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

[User]
CMV: You should pirate a book if you can't afford it.

I'm a bit undecided on this topic. I thought I'd bring it up here and see what you guys think.

I think the author deserves pay for their work. Writing a novel is no joke, and takes a lot of hard work. It's difficult to recognize how much work goes into it, until you've tried to do it.  I think the author deserves compensation for their work.

Now into reasons I think pirating is okay.

Pirating a book doesn't mean someone else can't purchase it. You're not hurting somebody, like stealing a book from a bookstore would.

I think that if you have the decision of pirating a book, or never reading it, pirating it will always result in the most net good. If you really enjoy the book, you can buy it in the future to support the author, that is always a possibility.

What if everyone starts to pirate books? The author doesn't get paid for their hard work, and won't be as economically inclined/ economically able to write more novels, or that's at least the argument. But there are cases of restaurants where you can choose to pay and they function just as well, maybe even earning more than they would have. There are plenty of free web novels that make money through donations. Sure some people won't pay, but some people are going to pay more than they would have. It's a feasible method, and I don't think we'll ever get to the point where there won't be people that want their own copy.

If it's okay to pirate a novel, is it okay then to pirate a game or a movie or a song? If you can't pay, yes. If you're a child, yes. I think it's practical to put a pricetag on art, but I also don't want to stop somebody from experiencing it, especially when it doesn't come to the cost of somebody else.

[Assistant]
>I think that if you have the decision of pirating a book, or never reading it, pirating it will always result in the most net good.

There are more than two choices.

What's preventing you from signing the book out of your local library?


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

[User] [Harry Potter] Why do Wizards celebrate Christmas? Is it more of a winter solstice type thing? Was there a Jesus in universe? Was he a wizard?

[Assistant]
There was a Jesus in-universe, because a wizard gravestone in Godric's Hollow directly quotes Him: "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." Harry's parents' gravestone also quotes Scripture: "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." Doesn't sound like a winter solstice type thing to me.

We don't know if Jesus was a wizard, and it's unlikely in the extreme we ever will. Even if He was, that alone wouldn't grant the power to raise the dead.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are some industrial chimneys so high, like what's the difference if it's 150 or 300 meters?

[Assistant] The chimney is there to generate draft. As hot air rises up through the chimney it will leave a void behind where fresh air is pushed into. The taller the chimney the more hot air is contained within it and the more draft it creates. So having a tall chimney means there will be a lot more draft which may be needed for bigger furnaces.


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

[User]
ELI5 Guns In Space?

If you fired a gun in space, would the gunpowder ignite, given the fact that you'd be in a vaccuum. And would the bullet just travel forever assuming it didnt hit anything or get sucked into any orbit.
(Also, do they actually have guns in space, like on the ISS for example?)

[Assistant]
>  would the gunpowder ignite, given the fact that you'd be in a vaccuum

Yes, the gunpowder contains its own oxidizer within the chemical structure of the powder, and the cartridge itself is crimped airtight. On Earth this prevents water intruding into the cartridge and wetting the gunpowder, but it also means that ambient air can have no impact on its combustion.

> And would the bullet just travel forever assuming it didnt hit anything or get sucked into any orbit.

Yes.

> Also, do they actually have guns in space, like on the ISS for example?

No, they generally aren't supposed to on cooperative projects like the ISS. Russian missions have carried pistols at other times though, as their capsules would be landing in some frozen wilderness of Russia and predators like wolves might be an issue before they could be recovered.


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

[User]
What parts of the human body can't feel pain?

I know the brain has no feeling, but what about other organs?

[Assistant]
This is an interesting concept because in sensory biology we sometimes use the term 'nociception' rather than pain. Nociception is the detection of painful or noxious or potentially noxious stimuli. The reason for this is obvious when you consider that if you are anesthetized with a general anesthetic you can't feel the surgeons knife cut you open (no pain) but the sensory nerves are still being activated. So the nociceptive sensory nerves are linked with the pain sensation but they aren't necessarily 'pain-fibers'.

This being the case we find that a number of organs in the mammalian body are densely innervated by nociceptive sensory nerves but, when activated, produce sensations other than classical pain. For example capsaicin (chili powder) activates almost all nociceptive sensory nerves through the selective activation of the ion channel TRPV1. So if you rub it in your eye, it REALLY hurts. However if you inhale capsaicin it doesn't 'hurt' in your lungs. It does give you a huge 'urge to cough' and you'll probably cough. So in this way the lungs are an example of 'nocicefensive' behavior but not pain.


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

[User]
ELI5: Chaos Theory

Hello,
Can someone please explain how chaos theory works, where it's applied outside of maths?  Time travel?

How does it link in with the butterfly effect?

[Assistant]
Chaos theory is essentially just the idea that *very* small changes in the initial conditions can lead to large differences in outcome, especially in the long run.

The Butterfly Effect is just one example of chaos theory, in which it is supposed that the butterfly beating its wings at the right moment could be enough of a change in initial conditions to tip the balance in favour of a hurricane forming on the other side of the world.

What chaos theory *isn't* about is randomness.  Chaotic systems can be completely 100% deterministic, but the problem is our ability to know the exact starting conditions, and thus we can't make accurate predictions.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Would a child be able to use the killing curse successfully if they really meant to kill the target?

We know that the 3 unforgivable curses can only be successful if you utterly want to achieve what they are intended for (killing, causing pain, dominating somebody's will).

CrouchJr.-Moody tells his class that they could use Avada Kedavra on him and it would barely harm him, if at all. He also says there needs to be "a powerful bit of magic behind it", but it seems like even the least skilled of Voldemort's followers can use it.

After Bellatrix kills Sirius, she can only laugh about Harry's Crucio attempts. I can't say if the Killing Curse might have worked in that moment, because Harry surely would have wanted her dead.

My question is: If a wizarding child, like 11-13 years old, that saw a loved one murdered and knew the incantation Avada Kedavra and its effects, would they be able to kill the murderer by willingly using the Killing Curse?

[Assistant]
It's theoretically possible, but unlikely. Putting aside the magical power which could be inherited and the skill which could be practiced, we come to a problem of "really meaning it".

The thing is, almost no 11 year old has an advanced enough conception of death and killing to mean it even if they want to. They have volition but lack understanding, real understanding of the magnitude of taking and destroying another life, not for a perceived injustice, not for a practical purpose, but just because you had the bloody-minded will to want to kill them.

Harry's failed crucio shows it is not as easy as hate. You have to be free of any good intent.


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

[User]
Is it possible to still manufacture "low-background" steel as used for science?

from the TIL today. I know that steel manufactured before 1940 is especially rare and expensive due to contamination from the atomic testing.
but some day that may/will run out could an alternative still be manufactured ?

[Assistant] Yes but its an expensive and complex process. Most low background steel it taken from pre-nuclear age, submerged shipwrecks. IIRC quite a lot of l-b steel used by nasa for a lot of their equipment came from the sunken German ww1 battlefleet that was captured and interred at scapa-flow in Scotland.


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

[User] ELI5: Why prices are increasing but never decreasing? for example: food prices, living expenses etc.

[Assistant]
The economy is manipulated to always have some level of inflation. The opposite, deflation, is very dangerous and the government will do anything to avoid it.

Imagine wanting to buy new sofa that costs 1,000. Next month it will be 900. Month after it will be 700. Would you buy it now? Or would you wait and save 300 bucks?

Deflation causes the economy to come to a screetching halt because people dont want to spend more than they need to, so they decide to save their money instead.

Because of this, a small level of inflation is the healthiest spot for the economy to be in. Somewhere around 2% is generally considered healthy. This way people have a reason to buy things now instead of wait, but they also wont struggle to keep up with rising prices.

Edit: to add that this principle mostly applies to corporations and the wealthy wanting to invest capital, i just used an average joe as it is an ELI5. While it would have massive impacts on consumer spending as well, all the people telling me they need a sofa now are missing the point.


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

[User] ELI5: What is the purpose of labels in the music industry and why do they hold so much power as well making more money than the artists signed?

[Assistant]
Labels do all the legwork to get music out to consumers:

* They scout new talent.

* They link promising musicians up with songwriters and producers.

* They provide cash advances so new artists can afford to book studio time.

* They negotiate distribution deals to get music on the radio and into (real/digital) stores.

Labels are essentially the bridge between you playing local clubs and having a cool mixtape and you becoming a nationally known artist.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do some martial artists yell in movies and at demonstrations?

I feel rather stupid but I just don't get it.

Are they doing it just because it is/has become a stereotype in in film, or does it have any practical uses at all?

[Assistant]
There are many reasons. Exhaling tightens the diaphragm and tenses the body, making strikes more powerful and protects the body from counterstrikes. This is why UFC fighters always make that "tsss" sound whenever they throw a strike.

I am also fairly sure that yelling has to do with rituals used by martial artists to "summon chi" to certain areas of their body. It gets adrenaline pumping and (arguably) enhances performance.


