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

[User]
CMV: I don't think Georgia should outlaw the combat trial plea.

There is an option for a combat trial (I will answer any questions in the comments)in a few counties in Georgia. Basically it is a route to take in a civil lawsuit (usually in small claims courts). and while this is kind of barbaric and primitive, it is outlawed in most counties/cities here in Georgia. Both Bibb County and Peach County influencers are petitioning to get rid of this legal option in their counties, because they feel that it is being abused for people to rob stubborn elderly men. And while that does happen, it is rare. I want my view to be changed because I'm trying to become more religious and support less violence, but I feel that if both parties agree to settle a matter in a non-lethal combat instance, they should be able to. And no, juveniles do not have this legal option.

[Assistant] If people want to fight to resolve an argument, and they both genuinely want to resolve it that way and will respect the outcome, why does it need to go through the courts? Just fight. Just to clarify, i think this is the dumbest dispute resolution method I've ever heard of, but i guess consenting idiots can do this shit if they really want to...


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

[User]
Need help understanding Interupts

Hey guys, i'm currently reading up on this semesters curriculum, and i'm kind of stuck on what Interrupts do. I have to answer a question asking what they are, and how hardware and the OS software work together when an interrupt occurs.

I just need a very very basic understanding of this subject.

So far what i've gathered is:

Interrupts are signals sent to the CPU, saying there is something wrong that it needs to take care of immidiately.

There is a hardware interrupt: Generated by hardware devices, usually I/O devices like a mouse click or a button pressed on the keyboard that the OS handles within milliseconds, or that it has completed a task like transferring data etc.

Software interrupts is when a program requests some type of handling, that an error has occured and it needs fixing. Here the current CPU task is put on hold, and "saved" or maintained. The CPU changes into a "interrupt handler routine" and executes some code from the OS to fix said problem, and then continues where it left off when done.

Is this correct? Now i'm confused about the question how the hardware and software work together when an interrupt occurs.

As i said i need a veery basic understanding, so if i'm missing some small details its no problem.

Hope you can help, thanks!

[Assistant]
\> Interrupts are signals sent to the CPU, saying there is something wrong

Something HAPPENED, not something is WRONG necessarily.

\> an error has occurred and it needs fixing

Sometimes it's as simple as "there is data we are now ready for you to read."

Behind the scenes, your operating system is taking ALL your registers, pushing them onto the stack, then calling your interrupt routine. This is why, in C, your interrupt handler cannot really take any parameters. The caller has no idea about the layout of your program, and the handler has to have  a very strict signature.


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

[User] How do the atoms in a neutron star behave, does it act like one "big" atom, or is it composed of different elements?

[Assistant]
The interiors of neutron stars aren't fully understood, but what we do understand includes a bit of both your options. Near the surface, there is a crust of atomic nuclei (typically iron), and near the centre there is some kind of coherent quantum state like a superfluid or a fermionic condensate, which can sort of be described as acting like one big atom (with technical differences). There are also more exotic proposals for the centre, such as quark-gluon plasmas (where the neutrons essentially melt), and strange matter (containing exotic quarks).

One way to study this is to figure out what a given model says about the relationship between mass and radius of a given neutron star, and then to try to make measurements of mass and radius from astronomical observations.


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

[User]
[MGS: Rising] Questions on Raiden, cybernetics, and metal gears.

1) If cyber enhancements make you throw building sized mechs, what's the use of metal gear Rays when their only use now is to launch tactical missiles?

2) Why aren't all PMCs super cyborgs like Raiden? Or just cyborg enough to be like Grey Fox?

3) Why does Raiden have bodyguards?

4) How the heck so you cut a Ray's arm clean off in a single strike when your sword isn't even half of the arm's width?

5) How can Raiden lift things so heavy (metal gears), yet still can be nearly defeated by some Senator with nanomachines.

6) Also on the topic of Armstrong, how does Sam's sword pierce his skin when Raiden's blade did nothing?

7) And now to Sam. How does he fight an FTE monster of a guy without too many augmentions?

[Assistant]
1. Metal Gear Ray is used as "anti-Metal Gear" Metal Gears. Primarily used to hunt down rogue Metal Gears and does not possess any nuclear launch capabilities.

2. The Cyborg Ninja Suit is insanely expensive and difficult to use to boot. Users need fine motor control to prevent from dislocating their own body parts by over-exerting.

3. Raiden doesn't have bodyguards, they were his co-workers in Maverick Security Consulting, Inc.

4. High Frequency Blade creates a vibration resonance that allows smaller blades to create large cuts in bigger targets.

5. Armstrong's nanomachines essentially turns Armstrong into a superhuman wearing the cyborg ninja suit, giving him far more increased strength and bypassing the cube-square law for strength.

6. Sam at that moment was much faster than Armstrong's ability to shield himself.

7. Sam trained in the Uradachi technique, better known as Satsujin-ken or "the murdering sword." Added on with a Cyborg Ninja Suit, he surpasses most human reactions, including Raiden.


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

[User]
CMV: Arrest records should not be made public; only conviction records should be

I was reading my local newspaper last night and every week the police department puts out a record of arrests made in the county. We're not a large county, so it's not uncommon to know someone who is "featured" (or at least know someone in their family/same last name). Obviously, not *everyone* who is arrested is guilty. If they're found not guilty and the crime was minor (and most are), that won't make the paper -- but their arrest already has. And given that most newspapers are published online nowadays, their names will come up in search engines as having been arrested (but you'd have to search the state court record system to find out they weren't convicted, which is much harder to do).

People should not be convicted in the court of public opinion before they are convicted in an actual court. It's not the public's business who gets arrested. It's the public's business who is found guilty of a crime.

Change my view.

[Assistant]
What if the police are corrupt, and start arresting people they dont like?

What if the government starts cracking down on political dissidents?

Allowing arrest records to be public ensures that people cant be easily disappeared through seemingly-legitimate arrests.


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

[User] [GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY 2] Yondu, Rocket and Groot escaped the Ravagers. Yondu killed everyone on board with his arrow, then blew up his own ship before they escaped. His ship, his home, his storehouse for all his ill-gotten gains. Why destroy it, after he killed all the traitors.

[Assistant] It's mostly destroyed by accident rather than on purpose. Yondu couldn't perfectly control the weapon without line of sight and damaged vital areas. Hes also bound to have missed a few traitors hiding in the ship and couldn't take the time needed to explore every nook and cranny for survivors. Plus it's a multicrew vessel that 2 beings and a plant couldn't pilot by themselves let alone sneak past Ego.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Could Tom Riddle have made the Basilisk into a horcrux?

If so, could anything besides fiendfyre have killed it? How else would the protagonists even begin to stop it?

[Assistant]
It's just a big snake. A committed enough Avada Kedavra would have snuffed it out.

You need a powerful spell in general to destroy a horcrux - but the reason you don't make living things into them is because when the host dies so does the horcrux. It's much easier to kill a big snake than it is to obliterate a heavily enchanted locket.


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

[User]
How to jump from academia to pharma?

Hello, I have I PhD in Virology and have a decent (not bad, not great) publication history. Im currently a professor at a Brazilian university but due to several factors (political, funding, violence, etc) Im looking for a position abroad.

Ive been sending my CV non-regularly to several biotech/pharma companies for almost two years and I only was invited for an interview once (outside US). Some positions are exactly in my field of expertise and still I was not considered.

That said, people who managed to move from academia to pharma, how you managed that? Is that hard? Which skills recruiters are looking for? The fact that Im not an US citizen plays a lot against me?

Thank you!

[Assistant]
not in exactly the same field, but working at big pharma:

Senior people from an academic background can have quite a tough time in industry.

Basically they fall between the chairs.

 They are obviously too senior for junior/entry level positions.

And people here think that experience from academia does not translate into industry well enough to make them great candidates for senior positions.


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

[User]
ELI5: When drug addicts and alcoholics go to rehab, the goal is to quit that substance forever. But, for sex addicts, do they have to quit sex forever?

I feel like alcoholics and drug addicts have to completely wipe their addiction out of their lives. An ex-alcoholic mostly can't have a casual drink and an ex-heroin addict can't have a leisure-shoot without spiraling back into addiction. For sex addicts however, id imagine the rehabilitation would be different? Sex is natural and we need it in order to reproduce, so is it mandatory to quit sex for good in order to treat/cure the addiction? Or can that person get to the point where they can have sex at a healthy rate?

[Assistant] Think of it like this. Alcoholics don't stop drinking all fluids, just ones with alcohol in them. Drug addicts don't stop taking their Coumadin or insulin, just the drugs that they have a problem with. Sex addicts have to avoid the sexual activity that negatively affects their life.


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

[User] [MCU] If Warmachine is built off the Mk.II Iron Man suit, does that mean it has built in flaws and restrictions that Tony later rectified, or did he go back and refine it when Rhodey started using it?

[Assistant]
The War Machine armor gets its own upgrades alongside the Iron Man armor.

Rhodey upgrades to War Machine Mark III upon joining the Avengers after Age of Ultron. This is the suit he wears in Civil War, and it has fancy new tech like sonic cannons used to incapacitate Wanda, that glowing stun baton, and of course, even more guns (capable of shredding an entire 18-wheeler truck in a few seconds).

