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

[User]
CMV: 10 years after it's release, Watchmen still holds up today and it's one of the most underrated and influential movies of our time

After watching it on Netflix recently then watching it two more times, I've come to this conclusion. Yes there are hiccups through the movie such as the portrayal of Ozy and the sex scene in the owl ship, but scenes such as Rorschach's imprisonment and the opening montage over shadow the slight mishaps

Because of how bold this movie is, with it's hard R rating and it's gritty portrayal of alternate America through it's still beautiful cinematography, and it's relatively unknown cast, Watchmen during its time was revolutionary and we weren't ready for it. Without its release, more intense and serious superhero films, such as Infinity War and Logan, probably would not exist.

We take for granted how Watchmen opened the door for a different kind of super hero movie and I believe it deserves more credit than it gets.

[Assistant]
1. How could the world not be ready for the Watchmen movie? It came out in 2009, which is more than 2 decades after the phenomenally popular book. The book was revolutionary, but the movie was just a continuation of the trend the book started.

2. There were a bunch of popular superhero movies that came out before Watchmen. The "dark" superhero movie trend had already been swung open with The Dark Knight. Watchmen was just a weak Hollywood attempt at cashing in on the trend before it ended. If they actually cared about making something original instead of following the trends, they would have turned it into a movie years earlier.

3. Watchmen was a poorly received movie. It has a 64% on Rotten Tomatoes. That's fine, but it wasn't anywhere near as good at the many Marvel and even DC movies that get above a 90%.

Basically, the people who made Watchmen took one of the most legendary books of all time and blew it. The book helped define the phrase "graphic novel" instead of just "comic book." It completely redefined how superheros could be portrayed. Then Hollywood sat on their hands when it came to making the movie until the superhero trend picked up and it became a safe bet, then half assed the movie. They released it just as the dark superhero movie trend was already starting to be reimagined. As 30 Rock put it:

>  Maybe things that men like are boring to women  Football, motorcycles, steak restaurants, really dark superhero movies. These are things that suck.

Ultimately, the original source material did all the heavy lifting in the movie. Hollywood took what could have been a truly revolutionary movie and botched it with poor timing and production. The only reason they movie wasn't worse was because it could fall back on one of the most critically acclaimed graphic novels of all time.


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

[User]
[Cabin in the Woods] How do they wrangle up the monsters after the offering is complete?

Obviously some of them are easier than others, but a lot of them would be friggin impossible. The wraiths, Fornicus, and the angry molesting tree, for example.

[Assistant]
Zombies - Paralyzing neurotoxin

Ghost of a maternity ward nurse - Children's lullaby

Wyverns - Flash bright lights through precious stones

Mermaids - 5472 Hz tone inlaid on white noise and broadcast from under the water

Lamia - Children's laughter

Vampire - Pressure Washers with a garlic infusion

Werewolves - Swords inlaid with silver dust

Sirens - Speech-jamming guns

Giant Wyrms - Pressure washers with salt infusion

Airsharks - Tunas on a stick

Pigmen - Pressure Washers with a barbeque sauce infusion

Elementals - Bacon, for some reason

Tentacle monsters - Pressure Washers with an animal blood infusion

Chupacabra - Mirror

Gorgon - Bacon, still no idea how that one works

Chimera - Chicken blood

Sphinx - The answer is "man"

Goblins - The Mission Impossible soundtrack

Undead Hipster Chicks - Rejection

Fairies - Bread and honey

And the rest are pressure washers infused with bacon grease. Seriously, we have no idea why that works. We just don't really question it.


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

[User] Is there a final prime number beyond which there are no more primes?

[Assistant]
No. And here's why not.

Lets say there is a "largest prime number". Lets call it *P*. We can now calculate a number *N* by multiplying all the prime numbers:

*N* = 2 * 3 * 5 * 7 * ... * *P*

Now we add 1 and consider the number *N* + 1. We know that *N* + 1 can't be divided by 2, because *N* is already divisible by 2. Similarly, *N* + 1 is also not divisible by 3, because *N* already is. And so forth. We find that *N* + 1 can't be divided by any of our (finite) list of prime numbers. So now one of the following two options is true:

- *N* + 1 is prime.

- *N* + 1 is not prime, but all it's prime factors are larger than *P*.

Regardless of which of the two cases is true, we have a prime number that is larger than *P*, contradicting the assumption that *P* is the largest prime number.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do ships have circular windows instead of square ones?

[Assistant]
The joke answer is so that the water doesn't hit you square in the face.

The real answer is that shapes with sharp corners are structurally weak.  Arcs and circles are very strong shapes.  If port holes were squares, the openings would get damaged and worn out sooner.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are there many different species of other animals, but only one species of humans?

[Assistant] Homosapiens were better at adapting it is believed that we helped drive the other homo species to extinction. Either with pressure to compete for limited resources or cross breeding which has been proven with the Neanderthals. Homo eretus possibly the most successful human species except us was wide spread across the Middle East and Asia but when the Homo sapiens diverged out of Africa quickly in evolutionary terms eretus disappeared.


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

[User] ELI5: The other day, i saw a post on here about how harddrives dont get heavier when information is stored on them, which made me think: do our brains get heavier with the accumulation of information?

[Assistant]
Harddrive store info by literally flipping switches from 1 to 0 (or vice versa), and nothing is created.

When you store info in your brain, the brain creates new connections. This does have SOME mass, but here's the thing, unlike hard drives, we lose information all the time. so in reality, the brain doesn't actually get heavier.


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

[User] [Harry Potter] Could Voldemort's Snake, Nagini, be killed with a regular (non-horcrux-killing) weapon?

[Assistant]
Short answer- we don't know.

Long answer- it could be any of a few possibilities.

1) Nagini is magically protected. If the horcrux is altered physically, it reverts itself, or can't be changed at all. This is unlikely, as the diary could be changed (written in, possibly have pages torn from). Nagini also probably still sheds skin, defecates, etc, so the problem becomes- where does the horcrux end? Parting the horcrux's matter is a really annoying thing to think about.

2)Nagini dies, and the horcrux is released. Lacking the container, the soul is released, destroying the horcrux. This is also unlikely, as this could happen by means that could normally not destroy a horcrux. Nagini dies of old age? Horcrux lost. Nagini's death is too easy to come by, for an immortal soul container.

3) and the most likely, IMHO, is that Nagini dies, but the soul is still contained in Nagini's body. Nagini would still leave behind a physical corpse, meaning a container still exists for the horcrux. The corpse would need to be destroyed by permanent magical means to release the soul, such as magic sword, magic fire, or magic snake venom.

Tl;Dr- Likely the soul persists in the snake corpse after death.


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

[User]
Given that everything is made of atoms, do objects exist independently of our minds?

Something I really don't understand is in what sense anything actually exists  apart from our minds, given that everything is composed of tiny constituent parts.

Take an ordinary object, like a chair. I say that I have a chair because there is some arrangement of atoms that allows me to rest upon it. But how does a chair exist independently of our subjective assignment of function to some arrangement of atoms? And if we were to take atoms away from a chair one by one, does a chair "go out of existence" at some point? One might say that there is no longer a chair when it doesn't perform the function or resemblance of a chair at some point, but once again, this is just our subjective assignment, right? So does a chair itself \*actually\* exist independent of our subjective assignments?

And this seems like it extends to literally everything, apart from the constituent objects themselves. So in what sense is anything real? Can anyone shed light on this?

It just doesn't make sense to me how objects themselves actually exist, apart from our subjective assignments, given that everything is just composed of smaller parts, and things inexplicably would go in and out of existence when we add or subtract atoms.

Thank you.

[Assistant]
In the same way that those atoms exist independently of your mind? Like sure, the collection of the atoms arranged chair wise wouldnt be called a chair without a community of minds that refer to such collections of atoms orientated in the way they are chairs, but chairs existing is a different thing from us *calling* them chairs.

Yeah if you removed enough atoms from a chair it would fall apart and cease being a chair.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why did cheats die out in video games?

Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start? I miss them....

[Assistant]
A few things.

**The internet** basically gave everyone access to all the cheats, which ruined the monopoly Prima guides and magazines had on revealing them, or getting them as a reward for finishing a level or getting a secret.

**Achievements**, like on Steam or XBL, had to mean everyone was on a level playing field.  Cheats would destroy the integrity of the achievement system.

**Online play** is virtually ubiquitous.  Few games don't require a connection to the internet where you can be compared to other players, fight other players, etc.  Cheats would make all of this useless.


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

[User] ELI5: What were to happen if the Panama Canal's locks were all open at the same time?

[Assistant] The locks are in place because the canal climbs up a hill to Gatun Lake, and then back down the other side (this was done to minimize the amount of excavation work that needed to be done).  If all the locks were open, the lake would drain into the ocean a bit more quickly is all.


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

[User] If Einstein showed that time is relative and not an absolute then how can we talk about the universe having an absolute age of around 13.7 billion years?

[Assistant]
You're indeed correct that there's no absolute reference frame, hence no absolute time. But the fact that the Universe is, on large scales, homogeneous and isotropic (i.e., the same everywhere) allows us to define a cosmic rest frame, in which the Universe *is* homogenous and isotropic on constant time slices.

