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

[User]
[The Twilight Zone: Time Enough At Last] How long would it have taken last man on Earth Henry Bemis to die?

At the end of the episode, poor Henry is nearly blind   as a result of accidentally breaking his glasses. He is emotionally wrecked, a fair distance away from the food he discovered earlier on in the episode, in the middle of an irradiated wasteland, and a smoker.

Realistically, how long could he have survived? Is it possible that he could have found another pair of glasses?

[Assistant] Realistically not long. It'll be difficult to accurately gauge given all the variables but no more than 5 years. Food spoilage will be the immediate concern. Radiation poisoning the most likely cause of death if his food doesn't run out first and he avoids the worst fallout. But finding a new pair of glasses will be next to impossible unless his prescription is a common one and he knows where the local optometrist is. He could probably get by finding a pair of reading glasses reducing his impairment but the risk to reward of searching a wasteland will be minimal given his near blindness. Best odds i give him a month before he wanders into a radioactive hot zone by accident or consumes tainted food and dies of dehydration from it.


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

[User]
CMV: It would be contradictory to believe in both "Anyone who says they're trans is trans" and "Detransitioners were never trans".

Detransitioners were once people who said they were trans, but now say they aren't. This is where I see the contradiction: depending on which statement we choose to go by, they would be going through two different experiences. If we go by the first statement, they would be trans people in denial or confused. Going by the second statement, they would instead be cis people who were confused or mistaken in the past. Stating the obvious, one can't be both trans and cis, so these two experiences that I'm talking about also necessarily must be mutually exclusive.

So I guess my position is that only one of those statements could be true. Based on what we know, it doesn't seem like the second statement would be false; if detransitioners were actually trans before, it'd be tantamount to saying that someone can be changed from trans to cis. Then it's more likely that the first statement is false, and that not everyone who says they are trans is trans.

I don't know guys, I feel like there's a problem with my reasoning somewhere. CMV.

[Assistant]
>Detransitioners were once people who said they were trans, but now say they aren't.

Not neccessarily

The overwhelming majority of people who medically detransition, cite the financial cost of transitioning, the pushback from their family and support system, or their dissatisfaction with the progress of their transition, but continue to have gender dysphoria.


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

[User] ELI5: How did pre-industrial tribal societies - for example Inuits, manage to deal with inbreeding even though they were small in size and lacked outside contact?

[Assistant]
Well, many such groups have dealt with issues associated with inbreeding. It's not like an instant thing though, you could go generations with no issues at all, or only a few unlucky ones who wind up with the bad genes. Also, it's pretty common for such tribal societies to have their daughters marry into neighboring tribes, adding more distant blood into the mix.

But, it's not like inbreeding will instantly lead to habsburg jaws or the hills have eyes, it just slowly raises the probability of certain issues over time.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why does Force Speed seem to be used so little by the Jedi/Sith? Could it be used as an attack?

Forgive me if that's not the right name for it, but the only time I think any kind of Force Speed used was in The Phantom Menace, when Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan use it to escape a couple of Droidekas.  It seems like being able to move so fast as to become a blur would be pretty useful, but I really don't think it was ever used again.  I know, as far as movies go, we pay to see the actors, not blurs.  In-universe, though, why is this not used more often?  Assuming that one's body can handle the impact, imagine shoulder bashing/ramming another with Force Speed.  Or even just using it to practically blink around the battlefield, never letting yourself be seen for more than a moment, strike, and dash somewhere else.

Are there other instances of Force Speed being used, whether for utility for attack, other than the above example?

[Assistant] It happens a couple times in The Clone Wars CGI series, but it is a pretty rarely used thing overall. Maybe it strains the body in some way, such that it's only used in times of great need (like getting stuck between a wall and a pair of droidekas)?


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

[User]
Why has early detection of diseases via dogs not found widespread use in medicine?

I have heard how dogs can detect diseases such as cancer or now covid with a surprisingly high accuracy. However I have not seen widespread use of dogs in such a manner.

[Assistant]
Consistency issues.

In some cases, researchers don't know exactly what chemical compounds the dogs are detecting.  That remains a hurdle for training better sniffer dogs but also for designing better detection devices.

Competition with AI detection devices.  Robots are pretty good at this stuff too, plus they work 24/7 and can usually do high-throughput.

Difficult to move dogs around - easy to move tiny vials of samples.  Standard clinical or pre-clinical testing is very robust and efficient.
 Compare to that it's more difficult to collect/store/analyze samples of breath, sweat, smelly socks or whatever the dogs are smelling.

Trained service dogs cost anywhere from $20k-$50k each.  Sometimes higher still.  For them to work, a patient needs to visit a clinic that owns a dog or present a dog with a sample.  There will be a limit to number of patients per day, per dog.  That means cost per test gets very high.

Reject dogs and test-on-demand.  Ethical questions are breeding dogs do tasks like this.  Usually a lot of dogs fail training, and then what?  OR how long per day can the dog do tests before it gets fatigued.  False positives and false negatives.

Skepticism remains high in medical community.  Historically, everything is moving to robots and controlled lab testing.  Moving back to animals seems like an odd quirk that will quickly be replaced by an AI sensor.


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

[User]
The bennu asteroid has a 1 in 2,700 chance of striking Earth on September 25, 2135. How are odds of an asteroid impact calculated? How are they adjusted over time? What don't we know that makes them measured by chance?

I keep seeing articles about the bennu asteroid having a 1 in 2,700 chance of striking Earth on September 25, 2135. I'm curious about what factors into how these chances are progressively changed over time.

[Assistant]
With complete knowledge of the asteroid's position and velocity (and those of other bodies that interact with it gravitationally), we would be able to give a definite answer - that is, our estimate of the collision probability would be either 0 or 1.

Because there are uncertainties in our knowledge of the asteroid's initial conditions, its calculated trajectory is also uncertain. Some possible trajectories take it to a collision with Earth, and some don't. We therefore express that uncertainty as a probability between 0 and 1.

As more measurements come in, we can re-calculate the trajectory and our estimate of the collision probability.


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

[User] [MCU] Was there any getting through to Ultron or was he a lost cause from the start?

[Assistant]
Ultron's mind was made of up the intelligence within the Mind Stone, plus traits he picked up from Tony and Bruce. Mostly Tony what with all the snark, ego, and daddy issues, but you could argue his anger and temper come from Bruce.

Vision's mind was made of the same components plus Jarvis. And Jarvis wasn't actually a sentient being, really just a very sophisticated digital assistant...Tony is good, but not "can program actual AI" good, which is why he needed the Mind Stone. Otherwise he could have just had Jarvis control the Iron Legion. That's sort of what happens at the end of Iron Man 3 when he summons all the suits...and they nearly kill Pepper by taking an instruction too literally, so Jarvis has limits.

So it seems weird that Jarvis, who isn't even a real person, would be the secret ingredient that marks the difference between a genocidal robot, and a heroic one. Unless...why do you think Jarvis is the way he is?

Tony is an undeniably brilliant mind, but also arrogant, impulsive, and rude. All traits Jarvis lacks. He deliberately programmed his assistant to have nearly the opposite personality as him, because he's smart enough to know he needs a voice of reason. Someone to call him on his BS. And Jarvis isn't a bad foil to Bruce either, being always calm and collected.

So he's almost the perfect antidote to the personality flaws Ultron was created with. The angel on the other shoulder. It's sort of like in the Portal games, how Glados has these other AIs attached to her to keep her under control. Counter Tony's arrogance and Bruce's anger, and what's left? Heroism, a trait they both share.

Which is a roundabout way of saying that if Ultron hadn't lashed out and "killed" Jarvis during his first moments of awareness, and instead *listened* to him, he might have come to different conclusions about how best to protect the world.


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

[User] ELI5: How do gaming headsets allow us to differentiate distance and location of noises, such as if footsteps are on the floor above or below you, or where and how far gunshots are coming from in a BR type game based on where you are standing and which way your camera is facing?

[Assistant]
It's basically the same as how you do it normally.  We can work out where sounds are coming from based on tiny differences in timing and level of sounds arriving at the two ears.  There's also some filtering of sounds based on the shape of your ears and the position of the sound.  The underlying idea for virtual audio is that you reproduce those tiny differences in the ears using a bunch of computer calculations.

Really, it's not all that different from how VR headsets let you see in 3D.  You see in 3D because of the differences that your two eyes see.  In VR, the headset sends a slightly different picture to each eye to let you perceive depth etc.

It doesn't matter how the signals get to your eyes or ears, whether they are arriving naturally or via a screen/earphone.  The important thing is what the light/sound is like when it's *in* your eyes/ears.

Source: hearing scientist with a PhD in sound localisation :)

If you want to know more about how we work out where sounds are, I'll find a link to another thread :)


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

[User] If the center of the Milky Way has a ton of light and stars- why don't we see that at night?

[Assistant] If you're at a dark enough site you certainly do. It's sufficient to cast a shadow when the Milky Way is high enough in the sky and we're looking into the galactic core (Summer in the northern hemisphere). If you live in a city or large town the answer is highly likely to be light pollution.


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

[User] [Star Wars] Why do Han Solo and the Stormtroopers have big scopes on their guns? They never seem to be using them to aim.