After the Mk III gets damaged by Vision, Rhodey wears the Mk IV in Infinity War and the Mk V in Endgame.


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

[User]
why can't particles of zero mass be at the rest?

in a book I'm reading it says *the fact that a particle has zero mass means, in a way, that it cannot be at rest.* why is that?

[Assistant]
Special relativity says that the following is true for **any** free particle:

**v**/c^(2) = **p**/E,

where **v** is the velocity, **p** is the momentum, E is the total energy, and c is the speed of light.

SR also says that for any free particle:

E^(2) = (mc^(2))^(2) + (**p**c)^(2).

For a massless particle, m = 0, so E = |**p**|c.

Taking the magnitude of the first equation and plugging in E = pc:

v/c^(2) = p/(pc)

v/c = 1

v = c.

Thus a particle with zero mass must always move at c. It cannot be at rest if it's always moving at c.


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

[User]
How do we know what dinosaurs' skin looked like?

Every depiction of dinosaurs shows them with leathery, reptilian like skin. Yet they say chickens are closely related to dinosaurs. How do we know dinosaurs didn't have feathers? Or fur? How do we know anything about their outer appearance from fossils alone?

[Assistant]
Some dinosaurs died in mud. The soft material preserved their skin coverings, and we can see what it would have looked like from that.

But, dinosaurs often *did* have feathers. You're working off a 1980-1990's impression of what they might have looked like.


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

[User]
ELI5 - Could we only eat exactly what our bodies need, and never poop?

Poop is just waste, right?  So if we didn't eat the waste part of food, could we stop pooping, and eventually would humans evolve their butts off?

I'm not kidding more than I'm kidding. I'm sort of kidding, just because it's butts and poop, but, I'd still really like to know the answer.

[Assistant]
>Poop is just waste, right?

Wrong.  Or at least, poop is not just undigested food.  Feces contain various other biological waste products that we can't stop producing.  Things like bile, and broken-down, dead red blood cells.  Plus, roughly 40% of feces consist of dead bacteria:  You have **tons** of bacteria living in your intestines, helping you extract nutrients from food.  As those bacteria die, they get expelled.


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

[User]
ELI5 How are we "stardust"?

I've heard various quotes about how "we come from stars" and things about molecules or atoms or something forming in stars.  How does that work?  And how do they get here and make things?  I don't even know how exactly to ask this question.

[Assistant]
The universe is almost all hydrogen or helium (the two lightest particles).

Gravity makes things pull together.  When enough hydrogen pulls together,  it ignites and makes a star.

The star runs by fusion - that is when hydrogen comes together to make helium - and releases energy.

Eventually all the hydrogen is used up, and the helium begins to fuse as well.

This works all the way up the list of elements until you hit iron.  At that point, the atoms are too heavy to fuse, and the star runs out of fuel and blows up (well, blows in and then blows up).

When the star blows up, so much energy is used that even iron can fuse - and all the heavy elements like gold and uranium and platinum are made.

Planets like Earth are made from this old star stuff.

Therefore, since you have heavy elements like iron in you, the atoms that make up part of your body were once made in a star.


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

[User]
[The Hobbit] What would have happened if Bilbo took his full share?

After the Battle of the Five Armies Bilbo only took a tiny fraction of what was originally agreed to. This still allowed him and later Frodo to live comfortably without ever having to work. What would have happened if Bilbo returned to the Shire with 1/14th of the treasure?

Assume that he makes it back to the Shire safe with the gold.

[Assistant] 1/14th of the treasure would have been able to allow him to buy all the land in the west previously owned by Arnor. The mithril shirt itself was worth more than the entire Shire, but ultimately the short of it is that Bilbo would not have been able to do much with the gold as he really just didn't care for money. Bilbo had a very nice home with no mortgage, he had a quiet life in a very peaceful community, he was respected by his peers, and all of his needs were more than satisfied even before going on the quest for the Lonely Mountain. If he did take the entire 1/14th share then it is very likely that he would have tried to give it away, most of it to the Shire which would have caused both an economic boom and crippling inflation in the region as well even more resentment from the Sackville Bagins.


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

[User]
is subatomic particle physics guilty of overfitting our observations?

My apologies .. all i know about physics is what i learned some 40+ years ago in school.

I have a degree in mathematics and have worked with computers and databases all my life. How boring, right?

Recently I stumbled across the Standard Model of particle physics and was taken by aback by how many little subatomic particles that are referenced. When I was a boy the textbook only listed the proton, neutron and electron. Now I see many flavours of quarks, leptons, fermions, bosons. Not to mention umpteen you-name-it-inos being hypothesised.

As a mathematician, i do have experience in fitting models to observed data. One of the problems faced in this area is that if you make your model too complex, you run the risk of "overfitting" the data. In essence, if you define as many parameters as you have data points ... you get a perfect fit ...  but your model is pretty much guaranteed to be dung.

My first impression when I came across so many particles in the subatomic model was that we may be going down a route of overfitting our observations.

I'd like know what our particle physics hipsters think about this aspect.

Again, apologies if this is a silly request.

[Assistant] No. Much in the same way that combinations of just three particles (proton, neutron, and electron) explain the hundreds of atoms/isotopes in the periodic table, similarly combinations of just a handful of quarks explain the hundreds of hadrons that have been discovered in particle colliders. The theory is also highly predictive (not just post-dictive) so there is little room for over-fitting. Further more, there is fairly direct evidence for some of the particles in the Standard Model; top quarks, neutrinos, gluons, Z/W/Higgs bosons can be seen directly (from their decay products), and the properties of many hadrons that can be seen directly (such as bottom and charm and strange) are predicted from the quark model.


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

[User] ELI5:Why are we not allowed to smile on our passport photos?

[Assistant]
Some people look pretty different when they smile, enough so that they could be mistaken for someone else, or that someone else could more easily be mistaken for them.

So they get around this by having you make a neutral face, probably the same face you'd be making in line at the airport.  It speeds things up and prevents mistakes... Trust me, nobody's really judging you by your passport photo.


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

[User]
Difference between PhD degrees from different countries in the world?

A PhD degree in North America takes 6-7 years, in Europe it takes 3-4 years, in Asia and Africa it takes 5-6 years, no idea how long Australian and South American PhDs take. What is the difference between these PhDs? Would you prefer one of these over the others?

[Assistant] One major difference is that many American Ph.D. programs, especially in the sciences, functionally have a Master's program rolled in, whereas similar programs in other countries frequently expect students to complete a Master's before applying.


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

[User] ELI5: On most standardized tests, why is it so important that we specifically use a #2 pencil?

[Assistant]
It's a compromise between hard enough to make a mark that's readable by the machine (machines worked by sensing opaqueness so #3 and #4 weren't always dark enough to be readable) vs not smudging when erased (#1 is darker than #2, but is harder to cleanly erase without creating a bigger smudge patch that could also lead to errors).

In truth, the machines have improved with technology and can read most types of marks very accurately, but since #2 remains in the sweet spot (and keeps people from using ink that's much harder to cleanly erase), they still recommend it.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does getting a massage feel good?

Some people say a "knot" is a local spot where the muscle fiber has been injured, but applying pressure to injuries usually only causes pain. Is a "knot" a real biophysical thing, such as a spot where some chemical has built up? Can they be seen on an MRI, and does rubbing one make it dissipate? It seems to me that our bodies would only evolve that deep, satisfying sensation in response to having our muscles rubbed if it was doing something that helped our survival.

[Assistant]
Muscle knots aka "trigger points" come from a build up of protein and lactic acid which causes restriction of blood flow and subsequently leads to pain and inflammation because the area is being deprived of fresh oxygen.

 When you massage the area it causes the muscle to relax which allows increased blood flow, bringing fresh oxygen to the inflamed area.


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

[User] ELI5:When a processor says it can perform 1 million operations per second, where is it getting so many instructions from and how is it able to handle them so quick?

[Assistant]
"Instructions" at the processor level, are basic operations on basic bits of data stored in memory. The most basic would be literally something like `Take the number stored $HERE and add $X to it.` $HERE represents an address in memory, and $X is maybe something the user typed.

At the end of the day, computers just move numbers around, or compare them and make decisions. Nearly every complex thing your computer does comes down to a LOT of very, very simple instructions that basically look like `If $X is less than $Y then set $Z to "true"` (and on many CPUs, even that "instruction" would be broken up into lots of even simpler instructions.)

It takes literally millions of these VERY basic instructions to do even the most simple (from a human perspective) stuff. Clicking a button on a website has millions and millions of instructions just to create the image of the button your screen, and millions more to animate the push of that button.

It seems impossible at times, but when broken down to the absolute basics, everything a computer does could be done using nothing but LOTS (millions) of the simplest calculators... and a lot of scratch paper (that would be the RAM or memory) as well as other paper for long term storage (hard drives.)

As for how it does them so fast, there ARE literally millions of "calculators" on a CPU, just shrunk down really, really, really small. Many of these literally do the job only of feeding instructions to the others. And when every one of these calculators operates (executes one instruction) at the "clock speed" of the CPU... Well, when you hear about a "3ghz CPU" that means 3 BILLION times per second every calculator on the chip could (potentially) being doing something. In reality, it usually takes a few clock cycles to execute most instructions, but it adds up quickly anyway.


