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

[User] ELI5 why do events and broadcasts incorporate a sign language interpreter instead of quality text captioning, which seems like it would be just as useful or more (many people have a range of hearing issues who do not know ASL)?

[Assistant] The people in the audience would not be able to clearly see closed captioning and it's a lot more personal when you've got a live person interpreting for you rather than just words popping up on the screen. It's also really difficult to synchronize text with live speech - even if you have the script ahead of time, a person's going to naturally do unscripted pauses (coughing to clear throats, pausing for effect or to gather thoughts, taking a sip of water, etc.) that would throw the text off sync.


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

[User]
[Game of Thrones] Cersei claims that with the new Tyrell gold, they can buy the Golden Company. What gold? The hoard destroyed by Danaerys and Drogon on the Gold Road?

Jaime gets back from the devastating loss at the Battle of the Gold Road. He says tallies haven't been completed of their losses, but frankly I'm surprised if you could count the survivors on more than one hand (seeing as Dany killed or turned the survivors, unless the bulk of the Lannister army went AWOL and escaped).

Anyway, Cersei ignores their losses and focuses on the silver lining of having the Tyrell's riches now, and being able to afford mercenaries. However, wasn't this money all destroyed when Drogon did his strafing run, burning down all the carts? I remember someone telling me that Jaime sent a bunch on ahead, but how could it really be that far ahead that it would be unscathed while the rest of their forces (and loot) are demolished? Perhaps they did manage to send some carriages of loot off. But I'm skeptical that they'd send off enough money to pay the Iron Bank *and* reliably afford the Golden Company, while *also* not sending the bulk of their forces *or* any of their commanders along with it.

Did the Lannisters manage to secure enough gold to pay the Iron Bank, and then secure funding from *them* for the mercenaries? Or were the Lannisters really able to somehow escape with more than a few troops and some loot before Dany killed them?

[Assistant] At the beginning of that scene Jaime tells Tarly the gold is safely in Kings Landing. The wagons we saw held food shipments. Kind of shows where their priorities are when gold gets shipped before food.


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

[User] ELI5: Why can't we control how long our epiglottis stays back and swallow stuff continuously?

[Assistant] Some people can, look up videos of drinking water bottles fast. It is probably a good thing most people cant because they could try to eat some dumb things without letting their tongue check if its bad for them. This would be especially bad for children.


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

[User]
How do veins and arteries bend/twist without blood getting stopped or clogged?

When a water hose is bent far enough, the flow of water through it is choked and very little water comes out. When we bend our arms or move our legs, shouldnt the same thing happen?

[Assistant] Arteries are sturdier than you think. Thick walled and flexible, arteries can withstand a good amount of compression. As per veins, there is enough collateral circulation that if one gets compressed, the rest of the venous system can compensate.


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

[User] What is spin in Quantum Mechanics? What function does it serve in QM?

[Assistant]
It's just an intrinsic form of angular momentum.

I know that may not seem like a very satisfying answer, but spin is just some fundamental quality that's tacked onto particles - mass, electric charge, spin - they're all just numbers that describes how the particle will behave (though spin is slightly more complicated than charge or mass).

It's an incredibly important piece of quantum mechanics - charged particles with spin have an intrinsic magnetic dipole moment, sort of like a tiny bar magnet. Additionally, spin-statistics governs how systems with multiple particles interact. For example, half-integer spin particles can only be in the same state if they have opposite spins, which is the origin of the Pauli Exclusion Principle for fermions. Bosons, on the other hand, don't give a fuck, and you can pile a bunch of them into the same state - this is the principle behind Bose Einstein condensates, and why you don't have to worry about light bumping into other light.


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

[User] ELI5: Why aren't there widespread electrocutions when hurricanes flood a neighborhood?

[Assistant]
There's too much water and the energy from the electricity gets spread out.  Throw a plugged in hairdryer into a bathtub and you could electrocute somebody.  Throw it in an olympic swimming pool and it probably won't unless they're right next to it.

Every day, the ocean gets hit by lots and lots of lightning bolts.  But people go swimming in it and don't get electrocuted.  There's only so much energy in the lightning, and there's a lot more water than that.


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

[User]
[Terminator: genisys] whatever happened to liquid metal Arnold and the Sarah Connor who looked like Danaerys Targeryan?

Were they erased from the timeline? If so, how?

[Assistant]
Short answer: they exist in a deeply, deeply diverged timeline from T1/T2.

This timeline begins diverging after the future John Conner is infected with the T5K virus by Doctor Who.  Upon being infected, Skynet becomes dependent on John Conner's continued existence in order continue functioning.  Thus, the "site 2" T-1000 is sent back to 'kill' a younger Sarah Conner (instead of John Conner as seen in T2) and a reprogrammed T-800 is sent back to protect her.  However, Skynet can no longer kill Sarah Conner, as it needs John to be born at some point in order to infect.  Instead, the T-1000 *harries* her through the years to ensure that she eventually meets the Kyle Reese of T1.  The T1-Timeline-1-T-800 is still under its original programming, so the T2-Timeline-2-T-800 arrives at the observatory to kill it rather than risk it killing Sarah.  Sarah and Kyle never have John, and the Genesys version of Skynet never goes online, and I've gone cross-eyed.

But...

The original T1-Timeline-1-Skynet never knew which of the Sarah Conners of the past was the mother of John Conner, which is why the T1-Timeline-1-T-800 killed two other Sarah Conners.  However, both of those Sarah Conners are still alive, and either one of them could have been the original mother of resistance John Conner before T1-Timeline-1-Kyle went back in time.  Terminator 1 is already a movie about a diverging timeline, after all.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does making a 3 degree difference in your homes thermostat feel like a huge change in temperature, but outdoors it feels like nothing?

[Assistant] Because outside you have multiple things that affects the way the temperature feels. A slight breeze or moment in the shade will feel cooler. Humidity or the sun shining on you will make it feel warmer. Inside you dont feel these variables nearly as often.


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

[User] How/why do snowflakes form geometrically?

[Assistant]
The shape and polarity of a water molecule has a lot to do with it.

The chemical formula is H2O, but it's structure is H-O-H. The thing is that it's not a straight chain. The angle is closer to 120, not 180 (extra electrons around the O take space and push the Hs together).

From there, the 120 degree H-O-H works like a building block. Water is highly polar, with oxygen's electrons forming one pole and the positive Hs forming the other. The molecules link-up in the same way magnets would. The shapes of snowflakes are the shapes possible from the atomic "building blocks".

Even though polar attraction is linking the molecules, repulsive forces are also present. This creates fields across the chain, which will eventually "kink" and create the lattice structure of snowflakes. Again, those shapes are all permutations of the 120-degree H-O-H, forced into some regularity by polar forces.


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

[User] [Pacific rim] if Striker Eureka's chest missiles were enough to kill a category 4 kaiju, why not just use them and abandon jaegers?

[Assistant] The issue was never the weapons. It was getting the weapons to the kaiju in a way that doesn't imperil civilian populations and doesn't let the kaiju outmaneuver your weapon platform. Jaegers can physically manhandle and block the kaiju in a way that conventional vehicles can't match, and unlike fixed fortifications are mobile and capable of rapidly deploying where needed.


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

[User]
ELI5: What makes permanent marker so permanent?

Paper, wood, metal, skin why does it hold on almost everything?

[Assistant] The issue isn't getting it to stick, it's getting it to stay sticking in the presence of water. Water is a pretty good solvent for most things, and permanent markers have a combination of chemicals that don't react that much with water, meaning it stays sticking to whatever it was put on.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is a sternum rub so painful? Paramedics and hospital workers rub the sternum to see if the patient is conscious. It's the most common painful stimuli thats administered but what about the sternum makes it so painful when you rub it.

I've always wondered this. Its the most common painful stimuli technique used. But what about the sternum makes it so painful when you rub it? Slapping the face is always used in the movies (I know movie stuff isnt real) and I feel like slapping someone in the or pinching them is a good way to get them to respond.

[Assistant]
A sternum rub is better than slapping someone because that could be really bad if they had a broken neck, a jaw fracture, a brain injury, etc. Pinching in the extremities may not work if that extremity has nerve damage or is otherwise numb.

The sternum rub is painful because it crushes tissue against the bone of the sternum, and because it is central to the body it minimizes the possibility of nerve breaks from injury along the way. If you can't feel your sternum then you probably can't breathe either, so... you probably aren't responding because you are dead.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are swimming records broken so much more regularly than running?

[Assistant]
Technology. There isn't really much technology in running. In swimming, full body suits made a huge difference as well as materials to improve buoyancy. Full length suits are now banned, as well as non textile materials.

Turbulence in the water also slows the swimming. There have also been improvements in lane dividers that reduce turbulence, as well as changes to the sides of pools that don't reflect waves as much.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do different people poop at different frequencies? Where does the waste go for people who don't poop often?

I apologize in advance for this gross question. But I poop 2-3 times per day, and my wife poops 1 time per WEEK! I don't get it, is her body just better at getting all nutrients out of her meals and thus making less waste? Is her colon packed out like a Jersey shore club on a Saturday night? Why?

