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

[User] Will two people kissing or swapping bodily fluids, who are both sick with the same illness, such as the flu or strep, make them each more sick or have no effect?

[Assistant] If they have the exact same illness (same genotype and phenotype of the strains) then nope - each person will be no worse off than they were before. But if one person has a slightly different strain, say with more antibiotic resistance, the possibility of making it worse is there. Not a guarantee as the immune system is already ramped up but it could happen.


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

[User]
[X-Men] Would Magnetos helmet prevent Professor X from using his powers?

Magnetos helmet protects him from psionic attacks which I'm guessing includes being removed telepathically (either that or he just consciously uses his powers to keep it on his head).

Would it work in the reverse? Say Magneto knocks out the Professor, straps him down and keeps the helmet on his head. Would this effectively neutralize the professor and make him powerless?

Obviously this wouldn't be a good attack strategy because there are other telepaths that could control Magneto now that he's defenceless but if they were the last two mutants standing/sitting would this be a viable way for Magneto to remove the threat of the professor without killing him?

[Assistant]
Depends on if his telepathy originates from his brain.

I would say that the fingers to the head, eyes closed would mean the brain is the "antennae" from which the power originates, so yes it would nullify or dramatically reduce his power.

If his telepathy is transmitted from every cell in his body or if he has an organ somewhere aside from his noggin that acts as a focal point he would be unhindered.


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

[User]
What type of radiation is produced by the annihilation of interacting matter and antimatter particles?

It is said that when an particle of matter and antimatter interact they annihilate releasing all of their energy.

What is the frequency of the radiation energy that results? What determines this?

[Assistant] Typically high energy photons aka gamma rays. If the collision is relatively low-energy then they photons will have the same energy as the mass of the particles, so for electron-positron collisions that's 511 keV or about 10^20 Hz.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Why didn't Nicholas Flamel use the Philosopher's Stone to cure aging for everyone?

If memory serves, after he made it, he basically kept the thing for himself and his wife. Why not use it to help everyone live forever? He could have improved the formula so the elixir only needs to be taken once, or spread the plans for the stone so everyone could make one. In fact, he could have used it to broker a peace between wizards and muggles. But instead, the book basically tells us that living forever is bad (although it doesn't mention what exactly is so bad about something so awesome) and is completely fine with letting people keep suffering and dying forever. Why not fix such an easily solvable problem?

[Assistant]
The wizarding community doesn't seem particularly altruistic.

From Flamel's point of view, not everyone should probably be allowed to live forever. The idea of *one* snake like sorcerer coming back was bad enough for him to give up both his and his wife's immortality.

Beyond that, we don't know the limitations of the stone or what's required to make it/the elixir of life. We do know you need to constantly drink the elixir to prolong your life though. If the stone is one of a kind, and he is the only one capable of making the potion, he'd have to spend the rest of his life constantly churning out drinks. Blegh.


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

[User] [40k] Horus defeats the Emperor flawlessly on the Vengeful Spirit. How does this effect everything?

[Assistant]
If the Cabal is to be beleived (and they should, they accurately predicted the events that transpired with the Emperor's victory) then Horus is consumed by self loathing and leads a slow campaign of absolute genocide across the Imperium, eventually succeeding in wiping out humanity in its entirety.

Without humans to sustain them, the Chaos Gods wither away, and are replaced by new, less violent deities. Orks spread through the galaxy before imploding in on themselves due to a lack of major enemy and are quickly cleaned up by emerging other races and the resurgent Eldar.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is it blurry when we look straight into water but clear when you wear goggles?

[Assistant] Because your eyes need air directly in front of them to be able to focus properly (its to do with the way that your cornea bends the light as it enters your eye; when touching water, nowhere near as much of this bending is possible).


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

[User] How come estrogen can be taken orally, but testosterone must be injected?

[Assistant]
Testosterone is broken down very quickly in the gut - so quickly that very little is absorbed into the bloodstream. In order to get enough testosterone into the bloodstream from the gut, you'd have to take an enormous oral dose, which creates problems for the liver. Estrogen is absorbed more effectively in the gut, so taking it orally works just fine.

 On the other hand, testosterone is highly soluble in oil, so a small amount of oil can hold a couple of weeks' worth of testosterone. An oil-based testosterone solution can be injected into a muscle, where it's absorbed slowly and steadily. This is easier on the liver.

There are now testosterone gels which are absorbed through the skin. These are convenient, effective, and much easier for most men to use. There's also a pellet that can be implanted under the skin that lasts for about six months.


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

[User] ELI5: What is the difference between the U.S. Navy and the Marines?

[Assistant]
The Navy are what you would expect, they man ships and in modern times aircraft which are launched from those ships to conduct combat at sea and land operations launched from the sea, but they do not really fill an infantry role. The Marine Corps original intention was to have an infantry force to fight ship to ship battles and also to launch amphibious land operations (ground forces that are deployed form ships at sea). In modern times they still heavily train to fill the amphibious role, but are more commonly deployed as a more or less conventional ground force like the army. The Marine Corps also tends to think of themselves as a strike force, designed to quickly gain territory as opposed to an occupying force that is designed to hold territory once it is taken, but those lines have also been blurred with the nature of modern combat operations.

Because of their amphibious nature the Marine Corps and the Navy are closely linked even today, and in the US the USMC is under the direction of the Department of the Navy.

The largest difference is that the Marine Corps mission is infantry-centric, virtually every job in the Marine Corps is in some way in support of infantry operations including their air wing, while the Navy has no sizable infantry force apart from special operations. The Navy's focus is sea/aerial combat and artillery/bombing launched from ships.


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

[User] [Pokmon]How is environmentalism handled in the Pokmon World where there are many Pokmon that thrive off of various types of pollution?

[Assistant]
Grimer in particular are considered for most part a pest, a symptom of bad levels of pollution. If managed properly they can be beneficial, sucking up sludge from factories, for example, but you obviously don't want unchecked spread of them due to the damage they cause to nature and the enviroment in general.

Most notably, the Alola region had great success using carefully managed amounts of grimer to deal with waste that can't be recycled or safely handled otherwise.


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

[User] ELI5: Will we eventually reach a point where we have "cured" most causes of death, or will they just be replaced with new causes?

[Assistant]
Most causes of death are problems with cells aging and not reproducing properly, or problems with build-ups of substances such as "bad" cholesterol.

Once we fix that issue, we may find that new diseases spring up once you pass age 200 or so, but it's more likely that we will live until we have some accident or violent death.

Population control is less of an issue than you might think.  Already, the reproductive rate is decreasing.  More and more people are deciding to have only one child, or none at all.  If you think of the people you know who have a lot of children, chances are they are either doing it because of ignorance of proper birth control or a religious reason.  There are exceptions - people who just love having kids, but the people who have no kids compensate for them.


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

[User]
ELI5 Do animals tan?

OK, I know this sounds silly but Im a ginger so when I tan I tan really hard on the top side but not at all on the bottom. It makes me think of the way that cheetahs and leopards are darker on the top then they are on the bottom. Do animals tan? Does fur make it so that they dont tan?

[Assistant] Animals can get sunburned like we do, pigs for example root in mud to cool off and because mud is a form of sun protection. Animals with fur cannot get sunburned where and when the fur covers them but can get burned on their lips and eyelids.


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

[User]
[Mathematics] How can I store multiple integers as a single value?

So I'm a programmer and I had a thought.

There are functions I can use to store a value between program states, but I can't store a list of values.

If I have 2, 8 and 15 and I want to carry them between states, I'd have to store 3 values, but is there a way to use a calculation that I could reverse that would produce a single number, so I could get the values back after?

I could store 2, 5 and 7 as 257 and have the program decipher it to return 2, 5 and 7 but that only works for single digit integers, and long lists would produce a number too large.

The use of primes comes to mind but im unsure how, or if it's possible. Ideas?

[Assistant]
If the values are limited in size you could store them by shifting the bits to the left as you go through the program (e.g. if they're limited by like 6 bits you can shift your second list element to the left by multiplying it by 2^6 ) and adding them together. Reversly you can pop elements from the stack by usage of modulo operations (modulo (value;2^6 )  returns the last value on the stack and by doing value=(value/2^6 ) you remove the element you just read, assuming integer, so you can read the next one) Obviously you still have a limit for how many elements you can store and the frame is static so you reserve the max amount of bits for a list element even if it doesn't use as many. Basically...the same idea you presented but by using a shift based on the binary basis instead of the base-10 system you should be able to save some space (And instead of only working for single bit integers it works for a wider range of values).

I believe you could get a much better answer on here if you can give people a little bit more context information. Usually when trying to compress informations like this it's all about knowing which assumptions can be made about the stored elements, in what type of application they are used in etc.


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

[User]
CMV: A dictator with extreme power within a very narrow range would actually solve certain problems better than the government.

This is a theory that came into my mind when I talking to my wife about two problems that are prevalent in Vancouver, BC. Homeless camps/drug abuse in the downtown east side and spreading, and the out of control cost of housing.