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

[User]
ELI5: Would health or body weight outcomes differ if you: a) Eat one slice of pie every day, year round, or b) eat 7 slices of pie on one day each week, every week, year round.

Would the same be true for alcohol? Is regular consumption of unhealthy food/drink better or worse than periodic bingeing, holding average consumption amount equal?

Had to look up spelling of bingeing/binging. Seems they're both acceptable.

[Assistant]
Nutrition wise: It would be different, because your body adjusts based on how much it needs to work at the time. But that said, the difference would be so small it may not even be worth paying attention to.
Dental: Well, yeah, because you're exposing your teeth to the sugar 7 days a week rather than just one.


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

[User]
CMV: Giant burgers that people cannot feasibly bite into are bad.

Burgers should have all their layers be able to be bitten into at once. The burger should be constructed with complementary flavors, and its size should facilitate that.

If a burger wanted people to have bits and pieces of its parts in every bite, why not just make a salad instead? Salads are respectable, and they don't pretend that each bite is homogenous.

It's also impractical. Big burgers look great on Instagram, and I agree that apperance is important. But big burgers are just hard to eat without portions flying out. It's wasted food!

[Assistant]
I would like to argue that giant burgers are not in themselves bad, but rather are only bad because they are difficult to eat and provide no obvious means of doing so.

While salads have their place, you dont expect every bite to have every component of the salad in it. And so burgers are differentiated because they have flavors which (i agree with you) ought to be complimentary and taken together.

But the solution is not to limit the burger; the solution is better utensil usage.

I think that large burgers should be wide enough that they can be sliced without all the condiments falling out, and perhaps even could come pre-quartered. The appropriate utensil is a skewer, with which you stab the meat pile and insert lengthwise into your food hole.

TLDR; giant burgers arent useless, but they should be skewerable.


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

[User]
[Daredevil] What was that near-bottomless pit for?

I'm wondering if I missed an explanation.

[Assistant] Probably part of a black magic ritual, considering the insane levels of secrecy they were using to hide it (coded messages, smuggling the fill out in the dead of night, dig site guarded by ninjas). It probably was a requirement for their resurrection ritual.


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

[User]
ELI5: What starts the pumping of the human heart and how does it keep going?

I guess Im asking how the heart works, like whats the power source?  I keep thinking of an engine which needs a method to turn on and to keep going.  I sound dumb.

[Assistant] You don't sound dumb. It's a good question. The heart has its own electrical system that keeps it pumping independent of brain function. Sometimes it misfires, though, and that can lead to things like heart attacks. Basically, as long as there's blood flowing through the heart to keep it alive it doesn't even need to be in the body. That's what they do for heart transplants.


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

[User]
ELI5: What is Quantum Entanglement and is it important to know what it is?

What is Quantum Entanglement and is it important to know what it is?

[Assistant]
On a technical level, two systems are entangled if the wave function of the whole system cannot be written as a product of the wave functions of the separate systems.

Practically, entanglement means, that certain measurement results of two or more particles are correlated.

For example, if two two electrons are entangled in a certain way, their spins will always yield different measurement outcomes (up or down) when measured with respect to the same axis.

This happens, even though both electrons are not in a defined spin state up to the moment of measurement. That means, before the first measurements, both electrons are in the "up" and "down" state simultaneously.  And yet, when one spin is measured, the other wave function instantaneously collapses in the other state through a "spooky interaction", no matter how far the two systems are apart. This interaction is not limited by the speed of light. It is, as far as we know, truly instantaneous.

This fact does not violate the theory of relativity, however, since no information can be transmitted through entanglement.

Why is it important to know this? On a fundamental level, gaining insight in the mechanics of our universe is always desirable.

On a more applicable note, entanglement may lead to quantum computers that will revolutionize certain fields of computation like encryption.


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

[User] ELI5: Where do the suits for playing cards originate from? (Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds, Spades)

[Assistant]
The playing cards you're talking about were popularized in Egypt around the 11th century. The cards had for suits: polo sticks, coins, swords, and cups. The cards were hand made, so the symbols on them evolved as the concept of the 52-card deck moved from the Mediterranean to northern and western Europe over the next 300 or so years.

The Germans conception utilized  Leaves, Roses, Bells, and Acorns. French versions used Trifoils, Tiles, Hearts and Pikes. The face cards went from king/viceroy/deputy to king/knight/knave to king/queen/jack.

The French version of the cards turned out to the most popular, probably because of the French status as a social and political power.


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

[User]
Why should economists learn programming?

Ive seen some economists on reddit suggesting others to learn programming. Why?

[Assistant] Any job that an economist is likely to have involves making statistical inferences using data. Now you're probably not going to do this by hand, as datasets will have observations running from a couple dozen to millions. Computer programming allows you to clean, merge, and analyze datasets at a reasonable speed.


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

[User] Eli5 why is having currency thats too strong a bad thing?

[Assistant]
A strong currency is good because it is cheaper for you to buy other countries' things.

It's bad because it is more expensive for them to buy your stuff or for their people to come to your country and spend money.


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

[User]
ELI5: What's causing the very high pitched engine noise and bangs usually Rally cars produce?

I come across videos of Rally cars, and played Dirt Rally, and in almost every documentation I see Rally cars have a different, high pitch and powerful sound, accompanied by loud bangs. What's happening? different engines or engine enhancments?

[Assistant]
Straight cut gears (used because stronger than the quieter helical cut gears used in most road cars)will whine" at higher road speeds.
A blow off valve or BOV will vent excess turbo boost pressure when the throttle is closed, this generally produces a high pitched "squeak"
An anti lag system will delay the ignition after the throttle is closed so that the fuel/air mix is still burning when it enters the exhaust manifold so keeps the turbine spinning so full boost can be made sooner when the throttle is opened again. This makes the loud pops and bangs. Also massively shortens turbo life to around 1000km.


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

[User] ELI5: What is a Nebula, and why is it not absorbed into some stronger source of gravity?

[Assistant] A nebula is a cloud of dust that is often the early stages of a solar system forming.  If conditions are right it will eventually collapse on itself and form a star and planets.  If there is a strong source of gravity nearby, then yes it would get drawn into that, but space is huge and mostly empty.  There's usually not anything close enough to draw it away.


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

[User]
[X-men] Why did Weapon X select Wolverine over  Sabretooth to have an adamantium-fused skeleton?

It was my understanding that both have identical healing factors and so could survive the operation, but that Sabretooth was more willing. Why not pick him?

[Assistant]
Department K: Weapon X Program

To: [REDACTED]

From: [REDACTED]

Subject: Adamantium bonding candidates.

It is the finding of the Weapon X team that the best initial subject for the Adamantium bonding is subject [REDACTED], codename: WOLVERINE.

Initial tests favored WOLVERINE over operative Victor Creed, codename:SABERTOOTH. Examinations from the medical staff following mission debriefings showed that while both subjects healed at an accelerated rate, WOLVERINE has the more efficient and effective ability.

<NOTE: Replication of this ability has been moved offsite, codeword:DEADPOOL>

Further testing and psychological profiling of subjects [REDACTED] and Creed show that the while both are effective soldiers and agents, subject Creed has unresolved issues stemming from repeated abuses from his father. The lead psychologists stated that they believe that agent Creed's and agent [REDACTED] willingness and effectiveness as soldiers stem from their experience on the battlefield. Both soldiers are suspected of having some degree of operational exhaustion. Both soldiers have recollections of battles and actions that should have taken place before their lifetimes, leading the psychologist to note on bother records that neither subject was taking the psych profiling seriously, giving me tales of battles from as far back as the First World War. The lead psychologist also noted that while they both gave similar accounts of battlefield actions, agent Creed had a rather savageness to his descriptions. Agent Creed seems to revel in the inhumanity of the battlefield and conflict; he readily admitted to acts such as taking ears or scalps of fallen enemies as trophies, and there are hints that he does not restrict his actions to the battlefield as well.

It is the finding of this board that codename: Wolverine is the superior candidate from a psych standpoint. There are less risks of new psychological trauma being inflicted. There are also less issues with the projected processes of controlling the subject with mental blocks and sustained administration of psychotropic drugs. We project a minimal chance of lasting psychological damage to the selected soldier, with no long term projected issues.


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

[User] If you put ice in a vacuum sealed container and the ice melts, does the vacuum get stronger since the volume decreased?

[Assistant]
No the vacuum will get worse (higher pressure). As the ice warms, its vapour pressure increases and it continues to increase after it has melted into the liquid phase.

For ice going from -20 degrees C to 0 degrees C the vapour pressure goes from 1 mbar to 6 mbar. This would negate any change in pressure due to the volume change of the condensed phase (vs the gas phase).


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

[User]
Why are all adults prescribed the same dosage antibiotic regardless of weight?

I recently ran a course of cefdinir, which was the first time I had taken this particular antibiotic. As I was poking around online reading about it I noticed that dosages for children under 12 are based on weight. So many mg per Kg. That leads me to my question as to why adults aren't also dosed like this. It seems a 150lb man would be prescribed an identical dose as a 500lb man. So why aren't dosages based on weight, and are equal dosages equally impacting across a wide spectrum of adult body types?

