Rivendell Elves also provide the Fellowship with Lembas as an MRE-like backup food source for the journey, like the Lothlorien elves did?

[Assistant]
The ingredients weren't available in Rivendell. Lembas was made with a particular strain of wheat that originated in Valinor. At the time of the War of the Ring, this wheat was only cultivated in Lorien, and the art of making Lembas was only known to Galadriel and Arwen.

This is from the chapter "The Making of Lembas" in *The Nature of Middle Earth*.


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

[User]
Does light stop moving at absolute zero?

I know that absolute zero signifies that all matter stops moving. So, can a photon still travel through 0 K?

[Assistant]
>absolute zero signifies that all matter stops moving

This actually isn't the case. Quantum systems almost always have energy of motion which is still nonzero as you approach absolute zero temperature. For instance, electrons don't stop moving around their atoms because it's cold. What absolute zero does mean is that your system no longer has any excess internal energy it can lose.

>So, can a photon still travel through 0 K?

The is more complicated. Temperature does not just exist on its own, it's a propertya substance has a temperature and different substances interact with light in different ways. So a medium at one temperature might impede light while a different medium at the same temperature lets it travel through just fine. Being close to absolute zero doesn't have anything to do with it.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do gas station charges take a day or two to show up on my card but just about everything shows pending almost immediately?

[Assistant] When you use a card at the gas station pump, it has to verify that the card is active and valid before it begins distributing gas (it's not like a gallon of milk they can just put back on the shelf if your card gets declined at the cash register). It does this by sending a $1 "preauthorization charge" to your card company - if that gets approved, then it goes ahead and pumps the gas. Only after the gas is pumped and the sale finalized can the gas company actually submit the final total to the credit company (replacing the $1 charge). This can take some time to go through.


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

[User]
ELI5: When a fish is pulled out of water does it die from too much oxygen?

I know this is really stupid but I cant work this out in my head and google isnt helping. From everything I can find it seems like a fishs respiratory system works by filtering the needed oxygen out of the water through their gills.

So my thought is wouldnt that just make breathing easier on land since they dont have to do the filtering? I know this is a vast oversimplification but I cant work it out.

Does this mean that fish die from too much oxygen when on land? Or does their system just not work in regular air?

I guess TLDR: what exactly kills fish on land? Oxygen poisoning or suffocation?

[Assistant] Their gills are only able to respirate oxygen dissolved in water, they're not adapted for absorbing gaseous oxygen. It's the same reason we can breathe oxygen in the air just fine but can't do the same In water.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why hasn't the US enacted a mandatory 3 week quarantine on every person returning from West Africa?

I'm not understanding the CDC's position on how screening passengers at the airport with thermometers is supposed to help with people who haven't developed any symptoms yet.

**EDIT** I keep hearing "Its not very infectious"...at the same time the CDC is giving out protocols saying if ANY exposed skin they're vunerable.

[Assistant]
Do you understand that ebola is not a very infectious disease? It's literally hard as shit to spread.

And when you're at the stage where your infectious status goes up to a threatening level. Chances are you can't get out of bed.

PEOPLE LISTEN> EBOLA IS NOT A CONCERN. THERE WILL NEVER EVER EVER EVER BE AN OUTBREAK IN THE USA. STOP FREAKING OUT.


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

[User]
If our fingers are operated by tendons in our forearms, why is it hard to move your fingers when they get cold?

Seems like they are two different issues.

[Assistant] The problem arises from the joints of the fingers. Each joint has cartilage and on the surface of that cartilage is a protein called lubricin. This lubricates your joints and allows them to move smoothly. Like most liquids, when the lubricin gets cold the viscosity goes up. This increases the friction within the joint and thus makes it more difficult to move.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do beverages taste best when chilled.

[Assistant]
The same drink, served hot and cold, will taste slightly different, due to taste and smell operating a little differently with compounds at different temperatures, and due to actual compounds in the drink behaving differently.

As a simple example, in a cup of coffee, many of the more subtle tastes (acidic, fruity, spicy, etc) are present and obvious, but if that same cup were chilled (even without adding ice and diluting it), the subtler tastes are less apparent, and the cup tastes much more uniform.

The answer to why some drinks, like soda or lemonade, taste better cold, is because they're formulated with an aim to creating a good taste at that temperature.  The people who designed Coca-Cola's recipe knew they wanted it served nearly ice cold, and adjusted sugar and other flavoring a to create the best taste at that temperature range.  If they chose to create a hot variant of Coke, the formula would be subtly (or maybe even significantly) changed, to take advantages of the different ways flavoring compounds behave and interact with our senses.


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

[User]
Who would you characterize as a pseudo-philosopher and why?

I am attempting to compile a list of pseudo-philosophers for an upcoming research project. By pseudo-philosopher, I am referring to any intellectual who is commonly dismissed by academic philosophers as having little to no merit. I figured that this subreddit may be capable of providing me with a plethora of examples. I am curious as to the various conditions upon which a thinker is popularly dismissed. If you have the time, please explain why the figure you mention falls short of earning their title as a philosopher within intellectual history.

[Assistant]
Ayn Rand. She said nothing that hadn't been said before and said better before.

Sam Harris. He's a cool guy and fun public speaker, but he's nowhere near rigorous enough in his writing to be a philosopher. In fact, most of his arguments seem to be begging the question in one way or another.


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

[User]
ELI5: If women really get paid less than men and they are really as much as competent, wouldn't companies hire more women than men since it's cheaper?

Statistics say companies hire more men than women and also that men make more money. If women really get paid less than men and they are really as much as competent, wouldn't companies hire more women than men since it's cheaper? I believe that either women don't really get paid less, or women aren't as much as competent, but I'd like to know the factual data and the logic behind it.

[Assistant]
Women don't generally get paid less than men on a same-job basis.  That is, for a man and a women with the same level of education working the same job, their pay is comparable.  There is a small difference there that is primarily caused by women being less likely to negotiate for a higher salary, though.

But the main difference is caused by the fact that:

1.  Women in general tend to pursue different types of jobs than men.  Women are more likely to be nurses and teachers, and men are more likely to be engineers and corporate executives, for instance.  There's definitely some institutional sexism involved here, but there's also a lot of societal expectation that some jobs are "for boys" and some jobs are "for girls".

2. Women tend to take time off from their career or schooling when they have children, while men tend to keep working/studying.  This places women at a disadvantage compared to men of the same age, because the men will, in general, have more work experience, and can thus demand a higher salary.

**Edit:**  So to address your actual question, equally-qualified employees are going to earn comparable salaries, meaning that there's no particular reason to hire women over men.


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

[User]
[Prometheus] Why did Peter Weyland awaken the Engineer without a contingency plan in case the Engineer was hostile?

To me, the entire plot is simply that someone wakes up an alien and the alien is hostile and kills whoever woke him up. Why would Weyland, a successful and intelligent businessman, be naive enough to think that an advanced and ancient alien would immediately submit to Weyland's demands for immortality? Why didn't he plan for anything other than the best case scenario?

[Assistant]
> Why didn't he plan for anything other than the best case scenario?

He's got weeks to live left, basically. He's on death's door, and apparently doesn't believe that humanity will ever achieve immortality. He's basically at the state of "hope for the best," because plan B is quite literally "die surrounded by medical equipment".


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

[User]
[Netflix Witcher] What happened to the mage students who got turned into eels by Tissaia de Vries?

What was the motivation to turn students into eels? Is being turned into an eel a known risk of attending mage school? Were those who were turned into eels willing and informed participants of eel conversion? How do other mages trust Tissaia de Vries and view her as a good person knowing she turned students into eels?

[Assistant]
From ScreenRant:

The apprentices actually serve a purpose as eels, as cruel as this transformation (and the whole ascend trick) is. By turning them into eels, Tissaia is taking away their control, but not their power, thus serving as a conduit for Aretuza. Yennefer wasnt chosen as Tissaia saw her potential, and turning her into an eel would have been a real waste. The official site for Netflixs The Witcher explains this a bit better, although briefly, in its description of Aretuza. It explains that the pool with white water at the bottom of the tower is Aretuzas power source, and the mages not capable of harnessing chaos are transformed into eels, forced to live out their days in this pool and provide power to the academy.

