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

[User]
CMV: Qualities that we are born with or cannot change about ourselves are not things to be proud of.

Personally, I don't see the point in being proud of something you have no control over. I've never really thought to myself that I'm proud to be straight, white, or male. Sure, there are times I'm thankful I am those things, but I can never change them. We should be more focused on our personal accomplishmentsthings like graduating high school or college, meeting fitness goals, using your skills to make things, getting the high score in a game. Those are milestones we can set for ourselves and be proud of when we are committed enough to accomplish them.

[Assistant]
People aren't generally proud of their qualities which they can't change, they're proud of overcoming the adversities they face because of those qualities. Usually they're shamed for their qualities, the antonym of shame is pride.

Pride Parades for example, full of people who are part of the LGBT+ community or are allied with them, are not marching because "Yay gay", but are marching because of the challenges they faced and still face. Remember, gay marriage and adoption hasn't been legal for that long, and there are still discrimination issues, such as Trump removing LGBT+ healthcare protections. The same applies to minority groups of all varieties.

People that are "proud" of unchangeable characteristics that haven't been historically or currently discriminated against, like being a straight white man, are invariably social conservatives who want to remove protections for minorities.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why do droids have emotions?

I mean: what's the point? Most of the times it makes them unusable, unstable or just simply annoying. Droids should be mechanical slave labor, right? Being emotional kinda makes their existence pointless.

Examples: C3PO is constantly worrying, panics a lot,  stubborn and kinda cowardly. Why would anyone program an AI to feel fear? It's cruel, to be honest.

R2D2 is rude (according to C3PO...), heroically brave and acts like a "buddy", an individual, mostly towards Anakin and Luke. A whole person who can't even properly speak and should fix spaceships... and a lot of astromechs are like this, not just him.

Trade Federation droids: panicking all the time, show human-like fear and confusion, and clearly understand the concept of death - many times they even run for their lives. They are totally useless, a polar opposite of what soldiers should be like.

So: what the heck is wrong with programmers in this galaxy? At this point I absolutely understand why clone troopers are better than battle droids.

[Assistant]
Emotions could be a signal for droids to switch between  different functions.

For 3PO, he's usually stuffy and pretentious in his base line protocol function; he's panicky when there's danger and he's switched to self preservation function.

For R2, he's usually chilled and a bit snarky in his astromech function, but he's bossy and commanding when there's danger because he can step up and take control of various interfaces and machinery.

It's possible that emotions are the most reliable way for droids to know when to change their priority function. Rather than a programmer trying to fight out every possible scenario, they program emotions and the droid switches functions based on how they are feeling.

We don't know if programming emotions is difficult. Maybe it's not a problem, barely an inconvenience.


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

[User]
[Warhammer 40k] Can Groots become a Warboss?

Serious question. Given that Mekboyz can become Mekboss and the Painboys can become Painboss... can Groots given time and EXTREME amount of luck and extremwly amazing circumstances grow to become a Boss?

[Assistant]
I think you mean "Grots". (Aka Gretchin)

In Ork society size is everything: an Ork who is continuously successful in battle will keep getting larger and stronger... and if he's good/lucky enough he'll eventually become a leader of some kind... and ultimately if he's baddass enough he'll become Warboss. (and by that point he'll be *huge*)

IIRC Grots don't benefit from this continuous growth and even if they did, they'd still be significantly smaller than Orks anyways. As a result, Grots can never get the same amount of respect as Orks do: at absolute best they might be seen as useful to keep alive (i.e. the Grot is a good at his job) but otherwise they're expendable. I'd say it's pretty impossible for a Grot to ever become a Warboss.


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

[User]
[DC Comics] Does the Joker have a Chief of Staff who organizes his schedule? You know, someone who handles employee payroll, oversees the legal department, negotiates with lower-level gangsters, etc.?

Is that part of Harleys job?

[Assistant]
No? Joker isn't running a corporation, he's running a loosely knit gang of mostly mentally unstable people.

There are no employees.

There is no payroll.

There is no legal department.

The negotiation with lower-level gangster is: disobey the Joker and die horrifically. Obey the Joker and you might not die horrifically.


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

[User]
[Doctor Who] I'm a Time Lord; I want to be a dog

Can I regenerate into a dog? Is that allowed?

[Assistant]
It's pretty unlikely. Regeneration's a bit like throwing down your five cards in Poker and asking for new ones. Your DNA gets shuffled like a deck of cards and then dealt out. Whether you get a full house or a pair of twos out of what you're dealt, there's still the reality that you'll still end up with a set of five cards afterwards just like you had beforehand, even if they don't look the same. You won't suddenly have 2 cards, 2 scrabble tiles, and a Monopoly piece.

Probably the best you could do would be a half-Gallifreyan half-dog hybrid and the dog part may or may not need to be based on a sapient species.

The hybrid stuff is based on the extended materials such as audio books and so on, there have been some cases where Time Lords have regenerated to include traits from other (sapient) species. Gandarotethetledrax became half Silurian/half Gallifreyan. Another Time Lord, Zero, became half Gallifreyan/half Avian (bird people species) but that also involved an exotic poison. So the couple of cases we have involved sapient species.


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

[User]
[General video games] Why are "minibosses" usually bigger than regular bosses?

I understand they're called "mini" because they're just minions of the regular bosses, but if they're bigger, why aren't they stronger? Why aren't they the bosses?

[Assistant]
Why are you able to beat them all when you aren't biggest? You're making the assumption that being bigger inherently makes you more powerful. That doesn't seem to be the case.

It may be because these larger mini-bosses rely more on their size than skill, where as the smaller guys train harder.

Maybe the big guys just happen to be far less experienced and would eventually ascend to the leadership position if they didn't get killed off.


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

[User] Does the ISS ever have to adjust its velocity and if so, how does it accomplish it?

[Assistant]
Yes, while ISS orbits between 330 and 435 km, there is still a little bit of atmosphere left. This causes some drag that slows down the station, causing it to fall into a lower orbit. If left unchecked, this would cause the ISS to spiral down to Earth (potentially burning up in the atmosphere).

So the station has to be periodically boosted. For this it has its own on-board engines that can give it a kick, but the ISS has also been successfully boosted by spacecraft that were docked with the station.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do some zits have solid cores, and others just have puss like liquid?

[Assistant]
A zit that's full of pus is an active infection in your skin. It's probably also red and tender to the touch.

A zit that has a solid core is just a clogged pore. It might be raised and red, but it probably isn't tender or painful.

EDIT: Now what was that extra S doing there?


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

[User]
CMV: Victimhood is not sacred.

Victims of horrific crimes (i.e child abuse, rape, domestic abuse, genocide) do not have an unequivocal right to be the victims for posterity. A victim of a horrific crime could just as well be the perpertrator of another horrific crime. There is an expiration date to the victimhood that defines a person.

Contentious example: Israel and the illegal settlements in Palestine. While it is regretable that the Jewish faith has been the target of hatred and violence for centuries, that does not excuse you from commiting simillar discrimination against another race of people. The 'anti-semitism' rebuttal to any discussion on this issue is uncalled for. There is only so far you could push the history of oppression till you become the oppressor.

Another contentious example: Women's Right's Movements. While it is regrettable that women have been treated, for all intentions, as second-class citizens in the past, the progress made in women's rights, including universal suffrage, equal rights to education, on top of other improvements, have dramatically improved the condition of women in today's society. Pushing the 'we are the weaker sex' rebuttal, or labelling any opinion that does not support the movement as 'sexist', does not help the discussion in anyway. Using the history of victimhood as the main sticking point in today's discussion on women's rights is unproductive.

In conclusion, the sanctification of the 'victimhood', wherein the victim must be right and protected, cannot be a defining principle for discussions. There has to be a limit where the extent of harm comitted against the individual has been adequately compensated by society, whereby the victimhood becomes a null issue.

Of course, this opinion does not condone any aggressive attacks or insults on a victim. Therein, while the victim should not claim victimhood, there should not be an active attack on the victim's experiences. An attack comes in the form of vitriol and insults on the victim. This is distinguished from discourse, wherein the intention of the statement is not to insult or mock the victim, but further understandings on the victims experiences.

[Assistant]
>There is an expiration date to the victimhood that defines a person.

What is that expiration date and why does it have to exist?

Yes, victims can also be perpetrators. This is particularly common with abuse. But why does that necessitate an expiration date on victimhood?

If a person who is 60 now was abused frequently as a child and never got the therapy they needed to cope, and they still suffer PTSD because of it, and who they are was fundamentally altered as a result, why does their "victimhood" need an "expiration date"?


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

[User]
[LOTR] How strong is the Witch King of Angmar compared to other threats?

I was reading the thread on Gandalf vs the Balrog and was thinking of the other strong forces in the books and couldn't figure were the Witch King ranks.  The Balrog takes everything Gandalf the Grey has to beat, Yet when the Witch King faces Gandalf the White, he breaks his staff and mocks him and only the arrival of the Rohirrim saves Gandalf and Minis Tirith from him.  So, my question is was he stronger than the Maiar remaning in Middle Earth?  What about Shelob and the Dragons we know of?  I wonder if the old heros like Hurin or the elf lords like Glorfindel would be able to stand against him.