What does this mean? Let's say "homogenous and isotropic" means "at a given time, the density of matter/radiation/etc. is the same everywhere." This means on a 3D "slice" through spacetime (i.e., a surface of constant time) the density is the same at every point. But how we pick our slices is fairly arbitrary, since there is no absolute time - we could just as well "tilt" the slice a bit, so that at faraway distances, times a little bit later or earlier are now considered to be simultaneous with us.

Since the Universe is expanding, densities decrease over time, so if the density was constant on our initial 3D slice, they won't be on any other slice. This original slice, on which the Universe is homogenous and isotropic, is our cosmic rest frame. There's nothing more "correct" about it, it's just a very natural and convenient one to use.

The Universe is roughly 13.7 billion years old in this reference frame. What it means is that if you were a particle at rest relative to this frame - that is, you always saw the Universe being the same in all directions - then a clock you carried with you would measure 13.7 billion years today.


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

[User]
[LOTR] Why do the Valar have such poor track record with the Istari (wizards)?

Couldn't they have picked better choices. Saruman became evil, Radagast is preoccupied/useless, and the blue wizards are missing in action. Why did only 1 out of 5 stick to the plan? Shouldn't the Valar be wise enough to send competent Istari?

[Assistant]
The Blue Wizards were not useless. The two of them massively weakened Sauron's forces in the east. Without their influence his army would have crushed everyone under an endless parade of elephants.

Radagast was vital in the war effort, on both sides. He helped Saruman capture Gandalf and search for the ring with his birds and animals, and helped free Gandalf. Unfortunately for him the corruption of Saruman notably weakened his usefulness.

So, they had a good track record, but the sudden corruption of Saruman threw two of them into chaos and weakness.


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

[User] [Star Trek] They encounter weird stuff all the time. Why do they always discount an officer's weird perceptions as dreams or hallucinations when it is real 90% of the time? Worse yet, the perceiver often fails to report his or her weird perceptions.

[Assistant] This is a signal to noise thing.  The weird perceptions don't turn out real 90% of the time.  In fact, they very rarely turn out real.  It's just that the times when they're not real don't merit a mention in the logbook and don't get documented in any way.  It seems otherwise to you because you only hear about the times it was real.


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

[User] ELI5: if emptying the recycle bin on your computer doesn't permanently erase the item (can be retrieved with tech wizardry), why does the operating system claim that it's permanent?

[Assistant]
Because it will become permanent as soon as it's actually rewritten, and there is no guarantee it won't be rewritten immediately. If you have 10mb of space left, delete a movie, and then download another one, the first movie is a goner.

If you have 500GB of space left, your odds are better.


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

[User] How/can you feel when people are staring at you?

[Assistant]
Imagine that you get a gun for Christmas, but it's a special gun that can't hurt people and it just leaves marks that wash off on whatever you shoot. Pretend you live on a farm with a barn, and you go out and shoot at the barn for fun. After hours of this you see that the side of the barn is covered in marks. You see that there is a clump of marks all in one location and decide to draw a bullseye around them to impress mommy and daddy.

This is an analogy for something called confirmation bias. What this means is that someone notices something that happens and assumes that this only happens as a direct result of something else, when really it just happens on occasion and they only see when it works and not when it doesn't. It's sort of like a prediction that will always be true to the predictor. This is what is happening when you feel that you can tell when someone is staring at you. You may have noticed them looking at you a moment before but not actually thought about it. Then when you look, they are looking at you and you feel like you could feel it all along.


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

[User]
[Ben 10] Has Ben ever been formally trained in hand-to-hand combat?

Ben has a lot of experience fighting against aliens of all shapes and sizes, so I know he definitely has a lot of combat experience and has done well fighting without the Omnitrix; considering how often it timed out, that basically became a necessity. But while he definitely learned how enough to survive fights for his life, I'm just wondering if at any point in the OG series, Alien Force, Ultimate, or Omniverse, where he was formally trained how to fight? Like, Grandpa Max showing him a few moves he learned at the Plumber's academy, so that he could protect himself in case he had to fight without his aliens? Or maybe his body subconsciously learning how to fight due to transforming into aliens born and bred for combat to the point he could hold his own against any human-like opponent? It's been a while since I've watched the series, so I can't remember if this was ever discussed or shown.

[Assistant]
Ben, Gwen, and Kevin are forced to complete the basic training program at the Plumbers academy. This takes place in season 2 of Ultimate Alien.

There are also a few scenes in the original series where Max trained Ben in how to use his transformations, through obstacle courses and other similar challenges.


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

[User] ELI5: How does gps on my phone know which direction i'm looking at (the little triangle) when using maps app?

[Assistant]
Most smartphones have a compass (magnetometer) in them which can show you where north is.

The maps app uses data from this sensor to extrapolate your rough orientation and shows it when you look at the map.


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

[User]
[My Cousin Vinny] Was Mona Lisa Vitos testimony necessary?

Vinny is sitting in the courtroom right after the prosecution rests.  Hes looking at the picture of the tire marks and thats when it clicks that hes wrong and runs out to grab Mona Lisa.

He obviously knew all of the same information that ML knew, because he gives Sheriff Foley the make and model of car to research.

Couldnt Vinny have just recalled the Expert Witness from the FBI to start laying out the problems with his expert opinion?

[Assistant]
1. He knew that Mona Lisa knew the car stuff way better than he did, and possibly more than the FBI's expert witness did.
2. This is his first criminal trial. Maybe later in his career he'll have the confidence to cross a witness like this.
3. His motivation is that he just loves to argue with this woman. It's like foreplay to them. We saw them drive off into the sunset _arguing_. Not kissing.


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

[User] ELI5: How does the brain produce dialogue, accents and other languages while dreaming? Woke up with vivid memory of speaking with a British accent. Even using slang words and phrases. Can't do this at all IRL awake... What is this black magic?

[Assistant]
Your brain collects data from everything you see or experience while your awake. It stores this data subconsciously, and when you dream you can recall these memories.

We also know barely anything about dreaming but it's possible that your consciousness is tapping into a pool of collective information and toying with ideas and situations you've never even considered.

The mind is a gloriously confusing thing.


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

[User]
Generally, males of our species have a lower voice than the females of the species. Is this observed in other animals as well?

If so, why is this the case? Is it biologically beneficial? If not, when was this trait evolved and why did we evolve it?

In both cases, where on the evolutionary chain did this begin?

[Assistant] Male birds occasionally have higher pitched calls and brighter plumage. The peacock is a prime example of this. The male peacock has an incredibly annoying call if you've ever had the misfortune of living near one.


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

[User] ELI5: If I typed random strings of numbers for a product key number long enough, would I eventually get a number that actually works?

[Assistant] Yes, you would. However, consider this example. If each key has 12 spaces, and each space can be any any digit or letter, that's 36x36x36x36x36x36x36x36x36x36x36x36 combinations, which means if you try one every second the Sun will burn out before you've tried them all.


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

[User] Is Superman a planet buster?

[Assistant]
Fly into sun. Turn sun into death star by shooting a giant heat ray at the planet.

Knock the moon down out of orbit.

Fly into the planet at FTL speeds.

Spin-drill the planet's core into a giant vortex.

There are many ways Superman can destroy the Earth.


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

[User]
Couldn't the alliance of Elves and Men have faught off Sauron even if he had the ring? They had done it in the 2nd Age and he was at full strength. Why not again?

It's mentioned that if Sauron were to get the ring from Frodo that all hope would be lost and the world would be plunged into darkness. Although the world was plunged into darkness in the 2nd age and the last alliance was able to beat him in head on combat ( at great cost of course) even with Sauron wielding the One Ring . Still though I understand Sauron would beat them separately but Elrond and Aragorn the leader of men clearly would have allied for the great battle once more. Could they not repeat their success? ( I am aware he wouldn't be beaten for good without destroying the ring but they could at least beat Sauron and his forces head on)

[Assistant]
The strength of Elves and Men was not what it had been. The Elves never replaced their losses in the War of the Last Alliance, which had been severe. In addition, over the 3,000 years since, many of the Elves had left Middle-Earth for Valinor. This was especially true of the Noldor, the High Elves, who were the greatest and mightiest of them. Very few remained in Middle-Earth during the time of the War of the Ring.

And Men have waned, as well. The Men of the Last Alliance were still the Men of Numenor undiminished, with all their knowledge, pride, and strength. 3,000 years of mingling their blood with lesser Men meant that strength was all but gone. And at the same time, forces loyal to Sauron had been waging a constant war to weaken and reduce the remnants of vanished Numenor. Arnor had been destroyed completely by the Witch-King; all that was left of that great realm were the scattered Rangers of the North. They were valiant, but they were very, very few. Gondor endured, but her population was greatly reduced by invasion and plague.


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

[User] [Marvel/DC] Peter Parker comes to work freelance/part-time at the Daily Planet. Logically Clark, with his super-senses soon becomes aware of his dual identity as Spider-Man. Does he look at helping/mentoring Peter, possibly even revealing his own identity as Superman or does he not get involved?

[Assistant] Peter would probably view Superman similar to how he views Captain America.  One of his heroes and even more pure morally, but Spidey would feel unworthy and decline getting help from him on a regular basis.


