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

[User]
CMV - I believe that Populism challenges western liberal democracy, and that Right Populism is far more dangerous than left Populism to the future of our society.

We live in a political moment where political populism is on the rise in western nations. From Corbyn and UKIP in the UK, to Melenchon and Le Pen in France, to Sanders and Trump in the US, both populists on the left and the right are having huge success in what were considered centrist, liberal democracies.

Both sides draw from radical ideologies (Socialism and Nationalism respectively) and repackage then for general consumption. Both seek to remodel society in a way that would push us away from the liberal democracies that we know.

There are many who see left populists as an existential threat to society. Take Sanders for example, many right-leaning Americans make him out to be the anti-Christ. But I just dont buy it. I am a left-leaning centrist, but even when I try to be at my most objective, I cant see how leftist Populism (and the radical, proto-communist types that accompany such a political moment) can be equally or even more dangerous than the influence of someone like trump or Le Pen on society (and the radical, white nationalist types emboldened by the same political moment).

Im interested to hear from centrists and those right of centre (and of course, anyone else!!) who consider left Populism as an equal or greater threat to the stability of our society as right Populism - CMV!

TL;DR - Leftist Populism is less of a threat to our society than Right-wing Populism - CMV

EDIT - I see now that making the comparison between European populism and US populism may have been unhelpful. The US is such a unique case, and coming from a European perspective as I am, I think that I have been too quick to lump the Trump/Sanders axis in with the Farage/Corbyn, Le Pen/Melenchon or other such european populists. But, there are strategic and rhetorical similarities across the board, so I ask you to consider the past decade's populists more generally when trying to change my view. Thanks!

EDIT 2: Guys, please. Populism does not equal radicalism. Populism as a strategy can have a radicalising effect, but is not necessarily on the political extremes policy-wise. Populist left does not equal Communists and Stalin, Populist right does not equal Fascism and Hitler. Im trying to talk about current political trends in the west, not the worst atrocities of the 20th century. But of course populism can lead to the extremes, as we saw in the 1930s. But please keep the distinction in mind when commenting.

[Assistant]
There are two forms of populism, broadly. The good form simply advances the will/wants of majority. The form you are probably worried about is the bad form, which uses popular appeal to mask authoritarianism. Thats your Trump, Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Mao, Pinochet, Chvez, whatever.

The real problem is that the good form of populism tends to transition into the bad form when it starts suppressing minority for the will of majority. This is what happened during Russian/French revolutions when the good populism, after winning, was forced to deal with people who for various reasons didnt get on with the program. Very predictably authoritarian figures appeared and introduced efficient means to deal with the problem.

The only difference is at which stage authoritarianism appears on the scene. Right wingers take the shorter path because the design of the society that they are trying to build is disagreeable for most people. So the strong leader who is willing to shape the message to channel populations fears into the right channel has to appear right away. On the left wing the populism has to win first to expose the problems with the implementation, and only then the same thing happens.

But make no mistakes, the same thing will happen either way.


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

[User] [Magic The Gathering] I am a Planeswalker whose primary mana is red. What do I have to do to be attuned to green mana along with red?

[Assistant]
Any spellcaster can draw mana of any color if they want to.

The type of mana you're attuned to is reflective of your overall goals.  In overly simplified terms, if you want to cast green and red spells, then you need green and red mana.  If you're primarily attuned to red mana, it's because red mana is all you need to do the things you want to do.  If you want more green mana, then you'd need to tap that mana from green mana sources such as the leylines in forested areas.  The main reason you'd want to do this would be if you had some goals that required green mana, such as summoning powerful wild beasts from the aether, or casting magic meant to harness and enhance the natural world around you rather than reshape it.  Green and Red mana often synergize well together because both are useful in furthering goals motivated by emotion, instinct, and impulse.

Red and Green are also very antithetical to Blue, so if you vehemently hate Blue mana and everything it stand for, chances are you probably fall on the Red and Green side.


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

[User]
CMV: The less you focus on things out of your control, the happier you will be

For some people they worry about sports or romantic relationships. People waste a lot of energy hoping their favorite sports teams win the big title or that cute someone likes them back when it is almost always outside of their control of what happens there.

For me, it's the stock market, politics, religion and cars. Thankfully, I've learned to accept the ebbs and flows of the bear and bull days. At this rate I'm going probably going to be in a middle class job where it would be a pipe dream for me to own a Ferrari or Lamborghini so I've stopped caring about what the newest hypercar will be like because I might only drive it in a Las Vegas supercar experience once every few years when I can afford it. With politics, I as a single person have little influence on who becomes president or who controls congress yet I still find myself reading political news everyday as if I am addicted to political news.

[Assistant]
I want to challenge "the happier you will be" part.

All you can gain by avoiding stressors (like managing what you worry/think about) is a lessening of stress - if stress is the only thing making you unhappy, then sure, it might make you happier. If not, only focusing on what you can control might not make you any more happy, even if it reduces how much stress or worry you experience.

Conversely, if worrying about things out of your control (whether or not the Eagles will win at football, whether or not your new television series will have a happy ending, whether or not Gordon Ramsey will Turn This Restaurant Around) helps you feel HAPPIER by introducing suspense and entertainment, following your advice might even LESSEN happiness.

Taken to an extreme, this is even an argument against optimism, since nothing *ever* is 100% under our control alone. Even things that are able to be controlled are almost never controlled by only one person. Even thoughts can be intrusive and unintentional.

To summarize, you conflate stress with unhappiness, and lack of stress with happiness, and it obscures your main points.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is it therapeutic/cathartic to indulge dark emotions (watching dark movies, listening to sad music etc) rather than trying to cheer yourself up?

[Assistant] Your brain is like a village. When something bad happens to it, the villagers who are the most hurt become scary to the rest of the village who just want to pretend that the bad thing never happened. And so, the village tries to kick the hurt villagers out. But those villagers have no where else to go. The hurt villagers have no choice but to get the rest of the village to be less afraid of them so they can be let back in the village. They come up with all sorts of creative ways to get the village to drop their defenses and accept them back. One such way is get the village to re-experience what they went through, or get them close enough to where the rest of the villagers can be slowly exposed to the thing theyre so afraid of. Once it becomes more familiar to the rest of the village, the hurt villagers dont seem as scary and are let back in.


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

[User]
[Wreck-It-Ralph] About plugs...

Wouldn't getting unplugged just be like a temporary form of suspended animation until the game is plugged back in?

King Candy mentioned that because Vanellope is a glitch,she'd "die" with it.

So when plugged back in,the game should memorize her faulty code and allow her to still persist correct?

[Assistant] You know the old joke about "have you tried turning it off and back on again?" There's a reason it exists, a hard reset (including removing the power and waiting a while before plugging back in) wipes the system's memory cache, which often stops certain types of glitches.


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

[User]
[Batman] Im non-violent supercriminal (Like Kiteman and some others) with my teenage son as my sidekick, I get killed ny the Joker for a money related issue. Would Batman take him under his wing?

As the title implies, I am (Or was) a non-violent, extremely cunning, and intelligent with highly advanced, state-of-the-art equipment that has managed to win against Batman and escape him a few times, and then due to money or any other reason the Clown Prince of Crime decides to brutally destroy me, would Batman take my sidekick teenage son under his wing, or it would be extremely unwise and could backfire cataclysmically in a big way? Considering that he is already trained, with advanced gadgets, some experience, and a strong desire for vengeance.

[Assistant]
There are a few situations that i think would play out in the event of you dying.

Sit A- Your son promises revenge on Joker and kill him in the future. Batman will first do the justice and catch Joker before your son winds up dead as well then he'll try to give counsel and find someone (Child care connections) that would help your son become a better citizen of the state.

Sit B - You die and your son promises revenge on Joker and is successful in killing him before Batman can intervene. Batman will try to find your son the best specialists/doctors (like Sit A) to help your son and monitor him in the low to make sure he doesn't turn into the new prince of crime.

Sit C - Your son is devastated and vows to avenge your death. Batman finds out about your death and tries to find counsel for your child but he evades the orphanages/cops/arkham but ultimately doesn't do any life-threatening crime. Batman finally finds him and after arguing for a long time, finally accepts your son is full set into destroying Joker as he did to you. Batman will finally take him under his wing (As he knows only he can help this grief-stricken child) to help him control his anger and not become another criminal like you.


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

[User]
[Night at the Museum] Why isnt Cecil in prison for kidnapping and robbery?

He and his two accomplices are just living it up at the retirement home. Hes even an ally to Larry in the third movie, with no indication that he did anything wrong in the first; he was literally the main villain!

[Assistant]
Here's a fun game- try explaining Cecil's crimes to the police without bringing up the fact there was a magical egyptian tablet that brings museum exhibits to life.

Cecil's actions are so tied into the tablet that it's *really* hard to accuse him of anything without coming off as a lunatic. Seemingly this got him off the hook.


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

[User]
Is there an animal that migrates towards the winter or a colder climate?

I am writing a literary project that involves the theme of migration, and I was wondering if there are any animals that migrate towards colder regions instead of a warmer one. I know this goes against the intuitive description and reasoning behind animal migrations but I thought I might ask around since I could not find many resources online. Perhaps the arctic terns which migrate towards the Antarctic summer, which is colder than the Arctic one, but they are avoiding winter. Thank you in advance!