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

[User]
ELI5: why do large ships have their anchors in the bow and not the stern or either port or starboard sides?

I went to the USS Midway today, and my dad swore the whole time that the anchors were located in the stern, but once we got off I pointed out how they were in the bow. We racked our brains for about a half hour but couldn't really figure out why that was.

[Assistant]
The anchor acts as a pivot point when it's down, so the wind and currents will tend to push the boat "downwind" of the anchor.

You generally want to have water flowing front-to-back on a boat, not back-to-front.  They're typically not designed to take a lot of wave action from the stern.


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

[User] ELI5: If electricity from natural gas power plants cant be stored, how do they know how much electricity to produce per day and where does the wasted electricity go to?

[Assistant]
Lots of ways of making electricity have different benefits - nuclear is cheap but not very responsive if you need to increase or reduce supply, hydroelectric is expensive but very responsive, everything else is in between.

Power companies work HARD with big users in industry to manage the supply - for instance historically in the UK there are three 30' slots per year where domestic demand is so high that industry (eg foundries) can save a lot of money by keeping powered off during that slot (they pay variable pricing for power, btw).

What the grid needs is to know demand and be able to level it best possible.  To do that, the spare electricity from cheap nuclear overnight is used to pump the hydro plants water back uphill, or if there's a surge in demand (kettles going on at half-time in the football), the hydro plant can be brought online at almost no notice to cover a surge.  Gas plants take a littler longer to adjust, maybe a minute or so, so they can be brought up to cover the increased demand after the hydro has covered a gap at a price somewhere between the two.


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

[User]
When a chemical reaction is slower than another, what actually takes more time to happen?

In other words, is it just the moving of atoms to different places taking longer or is it something else? I know reactions require the molecules involved to hit each other with the correct orientation and amount of energy, so is that just less likely in slower reactions and it takes longer for that event to happen?

[Assistant]
Yup. You said it yourself:

>I know reactions require the molecules involved to **hit each other** with the **correct orientation** and **amount of energy**

So a slow reaction is one where:

1. the concentration of reactant molecules is low, so the probability of a collision is low.
2. The correct orientation required is extremely unlikely, so while they may hit each other the probability of hitting at the *correct* angle is low.
3. The minimum amount of energy required is high, so the fraction of molecules that could react is very small.

For a successful reaction all 3 criteria must be met simultaneously. They can hit at the right spot, but unless they also have enough energy it's ineffective. They can hit hard enough, but unless it's at the right spot then its still ineffective. Chemical reaction kinetics is all about statistics, so a slow reaction just has low probabilities of one or more of those criteria.


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

[User] Will a Tesla eventually not hold its charge as long?

[Assistant] Yes as batteries wear out from recharging the amount of time they can produce current will get shorter, just like your laptop.   How long the batteries will last is a question with a lot of variables, heat, how the person recharges and discharges it will change that number.


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

[User] [Top Gear] Who/what on earth is The Stig?

[Assistant]
Some say that he's a rare albino specimen of a secret domesticated branch of the genus *Homo*, that has been secretly bred for speed at the cost of intellect since shortly after the wheel was invented. Others say that modern racing suits are designed to mimic that species' chitinous heads and leathery hides.

All we know for sure is that he's called the Stig.


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

[User] [Blade Runner] What we're the attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion attacking?

[Assistant] I think that whole soliloquy was meant as just an imaginative way of showing how Batty and the replicants experience events with the same awe that humans do. So it doesn't necessarily matter what they were shooting at, what matters is that he experienced them just as a human experiences events, yet ultimately memories that seemed to have such significance will be lost so easily forever when he "dies".


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

[User]
CMV: Governments around the world should demand Russia withdraw from Ukraine or else pass laws that commit to economic sanctions on Russia for twenty years.

Economic sanctions take time to take effect. Although, Ukrainians are putting up a valiant fight, not many believe they will hold out in the long run, even with sanctions. Putin might believe that if or when he takes Ukraine, that the rest of the world will say oh well and lift sanctions. By committing the sanctions to law for twenty years if troops are not withdrawn, it increases the perceived cost for Putin to keep invading. What's more, I think countries should coordinate the deadline, say March 9th, so as to create additional pressure.

[Assistant] They are saving some stuff for later. If you use everything now then there is nothing to deter Putin. If they are set for 20 years, then even if Putin is removed they will still be in effect. Need to make sanctions temporary to encourage removal of Putin.


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

[User]
How to request for a pay rise?

I am a TT faculty in STEM at an R2 school in the US. I just learned a colleague who was hired a year later than me, and with less top papers and overall experience than me, is making $20K more per year. I cant blame him for successfully negotiating his salary up, something I have long suspected I failed to do big time when I was hired. I wonder if it would be feasible to ask for a pay rise, given the fact I have got two top papers and two NSF grants as a PI in the last two years. The simplest solution would be to test the job market once it opens in October, but my family really likes the area and the fact it is close to home.

[Assistant] I think it is.  Lay out the numbers for your admin and let them know how much you bring in total to the University and how much in indirect costs you bring in.  If writing grants is not required for your position, let them know you are done writing grants until your salary is rectified.


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

[User]
[Marvel] Why doesn't the US military mass produce super soldiers like Captain America?

Don't they still have the recipe for the serum?

[Assistant]
Nope. The secret to the Serum was lost when Dr Erskine was murdered.

Various attempts to re-create the process were made over the years, with varying levels of effectiveness, but none were truly successful.


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

[User] ELI5: Can you explain how online data works and why the corporations want it?

[Assistant]
Personal data is anything having to do with you or your interests. What colors you like, what you eat, where you work, how you look, etc etc etc.

Corporations use this data to automatically target ads, which lets them stop using money on ads which dont have any chance of success.

The downside is with all that personal information, they or hackers who get access could work out things in your life and blackmail you.


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

[User] ELI5 How did "Curse Words" come to exist.

[Assistant]
Humans have been swearing for almost as long as we've been able to talk. We don't entirely know, but the theory is that we needed words to describe potentially sensitive or gross things, and that people started associating those words with sensitive or gross ideas, and, eventually, they came to be used to refer to other people in a hurtful or gross way.

A perfect example of this is the word "shit", which comes from the Old English word "scitte", and the German word "scheissen", which means "to have diarrhea". The Oxford English Dictionary notes that the word was originally just used to describe diarrhea, and was perfectly neutral. It's a really recent thing to have that particular word be used in an offensive way.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is Carbon Dioxide (CO2) not poisonous, but Carbon Monoxide (CO) is?

[Assistant]
Both of them *displace* oxygen -- which is not good.

But additionally, Carbon Monoxide can take the place of oxygen in your blood.  Hemoglobin will link to it instead of oxygen, leaving that hemoglobin unable to play its role of delivering oxygen to your body.


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

[User]
[Marvel/DC] Who's more swole, Thanos or Darkseid?

I'm serious here. I feel like Dark Sides much more swole but it could be just my eyes tricking me on Thanos with his full body suit.

[Assistant]
Darkeid's swole-ness is purely cosmetic.

His body is a meat suit for what Darkseid, "The literal god" is.

Thanos is more swole because his "swole-ness" actually means something.

Darkseid could literally look like a teenage, lanky wimpy version of himself and still punt a planet.


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

[User] [MCU] Could Skrull turn into a man with jacket, take it off and repeat it hundred times?

[Assistant] I think they could several times at least but their molecules would be stretched too thin eventually and the morphing ability would fail somehow like how muscles get strained when holding something heavy for a long time. Or maybe they can't take their clothes off since they're not really clothes. Good question.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do we have the instinct to grab or cover a painful wound immediately after recieving it, but shy away from another person touching it?

[Assistant]
Well, because of a couple reasons.

First, we grab our wounds to apply pressure, to attempt to nullify the pain and/or blood. We also do it because we are in shock, and most people try to hide it from themselves (to cope with the situation/anxiety).

The reason we don't want others touching it, is because we don't want people touching the wound, because of the fear of them making the wound worse or more painful, or get it dirty for example.


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

[User] [Halo] Do the Halo rings kill the Flood too, or just their food? Halo 3 kind of contradicts this?

[Assistant] The Halo array destroys anything with sufficient neural pathways, which does include advanced Flood forms.  What it doesn't destroy are the Flood Spores, which is why basically everything has to be toasted, or else the spores run the risk of kicking everything off all over again.


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

[User] ELI5:How old is the water in the oceans? My aunt asked me this question and it sparked quite a debate. How do we know the age of water? If the water on Earth came here by way of an asteroid or whatever then is it even possible to know the age of the water here on Earth.

[Assistant] Water is rarely created on Earth.  It's also rarely destroyed on Earth. The same water molecules cycle from being in the ocean to being in the atmosphere to falling as precipitation to flowing back to the ocean.    That process doesn't describe age.  It describes someone who moves homes alot.


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

[User]
Would it be feasible to shoot trash and radioactive waste into the sun or into space? What would the pros and cons be?