The solutions to these problems are usually not really explored fully because they arent popular within certain areas of the public. With drug abuse, a proportion of the population hates the idea of decriminalizing drugs and even giving away drugs for free to help taper people off. They also hate the idea of free subsidized housing. On the other side, people hate the idea that charter rights kind of have to be broken for the obviously mentally ill people on the street and they need to be mandated treatment. Almost no one likes the amount of money that would cost.

With housing, there are zoning laws that municipalities hate changing because nimbys want to keep their area single family detached housing even though they are literally a block from the sky train.

In these situations, it would be beneficial for the govt to have maybe one opportunity a term to appoint a panel of experts to a problem and they have free reign for 4 years.

[Assistant]
The problem with the benign dictator is that there is no stopping that dictator from scrapping those rules to keep him in check.

Going back to the example you state, that group probably wouldn't have full dictatorial control since they would have to report to someone and they would have finite resources. Also other groups would have the right to resist if that commission  tried to violate rights without due process.

For instance they couldn't steal homes away from people and use those homes toi house people without giving compensation.


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

[User]
[starcraft] Why don't probes warp in units directly?

Why do Protoss even need buildings? Why can't a probe warp in a zealot or dark Templar? Wouldn't that save time and precious vespane gas?

[Assistant] Probes do not have the energy needed to continuously warp in forces necessary for pro-longed conflict. What they do however have are small warp beacons that pinpoints a relatively safe location for buildings to warp in. The energy provided is supplied by the nexus via pylons.


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

[User]
[WH40K] How do I know an Inquisitor isn't a foul cultist with a stolen rosette?

So I'm a small business owner - couple thousand employees stamping out rations for the local Imperial Guard regiment through the Departmento Munitorum. We've had Chaos issues in a neighbouring city, and after it was burned to the ground I got the feeling attention was being paid to ours. Sure enough, one of my men -ex-refugee from said city- asked for a private word and presented the Rosette. He demanded I add a chemical he provided to the rations I supplied, that would paralyse the IG once consumed (literally, he said it was derived from a venom). I knew better than to question him, but after our...chat, I wondered.

The Inquisition has no ruling body, no guard stations, no HQ for me to ask. The rosette was genuine, but anyone could have picked it up from a fallen Inquisitor, maybe even centuries ago, and nobody would be the wiser. Inquisitors clash with cultists all the time, it stands to reason some could be struck down, and their badge used to corruption and chaos. Emperor, what shall I *do?*

[Assistant]
You have two options here.

You can tell the highest figure of Imperial authority you can get access to (for someone of your station, probably a Munitorium officer or Arbites Precint-Captain) and let them take it up the chain of command.

If you're lucky, it will either get lost in the paperwork shuffle as it grinds its way up the chain of command or take so long that you, your children, and your children's children have long gone to the Emperor's side.

If you're very, very unlucky it will get expedited - or catch the attention of one of the Inquisition's countless spies - and you'll soon have the dread Inquisition breathing down your neck.

If you're unluckier yet, you did in fact give poison to an impostor and the investigating agents will decide "better safe than sorry," especially with the troubles in your region, and you will be *thoroughly* interrogated and executed, your family and employees will disappear, and your existence will be wiped from all records aside from whichever secret libraries contain whichever fell tomes in which the Inquisition lists the names of thrice-damned traitors.

If you're the unluckiest Emperor-forsaken son of a Grox in the Segmentum, you obeyed the order of a genuine Inquisitor. You will, at the very best, have the suspicion of the scariest and most powerful agents of the Emperor trained against you and your house for centuries; at worst, you will be punished for questioning the Left Hand of the Emperor and publicizing the activities of His most secretive servants.

Or, you could keep your damn head down and mouth shut, lie through your teeth about a bad batch further up the supply chain from you, and pray to your Emperor that you did the right thing - or did the wrong thing, and fell through the cracks.


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

[User]
Are there any parts of Earth that cannot be photographed from a space satellite?

... due to physics. Maybe the satellite can't fly over that part of the Earth due to orbital physics? Or some other law of physics preventing any satellites from being able to fly over that part of Earth?

[Assistant]
Assuming you refer only to the surface of the Earth, then the answer is no.  From a polar orbit, a satellite could eventually photograph the entire planet.

"Weather" satellites have been placed in such orbits for decades in order to monitor conditions at high latitudes which can't be clearly imaged or measured from geosynchronous orbit.


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

[User] ELI5: Howcome you can be somewhere with no wind blowing at all? Don't wind currents and all other factors ensure there should be air blowing everywhere at all times around Earth?

[Assistant]
It's actually mathematically guaranteed. It's know as the hairy ball theorem. Basically if you have a round object (like the Earth) where, at every point there is some vector of something (a vector is anything that has strength and direction, which wind does), then there has to be at least one point where that vector is 0.

Translating this to Earth and the wind, that means there has to be some point on Earth where there is no wind. Now, it may be a different point from moment to moment, but if you were to take a snapshot of Earth, and know the direction and speed of all wind currents everywhere at every infinitesimal point, there would be at least one point where the wind would be 0.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are cigarettes legal?

I just can't wrap my head around it. They are known to cause cancer and to contaim a large amount of toxic materials, so how come are they still legal?

[Assistant]
An extremely powerful lobbying group and most importantly, the government makes oodles of cash taxing them.

It's also important to recognize that "second hand" smoke wasn't well studied until recently, so if you were only hurting yourself then shouldn't you have the freedom to do so if you choose? This is why you see so many states passing public smoking bans within the last decade or so.


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

[User] What would have happened if Gandalf never forced Sauron out of Dol Guldur?

[Assistant]
Nothing.  Sauron would have just had a few extra undisturbed weeks or months before he left for Mordor anyway, he didn't want to stay in Dol Guldur forever when he could have rebuilt the much, much more secure fortress of Barad-dur in the relative safety of Mordor.

Pretty much after he was discovered he was almost ready to move to Mordor anyway, so the short answer is 'nothing.'  His army might have been a little bigger, but that's about it.


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

[User] Does salt actually "bring out flavor" in food or does it just make the food taste salty?

[Assistant]
In small amounts, salt does act as a flavor enhancer.  A small amount of salt (less than would take for something to taste salty) can mask or suppress bitterness and help balance sweet and sour.  There are several possibilities of how this works:

* Salt interacts with food molecules so that their ability to activate taste receptors is altered.

* Salt disrupts food binding, resulting in more aromatics released and more taste through the nose.

* Salt interacts almost exclusively with salt taste receptors but outgoing nerve impulses modify the action of other receptors at the level of the neuron signal (or to rephrase, the firing of a salt neuron interferes or promotes the firing of a non-salt neuron).

It is probably some combination of all three.
To demonstrate the flavor altering on your own, try adding a pinch of salt to espresso.  Taste before and after.


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

[User] ELI5: What are subnets and network masks and what is their purpose?

[Assistant]
Let's start from the basic thing as a cable. A cable where a few computers are connected to, together. Imagine that they all can hear each other via the cable directly, much like people who are in the same room. Computer network cards talk on that level.

At some point the rooms grew up to become so large that there was almost no quiet time left, and some people would have no time left to say all they had. At that point engineers invented a peer-to-peer discussions where people would talk only to another one person at a time and the room would magically make it so that only the peers can hear them talking. However, everyone would still need to shout "who is John?" if they have something to say to John and they never spoke to John before. John would hear that and reply directly. You can imagine that as the rooms grew to accept more people to "the network", the room became noisy again just from those shouts out.

At that point the engineers invented that there could be more than one room and that way they can keep the rooms semi-quiet. And the rooms would be connected by a corridor with a door - a gateway - in each room, with a gatekeeper who can pass your words to another room and their replies back. But there is a problem - people shouting names in one room cannot be heard in other rooms, therefore they won't receive an answer if they simply shot a name. They don't actually need to hear it, all they need to know is that they need to pass the message via the gatekeeper.

This is where we go back to our wire with the network card. The engineers were not allowed to change how the hardware worked, therefore they created a whole new level on top of the existing one. Let's name it the Internet Protocol (IP), also known as layer 3. All computer systems would start using the IP addresses, and each device would just know a way to convert layer 3 addresses to layer 2 addresses if they would be connected to the same cable.

Now going back to our rooms. While people's names are random (except they have to be unique, and they in fact are across all computers), we cannot say that everyone whose name starts with A is in room A. Everyone can be paced in any room. However the IP addresses were designed so that every address of a given room conforms to a certain rule, and every non conformant address is definitely outside this room. Those rules are the network masks from your question and the rooms are the subnets.

Now to say something to another person you need to take your IP address, apply the network mask on it, then do the same with the destination IP address and if the results are the same - the other person is in the same room and you can start talking directly. If the results are different then your need to pass your message to the gateway.


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

[User]
ELI5: How did the first clocks accurately measure seconds?

