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

[User]
CMV: The Game Awards 2020 were not rigged just because The Last of Us Part 2 took home many of the awards.

Before I start, let me make it clear that I dont think TLOU2 necessarily deserved the awards it got. I think there couldve been games more deserving of some of the awards. However, that doesnt mean that I think The Game Awards 2020 was rigged.
I saw an article and several videos where those that were unimpressed with Naughty Dog winning several of the Game of the Year awards because of The Last of Us 2 called it rigged. The general argument is that 10% of the votes to determine GOTY are from normal individuals, and the other 90% are from a jury. The claim is that the 90% are likely all game journalists, which all gave TLOU2 incredibly high scores. However, I dont think that means that TGA simps for Naughty Dog or that it was rigged.
Take the Game Awards 2016, for example. Overwatch won game of the year. This was against Naughty Dogs incredible title Uncharted 4, which was an incredible game that arguably deserved the award more. Why wouldnt the journalist jury of TGA stand up for Naughty Dog that year?
Another example is The Game Awards 2019, where Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice took home GOTY. Sekiro was very much criticized among gaming journalism due to its harsh difficulty. The game weeded out many of the casual gaming journalists. But even then, hardcore gamers found Sekiro to be too difficult at times. So why would have much of the jury at TGA 2019 have voted for Sekiro?
There could have been things I overlooked, maybe flaws in my beliefs. Please, help me understand if you thing TGA was biased! Im very open to having my mind changed on this topic.

[Assistant]
I think theres a difference between the awards being rigged vs. the jury being biased. IMO the former is not true, but the latter is true of almost any industry awards show, including TGA. For example, you look at the results of the big awards for other types of art over the years, it becomes pretty apparent that the Grammy voters tend to like works by past-their-prime artists that most people dont consider too relevant anymore, and the Oscar voters dont like horror movies or most foreign films even when critics love them. The reason for those biases is that the taste of the people who get to vote on these awards isnt necessarily going to be representative of music or movie fans as a whole, especially when the demographics of the voters vs. fans are different.

I think there is probably a similar explanation for TLOU2 beating Hades or GOT. For some reason, Naughty Dogs formula of maximizing production values and trying to show that games can beat Hollywood movies at their own game with cinematic cutscenes, etc. at the expense of everything else is just more compelling to whoever the industry insiders are that vote on these awards than it is to the average fan, which often leads to some results that dont make sense from the average fans perspective and probably wont hold up in retrospect. Thats just kind of the nature of the beast when it comes to industry awards shows.


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

[User] ELI5: When people say that corporations are people and that they have human rights, what do they mean?

[Assistant]
People are confused. Corporations are not people and don't have "human rights". However corporations are legal entities. They can own property and enter into contracts. For example if a corporation opens a bank account, money in that account belongs to the corporation, and not to the owners of that corporation. This is done primarily done to shield owners of the corporation (or stockholders) from its debts and liabilities. Let's say a corporation makes a mistake and injures someone who then files a $1,000,000,000 lawsuit against it. Only the corporation will be on he hook, not the stockholders.

A corporation is also a separate legal entity for tax purposes. Corporate profit is taxed before it can be distributed to its shareholders.


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

[User]
Is all energy consumed by a computer turned to heat, or is some amount wrapped up in "information"?

So, w/r/t conservation of energy:

If you have a system with a machine that lifts a weight, and you put X amount of energy into the machine, the heat energy of the system goes up, but not by all of X, because some of that energy is bound up in the gravitational potential energy in the weight. When you drop the weight back down, then all of X energy eventually ends up as heat energy... Right?

My question is: If you dump X energy into a computational device to calculate a complicated math problem, does the heat energy of that system go up by all of X? Or is some of that energy bound up in... the information from the result of the calculation(?) or something else?

Like, if your computer's memory starts as a random jumble of 1's and 0's and then you spend some energy to calculate and store the first million prime numbers or something, is there energy bound up in that calculated information the way that there is energy stored in the gravitational potential energy of a raised weight, that turns back into heat when you erase the information or drop the weight?

(Assume it takes the same amount of energy to store a 1 or a 0 in memory; or that the number of 0s and 1s in memory are roughly the same whether or not there is useful information in there).

[Assistant]
Essentially all of the energy you put in a computer will be converted into heat. There are some obvious conversions: heat from electrical resistance (the largest output), heat from the friction of moving parts, and sound and air flow from the system getting dissipated as heat in the surrounding environment.

There are a few less obvious conversions though. The first is EM emissions, the strongest of which come from the power supply. If your case is metal and doesn't have any windows, it'll act like a Faraday cage and catch them, turning them into heat or passing them through the ground line where they will still be turned into heat. If your case is partially plastic or windowed, these emissions will escape into the environment, likely to be converted into heat there.

As for storing data, this can be an exception, but it's a very negligible one. Flash memory, both the volatile kind used in RAM and the non-volatile kind used in SSDs, stores 1s and 0s in capacitors. Charged capacitors, pumped full of electrons, correspond to 0, and uncharged capacitors correspond to 1. Electrons and a lack of electrons can both be used to perform work depending on the neutral level, so there is some raw energy potential stored up there. Since electrons have non-zero weight, memory containing an excessive number of them is also going to be heavier, tying up some gravitational potential energy. These energy stores are negligible compared to everything else though.

Magnetic storage just changes particle orientation, so there is no net change in energy storage going on there.


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

[User]
[Fantasy/International Law] Would a legion of the undead be considered a biological weapon under international law?

Purely hypothetically, if a brilliant but misunderstood genius (with a wholly justified grudge against the world and a deep loathing for all humanity) were to raise an unstoppable horde of reanimated corpses driven purely by dark magic and a hatred for the living, would their use be considered in violation of the Geneva Protocol?

In this entirely hypothetical situation, our unconventionally yet ruggedly handsome hero would have begun his merciless war of annihilation against all mankind by taking over a small central European nation, gaining recognition from the UN, and then unleashing a magical plague against his own populace that transforms then into unholy nightmares of rotting flesh and dark malice. If I - I mean, if he were then to engineer a border dispute with the nation next door, would he be able to use these creatures without drawing international censure, economic sanctions, and possibly even UN intervention?

And if, despite his brilliance, he were to somehow lose his war against all that breathes beneath the sky, would a decent lawyer (I know, I know, "decent lawyer". Just my little joke) be able to get me off any ensuing charges of Crimes Against Humanity, or would the use of foul necromancy be considered a violation of the international protocols prohibiting the use of biological and bacterial methods of warfare?

[Assistant]
If this were virus-zombies I'd say yes, but as it's 'dark magic and a hatred for the living' zombies, I'd say strictly no (with caveat).

The geneva protocol covers the 'Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare'. Although the cadavers may be biological, the protocol was never written with necromancy in mind.

That said, just as the advent of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons precipitated in the international community regulating and/or banning them, the UN and similar groups would likely condemn the use of unconsenting-necromancy/reanimation in wartime and ban it post facto.

edit: if you're looking for a legal defence you can pull out of the bag after the effect, your best bet is to rely on 'creepy magic' reasons - say he was totally innocent and being controlled by geas or threat by some extradimensional bad guy, or evil souls or whatever.


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

[User] If it were possible to travel east to west in a straight line, how fast would I need to be going for the sun to stay in the exact same spot in the sky? (say high noon or 12:00)

[Assistant]
You would have to have an angular velocity of 2pi Radians/Day. The speed of this depends on your latitude. If you are at latitude L (a number between 0 and 90), then, since the radius of the Earth is ~4000 miles, the length of the path around the Earth at this latitude is 2pi\*4000\*cos(pi\*L/180) miles (you can figure that out with basic trig).  Your speed will then have to be 4000\*cos(pi\*L/180) miles/day, or ~ 334\*pi\*cos(pi\*L/180) MpH.

For instance, at the equator, a latitude of 0, this is  about 1050 mph. At a latitude of 25 (Florida Keys), this is 950 mph. At a latitude of 40 (NYC), this is ~800 mph. At a latitude of 60 (Southernmost point on Greenland), this is ~525 mph. At a latitude of 70 (Northernmost populated largeish city), this is ~360 mph. At a latitude of 80 (Northernmost city with a population >1000), this is 182 mph. At a latitude of 88 (Northernmost settlement), this is ~37 mph. At a latitude of 90, the north pole, this is 0 mph.


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

[User] ELI5: When there's an eyelash in your eye and you can't get it out and it eventually rolls to the back, where does it go?

[Assistant]
An eyelash cannot go all the way behind the eye "ball" because connective tissue, like the inside on the eyelid, muscles, etc. attach to the eye.

An eyelash or anything else that doesn't belong generally slides up or down, away from the visual field, and toward the nose. Sometimes foreign debris can work itself out with help from tears that help rinse it away.


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

[User]
Does moving away from something at the speed of light create a still image?

If you move away from something at the speed of light, then light can't catch up with you (correct?). Does this mean you see the same light that's in front of you over and over? Or does that light effectively disappear and you see nothing?