I was just thinking about it and i cant seem to make negative sides to it, and it seems like a good way to rid ourselves of radioactive waste more easily than to store it in mountains.

[Assistant]
Because first of all, to quote a classic, **rockets explode**.

You sure you want to put radioactive waste on a thing that has a small chance of blowing up really bad?

Also, getting stuff into orbit still costs a lot.

Oh, and by the way: crashing into the Sun takes a lot of energy! When you leave Earth you still are in a ~ 30 km/s orbit around the Sun. To reach the Sun, you need to overcome that.


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

[User]
[Mass Effect] Can the Asari really reproduce with any species?

According to the wiki and game they can, and it makes sense with humans and taurains and krogan and so forth. But *any* species?

A cow? A fruit fly? A tree? Could an Asari get pregnant from all of those?

Or is there a more reasonable cut-off point that stops the Asari banging the rosebushes?

[Assistant]
Asari technically reproduce asexually. That's to say that there's no genetic donation from the other partner.

During sex, they establish a telepathic link and use that as a kind of neural template to join to their own and imprint that template on the foetus that they more or less decide to grow.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does a gunshot to the head cause immediate death?

This sounds very obvious, I know. I assume it doesnt immediately stop the heart, and people can still survive even while being brain dead. So what exactly happens in the body to cause immediate death once a bullet enters the brain?

[Assistant]
The bullet will have multiple effects.

The first will be a high pressure wave. Water, what you are primarily made of, does not compress. So the force of the impact will cause powerful waves of force inside the skull. These force waves will shred neural connections.

Then you have the physical damage of the projectile passing through the brain tissue. It is probable the bullet (or bullet fragments) will be tumbling - shredding tissue as it passes.

Then you have the exit. The pressure wave will open a hole at the exit many times larger than the entry wound. Out of this hole will be thrown large quantities of destroyed brain tissue.

Your consciousness most likely ended at the moment the pressure wave scrambled your brain. Since you have no awareness after that point it really doesn't matter when your heart stops or other tissues die. You effectively no longer exist.


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

[User] [Interstellar] Donald says that this is the last harvest for okra, ever. What made him say that?

[Assistant]
Im going on memory here, so bear with me if some of the finer details are fuzzy or turn out to be wrong (somebody will probably correct me if so).

The blight that was destroying crops across the planet seemed to have a disproportionate effect on different crops. Most farmers were growing corn, as it was apparently a safe crop. Okra was too until recently. The blight was evidently changing over time, so it had begun to affect okra, and its later revealed that corn will eventually be affected by it too, hence NASAs urgency in solving gravity and/or colonizing a new planet.


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

[User]
[Terminator1/2] If the time machine can only send back living things, and the T-800 could only go back because he was surrounded by tissue, how did the T-1000 get sent back?

The T-1000 was liquid metal, there was no flesh involved in his construction. What gives?

[Assistant]
Apart from stuffing the terminator in meat, something which might have just also been done with weapons. Maybe going so far as just wrapping bacon around some drones capable of flight, or sending bacon wrapped nukes. Well, bacon or complete human corpses.

Why can the machine only sent meat packaged material?


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

[User] ELI5: What are NFT's?

[Assistant] It is essentially buying a certificate of authenticity for a thing, usually a piece of digital media. But it doesnt actually get you The Thing as anyone can also save and have the thing. Youre the only one who has that certificate (not actually a certificate) but since everyone can still copy The Thing itself and have it at the same level of quality its pretty useless. Manufactured exclusivity.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do things happen in slow motion during something like a car crash?

[Assistant] Because when your body recognizes you're in an emergency, it pumps adrenaline. This adrenaline will bypass several parts of your brain required for critical thinking. You don't need to do math when there's a massive object heading your way. Because these parts are bypassed, your overall perception of time is slowed, as you have more brainpower looking at your surroundings, finding a way to either run or fight.


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

[User]
Is it ethical to feel happy and not to care about horrible injustices in the world if you cant change them?

There are horrible things going on in the world varying from concentration camps in China, genocides, wars, long-standing occupations (eg Cyprus).

A pragmatic or stoic approach might advise that if you cant undo an injustice or put a stop to peoples suffering theres no point caring about it/ allowing it to bother you  and you should just go about living a happy life as if it wasnt happening.

However, doing so with  full knowledge that
		 Victims are suffering
		 Perpetrators are getting away with it
	  seems somehow selfish and unethical.

Can you really have a party if you know you neighbour is beating his wife and kids? (Assuming you cant stop him/intervene).

Note: I anticipate that people will try convince me that you can change things. I am not denying that you can change some things, but there are also things I think you cannot. For the purposes of this discussion please pressupose that you cannot effect the injustice.

Edit: There will be things you cannot change and things you can. Even among the many things you can change, you have to  pick a small selection to focus on- rendering the others, in practical terms, beyond your control.

Thanks for your help!

[Assistant]
If you genuinely can't change something, then it arguably doesn't make sense for it to affect your happiness. For example, many think that our mortality shouldn't make us unhappy (if we are thinking clearly, at least), because it lies beyond our control.

However, although individual action is not going to be enough to get rid of the gulags in China, collective action might. (Contrast this with the case of mortality.) So there *is* something you can do - i.e., participate in collective action. Of course, there are questions even still about what our obligations here are.


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

[User]
Did Michel Foucault, Simone De Beauvoir, Jean Paul Sartre or any of the prominent philosophers that signed the age of consent petition of the 1970s had relationships with minors?

I always see this topic brought again and again every time someone talks about existentialist philosophy or poststructuralist philosophy, but every time I try to investigate a little bit more about it, I always find that it comes from a conservative source or critics of those philosophers (I.e. Guy Sorman, or The Spectator )
Maybe its because I dont know enough French to find any original source, but it always seems to me like its just a rumor made entirely to disprove the works of existentialist philosophers and post-structuralist philosophers (French philosophy of the XX century).
So is there really something? Or is it entirely just a rumor?
Also if there was a relation, does it really matter at this point? Does it invalidate their whole body of work?

[Assistant]
Beauvoir was in relationships with Bianca Lamblin and Natalie Sorokin when they were 16/17 (age of consent was 15) and she was both their teacher and in her 30s. Sartre also had relationships with them a little later.

>Does it invalidate their whole body of work?

It doesn't seem clear why it would.


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

[User] ELI5: When the black loading screen of a video-game is happening, what is actually going on 'behind it'?

[Assistant]
When you want to paint a picture you need all sorts of things. You need clean brushes, the right paints for the job and new clean pieces of paper.

While the game is loading. It's clearing away anything it doesn't need and getting the graphics card ready to draw a new picture. It's cleaning off your paint brushes. It's also getting you a new clean section if memory to remember everything you're about to do. So clearing off the desk of old stuff and pulling out a new piece of paper.

It's loading in the things you need from storage like a harddrive and putting it somewhere quick and convenient to access from like RAM. So pulling out your paints and pencils and reference sketches from a drawer and moving them to your desk.


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

[User] How did scientist come up with and prove carbon dating?

[Assistant]
So, as you may know, the number of protons in an atom determines what kind of element it is. In it's stable form, carbon has 6 protons and 6 neutrons, and is otherwise known as carbon 12. Nitrogen, the next element on the periodic table, is most stable with 7 protons and 7 neutrons, aka nitrogen 14.

Sunlight in our atmosphere causes atomic particles, like neutrons, to be blasted around (I can explain this more if you'd like). When normal Nitrogen 14 in the atmosphere comes into contact with a free flying neutron, it causes that nitrogen atom to gain the neutron, but also to immediately lose a proton. Since the atom now has 6 protons, it is officially carbon, but since it also has 8 neutrons, it is an unstable (and radioactive) form of carbon, Carbon 14. Carbon 14 behaves just like regular carbon, but since it is radioactive, it slowly decays into stable Carbon 13. This decay can be detected using a Geiger counter and its relative abundance can be quite easily measured.

Carbon 14 is generated in the atmosphere at a very constant rate, making it's concentration both in the air and inside every LIVING thing quite predictable (about 1 per trillion carbon atoms). However, when organisms die, they stop recycling carbon, so they no longer collect new Carbon 14. The Carbon 14 that they do have slowly decays, so the organism's concentration of the radioactive isotope is also slowly depleted.

Depending on when an organism lived (whether it's a tree 50,000 years ago or a squirrel 30 years ago) it will have some amount of Carbon 14 remaining. As such, the ratio of carbon 14 to stable carbon atoms can give us a very accurate measure of how long ago this organism stopped taking in new carbon (died). This is the basis of carbon dating.

TL;DR - carbon 14, a radioactive isotope of carbon, is generated at a constant rate in our atmosphere. Its concentration in the atmosphere is mirrored in all living organisms. When an organism dies, it's concentration of c14 slowly depletes. Depending on the ratio of remaining radioactive carbon to stable carbon, we can quite accurately estimate how long ago the organism lived.


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

[User]
[WWE] What actually is The Undertaker's origin story?

