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

[User] [Ghostbusters] While there is no question regarding the technical genius and heroic nature of the team, their success has been more to do with dumb luck than actual skill. How much more effective would a no-nonsense and competent Ghostbuster team have been?

[Assistant]
I kind of feel that a large portion of their apparent ineptitude can be blamed on the lack of public and government support. Nobody believed in ghosts before Gozer came through to our world, and people only supported the Ghostbusters because they took Gozer out right in front of them.

In the beginning of the second film, they were marked as frauds by both the government (who used them as scapegoats) and by the people of New York who seemed to think of them as children's clowns more than paranormal investigators and eliminators.

Once they had the backing of the administration in the first film, they seemed to fairly easily send Gozer back to his relm. And the same kind of thing goes for Vigo in the second film.

What *I* would want to see is a fully funded Ghostbusting department, as part of New York's (and eventually the rest of the country) emergency response infrastructure. Like police and fire fighters. What kind of toys could Egon and Stanz have cooked up if they had a lot more resources and personnel to support them?


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

[User]
ELI5: Scientifically, what is happening as we die? Are we any closer to stopping/reversing/slowing down the process?

Death is probably my biggest fear. I don't understand it, and the fact that what happens afterwards is pretty much unknown is what really gets me.

So tell me what happens to us during the process.

[Assistant] your consciousness only exists in your brain. When you die your brain stops working, usually due to lack of oxygen. No oxygen means nothing to burn in your braincells. And then there is nothing. Nothing to worry about.


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

[User]
After I receive a transition of blood, when does that blood physiologically become my blood?

For example, J needs a blood transfusion. Shortly after the transfusion, J has blood work drawn. How does his transfused blood have the properties of the new blood? Does it? When does that blood become J's blood.

Edit: a typo in the title. That's unfortunate. It should read transfusion, not transition.

[Assistant]
Functionally, it remains the same.  Both the donor blood and the recipient blood have the same oxygen-carrying properties, so from a blood-draw standpoint it all just looks like blood.  In most cases, the transfused blood is also a very small part of the body's total blood volume, and so any differences between it and the rest of the body will be nearly undetectable in your average blood draw.  Of course, if there are blood type mismatches, you would see reactions between donor blood and recipient blood, but barring that, everything would be kosher.  Finally, the life of red blood cells is about 120 days, and in most transfusions, the transfused blood is completely absent from the system in 60.

One interesting side effect can happen in the event of massive transfusion that replaces an incredibly large volume of blood.  If the volume is large enough to essentially replace the patient's own blood, then you can get something called "dilutional thrombocytopenia" since transfused blood has platelets that aren't fully functional.  This can be corrected with further transfusions, but it's something that might actually show up in a blood draw.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why didn't Obi-Wan just drop straight on top of General Grievous and chop him in half then? Why the elaborate duel which prolonged the conflict, risked failure, and got lots of other people killed?

His mission was to kill him, so it's not like there were many other outcomes possible except more deaths.

In any case, why does he think it's more civilized to chop someone in half than to shoot them in the head from a distance?

[Assistant] To answer your first question, it's because of the enormous droid army surrounding Grievous. Had Obi-Wan leapt down and killed Grievous immediately, he'd have been gunned down by the army surrounding him on all sides. But by engaging Grievous directly, he could play into the General's pride, getting him to order the droids to stand down and let him handle it directly. Obi-Wan knew he needed to stall for time for his 212th Clone Battalion to get in position, or else he'd be killed, and the duel was his way of distracting the droids to improve the chances of that attack.


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

[User] ELI5: why do most DVDs and Blu Rays have the action and background noise much louder than the actors voices?

[Assistant]
Dvd's and Blu-rays have the audio mastered in surround sound. Voices are typically sent through the center channel, while background noises and action come through all of the other speakers (typically, 4).

When played through a stereo, headphones, or a TV, all of those channels of audio are played through only 2 speakers.

Depending on how the engineers master the audio, and how your device decodes the signal, you sometimes wind up with those 4 channels of other noise overpowering the one channel of voice.


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

[User]
[avatar: TheLastAirbender] why sozin hunted the dragons?

 I don't understand, why kill something that could be incredibly useful for war?

[Assistant]
If dragons are the embodiment of the power of firebending, then by killing them, you've shown that you are truly a great fire bender of legend. And you do that, and other higher-ups follow your lead, until before you know it they're all gone.

It wasn't a smart move, sure. Everyone agrees in universe. But it's what he did.


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

[User]
[Hawkeye (no spoilers)] Why a bow and arrow?

Hawkeye has the best aim of anyone in the world except maybe Bullseye. Why use a bow and arrow? Why not a gun? Is there any canon reason he picked a bow?

[Assistant] His gimmick isn't really the bow, it's the trick arrows.  If he had a sack full of trick bullets, he'd need ten different guns to fire them all.  With a bow and arrow, it's all the same stick, just a different head on it.  It reduces what he has to be proficient in by an enormous factor.


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

[User] ELI5: What is Dialectical Materialism?

[Assistant] A dialectic is an interaction between two things, sometimes opposites. Materialism is a method of reasoning that primarily believes objective reality exists without any observation, that the person observing doesn't create the object they view. One consequence is that a materialist has to seek the truth as a thing outside themselves rather than trusting that their subjective view of reality creates the truth. Dialectical materialism is a way to parse reality through looking at new information in relation to what you already knew, two sides of the dialectic both related to observing objective reality. The usual formula is hypothesis plus antithesis equals synthesis, but its less formal than that in practice. A common example of dialectical materialism in action is when a scientific hypothesis is tested, the new data proves part of the old wrong and when they are synthesized the new hypothesis becomes the accepted scientific truth.


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

[User]
[Star Trek] What would happen to some one standing on a ship's hull if it entered warp?

So I'm watching Enterprise, season 2 episode 3 minefield.

Reed asks to be notified if they plan to go to warp.

I have 2 questions.

One what would happen to someone who is standing on the hull much like Reed is.

And 2 if someone was free floating near the ship, same question.

[Assistant]
Nothing.  They'd go to warp like the rest of the ship.  Numerous diagnostic views show the warp field extends well beyond the hull of the ship, and anything inside the field would be carried along as well.  You can see this principle demonstrated when Trip did an EVA transfer from Columbia to Enterprise at warp.

That said, clinging to the hull of a ship at warp can by kind of psychologically disturbing, which is probably why Reed wanted a heads up if it was going to happen.


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

[User]
[star wars]After the Rebels evacuate their base on Hoth, where is their next base? Do they have one?

I mean, they can't just go back to Yavin, can they?

[Assistant] Space. They don't have another HQ like Hoth or Yavin, their main flotilla is located in space. Which makes them practically impossible to find, at the expense of it being much harder to acquire resources and rendezvous with other Rebels.


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

[User]
[RoboCop] Do you think Clarence ever realized why RoboCop was "taking this kind of personal?"

Was Clarence Boddicker that cold of a dude that he could execute a policeman in cold blood and then totally forget his face? And Emil never pointed out "hey that cop we horrifically shot to death? Kind of a cyborg now and after us..."

[Assistant] Empathy is beyond the abilities of a sociopath.  He would never be able to understand another person's point of view and may even see himself as the victim here, being relentlessly harassed by a police officer.


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

[User]
ELI5: What are the main reasons for why dating/relationships have changed so much over the last 100 years?

From arranged marriages in the early 1900s to quick courtships in the 30s-60s and high divorce rates in the 21st century, what are the main factors that cause such a substantial change in how humans have romantic relationships?

[Assistant]
By *far* the biggest reasons are (1) birth control, and (2) women's rights.

Birth control means that casual dating, and even casual sex, is not very likely to lead to a pregnancy. That makes it much less important to avoid.

Women's rights mean that a woman doesn't *have to* get married in order to have a good life. That hugely reduces the pressure to either "marry this one or move along".


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

[User]
How do we know that far away galaxies aren't made from antimatter?

Scientists say that at the time of the big bang, in theory, equal amount of matter and antimatter should've been created, but now we have the universe of only matter. But how do we know that exactly? If antimatter has the same properties and behaviors similarly, how do we know that some Galaxy far away isn't made out of antimatter?

[Assistant] When matter and antimatter interact it produces gamma rays, very high energy radiation. If there were individual antimatter galaxies we would see a halo of gamma rays coming from them as dust from outside collides with them. If the universe were divided into a matter and antimatter at a larger scale we would see similar halos are larger structures.


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

[User] What color would a neutron star be if seen by the naked eye?

[Assistant]
Neutron stars have surfaces that are very hot - even old and isolated neutron stars are several tens or hundreds of thousand degrees at the surface, and younger ones or ones that have accreted material recently (within the last 10 million years) can be many millions of degrees. Our eyes are sensitive to light that's relatively red compared to what's emitted at those temperatures, so we are far out on the Rayleigh-Jeans tail of the emitted spectrum. Regardless of exactly the temperature then, they would appear in the visible spectrum as blue-white. The radius of a neutron star is quite small, only of order 5-6 miles, so there's not very much light at all emitted total compared to normal stars, and they would appear quite faint until you are nearby. What you'd be seeing, of course, would really be the optically thick atmosphere of hydrogen or helium above the crust which serves as a photosphere, or surface of last scattering of the light.