[Assistant] IIRC, in the book the Witch King doesn't shatter Gandalf's staff.  In fact, Gandalf tells the Witch King he cannot enter Minas Tirith; they have a little verbal back-and-forth, but the WK does not enter the city.  Rohan shows up then just like the movie, and the WK takes off to deal with that.  So, Gandalf seems to be able to make the WK hesitate at least.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] what happens if a jedi gets themselves or another person pregnant?

I mean what does the jedi council do with them? Ive read posts over the years that explain that though Jedi are forbidden from emotional attatchment they are allowed to bone.

If a lady Jedi gets pregnant and returns to the temple what do they do with her? Will she just be out of action until the baby is born? Is the baby kept by jedi day care if its force sensitive?

[Assistant]
In regards to a lady Jedi, provided that the pregnancy was not born of an actually romantic coupling, they would be given the option to stay with the Order and give birth to the child who would be tested for Force sensitivity to see if they could be a potential trainee-if not, they were either sent to a social works center on Coruscant or the mother could choose to take it and then follow the below. Should the kid be able to use the Force, the mother would likely be asked to maintain detachment and give up custody to the crche where Younglings are cared for. If the lady Jedi did not wish to give up their child if or if not they were Force sensitive (something of a misnomer but still), or remain in the Order, then the Jedi would likely strongly suggest otherwise but while its not viewed highly, they are free to leave if they wish.

As for *getting someone pregnant*, we already have an instance of this: Anakin and Padme. Neither of them were remotely worried about the Jedis involvement in their children aside from the fact Anakin would have been kicked out for his marriage, which further supports the idea the Jedi would not need to be involved unless actual feelings were and that they respect the parents right to say no.


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

[User]
[Star Wars: ESB] What would have happened if Luke had rescued Leia and Chewie?

Everything up to that point is the same. Han gets frozen in carbonite. Boba Fett sends a few warning shots at Luke, so Luke has to go in a different direction, and Fett gets away with Han safely tucked away in his cargo hold. Luke then encounters Leia, Chewie, and C-3PO being escorted by Lando and the Stormtroopers. In an amazing feat of daring and marksmanship, Luke kills all the Imperials, and Lando convinces them that he is indeed on their side, despite his earlier actions.

What happens next?

[Assistant]
Basically you're asking what happened if Luke didn't duel Vader, lose his hand, and learn that Vader is his father?

Pretty much nothing different. They still rescue Han. He still goes to complete his training with Yoda, and probably learns about his father from Yoda on his death bed.


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

[User] ELI5: What do tax havens get out of being tax havens?

[Assistant] Money and employment. A tax haven doesn't mean zero taxes, it simply means lower taxes. For multi million or billion dollar companies and individuals saving a few percent is a lot of money. As a tax haven, the region can develop a much larger financial services, legal and administration centers - since running businesses through a tax haven requires these personnel. This, of course, benefits the country and economy of the tax haven.


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

[User] ELI5: How can Las Vegas charge two different ticket prices for clubs depending on whether you're Male or Female without being sued for gender discrimination?

[Assistant] Because gender discrimination laws aren't as strict as, say, racial discrimination laws. If you have some sort of business reason to discriminate based on gender, you're usually allowed to do it. (It's generally believed that clubs make more money if they have lots of women in them.)


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

[User]
[MCU] Thor beats Surtur, Surtur beats Hela, Hela beats Thor. What is this, rock-paper-scissors?

How is that possible?

[Assistant]
Thor wasn't fighting Surtur at his peak power when he had the weight of prophecy behind him.  Hela got blindsided by 'big as a mountain' Surtur, and Thor, and Loki, and a Valkyrie.  And even then Surtur didn't so much beat her as he blew up Asgard entirely.
No, there's no paper-rock-scissors going on here.  Well, not outside of Korg anyway.


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

[User] ELI5: How did the American Southern accent develop?

[Assistant] It's more the other way around, and relates to the question "When did American English break from British English?". At first American and British English were the same, but then British English developed into what it is today. American English has not changed as much, and is actually closer to British English of 200 years ago. American Southern has been even slower to change (because of the relative isolation of the speakers), and is even closer to British English of that time!


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

[User]
[MCU] How would time-travel to the future work?

In the MCU, time-travel works in that changes in the past simply create alternate timelines. So, what if I travelled to the future?

Let's say I hide an infinity stone in 2154, only for it to somehow be stolen to complete the Infinity Gauntlet. Following the Snap, would I be able to retrieve the stone in 2154, moments before it is stolen?

[Assistant]
There are already examples in the MCU of forward time travel. Ant-man basically traveled five years into the future, and that was basically the exact technology they used to go into the past. The effect is that the traveler shows up x years into a future where they've been missing for x years.

Agents of SHIELD went to the future using a Monolith, but those seem to use extradimensional energy so it spit them out into a future where they had all lived and died in the past already and they got to find out what they did wrong to create the apocalypse (small-a) timeline. They used the same method to go back and prevent it.


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

[User] ELI5: When markets crash, where does all the money go?

[Assistant]
It was never there to begin with.

Say Jon has 50 shares in Company inc.. On the market, these 50 shares are worth $500, because lots of people want to pay $10 for a share in Company inc.

But Jon doesn't have $500. Jon has 50 shares.

Suddenly, news breaks that the CEO of Company inc. makes all of her major business decisions by rolling a set of dice. People worry that this will eventually drive Company inc. into the ground, and so people don't want to pay as much for a share in Company inc.

Jon still has 50 shares. But now Jon's shares are only worth $2 each.

Multiple this scenario by a few hundred million and you have a stock market crash.


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

[User] [Star Wars] What are Thrawn's beliefs regarding the Force?

[Assistant] He is not dismissive of it like most Imperial officers. In the Legends timeline, the use of the Force was critical to his plan to use cloaked warships to bypass planetary shielding in order to make it seem as though he had developed shield piercing weaponry.


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

[User]
[Star Trek] Would the Federation have first contact with a race that wasn't capable of warp but managed FTL travel in some other way (Wormhole manipulation/Space bending, Long Distance Teleportation, etc.)

Generally, the threshold for first contact seems to be warp travel.  What if a race bypasses warp using some novel form of FTL?

[Assistant]
Warp travel is just an easy, non-ambiguous benchmark. Basically, if they have warp, they're going to discover alien species inevitably, so no sense in holding back.

If they're already aware of alien species, or have other means of interstellar travel, then the same principle applies.


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

[User] ELI5 Why do we bleach our grains and wheat if we know its bad for us?

[Assistant]
Well, we do a ton of things with our food that is bad for us. If it makes it look good, and improves sales, there is an incentive to do it. All neon-colored foods - any candies and many snacks like Cheetos, too - contain artificial colors, and many of those are the same ones used in cosmetics (not all however). Strictly speaking, carcinogenic materials to ingest, but used in a quantity that is deemed safe. (Now we could have a separate conversation about if it is ACTUALLY safe... But that's another story.)

As for bread specifically, bleaching also has a practical purpose. When making bread dough there is a process of gluten-formation that forms proteins that help give bread its distinct, sticky insides. Bleaching assists the formation of gluten compounds (not sure why personally) and, combined with the market's preference for 'white' bread, makes sense to do.


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

[User]
Can we see the emitted photons from atoms of the objects when the electrons of those atoms move to a lower energy level?

I have learned that things have colors when the electrons absorb the photons with particular wavelengths and the rest (photons that are not absorbed) will go to our eyes and make us see colors. And when the electrons lose energy they emit the photons which has the same wavelengths as when theyre absorbed. So my question is: Do we actually see the colors from the emitted photons? And if so it must change the color of the object, right?
This question has been bugging me for ages, please shed a light for me.

[Assistant]
The answer is yes.  An electron moving from an excited state will emit a photon whose energy corresponds to the difference between the higher lever and the lower level.

The question of color depends on the energy difference between the states.  We usually talk of color as being a property of photons in the visible spectrum (human color), and there are plenty of instances where we can see the color when the electrons in a gas return to a lower state and the emission is in a wavelength our eyes can see.

The emitted photons are of an energy (and frequency, thus color) that reflects the energy gap from the high energy electron and the lower energy one.  Since the energy has to go somewhere, its spit out as light of a different color  where color reflects that amount of energy between the high and low states.

The vast majority of electron transitions dont have color, in the common way we think about it.  Some of them are X-rays, which are very energetic and invisible to our eyes.  Some are much less energetic, again to the point we cant see them.

In short, yes, we *can* see visible light from electron transitions.  But we can only see (with a naked eye) a tiny fraction of transitions that match that description.


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

[User]
CMV: Obama wasnt that great. Or bad.

Despite Obamas historic achievement as being the first black president, good rhetoric and unifying tone, I dont think he has too many accomplishments to his era. Here are my positives:

- Obamacare
- Advancement of LGBTQ rights
- Getting out 2008 Recession (many debate the effectiveness of his policies. Certainly we did get out of the recession, but the package cost lots of money.)

