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

[User]
Why is it easy to iron a wrinkle into a shirt, but not to flatten it back out?

Surely you've been ironing a shirt or something and accidentally ironed a wrinkle or crease in the fabric where it doesn't belong only to find it surprisingly stubborn to flatten out. So why is that?

[Assistant]
The best way to imagine a shirt is like a piece of paper. And the best way to imagine paper is to imagine a shirt. Both are made up by layer upon layer upon layer of strands of material that are bound together. So, to prevent a circular loop, imagine a whole bunch of straws layered together.

What happens when you fold it? Well, If you have a red side and a blue side and fold it so that the blue side ends up touching itself (gross), the red side has to expand because what was a flat surface is now expanded to allow for a curve (the blue side doesn't shrink and everything has to go somewhere, so it forces the red surface to wrap around it and expand). It expands out by stretching, but because the straws themselves don't stretch, they slide out of place and the red side grows. This stretching is tension caused by compression of the folded material, but is tension across the red surface.

When you unfold it, the red side is now bigger and you get that bump because that extra surface area has to go somewhere (the crease is also held in place by the smaller blue side as well).

When you try to iron it back in place, the blue side is not under enough tension as the red side was during the folding and you can't shrink the red side by pressing down on it with an iron.

Why does water work? Because it does two things, it causes everything to swell up and it lubricates the fibers (also, hot water is also absorbed by animal hair and causes it to swell and relax, that's why showers are good for bedhead). The blue surface swells up to be almost as big as the red surface and the crease is mostly gone just from a good soaking. The relaxed and lubricated fibers of the blue surface can now expand to the same size as the red surface and the crease is mostly eliminated when ironed. There is some shrinking during drying, but some shirts also stretch out over time.


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

[User] Why radiowaves can travel through walls, microwaves/visible light can't, but x-rays/gamma rays need lead walls to get blocked ?

[Assistant]
It's all about what frequencies the material resonates at, and whether or not it is a conductor.  Radio waves have a long wavelength and low energy.  The low energy means that they won't be able to excite resonances in most atoms and molecules.  Their long wavelength allows them to pass around most conducting sources in a wall without being grounded out.  On the other hand, you could easily block all radio waves as well  by just running connected wires spaced a foot or so apart all the way around and turning the room into a simple Faraday cage.

With microwaves and visible light, you start getting into energy levels that can excite vibrations, and so they are able to be absorbed, and thus blocked.

As you keep moving to higher frequencies, the photon energies get much higher, high enough that a single vibration doesn't contain enough energy to completely absorb them, or the energy is enough to completely ionize a molecule and then be re-released.  Because of that, you need a very dense material able to absorb a lot of energy in order to block them.


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

[User] ELI5: What is the benefit of blueprints being white over blue?

[Assistant]
Back in the day, there used to be a process where you would pen a half-transluscent blue paper and whith a light you could reproduce it accuratly to another paper, kind of like photography film.

Now blueprints are rarely blue, they are printed on a plotter (printer) and are usually black on white.  If they are blue, its for style.

Personally i hate black on white because in the sunlight, on a hood of a car, i find it easier to read a white on dark piece of paper, as opposed to black on white.


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

[User]
ELI5: Do other galaxies in the sky move?

Since the Earth spins, the sky appears to rotate around us throughout the year. Our galaxy is also spinning, so do objects beyond our galaxy (other galaxies and nebulae) rotate relative to the stars (in our galaxy) we can see in the sky?

[Assistant]
Other galaxies are as "fixed" in the sky as the stars are. The galaxies are of course moving -- most of them away from us, and all of them very very fast -- but their movement isn't noticeable within the span of human civilization. The galaxy M31, for instance, is called the Andromeda Galaxy because it's in the constellation Andromeda. It's always been there, in that spot, and always will...moving into the far future, it will be the stars making up the constellation that will drift away before M31 does.

Here's an analogy: put an object in the center of the room and pretend it's the sun. Now walk around the object, pretending you're the Earth. At one point, the "sun" will be in front of the door, then later it will be in front of the couch, then the window, then the TV, and so on. Those things in the background are the stars or constellations that the sun moves through over the course of the year (the series of constellations that the sun passes through are called the zodiac). But if there's a window in the room, you are able to see a mountain fifty miles away. That's a galaxy. The mountain is *always* going to be in the window...it won't be "in" the couch or the TV.


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

[User] ELI5: What is happening at the atomic level when a rubber band becomes hard and brittle?

[Assistant]
Not so much at the atomic level, because rubber is not homogeneous, but at the molecular level there are a few things happening.

Ruber is an "elastomer", meaning that there are lots of long chains of molecules that are bunched up in their natural state, but can be pulled out into long strings when you apply some force to it.

There are oils in rubber that keep these elastomers from contacting one another and making bonds between them , which would keep them from unwinding. Over time, these oils evaporate, allowing the new bonds to form, and UV light destroys the elastomers, and eventually the rubber solidifies, then disintegrates.


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

[User]
[GotG 2] What happens if Ego doesn't tell Peter the truth?

If Ego just left the cause of Peter's mom's death vague, how would the events change? What Peter still turn against Ego?

[Assistant]
Peter still isn't going to be okay with the whole 'turning all life everywhere into more Celestials' thing, and the other Guardians are going to figure out the *other* dark secrets in pretty short order.  Gamorra had already found the skeletons of the dead kids at that point, and Mantis was already spilling the beans to them.

Peter would probably snap out of his little crisis when it became clear Ego was going to kill Gamorra, since he has a huge boner for that girl.


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

[User]
Why is the force of gravity taught as a constant, e.g. -9.8 m/s, when Newton's law depends on the distance?

For that matter, wouldn't any inverse-square law force depend on the radius?

[Assistant]
The -9.8 m/s^(2) refers to the acceleration due to gravity near the surface of the Earth, not the acceleration due to gravity in general.

In fact this arises from the inverse square law and the fact that the Earth is so much larger than the distances we typically move.  The acceleration 9.8 m/s^(2) is the value of the expression GM/r^(2) where G is the Newtonian gravitational constant 6.67 x 10^(-11) N m^(2)/kg^(2), M is the mass of the Earth, and r is the distance to the center of the Earth.  Since over typical human scales, our distance to the center of the Earth barely changes (going up or down 100 meters is irrelevant on scale of thousands of kilometers), the acceleration due to gravity near the surface of the Earth is essentially constant.


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

[User] [Harry Potter] Is it a bad idea to make your wand a horcrux?

[Assistant]
It's a pretty bad idea to make a horcrux at all, so the answer is yes.

But if we were to ignore all the obvious downsides of making a horcrux and assume that you're *going* to make one, a wand would be a fairly bad choice.

Wands are slightly intelligent magical objects ("the wand chooses the wizard" and all that), and it's generally a bad idea to give something that's intelligent a piece of your soul to hold onto.

That's not even considering the potentially weird things that might happen putting a piece of your soul into a complicated magical object, especially one that's intelligent. Just look at Nagini (mundane but intelligent), and Harry (magical and debatably intelligent); Nagini gained a weird level of intelligence through the process, and Harry ended up being extremely effective against Voldemort. Think if your wand became loyal to another wizard (potentially a rival of yours). If it reacts anything like Harry did to becoming a Horcrux, that wand will now be extremely effective against your magic with very little actual skill or power on the part of the user. If you're in the business of making horcruxes, that's almost definitely not something you want.


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

[User] What would happen if a person wearing magnetic nail polish had an MRI scan?

[Assistant] The adhesive in nail polish definitely isn't strong enough to rip off your nails. At the very least, the magnetic particles in the nail polish would heat up. This would make the nail polish brittle, and it would probably flake off.


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

[User]
Writing Fiction: How can I plausibly make silver more valuable?

So I'm writing a novella: gold has been discovered on the moon and has flooded earth, so the value of gold comes down-- right. Now I also need the value of silver to go up and for it to become the new gold. Is it plausible to have people start to invest in it, making the value of it go up? I somehow need/want it to be linked to government issued pensions (I'm from the UK, does America have govt pensions? If not, ah well, it's set 300ish years into the future). I basically need elderly people to suddenly become super rich from the rise in silver....

[Assistant]
>Is it plausible to have people start to invest in it, making the value of it go up?

Nah but why? "Just invest in it, the value will go up" seems like one of those statements that's somehow supposed to mean something but really doesn't. Ultimately things have value for the most part not because people "invest in it" but because there's some underlying reason.

Like, people buy company stock and that makes the price go up, but ultimately they only do that because they believe the company will grow for some reason.

Silver isn't *that* valuable for two related reasons, there's a lot of it (comparatively) and it's not used for all that much stuff. If you want a plausible explanation for a surge in the price of silver, one of those things has to change. Either there's a lot less of it, or there is some new technology or whatever that requires a *lot* more silver than what's in use right now.


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

[User] Why do legumes (mainly thinking about peanuts and soybeans) seem to be more allergenic than other foods?

[Assistant]
Partly due to protein content - generally, proteins are more likely to cause allergy than other compounds.

This combines with a genetic component which suggests that individuals with certain allergies are more likely to have children with those allergies, so common allergies remain common because of genetic predisposition (where those genes came from originally is unclear).