Just as the Sun's interior is much hotter than the photosphere, the same is true of neutron stars, which have interior temperatures of *billions* of degrees.  This material is still "cold" in terms of the physics, since the particles are all degenerate and held up not by thermal pressure, but by the resistance of particles like neutrons and electrons (fermions) to share the same state. Increasing the temperature does not change the pressure at the center.


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

[User] [Star Wars] The Imperials built a superweapon (twice) capable of destroying entire planets. Were there any planets in open rebellion they planned to target in particular?

[Assistant]
To paraphrase someone from a different universe, the best weapon is the one you only have to fire once.
Yes, there were potential targets that the Death Star might need to be deployed against, but the idea is that after the destruction of Alderaan, the other planets would decide they didn't really want to be in open rebellion anymore.


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

[User] ELI5: Camera lenses are round... Why are the pictures rectangles?

[Assistant]
Because the camera's image sensor (inside the camera) isn't circular, it's rectangular. Also(in old cameras) film is rectangular.
The light travels into the lens and bouces off mirrors to the image sensor.


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

[User]
My supervisor is tougher with me because she believes I can take it. Is it fair ?

(F29 - PhD student in communication )
My supervisor - as well as my chair committee - told me they are harder on my while I defended my comprehensive exam. It was the hardest moment of my academic life so far and even though they told me it was clear for them it was a success, it made me rethink about everything and why I was putting myself through this. I feel it is ok that they try to bring me further in general but during a defense  seem unfair to me, my colleagues are having it waaaay easier I feel (a PhD is already hard enough in itself).

What are your thoughts ? Are you tougher on some students because you *believe in them* ?

[Assistant]
A PhD isn't about competing with other people. It's about pushing yourself to grow.

So yes, each student tends to be pushed to standards that depend on their ability: that's the whole point of individual supervision and committees.

If you want to do anything competitive after graduation, you should be happy your committee is pushing you rather than letting you do the minimum, since you'll be competing on the market with people who got pushed to develop more.

Your colleagues who are "having it easy" are honestly getting short-changed in their education, and may well be in for a rude awakening when they go on the market and try to find jobs. The minimum bar for a PhD is pretty low, and lots of people just barely pass it and then struggle.


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

[User]
[Flatland] Could you convince the 0th dimension being to believe in higher dimensions?

He believes that everything is himself, including thoughts and ideas. Would he adopt spoken ideas about higher dimensions as his own so much that he believes them?

[Assistant]
I feel like in order to understand the dimensions above you, you'd need to experience the dimensions below.  Without those experiences, it's far more difficult to make the leap to understanding something greater.

A Square got to experience Lineland, so when he was introduced to Spaceland, he was able to understand the experience.

The Sphere (and the reader) gets to experience Flatland, so you'd think that if we were pulled into Hyperspaceland, we'd be able to understand what's going on - if we're willing.

But in Pointland, there's no step below, so Pointy couldn't learn to recognize the ignorance of believing there's nothing greater than what you can see.  Because of that, and because he's all that he's ever known (compared to the other dimensions, which are densely populated by segments, shapes, and beings), it'd be pretty hard for him to learn what a "line" is.


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

[User]
Is it possible to believe something without being aware of it?

I was having a discussion with a theist about the existence of God and at the middle of our discussion he claimed that everyone believes in God. I replied by asking him about people who've never even heard of the concept and he said even they believe in God because "God is in all of us."

That's where our conversation stopped and I thought the claim was really strange so I'm asking it here.

Is it possible to believe some proposition without even hearing about the concept?

[Assistant] In addition to what Tycho said it seems your friend is making a particular religious claim that everyone, inherently, 'knows God'. Presumably this is due to us being created in God's image and so on, and he's not necessarily making the same sort of claim that comes up in other discussions about implicit beliefs.


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

[User]
Why are bugs drawn to light?

Is it because it resembles the sun in some way? Do they derive energy from it? Do they just like shiny things?

[Assistant] In many cases, the insect uses either the sun or the moon for navigation by keeping it at a constant angle relative to another reference point (such as the honeybee "waggle dance," for instance). Issues arise, however, when they find themselves actually getting close to the light source. That angle is constantly changing as they get closer, so they begin to turn in order to compensate. This results in the insect flying in circles around the light.


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

[User] ELI5: Why can a dog have one ear that stands straight up while the other is wonky?

[Assistant]
Dogs have well-developed muscles that control their ears and allow them to point them around with precision, like little radar dishes. Pointing one straight up allows them to listen specifically in a certain direction without turning their head.

Humans also have muscles for their ears, they're just incredibly weak because we've evolved a lot since we had manual ears. This is why some people can wiggle their ears.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why didn't the clones attempt to kill Darth Vader after Order 66 was issued?

The recent Clone Wars episodes appeared to suggest they don't distinguish between former Jedi or Sith.  So why did they allow Darth Vader to lead them to the Jedi Temple?  Why didn't they attack him?

[Assistant]
You have to remember why Order 66 was given. The jedi had launched a coup against the Chancellor (in an act of treason), the man known as Darth Vader had saved the Chancellor's life by attacking the treasonous jedi.

He was thus allowed to live since he had proven his loyalty to the Republic over the Jedi order.

There's also the matter that there are no records of a jedi being named "Darth Vader", which is why he was allowed to live and why the name-change happened. The clones may have shot Anakin on sight, but "Anakin Skywalker" was no where to be found.


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

[User] ELI5: why is using "goto" considered to be a bad practice in programming?

[Assistant]
The idea that "Goto statement considered harmful" came from an essay by Dijkstra that was published in 1968 during the dawn of computer science.

His basic case was that GOTO was too primitive to have a single easily understood function when seen in code.  It tells the machine to arbitrarily move control to a different instruction at a different line of the program but says nothing about why or what's going to be there.  Also since you need to physically start reading somewhere else in the code with the context of what's in memory from the previous location in mind it can make programs extremely hard to read and verify, especially in an age before IDEs and debuggers.  It allowed for too wide of a gap between the mental model of a static program and a dynamic running process.

He advocated instead for what he called "structured programming" which is really just programming as anyone born after maybe 1964 understands it.  Structured programming makes extensive use of this new-fangled idea from the late 50's called "blocks", because someone had to invent the idea of:

    if (true thing) {
        doThings();
    }
    else {
        doOtherThings();
    }

at some point.

With blocks that's just the way you write that code with the instructions immediately blocked inside the condition that allows their execution to proceed.  With GOTO those lines could be 600 lines away.  And without another GOTO to send you back to where you left off, you'll just keep going from wherever you ended up until the program exits or crashes.

GOTO also predates a lot of the looping structures we take for granted in modern programming and while it could be used to implement them, using the actual loops instead carries more meaning and makes your program easier to read, understand, and compile (compilers that translate human-readable source to machine-readable machine code can make certain optimizations in how it feeds instructions into the CPU...as long as it understands what the loop does).  So at this point while a lot of the readability issues would be countered by modern tooling, the adoption of more structured ways of writing code and more nuanced looping statements makes goto...kinda pointless.


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

[User]
SEP statement on Ontological Arguments

The SEP article on Ontological Arguments says the following about criticisms of ontological arguments: "An obvious problem is that claims involving that vocabulary cannot then be non-question-beggingly detached from the scope of that definition. (The inference from By definition, God is an existent being to God exists is patently invalid; while the inference to By definition, God exists is valid, but uninteresting."

I am having a hard time understanding the difference between By definition, God is an existent being. Therefore, God exists and By definition, God exists, and why the former is "patently invalid" and not merely uninteresting like the latter.

[Assistant]
So you have two arguments :

1)

>P1. By definition, God is an existent being

>P2. ...

>Conclusion : God exists

This is question begging because the conclusion is already assumed in the first premise.

and 2)

>P1. By definition, God is an existent being

>P2. ...

>Conclusion : By definition, God exists

This in uninteresting because we want to know if god exists, not merely that we defined the concept as an existing being.


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

[User]
Why do authors run multiple regression models, adding more variables every time

In a lot of papers I've noticed the authors run multiple models on the same data set and add variables every time, rather than just using all the variables at once. What is the purpose of this?

eg:model1: y = b1x1+bx22+bx33

model2: y = b1x1+b2x2+b3x3+b4x4+b5x5+b6x6

model3:y= b1x1+b2x2+b3x3+b4x4+b5x5+b6x6 +fixed effects

The way this is shown is one large table with eg 6 columns (6 models) where only the 6th model contains all the variables and all the fixed effects. Or sometimes it's that every model has all the control variables and one different additional variable.

[Assistant]
It's called a step-wise regression. The idea is to first attribute change in the DV to 1 or 2 variables but then to add successive ones to see if you can decrease the beta weights. When you keep adding others but nothing changes, you get a better sense of what the true variables at play are.  The authors do this as a way of "showing their work," so to speak, and the process of elimination.

I would recommend Dalton Conley's Being Black, Living in the Red (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999) for an absolute master class in this.


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

[User]
[WH40k] Why does The Imperium use the equivalent of paper for administration?

I've heard that the Administratum have entire worlds dedicated to data storage, yet you frequently see them writing with quills.