Plus when she does poop its some little nugget dudes, as opposed to my soft/wet mess (again I can't apologize enough about this post). Is that a factor?

[Assistant]
Here are a few factors that determine one's bowel movement frequency:

* Diet (esp. fibre)

* Fluid intake

* Gut motility

The last one just means "how enthusiastically your gut pushes stuff along." It does vary from person to person, so someone's "normal" might be once every few days where another's (like you) might be frequent. It's also affected by medications, like laxatives and drugs that constipate you as a side effect.

Poop that isn't pooped out just collects in the colon; that's really the colon's job (in addition to some water absorption). As long as it stays there, it gets harder and drier. So yes, someone who poops less frequently will have a harder time of it. From a doctor's perspective, the ideal bowel movement just comes out when you're ready, rather than needing any straining at all.


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

[User]
Why does the ISS need to "re-boost" in order to stay in orbit?

The main common justification for this re-boosting I've heard is that since it is in low orbit, it is constantly falling a little bit and if it was farther away from earth it wouldn't need this. However, I just took my first physics course and we learned the equation for Centripetal Force is mv^2/r, so from my understanding of this equation, why doesn't it just speed up in general in order to maintain a constant orbit.

[Assistant] There's still a little bit of atmosphere up where it rotates, and this causes some drag that causes the orbit to decay over time. That equation doesn't take drag into account, but the drag reduces the velocity which means that the centripetal acceleration is no longer enough to compensate for gravity.


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

[User]
[Rick and Morty] (Spoilers) Why do the ricks at the citadel...

Why do the ricks at the citadel stay there and live miserable lives? Like the plumber rick and the factory workers. Don't they mostly all have homes with beths and families to go back to and just make inventions like rick c-137?

[Assistant] It was mentioned in the first season that the Citadel is a refuge from the Galactic Authority. Perhaps the heat is just too high in their home dimensions, and these Ricks just aren't Rick enough to take out the GA.


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

[User] Why can't the Gardasil vaccine rid you of the HPV strains you have, but can give protection from the ones that you don't have?

[Assistant]
Gardasil contains the major capsid protein (L1) from different HPV types. Thus, vaccination results in immunity against the viral capsid (the shell of the virus), preventing new infection with HPV.

However, previous HPV infection that results in viral integration (like what would cause cervical cancer, etc) drives expression of the major HPV oncoproteins, E6 and E7. Gardasil doesnt contain those proteins, so the vaccine doesnt induce immunity to them. However, there are several academic and industry groups developing E6 and E7 vaccines that could be used therapeutically to treat previous HPV infection/HPV-associated cancers.


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

[User] What gives sea creatures their fishy taste?

[Assistant]
Fish need to maintain osmotic balance in a saline environment, and one of their strategies to manage this is to load up their tissues with  Trimethylamine Oxide (TMAO). This is odorless and not offensive, but when the fish dies bacteria rapidly begin to break the TMAO down into the very nasty, very fishy smelling Trimethylamine TMA.

Because this is an adaptation to ocean water, freshwater fish are much milder, much less fishy. It's also why smelling ocean fish is a useful metric of its freshness, although by no means the only metric.


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

[User]
[Spyro] Why didn't Spyro turn to stone in the opening?

In the opening, Gnasty Gnorc turned all the dragons to stone except Spyro. Why wasn't Spyro turned to stone?

[Assistant]
Spyro comes from a rare line of Purple Dragons in his world, that are gifted with, among other things, powerful magical energy that makes them withstand the negative effects of magic.

So basically, 'cause he purple flavored.


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

[User]
For a given transmitter, does there exist a limit on the number of recievers?

For example, does the wattage of a radio station affect the number of available listeners? I would think that if I tune my radio to a particular radio station, I am removing energy from the electromagnetic field created by the radio antenna.

[Assistant]
Not in any meaningful way.

A radio will physically block the propagation of a small part of the signal...but not any differently than a toaster would.  And it would not matter what station it was tuned to, or whether it was even turned on.


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

[User] [MCU] How was Kurse able to deflect Mjlnir in Thor 2?

[Assistant] Kurse is powered by a magical artifact; Mjolnir is a magical artifact. Clearly they're magical artifacts of about the same order and power level, and this allowed Kurse to knock Mjolnir out of the way despite its magical propulsion. He still wouldn't have been able to lift it, however.


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

[User] [Marvel & DC main comic universes] How common are superpowered beings in across both galaxies?

[Assistant]
In DC Earth is unique in that many humans have a "meta gene" that will activate and gift someone superpowers when exposed to some type of stimulant or trauma as opposed to just dying like what should have happened to Barry Alan or Captain Atom. Abilities within most species don't vary much. There are some outliers. Mongol and his son are far more powerful than the rest of his species, though new comics may have changed this. Same applies to Lobo. Apokolips is mostly populated by Lowlies who aren't much more powerful than regular humans. But the New Gods they share the world with have either hyper advanced technology or a greater connection to the Source that sets them above.

Marvel has a great deal more variety due to the meddling in the genetics of people on many worlds by the Kree, Celestials, Beyonders, etc.


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

[User]
ELI5: What happens in an Embassy on a day-to-day basis?

Surely in most countries there can't be that many 'lost-passport' issues that need solving, so what else do they do? (please be more detailed than 'diplomatic stuff')

Especially interested in remote countries that don't have a lot of connection with the Embassy's home country!

[Assistant]
A lot of things, though it varies depending on the country.

The "lost passport stuff" refers only to the "Consular" office of the embassy, which deals with lost passports, any citizens who get arrested, etc. as well as issuing visas to any foreigners who want to visit the embassy's country. If it's a big country with lots of business, there can be more than one consulate - so, for example the U.S. in Italy has consulates in Milan and Naples, in addition to the "consulate general" at the embassy in Rome. On the other hand, if there's little or no business for the consulate, they can share between several countries (there is only one consulate among a smattering of small Caribbean countries, for example, and one of the officers travels around, doing one day per week in each of the countries covered).

The actual "Diplomatic stuff" is the non-consular officers, who generally maintain all of their home country's relations with the host. This can vary greatly, depending on the country. If it's an ally, there will be some military personnel monitoring any joint missions and all military cooperation more broadly. There are people who help companies do business in that country (the US department of commerce has a whole diplomatic division, called the Foreign Commercial Service, who are posted overseas to help US companies that import/export to/from the host country). There are treaties and international agreements that need to be negotiated/updated/monitored/maintained/renewed. There are politicians from one country who want to visit the other. Anyone from a visiting university researcher up to the President will pass through the embassy to find out background info, get paperwork help, get in touch with the right people locally, etc. And then the home country wants to be kept updated on what's going on over there, so there are a lot of memos to write back to Washington (and yes, sometimes there are spies).

But again, the scale varies widely depending on the links between the two countries. The largest embassies have hundreds of diplomats and many hundreds more local staff; while I've once met a guy who was stationed at the Irish embassy in Egypt, which had 3 people.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why some video games allow in game, real time graphics changes, and why other video games require a restart before applying the graphics changes.

I'm curious as to why this is the case. Please explain. Thanks.

[Assistant]
Some changes technically require releasing and re-acquiring a resource from the OS, like resolution changes of the game window.  That means the game has to release then re-create all the resources associated with the first one, like the textures and vertex buffers.

Other changes require loading different assets, like high vs low resolution textures or models.  These shouldn't technically require restarting the program.  Likewise for many of the effects settings, like turning on or off SSAA, SSAO, DOF, etc..  That said, it still takes coding effort to add the ability to actually SWAP between different assets.  It's often easier to just assume the high-vs-low setting is fixed from the start of the game, and never code the ability to swap our textures and models.  Thus, you have to restart the game to get it to load the other set of assets.


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

[User] How did early human discovered the uses of fire, and How do they make a fire at the first place? People said that early human made a fire from striking flint with a minerals called "Pyrite", but how did they know that striking those things would make a fire?

[Assistant] When making flint tool what you do is to strike the flint with a non-flint 'hammer' stone to break the flint. Depending on the type of stone used as a hammer you would get more or less sparks. If you do this near or on some very dry vegetation it would happen by accident that you set the vegetation on fire. After this happens a few times the people would figure out how to do it on purpose.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] What exactly did Admiral Ozzel do to warrant execution by Vader?

I know he messed up something strategically, but I dont quite understand what. Did he move out of lightspeed too late, or too early? How did this lead to the rebels discovering the Empire?

Maybe Im just missing something obvious, but the entire scenario seems to go over my head. Can someone ELI5 it for me?

[Assistant]
Basically he had the fleet drop out of hyperspace directly above Hoth in full view of the rebels.  His thinking was to preserve the element of surprise and overwhelm them with force.  In reality, all that resulted was them turning on their impenetrable shield and being a pain in Vader's ass.
The play Vader was looking for was to drop out of hyperspace on the edge of the system where the rebels wouldn't notice, then send a sneaky bombing run in to take out the shield generator while the shields were down.