[Assistant]
Children have immature organ systems and have to be dosed accordingly. In theory a child's body weight should be fairly proportional to their actual growth development. Adults regardless of size should have a fairly standard efficiency in regards to organs such as liver and kidney clearances. A 500 lb man is going to mostly be that heavy based on adipose (fat) tissue which doesn't contribute to clearance or tolerance levels to medications. So in theory that 500 lb and 150 lb adult should be able to tolerate the same amount of medicine up to a maximum safe and effective  amount. Now on the flip side we do see adjustments in certain medications based on age and previous medical conditions that might compromise these same organ systems in an otherwise healthy adult. Geriatric dosing is normally less due to decreased rate of clearance.

TLDR : Children have immature organ systems whereas all healthy adults should have close to the same clearance rates despite weight as their organs are fully developed.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do we not tariff companies who outsource their manufacturing overseas?

The United States has had a long standing problem with losing jobs from American companies sending their manufacturing overseas. Why do we not charge those same companies tariffs equal to the difference in cost of labor?

I'm under the belief that if we did, most likely, these companies would increase the costs of their products to cover the tariffs received by outsourcing labor, however by increasing costs, consumers in America would no longer purchase the products with these new prices over a comparable product made here in the United States; thus losing the business of the American Consumer, and in turn be more motivated to return manufacturing to the United States.

[Assistant]
Under this proposal, foreign companies who manufacture their products abroad and sell within the USA would then quickly become the cheapest option. This would mean many American companies would lose their competitive edge against foreign companies, and most of them would go bankrupt, leading to a lot of job losses. Some might be able to switch to a 'local manufacturing, high standards!' sort of appeal/niche, but that won't work for everybody.

You could start blocking foreign companies, but then you are really starting to step on toes when it comes to the whole world wide free trading thing, and you might start getting backlash across the world with American products then getting high tariffs when they want to export to foreign countries.

Meanwhile most consumers will just see the cheaper prices and be 'fuck it, we want those'. A lot of people are quick to yell about 'omg our jerbs' but when push comes to shove, they do not back up that yelling with their wallet. So it wouldn't necessarily be a popular measure either.


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

[User]
CMV: Veterans don't deserve to treated like guests of honor everywhere they go just because they're vetreans.

   *Please note I am referring to U.S veterans, I have little to no experience with non-U.S veterans*

     The way I see it society places to much importance on those who kill or help to kill for a living. It's entirely like they're a protected cast within society. A veteran could cop a feel of your girlfriends ass, spit in your face and if you punch him for it you'll end up in the local news for disrespecting a veteran. Oh and you'd end up in jail to. People will buy vets dinner if they're in uniform. They get to show off in parades. So many other things to I just don't want to list them all or forgot what they are but long story short if you go into the military your gonna have your ego stoked by society till the end of days.

   Now let's examine WHY people give so much respect to veterans,  most accept the belief that they "fight for your freedom" and "protect your country" but let's go back, when in the last  70 years has a war been fought that did either of those things. Officially the wars went like this. Korea: stop communism from influencing a country far far away, Vietnam: same thing. Iraq 1: make other people free, Iraq 2: get revenge for 9/11. Afghanistan: same thing. I personally think those are terrible reasons to throw people into the meat grinder of war and I think most of you would probably agree. So let's look at the real reason.

     Money, war makes money, for many many contractors in the United States. The military industrial complex. That's all it is it's that simple. War is fought so some people back home with political lobbying connections can get rich.

    If you have or intend to join America's next quest for freedom then you're making a bad call, the pay is shit, you're killing people who are probably just defending their home from you. And if your not doing the killing then you're in a role that helps to expedite those that are doing the killing. Also killing for money is wrong, not sure if I brought that up yet.

     So back to question A. Why do people respect veterans so much? I have no fucking idea someone please explain it to me.

[Assistant]
You see the military as 'killers', essentially. Think of them as protectors and you might be inclined to show respect without begrudging them.

Obviously, if an individual gives you reason not to respect them - don't. Still though, if you didn't have a military we, the British, would still be lording it over you and stealing your tax money and making you eat fish'n'chips. So be grateful.


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

[User]
Why can you prove things through logic?

To preface: I am an individual in the academic psychology realm. My understanding of philosophy and logic through the philosophical lense is quite rudimentary.

I got into a friendly argument with a friend (who is involved in philosophy academically), who was talking about logic and how it can be used to deduce things. Im simplifying and risking sounding hackneyed but:

  Ithink therefore I am, I think of God therefore he exists

My problem: this conclusion, although following logic, could be false. This statement does nothing to prove anything. Instead, it follows a logic thread which could ultimately be false. There is no irrefutable way to prove the existence of something. Essentially, I feel this line of logic is entirely intuitive and offers nothing substantial. Scientism is not the full answer, but by using statistical measures and utilizing basic logical decisions on validity, you can come CLOSE to determine whether there is a relationship. You are never 100% certain in science. And see I mention using logic to evaluate validity of your operationalization and such, but I am not ignorant to the fact that this could be faulty.

TLDR: I feel philosophical logical statement insert themselves into causal links based on logical conclusions, when logic should not be the sole determiner of such robust claims. It should be a combination of repeated studies, logical design, and statistical analysis. None are perfect, but all together they can guide us in a better direction than one alone.

[Assistant]
The whole point of logic is to establish rules of inference to go down, in your words, a logic thread: if x is true and x is followed by y, then y is true; if x and y are both true, then x is true, etc.

P1: All unicorns have horns.
P2: All things that have horns are horny.
C1: Therefore, all unicorns are horny.

The above argument is logically valid. Logic cannot prove whether there are unicorns, or whether all unicorns have horns, or whether all things that have horns are in fact horny. For that, you have to use your eyes, reflect on your real-world experiences, and refer to science and empirical experimentation.

Now consider:

P1: All unicorns have horns.
P2: All things that have horns are horny.
C2: Therefore, all unicorns are rainbow-coloured.

The above argument is clearly invalid. The point of logic is to prove that P1 and P2 entail C1 but not C2. Logic does not help you discover things about the world, but it helps you see that C1 is a valid conclusion but C2 is not, even if P1, P2, C1 and C2 are all true! So logic helps you to sniff out bullshit reasoning in the connections between claims, not whether the claims themselves are true.


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

[User]
ELI5:How does a microwave door keep microwaves from escaping?

I saw this question asked a couple years back, but no answer was really satisfactory and many were in contradiction.  Can we get a physicist to chime in on this, please?

[Assistant] The wavelength of microwaves is much larger than that of visible light, so they cannot fit through the holes in the mesh screen. To the microwaves the screen basically behaves as a solid sheet of metal.


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

[User] ELI5: why do people put Trojans in torrents? What is the benefit of giving someone a virus?

[Assistant] Maybe they want your banking info, maybe they want to use your bandwidth, maybe identity theft instead, or maybe they take joy out of frying as many hard drives as they can. It depends on what the virus does. Sort answer is personal gain/amusement.


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

[User]
[Star Wars TCW] Why does Dooku have an apprentice? Shouldn't the rule of 2 prevent this?

I'm finally watching the show, and if Palpatine is a Sith, Dooku is his apprentice, and Ventress is Dooku's apprentice, that makes 3 Sith, right? So the rule of two prevents this? The only loophole I see is that Palpatine is only a Sith in secret, but if lying just lets you break the rules, why does the rule exist?

If I'm being stupid, sorry.

[Assistant] The rule of 2 is more like advice than a hard and fast rule. The point is to keep the Sith from imploding before reaching their ultimate goal of galactic domination. If a sith lord thinks they can get by without it, what's Bane going to do? Haunt them?


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

[User]
[Fiction] Is there a character in fiction that creation their own dimension (such as length, width, depth)

This is probably the wrong place to ask but is there a character that created their own dimension in space-time? Such as adding a fourth to length, width and depth that wasnt time?

[Assistant] *The Three-Body Problem* has a good chunk about unfolding higher-order dimensions into our accustomed 3-dimensional space. At one point, they accidentally go too far and unfold a proton into a 1-dimensional line segment with infinite length.


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

[User] [Mass Effect]How did the turian populace react to first contact with the other Citadel Races?

[Assistant]
The Turians didn't join the council until the Krogan Rebellions (700 CE). At this point they had just ended a several year civil war, called the Unification War, between their colonies that ultimately ended after the Hierarchy stepped in when the colonies were too weak to resist. The war itself was pretty intense, and even after it ended many Turians held animosity towards the other colonies. This is why many have distinct facial tattoos, to distinguish what colony they hail from.

The ones to make contact were the Asar,i and they came asking for the Turian war machine for aid. While the Turians did have a considerable force, and things went well in the initial attack, the Krogan were stronger. The Krogan devastated the Turians at Digeris, and it was this devastating defeat that led to the Turians having the resolve to unleash the Salarian created Genophage.

As a side note the Turians received a seat on the council in 900 CE, 100 years after they made contact with the Citadel, but the Volus, Hanar, Quarians, and Batarians, had yet to receive anything other than embassies, even though some had joined as early as 200 BCE.

It took less time for humans, a mere 26 years since first contact.

Edit: Forgot an important word.


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

[User]
CMV: Everyone was born to die and everything we do between birth and death is absolutely meaningless in the long run.

