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

[User]
[Pokemon] Do all Pokemon have the capacity for human speech, or are Meowth and Slowking flukes?

Meowth and the Slowking in the second movie physically speak. Do all Pokemon have that potential, or are they special in some way? Meowth was shown to actually put in effort to learn how to speak in an attempt to impress a girl Meowth. So could any Pokemon do the same if they put in the effort and wanted to, or are there any that simply dont have the mental or physical capabilities of doing so?

[Assistant]
All Pokemon have some level of near-human intelligence.  It's unlikely that they can all speak.  Some lack the physical capability - Voltorb, for example, doesn't have a mouth. Others are known to have intelligence that exceeds humans - Alakazam, Metagross etc. and could probably learn to speak telepathically if they wanted like Mewtwo did.

Many pokemon spend their entire life around humans and never speak, so it seems like it's exceptionally rare to find pokemon with the capability to speak.


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

[User]
[Wall-E] Whats the point of the Wall-A units making the trash into cubes if they're just going to eject it into space 5 seconds later?

Seems like a needlessly complex system when just shoveling it out the airlock would work; if you don't care about polluting space. Also if the Axiom has been consistently ejecting trash for hundreds of years; how are there any resources left onboard the ship?

[Assistant]
"Needlessly complex" is BnL's whole gimmick. They designed the autopilot to physically push buttons on the bridge. He could have just been a program on the ship's computer, but they made him a separate robot because of reasons.

>Also if the Axiom has been consistently ejecting trash for hundreds of years; how are there any resources left onboard the ship?

I always assumed they had Star Trek style replicators. Though unlike Trek, they don't have the technology to break objects down again. That mini-nebula the Axiom is parked next to is probably their source of raw materials.


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

[User]
[Hellraiser] Are the Cenobites, Leviathan and the Engineer representatives of all of Hell, or is The Labyrinth just one layer? Is there a Satan?

And does Hell evolve, or was there a power struggle? What did Pinhead mean when he told Angelique that Hell had become "less amusing" since she left?

[Assistant]
I always interpreted the Labyrinth to be one "division" of Hell much like how a multi-national corporation has divisions.  Pinhead and the Cenobites ran his particular division which dealt with enacting both pleasure and pain in equal measure.  At some point after Kristy travelled into the Labyrinth, Hell decided to get rid of its divisions and become one big free for all.

Pinhead is probably less amused with Hell because he's now having to share space and souls with all the other denizens of Hell whom he views as crass amateurs.  He no longer has souls all to himself to play with for eternity.

Edit: That is why Pinhead's MO changed from simply dragging people to Hell for an ride on Hell's Extreme S&M Rollercoaster to either flat out murdering them or turning them into Cenobites.  He doesn't want to share his bounty with the degenerates who don't know the first thing about how to properly inflict pain.  It might also be possible that he is trying to build up his Cenobites in order to force a return to the way things used to be.


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

[User] [Sonic Games] Why does eggman leave hundreds of booster and acceleration pads for sonic to run on?

[Assistant]
It honestly looks like they're just a natural part of the world? They just grow in various places that *no-one* has gone to in thousands of years, like some kind of very odd fungus.

The Sonic Verse is a very strange dimension.


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

[User] [The Purge] I'm bank president. At midnight on Purge night I transfer the entire balance of every single one of my customers into an offshore account in my name. What happens to me?

[Assistant] White collar crimes are difficult to pull off on Purge night, because they usually require a lot of planning, which is itself a crime and probably doesn't take place during the Purge. In this case, banks shut down during the Purge (and take significant precautions against fraud to reassure their customers), so while the president might have the authority to pull something like this off, he would have to arrange with people lower on the chain to keep servers up and accessible and accounts unlocked. Since it would be obvious that he was planning something illegal, he'd have to bring these other people in on the deal, and that would be conspiracy. If the government could untangle all the threads, everyone involved could be prosecuted.


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

[User]
ELI5: If you have a low population of an endangered species, how do you get the numbers up without inbreeding or 'diluting' the original species?

I'm talking the likely less than 50 individuals critically endangered, I'd imagine in 50-100 groups there's possibly enough separate family groups to avoid inter-breeding, it's just a matter of keeping them safe and healthy.

Would breeding with another member of the same family group* potentially end up changing the original species further down the line, or would that not matter as you got more members of the original able to breed with each other? (So you'd have an offspring of original parents, mate with a hybrid offspring, their offspring being closer to original than doner?)

I thought of this again last night seeing the Sumatran rhino, which is pretty distinct from the other rhinos.

Edit: realised I may have worded a part wrongly. *genus is what I meant not biologically related family group. Like a Bengal Tiger with a Siberian Tiger. Genetically very similar but still distinct.

[Assistant] You don't. you don't have much choice but inbreeding, hoping there's no genetic abnormalities that's going to amplify, and then hoping there's never a disease that exploits their genetic similarities.


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

[User]
[ELI5] Why do big things move slowly? (Ex: Giant robots or dinosaurs in movies)

I always see movies where big animals or creatures are moving slowly and my first thought is always: why aren't they moving as quickly as anything my size would? Does being big automatically make it slow??? Or is this just a common misconception/trope that we've perpetuated?

[Assistant]
The amount of force it takes to accelerate something scales with the mass...if it's big, it's heavy, and if it's heavy you need more force to move it at the same speed.

You \*can\* overcome this by just using a lot more force, but then something called the square-cube law kicks in...the amount of force your muscles can apply scales with the cross-section of the muscles (which is roughly the width squared) but the mass of the thing scales with the volume (which is roughly the width cubed).

So the larger you get, the harder it is to maintain big enough muscles to keep the acceleration constant. In practice, you don't maintain acceleration, you see something in the middle...moving somewhat slower, but also gettting much more muscle-y. This is why elephants have way fatter (relatively) legs than horses or humans.


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

[User]
How did we (living things in general) evolve 2 genders?

Considering that single celled organisms reproduce asexually and life as it currently exists ultimately began as single celled organisms, at what point during that evolution did life decide that having two "genders" would be more advantageous?

[Assistant] Note: OP didn't ask *why* having genders is advantageous. OP asked *how* life made the switch from asexual to sexual reproduction. Which I, too, would like to know. Can somebody answer the actual question?


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

[User] ELI5:Why don't gas stations just raise the price of gas 1/10th of a cent to make it an even number?

[Assistant] The same reason everything in stores is 3.99 instead of $4.00 - psychology. Your brain sees 3 instead of 4 and it seems smaller, even though it's literally 0.25% different. With gas, 2.99 9/10 seems cheaper than 3.00, so you're more likely to buy.


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

[User] ELI5 Why international means outside of your country. Shouldnt it mean within your country?

[Assistant] Intra- is a prefix used to form words that mean on the inside, within. Contrast this with inter- and you immediately see the difference. While inter- deals with open systems among groups, intra- deals with closed systems between a single group.


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

[User] ELI5: What happens to your brain when you space out?

[Assistant]
There are two kinds of spacing out. There is background processing - thinking about stuff that isn't apparent to you consciously, and basically resting your mind.

For most of evolutionary history, energy was the limiting factor for most species. Sleeping is not only helpful for repairing your body, but also for reducing your calorie burden. Spacing out is a kind of low energy state that is more alert than sleeping but less energy consuming than active thinking.


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

[User] Do bees that get lost (f.e.riding a bus) get adopted by local colonies ?

[Assistant]
This can actually be a real problem if you set up your bee yard with all of the hives in straight line with all entrances facing the same way. Foragers loaded with nectar and pollen will generally be accepted by the guard bees into a hive. Honeybees tend to prefer the hives on the end which can weaken the center colonies. Generally hives are set up in a horseshoe or some other pattern to reduce this drifting.

However the average lost honey bee is probably not going to find a colony as wild colonies are very rare now due to imported pests and disease. In positive news most bees you see in nature are likely not honey bees and are native solitary bees.


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

[User]
[MCU] why didnt thanos send his entire army to earth through space instead of sending some through the tesseract portal?

there were two stones that he knew about on earth so I dont know why he would be impatient instead of bringing down his full might upon the planet.

[Assistant]
The Bifrost was down.  After Thor destroyed Asgard's rapid response transport, the Nine Realms descended into chaos.

Thanos sought to use the opportunity to get in quickly and grab his prize.  He used Loki as a proxy so it wasn't obvious that he was behind it.  Odin used Dark Energy to send Thor in response to resolve what he saw as a family squabble.

Had Thanos mounted a large-scale invasion, he would have had to conquer all of the intervening space.  Powerful systems and empires, including Asgard, would have noticed and mobilized to stop him.  The campaign would have ground on for months or years.

He didn't care about those systems, though.  He just wanted the Infinity Stones.


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

[User]
[Dragon Ball Z] Why didnt King Kai do anything to help Future Trunks and Gohan during the original Android invasion?

He couldve contacted New Namek and had them revive some of the Z-Fighters, or taught the pair the Spirit Bomb, or gotten Kami to teach the Mafuba, anything. Why didnt he do anything to stop the genocidal psychopaths who made Frieza look like a chump by comparison?

[Assistant]
All of this is pure speculation:

1. King Kai seems to have a special connection with Goku that he doesn't necessarily share with other Saiyans or Earthicans.  He might not be able or willing to get in touch with Trunks and Gohan directly.

