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

[User]
French vs German for continental philosophy

 I'm currently a senior in high school and plan on majoring in philosophy next year, and after that would most likely pursue graduate studies in philosophy. I've already done a fair amount of self-study and, after taking a very broad look at the history of philosophy, have started to hone in on continental philosophy as my main interest (for the sake of argument, let's say Hegel onward (plus Spinoza), with a specific interest in Merleau-Ponty). To bolster this interest and to get a head-start on skills that will be useful for graduate studies, I'm thinking of trying to learn either French or German. Here are my main considerations and questions:

1.) **Reading primary sources.** For me this is sort of a wash--there's Hegel, Husserl, Heidegger, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, etc., but there's also Ponty, Sartre, Derrida, Foucault, Iragay, Deleuze, etc. (although I'm not as familiar with the later French philosophers, so it's harder for me to gauge my interest; they also sort of have a bad connotation of pretentious French naval-gazing and after reading *Simulacra and Simulation* I'm pretty weary of any poststructuralism/postmodernism...ok maybe German does have the slight edge, but David Abram really has made me fall in love with Ponty...)

2.) **Reading secondary sources**. This one I know almost nothing about, but I think it is the most important. Which language would give me the wider access to secondary commentary and contemporary continental literature? I suspect that a lot of continental research and scholarship never gets translated into English, so which language is more fundamental for academic/dissertation purposes? I know this somewhat depends on where in continental philosophy I decide to really hone in on, but maybe there is a general consensus on which is more useful, and more widely used, in this regard? Maybe another way of phrasing the question would be: For the purposes of research, which is more indispensable?

3.) **German vs French universities.** I know this is sort of getting outside of my original scope, but if I'm considering doing graduate studies in the continent (this seems fitting given my interest in *continental* philosophy), would I find one or the other more useful? or are they about equal?

4.) **Ease of self-study.** Ultimately, I'll probably have to learn both (plus maybe Attic Greek), but which one does it seem more realistic to try to tackle by myself. For background, I'm in AP Spanish and have a pretty good grasp of the language (I joke that I'm just a month's stay in Spain away from fluency), so I feel like I would basically already know French grammar, not to mention the cognates from Spanish, as well as the Latinate cognates that came into English through Norman French. On the other hand, English is a Germanic language, so maybe the same would hold true for it (although I've heard that everyday English is Germanic and academic/literary English is Latinate, i.e. French).

I'd really appreciate any advice you all could give and I'd be happy to provide any more detail you might want

*Vale*

[Assistant]
I won't comment on primary sources as you've got plenty of time to decide, but learning another language is always good. Your idea about French is approximately correct, in that familiarity with any other Romance language will be a major advantage (though there's a big difference between basic grammar and literary writing). On the other hand,

>English is a Germanic language, so maybe the same would hold true for it

Not exactly. While German borders on English in some ways, it has very different grammatical rules (including three genders and some remarkably idiosyncratic conjugation).

In the end, studying either (or both) on your own will give you a leg up on academic language study later on, and developing new listening/pronunciation skills is a good idea even if you don't end up going further, so you can't really go wrong.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Do wizards read or write works of science fiction? How about fantasy?

I know most wizards aren't interested in muggle affairs, but a good portion of the wizarding community is muggle-born, and muggle studies is a perfectly legitimate field of research.

Does the Lord of the Rings series even exist in the Harry Potter universe? How about Star Wars? I know if I were muggle-born I wouldn't suddenly forget about the impact of Star Wars after 11 years of knowing about it. Or do the initially mystifying qualities of the wizarding world put all of these works in the background for the average muggle born?

[Assistant]
Wizards could read our fiction, but they usually don't. Science fiction and fantasy usually *add* elements to a world we already understand. The issue for wizards is that they have to *suspend their entire worldview* to read our fiction. Their entire way of life is predicated on the understanding that magic exists.

Which, incidentally, is why Arthur Weasley has a hard time understanding things like rubber ducks. Why would you need to be entertained in the bath if you can just wash up in an instant, or make your books waterproof? It would never occur to you.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do most things bake at 350 degrees?

[Assistant]
In most baked foods, the goal is to achieve a nice browning on the outside and cook things properly inside. To get this most foods like cookies, breads and meats (and toast) rely on the Maillard reaction.

The Maillard reaction occurs at around 300F (there is a range 280-320 ish) and most ovens are imprecise enough that setting it to 350 is more reliable. And there needs to be a buffer because 300 is the target temp of the food to be cooked not the temperature as measured by an external sensor.