[Assistant]
At close ranges a blaster shot can be fired easily enough from the hip and get a bullseye. Longer ranges you'll want a scope as built in sights or notches really are only as good as your own eyesight. But usually stormtrooper blasters don't carry a scope but instead a camera where the scope would be mounted. This camera links with their helmet to create a targeting display on their visor. So while they're firing from the hip or chest they are seeing a reticule that indicates where they are aiming the barrel of the blaster similar to a videogame HUD.

And small rant stormtroopers don't have terrible aim. They're a nightmare on the battlefield with how accurate and deadly they are from training and how good their equipment is. In the OT they let the heroes escape by firing around them not at them. And in later films during hectic battles the heroes got lucky and were protected by the force to escape death. Only in a single scene involving scout troopers in the mandalorian and a comment by Mayfield is the meme of stormtrooper inaccuracy referenced in-universe.


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

[User]
[Marvel] I'm a villain who is fighting someone with a Vibranium suit.

The suits is much like that of Black Panther and the human inside is partially enhanced. Meanwhile I'm a villain thats basically several steps below the Hulk. Lets say I managed to grab on to the persons feet and spin him around as fast as I could, would it kill him?

[Assistant] A vibranium suit won't do jack shit against centrifugal force unless it has safeguards specifically against it.  Nor will it do anything about the accelerated human insides coming to a sudden and violent stop from within; the suit at that point will just keep the liquefied body contained.


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

[User]
[Passengers] Could they have taken turns using the autodoc to live long enough to reach their destination?

Like one year in, on year out. Or maybe six month in, six months together, then the other go in for 6 months.

[Assistant]
They could, but if they evenly shared time in the autodoc, the best they could do is split the remaining 90 years in half between them, so they'd still be 75-ish by the time they arrived.

And the person that isn't in the autodoc would still effectively be alone the entire time they're awake, which was the most unbearable aspect of their predicament.


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

[User]
Can you break your own bones using only muscle strength?

Since I was in school I was wondering this - if you are strong enough can you break your own bones by just flexing your muscles? What I mean is when you stretch your out and keep pushing you can feel a lot of tension in the elbow. Is it possible to break this joint just by stretching your arm hard enough?

[Assistant]
Yes if you apply the right force, for instance people frequently break the humerus in arm wrestling because it is not good at withstanding spiral force.

The muscles of the jaw can produce enough force to break your teeth but the body's proprioceptive senses stop you from doing this. For instance apply electrical muscle stimulation (e.g. ECT) that bypasses nervous control could do this.


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

[User] ELI5: What happens when an ant loses a leg? Will it ever regrow? Can it go on to have a rich and fulfilling ant life?

[Assistant]
They will only regrow their legs if they are still in the process of shedding their skin a number of times to become an adult, in which case they get a new set of legs when they shed.

Otherwise, if they're an adult, they're doomt.


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

[User]
If people can eat frozen fecal pills to transplant healthy microorganisms to the intestine. Could kissing someone with a healthy mouth flora replenish your own?

I have heard of doctors giving fecal transplants. Im wondering if the same idea could be applied with saliva and for the mouth. So can kissing someone healthy benefit your own health?

[Assistant]
In short, we don't know enough yet to know. But as someone who actually does this type of research, I've asked very similar questions. What you're talking about is essentially a probiotic, but for other parts of the body, instead of the gut which we generally associate with probiotics. We know the mouth is coated in bacteria (actually, so is every surface of your body that is in contact with the outside world, including from your mouth to your anus, and also down into your lungs). We are also now associating shifts in bacterial communities (dysbiosis) we disease in locations other than just the gut. Hypothetically, we could use a healthy source of inoculation (say saliva) to help reseed a disrupted community (like is done with fecal transplants for C. diff patients).

The catch though is that we don't really know yet what a healthy mouth (which actually has a lot of different communities) really looks like microbially speaking. We don't know how resilient those communities are. Nor do we know what aspects of disrupted communities cause problems, or if the problem happens first which then disrupts the community.


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

[User]
ELI5 How large banks "bet" against their own investment products. How do banks sell investments opportunities and then profit when they fail?

I'd like to know more of the predatory practices some banks engaged in that led to them profiting in a matter that affected regular people.

[Assistant]
They bundle together a group of investments and then essentially buy 'insurance' so that if they fail they get covered by the insurance.

The insuring companies would do this because they believed these investments were solid and wouldn't fail. So when they did fail, and we all found out later it was because the banks were making trash investments and didn't care because they made money either way -> those insurance companies were sca-roood!


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

[User] [Harry Potter] Outside of the two schools in the Goblet of Fire, how many other schools are there?

[Assistant]
There are eleven wizarding schools.

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (Scotland), Beauxbatons Academy of Magic (France), Durmstrang Institute (Scandinavia), Mahoutokoro (Japan), Salem Witches' Institute (United States of America), Brazilian wizarding school (Brazil), Koldovstorits (Russia), and the Weikedu School of Magic (Africa) are the eight we know about.

On top of that, there are other, secondary schools dedicated to specific subjects, such as Charm School and the Academy of Flying.


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

[User]
[SPIDER-MAN] Does Spider-Man have a healing factor?

Does he have a healing factor? What happens if he breaks a bone?

[Assistant]
His regeneration is very far compared to a human but no where as fast or as good as Wolverines or Deadpools.

He cant grow back limbs, but he stopped needing to wear glasses right after he got his powers.


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

[User]
ELI5: How did English first names originate?

Names such as "James" and "Peter" have no equivalent in the English language, so how did early English speakers come up with those names?

[Assistant] The English language is only around 1500 years old.  Names like James and Peter come from older languages such as Greek, Hebrew, or Aramaic, which were Latinized.  These Latin versions of the names would have spread through out Europe and made their way into many other languages, including the Germanic languages, which would have been carried by the tribes whose languages would developed into English.  You need to remember that the English language is a bastard language, that though at its base is Germanic, has adopted words from most European languages, including the Romantic/Latin languages, and Germanic was influenced by the earlier European languages also.  So the reason there might be no direct equivalent of the names, but said names have history going further back than English.


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

[User] [Tolkien] Why is it called Middle-Earth? Is there an Upper Earth and a Lower Earth?

[Assistant]
*The term "Middle-earth" was not invented by Tolkien. Rather, it comes from Middle English middel-erde, itself a folk-etymology for the Old English word middangeard (geard not meaning Earth, but rather enclosure or place, thus yard, with the Old Norse word migarr being a cognate). It is Germanic for what the Greeks called the  (oikoumen) or "the abiding place of men", the physical world as opposed to the unseen worlds (The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, 151). The word Mediterranean comes from two Latin stems, medi- , amidst, and terra, (earth/land), meaning "the sea placed at the middle of the Earth / amidst the lands".*

According to middle earth wiki.

Edit: added a little more detail.


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

[User] ELI5: When a calculator resolves 1.001^10000, does it actually multiply 1.001 10000 times in sequence?

[Assistant]
No. What exactly the calculator does depends on the calculator, but it is always quite complex and not very ELI5-friendly.

Typically they will convert a^b to e^(b*ln(a)^) with the natural logarithm ln( ) and the exponential function. Then it can use ln(1+x)=x - x^(2)/2 + x^(3)/3 (and probably more terms, this is called a Taylor series) to find the approximate value of ln(1.001)=0.000999500. Multiply it by 10000: 9.99500

To calculate e^(9.99500) there are similar tricks, and the final result is  about 21900.

That way you don't have to do 10,000 multiplications, and you can also calculate 1.001^10000.35 and similar expressions.


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

[User]
CMV: (possible transphobia warning) MTF athletes competing create an unfair advantage over cisgender women because of their pre-transition physical attributes (height, bone density, etc). I would like to be more open minded about trans related issues please help!

EDIT: i will not be responding to any more comments, people are just asking me the same questions over and over again, i have spent at least three hours responding to everyone on here. Subs wont lock it (no hate) so im just gonna put this here

This is my second trans-related post in this sub, i am really trying to become a better, more open minded person so please remember that when responding to me, thank you!
I have read many articles about transgender (mtf to be specific) athletes crushing the previous long-held records in their sport, but if these athletes were born as men (but now wonderful women still) wouldnt they still have the bone density, height, muscles of men? I know they take testosterone blockers but that doesnt dimish their physically advantageous traits that they had pre-transition.
As an athlete im worried that this is somewhat unfair to cisgender women who do not have these traits. That being said, i am somewhat ignorant about the biology of this topic and i WANT to become more intelligent about it. It is pretty obvious, if youre looking at a mtf athlete that they are physically dominant over all their other competitors.
Maybe mtf athletes could compete in a separate division? I know there arent many of them, and i want everyone to be able to compete on an even playing field
Please help, and happy pride month!

[Assistant]
Height, yes, but muscles atrophy pretty fast when you get off testosterone.

If trans women were really as dominant as people think, then you'd think more records would be held by them. The Olympic committee has allowed trans women to compete with cis women for over a decade now. Why aren't there more trans Olympians?


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why Ben Kenobi?

Was there ever a reason given for why Obiwan Kenobi was living under the name Old Ben in A New Hope?  Why choose that particular name?  Obviously it's got some significance, or else Luke wouldn't call him Ben all the time, and Han and Leia wouldn't have named their first born son Ben in his honor.