[Assistant]
Some populations of polar bears move northward to Hudson's Bay at Churchill Manitoba in the autumn, because forming sea ice allows them to where the seals and other prey are. They retreat to southern coasts when the ice breaks up in the springtime.

Theirs is one of the few counter-intuitive migrations, where the amount of available food actually increases in winter by virtue of the ice.


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

[User]
ELI5: why do screens use red/blue/green pixels but printers use red/blue/yellow ink?

i know that my computer screen makes the colour white by combining red, green and blue light.  but in art (and my computer printer), the 3 primary colours are red, blue and yellow?

these two setups seem so similar, but with one obvious difference. what gives?

i do remember being told that this difference exists in high school physics, but not "why". if you can ELI5, i'll be happy and a fair bit impressed as well!

[Assistant] Inks subtract color, screens add. Basic ink colors are cyan, yellow and magenta. So cyan is white minus red, but on a screen it's constructed as blue plus green. It works like this because white light goes through ink, so the color comes from what is subtracted. On a CRT or LED screen, a pixel is a tiny lamp of red, green or blue color, so the color comes from what is added to black (screen off). Also, pixels are monochromatic on LCD screens even though they absorb light.


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

[User]
[Hitchhiker's Guide] How do I get to the Restaurant at the End of the Universe?

I just got back from Milliway's with this eccentric bloke with two heads and had the time of my life! I would love to go back sometime but have no idea how to do it, or more importantly how to get back to the right time, and let alone the problems with running into myself again. Can anyone help this hitchhiker out?

[Assistant]
Sure, you don't need something super fancy, like a Lazlar Lyricon, or a giant suncruiser, just your basic ship that is time travel capable. If you were to wander through their car park you'd find everything from smallish and utilitarian mass-production models to vast shining limoships, the sort of thing that is the plaything of the very rich.

You can visit it as many times as you like and you will never meet yourself, because of the embarrassment this usually causes. If you are concerned that this is completely impossible, that's because it is, but don't worry about it.

Remember the advertising slogan that the advertising executives of the star system of Bastablon came up with: "If you've done six impossible things this morning, why not round it off with breakfast at Milliways, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe?"


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

[User] Why dont we have programs that allow individuals to allocate a specified amount of their pay checks to pay certain essential debts (mortgage, car, student loans) with pretax dollars?

[Assistant]
We sort of do. Mortgage interest and student loan interest, with restrictions, are tax deductible, which essentially makes them pretax.

In addition we have 529 plan's which allow you to save pre-tax dollars for college.


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

[User] Is there a limit to how big a plane can get and still be able to fly?

[Assistant]
There is a limit, but it is a larger limit than is likely to ever be attempted. Assuming we are able to increase the thrust in the needed proportions, the problems become primarily weight, integrity, lift and form.

Weight becomes an issue because one must have sufficient fuel to power sufficient engines to move the plane at sufficient speed to remain airborne. As you add more to the plane, the weight increases, the thrust needed increases, the number of engines increases, and the amount of fuel needed increases, which then increases all of those again.

Tied in with that, the materials must be strong enough to not bend with all of the weight well as resilient enough to not significantly warp out of position due to that weight, as well as the drag generated by the air and the thrust generated by the engines. But it also must be as light as possible while doing so.

Assuming you are somehow able to discover ways to compensate for all of this, the answer would be defined by what criteria the design needs to fit. If it doesn't need to be manned, no space for humans needs to be allocated. If it needs to be able to land, it must be able to fit an appropriate runway.

Theoretically, if you had perfect materials and were able to compensate for the weight and thrust requirements, you could design a plane large enough to require a downward sweeping design to fit the curvature of the earth.

But for the moment, the planes we have already are about as big as they can be while still making sense and being financially viable.


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

[User]
[Warhammer 40k] Implications of Ynnead's birth.

With the new reveal of the fact that Ynnead, Eldar god of the Dead, has awoken to save the galaxy, I was curious what people thought about some of the implications.

1: Ynnead was only supposed to awaken when the Eldar (now Aeldari, with the incomming rebrand) had all died, the entirety of the remaining Craftworlders and Exodites having been absorbed into the nebulous Infinity Circuits and World spirits. Did he awaken early? Was Eldrad wrong about what it would take to birth him? Or did the destruction of Cadia do something?

2: Ynnead is the Aeldari salvation against Slaanesh. What does this mean for the Prince of Excess?

3: the Avatar of Ynnead is super sinister. Like, full on Daemonic. Did something go wrong?

Admittedly, there's still a lot unknown about the upcomming Gathering Storm II book, but I was curious what people's preliminary thoughts were.

[Assistant]
Well, you see, the Eldar weren't 100% sure what exactly is going to happen now. For all they know Ynnead is basically yet another Chaos God who is going to eat their souls for his own gain. Theyre kind of riding on the hope it isn't an absolute tool like the last guy that feeds on their souls.

It's a faint chance the Eldar may come out on the other side, reborn into something better...probably. As for why the avatar is kinda creepy that just comes with the territory with Warp entities, especially ones with the title God of Death.


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

[User]
If I try to listen to a podcast while reading a book am I strengthening any skills or just making it harder to accomplish both tasks?

So I'm doing homework which requires me to read a few short stories and I want to listen to a podcast because it's entertaining. It's hard but possible to pay attention to both of them at the same time, and although it's frustrating it made me wonder if I can strengthen multi-tasking skills or listening skills or something by doing it.

[Assistant]
You can't do two activities that require the same cognitive demands at the same time. Since reading and listening to a podcast both require language processing, it's literally impossible for your brain to to do both at once. You can, however, listen to music without words while you read, or do a task that doesn't require speaking/reading/writing while listening to spoken words.

Also you shouldn't try to switch back and forth between them - you'll end up doing both things *worse*. There's no such thing as multi-tasking with similar tasks - what you're doing is just task-switching, which ultimately trains your brain to be more distracted. Try focusing on doing one thing at a time, unless the two things don't demand the same type of cognitive attention (such as listening to music while doing something with your hands).


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

[User] ELI5 why our skin and liver, the largest organs in our body, regenerate but other organs can't?

[Assistant]
All organs will regenerate to a degree. The more complex the organ, the more likely it is to repair incorrectly, resulting in scaring.

The heart is a bit of an exception, as it has specialized so far towards ensuring critical functioning that it has very little of the normal repair mechanisms remaining.

Along the same vein as the heart, organs that are more likely to be damaged generally have better repair mechanisms. This means the skin is typically a lot better at repairing itself than other organs, and that is helped by the fact that the outer layers of your skin are actually already basically dead.


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

[User]
[Super Heroes] If superheroes hide their identity to protect them and their families, doesnt that imply that police officers in their world are constantly attacked because they show their face and name?

Like villains get shot at and arrested by police but they only go after the masked hero and not the unmasked judges or officers that detained them?

[Assistant]
This IS a concern for police both in comic universes and our own universe.

This is one of the reasons it's so hard to get any legal action to stick against villains like the Kingpin. He finds out the identities of the people trying to throw the book at him, and he either buys them off or threatens to have their families die slow painful deaths.


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

[User] [ELI5] Why do batteries temporarily regain life when you rearrange them?

[Assistant]
Batteries are subject to the 'rebound effect'. When you disconnect a battery, the voltage recovers, often to a level not that much less than the fully charged voltage. When you reconnect the battery, it can provide power at a high-ish voltage for a few minutes.

An explaination of this effect may be that a flat battery does not have much active chemicals in it. The active chemicals near the terminals gets fully depleted, and, if you disconnect it, some migrates closer to the terminals, allowing the voltage to recover.


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

[User] Norways Sovereign wealth fund has over $USD 1.3 trillion in assets. Thats over $200,000 per Norwegian citizen. What would happen to the Norwegian economy if the government liquidated it as fast as possible and distributed it evenly among the Norwegian people?

[Assistant]
The entire point of Norges Bank is to prevent this from happening as it would lead to severe inflation and cause the Norwegian economy to be overexposed to oil prices. This is because of a phenomenon we call Dutch disease.

Norges Bank is essentially funded by the revenues of Norway's oil sector from North Sea drilling. If those revenues were allowed to enter the Norwegian economy directly, the economy would become dominated by oil making it prone to upward and downward shocks, and also suffer severe inflation when oil prices are high and severe deflation when oil prices are low. Instead, the government invests that oil money so it generates a predictably stable amount of income for Norwegians and is no longer correlated to oil prices. For this reason, Norges Bank does not even hold stocks of oil companies since 2017.

One example of how this has happened is Venezuela, which was South America's richest country for a while due to oil money and is now its poorest with rampant inflation. A better example is Nauru, which in the 1980s was the richest country in the world due to its large deposits of seagull poop. As Nauru ran out of seagull poop and artificial fertilisers got more advanced, today Nauru is among the poorest countries in the world.


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

[User]
ELI5: If over a period of time we lose and replace each cell in our bodies, how do tattoos stay imprinted on us?

Hope that makes sense. I was watching a Vsauce episode and he mentioned that over the course of about 5 years, each cell in your body is lost and replaced. How do our new cells remember ink when they are replaced?