2. King Kai might assume that Gohan has this one covered.  Gohan is slowly growing in strength while the Androids are mostly stagnant.

3. The Androids are *Contained* on earth.  If they find out there's working space travel and other worlds to conquer (like New Namek, for example), they might become even more of a problem than they already are.

4. By that point in the future, Buu may have awakened on another planet, eaten the Kais, and otherwise wrecked shit in the heavens.


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

[User] ELI5: Why stretching the body without warming up is bad? Is it that bad, that an athlete's career can be sabotaged by not properly warming up?

[Assistant]
The simplest ELI5 way i can explain it is: imagine you have a cold rubber band. Imagine you stretch it right away and it breaks.

Next time, youll think to warm the rubber band up and ease it into stretching. In the case of the human body, your muscles, tendons and ligaments are the rubber bands.


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

[User]
CMV: Any being advanced enough to create planet sized computers to simulate a universe won't waste their time trying to simulate a universe.

Every time this "We're in a simulation" argument comes up with scientists *who count out a deity btw* they act like humans or any other species advanced enough to make computers strong enough and big enough to simulate the universe and induce consciousness is going to be focusing their time on that.

Why would these galactic level species (powerful enough to control or use the galaxy as easily as humans use earth) give a rodents rump about simulations. We already know how to code genes, we are going to be creating whole worlds in the distant future if we are to survive the death of the sun.

Not to mention the fact that they would likely be more concerned with surviving the death of the universe and how to stop gravity from pulling everything to pieces.

Anyway literally nothing makes sense. Maybe if a species became so god like powerful that it was able to stop the death of the universe it might try to play god. But then it would just play god IRL not on a computer.

[Assistant]
>Why would these galactic level species (powerful enough to control or use the galaxy as easily as humans use earth) give a rodents rump about simulations. We already know how to code genes, we are going to be creating whole worlds in the distant future if we are to survive the death of the sun.

You might wonder why a species capable of splitting the atom would bother gluing stilts to ant's legs, but we still did it.


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

[User]
CMV: In American society, we should expect to provide some amount of financial support to our parents as they reach the end of their lives (assuming a relatively normal upbringing and no abuse, etc.)

The elderly in America are hugely dependent on Social Security and their own retirement stash when it comes to living comfortably into old age. I think that their children (if they have any) should provide them with some level of support (whether it be financial or housing, food, etc.). They have supported us throughout our lives, and the least we can do is repay it when they reach the twilight of their lives.

I think that the current mindset of making sure you have your own nest egg and/or the government must be able to support the elderly has incorrectly shifted the burden of support. Personally, I wasnt raised in a multi-generational household, and I always expected my parents to be able to support themselves. As we all grow older, I can see where things may become difficult, and I think I would have been better prepared if this had been my mindset from the start. If we, as a society, make this change, then more of the money made by the parents could be used to support the children in their time of need (say when they have children of their own) and would be repaid when their time of need comes.

Obviously this does not apply to those who were abused or neglected by their parents. They have burned that bridge and ruined their chance of benefiting from the kindness of heir children.

Change my view.

[Assistant]
Children maynot shouldsupport their parents if they feel like doing so.

Children dont have to repay their parents because children did not ask to be brought into the world. The parents made their decision and support the children because the latter are the result of their choices.

I believe helping the people you care for is generally a good thing to do, its just not something you owe your parents.


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

[User]
[MCU] Where is SHEILD during the events of Wandavision?

This is the first major appearance of >!SWORD!< in the MCU but with other agencies involved isnt this the kind of thing SHIELD should be all over?

[Assistant] By the time of WandaVision SHIELD has been fractured beyond recognition, and what remains of it is somewhere between black ops and vigilantes. The events of Winter Soldier more or less destroyed them as a public-facing international security operation, and had it not been for folks like Coulson and Fury keeping the faith it would have killed the organization entirely. Showing up at an active scene and posting up with SHIELD logos all over everything isn't in their purview anymore. SWORD has effectively displaced SHIELD in that regard, at least in regard to U.S. domestic operations; it's unclear if they have an international level purview. Even then, they still have friction with other outfits; Westview was the FBI's case, before SWORD more or less ran over Agent Woo with more tech and firepower than he could muster, basically hijacking his case out from under him on the pretense of finding their missing operative.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do planes need a billion buttons and switches in the cockpit?

I've been in one of the pilot school simulators before and it seemed like the only important things were radio, lights, landing gear, flaps, engine speeds, tail rudder, and the steering wheel. What do the rest do and why are they important?

[Assistant]
When you're in a flying box with upwards of a hundred people as your responsibility, the last thing you want to do is rely on a computer having 100% control over ANYTHING.

The cockpit has manual controls for damn near (if not all) subsystem onboard. Most switches/buttons probably never need to be flipped, but you want to have absolute control over everything for any sort of "just in case" moment, because at 30,000 ft. you don't have any other options if something goes wrong.


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

[User] ELI5:Why does a fly risk death seemingly just to bother me ?

[Assistant]
Flies do not understand the concept of risk and aren't really aware of anything other than their immediate environment of a few feet around them. They don't even have any real thoughts, they just work based on very simple stimuli.

Maybe the fly is stuck in a "loop" because of the layout of the room you're in, and is looking for a way out (windows are a sure way of trapping a fly). Maybe he can "smell" something delicious on or around you and is looking to get a taste, but your movements prevent him from landing, but he's still hungry and doesn't have the presence of mind to stop trying.


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

[User]
[Game of Thrones] If Westeros has man-made explosive compounds like Wildfire, why haven't they invented cannons and firearms?

Wildfire seems to put Chinese gunpowder to shame. Seems weird no-one thought to make a less potent version and harness the kinetic energy instead of raw power.

[Assistant]
Wildfire's an incendiary compound, rather than purely explosive. Imagine trying to make a cannon that worked on petrol.

Also, they'd need oxidisers. Gunpowder doesn't need one, but wildfire likely does. It's because the inside of a cannon has very limited oxygen access. Also, gunpowder's exothermic reaction can spread inside its own mass and won't self-extinguish - without oxidiser, wildfire can't and will, respectively.


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

[User] ELI5: car ventilation, we all know how the air gets in, but how does the old air get out?

[Assistant] There are gaps in panels and seals all over the body. The fans from the ventilation pressurizes the car enough to push the air out through these gaps. But just to make sure the air gets all the way to the back most cars do have vents in the rear for the air to escape. On some cars these are quite visible from the outside as well but most modern cars do keep them quite well hidden.


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

[User]
[General Vampires] My wife has a large WELCOME sign by our front door. Has she given vampires permission to enter our house?

Is this why I feel so tired every morning?

[Assistant]
No and no.

You need to give express permission to enter, or at a minimum expect somebody to enter of his/her own free will (such as if you're throwing a party where anyone is invited). A welcome mat is neither of those.

As for why you feel so tired every morning, it's because your wife is a succubus and is draining a little bit of your soul every night.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do car manufacturers pay to have their cars included in films, but charge licenses for their cars to be included in racing video games?

Dirt 3 and GRID were two video games taken off the shelves because their licenses for cars expired. Why did the car manufacturers require them to license their cars when they not only allow movie studios to include their cars but actively pay through the nose for it?

[Assistant]
It would be logical if we assume the following facts:

* Movie placements drive sales
* Video game placements do not, or not as profitably as the licensing revenue would be.

From those, we could see that the movie placement is something the manufacturer would want more than the producer wants to have the car in the movie, and the movie producers would know that, and be able to charge through the nose for it. If we assume, above, that video game placements do not drive sales, then along with the following two assumptions:

* Movies can pick one or two vehicles to be featured and exclude all others
* Video games tend to include many vehicles and are disincentivized from excluding others.

We can see that the video game placement is something the video game developer wants more than the car manufacturer does, which allows the manufacturer to charge the developer.

Like most things in economics, it's explainable by whoever wants something more than the other is at a disadvantage.


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

[User]
Why does the middle east have so much oil?

I'm sorry if this sounds like a stupid question, because obviously the region is somewhat poorly defined, and there are surely unknown oil deposits in other regions both above and below the sea, but I hope I can still ask this question.

Is there a reason why that region in particular has that much oil? Is there a geological reason for why that much organic matter was deposited around that area and not in, say, central Africa?

[Assistant]
The Middle East has experienced the right coincidence of factors over time to create and trap oil.

Oil is formed by heating and pressurizing the remains of microorganisms such as algae. There's a specific window (called, not surprisingly, the "oil window") of temperature and time during which the chemical transformation can occur; if the temperature is too low, the transition won't occur, and if the temperature is too high, the oil converts to natural gas. Once oil is formed, it must remain in the bedrock so that we can access it; just like groundwater, oil flows due to gravity and pressure and can easily escape. It can rise to the surface and disperse, and it can be trapped under cap rocks too deep to drill through.

So, there's a necessary sequence of events:

1) The remains of microorganisms collect in huge quantities, generally at the floor of a lake or sea.

2) The organic material is heated to just the right temperature for the right amount of time.

3) The resulting oil is trapped in place, and at a shallow enough depth that a well can reach it.