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

[User]
The future of being a professor

I am wondering what you guys think will be in store for the future of being professors/researchers in academia. Right now everyone complains it's impossible to get TT jobs and they feel like their PhD was a waste of time because they're never going to 'make it'. But do you anticipate any changes happening? Will grad school admissions become tighter, stopping the overflow of PhD grads? Or will less people apply, because they feel discouraged about the crummy job market. Or maybe the 'professor population' is ageing, and a bunch of retirements are set to happen in the next few years. I guess what I'm asking is, where do you find your hope?

[Assistant] Well most of the boomer profs have not retired yet, its pretty hard to get profs to retire, but they are close, so yea the job market might soften a little in the next 10 years. But no, schools will not slow down their acceptance of doctoral students, so there will still likely be more PhDs than prof jobs.


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

[User] [Star Wars] How much are stormtroopers paid? What do they spend it on? Do they get medical benefits and retirement benefits? Vacation leave?

[Assistant]
Stormtroopers were given medical and some very good retirement benefits, they were also granted some vacation leave. They'd be granted days off for x amount of service, and these days off could be used immediately or held to a later date and combined with other days for longer leave. Though actually using your vacation days was somewhat discouraged.

Most sent their pay back to their families, room, board and food were all provided for them. Luxuries like entertainment Holos were permitted so many would spend pay on things like that.

Being a stormtrooper is much like being in the military today, only the hours are longer and you get better retirement benefits.


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

[User] [Wonder Woman] Is testimony forced by the lasso of truth permitted in the court of law in the United States?

[Assistant] Likely not.  It would be considered coerced testimony (which is likely inadmissible).  Then there is the fact that the Lasso is magical and has no standards scientifically to be accepted as evidence.  There is no way to objectively verify that the lasso works any more than truth serum or polygraphs, both of which are not allowed in courts either.


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

[User]
ELi5: If pi has infinite digits, why doesn't that mean that there is a copy of the matrix.mp4 In it somewhere?

The other day I was reading something about pi on one of the learn math subreddits I think, and someone commented about the fact that if pi had infinite digits then it probably has a copy of the matrix.mp4 in it somewhere, since computer data is all numbers anyway..
 which makes sense but then someone said that's not the case. how is this true?

[Assistant]
There are many types of infinite numbers, and some of them have patterns to their digits, even if they don't repeat.

For instance, consider: 0.01001000100001000001...

It's an infinite number and there are no repeating patterns, but it's also pretty clear that the number doesn't contain '...01110...' anywhere in it.

Pi, on the other hand, probably *does* contain all kinds of crazy strings, because it is thought to be what's called normal - meaning that you're not only infinitely long, but that your infinite digits occur more or less randomly.

So it's possible that really long sections of pi *does* contain the Matrix, because pi is thought to be normal, unlike the number 0.01001000100001000001... which definitely can't.


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

[User] Where do most philosophers stand in regards to nationalism? Is it seen as something morally repugnant?

[Assistant]
Arthur Schopenhauer has some words about it

Every miserable fool who has nothing at all of which he can be proud, adopts as a last resource pride in the nation to which he belongs; he is ready and happy to defend all its faults and follies tooth and nail, thus reimbursing himself for his own inferiority.


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

[User]
If you could render an object invisible using optical camouflage, would it still cast a shadow?

I was playing Metal Gear Solid 4 last night and was driving around the MKIII robot with the stealth engaged, when I noticed that the robot was still casting a shadow on the ground. This got me thinking, if you COULD make an object invisible, would it still cast a shadow? I mean, there is still an object there. Assuming the camo is dependent on displaying whats on the other side, not bending light, wouldn't there still be a space where the light isn't passing through the object itself?

[Assistant] In your description of how this particular invisibility works, something like a display mesh that identifies its surroundings and projects light as though it were passing through the object, it's entirely possible that the maximum amount of light the mesh is able to output wouldn't equal the light reaching us from the sun.  Such an object would have a shadow, though that shadow would likely be less dark than an object without the invisibility mesh (whatever amount of light the mesh was able to produce would lighten the shadow some).  There could even be multiple shadows if there were multiple light sources that exceed the mesh's light output (very bright spotlights, etc).


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

[User]
[Star Wars Legends/Republic Commando] How the hell were the Republic able to obtain any victories considering how tough Super Battle Droids are?

Those things can tank multiple rounds of my elite rifle and sniper shots to their head. And my weapons are better than the average clone trooper. How the hell did normal clones survive any of these battles?

[Assistant]
You think your weapons are better than the average trooper's? How wrong you are

 Your gun is designed for modularity and lightness: not for firepower. When you can transform your gun from a machine gun to a grenade launcher to a sniper rifle, a few sacrifices have to be made. The thing is, what with all the explosive charges, and the door-breachers, and the emergency bacta each commando carries, the weapon the clone commando wields **has** to be light.


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

[User] Why can we go cross-eyed, but we can't out-eyed?

[Assistant]
Our eyes move towards each other to focus on something getting closer to our face. So if something is touching your nose, your eyes will be pointing at each other.
As an object gets further away, your eyes will move apart to focus on it, but no matter how far it is, they will never need to move further apart than looking straight ahead. Imagine your sight as two laser beams that always meet on an object, so they will never point outwards.


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

[User] [Terminator] Does Skynet get some sort of transmission when a Terminator fails to kill Sarah/John or it it just wildly sending out Terminators across the past and hoping for the best?

[Assistant]
In theory, regardless of how long it takes the Terminator to get the job done, the effects on the future should be seen more or less instantaneously.

Therefore the moment it leaves, if nothing changes, Skynet knows it failed and sends the next one.


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

[User]
[WH40K] What is the effective range of Ork psyker abilities?

If I was a lone Ork on a planet, do I still gain the effects of the WAAAGH! from a mass of Orks from a nearby planet?
Or is every Ork linked by the WAAAGH! no matter where they are in the universe?

[Assistant]
Every ork contribues to the WAAAAGH, but most likely wont benefit from it being alone on a planet.

Its like water, with each Ork being a single droplet. Pushed together they can create a massive ocean.


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

[User] ELI5: If whiskey only ages in wooden barrels, why aren't whiskey bottles made out of wood instead of glass?

[Assistant]
I have a small barrel that I've used to age spirits. A wooden whisky bottle is undesirable for many reasons:

1. Cost. Barrels are expensive. You wouldn't want to buy a $20 bottle of whiskey in a $50 barrel when a $0.50 bottle would do the trick.

2. Rate of ageing. Whiskey is aged in barrels that are tens of gallons. It's sold in bottles that are less than half a gallon. That means relatively more barrel surface area per gallon of whiskey. This is important because of point 3...

3. Overageing. More isn't always better. Different flavors come out of the wood at different rates and you want some flavors more than others. If you leave the whiskey in a barrel too long then it'll pick up the wrong flavors. With a tiny barrel this can happen much much faster.

4. Sediment. Some of the barrel flakes off; it's been charred on the inside and then soaked in alcohol. Bottled whiskey has had this removed, either by settling or by filtering.

5. Volume loss. Barrels don't seal tight. They lose some alcohol and water to the air which changes the alcohol content of the contained spirits.

When you buy a bottle of whiskey you're paying for the stuff that went into the unaged spirits, the time and space it took to age it, and the expertise of those who aged it, making sure that it picked up the right flavors and made it to the right alcohol content.

If you turn around and stuff it into a barrel to sell then that expertise goes right out the window and the price goes through the roof.


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

[User]
I washed out a glass of wine from last night and the water turned blue. What happened?

It was red wine (can't remember type). It was kind of like a syrup/dry on the bottom of the glass. Rinsed it once. During the second rinse, it turned the water blue. I didn't use soap during the process.

[Assistant]
Red wine derives its color primarily from anthocyanin compounds. These are pH sensitive; under acidic conditions they are red, but they become green under basic conditions. As an acidic solution moves towards neutrality, the red fades into bluish-purple, then further towards green as the pH rises.

By adding water to the wine residue, the native acidity (mostly due to tartaric acid) is diluted and the pH rises, leading to the dilute blue color.


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

[User] [Harry Potter] What would happen if a muggle developed magical abilities as an adult?

[Assistant] Most likely either they'd get arrested for either or both of Statute of Secrecy violations or performing magic without a license. Remember, "underage" magic violations, at least in the UK, are not *just* about your actual age - to be allowed to do magic outside of the school setting, you have to be over 17 *and* pass at least one OWL. (That's why Rubeus Hagrid isn't legally allowed to do magic even though he's like sixty.) In principle they could probably get away with it if no one noticed - they wouldn't be Traced or anything - but without any training it would probably be hard to keep secret?


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

[User] ELI5: Why is thirst/dehydration easier to ignore than hunger?

[Assistant]
Only at first....all things being equal and starting at once, eventually hunger subsides in advanced malnutrition. Starvation can take weeks.

Dehydration doesn't start with a bang like hunger..but it creeps up slowly and hits harder. First, you are just thirsty. Then, *really* thirsty. And it gets desperate. Your head begins to ache, your heart begins to palpatate, you may get nausea or diarrhea (which makes things worse, faster). Then your cognitive abilities slip. The headache becomes agonizing. Your pee goes from normal to orange to brown, then stops. Your kidneys begin to hurt. Your mouth goes dry, your tounge swells..it all becomes agonizing. Really, a horrible way to die. And all that ONLY takes 48 hours. Sometimes less in the right conditions.