The criteria for choosing which apprentices will be turned into eels and which ones will have proper initiations (and thus become sorceresses) seems to be the least talented girls in the group, though there might be a talented one among them from time to time, chosen to serve as an eel as she cant be trusted. Tissaia mentioned to Yennefer that their powers make them conduits of chaos and that there are two types of mages  those who control their emotions and those who let their emotions control them  so the eels main purpose is to help them to better control that chaos and turn it into magic. Its a weird practice, but it wasnt a random act from Tissaia, though it is quite cruel.


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

[User]
Is it morally right for Earth superheroes to get involved in conflicts on other planets, or should they follow the Prime Directive?

Is it morally defensible to impose Earth values and Earth morality on the entire universe? Don't alien races deserve the right of self-determination?

Also, on a more practical level: without a full understanding of the culture, politics, or history of these places, aren't superheroes just as likely to make these situations worse? Especially since they don't tend to stick around after the initial conflict, to aid in the rebuilding process?

[Assistant]
Morals are subjective.

Since the universe outside Earth is generally proven to be a very dangerous place, the most effective decider of moral 'rightness' usually ends up being raw power.

There are an infinity of interstellar threats out there that don't care about such concerns, so anyone from Earth worrying about their moral effects on a society put themselves at a disadvantage to others who would sow disorder in those same places.

A hero has no business pondering what the effect is on a society when Mongul or Blastaar shows up to subjugate an entire planet. It's worse yet if something like the Red Lanterns, Doomsday, Pheonix Force or Galactus is coming and the society's entire existence is at threat.

After the primary threat is stopped, if the hero decides to stay around and talk about the consequences there's issues to be concerned about, but usually? The recipients of the help are so glad to be rid of the threat that they're not too picky about why or how the help came.


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

[User] ELI5: How is it that if you cut a small piece out of a hologram you can still see the entire image in it, instead of just a part of it like you'd get from cutting up a photograph?

[Assistant]
With a photograph, a lens is used to focus the scene on the film.  Each part of the film only gets the light from one part of the scene.

With a hologram, there is no lens.  Each part of the film gets the light from the entire scene.

Whether you're cutting a photograph, or a hologram, you only get the information that fell on that part of the film.  With a photograph, that means information from only that portion of the image scene went through the lens.  With a hologram, that means information from the entire scene.

However, a hologram is like looking through a window.  You can see the whole scene, and if something in the foreground is in the way, you can move a little to the side so that the foreground object is no longer in the way.  This is called parallax.  When you cut up a hologram, it is like blocking out the window so you can only look through a small part of it.  You lose the ability to  move side to side (or up and down) to look around objects.  You lose parallax.


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

[User]
[Star Wars: Battlefront 2] What happened to my shields?

X-wings, Y-wings, and A-wings normally have deflector shields. But during the events of this particular documentary, they're depicted as having as much shielding as a TIE fighter. What gives?

[Assistant]
Not all models are created equal and/or the rebellion can't always afford to keep equipment in top shape.

The Empire has (most of) its TIE fighters unshielded for a reason:  Cost effectiveness.  It's only natural that under similar conditions (being used in the same roles, in the same theatres of war) over an extended period of time that Rebellion fighters would grow to resemble them (at least under-the-hood).


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

[User]
[Mass Effect]How could the Turians justify firing on the Human ships at Relay 314?

Citadel law states that opening a Mass Relay is forbidden due to the fear of making contact with a Rachni level threat.  However, how can a race that has had no prior contact with the Citadel be expected to know about said law?

Also, why did the Turians not face harsher punishments due to their not only firing on a race that was unaware of the law but trying to conquer them without even telling the rest of the Council about it?

[Assistant]
Humans were one of the first species since the Asari to master the tech needed to use the relays on their own. No one had any idea who they were. And since the last species to achieve this were the Rachni they weren't taking any risks. Especially when the first thing to come out of that rely unannounced were warships

As for punishment who is going to try? The Council's Army? It's all made of Turians.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does time use the number 60?

Why are there sixty seconds in a minute and sixty minutes in an hour?

[Assistant] 60 is easy to divide cleanly in multiple ways, and a number based on 60, such as the number of degrees in a circle, can be divided yet more ways.  60 can be divided by 1,2,3,4,5,6,10,12,15,20,30 and itself.  This provides many easy-to-reckon, useful fractions.  In the days before pocket calculators, slide rules, Napier's Bones, etc. this made life simpler.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Why don't snakes display greater signs of intelligence?

Parseltongue is clearly a structured language, capable of full sentences, etc. This should indicate that snakes can communicate with each other, and have the intelligence that goes with the capacity for language.

However, Snakes never seem to display this level of intelligence outside of the presence of a parselmouth. E.g. Muggle biologists have never noted any particularly advanced behaviours in snakes compared to other animals.

[Assistant]
Snakes are a very proud race that tend to look down on humans. Just look at snake behaviour. If they miss some prey on the first strike, they tend to let it live out of honour. They don't dance for the humans, they much prefer to rest. But a parseltongue deserves respect for being like a snake. It's a whole complicated hierarchy.

Think of them like really smart cats.


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

[User] ELI5:Why is Putin so threatened by NATO? Are his concerns justified?

[Assistant] Well, NATO is the most powerful military alliance in world history, and it is in the process of surrounding Russia. From a military standpoint, Russia is a shell of its Cold War glory days. In a conventional fight, the Russian Federation would be crushed. All it really has going for it is the nuclear stockpile. This means that, in the event of a war, Putin's options are a severe beating (which will almost certainly result in him being ousted), or Armageddon. It's not a great situation to be in. He has to appear strong in order to keep domestic popularity up, but he's running out of places to intimidate.


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

[User] ELI5:why are there tax havens ?

[Assistant] Because if you're a tiny little country, you can make more money by charging a very low rate of tax on lots of people than you can by charging a "normal" rate of tax on a few people. Less tax gets paid overall, but more of it gets paid to you because lots of people will move their companies to your country to take advantage of your low taxes.


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

[User] ELI5 how we are able to remember that we've forgot something, but not remember what we've actually forgot?

[Assistant]
You may give yourself a cue to remember something.  The cue itself is a separate memory.  You may have mentally concentrated more on the cue so you wouldn't forget, than you did on the thing you were trying to remember.

Example: you have laundry in the washer, and you decide to get started on mowing the yard, but tell yourself to remember to go back in the house and move the laundry into the dryer after you run the lawnmower through one tank of gas.

Several times as you mow, you think ahead to how much mowing you have left to do, and each time you do, the thought goes through your head that the first time you run out of gas, you must attend another task, and the first step of that task being to go back into the house, that's the part that crosses your mind, and it gets more fixed in your memory.

Finally, you do run out of gas, you go back into the house, and... you can't recall what it was you were going to do when you got there.


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

[User]
Do electrons actually move through a conductor?

I've been watching some physics videos, and most of the time electricity/current is represented as particles (electrons?) moving through a conductor, like copper.

However, I've recently "learned" that electrons barely move in conductors, it's only the electromagnetic waves that move significantly. Close to the speed of light I believe.

As an example, in one of these videos capacitors were represented as two plates close together. It was explained that a higher concentration of negatively charged particles would be forced into one plate, causing the second plate to fill up with positively charged particles in response. I believe a similar phenomenon occurs to some degree in many electromagnetic components, like coils for example.

I guess the root of my question is, how do these two concepts reconcile? Moving particles vs moving waves?

A battery might be an example as well. More electrons on one pole, less on the other. If only the waves move through a circuit between the two, why would they ever lose their electric field/voltage?

[Assistant]
Electrons always undergo thermal motion, so they're moving about randomly quite fast, but when no current is flowing the thermal motion all cancels out; the mean electron speed is on the order of kilometres per second (at room temperature) but the mean *velocity* is zero.

When a current is flowing this means the electrons tend to drift in one direction so their average velocity is non-zero, this is known as the *electron drift velocity* and is generally on the order of micrometres per second.