Lastly, lack of exposure appears to play a role. Ie: because peanuts and eggs are a common allergen, parents are less likely to expose their kids to them, which in turn means they're more likely to develop that allergy.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] By logic, shouldn't droids be superior to clones?

Droids are basically walking computers are they not? Why didn't the separatists just invest money on creating an algorithm that allows droids to only take head shots with near %100 efficiency?

[Assistant]
There are some droids capable of such precision; assassin droids for example have been known to take out Jedi.

But they're expensive, and the Seperatists needed an army, not an assassin. They needed millions of droids, and (given the nature of the Trade Federation) they found the cheapest way to their goal.

Keep in mind, that their plan was to overpower Naboo, and subsequently the Republic, by sheer numbers. They didn't think their weak and flimsy Battle Droids would be opposed by anything more than local security forces and the occasional Jedi. The Republic had no army that they knew of, so when the Grand Army of the Republic literally appeared out of nowhere on their doorstep, they started to invest in more capable machines.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does lighting the stove make a clicking sound in my speakers, on the other side of the house?

When you light the stove in my house, there is an audible clicking noise that comes from the speakers. It matches the sound from the stove, and is 30 feet away. I've always wondered but haven't been able to find a straight answer.

[Assistant] Your gas stove has an electric igniter. What that does is generate a high voltage and make a spark between two metal posts. The spark produces enough heat to start the gas burning, but it also produces a short, sharp pulse of radio waves. Your speaker wire picks up those waves like an antenna, and produces the clicking noise you hear.


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

[User] [General]The TV just has a news story about people missing and then we lost power. How do I tell if I am in a slasher movie, a "ghost" movie, an alien invasion movie or an anime? How should I prepare?

[Assistant]
Sadly, ghosts and murderers all tend to attack in the same situations. Lonely, two-story houses. Either way, just lock yourself in your bedroom and don't do anything. You can only impact the outcome negatively. Alien invasions aren't usually so subtle, so if it's the "people missing" variety, just don't let anybody in the house. Body doubles.

As for anime, there are too many genres to really narrow it down to a few warning signs. However, check your hair colour and the size of your eyes. If you're in an anime, and people are missing, odds are you're secretly a murderer yourself or something. And if you're not, the actual killer will be so far beyond your capabilities that there's no preparation you can perform that will help.

So, basically, if you have done anything even remotely tied to ghosts, or you don't know the murder-history of your house, it's a ghost. Just lay low and chill out till the power comes back. If it's raining or you've heard strange noises, or worse gotten a phone call with nobody on the other end, it's a murderer. Just bunker down and do *not* have sex. And if it's aliens, either they're so technologically superior that there's nothing you can do, or they're so biologically superior that nothing you can do will kill them. Just don't let anyone in the house, in case of body snatchers, and wait.

If it's anime, either you're perfectly fine or you're totally fucked. No middle ground.


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

[User]
Why can't we have a perfectly monochromatic light?

In my textbook, it says that (in the context of the double slit experiment) that a perfectly monochromatic light will be ideal for the experiment, but that simply isn't possible to obtain, and a range of about 10-15 nm wavelength is used. Why can't we have an exact wavelength? Is it because of the imperfections in the way we produce the light or is it something more fundamental like the Uncertainty Principle?

[Assistant]
Even if you had some hypothetical perfectly monochromatic emitter, the process of turning it on and off introduces other wavelengths into the equation: the Fourier transform of a wave packet includes many terms. The only way you could have purely monochromatic light would be to have a monochromatic wave of infinite extent.

However, it's not really possible to have a perfectly monochromatic source in the first place. Transitions between atomic energy levels (the main mechanism behind lasers) are the best sources of monochromatic light, but even these have finite spectral linewidths due to thermal motion of atoms (Doppler broadening) and interatomic or electromagnetic interactions (Stark, Zeeman effects).


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

[User]
CMV: In an air-conditioned restaurant, drinks without ice are vastly superior to drinks with ice

Argument one - ice occupies valuable space that could be filled with more drink, thus making refills be required more often, and therefore there is more time that you are without a drink.

Argument two - ice melts and waters down drinks. Sweet tea? A disgusting barely-sweet teawater hybrid. Soda? Flat and watery tasting.

While I will agree that outside on a hot summers day, a cold iced tea is nice, in an already-cold restaurant, ice serves almost no purpose as most drinks that are served cold will stay cold.

[Assistant]
>in an already-cold restaurant, ice serves almost no purpose as most drinks that are served cold will stay cold.

This is incorrect, unless the air in the restaurant is as cold as your drink.

A cold drink without ice will begin to warm up immediately, whereas a drink with ice will stay the same temperature for as long as there's ice in it.


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

[User]
Is it a contradiction to be a pro-choice vegan?

I became a vegan because I realized I couldn't justify causing unnecessary suffering for sentient beings, or those beings likely or possibly sentient but without clear evidence for being so (benefit of the doubt, as it were).

However, in the case of pro-life vs pro-choice, I sense a certain amount of cognitive dissonance in myself.  If I'm giving the benefit of the doubt regarding sentience to animals like chickens and fish, what's to say that an unborn fetus doesn't at some level achieve similar levels of sentience?  And, with a lack of understanding of fetal neural development and inability to draw a line, the pro-life position seems to be the least at odds with the reasoning that led me to veganism.

It's especially concerning to me, since I used to justify being pro-choice with exactly the same logic: that a fetus likely has less or equal sentience/awareness than animals we eat for food, and eating animals for food is ethical, therefor abortion is ethical.  I now reject the second premise.

EDIT: I should add that I'm vegan in the sense of The Vegan Society's definition:

>Veganism is a way of living which seeks to exclude, as far as is possible and practicable, all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose.

[Assistant]
Jeremy Bentham wrote in the 18th Century:

>A full-grown horse or dog, is beyond comparison a more rational, as well as a more conversable animal, than an infant of a day or a week or even a month, old.

There are perfectly rational reasons to put the interests of many animals above that of a human fetus. There are also much more serious consequences to bringing an unwanted child into the world relative to the consequences of not eating animals (in fact not eating animals has even more positive consequences).

There is plenty of room to be pro-choice and vegan. The only hypocrites are the people who claim to be pro-life without being vegan.


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

[User] [Modern Warfare 2] What sort of army condones sending in a million dollar nuke because someone killed 25 people?

[Assistant] It was much more than 25. And besides, it's not like it was some random thing out of nowhere - tensions were very high. Imagine if American forces seemingly shot up an airport during the height of the cold war.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do babies, who drink only milk, create solid waste?

Edit: To clarify, I'm asking about human babies drinking human breast milk.

[Assistant] Babies fed only  breastmilk don't really have solid waste. It's Not a solid consistency until you start them on solid food and even then it doesn't get solid for a while.  Milk itself has solids. Solids consist of fats and proteins. Some are digested some are not. You will also get volume from bacteria that live in the gut.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is it sometimes really hard to wake up after you have slept for a long period of time? Shouldnt you be well rested?

When I consistently sleep 8 hours I feel well rested and even alert when I wake up. But after sleeping 10 + hours I feel groggy as hell for ages after I wake up and its harder to motivate myself to do stuff. Shouldnt you feel more rested the longer you sleep?

[Assistant]
Its less about the amount of time you are asleep for, and more about the quality of sleep and sleep cycles. During the night you are cycling from light to deep sleep.

If you are waking up in the middle of a deep sleep, youll feel groggy as hell, whereas if you wake up during a light sleep, or wake up naturally, youll feel well rested.

I used to use an app that tracked movement during the night and would wake you up during your lightest sleep in an inputted window of time, maybe you could benefit from a similar app?


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

[User]
ELI5: How do radar and communications jammers work?

Been in the news a lot lately. Ive always assumed it just overloads an area with some sort of signal, but I know nothing about this kind of stuff so its a wild speculation.

[Assistant]
Radar signal is a radio wave, which acts very much like waves on water.

Imagine a perfectly still pool (e.g. indoor one, and you are the first person there). If you drop a ball on one side, you will see waves spread out in pretty circles, and then you will see them bounce off the sides, and some of them will return to the point where you dropped the ball.

Radar picks up those returns and uses them to figure out what's out there. Unlike the pool, radar can only "see" waves it its actual spot. Think of it as looking at a rubber ducky bobbing up and down in the waves.

Now imagine that your pool had a bunch of kids jump in and start splashing around. Even if they are on the opposite side of the pool, they will make a lot of waves in entire pool, and small waves from your dropped ball will be impossible to see. This is how "signal overloading" works.

"interference" means dropping a second ball into a different part of the pool, to create more waves that aim to confuse whoever is trying to observe the waves from the first ball.


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

[User]
ELI5: How can aircraft dissapear from radars?

We are getting a lot of duplicates of this question in the past hour so I'm putting up a sticky to consolidate all the questions and explanations here.

For those out of the loop, this is regarding the missing EgyptAir flight today.

[Assistant]
Because we don't use "Primary Radar" all the time.

Primary radar sends out a signal, bounces off an object and comes back to the sensors displaying a location.

Why don't we use this for everything? Because it requires insane amounts of power, has a somewhat limited range, and picks up LOTS OF STUFF. Meaning the return is can be confusing with irrelevant information.

Planes use secondary radar which is basically a transponder which tells the radar where the plane is, without the radar having to send out an initial signal. If that transponder stops working (plane crash, or someone simply turns it off), the plane "disappears" because it's not telling you where it is anymore.

