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

[User]
How genetically related are you to your ancestors a thousand years ago?

Edit for the title: *from* a thousand years ago

By that I mean if we found a genetic sample of one of my ancestors from a thousand years ago and compared it to mine using modern methods, could you be able to tell we are directly related, as in he is my grand grand grand -... father?

Also this may be a dumb question buy could I be more related to some ancestors than others, as in could some genes could drown out others?

[Assistant] If youre a guy and the ancestor was a guy and you were his descendant solely through the male line, your Y chromosomes would still be very similar. If the ancestor were a woman and you were descended from her solely through the female line, your mitochondrial DNA would still be very similar. All the other DNA gets spliced and diced every generation, so you couldnt tell for sure that someone from 1,000 years ago was definitely your direct ancestor. Y chromosomes and mitochondrial DNA are passed from generation to generation intact, however, and only change when a random, non-fatal mutation occurs, so they can be used to establish descent over very long periods of time.


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

[User]
ELI5: How did people originally plan out origami designs?

Maybe this is a question for a different sub but I'm not sure where else to ask it.

Historically, how did people know what folds would result in a crane or a koi or whatnot? I guess another way to phrase this question is: Is it mathematically calculated, step by step, to obtain the final design, or is it more trial and error?

[Assistant] By folding the paper in half diagonally and horizontally, and then further bisecting the resulting angles, you arrive at a handful of standard forms ("bases") with a certain number of flaps (which can be formed into the wings or limbs of whatever animal you're trying to represent). The crane base has four long flaps (from the four corners of the paper) and one short one (from the center of the square), and those form the head, tail, wings, and back of the traditional crane. A folder who knows this base might decide to use it to make some other kind of bird, or a dragon, fish, etc. Other traditional bases have other numbers and arrangements of flaps that suggest other animals.


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

[User] Is there a limit to the number of planets that can plausibly form around star systems of two or more stars?

[Assistant]
It depends on how closely the stars orbit each other.

There are three types of possible orbits for planets in a binary star system:

1. Planet orbits around Star A

2. Planet orbits around Star B

3. Planet orbits around the gravitational centre of Stars A and B

In cases 1 and 2, the upper limit for how many planets can have a stable orbit around each individual star will depend a great deal on the closest distance between stars A and B as they orbit each other. If the minimum distance is several hundred AU, then functionally its nearly the same as if the stars werent orbiting each other at all. If the minimum distance is within a few AU or less, then neither star is likely to have planets in stable orbits around them and only them.

In case 3, it depends on the maximum distance between the stars. If the stars are close to each other and have a relatively tight orbit with low eccentricity, then stable planetary orbits will be able to exist closer to the dual-star system, which in the end means more planets will be able to form and orbit around the two stars. If instead the stars have a highly elliptical orbit around each other, they may not have any planets orbiting around the dual system at all.

As a nearby example, the Alpha Centauri system has three stars. A and B orbit around each other in an elliptical orbit. Their closest approach is distant enough for each star to have 3, maybe 4 planets each in stable orbits around each star, but no more than that. Any planets that orbit around the gravitational centre of the system would be many hundreds of AU distant and would have orbital periods of many thousands of years; these would all be uninhabitable frozen snowballs.

Proxima Centauri is extremely distant from the other two stars, so much so that their gravitational influence on it and its surroundings is negligible. So Proxima can have just as many planets around it as it could have if the other two stars werent even there.


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

[User]
CMV: A life sentence in prison is no different than the death penalty.

_____

So, I always hear people talking about how the death penalty is inhumane, and how it's disgusting and barbaric. But how is a life sentence any different? It's literally keeping someone in prison until they die. If anything, it's worse than the death penalty, because I don't have to pay for the continued existence of the corpse when I'm doing taxes every year. I also just inherently don't understand why people say the death penalty as it exists today is inhumane. I mean, if we were still hanging people, or drawing and quartering you'd have a case, but today we just inject them with some chemicals and then they're dead. Why is forcing someone to live an entire life behind bars with no possibility of freedom any better? I just don't get it.

I am one hundred percent open to being persuaded on this, but so far no one has given me a satisfactory answer.

[Assistant]
If you execute someone today and find out they were innocent tomorrow, you cannot un-kill them.

In contrast, someone sentenced to life and exonerated can be released and some restitution paid if there was explicit wrongdoing. It isn't ideal of course, but it can happen.

The death penalty is also far more expensive. The amount of appeals and arrangements required to execute someone, for good reason, are exorbitant. It is far cheaper to keep people locked up. Most of the things required: The prison, the guards, etc, are already needed regardless for people serving shorter sentences.

The final reason is that death is the most extreme end of the punishment allowed in the west. Even where allowed at all, it is usually reserved for the most extreme crimes. If you executed everyone who was sentenced to life to death, you have removed any incentive to not commit worse crimes to cover up others. A serial rapist might get life in prison through consecutive sentences. Turn that into a death sentence and he has no reason not to kill his victims and prevent them testifying against him.


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

[User] [Avengers] In Infinity War, Thor, Cap, and Tony all fight Thanos one-on-one at some point and, while they still lose, they hold their own even while he has at least one Infinity Stone. So why do they get their asses kicked against Past Thanos with no Stones fighting him all at once?

[Assistant] Thanos wasn't fighting seriously most of the time.  He really didn't want to kill them just get them out of his way.  Tony he admired and knew who he was, he was probably kinda hoping he wouldn't get snapped.  Thanos like Worf appreciated the unmitigated gaul of Cap standing up to him when so outmatched so just threw him out of the way.  Thor Thanos beat once already so he knows how dangerous he can be so he didn't fuck around and hit him with a blast from the IG and almost got killed from it.  Could be that his armor and helicopter sword made enough of a difference that he went from relatively even with Thor to above him.


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

[User] ELI5: What is the difference to my body if I eat 5000 calories one day and zero the next vs 2500 for two days?

[Assistant]
It has been suggested that the human metabolism has evolved two modes of operation, activated by calorie intake. The first is *grow mode* where plentiful nutrients are flung about the body and as suggested the body replenishes itself. The second is *repair mode.* Activated by a lack of calories, the body scavenges nutrients left behind from *grow mode,* such as from build-up on the walls of arteries. This may be a response to the failure of the hunt, when protein and calories are scarce but vitamins and minerals are still available from more plentiful vegetation.

Modern humans in developed countries may be at risk of remaining in grow mode throughout their lives and never entering repair/scavenge mode, and then die of blockages caused by years of nutrient build up.


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

[User] ELI5: why is wax clear when melted but opaque in a solid form?

[Assistant] Basically it's caused by crystallization in the wax. Most modern candles and crayons are made from paraffin wax which contain the CnH2n+2 hydrocarbon formula. When solid, these alkyl chains are rigid and align and crystallize. These crystallites scatter light which leads to higher opacity. When heated, the alkyl chains lose their fixed structures and the crystallites melt. the resulting amorphous liquid no longer scatters light.


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

[User]
ELI5: The intuition behind the fundamental theorem of algebra

In algebra, we learn that a polynomial of degree n must cross the x-axis n times. But not every polynomial seems to behave this way--some cross fewer times than their degrees. As a solution, we are told the function also crosses through complex roots on an imaginary axis to account for those missing roots.

So my question is: how did they come up with the fundamental theorem if they hadn't known about complex roots yet? If not every polynomial seemed to satisfy the theorem, it shouldn't have even been created in the first place. It would have just been assumed that some polynomials have fewer roots than their degrees.

The paradox is that the claims of the theorm served as the driving force to discover complex numbers, even though complex numbers are what created the intuition behind the theorem in the first place.

[Assistant] I think you're a little mixed up, it's not that a nth degree polynomial crosses the x axis n times, it's that the polynomial has n roots, some of which may or may not be imaginary. But then certian polynomials had roots that didn't seem to exist. For instance if you have x^2 = -1 as a root you can't really solve this because if you multiply a number by itself it should always be positive. So mathematicians started saying that the solution to this root is an imaginary number. For about 200 years this imaginary number had no real use except to factor these polynomials, that is until later mathematicians such as Cauchy came along and showed that there are ways to visualize imaginary numbers as complex numbers in a complex plane.


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

[User] [DC] If Superman wanted to become as rich as Batman, without breaking any laws, how could he go about it?

[Assistant]
Asteroid mining.

Edit: asteroid mining if he wants to be as rich as one hundred Bruces Wayne. If he wants to be merely a hectobillionaire, lifting payload to orbit as a gig, or constructing a space elevator as an establishment with a huge payroll.


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

[User]
what causes green / yellow color in the armpits of shirts?

I have had this problem with my shirts for as long as i can remember. It is not visible on my colored shirts but is very noticeable on my white shirts. I have been told that it is the type of deoderant that is used but im not too sure on that because i have used a couple different ones and the same thing still happens. It does not wash out of my shirts for some reason either. The shirts would be washed and you would not be able to see the yellow color in the armpit but if wet with water in that area you could see it. What causes this? How could i remove it? prevent it?

[Assistant] It's the reaction of your aluminum based antiperspirant with laundry detergent. You can minimize it by letting your antiperspirant dry before putting on your shirt or by using a deodorant without an aluminum based antiperspirant.