Here are my negatives:
- Little to no advancement on criminal justice/black equity
- Lack on environmental action
- Continuation of GW Bush foreign policy
- Drone warfare

The last two are Obamas largest failures to me. Most people hate Bush and think hes a dummy because of how he got us into senseless, expensive bloody wars. Obama continued these wars. The only positive I can give him is his decision not to get into Syria. Obama reneged on his promise of diplomacy and getting out of the middle east. He also continued the NSAs spying on Americans. Foriegn policy is the one thing that the executive branch has full control and responsibility over, and Obama continued Bushs mistakes. This is the major factor making Obama an average to meh president. CMV.

[Assistant]
He actually drew down troops in the wars and generally had good relations with our allies.

He passed DACA, but was also aggressive about deportations (despite the lies).

He increased salaries for government contractors.

He started with a large deficit, but shrank it tremendously over the terms.

Unemployment slowly dropped.  Trump rode those coattails.

If you recall, Congress impeded him every step of the way. See Merrick Garland as one of the more egregious examples.

So in short, he cleaned up a number of Bush/Republican messes, but was stymied from making real major changes due to his own views and Republicans.

He was not a far left, radical Marxist, atheist, Islamist, socialist who hated America, allowed open border, and wanted to kill white people and the troops.  He was a pretty good (not great), moderate president.


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

[User]
[Zootopia] How does currency work across the different districts?

In the film we see a town for small mammals, and at Mr. Big's daughter's wedding, there is tiny cakes for everyone. Obviously these cakes only require a tiny bit of ingredients to make, so they must not be very expensive, but do the small mammals make less money, or are they all outrageously wealthy proportionally to the rest of the city?

[Assistant]
If they're all roughly equal in cognitive capacity, you'd expect small mammals to gravitate toward white-collar work where their size disadvantage is less of a problem. A mouse programmer is presumably just as effective as a giraffe programmer, and mice have much lower expenses, so yeah, you'd expect them to become tremendously wealthy.

The only possible advantage that (some) larger animals have is longevity - more time for individuals to acquire skills and connections in their field. You'd expect successful smaller animals to be very conservative, communitarian, and tribal - amassing connections and wealth and knowledge as a group, across generations, rather than individually. And since that conflicts somewhat with Zootopia's progressive individualist ethos, it would be unsurprising to see those clans amassing wealth and influence on society's margins rather than at the top.

That's the tidiest explanation for why there's a very tight-knit shrew clan with polar bear muscle and a lot of money, living in relative isolation in Little Rodentia.


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

[User]
ELI5: What's the practical application of imaginary numbers?

My teacher in high school only made some reference to airplanes but I've always wondered what do imaginary numbers actually teach us about the world?

[Assistant]
Multiplying by positive numbers can be thought of as stretching (or shrinking) and multiplying by (1) does nothing. Additionally, multiplying by (-1) in mathematics is a lot like "turning around 180 degrees" in real life (like flipping something upside down).

Turning around twice is like making one complete circle and coming back to your starting position. In other words, it is like multiplying by (1) because it does not change anything.

So, in the case of multiplying by (-1), we have (-1) times (-1) equals (1), multiplying by (-1) twice does nothing...(-1)^2 = 1

Now, instead of turning around by 180 degrees, what if you only made a quarter turn of 90 degrees... Call that multiplying by X (for now)... then you have to multiply by X four times to get back to (1) that is, X^4 = 1, and only doing it twice is like turning around 180 degrees (two quarter turns), so multiplying by X twice is like multiplying by (-1), that is, X^2 = -1.

Call that X by i and then i is the "number" that represents a quarter turn. So anything mathematically that includes things that move in quarter turns (or move in quarter cycles) can be described using the imaginary number i.

Complex numbers let us step up the game to describe any kind of turn. It turns out that any turn by an angle &theta; can be described by multiplying by cos(&theta;) + isin(&theta;). Here you can check that for a 1/4 turn (pi/2) you get i, and for a half turn (pi) you get (-1) and for both 0 and 2pi you get back to (1).

So, complex numbers have a real world application to describe things that move in circles or cycles or rotations and the multiplying by a complex number is basically rotation by an angle (the argument) with some stretching (the modulus).


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

[User]
Why did my hair turn from blonde to brown when i was about 6?

Around the age of 5 or 6 my hair begin to turn from completely blonde to a dark brown. I don't remember how long it actually took to turn completely brown. My hair has been the same color ever since. Is there a definite reason why?

[Assistant] because for some people, the genes that control brown hair pigmentation (eumelanin) do not "turn on" until a certain age. The exact reasons why are currently not clear, but it is a heritable trait. Some people have brown hair always, some have blond hair always, and some switch from blond to brown in early childhood.  Just one of those things.


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

[User] ELI5: why does gas in the united states contain 10% ethanol?

[Assistant]
It was supported by environmentalists under the belief that it could replace oil and be amazing for the environment. Farmers loved it because it created a huge demand for their corn products, and came with a bunch of subsidy money too.

Performance guys like it because you can put out more power in an engine with high ethanol content when the engine has been tuned for it.

Realistically, it has caused nightmares for older vehicles and most small engine devices like lawnmower because it damages components not designed to have it in the fuel.


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

[User] ELI5:why is under cooked beef safe to eat but under cooked chicken harmful?

[Assistant]
Well first, "safe" is a relative term. No uncooked meat is completely safe.  However, beef is generally considered safer than uncooked chicken because some chickens in the US carry salmonella. It's the same reason that you aren't supposed to eat raw eggs or uncooked cookie dough.

However, some other countries don't have a problem with salmonella like in the US and so in Japan, raw egg is used as a topping and half-cooked "onsen" eggs are sold to be eaten as is even in convenience stores.


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

[User] ELI5: When a person gets an organ transplant the body's immune system will reject and attack the organ because of foreign DNA. Why does this not apply to blood transfusions?

[Assistant]
It \*does\* apply to blood transfusions. That's why you need to match the blood type. The blood type (A, B, AB, 0 etc.) refers to different kinds of proteins on the surface of the blood cells. If your body detects blood cells of the wrong type, it will attack and destroy them.

Blood type 0 does not have any of these proteins on the surface, so people of this type are "universal donors", i.e. their blood can be safely given to all other people regardless of blood type.

Conversely, people with blood type AB are "universal recipients". Because their own blood as both type A and type B proteins, their immune system won't attack blood of any type.

(Note that this isn't the full story, there are other blood type systems in addition to the AB system.)

Bonus info: With organ transfusions, one issue is that the recipient's immune system rejects the organ. But it sometimes happens that the immune cells from the donor that are still in the donated organ start attacking the recipients whole body (graft-vs-host disease)! This doesn't happen with blood transfusions because they typically filter out the white blood cells (immune cells) and only transfer the red blood cells and/or plasma.


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

[User]
[MCU] Question regarding Eternals and implications raised from it.

I recently watched Eternals and mostly enjoyed it but the after credits scene has left me pondering some thoughts.

If Eros is an Eternal and the brother of Thanos, this would mean he too is an Eternal (with a deviant mutation)
Would that mean Thanos can be resurrected/rebuilt via the World Forge? And possibly has his memories stored there too?

Also, I understand that Eternals are essentially hyper-advanced androids imbued with Celestial energy and created by the Celestial Arishem however why did he make Makkari deaf and mute?
Could Ajak not have healed her?

[Assistant] There's a fan theory I've seen that Makkari is deaf because being able to hear is useless or even counterproductive when moving at supersonic speeds.  If Makkari was deaf from the beginning, there would be no injury to heal.


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

[User] eli5: why is it so difficult to go a week without eating when we have 10s of thousands of calories worth of body fat?

[Assistant]
Just burning the fat reserves you have **might** keep you alive a bit longer, but it certainly isnt going to do anything when it comes to replenishing the vitamins and minerals that your body depends on. No sodium or potassium? Goodbye muscle functions.

Your body keeps telling you that its hungry because it depends on a lot more than just calories to survive.


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

[User] ELI5: China's population was around .6 billion in 1960. How did it increase to ~1.4 in just 55 years, especially with the one child policy in effect?

[Assistant]
Sometimes when we analyze statistics, we forget to place them into the context of people's everyday lives.

For a very long time, health outcomes have been very poor in much of the world, with a high child mortality rate. When a parent is likely to lose one or more children, then they develop a culture where they have many children, sometimes five or more, just to be sure that they don't run out.

In 1960, China's government began to focus on health care. Infant mortality dropped, life expectancy increased, and for the first time in China's history, nearly all of the children grew up. These children themselves had large families, but *their* children did not.

While it is true that legislation played a role in that, it only helped to expedite this process. We see the exact same forces play out in every country as medicine becomes widely available - a brief population boom followed by a transition to small family sizes. This is because when you grow up without infant mortality, you begin to see all of the advantages of small families over large ones, instead of viewing small families and imagining the loss of brothers and sisters.

If you'd like to know more, look into Hans Rosling, a statistician from the Gapminder Foundation. They produce a fantastic digital archive of statistical data, and use it to cultivate educational videos.