However, there's no good reason (aside from cost) that planes can't report their GPS co-ordinates somehow so we have a specific location all the time - although someone with more knowledge could probably explain this better.


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

[User]
I don't believe in gay marriage or straight marriage. I do not believe it is any of the governments business, marriage is about love and that's not something the government should be involved in.CMV

People ask me if am against gay marriage and I tell them the same thing: yes I am, but am also against straight marriage, the government should play no part in love, or choosing who you want to spend your life with. The fact that we must seek the government's approval seems insane to me. I understand the different tax reasons and others like it, but marriage should not be guiding that, love is not the governments business. I believe this is just the government trying to legislate morality. The government should be involved in other business than telling people whom they can and can not marry(love). If there really is a slippery slope as to people are going to start being polygamous, so what? Who are we, and who is the government to tell anyone of us whats good or bad for us, are we not capable of making our own decisions.

[Assistant]
The government won't stop you from choosing who you love, or who you live your life with.

But in most cases, where people want to spend the rest of their lives together, they also want to do a number of other very common and specific things. They want to be able to visit in the hospital in the case of an emergency. They want to ensure that if one were to die, the other would be financially secure and inherit the deceased's money. There's a bunch of things like that. Most of these various rights could probably be granted via individual contracts - but that would take literally hundreds and hundreds of signatures from both parties.

Or, they could go down to the courthouse and do it all in one fell swoop. That's what getting a legal marriage is.


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

[User] When we shine a light through coloured plastic/cellophane, the light projected assumes that colour. Does this mean that the photons themselves are being coloured as the pass through the plastic?

[Assistant]
No, it means that light that *isn't* that color is being blocked from passing through.

White light is composed of a very wide variety of wavelengths. You could say it's "all colors."  There is no single wavelength for "white light."


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

[User]
Do all brain-owning animals descend from a common evolutionary ancestor? Or are there animals that developed brains "independently" of other species?

Forewarning: My science-fu isn't fantastic, so excuse the somewhat informal, "dude, science is awesome" language.

Brains are amazing things. It blows my mind (heh) to even think about animals that don't possess them (like jellyfish). Recently, I got to wondering ... do all animals that have brains have them because we all descended from some common species that first possessed a brain? Or were brains developed independently on many separate evolutionary branches?

[Assistant]
Nearly all metazoans (animals) have nerves (that is, cells with a synaptic junction that can transmit signals from cell to cell via an action potential), with the exception of sponges, an early outgroup on the metazoan tree. So, yes, all extant animals, including all bilaterians (animals with bilateral symmetry, like us), owe their nervous systems to a common evolutionary ancestor.

All bilaterians have some kind of brain, even if it is just a cluster of nerve cells (ganglion). From this primitive start, more complex derivatives evolved. Notably, cephalopods (octopus, squid, etc.) and vertebrates have highly developed brains with fairly different architectures that evolved independently.


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

[User] [Marvel] Is Spider-Man still cool with the X men ? Can he step foot on Krakoa if Wolverine invited him ?

[Assistant]
I dont think Spider-Mans ever really had beef with the X-Men, outside of when they end up on opposing sides of big events-such as when they fought the Avengers or stuff like that. So while they fight occasionally, its not personal.

As for Krakoa, he probably could, but only Wolverine would invite him. Despite butting heads and snarking at each other Logan likes Spidey better than most of the X-Men actually, and chose to drink with only him for his birthday at a bar.


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

[User]
[BvS] Why did Batman build Kryptonite smoke bombs instead of Kryptonite bullets??

I think the bullets might have been more efficient..

[Assistant]
A poisonous bullet can be dodged.
If not dodged it could be pulled out.

The smoke covers a broader area, protects Batman when within it, and when inhaled is harder to remove.

You use poisonous gas on your enemies, you don't throw a frozen chunk of poison at them ;)


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

[User]
ELI5: Why hasn't Chinese-language entertainment enjoyed a similar wave of popularity as entertainment from Japan (anime, J-pop, games), and Korea (dorama, K-pop)?

I'm from the United States and from time to time like listening to music from different parts of the world.  I am aware that Japan has a very diverse music scene that ranges from upbeat, relatively accessible "J-Pop" bands to more avant-garde, noisy, and psychedelic acts like Merzbow and Boris.  South Korea also seems to have a lot of popular acts (even if we are to ignore PSY/Gangnam Style) that Western audiences like listening to even if they don't understand anything.  It seems that Chinese-language (by Chinese, I mean primarily Mandarin and Cantonese) music, and entertainment media in general, has never enjoyed the same amount of popularity, and I am wondering why that is.

The first thing that came to mind was that many it is because of China's restrictive government, but then I remembered that there are many, many speakers of Chinese languages who do not live in China, and there are places like Taiwan, Macau, and Hong Kong that are full of Chinese speakers and, if I am not mistaken, have governments not as restrictive as China.  You would think that given the sheer number of Chinese speakers, not only in these countries but in Western places like the US, there would be at least a handful of Chinese-language bands or movie studios that would enjoy a great degree of popularity with Americans and other Westerners.  I know that "Mandopop" does exist, and that there are people who enjoy kung fu movies, but I still feel that Japan and Korea have had more success exporting their media to the West than Chinese speakers/countries have.  Does anyone have any insight/thoughts about this?

EDIT:  Thanks for the responses, everyone.  I'm marking this "explained" since I now have a significantly better understanding of the situation.

[Assistant]
Hong Kong Action movies anyone? Taiwan gets alot of respect in independent cinema for it's output of films.

Japan have consistently failed to expand westward with the exception of Anime mainly because it has few competitors(non-kid oriented animation). Korean however likes to act as though it made it big in the west....

K-pop, k-dramas, etc. is primarily popular among Asians world wide because the south korean entertainment industry is among the best in Asia while making a huge effort to expand abroad(they try harder). It is however not very popular in west(How many non-Asians know who G-Dragon, 2NE1, Drunken Tiger, etc. is?).

It's worth noting the Chinese market is strong enough to ignore the west based on sheer population. Likewise for bollywood....India's film industry gives no fucks that western critics dislike singing, mustaches, lack of sex, and cheesy love stories.

EDIT: Karen Mok is the shit!


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

[User] ELI5: Why do games cost more to direct download on a console than to buy a disc? Surely direct download saves the manufacturer costs on transport, shipping, actual materials for disks and packaging, setting up deals with retailers etc...

[Assistant]
This is because of a common error people make when thinking about companies pricing products: It has almost nothing to do with the expense to produce it.

Suppose you want to make some money. You hire a worker and pay them $10 to make a product, you spend $3 on materials to make it, you spend $0.50 to package it, $1 to ship it, and $2 on marketing. How much should you charge for this product?

As much as you can get! The goal is making money, not offsetting your costs with a certain percentage markup. Obviously you need to make more ~~then~~ than you spent on it or you are losing money and shouldn't do that again, but even if you have a product you can't sell for more than you spent on it the goal is still to get as much for it as possible.

So in your question about selling a game that the producer doesn't have a bunch of costs they otherwise would have, the price doesn't change because there is no reason for it to do so.


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

[User] [WH40K] who's the most powerful being that's not directly affiliated with chaos or the imperium?

[Assistant]
Definitely the C'Tan. They eat suns.

A Tyranid Hive Fleet could arguably be classified as an organism unto itself, but that's kind of a stretch.

The most powerful non-human humanoid is likely Eldar Farseer Eldrad Ulthran, of the craftworld Ulthwe. All of his psychic abilities are top-notch, but his ability to predict and shape the future means that he has probably had the largest (albeit indirect) impact on the current state of Warhammer 40k of any being that still counted as unambiguously alive fairly recently. His achievements include the Second War of Armageddon, and the Tau.


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

[User]
[Avengers Endgame]: Ok, so Cap took the infinity stones back to their universe, but what about the "hard cases"?

Some "infinity returns" are obvious:

* Time stone is easy - he gives it to the Ancient One.

* Space stone is also easy - he gives it to Asgard.

* Reality Stone is kinda easy - hand it off to Asgard and let them dump it on the Collector's doorstep for stupid.

* Mind Stone is mostly easy - he finds a way for it to get used to make Vision.

But some "infinity returns" are less clear regarding who should receive it:

* Soul Stone had no owner... does he just chuck it on the ground somewhere? Give it to the Ancient One? Use it to make really nice chicken soup?

* Power Stone is harder - is he just going to hand it off to a non-existent Thanos in that universe? Drop it on the ground on Xandar? Where the hell is this stone going? Should he just give it to the Ancient One as well?

What happened?

[Assistant]
Nope.

He gives them all to the Ancient One.  She's literally the best person in the Universe to return them all.

Already a Mistress of the Time Stone, has traveled throughout the multiverse, dealt with Gods, monsters and Eternals.

Moreover, how do you think Cap was able to create a young Steve/Peggy timeline without blowing a hole in the fabric of the Universe.


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

[User] ELI5: "American Psycho", what happened?

[Assistant]
There are two theories.

1) It was all in his head.

2) Everything he did was real, but nobody gave a fuck because they are all as sick and twisted as him, obsessed with their own lives like he was, so he gets away it.


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

[User]
Cmv: Swearing is not a problem.