The bedrock of the Middle East, by the right series of coincidences, has undergone these steps. It used to be covered by shallow seas where organic materials built up. Much of the bedrock there is sedimentary rock, including non-porous cap rocks, that has undergone minimal metamorphism. Each of these conditions by themselves are fairly common, but the combination of all of them is rare.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do taxes work?

I've just graduated from high schools and I still have no fucking clue how taxes work.

[Assistant]
Income tax works like this:

Your first X dollars are taxed at a specific rate. That's a plain percentage -- possibly 0%.

Your next Y dollars are taxed at a slightly higher rate. Your next Z dollars likewise.

If you do certain things the government wants to promote, you can pretend your income was lower.

As an example, let's say the tax brackets are 0% up to $10k, 10% on the next $15k, and 30% after that. You made $50k. You bought an electric car for $5k, and that's tax deductible.

So in your taxes, you write down your gross income: $50k.

Then you subtract the $5k deduction for the electric car: $45k.

Now you look at the first tax bracket. It's 0% up to $10k, so you take off up to $10k from your income, multiply that by 0%, and add it to the tax you owe. That bracket gave you $0 in taxes and accounted for $10k of your income.

You still have $35k left, so you look at the next bracket. It takes up to $15k of your income, and that portion of the income is taxed at 10%, so it adds $1,500 to your taxes.

You still have $20k left, so you look at the next bracket. That takes all your remaining income and taxes it at 30%, giving you another $6,000 in taxes.

That handles all your income, so you just sum up the amount of tax from each bracket -- $0 + $1,500 + $6,000  $7,500 total.

There are other types of tax, but that's probably the one you're talking about.


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

[User] [AoS / Thor / MCU] Where was Lady Sif during the events of Ragnarok and Dark World?

[Assistant]
Ragnarok? Loki probably sent her somewhere far away in order to help maintain his cover as Odin.

The Dark World: She was right there, helping Thor and Loki escape from Asgard. She was last seen making a stand to delay the guards. Before that, she was with Thor during the fighting in Vanaheim.


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

[User] In saving nearly extinct species, are we dooming them to generations of genetic disorders due to inbreeding?

[Assistant]
Cheetahs survived a severe population bottleneck, likely around the last iceage, and there is very little genetic diversity between individuals or populations.

Inbreeding can be a method for removing the genes that cause genetic disorders from a population.

oversimplified: The same math that causes negative receives to express in inbreeding also causes offspring that have none of the recessive. The offspring of those without the negative gene will never have it with or without inbreeding. The ones that have the double negative die. The offspring that are mixed will repeat the process and have fewer viable offspring than the recessive free. Ultimately the recessive becomes rare.

Inbreeding in domestic animals like dogs only causes problems because of artificial selection. Human intervention of only breeding dalmatians with a particular color pattern prevents kidney disease from being the selective pressure that it would be in the wild and as a result ends up becoming more common.


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

[User] Are other physical properties subject to the uncertainty principle, like position and momentum are?

[Assistant] There is a generalized uncertainty relation for any two observables. And any two observables whose operators dont commute have some nonzero minimum for the product of their uncertainties. That applies to the position operators with their conjugate momenta, the different components of the angular momentum operators with each other, etc. Any operators which dont commute.


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

[User]
[Logan]So I just want to make sure we are all on the same page. The implication at the end of Logan is that the kids all go on to become supervillains, right?

A bunch of mutant children born from genetic experiments in a world where mutants worldwide were hunted down and exterminated.  Gene therapy in corn syrup stopped new mutants and they don't explicitly say it, but obviously there was a mutant genocide.  Somehow all the other mutants worldwide died.

The kids have spent their whole lives as slaves and personally fought and killed their oppressors, then run off into the wilderness to be chased by transnational corporations and governments.  Is there any reason to imagine after all of that they won't see themselves as innocent and unjustly oppressed people and go totally supervillain on mankind?  Clones of both Storm and Jean Gray seemed to be among the kids, as was Iceman and Pyro so they have some pretty top tier mutant powers.

[Assistant]
There IS one big reason... they all grew up hearing about the X-Men.

Now, that's obviously far from a guarantee that they won't go villain and wipe people out. But at least X-24 would have reason to question whether or not revenge is what she's want to dedicate the rest of her life to that way, when Logan died trying to save them. Trying to fight the system as it stands? Absolutely. And within that system, they'd be painted as villains.

But they were trying to escape to Canada, which at the very least indicates that the whole world isn't on board with what's been happening. And in the rest of the world, they may not be the villains after all.


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

[User]
What are the Effects of Drinking Alcohol Before Knowing that You're Pregnant?

I have to imagine lots of people drink alcohol before finding out that they are pregnant.  Shouldn't this cause more issues with the baby's development?  Isn't this the critical time for development when it could have the most effect on the baby?

[Assistant] Heres some science, and ignore the fear mongering above: in the first 2 weeks after fertilization the product of fertilization is called a zygote and then very soon after, a blastocyst. At this point, excessive alcohol consumption can prevent the blastocyst from implanting in the uterine wall leading to an early (and probably unnoticed) miscarriage.  The cells in the blastocyst are undifferentiated meaning they can potentially become any type of cell line in the eventual embryo, and they are sustained by their own cell nutrients. No maternal circulation has been established at this point, so its unlikely that the mother (can we still use this word?) will negatively affect the cell development at this early stage of pregnancy. This is true only in the first 2 weeks of pregnancy. In week three, a process wherein the embryo develops into three differentiated cell layers, each of which will become individual parts of the developing fetus, occurs. At this point alcohol (and other drugs and environmental hazards) can definitely exert a harmful effect on the developing embryo.  So, its best to figure out by 2 weeks if youre pregnant and avoid alcohol after that point.


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

[User]
Could an identical twin who recovered from an infection donate some of their T-cells to the other twin as a form of vaccine?

Could this work with any two people? I assume it would work best with identical twins since their lymphocytes would be genetically identical.

[Assistant]
Theoretically, yes, although immunity is a bit more complicated than T-cells.

Something related called donor lymphocyte infusion is performed. It happens when someone who received a stem cell transplant  has disease relapse. You take the T-cells from the donor (who has the "same" immune system) and inject them into the recipient, hoping that will give sufficient immunologic boost to kill the cancer.

If you transfuse someone's T-cells into an unrelated person, the T-cells will attack the other person's body and result in something called graft versus host disease. It's a terrible disease.

There's also granulocyte transfusion, where you take someone's neutrophils and transfuse into someone who has too few neutrophils which can theoretically help fight an infection. Neutrophils can't cause graft versus host disease because they die off quite quickly and can't divide. The evidence that it works is quite questionable though.


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

[User]
[Halo] How does the covenant retrieve scarabs after theyve been dropped into battle?

For example, after the Fall of Reach, there were likely dozens of scarabs left operational, how would the covenant go about getting them back into their ships.
The only way a scarab is seen entering a battle (at least in the games) is dropping from orbit, and I dont think that carriers can get that close to the ground. My best bet would be either an enormous gravity lift or a special barge to carry them into a ship.
Is there any definitive answer in the lore, or a line of dialogue in the games that gives an answer?

[Assistant]
The corvettes can go into orbit, when you destroy the spire in reach for example.

As for how they retrieve them, its possible its a giant gravity well, or they can be air lifted by several phantoms, they can lift tanks no problem.


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

[User]
Are there any cultures, besides the Pirah, with counting systems that are significantly different from our own? And could that influence their perception of the world?

I understand that the Pirah count in a "1-2-many" system. Has there been any research on how this could influence the way they perceive their surroundings, given that they have no way of describing certain situations? Does this give them an advantage in certain situations, or do any cultures with different counting systems have any clear advantages?

I'm thinking of the studies that have been done on the Himba people and the way their language influences their perception of color. Does anyone know of anything similar when it comes to counting, or is this line of thinking totally flawed?

edit: To clarify - I misstated my question when I mentioned language influencing the Himba peoples' perceptions of color (I'm not trying to make this into a Sapir-Whorf question). I'm really asking more about the cultural needs for that kind of counting system, and how one kind of system or another would influence perception.

[Assistant]
Yes. Most people have abandoned other systems in favor of base ten now, due to the domination of western culture, but historically there have been several different counting systems used throughout the world.

The thing that defines the counting system is what method people use to finger count (or in some cases, if they even use fingers at all). Our system comes from the Romans, who counted by using each digit as representing a counted object. The ancient Germanic tribes developed a different system, where they used the thumb to point to the sections of each finger. This gave them a base twelve number system (something we can still see today in spoken language, where there are words for eleven and twelve instead of "one-teen" and "two-teen" in English and German, but not in Latin based languages).

Several other finger-counting methods created different base systems. There are two ways to get base twenty (which was used by several native American cultures), fingers and toes or using three positions for fingers (extended, halfway down and down). The Sumerians and Babylonians used the Germanic method on the right hand and the Latin method on the left to get a base sixty system. The Ngiti of the Congo use a counting tool made of two sticks bound together at a right angle that gives them a base four system. Some tribes in New Guinea use pointing to several different body parts and their system is base twenty-seven. Several North American tribes use base eight because they count using the spaces in between fingers. Base 5 is common due to digit counting on one hand. Something that's fun, but has no known historical usage in binary finger counting, where you use the finger up as 1 and down as 0 and each finger from thumb to pinky is a digit. This can be counted very fast once you get used to it and you can count to thirty-two on one hand and on thousand twenty four using two hands.