I believe that everyones birth was just a result of sexual inter course and nothing else, no one was born to do something. Everything we do while were alive is completely unnecessary. I live my life with one rule, enjoy it to the fullest. Even that in itself has no meaning but i believe thats the most I can make of it, enjoy. Happiness is just a chemical reaction in our brain but Im still human and I have evolutionary instincts that I cant really help. Also I believe theres no such thing as a good person or bad person everyone is just living their life in the way they think is right. I cant really change that but I try to stay neutral and sometimes I have a compelling drive to help people in the way I think is best, making them happy. If Im already enjoying I try to help others around me get that dopamine as well because I believe thats the best we can do with our lives.

[Assistant]
You're absolutely right, for 99.9999% of people, their life doesn't matter in the long run.

Given that knowledge, *you* decide what makes your life meaningful.

Try to start 50 businesses during your life and fail at them all? As long as you felt what you were doing was meaningful, why don't you do it? Nobody will care in 200 years.

The fact that our life doesn't matter in the long run is an opportunity for us to decide for ourselves what meaningful means for us personally without having to rely on others to give our life meaning.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] How do Jedi recharge lightsabers?

Do they have lithium batteries? Do they plug them in to recharge?

[Assistant]
There is a recharge port.

In general there's next to none energy loss when it's just idle so one can last for a very long time, but extensive use, like just cutting things for 24 hours a day might actually drain the power cell requiring a recharge. In general these events are rare, so charging is almost never actually portrayed in visual medium. You can only catch mentions of it here and there in the novels.


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

[User]
[Rick and Morty] In s2e10, why was the everything-on-a-cob planet so horrifyingly bad? [Spoilers]

In the episode "Wedding Squanchers", the Smith family escapes Bird Person and Tammy's wedding which was crashed by the Galactic Federation. They find three Earth-like planets outside of the Galactic Federation's jurisdiction, but they're pretty crappy or uninhabitable. The first planet was incredibly small, the second planet had everything on the cob, and the third planet had a screaming sun.

But why did they seemingly evacuate the planet with everything on the cob? Even when they land on loud sun planet, Jerry remarks how nothing's on the cob. So what am I missing that an idiot like Jerry can find instantly? Why is the cob planet so bad?

[Assistant]
Everything on that planet was cob. EVERYTHING. Down to the DNA of the things on it. Do you know.how much that squanches with human non-cob DNA.  It's a fucking lot.

Eventually your own DNA will start to cobify and that is a fate worse than death. Do you want to slowly turn into an on the cob version of yourself? I'd much rather squanch with the screaming sun personally.


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

[User]
ELI5: why are Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts gender segregated?

Edit: in the US. It seems that other countries aren't so strict in segregation in similar organizations.

[Assistant]
Girl Guides.

But they aren't, at least not any more. Girls can and do freely join Scouting bodies that were previously devoted exclusively to boys.

The reason for the segregation was because boy scouts was created very early in the 1900's by Robert Baden-Powell as a very traditional organization in a time when women had a different expected homemaker role. So the boys got to do cool stuff like woodland survival and the girls concentrated a bit more in in-house stuff like sewing and cooking.

Although this has dramatically changed, you still see some of this in the selected activities where the Scouts do more adventuresome stuff than the Guides. So more adventuresome non-girly-girls that have a keener interest in the outdoor world have a tendency to go there.


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

[User]
CMV: If cosmetic surgery is legal and somewhat socially acceptable, physique enhancing drugs should be as well.

I don't understand why things like steroids and other physique enhancing compounds can't be more readily available to people if we as a society also allow cosmetic surgery. In the right dosage and under a doctor's supervision, I would imagine the risks are lower than undergoing surgery.

I know hormone replacement is an option, but the rules for that are very stringent and it's not terribly widespread.

What's the difference  between using drugs like that and injecting botox or getting surgery? In addition to enhancing physique, testosterone is also a mood booster.

I known that testosterone is a scheduled substance, but I don't see why that should be the case.

Anyway, I'm open to arguments about why cosmetic surgery is different.

Edit: to clarify, I know why PEDs are banned in sports. But that doesn't apply to the average person wanting to look and feel better.

[Assistant]
Cosmetic surgery doesnt help in competitive professional sports, performance-enhancing drugs do.

The reason why performance-enhancing drugs are not allowed in competitive sports is because they tip the playing field. They are banned to make sure all athletes compete on their own merits.


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

[User]
[DC] how would the justice league react if one of its members killed somebody?

Basically how strict is the no killing rule? Say if some villain was about to kill a whole bunch of people and there was only one hero present and that hero saw no other way to stop them other than killing them, how would the justice league react? Would they kick them out?

[Assistant] This is mostly a nonissue because there is no strict no killing rule for the Justice League. Most of the heroes in the JL avoid killing if they can, but thats because they are good people and not because they have an organizational rule.


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

[User] [Warhammer Fantasy] Why didn't it occur to the Elves that the Dark Elves probably did some false flag shenanigans when the Dwarves confronted them over Elven raiders?

[Assistant]
The Elven Empire at the time was vast. Like, seriously vast. And almost constantly fighting against Lizardmen, primitive humans, Orcs, etc. The Phoenix King couldn't be entirely sure where all of his forces were at any given time, or what they were doing. Couple this with Caledor IIs legendary arrogance, and he likely assumed that A; the caravans in question deserved it, either for trading with their many enemies or just being in restricted territories. Or B; the Dwarves were just blaming the Elves because they wanted gold as compensation, being the greedy little half-Men they are.

Of course, since this all took place before Caledor II first, with no indications that any of his court (many of whom were far more reasonable) having any of a heads up, the damage was done before the more rational leaders of Ulthuan could do anything.

Considering the revelation that Malekith WAS the rightful Phoenix King all along (as a High Elf player for almost 20 years, that was super hard to read) and his relationship with the great Grombrindal, there may have been other forces at work pushing for the conflict as well.


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

[User]
Is usage of MIT licensed code looked down on?

Hey, a newb programmer reporting in. If I were to create a website, using someone else's MIT licensed code, would that be hugely looked down on by the programming community?

I can definitely see why it would be, but would it?

The website in question would be for my mother's friend, who wants a website for his services and I would like him to have a nice looking website, instead of the simple, dull looking shit that I know how to code. My creatings honestly look like they're from the 20th century.

[Assistant]
Do some light research into what general licensing means. When an artist wants to use a piece of someone else's song, they pay for a license to use it.

The MIT license is a free use license. Read it carefully. If your usage fit within the license terms, which you likely will, then use it to your heart's content.

Reinventing the wheel is stupid, if it's free use it. Give credit if you want/have to.

Edit: let me add as a separate point, know your audience. If a customer sees the site looks similar they won't care. If you make a site for web developers and they see it's basically a default template, they might judge you. Audience is important.


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

[User]
What would happen if the entire tax system was based off asset values?

The most common endorsement of taxing unrealized gains Ive seen is that real estate is taxed as an asset whos value has been assessed, so doing the same with stocks has some precedent.

My question would be if all assets were the only things taxed, and with overall tax revenue was equal, what would be the impact on the economy?

I would guess that people would be less likely to hoard assets purely to push off a tax bill, and there would be more buying and selling in the market.

[Assistant]
Taxing based on assets makes the most philosophical sense, since we are sort of paying the military and police to protect those assets and the country's infrastructure is used to maintain those assets. And a person that has more assets would need more military, police, and infrastructure to protect and maintain that big pile of assets.

However, from a practical perspective valuing the assets is the real difficult part. In capitalism, the only true way to measure what an asset is worth is by selling it to the highest bidding willing party. And by selling it (to measure its actual value) there we have the current tax system that taxes based on income and capital gains.


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

[User]
Why do we use the Hardy Weinberg equilibrium if it never in fact occurs in nature?

If mating is never random, mutations always occur, immigration and emigration is common and natural selection is always occurring why is Hardy Weinberg so important?

[Assistant]
It provides a baseline to compare actual populations to. You can use this for a few things. One, if you know the actual genotype frequency of a population, you can test to see how much it deviates from the Hardy-Weinberg baseline. More commonly, a population is observed and (if AA and Aa genotypes are separate phenotypes) numbers of each genotype is recorded. Then, going by a null hypothesis that the population is in hardy-weinberg proportions, you use statistical analysis to see if it is. Obviously, this is somewhat flawed in that the population will not be in perfect hardy-weinberg proportions, but often times it is close enough that the statistical analysis regards the deviations as not statistically significant. Of course, in some cases, it will show that it was NOT in hardy-weinberg proportions, in which case re-counts would be taken again to confirm this.

The applications of seeing if the environment is close to hardy-weinberg proportions is a whole other story.


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

[User]
[All Tomorrows] How did the Qu look like during their early history?

From what I can gather, they themselves had been modified beyond recognition. I wonder if they actually weren't that far modified than their ancestors, with genetic makeovers being longevity and unlimited memory or intelligence or some sort.

[Assistant]
>wonder if they actually weren't that far modified than their ancestors, with genetic makeovers being longevity and unlimited memory or intelligence or some sort.

I kind of doubt it- they have a religious, nearly artistic commitment to reshaping the flesh, seemingly for its own sake.

If you compare a human with any of the human creations after they had finished, you can see how far a "natural" Qu is likely to be from the current breed. A species that casually reshapes an entire ecosystem into monsters to get some brightly colored beaks isn't going to settle for just a longer lifespan and bigger brain.


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

[User]
CMV: Here in the United States of America(USA), adult prostitution should be legalized everywhere.