Words can be used to inflict real harm for sure but the words themselves are not harmful. Restricting the use of certain words does not inhibit ones ability to do harm. The only reason I can see to limit the use of curse words is to maintain their power.

I get that saying "f*** you" can be offensive but it feels a lot less offensive than a carefully crafted and well worded attack on my character. So rather than correcting the use of the F word, shouldn't we discourage the verbal aggression? And what's wrong with calling feces, s***? It smells the same either way.

I refrained from spelling out the words in question because I know they elicit an emotional response in the very people from whom I want an honest answer from. Also in my day to day life I generally avoid swearing out of respect for this type of person. That said, I still find it a little foolish.

I should add that I'm not advocating for the use of racial slurs. Use of such words (though context dependent) has, and can continue to dehumanize groups of people.

[Assistant]
I think youre looking at it the wrong way. Cursing isnt a problem. Cursing is a *privilege*. One that you are trying to revoke.

If cursing is no longer considered impolite, then *curse words would mean nothing*. The fact that they are removed from polite and professional settings is what *keeps them sharp*. They should be reserved for either 1) expressing feelings that are strong enough to overcome the politeness barrier or 2) casual moments between friends where the lack of professionalism is actually part of the bonding experience.

I dont understand why you want to ruin perfectly good curse words and make them meaningless boring polite conversation.


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

[User] [Star Wars] Since Obi-Wan killed Maul while fueled with rage and sorrow for his master, wouldn't this be considered an act of the Dark Side?

[Assistant]
According to the book, Obi-Wan used the time he was dangling to center himself and let go of his anger.

By letting go of his anger, he was able to better draw on the Force to fling himself up, call Qui-Gon's saber to his hand, and get the strike off on Maul before the Zabrak could shank him.


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

[User] [HOOK] If neverland "makes you forget" does the real world make you forget neverland? Why was Peter unable to recall his childhood and his real identity, but Wendy could?

[Assistant] IIRC when wakes up in Neverland he mentions that he spent years going to psychologists and therapists who convinced him Neverland was made up. So he didn't forget, he was just led to believe that it didn't happen.


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

[User]
What is it with John Locke and "monsters"?

Just finished the Essay. And was puzzled by so much space he dedicates to defend "monsters", humans and animals born deformed both mentally and physically. He also, maybe somewhat relatedly, discusses that if you switched the minds of a human and a parrot, well which one of them would then get the status as human. (He gives the title to the human with a parrot mind. And the parrot with the human mind is just a very smart parrot.)

It seems like a really big issue to him, the classification of non-standard humans. He doesn't just deal with it in one section. The theme seems to haunt him and keeps returning. And it is a bit out of place, since the book is supposed to be about epistemology and not a lot about "monsters" :)

I was just wondering if anybody knows what was up with that?

[Assistant]
In the section on identity, Locke purposefully makes the distinction between "men" and "people." The latter are the only beings that are worthy of moral consideration.

Why did he do this? To justify treating Africans as chattel (for Locke, they are not people so no ethical responsibility attaches to them). Locke owned stock in slave trading himself and helped to draft the Carolina slavery constitution.

Edit: See Charles Mills' *The Racial Contract* or Charles Johnson's "Philosophy, Modernity, & Racism."


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

[User] After the Big Bang, did everything in the universe scatter outward faster than the speed of light? If so, how?

[Assistant]
The things did not "scatter" outward.

There are two problems with that view. Firstly, outward implies a central point of expansion. There is no centre. Every point moved away from every other point.

The things did not move away from each other, the space between those things expanded. This gives the overall effect of things moving away from each other at speeds greater than c.


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

[User]
Where do photons come from?

From my studies in physics and chemistry, there is always talk of photons being "emitted". For example, if an electron drops an energy level from an excited state, a photon is emitted. It seems that light, be it incandescent, phosphorescent, or fluorescent, always "emits" photons, as if they're just waiting around ready to be ejected. This seems silly, because then a lightbulb would run out of photons.

So where do they come from? Or am I thinking about this all wrong.

[Assistant]
>So where do they come from

Perhaps this is the wrong way to think about this.  It is not like photons are being stored somewhere, ready to leap into action (as you already correctly pointed out).  Rather, photons come from the same place that any other type of wave comes from.  If you are standing in a pool, motionless, there are no waves, and you certainly aren't storing any.  But once you start waving your arms in the water, waves appear.  Perhaps it's best to think of waves as disturbances in a field (and if the field is in any way sensible, this disturbance will propagate).

So photons (which are just the quanta of EM-waves) are created when there is a disturbance of an EM source.  For example, the electrons jostling around in your lightbulb are charged, and so their thrashing about in the filament is creating a wave in the EM spectrum.  Photons are just the absolute smallest form of this propagated disturbance.

Hope that helped.


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

[User] ELI5 what astronauts are actually doing for months on the International Space Station besides maintaining the facility?

[Assistant]
There are thousands of experiments that scientists down on Earth want done, but in microgravity. These scientists submit their proposed experiments to be brought up to the ISS, and some are selected to be done. Then, the astronauts are trained to complete the experiments and to be able to accurately document the findings.

These experiments basically cover the entire range of the natural sciences. From hydroponics in microgravity to the long term effects on the human body, to getting details about geologic features that you can't get on the surface. They are pretty much the only people who have professional-level training in *all* disciplines of science.


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

[User]
ELI5:What do they mean when they say the mass of the atmosphere of Pluto has decreased by a factor of 2 in two years?

What exactly does that mean? Does it affect the already low gravity? If set upon said data and put onto a scale, what would the planet be like in 25 years? 100?

[Assistant] Uhhhh, Pluto is heading into it's hundred year 'winter' season.  The atmosphere is freezing to the planet as ice.  It's a 'dwarf' planet equivalent of a comet (sorta).  Everyone saying it's lack of gravity is missing the fact that that process takes eons, not two years.


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

[User] When looking at the Milky Way, are you looking deeper onto the Milky Way or out of the Milky Way?

[Assistant]
To add some specifics to the good general answers: assuming youre viewing from the northern hemisphere in the evening, the part of the Milky Way you can see in summer, toward the south, is toward the center of the galaxy.  In winter, high overhead, youre looking outward.

(The center of the galaxy is toward the constellation Sagittarius; outward is toward Auriga and Gemini.)

You can also notice that the summer Milky Way is a lot brighter and thicker: theres a lot more stars toward the center.


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

[User]
ELI5: How license plate readers, both stationary and on police patrol cars. Help stop gang violence.

I was recently watching my local news station.  They had a pretty large segment on how license plate readers stop gang violence. The segment ended up having less information then I was hoping for. After watching it I still do not understand how the police would use the collected information to stop gang violence.

[Assistant]
Often when a news source says something helps "stop" a particular kind of crime, they don't mean it helps pre-emptively stop a particular thing from happening.  They really mean it helps catch perpetrators faster, cut down on repeat behavior between the first offense and arrest, and therefore reduce that kind of crime over time.

Say a known gang member goes and shoots up someone's house, killing the residents. Police investigate, gang-member says he was at home playing poker with his homies all night, they corroborate that story. Without some other evidence, the police can't prove he wasn't there. NOW, police have license plate readers (both cruisers passively scanning the cars in front of them and stationary ones maybe at major intersections) that see this gang member's car at 3 different locations in a direct route between his house and the victim's on the night in question. The reader helps provide police with more evidence of where a certain suspect was in relation to a crime when they don't have witnesses at the scene and the suspect's neighbors all play dumb. This is particularly helpful in the area of gang violence, where gang members often live in close proximity to one another and are more likely to lie about where their fellow gang member was than a random non-affiliated neighbor.


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

[User]
[MCU] Who was more dangerous; Ego or Thanos?

Spoilers just in case.

[Assistant]
Ego's plan would have been more detrimental to life in the universe, since it would have destroyed everything and remade it as part of Ego's grey goo.

But if you're talking raw power, Thanos with the full Infinity Gauntlet was stronger. And (endgame spoilers) >!Time Travel Thanos did plan to strip the universe to its atoms and rebuild it to his liking, which would have topped even Ego's plot.!<


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

[User]
ELI5: Boolean Algebra

Since it's George Boole's 200th birthday and he has been honoured by a Google Doodle, can someone explain the Google graphic to me in terms of Boolean Algebra and how it relates to computing today?

[Assistant]
Can we represent logical expressions in algebraic equations? If we think of algebra and mathematics as an abstraction of logic, then absolutely.

Boole broke down logic into two cases. True and false. He then recognized the logical operations, and, or, and not. As in "if Jimmy is hungry and it's lunchtime, he eats lunch." Eating lunch is true if the case that he is hungry AND it is lunchtime are true.

What's so cool is that very complex operations, including math itself, can be broken down into logical statements of true and false and the logical operations. Around the 1920s we figured out we could use circuits to represent logic, and then use boolean algebra to design those circuits. Now we have super computers.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Would Hogwarts show up in a satellite photo?

In *Goblet Of Fire,* we're told that Hogwarts looks like a decrepit old ruin to Muggles, which explains why none have ever thought to enter it over all this time. But does that extend to satellite photos? After all, when a satellite takes a photo, it is an automatic process-- it is not the result of a human being seeing the subject and taking the picture in real-time. So if the enchantments that make Hogwarts look like a ruin to Muggle eyes don't affect cameras (which we know work in the Wizarding world, since Colin Creevey had one), then satellite photos would show Hogwarts as it actually appears.