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

[User]
Do drinks from aluminum cans contain aluminum?

Many acidic softdrinks are sold in aluminum cans,
dont these drinks contain some residue of aluminum ?

[Assistant] Soft drink cans are coated with a very thin layer of BPA, which you can see for yourself by dissolving the can from the outside in concentrated sodium hydroxide. In analytical chemistry, we attempted to quantify aluminum in the liquid using a complexing agent and a spectrofluorometer (I don't remember the name of the complexing agent anymore). Our results were non-detectable.


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

[User] [Mad Max] What is the mythology behind Immortan Joe? He captured the Sun? Why must his warboyz be shiny and chrome? What are the doctrines of this religion?

[Assistant]
Long time back, 'fore the land turned sick and dry, this world was different. It was alive, and covered in water. Surrounded by it. It was as cool and wet.

Valhalla.

Ol' Joe was there, he told it. He was there when green things grew outside, and the people built things that were tall and chromey shiny.

But then the hot fell, and it killed the green, and mostly every bloke too,'cept Joe. Cuz Joe don't never die if he don't wanna.

So Joe saved who he could, and built this place. He kept us safe when we was nuffin' but babies, when our muthas was babies.  It's cuz he was so brave that nuthin could kill him.

And he told us all his secret: that things live and die in a circle. And if we're brave like im, we die, and we live again when the green comes back, shiny and new. We all come back, cept them that turn and run.

Joe chooses when he lives and dies, and Joe chooses us to protect his land and his  water, so it'll be here to bring back the green. We who runs towards death runs toward the green, and Valhalla awaits us on our return!

He who holds the Sun, who feels the heat but doesn't burn, who thrives in green and green and survives in between, HE sees your bravery brother!!! He sees ALL things and lives ALL times, he graces you to go on to Valhalla, ready for paradise all chrome and shiny and new!!! WITNESS!!!! WE ALL WITNESS!!!!


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

[User]
[Sonic the Hedgehog] Who designs roads? Why are roads built in such a way that only Sonic (Sonic at top speed, at that) can access them?

Loop-dee-loops, boosters, gaps, pits, cranes and other gimmicky things that a car can never use.

[Assistant]
Usually, the roads have been renovated by Eggman as a means to wear Sonic down as part of a clever ploy to get him exhausted before having to fight his latest boss robot. Eggman is pretty good about having his robots overhaul a road, or a factory or the such to make it completely unusable by normal people, and lure Sonic into it.

Of course, Eggman always wants the final blow to be dealt by one of his robots, so he never makes the road to that robot be deadly enough to risk killing Sonic. Which you know, is good for Sonic because seriously, if those loop-de-loops grew spikes all of a sudden? That'd be bad.


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

[User]
[Marvel Cinematic Universe] What abilities allow Wilson Fisk to stand up to Daredevil in a fistfight?

I've seen in the leaked security footage that the real estate developer is nearly the Devil of Hell's Kitchen's equal in a stand-up fistfight. How is that possible? The Devil has all kinds of nutty abilities, plus his fancy karate moves. How can that nice Wilson Fisk stand up to him?

[Assistant]
Daredevil's superhuman abilities are sensory.  He doesn't have enhanced strength, speed, or stamina; he's a regular guy in that sense - just like Batman.  His physical prowess and skill come from training.
Fisk is a regular human too, but he's a mountain of muscle and his size and strength go a long way to offset Daredevil's technique, agility, and speed advantage.


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

[User]
[StarWars] Aside from a Death Star how much did technology really advance from the KOTOR days to period during the films

To me it looks like not much changed.

[Assistant] The tech progression has been relatively slow but it's still there. In the time of Kotor, ships weren't very large and their power is much lower than that of a Inperial Star Destroyer. Essentially if Revan's fleet were to go up against an imperial or even clone wars era republic fleet, it would have a very hard time winning. Hyper drive tech also improved, and was able to be put into a larger variety of ships. Even medicine improved, with the change of Bacta being the common healing solution as opposed to Kolto, and the fact that people like Grevous and Vader were able to live. All of the tech differences really take a long time to become apparent though.


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

[User] [Harry Potter] Was Lucious Malfoy really going to Avada Kadavra Harry Fucking Potter outside Dumbedores office at the end of Chamber of Secrets?

[Assistant]
Unlikely.  Lucius Malfoy's not an idiot, he would definitely know that casting any sort of curse on a Hogwarts student on the castle grounds would likely lead to a very overprotective response from Dumbledore.  Doubly so if it's Harry Potter.  It wouldn't matter if it's an Unforgivable Curse or a Tickling Hex; you simply do not come to Hogwarts and cast a spell on a student.

So, if he would be unable to cast any spell on Harry Potter, and he probably also wouldn't get away with beating Harry over the head with his cane, then how should his impotent rage be directed?  The worst Malfoy could do against Harry would probably be to terrorize him a bit, send him running screaming back to the safety of his common room.  Thus, Malfoy bluffed the Killing Curse, with the idea being that every wizard would know and be frightened of the words *avada kedavra*.

Joke's on him though, Harry didn't learn about the Killing Curse until two years later.


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

[User]
Why is snow white?

Simple question. Water and ice are clear, and yet snow is white. Why is this? Thank you in advance!

[Assistant]
Snow forms when water droplets freeze in clouds, and then fall down to the Earth's surface.
However, this freezing of water causes tiny water crystals, but since they form in the sky, they cannot form large crystals as they quickly fall under their own weight.
This leads to snow being made up of vast amounts of very small ice crystals as apposed to one big crystal.

Since they form very small crystals, light hitting the snow (from the sun or otherwise) will be reflected from it to our eyes, with which we register the light via our brain.
However, linking back to the fact that snow is many little crystals, the light has a very uneven surface on which to reflect, and so it would be better to say that light is scattered as opposed to reflected by the snow. This gives it a white colour, as it still reflects all wavelengths and therefore colours of the visible light spectrum, however the scattering effect leads to it not being transparent, and therefore clear (colourless) such as ice or water.

EDIT:
TL;DR: Ice is formed of many minute ice crystals, and so all visible light hitting it is reflected (and scattered) in numerous directions giving it a block white colour.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does getting drunk work?

I know that alcohol + human = drunk human, but how does the alcohol get from our stomachs to our veins, and how does that make us drunk?

[Assistant]
In the mouth, down the esophagus, into the stomach, into the small intestine, diffuses through the intestinal wall into the bloodstream, through the bloodstream to the brain, diffuses across the blood brain barrier, latches onto neurons as a positive allosteric modulator (meaning it doesn't bind to the receptor site of a neurotransmitter, but increases the potency of it) of GABA.

GABA is the chief inhibitory neurotransmitter of the brain. Inhibitory means it's GABA's function to actually slow down the firing of neurons. Alcohol makes it more potent, and so it ends up slowing our brain down more than normal.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] How long would it take to travel from Tattooine to Alderaan?

I know that the Falcon was fast but how long would it take? Or how long would it take to travel from one side of the galaxy to the other?

[Assistant]
Legends Answer: Several days. The chart in the Star Wars Revised Corebook (for the old Tabletop game) gives us a regular timeframe of 96 hours for travel from an Outer Rim world (Tatooine) to Alderaan using an x1 (military-grade) Hyperdrive.

The Falcon is outfitted with an experimental x.5 Hyperdrive _("She'll make .5 past lightspeed, kid...")_ - giving us a timeframe of 48 hours, or two days to make it from Tatooine to Alderaan.

Since traveling in Hyperspace is less based on distance, and more on gravity clusters and differential (the reason why 'Hyperspace Lanes' exist in the Star Wars universe, and for _"..you'll bounce us near a supernova or a star, and that'll end your trip real quick, now won't it?"_) - traveling from one side of the Galaxy to the other wouldn't take long at all. 24 hours from one Outer Rim planet to another, maximum, if you're riding in the falcon.


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

[User] ELI5: If every person on the planet were to take a day off at the same time, what would happen to the economies?

[Assistant]
To the economy? Probably not much. Most economical business shut down at the weekend anyway.

But things like hospitals, policing, power stations and all kinds of other businesses that need to run 24 hours will be chaos....


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

[User]
ELI5: When I shoot somebody in a video game, is there an actual bullet flying through the air? Or is that just added light effects I'm seeing.

I always imagined it as when your sights line up on someone, there's an invisible "laser beam" that attacks people when you shoot the gun.

Edit: The amount of dense people in this thread who seem to think I'm retarded, and that I believe there to be real bullets flying out of my TV screen is ridiculous. Obviously I'm referring to virtual bullets. But other than that, thanks for the awesome replies everyone!

[Assistant]
It depends on the game or weapon. Some use what's called "hitscan," which is similar to your laser beam example: when the weapon is fired, the bullet is treated as a straight line that appears instantaneously. A hit is registered when that line intersects with the target.

Bullets can also be programmed as actual projectiles although it's more complex. Basically, a hit is registered when the hitbox of the bullet collides with the hitbox of a target.


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

[User]
CMV:Schools that dont have Martin Luther King day off because they dont have a large black student body are racist.

My old high school was like this.

