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

[User]
[Scooby Doo] Does Fredd secretly hate Shaggie? He always pairs up with Daphne and always puts Shaggie in Danger by making him the bait.

Maybe I'm wrong but I don't think Fredd has paired up with Shaggie once.

[Assistant]
Fred has been shown to be obsessed with, and very skilled at, traps in many incarnations of the character.  The fact of the matter is that Shaggy and Scooby are uniquely talented in getting the monster in location, and then getting the heck out of there.  Notice how when Daphne's the bait, she gets legitimately captured FAR more than Shaggy and Scoob?  Fred is aware of this, and is aware of Shaggy and Scooby's unorthodox, but effective, investigative skills and their athleticism - repeatedly being shown to be the fastest runners in Mystery Inc.

Fred's plans just use everyone's skills in their most effective places.  Why he's the leader, and Shaggy's the bait.  Not to mention Fred is into Daphne on account of her hotness.


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

[User]
What is a Framework? A bit dumb and in-depth may be.

So i've been self-teaching about computer sciences and programming languages. Came accross with the term of framework a lot. I got the main concept of it. But is it right to possibly say that a framework is a bunch of functions based on the preferred language collected in a package to make things easier for the developer? If so, why there are some people/companies releasing out frameworks? Wouldn't they have to be similar in some aspects anyways? I get there might be differences in terms of efficiency but aren't those functions just bunch of code blocks anyways? So where does the competition coming from and why there are so many versions? They can be improved and become the best state it could ever become and at some point every framework wouldn't be the same? May be it won't because not every problem is similar to each other? I don't know...

Note that i asked all my questions accepting the framework is a collection of functions thosr do a certain job on said language.
If this isn't the case please enlighten me.

Thank you so much for your time in advance.

[Assistant]
The base idea is similar to a library. It's a set of someone else's code to reduce the amount of work that you have to do. But you'd say that you built your program *with* a library, but *in* a framework.

It's a fuzzy difference, but a framework tends to be more like a basic program that you add your desired behavior into. It's a standard set of base behavior that you customize according to your needs.


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

[User] [A:TLA] If Aang didn't have kids, what would happen when the avatar cycle gets back to Air?

[Assistant]
In LOK we see that there's some sort of spiritual event that creates several new airbenders. This event does not create any other kind of benders, so one can assume that the spirit world balances things out after a period of time.

So even though Aang did have kids, the next Airbender Avatar may not be a descendant of his.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why did Russia invade Afghanistan in 1979?

What promoted it? What did Russia hope to gain? Why did it end?

[Assistant]
Afghanistan just underwent a coup and there was an Insurgency going on. The new afghani government asked for help from the soviets who flew in, killed the president and replaced him with a socialist Guy and then took over  a country that had no army to fight. That didn't go so well with the rest of the world. Remember that at that point we are still in the whole proxy-war area where zones of influence are determined.

Said Insurgency was still going on, with plenty of aid from the US, and after facing a similar scenario the US did in Vietnam (lots of casualties against a para-military force) they withdrew when a new Guy in Moscow took charge who decided that the huge army there was not worth the cost (in money and diplomacy) so they left. Shortly after, the Insurgency took over, what we now know as Taliban, until the US rained down some Freedom and we are back at Square 1, powerless central government vs Isurgency.


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

[User]
[Lovecraft] What would life be like for the average deep one, if Cthulhu were to awaken?

Okay, so let's say that the stars become right.

Does life out at Innsmouth remain the same for the Deep Ones more or less? Does Cthulhu eat them too? Do deep ones go crazy from the presence of Cthulhu aswell?

[Assistant]
They would be boned. Cthulhu and his spawn are enemies of Dagon and the Deep Ones (as well as the Elder Things).

Pretty much AFAIK, Cthulhu and cthuluites are enemies with pretty much all sentient races of Earth and beyond, and would attempt to genocide them all sort of like a monstrous, eldritch version of the Nazis.

Ctthulhu awakening also means that he will attempt to bring back the worship, and connection to the Gods he is a priest of, namely Azatoth and Yog-Sototh. This is bad news for everyone.


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

[User]
Eli5 - Why is the body so reckless with its immune responses?

A common issue regarding viral infections or any kind of immune based matter is that the body is rather cavalier about how it goes about killing pathogens to the point where it completely disregards collateral damage.

The question is why? You would think if the body is able to discern foreign objects entering from domestic ones, it would also be aware that oh hey sorry let me just turn off friendly fire.

I understand there are some cases where to kill the wolves you have to burn the forest but it seems that even minor ailments leave a mess by your immune systems own hands.

[Assistant]
It does, in fact, go to considerable lengths to protect your body. Every antibody you produce basically gets "tested" against your body's own cells, and destroyed if it reacts to them. This isn't perfect, but it's pretty darn good.

Minor infections don't leave much of a mess. You survive them, almost always, without permanent or even significant damage. That's what evolution is optimizing for. It doesn't "know", at the time you're infected, whether a particular pathogen could kill you, and so it's worth deploying a heavy response because the alternative might be leaving you to die.


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

[User] ELI5: How bankruptcy works and what the different chapters of it mean.

[Assistant]
Bankruptcy is a legal process to discharge or reorganize debt.  Under backruptcy, any or all of the following could happen:

* some debt is eliminated (vanishes into thin air)

* some of your property is legally forced to be sold to pay debt

* you may be legally forced to pay off debt in a structured way (e.g. 10% of your paycheck for the next 5 years)

The various chapters of bankruptcy in the US are just different approaches to the same thing.

Chapter 7 is basic bankruptcy.

Chapter 11 is more for corporations.

Chapter 13 is more if you make a regular paycheck and need to structure a way to pay back your debts.

Most people who file for bankruptcy use Chapter 7.


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

[User]
[Futurama] What if Scruffy had agreed to run away with Wash Bucket possessed Amy.

They were the greatest love a former convicted janitor and a sentient wash bucket ever knew. They could have been something if Scruffy had not shown the restraint. So what if he didnt? What if he agreed to make a life with Wash Bucket?

[Assistant] They would've been found by the Professor and gang. Scruffy knows how capable the Planet Express crew is, despite their failings. He can have a life with Wash Bucket if he wants, but he can't have it while it's in someone else's body.


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

[User]
[Marvel] Why doesn't Scott Summers use power-supressing tech for his uncontrollable optic blasts?

Maybe he could wear it on a regular pair of glasses, or as a easily-removable bracelet. This way, Scott would be able to see in true colour.

[Assistant]
For Scott, the glasses are both a useful safety device and an essential psychological prop. They're a two-sided shield between himself and the world that abused him as a child, and which he now has the potential to devastate. They help keep people around him safe, but they also serve as an excuse for him to keep his distance from those people, to remain aloof and detached and therefore *safe*.

In addition to that, seeing the world entirely in shades of red serves as a constant reminder that he cannot afford to be complacent about his powers. He blinks wrong, and people die.


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

[User]
Since Salaries don't rise in proportion to value of a house, will we reach a point some years from now where very few will be able to afford a house?

I mean, we are already seeing that scenario. My brother bought a house in Bay area around 8 years ago at 600k whose value is now double, but salaries haven't doubled in 8 years. So the people graduating and starting to work 10 years from now will be effectively gated away from ever purchasing a house? (unless it's a 2 person family with both having very good salaries)

[Assistant]
Housing prices haven't doubled everywhere.  Prices go up as long as there is demand.  Demand in SF and bay area has been softening due to the rising costs of ownership (higher pricing, low inventory, rising interest rates)

SF and the bay area have experienced an unusual rise in proces and eventually people will look at job opportunities in other regions where housing is more affordable.

I know I've turned down work out there because the salary wasn't enough to offset the cost of living.

Your brother could now sell his house and move to a 2000 sqft lake house in Michigan, 40 minutes from downtown, and still have a few hundred thousand dollar buffer.


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

[User]
ELI5: How is the USA allowed to have active military bases in other countries?

I feel like we would never allow another country to set up a military base in our soil, yet we have tons of military bases set up in foreign countries? Why is that ok for us but not them?

[Assistant]
Usually it's because they sign treaties saying that we should be there. That's how it works.

Sometimes it's because they want protection (a bunch of Eastern European countries want them), other times it's part of trade negotiations (Destroyers for Bases program), other times they were bought or leased (Cuba), other times it's a condition imposed upon countries as terms of their surrender (Japan).

The reason other countries don't have bases here is because there's no point. Forcing us to allow bases obviously doesn't work, so that condition is out. Protection is also out, given that we're stronger than everyone else. Selling the land isn't something we need to do, not that it matters because no one else has the force projection to actually make use out of a base which is on the other side of the world.

That said, we do do tons of joint training with foreign soldiers on American soil. It's a pretty regular thing.


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

[User]
[Marvel] Why did the US Army not ask Captain America to resume service?

I would think that Cap would be pretty useful, and Im sure that he would do it in a heartbeat.

[Assistant] SHIELD got him first. By the time the Army would be in a position to make the offer, it's post-Chituari Invasion, and Cap just watched the government try to nuke NYC. He's probably not too keen on being part of a rigid chain of command at that point, and values being able to set his own agenda to some degree.


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

[User]
How long does it take to create a marine arch, like Darwin's Arch, and how long do they last?