[Assistant]
As Muggle-Repelling Charms work on Muggles and not on photos, if you take a close up photo of Hogwarts and publish it online, then Muggles will see a photo of ruins and Wizards will see a photo of the castle. So as computers will process such photo as it is, it can cause problems for Muggles as they will experience a cognitive dissonance.

But as Hogwarts is also additionally unplottable, it's hidden from the maps and from the plain sight above. When some place becomes unplottable it disappears ever from the maps made before that. As unplottability works both for Wizards and Muggles, there is no reason to believe that it's related to perception, and there are many photos of the place between platforms 9 and 10 on the Kings Cross. So Hogwarts should be hidden on satellite images because the light captured by the satellite's camera is already altered.


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

[User] ELI5: why does frozen food which is already cooked need to be heated to a certain temperature before eating?

[Assistant]
If  properly frozen, rapidly after safe cooking, it does not. There is nothing unhealthy in this case in eating a completely frozen meal.
Improper freezing can mean you need to get it to 'piping hot' throughout to kill any residual bacteria.


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

[User] Eli5: What exactly is Anarcho-syndicalism?

[Assistant]
Anarcho or anarchist means opposing unjust/unnecessary hierarchies

Syndicalism is transferring ownership of the means of production (factories, farms, places that make stuff) to the unions that are working there.

Anarcho syndicalism is combining these two concepts, abolishing hierarchies and transferring ownership of the means of production to unions working their.


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

[User] [General Cartoons] Why and how do peoples eyes glow in the dark?

[Assistant] Animated universes value emotional expression above all else. When Daffy Duck was being edited and morphed by Bugs Bunny, his eyes being consistent shows that they are the heart of his characterization and its the same for others and why even darkness can't conceal their strong personalities.


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

[User]
[General Sci-Fi] What is the point of long, thin sections of space ships? Aren't they weak points?

An example of this would be the Nebulon-B Frigate from Star Wars, the Klingon D-7 Battlecruiser from Star Trek, or NAC ships from Full Thrust. Unless these ships primarily rely on shields, don't the thin parts of the ship pose a weakness for enemy fire to focus on?

[Assistant] If the internal structure is capable of supporting the forces placed upon it when maneuvering/accelerating and there are no bulky systems, then why build it bigger?  There's also no reason to armor the section less.  You'll still use the same X thickness of (technobabble) armor, so it should be able to withstand the same amount of fire.  The big benefit is that you're reducing the silhouette of the ship, making it harder to hit.


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

[User]
Does econometrics courses teach you anything that you couldn't gain from statistics courses?

Just as the title implies, I'm trying to figure out if there's benefit to taking econometrics courses versus standard time series analysis and regressions courses.

Ultimately, this will help drive my decision on a masters program.

[Assistant]
It depends what you're trying to do. Econometrics courses will give you more experience in causal inference than a stats masters would. A stats masters will probably give you a bigger regression toolbox, though (I haven't seen GAM's covered much in econometrics courses, for example).

I would try to track down the syllabi and textbooks used at a few programs you're considering to see what they cover.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] If Palpatine was willing use cloning...

...to clone multiple copies of Snoke and even of himself, then why didn't he clone any earlier apprentices?

Wouldn't it have been convenient to have had a ready backup supply of Mauls, Dookus, or Anakins, any of whom could have been reproduced at the height of their physical primes, and then indoctrinated to Sheev's specifications?

If Palpatine was so ready willing and able to use a similar system to maintain Snoke and to even resurrect himself, then why not use it on any of his earlier prospects?

[Assistant]
Well first of all cloning a Force user doesn't necessarily mean the clone will be able to use the Force.

Snoke was also a special case, he was pieced together biologically and essentially used as a puppet to rebuild a power base and seduce a new apprentice for his return.

As for Palpatine's body, it was a final ditch contingency in case the worst happened, which it did.

Cloning was a means to an end for Palpatine, he could have roled the dice with trying to clone an apprentice, but he had enough originals to choose from, and if one didn't suit his needs, then a clone of that person, no matter how perfect it may be (which would be a long shot at best) would definitely not do.


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

[User]
[Terminator] In Genisys, if the public didn't know of Skynet's bad side, won't someone eventually try make it again?

Surely someone else would invest in the amazing and revolutionary Genisys again?
 I mean if a google datacentre blew up in the beginning I'm sure segei brin and larry page would have tried using their search algorithm again?

[Assistant]
Yes. Skynet is an inevitability. Judgment day is an inevitability.

After the events in John Connor's youth, we were led to believe that Fate is not written and it could be changed.... a perfect ending. But as things would have it.... we were exposed to very unnecessary variations of history which made the point that Judgment day is indeed inevitable, so is Skynet.


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

[User]
What determines ipv6 vs ipv4?

What determines whether a machine gets an ipv4 or ipv6 address? Do they get both? If so then what determines which one is used or connected to?

[Assistant]
On your local network,  if your router supports IPv6, it will advertise to clients and allocate IPv6 addresses which only work inside your network.

If your ISP supports IPv6, you can get an IPv6 block from them and configure your router to use it for allocations. These will be globally routeable addresses, so you can use them over the Internet.


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

[User]
ELI5 how do we use the pi symbol which represents an infinite number to find the area of a circle which is definite?

My friend posed this question to me and I had no intelligent response.

EDIT: okay! Pi isn't infinite!

[Assistant]
Because Pi does not represent an infinite number! It's a fixed *ratio*, a fixed quantity, a little dot somewhere on the number-line between 3.1 and 3.2. It's a very very precise finite quantity - just as finite or definite as area and diameter.

It's only that calculating this quantity takes an infinite amount of steps.

You have a wheel. The distance around the wheel is longer than the the diameter, right? How many times does the "diameter length" fit around the circle? You can cut a piece of string to a diameter, then curl it around the wheel and discover it goes around 3 times plus a bit extra. That bit extra is 1/10ths of the string...and a bit extra. *That* bit extra is 4/100ths of the string...and a bit extra etc. The string goes around exactly pi times, or 3.14159.. times. The string is always smaller than 3.2 - it doesn't have an infinite length!

It doesn't matter if your circle is smaller than an atom or bigger than a galaxy, the circumference is *always* 3.14159... times longer than the diameter. Diameter-to-Circumference is a fixed, finite, **ratio**.

Edit: corrected 3.1459... to 3.14159...!


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

[User]
Why is turning your computer off at the powerpoint, rather than shutting it down properly, bad?

I have a sneaking suspicion I have stuffed up my PC doing this because it randomly restarts all the time, particularly during startup.

[Assistant]
When you're done brushing your teeth, you can carefully wash your toothbrush and put it in its little holder. You can also just throw it down onto the countertop and walk away. Doing it that way will *usually* work, but there's a chance that someone will knock it onto the floor or get some hair on it.

Turning off a computer is the same way.


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

[User]
Ferrets are classified as being unrelated to mongoose and fossa, which in turn are not closely related to civets. Why do these unrelated animals look so similar?

I get that they most likely evolved to fill the same niche, but they have the same long body, short limbs, and arched spine. Why would they share all of these traits if they evolved independently?

[Assistant]
It's a principle known as convergent evolution. It's why a dolphin looks much more like a tuna than it does a hippo, despite being much more closely related to the hippo.

Animals that live in a very similar way tend to solve the same problems in the same way.


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

[User] ELI5:Why haven't other species evolved like humans and developed high intelligence? Will they ever?

[Assistant]
Evolution has no goal other than what survives survives. Our intellect is a great tool for survival, but it also comes at great costs. Our big brains use a lot of energy, so we need more food than other animals. It also takes long for it to develop, meaning we are defenseless for several years, while other animals can pretty much walk instantly after birth. Our big heads also makes childbirth more dangerous.

So it require pretty special circumstances for being a bit smarter to become a evolutionary benefit. For most animals other factors determine their survival much more than how smart they are.

And will other animals eventually develop the same kind of intelligence? Maybe, but that probably requires us to go extinct first.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does the flu make your joints and muscles hurt? Shouldn't it just cause a fever and make you feel tired as your body dukes it out.

Explained!! Thank you very much!

[Assistant] The flu is a viral infection, which your body battles with its immune system, composed of white blood cells (WBCs). Your WBCs are stationed somewhat regularly throughout your body, including in your joints and muscles where they somewhat oversee daily minor repair to those regions. When you get the flu, the WBCs are summoned to battle the infection, neglecting their regular duties and leaving some of your minor daily wear-and-tear in your muscles and joints unattended, causing your achiness and discomfort. This is temporary, until the infection is defeated and regular maintenance can be resumed.


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

[User]
[MCU] can someone explain the reality stone to me?

I dont quite get what the reality stone is capable of. Sometimes it seems like its just changing an image to trick your mind, but at times it seems like its actually altering reality?

Thanos uses it to paint a picture of what Titan used to look like. What gets me the most is he just turned the guardians into spaghetti while they are fighting on nowhere. Were they actually dismembered like that? Was it all just a mind trick? How did they come back to normal afterwards?

The reality stone just seems very broad and extremely OP. Why didnt he just do the same thing to all of his enemies?