In the 2nd Millennium, it was supposedly calculated that DNA storage (a new form of data storage at the time) could hold a zettabyte of data on a single gram. Every single word spoken by every human up to that point in time would have taken up 42 zettabytes if recorded as audio.

40,000 years later, everything is supposedly much more advanced from the 2nd Millennium, even if it has regressed somewhat.

Why would the Adeptus Administratum dedicate entire worlds to obsolete data banks, even going as primitive as using paper and parchment? By the 42nd Millennium, a single continent sized chunk of DNA storage should theoretically be enough to satisfy the data storage needs for the entire Imperium for the rest of eternity.

So, why paper?

[Assistant] Because paper is inert (more or less) and does not require a reader more advanced than someone knowing how to read to decipher it. It makes the medium significantly less directly susceptible to the corruption of Chaos, and records can still be deciphered even if there is another Mechanicus schism or Chaos incursion renders the tech that would retrieve and read other formats of data inoperable.


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

[User]
[Star Wars/Star Trek] which francise has higher tech level?

I guess Star Trek is cleaner and better dressed, but has it more advanced tech?

[Assistant]
Define 'higher tech'.

- Transporters are instantaneous, but temperamental in use.

- Generator yields, shielding, and weapon output are generally several orders of magnitude higher in Wars

- Trek seems to have perfected small-scale assembly in the form of Replicators, but Wars has some very large-scale construction going on across the galaxy.

- Hyperdrives are also considerably faster than Warp travel, but show limits of use in gravity wells.

- AI is notably more prevalent in Star Wars, including highly intelligent units capable of acting as planetary administrators. AI in Trek seems to be a hit-or-miss affair, depending on who is producing it.

It's hard to quantify overall 'higher tech' because each universe has things they are better or worse at.


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

[User] ELI5: How can it be too cold to snow?

[Assistant] Cold air has a harder time holding moisture than warmer air.  If the air is too dry, it might be snowing higher in the atmosphere, but it evaporates before reaching grounds levels.  Evaporate is the wrong technical term for snow turning into a gas, but it's close enough.


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

[User]
CMV: Most if not all laws should have an expiration date and have to be renewed

There are many laws that are considered "blue laws" that are not enforced or otherwise nitpicky, outdated, or even unconstitutional laws that are just kind of laying around sometimes centuries old and any police officer that wants to be an a\*\*hole can enforce them whenever they feel like it. In some states it is illegal to carry pliers around (made sense when the laws was made, cowboys cutting wires, but that is not a problem anymore, so nowa cop that does not like you can just charge you for it whenever they feel like it if you happen to have pliers on you). In one state it is illegal to cuss in front of a lady. I personally know people that have been stalked by police for hours while they searched to find some nitpicky outdated law to charge them with. Removing these laws can be costly and time consuming and really the government does not need to micromanage everybody's life, that is not their job, they are there to protect us and that is the reason their jobs exist. If all laws had an eventual expiration date and had to be renewed this would discourage over regulation and allow outdated nonsense laws to naturally expire after a while. The laws that actually matter would be renewed naturally, and the laws that are outdated and unnecessary laws would not be worth renewing over and over again.

Edit: Thank you all for your replies. This is getting much more attention than I expected so keeping up is getting difficult. Thank you for your patience and taking the time to reply. I will do my best to reply.

Edit 2: Thank you all again for taking the time to expand my view a bit. This blew up way bigger than I expected and it is getting difficult for me to keep the energy up to reply so I may not be able to respond to everybody fully. I was not expecting so much attention but I appreciate all of your time. I might come back and respond to some post later this week.

[Assistant]
Alternative plan: you're going to need a constitutional amendment either way to make this happen, so why not cut straight to the chase and allow citizens to complain to a judge about outdated laws. If the judge finds the law to be not usually enforced due to changed social standards, they issue a judgement and the law must be explicitly re-affirmed within 5 years by the relevant legislature, or it lapses.

That gets your desired effect (old unused laws can be pruned regularly) without forcing the legislature to continually debate settled issues.


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

[User]
I love doing my PhD but have been offered my dream job in industry. Advice please?

Hi folks,

I'm using a throwaway account and trying to keep this as vague as possible for privacy reasons.

As per the title I am one third of the way through my PhD have been offered what amounts to my dream job in industry. Unlike a lot of posters here, I very much enjoy doing a PhD and the lifestyle that comes with it--I have great advisors, a good work/life balance and for a variety of reasons will probably graduate with above average prospects on the academic job market (not that that counts for much!).

However, a month ago an opening for what amounts to my dream job in industry came up. This job is exceptionally rare -- I have been monitoring job adverts for this for around 8 years and this is the only time I recall such an opportunity appearing in my region. Usually one would have to move to the capital city (which is 3 hours away from me) and go through the considerable toil of low-paid internships to even get an interview for a position like this. I had absolutely no plans of leaving my PhD but I was uniquely qualified for the job because of the nature of my research, so decided to apply on the off chance. Much to my surprise I was offered the position a few days ago. This is exactly the kind of job I would be applying for after finishing my PhD, alongside academic jobs.

I am now facing the difficult decision of whether to leave my PhD and pursue this opportunity. For me, it feels like a choice between security for the next few years that it would have taken to finish my PhD vs. taking something of a gamble on this, as the job is initially only for a year "with a view to extending the position permanently". I also feel bad for my advisors. They have invested so much effort and belief in me during this process, and without them I would not be in the position I'm in. One of them is trying to obtain promotion and having PhD students complete successfully is an integral part of this. I know in the abstract that I don't "owe" anyone anything, but this is making me feel bad.

I'm really sorry that I can't think of a direct question to ask you all about making this difficult decision, but I'm wondering if anyone could weigh in with any opinions or reflections this dilemma sparks? I've read many great advice posts over the years on this sub and would really appreciate hearing what people think.

A few more pertinent facts:
 \- I have not yet started fieldwork
 \- I am in the EU, funded by a government organisation
 \- I am in a non-STEM field
\- If I was not doing this dream job, I'd want to be an academic

If you require any further information please ask away.

Thanks!

[Assistant]
Non-STEM field?

Then PhD is almost worthless vs Work Experience.

You do a PhD to get your dream job. If you can just take your dream job, TAKE IT.

Outside of STEM not having a PhD will not limit your progression at all.


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

[User]
ELI5:How does our body process foods with large amounts of artificial additives?

In terms of storing, breaking down and excretion..thanks!

[Assistant]
This is really going to depend on the specific additive.

The word artificial in your question is probably the least useful one. Your body doesn't really care how a substance came to be, it will do what it can to either turn it into something else, absorb and piss it out, shit it out, or some combination of all of those things. They don't usually have a meaningful impact on the food itself.


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

[User]
I think tipping is a bad system that should be eliminated. CMV.

Tipping servers and other workers could be a nice gesture if you've enjoyed their service. However, many restaurants give their workers ridiculously low pay because the rest is supposed to come from tips and many servers live mainly on that income. That is, in my opinion, wrong.

As an employee, your pay should come from your employer. As a customer, you should pay the demanded price. Having a customer decide how much the server is worth - after the service in question has already been delivered - is silly. The customer is left with the power to leave no tip at all for an excellent service.

On top of that there is the question of cultural differences - when travelling I have no idea how much to tip and where. Why not just put those extra percent into the price of the food/whatever else is being bought in the first place? You can still be allowed to tip when you think you received such excellent service that they deserve something extra but it should not be expected or counted on.

CMV.

EDIT to add: It's also more about looks and luck than who gives the best service. Women most often get bigger tips than men, and those women get more when they're wearing makeup. The general customer is not able to differentiate between good service or bad service, they just subjectively give more if they like the server or if they are in a good mood.

[Assistant]
Tipping solves the problem of information conveyed through price for products with unusually subjective value.

The restaurant owner does not know what the value of a meal is to his customer because he has to charge the same price for all customers, yet the customer will value the meal by many subjective criteria: was he hungry? Did he like the decor? Did he sit in the draft of the air-conditioning? Does he have a working copy of the TAS2R38 gene that makes him sensitive to phenylthiocarbamide (and thus hate brussels sprouts)? Oh brother, how the heck do you handle crap like that?

It's impossible to guarantee happiness, but it is possible for a human agent to make amends. Enter the wait-staff.

You solve the price-information problem by using a social mechanism that the customer understands intuitively and which conveys the value of everything that the menu cannot encode. Water too cold, too warm? Waitress fixes. Potatoes too mushy? Waiter takes it back. Sauce has too many aldehydes that trigger the nose of someone with an active OR6A2 gene that makes it taste like soap? Waitress has it re-done: NO CILANTRO!

Tipping is a natural consequence of a product which, unlike washing machines or microwave ovens, is extremely sensitive to personal judgement. When you find a restaurant with good wait-staff, and you communicate with them through tipping (and money speaks louder than words), the customer can create a product that is customized in ways few other industries can match.

Michelle, your favourite waitress, sees you coming in, and she makes sure everything is the way you like it to be because you give her 20% or better. The owner of the restaurant *cannot* provide that any other way, nor can he get the customer to communicate those preferences through the menu.


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

[User]
[Godzilla] Godzilla has been attacking Japan since 1954. Why has Japanese architecture and infrastructure not adjusted to seemingly inevitable attacks?