If you bake below this temperature, things will still cook but will be left pretty colorless (and lacking in the taste that develops through the browning)

The temperature cannot be too high (for most foods) because big pieces of meat and breads might burn/char on the outside before the inside is safely and tastefully cooked. So 350F is used as a compromise to give the best combination of cooking thoroughly and still having enough browning.

For some breads it would be safer to set a modern oven to around 325. For flat breads that cook quickly, possibly higher. For roasts, it is normal to start at a high temp 450 and then reduce the temps to allow the meats to cook through.


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

[User]
ELI5: How was segregation justified in the American South?

I would like to understand how supporters of segregation justified their views on segregation. Obviously everyone understands why it's wrong, but how were they able to justify it in their minds?

[Assistant]
Scientific racism.  It was believed that white people and non-white people were fundamentally different, and the only way to protect white people from the genetically inferior non-white people was to segregate.  This was further fueled by scare politics, which used lies and intimidation to tell white people that black people were merely waiting to rape and pillage white houses, due to their inferior genetics and natural "savageness".  This idea persisted for a long long time, and the idea that things were "contaminated" by non-white people still exists in a lot of areas.

Technically, we understand why de jure segregation is wrong.  De facto segregation still exists, and things are actually much more segregated now than they ever were during de jure segregation.


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

[User]
[Spider-Man (2002] Why did J. Jonah Jameson not reveal who Peter Parker was to the Green Goblin?

Green Goblin is holding his throat and threatening him, but he still does not say that Peter Parker is the one taking the pictures of Spider-Man.

Why?

[Assistant] For all his dickishness, Jameson is an old school newspaperman, and he's got his principles. And as evidenced by that scene, he's ready to die on those principles. Throwing your sources under the bus or leaving your own crew to twist in the wind are both massive no-nos in journalism. Consider also that Jameson has *no clue* that Peter can defend himself; in his mind, if he gives up the name this masked freak is going to slaughter some poor kid with a camera who's only sin was taking picks on Jameson's dime.


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

[User]
With the introduction of vaccines, even if a variant isnt strictly covered by the vaccine due to changes in proteins, would there be enough training of the bodys immune system on how to deal with a corona virus that the body would be more efficient if infected later?

At the start of the Pandemic, a lot of the concern was about the novelty of the virus and the fact that the majority of humans would most likely not have contacted a coronavirus and so the body wouldnt know how to efficiently fight it

This is often cited as why the flu is no longer (generally) as bad, due to people having seen some form of flu at some point in their life.

[Assistant]
Short answer: Yes

Long answer: Probably

When you get exposed to an antigen (by getting infected or by getting a vaccine), your body generates B cells (generate antibodies) and T cells (recognize and kill infected cells).

I'll focus on B cells:

First, there will be a B cell that, just by random chance, has some affinity for the antigen. That B cell will divide like gangbusters but, in doing so, will undergo something called "somatic hyper mutation". This means that the DNA that codes for the "recognition" part of the B cell will be modified in countless ways. Invariably, some of these new B cells will be even better at recognizing the new antigen, and these will be selected for. In the end, you have a population of B cells producing antibodies that have been selected for their ability to bind the novel antigen really well.

Generally, these antibodies will also be good at binding other things that *look* a lot like the first antigen so small mutations in the virus won't be able to escape.

A (silly) analogy:

Gang of criminals from London moves into your neighborhood and your crime-fighting robot AI generates anti-gang drones. Some recognize the tattoos of Big Ben that all the members have, some recognize the Union Jack, some listen for their specific slang words ("Bloody hell!") or go after mini Coopers. The drones are, of course, tested first to make sure they don't accidentally recognize civilians (in the body this is called "negative selection").

Obviously, if a brand new Viking gang moves in and they're from Norway and drive motorcycles and wear furry horn hats, your crime fighting drones will not be much help. If, on the other hand, another gang from London moves in, your current drones might work pretty well and require few adjustments.

A bit more of a stretch might be a gang from Australia. Some of your drones might recognize just enough aspects of the new guys to keep them at bay while a new batch of drones that goes after cans of Fosters and dudes with crocodile teeth sewn into their hats comes online.


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

[User]
[Marvel Universe] Why is Peter Parker not a popular kid at school?

He's intelligent, good looking, athletic, friendly, and kind. Why is he considered a loser when in reality kids like him are popular?