[Assistant]
The faster you move away from a light source, the less energy the photons reaching you from that lightsource would have and they would move down on the electromagnetic spectrum (they would be redshifted). The light would get redder and dimmer the closer you'd get to the speed of light until you'd not see anything at all from directly behind. In front of you however, the photons would be blueshifted (gain energy) and become increasingly energetic, leading to a sort of doppler effect where you'd see a big orb of overwhelming light stemming from every light source ahead of you (including cosmic background radiation). You'd also probably be utterly destroyed by the intense radiation by the way.

I didn't answer what would happen if you travelled at C because travelling at 99.99999999 of lightspeed and at lightspeed are very different.


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

[User] ELI5: How are chip-readers more secure than magnetic strips?

[Assistant]
It's not necessarily the reader, but the card itself.

In an eli5 sense, a magnetic stripe says "I am X" when swiped.    It is extremely easy to create a copy of the card that also says "I am X".

A chip card, when read, initiates a conversation like "If you say you are card X, please complete this math problem using your secret ID number and give me the result".    Because the whole card's information is not transmitted during a transaction, it is much harder to create a copy.

If a second authentication factor (such as a PIN) is not used, chip cards are still weak to physical theft and malicious usage of a card, neither do they protect against fradulent online usage.


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

[User]
Voyager 1 and 2 both carry a 12-inch golden phonograph record in the hopes that another intelligent life form may find them. However, how difficult would it be to recover the probes as they travel at nearly 40,000 MPH?

Clearly the probes would have to be recovered in open space, as any collision with a spacecraft or planet would result in them being obliterated, correct?

[Assistant]
That's a velocity (~20 km/s) that's within the velocity dispersion of stars in the Galaxy, and it's actually slower than the Earth's speed as it goes around the Sun (gravity assists further out increased it's speed to escape velocity where escape velocity was lower than it is near Earth). Any star-faring species has the capability of going that quickly, by definition. Something at rest relative to the Sun might have a similarly high velocity relative to their home star.

That said, the odds of actually being picked up by an intelligent species are vanishingly small. It's a symbolic gesture, more in the spirit of "Hey, you never know...", instead of something intended to actually have a good chance of making contact. After all, now the end of the world wouldn't erase all record of humanity. There's still a bit of us, our art, our music, our ideas out there, even if the Earth itself is destroyed. Even if no one ever sees it, that's pretty cool, right?


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

[User] [Lord of the Rings] Are Hobbits really that comically ravenous, or is Lembas bread just over-advertised?

[Assistant]
A single bite *will* make you feel full, and give you energy for the day. It's also really good. Gimli wolfed down an entire wafer when he first tried it, because he assumed it was cram - a dwarven meal used for similar purposes - but when he tasted how good it was, he ate the whole thing in seconds.

It won't *harm* you to eat more, since the energy and the belly-filling are matters of high artistry (elves do not call what they do 'magic'), and hobbits like food.


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

[User]
Is there a scientific explanation for individuals who are "legally dead" and then revived, but are able to tell doctors/nurses what was said/what occurred while they were "dead"?

I have been watching "I survived Beyond and Back", a series on BIO in which individuals are legally dead but brought back to life. Some of these people speak of out of body experiences in which they see themselves in a room with doctors. When they come back to life they are able to articulate some of the activities/conversations preformed. Is this just from brain activity? Is BIO just sensationalizing the fact that these people were "dead"? Many stories say that the people's hearts have stopped but says nothing about brain activity. I have been increasingly curious about this show and these stories.
Thank you!

[Assistant]
It's pretty much hallucinations.

There have been tests where subjects have claimed to be on the ceiling, looking down on their body and the entire room. There have been messages written on top of shelves, which could be seen from the ceiling, but not by the patient. No one has ever been able to read the message.

Also, accounts of what happened while they were dead and such are usually wrong.


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

[User]
[zombies] How do zombies survive Americans?

Millions of Americans own guns. America has large areas that get too cold in the winter for a zombie to move. America has huge, well funded police forces with surplus military equipment, plus a national guard, plus huge military with secure bases, tanks, armored vehicles and more guns.

That's on top of baseball bats, and whatever other improvised weapons people have in their houses.

Zombies are slow to start with. They don't have any ability to plan. They're poorly equipped.

How do the zombies survive Americans?

[Assistant] Typically, the zombies aren't that big of a threat in America. It's the panic and mistrust that results from their presence. People become scared, people become angry, and when those people have guns, and a suspicion of authority, that leads to a breakdown in the social order. Next thing you know you've got wandering bands of survivors killing each other for no particularly good reason, while the undead are pretty much a background environmental hazard.


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

[User]
[40k] Which space marine legion had the best navy?

The Sons of Horus have the Vengeful Spirit, the Imperial Fists have the Phalanx, the White Scars have modified all their ships to be abnormally fast. Which space marine legion's navy was the best of them all?
It is perhaps worth counting legion tactics too, as boarders from a faction used to working in tight corridors like the Salamanders would probably preform better than ones that usually operates via stealth like the Raven guard (it's hard to sneak around a ship when you're 8 feet tall and every step goes "CLANK!").*

[Assistant] It was stated in horus heresy book three that the Imperial fists maintained a fleet of 1,500 warships, a force quantitatively and qualitatively superior to any other legion. And they also have the phalanx which is a big asset by itself.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] How did Bane not take into account Darth Sidious?

Bane came up with the Rule of Two, possibly the best and worst thing to happen to the Sith Order. But how in the name of the force did he not take into account that one, just one, sith could screw up his entire system by being a dick (i.e. Sidious). And before you tell me Sith are near sides fools who care only for themselves, Bane was smart. Incredibly smart. Are you telling me he didn't see this happening?

[Assistant] The rule of two was always a polite fiction. To keep the Sith order vital the Master must be willing to cultivate potential apprentices in the event of the loss of his current one, and the apprentice must waste no time in having apprentices of their own ready to go when they succeed in taking out their master.


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

[User] If our solar system was inside a nebula, would we know it?

[Assistant]
Yes.

When we look at other stars and galaxies, that light has to travel to our telescopes through all the intervening interstellar medium (ISM) and, for extragalactic sources, the intergalactic medium (IGM). While the IGM consists almost entirely of a plasma of super-low-density ionized hydrogen and helium, the ISM has many different components, including dust and molecular gas.

There are various types of nebulae-- planetary nebulae, formed from stellar winds which blow off the outer layers of a star late in its life; supernova remnants, which are often very hot, metal-rich, and if there is a central pulsar have strong magnetic fields; molecular clouds, which are the dense regions with lots of dust & molecules where stars are born, and diffuse nebulae, which are mostly ionized gas.

Atomic and molecular gas have lots of absorption lines, so if there is non-ionized gas along your line of sight to a star or galaxy, the spectrum of that star or galaxy will show absorption lines from the gas on the line of sight. If there is dust (which means small solid particles usually less than a microgram), it will heavily block out bluer light and re-radiate it in the infrared. Using these techniques we can get accurate measurements of what the ISM is like in our local neighborhood, and it appears that our immediate vicinity is mostly low-density ionized gas.


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

[User]
ELI5: why does diabetes beat the body up so badly, even when it is well controlled diabetes?

Wounds that wont heal, blindness, kidney disease, increases risk for virtually everything else. Why is it so rough in the body?  Does it do things besides just blood sugar swings?

[Assistant]
The short answer is that high blood sugar is poisonous to small blood vessels and they fuel everything. So over time the infrastructure that supplies fuel to the body is being destroyed, and nothing will work properly.

Think of it like a road system - you're putting very heavy trucks on it that damage the roadways, and now nothing in your town can get the deliveries they need and all businesses fail.

To the well controlled part - if you have very well controlled diabetes, you effectively don't have diabetes - we define diabetes by your blood sugar being in a damaging range. If you consistently get it out of that range you kind come out of the diabetes group.


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

[User] ELI5: How are we moving around in our sleep when were supposedly in a paralyzed state?

[Assistant]
Biologist here.

Seems to be some confusion, so:

Sleep paralysis only occurs during cycles of REM sleep. Outside of REM, the body uses a special system to gauge your location when you sleep, so you can move, but not fall off the bed.

The system uses the inner ear and all your nerve endings in your skin to ensure your movements aren't enough to throw you off the bed,. The system takes years to develop, which is why children fall often in their sleep. But for adults, our brains keep spatial awareness outside of REM

So, basically, during REM sleep youre paralyzed, during Non REM sleep, the body allows movement to an extent, but not enough for you to fall out of bed or walk around

If we really want to get in deep, sleep walking generally happens when the hippocampus glitches and forgets to establish sleep paralysis, this can be a genetic defect, it can also be a side effect of sedative medications.

About 10 years ago, we had to reformulate the sleeping medication Ambian, because we found out it was knocking the brain out so hard, it was screwing with the hippocampus's ability to enact sleep paralysis. We had people waking up in their driver seat in the driveway, fully buckled into their seat, or in their garage in the middle of trying to run a saw, crazy shit.


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

[User] ELI5: How does chemotherapy work?