So to my knowledge Kane is his brother/half brother, and they had parents because Kane exhumed their remains and choke slammed Taker into their mother's coffin. Undertaker presumably had a somewhat ordinary upbringing being raised by their presumptive parents up until the fire that killed them and scarred Kane, that Undertaker supposedly started.

But like, where do the otherworldly powers come into this? How did he become a sorta kinda zombie man? And why did he briefly out aside all that to become a biker?

What is this dudes deal?

[Assistant] There's an official kayfabe biography that was written before Kane that said he was the kid of funeral home owners and that he had a mostly normal childhood until his parents died in a car wreck. After Kane the timeline gets weird because then we get the fire. Then there's Satan Taker that had to sacrifice someone to gain the lightening powers. He becomes a biker just because he could. Finally his brother tried to kill him again and he becomes Death. Then Brock Lesnar beats him because he got old.


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

[User] ELI5: What is this change on instagram? All the large accounts I follow are asking me to sign up for push notifications, claiming there is a new "Instagram Algorithm"?

[Assistant] Apparently they changed the feed system to be more like Facebook - you won't see all photos from all followers in chronological order. They will now come up based on who you "like" the most, comment on the most, etc. If you get notifications from people, you will get a pop up every time they post a pic, so you won't miss it.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are there four pulmonary veins leading back to the heart from the lungs, but only two pulmonary arteries leading out of the heart?

[Assistant]
Because the pulmonary veins are a lower pressure system, they need a larger collective diameter to allow for reasonable flow and filling of the left atrium within a reasonable time.

There are only two pulmonary arteries because the right ventricle can push blood at a higher pressure and adequately perfuse the lung.


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

[User] [Star Trek] If holograms are capable of perfectly imitating human social interaction, why is Data so bad at it? And why can't they make androids using the same computer technology that drives hologram AI?

[Assistant] you answered it yourself. Holograms -imitate- social interaction. a hologram will tell you that it loves you but actually feel nothing. Data wants to achieve human emotion, not to pretend he has them.


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

[User]
[Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs] could Spray-on Shoes possibly be removed or damaged?

If not than they have some serious potential for military applications, especially considering a child on a tiny island made them by himself.

[Assistant]
all matter can be separated physically. No bond in this universe is indestructable. However its been shown to be more resilient than anything thrown at it thus far, meaning it does have very serious military potential.

It could probably be neutralized by a spray made of components that would separate its core ingredients. The scientist who made it just isn't very smart sometimes.


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

[User] Electrical Muscle Stimulation (EMS) prevents muscle atrophy by causing muscles to contract. Why aren't we using this in hospitals and homes if immobility is such a problem for the older generation, disabled, or bedridden?

[Assistant]
Cost-Benefit: you'd need a trained physiotherapist to properly attach the electrodes (pads) and to monitor the patient for any adverse reaction.  Some folks couldn't withstand even the minor effort at exercise.  You would have to continue the therapy indefinitely in the case of someone with a spinal injury in order to maintain any muscle gains; as soon as you stop, the muscles will atrophy again.  Actor Christopher Reeve did use EMS for some time after his injury to maintain his physique, but gave it up after awhile.  Again, cost/benefit.

Atrophied muscles in the extremities don't seem to be related to major health issues.  Stephen Hawking lived into his 70s despite being immobile for much of his life.

Bigger issues are bedsores and UTIs or infections from contact with bodily waste.  In most facilities, managing these take up much of a caregiver's time.  Reeve had recurring issues with bedsores, and his death was due in part to a reaction to the antibiotics being used to keep the infection in check.


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

[User] eli5 how do stop lights know when you are there and when to change?

[Assistant]
Many are just dumb lights and dont know. They are on a timer  sometimes a timer that has a different schedule for light changes at different times during the day.

Some of them do have a sensor, though. They bury wire coils in the pavement that can sense when a chunk of metal is over them. The metal in the car affects the magnetic field surrounding the sensors in the pavement, signaling that a cars there (any big chunk of steel will do). That information is sent to a small computer in a box nearby that controls the light timing so that it knows to speed up the change because a cars waiting (and, at certain times, this can be turned off and it will just use a timer and ignore the sensors).


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

[User]
Why are all man-made elements radioactive?

I noticed looking at a periodic table of elements that all man-made elements are radioactive, why is that?

[Assistant] Because if they were not radioactive, ie, if they were *stable* elements, we'd find them in nature on Earth. The reason that those elements can not be found naturally on Earth is *because* they are unstable when they are produced. In supernova, those elements are created, but they quickly decay, so you won't find them on this 4 billion year old lump of recycled star bits (called Earth).


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

[User]
ELI5: How do bones grow?

Tonight my son (3 1/2) was playing with his 9m old sister and noticed that his arms were longer. He asked why and I said he was older and had grown more. Then, because I apparently didn't feel dumb and caught off-gaurd enough in his eyes he said, "How do my bones grow?" I told him I didn't know, would ask some very nice internet people, and get back to him.

And before the 8 million "bone" jokes roll in, I'll be enjoying those myself.

Thanks in advance!

[Assistant] Your bones start off soft when you're a baby and grow stronger and longer as you get older. There are parts of your bones that stay soft a little longer (growth plates), and thats where the new bone comes in, and when it closes all the soft parts, you stop growing!


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

[User] ELI5: How do your white blood cells know what's safe and how do they "learn" a disease to make you immune to it from then on by "recognizing" it?

[Assistant]
The immune system is really complicated, so this is going to be a case where ELI5 is aiming for "true enough".

At the molecular level, cell membranes aren't smooth and featureless.  They have inlets and outlets, and various proteins attached to them.  The combination of these proteins can identify what species the cell is - kind of like a uniform identifying what army a soldier is a part of.   This is related to blood types by the way - there's different versions of the "Human" uniform, and your immune system will recognize other versions as foreign cells.

Your immune system recognizes a uniform with its own proteins that float through your blood and lymph system.  Those proteins have ends like puzzle pieces, that only stick on to one particular protein that's not part of your body's uniform.  The white blood cells can detect the other end of those proteins, and treat it as a big sign saying "eat that thing".

Those proteins are produced in several glands throughout your body.  The glands contain some cells that are rapidly mutating, coming up with new versions of those proteins.  Your body is able to recognize when one of those cells comes up with a protein that identifies something new, and allows that cell to reproduce.  Now that your body can identify the infection, you can fight it off, and in the future, if you contract it again your white blood cells will be able to find and eat it immediately.


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

[User] ELI5: What is a Three Body Problem?

[Assistant]
There are some problems in physics where you can come up with an exact solution or an equation that gives you a whole set of solutions.  For example, if you are driving at a constant speed then the distance you have traveled after a given time is distance = speed \* time.  Similarly, if you drop a ball from a given height and can ignore air resistance then the position of the ball at a given time is height = initial height - 1/2 \* g \* time^(2) (where g is the acceleration due to gravity)

Other problems have no such solution available.  For example, if we weren't allowed to ignore air resistance on the falling ball then there's no nice equation that tells us where the ball is at every instant.  You can still calculate it, but you have use an iterative approach--if you know where the ball is at time T then you can compute where it'll be a short while later and be pretty accurate.  By using sufficiently short time steps you can get as accurate of an answer as you'd like, but there's no simple formula.

In orbital mechanics the "two body problem" is where you have just two things in a hypothetical universe, one orbiting the other (or really both orbiting their mutual center of mass, but often we choose one object to be so massive that it barely moves; often this is a planet and moon, a star and planet, a planet and satellite, etc).  The two body problem does have a number of nice equations to describe where you'll find each of the objects at any given time, starting from some given starting conditions.  An astronomer by the name of Johannes Kepler worked that out from observations, then later Newton came along and formulated how gravity works well enough to prove Kepler's work mathematically.  Similar to how you can ignore air resistance on a ball and wind up with an accurate enough result most of the time, in orbital mechanics you can ignore all other celestial bodies except the one you're looking at and the biggest thing it's orbiting and usually get a pretty good solution.  Sometimes, however, you do have to consider all of the forces on an object. For that we turn to the three body problem.

The three body problem is similar to the two body problem, but instead of a hypothetical universe with just 2 objects we now have 3 (and could continue on to 4, 5, etc, all the way up to the real universe with an enormous number of objects).  Unlike the 2 body problem there is not a nice equation that will tell you where to find any given object at any given time, but similar to our ball with air resistance we can take an iterative approach, simulating paths with shorter and shorter time steps to get more and more accurate results.

Note that the phrase "three body problem" is sometimes lifted from its physics application to describe social situations where the addition of a third person makes the social situation similarly difficult to solve, whether that's a couple plus a single friend who gets in the way of couples activities or a trio of people where one has feelings for both of the other two.


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

[User]
Starting today, and continuing every day for an infinite number of days, I will add one kilogram of iron to a large heap of iron. Will my heap eventually collapse into a black hole? Or is the shock of the supernova also needed?

(Rephrased and reposted because a previous version, starting with "If I heaped", was taken down by the mods as hypothetical.)