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

[User] [Spider-Man 2002] The Green Goblin used a weapon that vaporized the board directors at the parade in an instant. Why didn't he use such a powerful weapon again?

[Assistant]
He despised the board with a burning hatred and was trying to wipe them out.

Until the very last moment, he wanted Spider-Man to join him in his conquest of New York. Hard to join someone if you're skeleton dust.


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

[User]
[eli5] How does cash betting work, like they do in the movies.

In the movies, when theres a fight or a game etc, sometimes there is a crowd of people frantically waving money and one guy is collecting it. The only example I can think of right now is in Hot Shots 2, the fight scene in the beginning. The "judge" guy starts the fight before he proceeds to collect money from the cheering crowd.

Ive seen that kind of betting in other movies.

But how does that kind of betting work? How is there any oversight over who bet with what against who?

[Assistant]
If the scene is filmed accurately you will see the people collecting money also have a small pad and pencil writing down info. When you first walk in you would be given a number or code like at an auction. So he would write real fast something like 21-$100/blue (or whatever they wanted to use to identify the fighters.

In most movies being more accurate would also slow down the action so its usually not shown correctly. It just wouldnt be as exciting to see the fighters standing there for 10 min while they collect all the info and money.


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

[User]
[Stranger Things] What's actually happening when El bleeds while using her powers? (plus related spoiler question)

I am not acquainted at all with the medical field. We see this in fiction with anyone using mind powers all the time. Are blood vessels bursting? Is her brain hemorrhaging? What's up with that?

(spoiler question follows)

Is she didn't sacrifice herself at the end, how long realistic could she even expect to live? What with constantly bleeding from all her face holes.

[Assistant]
Children and adults with high blood pressure, and stress, exhibit nosebleeds. There is a blood vessel in the nasal passage wall that has only a thin mucosal lining above it. If it bursts, it bursts the mucosal lining as well.

It may also be due to her ability to shift between our world and The Upside Down, in that small portions of her body may be lagging behind the remainder as she shifts.

Frankly, Director, we'll need to find another candidate for development to find any hard answers.

*opens dossier*

The surveillance of the missing boy's mother turned up an instance of an infant girl who had a Close Encounter in the residence at the reported Thin Wall. *That* child's mother's narcissism index is significantly high; she'd be amenable to a Magnet Programme approach.


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

[User] [Lord of the Rings] At the formation of the Fellowship, Gandalf and Elrond sense Boromir's corruptibility and choose not to include him in the group. What changes? Does the Ring still reach Mt. Doom? How does Gondor react?

[Assistant]
I have to take issue with the premise: the entire fellowship is corruptible. *Everybody* is corruptible except maybe Tom Bombadil. Bilbo and Frodo got corrupted, Gandalf was afraid of getting corrupted and went out of his way to avoid temptation and contact as much as possible.

Boromir is the one who happened to get swayed for a particularly inopportune moment. Nothing more or less than that. There is nothing special about him for them to sense.


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

[User] ELI5: What is the dot/shape in your vision after looking into a light or the sun?

[Assistant] The light-sensitive cells need a little while to regenerate before they can detect the next photon. If all fire at the same time in a spot, you basically have a "hole" in your vision for light, or the color you looked at, until the cells recovered.


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

[User]
Why is it that only oxygen and maybe flourine/chlorine to a certain extent are about the only gases that support combustion?

I'm trying to understand what exactly happens in a combustion process on a more fundamental level - about why only  certain substances support combustion. We have so many fuels. But we need oxygen for the combustion to take place. Can someone offer any insight on this matter?

[Assistant]
There aren't many chemicals that are both light/non-polar enough to persist as gases while also being aggressively oxidative enough to peel electrons off of relatively stable hydrocarbons.

Oxygen, fluorine, and chlorine are the three most electronegative elements, they will readily oxidize many compounds.  That reaction is typically highly exothermic.

There are stronger oxidizing agents out there, but they're often too large/unstable to enter the gas phase in large quantities and produce a flame.


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

[User]
CMV: Hitler could have NEVER won WW2

Although many believe in German WW2 technological superiority, a sub-group of those people believe that by fixing some mistakes Hitler could have won the war. This is absolutely untrue and I'm about to explain why, if I make any false claims myself please let me know so I can change my view.
First of all Hitler's ww2 plans revolved around him getting the sweet lebesraum(living space) from the east. This means that his original tendencies were invading the Soviet Union, while France and the British Empire were just in the way of that. Of course, he had to go through Poland first, which is where most of the confusion starts and that is the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. A non-aggression treaty between Germany and The USSR. Because of western intervention a temporary peace treaty had to be made. This benefits both countries because 1.Germany's fear of fighting a 2 front war is non existant anymore and 2. Soviets although a mighty force, lack leadership because Stalin had to execute many Generals and other high military commanders in order to secure his place in the Goverment. The pact would give him enough time to get new military commanders on the field and to modernise his army. Apart from that both countries HATED eachother. Hitler was constantly talking about his Eastern lebesraum while Stalin never had a problem displaying his tendencies towards expanding westward. And now the controversial part, operation barbarossa. Most people would say that Hitler lost because he had no oil, or because of American intervention. Don't get me wrong these did play a role In Germany's defeat but the real reason Hitler lost is because the Soviet Union was simply stronger. 2x the population, more tanks, more artillery, larger Air force, 10x more resources, etc. Meaning Soviets had the advantage in both the Short and long run. Yes, Germany was winning in the beginning but that's only because they took the Soviets by surprise. So even if Hitler's attack was flawless he would still have lost. But what if he never invaded USSR? What if he choose to only focus on the west and win the war that way? Well, if you don't want to go to Russia then Mother Russia comes for you. Like I said Stalin would have attacked Hitler when he was ready for it. In Hitler's mind it was better to take a 50/50 and attack while Stalin wasn't prepared rather than take on the full force of the Soviet Union.

[Assistant]
The biggest correctable post-1939 mistake you're overlooking here is Hitler's decision to declare war on the United States after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor.  Public sentiment in the US was strongly focused on revenge against Japan, and while FDR personally cared a lot about the European war, he probably would have had a hard time getting Congress to declare against Germany.

Even prior to D-Day, American material support is crucial to keeping the Soviet armies moving towards Berlin, and American troops were slowly marching up the Italian peninsula by 1943.

It's hard to posit exactly how things go down without American involvement in Europe, but e.g. some sort of negotiated peace is much more likely.


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

[User] [Pokemon]How does an amulet coin actually work?

[Assistant]
Most trainers don't carry physical cash on them, relying instead on the built-in account system of their trainer IDs. There is an app called *Amulet Coin* that multiplies the amount of incoming Poke-dollars into your account.

To make things worse for law enforcement, the multiplied money is stored in a tertiary account that never interacts with other programs - instead, the trainer's primary account is refilled automatically when a purchase is made. While this doesn't make it difficult to prove a trainer has the app, it makes it nearly impossible to spot its use without physically apprehending the ID in question.


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

[User] ELI5: What is autopilot in a human? Like why is it that I space out when driving for example and you have no idea how you got to where you are at or when your walking around and then suddenly its like you regained Consciousness after being absent minded?

[Assistant]
Its often because of something you do repeatedly, your brain does it automatically.

Like if you drive the same round to work everyday, all those days tend to becomes the same, and your brain doesnt really record the experience because it knows it so well.

You most likely still drive perfectly safely,  observing everything around you etc. Its just that your brain doesnt make a record of the memory. Then you cant recall that specific trip but you know the route like the back of your hand.


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

[User]
[Fullmetal Alchemist] What the HELL was Ed talking to when he found Al's body at the Gate?

So when Ed opened the Gate to escape from Gluttony's insides, he found Al's body waiting for him in the in-between space. He then proceeded to exchange a few words with it. But since Al was very obviously not inside it, and it wasn't comatose like it should have been, what was Ed talking to? What was inside it and animating it?

[Assistant] It was Truth but the part of Truth that is Al's physical body. In short Truth is the entire universe minus the parts that are the person talking to it. That is why the being is basically a hole shaped like the petitioner, that is literally what Truth is. When Truth claims a part of a person it fills that hole in everything. So Al's Truth is literally everything that exists other than Al's soul.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why was cloning such a big deal in the 90's but now is rarely spoken about?

Does it not seem that cloning would save a ton of endangered species?   What happened to cloning humans?

[Assistant]
There were a lot of breakthroughs in the '90s, and that made it new and exciting and a big deal. And naturally also very blown out of proportion.

There are still advances being made, but nothing huge.

Cloning would not make a species viable, either. You need genetic diversity, which is the exact *opposite* of cloning.


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

[User]
[Science] How long does it take to actually understand papers and journals.

I'm a second year undergraduate student in Biomedical sciences. On my course, we are constantly told to read papers in journals like Nature and Cell to expand our knowledge.

The issue is, I feel like they're in a different language. I'm not sure whether its common for us not to comprehensively understand these papers, or whether I am a poor student. Any ideas?

I am hoping its that these papers are just categorically more advanced then people at my stage of education are ready for.

[Assistant]
As an analogy imagine you wanted to read a paper about classical Japanese poetry. The main questions are "do you know anything about Japan?" "Do you know anything about history?" and "Do you know anything about poetry?"