For 60+ years Godzilla has been coming to Japan and knocking buildings down.  Yet, everywhere you look there are skyscrapers and nuclear power plants built inside or near city limits.  Why are insurance companies not demanding the construction of subterranean buildings or nuclear plants that are built as far as possible from any metropolitan area?

[Assistant]
Godzilla's actually pretty chill. In '54 he was in a pretty garbage mood, he'd just been woken up, there was a big city on the beach he liked, people kept shooting at him, so he got pissed and levelled some stuff. But then he calmed down and became friends with the Japanese people. He helped defend the country against other more hostile creatures.

So the Japanese haven't needed to upgrade their buildings, because they generally just don't know where another kaiju is going to strike, how destructive it's going to be, or how quickly Godzilla can get there.

It just doesn't make sense to build cities like Tokyo out of hardened, monster-proof, fortified, nuclear bunker-buster-proof concrete structures. The cost would vastly outweigh the cost of just rebuilding when the kaiju leaves.


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

[User]
Why is it that we can flash-freeze bacteria indefinitely but not humans or similar organisms?

Working in a biochem research lab for a while and I got wondering why is it that I can flash-freeze a glycerol stock of bacteria, store it at -80C, and thaw them out months later with no apparent problems in growth/function but not in say a human. I am not very familiar with the current state of cryogenics, but my impression is that a human would die instantly if flash frozen in liquid nitrogen.  Is it simply just an example of the simplicity/hardiness of bacterial systems compared to humans?

[Assistant]
Your question includes your answer: it's the glycerol.
The glycerol prevents formation of ice crystals which are what destroy the cells and the reason we can't simply freeze and thaw real humans.

Because the bacteria are very small single cell organisms the glycerol is distributed evenly within the cells while simply administering glycerol to humans would not result in sufficient distribution of glycerol in every cell of the body (there are other issues as well, our bodies simply aren't designed to be frozen).

Remember also that it isn't necessarily every cell in the stock that survives the freezing, but because there are so many and they grow independently it's not really an issue when you thaw them again.

Some animals (particularly certain species of frogs) produce their own anti-icecrystal proteins and are able to survive being frozen because of this.


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

[User]
[Lord of the Rings] What could Gandalf have done if his power was not restricted?

We know Gandalf is mostly holding back because his mission is to lead and inspire, not to directly fight for the free peoples. If he did not have that restriction, what is the extent of what he could actually do? We see him, in restricted form, using telekinesis and doing all sorts of stuff with fire, and lots of other things. Just how much potential does he have if the gloves are off?

[Assistant] Gandalf was given permission to use his full power when appropriate. We see him do this several times; blasting goblins who come to capture him in his sleep during the Hobbit, against the Balrog in Fellowship, and on the field of pelenor when he high-beams the nazgul hunting Faramirs men in RotK.


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

[User]
We have already been dead

During my undergraduate degree i remember reading an article that basically was saying how we shoulnt fear death as we have already been dead before. This is such a long shot and vague but has anyone got any idea what it is???

[Assistant] You might be thinking of the "symmetry argument" from Lucretius. It starts with the observation that before we were born, we didn't exist. (We weren't "dead," just not in existence.) After we die, we also don't exist. If we're not bothered by our non-existence before birth, why should we be bothered by our prospective non-existence after death?


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

[User]
Do people with over-active immune conditions (like allergies, asthma, or IBD) actually have immune systems that fight off normal infections better, due to their hyper-vigilance?

curious whether any clinical tests have been done.  do they fight off colds and influenza any better for example?

[Assistant]
No.

Your immune system is highly specific. Every lymphocyte white blood cell you have is specific for ONE thing. When a white blood cell is activated, and sees what it is specific for, it clones itself to make thousands of copies. Then the clone army attacks that one thing.

If you have an auto-immune disease, like type-I diabetes, you will have thousands of white blood cells specific for the Beta islets of the pancreas. They will only attack the pancreas. They will not be able to attack the flu or colds.

Your body will still have a normal response against the flu, though. Just not an increased response.

Does that help answer the question?


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

[User]
[MCU] Why is English one of the predominant languages in Wakanda?

I get that Wakanda is a multi-lingual society but from my understanding, countries that predominantly speak English were either colonized by an English speaking country or have extensive relations with one via trade, tourism, or culture. As a hermit state, Wakanda doesn't fit any of that.

[Assistant] I just assumed it was a translation thing. That they actually spoke Wakandan and it was jut the actors in the movie speaking English so we would understand the Wakandan. The exception being the American that the Wakandans were kind enough to speak English to.


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

[User]
0dx  0dx ?

Should these indefinite integrals be equal?

0dx  0dx

0 \* (x + C)  0 + C

0  C  C  0

If they are not equal, wouldn't this break the linearity of integrating?

Thanks for any insight on this!

[Assistant]
Consider the lines y=0 and y=1.

If you differentiate them, you get dy/dx=0 in both cases.

If you integrate 0 dx, you can't tell which of these two functions you started with.

Your first integral is, in words, "0 times the integral of 1 dx", and 0 times anything is 0 - you multiply by 0 after you integrate. It's just zero, period.

Your second integral is, in words, the integral of a constant function (a function with slope 0) -- but we don't know which one -- so we don't know what C is.


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

[User] [Supernatural] If I wear an iron ring on my finger, am I immune to ghost possession as I would be continually touching iron and thus expelling them?

[Assistant] No, but you would have the benefit of being able to punch the ghost in the face when it tries to posses you.  Speaking of which, why don't hunters wear an iron and a silver ring all the time so they don't always need to find it in the environment or end up misidentifying a shifter because the silverware wasn't real silver.


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

[User]
ELI5: What does the Patriot Act say?

And I'm FIVE so no SAT words bs...

[Assistant] Very bad men flew planes into important buildings ten years ago in New York. After that, everyone got scared and didn't want that to happen again. So the President of the time, George W. Bush, had an idea. He made it so that the government can listen in on phone calls, and watch what you do on the internet to make sure you aren't one of those bad men that want to do bad things to America and to catch people who do want to do bad things.


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

[User]
[MCU] Why doesn't Hawkeye play professional golf?

Hawkeye claims when talking to Tony Stark that he shot 18 holes-in-one when he played golf. If that's remotely true, Hawkeye could make tons of money playing professional golf. I'm not saying he should quit S.H.I.E.L.D., but one tournament a year could make him an absolute fortune, and he's a family man, I'm sure he could use it, especially given the possibility that he doesn't make it home from a mission, which is always a possibility. Hawkeye doesn't have any actual superpowers, just extreme training and skill; there's no unfair advantage here, like if Cap tried to play football or run marathons or something. So why doesn't Hawkeye play golf, or darts, or bowl for money?

[Assistant] Originally it was that his effectiveness as a SHIELD field agent would be removed if he was famous and rich from being the world's best golfer. Since the Avengers thing sort of made him into a celebrity, it's now a thing where no tournament will let him compete fairly outside of special charity matches, because even though it is true that he's just a prodigy for aiming, people think he actually has superpowers.


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

[User]
ELI5: How were TV shows able to work around child labor laws when the main characters are kids?

I was watching Malcolm in the Middle and started to wonder how they're able to film on a regular schedule when 3 of the characters (and the main one) are kids.

How are they able to do this while going around child labor laws?

[Assistant]
They don't work around them, they work *with* them.

Malcolm in the Middle, for example, was not shot in front of a live audience. That gave them a LOT more flexibility. You'll also notice (if you pay attention) how much editing and looping is used in that show. It's a *lot*. It's like that for most single-camera shows.

Second, and this is important - they find kids who can actually *act*. That makes the work sooo much smoother.

Other shows will just limit the amount of screen-time they devote to those characters, and/or use twins if possible (that's extremely common for baby/very young characters).


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

[User]
ELI5 Fish excluded from meat?

Title might not be very clear of what i'm trying to say, but to clarify i want to know why does fish usually isn't included in meat category, fishes are made of meat, am i right? then why are they excluded from the meat category?

[Assistant] This isn't really a biology thing, it's just cultural. "Meat" is a food category with fuzzy boundaries, like "vegetables". Sometimes people think chicken isn't meat, either. It doesn't really mean anything.


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

[User] Why can't blood be artificially produced?

[Assistant]
Because blood is a VERY complex fluid that performs countless functions. In order for it to work, wed need to create an equivalent fluid that:
- Transports oxygen and nutrients to cells, and carries away waste products
- Clots and heals wounds
- Fights all infections and foreign substances and creates antibodies to prevent infections of the same things
- Has correct antigens to prevent autoimmune attacks
- Regulates hormone levels, pH levels, and body temperature
- Does not cause health issues or interfere with the natural blood your body creates.

Its not impossible in theory, but its a very, VERY tall order.


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

[User] [X-Men Cinematic Universe, Marvel] My dad saw the Deadpool movie last night, and wants to know why his face doesn't heal if the rest of him does?

[Assistant] Deadpool's face does heal. Deadpool, as we know, has cancer. The tumors from said cancer cause his face to look like that. Its kinda like if you were to take a nice, soft, round piece of play-doh, then stab it repeatedly.


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

[User] ELI5: how does the geometry of a bike change performance?