[Assistant]
When he went on the lam and ended up on Tattoine, he probably chose it to be anonymous.  It was probably just a random choice.

Most people probably had no idea of his real name, Luke included.

And why wouldnt Han and Leia name their son "Ben" in his honor?


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

[User] ELI5: How does Instant Messaging differ from e-mail?

[Assistant]
E-mail works in a similar way to the post office. You write a message and hit send, it gets passed off and the address read to see where it goes. It gets sent to that location where the address gets read and sorted into the correct mail box. Multiple clients and multiple servers all over the world just like mail boxes and post offices.

Instant messaging is multiple clients and one server. Think of it like inter office mail. Everyone gives their letters to Charlie in the mailroom and he brings it up to their office. Charlie already knows where Carol is, so he can bring her a letter quickly. If who you want to talk to doesnt work in your building, Charlie can't deliver a message.


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

[User]
[Super Mario Bros.] What does Mario actually do with super mushrooms, fire flowers, invincible stars, etc.?

Does he eat them? Hold them? Grind them up and snort them through a rolled-up Benjamin off the ass of a hooker?

[Assistant]
By touching a powerup, he can instinctively convert its magic energy into a modification/energy burst for his body or racing cart.

The magic energy is converted to a desired result, usually immediately, though he can store the item in a magic pocket dimension for later use.


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

[User] [Harry Potter]Why did Ginny have a panic attack when she first saw Harry in chamber of secrets?

[Assistant]
You're standing in line at Chiptole and Barack Obama gets in line behind you without you really noticing. He nods at you and goes "Sup; how's it going?" What exactly do you do besides stare for a few seconds? And you're probably a grown-ass adult.

Now be a 10 year old and Wizard Jesus Christ does the same thing.


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

[User]
How advanced was cancer treatment in the early to mid 1900s?

The reason I ask is that I always thought it was more or less a death sentence (except for the more minor ones, such as basal cell) until around the 1980s.

I was reading an article on the oldest living person though and it said that she survived pancreatic cancer in the 1940s, which I thought was WAY before they could even come close to treating a cancer such as that. Pancreatic cancer only has a 10% five year survival rate nowadays as it is, so I really don't get it.

[Assistant]
It wasnt at all advanced. If it couldnt be cut out, or given a dose of radiation, you died.

Chemotherapy started being trial tested in 43, results were *published* in 46. It was an early form of chemotherapy, nothing like what you thin of now with modern drugs, and it wasnt like it was a national trial with thousands of people. Other drugs started getting experimental licenses after that.

But the death rate was still phenomenally high. So before the publishing of the chemotherapy paper in 1946, it was just cutting it out or radiation, and chemotherapy would in no way have been widely available immediately after the paper was published. It would take several years for the findings to be accepted and expanded on.


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

[User]
What's the difference between "ontic" and "ontological"?

From Heidegger's "Being and Time".

[Assistant]
"Ontic" is about entities. When you talk about what makes a shoe a shoe, a mountain a mountain, etc., you're talking about ontics.

"Ontological" concerns the structure of being as such--not particular beings, but what it means for beings to be. Existence.


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

[User]
How can a COVID-19 vaccine be ready in less time than it takes for the trials to be completed?

I'm confused about this. I've seen some articles say that the trials for the covid vaccines are supposed to last for two years, but I also have been reading that a vaccine may be ready (if not widely available) within a few months. How can a vaccine be ready that soon if the trials are supposed to last longer?

[Assistant]
A lot of people on here are just making judgements about whether it's "too soon" for the vaccine and ignoring the logical core of the question.

The FDA has two main pathways for authorizing a drug for marketing before the Phase III is traditionally complete:

If the disease is well-understood and there are 'surrogate endpoints' that closely track a clinical endpoint, the drug might qualify for Accelerated Approval. Surrogate endpoints would usually be be a laboratory test or other physical finding, while a clinical endpoint is something like survival of the patient. For example, if you are running a trial for sickle cell disease, you might use the composition of hemoglobin in the blood as a surrogate endpoint to get Accelerated Approval while the clinical endpoint of life expectancy is pending. COVID has dire unmet needs, which is required for Accelerated Approval, but it's not well-understood. So this probably isn't the way.

The other option is Emergency Use Authorization. This one is more flexible and means that the FDA is going to make a judgement on the risks of releasing a potentially unsafe or ineffective treatment against the benefits of addressing a national medical emergency. This has already been used for a COVID drug (Remdesivir) and might be used for vaccines as well.

There are other situations where a Phase III trial might continue while the drug application is pending, or the drug is approved, for example if the trial had as 'open-label extension' at the end of the trial. But this should be thought of as a follow-up to the main trial, not a critical part of the trial itself.


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

[User]
I believe that space travel should not be one of the priorities of mankind. CMV

I think that space travel is an interesting concept, and I don't argue against learning more about outer space, however when I hear people complain about NASA's budget I just don't see what all the fuss is about. I mean, why should governments, whose main priority is to benefit the people and their respective nation, be forking over money to travel to places that will do little to benefit Earth (Although I do agree that many governments should top spending as much on their militaries)

This probably comes down to personal preference, but I also think that the places we have the potential to go to in space aren't very interesting. If we really want to explore the unknown why not explore the deep ocean, that would be less expensive and we would actually see new species, while we probably won't find anything as interesting in our solar system.

Ultimately, I think that we should focus on our own planet before others, but I am open to arguments as to why we need to travel into space.

[Assistant]
There's lot that the space program(s) can do and has done to benefit folks back here on Earth:

* Detecting near-earth asteroids from orbit. As our sensor technology has improved, there are now proposals for placing a satellite in orbit around the sun to look for potential Earth-bound asteroids. This may give us a chance to attempt a deflection or prepare for an impact.

* Space-based services for Earth. GPS, Satellite TV,  Satellite Phones, Satellite Internet/data, Satellite photos. All of these things have been made possible by the launch capability developed for the space program (and the military) and all of them have major applications on earth. GPS has become the 'stealth utility', synchronizing the clocks at cellular telephone sites, providing a high-resolution timing signal for electronics labs and providing location data for innumerable applications. Many broadcasters turn to satellites for up-linking their programming to distant locations. Satellite phone and data allow men and women to connect to the outside world in the most distant of places on Earth.

* Development of new technologies. The space program has historically caused a number of talented engineers to solve difficult problems, some of which might have applications back on earth. This can run the gambit from advanced materials that can withstand the rigors of spaceflight and re-enter to the Apollo program's demands of compact computing equipment and the semiconductor industry.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do helicopters have only four blades and not six or eight of them?

[Assistant]
Some helicopters do have 6 blades, and some have as many as 12, split between 2 rotors.

The reason for not having as many as possible is a question of weight and necessity. If your engine is capable of flying efficiently with 4, adding 2 more just adds weight, cost, and complexity.


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

[User] ELI5...if the ingredients for all different kinds of cheese are pretty much the same, how do they make different flavor cheeses?

[Assistant]
There are a bunch of different factors, but here's a rough list:

Type of milk.... cow? Goat? Sheep? A mix? Does the animal eat mostly green grass? Hay? All of these change the flavor, fat and protein content of the final cheese.

How hot you get the milk during the initial stages, before you add the rennet (curdling enzyme).

Water content: Do you loosely pack the curds and let them drain? Do you "cheddar" them by heavily salting them and pressing as much of the whey out as you can? Again, this has a profound effect on the final cheese.

Inoculation: The bacteria, molds, etc used to ferment the cheese. This can be a function of the temperature and humidity you choose, the location, the salt content, and of course you can *literally* swab it on the cheese, add it in, etc.

"Other": So... some cheese have spices or seeds added, or they're packed in straw, or aged in a dry cave for years, or swabbed with bacterial sponges every few days (muenster, yum). Is it aged for a few weeks, eaten fresh  (like haloumi), or aged so that the original cheese has been almost completely converted? Cheese mites also can play a role, and many other fun organisms.

Finally... in the high end you have "post-production" known as "Affinage". This is a matter of taking your cheese to a master cheese "ager", who probably has a little cellar with ideal conditions, and a ton of expertise.


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

[User] ELI5: Why dental tartar is so hard and bounds to teeth like glue? It's like a secondary tooth made of bacterias.

[Assistant] Plaque, the softer stuff that makes your teeth feel "fuzzy", can turn INTO tartar if it's not removed by brushing/flossing. The minerals in your saliva interact with the plaque to form crystals that harden into tartar.


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

[User]
[Mage The Ascension] How powerful is a Master Rank mage?

Master Rank mage who has achieved 5 dot mastery in one discipline, or even all of them. Do they even compare to oldest vampires?

[Assistant]
A mage who has achieved master rank in all Spheres is effectively a god to most supernatural beings- there are few statted up beings that can rival them in the world of darkness. One who's achieved mastery in just one is still very powerful, especially since they likely have high dots in other spheres

The main issue is that a dot in a sphere buys a *lot* more then, say, a dot in a discipline or a gift or an arcanoi or what have you. Most supernatural powers give you one specific power. For example, a vampire with one rank of dominate can give a one-word command if they look into your eyes. A lot of possible uses, but still one concrete power.
Conversely, a mage with one dot in the Mind Sphere can sense mental traits, scan auras, read emotions, see the near umbra, detect lies, protect their own mind from influence, absorb data at a superhuman rate and boost their own intelligence. And that's just as sample powers.