[Assistant] In very very basic terms, chemotherapy is usually a cocktail of drugs that are really toxic to dividing cells. If cells divide a lot and quickly, like with cancerous cells, then it has a worse impact than on cells that divide very slowly or not at all, like brain cells. The idea is that even though you are poisoning your own cells, which you are and which causes the various nasty side effects of chemo, the poison is effecting the cancer worse than it is effecting you, and so the cancer will die while only making you very sick.


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

[User]
Two questions. When an animal (eg. a bird) "sings" can it be quantified into musical notes and if so does it fit into a conventional musical key like human songs? Do animals recognize/ appreciate human music? - i.e. can they differentiate when notes are 'out of key'/ 'off key' etc.?

I have two guinea pigs and I play the guitar (acoustic) and sing a lot. Sometimes I'm loud but I see that they tend to fall asleep when I play. So it got me thinking, is it possible that music is soothing to them? When I thought about it some more, I came up with the above questions that I posted.

[Assistant]
First off you must understand the concepts of relative and absolute tonalities.  Most musicians have relative pitch, meaning they may know that Help by the Beatles is in the key of A and be able to sing the song properly, but without being given a correct starting pitch, they might sing it in the key of G.  All the notes they sing would be intervalically correct, but wouldnt be the same pitches in the recording.  The difference between G to A and A to B are equivalent, but the notes themselves are different.

That's relative pitch.  Birds sing with fairly consistent relative pitch, but they have no idea if they are singing a C, a B, or something in between.  Also, many bird tunes only consist of 2 or 3 notes.  It is hard to determine tonality in a definitive way with only a few notes.  Yes, it could be written down in notation, the hardest part would be rhythm, since bird tunes are often rhythmically free.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are employees expected to give a two week notice prior to leaving their job, whereas employers are able to terminate employees without notice?

[Assistant]
Future employers are more likely to consider the bad feelings of a previous employer when considering a hiring decision rather than prospective employees being warned off by previous employees let go without notice. Power is not balanced in the relationship between employers and employees.

The two weeks is purely customary.


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

[User]
Is a combustion engine more or less efficient when in a cold environment?

In other words, will a cars engine be more fuel efficient when running in a cold or hot environment?

[Assistant] At wide open throttle it produces power more efficiently in the cold. At partial throttle the engine is fighting the throttle harder than in a warm environment so you end up burning more fuel. This is why race cars have cold air intakes and why hyper-milers often build warm air intakes.


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

[User]
ELI5: how exactly are we made of stardust

I get that all of the elements that make us are from stars but I just cant wrap my head around how I am made of star dust is this just a broader way of looking at the creation of elements in the periodic table or am I literally made of star dust.
Sorry if this was a stupid question!

Update:
OMG THANK YOU TO YOU ALL!
Im so glad that there are so many wonderful helpful people in this community!

[Assistant] Heavier elements like iron, calcium, nitrogen, etc only form in the pressure of a star. They are then flung across the universe when the star goes nova. The only reason there is iron in your blood or calcium in your bones is is because stars created them.


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

[User]
Why does touching the jack of my speaker make noise ?

When I touch the 3.5mm jack of my speaker, it makes noise. Why ?

[Assistant] basically when you touch the tip, you are completing what is called an electric circuit, with your body as the bridge between the cable to the ground. The jack picks up the natural electricity your body produces, which is what creates the buzz.


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

[User] Why do I have to turn off my cellphone on an airplane? What interference does it cause?

[Assistant] As the son of an engineer who designed the communications systems on planes, it is because of the frequencies shared once upon a time. 2.4-5.4Ghz spread. Now that FAA and the FCC have subjugated their own frequencies it is no longer required for electronics to be turned off. It was explained to me years ago by a cheif engineer, The reason they make you turn everything off is so your focused on the most important and dangerous parts of the flight, take off and landing, if you are babbling away or texting, at a crucial moment you could be distracted from reacting and saving your own life. It also keeps people aware of their surrounding in case they see something go wrong they can report it right away. Lastly the form of control, keeping everyone focused on watching the emergency information before each flight.  Simply put its a way for the airlines to keep the people in the miraculously flying tube in check.


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

[User] ELI5: If a crime occurs on an airplane, what country's law applies?

[Assistant]
On an international flight, jurisdiction goes to the State of Registry for the aircraft. This means a US plane retains US jurisdiction, even if it's flying from England to Australia. Or an English plane traveling from New York to California., for example, retains English jurisdiction. You can check out the Tokyo Convention for more information.

There are certain limitations. If there is a safety issue aboard the plane, the chain of command is any Air Marshal aboard followed by the pilot followed by the co-pilot, followed by the next place the plane touches ground.


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

[User]
ELI5: In American healthcare, what happens to a patient who isn't insured and cannot afford medical bills?

I'm from the UK where healthcare is thankfully free for everyone. If a patient in America has no insurance or means to pay medical bills, are they left to suffer with their symptoms and/or death? I know the latter is unlikely but whats the loop hole?

Edit: healthcare in UK isn't technically free. Everybody pays taxes and the amount that they pay is based on their income. But there are no individual bills for individual health care.

[Assistant]
60 percent of all bankruptcy in the US are tied to medical bills.

The common refrain you hear is "anyone can go to the emergency room and get treatment" and that is not untrue. However, people do not go to the ER for routine care that can prevent problems. If you went to the ER because you had a strange growth they would identify it as a cancerous tumor but that treatment wouldn't be an emergency so you would either have to find charity care or die a slow painful death.  Some local governments (states or counties) have welfare care (the dole for health care) but you have to qualify & that takes time and you probably have to not have a job or a very poor paying one.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are English words phonetically explained with strange symbols? Why not just include those symbols in the alphabet?

For example, Gabe Newell's shorthand Gaben, from Wikipedia:
Gaben (/ebn/ "Gabe N." or /ebn/ GAY-bn)
There is a mini capital 'I', a backwards '3' numeral, and an upside down lowercase 'e', which all have meaning in what I assume to be a "non-condensed English alphabet." Why do we need that?

[Assistant]
First, they're not an English alphabet  each symbol in IPA is meant to represent a distinct and unambiguous sound that humans make to communicate. There are *some* sounds used by humans that aren't represented in IPA yet  so, it isn't complete.

Second: there are *hundreds* of symbols in IPA  far more than there are in any other phonetic alphabet. Memorising them all in order to cover cases that a student will never or rarely encounter, is pointless (even linguists don't memorise them all, that's why we have reference books).

There are actually different ways to pronounce "Gabe", depending on which accent the speaker has  the "a" varies, from long (amongst minnesotans and michiganders) to the rising-to-I tone of modern Southern United States speakers (represented in your example above) to a dropping tone amongst modern Germanic speakers.

IPA allows for a written description of how a word is sounded, not of the meaning of the word.


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

[User]
[Empire Strikes Back] What was Vader's plan for Leia and Chewie if he actually took them from Cloud City?

Something I had always overlooked, Vader says to put Leia and Chewbacca on his ship after Han is frozen in carbonite. Then the "altering the deal" line is made and that's all I had ever remembered. What was Vader going to do with them? He didn't know the truth about Leia and what could he possibly have an interest in a Wookie for?

[Assistant] He'd want to keep them as continued leverage over Luke.  After capturing Luke, he'd still need to turn him to the Dark Side, and having two of his friends around is a useful tool in accomplishing that goal.


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

[User] [Biology] Why do dogs smell so bad when wet?

[Assistant] Even on the cleanest, healthiest dogs, millions of yeast and bacteria call the fur home.  They produce a lot of volatile organic compounds, such as phenols and aldehydes.  These compounds don't get a chance to fully assault your nostrils until they are liberated by water; as the water evaporates to vapor, it is carried to your olfactory receptors more easily (humidity helps to hold odor molecules suspended in the air).


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

[User]
Eli5 Why is force equal to mass multiplied by acceleration and not speed ?

If a car moves consistently at 80 kmh and it weighs at 600kg, is it not generating any force? since you know, a=0, am I stupid or is Newton ?

[Assistant]
Newton's first law: an object in motion will stay in motion unless a force acts upon it. An object flying through space at a constant speed has no force acting upon it.

There's two things that may make this a bit confusing here on Earth.

First of all, any thing in motion constantly has forces acting to slow it down like air resistance and friction so, unlike in our simple scenario, you do need to apply a force to keep it moving at a constant speed.

And the second is that as soon as the object runs into anything else, it'll exert a force on that object (causing it to slow down). So any time you try to interact with a moving object, you cause a force to happen.  But the force it exerts depends on how fast it decelerates, so it's still about acceleration. That's why modern cars crumple in a crash- by making it take longer for the car to decelerate to 0, the force on you will be lower.


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

[User] ELI5: How did the the first language start, or at least how we think it started?

[Assistant]
It probably started from sounds that we made naturally - we scream when we are scared or hurt, we laugh when we are happy, we grunt when we want someone's attention.  We recognize those sounds instinctually and just innately know what they mean.

From there, it wouldn't have taken our hunter/gather ancestors too much effort to figure out that hunting was easier if Grog responded to a low grunt and Krik responded to a high grunt only - it would allow you to only get the attention of the person you were after.

From there, it wouldn't take much effort to have a different kind of grunt to signify that you saw prey, perhaps even specific enough to tell them what type of prey they were hunting.