The signal velocity however is typically close to the speed of light.


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

[User] ELI5: Why can't you just mount two or more batteries in an electric car to extend its range?

[Assistant]
You can!  But batteries are big, and heavy, and expensive.  Manufacturers are currently going with their best balance of weight, cost, and range.  They're always striving to improve upon the current model.

Let's take the cost out of the picture, though.  Let's say you've got plenty of money to throw at your SuperPrius and just want to fill it with batteries.  You've still got the issue of weight.  The SuperPrius is now way heavier, so its already sluggish 0-60 time is even worse.  Breaking distance increases as well, since it takes more to stop that car once it gets going.  And the added weight means it taxes the batteries even more when accelerating.


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

[User]
[Thor - MCU] If the "magic" of the Asgardians is just advanced technology, what stops them from making more Mjolnirs?

So I have a friend that just can't figure out the way Thor and the Asgardians seem to handle their technology in the MCU. Since all of their "magic" is just really advanced technology, why is there only one Mjolnir? If it is so powerful, why don't they all have one?  Or for that matter, why is it that Loki seems to be only one who can use his "illusion" tech?

[Assistant]
Simple: For the same reason you aren't flying around in a personal Iron Man suit. Not everyone can afford one, and if you could, who's going to make it for you?

(In the comics, Mjolnir was crafted by dwarves and enchanted by Odin. Until we hear otherwise there's no reason to assume that some similar [non-magic] uniqueness didn't occur in its construction in the MCU. Your assumption is that Mjolnir was easy or cheap to produce. If the Son of Odin is running around with the only one, that's probably not the case.)

As for Loki's illusions, their use is more a quirk of his personality. Basically, the same reason Captain America doesn't use a wingsuit like Falcon's or a Bow like Hawkeye.


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

[User] [Predator] What belief system do the Predators have and why must they hunt?

[Assistant]
The Predators seem to experience an arrogant sort of satisfaction at exerting the ultimate domination other other lifeforms: depriving them of their lives and then desecrating their corpses as trophies.

The films show that the Predators have no physical need for their quarry.   They don't need the beings they hunt for food or clothing or medical resources.   They do it entirely because they wish to do so.

The films seem to go out of their way to make it clear that the Predators are not looking for a genuine challenge, just a trophy.   They make themselves invisible.  They use overpowering weapons.   One gets the impression they would be perfectly happy if someone tied up their quarry with a gun pointed at it that they could activate by remote control while sitting in a lodge sipping their species' equivalent of martinis.

They seem to have the same sense of smug entitlement as that dentist who killed the lion a few years ago and seemed to consider the national backlash to be presumptuous or uppity.

1. Based upon the evidence, the belief system they actually live out likely involves a strong sense of inherent hierarchy, with some species born to a greater degree of rights and worth than are other species.   They may simply believe their species is the only genuinely sapient species, or they may believe their species is the superior species and the sapience of any other species doesn't really matter.
2. They probably pay lip service to the idea of competition but actually believe that all that matters is winning by any means necessary and probably pay lip service to the idea of *being good* but actually believe that all that matters is *looking good* (hence the love of trophies).
3. There is a good chance that their planetary philosophy is structurally feudalistic, with a de facto plutonomy or aristocracy that is wealthy enough to devote itself to a hobby of killing other lifeforms.   The love of trophies combined with a drive towards a hunting that provides nothing of value *except* trophies suggests that they probably focus more on rivalries and besting one another than they do on cooperation.

It's possible that they have a religion which promotes all of the above, but based upon the apparent emphasis on *looking good* instead of *being good* and on winning by any means necessary while somehow appearing to be undergoing a challenge or competition, it is far more likely that they have a religion which claims that believers or members can be forgiven for anything, even the most egregious misbehavior, so long as they remain believers or members.


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

[User] How close, if at all, are computers to solving captchas?

[Assistant] It's pretty hard to solve captchas in general the way the human brain does it (hell, with some captchas even we humans sometimes have our troubles). However, for a specific kind of captcha, it's mostly pretty easy to create a solver program - this is what is done when bot runners for some reason want to spam or hack a given site. Solving simple captchas is an exercise often used in machine learning and artificial intelligence classes, since basic pattern recognition algorithms can be easily applied and demonstrated on the problem.


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

[User]
What percentage of the light produced by the sun hits Pluto?

I understand that this number varies; a range is an acceptable answer.

This question came up as I was viewing pictures from the New Horizons space probe. Pluto seemed decently lit which was surprising to me. I was expecting it to be a lot darker.

[Assistant]
If you have a sphere whose centre is at the sun and whose surface is at the orbit of Pluto (roughly, it's an ellipse IRL), the answer to your question is the fraction of this sphere's surface area that is occupied by Pluto. That is the ratio of Pluto's radius to its orbital radius squared. This is about 0.04 trillionths.

The images you see rely on long exposure times and significant post-processing.


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

[User]
ELI5: If nuclear waste is so radio-active, why not use its energy to generate more power?

I just dont get why throw away something that still gives away energy, i mean it just needs to boil some water, right?

[Assistant] Don't forget, that the majority of volume of nuclear waste is not spent fuel rods. It's low grade waste. Things like mops or Tyvek suits, that were used in contamination zones, but which aren't especially "hot".. They just need to be held for a few years before being sent to the normal waste stream.


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

[User] Does human vision have an "aspect ratio" of sorts? (Like seeing widescreen.)

[Assistant]
Yes, although it's not a quadrilateral shape, so it can't be expressed as X by Y. Also, there's more visual data in the center of your field of vision than there is at the edges.

Roughly speaking your aspect ratio would be a very complicated equation describing:

A circle, stretched out sideways a bit, getting more dim and faded progressively towards the edges, with more clarity in the middle.

So yeah, not as simple as 16:9 but it has a defined shape.


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

[User]
How are satellite's able to broadcast hundreds of HD channels, given limited bandwidth, spectrum, and power?

How is it that DirecTV and Dish network are able to broadcast so many channels? I am guessing since satellite's are primarily a one way connection, they are concurrently broadcasting all channels and streams down to earth at any given time. How is this done with limited bandwidth and spectrum? Also, how much power do these consume? It seems like these satellite's would require tons of power for receiving, processing and sending the signals.

[Assistant]
The satellites do use quite a bit of power. For example, NileSat 102, a DBS satellite covering Egypt has a 3kW solar array, with the main transponder sending a 100W beam down to Earth. I'd guess the 3kW array is probably over-specified by 3 or 4 times to allow the satellite to continue operating if part of the array malfunctions.

As far as how the channels are delivered... the channels that are only available regionally are sent down on satellites with what are known as "spot beams". It is physically impossible to receive Chicago TV stations in Dallas due to this.  A single satellite may broadcast 15-30 spot beams down to various areas of the USA. This technology makes it possible to carry the local affiliates for each market. Back in the early 90s, satellite stations usually carried a handful of major network affiliates, for example WNBC from NY, KNBC from LA, WLS from Chicago, etc.

All channels are compressed. The compression used depends on the provider. Some lesser-used channels are compressed a LOT.


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

[User] What about it's electron configuration makes titanium such a chemically resistant metal and so different from other transition metals?

[Assistant]
Ironically, Titanium is resistant to corrosion because it is incredibly reactive in its pure form.

This allows it to react strongly with oxygen, forming the incredibly stable TiO2. TiO2 forms a film over the pure titanium, keeping it well insulated and protected.

But most transition metals form strong bonds with oxygen (even kids know what rust is!) So why is this oxide helpful?

Transition metals are unusual elements because they have unfilled orbitals so close together that electrons can settle in different oxidation states. (Orbitals are stable when empty, half-full, or full). So an iron ion could have a +2 or +3 charge. When oxygen bonds to iron, you get both FeO and Fe2O3. These are two different compounds, trying two form two different crystal structures. The two structures interfere with eachother and dont mesh together, resulting in a destructive, flakey rust.