On May 18th we heard the sad news that Darwin's Arch, a 500-foot tall formation in the pacific had collapsed.  This event seemed reminiscent of the collapse of another great marine arch, The Arch of Kerguelen roughly 100 years ago. That remote island arch was apparently over 1000 feet tall and, like the Darwin Arch, is now just a set of majestic pillars.  Were we humans just lucky to have been able to witness these formations? How long do they take to form? (It must be more than 100 years suggesting that the majestic arch collapse rate is higher than the creation rate -- at least in the short term). How long can they last?

[Assistant] So, geologic structures take a longggg time to shape into their magnificent forms. For example, the Grand Canyon took an estimated 5-6 million years. The arches likely required lower levels of sediment movement to form. Therefore, it would form over hundreds of thousands or possibly millions of years; it would also be visible in its current arch-like form for hundreds to thousands of years presumably. So you are right that we are just lucky to observe these arches in that window. A thousand years is very short in the geologic timescale.


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

[User]
[Yu-Gi-Oh!] Why would Kaiba create new rules in Battle City that hurt his deck more than others?

Needing 2 tributes to summon each of his Blue-Eyes White Dragons is so much worse for him when he could just summon them normally before. Plus, if he didn't need 3 tributes to bring out Obelisk he'd instead be able to use them to activate its instant-win effect. Sure these rules apply to everyone, but there are few cards out there that can match Blue-Eyes or Obelisk in terms of power, so making it harder to bring them out indirectly benefits anyone he's dueling against.

[Assistant]
Competitive balance and to prevent people from thinking the contest is rigged? If he's playing at a major disadvantage, then others can't think he's cheating.

Also, it may not be his decision to make. Remember, he's not the rights holder to Duel Monsters, that's Pegasus' company. If Pegasus thinks that he's holding the contest just to fuck as many people over as possible, he could issue a Cease And Desist order and yank the rights to Duel Monsters from Kaiba Corp's parks which no doubt get a lot of money for their holographic duelling tech.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] What happened to all the Trade Federation Battle Droids?

Youd think as big and far reaching as the galaxy is, we would have seen the odd battle droid, even a repurposed one, somewhere from Episode IV-VII...

[Assistant] Dismantled and re-purposed to supply the Imperial war machine. Most of the Confederate systems were supported by the larger trade organizations (The Banking Clan, Techno Union, as well as the Trade Federation). Pretty much bankrupt at the end of the war, their assets would be returned to Republic, now Imperial, control.


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

[User]
Is it possible to for a very loud sound to last for so short a time that humans can't actually hear it?

If a constant tone is emitted in the human hearing range for a second, I'll hear it. But it it's emitted for only a millisecond will I hear it? Microsecond? Note that this is not the same thing as asking how long my brain takes to process sounds, I'm asking how long the sound must exist before I can hear it. I'm wondering for example, if it is possible to play a loud sound for such a short period of time that no one hears it, even though air actually oscillated at a given frequency for some tiny period of time.

Likewise, if I play a constant tone for a few seconds, then another tone with a different frequency for a few seconds, I will probably be able to tell the frequencies were different. But what if they were only played for a few milliseconds? Does my ability to distinguish frequencies diminish if I hear the tone for less time?

[Assistant]
The human ear integrates over a period of about 0.1s to work out how loud a sound is. For sounds which are shorter than this, we hear them as impulses like clicks or explosions. We have difficulty judging the pitch of sounds at this length scale and they sound quieter. For a 1 millisecond impulse to sound as loud as a constant tone it must have a sound pressure level about 20dB greater.

As the sound gets shorter and shorter, it's frequency must increase. 1 cycle taking 1ms corresponds to 1000Hz so sounds shorter than 1ms are composed of frequencies higher than 1kHz. Human hearing reaches about 20kHz so the absolute limit of human hearing is probably about 0.05ms or 50microseconds.


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

[User]
[SCP, Hitchhiker's Guide] Are improbability levels and Hume levels directly correlated?

High levels of improbability allow for extremely random, maybe even *anomalous* events to occur. Would a Kant counter be going crazy in the Heart of Gold every time the Infinite Improbability Drive is activated?

[Assistant] No, Hume levels measure reality. Very improbable events still happen and are still real, theyre just extremely uncommon. The Improbability Drive makes a given possible event much more likely, but thats independent of how real the local conditions are at either end of the journey. If it did lower their Hume level, the rest of the universe would be pulled down to their level, and eventually the whole world might end up as a series of absurdist novels that get stranger and less well known later on in the story.


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

[User] Before they detonated the first atomic bomb, did they have a good idea of how big the explosion would be?

[Assistant]
The size (yield) of a fission explosion is directly a consequence of how many fission reactions take place, which in the kind of explosive design used in the Trinity test (an implosion design), is directly related to how well the compression of the bomb core is. So they could take various guesses as to how efficient the compression would be, and from that extrapolate to possible explosive yields.

There was considerable uncertainty as to whether the implosion design would work at all, and how efficient it would be. Some of the scientists suspected it would not work at all and there would be essentially no nuclear yield. Bets were taken by various senior scientists as to the possible yield: Oppenheimer (0.3 kt), Teller (45 kt), Kistiakowsky (1.4 kt), Bethe (8 kt), Ramsey (zero), Rabi (18 kt). You can see that most of the ones we know cluster rather low, with the head of the project (Oppenheimer) having one of the lowest (Teller's high bet is perhaps reflective of his own unimpeded enthusiasm for big explosions).

The test committee that made the final efficiency estimates thought it was likely to be 4-5 kt.

In the end, it was around 18-20 kt. So several factors higher than the test committee estimate, and higher than almost all of the bets. The bomb worked better than they thought.

One might wonder whether there was danger in being wrong on this, and while being _outrageously_ wrong could have been a problem, the _damage_ of nuclear weapons does not scale linearly but as a cubic root. So you have to multiply the yield by a factor of 8 in order to double the range of the damage. So being off by 4-5X does not really affect the safety at all. They had built in healthy safety margins into their planning with regards to acute effects. (Fallout was trickier than they had a much more ad hoc system for dealing with that.)

The best single overview of the Trinity is the book _The Day the Sun Rose Twice_ by Szasz.


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

[User]
I don't see any problem with voter ID Laws. CMV

I don't see the problem with requiring someone who wants to vote for the leaders of our country or on its issues to be able to identify themselves as a legal citizen. I think that if you want to affect public policy you should be able to easily prove that you are a legal citizen. I don't think that requiring an ID is an attack on any race or income level, any person, no matter their race or income, should be able to acquire some sort of Identification. I think that the only people that should be affecting our policies are those who can prove they have the legal right to do so.

[Assistant]
The problem with your rationale OP is that you are thinking of this as a rational person. Ideally anyone should be able to walk into the DMV, fill out a small form, show their SS card and get an ID in a week. The problem is it is not that easy. ID requirements vary from state to county. DMV hours make it difficult for the working poor. Fee's are applied, ridiculous rules. A county in NC only allows you to get your ID on the fifth Wednesday of the month. Several states will not allow student ID's but will accept gun permits. The DOJ found so many targeted and racist changes in Texas' voter law changes that they could not list them all when they overturned it.

These ID laws are not just saying bring in an ID to vote but are making the requirements to get an ID more difficult. That is the real issue. So to your point, No, requiring someone to show ID is not a problem, but the laws being passed are. They are specifically designed to target low income areas and areas with high minority and democrat voters.


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

[User] Why do people with cancer suffer from increased weight loss?

[Assistant]
* Tumor scells eat up a lot of calories since they grow uncontrollably.
* Decreased appetite because pain/nausea.
* All the "good for cancer" meals are also just healthy in general. as is most "good for cancer" behaviours like sleep and exercise.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does caffeine have a calming effect on some individuals with ADHD, as opposed to making their traits increase?

[Assistant]
Clinical psychologist here.

It's not that caffeine produces a calming effect, it's that caffeine improves function of the frontal lobe which is responsible for executive function, which oversees other operations in the brain.

ELI5:

Think of an ADHD brain as one of those old-school factories where the foreman's office was above the line, except the foreman is sleeping and so normal operations slip. Caffeine (and other stimulants) wake him up so he can do his job overseeing the work.

Non-ELI5:

There are two predominant models of ADHD. Barkley's inhibition model and Rapport's working memory model. Barkley's model suggests its difficult not to blurt out the answer.  Rapport's model posits (if we use a metaphor) that if a behavior was a 'photograph' , that those with ADHD struggle to hold that 'photograph' in mind as a guide for their behavior.


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

[User]
ELI5:The Sony leak: How did hackers manage to transfer 100TB of data out of Sony without being noticed?

Maybe I'm missing something, but my employer doesn't have nearly the amount of money or resources that Sony has, and as far as I know we're not a target for corporate espionage.  Still, if you do anything wonky on the network (upload/download large amounts of data, visit NSFW sites, etc...) you will get a visit from the IS department.

How did hackers manage to transfer 100TB of data out of Sony's network without anyone stopping them?

[Assistant] Sony has over 140,000 employees spread out across 10+ countries (who knows how many different offices?).. and they probably routinely transmit large amounts of data because of all the Movies that are constantly in production. 100TB is probably "chump change" for network-transfers when you're working on big movies that have lots of special effects and CGI and data being transferred between different Contractors or production-houses,etc.