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

[User] [Dragon Ball Z / Super] If Frieza is able to compete with SSB after only a month of training (the first time he actually trained); does that mean that Perfect Cell could attain a Golden Form as well since he does have some of Frieza's DNA?

[Assistant]
If cell has their DNA, he can do anything they can do...I believe.

On second thought, it brings up another question.  Can cell become a super saiyan?  He is part saiyan after all.

If the answer is no to the Super Saiyan, then he cannot achieve a Golden Form.  Also, it is possible these feats cannot happen as Cell is technically an android?


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

[User] ELI5:What exactly causes a "side ache" when running?

[Assistant] no one really knows what causes it. its a kind of cramp, and drinking plenty of water, stretching, warming up, and breathing properly can help prevent it. Again, no one knows the actual cause of the cramp, despite it being such a common phenomena.


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

[User] How is it that they can X ray paintings to see what is under the picture (previous pictures o changes that the painter did)? What's the x ray stopping at? Is it the same kind of x ray that they use at hospitals?

[Assistant] Adding info to other good comments.  The x-rays themselves would be very similar and generated in the same way as medical x-rays.  However, they would be much lower energy so that differences could be seen from such a thin subject (the painting surface).  The higher the x-ray energy, the more penetration.  If trying to see very subtle differences in thickness and material, a lower energy would be blocked differentially by such small details and provide useful contrast.  The x-ray detectors that form the images would be more sensitive or (in the case of phase-contrast imaging) count/process the image data in a different way.  Besides just thickness differences created by different layers of paint, some paint pigments are mineral-based and the effective atomic number of different pigment molecule types can generate appreciable contrast, especially at low x-ray energies.


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

[User]
ELI5: The following phrase about a surge suppressor: ...

Found in the documentation included with a brand new surge suppressor.  I glanced at it briefly, and this caught my curiosity.

> This device features an internal protection that will disconnect the surge suppression component at the end of its useful life, but will maintain power to the load - now unprotected.

Is this a common thing?

How long is "end of its useful life"?  Obviously not "useful" as defined by the end user if they're still running a load on it.

How would you tell if it is no longer protected, short of sticking a paperclip in socket? (Don't do this!)

Why do they call this a protection mechanism?

I have so many questions!

[Assistant]
it's a very common thing among low end surge suppressors.    and that means it's totally useless!

after a surge that the device cannot handle, it'll switch over to failure mode, which means directly hooking up your computer/tv/expensive electronic directly into the outlet,   unprotected.


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

[User] ELI5: how did the housing market get so inflated, and is it different from what happened in 2008?

[Assistant]
Some good answers here, but there's a glaring detail that hasn't been mentioned yet, and that's interest rates. Tldr at the bottom.

Federal banks only really do one thing: choose how much money is out there. They do this by lowering the interest rates in the country. Private banks like Wells Fargo or Bank of America can then hand out loans at cheaper rates, hence putting more money into the pockets of everyday people.

During the pandemic, people needed money because the world shut down. So the federal bank dropped interest rates. A lot. A huge, historic amount, actually.

At this point, everyone was thinking of buying a home because why not? Those who kept their jobs had money, were stuck inside, and banks made it really easy to get a mortgage.

TLDR: 2008 was a different story. Banks were corrupt and gave mortgages to people who really didn't have the money. 2020-2022 is different in that a lot of people had the money, and had every reason to spend it. So they spent it on homes.


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

[User]
[40k] The blood games

Greetings noble citizens of Terra. I am one of the noble Custodes, and definitely not an Alpha legion infiltrator. For this iteration of the blood games we wish to simulate a mass attack on the palace by normal humans. I need as many as possible to assault the palace like your life depends on it, which I promise is totally not the case. The Custodes will be using training weapons and will definitely not murder you my the thousands. Anybody who cam make it to the throne room without getting "tagged" by a Custodian or the palace defenses will be permitted to gaze upon the Emperor himself atop the golden throne for a whole ten seconds, so really try to get in there!

For the purposes of this exercise we have produced millions of training weapons like human scale bolt guns and grenades. The effects are very realistic, so don't be worried if it looks like anybody is getting horribly maimed and/or killed, it's all part of the exercise!

Me? Yes I'm a real Custodian. I'm wearing armor because I'm outside, and I'm outside to talk to you people. Yes, I know we never come out, like I said I'm out here to announce this holy task to all peoples of Terra. The device on my pauldron? It's, umm, a dragon? Yes, a dragon and definitely not a Hydra, because like I said, I am definitely not an Alpha Legionnaire, and definitely not planning to assassinate the Emperor.

So go on people, fight with all you have, and make your Emperor proud!

(Ooc for the actual question) Would the entire population of Terra, armed with many many weapons, be able to gain entrance to the throne room?

And, if they did, would an embedded Alpha be able to kill the Emprah?

[Assistant]
It depends on what you count as the population of Holy Terra. If you count the High Lords and allow them to utilize their resources, then yeah. If you're just talking about the common hive rabble, then the answer is a resounding no.

An embedded Space Marine of any kind, loyal or traitor, could probably kill the Emperor if he is alone on the Throne. With any number of Custodes guards, no, probably not.


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

[User]
[DC] Why doesn't Superman just call in a favour with the governments of the world he's saved and ask them to make owning Kryptonite more illegal than owning cocaine?

Might not get rid of all of it, but it'd get rid of some of it.

[Assistant]
On Earth-1, before the Crisis, there was just so much Kryptonite on Earth that even though it was illegal, and there were active government plans to find and safely dispose of Kryptonite, there was enough that any criminal who really wanted some could find it. It appeared that the overwhelming majority of the mass of Krypton got carried to Earth in the wake of Kal-El's rocket.

On the reformed Earth after Crisis on Infinite Earths reset the timeline, for the longest time there was just one usable piece of Kryptonite on Earth, and it was owned by Lex Luthor.

Usually, Kryptonite is only used by researchers or supervillains. Researchers studying it for lawful reasons are fine, supervillains break into said labs to steal it for their own use. Sadly, making every lab on the planet supervillain proof is a job that not even a Superman can do.


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

[User] [Star Wars] How much is one galactic credit worth?

[Assistant] That depends entirely on where in the galaxy you are, what you're trying to buy, and whether you mean a Republic Credit, an Imperial Credit, or a New-Republic Credit. The general conversion is that one credit is one USD, but standardized retail prices are non-existent, so it's hard to say.


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

[User]
[Destiny] Are Guardians actually undead?

There's an idea going around that Guardians aren't really people, they're just corpses animated by the Light. Even in the game, you'll get characters saying things like this (the last strike I played featured the Fanatic saying "Hello, dead thing". But earlier in the vanilla campaign, the Light was taken away but none of the Guardians died from losing it. Sure outside forces then killed a lot of them and hey couldn't be brought back, but losing the Light itself didn't seem to hurt anyone.

So are Guardians really just zombies with superpowers, or is everyone just being facetious?

[Assistant] Yes.  Guardians are an unstoppable army of immortal soldiers in thrall to an inscrutable orb.  An orb which we know very little about aside from this;  every other known race is willing to chase it across the galaxy to kill it.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do I get tired around 2 or 3 PM despite having gotten enough sleep the previous night?

[Assistant]
It is the second low in a persons daily circadian rhythm.
Simply, a persons (biological) circadian rhythms (circadian rhythm = hormones, metabolism etc) naturally cycle through highs and lows during a 23.5-24(ish) hour day.
They have 2 low points with the lowest point occurring at around 3-5 am(ish). This is why accident frequency data (work, driving etc) demonstrates a spike during this time.
There is also another low at point, albeit not as significant, which occurs at around 15:00.


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

[User]
[DC Comics/Superman] Why does Superman look like a normal human?

Ive always been curious, Krypton seems to be a planet with wildly varying life forms and a biosphere that seems tremendously different to earth but Kryptonians themselves seem to look almost physically identical to normal humans. This despite the vast difference in in physical properties between earth and Krypton.

He seems to have similar sensory organs to humans, although in his case they seem to be dialed up to 11. He appears to have a humanoid complexion, skin, teeth and hair and appears to even be a distinctly Caucasian human. He has "normally" proportioned features and limbs. He even appears, by human standards, to be incredibly attractive. He seems to have a normal humanoid sex drive and must at least be partially biologically compatible with humans in some way in order to engage in... private time with Lois. By all accounts his emotions and psychology even seems compatible with human understanding and rationalization, he feels joy, anger, sadness and curiosity in ways that are incredibly similar to humans if not completely identical.

This despite the fact that his abilities, however it is they actually work, seem to function completely in defiance to his otherwise human physical appearance.

The variables that have conspired to make him look and act and to some degree "feel" human seem astronomical. How could creatures from planets completely unconnected by time and distance who seem to have never interacted before look to all appearances completely identical?

[Assistant] Jor-El picked a planet where the dominant life form looked similar enough to kryptonians that his son would fit in. It's a big galaxy, but enough worlds had evolution take similar routes with bipedal mammals that humanoid forms are relatively common.


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

[User] What string theory is...

[Assistant]
Err - yeah, what SirTrumpalot said.