However, Titanium has so few electrons across these two orbitals (4) that it cant shuffle them into new stable positions. Further, it has so few electrons that its relatively cheap in energy to remove all of them. This means that Titanium only has a single oxidation state of +4 and ALL bonding with oxygen results in TiO2. Unlike with iron, there is a single compound with no competitors. As a result, TiO2 can form a smooth film over the rest of the titanium, protecting it.


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

[User]
PhDs, how do you balance straddling the divide between student and staff?

I hope this is in the right sub. I think most people here will have done the PhD thing and noticed how isolating it is so I'm looking for general advice. Perhaps this is particularly an issue at my university because its very small, mostly under grads, and in its own sort of "campus bubble" (i.e. not in a big city, so the only people for miles are students and retired people). But I'm 26, and I sort of feel between the two groups.

Most of the friends I have made are through various sports clubs, and are mostly under grads. Sometimes I feel it's hard to connect with undergrads due to the age difference, like I'm out of the loop. At the same time I definitely don't feel part of the "staff" at all. The specifically post grad community is tiny and they seem to lock themselves in their rooms and work 24/7.

Next year I will begin teaching on modules, which makes this more of an issue (at least in my own head). On the one hand, I want to be percieved well by the students I teach. I feel like I need to act and dress "one step up" from students when teaching. I.e somewhere between "oversized grandad sweater" (the clothing of choice for hipster undergrads here) and "full suit" (so a nice shirt or a jumper is a good inbetween). But then, when I'm not teaching classes I will feel over-dressed and like it heightens the difference between me and my sort of but also not really peers.

The clothes aren't really the issue, but they sort of highlight how I feel sort of on the edge of different groups, but without one that I feel really comfortable in.

[Assistant] You're overthinking this. Your students will respond best to you if you are authentically yourself. Don't worry about how you're going to be perceived; just worry about being the truest you that you can be.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is it that my testicles don't hurt during sex when they are smacking pretty hard, yet the lightest "ball tapping" from someone hurts like hell?

[Assistant] When you're aroused, your scrotum generally tightens up so your balls don't flop around as much. Also, someone else's taint is generally a lot softer than someone else's fist. Their chin, not so much, but your ball tapping mileage may vary.


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

[User] [Galaxy Quest] How is the berillium sphere, which was presumably invented as a power source by the show's writers, an actual power source that is apparently mined by aliens?

[Assistant]
[](/sarahjane)It's not actually beryllium, but the Thermians call it such because they believe that's what the enlightened beings that created the *Galaxy Quest* transmissions called it.

Basically their thought process went:

* *The originators of these transmissions knew about a rare material that can be used as a power source.*

* *We found this material on a planet that can be used as a power source.*

* *It must be the same power source the transmissions spoke of! We have found the substance of the fabled beryllium sphere!*

Most Thermian technology was invented this way. Watching *Galaxy Quest* made them believe that certain advanced technologies were *possible,* which caused them to work towards them, which caused them to successfully invent them. And when they successfully invented one of these pieces of technology, which would have happened anyway as long as they were trying to, it only fueled their belief that the show was depicting an interstellar society more advanced than themselves.


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

[User] [Rick and Morty] could Rick just ask another Rick that cured humanity from the Cronenbergs how he did it? Why take the place of another universe instead?

[Assistant] Across the multiverse, "Ricks" are for the most part cynical self-serving assholes. The Rick that cured humanity from the Cronenbergs would be more likely to mock the other Rick for needing help than he would be to actually help the guy.


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

[User] [Dark Knight Rises] What would the government actually have done about the occupation of Gotham?

[Assistant] Special forces gather intel to see whether the nukes are in the trucks at all. Monitoring of Bane's coms. If they are in the trucks, executive order given to use simultaneous predator or air strikes against the trucks while having a wide range wireless signal blocker in place in the area, then have special forces mop up and secure the bomb. After that, have local national guard and army units move into the city.


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

[User]
How similar can an adopted child be to their adoptive parents compared to a biological child?

 Is their personality more dependent on the environment or more on their genes? Would the biological child act more like one or both of the parents compared to the adopted one?

[Assistant] Nature vs nurture has been long debated. The best answer we have of this comes from studies of separated twins raised in separate environments. There is a small sample size, but these studies tend to suggest we gain quite a surprising lot from genetics. Though the environment does play some a role. Things like trauma in childhood have some major impacts. Ultimately, Most nature vs nurture arguments has concluded with both.


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

[User]
ELI5: how is sewer water treated? what's the process it goes through?

is it done mechanically or by people?

[Assistant]
It depends a lot of where the treatment is done, but its generally mechanical, not people.

Some places dont treat at all, they just dilute it by dumping raw sewage straight into the ocean or a river. Lest you think this is just an undeveloped country thing, there are major Western cities that still do this.

Assuming some level of treatment, it goes in roughly this order:
-Mechanical screening: removes trash, baby wipes, condoms, plastic bags, etc. Basically anything large that wont break down.
-Settling: sewage goes to a big pond where it slow rises and everything heavier than water sinks to the bottom and is collected by an auger or rake. The settled solids can be land filled or sent to a thing called a digester for further bacterial breakdown into, basically, dirt.
-Filtration: run it through sand packs or some other high-surface medium to encourage bacteria to eat whatevers left in the water, and remove most remaining particles.
-Aeration: inject lots of air (bubbles, waterfall, etc.) to encourage bacterial growth to break down any leftover organic material.

At this point its not safe to drink but its basically clean and you can dump it to a river/lake/ocean without much issue, or use it for irrigation.

If you want to take it all the way to potable (safe to drink) you need to do one last step to remove any inorganic chemicals or stuff that didnt break down. That can be distillation, reverse osmosis, ultrafiltration, etc. This is expensive so typically only happens in places with a fresh water shortage and cheap energy.


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

[User]
ELI5: What is Facebook's rationale for having my friend's comments on strangers pages show up on my feed?

I understand Facebook does many things to gather data/increase monetization. But I don't understand how showing friend F comments on their friend G's (a stranger to me) page, on my feed, gathers data/increases monetization for Facebook. And on my end, I can't remember ever engaging with one of these conversations because I don't know G so I wouldn't comment on G's page. So if it doesn't appear to help Facebook or me, what is Facebook's rationale for showing these comments?

[Assistant]
They're hoping that you and G become friends.

Either you know each other in real life but haven't become Facebook friends yet, or perhaps you haven't met but you join in the conversation and become friends.


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

[User] ELI5: why is it more devastating to detonate a nuclear bomb at a distance above ground, as opposed to directly at ground level (upon impact) ?

[Assistant]
If you detonate a bomb at ground level then a lot of the energy is spent digging a hole which is useless. You want the bomb to have a clear line of site to a large area for effective destruction

It's also important to note that if a 10 PSI overpressure will collapse most reinforced concrete structures then there isn't much value in hitting them with a 50 PSI overpressure, they're collapsing either way. Nuclear bombs are generally detonated at a height that maximizes the range of their 5 PSI overpressure which will knock down most structures and is almost universally lethal

There's also an interesting effect where the shockwave hits the ground and then bounces back up still expanding. This means that the edges of the shockwave are extra strong because they're the combination of the initial shockwave coming outward from the bomb and the shockwave reflecting off the ground. This results in extra damage and increases the radius of the 5 PSI overpressure.


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

[User]
What are some strange things that happen under EXTREME magnetic fields?

I was reading about the magnetar SGR 1806-20, which has a magnetic field of 10^15 Gauss (10^11 Tesla in intensity) .

The article said that if this magnetar were as close as the moon to Earth, it could re-arrange the molecules in your body. What are some other wacky quantum and macroscopic things that happen under these most powerful magnetic fields in the universe? What could happen under even greater strength fields?

[Assistant] Many of the things you don't usually consider to be magnetic are actually diamagnetic, which means that any magnetic field will repel them. This effect is usually very weak, but water and graphite are diamagnetic among other things. A sufficiently strong magnetic field would have a repulsive effect on these things. You don't need anywhere near the strength of a magnetar to see these effects though; bismuth is a strong enough diamagnet that it can float suspended between two magnets, and we have electromagnets on earth strong enough to levitate frogs.


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

[User] Eli5: how do aimbots work in games like call of duty and counter strike?