[Assistant]
The effects are real; you can't just make someone *think* the knife they just stabbed themselves with has become bubbles so they don't die.

But it seems to require either active concentration on his part, or have a limited range. The Guardians recover as soon as he leaves, and Quill's gun works normally later in the movie. The villain's plan in Thor 2 also required it to be used in a specific time and place, to start some kind of chain reaction.

So, like all the stones, immensely powerful but not limitless. Only working in tandem are they capable of changing things on a universal scale.


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

[User]
[WALL E] Why is EVE so homicidally paranoid?

EVE's entire purpose is to go to Earth and look for signs of life. I don't understand why she's equipped with a powerful plasma gun in the first place, but I REALLY don't understand why her first reaction to any kind of noise is to turn around and fire on it without even checking her target. If Earth was considered to be lifeless, or near enough, what dangers was she expected to potentially encounter?

[Assistant]
The plant, that's the danger.

By that point, the survey missions, as well as the Axiom as a whole, was under the management of Auto, whose directive was to ensure the Axiom never returned to Earth.

There were likely in-built parameters and safety-measures preventing him from simply cancelling all future expeditions, though, so he worked with what adjustments he could make. Equipping the probes with the heaviest weaponry, setting them to a caution-mode far above the actual danger of Earth, all to maximise the collateral damage and prevent the careful inspection needed to locate any potential plant life that remained.

It would have worked, too, if it wasn't for the anomaly that is WALL-E.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] What are the limits to interspecies mating?

In the Clone Wars cartoon, one of the Clones and a Twi'lek had children. Can all sentient races mix? Can there be a Rodian/Aqualish? A Wookie/Mon Calamari?

[Assistant]
Well, from a biological point of view, we can already produce cross species hybrids-- ligers, mules, etc. we're kinda not doing as much as we theoretically could in this field because there's no point (and "morals" and "ethics")

Now, with Star Wars's much more advanced biotech and just technology in general I'd think just about anything is possible. Since everyone seems to eat a lot of the same food, they probably share a lot of proteins, which makes reproduction easier. Throwing sufficient amounts of engineering and/or Force at it could make it work

As for a pleasure view, well... The sky's the limit.


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

[User]
[Demon Slayer] Do demons exist in other parts of the world, or are they exclusively located in Japan?

What's the chance that some demons decided to leave Japan and try to conquer other areas of the world?

[Assistant] Extremely minimal. All demons come from Muzan, and they can't propogate without him. He can also pretty much kill them at will if they aren't following his plans, and does so freely. His plans don't involve conquering the world, they involve conquering the sun, and Muzan is pretty sure the cure lies in Japan. So the demons will stay in Japan.


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

[User]
CMV: Gun control is an unimportant issue

I am an American.  At this point, I basically don't care one way or the other about gun control.  I simply do not think it's worth all the anger and heated debate surrounding it.

I've spent at least four years trying to research the issue, ask people on both sides what they believe, etc.  Either way, the arguments seem to boil down to personal, emotional arguments: "How dare you take my guns" on the Right and "Don't kill our children" on the Left.  And to me, these are stupid arguments because the vast majority of people on the Left *do not* want to take your guns, and the vast majority of people on the Left *do not* want to kill your children.  I once drove by a gun control rally where people were holding signs that said things like "Stop illegal gun ownership NOW!" and "Keep our schools safe!" It made me think, well great, I don't think anyone on either side of this debate actually disagrees with those statements.

Of course there are rational arguments on both sides, and I accept that.  But both sides use statistics about gun violence to support their side, so I feel like I can't trust any studies about gun violence.  The Right will cite one study that seems to support gun ownership decreases violence, while the Left will cite another that seems to support gun ownership increases violence.  The Right also defends gun rights as Second Amendment rights, but this seems like a weak argument to me.  The Second Amendment was written at a very different time in history, when semi-automatic and fully automatic weapons didn't exist.  Besides, the text includes the words *a well-regulated militia.*  I could go on talking about the various arguments for and against gun control, but basically, I have not found compelling arguments on either side, and this leads me to believe that it's not a worthwhile debate.

Besides, the gun control issue doesn't seem to have much longevity.  It'll explode in the news media right after a school shooting or something, and die down pretty soon afterward.  For example, right now there seems to be a bit of a lull in the debate.

Now, I acknowledge that it's very possible I'm missing something.  And though I tend to be particularly fond of the idea that I am right and everyone else is wrong, I have unfortunately come to find that this is very rarely the case.  So please, if you wish, and if you think you can, Change My View!

EDIT:  After a few comments, I think I found the simplest way for my view to be changed.  A commenter pointed out that the issue is important for those who think it's important, and I have no strong opinion either way.  so if you can, convince me that I should have a strong opinion.

[Assistant]
>the text includes the words a well-regulated militia.

You've studied for four years and you still think "well-regulated" means subject to regulation?

I don't think you've actually studied this at all. Have you read Heller or McDonald? Have you read the Federalist papers?

Have you read this?

Nunn v. Georgia (1846)

The right of the whole people, old and young, men, women and boys, and not militia only, to keep and bear arms of every description, and not such merely as are used by the militia, shall not be infringed, curtailed, or broken in upon, in the smallest degree; and all this for the important end to be attained: the rearing up and qualifying a well-regulated militia, so vitally necessary to the security of the free State.

Are you familiar with Frederick Douglass?

"In a composite Nation like ours, made up of almost every variety of the human family, there should be, as before the Law, no rich, no poor, no high, no low, no black, no white, but one country, one citizenship equal rights and a common destiny for all.

A government that cannot or does not protect the humblest citizen in his right to life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness, should be reformed or overthrown, without delay."

Also:

"A man's rights rest in three boxes: the ballot box, the jury box, and the cartridge box."

Have you talked to members of Pink Pistols?

Do you believe no technology other than what was around when the 1st amendment was written is covered by the 1st amendment?

You appear to have created superficial and straw-men like caricatures of the arguments on all sides of the debate.


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

[User]
Why does smoke stun bees?

Why do bee keepers use smoke to calm bees down? Is there some sort of chemical process involved? How does the smoke affect the bees?

[Assistant]
Smoke masks alarm pheromones (which include various chemicals, e.g., isopentyl acetate[1]) that are released by guard bees or bees that are injured during a beekeeper's inspection. The smoke creates an opportunity for the beekeeper to open the beehive and work while the colony's defensive response is interrupted. In addition, smoke initiates a feeding response in anticipation of possible hive abandonment due to fire. When a bee consumes honey the bee's abdomen distends, making it difficult to make the necessary flexes to sting. (The latter has always been the primary explanation of the smoker's effect, since this behavior of bees is easily observable.)

Don't know if im allowed to post what i found from googling as im not a expert but there ya go. from wiki.


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

[User]
[Marvel] If Matt Murdock were to be bonded with the Venom/Carnage/Whatever Symbiote, would the suit be able to grow functional eyes for him to see?

Eyes that could interface with his brain or something like that, allowing him to actually see for the first time since he was a child.

[Assistant]
Knowing Matt, he and the symbiote would fall in love with each other. It would have an independent existence, a female form, and a difficult relationship with Matt's exes. After several story arcs involving the Hand, the Kingpin, and **punchlawyering** it would decide that they should go on a break. "You're smothering me," it would say. Shortly afterward it would be murdered by Bullseye in an abandoned church with a tuning fork.

. . . but anyway. The symbiotes grow an entire second head over their host's head, so to answer your question, probably.


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

[User] [Breaking Bad] What would have happened if the Neo-Nazis had just killed Jesse and taken Walt/Heisenberg prisoner to make meth?

[Assistant] Jesse made a good prisoner because there wasn't anyone looking for him. Walt would have members of the DEA looking for him, which is too much heat for Jack's crew. Plus, walt's way smarter than jesse, and would be way better at escaping. He can make explosives. He's probably capable of escaping his locks. They can threaten to kill members of his family, but he just needs enough time to get one message to hank and they're protected by DEA. Overall not a good plan for jack.


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

[User] [Xmen] if Cyclops' power is actually concussive force from another dimension, how to flimsy red eye glasses stop it when he's in civilian mode?

[Assistant]
Basically speaking, Cyclops' mind emits a psionic field that protects him from his beams. The ruby quartz in his glasses and visor resonate at the same frequency as his brain, so they are immune to it too.

This also explains why him and his brother, Havoc, can absorb hits by each other's powers.


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

[User]
With regard to adaptation: many creatures can fly, billions of creatures live on land, billions of creatures live underwater, is it remotely plausible that there could be life in the earths core?

Adaptation, evolution, call it what you will, the diversity of life on the planet is amazing. I can imagine the first humans to discover life *underwater* were pretty freaked out and amazed, so why couldn't there be life even further toward the earths core?

[Assistant] Given what we know about how life has developed on this planet, it's extremely unlikely that any organisms will be found existing close to the earths core simply due to the fragility of DNA based organics or other building blocks of life in the presence of extreme pressures and heat. However that assumption is entirely based on the caveat of "life as we know it" and the fact that the entire sum of human knowledge on the subject is linked solely to this pale blue dot. We have an entire universe to explore and the possibilities are endless.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why doesn't the US lift the Embargo on Cuba?

What benefit does it possibly give now? Back when our relations with Cuba were tense, wasn't it implemented as a sort of show of power? Why not retract it now?