If you know about all three things then the paper will make a lot of sense. Say you know about history and poetry and nothing about Japan then some of the ideas will make sense to you but a lot will be obscure. Say you know nothing about those three subjects, then the paper will be unreadable.

So it's more about pre-requisite knowledge than some kind of ability.

Having said that the best thing to do is to work slowly. So get a paper and try to read the introduction. As soon as you get stuck stop and go and read about what you don't understand. So if it says

"This paper studies a specific protein in fox embryos"

then you want to check, "Do you know what a protein is?" "Do you know what a fox is?" "Do you know what an embryo is?" and then when you have all these ideas sorted the paper will make sense. If you are lacking in one or two of them it will start to make no sense.

It is likely that

1. You are a very good student (because you are worried that you might be a bad one and really bad students just don't care) and

2. You have been praised a lot for your intelligence in the past and so doing a task you find genuinely bewildering is a new experience.

Basically at school they spoon feed you but in the real world knowledge is very scattered and crazy and it's important to learn how to confront things you have no idea how to think about.

Don't worry. Trying something hard is a good character trait, not a bad one. Maybe this week you can only read 1 line of the paper but next week maybe you'll be able to read 2. Over time you'll get more background knowledge and then things will get easier.

So to answer your question, yes you will probably understand very little of these papers but yes it will help you to grapple with them, both as a person and in terms of your knowledge. Don't think of this like a test where you need to get an A and it is worrying you that you can't do it. Think that you are just going to put some time into figuring out how to do better at this thing, that's how successful people think.

Hope this is helpful :)


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

[User] ELI5:Why does America continue to support Israel despite everyone in that area hating us for it?

[Assistant]
>The country was just invented out of air after WWI and drawn on a map.

The country was formed after WWII, but it wasn't just randomly drawn up.  Plans for a Jewish state began in the late 19th century and the area had previously been under British control.  Israel then defended itself against nearby countries trying to take over the land.  You can make a case that the country was formed for bad reasons, but it certainly didn't just pop into existence.

With regard to everything else you said, you are right that supporting Israel pisses off much of the world.  However, much of the world would hate the US regardless of its stance on Israel.  As for giving money to a country involved in immoral behavior, Israel's not an exception in terms of foreign policy.  The US also gives lots of money to Saudi Arabia as well, for example.  The Saudis don't like Israel and have plenty of policies that by Western standards are barbaric.  The US also trades constantly with China, a country known for lack of civil rights and exerting force against Taiwan.

As for what the US gains from relations with Israel, it had some strategic value during the Cold War.  Nowadays, it provides the US with an democratic ally in the Mideast and collaboration for advanced technology and military developments.  Simply put, the arrangement provides benefits to the US that the country believes outweighs the costs.

TL;DR: The US would be hated regardless of its stance on Israel.  It also has relations with plenty of other countries that also exhibit morally "questionable" behavior.  The people in charge of American policy believe the benefits of having Israel as an ally outweigh the costs.


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

[User] [Mad Max] The overwhelming majority of the Citadel's population lives in squalor without apparent access to food and only occasional, inefficient access to water. Surely all of them will soon die? Is this mass of peasants being sustained long term somehow? What purpose do they serve the Immortan?

[Assistant]
You saw a ceremony; it's like asking why Marines in combat aren't wearing dress blues.

The Immortan is a master of political theater.  He wants his people to think of him as a god.

Most of the people in the wasteland are survivor types, he has to break them down for them to become peasant farmers instead of fighters.

Once the Virgins give him enough sons, he will start breaking the other clans.


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

[User]
Technical Editor rejected publication multiple times, now has his own, very similar publication. What to do?

My friend has been trying to get a paper published for about half a year now, but the technical editor of the journal kept rejecting the paper, for increasingly nonsensical reasons (while the first version of the paper definitely needed improvement, the comments on later versions were just repetitions of the comments on previous versions, even though the problems mentioned in those were long fixed).

A few months after the initial submission, the technical editor got a paper of his own published, which has large overlaps with the paper of my friend (although it goes more in-depth in many parts). Now, it is pretty obvious that the technical editor (who is apparently a pretty well-known and respected figure in the field) kept rejecting my friends paper so that he could publish first, and, sort-of to add insult to injury, now demands that my friend cites his paper.

Has anyone been in a similar situation? Is this common? Is there anything that my friend can, or should, do? Or is that just something that my friend will have to accept?

[Assistant]
Many reactions are possible, but the best thing is to get the paper published and move on.

Your friend should not forget that his paper has been improved during the review process. A good paper will impress readers more than one published in haste. He can improve it even more by carefully studying the editor's paper, and using it to support his findings.


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

[User]
[The Elder Scrolls] What approximately is  the average lifespan in Tamriel?

I'm trying to figure out how the restoration school of magic affects overall health, so I'm only talking about people who die of natural causes.

[Assistant]
It's hard to say, because each race has its own particular life span on average, and then you have many great wizards or otherwise remarkable people who outlive that average by quite a great deal. However, the Imperial Census reports that, on average, citizens of each race live to be about:

Beast Races - 60 years

Human Races (Nords, Imperials, Redguards) - Average for humans. What is it nowadays, 78 years?

Orsimer - 80 years (they have the ability to live longer, but since they desire a warrior's death, they purposefully seek death while still "young" and able-bodied)

Bretons - Since they are gifted with magic, their life is extended to about 100 years.

Bosmer and Dunmer - 150-200 years.

Altmer - 300 years

Great Telvanni Wizards and the like (usually Dunmer) - Hundreds and hundreds of years

Dwemer - ???

Restoration does play a small part in extended the life span of warriors, but there are no restoration spells which truly prevent death. While basic diseases may be cured, and wounds may be tended, there are no spells or potions for terminal diseases or for old age itself. You need to be an incredibly powerful wizard for the essence of magicka itself to bestow life-prolonging properties upon you.


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

[User]
[Agents of Shield] why are some inhumans hurt by their own powers while others aren't?

For example, people like that fire guy and Lincoln can throw fire and lightning from their hands without burning themselves, while Skye/Daisy usually breaks her arms when she uses her powers. It is stated that the Inhumans were designed by the Kree, so why would some be designed to hurt themselves with their powers?

[Assistant] Some people just have shit luck. After all, the kree didn't engineer all these present day individuals so there's no way they could be responsible for the specifics of how everybody's powers work. It's largely random.


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

[User]
Why does it sometimes take me an hour to fully wake up in the morning? Once my brain is active (out of its sleep cycle), what is preventing me from feeling as I do at midday?

Even if a REM cycle is interrupted, I'm not sure why it takes so long to not feel groggy sometimes.

[Assistant]
A lot of it has to do with your circadian rhythm in addition to cortisol lvls. Cortisol is considrd th anti-slp hormon, and th morning pak is approimatly at 8am or around 30-60 minuts aftr waking. It is citatory (a link to th cortisol-strss rspons) so w nd it to fl that boost in th morning.

Th stupid mold thing is making it annoying for m to link, so you can do a googl scholar sarch on cortisol and slp for som sourcs if you ar intrstd in furthr rading.


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

[User]
ELI5: When we rinse fruits and vegetables, are we accomplishing anything?

If I rinse an apple in my sink under cold water for ten seconds with no soap (like lots of people do), am I just wasting water? Or would anything actually be cleaned off? This is so much less of a robust cleaning then we're told to do in other circumstances, like handwashing.

[Assistant]
You are most definetly accomplishing something. Cold water, assuming it is clean, generally rinse off dust and particles and the microbes associated with it, leaving much less for your eminent immune system to deal with.

Soap? Does anyone use soap on their fruit and vegs?!? That sounds like a bad idea.


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

[User]
What historical state operated most closely to Marx's Marxism?

(The redundant title is meant to differentiate Marx's idea of a communist state from later governments which called themselves Marxist.)

[Assistant] In the communist utopia there is no state.  To Marx the state was an artifact of class struggle.  The state was needed for one class to keep control of the means of production from another class.  But after the revolution there would be no classes thus there would be no state.  Marx does say that there will need to be a dictatorship of the proletariat as a transition from capitalism to communism.  However he is vague on any details here.  The section discussing this in the Communist Manifesto is less then a page.  The one place that Marx does talk about a communist state is in the pamphlet the Civil War in France which discusses the Paris Commune.  Marx approved of the aim of the commune but criticized them for not taking drastic enough actions to defend themselves.  Marx's criticism would be used by Lenin to justify the Red Terror in Russia.


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

[User] Eli5: why does acetone feel cold even if left out in hotter temperatures?

[Assistant]
It feels cold because it evaporates easily.
When the volatile liquids evaporate into a gas they pull a little heat from whatever surface they are in contact with. As a result when you touch acetone a small amount of it evaporates off stealing heat from your fingertip.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why aren't droids allowed in the Mos Eisley Cantina?

A long time ago I had a friend that told me it was because of the Clone War, but there is a big difference between a battle droid and a protocol droid.

I heard this before The Phantom Menace came out, so any information my friend was going on was probably from the the comics or novels at the time.

[Assistant] Because they take up space and don't pay. Who wants to waste seating on a customer who doesn't drink? If a person came into the bar and didn't buy anything for half an hour, they'd probably get kicked out too.


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

[User]
[Underworld] Why do the Elders need to "sleep" if they're immortal anyway?