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

[User]
is there a maximum density?

is there a point where even atoms cannot be compressed any more?

[Assistant]
The Schwarzschild radius of a body of mass is the radius of the sphere into which you would have to compress the mass in order to create a black hole. However, the limiting density as such a mass is compressed depends on how much matter you start with. The more mass you have, the less dense you have to be to turn into a black hole.

On the other hand, suppose you have a uniform distribution of matter in the universe. Then, because gravity cancels out everywhere, you don't turn into a black hole. The universe gets denser and more uniform the further back in time you look and the density is unbounded as you get really close to the big bang. We don't know about the physics that close to the big bang, so it is not possible to say whether there is a maximum density.

To answer your question about atoms: If you squeeze atoms very hard, they turn into aggregates of neutrons. This is what a neutron star is. If you squeeze even harder, there may exist hypothetical forms of exotic matter where the constituents of neutrons, quarks, are compressed into even further degenerate forms. Each time you compress to a new phase of matter, a new force keeps things from collapsing in on itself, until you get a black hole and it doesn't even matter anymore.


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

[User]
CMV: the idea that any species advanced enough to master interstellar travel wouldnt be interested in earth is nonsense

I have no idea why anyone would give this idea credence. Some human beings keep ant farms, some of us study basic microbes, keep useless goldfish, etc.

You seriously expect me to believe an advanced species of aliens would discover earth, a planet teeming with life, and just move on? Doubt.

Theres no upside to ignoring a newly discovered planet with sentient life. If this society has mastered interstellar flight, theyd be a very scientific species - a driving emotion of science is curiosity. Theyd be curious about us.

[Assistant]
>I have no idea why anyone would give this idea credence. Some human beings keep ant farms, some of us study basic microbes, keep useless goldfish, etc.

And what's just as popular, if not more so is people who enjoy observing wildlife in its natural habitat from afar so as to not interfere with it. What if Earth is just in a wildlife preserve?

>You seriously expect me to believe an advanced species of aliens would discover earth, a planet teeming with life, and just move on? Doubt.

Again there is the preserve angle, but also the undiscovered angle. We haven't found every organism on Earth and we've been here for quite a while. We may just be under an unturned rock.

>Theyd be curious about us.

Only if we're in any way rare. Scientists don't spaff their pants when they find a fox den that's 99% identical to the other thousands of fox dens they've found. What if we're fox den no. 152,677,983,603. And if they are crazy curious, fuck man, they've managed interstellar travel. They could take samples and scans unknown and unseen and make themselves an Earth to interact with while the original remains undisturbed under the article 432 of the galactic code entitled "Non interreference with original worlds."


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

[User]
ELI5: Why car's steering straighten itself after we let go?

When we are doing a u-turn, we don't really need to turn the steering back straight, because it will straighten itself automatically.

Why?

[Assistant] It works all the time, even keeping the car stable on long since right aways.  It's call caster. The tire touches the ground behind the steering pivot point. The tire is pulled straight anytime there is forward movement.


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

[User]
[Mystery Science Theater 3000] Why do Joel/Mike/Jonah have to watch the movie?

Is there anything forcing them to go into the theater?

[Assistant]
I found this on an faq at mst3kinfo.com

Q: Why did Joel/Mike watch these bombs? What would have happened if he had refused to enter the theater?
A: In episode 208- Lost Continent Joel refuses to enter the theater, and is zapped by remote control by the Mads. So it appears that he has to watch them, or get a shock to the shammies. In episode 819- Invasion of the Neptune Men Mike is so repelled by the movie that he leaves the theater, only to be forced to return when he discovers that Pearl has turned off the oxygen supply to the rest of the ship (a trick that Dr. Forrester similarly used in MST3K: The Movie). So it appears that they had to watch them, or suffer the consequences. Besides, if they didn't, it wouldn't be much of a show, right?


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

[User]
How can 30-40 GPS satellites cover all of the world's GPS needs?

So, I've always wondered how GPS satellites work (albeit I know the basics, I suppose) and yet I still cannot find an answer on google regarding my question. How can they cover so many signals, so many GPS-related needs with so few satellites? Do they not have a limit?

I mean, Elon is sending way more up just for satellite internet, if I am correct. Can someone please explain this to me?

Disclaimer: First ever post here, one of the first posts/threads I've ever made. Sorry if something isn't correct. Also wasn't sure about the flair, although I hope Engineering covers it. Didn't think Astronomy would fit, but idk. It's "multiple fields" of science.

And ~ thank you!

[Assistant]
The satellites don't have 2-way communication with devices, all the satellites do is broadcast a signal announcing where the satellite is and what time it is there.  Our devices just listen to these broadcasts and do the math themselves to figure out where they are based on the time it takes for the signal to arrive from each satellite.

The satellites have no idea who's listening and aren't affected at all by it.


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

[User] Eli5: Why is it so difficult to form words when were crying?

[Assistant]
Speaking is voluntary, meaning you do it on purpose, like walking or clapping.

Crying is involuntary, like a sneeze, or squinting when the sun is bright.

When youre crying, the same tools you use for speaking (breathing, voice) are already being used by involuntary crying. And trying to use them for speaking is hard because you cant easily shut off involuntary processes.

So speaking while crying is like trying to keep your eyes open while looking at the sun, or sneezingthe involuntary processes are stopping you from using the voluntary ones.


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

[User]
Does Mass directly generate Gravity? Or is Gravity simply correlated with mass?

I'm working on understanding the concepts of Relativity and how Gravity works. I've googled a little but the results I get are usually above my head. I don't need the math or formula's as much as an understanding of the concepts at this point.

So... Do we know that Gravity is created by things with mass or is Gravity an observed correlation of Mass?

[Assistant]
Einstein's field equations can be explained in a single line:

    Where is curvature = Where is massenergy

On one side, you have curvature, this is what a straight line means in our universe. For example, straight lines on a basketball surface are curves. As an *approximate* example, mirages happen because light refracts through different density air, so you see patches of sky just above hot asphalt on the highway, the light has  followed a curved path. Now take those ideas and melt them together to be curvature of spacetime. The other side is stuff. It doesn't matter what stuff, it could be mass, heat, light. Just anything with massenergy content.

Now where is gravity in this picture? Gravity *is* the curvature.

>So... Do we know that Gravity is created by things with mass or is Gravity an observed correlation of Mass?

Much like electromagnetism, GR has self propagating vacuum solutions. This is the prediction that gravity waves can travel without any connection to stuff. While technically these waves have energy and therefore *self gravitate themselves*, they do not need to be "attached" to traditional matter in the universe, much like how once emitted, light has little to do with flashlights anymore.


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

[User]
How do you handle unsupportive parents?

Hello! I'm a microbiologist who's about to begin my PhD next fall (yay!). I've had a very successful undergraduate career, including working on science outreach. My parents always act/say that they are ~so proud of me~ but their actions state otherwise. I've had several science-derived arguments with my parents whom are not scientists and don't know even basic biology.

Flash forward to the present; I'm putting on a virtual course as a part of my certificate/fellowship that discusses pandemics. My parents both signed up for the course and have helped advertise the class. My aunt recently warned me that my dad said he was studying up so that he could 'call me out' if he didn't agree with anything I said in the course. In the entrance poll, he wrote he was hoping to learn proof that masks don't work. So, obviously his participation in this course is for the purpose of digging at me.

I've resolved to the fact that though my parents want to act supportive and I've felt like I've made breakthroughs with them, at the end of the day they don't really care how they make me feel. Nor do they truly believe in or support science, my work, or me.

I don't want to spend the emotional labor to truly cut off my parents, but it's exhausting constantly getting picked on by them. Has anyone else dealt with a similar situation? I feel so alone because all of my academic friends' parents are either academics themselves or are so so supportive.

[Assistant] I find it very weird that your parents would sign up for your course. It's a recipe for disaster to mix a teaching relationship with a family relationship even if the latter is good, so in your case...


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

[User] ELI5: why is blood pressure an important health metric? And how does sodium affect it?

[Assistant]
High blood pressure can often indicate blockages in blood vessels, or hardened vessels, and this makes the heart work harder than it needs to. More work means the heart wears out faster.

Sodium affects blood pressure because it pulls water from the body into the blood. More water means more blood volume, and that's higher blood pressure.


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

[User] ELI5: When we clear our throats, what is actually happening inside of them other than us making noise?

[Assistant] Something has gotten into your throat from somewhere. No matter how small, it is causing enough irritation that your brain makes you vibrate your voicebox to try to dislodge it and either cough it up or swallow it.


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

[User]
ELI5: What happens to the debt if debtor leaves the country?

Here is a situation:

A foreign citizen temporary moves to the US for studying, job contract, etc.
In a couple years he has a debt, say $50-100k (credit cards, medical bills, student loan...).
Then, he moves to another country and never bothers to pay off the debt or declare bankrupcy.

Are the creditors able to collect his debt somehow or sue him abroad?
Are there any related international treaties?

Will he ever be able to get a visa and visit the US again?

Is the credit worthiness information shared between countries?
Can a foreign bank (i.e. Canadian) access a US credit report?

Is there any difference if the debtor is a US citizen?