This continues: our Ventrue has, at 5 Dominate, 5 discrete, fairly focused mind-controlling powers. Our Ecstatic with 5 Mind, meanwhile, has just a laundry list of abilities to sense, alter, boost, degrade, control, destroy and create minds. And that assuming they can't combine it with other spheres for even more abilities, which they likely can. A mage increases in power *massively* more quickly then anything else in the world of darkness.

This is a real problems with crossovers. With the exception of the real heavy hitters like  Antediluvians and Incarnae, there are very few beings in the world of darkness that can stand up to a mage of equal "level". They simply get too versatile too fast.


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

[User]
[Spider-man PS4/PS5 games] Did Peter Parker get rich somehow between Spider-man and Spider-man: Miles Morales?

I though I remember him struggling with money a little in the first game, but in Miles Morales, he's left advanced holographic training simulations all over the city out in the open seemingly without a care that someone will see the equipment and steal it.  Where did he get the money for that stuff? And for that matter, why aren't any of the countless bad guys in NYC taking the equipment for easy money instead of getting into situations that will attract the cops and superheroes?

[Assistant] A major aspect of Peter's character is that he can recycle some of the tech he finds or uses to create new tech - repurposing old and discarded cell phones, for example. And yes, it's fantastical but this is Marvel where it's not that unusual to see holographic technology. Peter is just *that good*.


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

[User]
[Mass Effect] Questions about the Reapers' AI.

1. How were the Reapers governed? Were they a consensus gestalt like the Geth, a Hive Mind, or was each Reaper an individual AI?

2. The Reapers are clearly capable of higher level creative thinking, so why did the Reapers never break from their original programming? Shouldn't the Reapers have self-actualized like the Geth, and completely abandoned their creators' purpose for them after some time?

3. Going off of question 2. Why did the Reapers decide to limit themselves to the Milky Way? That may have been its original operating parameters, but its strange they never decided to expand upon it.

4. Are there any deviant Reapers that have rebelled against their function?

[Assistant]
Spoilers Ahead:

1. Each individual is like a civilisation themselves, but they aren't a collective hivemind. More individual beings. They are controlled by the Catalyst, so don't have much autonomy. Harbinger is a sort of leader/figurehead though.
2. They didn't have the ability to; the programming may have been more restrictive, or it is hardcoded that they must obey the Catalyst. The Geth meanwhile were haphazardly added to until they achieved sentience, and so didn't have the same parameters put in place.
3. Because the Catalyst told them to limit themselves. The Catalyst wasn't really one to think outside the box unless forced to.
4. Not that we know of.


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

[User]
[Frankenstein] What would an EMP do to the Frankenstein monster?

Considering he was jumpstarted by electricity and that was what kept him going, could an EMP shut him down?

[Assistant]
The original Frankenstein was an alchemical creation, more like a homunculus or golem, so an EMP wouldn't have any more effect than it would on a person.

With other versions, depending on how much metal there is in their skulls, the EMP might induce current through their brains. EDIT: This fries the Frankenstein.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does hot water soothe tension on your body?

[Assistant] The heat causes your blood vessels to dilate which temporarily lowers your blood pressure and increases blood flow to your muscles. Also, water is a supportive medium so a hot bath has the added benefit of taking pressure off your joints.


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

[User] ELI5: Curious european, why does Cleveland suck?

[Assistant]
To quote Tvtrope's article on Cleveland (yes, Cleveland is considered a trope):

Known in some circles as "The Mistake By The Lake" (namely, Lake Erie) or "The/Tha Land," Cleveland is the largest urban area in Ohio. Located on the state's northern coast, it's often considered a Wretched Hive and a Place Worse Than Death, a joke that's been ongoing for years. Many recent polls and news articles only reinforce this image, as it was once rated the most miserable city in America. It was also the original Trope Namer for Aliens In Cleveland, as the city is considered by many the image of mundane mediocrity (at best).

Possibly the biggest reason why this goes unchallenged is because all but the most anal-retentive Clevelanders have a sense of humor about it; they'll tell you themselves how Cleveland is America's Butt Monkey. With the brutal winters, massive urban decay, a river that was once so polluted that it caught on fire thirteen times, several political scandals leading to multiple FBI raids, and the fact that road construction is never finished (also a staple of Ohio in general), most residents have no illusions of being in paradise, and rely often on Gallows Humor. Some choose to stay, however, as the city has a low cost of living, a growing healthcare industry (the world-renown Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals), and decent nightlife. It can even be called a mini-Chicago, due to its patchwork of ethnic neighborhoods, midwestern atmosphere, public rail that's both elevated and underground, and division by a major river (east and west in this case, with people on either side almost never going further than downtown).


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

[User] ELI5: What is Rick Perry being indicted for?

[Assistant]
You know how a school bully might threaten to beat you up if you don't give him your lunch money? Governor Perry is accused of doing sort of the same thing by threatening to not give a woman's department money if she didn't resign from office.

Since it was the governor doing it, he should know better. This would be the same as your school principal demanding that you give him your lunch money or he'll make sure you fail all your classes. School districts don't like it when principals do that, and grand juries don't like it when governors do that.


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

[User] ELI5: What's stopping me from taking a relatively large loan and leaving the country to live in another country?

[Assistant]
With the exception of a small handful, all civilized countries recognize the jurisdiction of eachother's courts. You leave the country, default on the loan, get sued, get a judgment, then get enforcement proceedings in whatever country you're in.

If you go somewhere that doesn't allow this, then the only thing stopping you from doing this is the fact that you would be stuck living in  one of the countries that don't recognize jurisdiction. And those countries all suck.


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

[User]
[Marvel] Do symbiotes go up the butt?

Hey, real quick, Hi, I'm Bee-Man, from a while ago, I was buzzin' about with beeautiful plan to burgularize AIM with my Bee Bee Gun MK II when I accidentially unleashed a swarm of symbiotes that they had in storage. I'm stuck in a storage closet and it doesn't seem like there's any way for the symbiote bonded to get in.

I have to get out of here somehow, but I saw one of those things beecome a monstrous suit of a guy and I'm like, super freaked out. Do they go in your mouth? That's gross. They look like sinews but not sinews.

Do they go up the butt? What if I'm wearing repurposed ballroom dancer tights and sport underwear? I really need answers to this and uh, advice on how to get out of here.

Time's a factor.

I'm actually hiding in a crate inside of the storage closet and I am NOT safe. Normally I'd have a bee pun and launch honey blasts or sting bombs at tge guys but monster fetish suits are way above my pay grade.

[Assistant]
Honestly? Symbiote Russian Roulette is probably your best shot at getting out of there alive. AIM is going to be in full panic mode, and whatever defenses you got around to get in there in the first place are nothing compared to what they're going to fire up to deal with the containment breech; there's a very high chance that, as we speak, the self destruct device for that facility is already silently counting down. You are probably going to die if you sit in that crate any longer.

Any AIM mook you meet is going to blast you, and any automated defenses are going to shoot first and ask questions never. You can find common cause with a symbiote, if only for the duration of the emergency. If the two of you turn out to be on the same page in a general sense, congratulations, you just made a friend for life and got a much better gimmick than being the guy with bees who isn't The Pain. If the symbiote turns out to be a dick, lure them into a church steeple and make a run for it when the bells go off.

As far as where they go, they're going to creep into *every* orifice. Dancer tights are not going to keep them out. Fortunately, they've got a built-in incentive to be gentle; once linked, you share sensations, so any rough treatment they give you comes right back onto them. Most long-term pairs have no complaints on that front, and even the people who reject the combination have more complaints about the mental invasion than the rectal one.


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

[User]
[Star Trek] How many layers deep in the holodeck can I go?

Go into the holodeck (of Voyager, say) and load up a simulation of the Voyager, go to that simulated Voyager's holodeck, and load up a simulated simulated Voyager, and so on. How many times can I do this before putting too much strain on the (real) ship's computer?

[Assistant]
In our world, video games handle stuff like this by offloading information that isn't currently important to the simulation, essentially hibernating that portion of the program.

At a very simple level, take the original *Super Mario Bros* game; when you were in world 1-1, the computer didn't have the information for world 1-2 in-memory, but its template was available to access when needed.

Getting more complex, take the *Zelda* games where there is a Light World and a Dark World. The simulation of the Dark World isn't running when you're playing in the Light World, and vise versa. Same with the various dungeons; only one of them is actually in-memory at once. Also, if you're on Death Mountain, Kakariko Village is on hold.

A holodeck simulation is designed to only process as much information as necessary to give you the experience you expect; it isn't a faithful representation of the world, it's the *illusion* of a faithful representation.

In order to maintain the illusion of time constantly moving forward in all of the different worlds, the computer can run a fast simulation *when you enter that world*, and update it accordingly. This doesn't have to be 100% accurate, it just needs to make a few reasonable changes. For example, if you leave the Light World in mid-day, there might be a fisherman by the pond, and a bunch of open shops. When you return, the computer fast-forwards to midnight, the fisherman is asleep, and the shops are closed.