Its ridiculous that a high school can get away with not giving the day off because of a lack of African American students.

My old high school and several around me are in the middle of no where. Out here there is a very small African American population (under 2 per grade)

So when asked why they dont have MLK day off the school said because its not a culturally important enough day around here to have it off.

This is blatant racism, these small rural schools are having school on MLK day solely because they dont have a lot of black students.

This is should be a day everyone has off to respect the work a man did to improve the world. It shouldnt be viewed by schools as a black only holiday.

[Assistant] Is that the actual reason or just some after the fact rationalization thought up on the spot? The reality is most likely that the school had to add a day to the curriculum and prioritized MLK day below other federal holidays.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does it continue to get colder after Dec. 21 (the shortest day of the year)?

As the earth revolves around the sun our days get shorter and longer due to the tilt of the earth with Dec. 21 being the shortest day of the year. After Dec. 24-25 the days begin getting longer again, but the weather continues to get colder until about March. Why does this happen when we are receiving more sunlight?

[Assistant]
It is easiest to understand this in terms of heating days and cooling days.

Imagine if a location on earth gained 1 degree for everyone hour of sunlight, and lost 1 degree for every hour of darkness.

During the fall equinox, it would gain 12 degrees during the day, and lose 12 at night, breaking even.  As the days shortened, it would lose a little more at night, and gain a little less during the day.

By the winter solstice, with say 9 hours of daylight, you would be losing 6 degrees a day.  Even though the next day would have a few second more light, you would have more cooling time than warming, so it would be colder than the day before.


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

[User]
Why aren't chat apps able to message other chat apps like we do with email?

I was thinking about how cross-play is possible now (Playstation gamers playing with Xbox gamers) and how email works.

When it comes to messaging, you're stuck with the app that your contacts use.

Why don't they work like email? Where you can different services and still talk to each other.

I'm assuming it's not because it's technically impossible, but because people don't demand it, or because no one invented a protocol that everyone could use.

So, what would it take?

[Assistant]
It's a business consideration. If you make your chat app work with some common protocol that anyone can use, there's no reason for anyone to use your app, and you can't make money from it. For example, nobody can make any money from email any more because Gmail is free. Nowadays, phone companies can't really make money from texting because too many networks offer unlimited text.

Facebook Messenger is free because they want people to use it (the user is the product), but they want you to create a Facebook account in order to do so. If you could chat with people on Facebook Messenger from some other chat app, then that undermines the business.


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

[User] ELI5: How come material properties such as durability, color, electrical conductivity etc; look almost randomly chosen and change drastically when you change the number of protons and electrons in an atom?

[Assistant]
If you take the number of milliseconds that have passed since some date, apply an entirely predictable mathematical function, then take the modulus or remainder, you end up with a number that seems random despite actually being completely predictable.

Material properties work much the same way.

Adding one electron or proton gives random seeming results, but if you add 8 protons and electrons to carbon, and enough neutrons to keep it stable, you get an element with much the same chemical and physical properties except for being heavier and having it's outer electrons less tightly bound due to their being further away.

In absolute terms the colours only change slightly, but because we only see a tiny fraction of the electromagnetic spectrum that small absolute change can appear much larger and more random.

As far as conductivity, both carbon and it's 8 units(+neutrons) heavier cousin can vary both their electric and thermal conductivity depending on how you put an allotrope of it together. The most extreme example being the carefully arranged crystal that you're using to read this.


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

[User]
ELI5 - Filibusters: How do they work and why are they allowed?

They just seem like such an unfair manipulation of the rules, that surely someone should be able to stop it when it is obvious what is happening.

Edit: Thanks very much for everyone's input. Some really good explanations given.

[Assistant]
The idea is the loophole that every representative has the right to his or her say in Congress. There never was a limit set on the amount of time which a representative could speak so if a law was about to be passed the way to delay that would be for a senator who is opposed to the law to stand up and talk for hours and hours, sometimes days, reading poetry or simply mindless babble while other representatives bought more time trying to sway other reps in favor of voting against a law or for a law and change the results.

Now, however, reps can simply state their intentions to filibuster a certain bill and then that bill is put on hold so other business can be attended to.


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

[User] ELI5: why does rain in the tropics come down heavy for an hour and then vanish, but in europe the rain is mostly light and can last all day?

[Assistant]
Rain in the tropics is normally air mass thunderstorms and other downpours from vertical convection (heating at the surface causing air to rise).

I think you're imagining Western Europe. In Western Europe the Atlantic is so warm it provides warmth to the land in Fall, Spring, and Winter--the tradeoff of supplying that warmth is steady, misty moisture as the warm moist air condenses on the cooler land.


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

[User] ELI5: What are trade tariffs and what effect do they have on a nations economy?

[Assistant]
A tariff is a trade tax on goods, basically. Usually its done by countries who are allowing imports of certain goods.

Imagine the US has a bunch of cookies that we made here to sell to our own population. Theyre great cookies. Theyre $1 each.

Now China comes along and says hey, we got some cookies we want to sell to the US people also. But Chinas cookies are only 10 cents each, and theyre pretty much equal in quality to the US cookies.

What this means is that suddenly a lot of money is going to be flowing from the US to China, since nobodys going to want to pay the higher price for domestic goods. So the US government steps in and says actually were gonna put a tariff on those Chinese cookies. Lets say well tax them at 90 cents each. Suddenly, all cookies for sale in the US are back to costing about $1  so people will theoretically buy US cookies at the same rate or more than the Chinese cookies. And maybe China wont even bother wanting to sell cookies here anymore, because its too expensive for them to do so.

NOTE: The above explanation is a SUPER simple version of one type of tariff; they can get quite complicated and have a lot of legal complexities. But this should kind of give you the basic gist of why theyre a thing.


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

[User]
Does the Earth's atmosphere rotate at the same speed as the planet?

Does the atmosphere around the Earth 'turn' in sync with planet? So does The North Pole or England or anywhere else always have the same atmosphere 'above' it?

[Assistant]
The atmosphere "slips" relative to the surface of the Earth. There is a "boundary layer" where there atmosphere meets the surface of the Earths that creates all sorts of atmospheric phenomena (turbulence, uplift, jet stream, ...).

There are also large scale currents in the atmosphere: the Hadley cells.

So no, the atmosphere does not corotate like a rigid body.


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

[User] ELI5: If the United States adds an extra day every 4 years for Leap Year, China adds a month, and certain other countries approach Leap Year differently, how are we all still in sync with each other in regards to time?

[Assistant]
When you say China adds a month, you're talking about the Chinese calendar. It isn't and never has been in sync with our (Gregorian) calendar. China only uses the Chinese calendar for traditions like Chinese New Year. For government or other official purposes, they use the same calendar as everyone else.

Countries around the world have many different calendar systems. But everyone uses the Gregorian calendar for official purposes.


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

[User]
[DC] Aquaman's weakness retconned?

I'm old enough to remember that Aquaman originally had a Kryptonite-like weakness to give the writers something to wrap a story around: he could only be out of water for 60 minutes.

Was this silently retconned at some point? Or is there a canonical explanation why this used to be a thing, and isn't any more?

[Assistant]
Back in the 60s a weakness was almost standard.  Human torch could only flame on for 5 minutes.  Hulk didn't happen reliably.  One minute without the hammer and Thor was Dr Blake again.   Namor had the same deal as Aquaman.  WW tied with her own lasso was helpless.

It is rare for any of them go into much detail about when the weaknesses are lost.  And once they are they are almost never mentioned again.  Not many people like to dwell on their weaknesses, and when they are past tense even less reason for them to talk about it.


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

[User]
[Alien/Aliens]Parker And Lambert Survive Their First Encounter With The Xenomorph Instead Of Ripley. Is The Plot Of Aliens Changed In Any Substantial Way?

Let's assume in some alternate timeline. Ripley goes to get life support supplies, while Parker and Lambert go to the Shuttle Instead. Ripley is Killed by the Xenomorph. Parker and Lambert bite the bullet and take off before the Monster can get to the shuttle. They somehow survive the sixty years in Stasis. With two people to corroborate the story is the plot of Aliens changed in any substantial way? Or are they as equally screwed over by Weyland Yutani as Ripley was in Canon?

[Assistant] You think an additional witness is going to stop Weyland Yutani?  Please.  They'll just say it was some kind of rare mold in the atmo recycler that drove people mad.  Or, worse they will take it seriously and move the timeline on weaponizing xenomorphs forward.  They won't let a small thing like evidence, witnesses, or corroboration get in the way of their imagined gains from tactical xenomorph applications.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do we put horseshoes on horses? Are wild horses running around with sore feet?

[Assistant]
To make their hooves last longer on tough surfaces like pavement, bricks etc.

Horses hooves are very similar to our fingernails. In fact, you can consider that horses are essentially walking on their fingertips and a hoof is just a really big thick fingernail at the end of essentially their middle finger. The hoof material grows somewhat quickly but in nature, the horse is constantly moving over dirt, rocks, sand etc. so their hooves get naturally abraded.