Keep iterating this logic and, bam, you have language.


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

[User]
[Batman] With pretty much every person having a phone which can record video and pictures, and a media cycle that reports on what the Batman does, wouldn't that mean Batman would be like the Slenderman legend: everyone knows he exists, his general behavior, and what he looks like?

Granted, he would also be like the Slenderman legend in the sense that:

1. He's still extremely mysterious.

2. He isn't thought of by most people as human, but instead as a supernatural being.

[Assistant]
1] I'd guess Wayne Tech has a scrambler that allows Bats to null out any signals near him, to keep baddies from calling for reinforcements.

2] Further, it would behoove him to slip in some falsified videos into the mix.  Let people see some guy in hockey knee pads running around, or an actual giant bat, or some super vampire.

Bats is all about fear.  He'd come up with a way to use social media to his advantage.


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

[User] ELI5: why are most sink faucets in public bathrooms designed in such a way that it is impossible to wash your hands without your hands hitting the back of the sink?

[Assistant] Because public restroom designers have to design not just *for* a regular patron, but also *against* undesirables. One of the undesirables is the "sink bather", and by preventing that sink bather from cupping his hands adequately to scoop water up to his body for a rinse, that's one step towards making his sink bathing less convenient, which is one step towards convincing that guy to give himself a whore's bath somewhere else. It's the same reason all those water-saving automatically-timed knobs turn off after an inadequate amount of time - it makes sink bathing less convenient. Sure, they initially designed them for the careless customer, but the timing intervals get lower and lower the closer to a "bad" part of town you get.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] So, in the end... Why did Palps even bother to create his Empire? What was the big idea?

I did a rewatch of the original and prequel trilogies and can't quite wrap my head around this question.

What exactly did Palpy strive to achieve? I understand that part of it was a multi-generational vendetta of the Sith against the Jedi, but beyond that?

Since "Operation: Cinder" is a thing, it's apparent that Palps didn't strive for any enduring legacy, and that his Empire was meant to die with him. This is probably also why he didn't bother to even designate a successor after he dies (I assume even Sith die of old age and Palpy didn't plan to rule for hundreds of years, let alone "thousand of generations" that Republic endured).

With the Jedi gone his position of power was secure. He could've appointed himself a chancellor for life without any resistance or dissent, and be remembered as one of greatest leaders of the Republic who ended the separatist insurgency, if he'd managed his PR well.

So, why even bother to reform the Republic into the Empire? Why centralize and gain direct control of thousands of planets, alienate whole races of non-humans, etc? This is not something you'd bother to do without having a specific goal in mind.

But what was it? It wasn't for legacy and wasn't even for reviving the Sith religion, since afair all religions were banned in the empire.

What was the point, then?

[Assistant]
Palpatine wasn't just the latest in a long line of Sith, he was, in his own mind, THE Sith. He looked back on the Rule of Two and assumed that it was leading to a natural conclusion: the Rule of One, where a single Sith takes over and is so powerful they can overcome death and rule for eternity. Depending on the legends you find, his plan was anywhere from body hopping between clones to becoming the metaphysical Dark Side of the Force and achieving godhood.

Operation: Cinder was his backup plan: if he couldn't rule, he sure as hell wasn't letting anyone else rule either. Let the galaxy burn.


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

[User]
ELI5: how do dogs know to be gentle with babies?

I was just looking in another sub and thought about it, I always see dogs super gentle and slow around babies. Why?

[Assistant] Weve been breeding dogs for 40 thousand years to do things we want. The ones who didnt, didnt get to reproduce. Part of this was selecting for good hunting dogs, tracking dogs, guard dogs, but not murdering your children is also a trait that would be selected for.


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

[User]
CMV: Stereotypes are often true and theres no way we can get rid of them

Excuse my English.

I understand that stereotypes leads to prejudice and discrimination, but stereotypes itself imo isnt a bad thing or a good thing, its just.. statistics.

 Im kind of annoyed about how people are woke about stereotyping and stuff. Like for example showing a pic of a mechanic thingy and ask if women knows what it is. Then women started complaining about stereotyping and sexism and stuff, saying NOT ALL GIRLS PLAY BARBIE DOLLS SOME ARE VERY HANDY IN FACT MY MOTHER BUILT ALL THE HOUSES IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD AND I OWN A CAR REPAIR SHOP. Sure, theres definitely gonna be tons of women who are handy and loves mechanical work. But theyre not the majority. Ask 100 women and how many actually know about these things? Its just statistics, no one is discriminating here. Im a woman, so Im not offended by this at all. And I can assure you that most of my female friends do not know mechanical stuff too.

Stereotypes about races.. well idk about America but in my country I can say most of them are freaking true. Like saying Chinese have small slanted eyes well yeahhhhh most of us do have small slanted eyes so..

Another example would be terrorism. Just ask yourself truthfully, consider a dodgy looking mid eastern man vs a Chinese man carrying a backpack suddenly sitting next to you or your kids. Who would you be more suspicious towards? For those non-Muslims who say not all Muslims are radical, Be completely honest. I live in a Muslim country. I can tell u that a huge portion of the Muslims here are radical, not only about religion but also their privilege.

Stereotypes are based on history and facts. Its just showing the tendency of something. Its like smoking is more likely to cause cancer. Why didnt anybody freak out about this stereotype? There are tons of smokers who live long happy lives too. They should be outraged!!

Anyway I know its hard but stereotypes can just be stereotypes as long as everyone keeps an open mind.

[Assistant]
Problems with stereotypes:

1. They can be based on small sample sizes

2. They don't help you deal with individuals within the stereotyped population

3. They don't have to be based in fact to spread

4. They get updated much slower than actual statistics

5. They don't help relations.

And this isn't a point, but a joke about how stereotypes can be faulty.

The average person is a Chinese woman named Mohammed with 1.8 legs.


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

[User] [Star Wars] Is it still canon that the Mon Calmari cruisers were retrofitted luxury liners, or is the new canon that they were built for war from the get-go?

[Assistant]
I think at least some are buildings [In the new canon]. The Profundity in R1 was a civic governance tower of the city Nystullum. Raddus was the mayor and a lot of the crew were city defense staff.

This is per the Rogue One Visual Guide

edit: clarified wording.


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

[User] Do rainbows contain light frequencies that we cannot see? Are there infrared and radio waves on top of red and ultraviolet and x-rays below violet in rainbow?

[Assistant]
You bet! In fact, this is how ultraviolet and infrared radiation were discovered!

In 1800, William Herschel (who also discovered Uranus!) used a prism to break up sunlight and attempted to measure the temperatures of the different colors. He found that when he moved his thermometer past the red end of the spectrum he measured a much higher temperature than expected (this should have been a control). He called his discovery 'calorific rays' or 'heat rays.' Today, we call it infrared, being that it's below red in the EM spectrum.

In 1801, Johann Ritter was doing a similar experiment, using the violet end of the visible spectrum. He was exposing chemicals to light of different colors to see how it effected chemical reaction rates. By going past the violet end of the spectrum he found the greatest enhancement in the reaction rate! They were called 'chemical rays' for a time, until more advanced electromagnetic theory managed to unify sporadic discoveries like these into a unified EM spectrum.


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

[User]
Mods, can we get clarification on homework questions?

I'm under the impression from reading the rules, even with what seems to be a rewriting, that simply posting a homework question with no steps worked out, questions (about the problem) asked, etc. is not allowed. Yet not only do I keep seeing it, but people keep responding to it, with complete solutions. I have been reporting these posts, but maybe I am misinterpreting the rules? I also can't be the only one. There also used to be a bot to message posters about the rules.

[Assistant]
Hi,

>simply posting a homework question with no steps worked out, questions (about the problem) asked, etc. is not allowed.

This is the correct reading of the rules. We want the poster to show effort and an attempt to solve it themselves. Unfortunately, we can't control the poster or the responders who just give an answer. When the OP responds to questions and clarification comments, we tend to leave those posts up as it does show some effort to learn.

When we see these types of posts, we do remove them. Reports help! Repeatedly posting images/questions with no attempt on part of the OP, results in them being banned for a time.

The automoderator still leaves a comment on posts that are just images, asking OP to show their work/efforts.


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

[User] What would be the best and worst fictional universes to live in?

[Assistant]
I think worst would be the Warhammer 40k universe. You're either more or less a slave on a factory world or dead.

For best I'd go with he Culture universe. I've only read one book but the Culture is a real utopia so it makes sense to me.


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

[User]
[John Carpenter's The Thing] So was Thing a creature or a virus? (possible spoilers?)

Maybe I missed something but in the movie it seems like the crew killed The Thing multiple times with fire and yet there seemed to always be another one? So does The Thing make a copy of itself when it finds another host?

[Assistant]
It was a pathogen, most likely transmitted by skin-to-skin contact. It would eat the host's cells one by one, and turn itself into copies of those cells that mimicked the host's. When stressed, it often would shapeshift into "remembered" shapes from previous hosts to defend itself. This is why the blood test worked, and it probably would only produce a positive result if the host was in the late stages of infection.