Also, what makes the Elders so special anyway? If they're just the "oldest", why do they have such special abilities. There seemed to be plenty of vampires that could be as old, and being bitten by Marcus (first vampire) doesn't seem to explain it.

[Assistant] The Elders sleep so there is always a clear power structure.  When the clans joined into a single coven they made this deal to establish clear leadership without favouring one group over the others and avoid infighting.  As far as strength we know Viktor was way stronger then most Vampires able to effortlessly out muscle lycans and the first hybrid until Selene betrayed him.  Marcus we never see until he is also a hybrid so its harder to tell.  Amelia was probably the weakest of the three taken out by a group of regular lycan.


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

[User]
[HALO] If the Forerunners saved samples of different species to repopulate worlds, why didn't they save any of their own species?

Or did they and I'm just not catching on?

[Assistant] The Forerunners were meant to survive by taking refuge on the Ark(s) which were outside the range of the Halo Array. Gravemind attacked the first Ark, destroyed it, and killed most of the surviving Forerunners. The few remaining survivors safely activated the Halos on the second Ark, but they went into exile and left the Galaxy on their Great Journey (of atonement). Their fate is uncertain but 343 Guilty Spark stated that they are dead.


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

[User] Feral children have proven that it is very hard to learn after a certain point in life, mainly speech and writing. Could this somehow apply to older people when trying to learn new technologies?

[Assistant]
No, this does not apply. The scientific term for what you are describing with feral children is a linguistic phenomenon known as the Critical Period Hypothesis. This hypothesis generally states that, after a certain age, generally stated to be around 11 or 12, learning language goes from being easy and natural to being extremely difficult. A child or adult exposed to any new language after this age is likely unable to master it to the degree of a native speaker. Similarly, a child exposed to no language before this age is unable to master any language at all.

Neurological studies have shown that the language processing centers of our brain function differently from the rest, and this phenomenon does not directly translate into other areas of the brain. It is the case that brains have a more difficult time learning many things as they age, but new technologies are not hard to learn in the same way or to the same degree as a post-critical period language.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are all the financial companies in Omaha?

It seems like every major financial companies and finance part of companies have offices in Omaha, Is there a legal reason for this?

[Assistant]
Interest rates. Some states don't put a cap on how high of interest rates they can charge, this is why there are a lot of credit card companies based in North Dakota. Same with other things, business tax in Delaware is very very low so a lot of tech companies are incorporated in Delaware.

So there is likely a reason the city/state attracts these businesses. Likely how it handles regulation, fees, or taxes on that industry.


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

[User] ELI5: Historically, why have kings/queens allowed the church to also have so much power over the people? Do they gain something from each other, or are kings/queens just scared of going to hell?

[Assistant]
There may be something here that some people have missed.

In order to provide legitimacy to a government that not only says that this one person is in control but said control should naturally be inherited by their lineage, you need some kind of divine reasoning about how a particular family or group is destined or eligible to rule. It wasn't just that religion and the monarchy thrived off one another - they needed one another.

The church, in times of national crisis, could place their power behind a particular family or leader and transform (typically) him from a mere warlord to ruler. By legitimizing the feudal government, the people were powerless to fight back lest they were going against god. Furthermore, other individuals who wished to seize the throne would suddenly find themselves being attacked and deposed of their lands by their allies simply because the church said that they were pretenders or upstarts to God's order. In return for that legitimacy, the feudal governments typically gave generously to the church.

That said, it didn't hurt that those in the feudal systems tended to be quite religious. It was a system that fed itself right up until the enlightenment when democratic systems began to grow as monotheistic religious organizations began to wane in power.


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

[User] [Marvel/DC] Would Batman have been able to get away with a move similar to the "Hellspore Manoeuvre" he used on Darkseid on someone like Thanos?

[Assistant]
Probably not, because Darkseid and Thanos are surprisingly different in goals and methods, despite their constant comparisons.

Darkseid wants **control**. All subjects of Apokolips worship and fear him. He uses various techniques for control over others, such as torture, manipulation, fear, hypnosis etc. He has brainwashed the likes of Superman and Supergirl to fight for him before. And all the while, his ultimate goal is the anti-life equation, which is the ultimate form of control over other sentient beings.

Thanos wants **destruction**. He has no planet of loyal subjects, he *destroyed it*. While he often manipulates others into doing his bidding (Gamora, Ronan, Loki, The Chitauri), his control over them is a tool, rather than the goal. His ultimate goal is the Infinity Gauntlet, which gives him the power to destroy other sentient beings, across the universe, all at once.

Darkseid is a god of evil, but Thanos is *mad*. Darkseid wants to control things, which almost always means leaving *most* of those things intact in some form. Thanos does not, and ultimately desires to kill *everything*.

So when Batman threatens to destroy Apokolips, Darkseid would lose control over his home planet, along with a great deal his assets, his war machine, his army. This is too much for Darkseid to lose, and the gambit works.

Were Batman to try this on Thanos it would fail. There is only one thing in the universe that Thanos feels he cannot do without. And not even Batman can destroy an Infinity Stone, let alone all of them.

TLDR; No, Thanos would call his bluff.


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

[User]
[Home Alone] What kind of psychological damage is Kevin going to have to work through due to the events in HA1 & HA2?

Hes going to need a Therapist, psychiatrist, or something, right? What mental trauma or condition(s) did he develop? Whats his life look like once hes an adult?

[Assistant]
Honestly, nothing at all.

The movies mostly highlighted how fun it would be for a kid to be by themselves, and Kevin handles himself pretty good for someone his age. He does show natural fear of burglars and other strange adults, but he does a good job learning to confront them and never shows any signs of trauma. If anything, these events prepared Kevin how to be self-sufficient as a kid and even more so in adulthood.

You could argue that he'll use these cunning skills into becoming a manipulative adult, but that's a bit of a stretch.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does trying to read a scratched CD/DVD pretty much freeze up your computer?

Seems to have happened on pretty much every computer I've owned, what causes this?

[Assistant]
Some things on a computer are never expected to take much time, so it sends the command to do it then just sits and waits for the result.

With a scratched CD/DVD the drive itself decides to try again over and over before giving up. The computer just sits there and waits. And waits. After a short timeout the drive gives up and moves on to the next sector of the disk. Unfortunately typical scratch damage affects tens or hundreds of sectors, so it all happens again, time after time and that short timeout gets multiplied up to much more.

The computer will have it's own timeout set after which it will give you a message about a problem reading the disk. This timeout is a balance between giving up too early and not managing to read an important disk that could have been recovered, and waiting too long and being really annoying.

A defensively written program can handle it much better and give up on bad sectors more quickly, but most people don't do that, or can't justify the extra time it takes even if they know how to. It's only really worth the added complexity for things like data recovery programs which need to get back all the 'easy' sectors first before going back and retrying the bad ones.


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

[User]
[MiB] Is there only ever 26 agents of the Men in Black at a time? Is there other organizations that deal with aliens?

MiB agents are given alphabetical code names, such as J, does that mean there are only ever 26 at a time? Is the MiB strictly American? Do they intervene in other countries? Do countries each have their own versions of the MiB?

[Assistant] There are agents beyond the 26 English letters within the main organization.  Zed for example is distinct from Zee, there is both an Alpha and a Double-A in addition to the regular A, Frank was an agent but never got a code letter (same going for a few other one off alien agents), and they probably use other letters like  or .


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

[User]
[Game of Thrones - Season 8 spoilers]The trenches disappeared in the latest episode. What happened to the trenches?

Outside of Winterfell, a giant trench was dug to aid in the battle.  In the latest episode, during the funeral pyres, we can see Winterfell at a distance such that, the trench should be visible.  It is gone.

Did it disappear?  Did they fill it in?  If so, how and why?  Where did they even get the manpower for that?  Also, where are the literal army of corpses from the others?  There should be a hundred thousand corpses or more, how did they manage to move them all so quickly, a task that should take weeks with the limited manpower available?

[Assistant]
A (Plot)Hole filling company came in and fixed it up for them, and in record time too. After that they had to hurry on to King's Landing to build what looks like a barren, flat wasteland in what was previously a lush peninsula surrounded by the sea on all sides.

Ah the beauties of capitalism.


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

[User] ELI5: Can a dog be a sociopath the same way a human can be?

[Assistant] While it's possible that dogs could experience a condition similar to sociopathy, there aren't enough proven parallels between human and canine behaviour and emotions to accurately say they could be sociopathic in the same way.


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

[User] ELI5: How do the journalists in documentaries about drugs and illegal weapons stay out of trouble despite being involved?

[Assistant]
Involved in what?

Filming a crime isn't illegal, and outside of a few specific cases people have no obligation to report crimes to the police. As long as journalists do not materially assist in criminal activities they haven't done anything wrong.


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

[User] [Men in Black] Who is most important person that a Neuralyzer has ever been used on?

[Assistant]
Probably some government officials. K said that the MIB separated from the government because they asked too many questions, which makes it reasonable to assume they were neuralyzed.

Also, in MIB 2, they neuralyzed all of NYC which has some pretty important people in it.


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

[User]
Why are old languages even a problem?

I've heard about that COBOL programmer shortage caused by the fact that some institutions have to update ancient code.