[Assistant] Basically as you play your computer constantly is rendering your game to you based on the server. Its being told specific instructions, some of which include the location of enemy players bodies, so that your computer can then render them in your game. So its very easy for a 3rd party program to read this stream of information, pick up where the players heads are, and direct the mouse to it.


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

[User]
[LotR] Aside from Sauron or Saruman, who would be the absolute worst being to acquire the One Ring during the events of the War of the Ring?

Also, what specifically would he, she, or it have done with its power that would make this the worst possible outcome?

[Assistant]
There isn't really a *worst* thing that anyone could do with the ring. Every outcome would end up similar to what the domains of Morgoth and Sauron would have looked like. That said, either Galadriel or Gandalf would be the worst beings to take the ring. They were both wise enough to not take it, but they feared even touching it in case they were to succumb to its corruption.

Although Galadriel is only an elf, she is one of the most powerful elves ever, and certainly the most powerful in Middle Earth in the 3rd Age. Other elves, such as Elrond or Celeborn, would be capable of using the ring to its full potential, but neither is as strong as Galadriel.

Gandalf, of course, is one of the maiar. And a very important one at that.

Either of those two would quickly be able to defeat Sauron and conquer Middle Earth. Powerful humans would have a much harder job doing it, but if someone strong enough got a hold of it, given enough time, they would be able to take over Middle Earth as well. There aren't many humans who would be able to do it, but Aragorn and Denethor definitely could, and Faramir likely could as well.


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

[User] ELI5 How did scientists find out what layers exist under the Earth's crust? How did they determine that Earth has a solid core?

[Assistant] Most of this is figured out through seismic surveys. You make a loud sound somewhere and then measure how the sound waves travel through the Earth. This is exactly how ultrasonic surveys work in humans. The sound waves will experience different levels of refraction or even reflection as they hit layers where the density changes. We can measure this and figure out the density of all the rock. It turns out that the core of the Earth is very solid compared to the material above it. So similar to how sound bounces between the walls in a room but is muffled outside the room any loud sounds on Earth is bounced back from the core but is very muffled on the other side of the Earth.


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

[User]
How could the universe be a few light-years across one second after the big bang, if the speed of light is the highest possible speed?

Shouldn't the universe be one light-second across after one second?

In Death by Black Hole, Tyson writes "By now, one second of time has passed. The universe has grown to a few light-years across..." p. 343.

[Assistant]
There is no speed limit on the rate of expansion of the fabric of the universe (space-time).

During the first few moments after the Big Bang, if the theory of Inflation is correct, the volume of the universe expanded by a factor of 10^78 in a time span from ~10^-38 to ~10^-32 seconds.

Edit - To add to this. The speed of light is the speed limit for which information can propagate (which therefore means anything with mass/energy).  There is nothing, as far as we know, limiting the rate of expansion of the universe itself.  Objects very far from us are actually travelling away from us at a speed greater than the speed of light since the rate of expansion between two points increases as you increase the distance between said objects. The consequence of this is that light from these objects will never reach us.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do remote car unlocks only unlock one car in the entire world?

Wouldn't there eventually be a remote that happens to unlock a random other car?  How can each remote specifically target a single car?  It seems like there would have to be some crossing of signals.

[Assistant] It is not the spectrum of the signal that opens the car.  It is presumably a large encrypted string that is exchanged with the computer in your car.  As long as you use a big enough string there is no reason to ever repeat.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why do space battle tactics seem woefully underdeveloped?

(First time posting here, apologies if I mess up.)

I've grown up watching the Star Wars films. I've read a few of the books (all non-canon now, I believe). Heck, I've even seen the holiday special. However, when watching through the Clone Wars cartoon this morning on Disney+, a thought struck me: battle tactics in the SWU, especially duirng space battles, seems extremely underdeveloped for the level of technology of the society.

For example, this morning I was watching the episode "Storm Over Ryloth", and after a failed head-on attack, Skywalker comes up with a new plan: just fly the spaceship directly into their command center. Not only that, but the plan his padawan uses to help protect their depleted forces when going in to mop up the disorganized remnats appears to be (at least on the surface) 'point the less vulnerable part of the ship at the enemy'.

Both these plans, while succesfull, strike me as 1) overly simplistic and 2) only successful because it's not something anyone ever thought of (or at least means that things one would assume are standard in a space battle somehow do not occur). These weren't ambushed droid patrols that got caught by surprise. This was a blockade specifically set up to prevent the clone army from getting in that also had advanced knowledge that they would be attacked and by whom (the second part made clear after the first failed attack). Do the ships not have physical shields (or at least armored hulls) to prevent projectile attacks? Why are these ships built with the most vulnerable area (the command center) up front where they can be more easily attacked rather than well protected somewhere in the ship? Why don't the ships naturally lead with the most well protected part (assuming they even need a 'forward facing' part of the ship?

This isn't even something that can be written off as unique to the Clone Wars cartoon. There was quite the heated debate over the most recent numbered movie and the 'jump to light speed through our enemy' tactic. Even Han Solo's evasive maneuvers from the original trilogy has been comedically referred to as "listing lazily to the left". And don't even get me started on how droids built specifically for battle and trained soldiers alike seem to have about 25% accuracy with any ranged weapon.

So, can someone help me to understand, in a Universe that has been through plenty of armed conflict across hundreds of developed planets, with enough technology to build space ships, laser canons, and disintegrator weapons, actually strategy seems to be such a difficult concept?

[Assistant]
It's likely that we can view parts of the CW cartoon as wartime propaganda rather than realistic depictions of what actually happened. We have a news reel announcer at the beginning of each episode, combat encounters and flashy and dramatic, and as you said the tactics involved often don't make much sense. It's probable that what we are seeing are sensationalized depictions of a much more boring reality.

This likely happens both because real combat would be pretty uneventful (ships firing from far beyond distances which human eyes can see, lots of waiting, etc.) and to censor sensitive information about actual unit composition, tactics, technologies, and so forth. In other words, it's commoditized suffering sold to us.


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

[User] ELI5: In math, when multiplying, why do two negatives make a positive?

[Assistant] Think about it like this: If you film someone running forwards (positive) and then play the film forward (positive) he is still running forward (positive). If you play the film backward (negative) he appears to be running backwards (negative) so the result of multiplying a positive and a negative is negative. Same goes for if you film a guy running backwards (negative) and play it normally (positive) he appears to be still running backwards (negative). Now, if you film a guy running backwards (negative) and play it backwards (negative) he appears to be running forward (positive). Even if you speed up the rewind (-3x or -4x) these results hold true. Backward x backward = forward. Negative times negative = positive.


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

[User]
Versions Control Systems(VCS) ...

I'm into this Dev journey and I want to understand things (mmh)... at least frankly. Can someone refer me to an informative article or perhaps a resourceful website or just personally explain to me what VCS are and why we need them.

[Assistant]
Version controll = git

There are others, but git is by far the most used and liked, so i would not bother to look into others that much.

There are billions of git tutorials online but i learned i from others so i can only realy recomend the git cheat sheet from git-tower.com

Why and how bad you need version controll depends on how you work. If you are just a single person working on your own code, you might be able to work without (but you still should use it) if you work as a team, git is an esential tool.

The basic functionality is that you have a history of everything you changed by line that you can revert to. This is allready good if you are alone, but in a team every change becomes tracable to who did what when.

The next big feature of git is branches: to work on a new feature that can take longer, you create your own branch and work on there while the main branch(develop or master) can be used to as a base for other developers. When you finish your feature, you can merge your private branch to the main branch again. This is realy important to do if you work as a team, as everyone can work on different parts of the same code without disturbing the others and merge eveything in a common code afterwards(and git does this realy well, if possible automatic, if not you can chhse which line from which branch goes in the merged code)

Wow this got long and thats not even half of what git can do...


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

[User] ELI5: What's the difference between a matrix scheme, pyramid scheme and ponzi scheme?

[Assistant]
**Ponzi:** This key idea is the company is lying to investors about the value of its assets and paying out new investors' principal while pretending it's the old investors' profits.