[Assistant]
The ink molecules in tattoos are too large for the body to flush away. It's buried deep enough that the ink isn't shed along with the top layers of skin, but the body also can't break down the ink to remove the ink through internal body processes.

The reason tattoos fade over time when exposed to sun is that the UV light breaks apart some of the ink molecules, making them small enough for the body to remove. Professional tattoo removal is using specific frequencies of UV light to more efficiently and more quickly break down the ink depending on the color and ink composition. Some colors of ink are more difficult to remove than others.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] How involved was Palpatine during the Clone Wars?

Haven't watched the tv show.

Was he heavily involved in war planning so that he could gather information and feed it to Grievous/Dooku, or did he kinda chill and let both sides throw piles of droid/clone bodies at each other?

Also, was either side going to win if he didn't intervene?

[Assistant] He was very involved. As Sidious, he fed the CIS information, which allowed them to win key confrontations on important worlds, and frankly remain relevant in the war at all. As Palpatine, he bogged the republic's war effort down, consolidated power to himself and his allies in the senate, and indirectly drove the public opinion of the "bureaucracy" and the Jedi into the dirt by getting them involved in unpopular actions during the war. (With the obvious exception of Anakin, who enjoyed his status as a hero of the republic for the duration of the war.)


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

[User] ELI5:Why hasn't Microsoft word made Times New Roman the universal font?

[Assistant] Fonts with serifs (the little embellishments on the end) are great in printed materials, but are harder to read on a computer screen. It's why most of the Internet uses sans-serif fonts, like Arial or Helvetica, and why Word switched the default font from Times New Roman (a Serif font) to Calibri (a sans-serif font) in 2007- Microsoft noticed that people had stopped printing out most Word documents and instead were reading them on a laptop or tablet.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do you use more energy walking slower than your normal pace?

[Assistant]
Your arms and legs are pendulums, so they have a natural swing rate, which depends on their length, mass distribution and also how your body (the attachment point) is moving.

Walking at the speed at which your legs naturally swing is most efficient. Walking slower than that means you're having to use muscles to control the speed rather than just letting it all hang out.


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

[User]
CMV: The guys complaining about women only dating men who are six feet would never date a woman taller than them.

I don't understand why people think it's wrong to want a particular characteristic in your partner, there's nothing wrong in girls wanting a guy over 6ft, it's not body shaming short guys, it's a preference, neither is short height an inferior trait. The same people would not date a women taller than them, when asked, they would call it preference, so is the case for women who want tall men, if you believe that's wrong, it's hypocrisy. If it's fine to have preference for clothes, foods and everything non-material, then it should be fine even with your partner, because, it's about your happiness, and if some trait makes you happier, why not?

Dating preferences should not be judged.

[Assistant]
Your OP doesn't seem to match your title here. Which exactly would you like us to challenge:

A) Short men whining about being rejected out of hand would never date a taller woman?

B) Dating preferences should not be judged?


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

[User] ELI5: why do women's jackets and men's jackets have the "pulling" part of the zipper on opposite sides?

[Assistant]
It's a relic of the past. Women's clothes were designed with the idea that the woman would be getting dressed by someone else, so having buttons (and later zippers) on the left side meant that a right-handed person could easily dress the woman in question.

Men, on the other hand, were expected to dress themselves, so their buttons and zippers are on the right.


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

[User]
How can I best set myself up for academic success in the fall? (undergrad)

I am going to be a returning undergrad in the fall.

I'm reasonably intelligent. I went to a highly-rated public high school. I was a National Merit finalist, and had a 33 ACT and 1400 SAT (back in the 1600-scale old days). I started college in one of the top engineering programs in the world.

I hated engineering, I had piss-poor study skills, and I skipped a lot of classes. This all added up to me getting thrown out two or three times.

I ended up dropping out and spent the last decade or so working. But now, I'd like to finish my degree. I'm somewhere between 1 and 3 semesters short of a bachelor's degree. Somehow, I convinced my school to take me back one more time. I'll be double majoring in Geography and Economics.

The condition to being readmitted was that I'd be on double secret probation. Basically, if I have a semester with a GPA under 3.2 anytime between now and graduation, I'm done. Like, done-done. Hard stop.

So, on top of still having questionable study habits, now I'm a decade removed from higher education. And I'm working a full-time job on top of it.

I figure I've got a few more months to prepare. How do I ensure that my grades stay good enough to graduate?

I know the standard advice is go to class and take advantage of office hours, which I absolutely plan on doing. What else can I do?

[Assistant]
Don't just go to class. Go to EVERY class. Commit to it.  EVERY CLASS.

The other thing is to plan out the rest of your college career. You should know if this coming semester is enough for you to graduate, not that you might have to take one or two more after it. Stuff happens (a class gets cancelled, etc) but you should still have a solid plan going in.


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

[User] What's the current state of AIDS? Is it still basically a death sentence, or is it manageable? What are the consequences of getting AIDS nowadays?

[Assistant]
In the US and the industrialized world it's manageable, expensive but manageable.  Medication can reduce the viral load to almost nothing, this makes it possible for patients to lead normal lives, even having children without passing the virus on.  They still have to take precautions as does anyone with a compromised immune system.  (yet another reason why anti vaxxers are dangerous)

In less developed countries it is a death sentence.  It's been awhile since I've read up on it but it was particularly bad in Africa.  Uganda, like 20 years ago, was able to stem transmission by taking a proactive stance on safe sex, much like the US in the 90s.


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

[User]
[Marvel] Couldn't the threat presented by the Hulk be significantly lessened by shrinking him with Pym particles?

How effective would this actually be in lessening his strength? Could he be contained as a pocket Hulk?

[Assistant]
You know what's worse than a rampaging green monster strong enough to throw a skyscraper across the city? A rampaging green monster strong enough to throw a skyscraper across the city *that you can't see*.

It's stated that when Pym particles shrink a person, they maintain their base level of strength. That's why Ant-Man is so formidable against normal-sized goons.

And even if the particles *did* rob Hulk of his power ... his power has no upper bound. He'd attack, it would fail, that would make him angry, and he would get stronger.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does Catalonia want independence from Spain?

[Assistant]
Catalonia is a culturally and linguistically distinct group. The Catalonian language is actually very different from default Spanish or its regional dialects.

Plus, the economy in Catalonia and especially Barcelona is in much better shape than the rest of Spain, so the locals feel it's unfair that they have to pay taxes to central authorities that then subsidize other regions.


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

[User]
[Easter] Does the Easter bunny share Santa's powers?

 We know that Santa is able to use his powers to deliver toys around the world in one night, more or less. The Easter bunny also delivers baskets to children on Easter morning, a similiar feat that no regular rabbit could pull off. Does this mean that the Easter Bunny was somehow gifted Santa's powers? If so, does that mean that another holiday mascot could someday inherit these powers as well? If not, what differences are there between the bunny's magic and St. Nick's? Or are there many Easter Bunnies who handle regional distribution as opposed to the centralized North Pole?

[Assistant]
Santas powers are immortality, telepathy (he knows if youve been bad or good), and size changing.  Jolly old Saint Nick moves quickly because his sleigh Is driven by reindeer capable of entering the speed force like Barry Allen and Wally West.

The Easter Bunny is a speedster capable of entering the speed force.

This doesnt mean there arent multiple bunnies.  There could be an Easter Bunny, a Kid Easter Bunny, Professor Hopp the Reverse Easter Bunny, and a time traveler called Impulse Easter Bunny.


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

[User]
History of becoming a professor

Was it easier to become a professor a few decades ago? I just finished my PhD in physics, and I'm doing a postdoc now, and I'm starting to think about life on the tenure track. It sounds very difficult to get one of these positions and it sounds equally harder to obtain tenure.

What was it like getting a tenured position in science say 30 years ago? How much more competitive is it now compared with the past?

I have several anecdotal examples from family friends that it was easier to become a professor in the past but I've tried googling this myself to find more concrete sources, but I keep finding articles about what it's like to be a history professor, lol.

[Assistant] Peter Higgs (of Higgs boson fame) is on record as saying that he probably wouldn't have been hired for a faculty job today with his CV from 50 years ago. And with his low research output, he definitely wouldn't have been granted tenure.


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

[User] [Orgazmo/Marvel] Could Orgazmo be an effective superhero if his powers and skills were actually taken seriously?

[Assistant]
Effective? Yes, but not very powerful. He would be able to distract some minor street-level villains to the point where it would be possible to whack them over the head or put them in handcuffs.

I would put him at the level of pre-helmet Kickass.


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

[User]
[I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream] How Was AM Keeping Them Alive?

Title. Ted describes the humans as immortal, but its not exactly explained how they come back to life.

Is he reconstructing their bodies? If so, *how*? Im confused.

Also did AM create an actual bird or was it the hurricane as the bird? Or was the bird like wires? Im confused.

[Assistant]
I assumed AM has something on the level of nanotechnology, something that can take a living body and repair it, alter it, and just generally do what it wants with. So, as they would age, those nanobots are just zooming around, repairing synaptic failures, shutting down biological changes that would allow aging, forcing the body to digest itself to stave off starvation, etc.