[Assistant]
All you need is enough mass in a small enough volume. It's the gravity that matters. Once it becomes strong enough, it is impossible for any material to be supported through pressure. All possible paths through space-time (within the event horizon radius) go downwards.

A supernova can actually end up with a neutron star rather than a black hole. But there's a maximum mass that a neutron star can support with pressure between neutrons. If you exceed that pressure, the star will collapse until it crosses the black hole threshold.

But there's nothing stopping you from making a bigger black hole without starting from a neutron star. This is just how a stable star can collapse into a black hole. But the density required to make a black hole actually goes down at higher masses, so you can just have a huge fluffy ball of hydrogen and it'll form a black hole if it gets big enough.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] what was the Republic's plan for the clones post war?

Okay this is a big what if, but say for whatever reason Palpatine died before executing order 66. (I don't know how maybe he slipped on his soap or fell down the stairs at the opera) but the Republic win against the CIS after both Dooku and General Grievous are dead, so now the Republic has all these clone troops, did the kaminoans also have a literal kill code in that bio chip or what?

[Assistant]
Honestly, probably nothing.

The republic was controlled by Palpatine at the time of the war, and if the question was ever raised he probably brushed it over as a we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

His plan was always his empire and the plan was always to make clones the police of the galaxy and back bone of the empire until they were replaced by new recruits.


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

[User]
How do spiders cast web across a long distance?

I'm sure my terminology is laughably wrong, but I'll try to explain best I can. For example, I'm walking down a twenty foot wide trail and walk through a spider web. How did the spider manage to cast its web over such a long distance? Is it on a tree on one side if the trail, anchors its web, crawls down the tree, across the trail, and up another tree? Does it anchor it's web and jump across?

Does this make any sense or do I sound like a babbling stoner?

[Assistant] Some googling tells me that they stay on one end and start letting out some light web that gets caught in the wind and hopefully sticks to something at which point they reinforce it and begin making the web.


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

[User]
What is the general purpose of a self-destruct button?

Is it so enemies can't salvage and possibly steal secret information from a ship?

[Assistant] Or to deny your enemies access to whatever technology or weaponry you have on that ship. Also, you never know when you'll need to utilize that self-destruct feature to cleverly defeat an unsuspecting foe by blowing up the interior of a hangar.


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

[User]
Once a human being reaches terminal velocity would they still feel like they are falling?

For the purpose of this experiment we are going to hypothesize that our subject is contained within an aerodynamic container so that their perception is not influenced by the wind rushing past them to their impending doom because I did not equip them with a parachute.

Alternatively, consider that our brave sacrificial astronaut has been expelled from the confines of a shuttle that is orbiting an earth-size body that has no atmosphere; ignoring the difference in velocities our two sacrifices will achieve what will they experience once they have reached the maximum possible speed?  Will they still feel like they are falling?

[Assistant]
Terminal velocity in the atmosphere is the speed at which the force of gravity pulling you down matches the force of wind resistance trying to hold you up.  This is basically the same as standing on a floor, where the force of gravity matches the force of the floor holding you up.  So, at terminal velocity, you would still feel like you weigh something (as opposed to feeling weightless).

If you're in a closed capsule with no windows, and the capsule reaches terminal velocity, you would have trouble telling if you were falling or at rest (aside from buffeting of the capsule and other such effects).

As for an astronaut, if there is no atmosphere, there is nothing to slow you down, so you would never reach terminal velocity until you encountered some type of resistance.


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

[User]
What is the sound made by fires?

Where does the sound of fire come from exactly?

[Assistant]
You're probably thinking of the crackling sounds that comes from burning wood. Wood has pockets of moisture in it, and fire boils that moisture and increases the internal pressure in the wood, causing it to crack. The cracking wood is where the sound comes from.

A fire like a bunsen burner doesn't make any sound other than the gas coming out of the nozzle.


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

[User]
Can you give me awesome evidence of evolution?

So I've been given an assignment for my intro to biology class. I haven't taken science since high school, and im a senior in college and an art history major-so most of this is review/new knowledge. This class is focused on evolution and plant life. While I know of evolution and its theory, I was wondering if you in /softscience have any really cool evidence of evolution.  Vestigial organs are pretty awesome, as is the concept of adaptation to food resources, but I want to be wowed with new information I haven't heard of before.  Can you help me out? I'm not trying to cheat on this assignment, but rather expand my thinking of life/living things. Also, if you have web sources that can give me examples, it would be greatly appreciated.

[Assistant]
Richard Lenski watched some populations of E. coli for like 30000 generations, and eventually they developed **a whole new freaking gene** that allowed them to metabolize citrate.

Apes have 48 chromosomes while humans have 46. If a common ancestor had 48, then it's expected that two of them would have merged to allow us to have two less. If that had happened, then we'd expect one of our chromosome to have vestigial centromeres and telomeres. Human chromosome 2 has vestigial centromeres and telomeres, and each half of it is similar to two chimpanzee chromosomes.


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

[User] How exactly do Black Holes die?  If nothing can escape a Black Hole, how can they evaporate?

[Assistant]
The mechanism proposed by Hawking in his original paper follows.

Particles pop into and out of existence all the time.  They "borrow" energy from the vacuum, pop into existence as a particle-antiparticle pair, and then swiftly collide and annihilate.  This is a known fact.

Now comes Hawking's original speculation.  Near a black hole, something funny happens.  There's a distance from the black hole called the event horizon - anything closer than that distance necessarily falls in, while anything further out can escape if it goes fast enough.  When these particle-antiparticle pairs pop into existence near the event horizon, sometimes one will go in and the other will go off into space.  It appears to the outside world that the black hole has emitted a particle.  The energy to create those particles is not "repaid" by annihilation, hence their masses must add up to zero because total energy must be preserved.  But since the particle emitted must have positive mass, we must observe the infalling particle to have negative mass, thus reducing the mass of the black hole.

An alternative conceptualization imagines pair production just INTERIOR to the event horizon.  Particles sometimes do something funny called "tunneling," where they disappear and reappear a short distance away.  It's possible that particle pairs are being produced inside the event horizon, and then one particle is tunneling out.

At the end of the day, it's not exactly known by what mechanism Hawking radiation occurs.  We know that it MUST occur in order for the laws of physics to be consistent, as far as we understand them.  Black holes are perfect black bodies, and that entails black body radiation.

It should be noted that every black hole we have ever observed emits less Hawking radiation than it absorbs from background sources like the cosmic microwave background.  A black hole would have to weigh as little as a moon for it to be losing mass.


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

[User] CMV: No matter which person gets elected as president, they will not be able to make any major changes to the U.S. because of the checks and balances system along with gridlock.

[Assistant] I would argue that it isn't as much because of *checks and balances* per se, but because of the powers allocated to the president. People across America (especially on the internet) are always calling out that the President didn't do x, or didn't do enough to stop y. But what most people fail to realize is that, as the Constitution is written, the executive branch is intended to be the smallest, least powerful branch. Ultimately, the President can really only sign/veto laws and carry out existing laws. That's not a lot of power-- the President can't singlehandedly legalize marijuana. Sure there's a lot of steps the President could take, but most change has to come from Congress-- that's why periods of huge change in America (say, the progressives in early 1900s, the New Deal era, the conservative revolution of the 80s) all come about when there is a shift large enough to put a large majority of one party in Congress.


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

[User]
ELI5: Magnetism allows objects to affect the velocity of other objects (pulling or repelling them). Where does the energy that creates that force exactly come from, since energy can't be created nor destroyed?

I've been wondering this since I was five.

[Assistant]
In order to move the magnet and the thing it's pulling on to a place where they'll interact, you have to do work *against the magnetic field*.
If you put a bowling ball on top of a step ladder, you're doing work against the gravitational field.
When the bowling ball rolls off and squashes a pumpkin or something, the energy comes from the work you expended putting the ball on top of the ladder.

It's the same thing with magnets.  A magnet in a room has some potential energy with regards to all the magnetic things and fields in the universe. Physically moving the magnet to that place is like putting the ball on the ladder.

Hope this helps.


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

[User]
CMV: faith is a force for evil in the world

For the sake of discussion I will be referring to this definition of faith.

Faith: firm belief in something for which there is no proof

or in simpler language

Claiming to know something without evidence or proof.

I am modifying the definition to make clear that while there may or may not be evidence for something, it is not about there not being evidence, it is about you not having it when claiming to know something.

Evil will, for the purposes of clarity, be something which diminishes wellbeing. Good would be something which promotes wellbeing.

In a wide variety of different areas we can see different ideas playing out, with many different views in direct competition. Religions make claims about the universe they cannot back up, scientists don't know all the answers to everything but are conservative in stating what they do know. Homeopaths claim their magic water has a memory and can fix any issue, but can't show it to be true. Chiropractors claim that the spine becomes misaligned through subluxations and this inhibits the flow of the vital force, causing illness, yet when asked to show a subluxation they can't show anything, and more interestingly conflict with each other. Acupuncturists claim that points on the body correspond with other places, and that piercing a point with a needle they can create theraputic results, but they can't even agree on which points to use. Terrorists, politicians, homo economis economists, and so on.