But aren't ALL programming languages the most logical form of communication, making them ultra easy to translate into ANY other (e.g. more modern) programming language? It's not like natural language, full of idioms, sayings, where meanings are lost in translation.

Why is it such a big deal to modernize old language codebase, while you can just translate everything into modern language?
EDIT: I Meant automatic translation. Like Google translate for code.

[Assistant]
That assumes that there are no bugs, and none of the buggy behaviour is relied on.

The reality is that, for these COBOL programs, there's many many years of institutional knowledge baked in. That's the bit that's hard to replace.

Many places with these things still running tried replacing them with Java.


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

[User] [marvel]how many planets does galactus eat in a year?

[Assistant]
Normally one every three to four weeks. Particularly rich planets could sometimes hold him for over a month. After Annihilation, however, he was going through multiple planets in a single week, due to how much he'd been starved.

This might seem like a lot, but remember that Galactus roams the entire universe. It might take him centuries to get through all of the possible meals in a single cluster. By the time he's moved halfway across the universe, the systems he's visited have already died and reformed into new stars and planets.


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

[User]
[Marvel] While Doom is ruling over Latveria, whats life like there?

Is it closer to a first or third-world country? What sorts of rights do the average citizens have? Are they happy with the direction hes taken the country? How are things like life expectancy, infant mortality, education, etc?

[Assistant]
Something like being a beloved pet.

In a purely objective terms, things are pretty good. There's food, shelter, technology, etc. But there's absolutely no rights. You have a good life purely because Doom's pride makes him want to show he has a good country.

Anything outside of blind obedience to Doom is horrendously punished. Doom doesn't tolerate any deviance from his plans. He has absolute control over everything, and anyone who doesn't obey without question is removed. If doom wants to use you for anything, you're being used, and if he needs you dead then that's that.

It's a gilded cage. Comfort, but under the complete control of a megalomaniac. It's up to you if you think its worth it.


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

[User] [Alien/Predator] Can someone explain the relationship/connection between Alien and Predator?

[Assistant]
Aliens/Xenomorphs (specifically human-gestated ones) are used as targets in a rite of passage for younger Predators on their first Hunt. A Xenomorph is often the very first kill a Predator gets which would explain why a Xenomorph skull would be displayed as a prominent trophy.

It's basically like a father taking his son hunting for the first time, only instead the son is dropped off alone or in a small group with other children, and instead of deer there are 8ft tall ravenous nightmares that want to eat you.

As to the connection between them on a species level, the Predators likely discovered (or created, depending on how you interpret the evidence) the Xenomorphs and, after realising how potent they could be, adopted them to use as 'game'.


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

[User] ELI5:What keeps the man to woman ratio in the human population so even?

[Assistant]
DNA is stored in large clusters inside each cell in your body known as Chromosomes. Each cell has the exact same set of DNA.

There are a total of 23 pairs, or 46 total chromosomes for humans. You get 23 of them from your mom on one side of the pair, and 23 from your dad on the other side of the pair.

One of these pairs known as the "Sex Chromosome,". If you're female, both sides of the Chromosome are known as X, so you have an XX pair of sex chromosomes.

If you're male, you have one X Chromosome, and one Y chromosome. So the pair is known as XY.

A woman will ALWAYS give an X chromosome to her child, as she only has X chromosomes to give.

A man however, can give either an X OR a Y chromosome to their child, and he makes an even number of sperm with either an X or a Y inside it.
And it is what that sperm carries, that decides the gender of the child.

And with an even number of sperm both X, and Y, means roughly an equal number of male and female children.


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

[User]
ELI5:Is it bad to turn off the lights and then turn it on again, or is that just as energetically favorable as leaving them on?

I'm talking about like if I'm leaving a room and turn off the lights, then someone comes in the room 5 seconds later and turns them on?  Or a similar situation but with a tv?

[Assistant]
Turning the lights off uses no power. Turning them on uses almost no power, except for some fluorescent models where it can use up to 30 seconds of power.

Short answer: turn them off, especially if you're likely to be gone for much more than a minute.


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

[User]
Eli5: Why do we end up more tired from sleeping longer than recommended amounts?

Why is it when you sleep for 10-12 hours you end up more tired throughout the day than if you had 8 hours of sleep?

[Assistant] Three main reasons: 1. If youre sleeping 8 hours normally and one day decide to sleep for longer, you end up disrupting your natural circadian rhythm, which leaves your body in a jet lag state because its a bit confused. Keep a consistent schedule for better sleep. 2. Waking up later might mean you wake up at a different sleep stage. You might be waking up in a deep sleep state instead of the usual rem or light sleep stage you normally are used to. Your body cycles through these stages every hour and a half on average. 3. If youre sleeping for too long it might be a health issue like sleep apnea preventing you from getting a good night sleep. Your body isnt getting the rest it needs.


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

[User] [Superheroes] How do police prosecute criminals apprehended by superheroes? So in Batman Begins he just leaves Falcone ties up with all his goons, how is that enough to arrest and convict someone?

[Assistant]
He also stapled all of the evidence to Falcone's chest. Batman is the world's greatest detective, and he collects enough evidence for a successful prosecution before dropping the bag guys off. It's just that in the movies, this tends to happen offs-screen.

In our world, a defense attorney would have a field day with evidence that was collected by someone whose identity is concealed by a bat costume, but standards for evidence are a bit different in Marvel and DC. The Bat, for example, has been called to testify before, and was not required to reveal his identity. That doesn't happen in more recent stories, but there is precedent.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do nuclear bombs manage to cause so much damage on the ground when most of their energy appears to be wasted in the upward travelling fireball / mushroom cloud?

So obviously the primary immediate physical damage (not counting radiation, actual blast damage) of a nuclear weapon is caused by the shockwave rippling out from the explosion and essentially flattening or severely damaging anything in its path. But aren't nuclear bombs actually very inefficient with their energy? The vast majority of it appears (from footage) to be lost in an upward travelling fireball, and you can see rings form around said fireball *in the air* where further shockwaves are spreading out.

Such a damage profile would seem to actually be far more damaging to anything in the air *above* the explosion than anything on the ground around it, but obviously we know that this is not the case.

So how is it that they cause so much ground level destruction even though, at first glance, it would appear that most of their energy goes into creating the airborne explosion as opposed to the ground-level shockwaves?

[Assistant] Imagine a bomb exploded in the air with no land anywhere around it. The force would expand out in every direction equally. When a bomb explodes on the ground, as much force goes down as does up. Most of this force down gets pushed sideways because the land blocks it from going down. This causes massive waves of energy that travel sideways along the ground after the initial shockwave.


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

[User] [Harry Potter] Is there any sort of outrage from parents that there's openly an 'evil' house and that their children's roles may be decided before taking a single class?

[Assistant]
You mean Slytherin? How are they "openly evil"? Their qualities include ambition and self-preservation but also fraternity and resourcefulness. "Evil" isn't in the House motto.

Perhaps you refer to that groundskeeper's outrageous claims that all dark wizards were in Slytherin House? Not only does this statement ignore the existence of other wizarding schools but also Sirius Black - who was in Gryffindor House, and Quirinus Quirrel - of Ravenclaw.

And then there are those Slytherins who oppose dark magic: Slughorn, (Andromeda) Tonks (ne Black), and some rumours say Regulus Black...


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

[User]
The Bible says: If anyone is unwilling to work, he shall not eat. Is there a name for this ethic stance?

2 Thessalonians 3:10 says: "For even while we were with you, we gave you this command: 'If anyone is unwilling to work, he shall not eat.'" Do you know if there's an established name for this sort of a stance, e.g. "anti-freeloader ethics"?

For background, I'm doing research (economics/history) on public relief works vs. unemployment benefits. In the former an unemployed person is given money only in exchange for labour, and in the latter a person can get money without working (even though other conditionalities may apply). I think "not giving money to idle people" is a strong, universal ethic intuition that has been used to support public works in favour of unemployment benefits, but I'm not sure which word I should use to describe this ethic view.

Also any (philosophical) reading on the intellectual history of this ethical stance is appreciated.

[Assistant]
Marx espouses such a stance in *Critique of the Gotha Program,* writing:

>The same amount of labor which he has given to society in one form, he receives back in another.

This was the initial principle of communism for Marx. Only at a later stage in communism could this be transformed into Marx's more famous slogan: "each according to their ability, each according to their need."

From the Marxist perspective, capitalists generate profit by making the laborer produce more value than they are receiving in payment. In *Capital*, Marx shows through a series of arguments that profit can only be generated by "surplus value" (that is, people work 12 hours, but only get payed for 6 hours worth of labor; the capitalist pockets the six extra hours; he's getting bread from the proletariat that he hasn't worked for).

 Accordingly, "each according to their contribution" insures that everyone's getting paid for what they put in, and the capitalists aren't stashing something away for themselves.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why does Obi-Wan's lightsaber absorb Dooku's force lightning, but Windu's lightsaber reflects Sidious' lightning?

Follow up question: After Windu reflects the lightning and it connects with Sidious, why doesn't Sidious just stop shooting the lightning?

[Assistant] Windu was a master of Vaapad, a form of lightsaber combat that he invented. Vaapad was more than just a fighting style; it was a state of mind. Windu would channel his own negative emotions and, crucially, those of his opponent, allowing him to "walk the line" and remain in the light. This is what let him fight Sidious; he was throwing the Sith Lord's own power back at him. When Sidious evoked Force lightning, Windu used Vaapad to reflect the Dark Side, and by extension the lightning, back at him.