For working horses they're on roads, sidewalks, paved stable floors - those surfaces would wear down the hoof material a lot quicker than in nature so we put horseshoes on to protect them. The downside of course is since the hoof isn't being worn down naturally at all, every few months you have to have the farrier come out and re-shoe them. Basically, tear the old shoe out, trim, give the hoof a manicure/pedicure, put a new shoe back on.

edit: yes yes, we've been putting shoes on horses outside of road or urban environments for centuries as well - it helps save wear on the hoof when you put riders or loads on the horse beyond what their own bodies weigh or in super rough duty, terrain etc. or just in general when the horse is gonna be doing a lot of work or travel beyond what they'd encounter normally in the wild. If their hooves are gonna wear faster than they've evolved to, put on shoes.


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

[User]
[Marvel/MCU] How and why did Wakanda go from "primitive, but with vibranium underneath" to being what it is today?

I mean, they're usually in the top 3 most advanced countries on Earth. They have an outstanding level of secrecy and security, sometimes extending as far as nationwide cloaking devices or electronic high-tech border defenses everywhere. And they have their own self-designed, first-rate superhero, and the ability to replace him when he dies or retires.

So... how did the presence of vibranium also give all that other stuff, including some that seems only tangentially related? Like sometimes they have giant, traditional stone panther statues that unfold into some kind of energy cannons. Is there something profoundly "educational" about studying vibranium? Would any primitive tribe grow into such a technological powerhouse, just because they got a look at this one exotic metal?

Comic or movie explanations welcome!

[Assistant] They had help from their god. Plus having the best metal/weapons helps secure a nation. Once you have no real threats it is amazing how quickly you can advance when you aren't spending all your money on war. They spent it on education.


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

[User]
[Fallout]How many robots would the Sole Survivor need to build for his Minutemen before he could stand a good chance at taking on Mr House and his New Vegas?

[OOC Notes: Mr House won the war for New Vegas with the aid of The Courier, who succeeded in all the tasks he was given. The Sole Survivor sided with the Minutemen and wiped out the Institute, exterminated The Railroad, and forced all BOS presence out of his Commonwealth.]

[SS has all the robots he can build after grinding and finding robot part schematics, but has no access to mod-granted recipes like the Eyebots and Securitrons.]

[Assistant]
At least as many as House has, probably more if House's Securitrons are upgraded with the chip.

The Minutemen themselves would be worthless in this situation, they're a militia made up of locals and aren't going to be able to fight a war on the other side of the continent, so all of the fighting would be down to the SS and his robots.


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

[User]
Do cancer survival statistics include patients who don't take their drugs?

My wife has been diagnosed with cancer.  We've learned that many people refuse treatment, and many other people simply fail to show up for radiation or chemotherapy.  I assume that most of them die.  My question is: do these patients count toward the survival statistics?  If so, how much better would the statistics be if these folks were ruled out?

[Edit] The statistics I usually look at come from the National Cancer Institute and SEER.

[Assistant]
You need to look at the specific constraints imposed on collected data.  If it's some undergrad who's just compiled a contrast of hospital-reported diagnosis and mortality rates, then yes, it'll include those who refuse treatment.

This is a fundamental issue with statistics, and why numbers should never, ever be trusted unless you've *actually read* the study they came from.  Numbers reported by news services are rarely useful, as they're pandering to a demographic that wants quick snips and broad strokes.  Data like this can't be simplified to that level and still be useful.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does scalding hot water feel amazing on itchy skin while being as painful as you would expect everywhere else?

[Assistant] The nerves in your skin responsible for transmitting itching are the same ones that transmit heat sensation, so when you put hot water on an itchy area it overloads those nerves and they temporarily stop transmitting any sensations.


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

[User]
ELI5: How come the Female Immune system not reject (treat as foreign material) human semen during reproduction?

Isn't semen/sperm considered "non-self" by the female immune system?

[Assistant] We have many types of immunity, classified as innate or adaptive. The adaptive immune system is the one that recognises foreign things like colds and flus. However, this response has to be custom-manufactured by the body for each foreign thing and takes three or four days to start fighting the infection. In contrast, fertilisation from a sperm can happen as soon as half an hour after sex. Our innate immune system does not specifically recognise sperm and does not seem to be effective against them (semen, the fluid that sperm are ejaculated in, may help protect them too). Having said that, a baby is actually considered a foreign invader by the womans immune system and it self-suppresses in order to avoid killing the baby, and the same seems to apply to the sperm.


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

[User]
What would happen if we removed too much CO2 from the atmosphere? How much would be too much?

Earth is a very fragile ecosystem and everything is about balance. One relatively minor event (on a planetary scale) can drastically alter our climate for countless years. We're starting to see this with global warming.

Carbon capture is currently possible, however at the moment it's prohibitively expensive and not used very much. What would happen if we were started being carbon negative? Would we see an initial reversal in climate change to where we were pre-industrial revolution? What would happen if we kept going after that though? Would we have a slow global cooling?

[Assistant]
The same natural feedback processes that (partially) counteract CO2 increase today would act in reverse to counteract CO2 removal below natural equilibrium.

In particular, plants grow slower when CO2 is scarce, but animals keep doing their thing, so biology would create a net CO2 source.

There is vast amounts of CO2 stored in seawater: if atmospheric CO2 dropped, some of it would move from ocean to atmosphere to replace what was lost.

These two processes together remove about half the CO2 we are currently adding to the atmosphere, and would be equally effective in reverse.

But the CO2 removal process wouldnt be.  All known free-air carbon capture technologies get less efficient the less CO2 there is.

So your removal plan would reach a point of diminishing returns, where youre spending huge amounts of energy just to keep up with an ocean and biosphere that are working against you rather than for you ... a wasted effort.


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

[User]
How to explain to managers why 'just copy from how someone else does it' is not necessarily trivial?

Sometimes my less technical managers say something along the lines of:

>Can we see how other similar applications do it, and just use that?

Generally this is in response to me saying something is not trivial to do, and cannot be done prior to next release. The implication seems to be that if we could just see how someone else do it, we could simply copy and paste it into our system. These are not one-off codes that can live isolated, as when I am saying "this is not trivial" that usually means it requires code that has to be integrated into multiple places and the system overall.

Is there an analogy or another good way to explain why code from other semi-similar applications that evolved completely independently cannot just be trivially copy-and-pasted in?

[Assistant]
Layman here but let me give it a shot. Building A is them. Building B is you. Building A has a toilet. Your boss wants a toilet for building B. Building A already has all the necessary plumbing to install this full functioning toilet. Building B requires you to tear up the floor, install piping, connect to the main, etc.

So maybe tell your boss that you can put the code in but it won't function and may cause a mound of shit.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] What is the galaxy currently like?

So, we know these events occur a long time ago, but what are things like now, equivalent to the earth year 2015? Is the galaxy destroyed, is it way more advanced now, or is it much of the same?

[Assistant]
It's a very difficult question to answer, since "A long time ago" can be any time at all. It could be hundreds of years ago, or it could be billions of years ago.

if it were hundreds of years ago, the technology wouldn't have improved that much. Thousands of years had passed since the Great Galactic War and the Galactic Civil War and technology hadn't improved much.

If it were billions, quite a few of the planets we know of would likely be uninhabitable because the suns they orbit would have either burned out or gone supernova and incinerated the planets.


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

[User]
[DC] What would be the impact on Gotham's crime rate if Superman and Wonder Woman started to patrol the city as a favor to Batman who is out of town?

So say Batman had to be out of town and so he lets Wonder Woman and Superman to patrol his city. Does Batman' gallery of rouges stop their crimes as they fighting real very powerful superhumans. I feel many of them would heist to do any crime as many of the rouges are regular human who don't have any powers.

[Assistant] The regular criminals would most likely give up in an instant knowing that their weapons are useless while some of the super criminals would engage Supes and WW either out of cockiness or just for the thrill of it.


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

[User]
Can ethical vegans be pro choice?

It seems to me that a (deontological or rule consequentialist) vegan would have to be against abortion in cases where there is no medical danger for the mother, as an unbornn child is at least on par with oysters etc. Is there a way out of this dilemma that is not speciesist?

[Assistant]
Vegans might be committed to the view that a fetus is a person/patient, but that doesn't entail being pro-life.  Many philosophers don't think the abortion debate depends on the personhood question, for instance JJ Thompson makes the case that even if a fetus is a person, that abortion is permissible (because woman's autonomy is more important, which she illustrates with various thought experiments).

It's reasonable to think that animals/fetuses might have moral status, but not to the same degree as human beings (or more specifically, the mother).   A vegan might not think it is reasonable to raise & kill chickens for food, but still might hire an exterminator for bedbugs, and it isn't obvious, especially in the first trimester, that a fetus has more of the traits that contribute to personhood than a bedbug.  Warren (who doesn't believe a fetus is a person) compares a fetus to a guppie, which (if you're a vegan) doesn't mean the guppie deserves no moral consideration, but not as much as a human most likely.


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

[User]
[DC] How haunted/cursed is Gotham? Tell me about the many reasons the land is bad.

I know there's an evil wizard buried underneath it somewhere, that it's city-god is creepy as balls, and that Bruce Wayne time-haunted the area for a while. What else? Does it have a vampire problem or some other supernatural threat? Are there any indian buriels nearby? Deer/Bat people perhaps?

[Assistant]
The modern age Batman stories (POST-COIE onwards) introduced the idea that Gotham is basically cursed to a supernatural degree.