The most effective thing about this mode of infection was that a person could be infected while retaining their mental functions, as the Thing thought their thoughts by mimicking their nervous system. They could be completely unaware of what was lurking inside them, and even as their body changed they might retain awareness (to their shock and horror, of course). The entire research team was probably infected early on.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is it funny when people fall over?

[Assistant]
There is no universally accepted explanation of the role of humour and how it works. One possibility, however, is that humour is one of the possible reactions to mental stress caused by contradictions.

When something is troubling, confusing, or strange, it causes some tension. This may lead to fear, anger or other emotions, but when it turns out that there is no danger and nothing to worry about, we laugh as a way of expressing relief.

Humour makes use of that by creating a situation where there is some contradiction, tension or weirdness (a setup) and then resolving it in a way that one does not see coming (a punchline, a payoff). This is why humour is usually based on either something absurd, or on someone's misery that we can distance ourselves from. Both create a situation where there is something that might worry us, but we are shown that there is no reason to *personally* worry.

People falling over can be either. It is a situation where someone is hurt, but if the situation is otherwise harmless (the fall is exaggerated or non-threatening), it is funny. Our brain knows there is no danger, so it reacts by causing us to laugh - to show that we are relaxed to other people, that there is no reason to be afraid or concerned for the person who fell. Notice that we don't usually laugh when someone falls over and dies or gets badly hurt (unless the person is presented in a way that makes us not care about them at all, for example being a villain or otherwise someone we perceive as inferior).

The other reason, contradiction and absurd, is usually by contrasting the fall with something that doesn't "fit" - for example, a very serious and important-acting person falls down, so our mental idea of the person being serious and dignified is contrasted with us seeing them in a very undignified situation. Or in another situation - a person may fall unexpectedly, so the fall in circumstances we didn't expect causes a situation that also feels contradictory. Or in yet another scenario, the fall looks so silly and out-of-place that it creates a similar feeling of being absurd.


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

[User]
I want to store values of a 2D array into a 1D array in java.

I want to convert 2D coordinates into a 1D array. I've created an n by n 2D array. I then want to assign values of 1 through N into the 2D array sequentially from left to right, and then return the new 1D array.

    private static int[] to1Dcoords(int row, int column) {
            grid = new int[row][column];                    //creates n by n grid
            int temp = 1;

            for (int i = 0; i < grid.length; i++) {
                for (int j = 0; j < grid[i].length; column++) {
                    grid[row][column] = temp;
                    temp++;
                }
            }
            int[] in1Dcoords = new int[grid.length()];
            for (int i = 0; i < in1Dcoords.length; i++) {
                in1Dcoords[i] =
            }
        }

Any help would be much appreciated!

[Assistant]
You have some syntax errors in your code, but I'll concentrate on your question.You can just loop over your 2D array and assign values to a n*n length 1D array:

int[] array1D = new int[n*n];

for (int i = 0; i < n; i++) {
for (int j = 0; j < n; j++) {
array[i+n*j] = grid[i][j];
}
}


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

[User]
CMV: Most freeways in suburban and urban areas should have bicycle paths built along the sides of them.

For context, I live near Seattle, Washington in the US and am mostly talking about a North American perspective where bicycle and other non-car transportation infrastructure is pitiful.

# Firstly, why I think this would be beneficial:

One significant point of reference that I am using is the Burke-Gilman and Samamish River Trails that span a significant portion of the northern part of lake Washington. These paths are fantastic for walking, running and  cycling because they are pleasant places to be and because they do a very good job of connecting larger suburbs of Seattle like Redmond, Woodinville, Bothell, Kenmore, Lake Forest Park, Seattle proper and even more of the surrounding areas. This makes all of these places and the areas surrounding them significantly easier to access by bike and walking, even though the bicycle infrastructure in these areas is otherwise lacking. Even if the first and last mile of my trip is poorly set up for cycling, it is much much easier to bike to those places because the rest of the trip is easy and comfortable. I find myself wanting a network of similar trails (especially going north and south from where I live), but the political will for that is somewhat lacking and it can be expensive or difficult to get large scale change in that regard. This, however, seems like a faster easier and cheaper way to get the bare minimum of similar trails that would bring cyclists between major clusters of destinations. Freeways already run along major corridors and are often flanked by important destinations. This would drastically increase the general areas that could be gotten close to by bicycle for relatively low cost and impact. Which would in turn increase bicycle usage and the demand for further development of bicycle of infrastructure that connects more destinations. These paths wouldnt be as pleasant as high-quality bike paths, due do the proximity to the loud highway, but they would still be much more pleasant than biking on the street or sidewalks. The paths could also slightly sidestep the highway when practical, or trees or barriers could be used to separate the highway from the paths. This would be a significant stepping stone towards better cycling infrastructure in addition to being able to bare minimally connect distant destinations while other bike and transit infrastructure improves.

Plus, having nice and safe walking and biking trails near more people would increase the opportunity for many people to engage in more casual, daily exercise and make it much nicer for people to leave their house to go for a walk or exercise without a car, which would be beneficial for public health.

# Secondly, why I think this would work:

A lot of the highway around where I live have quite a bit of open space on both sides. It usually seems like enough of space to add a plenty wide cycle path. Some places its a little narrow, however with enough barriers between the highway and the paths, I would think that it would be safe for cyclists. I dont know about the importance of the open spaces for safety of drivers, but shoulders are quite narrow in many places so it seems like there are cases where some factors make it worth it to forego that space. The path could even be put behind sound deadening walls that are already often there, though I acknowledge that it would mostly be prohibitive to do this.

These projects definitely would incur extra not insignificant expenses, however it seems to me that this could be folded into highway resurfacing and maintenance works that need to happen anyways, reducing extra road closures and work time that would otherwise need to happen.

In cases where the highway goes over an overpass or through an underpass or tunnel, or where the highways is impractical to follow, the bike path could be minimally routed through surface streets with bicycle and pedestrian crossing. If that was impossible for some reasons, it could go along the overpass, separated from the highway by concrete barriers, however that seems much less ideal to me.

# What would change my view:

A convincing argument as to why this wouldnt be useful or effective, or a convincing argument that it would be much more expensive than I think it would be to the point of outweighing the plus sides.

# What would not change my view:

Arguments that cycling is an ineffective means of transportation or arguing that cars are better than other forms of transportation. I am not looking to have this part of me view challenged at the moment.

I think its probably clear that I just came up with this idea looking at a few examples of things I like and dislike about the areas near where I live. I havent fully thought this through, nor am I an expert on urban planning, so I wanted some other perspectives. Change my view!

[Assistant] You say yourself that "These paths wouldnt be as pleasant as high-quality bike paths, due do the proximity to the loud highway." But they'd also be more costly than similar-quality bike paths built elsewhere, due to the extra cost of constructing the barrier between the highway and the paths. So this idea just seems worse than spending less money building the same bike path somewhere else.


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

[User]
How do applications serve concurrent requests?

This basic question is bothering me, and admittedly I dont understand databases, architecture, and networking very much.

Im hoping someone can provide as close to a ELI5 answer as possible.

Assume we have a very simple application being hosted by one server. How many requests can it handle? What causes it to crash when it is overloaded? Can it serve concurrent requests
at the same time at all? Does it slow down before it crashes?

I know this is a very simple phrasing of a very complicated idea, and Im sure the answers vary depending on nearly unlimited factors, but hopefully someone can shed some light on this topic!

[Assistant] Threads or thread pools.  Think of them as workers and when a request comes in a thread takes the request and handles it.  Cause you have multiple threads (or servers) the thread/worker that is charge of the whole operation does not have to hault itself to deal with one request.


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

[User]
[Star Trek] Can anyone explain to me how Dr. McCoy could possibly be 137 years old in Encounter At Farpoint?

I get that they wanted one of the original stars to be in the pilot of Next Generation, I also get that in the star trek universe, medicine has come a long way. But I don't ever remember any actual explanation of how he was still alive, or for that matter, why he was touring the Enterprise -D at all.

[Assistant]
137 really didn't that old. We have a people living to 100 all the time now, and even a few making it up to 115-120.

400 years(from now until TNG) to learn how to increase possible life expectancy by 30% isn't unrealistic at all. And remember, it was only McCoy touring. He and Uhura are both still alive and old, but the others have long since departed for the, ahem, final frontier.

And I've seen articles indicating that we'll see someone hit 130 probably in the next 50 years. We're eating better, excercising better, and medical science is really making some breakthroughs in aging.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is it TV writers are more acclaimed than TV directors, but film directors are more highly acclaimed than film writers?

.

[Assistant]
I think it's because of the different roles the writers & directors take in films vs tv.

In tv, you'll have one set of writers that stays with the show throughout the season (or more) while there will be a different director for each episode.  Thus the writers have a much bigger part in the overall tv series than the directors.

In film, the director pretty much creates the entire vision for the film, while there may be multiple rewrites involved in any given script.  But the project beginning-to-end is the directors baby.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do teachers always seem to think there are hidden meanings in literature?

[Assistant]
Because the meanings really aren't that hidden.  They're there.  It's what made the story 'literature' in the first place.

There are, of course, exceptions, but 99.999% of the time, the teacher is right.