[Assistant]
There are a huge amount of factors that go into the geometry of a bike, but the main idea is changing the relationship between the various contact points and components to alter how they work in comparison to each other.

For a few examples;

The angle of the head tube controls the angle that the forks sit at - by changing this angle you change how the forks steer, with a steeper head tube making the forks easier to steer (and more twitchy), a slacker angle harder to steer (and more stable).

The height of the bottom bracket basically sets the height of the rider on the bike - and is a balanv beteeen a higher BB giving more ground clearance for the pedals, while a lower BB drops the centre of gravity and makes it more stable.

The length of the wheelbase (the distance between the wheels) affects how maneuverable a bike can be - the longer the bike the harder it will be to get it round a corner, but the more stable it will ride at speed.

The relationship between the angle of the seat tube, chainstay and top tube length will affect where the riders weight is positioned on the bike and how it will balance - forward is good for ascending, rear descending, and a balance somewhere in the middle.

A lot also affects the riders position - narrower bar is more aerodynamic (loved by the roadies), while a wideone gives more control (loved by the mountain bikers), a long stem stretches out the rider and makes the steering react slower, a short stem moves the rider back/upright and makes the steering twitchier.

Rider comfort is also a big consideration - the best positions for aggressive riding and control, or for aerodynamics are typically not the most comfortable, while a very relaxed, upright position that is comfortable going to the shops is inefficient and gives much poorer control and balance in more challenging terrain.

The biggest thing is that everything alters everything else, so designing the geometry of a bike is a giant balancing act.
If you want to use narrower bars for example then that will make your body more upright, so you would have to change your stem length (which changes the steering characteristics), or get a frame with a longer to tube to compensate. A bike with shorter chainstays will be more maneuverable, but will also have a shorter wheelbase so will be less stable...


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

[User]
[General] Do vampires get more powerful when they get older, or is it just that more powerful vampires live to be older?

In most vampire fiction, there's a strong correlation between vampire's age and power.  I'm curious if it's that vampires become more powerful as they grow older - and how that would work - or if it's just that the weaker vampires get killed before reaching a certain age.

Theoretically would it be possible for a very weak vampire to survive thousands of years by just avoiding conflict?

[Assistant] Vampire lore isn't consistent on this issue, so there is no one answer.  However, one thing that is generally consistent is that surviving a long time gives a vampire more opportunities to build up power through non-vampiric avenues.


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

[User] Is the 'brain freeze' you receive from drinking an extremely cold beverage too fast actually doing any damage?

[Assistant] It's referred pain from your palate via the trigeminal nerve. This nerve serves your head, but it passes by the palate. When it senses the constriction of local capillaries caused by the cold, voila, ice cream headache. The brain interprets it as pain from the head due to the function of the nerve. No damage involved.


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

[User]
ELI5: Dark Matter

I tried to read a bit about it but it was all a bit to scientific for me. Would like to know why we have it and what role does it play in our cosmic universe like i am 5.

[Assistant]
We have a pretty good idea of how gravity, motion and mass all work. We are pretty good at figuring out how big things are, how much mass they have, and how fast they are moving. When we look at a galaxy, we like to  figure out things like how much mass it has, how fast it's rotating, and how big it is. We even take a close look at how fast the galaxy is rotating at different points, for example the middle, the outside, and places in between.

From what we know of mass, gravity, and motion, we would expect that far edge of a galaxy would rotate slower than a spot closer to the middle. If you make a graph of the speed stars are rotating about a galaxy versus how far away they are from the center, it's called a rotation curve. That graph should look like a children's slide. It goes up really quickly from the center, and then slides down and down as you go towards the edge of the galaxy.

The problem is, it doesn't. When we actually look at galaxies, and draw the graph, it looks like a cliff instead. It goes up quickly (as predicted), but then it stays more or less the same, all the way out. So now we have a problem. Something is wrong with the picture. It's possible that we don't know as much about gravity as we think. However, every experiment we've tried, even really, really complex ones, tells us that we've got gravity nailed. It's also possible that we don't understand how to measure speed and mass from a long way away. Again, however, we've done a lot of experiments, and they all tell us we know what we're doing. So we need a way to explain why the galaxies aren't moving the way we expect.

There are a number of theories that try to explain this. The dark matter theory basically says that there is a lot more mass than we thought in a galaxy. When we estimate the mass of a galaxy, we're mostly doing it by looking at the things we can SEE, like stars (nice and shiny). But what if there was a lot of mass we COULDN'T see? Well, there are black holes. But the truth is we can still 'see' those by the way they warp other stars light, and make them move. Even accounting for black holes, galaxies are still way short on matter to explain the motion we see.

So what if there was matter we couldn't see, but it was really spread out, so we wouldn't see it bending light, or moving stars around? What if there was a whole bunch of it? Well, it turns out that if there WAS a bunch of matter spread around that we couldn't see, then all our observations would actually work out again.

There are other explanations for why our observations may be off, but most are dependent on us being wring about things we're pretty sure we're not wrong about, like how gravity works. There are also other observations that don't match reality unless we add in 'dark matter'. So right now, assuming that there is a crap-load of matter in the universe that we simply can't see is the best way we have to explain why our observations don't match our predictions.


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

[User]
Why does soap lower surface tension?

Just curious, I understand that soap is basic in general but how does that or other properties of soaps cause lower surface tension?

[Assistant]
All molecules attract each other intermolecularly. This means all molecules like to be surrounded by other molecules. However, molecules at a surface find themselves only partially surrounded or bonded when compared to those in the bulk of a material. So surface molecules are found in a higher energy state than those in the bulk and the surface has an associated energy.

With the aggregation of an amphiphilic molecule (soap) at the surface of water, the surface water molecules bond to the hydrophilic part of the soap which in turn lowers their energy - they are more surrounded/ bonded and so are happier. The hydrophobic functionality of the amphiphile (typically aliphatic carbon) is found orientated away from the water and is better suited at the exposed surface. This is due to the lower cohesive forces associated with the molecules i.e. they complain less than water when not bonded by similar molecules.

In all, the energy associated with the surface is reduced and in turn this corresponds to a paralleled reduction in the surface tension.


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

[User]
Does my dog smell everything I do but stronger?

By which I mean, I know that dogs have a far superior sense of smell, but are there any odors that people can smell better or more acutely?

[Assistant]
A vet likened it to me in this way: Dogs smell the world "in color." To a dog, the way we smell our surroundings is similar in sensory concept to looking at a black and white pic. We can still get a lot of information about the pic, but it's still incredibly limited as compared to one in full color. Dog's capability to smell is like us looking at a color pic. We can't really understand the extra sensory information that dogs can perceive. It would be like explaining color to someone who can only see in black, white and grey.

Essentially, they can perceive way more about the world through their noses than we can. Of course, this metaphor doesn't extend very far, as the two sensory phenomena are quite different, but the gist remains applicable.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do filming location scouts work to find fitting spots for filming?

If they are to film at a place where other movies have been filmed, I can understand why it wouldn't be hard to find. But what about uninhabited places, such as jungles, forests, or even (inhabited but rare) idyllic, small villages around the world?

I can't imagine them just bringing out a map, putting their finger on one spot, and then travel there. So how do they work? Do they have a list of contacts from all over the world, so they can call somebody in supposedly the right area?

[Assistant]
I've done film scout location before, however for low budget projects. First the director or producer or someone important who is woking on the film decides what they're looking for. If it's an outdoor kind of thing, then the scout will take a camera, find some places that are accessible but nothing to distracting in the vicinity (like highways or something), then the producers are shown the different locations and a decision is made.

But what if the film has to be shot in a kitchen? Or in a church? Well the scout will look for nice places to film, ask the owner if it's possible to film there and how much it would cost. When looking for a location it's about how easy would it be to film at that location and would it look good.


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

[User] ELI5: How do people make torrents to tv shows with no commercials and in such high quality almost immediately after it has aired on tv?

[Assistant] The video feed to the TV is split to also feed a digital video recorder; the digital video file is broken up into smaller chunks while recording so you are able to edit the earlier footage while new footage is being recorded.  You are able to edit out the commercials this way.  And as soon as the whole episode is completed it's a quick render and package to upload to the internet.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is it when you allow water to sit and reach room temperature it feels warm but coffee left to reach room temperature feels ice cold?

[Assistant]
your mind expects coffee to be hot so when it's room temperature, it feels much colder because it's colder than you expect it to me. one day, brew coffee in a
mug and let it get to room temperature. also put water in a mug and have someone mix up the mugs and blindly feel them. you won't feel a difference.


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

[User]
Ignoring the difficulty of capturing a comet or adjusting its orbit: If we could arrange for a comet to strike Mars, what would the effect be? Could we terraform Mars by hitting it with a cubic mile of water?

As a child, I loved "The Martian Way" - a short story by Asimov where 2nd generation Martian colonists establish their independence by "stealing" a piece of Saturn's rings and bringing it back to Mars as a water supply. These days we know that his story was based on bad information - for one thing, Saturn's rings aren't made from convenient cubic-mile chunks and, for another, we now know that Mars has no atmosphere to speak of, making it hard for a colony to get established in the first place.

But I still wonder if there was a nugget of gold in that old story: What if we grabbed a chunk of ice & methane from the outer solar system and just dropped it on the Red Planet? Could we restore Mars' atmosphere that way? If we did, how long would it last before the solar wind stripped it off again?