[Assistant]
He's intelligent - nobody knows that because he is a slacker and skips school a lot,

 good looking - eh, above average, but not a super hunk

 athletic - he hides that pretty well

friendly, and kind - not many people know that, since he is a recluse

Basically, due to being SPider-Man, Parker has to hide a lot about himself, and be as unassuming and ignored as possible.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why Do Cold Or Rainy Conditions Promote Sickness?

When I was a kid, all of my friends and I used to love playing outside when it was raining but all of our parents wouldnt want us to stay out for too long because they all believed that wed catch a cold or get sick.

I specifically recall one day there was a huge amount of rain for a sustained time and we had a creek behind our cul de sac that basically turned into a small running river. Our parents all said we shouldnt go outside but we all went to the creek and just floated down it over and over again. Over the next few days all of us got colds.

Is this a commonly spread myth or is there any scientific basis behind this belief?

[Assistant]
People tend to stay inside more often when its cold.  When people group together inside there is a higher chance of spreading the virus to more people, hence why more people get sick in the winter.

Its not so much the cold weather that makes us sick but how we shelter from it that increases the spread.


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

[User] ELI5: What's the difference between a disk and a disc?

[Assistant]
Disks are magnetic in nature. Floppy disks and hard drives, for example, are disks. They store data as magnetized blips on the disk.

Discs are optical. CDs, DVDs, Blu-Rays and so forth. They store data as tiny dips in the disc which can be seen with a microscope.

A good rule of thumb is to focus on the "k" and "c" - if the whole thing is round, it's a dis**c**. If it's angular, it's a dis**k**.


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

[User]
If I lift one side of cabinet, and the opposite side remains on the ground acting as a fulcrum, have I lifted exactly half of the weight?

I have a bet with my father, but realized I do not know the answer to this simple question.

[Assistant]
The answer is Yes, if CG is at the center of the cabinet, then at the moment the cabinet moves from the ground, you are lifting halve of the weight. As you lift higher, you lift less, until CG is above pivot/the corner on the ground. Then you lift zero..
It's not a moment problem nor torque.. It's forces..

How would the cabinet know if the floor or your dad is lifting the other corner.. Two are sharing the weight, each with half.. Floor or hand does not make a difference..


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

[User]
Why haven't more animals evolved infrared vision?

It is biologically feasible for animals to have infrared vision, since some insects and snakes (possibly others?) have it. And infrared vision would confer massive advantages to any predator or prey that had it. So, you'd think it might be relatively commonplace in the animal kingdom, and yet it isn't. Why not? Is there some prohibitive functional or biological cost to having infrared vision?

[Assistant] I've asked the same question before.  The most reasonable answer (edit: that I've gotten) is that there would be too much background coming from yourself, and would swamp out any signal.  Another answer I've heard is that there might not be sufficient energy in an infrared photon to drive structural change in rhodopsins.  The search for evolving one that can has been the focus of many labs (like Gobind Khorana's lab after the genetic code discoveries) with not a tremendous amount of success.


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

[User] [Doctor Who] Torchwood was set up in 1879 yet there isn't a single mention of it in 26 years of Classic Who, why didn't they help out with any of those invasions?

[Assistant]
Well, with these types of questions it's always helpful to remember that the first rule of Doctor Who Cannon is that there is no Doctor Who Cannon, and that anyone who says otherwise is trying to sell you something.

But in reality, presuming they weren't a retroactive result of the Time War, one of the original aims of the Torchwood Institute, as set out by Queen Victoria, was to capture the Doctor. As such, it makes sense that for their first twenty years, Torchwood would do their best to remain a secret and not attract the attention of the Doctor.

As soon as Jack was recruited in 1899, that all would have changed, as he would have obviously pointed out the obvious logical paradox in capturing the Doctor before he even finds out Torchwood exists, let alone creates it.


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

[User] [Watchmen] Why is Dr. Manhattan so godly powerful if he was created or born from a man-made machine ?

[Assistant]
An atomic bomb is powerful. It is something humans created.

Dr. Manhattan had his intrinsic field removed, and then relearned how to build himself back together on the molecular level, and in doing so learned how to rearrange molecules. He can do amazing things the same way that an atomic bomb can do amazing things.


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

[User] [General] if Kaiju/giant monsters where real, what steps would the world take to ensure safety with our current state and level of technology?