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

[User]
ELI5:How come after hundreds of millions of years and 5 Extinction Level Events throughout Earth's history, humans are the only species to become "intelligent"?

Why is it that humans are the only ones that have created a civilization in the entire history of the earth? Billions of years and 5 mass extinctions and Earth comes up with us *now*? Why not earlier? Why not another species?

[Assistant]
You're asking this as though being intelligent is something special that all species should strive for. It isn't. Being able to survive is the best ability you can have from the evolutionary perspective.

Why is it that the mantis shrimp is the only species to evolve their awesome punch? Why are beavers the only species to be so good at building dams? Why are peregrine falcons the only species to evolve to swoop down and attack before anybody realizes what's happened? Because it fills their niche in the environment and lets them survive. So do we.

In much the same way that a slightly slower falcon would lose out to the faster ones if it tried to compete for the same food any other species that got intelligent and started building societies with tools, manual dexterity and all that would compete with us and either we'd win or they would. We had this fight already with other hominid species. We won.


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

[User] [MCU] How would a prison cell for Thanos be designed and constructed?

[Assistant]
Thanos is extremely strong and durable, but he doesn't have any additional "powers" inherent to him, no energy blasts or telekineses or whatever.

It's not like he's Magneto where they need to place him in a specially constructed cell made of non-ferrous compounds.

So whatever cell Thanos is in could be of a normal design, but built with very durable materials to prevent him from simply bashing his way through.


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

[User]
ELI5:Why is H202 called hydrogen peroxide whereas other combinations of anything with 2 oxide is called [x]-dioxide.

Iirc di is based on the latin word for the number two so it makes sense to me that they would be called dioxides. Why is that not the case for H202 ?

Example of what i mean:

H202 = hydrogen peroxide.
SiO2  = Silicon dioxide.

Is it because the the O are "linked" together ?

H-O-O-H as opposed to O-Si-O ?

Not sure if that last part is correct.

Thanks.

[Assistant]
"Per" also means "For each". One per person means one for each person.

So hydrogen **per**oxide means one hydrogen atom per oxygen atom. H2 and O2. Silicon **di**oxide means two oxygen atoms per silicon atom, carbon dioxide the same but for carbon.

(edit: formatting)


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

[User] [DC] If Superman is completely immune to all terrestrial viruses, how come Poison Ivy can easily control him?

[Assistant] Because her method of control isn't via a virus, it's a mind control pollen. Superman is vulnerable to the Green, and even though her control over it is limited, it's sufficient enough for her to hijack both him and his internal flora.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do directors start the music or sound effects of the next scene before the video cuts to the next scene?

Is there a storytelling purpose for this? Is there psychology behind it?

[Assistant]
Professional editor here

It's called a J cut (if the audio for the next scene starts before cutting to it) or an L cut (if audio from the first scene carries into the first shot of the second scene.) It resembles the look of the editing timeline with audio running under video.

It's basically because hard cuts / large visual changes of footage and sound simultaneously are jarring. It's why jump scares are so effective.

The sound allows our brains to smoothly transition from one location or situation to another because it's a super unnatural thing for our brains to process.

Edit: imagine anytime you entered a new room through a door or got in your car and the ambience of the space changed all at once. The transition or sound of a room or space is natural for us to understand how our state of being and placement is changing.


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

[User] (DC Comics) Where were the Lantern Corps when Krypton was destroyed?

[Assistant] Tomar-Re was the GL of that sector. He gathered an element called Stellarium that would reduce the tectonic pressure on the planet, but on the way there he was blinded by a solar flare and dropped it. He gathered what he could and proceeded to Krypton while totally blind, and his vision only cleared just in time to see it explode.


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

[User] Why can completely paralyzed people often blink voluntarily?

[Assistant] Blinking is a motor function controlled by the facial nerve, the seventh cranial nerve. Cranial nerves come directly from the brainstem, bypassing the spinal cord. Cranial nerve reflexes are often used to assess levels of brain function (diencephalon, mesencephalon, and medulla).


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

[User]
ELI5 How game developers write and design games for the XBOX 360, PS3, and PC simultaneously?

I always wondered how a studio can write a game for the XBox 360, PC, and PS3 at the same time and have all versions come out identical. Do they just make one version of it? Are there different teams that work on different consoles? How's it work? Keep in mind please that I know absolutely nothing about writing code or designing games.

[Assistant]
One of the big ideas in programming is *abstraction*. Basically, this means hiding away as many details as you can about things, in order to get a higher level view of it. Using a web browser is a good example of abstraction: In order to view a web page, you do not need to know anything about how the internet works. You just give the browser an address, and it does all of the work of finding the right server, requesting the page, and then rendering the page once it comes in. The details of how it does this are not important to you. In fact, Mozilla or Google could change how it works entirely, and as long as the browser still gets you your page, you don't really have to care.

People writing games try to do the same thing. They try to add abstractions to their code, so that the details of what platform they're running on end up mattering very little. Inevitably there will have to be some platform specific code. But, in a well written application, this portion will be relatively small.


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

[User]
Eli5 what is tar and where does it come from or how is it made?

I know I must sound like a child, but I have always wondered. Like, is there a difference in the old-timey tar they used to waterproof canoes and the stuff they use to fix our roads today? What about the tar from naturally occurring tar pits? That cant possibly be enough tar for all of our tar needs, so where is the rest of the tar coming from? Can anyone make tar? Are there tar factories? I have so many questions. Also, my flair may be wrong, apologies is so.

[Assistant]
You're actually asking about three different things.

The tar used to waterproof boats and tar-and-feather people was wood tar, made from the roots and wood of pine and occasionally birch trees.

A second type of tar, discovered in the 1660s, is coal tar. It is used, among other things, to treat skin conditions.

The tar used on roads, however, is sometimes called mineral tar, but is more commonly known as asphalt or bitumen. It's derived from petroleum and can both occur naturally and be distilled.

One of the biggest practical differences between bitumen and wood tar is that the former is a lot hotter. This is because wood tar starts to melt at 140F (60C) while asphalt/bitumen mix is often between 270 F and 325 F (132163 C).


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

[User] ELI5: What is hacking actually, and why are movies still always getting it wrong?

[Assistant]
Hacking is basically just getting a piece of software (or hardware) to do something it wasn't meant to do.

Why movies get it wrong? Because it's not entertaining to show some guys sitting around, trying hours upon hours to find some weakness they can exploit. There's no thrilling "who can type commands faster" duels with the admin or anything... it's really just someone sitting on their computer, trying to figure out the internal workings of something in order to exploit them.


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

[User] [Witcher Games] Do Geralt, Triss, Dandelion, and the other Witchers have a Rivian accent? Their accents sound "neutral", while everyone else on the continent sounds like various Europeans.

[Assistant]
Geralt uses the "of Rivia" postfix to give him a semblance of a home and history. It makes him appear more human to his clients. He even learned to do a Rivian accent.

But he is not from Rivia, he is, like all Witchers a foundling either left at Kaer Morhen or slipped under the arms of a drunk Witcher in a tavern.

The same goes for the Witcher Code. There is no such thing. It's a fiction Witchers use to claim to not have to do or talk about something if they don't want to. And Geralt mentions that claiming to have a code makes you appear more respectable in front of a client.

Ironically Geralt does become a Knight of Rivia in the books when he saves Queen Meve of Lyria and Rivia during a Niflgaardian ambush and can henceforth call himself truthfully 'Geralt of Rivia'.


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

[User] ELI5 how denim became so widespread and why blue became the color of choice?

[Assistant] Denim is so popular because it's a relatively durable material that's still pretty comfortable to wear and yet is cheap to boot, so it's pretty much the perfect material for the physical laborers that were the majority of people until very recently. Blue on the other hand is because blue dye was the cheapest, blue also doesn't show stains compared to many other colors.


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

[User] [ELI5] What does it mean to be "grounded" against electricity, and why does it keep you safe?

[Assistant]
There is two facts that we have to establish here first in terms of safety around electricity.

1. Electricity hurts you when it flows through you.
2. Electricity prefers to flow through path with least resistance. Like water, if one pipe is small and the other is big, water would flow more through the bigger pipe. In other words, electricity is lazy.

Now, according to fact 1, if there is little to no electricity flows through you, then you're fine.

According to fact 2, electricity doesn't flow if you have significantly higher resistance than other path.

So, usually, what we do is:

1. We provide a superbly easy way for "rogue" electricity to flow. This is usually accomplished by having the machine "grounded" (having an almost direct connection to literal ground)
2. We make ourselves as resistant as possible, via rubber-gloves and shoes, usually.


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

[User]
[The Matrix] Why did the drone flush Neo after he woke up? Did it consider him dead or was it considered too difficult to plug someone back in?

If I recall, the pills were just tracer programs and didn't do anything except help the crew find Neo among the thousands of banks of tubes.

[Assistant] Once someone is unplugged they can't really be plugged back in. Cypher might have been the exception but seems to take a lot of extra energy and doesn't seem to be worth it just for a rando. So the next rational choice is to flush the human and just let him die, then recycle him and use him for food. If Morpheus's ship didn't locate him, he would have drowned.


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

[User] ELI5 - How does a dishwasher save more water by being on for hours compared to hand washing dishes?