String theory is very complicated and has nothing (particularly) to do with strings.

So imagine that you have a lava lamp.  These are fascinating objects that are lamps that cause bits of 'lava' to go up and down in a jar.  It's very easy to describe the lamp by its dimensions (height, width, depth) to give an impression of what it looks like.  You could even describe the lava within the lamp like this.  Except of course the lava changes over time, so you have to add in another dimension of the time that the lamp was at its dimensions that you just described.

It turns out that your lava size and shape at any particular time also depends on its temperature (hotter lava rises to the top as it loses density compared to the liquid around it, whilst cooler lava falls to the bottom of the lamp - where it is heated by the lamp again).  So now we have an added dimension of the size and shape of the lava - its temperature.  So we have 5 dimensions already that describe the lava: height, depth, length, time, temperature.

It turns out that this lava lamp is a magic one that changes colour as well, apparently randomly.  So to describe it you also have to describe it in terms of its colour, giving a sixth dimension: height, depth, length, time, temperature, colour.

And you can keep adding these 'features' to the lava lamp to keep coming up with lots of new 'dimensions'.  And this is what string theory is.  It describes the world in lots of different dimensions, some of which we don't ever notice changing, some of which we don't even know what they are (eg if your lava lamp also had a feature called 'galumph' and it changed over time, you could describe it by its 'galumph').

EDIT: Three 'it's' to 'its'


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

[User]
Why does having 0% or negative inflation stagnate the economy?

I have heard this before, but I have never seen a study or anything supporting it. Why does this happen, and is it proven or only theorized?

[Assistant]
Very much proven and for that you can look at Japan.

If the inflation is negative, people are not inclined to spend. Why buy a house today if you can keep the money and buy it cheaper next year? Or in ten years? This reduces the movement of money in the economy, which is pretty much blood in veins. No movement - no activity - no production - further stagnation and no growth.

Going back to Japan, the government constantly prints an exorbitant amount of of money to drive inflation and invests it all in domestic stocks. For reference, Bank of Japan owns circa 5% of entire Japanese stock market (which itself is second biggest after the USs).

Deflation is terrible.


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

[User]
How were carnivorous plants able to evolve as they did?

Let me preface this question by saying I have always been a firm believer of evolution. However, I've puzzled over many strange results of evolution and how they got to be where they are. Carnivorous plants are one example. How can a plant GRADUALLY evolve the ability to trap insects and absorb them without use of its roots? Did it just start out as a mutation that made a plant kind of sticky? It seems like such a radical change and the intermediate steps don't necessarily seem beneficial enough to ensure greater than average reproductive success.

Edit: Thank you for all your informative responses! This was my first reddit post since the 4 years I've been lurking, and it is very encouraging.

[Assistant] These plants are usually found in regions with poor soil quality meaning that they may only receive vital nutritients when animals die around them. They could hav evolved to simply inhibit  the movement  of insects with a sticky surface and gradually moved toward movement themselves. Once movement was common, natural selection picked the most efficient animal. Ones with the best energy efficiency survive and yield todays carniverous plants.


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

[User]
[META] A note about the moderation policy

Since we became a default subreddit, we're now getting a lot of traffic from newcomers. Which we love. However, it's become clear over the past day that a lot of the new people aren't quite clear on two important aspects of our moderation policy. Specifically:

* Casual racism, sexism, and such things are not allowed, regardless of whether or not you were making a joke. (This includes posts about OP and his sexual orientation.)

* Casual use of slurs is not allowed, regardless of whether or not you intended them to disparage the group they reference.

Doing these things is very rude, and may make it difficult for you to continue posting in this subreddit. If you weren't planning on doing them, this thread won't be that important to you; continue on with your happy posting.

[Assistant]
Well put Amarkov. One thing we are going to have to do is be a little more liberal with the ban hammer, and then ask the questions after we filter out the negativity. Don't even put us on your radar. Be nice.

One other important thing to remember is that **this is a community effort.** Reporting things that violate these guidelines and **messaging the mods** with links to questionable content is the best way to help us out!


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

[User]
[Lord of The Rings] Why do so many people have British accents?

Hobbits, elves and dwarves all had British characters. And oddly one dwarf was Scottish which I really don't understand.

[Assistant]
There's actually a Watsonian answer for this one. Tolkien himself is a character in his own novel via a framing device. LotR is written as if a manuscript of the Red Book were discovered in the present time, and Tolkien is merely translating the stories he found with in the book. In the story, all the characters are speaking Westron, an ancient tongue that is descended from Adnaic, the language of the Numenoreans. Westron doesn't sound like english at all, in fact from what little we do know of westron (Tolkien never developed it as much as he did the Elvish languages), it is vaguely semitic if anything.

To make the setting seem more familiar with modern readers, Tolkien not only translated the Westron narration and speech into English, but also translated names and proper nouns into English. Thus *Sza* becomes *Shire* and *Banazr* becomes *Samwise*. Going even further down the rabbit hole, languages related to Westron, like Rohirric, are rendered as Old English, to show their association.

This ultimatly is why everyone sounds british or some related accent. It's because the whole linguistic setting has been anglicized in the process of translation. Gimli in particular hails from the region of Dale and so is most familiar with the dialect/branch of Westron spoken there. So naturally his accent would differ from the rest of the fellowship.


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

[User]
ELI5: What factors caused India and China to have such large populations?

I know they are relatively large countries that have been inhabited for a very long time, but so is Europe if taken as a whole. Yet Europe only has about half as many people as just one of these two countries. What historical factors lead to their massive populations?

[Assistant]
It's more geographical than historical.

You need to feed a large population. India and China have lots of suitable farmland. Farming takes a great deal of labor so the more people in your family, the better you can farm, encouraging a large population. Nowadays with modern farming methods and fertilizer, you can produce even more food to support a larger population into the billions.

The other regions that have comparable farmland are the fertile crescent (Middle East) and the Nile flood plains, and the United States. The fertile crescent spanning the Mediterranean, Black, and Red Seas is where farming originally began. However, the history of conflicts there have not allowed stable farming in that region. Despite supporting the Ancient Egyptians, the Nile's flood plains have been in decline. Lastly, the US is recently settled and most of the farming goes towards exports and animal feed.


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

[User]
CMV: YouTube videos that got demonetized should still earn the creators some money if it gets a certain amount of views

Even if the video isn't running ads and making money directly, the video is still drawing traffic to YouTube. More traffic to YouTube means more business for YouTube. This is especially true if that video has monetized recommended videos on the side. That video would essentially act as advertisement for other monetized videos that in turn profits YouTube directly.

Alternatively, YouTube should only be allowed to recommend other videos from that creator if the video was demonetized. If the video doesn't generate money for the creator, it should not be allowed to generate money for YouTube, even indirectly.

Telling me that "it's their company, they can do with it what they want" will not change my view.

[Assistant]
You're making the assumption that pulling traffic to YouTube is a net positive for YouTube. What if that traffic only goes to other demonetized videos?

Also, YouTube hosting videos is a cost to them, both in storage and in bandwidth. Getting traffic without ad views is a net negative because of this.


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

[User]
I believe that SiriusXM has an illegal monopoly and the merger of the former Sirius and XM companies shouldn't have been approved. CMV

One of the main arguments for the merger not being a monopoly was that internet radio and traditional radio counted as competition. Bollocks. I can't always get a good FM, AM, WiFi, or cellular connection, but my satellite radio comes in crystal clear all the time. The merger has made SiriusXM so big that other companies can't compete and thus SiriusXM doesn't have to improve. They do not have to improve programming or things like customer service. And, if a smaller company tries to compete, they don't have the recognition, station deals, or negotiating power of SiriusXM and will never be able to tear the slightest hole in the profits of SiriusXM. Also, this can't fall under a "legal monopoly" like Greyhound. Greyhound had competition and consumers chose Greyhound. Greyhound grew big and consumers let that happen (mostly). Consumers were the fault of monopoly, this is not the case of SiriusXM. There was competition, but the allowance of a merger changed that, and the consumers had no say. So, CMV.

[Assistant]
Where the heck are you where you can't pick up AM? Medium Wave propagates darn near everywhere.

Technical issues aside, the subscriber numbers simply weren't enough to support both companies continued operations. As it is, they might lose a satellite in the not too distant future and not be able to afford to replace it. Had there not been a merger, the company that lost their bird would be out of business, and we would end up with just one competitor just like we have now. Is that really an improvement?


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

[User] [Picard] I thought money was obsolete in Star Trek. But the pilot says he's expensive and that girl lives in a trailer while Picard lives in a mansion. What gives?

[Assistant]
Money is obsolete within the Federation, but it still exists. People are simply no longer driven by acquiring wealth, nor is being financially destitute a functional death sentence. Federation credits are a thing, and they're used throughout the quadrant for trade and expenses of all sorts. It's just that on a starship, there's no reason to spend them other than on things like friendly bets during card games. All Starfleet officers are paid for their service, even though their bank accounts are a very minor part of their lives.