I assumed the bird was something made up to look like a bird, mechanical or bio mechanical, intended to play with mammalian instincts left over from times when a sharp cry from above and the strobing light of beating wings meant death. He tells them to hunt it for food, then gives them piddling toy weapons, so he clearly doesnt intend for them to actually eat it.

Not that our narrator is of the reliable sort He does run in fear of things others cant see, and they laugh at him for it, so the bird could look entirely different to the rest of the group.


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

[User] How fast would the Earth need to spin so that centripetal force nullified gravity at the equator?  Would a person just float or constantly bounce against the surface?

[Assistant]
You need to be rotating fast enough that the centripetal force required to keep you rotating with the Earth's surface is greater than or equal to that provided by gravity. Buoyancy due to air pressure would also come into play, but the errors in our radius are larger than any contribution from buoyancy so we'll ignore that!

If you assume that the radius of the earth at the equator remained the same (it would actually bulge more) at approximately 6400km, then:

4 ^2 m(u) r / T^2 >= G m(e) m(u) / r^2

=> T^2 <= 4 ^2 r^3 / [ G m(e) ]

=> T <= 5070 seconds or 1.4 hours

So the earth would need to rotate at least once every 1.4 hours for gravity to be unable to provide sufficient centripetal acceleration to keep you against its surface. As for what would happen, the entire surface of the earth would no longer be bound to it so you wouldn't be the only thing floating! You could end up drowning in a floating ocean or amongst a clashing, floating forest...


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

[User] [Family Guy] Why is Jay Leno shaped all fleshy and ultra realistic and everyone else is cartoony?

[Assistant] That's just the way they look. It's the same thing when they crossed over with the Simpsons and assumed everyone in town was a poor hick with a horrible disease. A lot of the famous people look better/more defined. Ryan Reynolds is very recognizable. Probably eat better, work out, aren't subject to horrible sanitation etc.


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

[User] ELI5: What does it mean that race is socially constructed?

[Assistant] It means that humans have decided to classify people as different races, but that there are really just variations along a continuum and not artificial break points with biological differences. While the difference between the average Swede and average Kenyan might be obvious, if you go from country to country, you'll just see gradual changes over the distance.


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

[User]
Do bone conduction earphones protect hearing?

I did a bridge climb and they provided bone conduction earphones because it was so windy.  [For those who haven't heard of them, my basic understanding is that they sit on the boney area in front of your ears and transmit the vibrations directly into your body (to your inner ear) so there is less interference than when the sound travels through the air with regular earphones.]

*Does using these bone conduction earphones in comparison to regular earphones protect (or preserve?) your hearing?*  I was wondering  (and this may be assuming some incorrect points) whether someone using bone conduction earphones instead of regulars throughout their life might have better hearing when they get old.

[Assistant] There's no reason to believe that they would. Hearing loss is usually caused by damage to the inner ear, which is still getting as much sound exposure with bone conduction as it would through the normal path of sound.


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

[User]
[avatar the last airbender] Do they know the original animals?

So, you know how every animal is a fusion of 2 or more animals/insects which in-universe people refer as.

Do they know the original animals? It seems unlikely as Gaang didn't reconize the bear of earth king. So, do they know as it is? Then how? There is no documentary about animals.

[Assistant]
> So, you know how every animal is a fusion of 2 or more animals/insects which in-universe people refer as.

Do we though? We think that because in our universe we have armadillos and bears, but we don't have armadillo bears. Evolutionarily it's more likely that the "fused" animals became two distinct species than it is that they somehow fused in theirs.


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

[User] Are there an infinite number of chemical elements? If so, are they all produceable? And if not, what's the least upper bound and why is that so?

[Assistant]
Both the old Bohr model (non-relativistic) and the relativistic Dirac equations predict the periodic table may end at the element with 137 protons, however the Bohr model is outdated and other relativistic models do not give a clear answer on the end of the periodic table, leaving the outcome unclear at best.

It's generally expected, however, that the table probably won't get very far beyond the predicted "Island of Stability". This is a theory which states elements around 126 will be far more stable than otherwise expected due to protons and neutrons creating shells, much in the same way orbiting electrons do. Lead-208, the heaviest stable isotope known, is thought to have perfect shells in line with this theory giving it extreme stability.

This results in elements on the island having a far higher half-life than the current highest element (118, at barely a millisecond), anywhere from minutes to thousands of years depending who you ask.


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

[User] ELI5: What exactly does Crystal Meth do to someone?  What's so addicting about it?

[Assistant]
Meth makes you really really happy. More happy than you could ever get without drugs.

But it also reduces your ability to become happy. It very quickly reaches a point where you *have* to keep using meth, because you can never really feel happy without it.


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

[User]
ELI5: I'm watching 'Grave of the fireflies' at the moment and I'm curious why the US Nuked a city and not a military complex.

Thanks guys, I wasn't trying to be 'controversial', just wanted a few facts to go with the movie.

[Assistant]
* By the end of WWII, the bombing of population centers as part of a total war was an accepted practice (see: London, Dresden, Tokyo). As many as 2 million Japanese civilians had already been killed by conventional bombing by the time the atomic bombs were dropped

* Around 20,000 of those killed in Hiroshima were soldiers

* Kokura, which had a much larger military establishment than Nagasaki, was the original target for the second bomb.


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

[User]
Why do coffee and tea plants produce caffeine?

The benefits that people get out of consuming caffeine as a stimulant are pretty straightforward, but what is the reason that plants produce the chemical in the first place?

[Assistant] Caffeine is produced by plants as a defense against insects. You find caffeine in the parts of plants most vulnerable to herbivory: coffee beans which develop into seedlings, tea leaves, etc... Many naturally occurring poisons have been co-opted for alternative uses by humans because we are simply too big to be killed by them. Examples: nicotine, caffeine, morphine, ephedrine, psilocybin (these are all termed *alkaloids* if you're interested in further research).


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

[User]
ELI5:What exactly is radiation?

Is radiation comprised of particles? We all know radiation is "bad," but I'm not sure what it actually does to make it so bad. Thanks!

[Assistant]
Radiation is energy that comes from a source and travels through some material or through space. Light, heat and sound are types of radiation. The kind of radiation discussed in this comment is called ionizing radiation because it can produce charged particles (ions) in matter.

Ionizing radiation is produced by unstable atoms. Unstable atoms differ from stable atoms because they have an excess of energy or mass or both.

Unstable atoms are said to be radioactive. In order to reach stability, these atoms give off, or emit, the excess energy or mass. These emissions are called radiation. The kinds of radiation are electromagnetic (like light) and particulate (i.e., mass given off with the energy of motion). Gamma radiation and X-rays are examples of electromagnetic radiation. Beta and alpha radiation are examples of particulate radiation. Ionizing radiation can also be produced by devices such as X-ray machines.

Ionizing radiation absorbed by human tissue has enough energy to remove electrons from the atoms that make up molecules of the tissue. When the electron that was shared by the two atoms to form a molecular bond is dislodged by ionizing radiation, the bond is broken and thus, the molecule falls apart. This is a basic model for understanding radiation damage.

When ionizing radiation interacts with cells, it may or may not strike a critical part of the cell. We consider the chromosomes to be the most critical part of the cell since they contain the genetic information and instructions required for the cell to perform its function and to make copies of itself for reproduction purposes. Also, there are very effective repair mechanisms at work constantly which repair cellular damage - including chromosome damage.


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

[User]
[Fantastic Four/The Hulk] Is there any way for the Thing to legitimately beat the Hulk in one on one combat?

In pretty much every continuity, the Hulk manages to beat the Thing on the basis of his superior strength.

What I want to know is, is there any permanent, in-character means for Ben Grimm to improve his strength, combat skills, offensive/defensive capabilities, etc., in order to match and possibly exceed the Angry Green Giant?

[Assistant] Yes. The same way anything can beat the hulk. Very very quickly. Hulk biggest strength is also his biggest weakness. He takes time to get going. If you KO him before he has time to get even angrier that his how you stop him. He has no upper limit on his strength but he does not instantly get to World War Hulk planet cracking levels. He *will* win a long protracted fight. Quick and fast are your best option. Unless you are also on planet cracker scale yourself. In which case again you better win fast because he will eventually get stronger than you.


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

[User]
Is there a way for us to freely choose our thoughts, or can we only think them in an unchosen manner?

Ive been stuck on this question for awhile.

It seems that upon introspection, when I think my thoughts, they simply just appear in my mind unchosen. I certainly dont sit there and consciously deliberate between multiple possible options for what any given thought could be and then choose to think one of them. Indeed, if I were to do this regarding my *next* thought, the process of deliberation between options would automatically *be* my next thought.

Is there a way for us to freely choose our thoughts?

As always, if anyone knows of philosophers who have addressed this topic, I would greatly appreciate your recommendations for further reading.

[Assistant] Schopenhauer talks a little bit about this in *The World as Will and Representation.* There's a good quote which I'll paraphrase: "a man can do what he wills, but he cannot will what he wills". The 'first cause', as it were, of our psyche, is fundamentally outside our control, for it is simply the will of the universe extending through us.


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

[User]
[D&D/Generic Fantasy] How the heck did 'human' end up as the Common language?

Especially for written language. I mean, sure, we reproduce faster than elves or dwarves but our societies have been intermixed since humans have had something that you could call a society at all. Their languages are many times older than ours, and yet we developed our own and somehow it became the standard.