[Assistant] It sprays the dishes with water for a minute or two and doesn't drain it. It then recycles that water to continue spraying the dishes over and over. It then uses fresh water to rinse them off. When people wash dishes by hand they often just leave the water running which winds up using more water.


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

[User] What does the term "imaginary time" mean Stephan Hawking uses in the context of cosmology (or if it's related what does it mean in quantum mechanics)?

[Assistant]
It's a mathematical trick which you can use to simplify certain problems, or connect different areas of physics. The underlying idea is this: when we talk about space and time as this one thing called *spacetime*, what we mean is that we're defining a notion of distance that combines both *spatial distances* between places and *time intervals* between events. Remember the Pythagorean theorem? If you have two points separated on the x-axis by a distance x, and so on, then the distance s between them is given by

s^2 = x^2 + y^2 + z^(2).

Now let's say we have two *events*. They're separated spatially by distances x, y, and z along those axes, and they happen some time interval t apart. The *spacetime distance* between them is (ignoring gravity, which changes this)

s^2 = -(ct)^2 + x^2 + y^2 + z^(2),

where c is the speed of light. Notice the minus sign in front of time. That minus sign is what makes the time dimension "timelike." This means that if you replace time with an imaginary variable, i.e., write t = i where  is some imaginary number, then we get rid of that minus sign, and the spacetime distance becomes just a spatial distance,

s^2 = (c)^2 + x^2 + y^2 + z^(2).

That's just the *spatial* Pythagorean theorem in four-dimensional space (not spacetime).

 is imaginary time. If we write our problems in terms of , rather than t, then the time direction looks just like any spatial direction. It stops being special. This makes it easier to mathematically understand certain problems. But it's fundamentally just that, a mathematical tool.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] How do even the specialists on muggle culture and technology know almost nothing when there are muggle-born witches and wizards?

I call for an overhaul of the section of the Ministry which deals with muggles and their inventions.

Muggles seem completely foreign to the wizarding world, but there are muggle-born individuals such as Hermoine who were raised until 11 by muggle parents. While they may not leave for Hogwarts with much muggle knowledge, they have the basics, and come to the wizarding world free from the taint of our knowledge.

In addition they were raised in muggle culture, and even if they knew they were different, they most likely did things the other kids did, went to muggle talking pictures, played muggle ball, etc etc.

Especially in Hermoine's case, the dedicated student she is, she appears the perfect candidate to advance muggle studies quite a bit, and if she were so inclined, it would not be very out of character for her to continue essentially continuing studying muggle math and science because she can, or for another individual, because homesickness and familiarity drive them to specialize in muggle studies in service of the wizards.

And what about Squibs? Surely they could be employed to teach muggle subjects to wizards who are in charge of studying muggles. Just pay them a little gold and set up a simple charm to detect if the teacher is telling the truth to prevent sabotage.

The Ministry has never had a very large compliment of staff for these studies, but for Ravenclaw's sake, we could at least have a competent one. In all the years muggle-born witches and wizards have existed, why have we not taken advantage of this resource right under our noses?

[Assistant] Well, this is a bit awkward.  Even though nobody comes out and says it, the Ministry is still pretty heavy on the "blood purity" thing.  The entire muggle department is a concession from years ago to quiet down some rabble-rousers and has been nothing more than a dumping ground for less-than-useful employees.  Getting anyone to see it as anything other than a joke or a punishment detail is next to impossible with the current round of staffing at the Ministry.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does our brains treat boredom as an undesirable state?

Considering that, in nature, not having anything to worry about and having all necessities fulfilled seems like a good thing, why are we wired to think that boredom is bad?

[Assistant]
It seems like not having anything to worry about is good, and objectively it is, but our brains evolved in a situation where that was simply never possible.

Between threats of predators, other people, the time between meals, the growing of crops, the creation of shelter, the building of fire, the dangers of fire, the finding of water, making sure the water is good to drink, and so on and so forth, our brains just need to be active and alert.

And the less there is to stimulate us, even if it is just some bright flashing lights and pleasant sounds, the more our brains will look for some stimulation.

Even when we sleep, parts of our brain remain active, listening for intruders, seeing if the sun is up, and considering what happened in the day.

It is a paranoid and ever vigilant organ, by design.


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

[User] [Resident Evil] Why would researchers leave behind tons of bullets everywhere?

[Assistant] Umbrella had a wide spread problem with employees passing the time by gambling at work.  As a measure to curb gambling, Umbrella forbade its employees from bringing any cash on site.  Not to be dissuaded, the security staff soon began to uses bullets as poker chips and black market currency.   Employees from other departments began to adopt to using the same currency, which is why you find bullets in so many random desks, file cabinets, etc., throughout so many Umbrella work sites and research labs.


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

[User]
How do particle accelerators isolate certain particles if particles are unavoidably everywhere? Aren't there many unaccounted for particles in the way of observation?

From my understanding, one of the many things particle accelerators are used for is making two or more particles collide at a high speed.

How can these two particles be isolated, and then properly aligned for a collision without other particles  getting in the way? And if scientists want to collide particular particles, how do they physically transfer the desired particle into the accelerator?

[Assistant]
We dont work with individual particles at a time, we create beams of many particles. The particles start in a source, where you usually heat up some material, maybe shoot microwaves at it, and create a plasma. Once youve got it in a plasma form, you can manipulate it using electric fields to pull out particles of a certain charge (positive or negative). From then on, its just guiding the beam around with electric (at low energies) and magnetic (at high energies) fields, and accelerating them with electric fields.

The process of extracting particles from the source is not 100% efficient, but you still get a beam out.

When the beam is still at low energies, focusing is done with electrostatic fields. Once the beam is moving pretty fast, it becomes more efficient to focus them with magnetic fields. In either case, electrodes or coils of wire are shaped in just the right way to provide focusing of the beam just like a lens focuses light.

As for other particles getting in the way, everywhere the beam propagates is usually held under vacuum (for charged particle beams).


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

[User]
ELI5: The differences between aspirin, ibuprofen, and acetaminophen

as far as I know these are all completely interchangeable when dealing with aches and pains (especially headaches)

But how do each of these drugs work, and is one better than the other depending on underlying problem?

[Assistant]
aspirin: blood thinner. this is why it's effective for heart disease.

ibuprofin: anti-inflammatory. that's why it's effective for swollen things.

tylenol: general pain killer. that's why it's better for generic/non-specific pain.

that's about as simple as i can make it.


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

[User]
Why did every single species in the Homo genus except for Homo sapiens sapiens go extinct?

From what I can gather Homo neanderthalensis for were intelligent enough to make tools out of bone and rock for example, so why couldn't they evolve alongside what would eventually become modern humans? Did our species' "merge"?

[Assistant]
To a first approximation, every species that has ever lived is now extinct, so the unusual thing is that H. sapiens is still around.

Species don't last all that long, geologically. The average is a couple of million years, but much shorter periods are not unusual.  Most of human ancestors and cousins probably did last around that long.  Homo sapiens is only a couple hundred thousand years old, and Neanderthals probably lasted about twice that long before going extinct.  So neanderthals were arguably more successful than sapiens so far; we have another 200,000 years to show we can do better.

What's more, for the majority of H. sapiens species' lifespan, multiple Homo species did coexist.  Neanderthals and sapiens coexisted for about 150,000 of the 200,000 years sapiens has been around; probably so did Denisovans, and "hobbits" were around for a fair bit of that too.  So it's only the most recent quarter of our species lifespan that we've been alone.

H. sapiens and H. neandertalis did interbreed, but the species didn't merge.  Successful interbreeding was extremely rare, on the order of one or two successful interbreeding per generations (interbreeding per se was probably rare, but the hybrids were probably subfertile at best -- male hybrids were probably completely sterile).  That's nowhere near enough to merge the species.

No one knows why Neanderthals went extinct, or why sapiens succeeded them.  There may well have been interspecies conflict, but one most important point was the Neanderthals and sapiens needed different ecosystems, and climate change led to Neanderthals running out of the denser forest they needed for their ambush-type hunting, with sapiens preferring the lighter forests and the half-open savannahs that were left behind.  Quite possibly it was a combination -- in previous climate changes, Neanderthals were able to cope with the new environment reasonably well, but this time there was a smaller, faster, better-adapted cousin already there, competing for food and resources, and that may have been enough to push them over the edge.


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

[User] ELI5: If everything in the universe want to go from unstable state to more stable one, than why destruction is more easier than building?

[Assistant] Because a pile of rubble is a much more stable state of things then a standing building. Push a building hard enough and it collapses into rubble - unstable. Push a pile of rubble and it remains a pile of rubble - stable. So the universe wants the building (unstable) to become a pile of rubble (stable), therefore destruction is simple - the universe is helping you. Not so the other way round.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does the candy Pop Rocks work?

Can someone explain to me how the fuck these rocks keep popping in my mouth? Also is there any other food that "pops" in your mouth like Pop Rocks?

[Assistant] The syrup mixture is pressurized with carbon dioxide which forms pressurized bubbles. When your saliva or teeth break through to those bubbles, the pressure releases. Even the tiniest pieces and shards contain more bubbles, so it will continue to pop til melted.


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

[User] [Anger Management] How Legal are the methods used by Dr. Buddy Rydell on Dave?

[Assistant]
Highly illegal. Therapists are supposed to have a clear boundary for both their own safety and the safety of the patient, and Buddy repeatedly violated it such as seducing Dave's girlfriend and, as revealed in the ending, arranging the incident on the plane.