[Assistant]
The smart thing to do would be not to smash a comet into Mars directly, but to aerobrake one in Mars' atmosphere. The temperature of atmospheric entry would be enough to not only break up & melt the comet, but also split the water molecules into their constituent oxygen & hydrogen.

If you planned the comet's entry into the atmosphere *just so*, you'd be able to control how much of the O & H got liberated, or re-combined back into water after the fact. So you'd get to choose the proportions of oxygen, hydrogen & water you introduced.

Oxygen is obviously very handy! The hydrogen would be so much lighter than the rest of the atmospheric gases that it would rise to the atmosphere's upper layers, and get preferentially stripped away, protecting the more valuable oxygen & water vapour.

However, it would a good hundred comets to so much as double the mass of Mars' atmosphere. So you're better off grabbing a Kuiper Belt Object.

Even then, the real issue with terraforming Mars is a lack of nitrogen. You ideally want some sort of inert gas to make up the bulk of the atmosphere. Too much oxygen, and everything is flammable. too much carbon dioxide and people can't survive. Nitrogen is also vital to plant (and therefore animal) life on earth, in the form of the nitrogen cycle.


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

[User]
CMV: Cows are Technology

Not just cows, but most domesticated animals, corn, squash, and most other fruits and vegetables can be considered technology and a human invention in the same way that my phone is.

All of these things have been modified from their original natural forms in significant ways.

The fact that they are living does not make a distinction. If corn didn't exist and we invented it tomorrow by genetically modifying grass in a lab it would not only be considered technology but would be patentable.

The fact that they were created by selecteive breeding does not make for a distinction here either. Under that reasoning a lot of computer algorithms would not count as technology either, as they were developed by itterative artificial selection in a similar way.

There is no reason to think of domesticated plants and animals as being any less a technological invention than a car.

Edit: the best point I've seen made here so far is that technology is knowledge, not the thing itself. Therefore cows (plural) are technology but cow (singular) isn't. By the same note cars are a technology, but your car isn't, because the technology is the understanding. This is different than how I think people colloquially think of technology, but is a robust definition. It does however mean that cows are still technology, in the same way as all other technological understanding, if anyone wants to hash that out.

[Assistant]
>All of these things have been modified from their original natural forms in significant ways.

I think the key part is that not every individual object was altered or "built" - their breeding is definitely "technology", but the process is not.

I think what you're saying is akin to saying that "water is technology because it comes out of faucets".


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

[User] ELI5: Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria gets assassinated, how did this trigger World War I?

[Assistant]
WWI was bound to happen regardless of whatever happened to Franz Ferdinand. The entire continent was itching to carve out new spheres of territory/influence due to competition over colonialism and dying to try out new weaponry from the sudden boom in technology. Everyone raced to make alliances and mutual defense pacts that made the political landscape a spiderweb of allegiances, of which just one thread getting pulled down would entangle everything else by way of the complex network.

The assassination of Franz Ferdinand was not exactly the reason for WWI, it just happened to become the excuse everyone was looking to point fingers and go to war over.


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

[User]
ELI5: How is Magic Johnson alive?

I mean, not only is he alive, he seems healthier than most 55 year olds. Is this common for someone who has been HIV positive for almost 25 years? Are the meds that good?

[Assistant]
If you take ARVs, don't drink or smoke and live healthily, and of course are wealthy enough to have access to whatever medicine and doctors you need, you probably can live out the rest of your life HIV Positive and die of other causes.

Once you have AIDS, though, it is pretty bleak from there on out.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do we find cold water more appealing than warm water, as far as drinking goes?

[Assistant] We (as in the worlds population) don't. The Chinese for example drink hot water like Americans drink cold. The French will serve tepid water and look at you strangely if you ask for ice. It's cultural.


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

[User] Eli5 why is aluminium not used as a material until relatively recently whilst others metals like gold, iron, bronze, tin are found throughout human history?

[Assistant]
Aluminium oxidizes extremely easy. And it will stay oxidized unless you do dramatic things to it. Your other examples are much easier to refine. Gold does not normally oxidize so you can just pick it up from the ground. Tin and copper (bronze) can be refined just by heating it in an oxygen poor environment, such as a camp fire. Iron requires somewhat more heat and needs to react with coal to form pure iron from iron oxide but even this is relatively easy. However aluminium can not be refined in this way at all. Even today we can not refine aluminium this way. Aluminium is refined using electrolysis which requires huge electric power plants nearby. So we needed to find up electricity before we could start mass producing aluminium.

We did however use aluminium oxide for various things before we used the metal. It is an excellent abrasive which is used in for example sand paper. So we did mine aluminium and there are actually some very cool advancements in chemically separating ores which were first invented for aluminium. And there are actually a couple of extremely rare aluminium artifacts from the middle ages which we do not know how were made. But the rarity of them suggest that it was not something done at any large scale, each item was likely the lifes work of several people.


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

[User] Humans have "introduced" non-native species to new parts of the world. Have other animals done this?

[Assistant]
Yes.  You've heard of fruit?

Ever wonder why fruit is so sweet and delicious? It's a trap.  That's the plant tricking you(or any animal) into taking that fruit(and the seed(s) inside) somewhere else, so the plant can spread and replicate.  Sometimes the animal just eats the fruit and discards the seed nearby.

Sometimes the animal eats the fruit and the seed and then (assuming the seed is indigestible - evolutionary pressure encourages seeds to be either indigestible or unpalatable) excrete the seed some distance away.

Animals do this on a massive scale in terms of both distance and time.  They are constantly moving and migrating. Birds migrate tremendous distances, moving from continent to continent.

 Coconuts spread around the whole world without any assistance because their seeds float.
*edit* **Yes. I, too, have seen monty python.**


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

[User] ELI5: What is the point of the peace process since Nethanyahu does not want a two state solution?

[Assistant]
Netanyahu has since claimed in an interview with MSNBC that he still supports a two-state solution, and only meant that he doesn't think the time is right, with Islamic extremism on the rise in the region.

Realistically, Netanyahu is very unsympathetic to the Palestinian position, and it's pretty unlikely that a two-state solution could be agreed upon under his leadership.

It's often said that five things will be necessary to a permanent two-state solution:

a) Israeli leaders willing to make a deal.

b) Israeli leaders with the legitimacy in the eyes of their own people to make a deal.

c) Palestinian leaders willing to make a deal.

d) Palestinian leaders with the legitimacy in the eyes of their own people to make a deal.

e) An American president willing to commit political capital to serious negotiations, and willing to commit American credibility to the peace plan.

We currently have b), e), and maybe c). We definitely do not have a) or d), so the purpose of the peace process is to prevent obstacles to peace (like Israeli settlement construction and Palestinian terrorism) from increasing, and to make sure things are in place when we have a) and d) at some point in the future.


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

[User] Why isn't Hegel included among the names most associated with phenomenology, such as Husserl and Merleau-Ponty among others? Is his Phenomenology of Spirit something completely different from the phenomenology elaborated by those we typically call phenomenologists?

[Assistant]
There are people much more qualified to answer this on here but I'll take shot:

In a sense, both Hegel and the 20th century phenomenologists have the same aim: To develop a philosophy that can ground "science" (*Wissenschaft*). The basic difference is that Hegel is trying to "ascend" from particular sensuous experience ("sense certainty") to abstract conceptual *"absolute knowing"*, whereas 20th century phenomenology is trying to "descend" back to particular sensuous experience (*"back to the things"*). Context is key here, Hegel was writing in a time when Kant had just blown philosophy wide open and possibilities seemed endless, the question was one of building the right *system* on top of Kant. So in a sense he was "building" philosophy from particular experience to the abstract universal to achieve a grounding of philosophy. Husserl was writing in a time when those systems established in the 19th century were crumbling - philosophy not only seemed to have been made obsolete by the natural sciences but the sciences were in a *crisis* as well (*"foundational crisis of Mathematics"*). His play to rescue philosophy was to *reduce* philosophy from the abstract universal to particular experience to achieve a grounding.


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

[User] [DBZ] So I take the dragon balls from earth to some far away planet I make my wish, then where do they go back to earth?

[Assistant]
Great question! A few things to consider is the creator of the dragon balls.

It would depend on where the creator of the dragon balls is located. If not the creator, then whomever is spiritually tied to them.

Consider the time during the Frieza saga, when they called upon Porunga (the Eternal Dragon of the planet Namek), and after Guru died, he was later revived by the Shenron (the Eternal Dragon of Earth). The final wish was made to Porunga (Guru bestowed him with the power to grant three wishes, and two of which had been used to revive Piccolo and bring him to Namek).

Well, the third wish was used to transport everyone except for Frieza and Goku to Earth, where the titans Goku and Frieza were left to clash on the dying Planet Namek. Well, when the wish was granted, the dragon balls followed Guru to Earth. They go where their creator is

Given that the dragon balls in the DB universe follow a few guidelines such as not having the ability to grant wishes to exceed the power of their creator, limited by number of wishes, and maybe some other intricate details, and the only known creators of dragon balls have been Namekians, it is safe to assert that the dragon balls of Earth would also go where their creator is.