[Assistant]
The obvious go-to would be missiles and heavy weapons, possibly railguns and those kinetic bombardment type weapons. You'd also get a lot of tanks, attack choppers and jets attempting to gun them down. Nukes might even get the green light if those suckers don't stop trashing everything after we chuck a bunch of other shit at them.

But suppose fans of Pacific Rim are like "no Kaiju blood is toxic, you can't blow them up" and the military is like "Oh boo you're no fun", then we get clever. Large electrified nets might work (increasing the voltage and durability to work on such a large creature), as would some sort of nanotechnology/remote robotic device that infiltrates the body of the Kaiju and attempts to damage its internal organs from the inside. You might also find some people willing to try and knock it over with some kind of wrecking ball/AT-AT Snowspeeder gimmick, and then dropping a lot of weight onto the Kaiju in an attempt to force it underwater and back into the rift. Or at least to try and block the rift from allowing any other Kaiju through for a while.

We have microwave emitters that currently are just considered to be crowd control (making rioters feeling temporarily ill and uneasy) but could be altered to lethal degrees. Whether or not we could kill a Kaiju with this is another matter. But it's worth a shot.


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

[User]
[Warhammer Fantasy/40k] Did the God-emperor drive the forces of chaos from Earth?

Hi, so I've been watching the total war: warhammer future factions series on youtube, and I just watched the beastmen episode about how they are servants of chaos and hate the races of men etc. So, I have a few questions:

1. Does Warhammer Fantasy take place in the past of the Warhammer 40k universe?
2. Did the forces of chaos exist on Earth in any form in the 40k universe in medieval times even if it isn't in the same world as the Warhammer fantasy universe?
3. If these forces of chaos existed did they take any physical or corporeal forms such as that of the beastmen, and did the emperor of mankind drive chaos from Earth in the past? Were there machine gun wielding beastmen in the atomic age of manking (like 20th c.)?

Anyway, sorry if these questions are dumb, but I was just curious! Thanks for any responses!

[Assistant] 40K and fantasy don't take place in a shared universe. There were no Chaos legions on Earth during the medieval age but that time period does coincide with the full manifestation of Khorne in the Warp. Although given the timeless nature of the Warp it always existed.


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

[User]
CMV: The Electoral College is an outdated relic from a Republic over 200 years ago and should be removed.

As said in the title the electoral college is obsolete. With the advent of telecommunication and computers it is much easier to count, record, and report vote results. Why should we give a broken system, which values votes from smaller states, such as Rhode Island, more than bigger states like California and Texas? Getting rid of the college would streamline the election process, make it easier to understand, and give the winner of the actual majority the election. If you watch CGP Grey's The Trouble with the Electoral College on YouTube you can see some pretty impressive voting math that shows you only need roughly 22% of the population to vote for you to win. Why should such a system still exist in what is supposed to be the example of modern democracy?

[Assistant]
I think you pretty much pointed out why we need the Electorial College in your statement above. The college gives a voice to the smaller states and counties and doesn't allow a super majority of lockstep and hivemind.

Since this isn't a real democracy (It is a democratic republic), it is about representation. You want to make sure everyone is represented in a market where the rural voice might be dismissed because they live with cows and / or hunt in the wilderness.

There is nothing saying the EC has to vote the way the popular vote for their state either. They can indeed vote the way they feel, and there were times in the past where the college went one way and the popular vote went the other.

Finally, digital and electronic votes are not trustworthy on their own. If you listen to the fears of election officials about Russia or other nations hacking into the networks and rigging the election, wouldn't you want a fail-safe to make sure that doesn't happen?

If you were marginalized, wouldn't you want to make sure your vote still mattered?


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

[User]
What Exactly is program installation?

Hello all.

When a user wants to install a game in windows the user downloads "the game" from the website and installs it.

When someone in Linux wants to install a cool text editor he/she probably uses 'apt install something'.

What the installation process actually does?

Is it something like "the installation process extracts some compiled programs to a specific place (directory) and when the user runs that program it locates those sources in that specific place" or it is something completely different?

[Assistant]
You're exactly right. When you install a program, it'll likely insert a binary into some location, and do some other setup specific to the install (i.e. Insert some config file in your home directory).

The location on linux is `/usr/bin/`, on windows is `C:\Program Files`.


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

[User] Knowing the mass of a star, is there a maximum allowable distance of orbit?

[Assistant]
In an isolated 2 body system (that is there is nothing else in the universe) there is no maximum distance.