What about other countries? I.e., if someone has a debt in, say, Germany and moves to another EU country?

[Assistant]
Essentially, they "get away" with it. But ask yourself this; unless you're already super established and have a tone of stuff lying around that proves that you can either pay back the loan or the bank will take your shit, you're not going to get a massive loan (like 10 million dollars or something) that will really be worth completely and totally skipping your established life in the country for. If you're just some random asshole, you're gonna get like 10,000 bucks, *max*, if you're in good standing so far. Is that really worth skipping a country for? Because if you ever go back there, prepare to pay.

**Summary Edit:** if you have a huge debt worth leaving a country forever for, then you probably have assets that the bank can seize. If you don't, then you're going to become a very, very poor man whenever you plan on returning to that country.


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

[User]
When one washes the dishes, is the soap foam a good 'practical' indicator about how dirty is the water?

When I wash the dishes at the start the sink is full of hot water with a bit of soap, and a lot of foam is generated while the sink is filling.

Then I wash the dishes starting from the less dirty to the most dirty, and until the end the water is more or less clear with a lot of foam. As soon as I start to wash the dirty dishes the foam diminishes a lot and the water gets darker.

I remember that soaps reacts mostly with fat, so I was thinking that the level of foam is a good indicator of how much 'not bound'/' not used' soap is remaining. Is that so?

Thanks for the answers, in the meanwhile I see if I can improve my results with search engines to refresh my little chemistry knowledge.

[Assistant]
It is a good indicator about how much soap is left to clean off your dishes.

Soaps don't truly react with anything, but they do surround fats and oils and "pull it off" the dirty surfaces.  So if the soap is being used to surround a glob of oil, it can't make foam (which is basically air surrounded by soap).

Now the interesting part is that different soaps generate different amounts of foam.  In terms of cleaning ability they may be very similar, but not similar in foaming ability.  So most dish detergent contains stuff that makes a lot of foam so it looks very effective.

On the other hand, car wash soap contains (or should contain) less foaming agent because who wants to spend the time and water removing all that foam.


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

[User] ELI5: Why my Laptop's Hardware runs hot when playing a mid quality flash movie in my browser but stays cool when I watch a DVD or a movie (e.g. avi) in VLC?

[Assistant]
Flash playback and DVD playback are handled in two different ways by two different processes. Most Flash animations are not "hardware accelerated," which means that the CPU/GPU is not designed to handle those operations more efficiently. Because of this, Flash usually uses a lot of CPU cycles to render video/animation. This is a shortcoming of both Flash and Flash developers. More CPU cycles = more heat.

Most DVDs are encoded in MPEG2 for video, which has a substantially lower overhead due to the MPEG2 design. Modern CPUs and GPUs support MPEG2 hardware acceleration, meaning that they are optimized to decode and display the contents of a DVD (and anything else in that format). Since the CPU doesn't have to work as hard, it stays cooler.


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

[User] ELI5: How does a boomerang work?

[Assistant]
You throw the boomerang vertically, and spinning quickly. The boomerang, overall, has lift like a wing, which pulls it sideways. But because it is spinning, the top of it is moving faster, so has more lift, than the bottom. You might think that this would pull the boomerang over on the top. But spinning things don't work like that.

When a force is applied to a spinning object, it does not turn in the direction of the force, but in the direction 1/4 turn 'later' than where the force is applied. So instead of tipping over, it turns about the vertical. So it rotates, turning about the vertical. The lift keeps pulling the boomerang sideways, which, as it is slowly rotating, pulls the boomerang in a circle.


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

[User]
[Half Life] "The Black Mesa Compound is maintained at a pleasant 68 degrees at all times". How?

Best I can tell BMRF is a pretty big facility (and I've literally only scratched the surface, hooray level 1 clearance!) so 68F can't be cheap. Granted, most topside structures are using their own HVAC systems, but I imagine their cost-effectiveness drops like a rock once you get into the larger subterranean spaces.

PS I'm totally not also working for Aperture Science. No sir.

[Assistant]
Actually, temperatures below ground are quite stable, and actually get warmer as you go deeper. HVAC would be very effective as the rock provides great insulation.

Also, power isn't something we have to worry about in black Mesa.  We have... lots.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why aren't there any animals as smart as Humans?

There are thought to be millions of species on earth,  yet nothing has gotten even close to mankind. We built superstructures and have complex languages and relationships.

You'd think that that more than 1 in millions of species in the history of earth would get close to seeming as intellectually advanced as humans. Why is this not the case? What makes us so special?

[Assistant] Because evolution isn't about a specific goal and humans aren't any more "advanced" than millions of other species.  We just found an unexploited niche (high-level communication which facilitated complex cooperation) that happened to be especially bountiful.  If, for some reason, it hadn't allowed us to survive and reproduce so prolifically then we would have been just another evolutionary dead end.


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

[User] ELI5: How does my body know if my vision is in focus or not? What tells my eyes to adjust?

[Assistant]
Your brain knows from experience what things should look like and what things look like when they're out of focus.  When you see something that your brain thinks looks out of focus, it controls muscles in your eye to change the shape of the lens on the front of your eye until they appear correctly.

This is why when you see a picture that is slightly out of focus, it makes your eyes feel funny -- because your brain keeps trying to focus on something that can't be focused on.

This is all done subconsciously like hearing, breathing, etc., so you don't have to think about it.  Vision is controlled by the Occipital Lobe and Visual Cortex parts of the brain.


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

[User] [ASOIAF] How do I survive Ramsay Bolton's hunt?

[Assistant] Ramsay doesn't like to lose, so he'll have Dreadfort men combing the countryside for you for the next month. And the small folk know better than to oppose him, so good luck trying to get any of them to take you in. Your only real option is to find a cave he doesn't know about and starve to death in it.


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

[User] ELI5: What does it mean for an engine to "break in" and why is it important?

[Assistant] Engines are manufactured to tight tolerances, but nothing is perfect.  Cylinder pistons never perfectly match their cylinder walls.  Bearings never perfectly match their races.  Operating at lower loads and varying speeds enables these parts to "work out their imperfections" without sustaining damage.  The bearing that's a little bigger on the left than the right wears the race unevenly until it's got the matching imperfections.  After this break-in period, all the systems should perform to their specifications across their entire operating envelop.


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

[User]
[God of War 3] Kratos has already killed 3 gods (Poseidon Hades and Ares) with his own hands and had an assistance in killing another (Helios) , what makes hercules so confident about killing Kratos?

Not to mention he also killed hermes and was damn close to killing Zeus had athena not intervened, so what makes Hercule so confident about having a chance against him?

[Assistant]
He had every reason to think they may be similar. Both have fought monsters of old, both are the sons of Zeus, both were obscenely powerful with gifts from the gods themselves.

Where as Kratos waged war for the gods Hercules was their champion. Two sides of the same coin.


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

[User]
What does the "Eject" button actually do (on a computer) contrary to not pressing it and taking your device out?

Ok, so you know whenever you want to unplug a flash drive or an iPod or whatever, if you just take it out without pressing the "Eject" button, does it actually harm your device? You always get that "It was not ejected properly this could harm your device blablabla." What actually happens when you don't, and just...yeah. (I have no idea on how to end this)

[Assistant]
Essentially, it notifies any programs and system functions that might be using the device that it's not going to be there in the near future.

With memory devices(like flash drives) this is important because of slow the memory device is compared to the computer's CPU and RAM. The computer would be horribly inefficient if the CPU had to wait for data to be written to the memory device before it could do anything else, so data that is transferred to the memory device will usually first be "cached" in a faster, internal memory(like RAM) and then silently copied to the slower flash memory when doing so wouldn't slow down anything else.

This normally works great(and is invisible to the programs using the device), with one exception:If data is cached but hasn't been written yet, and the device is physically disconnected, it can wind up with a bunch of filesystem errors and corrupted files because only half the data it needed made it into the memory.


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

[User]
Why/how is whistleblowing wrong or illegal? Why is the NSA whistleblower currently in China?

Maybe I'm looking at it the wrong way, I read the interview on the front page between the Guardian and the NSA whistleblower and it occurred to me that what he did is heavily discouraged in any field.

Besides the fact that he and every other whistleblower ever both exposed their employers' dirty little secrets, what did they do that's so "bad" within the eyes of the law?

To me, it seems like he's doing every citizen here a real solid by basically letting us know what Big Brother is up to, but now he has to camp out in China.

[Assistant] When you get access to classified data, you agree not to share it with anyone who doesn't have clearance. If you do, you are guilty of a federal crime. That's what Snowden did. He copied classified documents and gave them to the Guardian newspaper.


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

[User] [spiderman] why doesnt Spider-Man use his spider trackers as much as he should? They seem pretty useful.

[Assistant] Often the issue is that Peter Parker can't afford to make many of them, and he doesn't often get them back after using them, as they tend to be damaged in supervillain battles. So he often will be cautious about using them, because building a new spider tracker takes time and money that could go towards paying for rent, or taking care of his complicated personal life.


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

[User] How typical is it for a planet's poles to be its coldest regions? Are there planets that have one of their poles pointing towards the star that is extremely warm?