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

[User]
How does my stomach separate the liquid I drink from the digestive fluid?

I imagine the stomach is full of these acid and that these acids don't get into the intestine so how does it filter the water?

[Assistant] The stomach doesn't separate it.  Everything flows into the small intestine.  The first part of the small intestine is called the duodenum, and inside of it, the body secretes sodium bicarbonate to neutralize most of the acid.


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

[User] Why do I need to restart after installing things and making changes to windows sometimes?

[Assistant]
It's sort of like changing a tire on a car.  You can only do that when the car is stopped, never while driving.

If parts of Windows are in use, it's hard or impossible to replace them with updated versions.  You have to wait until they're not in use.  Sometimes that's as simple as closing a program.  Other times, it means rebooting the entire operating system.


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

[User]
Given two sets of twins (male and female). If each pair has a child, can you determine which child belongs to what parents purely from a DNA test?

As the question implies, if you have two sets of twins (male and female) and each pair has a child, of the same sex or different sex, would you be able to tell what child belongs to what parents?

If each dad and mom shares identical DNA with their twin, wouldnt these children (who are cousins) be genetically identified as siblings? And in addition, can you tell if theres any genetic difference between identical twins?

[Assistant]
Short answer is no, they are genetically siblings, and parentage can't be deducted.

Long answer is sometimes.  Even identical twins may not have identical DNA (e.g. non-zero chance for identical twins to be different genders or for one to have a trisomy the other doesn't). Telomeres, transcription errors, and crossover may be able to differentiate parentage.

Outside DNA, microbiota from birthing, immune system cell transfer from feeding, and skin colony from cosleeping could be used to differentiate with whom they were doing these activities.


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

[User]
Why was gold valued to all cultures and regions of the world in ancient times?

Europe, the Americas, China, etc never fully met in the ancient times yet all understood
that gold was valuable. Why?

My guess is aliens!

{/u/Schlafenkopf asked this in a
comment somewhere and I need to know now}

[Assistant]
Gold is largely unreactive, so does not tarnish. This is a big one. It will always look shiny. And, importantly, that means that when you find it in the ground it is as nuggets of gold, not some boring looking rock that you have to crush and smelt. There's no essential processing required.

Secondly, it's quite a soft metal so it is easy to work. It can be drawn into wires without too much difficulty, and is therefore capable of forming exceptionally elaborate jewellery even with simple equipment.

So it would always have been an attractive and useful material. The reason it becomes valuable is because it's limited supply.

In the modern era we've also discovered it has some very useful electrical and thermal properties - it's a fantastic electrical conductor, so it used in many electronic components. That places further demand on a limited supply, so the price is maintained.


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

[User]
[Firefly] Question about the Reavers, how do they multiply? Or propagate? Is there a 'government'/hierarchy?

It was explained in the movie that the Reavers were the 10% of humans that had side effects to the drug. Eventually, they killed everyone off on the planet. So a couple of questions:

1. How did they get from being the only *savages* on the planet to operate space ships and roam the galaxy?

2. After roaming the galaxy, how did they multiply if they killed and mutilated all of their victims?

3. And after becoming a reaver, how do they become co-ordinated? IIRC, the movie explained that the reavers had higher amounts of testosterone which then turned them into savaged-like people. So if they were savages, would they have a leader (as the best savage)?

[Assistant]
First, the reavers' starting numbers were a tenth of a percent - not ten percent - of the total population of Miranda. Those numbers are very different.

Second, it's a matter of conjecture as to how the reavers propagate and arrange themselves in society. Based on their activities and observed behavior, it's likely that they retain most of their higher-thinking skills, since they casually plot and pursue courses along the outer rim and don't prey upon themselves.

We've witnessed one specific case of reavers leaving behind a single survivor in order to corrupt him to the point of unhinging his mind. It worked. So it's also possible that they leave *many* of their victims alive, but only a single one behind as a calling-card for others in the system.

If they can do all that, surely they can breed amongst themselves.


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

[User] How do you mass produce vaccines in the huge quantities needed to fight Covid-19?

[Assistant] Pfizer already has a large number of clean room manufacturing facilities around the world. Moderna is using contract manufacturing facilities. Unlike traditional attenuated vaccine manufacturing like the annual flu vaccines, these vaccines use new mRNA lipid nanoparticles for vaccine delivery to the cell. This is a quicker process. There are different manufacturing limitations for both vaccines that will constrain production volume, hence the current issues about who gets the vaccines first.


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

[User]
ELI5: How a computer randomly generates something

How does a computer randomly generate something, ie Reddit's RANDOM link up top. How does the site select the "random" link?

[Assistant]
Computers have no imagination, they just do maths.  This means they can't make up random numbers but they can take existing numbers and come up with new ones.  When you generate a bunch of numbers from an existing one, that one is called a 'seed'.  The same seed will usually always result in the same bunch of new numbers.
This means the trick is coming up with unexpected seeds.  One way to do that is to check the system time (the little clock in your computer) but that's pretty predictable too.  A better way to do that is to tell the computer to come up with seeds based on how the user is interacting with the computer.  This is a good way because the computer can't predict when you're going to hit a key or click the mouse and it's practically impossible for other people to duplicate your timing.


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

[User]
Eli5 How can some particles have no mass?

I know photons are one such particle. How is this even possible?

[Assistant] another way of looking at it is why does anything have mass at all? You're assuming having mass is the natural state of any particle. Turns out, mass seems to be "given" to particles that interact with the higgs field. Photons don't really interact with the higgs field the way an electron does. So it has no mass.


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

[User]
Is it possible for their to be "Dark Systems" I.e. Solar systems with no star at the center but rather massive gas giants?

If so how would we ever detect them and what type of planets would surround it?

[Assistant]
Yes. There's some dispute about what it would be called - is it a sub-brown dwarf with planets, or a rogue planet with moons. But whatever we call it they are likely to exist, since free-floating planets exist and moon systems exist.

In December 2013 a gravitational microlensing event possibly caused by a free-floating planet and moon occurred. (But it might instead have been a red dwarf and planet, there wasn't enough information to be sure.)


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

[User] ELI5: Do aquatic animals stay in the same stretch of river? If so, wouldn't they have to constantly swim against the river current?

[Assistant]
Yes and no! River ecosystems are actually deceptively complex, there's a bunch of different types of organisms living in all different parts of the river. The easiest way to describe it would be to divide the river into three parts: The top layer of water (where the air and water meet), the middle, and the bottom (which includes all the sedeiment and dirt on the bottom of a riverbed). Different types of organisms exist in each of these sections, and some are more influenced by river flow than others.

Some animals, such as the planktons, are lazy. They will just float along with the flow of the river and accept wherever it takes them, and because they are usually photosynthetic, they don't really have to worry about gathering food and so can just float along wherever the current takes them.

Neustonic animals are the one's you're thinking of, and yes, they're able to fight currents to move around feely in river ecosystems. They can float above or under the surface, and if they wanted to stay in the same place then they'd have to use energy to swim against the river current. These can be fish, or even water striders which float along the top of the water.

Benthic organisms are those that live within the riverbed sediment, and will remain fairly stable in the same stretch of the river. Most of them have structures that help them cling to the bottom of the river bed, allowing them to stay in place.

Like another commenter has already said, many insects lay their larvae in the water to spend the first half of their life, before growing into fully realised insects and leaving the river later on. These can float along, or stay put, all depending on the type of insect and where larvae eggs are laid.


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

[User] [Star Wars] I'm a Jedi and the clone wars have just begun. We seemed really quick to use this shady, mysterious clone army. Why and should I be worried?

[Assistant] The Clones were commissioned by Sifo-Dyas, a Jedi with the gift of foresight.  While the Council did not believe that such an army was needed, it turned out that his predictions about a need for them was correct.  Use of a trained clone army can help reduce casualties resulting from untrained soldiers.  Nevertheless, the Jedi have assigned Shaak Ti to oversee the clone productions to ensure that nothing out of the ordinary happens, and the clones will largely be under the supervision of the Galactic Republic, which includes numerous Jedi generals.  If there appear to be problems in the early days of using them, then the republic can adapt.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does being extremely close to an object around your nose and eyebrows feel like a sixth sense, even with my eyes closed?

It feels almost like a weird, hair raising sensation.

[Assistant] Heat. You're feeling the heat of the object (if it's warmer or colder than the room you're in on average), or your own body heat reflecting off of it (infrared radiation), or changes in the temperature of air in the vicinity, or a combination of these. All of which you sense as a temperature difference.


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

[User] ELI5: Why didn't the DeBeers campaign to raise prices and artificially restrict supply of precious gems lead to antitrust lawsuits?

[Assistant] It most certainly would have if DeBeers operated in the United States, but they have no operations officially on US soil. In this way they can control the global market, and if retailers, even ones in the US, want diamonds they have to buy from them anyway.


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

[User]
Why do we get sore throats?

I know *how* we get sore throats (i.e. from viral or bacteria infections), which seems to be the only answers that come up when I try to ask this question online; what I'm curious about is the *why.*  We get a cough to try and loosen mucus, we get a fever to allow the body/immune system to work more efficiently, but why do we get a sore throat? What purpose does it serve physiologically, if any? Or, is it a side effect of something else?