There is still some scarcity in the 24th century, though it's more for luxury and not much necessity. Land ownership is still a finite thing, for example. Artists can only paint so many original paintings in a year, and might require pigments that require interstellar shipping from a planet that has a different economic system.


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

[User] how malaria parasites become resistant to antimalarial drugs?

[Assistant]
The simple answer is mutations. They happen constantly because DNA replication isnt perfect, so theres always some amount of variation from parasite to parasite.

If you add in the selective pressure of an antimalarial mutations that decrease the ability of the drug to bind to its target, even if the difference is only marginal, become more likely to survive long enough to reproduce and pass along their genes. Over many cycles mutations are selected for and become more prevalent.

This is why single drug treatments tend to create resistance more quickly. If the organism only needs one or maybe two mutations to become resistant to the drug, its much more likely that those mutations will arise before the drug can completely clear the infection. Multiple drugs with different targets dramatically decrease the odds of the parasite hitting all the right mutations simultaneously.


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

[User]
[General] I've recently acquired superpowers and want to do as much good as I can; why is it that stopping street crimes is okay, but going after white-collar criminals isn't?

Most authorities are willing to look the other way if I stop a mugging, but if I go after the billionaires and politicians who created and seek to maintain a society where muggings are commonplace, suddenly I'm a supervillain; what the hell is wrong with this picture?!

Why am I allowed to fight the symptoms, but not the disease itself?

[Assistant]
You need to use the same level of force as the criminal.   In the case of street thugs, that usually means cracking some skulls.  But if you use the same methods on white collar criminals,  it's assault because there is no imminent threat and you're not protecting anyone physically.

Instead,  use your abilities to collect evidence.  Break into secure locations and take pictures and video and steal or copy documents.  Give these to the authorities or press or simply upload them to social media yourself.   Set up stings and con them into giving up their money so you can give it back to the victims.

There are a lot of things you can do that won't end up in a standoff with a SWAT team.


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

[User]
CMV: Government officials and lawmakers should not be allowed to own or trade stocks.

Although my view is from the perspective of a U.S. citizen this could probably apply to any country for the same reasons, and maybe already exists in other countries. Government officials are too close to policy creation, law creation, and privileged information. Information that could easily be used to make extremely advantageous trades before anyone else. If there was a 0% chance they could own or trade stocks wouldn't that weed out people who aim for positions of power solely for money, rather than those who aim for power to help shape, change and run their communities? I'm sure there are solutions that "meet in the middle" for this problem. I would like to hear your thoughts on how this can be done.

[Assistant]
How far do you go though?

Can their spouses own stock? Their children? Their parents?

The official will gain benefit from this. If you dont stop spouses at least there is a very direct benefit. But is it fair to write a law to stop corruption of person B by effecting the livelihood of Person A.

What about their bestfriend? Or just about anyone close to the lawmaker. What if they used their connections and created laws to help their best friends stock portfolio and when they left office their friend invited them into their buisness at a very high salary.

Its just so easy to get around. And frankly keeping it the way it is disincentives them from using these get arounds and keeps the stock tied to their name. Which makes it easier to evaluate the offical on their policies on a case by case.

In addition, if the person has a lot of stock in a company and now needs to sell it all, that can have huge effects on the company. If Jeff Bezos tomorrow said he was going to sell all his stock in amazon that would have disastrous consequences on the value of the company.


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

[User]
How does a server listen?

How do servers constantly stay on and listening for requests to respond to?

EDIT: for clarity, my conception comes from a programming side where the files you write are static and sit until theyre called, and then run in the order theyre invoked when needed. They arent running - except for the brief moment theyre called. This continuous running makes the server almost seems alive in a sense. so at the basic entry point is there some sort of loop that runs constantly checking for new requests until its interrupted to shut down?

[Assistant] Computers have a system called "interrupts" that basically allow them to do other work (or sleep) until something interesting happens. This can be keystrokes, mouse movements, or network requests. Programs can request the OS to "wake them up" when an interrupt happens so they can process the network request.


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

[User]
[Star Wars New Canon] Where were the Temple Guards when Anakin/Vader and the 501st attacked the Jedi Temple? If any were there, what happened?

The Temple Guards are seen throughout the Clone Wars era, and even got involved when Barriss Offee went rogue and attacked Anakin Skywalker while Ahsoka was on trial. However, when Order 66 was activated, not a single guard was seen. What happened to them?

[Assistant]
At least one turned against their fellow Jedi - the Grand Inquisitor (featured prominently in the follow-up series Rebels) is a former Temple Guard. But as said, presumably most were killed during the attack on the Temple.

It must be said, that during the execution of Order 66 the Jedi Temple wasn't exactly highly occupied - mostly the elderly, the too young, and the injured were the ones in the Temple, with a handful that were between wartime assignments or were otherwise full-time Temple residents, like Jocasta Nu.


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

[User]
[Scott Pilgrim vs the World] How would Scott's backstory be explained to future potential paramours if he had become Ramona's eighth Evil Ex?

It seems like he was on track to become the new top tier fighter in Ramona's gauntlet. What type of fighter would he be? All the other ~~guys~~ *exes* had a gimmick, what would his be?

[Assistant] In that scenario, the gimmick is that >!he becomes Nega Scott; try to fight him and you've got the best fighter in Toronto on you like white on rice, but if you come to terms with how easily you, yourself could become an 'evil ex', you can metaphorically sheath your sword and go out for waffles instead of brawling.!<


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

[User]
[Prometheus] (Spoilers) Why does everyone assume that the engineer was trying to destroy (reseed) life on Earth?

Dr. Shaw sends a message to the ship telling them that the engineer is planning to fly to Earth and release the black goo, thus wiping out humanity and assumedly every other species. I see no evidence for this, other than the engineer killing a few of the crew. We see him look at a hologram of Earth and then program his coordinates, but we don't have evidence of him heading towards Earth. Perhaps he was simply making a note of where the intruders came from before leaving for a different part of the galaxy. Most interpretations of the events assume that he was going to destroy Earth, and ignore other possibilities.

[Assistant]
This film is absolutely stuffed full of symbolism, even if it is lacking decent plot and writing. It's not just that the idea that the Engineers created humanity, but also actively participated in our development. That explains why there's a star drawing basically showing us exactly where to find them.

It's implied through the images that we see that Jesus was actually an Engineer sent to Earth to check up on our progress and (yep, you guessed it) the Romans crucified him. That's why the Engineers want to wipe out humanity, because we are too violent and killed one of their own. (You know, after all they did for us.)

If you don't believe me, from the horses mouth:

>**Movies.com**: We had heard it was scripted that the Engineers were targeting our planet for destruction because we had crucified one of their representatives, and that Jesus Christ might have been an alien. Was that ever considered?

>**Ridley Scott**: We definitely did, and then we thought it was a little too on the nose. But if you look at it as an our children are misbehaving down there scenario, there are moments where it looks like weve gone out of control, running around with armor and skirts, which of course would be the Roman Empire. And they were given a long run. A thousand years before their disintegration actually started to happen. And you can say, "Let's send down one more of our emissaries to see if he can stop it." Guess what? They crucified him.


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

[User]
[GI Joe] Is Cobra an actual threat or are they just kinda goofy?

How competent are they?

[Assistant] Their military and terrorist attacks are usually stopped by what is essentially an arm of the USDF but with the newest and shiniest of tech, but apart from that their underground financial and criminal empire is absolutely massive and competently set up and running to be effectively untouchable from law enforcement and entire governments.


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

[User] Is "blacking out" directly caused by alcohol or is it some sort of defense mechanism? If so why does it happen and how?

[Assistant] It is caused by ethanol binding to GABA-A receptors in the brain (and to a lesser degree a number of others), which causes an inhibitory effect in neural activity. Alcohol tends to selectively affect the cortical regions of the brain first, those more tied to higher reasoning and thought, which is why the first few drinks tend to make people "think less" about what they're doing and become more sociable. After a while, the ethanol starts to affect deeper brain regions, those responsible for balance (being unsteady), speech (slurring), and eventually memory -- the hippocampus region. If one drinks enough, they pass out entirely. The danger is when alcohol concentrations are so high that the ethanol starts to inhibit more vital brain regions affecting breathing and the heart.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do American radio stations have such weird names, namely just strange combinations of letters like WBEZ or CFRM or K-PAX or KGB?

Just asking. Tried googling a bit as well but couldn't find any satisfying answers.

[Assistant]
The letters are the call sign.  It's just the identifier for a particular radio station.  There are *almost* always four letters.  WXKP 107.1 in New York.  KROQ 106.7 in Los Angeles.

The FCC regulates radio stations in the US so the stations have to give out their call sign to identify themselves on air.

East of the Mississippi river the stations begin with W.  West of the Mississippi the stations begin with K except for rare exceptions.


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

[User]
How can a candle make oxygen?

I was watching a show on submarines and they mentioned a chlorate candle that when burned release oxygen in emergency situations. My whole like ive known candles / fire to oxidize or use up oxygen. How can this candle generate oxygen?

[Assistant]
Chlorate candles, or oxygen candles, consist of multiple substances.