[Assistant]
Most planets rotate around an axis that is more or less perpendicular to the orbit around the Sun. The solar radiation reaches the poles under very slant angles and the cosine is very low, which means that the solar radiation that the poles receive (or the high latitudes) is a lot smaller than where the radiation incedes perfectly perpendicular. The Earth's axis of rotation is tilted ~23. This is the reason why the poles never get sunlight in the winter.

Uranus' axial tilt is 93. Flat. As is it were "rolling" on its orbit. However, one pole is not facing the sun all the time whereas the other points out. Each pole gets about 42 years of sunlight followed be 42 years of (very cold) darkness. It seems however that the equator is warmer than the pole facing the sun, but we don't understand why (yet).


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does your sleeping body ignore certain pains?

If you were being punched in the face or somebody tried to drown you whole you were sleeping your body would wake up.

On the flip side, your body ignores your limbs falling asleep or body parts parts feeling sore to the point ligaments could be tearing? Like I've woken up after sleeping and my wrist hurt for days after bad sleep but my brain was too dumb to wake my body and have me turn over.

[Assistant]
Generally speaking when you're asleep you tend to react to sudden changes, but not so much to gradual ones. If someone stuck you with a pin, you'd wake right up, but if someone spent an hour gradually pinched you harder and harder... maybe not.

It's the same with sounds... you can fall asleep (eventually) to a racket, but if that *changes*... even goes away suddenly... you might wake up. It makes sense if you think about it from an evolutionary perspective; you need sleep, especially if you're hurt. By the same token, if someone in yourself or your environment suddenly, radically changes, you need to be *awake* right away.


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

[User]
CMV: Ranked choice voting is the best system for elections in a representative democracy.

Ranked choice, otherwise known as single transferrable vote, or instant runoff is my ideal system for representative democracy for the following reasons.

First, it helps ease the burden of third, fourth, etc parties by keeping them competitive with the larger more established parties.

Second, it's more representative of how the electorate wants to be governed. No candidate can win without a majority of support from their district/state/town.

Third, it ends the need for multiple voting sessions in places where run off elections are either possible or commonplace.

Fourth, it allows for an expansion of the overton window and an influx of new ideas when previously held positions of popular parties start to fail.

Fifth, it helps prevent "gaming" the system by strategically voting for a candidate you THINK will win instead of whom you desire.

Sixth, it eliminates the need for primary elections.

Whelp that's my list, please try and change my view.

[Assistant]
The main problem with RCV is that it still mostly has the same flaw as standard plurality voting where a third-party candidate can split the vote causing the candidate who a majority of voters prefer to be eliminated and a fringe candidate that the vast majority of voters vote against ends up winning.

Here is an example election with 4 candidates, The columns correspond to the percentage of voters who selected that candidate as their nth choice/rank. (For columns that add to less than 100%, the corresponding voters left that rank blank.)

|Candidate/Rank|1st|2nd|3rd|
|:-|:-|:-|:-|
|Alice|27%|6%|8%|
|Bob|26%|5%|12%|
|Charlie|24%|8%|10%|
|Debora|23%|70%|1%|

In traditional voting, Alice wins with an extremely slim plurality of 27% of the vote. Under RCV, Debora (Who 93% of voters selected as either their 1st or 2nd choice) is eliminated instantly in the first 'round' , and the votes are transferred to the 2nd choice selections. Bob is eliminated next, and Charlie ends up winning despite the majority (58%) of voters voting AGAINST him.


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

[User]
ELI5: what is jail breaking?

What does it mean to jail break a phone and what are the benefits and risks?

[Assistant]
Most phones are made so that they only run programs that the phone maker will let you. Jailbreaking (to break the phone out of its jail) is the act of hacking the phone so that you can run whatever programs you want on it.

A few benefits:

* Can run whatever you like.

* Can add features, remove Carrier IQ, and tweak whatever settings you like.

* Can access the files and folders you otherwise couldn't.

A few risks:

* Can get viruses if you're not careful.

* Can brick (ruin) your phone if you do it wrong.

* May void your warranty or prevent you from using your phone with the official tools and/or store.


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

[User]
[40K] What would happen if the Emperor focuses the Astronomican on himself?

Title. As much as I know, the Emperor doesn't fuel the Astronomican, but provides it's focus. So, what would happen if he focuses it on himself instead of spreading it's flame out?

[Assistant] Not much, focus here doesn't mean directing it towards something. He focuses the astronomican in that he takes the intangible mass of energy produced and he shapes it into the firetide, which also serves as a big beacon for navigators.


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

[User] Why are the major producing oil fields located where they are?

[Assistant]
Oil fields are where they are as a due to the location of ancient organic-rich basins.  Why were the organic-rich basins there? Tectonics, they generally drive the placement of landmasses.

For oil to be extracted, it needs:

- a source rock: often these are shales with high carbon content, the remains of ancient accumulations of algae and other bio-material

- a heat source: the rock needs to be "cooked" to chemically transform the bio-material into the gases and liquids that make up natural gas and crude oil. This can only occur in a narrow range of elevated subsurface temperature.  Too high and you'll burn the organic matter, too low and it won't transform into high-quality petroleum.

- a "storage" rock: the oil needs to be held within a porous media so that it can easily be extracted, and so that the yield in a given field is high.

- a cap rock: usually the transformed liquids and gasses are imiscible fluids that don't combine well with one another or water. Since petroleum is less dense than water, it wants to float to the surface (where it would quickly degrade).  To keep the oil stored in one place, it needs some kind of "pocket" to be trapped in.  These are usually low permeability antiforms or salt diapirs.

In summary, oil fields are in places that were once basins with lots of biological activity.  The basins had to be turned into rock, cooked, stored, and capped in order to create petroleum and prevent it from degrading.  Furthermore, if a field has experienced these geologic phenomena, it still needs to be economically extractable, which is dependent on proximity to the surface, engineering, infrastructure, politics, cost of crude, etc.


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

[User]
[marvel] after captain america was defrosted, did he have any culture shock moments from waking up after about 70 years in a coma? if so, what was the biggest one?

seriously, there's gotta be something that freaked him out a little bit about the future.

[Assistant] The best example is found in the Ultimate universe, crashed in 1945 and was defrosted in the early 2000s. He has a hard time accepting the way women dress nowadays, the music, the stuff they show on tv and movies, the usual stuff youd expect. But the most hilarious one was when he was told that Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver love each other, Of course they love each other theyre brother and sister. And if you know what those 2 were up to in that universe then youd have yourself a good ol chuckle.


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

[User]
CMV: I don't entirely believe the premise that shorter workday = more productivity

I know there's an argument that shortening the workday supposedly increases productivity.

However, I don't really buy the premise.

Part of my reason for this is that personally (anecdotally), I feel like I work better in bursts. I have some productive time in the morning and I have some productive time in the afternoon. I don't think anyone really works productively for the straight workday (i.e. for a whole 6 hours straight), but rather there's periods in the day that they're most productive. Some people might be most productive in the evenings or others might be most productive after waking up.

Arbitrarily ending the workday sooner doesn't feel like it would increase productivity to me, esp. considering meetings, lunch, and other unproductive time that is going to happen regardless of how short the legal workday is.

Even if it it did increase productivity, mathematically it's obvious that there's a certain point that shortening official work hours isn't going to yield a net increase in productivity. A 1-hour workday obviously can't be more productive than a 8-hour workday.

IMO, ideally it's just better to salary individual (paid per day) and work whatever hours they want and make their own schedule, allow work from home / unlimited vacation days, and ultimately assess employees based on endpoint metrics (i.e. # of services provided or bonuses for achieving certain goals).

EDIT: Someone asked me to clarify what I mean by productivity. I'm most interested in the lens of gross societal economic productivity (does shortening the official work day benefit the economy?), as in this hypothesis: "Changing the US norm of an 8H workday (9-5) to a 6H workday (10-4) will not result in an increase in productivity in the macroeconomic perspective (i.e. GDP)"

[Assistant] The whole point of Less work hours = more productivity is people will drag out their work more if they have longer work hours vs if you could just get it done and go home. Because if you finish it too fast you going get more work or you going be sitting around doing nothing doing more work isnt fun and doing nothing doesnt look good for the boss.


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

[User] ELI5: What is the reason that it is common to eat 3 meals in a day?

[Assistant]
'Mealtimes' are constructed to accommodate social, geographic and economic norms and lifestyles. Doctors will often ask you if you're getting three square meals, but that's just because its an easy way of gauging whether you eat enough. Its not the natural, or even optimal, way of doing things. Naturally, the time we eat should be determined by our stomachs, not the position of the sun in the sky. That's why more recently doctors recommend you have healthy snacks throughout the day.

In modern Western culture, we eat three square meals because it coincided with industrial work patterns.

The industrial revolution brought a very strictly regimented workday. Suddenly people were very concerned with hours and minutes. You couldn't simply allow workers on a factory line to pop off whenever they liked because they were hungry. Over time, our eating patterns developed around that industrial workday, to the point where they became a social and cultural fixture. You had breakfast before work, you had lunch with your peers when the line shut down at midday, and then you would usually have dinner with your family after the workday. We developed social patterns and rituals around those ideas, until they became so entrenched that many of us thought that's just how people have always eaten.