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

[User]
I am currently reading Karl Marx's "Das Kapital". What are some critics I should know/things to keep in mind while reading it?

Hello, I hope this question fits this sub. I apologize if this question is a bit stupid

I am not a philosophy student and even though I am very interested in it, my exposure to it was quite limited. I learned a bit from Zizeks Videos/films, read Descartes Meditations 1 and 2 and did some research about the general history of philosophy and logic (mainly fallacies) but overall I definitely am a layman.

I was always interested in Marx's Capital, and finally got around to reading it. However, I am afraid that due to my limited exposure to literature like this and philosophy in general, I might not be critical enough towards his ideas, take things he talks about in his book at face value and develop "wrong" beliefs.

My question is: What are some things I should keep in mind when reading Marx?  What are some critics I should read after finishing the book, and is there any research I should do before reading it to understand it better? And would it be possible for you to give me a broad understanding about if/which ones of his ideas are generally seen as outdated or simply "wrong" in philosophical circles?

To clarify, this question is not about *how* I should read philosophical literature (like how to take notes) but specifically what would be important for me to not misunderstand Marx.

On a sidenote, I'd really appreciate it if you wouldn't tell me to read other authors except if it is necesarry to understand marx (I do not want to give the impression that I think I 'know better', I simply always was and still am very interested in his ideas and want to learn more about them)

TL;DR: What do I have to read/know to read marx without "brainlessly agreeing" with his ideas and developing unreasonable beliefs?

[Assistant]
I don't see why you shouldn't just read it as it is. Marx will have to contend with a lifetime of you being subject to capitalist ideology, which should be quite enough to defend you.

>And would it be possible for you to give me a broad understanding about if/which ones of his ideas are generally seen as outdated or simply "wrong" in philosophical circles?

Well it's a work of Political Economy, which is not the sort of thing basically all contemporary Philosophers get up to. So for instance probably most Philosophers think LTV is wrong, but this will be a received idea from the general state of social ideology, or from other academics, such as economists, rather than something they directly studied.

But outside of Das Kapital, most Philosophers are liberals, and so will disagree with Marx about all sorts of things.


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

[User]
ELI5: Who are the voices that schizophrenic people hear in their head?(When they 'hear voices')

Where exactly do they come from?

[Assistant]
Think about how you can imagine a voice in your head, anyone's voice: You know what your mother sounds like, your lover, your best friend. You can imagine all of these, and you can know what they sound like in your head.

The makes schizophrenia different is that a schizophrenic's brain registers these imaginations the same way it would register a *real* sound. The brain reacts the same way it would react to actual sounds, but in reality it is something purely made up by the brain itself, and incorrectly registered as having an outside source.

In reality, the sound doesn't actually exist. They just experience it as if it does.


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

[User] Can an archive file be smaller after unpacking?

[Assistant] Definitely - if you compress data that's totally incompressible. When you compress a file, the archiving program will store metadata (headers) that tell it how to unpack the data. If you can't actually make the data any smaller, then you'll be left with the same size data as before plus the metadata, giving you a bigger file than you started with.


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

[User]
Is there any protection from Covid-19 by "local" herd immunity?

Even if the US never reaches vaccination levels high enough for herd immunity is there still some level of protection gained by living in a state that might reach 80% of it's population vaccinated?

[Assistant]
Yes, and the reverse can happen, too. Clusters of anti-vax propaganda lead to periodic measles outbreaks in specific areas.

Keep in mind that herd immunity is a *secondary* or even tertiary goal of vaccination. Vaccines protect *you*. If youre protected, you help protect your close contacts. And if enough people are vaccinated, then even more people are protected, until eventually the infection cant spread and you have herd immunity - a great bonus, but not the main point of vaccination.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do we sound so weird to ourselves when we hear our own voices on video/audio, yet we sound perfectly fine to others?

[Assistant]
Your own voice, when you hear it as you talk, sounds very different to how other people would hear it, due to to interference & echoing caused by your skull.

Other people would hear your voice more like how you sound on recordings, which sounds weird to you because it's not how your hear yourself when you talk.


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

[User] How do we know a substance is toxic without poisoning someone with it?

[Assistant]
Step 1: Don't use it on a human; first try it on an animal model (an animal that has a physiological response similar to a human, not an animal that gets paid to wear to have photos taken).  For instance, sheep eyeballs are similar enough in size, shape and composition to human eyeballs.  However, dog's will be poisoned by chocolate or grapes but humans are not, so are a bad animal model for toxicity studies.

Step 2: accidental exposure.  Factory worker accidentally spills a substance.  Someone on drugs thinks it's a good idea to shove a substance up their butt for some reason.  "Alternative medicine" and "natural therapy".  Usually you find long term evidence of toxicity from people who spend a lot of time or handle very concentrated substances, such as factory workers or applicators.

Step 3: Crazy hard computer modelling.  You make a fake substance in a software program and bump it against fake biological receptors.  You can see when something fails against some common biological receptors, but you can't test everything so you are really focused on failures and ignore success.  An all-clear *in silico* may still be toxic *in situ*.

Step 4: Drug/exposure trials.  Deliberate incremental dosing experiment on a human, preferably two humans, and step up concentration until bad signs appear.  1 dose today for me, wait and observe.  2 doses for you tomorrow, wait and observe.  This is how Phase 1 drug trials work and why your drug symptoms may include "itchy butt" or "an impending feeling of doom", just because one person experienced that on day 7 of a twelve day exposure test.


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

[User]
[Scooby Doo] Why are Scooby and Shaggie still so afraid of 'Ghosts' when they have proven time and again that it's a scam?

After so many debunkings, shouldn't they be more skeptical?

[Assistant] Some individuals experience a feeling of paranoia when taking THC... roughly 20% of users, according to a 2014 study. As its been long suggested (even amid repeated denials) that Shaggy and Scooby are marijuana users, that probably accounts for their fear.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do they make gummy multivitamins and supplements, but no gummy medication drugs?

[Assistant] A vitamin supplement basically just needs to get into the bloodstream as soon as possible so that it can be absorbed.  A lot of medications are designed to dissolve and disperse into the body in a slow and controlled way.  The form the medication takes (capsule, tablet, powder, liquid, etc.) plays a big part in how quickly it gets absorbed.


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

[User] What percentage of the stocks of a company do you actually need to buy, to basically have full control of the company?

[Assistant]
To have full control of the company, i.e. to do whatever you want without having to care about what other people think your company should be doing, you need 100% of the company.

Anything between 50-100% gives you control, which means you can always pass through actions you think are good. However, minority shareholders have rights. Some of these rights require them to have a certain % of shareholding, like the right to veto changes to the company's structure. But even with 99.99% ownership of a company, you still have fidicuary responsibilities to the remaining 0.01% of shareholders to act in their best interest. This means if you do something which goes against their interests, they can sue you for it.


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

[User]
ELI5: When a woman goes into labour, is it her body that decides the baby is ready, or does the foetus send some sort of signal to the mother's body to say it's ready to come out?

As above.  Also, how would the answer to this title question explain babies that are born premature, or babies that are born so late that the labour has to be induced?

Thank you in advance!  I have wondered this for a while!

[Assistant]
pregnancy is a continuous process. mother, baby, and placenta are constantly exchanging messages in the form of hormones, nutrients, and immune cells.
its is thought that once a fetuss lungs are developed, a signal is sent from the fetus to the mother that first initiates labor. that signal causes a cascade to begin. moms body releases estrogen, baby changes position and starts pressing on the cervix, the cervix starts changing, etc.


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

[User]
[LotR] Why is Edoras the capital of Rohan and not Helms Deep?

At least in the movies, Helms Deep is more defensible, of course, but also seems more spacious and developed than Edoras. Edoras is a collection of houses on a hill while Helms Deep is an actual fortress. Why doesnt Thoden just live there full-time?
Is it hard to get supplies in and out of Helms Deep? Is Edoras just a more pleasant place to live?

[Assistant]
There's lots of reasons. Meduseld is the traditional seat of the King of Rohan, and let us not forget also where their kin are buried.

Also Meduseld is a fortified hall on a hill in the middle of the plains, which is where the horsemen operate best. And where they can protect their farmers. It is meant to be light and sunny and beautiful, with a straw roof which makes it look like it's capped in gold.

Helm's Deep is a fallback position which is less centrally located. (And further from help, because of the required detour around the White Mountains.) And the Hornburg itself, no matter how pretty it looks from the outside, is still a brutal place hewn from the mountains themselves. All that was near or around it was the ravines it encloses and the hills which surround it. There's a river. And some caves. If you like those sorts of things.

There's no room for riding. No room for farming. No room for a people to live in any sort of comfort.


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

[User]
[MCU] Why do Sorcerors use such outdate weaponry?

In MoM, we see that the Kamar Taj use simple bows and arrows, and ancient cannons. Why don't they use modern weaponry amplified by sorcery?