First of all, I think every choice that doesn't affect, or harm someone should be legalized. *Adult* prostitution(18 years old, and older) is generally a mutual agreement between both adults. One adult pays the other adult for intimate relations, and they both agree on it. This means one adult has the freedom to spend his/her money however he/she wants, and the other adult has the freedom to use his/her body however he/she wants. Therefore, since both choices aren't harming anything else in society, it should be legalized. One could argue this negatively affects their "personal lives", but there is some grey area to that statement. One could also argue drinking alcohol, and gambling(just two examples) negatively affects people's personal lives, yet, both of them are widely legal beginning at 21 years old, so that argument is invalid.

Second of all, we already have pornography widely legal in the USA, which is essentially prostitution with an audience. Most porn stars are solely doing porn because they can make quite a bit of money, so isn't that the same dynamic as prostitution? The only reason I think porn is legal, and not prostitution is because porn helps big business.

Third of all, one main reason why pornography is illegal is due to it being "immoral". I don't think laws should be dictated solely on immorality. Murdering someone, raping someone, and stealing from someone else are actions that are widely considered immoral, *but*, all three of those actions also grossly harm other people, and/or ends human lives. On the other hand, as I stated before, alcohol, gambling, and even tobacco use can be considered "immoral" to some people, yet, all of those are widely legal.

Fourth of all, there are sexually frustrated people who don't want to  ruin their lives by risking getting caught seeing a prostitute. It may not sound like much, but it could cause someone to be terminated from their job, and being blacklisted from their careers. With legalized prostitution, this wouldn't be an issue at all.

Other than the flawed "immorality" argument, the only consistent argument I see against legalized prostitution is the notion it would increase human trafficking. However, I think that's speculation more than anything, and we already have a human trafficking problem in the country anyway, so what difference does this make?

[Assistant]
People dont usually get into sex work for fun. But as a means of survival.

In countries like Australia where prostitution is legal, they dont have as many socioeconomic problems as the USA.

In fact, many countries with legalized prostitution have universal healthcare. Good healthcare. USA doesnt have that.

Furthermore, the mental implications. You mention a consenting 18 year old: *that is not an adult mentally.*

There are many mental ramifications of learning how to commoditize your body at a young age. Learning that your worth is only how sexy you look. Teenage and young adult years, your brain is still forming. Form it thinking and believing these truthsit will be a struggle to undue these truths later on.

And will not foster an easy way out of the industry.

Lastly, we already to a degree have legal visual prostiution: onlyfans. Every girl now seems to aspire to be an onlyfans model and make her coin to live a luxurious lifestyle.

Problem with this is 2 fold: its hard to compete on the platform, so youll have to do extra crazy things to get a good following. Your content may be video recorded. And now, generallt, males socially believe ALL girls do thismaking it hard for them to bring the emotional side or faithfulness to a relationship.

Both genders have drifted further and further from each other trying to turn tricks and solicit one anothers money, dignity, status, etc.


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

[User] ELI5 what the purpose of the black strips of wire/rope that I see from time to time across several lanes of traffic?

[Assistant] Those are pneumatic axle counters - there's a traffic study being done for that location, they want to see how many vehicles use that piece of road in a given time.  One at a place is necessary, more than one is backups in case one is damaged.  Vehicle crosses the rubber tube, the air impulse advances a simple counter in the box off to the side of the road.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why aren't urinals shaped better to prevent splashing?

Somebody here has to be an engineer that can explain the physics of this to me. How has nobody invented a splash-free urinal yet?

It seems to me that if you made the urinal deeper- that is to say, made a tube shape that angled downward into the floor of the urinal- a man could safely urinate downward into the tube-shape (should he so choose and if he is in a state of sobriety with good aim) and not have all sorts of urine splash back on him.

It would be more sanitary for not splashing all over the floor too, wouldn't it?

TL;DR: Why aren't urinals shaped better to prevent splashing?

[Assistant]
A couple factors go into the design of a toilet, most importantly for the business purchasing them is cost. If you purchased say, a funnel shaped toilet, you will also have a harder time cleaning it. If you are imagining a funnel that goes down into the ground, say, like an outhouse, there wouldn't be any splash back, but there would be more danger in someone slipping their foot into the hole, would be harder to clean, and would be more expensive if you needed to dig into existing foundation to put in this complicated toilet system.

There is hope, however! You can extremely minimize the amount of splash back by following these simple steps.

1. Get as close as you can!
2. Point downward, so the downward angle with bring urine down, not outward.
3. Do your business!

Where most people go wrong, is they tend to stay further back and just aim straight for the urinal. Urine isn't really a steady stream, and tends to break into many smaller drops. As they spread in random directions, liquid tends to bounce off and move to your shoes, which sucks.


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

[User]
[Warhammer 40k] Would the Emperor gain power from a sacrificed psycher of another race?

Regardless if they'd actually do it or not...

[Assistant] Psykers aren't really sacrificed to feed the Emperor's power. They're just forced to share the burden of the Astronomicon until it kills them. So yes, a psyker of another race would work as well as a human one.


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

[User]
[Hyperion] Who, or what, is the Shrike?

And what is his ultimate mission? I'm guessing it's something more than "impale people on random spikes for shits and giggles".

[Assistant]
It's unknown exactly who created the Shrike, though we receive some hints that it may have been the TechnoCore's Ultimate Intelligence and the Shrike time traveled from it's birth in the far future back in time to the events of the Pilgrimage.

Aenea claims instead that the Shrike was made by the Reaper faction of the Technocore by using parts of Kassad's DNA.

It's possible that due to the fluid nature of time the Shrike's origin is indeterminate. All that is certain is that it will be created, and who precisely does so depends on how the events of the present play out.

The Shrike seems to have no particular allegiance of its own, instead it's more of a pawn used by the various players at various times. The Shrikes actions during the events of Hyperion can be attributed to attempting to get all the Pilgrims on Hyperion at the the same time.


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

[User]
[Time Travel] Time Travel Emergency Preparedness Kit

I am developing a "**Time Travel Emergency Preparedness Kit**" to ~~sell~~ give to my fellow Time Travelers!

I have a few ideas of what should be included but I would love to hear from the community. So far I have only developed items for traveling to the past as those items are easy to buy now with enough money.

Please feel free to contribute to the "Past" or "Future" Kit... Please note that I am trying to have each kit fit in a decent sized backpack.

Some items to include in the PAST Kit:
* Wikipedia e-reader + solar usb charger
* Various time appropriate currencies
* Small quantities of precious metals and gems and spices
* Bug-Out-Bag Essentials -- first aid kit, knife, flashlight, various medicine and vaccines, water bottle, etc..
* Tri-fold lock pick set for locks of various centuries -- OPTIONAL
* Various novelty/magic devices - trick cards, stash coin, loaded dice, Blinky LEDs, etc...
* Hand sanitizer
* Small quantity of your preferred vice - alcohol, cigarettes/vape, drugs, etc.. -- OPTIONAL
* Poncho/Rain Suit - pocket sized but quality
* Nice pad of paper + Pens/Pencils

PLEASE! Contribute! Thanks!!!

~Note: I need to win the PowerBall ($1.5b) tomorrow so I can finance the time machine device and travel into the future to find a copy of either the "Time Cop Police Manual" or "Boy Scout's Time Travel Merit Badge Book" ... This is ESSENTIAL! I need to know the rules for time travel so I can share them with you so we will not be arrested and end up in Time Prison!!!!!!~

[Assistant]
All you need is a towel. A towel is just about the most massively useful thing a traveler can carry. It has great practical value--you can wrap it around yourself for warmth, or lie on it on some brilliant marble-sanded beaches, or even dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

It also has immense psychological value. If someone sees you with a towel, they will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, washcloth, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet-weather gear, space suit etc., etc.

Furthermore, they will then happily lend the hitchhiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitchhiker might accidentally have "lost."


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

[User] [Dune] How does Paul's foresight work? Is it purely supernatural, or does his Mentat mind run a kind of game theory simulation of how all the major characters in the galaxy will behave?

[Assistant]
You don't need to be a Mentat to access the precognitive powers the Spice confers. The Guild Navigators use it to determine how to safely fold space, for example.

Paul is just very, very good at it, due to his unique blend of genetics.


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

[User]
ELI5: People with liver disease have a unique smell. What is it?

I can walk into a room and smell that my brother was just there.

[Assistant]
Most veins lead towards venae cavae (the big veins in your torso that lead directly into the heart) but there's a system of veins (known as portal veins) that go from your intestines to your liver instead for detoxification and storage of nutrients. Then the blood continues on to the inferior vena cava. Blood can't flow as easily through a cirrhosed liver so it gets backed up and eventually is forced backwards into the rest of the circulatory system, normally through some veins around the lower oesophagus (your food pipe) and the stomach.

This way you end up with blood going from your intestines (carrying normal dissolved chemicals from your food) to the general circulation without the liver ever cleaning it up, so to speak. Some of these chemicals end up in the lungs and are breathed out, like how when your blood has alcohol in it some of it comes out in your breath (which is how breathalysers work and how we can smell when someone is really drunk). The technical term is foetor hepaticus and a main chemical compounds responsible are suspected to be dimethyl sulfide, found in several vegetables, and thiols or mercaptans, which are the chemicals added to natural gas to give it a distinctive smell.