In the modern world, with ready-to-eat meals available at all hours, those strict lines are also diminishing. You don't go home and have a big family dinner as much anymore. Lunchtime is also not necessarily a shared meal for all workers in a given workplace, because the nature of the workplace has changed.

In short, its the way we organize our society that really determines our mealtimes. When we work, how we work, and even things like gender roles or technology can determine the cultural norms for mealtimes.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is the name "Sean" pronounced like "Shawn" when there's no letter H in it?

[Assistant]
Sen comes from the Irish name for John, the accent on the a (called a fada) makes the a longer and so changes the pronunciation as well as this Se in Irish is often pronounces as SH.

The name Shawn in an anglicised version of the Irish name Sen.


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

[User]
Am i automatically out?

I had a campus interview, and it all went incredibly well until my chalk talk. I had reached out to a potential collaborator beforehand and he seemed open and enthusiastic about collaborating. At my chalk talk though, I guess he heard something he didn't like, because he totally trashed my proposed research and even got hostile. I heard a big no no was to not get defensive, so I tried my best to stand my ground and remain congenial throughout, but he definitely threw me off balance. I felt kind of awkward at the end, and I left feeling like I definitely did not get the job. Anyone who has been through this or sat on the search committee when something like this happens, how is the candidate viewed after something like this? Are they automatically out? Other than that, the visit was amazing and I'm sad about the fact that this happened. They have amazing resources and amazing wonderful people there.

[Assistant]
It depends on who this person is in the department. If he's on the search committee or department chair you're probably toast. If he's known as the department curmudgeon or jerk you're probably still in the running, assuming that there wasn't anything actually incorrect in your talk that he made people realize.

It's also possible he meant to just challenge you to see how well you can support your arguments on the fly/how congenial you are/how you do under pressure.


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

[User]
[Mathematics] What number refers to the number of possible orderings of natural numbers?

The number of unique orderings of a set of length n is n! and as such it seems logical to me that the number of unique orderings of the natural numbers is Aleph null factorial, but what does it mean to take the factorial of an infinitely large number as infinity minus one is still infinity(i think). I was also thinking about the Continuum hypothesis which says that the cardinality of the set of real numbers is 2 raised to the Aleph null. x! grows faster than 2^x so would that make the number of unique orderings of the natural numbers to be larger than the set of real numbers(assuming that we are able to take the factorial of Aleph null)? Apologies if my question makes assumptions which are incorrect, but thanks for reading!

[Assistant]
A rather simple way to encode numbers between 0 and 1 to all possible orderings of natural numbers would be to create decimal number between 0 and 1, and type each integer in order, in base-2, then use 5 as separator. So if your ordering starts like 1, 5, 16, 4, 2, ... Then we'd have our encoding of

    0.1510151000051005105...

Or to replace 5 with clearer separator

    0. 1 | 101 | 10000 | 100 | 10 | ...

It's quite easy to see that if n'th digit of two orderings differs, then the encoding differs, so it's an injection from all orderings to the interval ]0, 1[, and as such, there are at most as many orderings as there are real numbers.


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

[User]
The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle.

I've been reading a lot of physics books recently out of curiosity and interest in physics (I'm a compsci major). I was wondering if anyone could explain to me the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. I get what it's saying about how if one property is measured to high precision the others can't be. I'm confused as to why this is true.

**Edit: Thanks for all the explanations. They have made things clearer for me.**

[Assistant]
There are multiple ways to approach this.

The most intuitive approach is you ask how you would simultaneously measure both for some quantum system (where this principle becomes important).  E.g., if you want to measure an electron's position, how do you do it?  You bounce photons off of it and measure the photons locations in a detector.  Well to measure its location to a very high precision, you need photons with very short wavelengths, and those impart higher energy/momentum to the the electron (for a photon shorter wavelength means higher energy), making you uncertain of its momentum.

Now, the physicist approach is that the mathematical underpinnings of quantum mechanics have it as such that position and momentum are conjugate variables of each other.  E.g., there's position space and its Fourier transform is momentum space.  From this foundation you can derive the uncertainty principle (e.g., momentum is equal to the derivative the wavefunction in position space with respect to position (p ~ d/dx); and position is a equal to the derivative of the wavefunction in momentum space with respect to momentum x ~ d/dp; hence they don't commute and in the minimum uncertainty they can have (sigma_x sigma_px = hbar/2 is if the wavefunction is Gaussian shaped).).

Now that may sound nonsensical if you don't have the math background, but that's how physicists think of it (in the framework of QM which explains lots of phenomena and has been very well tested).  To simplify to non-mathematical language, when we have a particle (like an electron), before measuring its position or momentum, it doesn't have a definite position or momentum.  It has a continuous probability function for both that are related by a transformation (e.g., the function might tell us it has a 10% chance of having a position between x=1cm and x=1.1cm, and and 20% chance of having a momentum if measured between p=0 kg m/s and 0.1 kg m/s).  These transformation will take particles with very narrow probability range for having a momentum in a small range and make it so they have a wide range of position.


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

[User]
Could a bee inside of a balloon change the direction of the balloon's movement?

Hypothetically, could a sufficiently large bee inside an air filled balloon (ignoring gravity) lift that balloon off the ground or move it around? Would the bee's movement inside the balloon just cancel itself out, since its lift is pushing against the opposite side of the balloon? Does bashing against the side of the balloon cause it to move?

Clarification: I meant to say that gravity still exists for the purposes of the question, but I didn't want anyone to try specifically prove that a bee couldn't lift a balloon against earth's gravity (that's not the interesting part of the question in my mind).

[Assistant]
There are several possible mechanisms:

* Spin the balloon (e.g. by walking around inside it). The Magnus effect will then cause the balloon to respond asymmetrically to turbulence.

If there is gravity, but the balloon is zero buoyancy at rest, the bee can control altitude by flying around inside the balloon.

* When the bee flaps its wings, it causes turbulence within the balloon.
* This eventually is dissipated as heat.
* PV = RT, so increasing the temperature of the gas inside the balloon will increase the gas pressure, causing the balloon to expand, lowering the gas density.
* This will cause the balloon to rise.
* When the bee stops flapping its wings, the balloon will cool, and slowly descend to (or below, due to leakage in the high pressure state) its original altitude.


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

[User]
What happens to a photon when it hits the surface of the sun?

Hey askscience!

I'm a web developer and I was working on a new weather-site, when I noticed that all the sun-icons had a small highlight/shine on them. Of course, this is just modern icon-design, but it got me thinking.

So my question is this: What happens to a standard photon (let's even say it's a visual spectrum photon. Nothing high-energy or anything.) when it interacts with the surface of the(a) sun?

Follow up: Would it be possible to shine a bright enough light to get a "reflection"/shine on a sun?

Thanks in advance!

[Assistant] The surface of the sun is a very good black body. This means that almost all photons that arrive at the surface will be absorbed. If you shine a lot of photons this absorption would heat up the surface and cause the sun to glow brighter, but you would need an extremely bright light source to achieve this.


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

[User]
[Marvel] How would you go about killing the Hulk?

Assume that you are a person with the powers of enhanced strength, speed, agility, intelligence and you possess limited superfast regeneration (You can regenerate your head from your main body if need be but regeneration takes up energy.) How would you kill Bruce Banner AKA The Incredible Hulk?

[Assistant]
For all the Hulk's strength, he's harmless if you can suspend him a couple hundred feet above the ground.  Steal one of the Wizard's anti-grav disks and use your enhanced physical abilities to attach it to the center of the Hulk's back.

Once you've made the Hulk harmless, steal a force bubble projector from SHIELD or Hydra, and set it to block air circulation.  Put a big bubble around the Hulk - too big for him to affect with air blasts from smashing his hands together - and wait for him to asphyxiate.

The most dangerous part of this is placing the anti-gravity disk - there's a good chance the Hulk will grab you by a limb before you get clear of him and use your painfully bruisable body to smash the anti-grav disk.


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

[User]
[The Culture/Multiverse] Somehow, a Mind figured out how to get pass the Grid and hop to the next Universe over! What would happen?

Think of any fiction you think of that would be interesting for the Culture to deal with that won't end up in Gridfire everywhere. What would happen socially, politically, etc... for both the Culture and the natives?

[Assistant]
It would spend some time exploring, figuring out just how different that universe is from its own. The laws of physics, biology, all of that stuff. It could conceivably spend centuries just poking around.

After that, most Culture Minds are of the opinion that the Culture should be extended to pretty much anyone who wants it, so it would find some civilizations and see what it could do to help them. Some would reject that help, and the Mind would shrug and go on its way. Others would welcome that help, and become semi-immortal, body-agnostic hedonists with drug glands and swappable genitalia.

There are entities that would try to capture and exploit the Mind, like the Borg, and entities that would try to destroy the Mind just because they (think they) can, like the Daleks, but as you said, Gridfire everywhere. You would have to be *really* high up on the pecking order to pose a challenge to a Mind.

The Q actually could, but the issues that "our" Q accused Picard of have been largely solved by the Culture. If anything, the Q would probably want to know why the Culture hadn't sublimed yet. The universes are much cooler when you don't need to worry about physical reality.

It might, however, keep a civilization or two in its pocket as a control group. That's what the Culture did with Earth in the seventies, after all.