[Assistant]
Its pain from inflammation. The pain itself doesnt serve much physiological function beyond making sure you know somethings wrong with you, and thus hopefully avoid actions that would aggravate the inflammation site.

Inflammation is a common, physiological response to pretty much any damage to any part of your body (except a few special places where it is normally suppressed, such as your brain, or the inside of your eye globes), mainly mediated by your immune system, mainly for the purpose of facilitating further immune response and tissue repair. In the case of a sore throat, or in fact any infection, inflammation is induced by both the damage directly caused by pathogens, and by your immune response trying its best to fight off the pathogens.


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

[User] ELI5:Why are airplane windows so small?

[Assistant]
Because the cabin is pressurised - the air pressure inside is kept much higher than the air pressure outside so that you can breathe.

Any holes in the aircraft skin will be put under stress by the pressurisation. Bigger windows means more stress. This would mean that the materials (for both the windows and the aircraft skin) would need to be made thicker to reinforce them. This costs money during manufacture - but it also adds weight, which means you need more fuel (or you can carry fewer passengers/less cargo), so the costs soon start mounting up.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is the GOP suing Obama and what will happen if they win/lose?

[Assistant]
Most of these answers are technically correct, but the real answer is "2014 Elections." Suing Obama for trumped up charges will fire up the conservative base and get republicans winning seats, but it's not as half-cocked and insane as a full-blown impeachment.

Nothing will come of this because the suit lacks any serious merit. At best, it'll be political spectacle and maybe help GOP keep the House (and possibly give fodder for 2016 elections).


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

[User]
ELI5: How does kinetic sand work? Also, how is it made?

My son got some for Christmas it's really cool and almost seems magnetized in some way. Just curious really if that is correct amd how they go about making it magnetic as it says it's made with real sand.

[Assistant]
Kinetic sand is basically just normal sand, coated with silicone oil. Silicone oil is what gives kinetic sand its properties - it flows like liquid when not under stress, but becomes almost solid like when affected by forces.

You might want to also look at Non-Neutonian fluids :)

Also kinetic is not same as magnetic. Kinetic sand is sand that is very hard when you apply force to it (i.e. if you try to squeeze it, it will feel like you're squeezing a rock), but is very soft and liquid-like when you just let it go (so if you release your hand after trying to squeeze it, it will just flow out of your hand as if it was liquid).


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

[User] [Terminator/Alien] Would a Weyland Yutani designed and built David or Walter model with it's human interaction capability have been more effective as an infiltrator than any of the Terminator models?

[Assistant] Well they would be a better infiltrator unit, since they are better at acting human. Or well, some units, like the 888, were very good at being human, but compared to the standard 800 or 850, the david model would be better.  but, when it comes to combat, compared to the terminators the weyland androids might as well be made of paper machie, they break rather easily. you can punch the head off of a weyland androids, meanwhile a terminator can walk throught a storm of gunfire and only need some cosmetic surgery afterwards.


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

[User]
Ethical problem in writing papers

I have a problem I don't know how to deal with.

Is it ethical that my professor takes my draft of my paper and rewrite it when he finds it needs improvements and makes himself the first author?
Isn't he supposed to guide me through the writing process?

If he is right, please explain why? And if he isn't, please tell me what should I do.

[Assistant]
This sub makes me think that the rules of advising need to be codified and you need to be trained and certified to advise on research.

It's just like how having a doctorate makes you qualified to teach without any teacher training.

You should not be turned loose as an advisor to do it however you want.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why can't the whole world switch to one currency?

What would happen if it was attempted?

EDIT: Why so many downvotes?!?

[Assistant]
The advantage of multiple currencies is that if one country has economic booms or busts they can tweak their currencies so they are worth more or less to either slow down or speed up their economies.

Take Greece as an example. If they were still on the Drachma, they could devalue their currency and make their exports cheaper for other countries so it would get more people back to work.


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

[User]
CMV: Dating Apps like Tinder Have Raised the Looks Bar for Men

I first started online dating several years ago. Back then, I had a witty profile and would engage women with witty messages. Pics weren't a dealbreaker. Women would exchange flirtatious texts constantly even before meeting them. Dates were easy to get. There was far less flaking and ghosting.

Now, pics are everything. There's far less emphasis on one's profile and message content, and far more emphasis on pictures. If she doesn't like your pictures, she won't write you back.
How did things change so quickly?

Back then, social media was still in its infancy. Facebook had just opened to the masses and Instagram didn't exist. Today, women are more looks focused due to the explosion of visual social media like Facebook and Instagram.

Back then, there were no smartphone apps like Tinder giving women instant access to hot guys they never would have had access to before. Today, women have immediate access to men messaging them constantly, unencumbered by the fear of rejection that comes with approaching women in person.

As a result, the looks bar for men to attract women has gone way up in recent years. If you don't meet her looks bar, you're not dating her. And the looks bar for men has been raised higher than ever before.

Thoughts?

[Assistant]
I'd say the "looks bar" has possibly risen for casual hook-ups, casual dating, etc. But that makes sense to me. You're literally just looking for sex, or a fun night. It's instant gratification. Why worry too much about the personality of someone you're only going to spend a few hours with (unless you figure out you like them for more)?

If anything has changed, I'd say it's women's (or gay men's) willingness to enter into "relationships" that they never intend to be long term. They could be, yes, but they're perfectly okay with it just being a night or two of fun, and then bye. Therefore, they aim for what is going to be most pleasing over the course of a night or two: physical appearance.

Use an online dating service that emphasizes personality (like OKCupid) instead of appearance (like Tinder), and you'll probably see a balance closer to what you'd like.


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

[User] ELI5: What is being done to combat antibiotic resistance caused by antibiotic use in the farming industry?

[Assistant]
There has been great strides made by the sector but still a huge way to go. Efforts have focused on three aspects:
1. Reduction in usage of antibiotics - such EU countries as Denmark and the Netherlands have mandated large reductions in Ab usage for livestock production - this predominantly saved from a lack of usage prophylactically
2. Development of novel anti-infective products - use of other non classic antibiotics for use in animal health
3. Restrictions of use of antibiotics that are restricted/last line in human health
There are multiple efforts by biotechs and large pharma to develop non antibiotics and to improve diagnostics to ensure the correct therapeutic is used. Coupled with improvements in animal husbandry there has been a large reduction across many sectors, and with further regulatory changes afoot will continue this downward trend.


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

[User]
[The Simpsons] Why did Lionel Hutz repeatedly run over Judge Snyder's son?

Hutz, while a decidedly unethical man, doesn't really strike me as psychotic. What happened to make him run over Snyder's son?

[Assistant] I suspect it was an accident, possibly while Hutz was drunk. He probably accidentally hit the kid while driving then made the stupid decision to back up in order to see what he hit thereby running him over again.


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

[User] [ELI5] When staring at any object in the dark, the small details on it seem to look distorted and move around. Whats the explanation behind this?

[Assistant]
The way that vision cells (rods and cones) work in your eyes is that if a photon interacts with a chemical substance within them, it causes a chain reaction which causes a nerve signal to be sent to the brain. The more often this happens per second, the brighter it seems to us. This is a random process though, and if there's just very little light to see, the chain reaction happens so rarely that things can randomly appear brighter for a split second.

The distrtion comes from the fact that in the center of our field of vision, there are mostly cones, which can see color but aren't that sensitive to light. On the outside, there are mostly rods, which can't see color, but are much more sensitive. So if it's dark outside, the cones in the middle become fairly useless, and you see mostly with the rods on the outside. The distortion comes from our brain trying to make sense of an image with a black hole in the center.


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

[User] ELI5:How can people do accurate voice impersonations, if their voices sound deeper to themselves?

[Assistant]
A lot of impressions have more to do with how someone speaks rather than how they sound. Pay attention to their accent, where they pause, how they emphasize certain words, where they speed up and slow down.

Now practice. Record yourself. Review. Repeat.


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

[User]
[Star wars] How did Tarkin find out Vader was Anakin?

And if so, how is that Vader is okay with him knowing that?

[Assistant]
Tarkin is a master hunter. He observes everything and everyone around him. No detail is ignored and nothing left to chance. Small mannerism and behaviors tipped him to Vader's identity. A tattoine accent on certain words. Mentions of clone wars strategies. A preference for mechanics. And a close relationship with Palpatine. A dozen pieces that all add up to Vader being a former Jedi and a certain Jedi from tattoine was Palaptines closest confidant in the latter days of the clone wars.

As for why Vader was okay with it that's simple. Tarkin was palaptine's second in command. Grand moff of the empire and architect of it's military. When tarkin learned of Vader's identity he was completely untouchable and the de facto right hand of the emperor. Vader couldn't do anything or risk the wrath of the emperor coming crashing down on him despite his status as apprentice and dark lord of the sith.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why do ships not have thrusters in the front? In other words, how do they slow down?