This also brings up an interesting memory-saving technique that pertains to your question; the Light World and the Dark World are very similar, so instead of having both entire worlds as templates in memory, there's the Light World, then a list of chances necessary to make the Dark World. The Voyager holodeck would do something similar; rather than having three Voyager simulations in-memory, it would have one, and then a list of the differences.

So, the answer to your question is that the holodeck would be more limited by storage than processing capacity. Unless you had someone interacting with each layer of your simulation at once, *Inception* style, the computer would just pause the parent simulation while the child ran.


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

[User]
ELI5: How is it that houses in various stages of construction can get drenched in rain, yet not develop a mold problem after completed?

I've seen stacks of lumber, insulation and other building materials get drenched at residential construction sites, yet it doesn't appear to worry the builder. How does that moisture, once closed up inside walls, not turn into a mold factory?

[Assistant] Getting wet isnt a problem for most stages of a homes construction. Staying wet is the problem. Lumber getting rained on doesn't really increase the moisture content in the wood that much. Its normally somewhat damp to begin with. The only problem with damp walls would be when its time to install sheet rock. Sheetrock is always covered because it cant get wet.


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

[User]
CMV: Society needs to get back to ignoring speech someone doesn't like instead of trying to get them fired or cancelled.

There are exceptions to this and that is if they are in a position of power and authority and their speech indicated they are negatively impacting groups of people in their lives due to being the owner of a business, a politician, or a person of legal authority.

With in that exception it needs to be clearly targeted towards individuals and jokes don't count and opinions that don't convey intent to discriminate or harm don't count.

As for the rest of the public if someone says something that offends you, move on they have a right to say whatever they want as long as they are not threatening someone else and so do you.

"Person A said something that really hurt me and I didn't like it and don't want people to say those things about people like me or people like my friend but that's their right to their opinion and I am going to move on and just block them and ignore them since they don't know me and I don't know them so they don't have any real consequence over my life".

This needs to be the way society responds not with "I'm going to find out where they work and get them fired".

EDIT- I am only talking about not trying to get someone fired from a job or kicked out of school, not saying people shouldn't rebuttal or reply back.

EDIT 2- I'm a leftist btw idk if that matters but yeah lol.

[Assistant]
'Get back to'? When did we 'ignore speech we didn't like'? Back in the 2000s, when the Dixie Chicks got basically booted from country music for expressing that they were embarrassed to be from the same state as George W. Bush? The 80s or 90s, when putting anything vaguely magical in a piece of media would get you called 'satanic' and have people call to boycott you? The 50s, when being vaguely communist would get you blacklisted from your industry?

This isn't new.


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

[User] The MINERVA rovers show boulders on the asteroid they landed on. Despite obviously lacking erosion due to water or an atmosphere or geological activities, how have these boulders formed?

[Assistant] Formed from dust in the early solar system and either never got any bigger than that or (probably more likely) fragmented from a bigger rock due to a collision, before joining the asteroid. The whole thing is just a loosely-held-together ball of debris.


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

[User]
[TES IV: Oblivion] The life seems harder this morning.

I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Relighting of the Dragonfires in the Temple of the One. I watched Daedra march through the Oblivion Gates.

Being caught in the whirlwind of events I combated weariness, knowing the fate hinges on my role. I have given myself permission to rest only once the Great Anguish has been ended by the brave sacrifice of the last Septim.
The war is over. Mehrunes Dagon forces have been defeated. The brave souls have triumphed. But have they really?

Today I woke up, full of energy and ideas. Yet the world felt... changed.
On my way from Imperial City a highwayman almost achieved what Oblivion hordes could not. Further down the road to Anvil my suspicions were confirmed by a mountain lion, which was able to easily withstand my every blow.  I'm embarassed to admit it, but it is my speed that allowed me to survive. It seems like every foul creature in the world has been strengthened while I rested.

What manner of foul treachery is this? Is this how Daedra Lords punish us for our defiance?

Yours sincerely,
*Hero of Kvatch, Savior of Bruma, Recognized Master of Restoration, Mysticism, Illusion, Alchemy, Acrobatics, Speechcraft and Mercantile arts.*

[Assistant]
Hail fellow magister.

It seems you've hit a cap. First, let me explain to you that a combination of ambient Deadland energy oozing out of Gates, along with natural selection, have led to your faster mountain lions and hardened bandits. Just like you, they've had to deal with otherworldly invaders and desperate fellows since the death of Emperor Septim. Where else do you think marauders are getting their daedric weapons from? You are now amongst the best of the best, and only sheer skill will help you.

Sheer skill, however, involves magic. You should return to the Imperial City for a refresher course, and then meet with Master-Wizard Stegine in the praxographical center for help with spellcraft. There's no reason for a Resto-Illusionist to feel any pressure once they're considered an expert in both fields.


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

[User]
Which philosopher would you consider the most difficult to understand?

I usually hear that it's Sartre or Schopenhauer.

[Assistant] I'd say that of the ones you absolutely must read and take seriously if you're a philosopher, Kant is the most difficult by far. Just out of a long list of philosophers, I'd say Hegel and Heidegger. As a group, I'd say continental philosophers are extremely difficult to understand. In the analytic tradition, Wittgenstein might be the toughest.


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

[User]
ELI5 Venture capital vs. private equity vs. hedge funds?

Can someone please explain to me what each of these are and what the differences between them are? And give examples as well? Please help me, I've tried to hard to understand to understand what they are and my brain just will not process it and I'm getting so frustrated.

[Assistant]
Most answers here are at best partially correct. Here is the correct answer.

Venture capital invests in companies that are typically based on some innovation or novelty, that are young and have a strong future potential to earn 100x the money invested. The VC model is that 7/10 of these investments will fail completely, 2 will become zombies i.e. just about successful but never really breaking out and 1 will be so success it will pay for all the other failures as well as creating a big profit. Venture funding amounts start at seed stage with a few hundred thousand dollars and can go as high as 100 million. Venture capital is high risk and potentially high reward investing. As an analogy, VC investors build new houses with new designs in sometimes marginal areas that are currently undervalued.

Private equity investors are less risky. They are looking for mature businesses with steady cashflows that provide stable returns on their investment. They are also looking for ways to operationally restructure or financially engineer the investment to release more value. For example they may see ways to get hard cash from the business by selling off some areas or restructuring operations to reduce the amount of cash stuck inside the business in the working capital. They can literally deploy billions for the right invesrment, but often hold for relatively short periods, 2-4 years, while they improve the business and then sell it on. As an analogy, PE investors buy old houses in nice neighborhoods, fix them up and sell them on for profit.

Hedge funds invest in ways that try to ensure they make money no matter what happens, by investing in both positive and negative outcomes of the same investment. Hedging is the practise of investing in both positive and negative outcomes, typically using different means, for example by buying a stock and using derivatives like options or futures to offset any negative movements in the future. Hedge funds invest in highly liquid markets typically, so they can react quickly to changing circumstances, and are typically very private and highly sophisticated investors, using lots of technical ways to balance or even better exploit risks. Again they can command massive sums - tens if not hundreds of billions in some extreme cases, because a small edge multiplied by a lot of money equals a big profit. As an analogy, if a hedge fund bought a house, it would also buy some kind of insurance in case the value dropped below expectations. The expected growth would cover that extra cost, and the insurance would make sure they covered any potential drop in value.


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

[User]
Why does glass break in the pattern that it does?

For example: My windshield got hit with hail, beside where the hail hit at the bottom, one crack went directly up until halfway and then a 35 degree angle across most the windshield. Why didn't the crack continue straight up from the halfway mark, is it because weaknesses in the glass?

[Assistant]
Glass is amorphous, meaning it's molecular structure is more or less randomized. Because of this randomness a crack in glass generally just goes through the path of least resistance.

If it were crystalline, meaning it's molecules are packed into repeating, ordered shapes called unit cells, it would fracture in a more normal, predictable way (like table salt always being tiny cubes - it's because of their molecular structure).


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

[User]
ELI5: How do Olympic athletes who play a sport that doesn't have professional leagues (fencing, rhythmic gymnastics, etc) practice and train year round?

If they have to take a regular job to pay the bills. Or are they sponsored by a sports organization or their national Olympic committee? Is performance abilities in those less commonly watched sports stunted because athletes aren't playing and training every day like those with professional leagues or prize money?

[Assistant]
To correct you on the misconception, all the sports in the Olympics have leagues but its not televised (if at all) like what most Americans are use to (i.e. NFL, NBA, and MBL).

These leagues (fencing and etc.) are funded through 4 main sources:

* Industry advertisement/sponsorship.
* The association of the sport pays for some of it (each sport has an association that organizes these competitions)
* Competitors paying entrance fees
* Audience fees.

>If they have to take a regular job to pay the bills.

It really depends on the country but generally yes they take a regular while doing this. In some cases the regular job is just an offshoot of their training (coaching) or completely unrelated (waiter).

>Or are they sponsored by a sports organization or their national Olympic committee?

Again really depends on the country. For example, China provides a lot of amenities for their athletes.

>Is performance abilities in those less commonly watched sports stunted because athletes aren't playing and training every day like those with professional leagues or prize money?

No! They play and train as much as any other professional athlete.

edit: If an Olympic athlete gets popularity they can also get income through additional sponsorships and advertising deals (whats common for USA athletes).


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

[User]
ELI5: How are small children able to master gymnastics moves, such as a handstand, seemingly effortlessly?