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

[User]
[The Matrix] How was exactly the first version of the Matrix?

In The Matrix, when Morpheus is help captive, Agent Smith explains to him that the first version of the Matrix was designed as a sort of paradise where nobody was supposed to suffer, but humans apparently did not adapt well to it.

So, how was exactly this first version of the Matrix? Was it shaped as an utopic society where people lived in luxury surrounded by advanced technology or was it a literal Eden set in an idyllic natural environment?

[Assistant] Probably an idealistic version of heaven based on popular consensus of the human subconscious.  Anything you wanted was just a thought away and you could do anything.  People eventually grew bored of it and started to notice the cracks because it was too perfect to be real in their minds.


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

[User] ELI5: how does your body know when to wake up from sleep?

[Assistant] Hormones are found at different levels in your blood at different  times of the day, when melatonin peaks it makes you wanna sleep, melatonin levels eventually go down and cortisol (also known as the stress hormone) goes up, making you wake up at the end of your sleep cycle. You can see how alarm clocks often disrupt the natural sleep rhythm by interupting the sleep cycle when it hasn't ended yet, causing you to feel groggy/sleepy when you wake up.


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

[User] ELI5: How does night vision work, and why is it green?

[Assistant]
Different models work in different ways.

A typical 1980s-2000s night vision monacle will amplify all of the light that goes into it. It's essentially just a camera and a screen.

They're green for various reasons. The human eye is slightly better at differentiating between different shades of green than it is with red and blue, so less light is required from the scope, reducing the chance that the light will "spill" and indicate the position of the observer. A side benefit about the low level of light is that it doesn't intefere with the shooters natural night-sight as much as brighter white light would.


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

[User]
[Akira] What would have happened if Akira hadn't been awakened, and the Tetsuo blob-monster was able to run rampant?

My question is aimed at the anime, however I've read the manga as well, and I'd take accounts from both perspectives.

[Assistant] Excerpt from Brigadier General Richards USAF, Classified Report dated December 3rd 2019: The Battle of Neo-Tokyo took three days and ended only after the detonation of 23 high yield ICBMs. In the initial engagement with the anomaly, 37 F-27 Raptors were lost. It was quickly realized any conventional attack was going to be futile. Another, conventional attack was coordinated by PRC air-defense, as initial reports claimed the anomaly was a weapon developed by the Japanese. DARPA quickly surmised without immediate action the anomaly was going to expand uncontrollably. Jets were scrambled and the Pacific Fleet was put on high alert. The initial bombardment proved insufficient to pacify the anomaly. The decision was made that nuclear bombardment was the only option and NORAD moved to Defcon 1. In the aftermath, the Kanto region surrounding Neo-Tokyo was rendered annihilated and Honshu Island uninhabitable.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are roundabouts rare in America?

Not only are they rare, but they are met with a lot of resistance from the public. Obviously they are not a be-all end-all solution, but there are many situations where a roundabout would make more sense than a 4 way stop or stop lights.

[Assistant]
You kinda need to plan roundabouts ahead. Corner properties along major roads are usually gas stations or coffee shops or diners - you'd need to buy them out to build a roundabout. They take more space.

A lot of smaller north American communities are starting to use roundabouts for new construction projects. But you couldn't put a roundabout in Times Square no matter how much it would improve traffic flow, nor on almost any heavy-traffic street-corner in America.


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

[User]
[Avengers] Why didn't Hawkeye just shoot an exploding arrow into each engine of the Helicarrier then explode them all at once in the first Avengers?

Obviously he was trying to take It all down since later he shoots an arrow that hacks the system into some kind of computer port. I feel like it would have just been way easier to quietly shoot an arrow into each engine then explode them all at once.

[Assistant] He wasn't trying to kill the Avengers, most of them would survive the carrier being destroyed (and Loki has little desire to kill his brother). He was trying to cause havoc so 1) Loki could escape with the scepter, and 2) Loki could provoke the Hulk into going on a rampage. A crashed carrier is nothing compared to a rampaging Hulk. The plan was to cause so much trouble for the Avengers that the invasion of New York would be unopposed.


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

[User]
How did such a diverse Universe form from a Big Bang singularity?

I only have a basic understanding of the fundamentals of this, but what I'm wondering is since at the point of or just before the big bang all matter was a part of the singularity and I'll assume uniformly compressed, why did it not form a perfectly ordered universe? Since there would be no outside interference (I'm assuming again) this disorder would have to come from within. So what caused this disorder? Was it the matter itself, was the "bang" decentralized, or something wildly different?

[Assistant] The diversity that we observe in the Universe today was likely seeded after an epoch of rapid expansion (called inflation) in the early moments of the Universe. Although the Universe was extremely homogeneous and isotropic at that time, quantum fluctuations caused small overdensities which, by gravitational collapse, grew quickly (well, fast compared to the Hubble time.) They eventually collapsed into the first stars and then (by a mechanism that isn't very well understood), galaxies formed.


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

[User]
[Walking Dead] The walls of Alexandria

Why are the walls of Alexandria braced on the outside of the walls and not the interior? Isn't this a huge strategic flaw? At what point did it make sense to brace them that way? It seems like a wall meant to keep things in, not out. Is there a structural reason that this was beneficial?

[Assistant]
Steel has a better strength-to-weight-to-material ratio in *tension* than compression.

You can use less material to greater effect pulling the walls back and out then you can having braces inside the city pushing and bracing the walls forwards.

It's why our biggest bridges are hanging *suspension* bridges rather than bridges bracing for strength using compression.

Against an unintelligent enemy or force of nature it's a fair design.  Against an intelligent enemy *no* design is secure, so it doesn't really matter which way you put the structural supports.


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

[User] Why is it that I can't see clearly under water without swimming goggles?

[Assistant] Your eyes have evolved to see in air, your corneas have evolved to shape and focus light passing from air into the eye. The different refractive index of water makes it so that your cornea focuses the image in the wrong spot. Goggles/masks give an air gap that allow the image to form properly. However, the refractive change from the water, through the lens, into the air, makes things look bigger than they are, that shark you saw diving wasn't 12 feet long, it was more like 9.


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

[User] ELI5:How does Santa Claus deliver all the presents in one night?

[Assistant]
He outsources it to parents around the world. About a month or two beforehand, he would have placed these gifts intended for children all over the world at different malls and websites around the world, so it's not like he does it all in one night actually; he has weeks to do it, and as we all know, it only takes 80 days to travel around the world.

Parents then collect these goods at the shopping establishment of their choice, and donate a fee to Santa for his upkeep of the elves and reindeers. These gifts from Santa are then placed at the Christmas Tree at the family house, and allowed for children to open on Christmas Day itself!


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

[User] I had heard that men and women handle body heat differently as an evolutionary byproduct. Women tend to radiate heat more to keep young warm, and men tend to retain heat more to endure longer periods of hunting and foraging. Is there any truth to this claim?

[Assistant] It doesn't make much sense as stated, since retaining heat while hunting and foraging is likely to be harmful except in cold environments.  A hunter in the tropics (where early humans lived) would need to radiate heat efficiently to avoid heatstroke.


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

[User]
ELI5: if we brush before bed, why do we wake up with bad breathe.

Do we miss a spot? Does the toothpaste not do a good enough job? Or is the human body just so full of bacteria that it's gonna smell no matter what?

[Assistant] not 100% of bacteria died and bacteria multiply fast in favorable environment... Like in your organic warm wet mouth. Normally saliva helps lower bacteria growth but your mouth usually becomes dry if you sleep with mouth open.


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

[User] [Fallout: New Vegas] I just left Goodsprings with a raging headache and evil in my heart. Who do I talk to about joining the Legion and not becoming a slave?

[Assistant]
I hear the Legion were last seen in Nipton.  If you hurry you might catch them still there.

Although... you haven't mentioned if you're a man or a woman.  If you're a woman, there's a good chance you'll be made a slave.  And even if you're a man, if you're from one of the tribes the Legion conquered over the course of their growth, there's a good chance you'll be made a slave.  In fact, if they don't like the look of you, there's a good chance you'll be made a slave.  Are you really sure you want to go through with this?


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

[User]
[The Punisher] What's Frank Castle's Reputation as the Punisher

How many people has Frank Castle killed over the years? How do most people react when they hear a rumor that he's on his way over to kill them?

[Assistant] Depends on the version of Frank Castle. In the MAX comics there is one point where a tv reporter is talking about Frank and mentioned that in his 30 years as the Punisher he killed over 2000 people (I think it was from Up is Down and Black is White). He's definitely famous/infamous, but people's reactions too heading he's after them varies. Some a scared and try to run, some try to stand and fight, very few willingly  go after him.


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

[User]
How can hormones and other proteins in food (meat/milk etc.) affect us if all proteins get broken down into amino acids before being absorbed?

There are many opinions floating around about how "humans aren't supposed to drink milk" because the hormones in it are for baby cows and growth/fertility hormones given to farm animals are detrimental to our health when we eat them. While I don't have strong feelings about either of these issues I do want to know if they have any valid reasoning. Granted my understanding of digestion is pretty basic but I can't imagine we have receptors for hormones on the outside of the digestive tract, or that proteins that large can be absorbed without breaking them down.