What gives? Are we just linguistic geniuses that managed to hit on a language easy and flexible enough to use that it was simpler for everyone to switch to it for trade and general conversation? Too collectively stubborn to settle for being taught how to write by another culture? Was it initially developed as a way to pass private messages and secrets that evolved into something more over time?

[Assistant]
Humans are far more culturally diverse,open, and relatable than the other races. The languages of dwarves,elves, dragons, for instance, are very old and heavily influenced by their history, mentality, and culture. It is questionable whether a non-elf or a non-dwarf can really *get* their languages.

Because human culture is so pluralistic, the common language is far "wider" and shallower. It doesn't require you to think like a human or dwarf, in the racial sense, in order to fully get it. It's mostly about function.

Humans are also everywhere, trading and maintaining relations with everyone. The language travels with them.

Last but certainly not least, you can bet your balls that races which have historically had tension among them (dwarves/elves, dwarves/orcs, dragons/everybody, etc.) are NOT that much interested in learning/speaking the others' languages.


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

[User] ELI5: From my understanding when you are tickled your body thinks it is under attack, so why is laughter the response your body gives to being attacked?

[Assistant] Some Anthropologists think that laughter evolved as a signal that an expected danger subsided. Imagine, if you were walking through the woods with a friend, and heard a rattlesnake, you'd be scared, but then when it turned out to be some weird plant blowing in the wind (IDK) you'd laugh, and people would know that meant you were all safe. You expected one thing and then got another, which is one of the definitions of humor. In the example, laughter indicated you found something funny, but it also indicated you were safe. When tickle fighting someone, at some point they have to stop short of injuring you, and laughing lets them know that you are still safe, once you stop laughing and start screaming, that's when you generally get tickled less.


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

[User] ELI5: How does the skin under your nails let the nail move and grow while holding it on?

[Assistant] Nails dont grow out like one would think.  They actually roll forward...think like waves on the beach.  The skin that is attached (the nail bed) this doesnt need to move; it stays attached to the new nail that grows over it.


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

[User]
Prestige of university vs. the right supervisor

I am having trouble choosing between two offers that I have received for a PhD degree in a STEM field in the UK. I would appreciate any opinions that anyone might have - I'm sure that many others have been in a similar situation before.

My main two choices are:

1. An established professor at Oxbridge, who is involved in research at several different universities and also writes books etc. so I can reasonably expect that he wouldn't be able to give me a lot of attention. His interests largely overlap with mine, although he also has started working on some other related fields which do not interest me. From his publication history I can see that he has an excellent record and is very active, but does not involve his students in many parts of his research. There are excellent postdocs in his group though.
1. A young associate professor who is a 100% match when it comes to my interests, and who was also recommended by my undergrad supervisor as a really nice guy. I believe that he only has 1 student at the moment so I'm sure that he would involve me in his research fully, which means both a great education and possibly more publications. The problem is that the university is only a top 40 one, with the professor's department getting excellent research ratings but still being held down by the overall reputation of the uni.

Honestly, if the choice was only between the two people, I would go for the younger professor as I prefer working in these conditions. However, the reputation of an Oxbridge degree with a distinguished academic is hard to pass by... Especially if I decide to leave academia later on, not many people will care about my supervisor if the university was not great. What do you think is the best way to approach this?

[Assistant]
Advisor all the way.

Remember - when you come out of the PhD what counts is your personal output, not the institution you came from. Having an advisor who will champion you, introduce you to people, and get you up and running in your subfield is a golden ticket.


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

[User]
[DC] Did any of Gotham's organized crime or super villains recognize a change in Batman's behavior when Dick Grayson temporarily take over? Did they take advantage of it?

Kind of a supplemental question -- when the day comes for Dick to takeover permanently for Batman, how heavily will he commit to the Batman MO? Is the goal really to make it seem like it's the same person?

[Assistant]
During Battle of the Cowl. Two Face quickly figured out it wasn't the original Batman. He didn't know it was Bruce or Dick Grayson by name, but he definitely knew someone took over. The reason? Dick purposely kept getting photographed as Batman, so that the public would know Batman was out there.

Problem is, Two-Face knew that Batman ALWAYS kept out of the publics eye as much as possible and Dick even smiled as Batman in a picture, Batman never smiles.

Jason Todd even called out Dick for being out in the public eye too much. As Batman was better off as a urban legend.


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

[User] [No Man's Sky] Why are sentinels on every planet?

[Assistant] They're efficient self-replicating scout robots which have had tens of thousands of years to spread through the galaxy. Their programming keeps them from overrunning the universe with machine life, since their primary purpose is to scan planets so that their creators can come along later when they decide to mine them.


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

[User]
[RuneScape] Why is Aubury's rune shop located in a shitty corner of the Varrock ghetto and not near the city square or Grand Exchange?

Aubury is a Master Wizard who owns the only rune shop in Misthalin, and aside from Sedridor at the Wizards' Tower he is the only one east of White Wolf Mountain who has access to the Rune Essence Mine. His shop gets tons of business from adventurers and mages.

Yet his shop is located behind the East Bank in the city's southern ghetto. Muggers regularly jump travelers outside of his shop. The city's two gangs lurk the alleys at night.

Surely he should have relocated closer to the Grand Exchange or Varrock Square? Storefronts near the center of town must be prime real estate, surely Aubury should have bought out Zaff's shop by now? Or that useless Gypsy tent?

edit: And I am aware that the rune shop predates the Grand Exchange.

[Assistant]
Most wizards head south and live at the Wizard's tower.

Besides with staffs and the inane amount of runes on even the most common foes why bother buying? Especially so once you discover Runecrafting.


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

[User]
Why does hot water make more bubbles than cold when I'm washing my hands?

I've often noticed when using public sinks that if the faucet lets me get actual hot water i get a much better "foaming action" from whatever soap I'm using than if the water is cold. Is there a reason for this?

[Assistant] Hot water has less surface tension. This is also why it is better at cleaning. The molecules of warm water move around more than cold water and as a result are less tightly bonded. Soap works by bonding the hydrophilic end of a soap molecule to a water molecule. The other end of the soap molecule is hydrophobic and will bond to grease and dirt. The soap reduces surface tension even more making the water 'stretchy'. This is what makes bubbles. Because the warm water has less surface tension to begin with, the soap can more easily bond with the warm water molecules than the cold ones. This means the soap is more effective at bonding to the water and as a result more foaming action.


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

[User] [The Hunt For Red October] What happens to Red October after the events of the film?

[Assistant] The Americans reverse-engineered *Krasny Oktyabr*, took everything useful out of the ship down to the bare metal, and then sunk him in an ocean trench. According to some reports, CIA spy Jack Ryan and the defector Cpt. Ramius were on hand to witness the sinking.


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

[User]
[Dracula] Can the Count take a selfie?

He doesn't have a reflection in a mirror, so my thinking is that he can't take a picture of himself.

[Assistant]
This causes no end of confusion to many a would-be vampire hunter or researcher.  The key element is not the mirror itself but the construction of the mirror that matters.

In past centuries, vampires were known to never cast a reflection in a mirror.  The primary reason for this was the widespread use of silver to provide the reflective surface.  These days, aluminum is more commonly used.

Now, as we all know, the element of silver is closely tied to the moon in certain astrological circles.  This is the reason why silver is so effective at dealing with werewolves, but what is less commonly known is silver's impact on vampires.  The moon's radiance is a reflection of the sun.  While silver does not cause immediate pain to the touch, it is an uncomfortable substance for vampires to manipulate in the same way the light of a full moon can cause discomfort to them.

At any rate, the nature of silver mimics that of the moon (a lesser sun) meaning that it will not hold the reflection of a vampire.  Modern aluminum mirrors and mirrorless digital cameras are capable of capturing a vampire in his or her full horrific glory.


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

[User] [Futurama] How does the government work? Where does The Central Bureaucracy fit in with DOOP and the government of earth?

[Assistant]
Bureaucrats are unelected officials selected for their knowledge of bureaucracy and adherence to rules.  They do the work of seeing the rules are followed.

The elected government *makes* the rules.  Mostly this is Nixon's head pretending to head a democracy by holding rigged elections.  Most of the actual laws were already made centuries ago, so he reviews the ones which might need to change, and adjusts them in his own best interest.

Earth has successfully conquered all other easier-to-conquer planets in order to form DOOP, which is also only nominally a democracy headed by earth.

This is why Earth is known as the easiest planet to conquer, all the other easier planets are already conquered, so it gets that title by default.  Most other planets can't be arsed to actually conquer Earth, because then they'd have to put up with earthlings.


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

[User]
ELI5 Please: How does a cell phone work?

Aside from magic, how does a tiny little device in my hand send my voice to a receiver that is hundreds of yards away, and then to my parents 3000 miles away INSTANTLY?  How does that tiny receiver on top of a building sort through all of the thousands of calls coming and going simultaneously?

[Assistant]
Firstly cell phones communicate via radio waves.  Radio waves are similar to waves on water.  Imagine you are standing on one end of a pool, and you slap your hand on that side of the pool.  It will cause a ripple (a little wave) to go out in all directions, including to the other side of the pool.