I understand it might be actually easy for hours, but seconds? Bonus points if you explain how to accurately measure seconds without a clock.

[Assistant]
Well, the short answer is they weren't super accurate at all. Even modern clocks are often a little off from one another, and there's not too much you can do about that with analog, safe technology. However, "clockwork" mechanisms such as springs and pendulums are able to output stored energy at a remarkably consistent rate, so the deviations in movement between clocks built to the same standard could be kept low enough that you only needed to adjust it every day or so.

As for how to measure seconds without a clock, seconds are based on the decay rate of cesium-133, so by measuring that decay in a sample you can get an extremely precise measure of seconds. Obviously that's very expensive and potentially dangerous though, so you're better off just using "one thousands" or "mississippis" like everyone else.


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

[User]
ELI5: In theory, how do all of the US government armed forces (Police, FBI, DEA, etc) rank and compare to each other?

Just walking around Penn Station, NY today, i saw..

- Over 5 army fatigue-clad guys standing around holding gigantic assault rifles / machine guns..
- Equally heavily armed "Homeland Security" police
- Standard NYPD guys just walking around

This just got me wondering. There are so many different authorities out there, I'm wondering how they rank? Off the top of my head, I can think of:

- nsa agents
- secret service agents
- cia agents
- fbi agents
- homeland security
- Military Police
- DEA agents
- US Marshals
- State Police
- Local Police

I'm going to make up a scenario.

Lets say you had 2 armed officers from each of these categories, standing around at a government banquet in the middle of a place where you can't call back-up very easily. Suddenly, there's a crisis situation! Maybe terrorists attacking, Die Hard style, or something.

Who instantly has like the most authority? Does it even work that way? How many of them could arrest a civilian if they needed to? If they needed to work together, would one of them 'officially' have the most authority to coordinate them?

Is there any kind of heiarchy to all of this? I'd really love to know who has the most sway, the most power, and in any kind of emergency situation, who ranks above who else.

EDIT: I'm specifically referring to the ARMED AGENTS for these different forces. For example, I've read the NSA/CIA (etc) all have armed personnel who work specifically for them.

[Assistant]
They all have different responsibilities.   The Federal level is above the State.  And the State level is above the Local.  State level in most states acts as a sheriffs department which is just like your local police, but across the entire state and used often for rural areas that do not have a local police force.

In the case of a terrorist attack, the FBI, the CIA, the NSA, and Homeland Security would all work on the locating the perpetrators, figuring out how they did it, and if there is any other imminent threats.

The CIA would most likely work on gathering intelligence about the chain of command across the world, taking them to wherever the idea of the attack developed.  The NSA would start gathering intelligence domestically through wiretaps.  The FBI would do more of the foot work in investigating the actual scene and probably do some intelligence gathering of their own.  Homeland Security would start investigating who the people were by checking immigration records and other international criminal activities associated with the event.  Homeland Security also controls the TSA at the airport, so they would be responsible for figuring out how the terrorists were able to avoid any detection at the airport when first coming to the US and if they were on any warning lists, like the do not fly list.

For example, if a murder happened in a city that has a local police force they will be the first to the scene.  If the crime involves a larger matter, like a series of murders that goes across state boundaries, then the FBI would take over.  The more complex and spread out the crime the more likely the local police would hand off the case to the FBI.  The local police usually remains to provide local assistance and lower level investigation (door to door questions, local probes, etc).

**Intelligence -**  There are 16 intelligence elements in the United States that are supposed to work alone and together.  The over-arching umbrella over these 16 elements is led by the Director of National Intelligence.

NSA and CIA.  The NSA is under the Department of Defense.  The CIA is an independent agency, but they are all suppose to report to the President with daily briefings and to work together, especially after 9/11.

**Department of Justice -**

Federal Investigations:  FBI

Drugs:  DEA

US Marshalls: More or less the police for the Courts. They handle warrants, transporting prisoners, track fugitives

**Homeland Security -**  Responsible for protecting the citizenry from a terrorist attack before it happens

Secret Service:  Protects the current and past president's and their families, as well as foreign dignitaries.  They are also responsible for preventing the counterfeiting of US currency and US treasury bonds notes.

Many others:  TSA, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Citizenship and Immigration Services, Customs and Border Protection.

Edit:  Changed state level police per the comments below.


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

[User] ELI5: How did "cheat" cartridges like Game Genie work and find cheats and hidden options in games?

[Assistant]
Such cheat cartridges modified parameters in memory. The modern equivalent of this would be like Cheatengine for PC.

As an example, let's say you're playing a beat 'em up and want infinite lives. While you're playing the game, the game needs to know how many lives you currently have. This is stored in memory (in hexidicimal, which is base 16 - essentially 0-9, and A-F as digits instead of just 0-9). 00 would be zero lives, 02 as 2 lives, 0A as 11 lives, etc etc etc. The game genie modifies the value to be for example, FF - 255 lives.


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

[User]
[Daredevil MCU] Fisk says he is biding his time until he gets out. Now he was prosecuted by matt and foggy so I dont think for a secodn he got off easy. So what does he mean behave until he is released legally? Hes going to be serving multiple life sentences.

For a second*

He has high level drug distribution measured in multiple tons. Human trafficking, more murders than almost any one else in history that was not a war crime when one can get you a life sentance, repeat ad nauseum. He would be serving multiple life sentences in a super max and could arguably be the biggest criminal arrest of all time. He will never legally be let out ever. So what does he mean legally?

[Assistant] He'll be released on probation for good behavior, and his parole officer will never report him. He already got himself put into state prison instead of federal, and it's a small feat compared to everything else he pulled off.


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

[User] [X-Men Movies] What happened between X-Men Origins and X-Men to turn Sabretooth into a long haired mute who didn't recognise his own brother?

[Assistant] Drugs, probably. Stryker was all about trying to build a better super-soldier. The surgery wouldn't work for Victor, so presumably he tried a different tack. This apparently resulted him in growing a foot of extra height and two feet of extra hair, and losing most of his intelligence and memories.


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

[User] When the US pays out stimulus money, does that undermine the value of the dollar?

[Assistant]
it depends. it depends on whether we are operating at full employment, which we currently arent (and anytime were sending out stimulus checks we probably wont be). it also depends who receives it. low earners have a much higher propensity to consume so if checks only went out to low earners, it would likely have a relatively stronger effect on inflation. also, where did we get these funds from? did we reduce spending in other areas (a reallocation of funds)? whats the fed doing during all of this? are they selling bonds to try to counteract any potential inflation from this spending, or is it not necessary because the economy is doing so bad? whats the federal funds rate, interest rates, reserve requirements? the point is theres many unknowns and no simple answer.

if you want to learn about some of the fundamental macro views on inflation, read a bit about Friedman and Phelps nobel prize winning contributions and what is known as the expectations augmented Phillips curve. theres some pretty sick theories in this field such as adaptive or rational expectations. i also recommend reading about The Great Inflation in the 60s and 70s, which we learned a lot from. theres also the new keynesian version of the phillips curve which hasnt been around for too long i dont think. its also important to understand the relationship between unemployment and output gap (Okuns law), how inflation is actually measured (look up CPI), and the government spending multiplier.


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

[User] [Star-Wars] Why Does Almost Everyone Still Use Physical Media?

[Assistant]
I have to imagine that transmitting information across the galaxy is either incredibly expensive, takes too long, or both. Much easier to pack it onto a disc-analogue and ferry it yourself, most planets/local solar systems can have information beamed locally, but once you start trying to reach out into space, it gets tricky.

Imagine you're a freighter in the middle of empty space, it would be super inconvenient that you could no longer navigate starcharts simply because the wi-fi is down, why not just have a physical copy of the galaxy maps that get updated at the start and end of every delivery?


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

[User]
[General] Who are some other personification characters like Judge Holden?

So right now Im reading through Blood Meridian (not even done with it but its already my favorite book) and I absolutely love The Judge.

Hes somewhat based on a real person, but in-Universe, hes supposedly the personification of war and torture. Hes not an outward personification like say Dream from The Sandman, more like hes mysterious enough that he very well could be the personification, but its not confirmed.

What are some other characters like this?

[Assistant]
Javik from Mass Effect 3 is the personification of vengeance. In his own words, hes the anger of a dead race (the protheans). Hes trying to help you take on the reapers, sentient machines who wiped out his race 50,000 years ago and are doing he same in the present day of Mass Effect 3.

Personality wise, he is concerned with very little other than winning the war, and openly says hell kill himself if you win (unless you do the right dialogue choices), and he will stop at nothing to see it through, saying Shepard Stand in the ashes of a trillion dead souls, and ask the ghosts if honor matters. The silence is your answer.


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

[User] Can electrons experience the Doppler effect?

[Assistant] In the sense that they will appear to have more or less kinetic energy depending on which reference frame they are viewed in. It's an analogous to the Doppler effect of light, which itself is analogous in a different way to the Doppler effect in sound, if that makes sense.