It took my little cousin less than a week to do a handstand for thirty seconds, yet I am still attempting to do it against a wall. How?!

[Assistant]
Children usually have less mass and a lower center of gravity than grownups.

It is literally easier to do a handstand at 5 than at 25. Less strength and skill and coordination is required and even if you account for the fact that adults have more strength, and better coordination than week clumsy children, they come out ahead.

It is also harder to hurt yourself when falling down as a small child due to physics and children are generally more fearless and will not hesitate when adults would, which helps with gymnastics a bit.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are Diesel engines more fuel efficient than gas/petrol engines?

[Assistant]
A few reasons:

Diesel contains more energy per mass unit than gasoline, meaning that you have to burn less fuel to get the same amount of power out of the engine.

Diesel engines run with a much higher compression ratio than gasoline engines.  This increases the expansion space during the ignition/combustion part of the engine cycle allowing more energy to be extracted from the fuel burn.


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

[User] Why can't I feel treble like I can feel bass?

[Assistant] Think of soundwaves as a physical object that moves air. ~ there's a certain amount of air on each side of the little squiggly line (my soundwave). The lower the frequency (pitch) of a soundwave, the more time there is in between each passing wavelength (let's say ~ is like one wavelength). There's more air contained in the larger space between each wavelength ~  ~  ~, and when you move more air, you feel it more. Alternatively, when you hear a higher pitched treble frequency there is less space in between each ~~~ wavelength, so it moves less air and you feel it less.


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

[User]
ELI5: How can you store baked goods at room temperature for days when they contain things like butter and dairy?

I just made a batch of muffins, and the recipe says "store at room temperature for up to five days." But the recipe includes butter, dairy, eggs... things that would normally be prone to spoilage if left out. How is this ok? I just want to make sure because I'll be serving them to a group of people and I don't want to make anyone sick!

Edit: Thank you all so much for your explanations-- I really learned a lot. :)

[Assistant]
Butter and eggs can actually be left out on the counter for days without spoiling. Refrigeration of those items is more of an American convention than a requirement.

Milk does spoil at room temp, but it's lifespan is increased through pasteurization. If you've ever bought raw milk, you'll notice it starts to smell funky after a couple of hours being left out on the counter, whereas regular pasteurized milk can survive a few hours on the counter and way longer in the fridge than raw milk does.

By this logic, when you bake your cookies or cake in oven at 350 degrees, you're definitely going to kill any and all bacteria in the milk that cause the milk to go bad (and evaporating lots of moisture out of it as well) leaving behind only the necessary fats and proteins for holding your dessert together.

Edit: turned desert into dessert, yum.


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

[User]
Does Nietzsche prefer Master morality over Slave morality?

Was reading Genealogy of morals, havent read beyond good and evil yet.

It seems clear from reading the genealogy that he hates slave morality.

But, Ive heard elsewhere that Nietzsche doesnt prefer either morality, that societies are made up out of a balance between these two moralities even in modern times. This is believe is an idea from beyond good and evil.
The caveat is that Nietzsche dislikes an extreme of Master or a Slave morality.

I've only heard that Nietzsche dislikes Master morality, wasn't evident from my reading of the genealogy though.

Am I on the right page with this line of thinking?

[Assistant] Nietzsche does not prefer master morality---for reasons that come out in the third essay of *GM*, among a number of other places. The central thrust, though, is that the blonde beast (or whatever other metaphor you wish) is not a particularly complex, and thus not particularly interesting, animal. The followers of master morality, as Nietzsche characterizes them, are not particularly introspective or self-aware; they don't consider what it is that their values aim towards. The ability to self-awareness is a contribution of slave morality, and what Nietzsche hopes for is something that combines the life-affirming elements of master morality with the self-awareness made possible by slave morality. Exactly what this philosophy looks like is up for dispute (intentionally so!)---this is the task of the philosophers of the future.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do cities/settlements get entirely buried to the point of large excavations being required to discover them?

We often hear about archaeologists finding some pottery or tool or weapon, and then starting a big dig and uncovering an entire city.

With exception to cities like Pompeii which were entirely covered by a volcano erupting, how are these cities disappearing beneath the ground? Is it literally a thousand years of wind-blown dust settling?

[Assistant]
For a long long time the houses were made out of wood. After the houses got abandoned the first thing what happened is that the wood started to deteriorate and the building collapsed. After ten autumns with leaves falling over it and starting to compost you have very little useful wood left. That leaves you only with the hard-pressed sand floor or the stones in the floor which has to be covered.

Leaves fall on the former flood and start to decompose and create compost making it possible for plants to grow. More leaves, more compost, more plants. And after a couple of decades the house is gone, back into the forest.


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

[User]
[Culture] What if we were contacted by the Culture?

If Earth was contacted by the Culture tomorrow, what would happen?

[Assistant]
The Minds would devise the unveiling to have minimal disruption, either by injecting messages onto the internet for a decade or so to encourage ppl to be open to it, or by ensuring Earth sattelites detected patterns in the galaxy that were likely to be intelligently generated.

As a side note, in one of the short stories the Culture actually visited Earth.


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

[User] Can we tell that dinosaurs were cold blooded based of bones and fossils or is that just the popular theory?

[Assistant] One of the things scientists look at is rate of growth which they can see from patterns in the bone. Cold blooded animals have limited growth rates - essentially their metabolism isn't fast enough to sustain high growth rates. From patterns in dinosaur bones, it suggests many dinosaurs were warm blooded. However some exceptions to this rule in animals today are also cited. Tuna fish and sea turtles for example are technically "cold blooded" but have some capability of regulating and generating body heat. So, there is given some leeway to suggest dinosaurs might have also fallen in this inbetween category of being half and half between cold blooded and fully body temperature regulating warm blooded.


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

[User]
ELI5: How come when we close both of our eyes, our eyes can still perceive darkness, but when we only have 1 eye open, we can no longer "see" the darkness out of our closed eye?

Why are we able to "see" the lack of light behind our eyelids when both eyes are shut, but how come when only 1 eye is open, it feels like our closed eye just no longer exists?

[Assistant] What you "see" is not just the raw data coming in from your retinas. Your brain constructs your vision by adding a lot of neural processing to these images. Deleting the effect of a single closed eye is part of this processing.


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

[User] When describing black holes in galaxies people generally say almost all galaxies have black holes at their centers why almost? Are there galaxies without supermassive black holes in their centers, if so how do they form?

[Assistant]
Supermassive black holes aren't critical for the formation of galaxies - they're just a small part of them.

Galaxies start to form when dark matter collapses into a "halo" - a big ball. The gravity of this concentration of dark matter causes gas to follow along and collapse into the centre of this halo. The gas then cools, fragments, and collapses into stars, forming a galaxy. This is a continual process, as more gas and dark matter falls in from intergalactic space, and as galaxies merge, combining their gas, stars, and dark matter. The gas is also not used up immediately - the stars heat the gas up, providing pressure to stop the gas from collapsing immediately into more stars. So you get a feedback effect - more gas means more stars get formed, but more stars means that you slow down the formation of new stars, and you get a slow burn of star formation.

The greatest concentration of gas and stars in a galaxy is typically in the centre. The combined gravity of the gas, stars, and dark matter mean that the centre is essentially "downhill" - matter naturally tends to drift that way. Somehow, the central concentration of gas & stars forms a supermassive black hole.

It's not entirely known exactly which way the central concentration of *stuff* turns into a black hole. It may be that you have a bunch of massive stars in a central star cluster that turn into a number of black holes that merge into a massive black hole. It might be that the big pile of gas just directly collapses and forms one huge black hole. Or something else along those lines. It's still difficult to test which one of these is the correct scenario. We have the ingredients - a concentration of stuff in the middle - but it's not clear which out of the many possible ways this could collapse into a black hole is correct. It may be that several of them work in different environments. But once you have a "seed" black hole of enough mass, we understand how it can continue to pick up mass and grow to be supermassive.

So it's not the case that you have a supermassive black hole and a galaxy forms around it. It's the opposite - a galaxy forms a concentration of gas and stars in its centre, and this may or may not form a supermassive black hole, somehow. In particular, very small galaxies - dwarf galaxies - tend to be quite irregular, and don't always have well defined high density cores. They don't seem to have supermassive black holes in their centres, as far as we can tell, and we might not expect them to form them (although this is debated).

Additionally, the supermassive black holes usually only make up a tiny fraction of the galaxy's mass. For the Milky Way, the supermassive black hole (Sag A\*) has a mass of about 4 million times the mass of our Sun. However, there are over a hundred *billion* stars in our galaxy. And if you count the dark matter, the mass of our galaxy is about a *trillion* times the mass of the Sun. If you removed the supermassive black hole from the galaxy, it would have almost no measurable effect on our orbit.

The dramatic thing about supermassive black holes is not their mass, but their *energy output*. In some galaxies, the SMBH is actively accreting gas from the surrounding regions, and has an incredibly bright accretion disk around it. This gives off so much radiation that it heats quite a major fraction of the galaxy's gas, and the intense magnetic fields of the accretion disk can even fire jets thousands of light years away.