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

[User]
If somebody gets a new organ and you check ~50 years later, will the organ still have the DNA of the donor?

I guess the title says it all :)

[Assistant]
It depends on the organ, and on what cells you look at. Some cells (monocytes, for exemple) are able to migrate inside tissues, and they would have the DNA of the host.

However, the huge majority of the cells would have the donor's DNA, yes.


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

[User] [Pokmon] Can Pokmon be microscopic?

[Assistant] I can't see why not, considering that every couples of years, new pokemon are discovered so it might be possible but  How knows how different they could be. Maybe there's a whole microscopic world with pokemons and unique types.


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

[User]
[Vampires] If you invite a vampire into an apartment block, can it go into the individual apartments?

The same questions goes for if the individual apartments are owned by the person living in them or if they are rented by the people living in them?

[Assistant] A vampire needs to be invited into a "home" so each apartment is a different home. If they were invited by the landlord, they could enter empty apartments. But each occupied one would require a separate invitation by the occupant.


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

[User]
Why is bird poo white?

What is it that makes it white?

[Assistant] Birds and reptiles have a different way of getting rid of ammonia (NH3) than mammals.  Mammals convert the ammonia to urea (CO(NH3)2), dilute it with water and excrete it as urine.  Birds, however, convert the ammonia to uric acid (C5H4N3O3) and excrete it along with feces.  Uric acid is white.  Hence bird poop is white.


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

[User] [Futurama] If so many people from different time periods are alive due to cryogenics, how is history of the 2000's so easily forgotten?

[Assistant] You must not have been to Past-O-Rama, an interactive museum where the 20th century is clearly and accurately portrayed.  It has authentic cowboy mammoth hunts and offers rides in the 20th century's fantastic rent-free mobile apartments.  The museum captures one of history's great meeting of the minds: Einstein and Hummurabi disco-dancing in a hot air balloon.  Its theater shows that all-time classic of world cinema, Star Wars 9: Yoda's Bar Mitzvah. One of its greatest features is the burial chamber of Al Sharpton.  It even has one of Gerald Ford's famous automocars.  It's da boom!


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

[User] [DC comics] What would happen if a Kryptonian on earth could tap into the speedforce? Would the yellow sun powers boost his speed when running or would he run like a human speedster? Would flying be a super slow way of traveling compared to running?

[Assistant]
If a Kryptonian could access the Speed Force, the sun would no longer be a factor when it comes to locomotive power.

The Speed Force already grants you the ability to be omnipresent. Relativity stops existing to you, you are the absolute observer. You can't get any faster than that.

He could also fly as fast as he liked. The Speed Force allows you to fly as it grants control to impart motion in any direction over every atom of your existence.


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

[User]
Two balls rolling down a hill. Which one is faster?

Two identical size but different mass balls rolling down a frictionless slope. Which one wins the race? Looking for an answer to settle an argument among sone cyclists please.

[Assistant]
"Rolling down a frictionless slope" doesn't really make sense. If the slope is frictionless, then the translational and rotational motions of the balls are totally decoupled, and the balls just *slide* down the slope.

I think what you're interested in is the case where there *is* static friction so that the balls can roll without slipping. (I'll also neglect air resistance.)

Anyway, for uniform spheres the result is that the the velocity as a function of distance along the ramp (v(s)) ends up being independent of both the mass and the radius. And the time it takes to reach the bottom is just the integral of ds/v(s), which is also independent of both the mass and the radius.

So they have the same speed at all positions, and take the same amount of time to reach the bottom.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] do Hogwarts students all bathe together in those giant baths from The Goblet Of Fire?

I know that the bathroom seen in GOF was made for prefects but it looks like its made for like 30 people. Are all the other baths like this? Do Harry, Ron, Neville etc all bathe in the same giant bathtub in the Gryffindor common rooms as well as Ginny, Hermione, Patil sisters?

[Assistant]
I suspect that that bathroom was specifically elaborately designed to give the prefects extra perks for having to take on so many other tasks with the younger students. And since they're model students, Hogwarts faculty either expects that they wouldn't use the bathroom at the same time or expects that they would behave if multiple bathers were present simultaneously.

There are only 2 prefects per house per year in Hogwarts, starting in year 5 and continuing in year 6 and 7. Which means, if you include the Head Boy and Head Girl (essentially elevated prefects), you only have 24 prefects in the school at a time. So if every prefect wants to take a bath at the same time, they're covered.

However, it is likely that the bathroom prevents boys from entering if girls are currently inside just like the dormitories.

We never see baths or showers for the non-prefects (though showers are mentioned - albeit it's unclear if these are located in the school or just down in the Quidditch stadium), though it's probable that they do exist somewhere in the school in a smaller (or at least less grandiose) capacity.


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

[User]
[Sci-Fi In General] Is there any sci-fi that shows national colonization?

  To elaborate, alot of sci Fi depends on earth either being under one nation, or a global alliance that might as well be one. Is there any sci Fi that explores say china, and the US competing over colonies in the galaxy? Or just other planets that have been colonized having multiple borders. It never struck me right that, ok take for example let's say there's this earth like planet called Bob. Bob has multiple continents, and supports a colony of a couple billion people. Wouldn't it make more sense that Bob would eventually split up into multiple countries rather than form one homogeneous planetary government?

[Assistant]
In "For All Man Kind" colonization of the Moon and Mars is a competition between the US and USSR.

In the Civilization video game series, one common win condition is to explicitly engage in national colonization before any other nation.

Stargate SG-1, has humans on other planets while Earth remains divided.


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

[User]
[DC Comics] How do the Lantern Match Ups work?

I've heard that Green Lanterns have a weakness to Yellow Lanterns due to fear undermining will, and Blue Lanterns are strengthened by Green due to hope being empowered by willpower. But are there any other specific details like that? How do all the corps bounce off each other?

[Assistant]
It's not as simple as "Yellow beats Green", it's about which Lanterns can maintain which emotional states under which circumstances. Psychology, in other words.

Take Larfleeze, for example. Most powerful Orange Lantern ever. Gets punked by a Blue Lantern, simply because deep down in his shriveled little heart, he secretly hopes to escape the ring and the isolated hell that it's made of his life. Those sort of emotional vulnerabilities are the rule, rather than any colour-specific weakness. If you had a Green Lantern who truly loved someone, they'd be vulnerable to a Star Sapphire who could play on that emotion to weaken the Greenie's resolve. Not because Green is weak to Violet, but because that particular Lantern is vulnerable to Love. If you put that Lantern in a situation where Love and Will are pushing in the same direction (maybe they've got to save their love?) then they'd be stronger than normal, not weaker. Which is exactly what happens with the Green/Blue interaction - in almost all species and situations, having Hope is going to make focusing your Will easier, not harder. Ditto for the Blue/Orange interaction - in the face of some Orange nutjob trying to enslave you, Hoping to remain free is the natural response for just about everyone, so Blue Shields are a great way to defend against Orange assimilation beams.

The Green as weak to Yellow thing came up due to a special circumstance where Parallax (the Yellow/Fear entity) was captured inside the Green Central Battery, creating a yellow taint to the Guardian's ring system. During that period, all Green Lanterns had a small trace of Yellow Light inside their constructs which caused the vulnerabilities which gave rise to that whole stereotype. If they'd trapped Predator inside the GCB instead, Green Lanterns would be weak to purple instead.


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

[User]
Why does protein cause foamy urine?

Tried a quick Google search, but just turned up vague "protein reacts with air to make foam" and wanted more specific reasons why proteinuria would manifest as foamy urine.

[Assistant] So when proteins are whipped up by mechanical forces (stream of urine hitting toilet water, or making a meringue using egg whites) the protein gets denatured, meaning that the three-dimensional structure of the protein is destroyed. You are left with long chains of amino acids which are all charged differently based on the side chains, so some can be hydrophilic (attracted to water) or hydrophobic (repelled by water). Air is introduced into the surface of the water by the mechanical frothing, so the hydrophobic parts of the protein collect around the air bubbles to move away from the water in the toilet bowl, thus creating bubbles. The newly exposed side chains will also bind to each other to create more stable bubbles. Normal people will excrete a tiny amount of protein in their urine (<150 mg/24 hrs) that escaped through the glomeruli (the billions of tiny filters in the kidney) which would not create a significant amount of foam.


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

[User]
ELI5: why do some burn victims die months after being exposed to the fire?

I was reading about some burn victims from summer fires in Greece, and some succumbed to their burns more than 3 months after they were originally exposed to the flames. Shouldnt they be in the clear at that point given burn wounds heal over time?

[Assistant]
Burn icu nurse-
Think of the skin as being the largest organ in your body. Damage to the largest organ will inevitably have an impact on other organs. The first organs that start to go are the kidneys. Think of how your skin retains moisture in your body. It keeps the water in your blood. Your blood becomes thicker now without as much water in it. Your kidneys filters your blood. Your heart pumps your blood.  Now you have nothing to keep that water in . Your thickened blood is more susceptible to clot. Cause a stroke or a clot in your lung. We try to keep blood flowing to all our organs to deliver oxygen to them. We divert this blood to the most important areas- our brain, our heart.  Everything works harder in your body. Your lungs work harder to put oxygen in the blood. Your gut doesnt get enough blood flow, and not enough oxygen. The tissue starts to die. It starts to breakdown with your stool in it and spread infection inside your body.  And of course the obvious answer thats mentioned above is the large amount of open skin is highly susceptible to infection.