The story "Dark Knight, Dark City" explained that a 18th century group of demon worshippers (including Thomas Jefferson for some reason) summoned a Bat-demon named Barbatos and locked it in the center of Gotham for a few centuries (which Grant Morrison would later sort of reference in his Batman run).

In Dennis O'Neil's short story "Cityscape", he goes back even further and says Gotham was built around a makeshift asylum co-founded by a serial killer who wanted a 'home' in the New World for himself and equally insane spiritual 'brothers and sisters' (the story also invoked the real life legend of the "Wise Men of Gotham" for the reason the city in the comics got it's name).

And within Gotham, it's been suggested that Arkham Asylum exists within another nexus of crazy. In the miniseries 'Living Hell', it was explained that in the asylums' early days an occultist was sacrificing inmates to open an actual portal to hell which was barely sealed by Jason Blood. While the portal was closed, it actively called on inmates and people in Gotham to open it back up for a couple hundred years.

Going off sort of tangentially, there was a literal 'there's something in the water' explanation was used in a Legends of the Dark Knight story called "The Wise Men of Gotham", the novel "Wayne of Gotham", and the Arkham series of videogames.

In the both of the first stories it was suggested that Bruce's dad, Thomas, was indirectly responsible for releasing some faint psychoactive drugs into Gotham's water supply many years ago, which could be blamed for created both Batman and his villains. In the former story Bruce mostly ends up debunking it, but in the "Wayne of Gotham" novel it's presented as the actual fact.

And in the Arkham videogame continuity, it's reveraled that that are a cluster of Lazarus Pits deep under Gotham, and it's implicitly suggested that the chemicals from the pit have always been seeping into Gotham's water and soil, and it's psychotic properties are responsible for Gotham's specific brand of eccentricity.


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

[User] ELI5: how does some dinosaurs get transformed into fossil fuel while others are perfectly preserved?

[Assistant]
They didnt. Oil is principally formed from microorganisms like algae and plankton falling to the bottom of the ocean over hundreds of millions of years.

Coal is formed from vast forests of tree like plants that grew in swampy areas for millions of years before there were microorganisms that could break down their woody structure and cause decay. Over time layer on layer built up.

In both cases these layers would be buried by sediment and heat and pressure took over the process.


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

[User]
[Scooby Doo] Would Fred's traps be illegal under the "rigged shotgun" court case?

Lethal traps are obviously banned; I don't know about non lethal ones but I'm unsure what something like a cage rigged to fall around you would be viewed as.

[Assistant]
Out in the real world traps aimed at humans are a legal issue on multiple levels, but the situation in Fred's world is very different. In many iterations of Scooby Doo it's made clear that booby trapping is not only legal, but is considered a field in which one may be an enthusiast or even a professional. The field has a number of publications (which vary in quality to serious trade publications to magazines Fred needs to swear he "only reads for the articles"), and in at least one case (spoilers for the most recent SD animated series below):

>!One can make not just a healthy living from trap construction and design but a literal fortune, as Fred's parents are shown to have made a fat stack of cash in the trap field.!<


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

[User] [Batman] How much do the various incarnations of the batsuit weigh?

[Assistant]
Less and less with each iteration (barring power armor variants), and not a lot to begin with, but it's hard to attach a real weight.

We know Batman favors agility and free range of motion over armor/protection though, so the suit wouldn't be allowed to grow so heavy that it interfered with his movement, even if just a little.


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

[User] ELI5:How do signatures prove anything? Are they not easily forged?

[Assistant]
Legally, your signature is any mark you make under the eyes of witnesses with the intent of affirming something.

So the mark itself means nothing. The mark is merely evidence that you had, at the time you made it, the intent of affirming whatever it is to which you affixed the mark.


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

[User]
Research not moving forward

I just realized that I have not produced anything tangible in last six months inspite being busy all the time. Everyday goes into trivial things like making the error prone supercomputer work, moving huge files ,making ppts etc. It sucks how time passes by and I just cant get ahead. My PI is quite chilled in regards to timeline but I have financial constraints and this is the last semester for me. Any advice?

[Assistant]
First, make a list, or perhaps a list of lists, of what you need to do to make progress and complete key milestones towards your thesis. Then dedicate time every day to completing key important tasks that progress you towards milestones. What you select per each day should be a limited and feasible subset.

(There's a rather useful technique called the Ivy Lee method, and it suggests to limit your list to 6 key important things to complete per day, in order of importance. Of course this requires an awareness of what an appropriate task size is, as you divide your plans. There are far more advanced project management strategies, of course, but certainly not needed for day-to-day.)

BTW, also weigh the possibility that some things you do may be productive, but that they'll take time to wrap up. Although, what's up with all the PPTs?


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

[User] [RDR2] If Arthur Morgan invested all his money and went to the best hospital that he could get, could he possibly have survived?

[Assistant]
Not likely. Tuberculosis was extremely lethal. The first antibiotic capable of treating it at all (penicillin) wasn't discovered until 1928, and the first purpose built Tuberculosis medication wasn't created until the 1940's.

RDR2 takes place at the turn of the century, 30 years prior to even the most basic ability to fight the disease. Tuberculosis usually kills you *within 3 years*. if you survive that long, you don't survive much longer.


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

[User]
CMV: Abortion is no different than pulling the plug on someone who is brain dead and both are okay

How is it that people can say abortion is immoral or murder when it is essentially the same concept as pulling the plug on someone who is brain dead? When you remove a fetus from a body it is not able to survive on its own the same way if you remove someone who is brain dead from life support their body will fail and they will die. It is commonly accepted that it is okay to kill someone who is brain dead by pulling the plug on their life support so why is it not okay to kill a fetus by removing it from the body?

EDIT: while I have not been convinced that abortion is wrong and should be banned I will acknowledge that it is not the same as unplugging someone from life support due to the frequently brought up example of potential for future life. Awarding everyone who made that argument a delta would probably go against the delta rules so I did not. Thanks everyone who made civil comments on the topic.

MY REPLIES ARE NOW OFF FOR THIS POST, argue amongst yourselves.

[Assistant]
They *are* different. For a variety of reasons, philosophical or medical.

A fetus *in very early stages* doesn't have a brain to begin with. The "life starts at conception"-crowd doesn't care about that.

As time goes on, the fetus develops into a very different being with considerably more characteristics worth noting. At some point it *does* develop a brain. At some point it does actually resemble a human baby more so than a shrimp.

When 2 weeks away from an otherwise normally scheduled birth, abortion would surely be equivalent to infanticide, because those last 2 weeks are easily survivable thanks to modern medicine.

And what exactly do **you** mean when you say "brain dead"? In medical terminology, a vegetative state is distinct from brain death. A vegetative state *can* be recovered from, but brain death is --- per definition --- permanent.

Furthermore, a brain dead person *has a history and relations to other humans*. A fetus doesn't have that.


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

[User]
How to find out whether I am truly a nihilist or just a lazy dumbass ?

I prefer to believe life doesn't have any inherent meaning and our actions doesn't really matter considering the vastness of the universe and how brief our lifespan is compared to the infinity of time. But I don't really know I think this idea to be true for rationalizing my laziness and incompetence. I haven't read any philosophical works on Nihilism and even if I did, how to make sure I am not fascinated by the ideas presented on them just for justifying my failures?

[Assistant]
What most people describe as 'nihilism' really isn't more than the everyday approach to life. 'Meaning' in the sense that we usually mean here has never been something that needed to be 'inherent' or dependent on our place and time in the universe. We find meaning in life through living life, in the projects, people, goings-on in the world in which we are bound up in.

Our sense of lack of meaning is better understood in how such relations are estranged when we live in a society in which our relations to others are increasingly transactional and how our goals and projects aren't determined by ourselves but those who employ us. The search for a transcendental or cosmic basis for meaning in one's life is a quixotic pursuit which distracts from how the genuine phenomenon of meaning arises in life.


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

[User] ELI5: Walking on hot coals and why losing focus causes your feet to get burned.

[Assistant]
Walking on hot coals is a trick.  The coals may be hot, but they don't transfer heat very quickly.  And if your feet are wet, the water provides extra protection.

You need "focus" to keep walking at the right speed.  Walk too slow, your feet stay in contact with the coals too long.  Walk too fast, you exert too much force and your feet sink down to where it is hotter.


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

[User] [Star Wars] Why was the Millennium Falcon's hypderdrive so shitty during Empire Strikes Back?

[Assistant] The Falcon had frequent equipment issues, due to the fact that Solo and Chewie basically jury-rigged it for maximum speed and minimum internal space taken up, so they could do more smuggling. They had been on the run from the Empire since Yavin, and unable to do proper repairs or maintenance. On Hoth, lots of resources were put into winterizing speeders and the like to allow for an effective ground force in the bitter cold, which robbed Han of the ability to make upgrades or normal repairs. The Falcon had been sitting unused since they arrived on Hoth, as well.


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

[User] ELI5:Why isn't there a company that makes really good looking cars(lambo category) with mediocre engines?Wouldn't they sell A LOT?

[Assistant] They would not sell much at all. The entire reason that top end sports cars are lusted after is their performance. To have a car that looks like one but does not perform like would be absolutely embarrassing.


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

[User] Eli5: why my sides hurt after going for a short run but not after an hour bike ride.