So, to summarise:

- galaxies form from the collapse of dark matter (and gas)

- SMBHs then form in the centre (massive) galaxies, somehow

- but SMBHs are a tiny fraction of a galaxy's mass, and aren't important for the orbits of most stars (although they can have other dramatic effects)


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

[User] ELI5: How do Netflix servers output the same video files to a huge number of people without any delay?

[Assistant] There is a technology called CDN (content delivery network). The videos will be stored in each of network providers in your country and delivered through you. That's why the video won't lag while you watch them.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do I have to take the lids off plastic bottles before putting them in the recycling? They lids are made of plastic too, right?

[Assistant] The lids are to be recycled as well. They don't want bottles capped because it makes them more difficult to compact. Also, stronger plastic bottles can present a significant explosion hazard under compression.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do the vast majority of political cartoonists all use extremely similar (almost identical) drawing styles?

[Assistant] A lot of them are emulating Thomas Nast who is history's most influential political cartoonist. Nast was the first person to depict Republicans as Elephants and Democrats as Donkeys. His influence is akin to Jack Kirby's kinetic comic book drawing style that revolutionized super hero comics.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] If the Sith die out (like they did), and some future Dark Jedi/Force-sensitives discover Sith holocrons and train themselves from the ground up, do they get to call themselves Sith?

Or is it like the Boy Scouts: you can be the best at tying knots and carving wood, but if there's no one to hand you a badge, then you're not technically a Scout?

[Assistant]
That's in keeping with the fundamental teachings of the Sith.

Nobody gave Bane the Darth title - he *took* it because he could. You're a Sith if you say you're a Sith and can back that up with real power.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is tickling usually uncomfortable, and why does it cause you to go into a laughing-seizure?

[Assistant]
We used to be monkeys, (well we didn't but you're 5 so it doesn't matter)

As monkeys we needed to learn to fight (in order to get food, find partners, and generally survive). But if all the monkeys started hitting each other and fighting, they would all get hurt and have less chance of survive.

So instead of actually fighting, we practised fighting, by tickling each other. The areas most sensitive to tickling, are also our most vulnerable areas.

Over time we evolved to be ticklish, and with this new sensitivity we were able to play-fight with friends and family. These lessons would be useful in survival. Then we evolved to become humans, but we still have the ticklish response in our bodies.


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

[User]
[Dungeons & Dragons] What would a marriage between a human and a nymph be like?

Since half-nymphs are a thing, I would assume that a human and a nymph relationship isn't completely out of the question (although I know that a baby doesn't necessarily mean a relationship or a marriage).

If a human and a nymph fell in love with each other and got married, what would that relationship be like?

[Assistant]
Dunno about 5E, but in previous editions, Nymphs blind you when you look at them for too long.

So, a blind guy and a super hot fey creature shack up. He does the housework, mostly by touch, and she goes out to gather berries and nuts and wild vegetables to keep them fed.

They sit by the hearth, talking about weird mundane stuff from the human world, like how bootlaces are made and how the violin was invented, and they talk about the weird magical stuff from the fey world, like how shapeshifting into a tree makes your mouth taste super woody, or how most pixies have a secret fetish for satyrs but rarely meet one open-minded enough to try to make it work.

occasionally they have a squabble, as couples do, when he tries to argue that humans need to chop down trees in order to build houses, or she wants to let her badger friend sleep under their bed for six weeks while he gets his life together. So she goes out to cool down and clear her head, maybe chat about it with her Nereid friends. But at sundown she comes home and they have super sweet makeup sex.

Not too bad. If you're going to be blind, might as well be blind and married to a super hot faerie.


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

[User]
CMV: Children should not be forced to complete "family" projects about themselves in school. It's disrespectful to children without traditional families

I believe projects like these are incredibly unfair and awkward for children who do not come from traditional households.

It can be very uncomfortable for a child to have to explain how they don't have a father or a mother, or have to explain their aunt functions as their mother because mommy is in jail...or even worse having to explain that their parents died and they move around between family members or foster homes.

I believe that this not only helps re-hash past trauma they would rather not discuss, but also opens the child to be a victim of bullying.

On top of that, it can create a very awkward situation for the teachers. I even had a teacher friend who admitted to be that she felt uncomfortable doing this once the children started presenting.

I'd really like to see some reasons as to why these family projects are beneficial to children with non-traditional families or broken homes.

[Assistant] Inversely, this can been seen a teaching moment for those kids with 'traditional' families. A teacher could use the diversity of families to show that everyone goes home to a different life. Teaching them to think a little bit more about other people's situations. Learning empathy and compassion for those who may not have what you do.


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

[User]
What would happen to a body, tied to an anchor, dropped over the Mariana Trench?

With all this talk of James Cameron visiting the bottom of the Mariana Trench, I got to thinking, what happens to sailors, who drown, and end up sinking to the bottom of the ocean?

First, do their bodies actually sink? Or do they just float on the surface?

Second, if they do sink (let's tie them to a small anchor, just in case), do they just keep going until they hit the ocean floor? Or is it that the water eventually becomes so dense that at some point they stop and become suspended?

[Assistant] The density of water actually would hardly change at all no matter how deep you go since water is nearly incompressible.  With a weight the body would sink right to the bottom, but it would not be crushed in any visible way since there aren't many air pockets in a body.  It will just rest on the bottom, decomposing incredibly slowly, as things do at the depth.  Primarily it would be eaten by scavengers.


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

[User] ELI5: When we have a fever, our body heats up, but why exactly do we feel cold? Especially if it's a high fever like 103-104 range?

[Assistant]
People are really bad at judging actual temperatures.

When you feel hot or cold, what you're actually feeling is the transfer of heat from or too you.

When you feel cold, you're losing heat. When you feel hot, you're gaining it.

So when you have a fever you lose heat to your surroundings, so you feel cold.

Side note: some things transfer heat better than others. Which is why metal feels colder than, for example, a woolly jumper. Even if they're the same temperature.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does heat make us sleepy when we are tired? We naturally cool down when it's bed time and we sleep better when our bodies are cool.

[Assistant]
Doing things requires energy and making energy generates heat.

The body tries to go into a lower energy state (sleep) so it doesn't produce as much heat when it's hot. This reduces the risk of overheating. Some cultures have a siesta where they nap during the hottest part of the day.

When sleeping at night you typically cover yourself with more things than you do during the day (assuming the same temp) because your body produces less heat.


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

[User]
CMV: Wealth Inequality is a Natural Component of the World/Economy

I view wealth inequality as a negative, yet natural component of the world/economy. What this means is that although I do not think wealth and/or income inequality are wonderful, I do believe it is the natural order and therefore can not be changed or "fixed." Don't we see this same order play out in the wild? The biggest, strongest lions eat first and eat the most. I never said this was fair or just. But it is just the way it is. For humans, it may not be about who is biggest or strongest that gains the advantage. Even with animals, sometimes a clever sparrow can defeat an aggressive crow.  The world can be viewed as a giant web or matrix of competition. And to the victors go the spoils. Change my view.

Edit: My argument is that income inequality is "natural" not that it is good or just. So in this sense, it is analogous to illness, aging, ugliness, etc. We should do everything in our power to curb it, but with the understanding it'll never go away completely.

Edit 2: I need to clarify this sentence because I did a poor job writing it. "What this means is that although I do not think wealth and/or income inequality are wonderful, I do believe it is the natural order and therefore can not be changed or "fixed." - the natural order I refer to is the components of human nature that lead to income inequality. That is an important clarification to make. You can obviously do things to modify income inequality. What you can not change or fix is the human nature that leads to income inequality. I realize I did a poor job writing this. I am sorry. I think a better sentence would be: Wealth and/or income inequality can not be forever fixed or permanently changed because of the forces of human nature.

Edit 3: I am talking about world wealth inequality. Too many privileged Americans/westerners  here cant seem to grasp that the worldwide level of wealth inequality far dwarfs the disparities seen in the states.

Edit 4: animals do have wealth. Wealth in nature, just as our ancestors before property or money: things like territory, access to fresh water, hunting rights, breeding rights, shelters (a cave for example), etc are all forms of wealth.

[Assistant]
Okay, let's take the base assertion as a given: that wealth inequality is inevitable.

Do you think that the *amount* of wealth inequality is worth paying attention to? If one person controlled 99.999% of the world's wealth, and literally everyone else was struggling to get by, do you think it that would be a problem worth trying to solve?

And a follow-up to that, do you think that the *current level* of wealth inequality in the world (or even just thinking about the US to keep it simple) is inevitable?


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

[User] ELI5: Why scrolling down is much better that scrolling up or to the sides? Why almost all social networks work in the same way?

[Assistant]
Because in most of the world you read text from left to right and top to bottom. Additionally it's more natural to wrap text down to another line rather than forcing someone to scroll all the way to the right and then back to the left to find the start of the next line.

Some websites have found some success using a scroll from left to right as long as the individual posts don't allow their text lines to go beyond the length of a single screen and you only scroll right to get to the next post or next page of the same post.  This kind of creates the illusion of pages of a book.

But in general the top to bottom scrolling is better because its "pageless".


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

[User] [Warhammer Fantasy] Why in the world would I, an elector count, support Karl Franz over Boris Todbringer? Boris has fought Beastmen for decades, lost an eye but never stopped his tenacious purge of all things unclean from our empire. What's Franz ever done for me or any of the common folk?