Dave could sue Dr Buddy Rydell into the ground for malpractice and harassment. Hell, he could press charges against *every other character in the movie*.


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

[User]
ELI5:Why is printer ink so expensive?

All printer ink is extremely overpriced. I understand that the manufacturers want profit, but the prices of printer ink are outrageous.

[Assistant]
Yes, the manufacturers want *outrageous* profits.

It's actually a really good strategy. You already have the printer, so you **have** to buy printer ink, or just keep it lying around the house. They make money off of this and instead sell the printers for hella cheap.

Also, makes you wonder what would happen if oil companies were owned by car companies!


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

[User]
ELI5: If hormones are secreted into blood, and blood needs to pump around the body, how does adrenaline act so quickly

Ive always wondered how the moment of drama and that sinking feeling happen together instantly. But the chemical has to be secreted, get into the blood, and then the blood needs to be pushed via the heart to the brain.

How does this happen so fast? The chemical must be secreted in a way that the blood near the gland gets a very high concentration and I don't think it would diffuse that fast to be evenly distributed throughout the body. Adrenaline is one that comes to mind.

[Assistant]
Blood travels through the body at roughly 3-4 miles per hour. This is at rest and just an average though. When your body wants to get ready for a fight or flight situation, your heart rate goes up.

Typically a drug injected in the arm, at rest speeds, will hit the brain in just a few seconds. This is assuming a healthy average heart rate, roughly 70-85 bpm.

A fight or flight response drives the heart rate up to 115-140. The upper bound of which is twice the lower range of resting heart rate. Its not quite doubling the speed, perhaps, but its making it much faster.

Adrenaline is produced just above the kidneys in special glands. This is roughly in the middle of your body. With a blood speed, under stress, of up to 6-8 miles per hour, the hormone will reach your heart, muscles, and brain, in less than a second and a half. It takes a negligible amount of time to enter your blood, and once there its running around body faster than a jogging person.


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

[User] [General] If a group of aquatic alien refugees wish to build a small settlement in international waters, whose official permission would they need?

[Assistant]
Noone's, there are no laws regarding that because the law simply doesn't acknowledge extraterrestrial entities so the law would have to be invented first and before that the fishmen would completely legally move in the waters. And those waters being international, there probably wouldn't be anything stopping them even if they were Earthlings or if the law accounted for extraterrestrials.

So if the fish dudes got access to Earth's lawbooks, they could not only move in, but tell anyone harassing them to buzz off in the language of the law. Without the lawbooks they could just tell them straight up to buzz off.


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

[User]
Why doesn't the greenhouse effect deflect energy from the sun before it hits the earth?

I have been recently looking into the greenhouse effect out of curiosity, and one thing that I have found is that the greenhouse effect warms the earth as when energy from the sun hits the earth, most of it is absorbed, and the rest is reflected back into space. The energy reflected back into space, however, first goes through the atmosphere, and some energy is reflected back into the Earth.

---

My question is that should some of the energy from the sun be reflected back into space, and because there is more energy coming from the sun that reflecting off the earth, why doesn't the earth become cooled from this effect?

[Assistant]
The radiation that comes from the Sun is not the same as the radiation that is "reflected" by the Earth. And this causes the difference in transparency as the radiation tries to cross our atmosphere.

Taking a few steps back. All objects radiate electromagnetic radiation. The amount and frequency of the radiation depends on the temperature of the object. Hotter objects will radiate higher frequency (=more energetic) and higher intensities of radiation. This radiation is called thermal or blackbody radiation.

The radiation of the Sun matches the spectrum of a hypothetical black body with the same temperature as the surface of the Sun quite well. The solar radiation has most of its energy in the visible and infrared parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. The Earth is much cooler than the Sun and it's radiation is therefore shifted towards lower frequencies, which means further into the infrared range.

Now, as it turns out, what we call greenhouse gases tend to not absorb radiation in the frequency-range that is typical for the Sun, while it absorbs the radiation that comes from the Earth far more readily. After absorption, the molecule will reemit the absorbed radiation in a random direction. So while the absorbed radiation was traveling away from the surface of the Earth, the random nature of the reemitted radiation means that about a large part of that radiation is transmitted back towards the Earth.

So the reason that solar energy isn't reflected back into space in the same way as radiation from the Earth is reflected back towards the ground is because the Sun and the Earth emit radiation in different frequencies and molecules such as CO2 tend to absorb and reemit radiation from the Earth while letting solar radiation through.


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

[User]
Do electronic devices work as normal in the vacuum of space?

Lets say, an astronaut conducting a space walk pulled out his iPhone without any casing, protection etc would it work as normal?

As I'm typing this I'm feeling stupid as I've realised it would just freeze wouldn't it?

If it did have protective casing would it work as normal?

[Assistant] Actually the broblem with most modern electronics in vacuum is overheating. Since in vacuum there is no medium to dissipate heat effectively and it will cause overheating without sophisticated cooling mechanisms (which an iPhone doesn't have).


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

[User] ELI5 Why cant you remember exactly when you fell asleep?

[Assistant] As your brain shuts down certain functions to fall asleep, information stops being processed by your working memory. This, in turn, means that the short term memory stops receiving information and therefore has nothing to pass on to long term memory. In other words, youre too sleepy to notice when you fall asleep.


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

[User] ELI5: How does flossing make your gums healthier/not bleed?

[Assistant] Flossing makes them healthier because you remove food that sits on them essentially removing the exposure to foreign bacteria deposits. Over time they stop bleeding because just like most parts on your body, the tissue thickens due to adaptation.


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

[User]
[Witcher franchise] Is being a Witcher a good life?

Compared to the life of an average human in the North, is being a Witcher that bad of a gig?The few witchers I know complain a lot about their fate, but then again, so does almost everybody else.There are of course pros and cons, but the average boy who becomes a witcher would otherwise most likely die in the gutter, become a beggar, thief, or worse, a farmhand.

CON: You are forced to undergo murderous training and excruciating Trials

PRO: The alternative is most likely dying in the gutter as an unwanted child

.

CON: Your job is dangerous, violent and dirty, you will most likely not die of old age

PRO: The most likely alternative is being a farmer, which will break your back at 40

.

CON: You are a mutant pariah that people fear and hate

PRO: you are also a badass hero whom people respect and are thankful to

.

CON: You run from one job to another, often sleep under the sky

PRO: once you do the job, you often get A LOT of cash

.

CON: you are sterile and cannot have children

PRO: you are sterile and can have all the sex you want. You live very long and have time to find friends and "family"

.

CON: Your order is declining, there is fewer witchers every year

PRO: means there is more job for you, and better pay

.

CON: Your life puts you in danger all the time

PRO: You are extremely capable in kicking danger's ass and getting paid for it.

.

CON: Sorcerers and mages have unhealthy interest in you

PRO: Sorceresses and witches have an unhealthy interest in you.

.

CON: Humans distrust you

PRO: Non-humans trust you far more than they trust humans.

.

CON: You spend your childhood and teen years in a brutal bootcamp/school

PRO: You get the best rounded education that even princes rarely get

.

CON: Your emotions are dulled by the chemicals you took and your upbringing

PRO: dulled emotions come in handy when you live in a violent world

.

etc.

What do you think?

[Assistant]
No, one of the themes of the books is that Geralt is viewed by humanity as a monster. He doesnt have normal human relations hes a freak show. His friends are other freak shows.

He almost always has no money because humans live in cities and can handle *most* monsters that live in the wild.

Hes broke, ugly, a mutant, has very few close friends and his occupation is slowly going away.


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

[User] ELI5 How do Saturns rings exist? Shouldnt the debris trapped in its gravity just float all over?

[Assistant]
The rings exist the same way earth or the moon exists. The rocks are pulled in by gravity, but their lateral momentum is so fast that they never actually fall into the planet. They just keep revolving.

Early in the life of Saturn there would have been lots more rocks, floating in all different directions. But the ones that were too far out were lost, and the ones that were too far in crashed into Saturn. The only ones that survived are the ones that match this phenomenon.


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

[User]
[Tron] What determines the color and pattern of a program's glowing bits?

MCP and CLU's forces do tend to be red or orange, Tron was blue, Flynn, Quora, Sam were white, but so were Gem and Zeus.
Do the patterns and colors have any significance, or are they just aesthetic?

[Assistant]
Coding style, primarily.  You'll find that programmers tend to create programs all in the same color.  When a program's code is altered, the color changes to match the programming style of the programmer ultimately responsible for the change in code.  It's not function, it's not just the user log... note that many programs share the same color even when we know for certain they had different users... and we've seen Flynn write programs in more than one color, but coding style seems to fit.

Different programmers at the corporation are likely following the same style guide, so their code comes out in the same color.  A programmer whose style shifts over time due to experience or preference will find their programs changing color as well.

I mean, we may not know for certain, but it looks quite likely to me.  Indentation, comma space, use of loops vs recursion, little or big endian, 32 vs 64 bit compiler use, makefile build flags, shared libraries, use of header files... all these sorts of things combine into a unique coding style that can at once be shared between different programmers, or unique between different programmers, or even change over time with a single programmer.


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

[User] ELI5: Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).