One of which is sodium chlorate (NaClO3). If you heat sodium chlorate to a sufficiently high temperature, it falls apart into NaCl and O2, producing oxygen gas.

The other component of an oxygen candle is something that can produce the required heat for the reaction mentioned above to take place. This is typically iron powder. Oxidizing it generates plenty of heat and with the candle being wrapped in a thermal insulator, the amount of oxygen needed to maintain a sufficient heat level is considerably lower than the amount released by the sodium chlorate reaction.

So you're right that candles oxidize whatever it is they're burning. But in this case, the oxygen is not only an input into the reaction, but also a product of a different reaction taking place at the same time.


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

[User]
ELI5:FXAA, SMAA, and other anti-aliasing options

OK, so i know what anti-aliasing is. But what does it mean by '8xAA' or 'SMAA' or all those other options?

[Assistant]
There are 2 main kinds of AA.

The first uses sampling (which is why it's called SAA), which basically means that it calculates what colors the pixels would be if you were at a higher resolution, and then averages them to find the color the actual pixel should be. The edges are technically still jagged, but it's harder to tell because the color is blended. The number is how many extra pixels are being calculated before averaging them out. 8xMSAA means each pixel on an edge is broken down into 8 pixels, those colors are calculated, and then averaged back into the pixel you actually see.
There are different kinds of SAA which do this in different ways (FSAA and SSAA do this for every pixel on the screen while MSAA only does it for edge pixels, which takes less processing power but sometimes misses things).

The other type of AA is a type of post-processing (effects added after the image is actually created, but before it's displayed on the screen). MLAA and FXAA do this by finding edges of contrasting colors and blurring them together with the next pixel over, which reduces jagged edges by a lot. However, it does this to everything on the screen since it can't actually tell what's truly and edge and what isn't, so everything can end up blurry.

Then we have SMAA, which is post processing AA that uses similar edge calculation as MSAA, meaning it can have light performance requirements like FXAA while not blurring the entire screen. If you want a balance between performance and looks, go with this.

Something cool that most don't know is that you can often apply post processing AA from your video card, outside the game. This means you can do stuff like combine as much MSAA as your system can handle, then add on a small amount of SMAA (very low performance cost) and end up with AA greater than the sum of it's parts.


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

[User]
Is it possible to believe something and not know that you believe it?

Or is knowledge of a belief a condition of there being a belief at all?

[Assistant]
This is a tenet of psychoanalysis: from the psychoanalytic experience, the analyst comes to see beliefs in the analysand which the analysand herself does not consciously believe she holds.

The key point here being that unconscious beliefs are intersubjective: only able to be seen by a second person.


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

[User]
Can some please explain to me the open question argument in plain english? It is driving me insane trying to understand it.

I would also like to know why it begs the question.

[Assistant]
If someone asks Tom is a bachelor, but is he married? Youll think he doesnt know what the word bachelor means.

If someone asks This will make everyone happy, but is it good? You wont automatically conclude he is mistaken about the meaning of good.

So, good cant mean the same thing as makes everyone happy, in the way bachelor means unmarried man.

So goodness cant be the same thing as making everyone happy.

For any x This will X, but is it good? is open in the same way.

So, good doesnt definable by anything else; goodness is its own thing.


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

[User] ELI5: What is Determinism?

[Assistant]
Determinism argues that basically all choices and actions were previously determined by things in your past/genetics and other things like that.

Because of this, Determinists argue Free Will doesnt exists and any impulsive actions you think youre doing have been doing were actually decided way beforehand.

This is a huge simplification, hope it helps!


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

[User]
Feels like I've lost hours googling locations of publishing companies

Elsevier is where again? And why doesn't it say in the book I'm trying to cite? And which one of the freaking Springer publishing companies do I need to cite? Are they in Wiesbaden or Berlin?

Anyone else?
What else are you googling constantly - or feels like that?

[Assistant]
A reference manager like Zotero or Mendeley can often auto-fill some of those details for you-- punch in the ISBN and it figures the rest out.

I haven't run into this issue in a long while, though, partly because common citation styles are starting to remove the publication location requirement. **So double-check if you even need it**. :)


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

[User] Eli5 Why do we rarely laugh at comedy tv/film when on our own, but laugh often when we have company?

[Assistant] We don't 100% know why we laugh, but we think it's social and helps us cope with stress and manage difficult moments. Laughter is communication and part of how we maintain relationships with other humans. The observation  that we don't laugh nearly so much when we're alone is actually evidence that it happens for a communicative, social reason!


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

[User]
[DUNE] When Paul or Leto have Prescience Visions are they Seeing or Creating them?

Does the person seeing the visions predict or create them?

Paul and other prescients see multiple futures and Leto talked about cutting off all other futures that didnt lead to the GP and it is mentioned that one or in this case the Oracle not only has to see the vision but also to act on it to make it happen. How much of the persons wants/desires shape the vision however?

I know Paul did not see Leto because he did not presumably look further down the path that led to the GP because it was too awful for him, just as in Dune he did not look further down the path that led him to meeting the Baron Hello Grandfather and whatever that entailed as it was also an awful future.

That is without even getting into the Tarot cards of messiah which affect Pauls visions even further and him outright searching for a future where Chani lives and then settling on one where their children love and are free from control.

I am confused as to the mechanics of it.

*The prescience, he realized, was an illumination that incorporated the limits of what it revealed--at once a source of accuracy and meaningful error. A kind of Heisenberg indeterminacy intervened: the expenditure of energy that revealed what he saw, changed what he saw.*

[Assistant]
i presume you specifically mean the branched future path where Jamis teaches him the ways of the desert and the freman? was that real vision of one possible future? yes

does that mean it happened (will happen)? yes

but how could it happen if Jamis is dead because Paul killed him? because Paul (and Leto) experiences time and memory differently than most humans.

prescience makes it so he experiences time non-linearly, ie simultaneously living multiple existences. the "knows without knowing" part of other memory that paul is learning to remember makes it so that wherever/whenever he is remembering he can instantly recall everything that lead up to that memory as well as the events being remembered.

put it together and you have Muad'dib/Leto (and Ghanima to a lesser degree). Paul is revered as the Lisan Al Giab by the pan and grabben folks and he is the Duke Atredies, but he's still a young man (13-15ish) and he's only found the key, put it in the lock, and just turning the key in the lock. the lock isn't open. the true powers lie mostly dormant. But the sleeper is stirring.

another moment, before jamis, is when paul knew everything about surviving in a sandstorm after crashing with his mom. part of this is that Paul is familiar with a fremkit because duncan brought one back and they are kinda standard equipment for anyone going into the deep desert. another part is that Paul is sort of remembering how to survive and use everything correctly due to accessing his prescient other memory. this is happening because of the spice saturating the air and also the pressures of the crisis/survival. he demonstrated this ability slightly when his stilsuit was fit desert-fashion, like a freman.

right now, he's in survival mode and that pressure is what is needed to unlock his potential. also the spice, it is vital to tapping into human potential.


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

[User] My car has a display showing the gas consumption (MPG or Litres/100km) for the current moment and the current drive so far. Is it physically measuring the gas consumption, or is it monitoring other parameters to calculate gas consumption?

[Assistant] On new cars, it's done by calculation, using the commanded fuel injector pulse width and your current speed. There are also dial gauges that were used about a decade ago that were  less accurate and used engine vacuum as an indicator.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] How did Arvel Crynyd crashing his A-Wing destroy an entire Super Star Destroyer?

Star Destroyers have redundant command centers and ,besides the main shield deflectors, do not house much in the command super structure.  There are no fuel containers, hangers, reactors, or large missile batteries that I am aware of.  So how did the crash of one A-Wing, cause the entire SSD to lose control and crash into the Death Star?

Also, how did the A-Wing get through their shields?  Do they have different shields for physical objects and some for lasers/blasters?  How does that work?

[Assistant]
In fact, capital ships do have different shields for physical impacts (particle shields) and laser/turbolaser fire (energy/ray shields).

During the battle, the rebels hammered the Executor's shield generators just enough for them to fail at the moment of impact. It was the biggest and most dangerous target, aside from the Death Star, after all. It needed to be disabled or destroyed first before any other ship, so most rebel bombers concentrated on it.

Even though the A-wing is one of the smallest fighter craft, it's still got a mass and a HELL of a lot of speed. It was the perfect projectile to smash whatever weak sheilds remained in place and completely destroy the Executor's main command deck.

Had the ship been further away from the Death Star, it's entirely possible the backup systems would have engaged and the ship would have stabilized long enough for secondary command to take over. But because it floated so close, it got caught in the gravity well of the artificial moon and began an unavoidable collision. (I'd also like to think it was in the middle of a maneuver to better defend itself/destroy more rebel ships. So when the A-wing hit, the thrusters/engines continued to push it in whatever direction it was going and without anyone to correct it in time, the ship wound up in the gravity well and crashed.)


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

[User]
[Devil Went Down To Georgia] What is a gold fiddle worth?