Guns with bullets that auto-aim towards a target. Tanks that have sorceror's shielding the outside with magic. Or open portals in the chamber straight into the enemy's face, or even inside their internal organs? Why use such antiquated weaponry, when it's not even enhanced with magic? Is it a "Noble" art or something? Because I would personally think that "saving the multiverse against the Scarlet Witch" is a bit more of a pressing matter than whether the way you did it was noble or not.

[Assistant] It could be that the materials the old weapons use are more magically conductive, or no real incentive to upgrade. Why make a magical machine gun when a magical bow is about as good as the machine gun would be without the additional hassle of enchanting, construction (if necessary) etc. since the magical bows and cannons already exist?


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

[User] ELI5: How can nonstick cooking spray have zero calories if it contains oil which is usually high in calories?

[Assistant]
If you are American it is probably down to the regulations over food labelling.

For example, Tic Tac mints contain sugar. However, since the amount of sugar **per serving** (1 mint) is less than 0.5 grams, FDA labelling requirements permit the Nutrition Facts to state that there are 0 grams of sugar per serving.


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

[User]
How does dehydration kill you?

Particularly dehydration from not drinking water. I'm not asking about hypovolemia due to hemorrhage, burns, diarrhoea, vomitting or other factors.

I'm aware that dehydration disrupts a plethora of biological processes which leads to a variety of things going wrong in our body. But there must be one (or perhaps a few?) factor(s) that eventually lead to death.
Is it the hypovolemic shock? Is it perhaps dyselectrolytemia?

I have a vague memory in my mind that it's because of hyponatremia, but that doesn't make much sense. We only lose sodium through our sweat and can replenish it from food, which means if we avoid an environment that causes us to sweat and eat enough, that'll prolongue our chances of surviving without watter. Sounds ridiculous.

Hypernatremia makes more sense. If we don't drink water, we lose water content while our sodium stays relatively the same (we lose some through sweat, but sweat is quite low in sodium and we would lose more water than sodium anyways). High blood sodium concentrations would obviously dehydrate our cells osmotically as well as disrupt CNS action potentials.

[Assistant]
Dehydration kills you by making you unable to flush out toxins in your urine and feces.

Eventually your kidneys shut down from severe dehydration and you start to build up toxins which will begin the stages of sepsis. You eventually become poisoned by your own toxins that the body is unable to remove.


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

[User]
[General Sci-Fi] How does mind reading work on those who speak other languages?

If I could read minds but only speak English, would I be able to read the mind of someone who only speaks Spanish, and presumably thinks in Spanish as well?
If I could read their mind would I only hear Spanish?

[Assistant] It's not about language. It's about thought. They're not translating from your language to theirs. They're translating from whatever "language" of neural impulses you have to theirs. At least the better ones are. If they can only detect surface thoughts, it's pretty much that they know whatever you're imagining. If you imagine a picture, they'll see it. If you narrate your thought process, they'll hear it. And if they don't know your language, they won't know what it means.


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

[User] [Marvel] How common Is a healing factor among the Heroes and Villians of Marvel? Why does Wolverines get so much attention?

[Assistant] A minor healing factor is pretty common, captain america and spider-man both have one. wolverines is noted because of just how powerful it is. captain america and spider-man can die with how strong wolverines healing factor is there is a strong argument to make that he cannot die, he has been reduced to a flaming skeleton in canon and came back.


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

[User] Why do some materials like iron, gold and other bend, while other like coal or rocks break?

[Assistant]
It all depends on what kind of bond and structures the atoms form. when talking about metals and rocks, crystal structures become very important. The crystal structure of a compound it decides by its composition and its preparation. Some crystal structures are very rigid and won't bend easily, other materials are actually a lot of tiny crystals that can move rather easily making the material bendy.
This is a very complicated topic and it is hard to not go into too much detail here. The short answer is that it depends on the way the atoms are arranged in the material.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does water in the shower go from mild to scolding hot when barely turning the knob?

[Assistant]
The inside of most shower faucets looks like a nose.  There's one "nostril" for hot water, and one "nostril" for cold water.

The way that the faucet works is that there's a disc with a single hole in it in front of these two nostrils. When the faucet is off, the nostrils are blocked.  As you turn the handle, the hole goes in front of the nostrils, passing cold first, then a mix, then hot.

The hot water is always very hot, and the cold water is always cold. The temperature you get is a result of them mixing in proportion to how open they are based on where that hole in the disc is positioned.

That's why you end up sometimes with very hot water with a small turn of the nob.  It doesn't take much to suddenly introduce a lot of hot water, or to push it far enough that only the hot water is open. As a result, there's a huge increase in temperature for a small motion.


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

[User] ELI5:Why do homosexual men have/develop accents?

[Assistant] I read a comment somewhere on here talking about how over the last couple of decades it has actually turned into a form of self-identification, i.e. gay people start using a stereotypical accent to help fit in with the existing gay community, and then it perpetuates until it's the standard.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does gravity exactly work and why do objects increase in speed when falling from different heights?

I get the apple theory loosely but I want more understanding.

[Assistant]
It's important to *really drill in people's heads* that gravity has two parts, the law and the theory.

The law bit is really simple: Objects with mass attract each other. How much they attract each other depends on their relative masses. Attraction means accelerating another object towards you. Here, the Earth accelerates every object towards itself at a constant rate of 9.82 meters per second per second. If we ignore things like air resistance, every object accelerates at the same rate when falling.

The theory part refers to how gravity actually works: is it a field? is it a particle? that's the part we haven't yet figured out.


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

[User]
CMV: I'm a nationalist.

_____

First off: I'm from Sweden (very relevant), I'm 20 years young and male (slightly relevant).

Growing up in what is today a multi-cultural society I early started to notice that in many aspects of society Sweden turned for the worse following the inflow of strangers and the multi-cultural policy of our governments. Immigrants have constituted perhaps as much as 25% of all the people that I've had contact with in my life. They've almost exclusively displayed great disrespect towards my own people and have constituted around 80% of all criminals that I've ever met. Befriending many of them I've gained insight in their mentality and way of life and have realised that they harbour a great deal of conscious hatred towards Swedes and wish to take advantage of us; they vote for the left in order to gain access to welfare but are in no way socialistic towards us.

But so far it's only personal experience. So I started to do research and found out that immigrants are overrepresented in all forms of crime - and the more severe the type of crime, the greater the overrepresentation. They are by far more likely to make a living from welfare money than Swedes are. They are by far more likely to vote for the left. Their neighbourhoods are more dangerous and degenerated than the Swedish neighbourhoods. They are more likely to be religiously fundamental. They're more often involved in corruption scandals. And they are more likely to be racist, which gives the irony of multi-cultural Sweden being more racist than old homogenous Sweden - and in a sort of way kills the argument of nationalists being the racist side.

My conclusions are that Swedes need a country where they constitute the vast majority and where the Swedish culture and the Swedish language predominate. I believe that patriotism is needed in order to contribute to the self-esteem of the people. I also believe that we should be open to a certain number of immigrants - regardless of background - who assimilate to our culture and wrk. In short, I want a nation state open only to natives, and to immigrants who adapt and show respect.

EDIT: I have a very troublesome computer so I'm going to have to ask all of you to be patient, since it might take time for me to answer.

EDIT2: Many have argued - falsely - that I claim that Swedes are superior to others. That is not true and I don't know how people get that idea. I might need to clarify myself and say that I argue that cultural homogenity is necessary for a stable society where people feel responsibilty to each other.

EDIT3: Wow! 203 comments so far. I'm overwhelmed by the interest shown in this :)

[Assistant] Socioeconomic status, not ethnic background, is the determining factor on most of the trends you are talking about. Immigrants to any country are switching countries for a reason, and thus are usually of lower socioeconomic status. It's not because of where they are from.


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

[User] Do men with Jacobs syndrome (XYY) have a 2/3 chance of fathering a son (rather than 1/2) any given time?

[Assistant]
No. Sperm cells dont divide into thirds instead of 2 during meiosis for those with XYY syndrome. Not only do those cells develop fairly normally, but there are equal chances for male and female children.

Currently its thought that the extra Y chromosome is often lost during their sperm production. While men with the XYY syndrome do seem to have a sight decrease in overall fertility, they very rarely pass the condition on.


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

[User] ELI5: What's the difference between a hotel, motel, resort and inn?

[Assistant]
They are general categories that hopefully convey what one can expect from the establishment.

A hotel would have full features, including indoor hallways, room service, laundary, and maid service (to name a few examples).

The word motel derives from "motor" and "hotel" and were originally meant as a place for motorists to stop while driving places.  They have sparser amenities and rooms that often open onto the parking lot.

An Inn is meant to connote a more traditional, less corporate, but small-ish accommodation.  Often an inn is in a setting that is itself a destination (unlike a motel) but doesn't offer the services or luxuries of a hotel.

Anything that calls itself a resort is doing so because it wants to convey that you can enjoy your vacation largely at the resort itself.  So you would expect it to have a pool, nice views, and other activities on or adjacent to the location.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] What is happening in Muslim countries?

After all, according to the canons of Islam, it is strictly forbidden to use magic
And as a result, the question arises whether there are ministries of magic in the same Saudi Arabia, and do they commit repressions over magicians?