[Assistant]
SIDS is the sudden, unexpected death of an infant who is less than 1 year old when there is no other identifiable cause.

We don't know what causes it because it's a catch-all label.  It's kind of like checking "other" on a multiple choice question.  If the baby was healthy and there's nothing else obviously wrong we call it SIDS.

That said, it typically happens 1) to infants between 2-4 months 2) while they are sleeping and 3) the "Back to Sleep" campaign has made death from SIDS somewhat rarer.

The "Back to Sleep" campaign is a public health awareness campaign telling parents to put their kids to sleep on their backs instead of their stomachs and away from any big puffy blankets.  (There are other things that have been related to SIDS, though, like genetics or parents who smoke.)

So: many SIDS deaths are probably caused by some sort of suffocation or something similar.  But not all of them!


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] When did Snape intend to drop his double agent guise?

As late as mid-way through the battle of Hogwarts Snape was still deeply undercover and an advisor to Voldemort. When did he expect to turn heel fully?

In the forbidden forest? In the courtyard? Only after Nagini died? It would look awful suspicious to reveal good intentions after Voldemort died without his direct intervention.

[Assistant] It seems to me that the mission was only to be over once Voldemort was truly defeated. Im assuming he had some sort of insurance to prove he was good if he survived until then. Of course, its entirely possible that he fully intended to go into exile or even simply go to Azkaban once the war was over. Its even possible that he intended to sacrifice himself in some way before it was all over.


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

[User] [DC] What does the justice leauge think of death penalty? Was any villain ever given death penalty after being arrested?

[Assistant]
Most of them don't like it but if its all done by the book beyond a reasonable doubt they'll allow it to happen.

The Joker and Catwoman but Batman saved them both from getting executed from crimes they did not commit.

There are a lot of competent lawyers who make sure Supervillains avoid the death penalty, plus Amanda Waller needs to have a robust pool of candidates for the Suicide Squad.


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

[User]
[DC] What's the public's opinion of Robin?

I can't see many people being in favor of a young child being out there, fighting crime and constantly in harm's way.

[Assistant] There was one story line, I've forgotten what it was called, where they had "The Robins". Which was just a bunch of teenagers of no particular ability who were inspired by Robin to go out and protect the public. So Robin had a fan following.


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

[User] [Teen Titans] Why are the villians at The Hive getting a full education and school curriculum with sports while the Teen Titans just seem to hang out and train physically/magically?

[Assistant]
Wasnt Brother Blood casually brainwashing them while he was at it? Id think HIVE is more like a loosely aligned organization comprised of separate units-Blood was just running the local chapter and on a power trip.

As for the Titans, only two of them have authority figures who theyd have to listen to and both are actively rebelling against them for a variety of reasons. As long as they keep up training and respond to threats as they come while not causing mass destruction, who cares what they do?


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

[User] ELI5: Why is mercury so dangerous?

[Assistant] Mercury replaces calcium, sodium, and iodine in body chemistry, disrupting the workings of these dependent bodily functions. For example, your thyroid will absorb mercury instead of iodine, it will disrupt your immune system functions. Your body uses calcium and sodium to transfer oxygen through cell membranes, mercury disrupts this transport system; it raises cell PH. Mercury causes inflammation.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is it that when you look at something very bright it leaves a mark that floats in your field of vision when your eyes are opened or closed?

[Assistant]
At the back of your eyes, in the cells called rods and cones, there are little bits of pigment. The pigment absorbs photonspieces of lightof certain wavelengths, depending on what color that cell handles.

When a photon hits a molecule of pigment, the molecule of pigment chemically splits and gives off an electrical impulse. This impulse is picked up by the sensory neurons and related to the brain.

The problem is that now the pigment is broken. If something very bright is in your field of view, all the pigment in that spot on your retina will break. Youll run out of gas.

That means when you look away, even the normal impulses that would trigger signals in that color dont work from that spot of the retina. We interpret that as a spot or mark in our vision (or also that kind of illusion where you look at a funky-colored image for a while then look at a white blank space and you see the color it was supposed to be as an afterimage).

Eventually, the pigment molecules reassemble themselves and your vision goes back to normal (unless you damaged your retina), but this takes some timea few minutes, usually.


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

[User] ELI5: What's actually happening within a standard computer as it's booting up?

[Assistant]
### First Stage Boot Loader (Your Motherboard's Firmware)

1. Power comes on. Motherboard chip is physically programmed to go to a known location where it expects to find a boot loader.
2. The motherboard chip executes the boot loader, which tells it put some instructions into memory for the CPU. The instructions say look at the very beginning of Drive 1, Drive 2, DVD-drive, and USB port in that exact order.
2. Motherboard chip tells CPU to go execute those instructions that it just loaded into memory.
3. CPU reads instructions (which say go look at the beginning of Drive 1) and so it goes and looks at the beginning of Drive 1
4. If it finds a program at the beginning of drive 1 (ie. a Master Boot Record), it reads the MBR and does whatever the MBR says
5. If it doesn't find an MBR, it goes to the next instruction from step 2, which was look at the beginning of drive 2. This repeats until an MBR is found or there's no more instructions and the computer craps out
6. Once an MBR is found, it (the MBR) tells the CPU to load some more stuff into memory and then tells the CPU to execute that stuff. This stuff is the second-stage boot loader.

### Second-Stage Bootloader (GRUB, BOOTMGR, etc.)
1. The second-stage boot loader starts loading the kernel, where the device drivers live
2. It then figures out what operating system to load or may even hand off to another boot loader (like a dual-boot linux/windows machine)
3. It checks to see if the operating system told it to install some stuff before you shut it down last time, and if it did, will do those installs
4. It then loads the preliminary instructions for the operating system into memory.
5. It hands off to the OS by telling the CPU to go execute the operating system instructions it just loaded

### The Operating System (Ubuntu, Windows, OSX)

1. The operating system makes sure all the drivers loaded up
2. The OS checks itself to make sure everything is okay and that all the updates went through fine. It may end up needing to do more updates and will just restart your computer again, in which case start over from the top
3. Your OS loads things that it needs to work. This is usually the process manager, permissions stuff, watchdogs, and base services (like display service, time service, disk services, etc)
3. The OS starts to load services, that you, the user have set for your startup. This includes establishing your wireless connection, your anti virus, RealPlayer, chat service, Steam, etc.
4. The OS presents you with the loaded system (usually a login screen)


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

[User] ELI5 Why do venomous animals have the potential in killing humans yet only eat small animals?

[Assistant]
Most them have venom because they need their prey to stop struggling immediately, maybe it's because they are slow and they need their prey to stop running before it gets far, or maybe because it wants it's prey to die before it can fight back.

In both these cases they need venom that is strong enough to kill in seconds, minutes or hours is far too long and wouldn't be anywhere near as useful. A good example is the cone snail, it throws poison darts at fish, it needs to kill the fish so fast that it can't outswim a snail. It's venom is that strong, and it does stop a fish from swimming in about a second.

Anyways, venom that can kill a fish or mouse in a second tends to be quite strong, and it's still deadly to things much much larger, even if it takes hours or days to kill them.


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

[User]
[General] Would super strength individuals be able to wield objects heavier than them?

Like a 200lb super with super strength be able to wield a 200 lb sword?

My question is less about strength and more about center of gravity and balance.

[Assistant] Almost everyone with super-strength also has some form of super-anchoring or dampening, or something, as well, to let them do things like stop falling planes without ripping a hole in the undercarriage, or wield a sword four times their size without flying around like the object physics in an early-access video game, or catch falling damsels without the damsel exploding.


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

[User] [MTG] Has anyone told a planeswalker to "Get off my plane"?

[Assistant]
Yes. You can use spells such as Brutal Expulsion or Merciless Eviction or Vraska's Contempt to really get them to leave your plane, but if you can throw magic like that around, you're likely a Planeswalker yourself.

The real issue is that while Planeswalkers can be defeated by non-magical means, such as throwing hordes of goblins at them, or perhaps many many many squirrels, they are stubborn and don't tend to give up unless you beat them into submission. So yeah, unless you've got spells that can exile them, or an army, you're unlikely to get them to leave by just asking.


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

[User]
eli5 how do bugs stick to walls???

Like spiders, or ants, or just anything that can stick to walls?? Lizards too!! How??

[Assistant] They all have their own variation of surface-area increasing adaptations that allow them to stick to walls. Like lizards have a bunch of tiny ass hairs on their feet that allow them to stick to walls and ceilings. Suction cups, tiny hairs, and claws are the main adaptations that allow tiny animals to climb shit.


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

[User] [Archer] Why does Archer treat Woodhouse so awfully, and why does Woodhouse put up with it?

[Assistant]
Well, for starters, he's just a dick. But if you want to delve deeper, he may be taking out his abandonment issues on Woodhouse, as he basically raised Archer in the stead of Mallory. But also, he's a giant dick.

Woodhouse puts up with it because he's paid well, he's invested in this boy that he's known since his birth, and he's generally a pushover.


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

[User]
Continental Texts to Read for an Analytic?

I mostly read and enjoy analytic philosophy. I have read some continental (Heidegger, Derrida, Foucault, Butler, Horkheimer, Kristeva, Marx), but not much. Little of what I've read has impressed me other than Marx, but I've been meaning to read more.