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

[User]
[The Matrix] Where do the downloadable skill packs come from?

In other words, where did they get the Kung-Fu memory libraries?

[Assistant]
When people are plugged into the Matrix, their consciousnesses are still living normal lives. In their minds they're doing all sorts of stuff. Going to university, fighting wars, designing various doo-dads, and yes, learning the martial arts.

Their minds (and therefore their skills and experiences) are stored on a cloud server by the Matrix system, where they're skimmed from the machine's servers by tech analysts and put into repositories for use by the human resistance. By now they have quite the repository of assets to draw from.


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

[User]
[werewolves/general sci-fi] How does being a werewolf work in space?

Does it just go by the moon of the planet the werewolf is currently on? How is a full moon determined when one is not on a planet? What if a space werewolf is ON a moon? On planets with multiple moons, do all the moons count? If more than one is full does the werewolf get more powerful?

[Assistant]
Depends on just how does the lycantrophy trigger. If the affliction merely requires a set amount of reflected moonlight to trigger then it might not manifest at all if lunar regolith isn't abundant.

If the curse is more thaumaturgical in nature then it's likely linked to the phases of the moon and will operate like clockwork everywhere in the universe.


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

[User]
[StarWars/StarGate] What would the Galactic Empire think of the StarGate Milky Way Galaxy?

If the Galactic Empire discovered a wormhole form the unknown regions that lead into the Stargate Milky Way galaxy how do you think the Galactic Empire would react to the Milky way galaxy powers?

If they came into contact during Season 1, Season 5, Season 8, or Season 10? Also what would they think about the Pegasus galaxy as well?

[Assistant] Honestly, they would probably see the Milky Way as an easy target and quickly subjugate the entire galaxy. There aren't too many things in Stargate that would give them pause, at least nothing that is common in the Milky Way.


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

[User] ELI5: What is the reason behind the huge weight loss from the G Force during formula races?

[Assistant]
Dehydration. Drivers are coping with high G repeatedly for over an hour, all while wearing multiple layers of fire-retardant clothing, a crash helmet, etc. It can get very warm inside the cockpit, especially in warm weather. So they sweat a lot.

Drivers have a drink bottle in the car that they sip from through a tube while driving, but it is not enough to keep up with the rate at which they sweat.

Drivers actually weigh themselves immediately before and after driving, and the difference tells them how much water they need to drink to fully re-hydrate.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] What happens to the younglings who wash out?

The Jedi council saw that Anakin was strong with the Force but was fully ready to reject him and wash their hands of the consequences of a Force-sensitive going through puberty unattended. Would they be more or less callous to their own dropouts?

[Assistant]
TO THE AGRI-CORPS YOU MANGY DOGS, AHahah! Losers!

That would be prevailing opinion among younglings who are nearing their teens and are not picked as padawans yet. It was considered massive shame to go "become a farmer" instead of a knight.

In reality however students who don't get to be Jedi Knight padawans are shipped off to Jedi Service Corps, where they continue their training in other venues, like exploration, healing or, yes, agriculture. It's not AS glamorous as being a knight, but nobody boots them out of Jedi Order.

PS:

> the consequences of a Force-sensitive going through puberty unattended.

There would be no consequences by the way. Sensitivity to the Force is not a mutant power that flares up uncontrollably with puberty, making  man a danger to himself an others. Person can live his whole life being sensitive to the Force and not realize it beyond occasional bouts of incredible luck or insight.

If Anakin was left alone, he'd grow up like a normal person, applying his latent skills likely in piloting, becoming very very good at it. Well. Assuming Palpatine doesn't get him, but that's beside the point of the question.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] What strengthens the imperial/republic credit? Is it susceptible to rises and falls?

A credit has to be backed by something, but Im not sure what it is.  Precious metals? Gasses?

Also; Is there anything in lore that talks to galactic fiscal catastrophes (like a recession)

[Assistant]
Just like the US dollar, it's not backed by anything really. Before the Clone wars the republic was on aurodium standard, but then they got off of that and partnered with the banking clans to build up a credit reserve in order to help keep the value of credits stable.

Once the war broke out though lots of planets were worried about what would happen if the republic fractured and just started printing out their own currencies. But when the empire took over they had everyone mostly switch back to imperial credits.


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

[User] ELI5:Why is there CONSTANT road construction in most US cities? Are there not any long-lasting solutions?

[Assistant]
The road industry has two seasons: plowing snow and repairing roads.  Freeways are very long lasting solutions, and they only require repaving every 30-40 years.  However, that means repaving 3% of the road every year, plus any new lanes that are added.

City streets and non-Interstate highways are not s long lived because they face another problem, right of way access.  For convenience and protection, many localities put power and communications underground with water, gas, and sewer.  If any of those 5 utilities need more capacity or infrastructure replacement, the road must be cut up.  It doesn't pay to have a road that lasts so long that all 5 utilities get to dig it up, so repaving is more frequent.


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

[User]
[MCU] How is Carol Danvers famous enough to have fans like Kamala Harris / Ms Marvel? Has she spend enough time on Earth to become a famous?

 Otherwise Ms Marvel makes no sense.

Afaik she's being on earth like twice after getting her powers and that's maybe more than what it was because we know Fury call her before getting snapped and she said in EG that the same thing was happening across the galaxy therefore she was helping THERE not on Earth, so she probably just went to Earth during the invasion and stayed for Tony's funeral which makes it kinda akward and bad taste if she was like "well 4 billion people just came back from dust possibly creating a new humanitary crisis and Tony Stark just sacrificed himself for all life in the universe... Anyways Funko, here's how my costume looks, make sure those Funko pop look great okay? See ya!"

[Assistant]
She killed an intergalactic warship with a headbutt over Upstate New York. Stuff like that draws attention.

I would assume that all of the heavy-hitters from *Endgame* are household names at this point, because they literally saved trillions of lives.

Even Clint and Nat, who went out of their way to keep low profiles, are featured in broadway musicals. The whole world knows who the Avengers were, and that includes the peripheral members like Carol.


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

[User] ELI5: why does hitting the remote control when it doesn't work suddenly make it work?

[Assistant] A lot of times the remote doesn't work because a speck of dirt, dust, or corrosion gets between the battery and the connector, robbing the remote of power.  Hitting the remote, or popping open the battery compartment and spinning the batteries within the compartment, often jars the dirt loose, restoring power to the remote's electronics.


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

[User]
What component/mechanism of a tree determines when and how it will branch off from the parent branch?

I was walking around my girlfriends cabin in the PNW, quarantining and all, and became fixated of the structure on simple moss/lichen & trees.

I recently dove into computer graphic generation and am now looking to figure out what mechanism forces a tree/moss to branch off from the parent branch and how? I want to recreate it with a graphic generating application - as I think it would be awesome to build a time lapse/simulation of the process. Plus, I have lots of time on my hand now.

Thanks!

[Assistant] The basic mechanism is controlled by two plant hormones. Auxin is produced in the apical bud of the main stem and existing branches and diffuses downwards from there. Sufficiently high auxin concentrations inhibit the formation of branches. Cytokinines, on the other hand, diffuse roughly from root to top and promote branch formation. Branching happens where those two overlapping gradients provide the right hormone ratio.


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

[User]
[DC] Regarding Dr.Manhattan, what exactly is the reason for his gradual detachment from humanity?

Sorry I guess Im just confused. Is it his perception of time that primarily warps his mind, his ability view the inner workings of the universe, or is it just the fact the he stopped being truly human after the accident?

[Assistant]
If he sees all time at the same time then any point in time is viewed simultaneously. So when a person dies, no worries! Just look in a different time direction and there they are again. Like how in a three dimensional space if some thing moves too far away or is occluded somehow in the physical dimensions we only need to move out point of view to see the thing again. Dr Manhattan moves is temporal self the way we move our physical self to keep seeing what had moved beyond our current view point. Or something like that.

And just like a baby panics when mum disappears because its unable to comprehend something existing out of sight we get all sad when someone dies. Where as Dr Manhattan knows he can always see mum simply by changing his point of view.


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

[User] [MCU] In the course of looking for someone to fix his hands, why didn't Stephen Strange find Dr. Helen Cho and her regeneration chamber, Dr. Noah Burstein whose work on regeneration created Luke Cage, or any of the people affiliated with Project T.A.H.I.T.I.?

[Assistant]
Most of the researchers are working in secret.

T.A.H.I.T.I. is a classified Shield project involving alien technology. And Dr. Burstein's work involves illegal and unethical experiments on prisoners. If it's sanctioned by anybody then they're probably the shadier end of the military-industrial complex, and there's no indication Dr Strange has those kinds of connections.

I haven't quite got a sense of where that section of Dr Strange fits in the marvel timeline, but Dr Cho's work seems to still be experimental by the time of Age of Ultron. And by the end of that movie, her lab has blown up and many of her colleagues are dead, and she's gone to work for Shield. So if Stephen Strange did approach her before AoU, it's possible the technology wasn't yet capable of the high precision necessary to repair his hands.