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

[User]
What does synthetic a priori knowledge have to do with the thing-in-itself?

In other words  how do they relate to each other? These are two separate, but related, theories, right? According to Kant, the thing-in-itself is impossible to know, but any possibility of metaphysical knowledge will be that of the synthetic a priori variety. Thanks. I'll hang up and listen.

[Assistant]
Synthetic a priori knowledge, for Kant, is possible because of our a priori intuition of space and time. These are intuitions, and have to do with both our experience of objects and the possibility of experience in general. In the schematism, Kant explains how we can use these a priori intuitions of space and time to apply the categories according to "schemata," which are something in the imagination that provides something like a "rule" or a "blueprint" for an object. For example, Kant says, the schema for a plate would be "circle."

So how does this apply to examples like mathematics? The idea of number would fall under the category of quantity, and its schema is based off sequence in time (a priori intuition). The schema isn't a picture in your head, because you can picture five things in your head, but not a thousand, yet five and a thousand can both be imaginatively constructed using the same number schema. This schema serves as a kind of "middle term" that brings together your a priori intuition of space/time (say, the time it would take to count to ten, the temporal sequence) with the category of the understanding (quantity) and applies it as a rule for sensations (numbers are constructed in sequence according to a rule). This is also, for Kant, how we construct ideas like "dog" as a rule that classifies a diverse amount of sensations as a "dog." The schema "dog" is a certain rule that organizes our sensations into the experience of a dog.

Yet because we need both the intuitions and the concepts, that is, both the *a priori* conditions of space and time **and** the categories, neither pure intuition alone nor the pure application of categories can supply us with a priori knowledge.

Since the *a priori* conditions of space and time are conditions of receptivity (the sensations we receive), not spontaneity (the categories we think), there's something "outside" of the manifold that we're experiencing (the thing in-itself), yet we cannot apply concepts to it, because there's no schema to allow this.

Thus, Kant famously writes:

>Thoughts without content are empty, intuitions without content are blind.

We can *think* the thing in-itself, and we know it must exist, but because our intuition of space and time is what makes *a priori synthesis* and the application of the categories possible, we can't know what things are like prior to our spatio-temporal intuition.

Edit: Only a being with **intellectual intuition** (like God, for example) could ask about, say, the idea of "things in general" (not just spatio-temporal things), and then ask if "every thing has its cause." Because we can only apply the concept of cause based on the schema, and this involves the spatio-temporal intuition of an irreversible ordered sequence. Likewise, we cannot ask whether the thing in-itself is a "cause," because this would require us to know how to apply the causality to non-temporal, non-spatial things, again requiring intellectual intuition.


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

[User]
Where did the economic theory of bank bailouts come from?

....or was it just a reaction?  Is there sound reasoning behind a bailout?

[Assistant]
We actually know really well what happens if you don't do bank bailouts, and the results are often catastrophic. Most modern economies are built on banks - contrary to popular belief, the main product of a bank (and other investors) is not money, it's actually risk. A bank takes on risk (through loans) from companies, and by pooling and aggregating multiple unrelated risks, essentially converts high risk investments into low risk investments.

You can test this yourself through a simple experiment - imagine you have $50 to your name and a lottery gives you a 50% chance to go completely bankrupt or a 50% chance to have $150. It's actually a decent investment and would be good for the economy, with an expected return of ($150 - $50)/2 = $50, or 100% return. But most people wouldn't take that risk because a 50% chance of going completely bankrupt is pretty scary. But if you could do 1% of that investment over 100 investments, you pretty much now have a guaranteed chance of making that 100% return. Since these investments are now lower risk, you can also do more of them by borrowing from other people at anything lower than 100% - a process called leverage. Multiply this over an entire economy, and that's basically the job of a bank, an investor, an insurance company, etc. They "borrow" money from depositors, governments, other banks etc and then deploy that money into investments that then enable economies to grow and develop.

So in an economy where the risks have been pooled and leveraged, banks all systematically going under is basically the same as unwinding all the risk reduction all at once across a huge section of the economy. Savings get wiped out, businesses can no longer make investments or even normal day to day expenditure, and the normal risk which would otherwise have been easily solved by banks suddenly cause companies to collapse. The costs of this are immense, a basic rule of thumb being the wiping out of 20% of a country's GDP, and can take years to resolve. Bailing out the banks is much cheaper, and more importantly, much smoother for the general economy - actually leading to greater equality over the long run as well.

One key case study was the Showa Crisis in 1927. The Japanese government had issued a lot of specially discounted bonds to the banks in the wake of the Kanto earthquake which had been one of the world's largest catastrophes. For a variety of political reasons (mostly people thought the banks were profiting from the earthquake), they decided to reclaim those bonds, which made people think the banks might collapse. As people withdrew their savings, the banks actually did start to collapse, in a vicious self-fulfilling prophecy. The Prime Minister attempted to save those banks but was blocked by the Privy Council, and forced to resign. The crisis completely kneecapped the Japanese economy, most people lost 50% of their savings, until the new Prime Minister was forced to bail them out anyway to stabilise the economy. The bigger problem was that the new economy that emerged from this was highly uncompetitive - only the largest companies had managed to survive, coalescing around 10 or so gigantic conglomerates known as zaibatsu which owned 50% of the entire Japanese economy.

Since then, governments have generally not allowed large banks to collapse because of how horrific the outcomes have been. That being said, bailing out the banks results in something called moral hazard, where the benefits of banks taking outsized risks are accrued to the banks and their investors, but the costs are borne by the government and general public. This is a perverse incentive for banks to take on more risk than they should.


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

[User] [Asoiaf/Got] How old is the world?

[Assistant] Impossible to say. For one, we weren't able to accurately date our own world without a ton more information than we have on Westeros's planet. And even the continuous institutions in Westeros are unclear about their age. Sam is unable to confirm several hundred of the claimed Lords Commander actually existed, for instance. So we can't even trust history to be remotely accurate.


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

[User] Eli5 what's the purpose of sodium or salt in our sweat? I understand sweating is supposed to cool us down but why is there salt in sweat.

[Assistant]
Your body functions best when it maintains the right balance of salt and water. This is why hospitals hydrate people with saline solution instead of pure filtered water. Add too much water without a comparable amount of salt and it throws off the balance.

*Extract* too much water without a comparable amount of salt and it also throws off the balance. If your sweat didnt contain salt, then by sweating you would be concentrating the salt in your body, which ultimately wouldnt be very good for you.


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

[User]
On a given flight (say a 737 from Dallas to LA), how much does an extra pound of weight cost in fuel?

With all the recent hubbub over "pay what you weigh," how much does being fat actually cost? I'm aware that there a lot of variables here, but I'm at least looking for a ballpark estimate.

[Assistant]
A Boeing 747 has a lift/drag ratio of approximately 17:1 while cruising.  The -400 Domestic variant of the plane has a maximum takeoff weight of 875,000 pounds, and an empty weight of about 400,000 pounds.

Let's assume the airplane begins fully fueled with no passengers, so its average weight across a maximum-range flight is roughly 637,500 pounds.  Adding a single pound of cargo increases the average weight by 0.000157%.

The fuel capacity is 57,285 gallons, and the current price of Jet A (kerosene) is $3.00 per gallon, so a full tank costs $171,855.  Since the lift/drag ratio won't change much, we can assume that an extra 0.000157% of weight requires an extra 0.000157% of thrust, and therefore, an extra 0.000157% of fuel (engine efficiency also won't much much).

0.000157% of $171,855 is $0.26957, or about 27 cents.  To a rough approximation, that's how much money your 1-pound burrito costs the airline on a long-distance flight.  Someone who weighs 50 pounds more than you should pay an extra $13.48, assuming equal luggage.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are people consistently allergic to things like coconuts and peanuts but not things like bananas or onions?

[Assistant] We don't know for sure, but it's theorized that people are allergic due to peanuts and other tree nuts having many proteins not present in other foods like bananas or onions. The immune systems of many people tend to overreact and treat peanuts as a threat due to their unusual protein structures.


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

[User]
Is it possible to prove that something is self-evident?

Like the validity of reason as a source of knowledge.

[Assistant]
Look at Alvin Plantingas defense of properly basic beliefs and warrant.

Plantingas argument is basically there are things we know that we just know without leaning on argumentation or evidence.

Self-evident facts like some mathematical truths (1+1=2); self-awareness (I exist); some metaphysical truths like moral truths (it is objectively morally wrong to torture a baby for fun); first-person truths (like I am in pain); the falsity of self-contradictories (like a square circle or a married bachelor); among other things are considered basic knowledge.

Furthermore, theyre properly basic because theyre facts that are not improper (like an insane man who believes he is Elvis Presley  this might be a self-evident basic belief for him, but it is not a properly basic belief.)

Then Plantinga goes further and adds the element of warrant. That is, when the faculties and mechanisms designed to discover a properly basic belief is working as designed in the environment for which it was designed.

This is to ensure a drug-induced hallucination about the floor being on fire and me feeling like Im burning up doesnt count as properly basic even though Im normally healthy and sane.