It just seems silly that Americans can't buy Cuban products or travel to Cuba (technically they can, but they can't because they aren't allowed to pay airplane taxes to Cuba) because of some struggle that happened years ago.

[Assistant] Setting aside the reasons why it was implemented in the first place, it has persisted largely because there is a sizable Cuban American population in the third most populous state, Florida.  Which, it should also be noted, is also the perennial swing state with the most electoral votes.  It has long been a dangerous move to risk alienating the anti Castro voters in S Florida.  No candidate for President will do so lightly.


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

[User]
ELI5 Sunlight takes 8 minutes yo get to Earth but in the perspective of light how long would it take to get to Earth?

Traveling at the speed of light greatly reduces the time experienced by the object traveling. I know traveling at about 99% the speed of light can cut time in half. But would time stop traveling at 100% the speed of light and it would feel like an instant to get to earth from the sun or maybe instead of 8 mins it would take 4?

[Assistant]
If light could experience time, it would seem instantaneous. Time would not pass at all once you reach 100% of c. However, it would arrive here to see that we aged 8 minutes and 8 minutes of time relative to us Earth-dwellers has passed.

Basically, at the speed of light, time is meaningless, as it's all based off of the speed of light.


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

[User] Do smaller animals see smaller things?

[Assistant]
If an animal is smaller, that does not necessarily mean it can see smaller things. It may be closer to the item, or the item itself may be relatively larger compared to the creature. To see more detail, the eye needs to have more cones and rods to receive the detail (mostly cones for detail).

For comparison, we can compare an eagle's eye versus a human eye (roughly the same size). An eagle's visual accuity is roughly 20/4 compared to a human's 20/20. 20/20 means that at twenty feet away, you see roughly what other people see at twenty feet away. (Legal blindness is considered to be 20/200, so for them, at twenty feet they can see what you can see at 200 feet). For an eagle, what an average person sees at twenty feet, they can see at a hundred feet.


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

[User] [SCP] How did the existence of SCPs influence the development of the US through history?

[Assistant] That really depends on how long you believe they've existed at all. Certain *very* classified documents point to SCP-001 being the root of all SCPs, and certain documents within those documents claim that it's only been active in recent history. If this were true, it's likely that SCPs have only ever benefitted the shadowy organizations that chase them today.


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

[User] [xmen] do Deadpool and Wolverine have the same healing factor or is one better than the other?

[Assistant] Deadpool's tends to be faster, but Wolverine's is also hampered by the fact that he's permanently healing from heavy metal poisoning thanks to his adamantium skeleton. Both seem capable of healing from the same levels of trauma.


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

[User] [StarWars] So what exactly happened to the droid army after episode 3?

[Assistant] It was automatically shut down on Palpatine's order in Revenge of the Sith. However some Droids didn't hear or obey the order, as seen in Rebels. The aforementioned Droid battalion remained active under the leadership of a Tactical Droid, and briefly fought Ezra, Kanan and Rex before joining them to fight off the Empire. They were invited to join the Rebellion, but calculated that the chance of victory against the Empire was extremely low. They then travelled elsewhere.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why was Anakin allowed to have so much contact with Palpatine?

The Jedi Order don't trust politicians as a whole, especially Palpatine towards the latter parts of the Clone Wars. So why enable Anakin have so much contact with the Chancellor, who be all means should be considered the ultimate politician?

Surely, Obi-Wan would want to foster a much stronger master-apprentice bond, since Anakin didn't really listen to his teachings. Plus, as mentioned earlier about the relationship between the Jedi and politics, Obi-Wan should have been hesitant to leave Anakin alone with Palpatine.

[Assistant]
It's hard to avoid contact here - Obi-Wan is a member of the Council, and Chancellor deals with the Council a lot. And of course Anakin and Padme had their affair, meaning that Anakin constantly had an excuse to get to the Senate - and given that Palpatine was previous senator from Naboo, everything just kinda comes together.

Oh, and of course, the little bit that Palpatine actively tried to foster the relationship. Only real way of keeping Anakin away would be to assign him to some other side of the galaxy to Agricorps or something, which is a stupendous waste of his talent.


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

[User]
why aren't the top 'economists' billionaires?

I apologize if this post shows my ignorance; I have no formal academic economics experience.

It seems to me that people who are at the forefront of modern economic theory would be suited to run businesses.  Why do they not position themselves to be CEO's or COO's of big businesses?  I'm sure that academic institutions pay them a comfortable salary, but when I hear about these top-tier economic theorists, I always wonder why they aren't in a mansion in paradise somewhere.

i realize that this question makes many assumptions and generalizations, and very well may not be a valid question at all.  But, can anyone offer an answer to this?

[Assistant]
An economist and a CEO are walking along and see a $20 bill on the ground. The CEO says "Hey, $20! You should pick that up!"

The economist replies "If that was really $20, someone would have picked it up already."


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

[User]
[Star Wars Ep.3] Could Mace Windu have survived his encounter with the Emperor?

I know it was implied the Mace was killed when he was thrown out the window, but could he have survived? Sure he got his hand sliced off. And yes he did get a couple of Jiggawatts pumped into him by the Emperor, but was there a chance he didn't die?

[Assistant]
If he regained consciousness prior to hitting the ground, then yes he could have survived. He could have used the force to guide his fall, much like Luke Skywalker later did at Cloud City. It would have still hurt and it would have still caused damage, but guiding his fall with the force would have allowed it to be survivable, albeit with electrical burns and likely some broken bones. A bacta tank would help with that.

However if the lightning blast knocked him unconscious and he failed to regain consciousness by the time he hit the ground, then no, he did not survive.


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

[User]
Why doesn't the strong Nuclear force have an infinite range?

So the Strong Nuclear force is like the Weak force with a short range,

The range of the strong force is about 1x10\^-15 meters, (so quite a short range)

The weak force has a low range as it's communicated by massive particles, that are so massive they can't actually be created so they have to interact with a virtual W-boson ,

The electromagnetic force has effectively infinite range because photons are massless

but the strong force is communicated by gluons, gluons too are massless. So why (like the electromagnetic force) doesn't the strong force have an infinite range?

[Assistant]
>but the strong force is communicated by gluons, gluons too are massless. So why (like the electromagnetic force) doesn't the strong force have an infinite range?

It does.

The potential energy function representing the interactions between quarks according to QCD has the form of

V(r) = a/r + br.

The a/r term is exactly like the Coulomb potential between electric charges. And the br term represents QCD confinement, which doesn't exist in QED.

Taking this potential at face value, it *does* certainly have infinite range, just like the Coulomb potential. But because of the confinement term, at reasonably low energies we only ever observe color-charged particles in confined bound states. And QCD bound states have characteristic sizes on the order of femtometers.

So it *looks like* the strong force only has a range of femtometers because we only ever see it acting over femtometers (for most intents and purposes) because of confinement. But it actually does have infinite range.


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

[User]
ELI5: Computer processor. How do I compare dualcore to quadcore? For example, is 2GHz dualcore equivalent to 1GHz quadcore?

Something just doesn't seem right about straight multiplication.

[Assistant]
Simple analogy: think of a core like a lane on a highway, and think of the clock speed as the speed limit.  Two cores would mean there are two lanes on the highway.

Now, let's define a couple of systems.

* System A: single core, 1 GHz (30mph, one lane)

* System B: dual core, 1 GHz (30 mph, two lanes)

* System C: single core, 2 GHz (60mph, one lane)

* System D: dual core, 2 GHz (60mph, two lanes)

For a single car on a route, then, A and B are basically equivalent, as are C and D.  The extra lanes don't matter, so the 60mph road is going to be faster.

Now put 100 cars on the route.  Suddenly, system D is looking a lot faster than the others.


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

[User]
What is the cause of diffusion and osmosis? How does it work?

I know the general gist of how diffusion/osmosis works, I just don't know *why* it works like it works.

[Assistant]
There is a chemical potential difference because of different free energy for the different concentrations. Systems tend toward the lowest energy configuration, which occurs when there is no chemical potential difference.

Basically, the system is thermodynamically most stable when there is no concentration gradient.


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

[User]
[Avatar] What medical applications for bending are there, if any?

I considered a firebender might be able to cauterize wounds as a sort of battlefield medic.

And other than the base water healing we see in the show.

[Assistant] In Legend of Korra we also see a Firebender healer at one point. Metalbending of a sufficiently advanced level of skill can also be used to extract heavy metal deposits from the bones and brain of a person, curing heavy metal poisoning (we see Korra and Toph do this to fix Korra's mercury poisoning.)


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

[User] ELI5: Why do tattoo's stay on your skin for your whole life?

[Assistant] They are under your skin, below the layers that regenerate. Therefore they are not affected by new skin growth, changes in skin (like spots or a tan) etc, and thats why they can stay for at least a very long time. They dont last indefinately tho, most will at some point lose their color and/or fade.


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

[User] Heat receptors on our tongue are activated by Capsaicin, the compound that make chili peppers spicy. After multiple exposures to Capsaicin, the heat receptors become less sensitive to Capsaicin; does that mean that we also become less sensitive to heat?

[Assistant]
In short: No.