[Assistant]
Yes, proteins are broken down for the most part, but hormones are not proteins...at least not necessarily. The hormones that might be an issue if ingested belong to a family of hormones called steroid hormones, which are small organic molecules. They are not easily gotten rid of unless there's a high level of biochemical degradation, so these hormones in tissues, food, drinks, etc. have a relatively long half life, since they are really stable.

Edit: Just to clarify, growth hormone specifically IS a protein, not a steroid, which means it is digested in the stomach and thus for it to exert its effect in the organism it must be injected. The issue is usually with steroid hormones in food/drinks, or even with chemicals that can potentially act as steroid hormones in the environment or other products (soy, tea tree oil, etc.)


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

[User] [40k] I am the governor of a backwater hive world . just 150 billion subjects. 3 months ago a orc waagh made planetfall, we deployed our PDF regiments, they are all but gone now. how do i request reinforcements, from who do i request them and how long till they get here.

[Assistant]
The next level is sector capital. Arrival time depends on the size and readiness level of the sector. You would have asked for help before PDF was completely wiped out. Ork WAAGHs are serious business, and the cleanup is always a pain. Even small ones usually require much more than PDFs. They are also pretty high priority, as they get much bigger with every conquered world.

You'll likely receive help from the closest Space Marine chapter, who might be there faster than the Guard the capital organizes.

Either way, you need to conscript more defenders from your population the moment you detect the orks, on an ongoing basis. Population is what makes a Hive, and if the orks eat them anyway you might as well arm them and point them in the right direction.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do hot objects produce infrared radiation?

[Assistant]
The energy we call heat is expressed through the movement of the atoms.  It's not something the atoms have, the energy they possess is the movement itself.  When you feel something hot, you're literally feeling the atoms of that material moving very quickly, and when they touch your slow moving atoms, they basically beat them up.

Why do hot objects produce infrared radiation?  Obviously you don't need to touch a hot object to know that it is hot, you can put your hand near it and feel.  When you put your hand against something hot, you put a lot of atoms in contact with each other.  Remember that the air is also full of atoms, just not as many.  The air is getting beat up by the energy in the hot object, so when you feel near it, you're feeling the air that is excited, which in turn pushes against you.

How is the heat emitted over a distance (radiated)?  First, know that all waves will heat an object when they strike it.  The wave/photon hits an atom and causes it to move, thus we get heat.  An object radiates energy due to the interactions within the nucleus.  If an electron is excited, or jumps an orbital level, the atom carries a bit of extra energy, which is the energy that was used to originally excite it.  This state can only be maintained for so long, eventually the electron goes back to it's normal state and the energy which previously excited it is emitted from the electron.

When you see something that is hot, you will notice that it begins to change color.  As you continue to heat it you will see the colors move from red to blue.  A blue flame is hotter than a red flame.  We can tell this because the wavelength which corresponds to blue has more energy than the wavelength for red, because it's wavelength is smaller.

As we've established, a hot object will radiate electromagnetic waves which fall in the range of visible light.  This is the same process, electrons get energy, hold it for a bit, then spit it back out.  The amount of energy that particular atom received relates to the wave it produces.  Infrared and the visible spectrum are right next to each other, so the hot object is radiating electromagnetic energy across a wide spectrum.  It just so happens that a part of that spectrum we use to see, and another we only sense as heat, or the transformation of kinetic energy to electromagnetic energy.

If you're curious, you can heat an object as much as you want and it won't begin to emit ultraviolet light.  The solution for this problem marked the beginning of quantum physics.


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

[User]
[zombies in general] A single zombie is released in the world. Which is the best chance it got to spread the virus?

Well that. A single zombie in the world that can only spread its virus by just biting people. Which place is its best option?

[Assistant]
Somewhere tightly packed, with a large and preferably ageing population.

Although it would all depend on the specifics of the type of zombie.

- are they fast or slow?

- how long does it take to turn?

- do they still look human or are they noticeable from the start?

- does the virus just spread through bite, through any fluids, or are we already all infected?

Also, our current situation would suggest China would be a good suggestion.


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

[User]
Is The Mass of The Universe Constant?

If not, how can it be gained/lost?

[Assistant]
Other comments suggest mass itself is not conserved while mass+energy is. It's true mass and energy are interchangeable but in general relativity they are not conserved on a large scale. Conservation of energy is consequence of time invariance in physics, but under GR different reference frames variate in time significantly.

An example of this is how light, when traveling through interstellar space, is redshifted. The light lowers in frequency and looses energy as it moves through expanding space - this lost energy doesn't go anywhere, it is just lost.


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

[User]
CMV: Elizabeth Warren's Student loan bailout is actually just another trillion dollar bank bailout for banks that wrote predatory loans to unqualified borrowers.

Presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren is proposing we forgive student loan debt. This would be done by taxing American citizens (specifically the wealthy) in order to pay the banks off for these loans.

In 2008 we dealt with what happens when banks wrote predatory loans for unqualified borrowers, which resulted in the taxpayer bailing them out when it all collapsed.

To me, the situation is the same, banks made trillions in predatory loans to unqualified student borrowers and now we are discussing another bank bailout that is somehow being marketed as a progressive campaign platform.

Even worse, we are incentivizing this behavior and the recipients of this bailout are A) Big banks B) College graduates who are statistically going to end up being more wealthy than their non college educated counterparts who are the only losers in this whole proposal.

Cmv

Edit:

It's been pointed out the government owns 1 out of 1.4 trillion in student loans so my argument now must be amended to:

* The banks still receive half a trillion VS a full trillion bailout
* The government loses in this scenario because the extra tax revenue goes towards paying off a trillion in assets, thus wiping out the long term revenue from interest the government would have received otherwise.

[Assistant]
"the banks" haven't been heavily involved in student debt for a while now.

Total student debt owed by all Americans is estimated at $1.4 trillion. $1 trillion is owed to the federal government itself.

If student debt is erased, the primary impact would be depriving the US Treasury of $1 trillion in assets (since loans are considered assets, when you are the one collecting). Taxes go up, to make up for the loss of revenue, not to actually "pay off the loans".

Only about 25 percent of student debt is owed to banks. As such, it's hard to see them as the primary benefitiaries here.

"The predatory lender", in this case, is the federal government itself.


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

[User]
ELI5: What is the difference between paracetamol and ibuprofen?

What is the difference between them? I use both willy nilly just as pain relief for headaches mainly.

[Assistant]
Ibuprofen is an NSAID (Non-Steroid Anti-Inflammatory Drug), this means it acts by inhibiting the enzyme COX, reducing synthesis of prostaglandin which is both central in the **inflammatory response** as well as **pain response**.

NSAID shouldn't be taken for too long because they **can cause gastric ulcers** (prostaglandins act as vasodilators (increasing radius of arteries) and the gastric mucosa is VERY dependent on good blood flow to protect against the acid environment).

Paracetamol isn't an NSAID. The mechanism of actions is not well understood but it is believed that it also act in some way on COX. Paracetamol can be toxic in large doses, but is usually used as the pain reliever of choice if you have to take a pain reliever for an extended period of time (since the alternative NSAID cause gastric ulcers). **Paracetamol is not anti-inflammatory.**


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

[User]
CMV: J.K. Rowling is not a bad person for expressing her views related to trans people

My impression is that in attempt to always cater to the most marginalized group of people, that some people are considering the feelings of trans women over the feelings of cis women. It's important to have a discussion between both groups and come to compromises.

Consider multi-person gender-neutral bathrooms. Right now, I think of the bathroom as sort of a "girl" space for girls, where they can adjust their make-up, maybe even gossip a little before returning to a bar or party or something. Guys can make sure their hair looks normal, and then go back out. Lesbian woman and gay guys exist, but this has not seemed to be a real issue with making anyone uncomfortable in the bathroom.

Now consider if bars or clubs, where people are drunk or whatever, had mixed-gender bathrooms. So for girls, when you're doing your make-up and talking to your friends who are girls, then realistically, there will probably be some guys, guys who you don't know and are likely larger than you, trying to flirt in the bathroom. Not most guys. I'm sure many guys would want to make sure girls are safe. But, some guys. I mean, to take it a step further - would you want gender-neutral showers at the YMCA?

And, it seems like everything J.K Rowling writes about is either related to 1) fear, as a as woman, for her own safety. Why do we allow discussions related to wokeness but not discussions related to basic fear? 2) Not wanting to be dehumanized or having her identity as a woman diminished with language such as "people who menstruate" etc.

I have never seen her say anything like, trans people are not people or trans people deserve to die.

CMV

EDIT: My viewpoint is more of a "freedom of speech" type of argument. I don't necessarily agree with everything she says, but I was arguing that expressing it doesn't make her a bad person.

[Assistant]
> Consider multi-person gender-neutral bathrooms.

That's quite a straw man. The only thing that the trans community wants is to use the bathrooms of the gender they identify as, just like all cis people already do.

There is the unjustified fear that cis men are going to dress up as women just to "legitimately" access women-only spaces, which JK is playing into. That's what is despicable.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do babies breathe/live during the birthing process in between the fluid-filled womb and the air-filled world? How do they not suffocate during the pushing process?