All of these groups use faith as their primary epistemology and therefore are immune from correction. When you use faith as your method for knowing about the world you can never get closer to the truth and therefore become opposed to someone out there.

I think this leads to much if the conflict we see in the world.

So, my contention is as follows. Faith, claiming to know something you don't have evidence for, is a force for evil, and therefore degrades human wellbeing.

[Assistant]
Your entire argument seems stand on the fact that some acts that you deem bad or evil are based on a person's or peoples' faith.

Do you deny that many good deeds are also done based on these same beliefs? Either you must prove that no good deed can ever stem from faith or accept that it is a tool that can be used either for good or bad, and has no inherent vice.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are oceans off the coast of places like Ireland and Scotland so dark and grey but seas off Australia and France can be so bright and blue?

[Assistant] The cold waters off the coast of Ireland/Scotland are rich in nutrient and sediment.  Ocean currents cause upwelling and basically stir everything up.  In places with less nutrients/sediment, or locations buffered by barrier reefs, the water is crystal clear.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does paper burn so easily when lit at its edge, but doesn't immediately burn up if exposed to fire in the middle of the sheet?

[Assistant] In tbe middle oftbe sheet its smothering itself. The flame wants to go up and use oxygen yet the paper is in the way. At the edge it has the paper fuel, oxygen all around, and nothing covering the top of it.


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

[User]
I'm an early-career researcher, supervising a very poorly performing PhD student - reaching the end of my tether (Australia)

Hi all - seeking advice, experience and options - please let me know if this is not appropriate for this sub.

Sorry - this is long.

I am an early career researcher (4-years post PhD) and my research is in genomics.

I am a co-supervisor of an international PhD student that is performing extremely poorly. Her project is being undertaken between a university and an industry/NGO. Her primary supervisor is in the university, and I am the least senior of her supervisors, my role is in industry/NGO.  None of her other supervisors have any experience in genomics - so the majority of her supervision has fallen to me.

In Australia - a PhD takes 3-4 years full time, and she is 2.5 years into her PhD. She has an undergrad and masters from her home country in a completely unrelated field - these helped her get a stipend.

From day dot it was apparent that she had interest in genomics and bioinformatics, but woeful technique and zero aptitude for any laboratory work. Her first aim/experiment/chapter took over a year, remains unfinished and generated no meaningful data (she could not replicate/did not get consistent results.)

She argued that she did not get results because there was something wrong with the samples.

For her candidature seminar, her primary supervisor picked the most kind and lenient examiners - they identified a number of gaps and shortfalls in her project plan. She was passed and allowed to continue her PhD.She should not have been passed. The university used to have the option/ability to put a student on probation if they are not performing, requiring a number of deadlines to be met and the student to show due cause as to why they should be allowed to continue in their PhD - this option does not exist anymore.

We changed her entire aims to make it as easy as possible for her to get some results, to have as much in silico analysis from publicly available data as possible. She has shown some aptitude for this but is very slow to integrate or perform these experiments, even with me holding her hand! We suggested she use the university computing cluster to undertake some time-critical and computationally expensive analyses for her current project, and put her in touch with both the university ICT and other students that use the computing cluster to undertake their projects, who took time out of their own studies and research to assist her/help her - but she refused to as it was "mostly command line" and she "could not understand it".  She should have had this finished and done over a month ago - her study has basically been published by another group.

Where this really brings me to the end of my tether is that I have been tasked to do the experimental work for her final chapter. Which consists of RNA extractions on 100 clinical samples and then enrichment library preparation and sequencing to generate data for her to analyse. Seriously.

I have two other PhD students who are coming up to their final seminars - they have been exemplary students and very much independent. I have not been able to give them the time I should be. I have my own projects too which I need to complete and report on and publish. I don't have time because I've been stuck holding this students hand from the very first day.

I have brought her lack of aptitude and poor performance up with all of her supervisors from the very start - I basically get told it sucks but do everything you can to get her finished and out of her by the end of her 3rd year.   I have had zero support from any of her supervisors.

Has anyone been in this situation before? how did you address/handle it? is there opportunity at her final presentation/thesis review to recommend that she fail her PhD? Should I go above her other supervisors and bring this up to the university/course coordinator/dean?

Any advice or guidance is so very very much appreciated. Thank you.

[Assistant] Whos asking you to do the 100 extractions and enrichments and what is your end goal for your current position? To become a Professor or a Senior researcher ? Maybe consider leveraging this work into a better authorship such as a first first author ?


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

[User]
Is it weird to email a professor/paper author about how they did something in their paper?

Hi! So I'm studying this paper that works on a specific mathematical model, and I was curious about how they plotted it to compare it to real world data. As in, there are solvers out there, but there's also a solution in the paper (that I honestly don't understand very well tbh), but yeah, there could be more than one way to plot it, and since I'm not very experienced with this, I wanted to ask the author how they did it, and for some general clarifications about the paper itself as well.

Has anyone done this before? And do you actually get a reply? Or would the author get annoyed by simple-ish questions, and maybe not respond? (Obv, they're probably really busy anyway, so I wouldn't want to disturb them either :/)

Any advice on how to email/speak to them in a way that would likely get me a response? :/

[Assistant] Yes it's totally fine, you will either get a response or at the worst get ignored. In most cases they will be glad that someone is noticing thieir work. Check for an up to date email rather than the one given in the manuscript as people move about between institutions and their old email may no longer be monitored or active.


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

[User]
"in the post-9/11 world..." is a cliched phrase used to excuse the most egregious forms of oppressive policy.. try to CMV

A decade after the "(1st/2nd) attack on American soil" the "post 9/11 world" is still used as a valid argument. Have we learned nothing from the lies and deceit propagated during the run up to the US war in Iraq? Or what about the fact that there still exists known and unknown places like guantanamo bay and abu ghraib? Or how about the ever expanding and never ending additions to the patriot act, the NSA, and retroactive capabilities to detain?

A question for those Gingrichy people who do think that "9/11 changes everything"... when will we stop living in the "post 9/11 world"? Or will more and more dystopian policy be the only result? Will the "post 9/11 world" end when the [unending] "war on terror/drugs" ends?

[Assistant]
We will never stop living in the post-9/11 world. That's how time works. If/when the next big attack (of that scale) happens, it will be the post-*that* world.

9/11 changed *everything*. The US went from a confident, isolated, and secure nation to one that was suddenly questioning and doubting its isolation. There were people who could attack us from the outside, and people who could (and did) attack us from within. They got on an American plane in America and crashed into an American landmark, killing almost 3,000 people. **9/11 wasn't just a tragedy; it was a national-scale paradigm shift.**

Things could never be the same. The country had to make sure that no one could get on a plane and hijack it. But more than that-- they needed to totally revamp their infrastructure to make sure people would be safe. That is what post-9/11 is all about. That mentality of needing to restore that feeling we once had of national security. But it won't be the same, because instead of being passive now it's active.

And please, don't compare me to Newt Gingrich.


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

[User] ELI5: Why should we add salt and pepper to a dish toward the end of a recipe?

[Assistant] Professional chef speaking. Typically, we add salt & pepper toward the end of a recipe as a fine tuning of the final taste. Sometimes we add salt/pepper early on, depending on the recipe & the ingredients; but adding at the end is a matter of rounding off the process & the flavors.


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

[User]
Is reason a western concept?

Reason seems to have been consciously employed and studied in western thought since the Enlightenment, and I would say has featured as a sort of distinguishing element of it since Socrates (and arguably since the pre-Socratics).

My question is, does Reason (capital R) hold such an overt and well-defined role in other traditions (Chinese, Indian)? Or is Reason, as the western canon understands it, a purely western phenomenon?

(Obviously other traditions can be said to be rational/reasonable to varying degrees; but are they Rational as western philosophers would understand that word, and do they consider Reason to be the sort of essential ingredient/valorised end-in-itself that western philosophers consider it to be?)

[Assistant]
Can't say about Chinese or Indian philosophy.

But I've read Islamic philosophy. The early mutakallimuns (people who practiced Kalam or Islamic theology) emphasized on reasoning. Basically there were two formulas developed in the Islamic theology - Aql (reason) and Naql (revelation).

This was back in the 7th or early 8th Century when they weren't exposed to Falsifa (Greek Philosophy). But then it follows great debate and ......


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

[User]
[Dragon Ball] We already know Freeza's personal hell involves him being trapped in a cocoon surrounded by cute little angels. What are the other villain's personal hells?

By the way, this includes all the villains, including the ones from the original series.

[Assistant]
Cells punishment would be he has to spend eternity in a world with Scholar Gohan. Gohan would simply go about his life with Videl and Pan. Cell would try to pick fights with him to get even. Every punch Cell lands on Gohans geeky face, does absolutely nothing. Gohan laughs and moves on. He doesnt fight Cell at all. Videl and Pan are untouchable as well, so are all the civilians and other Z fighters who also refuse to fight Cell. They simply mock Cell after he strikes at them. Cell would have all of his power and feel stronger than ever, but for some reason, he can't do *any* damage. To anything. Not matter how much he trains, he can't inflict a scratch on anything.