If you win you get a shiny fiddle made of gold, but if you lose the devil gets your soul. A soul is obviously valuable to you and the devil seems pretty desperate for one. But how much is the gold fiddle worth to the devil? Like, does the devil even care about losing something material like that? Is it just worth it's weight in gold? Is it worth a human soul? Could I use it in place of a human soul during sacrificial rituals?

[Assistant] The gold fiddle is just to bribe Johnny into entering the competition (and losing). He isn't supposed to win, and the Devil doesn't really acknowledge that as a possibility until it happens. If the fiddle could be used in place of a soul, the Devil wouldn't even have to worry about getting 'behind' on soul collection when golden fiddles are easier to make/get.


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

[User] [General]I was in a dungeon and put a blindfold on a skeleton guard. Can it see me?

[Assistant] I think it might work via the placebo effect. Maybe the skeleton just doesn't realize it doesn't have muscles and tendons and everything it needs to work, and that's why it works. If this is the case, you could put a blindfold on it, or a bucket on it's head, whatever you want!


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does the volume slider in online video players make such a small difference?

I noticed a recurring pattern when I'm watching online videos and I want to reduce the volume, I have to put the slider all the way down to 5-10% (down from 100%) before I notice a real difference.

[Assistant] Check your volume mixer settings to see if your browser volume is at %100 first. Second many places such as YouTube have a vested interest in making sure their videos are heard because of advertising revenue so they operate their volume off of a curve rather than an actual scale.


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

[User] [Harry Potter/Doctor Strange] How would the wizarding world react to the revelation there are powerful forms of magic that muggles can learn given sufficient "study and practice"?

[Assistant] Probably deny that it's magic (which they might have an argument for, since it works so differently in many cases.) Or attempt to prove that Strange and his ilk are some undocumented strain of Muggle-born wizards.


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

[User] [Star Trek] Why is each federation vessel seemingly unique in their appearance?

[Assistant] Starship technology advances rapidly. Basic design (like the forward decks with two warp nacelles) stays the same, but new ideas are constantly field tested and iterated on. Feedback comes in from missions, and further refinements are made. Experimental ideas are proposed and prototypes are built and launched. Fortunately, the Federation has no shortage of competent engineers to maintain each of their ships, and many of the individual components are mass-produced so that engineers aren't completely lost on every new ship.


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

[User]
CMV: "If a Democrat did what Trump is doing, you would want them impeached/removed." Will not convince Trump supporters to turn against him.

Reasons:

General polarization: As Americans have been sorting themselves (or sorted by systemic pressures) into their political enclaves, the social costs of turning against Trump if your social support system is entrenched in Trump support as a defining litmus test are too high. The lack of a viable apolitical or "middle" right now means that to want Trump impeached and removed automatically means you are seen as a traitor to conservatives and Republicans.

Different value hierarchies: It has been shown that across the political spectrum, people generally have similar core values, but in a vastly different order of importance. Trump supporters, I would argue, put ingroup unity and respect for authority/the leader higher than values like fairness to the outgroup or empathy for the stranger.

The ends justify the means: Across the spectrum, there is always some level of righteousness that allows people to believe that the cause they are fighting for and the opponents cause is so dangerous that doing an unfair thing to get ahead is morally justified. I would say there is plenty of evidence that this is asymmetric because of my last reason, but the point is that Trump supporters believe in very real way that Trump is doing what is best for them and their country.

It didn't work on Bill Clinton supporters either: I am barely old enough to remember that time but from what I have learned, Clinton supporters dismissed this form of argument from Republicans saying, "We knew Bill was the type of guy that would do this when we voted for him. We dont think that you Republicans getting all butt hurt that the President got his dick sucked is justified because you only care about stopping his agenda, not his sex life."

They may see the appointment of anti abortion justices a higher priority than any other political outcome.

They may see a person who is convinced by this argument as weak.

I'm sure there are more reasons that I'm forgetting but I'll leave it here.

CMV!

[Assistant]
I certainly think there's a strong level of general 'trump can do no wrong' mentality floating around out there. That said though, it seems like the real driving force from swayable Republicans is that they see Dems as essentially crying wolf.  The entire time Trump has been in office, Dems and left-leaning pundits have been raising hell about whatever Trump did this time - which is usually distasteful but politically benign. After a few years it all just turns into background noise.

So at this point, Trump could pull some serious shit and no one who isn't already a 'never-trump'er will give it much attention because all the last 10,000 less important things caused just as much uproar.


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

[User] (Sharknado) What made the sharks so blood thirsty, as compared to regular sharks?

[Assistant]
As we all know sharks have an extremely keen sense of smell. It's their main tool for locating and hunting prey, and it's often said that a shark can detect a drop of blood a mile away. Have you ever tried to smell something underwater? It's very difficult. But a shark can do it, no sweat. That's how good they are at smelling things.

Now, transport that shark from the water to a tornado. Smelling things in the wind is much easier, and suddenly the shark is overwhelmed by the scent of prey animals all around him. What's more, he's disoriented by the swirling wind and can't make out the direction the scents are coming from. All of this overstimulus throws the shark into a blood fury that cannot be sated. They become very dangerous and the result is a classic sharknado situation.


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

[User]
[DC] Why do Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent look so alike?

in most comics, animations, etc. both of them are extremely similar looking, to the point that both have impersonated each other multiple times in several different canons.

[Assistant]
It's just a coincidence. There's probably more muscular guys with black hair and blue eyes running around the planet besides them, too. Baratheons and so on.

Also they're not exactly dead ringers or anything, just slightly similar; they often utilize tricks like distance or ventriloquism to pull off the standard switcheroo.


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

[User] [DC] How in the hell Batman built the bat-cave without any contractors?

[Assistant] I believe he used contractors that each worked on very specific sections of it and they didn't have knowledge of the entire layout or what it was to be used for. They would've had to sign NDA's and been paid very well not only for their work but for their silence.


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

[User]
Wouldn't the jets of a black hole be ejecting matter faster than the speed of light?

Since light can not escape a black hole's gravity, wouldn't the ejected matter in the two high speed jets be traveling faster than the speed of light?

[Assistant] No, because the matter that formed the jets did not pass into the event horizon. It is matter that accelerated and converted to mostly high energy radiation and particles as it fell towards the black hole from the accretion disk. It is redirected to the poles and ejected by the extreme magnetic fields around the black hole.


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

[User] [Warhammer 40k] Are other galaxies affected by the 40k races? Is there maybe a galaxy nearby that exists in relative peace? Would be possible to reach it using imperium technology?

[Assistant] Total 40k novice here aside from a few YouTube videos and video games I've played.  Imperium technology can not reliably travel that far away from known space and most likely would get lost in the warp rather than travel between galaxies.  The tyranids came into the galaxy from completely different angles and directions. This means either the galaxy is surrounded by tyranids or they travel much faster outside the galaxy than any known race.  The other evidence of the milky way being isolated is no known superior race like the old ones or their foes seemed to be interested in leaving the galaxy even when facing extinction.  Maybe there's something keeping the various races tied to the milky way like a barrier similar to star wars or Star Trek lore that makes travel dangerous if not impossible.  Maybe the tyranids are all the life outside of our galaxy if they weren't created by the old ones.


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

[User] ELI5: How is it possible that space is infinite?

[Assistant]
The problem with this question is it has no satisfying answer. You can easily counter with 'How is it possible that it could be finite?"

Neither of these things are truly comprehensible to humans. We're stuck on this tiny little ball of mostly water after all. The less than helpful answer is that space is infinite because it is. Its a fundamental property of the universe.  We can't really comprehend the idea of infinite space, but its still the reality of the situation regardless.


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

[User] ELI5: Why not just Google your question to find the answer instead of posting it on here?

[Assistant]
The purpose of this forum is to have answers explained in friendly, simplified, and layman-accessible explanations. Frequently when you search Google you find explanations that use unfamiliar vocabulary or assume too much prior knowledge, or they're just not explained very well.

This is the place to go when you asked a question, got an answer, but you don't understand the answer and you'd like some help understanding it.


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

[User]
Can the spot of a laser pointer move faster than light?

Assuming I am standing far enough from a very long wall and have a strong laser pointer, I can make the dot of the laser pointer move fairly quickly. Is there anything stopping me from moving the dot faster than the speed of light?

[Assistant]
>Is there anything stopping me from moving the dot faster than the speed of light?

Absolutely not. The laser dot isn't actually an object it is just the place where photons from your laser pointer are hitting the wall.

If you sweep the dot across the wall quick enough the dot could appear to move faster than c but this does not violate relativity, the photons from your laser pointer are all still moving at c.


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

[User]
CMV: He started it is a perfectly valid defense and we should've never been taught otherwise

Everyone knows the scenario, two kids are fighting or getting into it in some manner or another and then the parent or teacher or principal or whatever breaks them up and one says "he started it" and then the authority figures says "I don't care who started it"

I'm sure you've seen it happen in real life and maybe even had it happen to you as well as in media and what not. This is a horrible thing to teach kids, it basically says if someone is bullying/assaulting/annoying you, you are not allowed to do anything to defend yourself or retaliate you just have to sit there and take it (until presumably you snap and shoot up a school).