Thing is, I don't even know where to start. In analytic philosophy, it seems that we mostly think about philosophical topics and areas, so which topic I'm most interested in investigating at a given time guides what I read. Mereology? Scientific underdetermination? Epistemic injustice? Counterfactuals? I can just think of a question or area that I'm curious about, and at least start from the Stanford Encyclopedia and PhilPapers to see what the main positions are, what arguments for them are, what people have written about them, etc.

Continental philosophy has areas and topics, as well, but many of them being the same topics that exist in analytic (metaphysics, ethics, epistemology, etc.), but it seems that content is organized more around authors than it is in analytic. Like, many of the more important journals are devoted to interpreting specific philosophers, like Hegel or whomever, whereas in analytic philosophy, you're more likely to find "The Journal of Social Epistemology" or "Philosophy of Science." It makes it a bit more daunting to know where I want to start. If I at least knew "I find X interesting," then it would make sense to start there, and read responses to that text and other related texts. I have no idea what I would be most interested in with continental.

Is there a "Greatest Hits" or "Babby's First Conty" that most folks use as an introduction? I also tend to prefer papers to entire books. I'm hesitant, though, to read summaries of authors written by other authors. Because a lot of continental stuff seems to be about "interpretation," with philosophers not only debating the arguments of, say, Kirkegaard, but debating *what Kirkegaard even meant when he said X in the first place,* (this is rarer in analytic philosophy, as philosophers are expected to be clear an unambiguous, and if they did write something ambiguous, responses will point out the ambiguity and try to assess and respond to the most charitable readings) I feel that reading a "Kirkegaard sparks notes" written by somebody else would just have me absorb an interpretation that may possibly be a disputed one.

[Assistant]
Well, none of Hegel, nor Marx, nor Kierkegaard are continental philosophers. And there's certainly lots of work on whether their arguments (or the arguments of continental philosophers) are sound. So you may be missing the mark a bit in your framing of what is going on.

But if you're interested in continental philosophy, and particularly if you're not sure about how even to get your bearings, secondary scholarship is probably a sensible source to turn to. Gutting's *French Philosophy in the Twentieth Century* and Young's two volume *German Philosophy in the Twentieth Century* give standard surveys to help people get their bearings. Another option would be to explore work situating the split between analytic and continental philosophy, like Friedman's *A Parting of the Ways*.


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

[User]
[Call of Duty: Modern Warfare] What would geopolitics look like after the event of modern warfare 3?

Every one knew it was Makarov that orchestrated everything but at the same time, sentiments across the globe must be pretty against the Russians at this point. Faultless or no.

I reckon the world would be a powder keg and they were really only a few years away from WW4.

Thoughts?

[Assistant] He didn't live to see it, but there's a very high chance that General Shepard's plan worked. Even if the Ultras were pulling the strings, Russia is going to have to deal with the fact that *they picked a fight with multiple NATO members and failed to seal the deal*. They pulled off one of the biggest logistical miracles in history by launching nigh-simultaneous hits on multiple national capitals and the American Eastern Seaboard from DC to NYC and then they shat the bed at the metaphorical 5 yard line. There's not a chance in hell they have enough left on tap to fend off a counter-assault. Either they're going to get reamed coming and going at the negotiation table or they are going to reap the whirlwind.


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

[User]
[Batman] Goon here. Which of these lunatics in Halloween costumes should I throw my lot in with?

Just moved to Gotham from Metropolis. After Supes heard me, picked up up and put in me in the police station before I'd finished demanding the money, thought it was best to pick up sticks.

Now, in gotham, I learn that the public perception is basically right. Crime belongs to clowns and crocodiles and plant people and scarecrows and so forth. Weird town. But, you know, I'm willing to adapt.

Of the gotham supervillian set, which one is the best to join in terms of A. Getting paid and B. not getting randomly shot? I've got a lot of general gooning skills and I'm willing to wear whatever absurd costume they want.

Who's the best boss out of these weirdos?

[Assistant]
Ok, real talk, there is a *lot* of mundane crime going on outside the freak gallery. The assorted dregs of Arkham are doing their shenanigans on top of an entire normal city's worth of crime, it's just easy to lose track of the regular stick-ups and hustles when the freeze rays and giggle bombs get all the press. Consider either making you own action, or hooking up with more conventional crime, like Carmine Falcone's outfit; it will be a lot more like the action that you're used to, and involve less working with nutcases.

If you must work with the freaks, top ones are probably going to be Penguin, Black Mask and Two-Face, in that order. Penguin and Black Mask are essentially the edge cases between the nutcases and the conventional criminals, since aside from some gimmicks they're more or less running normal mobs. Dent is similar, but the craziness compromises things more, influencing decision making and discipline decisions; he will not always do the right or smart thing, but he will do what that coin tells him, which will lead to trouble.

Bane is... tricky. For the most part he's a skilled operator, but he also favors very high risk, high reward operations, often without a goal that translates well into profitability. If taking over cities sounds dope, give him a call, but if you just want to get paid, look elsewhere.

After that, you're playing with real dangerous fire. Most of the "stable" ones have some sort of objective that they would happily kill every one of their henchmen to achieve. Poison Ivy and Mister Freeze more or less have their heads screwed on straight when it comes to actual strategy, but they're both full-throttle psychos in the pursuit of their goals, and they will throw you away in a second if it gets them one step closer to the finish line.

Below that, you get to the layer where your boss is as much of a hazard as the cops. Scarecrow sees "goon" as a synonym for "lab rat", and your criminal career might end with permanent brain damage and perpetual waking nightmares of being locked in a box with (insert childhood fear here).  And the Joker...

...ok, real talk, if you're willing to roll some dice and get out when the getting is good, there's potential with the Joker. He runs good heists, brings in plenty of cash, and generally pays well. But every time you walk in that door, you're playing Russian Roulette; he could be in a bad mood, he could be in a good mood (and want to hand out free neurotoxins to celebrate), he could find you annoying, or not funny, or *too* funny, or think you're staring at his girl's but, or think you're *not* staring at his girl's butt and you think she's ugly, and so on. If you go this route, get in, get the cash, keep your luggage in the trunk of your car and be ready to *run like hell* before it all goes wrong.


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

[User] How do asymptomatic people (who dont cough) transmit COVID-19?

[Assistant] You're still producing new virions if you are asymptomatic. Most likely happening in your mouth/throat. If an asymptomatic person touches their mouth and then any other surface, it is contaminated for several days. Also, most people clear their throat on a daily basis or has a one off cough every now and then, that could spread the disease as well.


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

[User] Steve Jobs had his entire genome sequenced before he died. Does this mean we could theoretically one day clone, or simulate, him?

[Assistant]
The pure DNA sequence is only part of the information that would be needed to make an 'individual'.

First of all, we've got the whole *nurture versus nature* thing, which means that not every attribute of a person is due to his or hers genetics. While certain behavioral or physical *tendencies* may be encoded by the DNA, it often depends on the environment whether or not these actually surface. For example, XYY males are often described as above-average when it comes to aggression. This does, however, not mean that every XYY male will be aggressive, only that when they grow up in a 'poor' (poor as in not-positively-stimulating, not as in not-rich), they have a higher chance to display such behavior.

Furthermore, not all of the genetic data available is actually used. Epigenetics tell us that certain parts of the genome are activated or deactivated (which specific parts are active are adaptive as well as hereditary)

So, to recreate a 'Steve Jobs', we don't only need the full DNA sequence, but also an exact copy of his environment (down to the amount of hugs his mother gave him and the exact timing of childhood diseases) and knowledge of his epigenome. One of those we have, the others are nearly impossible to recreate.


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

[User] ELI5:Why it is hard to reach -273 Celsius but easy to reach 273?

[Assistant]
You can't make cold, you can only move heat.

As you get colder, it gets increasingly difficult to remove heat because the removal process itself *must* generate heat and heat spontaneously flows towards cold regions.  As you approach -273, you're reaching the limit where you're removing every last joule of available heat from a system, and even the tiniest leak or inefficiency will pump heat back in.

Making heat is easy, you can get to 273C with any crude fire pit.


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

[User]
[MCU] How does Thor get drunk when Cap couldn't?

In Captain America The First Avenger Cap stated he couldn't get drunk as a result of the serum jacking up his metabolism to being that 4 times stronger than the average person.
And in subsequent movies Thor is shown to outclass Cap in terms of physical strength all around.
So how is it that Thor is able to get even the slightest bit groggy in Endgame to the point of hangover like symptoms?

[Assistant] In Age of Ultron we see that asgardian booze is significantly stronger than the earth stuff. We also learn that Thor is only willing to share it with Cap (and old veterans for the laughs) because it is so potent. That suggests that if Cap did consume a huge quantity he too could become drunk.


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

[User] What are some of the best movies about Academia?

[Assistant]
David Attenborough's documentary where the lion chases the baby Gazelle and it really has no chance to survive but every once in a while there's one who does and you're really hoping this one will have a happy ending but it doesn't and humanity is destroying the world.

A bit heavy on the metaphor, but very well done.


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

[User] [Green Lantern] What happens if somebody tries to wear a power ring from each corps at the same time? (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet, Black, and White) What if someone wears two rings from the same corps at the same time?

[Assistant] Ask Kyle Raynor. For most people their emotional state fluctuates so wildly they can't do anything but Raynor can use all 7 powers simultaneously if he has the rings on because he used to be a White Lantern.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does armpit sweat have a stronger smell than other sweat?