[Assistant]
Go to any Muslim country today and you'll find books of magic in most bookstores. The relationship between Muslims and magic has always been flexible.

Broadly speaking though, there's a distinction between khawass, the use of the natural sympathetic magic of nature and demoniac magic where you use spirits to empower your magic. Muslims in such countries believe they are using natural magic granted by Allah and their own divinely blessed gifts, and would reject those who use forbidden magics like fiendfyre which summon fire jinn to burn and destroy.

Of course some are born to more strict Muslims who forbid all such things, and become obscurials. This can fuel prejudice as some would see them as possessed by jinn.


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

[User]
[Star Trek] In every iteration of Star Trek it's always the bridge crew that goes down to the planet and does stuff. Isn't that we'll... Just really dangerous?

The entirety of the command staff, plus usually the only doctor on the ship goes down to the dangerous world and nearly always gets almost killed.

Shouldn't they send some from of F.E.A.R. squad to do this? People with combat and diplomatic training?

What happens if they all get killed (plot armor not withstanding), does this ship have a secondary command staff on standby for this?

For those who forgot, FEAR is First Encounter Assault Recon.

[Assistant]
Starfleet fosters a culture of cowboys among their exploration ships. These guys worked their entire careers to lead the Federation's best and brightest into the unknown - to discover new life and new civilizations - so damn straight they're going to be the first ones down on an away mission. They didn't come out all this way just to stare at reports of other people having exciting adventures.

Once they've had their fun, then specialist teams go down to do actual studies of whatever man-eating plant killed the obligatory redshirt this week.

And yes, should any of the senior staff become incapacitated, there are established chains of command for both the ship as a whole, and in any given department to take over those responsibilities.


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

[User]
[Game of Thrones] What are the pros and cons of using a Warhammer in battle?

As opposed to a sword?

[Assistant]
You can't cut armour. A guy's dressed head-to-toe in plate, what you going to do? You can grapple the guy or aim for the armpits or the eyeslit, but you gotta accept that a sharp edge isn't good for that kind of opponent.

You can dent armour, though. And you can puncture it. Sure you need plenty of force behind it but that's how a hammer works. Big bloody weight on the end of a stick - smashes a breastplate right in. Do it hard enough and the guy's dead in seconds.


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

[User]
CMV: Partisanship makes it almost impossible to remove a Republican president for abusing his office

Trump will likely get acquitted of impeachment soon after the Senate declined to hear witnesses. Of the 4 GOP senators who may have voted to hear witnesses, Alexander and Murkowski voted no because they thought Democrats had already proven trumps guilt and that the Senate had already failed, respectively. Both Collins and Romney have been criticised for even voting to hear witnesses which means that the mainstream GOP position is that it is immoral for senators to want to provide oversight for Republican presidencies or to even investigate them.

Given that impeachment requires 67 senators to vote for impeachment, I believe impeachment is now impossible as Republican senators have just signalled that abuse of power is perfectly acceptable behaviour for Republican presidents. This means that removing a Republican president from office would require 67 or more non-republican senators which would be virtually impossible given the current balance of power among both parties and the GOP advantage in the Senate.

This means that, aside from presidential elections, Republican presidents can now abuse their power as they wish (as long as it never helps democrats) as there is no viable option to remove them.

I will CMV if someone can convince me that Republicans would support removing a Republican president for abuse of power.

[Assistant] Partisanship is the only reason the motion was filed to begin with.  If there were a valid impeachment foundation not simply based in Democrat majority partisan voting then it'd be completely possible to impeach a Republican president.


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

[User] ELI5: Why will electric cars destroy OPEC? We still need to CREATE the electricity to power the cars, right?

[Assistant]
Yes, you still need to create electricity. But electricity is seldom generated by oil. It's coal, natural gas, hydro, nuclear power, renewables ...

Meanwhile, oil is pretty much the only supplier of fuel for transportation. (Well 93%) If it looses that position, it will be forced to compete with other energy sources, and as such, will suffer lower prices.


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

[User]
What experiment would resolve tough questions in your field but can't be performed due to ethical considerations?

I'm not a scientist, but I have often wondered whether humans would survive without parental care. Obviously babies couldn't, but what would happen if you took uneducated 5-10 year olds and put them in an isolated environment free of atleast carnivorous predators (they'd still have to deal with venomous insects/animals) ? Would they further develop their language by making up their own words? Would they develop tools? Would they survive?

EDIT: *For all the people replying, I'm aware that feral children exist. This is not a "can this happen?" experiment so much as a "what can happen?" experiment. I'm talking about multiple kids being placed in situation and possibly being studied truman-show-style.*

Obviously such an experiment would never be possible until we develop the ability to simulate the human brain on a computer. What experiments would you like to do but can't because of ethics?

[Assistant]
In psychology, many aspects of mind-brain interaction cannot be studied directly, since they would require the destruction of the brains of healthy human test-subjects. As a result, psychology has long looked at people with exotic maladies as a way of gaining insights into what happens when brain-regions are destroyed (though "exotic maladies" often have other confounding effects that make analysis difficult). In the era of fMRI, brain-region activation levels are often used to gain this kind of information indirectly. Some questions about the functional organization of minds could be answered quickly through destructive tests.

An interesting aside: if we do make accurate simulations of human brains on computers, there is some question to how ethical it is to experiment on them (since they are human minds, equivalent to our own, by some theories). What changes would you need to make to a perfect simulation of a human mind-brain to make it ethical to perform otherwise unethical testing upon?


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

[User]
[Avatar TLA/LOK] What would happen if an avatar refused to be the avatar?

I mean think about it. No one chooses to be the avatar, they get chosen. With that comes all the power but also the responsibility of pretty much solving the worlds problems. What if an avatar didn't want to do that? What if they wanted a simple quiet life or something?

[Assistant]
I guess there could be spiritual problems caused by the previous Avatars being  upset but rejecting them hard enough seems to weaken the connection between the current Avatar and the previous ones to prevent forced communication. (That's what happened to Aang after the events of the first series because of a conflict with Roku until their reconciliation, even if maybe not all Avatars could do the same thing because they don't all have Aang's spiritual control)

One of the Water Nation-born previous Avatars was a laidback surfer and basically did nothing so he was unable to save his fiancee. (but otherwise he was an avatar born in a generation without great conflicts)


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

[User]
[Fallout 4] Which faction really does have the best interests of the Commonwealth?

The Minutemen seem too weak/small to side with.

The BoS are an almost religiously-crazed cult.

The Institute have a huge superiority complex.

The Railroad are a bunch of hippies.

Which ending provides the best ending for the Commonwealth as a whole?

[Assistant]
The minutemen have the best interests of the commonwealth in mind. They are not the most well equipped to handle the task, but they are genuinely trying to better life for the average citizen, trying to be a good leader.

The institute as it stands are doing science for the sake of science, instead of to help, although you could theoretically make them help people as director.

The BoS and Railroad care more about helping/genociding the synths than helping the average citizen of the commonwealth.


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

[User]
What in the seven circles of hell is supposed to be in a cover letter? (RA)

Applying for jobs as a Research Assistant (UK uni pay grade 5) in psychiatry, and psychology.

For the life of me, every time I discuss this with my mates we always agree to disagree on the content and length.

Edit: My gratitude to all the amazing people that replied!! This has been really helpful and now my understanding is so much clearer. Hope it also helps other lost souls out there.

Upgraded from the seven circles of hell to the awaiting responses purgatory...

[Assistant]
It should be the narrative of how your credentials and experience fit with the specifics of the job description--especially, why you are applying for 1) this job  and 2) at this institution.

The CV tells them what you've done. The cover letter tells them why you are a good fit.


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

[User] What is Max Webers critique of Karl Marx?

[Assistant] His critique of Marx (at least, when it comes to "The Protestant Ethic") is that he is too reductionist in his analysis of the development of Capitalism. Marx saw only an economic base, but Weber saw a religious development that contributed to the spread of Capitalism. Weber never said that Marx was incorrect with his economic analysis, but needed to add other factors. In fact, later Marxists would attempt to fuse both theories.


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

[User] ELI5: If I raised a big cat solely by myself from birth, would it eventually want to kill me?

[Assistant] if you raise a small cat by yourself, would it eventually scratch your hands quite badly while playing? probably, yeah. big cats are practically identical to house cats, behaviorally. but when a housecat is funny when it gets aggressive sometimes, a big cat would kill you. it doesn't necessarily *want* to though, no.  but it probably would.


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

[User]
Is it possible to make a program that deletes everything added to a computer in the last five minutes?

I think if you misspell a link and you go on a virus site, a program that deletes everything added in the last 5 minutes could solve it.

[Assistant]
Theoretically you could create a program that automatically generates a backup every 5 mins but the ability to scan for every change made, and understand what they were would take huge amounts of time.
The other method would be to keep a log of changes made by the user, although this wouldn't be able to undo things like viruses copying themselves in the background.