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

[User]
When funding the federal government, why is borrowing different from printing?

This might be a nonsensical question/incorrectly asked. When the government runs a deficit they issue treasury bonds and/or borrow from banks/foreign governments. Why does this not cause inflation in the way printing would? Both increase the money supply so I don't understand why the government wouldn't just print.

[Assistant]
The federal reserve loans money to member banks, it creates this money from nothing.  This is where money in America comes from.  The reason it is done this way is to control how much money is in circulation.  If the amount of money in circulation doesn't match the amount of goods and services available inflation or deflation occurs.

To combat this the federal reserve sets an interest rate for its loans.  If too much money is circulating the federal reserve raises this interest rate.  Fewer loans are issued while the existing loans are repaid thereby removing that money from the economy.  What does the federal reserve do with the repaid money?  Puts it back where it came from, into nothing.

Government spending is paid for by taxes and fees. It issues bonds to raise extra money.  The federal reserve and it's activities are not apart of this process.

I've glossed over a lot here but hopefully that answers your question.


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

[User] ELI5: Why the fruit cake hate?

[Assistant] I think it's mostly because there's lots of ways to do it wrong, and done improperly it turns into an unappealing brick that gains a social stigma. However, since your grandma seems to be a good baker, they can taste great.


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

[User]
ELI5:What happens to light from a laser pointer if I shine it up into the sky at night?

Provided it doesn't hit a pilot in the eye!

[Assistant]
You get arrested for violating FAA rules. Up to 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Jokes aside, there will be some slight scattering caused by the atmosphere and imperfections in the laster, but the photons will continue on until they hit something, but the circle the laser shines light to will get bigger and bigger over time and it will get harder and harder to detect due to being less and less intense as it spreads out.


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

[User] ELI5:Why does paralysis occur? Why don't nerve cells regenerate and reconnect like other cells?

[Assistant]
Okay, so you know how cells are really really small?  Well, in nerve cells that's not quite true. Nerve cells have normal sized bodies, but then really really long tails (axons) that connect them to other cells or parts of your body. The nerve that feels a spot on your big toe lives all the way up in the spinal cord... It's part of a single cell, not a chain of cells.

That long tail doesn't travel alone... The body bundles it together with other nerve cells going to a similar place, and surrounds the whole thing with connective tissue to protect it. Very similar to a bundle of cables in a computer, but with many many more cables.

Now imagine cutting through part of that bundle. Well, the cells themselves are alive and well, but the tail that has been cut off will die.

The cell will try to regrow along the connective tissue guide that's left behind, and sometimes it can if the injury is a nice clean slice. Sometimes the nerve will reconnect to the wrong tube, but the brain will sort that out (mostly).  So you can totally regain some movement/function after an injury like this.

But usually there's just not enough of a guide for the nerve to know where to grow to. Often the new nerve tail just ends up making a messy ball at the injury site (which causes all new problems). The nerve tails don't end up where they need to be, so you lose the function of that nerve. If the injury is bad enough, and enough nerves can't find there way back to the right places, you permanently lose function.


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

[User] ELI5: If both parties agree gerrymandering is bad and accusing the other side of the aisle, what is truly preventing gerrymandering from being outlawed?

[Assistant] Gerrymandering is only bad for one party, and it's great for the other. So despite both parties agreeing that it can be bad, they also know they can benefit greatly from it. The benefit for them outweighs the detriment, no matter how much they want to whine about how bad it is to appease to voters. After all, they might lose some districts if they end gerrymandering.


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

[User]
Does the infinite series 1/1-1/2+1/3-1/4... converge?

I know the series 1 + 1/2 + 1/3 ... diverges, but if the sign changes every entry, does it still diverge?

[Assistant] The alternating harmonic series converges to log(2). You can prove its convergence using... the alternating series test. As for determining the exact value that's a matter of integrating the alternating geometric series term by term and using Abel's theorem.


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

[User]
Do oscillations truly go to zero, and if not, do we now how small they can decrease to?

Consider a simple system of a 1 degree of freedom spring-mass/damper oscillator. When solving the differential equation that represents the equation of motion, we often get results that decay to a limit of 0 due to an exponential--i.e. overdamping, underdamping, and critical damping.

I was wondering, do these ever truly go to zero? I realize it's most likely similar to cutting something in half over and over again trying to get to zero mass, but at SOME point you hit subatomic particles and can't get anywhere. So do we know of a point at which oscillations seem to stay at a constant value very near zero?

More importantly, is my body still feeling that punch from the 3rd grade?

[Assistant]
Even if it never goes away, at some point, the energy will be just as dispersed in the atoms as the rest of the regular jostles of kinetic, rotational, and vibrational energy that is heat.

It's like asking if your footprints are still in the grass of your grade school yard. Well, the grass wouldn't be in the exact configuration it's in now had you never walked on it, but... come on. You wouldn't  know the difference if you were shown the grass without your interference.


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

[User] eli5: What is rent seeking and most specifically defensive rent seeking?

[Assistant]
Rent seeking is behavior that increases someone's income without increasing wealth.  In economics, most transactions are done because both people are better off, when a baker sells a loaf of bread it's because the baker values the money more than the bread, while the buyer values the bread higher than the money.

An economic rent is something that doesn't do that.  A simple example is a license to be a baker.  If the government only wants 20 bakeries in the town, and makes that many licenses there will be 20 bakers who get the licenses and who make more money than bakers in the next town over, but whose bread doesn't make their buyers any better off.


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

[User] ELI5: Is Vsync simply a lock to FPS in relation to monitor refresh rate or does it do anything else beside this?

[Assistant]
Imagine you have two people copying a series of pictures. One guy is drawing the picture, and then projecting it onto a wall a few yards away. The second guy is then sitting there and copying down what is displayed on the projector.

Generally speaking, it would work fine (Assuming the second guy is good at copying). You'd end-up with two stacks of pictures that are identical - One being the original copy, and the other being the copy made by the second guy.

More then likely though, you'll quickly notice that they're *not* identical. The problem is that the first guy wasn't drawing pictures and then displaying them at the same rate the second guy was copying them. So, for example, the second guy may be half-way through a copy, and then the first guy is done with the next picture and switch it out on the projector. The second guy just keeps copying though (He doesn't even noticed the picture was switched!), so the second-half of his copy is now from the second picture. (The first half was from the first displayed picture, the second-half is from the second displayed picture).

Obviously this is an issue. The easy solution is to simply have the second guy signal to the first guy when he's ready for the next picture. So, for example, when he finishes creating a copy of the first image, he holds up a flag that the first guy can see. When that happens, the first guy switches out the picture on the projector, and then starts on the next image. Then the second guy copies that next picture, and then puts the flag up again to signal for another picture. By doing this, as long as the first guy can draw pictures that fast, the two sets of pictures will be identical.

This is generally how your monitor works with your graphics card. Your graphics card works and draws the picture, and then displays it to the monitor (Like placing it on the projector). While it displays it to the monitor, it starts drawing the next picture at the same time. The 'Vsync' signal is the flag, and it's the monitor telling the graphics card that it's done copying and displaying the current picture and to give it the next one. If you have a 60hz monitor, then it displays and asks for a new picture 60 times a second.

As you noted, the Vsync signal allows the program to display high FPS content without the problem of the graphics card and the monitor getting out of sync (Resulting in the monitor only displaying part of the picture before the graphics card switches to the next).


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

[User] [Avatar:TLA] Would Aang have been able to defeat the fire nation if he did not run away?

[Assistant] In all likelihood no. If anything, he still would have run away but with Monk Gyatsu by his side, as Gyatsu went by Aang's room in the middle of the night to take Aang away but found that Aang had already left.


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

[User]
Other authors in journal don't follow formatting requirements-- should I ask the editor if I have to?

I've finished a paper after 6 months of work, and I've found that the philosophy journal I'm submitting to doesn't allow self-referential phrases like "I think". I'm confused as to whether this also includes first-person plural phrases like "Let us examine..." or "Before we move on...", or references to the essay ("This essay will..."). Finally, I've noticed that other articles in this journal do use phrases like "I think".

I want to write the editor and ask, but I've already bothered him twice, firstly asking if they'd be interested in this essay (before I decided to finish writing it), and secondly asking if there was a word count for my kind of article. So I don't want to bother him again or seem unprofessional, but I'm also at a loss for how much I need to change my essay, if at all.

[Assistant]
So your options are to ask and bug him a third time but get an answer, or to do the best you can and submit what you have and possibly find out then that you did it wrong?

You sound a little hesitant to put yourself out there. I'd recommend finding a colleague who had previously used that journal and asking her/him all your questions, searching any related website thoroughly (I'd imagine word count would be stipulated there, if it is a requirement), modeling what you have after existing articles in that journal, and then asking remaining questions to the editor.


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

[User] Do black holes have equatorial bulge?