Evil Buu would be in a world entirely populated by vegetables. Buus special attack just turns things into Tofu.


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

[User] ELI5: Where did certain 'swear' words come from? ... And what/who decided them to be rude?

[Assistant]
Disappointingly, the most accurate answer is: "It just happens". Basically, society as a whole simply agrees that certain subjects are taboo (usually sex and unpleasant bodily functions), and that some of the words associated with them are taboo.

And different cultures have different ideas about what is and what isn't taboo. For example, the German word "Scheie" (pronounced "shy-suh", if you're wondering) means "shit", but in some contexts it's not considered offensive at all: "Scheiwetter", for example, is best translated as "lousy weather".

It's really what the words refer to that is considered offensive; but it's common that the most offensive words tend to be shorter and of Anglo-Saxon origin, while longer, Latin-based words are less offensive or even perfectly respectable. The "C-word", for example, is one of the most offensive words in the English language, but its Latin equivalent "vagina" is usually a pretty inoffensive medical term.

I say "usually" because it depends somewhat on the context, and because also the offensive nature of the word you're avoiding becomes attached to the less offensive word, which is why at least one mother once complained that her daughter had been exposed to signs advertising a play called *The Vagina Monologues*.


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

[User]
What breaks objects, the force, or the energy?

Given a scenario where i have a ceramic tile and a rock, when i place the rock onto the tile it doesn't break, but when i drop the rock from a height it does, but in the scenario the force(weight) doesn't change, the only thing that does is its height and therefore its gravitational potential energy.

[Assistant]
Your questions' premise is not right:

>but in the scenario the force(weight) doesn't change

The gravitational force (manifested as weight) doesn't change, but the contact force (caused by the solidity of the tile and rock via electromagnetism) which only lasts a fraction of a second while the tile is stopping the rock is enormous.

Energy and force are deeply related ideas so asking which one is more important here is a bit like asking which is more important for a working car: The wheels or the engine?


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

[User] ELI5:Why does salty water come poring out your eyes when you hurt yourself physically/emotionally ?

[Assistant] The salty water reflects light which can be seen from short distances. It is a way to communicate to comrades close to you that you are injured and require protection, but not big and dramatic enough so that predators can see from far away.


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

[User]
[dc] is there a reason speedsters don't use blades?

As far as I can tell none of them do, is there a reason given? Do the blades break? Mind you there are "bad" speedsters and they don't have them either. It just seems like blades or even something but like a telescoping club would make them many times more combat effective.

[Assistant] There have been one or two speedsters who use things like knives and swords to deadly effect.  However, despite appearances, they're exerting themselves as they run and it might screw up their running form to be holding a knife or a sword.


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

[User]
[The Boys, Brightburn] How would Homelander react to Brandon from Brightburn?

Would he just try and kill him immediately, to keep the whole thing under wraps? Would he try and win him over for Vaught? Would he just get frustrated and fuck off?

[Assistant] Mild spoilers for Boys S2: >!Given his recent rejection by his bio-son, he could very well be in the market for a surrogate child-figure and find it in Brandon... which would rapidly break down if Brandon doesn't act the way Homelander wants him to. Violence would likely ensue, since Homelander doesn't understand any problem that can't be solved by whining or laser eyes.!<


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

[User]
My Pyrex baking dish exhorts the user to both "Avoid sudden temperature changes" and "Always preheat oven." That seems like a contradiction. What property of the glass accounts for this?

Taking a dish from a refrigerator (roughly 38F) and placing it directly into a preheated oven at 400F seems like a worse "shock" than placing it into a room temperature oven and slowly bringing it up to temp. Yet, the instructions clearly indicate otherwise. What gives?

Happy Thanksgiving, to those celebrating.

[Assistant] They probably mean dont do things like take it from the oven and put it in the sink with water.  The dish will heat up slowly in the oven because air is a poor conductor of heat...but if you take it from the oven and run water over it, water is a much better conductor so the dish will cool rapidly and could crack.


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

[User] ELI5 why do more libertarians lean towards the right? What are some libertarian values that are more left than right?

[Assistant]
The way to think of it is as follows:

Conservatives believe the government *shouldn't* interfere with economic issues but **should** interfere with social issues.

Liberals believe that the government **should** interfere with economic issues but *shouldn't* interfere with social issues.

Libertarians believe the government *shouldn't* interfere with economic *or* social issues.

As such, libertarians tend to agree with liberals on social issues (abortion, gay marriage, separation of church and state) and conservatives on economic issues (taxes, regulation, welfare).


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

[User] So if you cannot create or destroy energy, does that mean there's a constant amount if energy in the universe?

[Assistant]
Sort of but not really.

To keep a long story short, the law of conservation of energy only applies for any system which is "time-translation invariant" -- meaning, if you did an experiment, the time you choose to do the experiment would have no effect on the outcome.  For any system that is time-translation-invariant, energy is always conserved, and the total amount of energy is constant -- yes.

However, it turns out that the universe is *not quite* time-translation invariant.  The universe is expanding at an accelerating rate, which is causing the density of ordinary (baryonic) matter to decrease (at the rate you'd expect -- the total amount of energy in ordinary matter remains the same), and the density of electromagnetic radiation to decrease even faster (photons are losing energy over time) -- but the density of dark energy appears to be remaining the same.  Consequently, photons are losing energy through redshift as space expands, and the total amount of dark energy in an expanding region is increasing.  These changes do not cancel eachother out (so it's not as simple as photons being converted into dark energy, or anything exotic like that).

Also, there's the strong possibility that the universe is *actually* infinite in spatial extent, which would mean the total amount of energy would also be infinite.  So no matter how much it expands, if it is infinite, then it will always be infinite, and the question of how much total energy is in the universe is moot.

Hope that helps!


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

[User]
[mathematics] Shouldn't any constant raised to the power of an irrational number become an irrational? Ex 5^pi. If so, why would e^(pi*i) =-1?

Here's my thinking. Since an irrational number can't be expressed as a/b, how can we determine any constant raised to an irrational number? x^1.5 will be x^3/2, or the sqrt(x^3). But with an irrational number, it can't be represented that way, so how would it be computed? Sure you could cut it off at 50 decimal places but that seems rather arbitrary. There's no way you'll ever be a rational number.

So into e^pi*i, How can it possibly equal
-1 on the nose? Even expressed as a infinite sum it doesn't seem it should be rational, much less an integer. It could be -. 9999 repeating but that wouldn't be irrational. Anyway, just a bit confused hear, if anyone could explain it with intro level Calculus I would appreciate it.

[Assistant]
Conjecture: There exists a that an irrational to the power of an irrational is rational.

Proof: sqrt(2) is irrational. sqrt(2)^sqrt(2) is either rational or irrational.If it is rational our work is done, if it is not raise sqrt(2)^sqrt(2) to the power of sqrt(2), then (sqrt(2)^sqrt(2) )^sqrt(2) = sqrt(2)^(sqrt(2)^) ^\* ^sqrt(2)) = sqrt(2)^2 =2

Where the first step follows by laws of exponentiation.

There, we don't even need anything fancy like imaginary numbers. In general if a and b are irrational, a^b need not be irrational, and it can be an integer.


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

[User]
ELI5: How did those with mental disabilities (Autism, Down Syndrome) function in society before modern help centres and widespread awareness of these conditions?

My apologies if I have worded this wrong.

[Assistant]
Historically not very well.

Some cultures viewed them as touched by the gods and mostly ignored them, sometimes providing them with food. Others would see them as possessed by demons and would actively kill them due to a perceived (and at time legitimate) threat that they may pose.

Many cultures would also leave any child with born deformities to die to exposure and so never had to deal with the mental disabilities that are associated with conditions that are obvious at birth such as Downs Syndrome.

In more recent history they would have had better care than being fully ignored or outright killed by being put into Asylums that cared for them, but even that was not a great thing. Many times they were used for experimentation, and some of the treatments for them like electroshock therapy or lobotomies were horrid.


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

[User]
do all arguments have an underlying assumption, i.e. A priori foundation?

And do fallacies apply to definitions of words?

[Assistant]
All arguments start from premises. Since the only thing that can justify a premise is another premise, all arguments start from premises that are not justified from within the argument. Are those "unjustified" premises a priori? That very much depends on the argument in question. There is a debate among epistemologists about whether all of our knowledge ultimately has to have a foundation somewhere (foundationalism) or whether it forms a kind of network with no bottom (coherentism). And among foundationalists, there is another debate about whether the ultimate foundation is a priori or a posteriori.

And on your second question, a fallacy is an error in reasoning. Since a definition is not an inference, it can't contain a fallacy. A definition can be poorly constructed, or not fit common usage.