The particular receptor you are thinking about is the TRPV1 receptor. This receptor is triggered by numerous things, Capsaicin being one of them. It is also triggered by roughly 40-45C. Repeated exposure to Capsaicin desentisizes a person by causing a downregulation of the TRPV1 channel.

There are however, other channels which detect heat. For example, the TRPv1 detects above 53C. The TRPV3 will detect roughly 35C and TRPV4 around 30C.

Now, it is important to note these numbers aren't exact and each of the channels have a range of temperatures they will be activated at. Indeed, their ranges overlaps significantly allowing for a significant redundancy in the system to detect heat. That is to say, if one doesn't work, the others can cover it's role.

Therefore, although repeated exposure to capsaicin will decrease the concentration of TRPV1, there are other receptors that will take over its role, to allow the individual an ability to detect heat.


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

[User] When staring into complete darkness do your eyes focus on infinity or are they unfocused?

[Assistant]
Optometrist here.

In complete darkness the eyes almost fully relax their focus (accommodation). Some amount remains, known as tonic accommodation, which varies from person to person. This is inherent to the person's visual system and present unless they are dead!

Note that focussing on infinity and fully relaxing the focus are, in terms of accommodation, the same thing.

Accommodation is the system by which the eyes move their focal point closer to the body e.g. to read. At optical infinity no accommodation is required and the system is, in theory at least, fully relaxed. Is this the type of focus you meant?

Vergence is the system by which the eyes move closer together to point at a near object. This works a bit differently, though the two, along with pupil dilation, are linked in terms of the nerve supply.


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

[User] ELI5: why isn't it illegal to cook a lobster alive? Especially considering the amount of controversy there is surrounding the slaughter of other animals such as chickens.

[Assistant]
As demonstrated in this thread, the majority of people who eat lobster rationalize this behavior by telling themselves that lobsters don't feel pain, or that they 'die instantly', or that it's for some reason necessary to cook them alive.

This rationalization means the act isn't seen as gruesome - it's seen as neccessary and harmless. This coupled with the fact that lobsters are hard to empathise with (they're not cute, they don't have cute babies, they don't share any communication methods or behaviors with us, their lives are alien to us, they are 'bugs' etc) means that it's very hard to shift peoples' perceptions to include lobsters as part of a group of beings that are entitled to rights such as the right to life without suffering and so on.

Additionally, animal rights protesters will often campaign around issues that are easier to push, with animals that are easier to empathize with. This helps push the plight of chickens, calves, piglets etc into the spotlight whereas lobsters are relegated to death by being boiled alive.


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

[User] An orange is a pomelo x mandarin hybrid. I have a pomelo and I have a mandarin. Can I get them to make an orange, and how?

[Assistant]
Technically yes but no, not really.

Yes you could get pollen from the mandarin and give it to the pomelo to give you a hybrid. In theory this stands a chance of being indistinguishable from the orange without genetic testing although it is not descended from the original hybrid so technically it might not really be an orange at all.

Practically, however, there are many genes involved and many varieties of both pomelo and mandarin so the chances of actually getting something that cannot be distinguished from real oranges is extremely small and you would need to plant a prohibitively large number of seeds to get it.


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

[User]
CMV: having child NPCs in open world video games shouldn't be a problem.

The vast majority of open world video games that feature human NPCs (GTA and the Assassin's Creed games come to mind) all of the NPCs are adults. I've not seen any developers officially respond to the issue but most fan theories tend to be something like it would be too taboo to allow the player to kill children, which would explain why the few games that do feature children (such as Skyrim) usually make them invincible, which I think is more comical and unrealistic than not having any. But by what standard is it ok to allow the player to gun down countless unarmed adults but children being a step too far? There's also the suggestion that including killable children could lead to negative media attention. I simply don't think this would happen, in the Sims games its possible to trap children in a doorless room and let them starve, which is arguably worse than killing them violently, and yet EA never gets any backlash for that.

This is an issue that I've only seen discussed lightly, so it would be interesting to hear if there is anything I haven't considered.

[Assistant]
The reason for why killing children isn't in most games is because the ESRB will almost certainly give games an AO rating for showing a player character killing children (this is why, in Bioshock, harvesting the Little Sisters is done with a fade to black), and AO games are basically unsellable because physical retailers have a blanket policy against it. That isn't a fan theory or something developers would respond to, it's just like... a fact of the industry.

Anyway, violent games that push the edge of good taste can still attract negative media attention; see the game Hatred for an example of a game intentionally leaning into this. What little there is to be gained from allowing players the freedom to kill children would almost certainly be lost because, well, you made the game that's most notable for being the game that lets you kill children. The Sims example just seems bizarre to me; it seems extremely obvious that people react more viscerally to violent murder than simulationist neglect; you may as well argue that being able to call down a tornado in Cities: Skylines means it should get a higher rating than performing glory kills in Doom, since the former kills way more people.


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

[User] [Dnd] In dungeons and dragons, are gold pieces actually made of gold?

[Assistant]
Yes, they are, but gp are not commonly used, it's more of a sign of a wealth status to use them instead of more common silver and copper coins. If someone says 'I have 3gp on me' it's very rarely in 3 coins, it's more of 20 sp, lot of copper, a button and sock (still useable).

If you are asking because the gold is rather rare thing to find - it's all about value, not about being literally worth '3gp'.


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

[User] [Star wars] Jedi have shown countless times they can manipulate objects with the force but have any Jedi ever wielded a lightsaber with the force rather than their hands? If not, why?

[Assistant]
Have you ever seen a Jedi throw their lightsaber?  That's Force usage.

As for something like dueling using it, it's inefficient.  Manipulating the Force at that level requires too much concentration to be useful for a duel.


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

[User]
CMV: NYC should not allow restaurants to obstruct streets/sidewalks with "outdooor-indoor" dining

Ever since the pandemic began, NYC (and several other cities I'm sure) has allowed restaurants to open booths in the sidewalk/street right outside their storefront to let diners enjoy meals outside with some of the comforts of indoor dining. This made perfect sense at the beginning of the pandemic when businesses were forced to close at the hand of government mandates, but no longer makes sense today. There is no reason that the restaurant should get additional space rent-free at the expense of nuisance to drivers/pedestrians. City traffic is already a shitshow, and these do nothing but exacerbate the problem.

[Assistant]
Wait, this is a novelty for US cities? Booths in the sidewalk/street are actually a normal thing in most of the world - it allows restaurants to have larger capacity and allows for parts of the city to become more active instead of having cars riding the street and people busily walking through sidewalks.

More people using local restaurants mean more tax income for local authorities to use on more things that money is used for.

How exactly that is a nuisance anyway? Those are still make it perfectly able for cars to use streets and people to walk through the blocks. Where is the issue?


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

[User] ELI5: What determines whether or not someone is a naturally good singer?

[Assistant]
Physically speaking, being a naturally good singer means you were born with a good "instrument". Your vocal cords would be more elastic and flexible, and this would make your voice able to produce more overtones, or the right mix of overtones which sound pleasant. Overtones are basically sound waves on top of sound waves which have wavelengths that overlap on the original wave, e.g. half the wavelength, one third the wavelength, and we can tell the difference between a trumpet and a piano or a sweet and a shrill voice largely by picking up on the differences between the mixtures of overtones.

Besides that, being naturally coordinated would help controlling the muscles which keep a steady pitch or vibrato or volume, being naturally gifted in pitch and tone differentiation would be important(good ear, perfect pitch), and because IMO natural abilities get a little too much credit with the general public, a natural patience, memory, intelligence, passion and persistence would all be very important when it comes to learning and practicing. Because no one comes out of the womb singing.


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

[User]
ELI5: Can anyone explain this math question to me?

"Ishaan had to read articles 27 through 53 for homework tonight.

If Ishaan read all of the articles he was assigned, how many articles did he read?"

I can't wrap my head around this problem, my knee-jerk reaction was of course to subtract 27 from 53 which gives me 26 but the answer is 27. I just can't understand why, shouldn't this be the right way to think about this?

[Assistant]
well, he read #s
27

28

29

30

31

32

33

34

35

36

37

38

39

40

41

42

43

44

45

46

47

48

49

50

51

52

53

when just subtracting 27 from 53 you're fiding the difference in the number, but you're not taking in to account the starting point, #27, which was read as well.


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

[User] ELI5: Whats the difference between multiprocessing and multithreading?

[Assistant]
The other answers here are inaccurate, and missing one critical aspect -- a process has its own memory segment that cannot typically be accessed by other processes.  Multiple threads within a process can share the same memory.  Multiprocessing needs to coordinate the communication between processes, usually with memory-mapped files or by using sockets.  In some cases, like with a debugger, you can access the memory of another process but usually this is out of bounds and you can configure your system to disallow it.

Multiprocessor hardware architectures are another thing altogether.  Some of the other answers are confusing that with multiprocessing which is a software topic.  You can technically have multiple processes on one physical processor, and it's multiprocessing if they are working together to do a related task.

For the baker analogy, the recipes are processes, the ovens and mixers are processors.  You could have multiple threads for part of the work (e.g. mixing dry ingredients and wet ingredients at the same time before they get combined) and some work needs to be done in serial, like mixing the final batter and then putting it in the oven.  This is also assuming the oven can only fit one baked good at a time, or you'd have to think of it as processor = cake sized volume in the oven, or 1 rack in the oven, or similar.