[Assistant]
There isn't really a shape to a black hole. The horizon is topologically a sphere, and that's about all you can really say. The actual shape could be spherical, or ellipsoidal, or some odd looking blob thing. It depends on the observer. A non rotating, uncharged black hole is perfectly spherically symmetric, but this just implies there is a class of observers for which the horizon is a perfect sphere. An observer that is boosted with respect to the black hole will not observe a sphere.

There's also the issue of what you would see versus what is actually true in your frame. You cannot directly see the horizon and must infer its shape from nearby radiation. For instance, a Schwarzschild black hole as seen from a stationary observer looks spherical, but it looks bigger than it actually is. This is because there are photons that are captured by the black hole beyond the cross section of the black hole. Nearby matter may also distort radiation and the black hole itself acts as a gravitational lens.


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

[User]
Buoyancy of vacuum?

So, a balloon filled with Helium flies because the gas inside the balloon is lighter than the gas in the atmosphere, correct? This also works when air is heated up. It's lighter, because it is less dense.

Let's assume I could build a sphere, light as the rubber hull from a balloon but as stiff that I can create a vacuum in it. Would it fly extremely fast upwards?

Thank you for your answers :-)

[Assistant]
The buoyant force is equal to the weight of the displaced fluid, and the net force is the weight of the displaced fluid minus the weight of what you have replaced it with. The density of helium at sea level is 0.18 kg/m^3, or about 15% of the density of air. So a hard vacuum will still only experience a small amount greater of buoyant force as compared to the helium balloon.

When you release the balloon, air resistance is preventing it from accelerating upwards ever faster, so it will only ever rise around sqrt(1.15) (7%)  faster than the helium balloon, neglecting weight of the balloon itself.


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

[User]
[The Dark Knight] Why didnt Batman and Gordon blame Dents murders on the Jokers minions?

Wouldve been a lot cleaner and Batman neednt have become a fugitive.

[Assistant]
The purpose of Batman taking the fall for Dent's murders is twofold:

The first, obviously, is to clean Dent's image and make Harvey a role model and symbol for justice in Gotham.

The second purpose is to *remove* Batman as a symbol for justice in Gotham. Sounds crazy right? Well, hear me out.

As said by Gordon, Batman isn't the hero Gotham *needs* right now. Batman was a good symbol of justice, and he did combat crime rather effectively, but his methods were... Rather violent and less than legal. It inspired copycats (which almost got killed during their appearance, and then finally got offed by the Joker). This is what happens when Batman is alive and well, and operates normally. Imagine the amount of copy cats that would come if Batman sudden disappeared and was no longer around to fight crime, thinking they need to help uphold "justice".

Harvey Dent meanwhile, represents the "White Knight", a more "clean" version of justice, less violent, and most importantly: Legal.

By replacing Batman as the ideal symbol of justice in Gotham, it paves the way for more legal and stable methods of controlling crime: Including the "Harvey Dent act" we are presented with in the next movie. Instead of people wanting to become vigilantes like Batman, they will instead strive to become lawyers, attorneys, police officers etc.


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

[User] I had to break a spider's web to get to my door. I then watched as it went up and down the leftover web strings and gather them all up in ball. Why did he do this? Can he "re-use" the string?

[Assistant] Some spiders will gather their webs and eat them on a daily basis.  Since spider silk is a fairly protein-rich substance, the spider can subsist off of it until prey is caught.  Since you broke the web, it was no longer of any use as a trap.  The spider collected it, ate it, and will produce another.


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

[User]
CMV: Mask mandates are awesome. The government cant tract you with facial recognition or cctv.

The government cant track you with facial recognition cameras and cctv.  So if youre going to commit a crime wear a mask and leave your cellphone at home, pay In cash.   I cant stand anti maskers who claim they dont trust the govt.  wouldnt they want to hide their identity at all times.

Like Im paranoid as hell and I hate people being able to identify me walking down the street or whatever Im doing.  Besides, wearing mask at protest is great if your gonna fuck things up.  Its totally normal.  Gonna rob a bank, wear a mask and a hat.  They wont suspect anything.   Gonna run a red light.  They gotta prove your driving.  Gonna go to the porn shop. Wear a mask and Hat, pay in cash and they wont be able to recognize you, you filthy animal.  Gonna pick up a hooker, wear a mask and describe hat.  Change my view.

Edit.  Mask are also good Bc you cant smell the stench of alcohol on my breath, I havent shaved and how terrible I look.  So all you ugly fucks wear a mask.

[Assistant] The body of your post would make sense if the title was "Masks are awesome". But you say very little about mandates. You don't need a mask mandate to wear a mask. You can just wear a mask even if it's not required.


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

[User]
[Star Trek] Why are Vulcans such assholes to different cultures?

It seems to me that being antagonistic to other species would only cause hostilities and therefor be illogical.  Particularly I'm watching Enterprise and they seem to almost go out of their way to be dicks.

[Assistant]
The important thing to realize is that Vulcans aren't nearly as good as humans are at reading what other humans are thinking.

Humans are one of the most highly evolved species for creating working theory-of-mind of our own species.  Autistics aside, we're near telepathic with our ability to anticipate the actions of someone else.  That's why games with hidden information like poker are so popular with humans, whereas Vulcans gravitate more towards full knowledge games like chess.

Vulcans create mental models of the humans they deal with, and that model assumes we are perfectly logical.  When they are "antagonistic" what they're actually doing is saying "we find you inferior."  Vulcans do not consider such a thing offensive to say, they have less emphasis on saving face.

Where Vulcans fail is that they assume we, too, think logically.  They operate from failed premises.  When we fail to respond, they double down by showcasing their superiority to make the situation clear.  They imagine our non-compliance to be because we didn't get the power disparity.

Vulcans are smart, but their psychology isn't the same as ours is.  In many ways they're actually quite similar to Klingons -- they are extremely direct and honest.  They say what they mean and mean what they say, and if they have feelings so sufficient that they want someone else to truly get them, they mind-meld.


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

[User] ELI5:What role does hydration play in being tired?

[Assistant] Water is great for moving things around in the body, such as blood. If you don't have enough water your muscles can't move quite as well, and (for a personal anecdote) you could even get a headache as well as feeling tired.


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

[User]
ELI5: What is special about light that makes it so fast?

is it something special about the photon? This seems like such a basic fundamental question, i feel like I should know but have no idea.

[Assistant]
It's actually a pretty sophisticated topic.

What's special about a photon is that it has *no resting mass.* In other words, it's not made by taking an existing particle and then speeding it up and shooting it off in some direction. Instead, it is initially created at its full speed (the speed of light, or "c" for short). That's crucial because it's physically impossible to accelerate a particle up to c, because its mass would keep increasing up toward infinity as it got faster and faster.


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

[User]
[Little Shop of Horrors] How were all the Audrey II clones that were sold to the public able to tempt them into murder?

The original Audrey II promised Seymour success which it was able to deliver. However, the only reason it was able to attract all that attention was that it was a "strange, interesting new plant" that no one had ever seen before.

Once everyone has an Audrey II in their house, it seems like it would lose the novelty and not be able to attract as much interest. So how were the plants able to persuade the owners to feed them long enough to make them as big as they were in the original ending?

[Assistant] Oh, *all* of them weren't. Just... enough of them. One or two in every neighborhood that wanted *something* the plants could offer them, or had someone they resented badly enough to kill them once they had a sure means of disposal, was all it took.


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

[User]
[DC] How does a Green Lantern abilities work?

Ok so i know the Green Lantern is powered by Willpower and using that you create it constructs or use its abilities but for the complex stuff like for example if you want to create a robot then besides willpower do you have to actually know how the robot is made or just imagine and will it? or what about Time Travel, does the user have to know anything or just will themselves to time travel?

Note: Just started reading so not up to date but i dont mind spoilers if it helps with the answer.

[Assistant]
There are two ways to make constructs. Let's use a crossbow as an example. The easy way is to make the construct look and act like a crossbow. User tells the power ring to program the construct with three behaviours: pull a trigger, crossbow goes "twang", the missile fires in that direction.

The hard way is to completely build a crossbow from scratch. This means creating dozens of parts with different attributes. One construct has to act like wood, another one has to act like the string, and so on. Then all the constructs have to be fitted together exactly like a crossbow.

Most Lanterns do it the easy way. Create a construct that looks and acts like a robot but doesn't have any internals or electronics.

In the case of time travel, the power ring doesn't have that capability, so the user have to be able to visualize and construct a time machine from scratch, one component at a time.


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

[User] On the ISS do they have to adjust for flatulence because of the closed loop environment?

[Assistant]
No, there are multiple, different types of filters responsible for removing components of the air.

Carbon Dioxide, being the main culprit, is absorbed on a zeolite and dumped overboard (by reheating).

Other minor impurities (such as methane and thiols from your butt) are captured in Carbon filters, which are regularly replaced and disposed of.


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

[User]
[General] Are there any Villains that hate bullies ?

I have heard damn near every Hero say they hate bullies. Is there any Villains that hate em 2 ?