So now you can send a wave out to the other side of the pool. This is just like your cell phone sending a radio wave out. So how does that radio wave get turned into a phone call? It goes out in all directions until it hits something called a cell tower, which relays it to someone else. But how does the cell tower know what you're saying and who you want to talk to?

Imagine you could control how hard you slap the water so that you could control the size of the waves that reach the other side of the pool. Some of the waves you make could be small, some large. Now imagine there is someone standing on the other side of the pool.  You want to talk to them with waves, so you've arranged a "wave language" where one big wave means one thing, and one small wave means something else. We'll say this big wave represents the number 1 and the small wave represents a 0.  So if we send out a series of 8 waves it could look like this: 10010010. We could then make up a secret language where for every set of 8 waves we can send a small message to the other side and they can understand it.  Eventually you could combine a bunch of small messages in different combinations of 1s and 0s so that you could communicate almost anything.

So you're cell phone translates who you are, who you want to call, and what you want to say into these 1s and 0s (this is called binary) and tells the cell tower, who then communicates with who you're calling and relays the message to the other person. This goes back and forth til one of you hang up!

Now here's the neat thing.  When you splash the water it'll take a second or two to get to the other side.  Radio waves are actually made out of an invisible light, like a flashlight that you can't see, but the cell tower can because it knows how to look for it.  And this means they move at the speed of light, which is REALLY fast, almost instantly.

The cell tower sorts through the calls by using computers. When a new radio wave comes in for a new call, it assigns it to a computer to handle and goes back to looking for new waves.  This happens so fast that it will rarely miss a call!


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

[User]
How can metallic magnesium melt if the auto-ignition temperature is lower than the melting temperature?

The auto-ignition temperature of magnesium is 473C while its melting temperature is 650C. If you heat up a piece of magnesium, will it always ignite and start burning before it melts? How can it melt?

[Assistant]
Any process that is carried out above a component's auto-ignition temperature will typically be done under an inert atmosphere in a sealed vessel.

Ignition still requires the presence of oxygen.  Remove it and you'll be free to melt and boil easily oxidized compounds all you want.


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

[User] ELI5 why it is ok to say Brits or Aussies but not Japs?

[Assistant]
Because we were once at war with Japan, and we learned to call them "Japs" then, and so "Jap" became associated with all the hatred that came with war. We are not at war now, so we don't want to be reminded of that hatred, and it is easier to avoid that if we avoid the word "Jap."

By the way, around the same time we called the Japanese "Japs" we were also calling the Germans "Huns"--both words fit nicely into headlines--but that word has disappeared, too.


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

[User]
[Star Wars: RotJ] So what was Luke's plan for Emperor Palpatine if he could beat him?

Seems like Luke was very set on not killing Vader, but what about Palpatine?

If Luke didn't want to kill the emperor what would Luke do? Lock him up? Obi-Wan or Yoda would advise Luke to kill Palpatine right?

For the sake of the question just pretend Yoda taught Luke how to deal with all of Palpatine's force powers like lightning.

[Assistant]
Luke was on a suicide mission. He intended to distract the Emperor long enough that he would die once the Alliance destroyed the Death Star.

He had hoped he could redeem his father before he died too, to put his soul to rest.

However, the delay to the rebels actually meant the Emperor died relatively early in his plan, affording him time to escape.


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

[User] [DC] If Doomsday is made from Kryptonian DNA, is he vulnerable to other weaknesses besides Green Kryptonite? Does red solar radiation, magic, red K or gold K affect him in any way?

[Assistant]
I cannot answer any questions about new 52 And after

In the comics it wasnt clear that he was actually a kryptonian  just that the experiments to create him took place on ancient krypton. The main alien in charge was certainly not a kryptonian and his helpers who were a different species may have been. He only sought out superman bc he saw a wrestling match on tv and was like i want to fight and sensed superman was strong.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does candle wax burn through a wick but not on its own?

[Assistant]
Fire needs 3 things: heat, fuel, and oxygen.

A flat surface of solid or liquid wax doesn't have much surface area to interact with oxygen, and it has too much mass to be easily warmed up enough to evaporate the wax into a gas.

The wick solves both of these problems. A small amount of liquid wax is drawn up into the wick (like how water sucks up into a paper towel) and then evaporates in the heat of the flame. The gas-phase wax is able to mix with lots of oxygen in the air, completing the 3 requirements and easily burning. This creates heat, melting more wax, which gets drawn up into the wick...etc etc.


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

[User]
Ethics of philosophical work itself?

What are the major questions (if any) in the ethics of philosophical work?

Some examples I could guess:

  1. Is it okay to claim as axiom something you don't entirely believe in?
  2. Are there topics that ought not to be explored?
  3. Is there a duty to publish summaries of philosophical research in an accessible language?

[Assistant]
That's a fascinating category of questions, not often explored.

A broader version of #1: suppose a philosopher realizes that they could get relative acclaim by pursuing a particular idea. But they actually believe another idea or theory is more promising. Should they prioritize acclaim or the truth?

Also, what is the value of philosophy? That is, what is its proper aim, and what is the good toward which it aspires?

Somewhat related to your second question, are there truths that ought not to be proclaimed on the grounds that their propagation would do more harm than good?

I would note that as with so many other great philosophical questions, all of these questions were explored to some degree by Plato. For instance, Plato was famously opposed to the Sophists on the grounds that they cared more about making money and arousing emotions than gaining truth. And in the Republic he famously proposed that society be built on various "noble lies."


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

[User] ELI5: Why can the feeling of hunger "pass" after being hungry for a few hours?

[Assistant] When the body is in a starved state, such as when you are feeling hungry, the body searches for sources and stores of glucose to chew up for energy. However, after a time, the body uses up all its stores of glucose and enters a state of 'ketosis'. This is when the body enters preservation mode, and starts burning off fat and protein stores for energy instead (glucose is preserved to be used as energy for the brain). At the same time, the enzymes in the stomach and pancreas which trigger the sensation of hunger are turned off to further preserve energy.


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[User] ELI5: How does the movie 'Birdman' look like one continuous take? How did they do it?

[Assistant]
It's easier to see the cuts once you know what you're looking for. Birdman wasn't filmed in one location: the stage and backstage portions, as well as the roof scenes, were on location at the St. James Theatre. Anything in the hallways and dressing rooms was in a different studio. So there's a cut any time a character leaves the dressing room/hallway areas. Same with any time there's a change in time (like the day to night time lapses).

The cuts that are easiest to see involve a black screen. It happens a lot when characters go up to the rooftop or out of the pub, where there's no light on the door so the screen goes black for a half-second. Another technique they used, going from the dressing rooms to backstage, was having an extra walk in front of the camera. Some of the less obvious ones have cuts when the camera is making a fast pan, like with the drummer while Riggan and Mike are walking outside the theatre.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do all known solar systems have planets that revolve along the same plane?

Why do all of our planets revolve around the sun on the same 2D plane? Why aren't some planets orbiting the sun on another degree different than ours?

Does this also apply to planets with multiple moons? Do those moons always share the same 2D plane?

[Assistant] Conservation of momentum. When a dust cloud is collapsing into a star/solar system, the stuff will be moving mostly randomly, but by chance enough of it will be moving in the same direction to impart a spin on the gas and dust. As it continue to collapse, more and more of it will start to move that direction. As more stuff spins faster and faster, the stuff that's not in the center forms into a disk extending from the equator of the star. This stuff forms the planets, so they all end up in the same plane. Smaller stuff that is usually way further out isn't as affected by this gravity and spin, so that's why you have comets and stuff with wacky angles.


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[User] ELI5: When we need to sneeze, how does looking into the light help?

[Assistant] This only affects somewhere between 30 and 40 percent of the population. But essentially,  nerves connecting to your brain from your nasal area that can detect a tickle are crossed with your optic nerves. (I've heard the term crossed, can anyone confirm? ) so when you see bright light, your brain thinks it detects a tickle in your nasal passages. A sneeze can be induced to clear out the particle that your brain thinks caused the tickle sensation.


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

[User]
[The last of us] The infected infect people through biting, so how hasnt Joel been infected when he always punches them in the mouth bare handed.

I mean, has he really never even chipped his knuckle on their tooth HA!HA!HA!

[Assistant]
Its spread by Fungus and Elle is outright immune to it.  Makes some sense that the survivors are less susceptible to the fungus than most people.

Black death scoured Europe, but there was at least one village that was immune to it because everyone there had a genetic abnormality that prevent the disease from working on them.  They are also functionally immune to aids as the amount required to infect them is over 1000 times normal.  That said, they have some other issues (I believe their lifespans are less than average).  This is probably what Elle is, she's not 'immune' but the scenario that she actually contracts the zombie fungus doesn't really exist(the sample size being delivered by a zombie bite is so great that the zombie is basically finished his meal before she would become infected).

Joel isn't immune, but he probably likewise requires a significantly larger sample size than a normal person would so he can get by with punching the zombie's in the mouth without catching the disease.


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

[User]
ELI5: How did the Vikings and other seafarers of yore manage to sail to specific locations (ports, beaches) when the compasses they had only indicated direction?