You raise $100 from 10 people and promise them 100% per year return. You start with $1000. After a year you tell people you have $2000 but you don't, you still only have $1000.

Two investors want out so you give them $200 each because if you refuse, you're busted. So you have 8 investors and $600, but you're telling them you have $1600. You have to keep recruiting new investors or you'll run out of money.

Sometimes investments start out with good intentions but turn into Ponzis when they try to cover up losses.

**Pyramid:** You tell people up front that you're going to take their money, and they get paid by recruiting new people to join. These lower recruits pass money to the person who recruited them and to you, say up to 3 levels. Your sales pitch is that in return for one fee, the recruit gets a fee from the 10 people he recruits, the 10\*10 people they recruit, and the 10\*10\*10 people *they* recruit.

These inevitably collapse because you can't keep finding exponentially more suckers. MLMs are basically a pyramid scheme with the addition of a real product being sold instead of just "memberships".

**Matrix:** You buy some overpriced thing and get put on a list for a prize. For every 10 people who buy in, the person at the top of the list gets the prize end everyone else moves up one spot. So no matter how many people buy in, 90% don't get the prize.

----

Ponzi schemes involve lying to investors. The other two are open about how they work but the vast majority of participants are guaranteed to lose money.


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

[User]
[Pokemon] Why doesn't the PokeBall recognize Slowbro or Kangaskhan as two Pokemon?

Seeing as Pokeballs can't store two Pokemon, why doesn't it recognize Slowbro as two distinct Pokemon and thus unable to capture it? Same goes for Kangaskhan, literally a mother and child, and the baby can be removed from her pouch, why isn't it thought of as two entities?

[Assistant]
For the same reason Dugtrio and Magneton are a single pokemon. Humans made pokeballs with what is essentially magitech so they programmed them to treat these cases as one thing.

Also Gold version's dex entry on Slowbro says:

>If the tail-biting Shellder is thrown off in a harsh battle, it reverts to being an ordinary Slowpoke.

So separating them is a rare case of a Pokemon devolving. Trainers probably don't want that. We can assume the same would happen to a Magneton or Dugtrio. As for Kangaskhan, well separating mother and child is cruel.


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

[User]
[Fox X men] How is quicksilver able to stop?

Assuming his power is actually super speed, then how does he stop during his scenes? we see him stop running and screw around or move bullets and such but shouldn't time then move normally?

[Assistant]
When we see those scenes, we're seeing them from his frame of reference. When he "stops" to look at or think about something, his powers are still active, meaning he's thinking at super speeds.

What looks like a multi-second pause to us is actually a fraction of a fraction of a second in real time.


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

[User]
ELI5: Biologically, what makes a song catchy?

I'm looking at you, Latch by Disclosure.

[Assistant] Repetition & variation.  Repetition establishes a pattern and then variation creates unexpected surprise in that pattern.  The brain tries to adapt to the pattern but needs to re-listen to the variation to grasp the nature of the unexpected surprise.  The repetition can occur in one or more of the elements of music:  rhythm, melody, structure, background vs. foreground, or multiple elements against each other.


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

[User]
[Legend of Zelda] What is Ganon/Ganondorf's end goal if he wins?

Does he really just want to turn the world into a wasteland with the triforce and then sit around in his castle all day?

[Assistant]
Ganondorf just wants to rule over a land more hospitible than the Gerudo desert he came from.

Turning Castle Town to ruin (and transforming Hyrule Castle to a lethal lava land) is just how he deals with rebels. Kakariko Village and Lon Lon Ranch were doing just fine under his rule, it was only those loyal to the Royal Family (The Goron and Zora) that he brought plagues to.

What happened with Bongo Bongo was all Link's fault.


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

[User] ELI5: How do we know that plants don't feel pain when we eat them?

[Assistant]
They don't have nerves or a brain wich are responsible for our pain.

They do have chemical stress reactions. But they don't really have the organ thats required to "experience things".

Thats no evidence but more a "we wouldn't know how they should feel pain"


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

[User]
[Captain America] Do you think Captain America ever felt heavy about not being able to liberate Auschwitz/Dachau?

Do you think it ever weighed on him?

[Assistant] Likely he didn't feel awful about it.  He's a soldier sometimes you have to write it off as an acceptable loss.  He stopped red skull from bombing Chicago New York and other cities by sacrificing himself.  Ultimately yes the horrors of the holocaust happened without him doing anything but he saved millions of Americans from the same fate.  Likely in his mind he did all he could and that's all that's asked of a soldier to do their best.


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

[User]
Why is microeconomics useful, and what are the most important concepts one should understand?

First year undergrad student here just questioning a lot of the material that Im learning.

[Assistant]
This question is a bit too broad. Microeconomics is very basic in all economics, to the point that one can't really do much without its concepts. One important concept, for example, is that of a utility function. What does it mean to have a utility function? Is this a testable hypothesis? These are all micro questions.

From a more practical standpoint, anything that involves analysis of a firm will involve microeconomics. For example, questions of antitrust or taxation.


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

[User]
CMV: There's literally not a single politically relevant topic where Donald Trump is knowledgeable

The title says it all. By now, I believe that Trump literally has no idea about any of the topics he talks about. He has never presented an opinion that was backed up by independent experts in that field.

He doesn't know how trade works (still thinks it's a zero-sum game), he doesn't know how the military operates (things like his LGBT ban, the fact that he doesn't listen to experts when it comes to weapon development in Iran), he doesn't know history (too many examples to list), he doesn't know the law either and it seems like he's literally never in line with what experts in the field say.

I'd like to be a bit less cynical and maybe it's because my research was within a bubble that just presents me things that confirm my ideas. :)

[Assistant] Trump is an expert in Trump and Trump is relevant. No one on earth knows more about the history, hidden details and motivations of Trump than Trump. He knows exactly what happened with Russia, what happened in his campaign and what the true meaning of covfefe.


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

[User]
[DBS] Why the hell are the Kais so weak?

Like seriously, the Kais are the life line to the god of destruction, but the Kais are pathetically weak. Why is the life force of something as important as the god of destruction tied to really weak gods?

[Assistant]
Because they don't need to be strong. Whose likely to be stronger, the gardener who tends the plants, or the thug who tramples them?

The Kai's aren't there to fight. They aren't even there to protect. They exist to create. Whereas the Gods of Destruction need to be able to confront and destroy anything and anyone, the Kai's have no such need for confrontation.

It also helps reign them in. If they were strong enough to stand up to a God of Destruction, they would probably try to prevent them from doing their job.

Al of that said, let's not forget that the Kai's ARE strong. Even King Kai was stronger than Goku when he first trained with him, and Kaioshin is stronger than most of the Z Fighters. They're stronger than most living things... They just don't need to be obscenely strong, like the Gods of Destruction and Angels are.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does Lego not take down knock-off brands like Lepin?

[Assistant]
>Why does Lego not take down knock-off brands like Lepin?

LEGO *can't* take them down, because Lepin isn't doing anything illegal.  LEGO's relevant patents have expired, so making knock-off brands is perfectly legal.  This is exactly how patents are supposed to work:  Give a company time-limited exclusivity for a novel invention that will eventually expire and allow anyone to make the item.  It encourages innovation without locking that innovation away from competitors forever.


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

[User]
Why don't we use the computer resources for mining cryptocurrencies on useful tasks, instead of hashing

In cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin a Block is created by "proof of work", meaning millions(perhaps more) of servers are wasting their resources on solving hashes. What if a Block was instead created by utilizing these resources to do tasks, such as Grid jobs in grid computing, or how we use cloud computing. One example is to use these resources to do protein folding for cancer research. Im not sure what metric would decide when a Block has been mined, but I just thought this might be an interesting concept, if at all even possible.

[Assistant] One of the key points of a Proof of Work algorithm is that it's fairly difficult to complete, but takes much less work to verify. You'd have to find something useful to calculate that has both of those properties.


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

[User]
[general]Would telepathically telling kids very difficult concepts like general relativity make them understand?