[Assistant] More than you might think.  Villains are more often bullied/abused by their parents than by their peers, and many have an empathy for bullied kids.  Eddie Brock and Juggernaut, even as villains, wouldn't tolerate seeing a kid be abused.  Titania, often associated with the Frightful Four, was bullied as a kid by her peers and still suffers a few phobias that require hypnotic or technological control.


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

[User] [Muppets] Are the muppets all one species and race? Or are they 1 species but lots of different races? What language does Beaker speak?

[Assistant]
They are a ton of different species. Bears, frogs, aliens, humans, pigs, fraggles, frackles, doozers, dingers, etc etc etc.

Beaker speaks English, but he's usually too terrified to say anything other than a frantic "meep".


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is it that modern professional athletes are/seem so much more talented than original teams in the past?

I understand that equipment gets better in relation to better technology but why does it seem that, for example, a modern NHL player would just absolutely demolish a player from, say, 1975. Are there other underlying reasons why it seems that modern teams are more talented than their predecessors?

BASICALLY, why is it that the overall skill level seems so much higher in today's professional sports?

[Assistant]
Money, technology, retained knowledge, cooperation between sports and other fields.

A professional athlete from 1975 probably started playing when they were young, then started taking it seriously when they got higher up in rank. At the same time, they were probably working to support themselves. A modern pro-athlete will have spent a lot more time training by the time they are 18, then they are compensated a lot to maintain an intense training schedule.

When the athletes are training, they now have cheap stopwatches, flat springy surfaces to train on, isolation machines to grow specific muscles, ect, ect. This is much better than what was available in the past.

The coaches and trainers and even parents of athletes have the benifit of looking back at past athletes to see what training methods worked and which didn't. Therefor, the modern athlete will be given better instruction during their training with less chance of injury.

Fields like medicine, engineering and nutrition have all contributed to the pool of knowledge that the athletes, coaches and trainers can draw from. Some things are simple like the lesson of tackling lower to give you more leverage. Other things are more complicated like supplementation in the diet of creatine, protein, ect.


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

[User] ELI5: How do "instincts" actually work, and what part of the brain is that located in?

[Assistant]
Instincts are basically "prewired" skills/experiences. They work exactly like a learned response, just that you don't have to learn them because they are written into your DNA.

Just how learned functions of your brain they can be located in many areas, depending on what kind of instinct they are. For example prewired emotions (like primal fears) are located in your amygdala together with all learned emotions.


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

[User]
If Earth had a huge equatorial ocean like it did in the past, would it be possible we'd observe persistent hurricanes lasting months or even years, like a mini-version of Jupiter's great red spot?

What about rocky planets larger than Earth or planets completely covered in ocean? Might permanent or semi-permanent weather-features exist there, or are such storms a rarity even among gas giants?

[Assistant]
Not quite.

Global winds and ocean currents on planets are based off numerous factors.

- The tilt of the planet (not just seasons, but if influences the amount of sunlight at the equator and the poles)

- Positioning of continents (alters ocean currents)

- Positioning of continents (warm and cold air)

- Speed of the planet rotation (Coriolis effect)

- Size of Planet

- What 'substances' are being involved (we still don't know for sure what is in the Great Red Spot).

If earth contained only land at the poles, and was just ocean from 60S to 60N, you would see some systematic weather. Earth (with continents) has ocean currents surround our continents and impact our climates.

An example: Western Europe should be Taiga (as Taiga forests usually occur around 60N and 60S). However, the Gulf Stream which hits the Eastern United States Seaboard provides warm currents to Europe; Europe, as we know, contains deciduous forest.

_____

Now about Jupiter and other planets:

It is not uncommon for gas giants to have bizarre weather. There is little 'atmosphere', let alone friction from the surface of the planet. We still don't know what makes the Great Red Spot 'exist'. A theory is that hot gases rise to higher levels, eddies form, and ultimately fuel the Great Red Spot.

Anticyclonic storms, or storms which 'spin' in the wrong direction (like Great Red Spot), are not impacted by the Coriolis effect because they are so 'small' compared to the planet's size. We know this because tornados on Earth can sometimes spin backwards.


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

[User] ELI5:Why isn't the public allowed to read the details of the TTP trade deal?

[Assistant] The TTP trade agreement/treaty contains clauses which are not in your best interest. Instead, it serves the interests of large corporations who have been working with the government in secret for ~10 years crafting the language. It changes the Intellectual Property rules and signatory countries have to change their domestic laws and policies to match the TPP. This will have a huge impact on the ability of companies to get pharmaceutical generics (low cost drugs) on the market. It also appears to allow international companies to effectively sue governments for enacting legislation that hurts their profits. The decision in this legal battle will be adjudicated in private, by a group of people not elected by the public, and their decisions will be binding, and will impact the legislation of the countries impacted. Many suspect this will lead to a loosening of the regulatory schemes in all signatory countries, including the US. In some ways, the TTP agreement raises large corporations and their desires above governments, and the desires of the public at large. They don't want you to read it, because you would naturally oppose it. If they can get it fast-tracked and signed off before you can do anything about it, it will be too late. Treaties tend to be binding and not easily rescinded.


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

[User]
CMV: Social media/Big Tech changed policy and banned Trump AFTER congress reconvened and finished certifying Bidens Electoral College win. They ONLY changed to follow the power, so they wouldnt be legislated/ look bad. It had nothing to do with enticing violence.

Tech and business with political contributions are stating that they are changing their stance on Trump "due to the risk of further enticement of violence". They don't care about anything but click revenue and not being legislated/ looking bad.

Their tipping point was **only after** Biden's win was certified. They didn't care about 57,067 tweets he sent out prior to banning him.

They sure didn't care about the violence at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia,in 2017 when a car plowed into counter protesters and a woman died. He said, "very fine people on both sides.".

Prior to Biden being certified by Pence, (According to FactBase)  Twitter flagged \~ 500 tweets of Trump's with election misinformation. **That's it. Some flagged tweets!** No one else said a peep. Not Apple, or Google, or Amazon, or companies with political donations.

They only care about who is in power, and revenue.

[Assistant]
Twitter had longstanding policies that they made clear that they viewed President Trump as violating.

They also made clear that President Trump was getting a pass on the rules because he was a government official.

Deciding it wasn't in the best interest to continue to allow him to flout their rules after an attempted insurrection when he only had a couple weeks left in office seems pretty reasonable.


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

[User]
[Ghost in the Shell] Why do cybernetics allow for wi-fi connection?

You'd think with all the people that can hack things with their mind (even having terms like "wizard-class hacker" to describe such people), nobody would design cybernetics that can be connected to wirelessly. But yet we see people hacking body parts all the time. For example, hacking someone's eyes to make them hallucinate in order to win a gunfight.

Why would any company allow this? Did they not have the foresight to make their devices only accessible through wired connections?

[Assistant] Why do major companies store sensitive information on computers that connect to the internet, often over wifi? Because the benefits outweigh the costs, and most of the time security is good enough. In GitS the wizard class hackers that can hack eyes are either super rare, or require a ton of high class equipment that only a government or multinational corp could provide. So for most cases, having a wifi enabled brain case is like using a wifi enabled smartphone - not an issue for most people.


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

[User] ELI5: Why isn't the capsaicin molecule broken during the cooking process? Why is the food still spicy afterwards?

[Assistant]
Capsaicin is very stable, heat doesn't destroy it and freezing has no effect on it.
Acids dont neutralize it, either. In fact, quite the opposite. Acids help preserve the heat in capsaicin.

Edit: NOT ALL acids neutralize capsaicin. Acetic acid can neutralize it, albeit with large amounts.


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

[User] ELI5 Why does alcohol work as a sterilizing agent?

[Assistant] Alcohol breaks down a cell's wall, and the cell falls apart. Imagine a liquid that when poured over a balloon just destroyed the rubber part of the balloon. Then all the water and such pours out and the cell is thus killed, and this works on nearly all cells (not 100%, but roughly 99%).


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

[User]
[star wars] aftermath of the clone wars

After rewatching episode 3 and the clone wars series, I'm left wondering about what happened to all the ships in space or orbit that didn't blow up. What happened to them did crews from either side take care of them or was it left to the planet below.

[Assistant] As is the case with most abandoned ships, pirates and smugglers will come in shortly afterwards to strip them of anything useable. Weapons and medkits first, especially medkits that contain bacta, then food and general supplies. More established pirates would probably transport the ship to a chop shop and have it dismantled for parts, but smaller pirating units will just take supplies and data.


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

[User] [Star Wars] What If Anakin killed Obi Wan then killed Darth Sidious?

[Assistant]
He would've ruled the Empire, raised Luke and Leia himself and eventually I'd assume Leia and Luke would overthrow Vader when they became strong enough and that would create a huge civil war in the Empire, Luke vs Leia for the throne.

Edit: Padme still would've died.


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

[User]
You can solve any 2-d maze by following the rule 'Always turn left,' but what rule reliably solves 3-d mazes?