Compasses can indicate direction but not really the specific paths they would have to take to reach specific ports or beaches. So although those sailors would have known that they're going, say, a direction like SSW, how could they know that they're on the right path to hit the port or beach they wanted to get to? If their boats were to "drift" sideways, they'd still think they're going the right direction, but could end up hundreds of miles off target, right?

[Assistant]
Most "seafarers of yore" overwhelmingly tried to keep within sight of a coastline whenever they could. In situations where this wasn't possible, they referred to the stars, ocean currents, and (when available) compasses. Vikings were pretty good at this, Polynesians were *great*.

It is hard to overstate just how important the invention of reliable timekeeping was to navigation. Once you know the math, you can reckon your latitude pretty easily from the sun and stars, but calculating longitude without time or landmarks is **really hard**.

Shortly before naval chronometers really took off, one competing plan was to set up beacon stations which set off fireworks, every hour, **across the entire ocean**. Fortunately (unfortunately?), this plan was never implemented.


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

[User]
Should I still read old economist?

Should I read books from Milton Friedman, Hayak, Keynes and Von Mises in 2022? Or are these something I shouldnt read an instead spend my time on newer books in the past 10-15 years?

[Assistant] Reading the old-guard economists is a good exercise Id say if you want a truly well rounded understanding of the different schools of economics and how they evolved overtime. Is this super necessary in industry or policy work? Not really if you ask me, but its a step along the way of becoming an economist.


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

[User] ELI5 what do the pedal on a piano actually do? How do they do it?

[Assistant]
The right pedal is connected to felt-covered dampers that press on the strings of the piano. Normally when you hit a key it will actuate a hammer to hit a string, producing a tone that will quickly fade when released. While the key is held down the damper is held back, then allowed to dampen the string when the key is released. What the right pedal does is pull back the dampers from all the strings so notes can be sustained while the keys are not held.

The center pedal is similar to this except it will only hold back the dampers from keys that were depressed at the time the pedal is pressed. This allows certain notes to be sustained while others are dampened.

The left pedal allows a softer note to be played. Pianos don't actually have just a single string for each key but actually a set of three. The left pedal will shift the entire hammer action slightly to the right such that the hammers only strike two of the three strings. This creates a softer, duller tone as opposed to the normal bright tones.


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

[User]
CMV: I believe that perpetrators of victimless crimes (ex. prostitutes, drug dealers, those who gamble, etc) should not be jailed and/or fined for their crimes

I know that in some crimes like prostitution, the perpetrator can be injured or not paid etc and bringing them to "justice" may get rid of the harmful effects on the criminal, but i don't believe that fining these individuals or putting them in jail is the right way to handle things. These individuals who commit these crimes do them for the money. Jailing them and fining them not only directly takes away their money (fines) but then makes it more difficult for them to get a job because now they have these felonies on their record.I think that helping them get on their feet and finding real jobs and things like rehab are better ways to deal with people who turn to these things to support themselves. I want to here what others who oppose my argument have to say.

[Assistant]
Drug dealer strings a kid out on meth at age 12, the kid drops out of school, steals and shoots people to pay for his habit.  Hooker gives a guy a disease, he takes it home to his pregnant wife, their baby is born blind.  Another hooker does this thing with her tongue that breaks up a marriage, the husband commits suicide, his orphan kid is the one who gets on meth at age 12.

What's a victimless crime?


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

[User] ELIF: Why do some materials, like tinfoil or chip bags, make so much noise when crinkled.

[Assistant]
So some materials, such as cellophane, have a specific force at which they actually and suddenly bend. Any less force than this and they only flex. The difference is basically that on the bend side the thing actually assumes a new shape, while in flexing it will simply return to its old shape when you stop pushing it.

This is, in fact, why cellophane was chosen to be the wrappers for hard candy. It starts out flat. You engulf the candy. You twist the ends... and they _stay_ _twisted_ because they've been bent. When you untwist the candy from the wrapper you are unbending the material.

So each individual "bending event" has a very specific energy. You apply a steadily increasing force until the one of the stress lines gives way and there is a little "crack" noise. You keep bending and there's another crack as another bend takes place.

Done quickly and all at once they come together in a continuous crackle as a series of individual "cracks".

So that thing where your grandma tries to open the candy really slow to minimize the noise doesn't work. Each "crack" has a fixed volume because it's got a fixed energy. Going slow just makes it all take longer.

As a relevant aside, the flat expanse of membrane on each side of each "crack" event acts as a speaker membrane to move more air more efficiently. And some shapes (like a bag) can form a power chamber like in a guitar or drum to make the nose more efficient. This helps the sound cary or focus.

So anyway, if you take the crinkling material and play with it, you can make the individual "crack" events and note how they are all the same volume no matter how fast you bend the individual sounds pretty much all have the same volume.

So if you are opening something loud in a circumstance where noise is unwelcome, like in a movie, just do it all at once without over doing it. You going slow or with less care than usual just makes the disturbance longer in time or "more rumply" because you were bunching up more material.

But below a certain, fairly loud point you can not "quietly" open the bag or unwrap the candy. The material of the wrapper literally can't be more quiet than it is when being bent.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do red clothes appear gray / black underneath red lights?

[Assistant]
If the room is only illuminated by red light, bright red pigment is indistinguishable from white pigment: theyre both reflecting nearly 100% of light falling on them (all of which is red).

If you have a dark red shirt that reflects 10% of red light, it will look the same as a grey shirt that reflects 10% of all light. The fact that the grey shirt is also capable of reflecting green and blue light is irrelevant because theres no green or blue light around.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does my soup "pop" violently in the microwave and then still come out lukewarm?

I always come running when I hear what sounds like something exploding, thinking my food is way over done, then I'm always disappointed when it's not even close.

[Assistant] Microwave ovens tend not to heat very evenly. That is why we stir things after heating them in the microwave. What you're hearing is some small portion of your food getting hot enough to "pop" (boil, turn to steam) but most of the food is still luke warm. When you stir it, or it's something that can move around like soup, the hot spot quickly evens out.


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

[User]
[Star Trek] What do the majority of the crew of a starship do all of the time?

Kirk's Enterprise had a crew of 430, Picard's had a crew of 1014. We have seen numerous occasions where either craft is operable by a single person, but in normal activity there are about ten officers on the bridge, and a few dozen each in engineering, sickbay, and security. This leaves hundreds of crew members whose purpose is unaccounted for. Why are they on the ship?

[Assistant] Starships typically run on a 3 or 4 shift rotation, so only a fraction of the crew is on actually duty at any given time.  Out of a crew of 1014 on a Galaxy class starship, you can expect that only 300 are on duty at any given time.  Aside from the jobs you listed, there is probably a large number of crew assigned to maintenance, and on a Galaxy class starship, scientific research and analysis.


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

[User] Why are rain clouds grey and normal clouds white if they're both made up of water?

[Assistant] Rain clouds are supersaturated, meaning they contain more water than the air can actually hold. The "extra" water falls to the ground as rain. This means there's more water which absorbs more light in a rain cloud than a normal cloud.


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

[User] ELI5: What happens to my brain if I dont get enough sleep?

[Assistant]
The brain does a number of things while sleeping, which I'll list below. (Note: The study of sleep on the brain is kind of non-conclusive, these are the best academic OPINIONS of what happens.)

1. It records the events of the day into your brain, essentially 'creating' memories. [No sleep - No recording/incomplete recording. You are more likely to forget things you learned/did.]

2. The brain rests various connections that are in constant use during the day. It's a muscle and like muscles in your arms and legs, can be become so strained that it fails to function properly (like when you've been lifting things all day and get to the put you can't do so anymore). [No sleep = Slurred/mismatched speech, failure to interpret what is going on around you, slowed reaction times.]

3. Following up on the previous point, your brains constant activity for over 24 hours will overwork it to the point signals become crossed. You may hallucinate because your brain expects something to appear that won't, you may take risks or indulge because your brain isn't getting through the proper cautions it normally does, you may day dream at inappropriate times and suddenly be hungry because the ability to time these things appropriately isn't getting through.

4. Brain Damage. In the long term and with repeated behavior, your brain cells may break down from constantly being overworked. The same concept is in all your muscles, work them too hard and they will become damaged.

To sum it up, your brain is like a muscle. All the same things that happen to you when you overwork your arms/legs/abs/back will happen to your brain. It will get strained and it will get damaged. You will 'pull' it, but given it's sensitive nature, unlike your arms or legs, the damage won't just repair itself.

Edit: I'd like to also mention that everyone's biology is unique and what may work for other people may not work for you. There are reports of people who need little/no sleep and live there lives as normally as you and I. There are also reports of people who have died of exhaustion from getting no sleep at all after a short while. Everything we know about why we need sleep at this point is theory based on educated assumptions and what little we do know about how the brain works.


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

[User]
Could antimater stars exist?

As far as we know antimater is unstable in the presence of matter. But space is quite empty, could an antimater star exist? Could we identify it? How?

I am more interested in the 3rd question, could we somehow distinguish the radiation coming from an (antistar?) From the radiation of a normal one?

Havent found this question easily so i hope wasnt asked before ;)

edit: woa thanks for the answers really nice thanks guys!