Imagine humanity that can communicate telepathically without the need for language. Now children are not taught a simpler version of concepts like Newton's gravity rather than Einstein's gravity, but telepathically fed with the highest version of reality we understand? How properly would kids make out a proper representation of reality? Or would that not work and they would need to be fed simple concepts and give incrementally build up on it?

[Assistant]
The difficulty with higher order concepts isn't transmission, it's understanding. Children under two aren't even able to understand humor, and can't grasp sarcasm until they're five or six.

Humans are born with incomplete minds; the brain continues to develop until we're about twenty-five, and we experience changes to personality and cognitive ability the entire time.

There are prodigies that can understand advanced concepts at a very young age, and telepathic transmission would probably allow them to learn faster, but beaming the theory of relativity into a typical child's mind wouldn't allow them to understand it any better than trying to teach me to perform cardiac surgery in Esperanto.


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

[User] ELI5: What is the biological or psychological reason of screaming when we are afriad?

[Assistant] We developed as a tribal species, screaming is a way of communicating an imminent threat to the rest of the tribe. If we just stayed quiet while a predator killed us our species would've been wiped out because no one would even realize the predator was out there.


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

[User]
[General Sci-Fi] How does time work in intergalactic meetings?

Does each planet have its own time and calendar? Is there a universe central time? If I'm in Naboo and tell my friend in Hoth to meet me in Coruscant do we have to consider time dilation?

On a more serious note, If we were to become a interplanetary species, how do you think we will manage this problems?

[Assistant]
This is a problem that was solved when planets started having transport systems that were large enough and reliable enough that local times, dependent on sun position, were not good enough. They instigated a central time that applies to all areas is set by one place and everyone else abides to.

So for you on Naboo, you'll look to Coruscant where a time has been decided - General Mean Time - and you'll know the local time and the GMT time. So your own clocks may be in front, or behind GMT, but there will be a singular reference point.

This only works when you have non relativistic travel (and so time dilation isn't a factor) and FTL communications which allows you to speak to people light years away with no time delay. If you DO have relativistic travel, then you will need a computer system which is good enough to take that into account and work out the "true" time, not the one which it seems to be to you.


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

[User]
Was there oil during the dinosaur era?

As in car oil that comes from fossils? Was there sufficient oil in the ground millions if years ago?

[Assistant]
Yes, there was.  Much of our 'fossil fuel' comes from a time period known as the Carboniferous, which was about 300 - 360 million years ago, well before the time of the dinosaurs.  This period is called the Carboniferous precisely because there's a high abundance of carbon in the rock record from that time.  This is often preserved as coal or petroleum.  Most of this carbon material derives from plants and algae, rather than the more familiar fossils of vertebrate animals.

Dinosaurs did not appear until the middle Triassic about 230 million years ago.


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

[User]
[Jurassic World] How could Jurassic Worlds security response to the I-Rex breaking out been better?

The deadly and infamous Indominus Rex has just broken out of its enclosure minutes ago and is headed south towards the rest of Jurassic World, threatening the lives of 20,000 visitors and employees. As the Chief of Security, he/she is obviously pissed the fuck off that whoever engineered, designed, and constructed the I-Rex enclosure is a fucking dumbass so now theyre stuck trying to either capture or kill the I-Rex.

But what should Jurassic World had done in order to actually manage and contain/control the threat of the I-Rex after it escaped? What security measures shouldve been used against the rampaging I-Rex? How could the response to the I-Rex had been better?

Personally for me, Id demand the forceful evacuation of all visitors and park personnel from the Gyro-sphere Station to the Cretaceous Course in order to give ACU space to combat the I-Rex while also not causing a mass panic within the park patrons, who will all break the logistical neck of JW if they started cramming for the docks to try and escape the island all at once. Evacuating 20,000 people is absolutely not easy so a controlled evacuation would more than likely occurs as well as mandatory shelter in place orders. Those closest to the docks and heli-ports will be evacuated first since theyre closer while people will be advised to stay in their hotel rooms or in designated shelter sites.

Theres also no reason why they didnt have any air support immediately in the air the moment that the I-Rex broke out of its enclosure. Air support (be it tactical or strategic) wouldve went a long way in helping monitor the I-Rex from the air. It didnt help that the **CEO** of all people was the one doing the piloting instead of an actual trained pilot who knows what the fuck theyre doing. And those ACU guys that were mounting that M61 Vulcan (was it a Vulcan?) autocannon onto the helicopter shouldnt even be doing that in the first place, they shouldve had armed air support assets already on standby for situations like this.

[Assistant]
The biggest mistake made was when Brady and Claire went  OUTSIDE of the observation area.

It is, by definition, the safest place to be as the IRex cannot get in. Go outside and you could get ambushed by the IRex.

Remember: they thought the IRex had escaped and was out in the park.

So *why* the **fuck** would you leave the safety of the observation room?

They should have immediately called the command center FROM THE OBSERVATION ROOM to update them, at which point the command center would have checked the locator beacon and discovered it was still in the pen.

At that point, they could have used the crane to bring in some food and test to see if perhaps the thermal was malfunctioning.

At that point, they would have realized the IRex has a camouflage mode.

EDIT: ignoring that and addressing the response to an escape:

After the escape, they should have done what Muldoon wanted to do in the original Jurassic Park book: stock rocket launchers and blow it up. Ideally, there should have been a pro/ex-military helicopter pilot and someone trained to fire rockets at dinosaurs on-call, on the island, at all times.

Many of the issues were caused because of hubris, a lack of a backup plan, and trying to capture rather than kill.


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

[User]
Can small cuts lead to cancer?

Knowing that cancer cells carry mutant genes, some mutations occur during cell division and that cell division has a crucial role in repairing tissues / wound healing.

[Assistant]
Yes, but you are missing the big point here. Why is cancer of the epithelium so common, while, for example, cancer of neurons so incredibly rare?

The answer is, your skin is in continuously turnover throughout your entire life. You do not see it, but old, dead skin cells are constant falling off of you, being replacted by fresh cells. Dust is actually partly constituted by dead skin.

Our barrier from the external world has to be continuously replaced and so cells must keep on replicating to supply new layers. But the non- regenerative neurons of the brain do not divide. You grow up and grow old with virtually the very same neurons in the central nervous system.

Now, wound healing certainly does lead to additional cell division, slightly increasing the risk. But the bulk of cell division happens passively in the epithelium, not just the skin, but also the gastrointestinal tract, as well as the lungs and, finally blood cells.


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

[User]
[Pokemon] So how does Alolan Raichu work?

I caught a Pikachu in my home region (Hoenn) and he's my best bud! We decided that we wanted him to stay a Pikachu and not use a thunderstone.

However, we have since moved to Alola and after seeing Alolan Raichu, my Pikachu has expressed that he'd like to evolve into that, which I am supportive of. But, since he's from Hoenn, is it even possible for him to evolve into Alolan Raichu? Is there something genetic that will make it so he will evolve the other form? Do only Pikachu from Alola evolve into Alolan Raichu? Is there something special about the thunderstones in Alola that make Pikachu evolve into Alolan Raichu? How does this work?

[Assistant]
According to bulbapedia "InAlola, Raichu has aregional variantthat isElectric/Psychic. It evolves from Pikachu when exposed to a Thunder Stone. All Pikachu in Alola will evolve into this form regardless of their origin.

So it seems your Pikachu will evolve into Alolan Raichu, which seems odd to me.


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

[User]
Why is our perception of color cyclical, and is it also cyclical for bichromats and tetrachromats?

I'm a visual artist, and thus spend a lot of time pondering color perception.

What I'm wondering is... is there a physiological/neurological explanation for why we have a color wheel? Seeing as color is based on the wavelength of light, it seems like our perception of color should be linear, like our perception of sound pitch, yet for some reason we perceive violet as blending smoothly back to red on the other end of the spectrum.

I'm guessing it has something to do with the way the brain has to kind of do some guesswork to determine color in the first place, gauging by the intensity of the activation of cones.

And moreover, do partially colorblind people, with only two sets of cones instead of three, see their limited color spectrum in the same way?  Do tetrachromatic animals, that see mostly the same spectrum we do, plus the infrared or ultraviolet, also perceive color cyclically?  Might they perhaps be able to arrange colors in an even more complicated looping format?  (Say one pigment activates the ultraviolet cones and the blue cones, making the equivalent of fuscia for humans.  What if a pigment activates the red cones and the blue cones, skipping the green?)