...or always turn right, obviously, so long as you stick to the one rule for your journey. It's not necessarily the fastest route, but it's going to get you to the end.

What simple rule could get you to the end of a three-dimensional maze?

Edit:
I'm thinking of static mazes where there is an entry point *from* the outside, and a destination exit point *to* the outside.

[Assistant] Tremaux's algorithm assumes you have a piece of chalk handy, and will apparently solve any maze. Basically, draw a line where you have already gone, prefer paths with no line, and avoid any paths that already have two lines.


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

[User]
[Fallout 2] What's a G.E.C.K?

Hi. I'm a villager of arroyo. Things have been getting pretty bad here lately with all of the droughts and famine but luckily the Elder has sent the chosen in on a quest to find a piece of technology that is suppose to save the tribe. It's called a G.E.C.K and according to the elder it will save the village.

But I was wondering... What the heck is a G.E.C.K and what does it do? And how will it save us? The elder was kind of vague on what does. Also how does it even work anyway?

[Assistant]
From the *Fallout Bible*:

> It contains a fertilizer system, with a variety of food seeds, soil supplements, and chemicals that could fertilize arid wasteland (and possibly selected sections of the moon's surface pre-conditioned to accept the GECK) into supporting farming. The GECK is intended to be "disassembled" over the course of its use to help build communities (for example, the cold fusion power source is intended to be used for main city power production), and so on. Anything else people needed, they could simply consult the How-To Books/Library of Congress/Encyclopedias in the GECK holodisk library for more knowledge. The pen flashlight was just a bonus.


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

[User]
Why is an ordinary old computer able to beat an average-decent chess player, while it takes a supercomputer to beat a grand master?

Perhaps my question is a bit of strawman, - as what's considered 'average' is probably actually quite skilled. So, I'm not sure that ordinary computers can beat the 'average' player - I'm basing this on my old 486 constantly beating me when I was younger. :)

But if we can proceed with the question - Is there some kind of theory that explains human knowledge/skill in terms of computer power?

[Assistant] It doesn't take a supercomputer to beat a grandmaster anymore. You're probably thinking of Kasparov's match, but remember he was playing against a supercomputer from the 90's. A good chess engine running on a normal PC can easily beat today's top ranked players. The software has also gotten a lot better. An HTC Touch HD reached grandmaster level in a tournament.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is concrete so strong if it is basically just water, sand, and cement that has dried?

At the molecular level, what makes concrete so strong that we can make enormous buildings and support so much weight on it?

[Assistant] Concrete (mostly Calcium Oxide, CaO) doesn't "dry" in the conventional sense: the water doesn't leave, it chemically binds with the CaO and CO2 from the air to form interlocking crystals of Calcium Carbonate. This reaction even happens underwater.


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

[User] ELI5: When and why did 8 hours of sleep become the standard for a solid nights rest?

[Assistant]
It is thought that we originally slept in 4 hour increments, and obviously always had to have people tending to a fire for the majority of our existence(Society and everything is relatively recent).

I would think 8 hours of sleep came around the time of post-industrialization, and that it really hasn't been standardized till recently.

For some people 8 hours is also too much, it really isn't a standard, just a guarantee that you'll get enough.

As you age you actually need less sleep.


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

[User] [Marvel] How does The Punisher earn money? Does he have a job? Does he rent property?

[Assistant]
Frank takes money, ammo, and weapons from the criminals he kills. In a way, the gangs are funding their greatest enemy.

His job is killing criminals, but he has been know to take assassination contracts also. As long as the target is a criminal.

Frank doesn't usually have one set base of operations, he tends to stay mobile.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do brain surgeons remove tumors/foreign objects from the brain without damaging the tissue directly surrounding it?

Especially in the case where a tumor is not at the top/surface regions of the brain. How can they possibly go passed brain tissue without damaging it? As I understand you cant simply regrow brain cells so wouldnt the patient lose significant functions of the brain or memories or abilities or something?

[Assistant]
So there are a number of things to talk about here, but the very simple answer is that usually they damage it a little bit, but it's very minor. The brain can't regrow but it can adapt, and it can regain function that's lost due to small injuries.

In terms of access -- the surgeons will cut a line through the brain tissue and then sort of spread it apart. It's the same if you're having abdominal surgery. The surgeon there won't cut a big patch of skin off the top, they'll make an incision and then pull the skin apart. It's the same with brain tissue, so only a very small amount gets damaged. The surgeons can then insert their instruments (and often a camera) through the gap to cut out the tumour.

Unfortunately, some tumours are in very sensitive areas (like the brainstem), where even a small amount of tissue damage is likely to severely impact vital things like breathing or heart control.

In terms of avoiding damage to surrounding structures once you're there, there's a lot to consider. Firstly, some tumours (such as meningiomas) are big and chunky, like a single solid ball in the brain. They stop very suddenly, and there's a clear border between the edge of the tumour and brain tissue. The surgeons can very carefully cut along this border and take out all of the tumour with a very tiny loss of surrounding brain tissue.

Some tumours are much more nasty though, and spread out in a very 'diffuse' way. It's sort of like being at the beach and about to eat a sandwich, and the wind blows sand into it. The sand grains are everywhere -- no matter what you do, that sandwich is now crunchy. In these cases, the surgeon can 'debulk' the tumour, cutting out the biggest and nastiest bits, and then the remainder is treated with chemotherapy and radiation to try and kill the very small pockets.

Another interesting tool is called a CUSA (cavitronic ultrasound aspirator). It basically vibrates at a certain sound frequency that will destroy tumour cells (which are quite weak and poorly 'made'), but leaves normal brain cells mostly intact. This is useful for rapidly clearing out large tumours.

One final thing that can be done, and this is very cool, is what's called an 'awake craniotomy'. You may have seen youtube videos of this being done. Essentially, the patient is put to sleep, but then woken up during the surgery. The brain doesn't feel pain (just the 'wrapping' does, which is what hurts in a headache usually), so the patient can sit there. The surgeon uses a little zapper to deliver tiny jolts of electricity that 'turn off' bits of the brain temporarily. The patient is then asked to do something (play a tune, draw a picture, count backwards from 100 by 7s, etc), and if they can still do it okay, the surgeon removes the piece that they zapped. If the zap affects them too much, the surgeon won't cut that piece out at all.

Obviously brain surgery's more complex than the few simple points here, but the general idea is that removal of tumours is done by surgeons who have thousands and thousands of hours of practice, and the skill to take their time and go very carefully. A lot of it is done with the surgeon looking down a microscope as they work, because it's that finely detailed.


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

[User] What are some chief changes from John Rawls original (1971) to revised (1999) version of his book A Theory Of Justice?

[Assistant] The tweaks are numerous but not too serious to significantly deviate from the original position. Two major changes were made. First, the concept of liberty was revised to properly explain why it is ought to take priority in front of other values, which in the revised edition takes into account the ability to have sense of justice and conception of the good. This was done to respond to criticism Hart outlined in his "Rawls on Liberty and Its Priority". Second, a revised concept of the idea of primary goods, or goods one wants regardless of anything else, is presented, in order to make it clear that it is ideal-oriented and is not based on some arbitrary desire people might have.


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

[User]
[MCU] Does Tony know that it was Wanda that poisoned his mind to create Ultron?

Its never brought up again....so is it safe to assume that Wanda has not told anyone that she hasn't told anyone? Has she sworn off of her telepathy/mind manip powers due to its disastrous effects?

The more that I think of this is the more that I think it would have been cool if this was a subplot under this. I think quarantining Wanda or even trying to extradite her to be indefinitely detained would make a lot more sense after what she did to his mind.

[Assistant] She didn't poison his mind, she just gave him a vision of his worst fears, in this case it was that he couldn't protect Earth from the Chitauri. Since she pulls the same trick on the other Avengers later on in the movie and they figure out it's her I'd assume Stark figured out what happened to him as well.


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

[User] ELI5: What is the reality and truth behind the ads that say "Earn $5,000 per week while working at home."

[Assistant]
The truth is almost all of those require you to purchase products from a company and then resell them to whoever you can (normally family and friends). They have many ways of hiding this fact for as long as possible but almost all of them come down that simple concept.

"Buy our product and resale it for more than you bought it for."


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

[User]
ELI5: How does your body burn 2000 calories a day, but you have to run a mile to burn 100 extra?

Basically the title. I saw this thing about how much you have to exercise to burn off certain foods and was wondering how your body burns so many calories by doing nothing.

[Assistant]
You're not doing nothing.  Your heart is beating, your brain is processing, your eyes and ears are collecting information, your muscle tissue is idling, awaiting command.  You're maintaining a core temp of precisely 98.6F.

None of this is free, you'll consume 1500-2500 calories a day simply keeping the biological lights on.

We're highly efficient runners, and burn little energy to do so compared to many other animals.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do bread and milk expire so quickly, when cheese, ranch, and croutons seemingly last forever in comparison?