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

[User]
ELI5, why if you jump inside a moving train you will land on the same spot, but if you jump on the roof of a moving train, you land on a different spot?

seen it on twitter and I cant get my head around it
EDIT: thanks guys I get it now

[Assistant] In most cases you'll see in high school physics, both should give the same result. But there is a big factor that high school physics (and depending on your field, uni physics) igbores: air. When you jump inside a train, the air inside it is moving along with the train as well. But the air outside of the train is still with respect to the ground, or moving with the speed of the train, in the opposite direction, with respsect to the train. The air then pushes against you, and when you jump, it blows you back. Of course this depends on how fast the train is going, and how strong the wind blows (and in what direction), but in general, that's what happens.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do printers make so much noise before and after actually producing a document?

[Assistant]
Howdy there, printer technician here.

There are several parts in the machine that get "synced up" before pulling the paper through.

It's easy to get deep in the weeds on the types of printers and how they work, but the most common method is by using a laser to draw the image on a spinning tube, the toner attaches to that drum as it spins, and then the paper is pulled past the spinning drum and through a heated roller that melts the toner into the paper.

So, before the paper even gets picked up the machine has to

1. Spin the hexagonal mirror that the laser bounces off of to write to the drum--this is the initial high pitched whine you hear
2. Clean any leftover toner from the last print off of the drum--this part usually sounds more "rumbly"
3. Move new toner to the drum to be put on the next page
4. Make sure the heated roller is up to the exact temperature to melt the toner without burning the paper--most machines have ceramic heating elements that take a few seconds to warm up

...and on top of all that, there are anywhere from 4-10 ventilation fans that all turn on to make sure the above processes don't get too warm.


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

[User] [Edge of Tomorrow] when Emily Blunt's character shoots Cage in the head, doesn't she end up just standing there with a dead guy on the floor, or does her day reset too?

[Assistant]
Parallel divergent timelines are implied, but never confirmed. For all we know, the timeline may be destroyed and replaced by the new one during a reset.

However, and this is quite disturbing, the probability that we live in a timeline where mimics had an unbroken string of evolutionary and/or military successes is *astronomically small*. It is, in theory, quite likely that the entire universe is destroyed in the reset simply because we exist in a universe where the mimics have the ability to perform resets.


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

[User]
[DC] Why is Superman so powerful?

From what I know of Superman, his powers are virtually limitless. He has been portrayed as capable of just about anything. But the source of these powers is, AFAIK, that he's a Kryptonian living on a planet with a yellow sun.

Is that the only thing that marks him out? Are other Kryptonians (like General Zod or Supergirl) equally powerful? Or is there something special about Superman?

[Assistant]
Yes, any Kryptonian exposed to yellow sunlight will become as powerful. Supergirl is supposed to be stronger than Kal El, because she was bathed in yellow sunlight while in transit, but she's not as experienced, and doesn't make particularly good use of her powers.

Krypton was a potentially universe-conquering race; their xenophobia and retreat to Krypton was for the good of other civilizations, not them.

The *entire* Green Lantern corps, for example, shits a collective brick at the prospect of taking on a single Kryptonian.


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

[User]
[Watchmen] Does anyone else have super powers besides Dr Manhattan?

For example, the comedian is super strong, even at 65 and ozymandias is faster than a bullet. Would you consider those to be super powers?

[Assistant]
The Comedian is stronger than average, not superstrong like you would expect a superhero to be.

Ozymandias is not faster than a bullet.  When he caught the bullet shot at him, his hand was bleeding.

While the Minutemen and the Crimebusters definitely exhibit great physical feats, they are not "super" in the context of superheroes.

Nothing to scoff at, though.

If there were a crime-fighting event in the Olympics, best believe they would win it.


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

[User]
[D&D] A big hunk of black metal fell from the sky last night and landed in my farm. What's a farmer to do?

So last night, the missus an' I was lyin' in bed when this godsawful roar wakes me up.  Like thunder but louder and much, much worse.  I go out to the fields t'see what the blazes happened an' one of my fields has been blasted to smithereens, like a buncha drunk wizards got loose with the fireball whiskey... an' spells.

Anyways, at the center o' this big new hole in the dirt is a big ol' chunk of metal or rock or something.  It's black as coal, but rings like metal when I hit it.  I gave it a good whack with my woodcutting axe an' my axe head shattered.  The rock or whatever was totally unharmed!

Anyways, now I'm out a decent axe an' at least one field.  Anyone have any idea what this space rock might be or if it's worth anything?

[Assistant]
Well dude, you're just a peasant, so your options are limited. Technically nothing stops you from just selling a chunk of skymetal, but people who have plenty of money probably won't bother paying you, and your buddies who won't scam you are likely also peasants, who don't have money period.

I suggest best option is just to tell other people in the village and haul the thing to a blacksmith together.

PS. WAIT! Before you do wait a couple of days. If it rings, then it may be hollow, and you know those wizards, rught? Who knows what's inside. Just wait a bit  - if nothing busts out, then it's probably safe.


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

[User]
ELI5: How can airline carriers get away with overbooking flights?

Financially, isn't it a drain on resources to compensate affected passengers? Legally, are they somehow covered?

[Assistant] They use statistics concerning past no-show rates to determine how to extract maximum profit from the seats on each plane.  They have a formula where they calculate the chance of a few passengers not showing up, versus the cost of compensating a few angry people if the overbooking results in not enough seats, and they see it as purely a profit-making exercise balanced by a public-relations exercise.  They know they can ALWAYS get a few people to agree to take a later flight if they offer the proper inducement.  Have you ever sat in the take-off lounge and you hear the announcements at first offering a $100 voucher if someone will volunteer to take a later flight, and then if no one takes it, a free round trip, and so forth, until eventually someone caves and accepts the bribe to not sit on their planned flight?


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

[User]
Could a chimp carry a human embryo?

 I understand delivery would be a bit complicated but is there any way this could work? The last person on Earth thread made me think about the repopulation issue.

[Assistant]
No it is not possible for a human-chimp hybrid or a chimp carrying a human embryo for several reasons. Additionally, human-chimp hybrids are not attempted for moral and ethical reasons.

1. Despite sharing so much DNA our chromosome numbers are different. This makes successfull hybridization very difficult in mammals (not so difficult in plants) "Human and chimpanzee chromosomes are very similar. The primary difference is that humans have one fewer pair of chromosomes than do other great apes. Humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes and other great apes have 24 pairs of chromosomes...There are nine other major chromosomal differences between chimpanzees and humans: chromosome segment inversions on human chromosomes 1, 4, 5, 9, 12, 15, 16, 17, and 18.". This means that a human-chimp hybrid would be very difficult to create, likely the embryo would fail to live/be created. Even if it were created, it would likely be sterile.

2. There is no way a chimp could give birth to a human baby or vice versa - our anatomy and physiology is too different. The birthing canals of both species are very different. Humans, due to bipedalism have a very narrow birthing canal, this makes labour very difficult, even for humans. On top of this, human babies have very large heads making it difficult for them to pass through the birth canal.

3. Gestation times are different. Chimpanzees - "They give birth about every three years, after a gestation period (time between fertilisation of the egg and birth of the baby) of 7 or 8 months.". Humans are closer to 9 months. If a chimp were to house a human embryo it would be born much to early.

4. Hormonal/internal triggers would probably not allow for the proper development of the fetus. This also relates to gestation length. Additionally, it would be very likely that the human fetus would be "seen" as a foreign object in the chimp uterus and would be attacked by the host bodies immune system. Even a hybrid embryo could be subject to an immune system attack by the host species if it did not display the correct protein markers.

Successful (the offspring are fertile) hybridization evens occur when species are more closely related. Humans and Chimps are not even in the same genus. Genus - Genus matings are extremely rare.
Horses and Donkeys do have different numbers of chromosomes and the majority of the time their offspring is infertile. However, donkeys and horses are part of the same genus Equus. "Horse-donkey hybrids are almost always sterile because horses have 64 chromosomes whereas donkeys have 62, producing offspring with 63 chromosomes. Mules are much more common than hinnies. This is believed to be caused by two factors, the first being proven in cat hybrids, that when the chromosome count of the male is the higher, fertility rates drop (as in the case of stallion x jennet). The lower progesterone production of the jenny may also lead to early embryonic loss." - From the wiki article on mules.


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

[User]
ELI5:It's dramatically difficult for a drug to get FDA approval, so why are all these drugs have ridiculous amount of side effects?

Wouldn't the FDA say, "Nah, fuck all that?" and reject the medicine?

[Assistant]
Nope.

The FDA just makes sure it wont be likely to hurt you. Side effects are going to happen in a certain percentage of users no matter what. The benefit just has to outweigh those.

If you had to have no side effects, then well no drugs would exist and wed all die a lot more often.

The FDAs job is more to ensure the drug does what it says it does and that all the side effects are properly studied and evaluated. Basically just making sure the drug companies aren't covering anything up or lying to you.


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

[User] ELI5: What are the benefits of a smaller processor nm? like from 32nm to 14nm to 10nm?

[Assistant] Were able to achieve a smaller size only due to the finer resolution that we can make the individual pathways on the silicon that makes up the CPU.   The smaller size means that electrons have to travel less distance and use shed less power in resistance to do the same work.