[Assistant] Antimatter stars should be physically possible, antimatter behaves (as far as we know) exactly the same as normal matter with a few minor exceptions. It is unlikely that there are antimatter stars, however. An antimatter star would need to be formed in an antimatter rich region of the universe. If there were antimatter rich pockets we would see a great deal of gamma ray production on the boundary of the antimatter pocket and the normal matter universe from matter-antimatter annihilation. We have not found any gamma ray sources fitting that scenario.


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

[User]
Is Aristotle begging the question?

So I (just) started reading Aristotles politika, and really haven't got far.

For me, it seems like he makes the following claims on why humans group in a state or polis:

Humans nature is being in a community, or a polis.

Polis forms because humans communicate about values, morals etc.

Therefore, human society or community is a neutral state.

My problem is, doesn't that make the argument "humans nature is to form a society, and that society is natural because it is humans nature to form it"?

[Assistant] You could also start with Nicomachean Ethics as well since Eudaemonia (flourishing) is the key for Aristotle, and that can only happen within a state or polis. Understanding Aristotles philosophical outlook gives a good contextual framework when trying to understand his political philosophy.


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

[User]
ELI5: The Monty Hall math problem

I was watching Brooklyn 99 Season 4 Episode 8 around the 5 minute mark

The problem goes "There are 3 doors behind one of which is a car. You pick a door and the host, who knows where the car is, opens a different door showing nothing behind it. He asks if you want to change your answer.

Apparently the math dictates that you have better chances if you change your decision. Why? 2 doors 50/50 chance, no?

One character (Kevin) says it's 2/3 if you switch 1/3 if you don't. What? How? Please help.

[Assistant]
Say there are three doors, A, B, C. One of them has the prize, and you pick one, hoping you picked the one with the prize. Simple enough.

To make it even more simple, we can say that door A is the one with the prize in it. Now the game starts. You pick a door at random. 1/3 chance of A, 1/3 of B, 1/3 of C, right? So at this first pick, you have a 1/3 chance of picking correctly (door A).

Now Monty Hall opens one of the other doors. The door he opens **won't** have the prize behind it, or the game would be over.

If you picked A, he could reveal either B or C. Switching now would lose you the prize.
If you picked B, he would reveal C. Switching now (to door A) would win you the prize.
If you picked C, he would reveal B. Switching now (to door A) would win you the prize.

So after the reveal, that single "50/50" choice to switch doors is actually based on the original 1/3 choice. Switching afterwards will get you the prize 2/3 of the time, because you would've only picked correctly 1/3 of the time in the first pick.


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

[User]
[Marvel]How do Weather Manipulators not cause lasting weather issues?

I'm drawing from a lot of different references, one point is taken from David Eddings in his Belgariad and Mallorean series. In it, the main character summons a thunderstorm, and this simple innocuous act causes huge weather issues for the rest of the world, all because he use his powers to manipulate the weather and caused a huge butterfly effect that set off blizzards where blizzards shouldn't be, and droughts.

How do Storm and Thor not cause similar issues? We've seen that the manipulations happen pretty much at the speed of thought, ie MCU Thor turning off the rain around him and Jane, Storm making fog banks, tornadoes, etc but there doesn't seem to have any lasting issues that these new and sudden high and low pressure effects coming out of no where.

The simplest answer I can come up with is that their power is so great that they accounting for and tweaking weather patterns around the world to compensate for the changes they are making. My co-worker, is thinking more with portals, like how Nightcrawler travels through another dimension in his teleportation, but I think he's looking at that with a D&D perspective since there are planes of existence that are specifically about those energies and elements.

[Assistant] The butterfly effect is really more a figure of speech, a thought experiment. The reality is that weather systems are quite stable. A localized disruption generally doesn't spiral out of control. Think of it this way - a single nuclear explosion pumps a lot of energy into the atmosphere, but the effect stays local.


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[User] [Star Trek] Is there an established lore reason why automation isn't prevalent in the Federation? It seems that there's tons of repetitive, boring work that's still being done by people.

[Assistant]
Automation is plenty prevalent.  There is literally a magic box in every residence that manufactures any food or small goods that you could want just for the asking.
Most of the time, people have jobs because they want to have them.  Doing the work, though you see it as repetitive and boring, fulfills some goal or desire they have.  There are exceptions where there is work that can't be automated yet, but that's mostly on the newer colonies or out in the fringes.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is fish meat so different from mammal meat?

What is it about their muscles, etc. that makes the meat so different? I have a strong science background so give me the advanced five-year-old answer. I was just eating fish and got really, really curious.

[Assistant] Fish muscles are different from those of terrestrial animals because they do not spend their entire lives working against gravity.  This makes their muscles and connective tissues (which are the white layers between muscle sections on most fish) much more delicate.  Additionally, fish carry their fat as oils within their muscles and organs rather than as adipose tissue that you see in terrestrial animals.


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

[User]
[Lord of the Rings] How Large was Saurons Forces at the Battle Of Minas Tirith?

In the books, the invasion forces number near 40,000, but there isnt a canonical statement for the army size in the movies. In an interview, Peter Jackson stated that he imagined there to be about 200,000 Orcs. But I would imagine that that doesnt include all of the other types of monsters that attacked such as the trolls, olliphaunts, etc. How large was Saurons army?

Bonus: how large was the army at The Battle of the Black Gate?

[Assistant]
It's not stated clearly how large the Black Army was at Pelennor Fields, but Mordor had 18,000 Easterlings and Haradrim, several Haradrim war Oliphaunts, and tens of thousands of Orcs; No number were ever specified for Orcs but it's noted that their numbers vastly outnumbered the initial defenders of Minas Tirith of 10,000+ men and the 6,000 Rohirrim Riders reinforcing them. It wasn't until Aragorn came reinforcing them with Gondor's southern fiefdom that they were able to rout Mordor's forces.

As for the Battle of Morannon, the Men of the West had less than six thousand when they confronted Sauron at the Black Gates. It was stated that Sauron with his Orcs, Trolls, Easterlings, Ringwraiths, and Fell Beasts outnumbered them by at least ten to one, thus putting their numbers around 60,000+


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

[User]
cmv: If the age limit for smoking is 21, so should it be for military service and voting

EDIT: based on responses, I just want to make clear that I'm not advocating the age limit be one or another - just that it should be consistent as it relates to accountability. Thanks.

The fact that (in the US) we've deemed that we're not able to make rational decisions at 18 that have long term consequences - such as smoking - and not military service or voting for representatives that create laws we all have to abide by, is a complete double standard and what I would consider an example of ongoing nanny-state legislation.

It only makes sense to me that we would keep a consistent standard when it comes to determining what age we are accountable for our personal actions and decisions as adults.

(As a former smoker, military vet, and smoking military vet - I do not condone smoking or war. I just think an 18yo putting their life on the line in a war zone should be able to smoke a cigarette if he/she wants)

[Assistant]
One big difference between smoking and the military is that we expect young people to give cigarettes to people even younger than them. So 18 year olds give cigarettes to their 16 and 17 year old friends, just like 21 year olds give alcohol to their 19 and 20 year old friends.

If you want to cut the number of nicotine addicts, you have to keep young people from smoking. By raising the age for smokers, your also raising the age of people who smoke by proximity.

That doesn't work with the military. Even if we didn't want people to join the military, no one is bringing their 16 and 17 year old friends to war with them. But of course we *do* want people to join the military. We want people voting, too, but again you can't just bring your friend to vote with you if they couldn't otherwise vote.


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

[User]
[Pleasantville] Who exaclty does the school basketball team play against?

So in the movie, mary sue  asks what's outside of Pleasantville and nobody seems to know the answer.  But the school basketball coach keeps on saying they have a big game coming up.  And eventually they even talk how they lost a game and how they have never lost before.  But who do they play?

[Assistant]
Do you have to ask where food comes from? Of course not! *Everyone* knows that Tom goes back into the grocery's stockroom and there it is. Might as well ask why the sky is [grey] and the clouds are [grey].

Likewise, the appearance of The Other Team is just part of the way our world works. Our boys practice hard for the big game, The Other Team is there when it's time to play, and we beat them. Why else would *we* have a basketball team if there wasn't The Other Team for us to beat?


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

[User]
CMV: Actual effort and ability is rarely noticed. Perceived effort and ability gets all the attention, and it's killing productivity

Person A and B are assigned a task at some company.  Person A gives 100 percent effort to the task.  Person B divided his time between the task and acting above his pay grade.  The task gets done, and supervisors see two things:  it got done, and Person B.  In reality, Person A is capable of, and does regularly, complete the task by himself, and doesn't get recognized.

It has been said that you should perform for the job you want, not the one you have.  If everyone did that instead of being dedicated to the mission, things would take much longer than necessary, or wouldn't get done at all.

If I can see when someone is doing a good job, or is struggling, then anyone with a reasonable amount of situational awareness should too.  Why should one have to 'sell' himself?  It takes away from the mission.

Workers who are actually good have to pick up the slack for these overreachers, which decreases their own morale.  They may even leave the company over it.  Losing good workers makes the situation even worse.  Care to change my view?

[Assistant] Any attempt at checking for effort and ability will only yield perceived effort and ability by definition. It would be nice if we could tell better, but that's always true no matter how well we can tell. There's only two options: reward people for perceived effort and ability or not reward them for perceived effort and ability. Do you think it would be better if pay and promotions were decided through some other method, like seniority or dice rolls?