I'm working on a couple of assumptions here:

1. Ships, especially military ships, will want to slow down as quickly as they speed up;

2. The massive engines at the back of the ship are almost purely functional rather than decorative;

3. The engines are used to provide thrust in normal space as opposed to hyperspace;

4. The ships don't turn around to decelerate; and

5. The laws of physics work the same way in the SW universe as in our own.

If the above assumptions are correct, what tech do they use to slow a ship down - and why don't they use that same tech to accelerate the ship?

[Assistant] Inertial dampers don't just shield the people inside the ship from the devastating effects of rapid acceleration changes, but they can also "dump" the kinetic energy of the ship, causing it to rapidly lose speed.  They just can't produce thrust, which is why ships can only accelerate forward, thanks to their engines.


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

[User]
[LOTR] Is there any reason why the ring could not have been dumped in the ocean?

I feel it would be quite far from Sauron's grasp at the bottom of the sea.

[Assistant]
"Then", said Glorfindel, "let us cast it into the deeps, and so make the lies of Saruman come true. For it is clear now that even at the Council his feet were already on a crooked path. He knew that the Ring was not lost for ever, but wished us to think so; for he began to lust for it for himself. Yet oft in lies truth is hidden: in the Sea it would be safe."

"Not safe for ever, " said Gandalf. "There are many things in the deep waters; and seas and lands may change. And it is not our part here to take thought only for a season, or for a few lives of Men, or for a passing age of the world. We should seek a final end of this menace, even if we do not hope to make one."

Sure dropping it in the ocean would prevent Sauron from getting the ring, for a time. But the ring wants to be found and it would eventually find its way back to Sauron's hand. Besides, the way things stood, Sauron's army would soon destroy Gondor, after that it wouldn't be long before the rest of Middle-earth was under his sway, then Sauron would have litterally all the time in the world to wait for the ring to get back to him or for him to find some way to retrieve it.


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

[User] ELI5: Why doesn't the value of Gold decrease as more is mined in the same way that the value of money decreases when more is printed?

[Assistant]
It's the rate at which it's mined compared to the rate at which people desire to own it. Population is growing and becoming more wealthy. That means more people want gold (for many different reasons, but the "why" doens't matter here).

If we mine X kilos of gold per year, but the demand for gold increases more than X kilos... the price will rise as people price out how much they desire that gold.


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

[User]
CMV: Republicans are trying to turn Sony pulling 'The Interview' into America losing a cyberwar so they can blame Obama for it.

So much of this conversation is so full of horseshit that I can barely read about it anymore.

"America" didn't give in to terrorists, a Japanese multinational media conglomerate did, as they have every right to.

"America" did not lose its first cyberwar, a private sector company chose not to further incite maniac terrorists, as is their right to do.

This still sucks, obviously, but this isn't about our personal liberties being taken away, nor is it about America giving in to foreign powers' demands.

But Newt Gingrich and his horde of idiots want to use this to paint Obama as weak in the face of terror, so that's the narrative they're pushing and a disappointingly large number of people are picking up the baton.

So, uh... change my view.

[Assistant]
Sony Pictures Entertainment is an American company headquartered in California.  It produced an English-language movie and changed its mind about releasing it in US theatres due to a North Korean terrorist threat to bomb those theatres.

Sony's decision means that a major corporation sees US security as so weak that a North Korean threatened bombing holds more weight than guaranteed millions of revenue.  That's a huge problem for Republicans.  They worry that Muslims have a heckler's veto against US media, and that this is a huge cultural/political problem.

This has only a little to do with Obama, it has more to do with the America that Republicans want to see.  And the America they want to see is one that won't censor anti-Muslim films for fear of violence.


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

[User]
Time and absolute zero speed...

IIRC time is relative, as in if I travel at some speed through space in some fancy ship while the rest of humanity is back at earth i will not have aged as much as the rest of the population when I return, right?

So, I had this thought in the shower the other day...

Wouldn't that mean that there is a correlation between the passage of time and the speed for an object?

If so, what happens if an object is absolutely still? Not relatively still but absolutely still.

edit: What i'm getting at is; what would happen if you achieve 0 speed? Would you create a singularity in time, shooting into infinity?

edit: Thank you for enlightening me, or atlest trying. My poor brian hurts now. Mus tlay dwon.. *thud*

[Assistant] There is no absolute reference for the universe.  Time dilation occurs relative to an observer.  There's no such thing as absolutely still.  If you're moving identically to another observer, time will pass at the exact same rate.


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

[User] [Star Wars] What's the purpose of elongating the back of the helmets?

[Assistant]
Which ones? For stormtroopers it's probably the same for old suits of plate armour - the flare of the helmet can help deflect a descending blow away from the neck.

For those guys on the death star it's a posture thing to stop them slouching in their chairs while they're on duty.


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

[User] [TES] How does the Transmutation spell not absolutely wreck the economy of Cyrodil?

[Assistant] Not everyone has the power or the knowledge to use it. The majority are poor farmers or craftsmen who can't afford expensive magical text books. Most people also don't go tromping through caves fighting bears and bandits to get the experience and power needed to cast advanced magic.


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

[User]
Do you think with current science and technology, that we could start a colony on another planet?

Mars is ALMOST like earth, minus water and plants, but do you think it could be possible to shape our red neighbor into a livable planet, without the use of re-breathers/space suits?
EDIT: Astrokiwi is very knowledgeable and has kindly explained that Mars is much more different than  i thought. Thank you!

[Assistant]
Mars is pretty different to Earth. The atmosphere is about 1% of the thickness of Earth's - it would basically feel like a vacuum to any Earth organism. It also gets less than half the heat the Earth does. So you would need to pump in a lot of gas to make the air breathable, and to trap the heat in.

It is easy to underestimate the scale of this endeavour. All of the total sum of all of the carbon dioxide emission from all of the industry in the history of the Earth *has* made an effect on the atmosphere, but it's still on the order of hundreds of parts per million (though of course, this is affected by the natural processing of CO2).

We can use this as an estimate of the scale of the project. What would happen if this scale of industry was producing oxygen and nitrogen instead of CO2? While dedicated machinery might produce air more efficiently, it's unlikely we'll get that scale of dedicated machinery on Mars without already terraforming it already, so this is still a good estimate of an upper limit. We're talking about the effects of 7 billion people here...

According to wikipedia, the sum of all of our CO2 emissions is 29,888,121,000 tonnes per year (let's say 3x10^10 ) , while Mars's atmosphere is 25,000,000,000,000 tonnes (25 x 10^12 tonnes). To multiply this by 100 (roughly what we need) would require 2.5 x 10^15 tonnes. So if we had the equivalent of Earth's entire industry on Mars, but producing air instead, it would take about 100,000 years to get an Earth-like atmosphere.

So even with an unrealistically large-scale industry on Mars producing air, it is not going to happen any time soon.

Edit: No need to downvote the people responding to me - they're just follow-up questions!


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

[User]
ELI5: Is there an upper limit to how tall a building can be?

Assume a 50,000 square feet cuboid building on a plain, firm land, in a landlocked area and not on any major earthquake prone areas. How tall can it be theoretically?

[Assistant]
The limit is based on the weight the construction can carry. If the construction cannot carry that amount anymore, then it will crush under its own weight.

For example, the World Trade Centre towers, you might have heard a little bit about it. They were 400 meters high. The metal and concrete construction were properly specced to hold its heights for the first 35 years: Nothing wrong with it. Now due to an external incident, the metal construction is affected and lost its strength. It then collapsed under the weight of the construction on top of it and it folded nicely on top of itself.

The space elevator principle is based on a string of 36 thousand kilometers. Currently there is no material which can carry that weight without breaking.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Could you create a giant wand canon out of a tree?

\*cannon

We see wands have different sizes and some people even use a staff instead of a wand (Mad eye Moody)

Also some wands do bestow more power than others because of special properties (Elder Wand).

Combined with the right materials like large quantities of unicorn hair, etc; would it be possible to create a giant wand cannon from a whole tree?

[Assistant]
Not for a human. Effective use of a wand requires careful and precise movements of the wand and a tree would be to large for a human to lift and manipulate.

Now if giants had wands then presumably those would need to be scaled up to giant size but it's not clear if that would actually make them more powerful.


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

[User]
Is there more than one universe?

Does the science community have any evidence(shaky or legitimate) that more than one universe might exist?

edit: There is quite a bit here to digest. I'm going to try and get through it all tonight. But either way I'm sure I'll have questions when I am done. I may try to PM a few of you for follow up information, and I will be sure to monitor this thread to see where else the discussion goes. Thanks everyone for your input, it is incredible that this community exists, and it will definitely make my life better and more "sciencey" tonight.

[Assistant]
Nothing but theory and speculation at this point.

Recently, ripples in the CMB have been thought to be indications of a previous universe. Experiments are currently underway to try to prove or disprove this (one criticism has already been disproven - so that is a good thing).  Expect more on this in a few years.

Other examples that are 'popular' include Brane theory (universes spin out due to a collision of Branes), special black hole theory (some black holes 'output' new universes), and constant expansion-rebirth (the universe keeps getting bigger and bigger with new 'big bangs' pushing everything else (and us) outward and past the 'new universe' observational horizon).

But again, at this point theory and speculation - nothing definitive.

However, there is nothing to make us believe that there can not be other universes.