[Assistant]
You have two different types of sweat glands. Your basic salty, watery sweat is produced by eccrine glands that area all over your body, these mostly just help keep you cool. They secrete directly onto the surface of your skin.

Then you've got your apocrine sweat glands. These become active during puberty in places like your ears, armpits and groin. These glands are fancy sweat glands, they dump their secretions through a hair follicle and travel to the skin that way. It's thicker too, more like an oil than water. The sweat from these glands also contains more stuff than your basic sweat. This extra stuff attracts bacteria on your skin that breaks everything down into acids. That's what smells.

Apocrine glands respond to hormones (adrenaline) instead of temperature, which is why you might sweat more when you are nervous, in pain, sexually aroused etc.


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

[User]
Best PhD for teaching higher education STEM courses?

Hi everyone,

I work in academia as an hourly instructor/teaching assistant in the USA. My bachelor's degree was in molecular and cellular biology but I currently teach general chemistry courses because that's where my work experience lies. I've been teaching for about two years but I would like to move on to grad school soon and I need to pick a major.

Although research is alright, I love teaching and I'm willing to settle for a lower salary than the typical professor in exchange for the opportunity to teach full-time at a higher education institute, without being required to do research. I'm wondering what would be the best PhD (or master's, I suppose) to go for with that goal in mind.

I'm currently considering getting my PhD in either Science Education or Higher Education Teaching. Alternatively, I could get a master's in STEM education, or I could bite the bullet research-wise and simply get a PhD in molecular biology or a related science field. Is one of these options better than the other, assuming I would preferably like to end up as a teaching professor? Is a teaching professor position at a university likely, or do I need to set my sights lower (perhaps a teaching position at a community college, for example)?

Thank you for taking the time to read my post and I appreciate any advice you can provide!

Edit: Thank you everyone for the input! Some very good points were made and I'm grateful for the advice. The general consensus among responses seems to be that a PhD or master's in a specific science field is the best option. I will look into that more, thank you!

[Assistant] You'd be more competitive with the PhD in molecular biology (or whatever specialized field) and taking as many TAships, instructing classes, and doing teaching trainings offered by your grad institution as possible. You'll want to demonstrate high investment in teaching on your CV, but you'd be more competitive at most institutions (especially R1) with a subject-specific PhD than a Science Ed one.


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

[User]
In physics, why is the formula to calculate force F=ma instead of F=mv (mass x velocity)?

For example, if a car that weighs 2 kilograms his traveling at a constant speed of 31 meters a second as the car hits you. It would give you a fair amount of force right?

But the formula states that since the car is not accelerating and is at a constant speed, a=0, since 2,000 x 0 = 0 the formula says that the car hits you with a force of 0 newtons (which I don't think is accurate)

Even if the car started at 0 m/s and started to accelerate at 2m/s/s wouldn't the calculations still be wrong and have an incorrect amount of force calculated?

[Assistant]
The problem is that you are not calculating an impact force correctly. The equation **F** = m**a** tells you the net force on an object. But the equation does not tell you directly the impact force of one object on another when they crash.

For instance, if an object of mass *M* traveling at speed *V* just before impact crashes into a rigid wall and comes to rest over a time period *T*, then Newton's second law tells you that the average impact force felt by the object was F = MV/T because its average acceleration was just V/T. So, indeed, the impact force increases with impact velocity, as expected.


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

[User] Why don't cars have breakers like buildings?

[Assistant] Keep it simple.  The fewer moving parts you have the less likely something is to break.  There is a lot of bumping and vibration in a moving vehicle, both from just the engine running and driving over the road or rough terrain.  Household breakers have contacts that are pulled apart in the event of a surge, but sufficient vibration or a sudden shock could force them apart prematurely.  You really don't want random systems in your car getting powered down while driving.


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

[User]
[Halo] How "realistically" strong are Spartan II bones?

From the wiki it says they're virtually unbreakable, but that seems a bit much considering it's only 3% coverage. So assuming they use some kind of ceramic, what kinds of resistances could this part of the process offer?

[Assistant] They aren't completely unbreakable but they are very close. In the opening of Halo 3 Chief dropped a free fall of 2km and was pretty much okay after waking up. A lot of the force was absorbed by his suit but that still says a lot about his bone density. Another time a group of Spartan II's dropped from above atmosphere height and some of them did survive. Some that did did have a few broken bones and some damaged organs but they were still able to fight for a few days before getting any kind of medical assistance. Again the suit did absorb most of the force but an ordinary human would have had their entire skeleton destroyed. You need to put an enormous amount of force to break their bones.


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

[User]
PI treats me like I'm her personal assistant

Hi all

I have been working as a research project manager in a large university for the past 2+ years in the UK. Essentially my role entails managing the delivery of a small grant, which means hands on involvement with all aspects of the project such as sorting the approvals, developing study materials, participant recruitment, data collection, data analysis and write up. Not sure if its relevant, but I finished my PhD about three years ago.

The problem is that I think the PI (my line manager) takes advantage of me professionally.  Of course I understand that you have to have a degree of flexibility but these other duties interfere with my workload significantly. Examples of duties I have been tasked that I think are inappropriate:

\- Writing conference and training event presentations of projects I have had no involvement with

\- Looking up flights, accommodation and visa requirements for conference travel; some related to the research Ive had involvement with and some not

\- Once she stayed in a location of an international conference after the event (which is normal of course). For this, she asked me to compile a list of tourist attractions for her to visit.

\- Claiming expenses on her behalf

\- Inducting new staff who were not affiliated with the research Im involved with (this has happened twice)

\- Shortlisting candidates out of 108 applications (as above, not affiliated with the research I manage)

\- Writing a reference for two people who briefly worked with us on my managers behalf (signed by her as if the references were from her)

\- Asking me to use the grant money as a bridging fund for another project briefly (I informed the finance department indirectly who told the PI off for this)

\- Asking me to organise two focus groups with a marginalised population (=challenging to recruit) in a 2 week timeframe while she was away  this wasnt for our project

\- Asking me to analyse data and write up that section for a report for a project I was not affiliated with  this took an entire week and I received no acknowledgement for this even though thats not what I was promised at the time

\- Scheduling meetings for her that are unrelated to our project

I have told some of my peers about these additional tasks I keep getting assigned, and they seem to think they are inappropriate and not part of my job. The problem is that assigning these started very early on so I didnt feel like I was in a position to say no in a new job. I also think she sensed from the get go that Im submissive and find saying no difficult. To be fair, she often puts me in a position where I dont really have an opportunity to say no without looking like a d\*ck, such as copying me into emails saying that I have agreed to help with such and such, when she didnt even discuss the subject matter with me. On the other hand, in the beginning of my contact I even said I was happy to help which then means that I have contributed to how Im being treated now. I took part in an assertiveness training course about a year ago, which helped in some other areas but not with this particular issue. Our research team is small, me being by far  most junior. The other team members are senior clinicians or academics.

Generally speaking my manager and I get along well and she is a nice, warm person otherwise. I find her research very interesting and have gained lots of great experience and skills since starting to work with her. There are other job prospects with her and I would like to carry on working wither her. I just worry that I will always keep on working as her part-time PA, which really frustrates me.

What do you think I should do?

**EDIT.** Wow, I did not expect my post to stir up this much conversation! Reading through the comments was interesting and thanks to those who made constructive suggestions. I realised that perhaps I should have explained more clearly what my role is for further context. I was hired to do all of the practical research for a small grant, which is a clinical feasibility pilot. I'm the only research staff in the team - no one else works on this grant full-time. The Co-Investigators are all academics, whose contributions entail advising on either clinical or academic matters and writing up papers. I'm the same grade as a postdoc or a Lecturer in my institution (I'm not sure what the US equivalent is but based on googling, it might be something like Assistant Professor but please do correct me if I'm wrong).

I looked at my job description, as advised by many of you. It does have two caveats which I suppose do mean that whichever disgruntlements I have can be brushed off with: "Other administration tasks as appropriate, e.g. photocopying and ordering equipment" and "Perform other duties of similar kind appropriate to the grade." Of course I knew the job description has something along the these lines but I suppose my irritation arises from the amount of time it is taking me to perform these other tasks in a what is already a busy job. For example, writing presentations about a study I have not worked on takes me a long time as I have to wrap my head around the subject matter, literature, what was done, what was found and what it means. I will have a more careful think about the suggestions that some of you made and see how to exercise assertiveness in this particular context.

[Assistant] Nevermind - just re-read. Youre a lab/project manager, which probably entails some secretarial work if your PI has no secretary. Also, these jobs are not fully independent/PhD-level, which is why you find yourself in this predicament.


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

[User] Why do humans need diverse diets while animals eat the same thing day in and day out?

[Assistant] There's two things going on here.  First: humans are omnivores and generalists, and are _capable_ of eating a greater variety of food than straight herbivores, straight carnivores, and in particular organisms which specialize on specific diets.  Second: Most animals, even most herbivores and carnivores, naturally eat a moderate variety of foods.  Carnivores will generally eat anything they can catch.  Herbivores browse many species of plants.  Omnivores eat a varied diet.  When we keep them as pets we just give them a standard diet because it's easier on us.  We could eat the same sort of thing ourselves, we just don't want to.