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

[User] [Star Wars] Would anything significantly change in the Disney Canon if Revan was added?

[Assistant] Canon Revan implies a few things. One, that the force can be used to brainwash someone. Battle meditation exists. The Star Forge, the Infinite Empire, the Sith Empire, all exist.  This of course assumes that at least part of his backstory is canonized and not just his name.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do so many Americans circumcise their children?

[Assistant] Circumcision was introduced to the American masses in the 19th century as a way to curb STDs and masturbation. The practice caught on, and now probably the most prevalent reason that we continue circumcising our boys is societal, i.e. everyone's doing it. If you're uncircumcised and someone finds out (friends, potential lovers, etc.), then you're probably going to be shamed for it (there's even an episode of Sex and the City where one of them shames a partner into getting circumcised).


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

[User]
I became intimate with my advisor last night

Not much more to add. The tension has been building between us as I work on my dissertation and last night things happened.

I go back and forth. On one hand, it was absolutely thrilling. On the other, Im afraid Ive just torpedoed my academic career.

Does anyone have advice on how to navigate this moving forward?

[Assistant]
Your advisor also became intimate with you. They have just as much to lose if the whole thing goes south, if not more. They are in a position of power over you and this situation is the whole reason every university has policies against professors engaging with students in this way.

Make sure to stand up for whatever you feel is best for you going forward.


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

[User] [Banjo Kazooie] why can't Bottles teach you all the moves from the very beginning?

[Assistant] In many cases, bottles is inventing the moves as they're needed.  In the case of flying and shock jump pads, he has to spend some time studying them before he can tell Banjo and Kazooie how to use them.


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

[User]
eli5: Why can you only learn your proper tire pressure from the car and not from the tires themselves. Wouldnt different kinds of tires need different pressures on the same car?

Same tires, different cars = different recommended tire pressure

Different tires, same car = same recommended tire pressure

This doesnt make sense to me.  Why is this?

[Assistant]
Different cars weigh different amounts. That makes them require a different PSI in the tires to maintain a proper amount of traction.

Have you ever sat on an exercise ball and noticed how much it squished down? Then think about a kid sitting on the same ball, and how it'll squish less? The ball is the same PSI in both scenarios, but it is holding more weight when you sit on it. This means that it gets squished into the ground more.

The same is true with tires -- more weight = more squish. You want a certain amount of squish so that you have a certain amount of the tire in contact with the ground. You could have two cars that use the same tires, but one weighs 2000lbs and one weighs 2500lbs. If you use the PSI for the 2500lb car on the 2000lb car, your tires might not have enough contact area to maintain a good grip, and you'll lose traction while driving.


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

[User]
CMV: Babies do not belong at the zoo.

_____

Hi everyone! I went to the zoo with the SO yesterday (both in our mid 20's) and the amount of babies there (children under 1.5 years old abouts) was incredible. They're howling all over the place which is a no-no for most zoo patrons as it disturbs and can scare the wildlife. Why the fuck would you bother not only the other zoo patrons but the animal wildlife by bringing an infant in a place they can't comprehend or remember? I had finally had enough at the chimpanzee habitat when a baby in a stroller started screaming his head off which totally freaked out all the chimps. Chaos ensued within the habitat. It's just disrespectful for everyone involved.

EDIT: I'm going to highlight that this is *not* about generalized babies crying in public spaces. This is very specific. If you have an infant, what is your thought process on not moving away from an animal enclosure when your child is screaming, disturbing the animals, and there are signs everywhere that say "NO LOUD NOISES".

TL;DR babies screaming at a restaurant is a-ok in my book. Babies screaming, freaking out animals in a "Quiet Zone" and not being removed from the premises is most assuredly not a-ok.

[Assistant]
First, zoo animals are not wildlife. Once they're in a zoo, they're just life.

Next, most zoos are primarily aimed at children, or at least go to lengths to cater to children. This means there;s going to be a lot of children of all ages, who tend to be pretty loud and unruly, on average.

Third, babies benefit from stimuli, of which zoos are a common one. So there is a benefit to the infant.

Fourth, it's pretty common for a family that includes a baby to also include older children, who benefit more from the zoo. It can be difficult to leave the infant behind just to take the other children to the zoo.

Fifth, the problem isn't so much that "babies don't belong at the zoo" as it is "parents aren't taking proper steps to minimize their problematic infants". There's plenty of babies who are just fine - they either don't cry much, or they tend to be fairly quiet when they cry. The parents need to learn when they should take their child elsewhere to get them to stop crying. Zoos typically have plenty of open spaces away from the animals, eating areas, etc in which a crying baby would not be a nuisance.

TL;DR: Babies are fine at zoos. The problem is with parents not handling crying babies properly.


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

[User] ELI5: why are scientists trying to clone a wooly mammoth using ancient DNA when they could be cloning endangered animal species, such as the white rhino, whose DNA we can still collect?

[Assistant] As has already been said, there are research efforts focused on both. However, tackling the technical challenges of piecing together a genome that hasn't existed for thousands of years would benefit the scientific community more than trying to keep a species alive that nature can no longer support. Sequencing the mammoth genome would represent a major achievement in our ability to study the genetic content of extinct species and could ultimately lead to greater insight into the origins of cellular life. This is the reason it gets more funding and media attention.


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

[User] [Star Trek Voyager] Voyager encounters a civilisation that experiences a time dilation of 1 second = 1 day. Why not ask them to invent a way to get them back to the alpha quadrant and take the week off?

[Assistant]
1- Prime Directive. Even being there was against the rules. Sure, eventually they overtook Voyager in terms of technology but even Janeway knows "we figured it didn't hurt to ask" wouldn't look good on an official report.

2- That same civilization really wanted Voyager gone and had zero interest in helping them beyond a single guy who was friends with them.


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

[User] [WorldWar] why do the Race bring so much over kill hardware on their conquest fleets? why did the think they'd need nukes to conquer a medieval society?

[Assistant]
Why should they not? Would you entrust such a delicate task as the subjugation of an entire world and all its beings to merely what you think would be "enough" when you have so much more power available?

Besides it's worked twice before, and as any male or female of the Race can tell you, something that worked twice has probably been refined enough to work forever, otherwise it wouldn't have been attempted in the first place.


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

[User]
[VAMPIRES] How long could a vampire last in today's world?

How long could a vampire operate undetected and free in modern society assuming the vampire-

* Must feed on human blood at least once every two-four weeks.
* Possess vastly superior speed and strength to human being.
* Is killed by sunlight.
* Creates other vampires by leaving a bitten victim alive.
* Appears human for all intent and purposes except for two slightly larger, sharper, canine teeth.
* Lives in a world where people have never heard of vampires. (and for fun what about a world where where vampires are fiction like ours)

[Assistant] Male or female vampire?  Are they reasonably attractive?  Do they have any manner of income / wealth?  It's relatively easy to munchkin a way to have them survive indefinitely but it would require ignoring some basic urges a sapient being would have.  Going to a nightclub and going home with someone and drinking them dry would feed the blood urges.  Add in some going home with people and *not* drinking from them and all around being courteous to those on the feeding grounds to throw any investigations off your trail.  Never creating another vampire is important, because of the whole "three can keep a secret if two are dead" thing.  This is without going into the possibility of robbing blood banks and such.


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

[User]
[Dark Souls Series] How were the kingdoms when the between each cycle of the fire fading?

Were they full of humans?

Were there any undeads?

Maybe an occasional demon?

Were things "normal" during this period, or things are usually fucked up most of the time?

[Assistant]
The Age of Fire was a golden age of prosperity and marvels. Or at least that's what the giants' records say. All the majestic castles and cities they left behind suggest they weren't lying. The giants killed anything that posed a military threat to them, especially dragons. Humans were there, and it appears some of them held military positions, but they didn't prosper *per se*. There's also the whole weirdness of Oolacile, which is populated by human-sized humanoids who are explicitly not human. This all started collapsing as Gwyn got more and more obsessed with the end of the Age of Fire.

Judging from places like the Undead Asylum and lore references to kingdoms and religions quarantining the undead, it seems that undead showed up late in history but before kingdoms started collapsing.

Demons didn't show up until near the end of the first Age of Fire, when the Witches of Izalith tried to make a false flame and instead created Chaos.


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

[User] [Harry Potter] Why didn't Dumbledore use the Fidelius Charm to hide the Philosopher Stone?

[Assistant]
A. Didn't work so well the last time

B. He was suspicious that voldemort was still alive and wanted to lure him out of hiding. He knew the philosopher's stone at hogwarts would be too tempting to pass up.

Ultimately dumbledore is kind of an asshole who orchestrated the events of the books as much as Harry did. He had part of the prophesy and knew about horcruxes and suspected that Harry would need to kill Voldemort by sacrificing himself.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do people believe cracking/popping knuckles causes arthiritis?

[Assistant]
Because their parents, or other trusted authority figure, told them that it does.

People believe a lot of stupid things just because of that reason and they'll continue to believe it even when presented with science.