Realistically, the easiest ways to do something like this would be to create a backup to a separate location, and make live changes to the backup as you do stuff on your computer, but delayed by 5 mins.
This would essentially half the amount of storage space on your computer and be rather pointless for pretty much any application when you could just be backing up individual files.
Also in 99.9% of cases an automatic overnight backup would suffice and be far more practical in terms of processing power & storage space.


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

[User]
ELI5: Whats a warp field and how did NASA accidentally create one?

Also, why is it useful?
Thank you!

[Assistant]
The idea of a warp field is a bit of theory that works out on paper but we haven't been able to try it experimentallyit requires negative mass.  The idea is core to the Alcubierre drive, which would allow for faster-than-light travel.

The principal is that while an object cannot move through space faster than the speed of light, space may be stretched and contracted according to the equations Einstein put forward with General Relativity.  This drive compresses and expands space to arrive at a destination sooner than would be possible at the speed of light on un-stretched space.

As for the recent report, it's *probably* just media spouting nonsense.  It's a result coming from the group that's investigating the Emdrive, which is another science-fiction-sounding spaceflight engine.  The neat thing about the Emdrive is that it claims to be able to produce thrust without fuel.  Normal rockets have to shoot fuel in one direction to travel the other, which causes us to have to use even bigger rockets to get them off the ground. This tends to result in *enormous* rockets if you want to go particularly far, and even still you can barely get out of the solar system.

The Emdrive was tested about a year ago at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, as was a similar device, the Cannae drive.  These tests have been controversial as they would seem to demonstrate a violation of conservation of momentum, which is quite an extraordinary claim that is backed up with a lot of "I don't know"s and shrugged shoulders.  The researchers are pretty sure they've measured a force, but they can't nail down exactly where it's coming from.  They've tried to eliminate various mundane sources of the force, but they've also eliminated much of the original theoretical justification for why a legitimate force would exist in the first place (the Emdrive requires a tapered cavity, while the Cannae drive requires a cavity with slots.  A non-tapered, non-slotted cavity still produced the same measurement).

Thus, they're looking into things further to try to figure out what's actually going on.  In doing so they tried shooting a beam of light through the cavity to measure how long it takes to travel.  What they found was that the light traveled faster than expectedfaster than the accepted speed of light.  This could be possible if an Alcubierre effect is occuring inside of the Emdrive, but there is no theoretical basis for why it would do so (once again, Alcubierre drives require negative mass).

I should point out that this is not the first time that faster than light travel has been experimentally measured.  Some time ago faster than light neutrinos were apparently observed, but later investigation showed it to be a calibration error.  It is too soon to fully accept the observation as true.  For now it's firmly in the realm of "probably just an experimental error but it would be really cool if it isn't and would rewrite a lot of physics."


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

[User]
[Warhammer 40k]How much heresy can I commit before an Inquisitor finds me?

I am an ordinary citizens in an isolated space from god knows where. I am going to commit all the heresy possible until the inquisitor finds me.

[Assistant]
Depends, you should hope to be a successful enough heretic to draw the attention of the Holy Ordos. Most likely your neighbor will hear your weird and probably incorrect chantings to slannesh while you rub one out and turn you in to the local police. They have a deacon or even local priest ex-communicate you with a quick spurt of holy water, and you are bludgeoned to death.

But maybe, you're a little better. Your blood cult took a decidedly brass turn and the next thing you know your little blood arena is raided by the Arbites. You get the glory of being gunned down in combat by a man in a visor. They take note of your heretical bullshit and file it with the local Ordo Hereticus headquarters, it becomes a minor datapoint in a vast database.

If your lucky your born to the nobility, to a family who is notoriously long lived. The years pass, and the gluttony of many lifetimes fails to hold together your nearly rotting frame. Papa Nurgle is there for you, and for the low low price of a few servants cooked into delicious stew you can hold on to that mortality. Eventuality things get out of hand and your compound is raided by a Rosette'd Inquisitor and their retinue, your story entertains the Inquisitor's guests and traveling companions for years to come.

Or maybe, you are entirely unlucky born into the lowest depths of the underhive. Never seeing sun, never knowing of the above world you scratch out a living off of rats and what ever half digested effulence pours forth from noxious pipes. At the ripe age of 14 you start to see the lights, and they call you to go above. With rapidly growing intelligence you organize your fellow denizens and begin the task of exploration. Some find paths to the bright places. These places are great and vast, and you become excited. Surely there must be more, if only you can send your people higher. Some do not return, but the ones that do tell of growing splendor and magnificence the higher they go.

In a dream you are shown a special sign, the way to open the top forever. You excitedly reproduce it to all of your people, and instruct them to daub it in all of the secret places of the great hive. Years pass before the last dream unfolds before your sleeping and nearly blind eyes: You are the key! In the first and last ritual you and your fellow underhive mutants will ever perform, you manage to rip a hole in reality using the spire as a great and terrible conduit. Doom is heralded on your planet by the frenzied shouting of ten thousand mutants. As your fellows dash your brains out with rebar on the chosen spot you see the beauty of the open skies, twisting with laughter and color. A half-garbled panic strewn astropathic message is sent out.

Half a sector away a Ordo Hereticus adept is sipping a coffee reviewing the Vermillion level requests for the morning. A persistent warp rift in the Fuerxing system. He quietly recites the cipher codes to dispatch two squads of Grey Knights and mumbles "Fuck Mondays."


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

[User] ELI5: Why do moons on other planets have sweet names while Earth's moon is just...moon?

[Assistant]
The term 'moon' for an orbiting body is derived from the name of our Moon. When we discovered that other objects behaved the same as our moon, the term was simply expanded to those objects.

You'd totally think it's a sweet name, except you're *used* to it being the generic name. But the generic name exists because of it, not the other way around.

Also some people will tell you the official name is Luna or stuff like that. Don't listen to them, that name isn't any more official than The Moon.


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

[User]
[Archer Vice] Why not join Odin?

After ISIS is raided by the CIA, why didnt anyone try to work for Odin instead of becoming a Cartel?

[Assistant]
It might not have been an option. ODIN is fairly discriminating in who they hire; notice how quickly they drop Archer when the burn notice goes out on him. They probably wouldn't want to pick up a group of disgraced agents from an organization with a pretty terrible reputation at this point.

Also, Archer did kind of turn the head of ODIN into a rabbit in a human body. That wouldn't make ODIN very receptive to them either.


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

[User]
[Batman] Does the Joker actually WANT to Win? What'd happen if he did?

 Hi guys;
 I've seen a  couple of things that have got me thinking, the times the Joker doesn't kill Batman, cause it wouldn't be fun, does he WANT to win? Does he have an 'end game plan'?

What'd actually HAPPEN if he did win?

[Assistant] His end game is to make Batman kill him.  Thus proving that everyone's moral code can be "broken".  In order to get Batman to kill him, he gets to do all sorts of messed up things to Gotham.  The Joker won't kill Batman, because that's the only way that Joker can really "lose".


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

[User] ELI5: Why does GPU drivers update, if the GPU is the same? What will that hcange?

[Assistant]
When you write software you use abstract terms.  For a simplified example, you might say something like "Show this model on the screen".  You do this through a graphics library like DirectX or OpenGL, or through some engine that converts it into a language like that.

In the long past, there was no graphics libraries, and there were no drivers from the manufacturers.  The programmers would have to know exactly what commands to send to every card.  Back then there were only a few models of popular video cards so this was something that could be done.  But as there started to be more models of video cards it started to be too hard to do well.  So maybe you need to load the shape of the model into the card in a very different way for one card than another.

Out of this, OpenGL and eventually Direct3d became a thing.  The cards were designed to accept more general terms like "load this model".  The thing is the cards had to have some way of accepting these commands, and sometimes new cards with new features would come out and need to accept new features.  You couldn't rewrite DirectX or OpenGL every time you wanted to use one of these features, and you don't know on the card immediately what's the best way to do something.

So a driver is another translation layer.  The graphics library sends an instruction to the driver.  The driver decides what the best way to convert that instruction into commands to send to the card is.  When you get an updated driver it means that they've either fixed a problem in translation, or made an optimization that translates that better to the card that you have.   When new games come out, sometimes the game uses features in a graphics library in ways that are unexpected and can be optimized by changing how they are translated and given to the card, it's in the card manufacturer's best interest to make sure their cards perform well so they often work with developers to make sure they can get the best performance, sometimes necessitating a new driver version.


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

[User] [DC] How could a human superhero, such as Batman, kick, punch, and hurt criminals without killing them?

[Assistant] DC humans are tougher than real life humans, and they get knocked out more easily. There's a significant difference between hitting them hard enough to knock them out for at least a few minutes and hitting them hard enough to cause permanent injury.


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

[User]
CMV: If school children were treated like adults by teachers, overall behaviour and performance would improve.

I think its counter intuitive to give children freedom at school, because everyones first thought initially goes to taking the reigns off and facilitating chaos.

But I think being respected as an equal is an important part of the learning process for a young person. It helps with encouraging them to discuss their views, improves their confidence in saying wrong answers and their confidence overall as the grow into adults.