[Assistant] Bacteria required a suitable environment to grow. Chief among this is water; they cannot survive if they cannot keep their insides liquid. Croutons are very dry so they are protected that way. Cheese is basically eaten already, but by organisms which leave behind tasty remains. They are often pretty dry too, which makes them last.


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

[User]
ELI5 - How did China go from a poor country to the world's second biggest economy in 30 years?

I know that there is still a long way for China to go but how did it get so seemingly rich and powerful?  Did people in western countries just give it money even though it is considered a brutal regime?  Thank you for helping me understand this.

[Assistant] The answer is that China is still largely a poor country, it is just so big that that many people together have a large total amount of money, stuff, and labor.  China is kind of two different countries at this point, an industrialized, moderately wealthy one on the coast, and a poor, farming country in the interior.


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

[User]
[Marvel/DC] I am sorry if this has been asked before - do superheroes ever perceive/use their powers as a hobby?

Hi. TL;DR at bottom

This is my first time posting to this subreddit, so I sincerely apologize if I am doing something wrong here, it is not my intention to act based on ill will. Please bear in mind that I have barely touched the comics, so my knowledge of superheroes is contextually limited to movies, video games, some comic reading, and Wikipedia descriptions of comic book plots and lore. Basically, I am curious as to if superheroes using their powers for their own enrichment pursuits or entertainment in the form of hobbies would be something that is out of the question.

I understand that many of the more popular superheroes that are more mainstream in terms of general fans' knowledge generally have "human lives" or personas to maintain alongside their superhero jobs, such as Spider-Man as a student or Superman as a journalist for the Daily Planet. Meaning that they do not not necessarily have a lot of free time and that their superhero business is, well... Just that, business. As a result, they may prefer to spend time out of the suit and try to lead normal lives, such as shown in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 2 or what I have read on the Christopher Reeves portrayal in the Superman II movie.

What I think would be neat to see is stories (perhaps an alternate continuity like the comics, again- conextual limitations on my part, so as far as I know), that delve into more fantasy/speculative sci-fi worlds in which the characters are perhaps not as bound to maintaining human careers and lives. When their powers are not needed to handle villainy for the time being, I wonder about if they use their superpowers for hobbies and recreational pursuits. This could involve Spider-Man traveling to fantastical locations with the use of his powers or Superman performing experiments in the Fortress of Solitude to test the extent of his powers.

TL;DR: I wonder what it would be like if superheroes were in more fantastical settings and had more time to use their powers for hobbies/recreational purposes.

[Assistant]
In the Lois & Clark tv show with Dean Cain, Clark Kent (at home in normal clothes) would often do things like cook eggs with his heat vision and walk on the ceiling while talking on the phone.

Also, The Flash and Superman sometimes play chess at superspeed.


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

[User] How comes the sand of most beaches is yellow and very few beaches have either white or black/gray sand? Aren't white/black/gray rocks way more common ?

[Assistant]
Most beaches are made of one of two things: quartz or carbonate.

When you take those black/gray rocks and start eroding them and breaking them down, the quartz (which is nominally clear, but when in a big pile ends up being sort of yellow) is the last thing to survive that is sand-sized. Most of the darker minerals break down into clay (which floats away from beaches) or into dissolved minerals. They will often have a few percent of dark grains - they will actually be concentrated in lags by wave actions. Look at the last dribbles of water in an outgoing wave and you will see dark grains being the last ones to be deposited. This is density sorting just like you would use to pan for gold - except the least dense minerals are deposited last.

Places where you get dark sand beaches will have a source of igneous rock nearby; that is why you get black sand beaches on Hawaii. The dark volcanic material gets to the beach and hasn't had time to break down yet.

Carbonate accumulates when organisms that produce it die. These organisms include most things with shells like clams and corals, even though most of what you will find on a beach is the remnants of carbonate forming plants. Carbonate beaches are common at low latitudes - think the Bahamas and Florida.


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

[User]
[Zelda] What is the TriForce?

I know nothing about Zelda so what is the TriForce? What does it do? Why is it so important?

[Assistant]
According to lore, the Triforce is a sacred artifact left behind by the three goddesses of creation (also known as the Golden Goddesses): Din, Nayru, and Farore. Din, with her flaming arms, cultivated the land and created the red earth. Nayru poured her wisdom onto the earth and gave the spirit of law to the world. Finally, Farore, with her rich soul, created all the living inhabitants in the world to uphold the law. Their labors complete, they departed the world, leaving behind the ancient, all-powerful relic known as the Triforce. Din is associated with the Triforce of Power, the top triangle (currently possessed by Ganon), Nayru is associated with the Triforce of Wisdom, the left piece (currently held by the princess Zelda), and Farore is associated with the rightmost piece, the Triforce of Courage (usually held by the current incarnation of the hero, Link).

As far as why the artifact is important, the Triforce itself is immeasurably powerful. With command of all three pieces, any wish can be made and it will be so. Controlling the Triforce is literally controlling the world, making the user akin to a god. But to actually command it is a tricky thing. Upon touching the Triforce, unless the user's heart is perfectly balanced between power, wisdom, and courage, only the part that is most associated with their disposition will fall under their command. The other two will disperse, seeking the individual that best represents their particular characteristic. This occurred during the events associated with the Ocarina of Time, where the sorcerer Ganondorf obtained the sacred triangle (housed in the Sacred Realm). He obtained the Triforce of Power, and the other pieces went to Zelda and Link (where they appeared as a triangle glowing on the backs of their hands). Even with that single piece, Ganondorf was able to greatly amplify his dark magic, becoming nearly invulnerable and conquering the land of Hyrule. The other two pieces seem to have lesser powers, but to what extent is unknown. Thus began Ganondorf's quest to take the other parts of the artifact back, restoring the Triforce to its full power and allowing him to become as a god.


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

[User] ELI5: How does fat and energy work? How is it that you burn fat by exercising, but you can have fat and still be out of energy. If I just stop eating, why isn't it that I can be full of energy until my body is out of fat?

[Assistant]
This will be a little complicated.

Fat is energy, but it's not immediately usable as energy; since cells are the smallest living unit, fat has to be broken down into parts that the cells can use before it is actually usable. Of course, breaking down molecules takes time, as well.

Breaking down the fat releases the usable parts (glucose) into the bloodstream. Your body automatically tries to keep the blood glucose level steady. Why? Because too much blood glucose is inefficient; too little blood glucose is dangerous.

So when you exercise, you are using up blood glucose. Once the level gets too low, your body will start breaking things down to bring the levels back up. It starts with carbohydrates, because those are easily broken down into glucose. Once those are almost gone, then it starts breaking down the fats. If the fats are running out, then it will turn to proteins and muscle. Light exercise will burn up the carbohydrates. Strenuous or extended exercise will start burning up fats. Flight-or-fight, life-or-death situations will most likely cut into your muscles and proteins.

Because of this order of energy consumption, your body doesn't like to use too much energy. It doesn't like to start burning up fat, because that is the "reserve" energy that the body can use before it goes into full panic mode (burning muscle).

So when you exercise a lot, your body will grudgingly start breaking up fat. That's why you have to do a lot of strenuous exercise to lose fat; you have to force the body to use its reserve energy.

The other side of this coin is energy storage. After a meal, when your blood is full of glucose, your body will start storing the energy away for a rainy day. Your body will start turning the extra blood glucose into fats, and storing those fats away for later use. That's why you don't have a huge burst of energy after a meal; all that extra glucose that you are digesting is being turned into fats.


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

[User]
ELI5: How software that runs traffic lights avoids fatal errors while consumer programs crash the time

I'm sure they're better optimized, but if that's it, then why can't it be applied to other software is there something else to it? How do designers ensure that vital programs like the ones that operate traffic lights or electrical grids don't crash or malfunction?

[Assistant] They do one comparatively very simple task, all the time, on standardized hardware that's exactly the same for all traffic lights using that software, with few and very well defined inputs, very well defined outputs and if they ever get locked up the hardware running the code has means to detect it and reset. Basically: take everything that applies to general purpose computer environments and it's the opposite.


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

[User]
[X-Men, The Boys, Superman] How does Cyclops's eye power compare to Homelander's and Superman's?

Can it destroy planes and rip through anything like Homelander's can? It's neverending also right?

[Assistant]
Cyclops is powerful enough to blast through mountains. Iron-Man measured his power output once as 2 gigawatts, noting that it's more power than a nuclear reactor & he does that in seconds.

But unlike Homelander or Superman he doesn't have heat vision. Cyclops' optic blasts are concussive force, there's no heat. It's like being punched by hard light.

He also has an effective range of around 2,000 feet before the beam dissipates.


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

[User] ELI5:Why ship navigator use port & starboard and not just the simple left right?

[Assistant] Starboard and port are the same direction regardless if you are facing the front or the back of the ship.  If someone is yelling out instructions you want to know which direction they mean without having to know what direction they are facing, and they want the same direction to make sense regardless of which way all the people following the direction are facing.