[Assistant]
There are a few reasons.

One is that good old Boris is already plenty powerful in his own right, and acts as a great foil to Karl. With the two of them busy fussing with each other you'll have a lot more leeway to do as you please, but with Boris emperor he will be powerful enough to really crack down on the other elector counts. Remember, you're an elector count, the greater good of the empire is nothing next to your personal power and glory.

He also doesn't worship Sigmar. Now maybe you're only a step away from being a dirty heretic yourself, but any good Sigmarite should be agaisnt a follower of Ulric sitting on the throne of the great Empire of **Sigmar**.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do water pipes that bring water to your home never need cleaning?

Basically the fresh water which comes int your home for drinking or bathing. Those pipes can be decades old and still used to bring potable water into homes. That means all the pipes which start at the original water source travel all the way to your home and still is safe to drink.

I assumed that if their were chemical in the water to clean the pipes it wouldnt be safe to drink. So how does that work?  It seems like its an incredible thing many take for granted.

[Assistant]
The water pipes in your house are always under pressure, meaning that from before you turn your faucet on and during your use of water, the pipe is under the constant pressure of your system (usually 40-70 psi here in US) no dirt or debris gets in them since they are under pressure. And like you said the water coming into them is already potable so no need to clean it.

What should be cleaned and maintained is your hot water tanks and appliances... hard water (lime and calcium scale) can build up in tanks especially and cause big problems in your plumbing system. It is recommended to flush out your hot water tanks at least once a year to clear it of any debris or sediment.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is it "easier" for a water droplet to hang on to a horizontal surface vs a vertical surface?

I noticed this happens when I open the lid of boxes that were in the fridge and accumulated water on their lids.
When I open the lid all of the droplets stay in place but as soon as I flip it vertically they all slide down and drop.

The weight of the droplet is the same, so is gravity, why are the droplets sliding down on the lid rather than staying in place like they were when it was horizontal?

[Assistant]
The water clings to the lid by *adhesion*: the attraction of the water molecules to the molecules in the lid material. Dripping down requires breaking those bonds, which requires energy.

When the water just slides along, though, it's breaking and forming bonds at basically the same rate, so there's no net loss or gain of energy.


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

[User]
CMV: "Shoey" is disgusting and idiotic

I'm kinda late to the party, it's been a month or two, but anyways... Country performer Kacey Musgraves was doing her first-ever Australian tour and during the gig in Sydney a girl from the crowd rose up her shoe and asked her to do a "shoey", which the rest of the crowd wholeheartedly supported.

Apparently, a "shoey" became a thing during the last decade in Australia, a custom where the host invites the guest to drink alcohol out of his shoe, as a sign of friendship or good fortune.

Kacey seemed surprised by the proposal, tried to laugh it off, but they kept nagging her so she said: "Thats disgusting, Im not fucking drinking out of your shoe.

Anyway, a couple of days later and huge media coverage of the "incident" and some people accusing her of "not respecting the custom", almost bullying her, she kind of did it on her last gig, but actually brought her own glass shoe (a cup in the shape of a shoe - SMART!) and drank from it.

I've been googling about this and I've seen many photos of people literally drinking from their Nike sneakers and it almost made me throw up. I've been to the metal concerts, I know some people don't mind drinking so much that they shit themselves in their pants and walk around in vomit-stained clothes, but, like, there's got to be a limit, there's got to be something that a dignified person doesn't do.

Am I crazy here? Is this some beautiful tradition I'm ignorant of?

\----------------------

**EDIT**: *Since we are running in circles here as there is no real counter-argument in the comments (even those who challenge my view don't question the premise but the way it's phrased) and some people even accuse me of "refusing" to accept that I'm wrong because, well, "it IS disgusting and it IS idiotic, but people do even weirder stuff, haha", I will not be answering any further. If the mods deem the topic interesting and wish to let people debate in the comments, I'll have no objections, I enjoy reading those. Otherwise, just take it off.*

[Assistant]
To answer your last question, yes it is a tradition that you were not aware of. However, being sort of silly and gross is sort of a defining characteristic of the tradition.

The people doing shoeys arent doing it because its cleaner or smarter than using a mug.

Think of it like frat kids doing keg stands/beer bongs. Ive seen so many people immediately throw up after those and ive seen beer bongs that have god knows what in them. Just sort of a novelty, young and reckless party trick of sorts.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do sites crash when they get an influx of visitors and what does it take to get the site up and running again?

[Assistant]
A web site is a bit like a shop. 2, maybe 3 people can go through a shop's door at the same time. This is more than enough for most of the time. For some reason, if a crowd of 100 people runs to a shop's door, no one gets in.

The shop owner might chose to lock up till the crowd goes away. He might replace the door with a wider one or he might open a few extra doors to help with the situation if he expects more crowds.


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

[User]
[Fallout] So, what's Texas like? Did the Pantext facility mean the northern portion is a giant smoking crater?

M'family is descended from Texans, or at least that's what they say. Was wonderin' what our earstwhile homeland is like, currently we live in the god-thankfully ignored Kansas plains.  [Wondering if there is any solid lore about Texas as any game referencing it directly was either retconned or not released]

[Assistant]
There's reasons your family moved to Kansas.

I'd keep away from North Texas as there's cyclones most of the year and some of them are radioactive, there's also rumours of a mutant army searching for the FEV near Los and after Caesar was defeated at Hoover Dam he headed towards Texas.


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

[User]
eli5: Why are there no large Native empires in North America the way the Mayan and Aztec were in Central/South America?

From North America - traveled to Central and South America and saw these big beautiful ruins of the past. A bit of research shows that these vast empires existed but were (wiped out by colonizers?) so why are there no big city ruins in North America? \[For example, Xunantunich\]

[Assistant]
South and Central American cultures were essentially based on agriculture and domesticated animals. In other words, they were very stationary cultures that could produce a lot of food relatively reliably.

North American cultures were much more reliant on migratory animals like caribou, buffalo, and seasonal fish like salmon. There were some large native American nations but relatively little permanent settlement.

In addition, South America is essentially a greenhouse producing an abundance of food with many rivers acting as highways for transporting food and other goods. By comparison, much of the North American heartland consists of enormous expanses of desert and field. It's difficult to transport large amounts of goods across these lands, which is why many North American cultures focus on staying mobile.

North America did have some agrarian cultures surrounding the wetter areas but it still lacked good ways of transporting the bounty those people might grow.

So in short, South/Central America encouraged permanent stationary development of their civilizations while North America encouraged migratory cultures that didn't invest heavily in trying to grow large stationary populations.


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

[User]
Can prions from contaminated meat remain on cutlery, dishes, pans etc, after contact with them?

I read that iatrogenic cjd can be transmitted through contaminated surgical instruments after contact with contaminated tissue, so can variant cjd be transmitted in this way, but through the kitchen utensils that were used to cook this meat?  For example, if contaminated meat is cooked in a frying pan, and later normal meat (or any other food) is cooked in the same frying pan, will this normal meat get infected through the frying pan? Will prions from the contaminated meat remain on it?

[Assistant]
The short answer to the question in your title is yes. Prions are remarkably stable across a range of environmental conditions, even cooking.

Your question goes off a bit into the weeds, though - those prions will not "infect" meat you cook on a skillet previously used to cook meat from an infected cow.  Contaminate, probably, in the same way that salmonella bacteria can contaminate vegetables on a counter when you didn't clean it well enough.

To go beyond your question, though, BSE prions are those you would find in beef from an infected cow. vCJD prions are those you'd find in a person infected with BSE prions from an infected cow. You wouldn't find vCJD prions on your skillet unless you were eating people.

Beyond that, the risk of getting vCJD is incredibly small. 250 people or so were infected over the course of the BSE epidemic in Europe, less than half a dozen showing up in the past decade. The risk of cross-contaminating beef on a skillet and developing vCJD via that contamination would be like finding a grain of sand you dropped on a beach ten years ago.


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

[User]
[Warhammer 40,000] How bad are the Underhives?

Hello. My family lives in the Spires of this Hive City. My sister, tender-hearted and sensitive girl that she is, has gotten it into her silly little head that she and a few of her friends should head down into the Underhive- by themselves, with no protection! -to perform charity work for the people down there.

I've tried to talk her out of it, but she is adamant on going.

I'm sure that you people know just how awful it is down there.

Please describe exactly what the Underhive is like, would you?

Maybe hearing it from someone like you, someone who has been there, would knock some sense into her.

[Assistant]
The Underhive is, in the most literal sense, hell. There is no electricity. There is no authority but who has the biggest gun. Life in the Underhive is a brutal, constant struggle for survival between mutant scum, gangs, and deep, nameless things that are born in darkness and live to devour. Average life expectancy of an unarmed newcomer in the Underhive is measured in minutes. A Spire dweller might not even make it that long.

Take it from one who knows, nothing good or wholesome dwells in the Underhive. It is a cesspool beyond redemption where the dregs of humanity and worse take root, and a good day is one where you retain a reasonable amount of blood. The only reason your sister would ever have to go there is as a member of the Adeptas Sororitas, to purge the darkness and filth with the cleansing flames of the Emperor's blessed pyrotheum.

She wants to do charity work, send her to the Lower Hive, where the generators are and the lights are on. There is hope for them.