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

[User]
ELI5: What it is about the new Yosemite encryption that the FBI and NSA don't like?

Does the new update make it impossible for anyone to view your data? What are their motives for pushing so hard to gain access?

[Assistant]
> What are their motives for pushing so hard to gain access?

They like being able to get access to your devices to look for evidence. Yosemite encourages users to turn on encryption by default, and this is something that (by design) not even Apple has the keys to.


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

[User]
ELI5: How is 32 bit able to handle 4gb of ram, if 4,294,967,296 is the number of bits?

4294967296/8 = 536870912 bytes

536870912/1024 = 524288 KB

524288/1024 = 512 MB

512/1024 = 0.5 GB

If you divide it directly by 1024, you do get 4GB, but that number is the amount of data you can have in 32 BITS, so wouldn't you need to convert it to bytes first.

[Assistant]
32 bits is able to handle 4294967296 Bytes not Bits.

The issue is being able to write down a unique address for each Byte in just 32 bit of ram.

The CPU needs to address each byte in memory with a unique 'name' and it has only 32 digits to write down the name.

It is a bit like writing down your street address and only having enough room for two digits for your street number. That would mean you only could differentiate between 99 different houses per street. If you have 3 digits for the street number you could have up to 999 different houses per street and so on.

You don't need to address each individual bit in a byte in memory anymore than you would put down the room the person you are writing a letter to sleeps in (unless you send them a message per owl of course).


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

[User] ELI5: why is "homophobia" the only phobia that doesn't necessarily describe a fear of something? (typically defined as a prejudice against or dislike of gays)

[Assistant]
The suffix *-phobia* is not the same thing as a psychological phobia. It does mean fear, but as a root it can also mean aversion or avoidance. For instance, a hydrophobic surface repels water.

Plus, when the term was coined much of it was just straight-up fear. I'd say most of it is today, too, even if that's not typically admitted.


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

[User]
If possible, could someone give a layman's description of what 'information' is (in reference to the Black hole information paradox the and holographic principle)?

E.g. What information is contained within a hydrogen atom, or a water molecule or a cup of tea? Can this information be expressed by numbers or equations? Why is it said that information can't be destroyed?

(I have tried reading the wikipedia articles on these subjects and they went right over my head. If there is no easy way of explaining this and it really is something that needs several years of post-graduate study to understand, I'll accept that and occupy my mind with something else.)

[Assistant] In the context of the black hole information paradox, "information" basically refers to everything that's exactly conserved. For example, electric charge conservation is never violated, so the charge of a particle, or the net charge of a system, is information in this context.


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

[User] ELI5: how do closed captions on TV work?

[Assistant]
If the program is live, then it is likely that a real human is involved in giving you your captions. Some programs have a stenographer who types things out, while others use text to voice programs. For some broadcasts the BBC has a single person read back the commentary to a computer to improve the accuracy of the voice to text conversion. Others just have a person typing on a stenotype that feeds the captions. ESPN has one stenographer per person speaking on their sports reporting shows.

Other programs simply feed the transcript to the TV captions.


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

[User]
ELI5: If Mercury is at a temperature where it's solid, would it be tough like steel or brittle like ice?

Actually, explain like I'm 4...

[Assistant]
Mercury is extremely brittle when in solid form. In general mercury based compounds and materials will tend to be brittle due to the fact that mercury does not like bonding with other atoms or molecules. This means that mercury bonds tend to be quite weak and as a result, easy to pull apart.

The reason for said resistance to bonding is that mercury electronic configuration is very stable and as such any removal or addition of electrons (which are required for bonds) requires high amounts of energy which is normally not available or will be reversed when outside the conditions that allowed it to happen in the first place.

Incidentally this lack of ease to form bonds is part of the reason why mercury is liquid at room temperature in the first place.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] In Rogue One, how exactly did a single Hammerhead generate enough force not only to push one Imperial Star Destroyer, but have it cut through a second one?

It's not like the hulls of the ships are sharpened.

[Assistant] The hammerhead has engines larger than it needs and a heavily reinforced superstructure. It's essentially built to run into things or push them like a tug boat. The isd it rams was unpowered and incapable of resisting the hammerheads push. After that it becomes pretty simple inertia and mass equation for how it hits the other isd harder than the hammerhead hit it. And as for the slicing motion the first isd is hitting with it's edge of it's hull which puts most of it's superstructure behind the point of impact making it more reinforced than the command bridge it hits on the second isd.


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

[User] [General] If a centaur and a minotaur had a child, would it be... a human? A bull? Something else?

[Assistant]
I THINK ABOUT THIS AT LEAST TWICE A DAY!
I want to write a tv cartoon where a centaur and a minotaur get married and have kids. They end up having twins, one fully human and the other bottom half horse top half bull. The human rides his brother through the realm as they solve crimes and kick ass together.


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

[User]
CMV:Claiming that black people cannot be racist bc they never had power is absurd

I simply don't understand the argument that black people cannot be racist because apparently the new definition for racism isn't discrimination of another human being based on the uncontrollable trait of their skin color, but instead that racism = prejudice + power. I honestly just want to understand why some people think this applies to black people. IMO, when someone says "well blacks have never had institutional power therefore they can't be racist", my response is "really? Well I'm sure all the white supremacists will feel really relieved when I tell them that we didn't just have an African-American in charge of what is arguably the most powerful position in the world for the last 8 years."

Edit: I am genuinely curious if there is something I am not taking into account with my reasoning.

[Assistant]
Individual racism and institutional racism are two different concepts.  Most activists are interested in talking about institutional racism because it has a bigger impact on people's lives.

This is a completely semantic discussion.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do gifs take so long to load compared to full videos?

[Assistant]
A GIF stores every single image in the animation.

A video stores multiple "Key Frames" (usually every time there is a significant change in the video e.g: a new camera angle).

Inbetween these key frames the video stores information about how the image has changed relative to the one that came before it. (eg: these pixels have got darker, these pixels have got lighter etc.)

This means that many of the frames in a video (running at 25fps) will be very similar to the frame before it, and so the information about what has changed will not take up much space.

This means that they are quicker to download.

Feel free to ask if any of this doesn't make any sense!


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

[User] There's evidence that life emerged and evolved from the water onto land, but is there any evidence of evolution happening from land back to water?

[Assistant] Stacks. The most obvious is whales/dolphins/orcas which went water->land->water, but also tortoises made the transition 3 times and went water->land->water->land (i.e land tortoises evolved from sea turtles, which evolved from land reptiles, which evolved from lobe finned fish. The reptile that went back into the ocean to become the sea turtle had tortoise-like cousin that remained on land, but it's now extinct)


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Did Luke commit an act of Desertion when he went to Dagobah?

It doesn't seem like he got permission from any of his superiors to go there. Did he clear it with anyone? It seems like the Rebels were expecting him to regroup with them after the battle of Hoth- even R2 thinks that's what they're supposed to do and asks why he isn't doing it. So it seems like not regrouping without telling anyone should be considered desertion. And he stole valuable military equipment to boot.

Did Luke ever suffer any consequences for that?

[Assistant] Even if there's members of Rebel high command that are annoyed Luke does whatever he feels like, what are they really going to do to him? Luke is *the* hero of the Rebellion, destroyer of the Death Star, last Jedi, and one of the best pilots they have. As long as Luke isn't walking around disembowling random members of the Rebellion, no one is probably going to have too much to say to him.


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

[User] ELI5: What would happen if someone went in and murdered Kim Jong-un? Would someone else step up, or would the country be a better place?

[Assistant] Hard to say.  Worst case, it leaves a power vacuum that ends up with people competing for leadership leading to a bloody civil war.  Best case, someone is clearly next in line and steps up, leading to a less insane rule.


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

[User]
[1984] Why do the Inner Party live such austere lives?

It is pointed out that members of the Inner Party live relatively poor lives by the standards of our real life 20th Century. Its shown that they live in flats, the movies show that they still wear simple clothes and have relatively few furnishings, and proof of their massive wealth is given by working elevators, basic foods like white bread and coffee and decent cigarettes. The only things that truly set them apart are servants and private helicopters.

Why? Aren't they the literal masters of Oceania? Shouldn't they at bare minimum be able to afford building two story houses or have private gardens or something?

[Assistant]
Assuming they don't secretly live in luxury behind the scenes, the reason is that the world of 1984 has been ravaged by warfare on a greater scale than WWII for about 30 years. This includes a nuclear war in the 1950s. All industry goes to the war effort, leaving little room for the production of luxury goods and services. Constant attacks from the despicable and degenerate ~~Eurasia~~ Eastasia often destroy factories and housing.

The comforts we enjoy also require the imagination of creative and intelligent people to innovate them. Whereas our society encourages and values these personal traits, the world of 1984 actively suppresses them. People who think outside the box meet brutal ends.


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

[User] ELI5: How do apps such as Hq Trivia earn profit from giving away money everyday? Where are they getting this money from?

[Assistant]
They don't make ANY money... yet. HQ is run by the same people that founded Vine. They're burning through venture capital money right now in an attempt to get as many users as possible. This is similar to the business model used by Venmo, by the way.

Once they have a ton of users, they'll figure out a way to make money off of them. But they're not spending money that quickly, and they're getting tons of users. Eventually, they'll start running ads, like other internet companies.