[Assistant]
Bikes have wheels to keep momentum, so you don't always have to pedal.  When you run, you have to constantly maintain your pace.
 Your feet follow a circular path on a bike, so you really only have to push down with your legs to generate acceleration.  The motion of one leg will bring the other foot passively back into place for the next cycle.   A jogging stride involves a plant, swing, and push motion, which is much more intensive.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does paper light more easily on the edge rather than placing a flame directly underneath?

ELI5: Why does paper light more easily on the edge rather than placing a flame directly underneath?

[Assistant] On the edge, there is less area to heat up to the combustion temperature. When you light it from the middle, the heat from the flame dissipates more quickly due to the larger surface area, which makes the paper take a much longer time to heat up to a hot enough temperature.


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

[User]
How can I improve my logical thinking and problem solving capabilities

I can say Im an average programer who can manage coding with help of google. But I want to improve the logical thinking and problem solving capabilities. Any suggestions, book references are welcome.

[Assistant] I think practice makes perfect. Find a project and go make it. Code as much as you can, learn what you need to, borrow code and try to understand it. The more you code the more problems you encounter and the more you'll be able to recognize the solutions and apply them in the future.


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

[User]
Foucault on labour and economics in The Order of Things

I have a good understanding of Foucault's later works, but I have never been able to wrap my head around this book.  Here is a very quick summary of how I understand the argument:  In the classical episteme, representation was a closed system without any resemblance to an external object, then a major shift occurs when (with Kant, Ricardo, etc.) knowledge comes to depend on some transcendental object (life, labour, language). The analysis of wealth no longer consists of desires, but of measurements of labour-time, which serves as both the object of representation and its condition of possibility.  This shift allows for the development of economics as an empirical science with absolute values and formalized rules.

Coming at this from a Marxist angle, whats the take away?  Is the problem that 'labour' becomes a defining characteristic of human beings, or that this labour can be formalized into 'science' that has normalizing effects?  What would he say about the idea of commodity fetishism?

[Assistant] Yes, you are close. What Foucault is arguing is that Marx's understanding of labor is not some kind of measurement that holds throughout time, but a product of his contemporary discourse. As such, if Marx talks about labor in other periods, he is misapplying a concept that is only relevant to his own discourse.


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

[User]
[JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders] If Dio let Jotaro fly straight to Egypt from that first airplane, wouldn't Dio have won that duel?

Jotaro had almost no experience fighting or fighting with stands at that point and they would've flown straight to Egypt if they could've. Instead, he send assassin after assassin after Jotaro, giving him almost two months of fighting experience before facing Dio. Without that experience his Stand wouldn't have been able to mature to the point of gaining the time-stop ability, which ultimately gave him a fighting chance against Dio. Dio had timestop as soon as he acquired Za Worldo because he had more than a human lifetime's worth of fighting experience at that point.

Dio's best move was to let Jotaro come to him as soon as possible, so he could instantly slaughter the greenhorn, no contest.

[Assistant] Dio's undoing in Phantom Blood was underestimating the Joestars. He decided that, rather than take the risk himself, he would hire/enslave others to kill them. This led to the Crusaders becoming far more powerful than they were at the start. Dio could have easily killed them had he showed up at their door at the beginning. His carefulness, rather than his pride, was what led to his death in part 3.


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

[User]
[MCU] I'm confused about GOTG2, and celestials (Possible Spoilers)

You are a celestial? a God... no god little g

If he is alone in the universe; how is he known as ***a*** celestial?  Are other celestials out there and like him? Or is he just a little schizo.

[Assistant]
Ego famously a little crazy, so it's true to comic character.

In comics, Celestials and Ego are completely different things.

GotG2 Ego does not look like the Celestial pictured in GotG1 or the head of Knowhere (which in the comics Is the head of a Celestial).

He may be the same life form as them, or he may be mistaken.  He may be an outcast or something completely unique and different. After all, when you're all alone, who can say you're wrong?

Perhaps Inifinity War will show us more.


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

[User] ELI5: how do artillerymen know how to dish out accurate counter artillery fire? How do they figure out where the hostile fire is coming from?

[Assistant]
Counter-battery radar. The radar detects and tracks artillery shells and rockets, and a computer then locates the enemy battery by tracing the projectile's path back to its source.

Before radar artillery directors used sound, intelligence reports, aerial surveillance, and reports from scouts to locate enemy guns.


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

[User]
[Avengers(Movie)] What was Tony doing when he cut into the underwater cable?

I was doing some....late night diving...yeah late night diving when I saw Tony in his Iron Man suit using a cutting laser on a underwater cable and attach something to it before flying away. I wanted to get a closer look, but heck if I could have figured out the use. So anyone look into that thing and knows what he was doing?

[Assistant]
He was cutting Stark Tower off from the city's power grid, making it totally self-sufficient using his next stage arc reactor prototype.

(Meta: this isn't speculation. He actually explains this to Pepper in the next scene.)


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

[User]
[D&D] How do Gelatinous Cubes maintain / hold their shape?

The title pretty much says it all. They are creatures made up of slime and instead of being a blob, they instead somehow maintain a cube. I could understand if they were somehow a metal slime or a mimic, but we are talking about what is basically just acidic jello.

[Assistant]
Indeed, jello holds its shape due to collagen proteins that bind loosely together, creating a gel that holds the water and other ingredients in shape.

Gelatinous cubes are living creatures with their own biology, their own cells even. They build collagen to hold themselves together and give enough rigidity for them to pull on themselves and wiggle to move.

However, the collagen bonds are loose enough that they get easily broken or moved aside when a more solid object gets pushed inside.


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

[User]
[Three Body Problem] How could such a large amount of successive civilizations develop on a single planet?

I have only read the first book, so maybe this is answered later in the series.

In general, multiple scientists agree that humans on earth have used up enough of the readily available resources (metals near the surface, easily reachable oil, etc.) that if our civilization was completely wiped out, a second one could not achieve an industrial revolution, simply because the resources they would need would be too hard to come by at a pre-industrial technology level.

On Trisolaris however, hundreds of civilizations developed, of which a bunch managed to get further than our current earth civilization.

So is Trisolaris just much richer in resources? Or did the civilizations just stay much smaller and thus use up less of what's around?

[Assistant]
Remember, advanced civilizations don't necessarily *use up* resources.

After the fall of an advanced civilization, there is now a *global industries worth* of metals near the surface, and all pre-smelted too. Indeed, if you develop fast enough, they're not even *near* the surface- they're *on* the surface. You can literally get a modern civilization's worth of resources without ever making a mine. Likewise a lot of other resources, including many that would be otherwise impossible for an early civilization to get like plastic, advanced alloys or even metamaterials.

Also, of course, knowledge. Whether it's survivors or dug up books, even basic scientific knowledge can skip a lot of steps in building a civilization.

While there are some renewable resources we actually do use up, most notably fossil fuels, but this can be less of a problem if the planet is older and/or has better conditions for fossil fuel formation, both entirely possible, or if it has renewable sources of power (for example, on the much more unstable Trisolaris, geothermal is likely more plausible). And again, the renewable sources of power are much more doable if there are *already* windmills and solar panels lying around, or at least plans, blueprints and buried parts for them.

Basically, there is a lot of advantages to being after a major civilization. Very few things we "use up" go away when we die. it can be waking up in a world picked clean, or it can be waking up in a world where someone's already done the heavy lifting and you just need to put it in your house.


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

[User]
CMV: liberals/progressives use and promote ineffective slogans (BLM, defund the police, etc)

disclaimer: i'm generally a political conservative, sympathetic to many progressive issues, and vehemently anti-trump

in this highly polarized environment people across the country have been motivated to go out and protest, raise awareness of issues, and fight for what they believe in -- i think that's all great.

however, towards that end, many progressive and liberal people have promoted the use of slogans that imo are ineffective at best and counterproductive at worst.

messaging is important. the point of a slogan is to get across an idea in a short/catchy way that can be spread quickly and easily. but if the effect is mis-interpretation by people who hear it to the point where they don't agree, it's not a good slogan. if it requires extra explanation to really understand the idea, it's not a good slogan.

let's take defund the police. from my understanding, most ppl who say this mean redirecting some of the funding that goes to front-line officers and using it to fund jobs like social workers and counselors to reduce the potential for unnecessary violence on the policed population. i think that is an idea worthy of investigation and trial. but some random dude off the street is going to hear defund the police and think progressives want to get rid of police entirely. this has the effect of alienating a potential ally and give talking points to talking heads misrepresenting what progressives are actually championing.

now some ppl might think the point is to be provocative and force conversations. but i feel that is a losing proposition when these days political discourse is often boiled down to a tweet, meme, or posterboard. when you try and reach out to conservatives who get their news from fb or fox news, these slogans are going to end up being more counterproductive than anything.

edit: in retrospect, ACAB would have been a better example to use rather than BLM.

[Assistant]
I notice that you, like many others who post some variation of this topic, are talking about how *other* people might misunderstand what's being said based on the slogan.

Like, *you* grasp what is meant by "defund the police," but *other* people might think it means this other crazy thing, so it's a bad slogan. Right?

If that's an accurate characterization, can you elaborate on how you came to know the true / more accurate meaning of these slogans, despite them being misleading as you claim?