In actual law the person who started it committed assault or attempted murder and the person who is defending themselves committed no crime even if they kill them. When it comes to kids the stakes are a lot lower so it's easy to brush off the whole thing and tell them both to shut up but while that might be convenient for the adult it's very damaging for the children, because the aggressor is taught they can get anyone they want in trouble by aggressing on them and will face no more than equal consequences and might even be able to use that to extort people and like I said before the defender is taught that they should never fight back or retaliate. So instead of teaching kids that it matters who started it and thus you should never aggress on someone as they are justified in retaliating we teach them never to retaliate enabling the aggressors.

[Assistant]
Unless the interaction and full context is recorded, "he started it" is a completely worthless and meaningless defense because we don't know that the person claiming someone else started it is telling the truth. A lot of times the person saying someone else started it is actually the one who started it.

You also have the question of whether or not the reciprocation was equal to the original offense. If Joey pushes Billy and then Billy punches Joey in the nose, Billy saying "he started it!" does not seem like a valid defense at all. In most cases each reciprocation is greater than the previous offense.


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

[User]
[Mortal Kombat] Why does everything suck so much?

Like, why is everyone always punching each other to death? Why do people seem to die all the time and why can't the military do anything about it? Everything just seems to straight up suck.

Even when the heroes win it doesn't seem to fix much aside from "nobody got conquered". The villains still exist and they're still going around torturing and slaughtering hundreds. Why are they such dicks?

I'm okay with somewhat out-of-universe answers for this, so long as they aren't one sentence "because the creators wanted it to be like that" answers.

[Assistant]
Earth is the weaker party, and Mortal Kombat is a tournament elder gods brokered to give Earth a fighting chance. That's why they are punching each other in one on one combats.

Earth military can't really do anything except play by elder gods' rules, because in a total war, earth will lose. You see this when Shao Kahn found a loop hole and invaded earth. He got dragons that can take on fighter jets, giant beasts that can tank missiles, ability to open portals everywhere releasing hordes of Tarkata warriors, and sucking souls out of humans.

As for why Shao Kahn is such a dick? Well, you don't become the all conquering ruler of Outworld by being nice.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do you communicate with unauthorized/unidentified aircraft?

I've seen movies in which pilots communicate with unauthorized planes in order to force them to go away/land nearby immediately.. etc.

Do all planes from all countries have an universal radio frequency? (Even ones flying illegally?) How does it work?

[Assistant]
In aviation, 121.5MHz is an international reserved emergency frequency called the "Guard" frequency. Generally plane radios can be tuned to their regular channel and guard at the same time, so you always get heard.

Fun fact, in the Incredibles when helen says she's "Transmitting in the blind guard", she's announcing that she's just speaking on the guard channel to anyone who can hear and help and doesn't know if she's actually being received by anyone.

Also, planes are equipped with a device called a ~~squawkbox~~ transponder, which transmits a four-digit code that can be picked up by air traffic controllers. This is normally used to help ATC identify planes in the air but in the event that a plane's radio is busted, they can set their transponder to squawk a specific number (7700 for general emergency, 7600 for loss of comms, 7500 for a hijacking) to declare what's gone wrong and allow controllers to plan around it.


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

[User] Why would a bank borrow money from the fed at the discount rate if it can borrow from other commercial banks at the federal funds rate which is lower than the discount rate that the fed charges?

[Assistant] They wouldn't, which is kind of the point. The fed prefers if banks lend among themselves first and foremost. They are a lender of last resort, or in other words only meant to lend *if* other options aren't available. And making it slightly more expensive than interbank lending ensures banks don't lend from the fed just because they can.


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

[User]
[Thor 2] why don't the avengers help Thor?

I don't see why they weren't there. Also they really downgrade Thor in these movies. I want to see him smash something.. No someone with that hammer!

[Assistant]
Thor wasn't really on Earth all that long. He saw Jane was in trouble, beamed down to get her, and then was back in Asgard in the space of a few minutes. After that, he didn't return to Earth until right around the final battle. Not to mention the final battle took place in Greenwich; not exactly the most convenient of locations for a lot of the Avengers.

And even if he did want to get there assistance, how exactly is he going to talk to them? It's not like he owns a phone. Really the only person he was around that might have the capabilities of contacting them would be Selvig, but he was deemed insane so its anyone's guess if SHIELD would even pick up the phone.


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

[User] "If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as a Michaelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry." Does this viewpoint hold true today? Should people do exceptional work at menial jobs that offer little in wages or opportunity?

[Assistant]
First, keep in mind that this is a MLK Jr quote, so it should be interpreted within a Christian worldview. Consider Colossians 3:17-24. It begins with:

> And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

It then continues to instruct everyone to a life of servitude and submission; wives submit to husbands, husbands serve wives, children obey parents, fathers encourage children.

Verses 22-24 then summarize with an even more astonishing command:

> Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything, not only to please them while they are watching, but with sincerity of heart and fear of the Lord. **Whatever you do, work at it with your whole being, for the Lord and not for men**,because you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as your reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.

This command to work with all your effort as if doing work of a transcendent caliber is issued even to servants, who are presumably getting paid little to nothing. This jives with the rest of MLK's quote:

> ...Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, 'Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well. '

Since all productive efforts on this view are done in honor of God, they should all be done soulfully. This teaching is present elsewhere in the New Testament (Ephesians 6:7) and also in the Jewish scriptures (Ecclesiastes 9:10), and the attitude it commends is to apply to everyone.

So, when you ask if this viewpoint still holds today, the answer is: unequivocally yes, so long as you are operating within a Christian worldview.

What if you are not a Christian? Arguably, a virtue ethicist could hold a similar view. If taking all productive efforts seriously produces in one the kind of character which is desirable/necessary/good/moral/whatever, then this is what one should do regardless of pay or opportunity or consequences or duties. In other words, taking such an attitude might make one a better person overall.


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

[User] Why do our eyes handle HDR situations fine (ex. looking own a hall at a bright window) but a camera needs a special mode?

[Assistant]
Your eyes do several things that cameras don't.

1. Your eyes are constantly adjusting the effective "exposure" they're getting in real time. Your pupils are constantly expanding to let in more light and contracting to block it out, depending on what you're looking at moment to moment. Squinting in bright light can take this even further.

2. Your brain does a lot of postprocessing to create the illusion of a constant stream of vision, correcting brightness is only one part of this. Your brain edits out your nose, and the blindspots caused by your optic nerves. It corrects for color, brightness, and contrast. It covers up the blur that happens when you move your eyes or blink. It ignores the fact that only the central ~15 degrees of your vision is sharp and full color, and stitches together an approximation of the rest of your field of view from mental models and your blurry peripheral vision.

3. You actually have 2 different light sensing cell types, that have very different sensitivities, and you automatically switch which ones are dominant. Cones are responsible for full color, sharp, detailed vision, but need a lot of light (relatively) to work. Rods only sense light vs dark, and don't form as sharp of an image, but work with extremely small amounts of light (starlight with no moon for example) and are very good at detecting movement. This is why you can navigate at night, but you can't read: your rods let you see objects, but not details as small as most text.


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

[User] ELI5:What is String Theory?

[Assistant]
The essential idea behind string theory is this: all of the different 'fundamental ' particles of the Standard Model (electrons, quarks etc) are really just different manifestations of one basic object: a string. How can that be? Well, we would ordinarily picture an electron, for instance, as a point with no internal structure. A point cannot do anything but move. But, if string theory is correct, then under an extremely powerful 'microscope' we would realize that the electron is not really a point, but a tiny loop of string. A string can do something aside from moving--- it can oscillate in different ways. If it oscillates a certain way, then from a distance, unable to tell it is really a string, we see an electron. But if it oscillates some other way, well, then we call it a photon, or a quark, or a ... you get the idea. So,**if the string theory is correct, the entire world is made of strings!**

Such a simple idea aims to explain stuff which the Standard model cannot explain.


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

[User]
CMV: The Bible is sexist.

By "The Bible", I am including both the canonical Old Testament and the New Testament. By "sexist", I mean that the Bible portrays women as completely inferior to men. Its overall message towards women is condescending at best, and murderous at worst. However, I'm open to the idea that I may simply be reading it wrong, which is why I made this CMV.

 Keep in mind that I'm not saying "Christianity is sexist" or that "Christians are sexist", because it depends on the Christian, and the vast majority of them are not. I am only going off the text of the Bible, not its application in the real world. And before someone starts a battle over semantics, I'm not arguing that every single book or passage contains some sexist thing, but the message is there in the Bible as a whole, implicit if not explicit, and isn't really contradicted. I've avoided naming specific verses for this introduction, because there are too many, but I'll pull them out as needed.

[Assistant]
Can you give specific examples? It's difficult to judge without them.

What's the overall message towards women specifically, and what makes you say that?

There are women prophets (e.g. Sarah) who are sometimes superior to male ones, women heroines (e.g. Yael), and women as leaders (e.g. Miriam, Devorah, etc.). The laws regarding female slaves and war captives are more progressive than any in the time of its writing.