I realize there's not exactly a way to test how truly tetrachromatic animals see, but I'm curious how far the theory might be able to predict.

**EDIT:**  Okay, so that wikipedia article on Magenta has helped me articulate my last question a little better.
So apparently magenta is an "extra-spectral" color because it can only be generated by a combination of two wavelengths.

So, say we have a tetrachromat that has cones corresponding roughly to the human's red, green, and blue cones, with a fourth set of cones off in the ultraviolet range.  This, presumably, would mean that their vision has four primary colors, rather than the three primary colors our vision has, right?  What I'm really curious about is, can we tell if they could see two/three extra-spectral colors since there are more possible wavelength gaps?  If something activates their blue and red cones, do they see magenta (or would they just see green)?  If something activates their green and ultraviolet cones, do they see some other extra not-blue, not-violet color that we can't (Octarine!)?  Presumably they see at least one extra-spectral color when something activates their ultraviolet and red cones.   Is this more dependent on their brain structure than on their eye structure?

**EDIT 2:**  I just had the wild idea to look up the wiki article for Violet.
>Spectral-violet looks like purple-violet for the human eye because L-cones have a secondary response in high-frequency blue

L-cones being the red sensing cones.  I haven't found any more info than that, but this article suggests that violet and magenta "blend together" because both colors are caused by activation of the blue cones and red cones.

[Assistant] It's cyclical because some sections of the wheel don't correspond to a single frequency. What we call "magenta" is a blend of frequencies at the lower and upper ends of the visible range, and the existence of this "non-existent color" bridges the gap, forming a wheel.


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

[User]
Why does popping pimples leave scarring?

Why does popping pimples leave scarring when things like minor cuts/abrasions don't? For instance, I've gotten small cuts on my face before and they heal fine leaving no scar; but I pop one tiny little pimple and I'm left with an eternal reminder.

[Assistant] Its because acne is inherently an inflammatory process. The inflammation associated with the acne pustule causes a different kind of collagen to be formed at the site of healing that more easily leads to a scar. The key is the inflammation deep inside the hair follicle.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do we have a whisper voice? Why cant we just talk normally, but quiet?

When its quiet and you need to keep your voice down, you whisper. But a whisper isnt just a quiet talk, its an airy, base-less sound. Why cant we just talk normally, but quiet?

[Assistant]
You can, we can vary the volume of our voice without changing the tone or pitch much. But there's a lower limit because it takes a certain amount of airflow to get our vocal chords vibrating at all...less air than that and you don't get any tone. It's like blowing really softly into a flute...you don't just get a really quiet note, you get nothing, there's a minimum loudness "to make the instrument work".

If you want to be quieter than that, then you whisper, which is how we can talk without using our vocal chords.


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

[User] [MCU] Is the consciousness/AI that inhabits the mind gem inherently hostile? Or did something go wrong with the copy that became Ultron that made it into a Frankenstein's monster of sorts?

[Assistant]
Ultron was simply following orders. It was challanged to protect the Earth from threats, problem is Tony didn't specify that it should protect humans. Ultron deemed humanity a hazard and wanted to wipe them out.

They also didn't expect it to he sentient and have its owns emotions and gripes with the whole situation, it had some of Tony's personality traits. Sadly Tony is a narssisitic megalomaniac who thinks everything should be done by his specifications.


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

[User] ELI5: Right leaning buddy claims Obama instituted a similar ban on immigrants when he was in office. What are the major differences here?

[Assistant]
He is most likely talking about the pause of Iraqi refugees in 2011. Trumps ban is basically Obama's but on steroids. In 2011 if you where a refugee or requesting asylum in the U.S while in Iraq you could apply but none of the info would be process for during a six month time period. This was brought on by 2 terrorist found in the united states that most likely came in as refugees.

Trumps ban pretty much restricts all non-u.s citizens coming from several middle eastern countries. The original order actually calls for the deportation of people coming from the specified countries that are in transit or already hold visas, however this was denied by several judges. Basically the key difference here is that during Obama's you couldn't get a visa to get into the states. during trumps it doesn't matter you just cant get in.


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

[User] ELI5: How did primitive humans, with a top speed of 28 mph, hunt large mammals like deer, bears, wolves, etc, that can reach speeds of near 35 - 40 mph?

[Assistant]
1. Tools:  Primitive humans could sharpen a stick to make a throwing spear, and build sharp points from things like flint, wounding or killing an animal from a distance.  Also: Slings, throwing rocks, building traps, and fire.  There is a place in Alberta, Canada called (charmingly) "head smashed in buffalo jump"  which is where ancient native americans would chase herds of buffalo off a cliff, where they would fall to their deaths.  Then the natives could just walk around to the base and collect meat, hides, and all the other resources at their leisure.
2. Endurance:  No other animal on earth can run as far a human.  World champion race horses have to rest for days to recover from a single race.  Humans can routinely run marathons, 42km, with training.  There are several cultures that still exist that use endurance chases to corral prey animals into traps or kill zones.
3. Stealth:  It's hard to imagine for a "civilized" person, but humans can be extremely stealthy in the wild with proper training.  Getting close to an animal allows you to kill it before it has a chance to run.
4. Teamwork:  Just as a pack of wolves or lions can bring down much larger prey, ancient humans could co-ordinate better than almost any other animal using perhaps our best tool: language.  Surrounding an animal, tiring it out, and only when it's weak going for a kill allowed ancient peoples to bring down huge animals, like mammoths.

I would like to add that hunting predators like bears and wolves is rare, because often they don't run AWAY but fight back.  Also generally the meat of predators isn't great to eat anyways.


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

[User]
People who won't admit to their racism are the worst kind of racists. CMV

I think one of the worst and most insidious types of racists are people who deny that something they've said or done is racist or, worse still, complain about being forced to use "P.C." (or, as most us know it, "polite") language.  Not only are they showing an aggressive aversion to ever bettering themselves or acknowledging any unconscious racial prejudices and hatred they might have, they actually do more to normalize racist rhetoric and discrimination that people who freely admit to their racism or the "dog-whistle" crowd who don't complain about black people, just "Welfare queens" and "urban violence"  Everyone knows what that means and they aren't getting away with anything.  I mean the people who act like talking about racism is somehow more racist than whatever racist statement of theirs they're being asked to talk about.  They are the worst.  As in, actual worst, and perhaps the greatest threat to the integrity and cohesion of a multiethnic society imaginable.  I don't believe in criminalizing speech, but we need to accept as a society that that shit is over the line.

This type of racism tends to be *very* popular on Reddit, so I really look forward to some exciting responses! (while keeping it civil, of course)  In particular, I'd like to hear anyone who's objected when they were told something they said or did was racist explain why it wasn't/at least wasn't egregious or was in good fun.

ETA: People who talk about living in a "post-racial" society are basically part of this group, if that helps clarify what I'm talking about.  The best example I can think of is someone saying that a Chinese food delivery "take too wrong" or that a particular neighborhood or building that's not actually run down is "ghetto" because it's mostly black and then getting angry when they're told that's a super racist thing to do.

EDIT 2: Some very angry person provided me with a way better definition, so I'm going to add that:
>Your "best example" isn't an example at all, making fun of somebody's accent has absolutely nothing to do with their race. It's the same if you make up Chinese names, it's got fuck all to do with their race and isn't even remotely racist. But let me guess, me pointing out a basic fact that you do not understand, makes me a racist that doesn't admit it, right?

Yeah, bro, it does!  Talking about people like that here.

[Assistant]
These people are awful, sure. But the worst racists? Not even close. At least these people feel ashamed by their racism enough to try and circumvent how society feels about them with coded language or refusing to change or consider their position.

The worst racists are the ones who are proudly racists and actively participate in racist activities. Those people are scum. Those people don't feel bad for their opinions, rather they feel empowered by them. I'll take subversive casual racist over obnoxious active racist any day.