Even being given the freedom to go to the bathroom whenever they want, or not have to get a planner signed by a parent, in the long-run helps children respect and enjoy the school system more.

Obviously some control and restrictions are necessary.

[Assistant]
Sure, teachers respecting kids is a good idea.

But to modify your perspective just a bit here:

>CMV: If school children were treated like adults by teachers, overall behaviour and performance would improve.

... consider that teachers have *a lot* of things that they are responsible for that the children are not.

Namely, the teacher is responsible for the learning of *all* the 2 dozen plus students in the class. As such, there are time constraints the teacher is having to work within, as well as processes that they need to follow in order to keep things moving, focused, and with less disruptions to achieve that goal more effectively.

They are also typically having to impart a large volume of set curriculum to the students in that limited amount of time to prepare them for important exams that impact each students' progression.

Meanwhile, the kids are only responsible for themselves, and only thinking primarily of what they themselves want, with less perspective on those "bigger picture" concerns (which they may not even be aware of).

And things like having parents sign the planner is about having parents aware of / involved in their child's education - which is linked to better student outcomes. Students may not like having to get that signature - but it's not about that. It's about ensuring that parents are at least minimally aware of what's going on with their kid, which is beneficial for the kid.

The school itself also often has *a lot* of rules and regulations that the teacher must follow as part of their job.

Respect is all good. But also, consider that the role of the teacher and the goals they have to work toward involve way more than most students realize.


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

[User]
How to see how much Carbon Dioxide is emitted from burning a substance such as wood or ethanol?

I'm going to do an Open Ended Investigation and I can calculate how much CO2 is emitted by using chemical equations and whatnot, but I actually need an experiment for the assessment. So is there an experiment (that can be done at home/school) to see how much CO2 is emitted from burning wood or ethanol?

[Assistant] If you bubble your combustion products through a solution of sodium hydroxide, it will convert the carbon dioxide into sodium carbonate.  If you can carefully remove the solvent and dry the sample, you can calculate how much CO2 was absorbed by weighing.  It won't be easy without specialized equipment, but you might be able to make something work.  It is very dangerous to burn things in a closed container, however, and you should talk with your instructor about how to do this experiment safely.


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

[User] [Star Wars] How did a 14 year old Amadala get elected as leader of a planet?

[Assistant]
The Naboo culture puts high stock in the supposed purity and honesty of children.

Padme was from the noble class and all children of nobles go to schools that focus on diplomatic and government training.

Also all other positions in government are seasoned and experienced civil servants. A young monarch will have tons of advice to help them through decisions.


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

[User]
ELI5: What does it mean when people say that an industry is worth $XXX?

For example when people say that the electric car industry will be worth 1 trillion. Does that mean that  all the goods sold added together are worth that much combined?

[Assistant]
Let's say you are in 4th grade and sell candy bars.

If you have 20 classmates and half of them like candy, your total market is 10 kids.

Now, you sell each bar for $1 and there's 10 potential clients. Your market is $10.

Your friends like candy so much that they buy two bars per day, so $10 x 2 = $20. This is what you are selling daily: $20.

Now, there's about 180 school days per year, so your market is $20 x 180 = $3600. Your local market is worth $3600 yearly.

You have to realize that there are 87.500 elementary schools in the US, and that there are kids selling candy bars in every 4th grade, so. 87.500 x $3600/yr = $315M

$315M is the total market value for the 4th grade candy bar industry.

Now, there are several markets per industry. Here we are assuming that there is only one product in this industry.

Most industries are more complicated, have several competitors and have more products.

Now you can repeat this process for the electric car industry. With some sophisticated analysis you can know how many people are currently willing to buy one, and can forecast the future trends regarding prices and willingness to buy. Like so, you can estimate how much an industry will be worth.


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

[User]
ELI5:Can someone ELI5 the difference between a Will, Trust, and an Estate?

Can someone ELI5 the difference between a Will, Trust, and an Estate?

Edit: Thank you everyone for the explanation!

[Assistant]
A will is a document that describes how an estate should be handled once the holder has died.  It often will talk about how much money his wife and kids get,  who gets the house,  etc.

A trust is a type of account that can only be withdrawn from for specific reasons.   Usually rich people make one for their kids.   So if they go bankrupt and all their money gets taken,  their kids still have a ton because it belongs to them.   The rules vary but usually a kid can withdraw from it to pay for college and put a down payment on a house or start a business,  but the dad can't withdraw from it to buy himself a boat, even though it was his money that went into the account.

An estate is everything someone owns,  but usually this term is used after they died.   They might own houses,  cars,  a business,  and a bunch of cash in the bank.   The estate will be used to settle any outstanding debts to creditors and then enacted according to the will of the deceased.


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

[User] ELI5: What decides the strength of a currency?

[Assistant]
"Strength" and "value" of a currency are two different things, often conflated.  I'll try to pull them apart.

The strength of a currency has more to do with the direction in which the currency's value is going.  If it's going up, and doesn't tend to fluctuate very much, then it's said to be strong.  The exchange rate between the currency and, say, the US dollar could be 1000 to 1, but the currency is strong if last week it was 1050 to 1.

A currency will generally be strong based on three factors.

The first is whether or not the demand for goods from the native country is large.  If US cars start suddenly becoming popular, then demand for the US dollars to buy them will go up - making the US dollar stronger.

The second is whether or not other currencies have become weaker.  If the world is in a recession, but China alone seems to be unaffected, then the yuan will be seen as relatively strong.

The third is a little less straightforward - it's whether or not the currency is "trusty."  People who buy the currency want to know that it will retain its value, that the government in charge of printing that currency will not devalue it, or that the economy is not on the verge of collapsing.  The US dollar is one of the "trustiest" currencies in the world, whereas countries that print too much money lower the value of their funds, basically flooding the currency market.

"Strength" of a currency is basically still just an exercise in supply and demand.


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

[User]
ELI5: How can a cheeseburger from a fast food restaurant cost less than a peach from a grocery store?

The cheeseburger has meat, bread, cheese, pickles, ketchup, mustard and has to be made by a person.

How can this be cheaper than a single piece of fruit (e.g: Peach, Pear, Orange, etc) sold at a grocery store?

[Assistant]
Those fast food restaurants buy ingredients in such huge bulk that they pay very low prices. Also much of that food is highly processed and as a result it keeps for a long time.

Much of the produce that grocery stores buy doesn't get purchased before it goes bad and has to be thrown out. And so the cost of all of that gets wrapped up into the price of the produce that people do actually buy.


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

[User] ELI5: Why has the video quality of Skype and similar applications remained relatively poor even though residential internet speeds have increased exponentially in the last 15 years?

[Assistant]
Short answer: Skype uses real-time unbuffered (mostly) 2-way video without a content delivery network.

When your computer receives anything from the internet it is divided into lots of pieces. At any point these pieces can be lost or delayed and your computer has to request them again. Even on a good day many pieces of data will be lost because of all the complicated things that happen along the way.

If you're watching buffered video, like Netflix, these lost pieces of video don't matter so much - your computer has time to re-request them and stay on top of things. Usually it can even catch up for lost time during moments of good connectivity or low bandwidth video. Skype is different - there's no use in showing you a bit of your sisters face that arrived 5 seconds late, it's either now or never. So what Skype does is ignore missing pieces and try to make the best of what data it has. This will mean some lower quality video.

Then there's the content delivery network. Sites like YouTube and Netflix realise that many people are watching the same videos. To make things faster they distribute these videos on servers around the world in advance. This means you get the data faster and therefore there can be more of it - meaning higher quality. Skype can't do this because.. it's being recorded as you speak.

Finally there's the fact that Skype is mostly 2-way. Not only are you watching a video, you are also sending your own video. Technically this shouldn't make a difference because your internet connection separates incoming and outgoing traffic. In reality it's more complex and your computer is more likely to struggle, it has to 'encode' video - in real-time, and deal with extra network traffic. On top of this, your internet connection is usually slower at uploading than downloading. That 50 megabit connection you were sold is _probably_ only a 50 megabit _download_ speed.


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

[User] ELI5: Why can one of your nostrils be completely blocked up then when you turn onto your side, opposite to that of the blocked nostril, it almost instantly clears up?

[Assistant]
Congestion in your nose is primarily caused by the filling up of tissues (turbinates) in your nostrils with blood. They are similar to erectile tissue.

The nostril that is on the bottom has higher blood pressure and therefore is more likely to fill up.

You will notice that if you stand up they will both clear up more because the blood drains out of your head more toward your feet.


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

[User] is race a social construct?

[Assistant]
There are two common issues that come up in discussion on this. The first is that people think social constructs are simple fictions. They are not. Social constructs are complex ideas that are created by people. Money is a social construct, for example.

The second is the idea that social constructs are unrelated to the physical world. Money has a physical reality, of course. Race often corresponds to certain physiological characteristics. What makes it a social construct is the way those characteristics are derived from ideas of nations and continents, and could instead be related to social class, geographical region rather than nation, or any number of foundations for dividing humanity.

So, race is a social construct, but social constructs are real, and social constructs have physical aspects.