My first child was born recently and as my wife was pushing I had this thought and almost went into panic mode. Thanks in advance for the help!

[Assistant]
Before the first breath the foetal circulation is still intact, taking blood containing oxygen from the placenta to the foetus by the umbilical vein and returning blood without oxygen from the foetus to the placenta via the umbilical artery.

Only after the first breath that expands the infant's lungs, opening up the airways and the lung arteries and veins, can blood start to flow through the infant lungs to be where it picks up oxygen. Before this time the foetus is receiving oxygen from the placenta.

If the blood flow from the placenta is interrupted before first breath then the infant will become unwell due to lack of oxygen within minutes. Prolonged lack of oxygen causes brain damage and then death.

Note: Foetus (English English) = Fetus ('merican English)

Edit: to remove big words.


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

[User]
ELI5: Market capitalization when it comes to purchasing a company.

Here is my understanding of market capitalization: outstanding shares x stock price = market cap.  The market cap is in essence the value of the company.

Recently Humana announced they would be buying Kindred Healthcare for $4.1B.  Kindred's market cap is $822M at the time of this writing.  Wouldn't that mean that Humana is paying more than 4x what Kindred is actually worth?

I'm so confused.  Please ELI5.  Thank you in advance!

[Assistant]
Often the buying company must pay a premium to the traded price, to acquire the company, but usually this premium is 20-50% of the pre-offer share price.

One thing that isn't in the market cap but is usually part of the purchase price is the assumption of debt.  If Kindred owed roughly $3.3 billion to its creditors, the purchase price could be $4.1 billion with only $800 million going to shareholders.  The idea being the purchase of two otherwise identical businesses, one financed by mostly equity while another financed by mostly debt should probably have the same purchase price.

I didn't see the deal press release, but did find an article with this:

>Kindred, which had $7 billion in revenues last year, has been weighed down with *$3.2 billion in long-term debt.*

So Humana is paying $800ish million for the equity in Kindred Healthcare, but also will have to repay Kindred's creditors $3.2 billion.  It's fairly common to include both of these when reporting the amount spent on a merger.

Whoa, thanks for the gold!


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

[User]
Why does evaporation occur?

I know that liquids can turn into gases via boiling, but why can liquids turn into gas *without* reaching their boiling point?

By the way sorry if this question sounds stupid.

[Assistant] Temperature isn't really a fixed value of how much energy molecules have, it's an average. This means that even at a temperature well below the boiling point of a liquid there will be some molecules with enough energy to break off into the gas phase and so the liquid evaporates.


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

[User]
How does the hair on my legs know when to stop growing?

I have always wondered whenever I shave parts of my legs or light them on fire using my lighter, how they actually know when to stop growing into leg beards.

I tried sample groups like shaving a portion with razors and a portion of my legs with lighter.

[Assistant]
The hair doesn't start growing when you cut it, and stop when it reaches its max length.  Instead, every single hair continuously grows for a set period of time, falls out, and the re-grows from scratch, over and over and over.

However, the follicles are not all synched up, so the hairs in an area are all at slightly different lengths.  If you look closely, you should be able to find quite a few short hairs (that you haven't cut recently, and are short because their predecessor recently fell out), but they're hard to spot with a quick glance, because they're mixed in with a lot of longer hairs.

So when you cut the hairs, the ones that were already in their growth phase will continue to grow.  Some of them were close to their max growth already, and will soon fall out without ever getting back to their max length.  Others had just started growing, and will continue to grow for much longer.  Over time, all the hairs will reach equilibrium.


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

[User] Is there a difference in brightness between a light source emitting one colour and a light source emitting the same amount of photons but white?

[Assistant] If you are referring to subjectively perceived brightness, then there can certainly be a difference in brightness between a monochromatic light source and a white light source emitting equivalent numbers of photons. If the wavelength of the monochromatic source is around the peak of human sensitivity, around 555nm, then it would appear brighter than the white light source. Conversely, if the monochromatic source is emitting a frequency that is not well absorbed, then it would appear dimmer than the white light.


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

[User] How are electronic systems on spacecraft protected from "bit flips" caused by cosmic rays?

[Assistant]
A number of ways, depending on a lot of factors. There are two categories of protection- physical and logical.

Physical protections are things like:

* Larger feature (transistor) sizes, as larger circuit elements need more energy to flip.
* Radiation resistant materials, meaning building circuit elements out of materials that are less likely to absorb radiation.
* More expensive doping agents and insulators, to make sure that stray voltages go where they're supposed to in a controlled fashion.
* Extra shielding, both at the component level and the spacecraft level

Logical protections are things done in software or the design of a system to build in logical redundancy in case things do go wrong. Most of these techniques also apply to regular safety-critical systems to improve resiliency to regular failures as well.

* Use error-correcting codes and schemes. These methods use extra bits of data (such as parity bits) to indicate when something is wrong, or even provide redundancy so that a bit-flip can occur without affecting the logical outcome of a computation.

* Built-in redundancy. You can build multiple parallel systems that all do the same thing, and compare outcomes at the end of the process. For example, instead of running a program one time, you could physically load three copies of a program into memory, physically run the program three times, and then compare the outputs. The programs "vote" on the correct answer at the end of the process, so if two programs have answer A and the third program has answer B, the answer with the most votes wins. You can even build physically redundant hardware, if you have the budget for it (multiple processors, sensors, memory banks, etc.).

* Watchdog elements. The easiest way to fix a faulty computer after a bit-flip is to reboot it. Spacecraft have built-in "watchdogs" that monitor the status of the spacecraft, and if something doesn't happen the way that it's supposed to happen then it triggers an automatic reboot of the system. The most common type here is a watchdog timer- for example the spacecraft operating system might be designed to reset a timer every 60 seconds, and if the timer ever goes off without being reset it can trigger a hard CPU interrupt that triggers a CPU reboot. You can have multiple levels of watchdogs for different systems or different levels of reboot.

There is a whole field of study that is dedicated to building resilient systems, and there are lots more techniques that may or may not be applicable to specific spacecraft. You could really go on all day.


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

[User]
ELI5: why do mattresses get heavier over time?

Tagged as Physics because it involves change in mass.

[Assistant]
Because they accumulate dust, skin cells, etc over time because theyre basically giant sponges. Same reason pillows get heavier too, heres a quote from a quick google search (about pillows, but it applies to mattresses too).

>	Pillows get heavier over the years because of dust mites and dead skin that accumulate in them, which makes them less comfortable and also less healthy. Because old pillows can cause problems for your health, it's important to replace your pillow before it gets too old.


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

[User] [40k] could a sufficiently powerful person who hates chaos powers be placed into a curopted titan and bring back into the light?

[Assistant]
With enough power, anything is theoretically possible. But at that point, the question is whether they would still be considered human if they have that level of power, or whether it would even be possible to attain that power (and remain human) in the first place.

You might be looking at enough psychic power to rival the Emperor of Mankind, or even the chaos gods themselves, if you're trying to restore a corrupted Titan.


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

[User] I believe that if women get free access to birth-control and abortions, then men shouldn't be legally obligated to provide child support. CMV.

[Assistant]
Child support is not about the man or the woman, it's to protect and provide for the child.  If the male keeps the child it's the woman who has to play child support.

Regardless of how it came to be, pregnancy is the work of two people, and both should be responsible of the child's well-being.  Contraception can fail, abortion can be an unwanted risk and both had the option to NOT have sex, unprotected or not.

The free contraception or abortion only serves as a state intervention to reduce teen pregnancy, not as a rights modifier.


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

[User] How much more would gas prices need to rise for people to start taking public transportation (Elasticity, Supply and Demand)

[Assistant]
This is a very difficult question to answer as it will depend on the region and access to adequate public transport, population of said region, disposable income after essentials like food/power/etc per capita of said region, WFH policies, average commute miles per capita, average leisure driving miles per capita, inflationary impact of said region, etc.

For many across the US, there is no true public transportation alternative. For example, in Texas there are many cities where a 18-20 drive to work easily becomes 1.5 hours (one way!) along with a 10 minute walk if you try and take the bus, making public transportation a non-starter for most.

And if more people move over to said public transport, the system may not be set up for such a surge and wait times could increase significantly, pushing people back to cars.


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

[User]
My professor recommends us making a GitHub account as soon as possible. Why should I?

It's an honest question. His reasoning was like ""in a couple of years, when you graduate and look for a job, you'll be able to show them that you used github for the past couple of years"" and I get that. But right now I'm making programs that are too simple and that are introductory. Like create an array, print only the odd numbers from an array, write Hello world in a .txt file. Scan a .txt and count the occurences of a given word, etc.

[Assistant]
the entire (modern) programming industry uses git.

the sooner you start getting used to git, be it github, gitlab, your own repository on a pi somewhere, the better.

on top of that, during your university years you will more than likely build projects which are passable to show off, but will be left collecting dust on a USB-stick somewhere before it gets reformatted to host as storage for three three horror movies during movie night.

so all in all, there is no reason ***not to*** start with github now, and you can set projects to private should you wish, and especially getting used to the amazing features that git offers you for handling projects, especially if you have collaborative projects down the line with your course colleagues.