In reality the answer will be the Hill sphere of the star in relation to the nearby stars. In less technical jargon, the maximum distance will be dependant on how far you can travel from the star before the gravitational influence of another star (or other object) becomes dominant.


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

[User] Eli5: Is there a level of tv/monitor resolution beyond which the human eye cannot detect further improvement?

[Assistant] Short answer: Yes.  Longer answer: Yes, but distance to TV matters. When buying a new TV, measure the distance from the TV to where you sit. Depending on the distance, there may be no discernable difference between one resolution and a higher one. There are diagrams on Google.


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

[User] If ocean water had a higher viscosity, would wave size be affected?

[Assistant]
Yes because the viscosity changes the amount of energy needed to make  the substance move, in this case you are asking about wave size so you are going to need more force to make the wave grow at least the actual size of waves right now.

Imagine having a sea full of pancake syrup. If you throw a rock at the sea. The rings that are created on the impact would travel a little bit of space compared to what they normally do.

Fun fact: you can hear the difference in viscosity based on the temperature of the water at the moment you are pouring it on a cup. Temperature changes the viscosity of the water so it sounds different.

Im gonna add more knowledge: since temperature is energy being transferred to water particles charging them  ( in this case ) energy transmission between particles its gonna be easier thats why its easier for hot water to flow. If seawater was hotter there would be bigger wavers

At high temperatures the viscosity index lowers making it more fluid.

Edit: since a lot of people are worried about global warming and the temperature of the sea Im gonna answer it: yes the oceans are getting warmer but the increase in the temperature on the seas are really low to make a noticeable change (on the height of waves)
Ice caps melting would do more damage because sea level rises so more land is eaten by the sea. Temperature would affect somehow( in viscosity) but its too small to make an really extreme impact noticeable at first sight on the wave height ( in this case) we should be more worried about reefs bleaching and plastic destroying animal life.


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

[User] How much of a problem is space debris for the ISS and shuttles?

[Assistant] There are no more space shuttles, but for the ISS and other spacecraft, the answer is space debris is a potential hazard, but fairly easily managed. NASA and the DoD track tens of thousands of pieces of debris to ensure there are no collisions. The orbits of the ISS or any other spacecraft can be adjusted to avoid potential collisions if necessary. The ISS is routinely hit with tiny pieces of debris (a few millimeters) but it has shielding so it can handle these routine impacts. Debris in low-Earth orbit doesn't stay there very long, so it's not a huge issue. Debris poses a greater risk to satellites in higher orbits, but no human activity takes place there.


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

[User]
On daoism and others of the eastern tradition

Does western philosophy take Eastern philosophy seriously? I've been trying to penetrate the chuang tzu recently, and found it lacking in the clarity compared to even pre-industrial philosophy. Is there any rigor to the epistemological methods hidden in the flowery verse that seems prevalent to eastern writing?
And within western thought, are the intuitive (and in my opinion, valid but unsound) judgements "looked down on" by analytic philosophy?

I'll revise the question if need be; armchair reader here.

[Assistant]
There's been some recent motivations among some western philosophers to take an interest in non-western philosophy, particularly growing out of the Heideggerian understanding of the relationship between metaphysics and cultural history.  However, precious little Chinese thought is available in translation, so the intellectual tradition remains largely impenetrable except to dedicated sinologists.

Hopefully in the next few decades we will get translations of the major works of New Confucianism, and this will provide the most natural point of dialogue between occidental and Chinese thought.  A translation of Mou Zongsan's *Nineteen Lectures on Chinese Philosophy* is currently in limbo owing to some political roadblocks, but hopefully that will get resolved and it will stir some interest among western readers.


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

[User]
[Marvel] Ok so how hard is it to become a herald of Galactus?

What are the qualifications that I need to become Galactus' heralds?

Can just anyone do it? Do they have to have a certain skill set? Do I have to sacrifice something?

I will send world upon world to their destruction if it allows me the cosmic power of a herald.

[Assistant]
The first recorded herald, Norin Radd, was just a particularly smart guy who was ballsy enough to fly up to Galactus and suggest the herald arrangement.  Personality didn't matter much because Galactus overwrote his personality when he became the Silver Surfer.  Power didn't matter much either, since Galactus provided the power cosmic, which outstrips pretty much anything else someone could bring to the table.

In later iterations, Galactus keeps looking for heralds with a personality better-suited to searching out inhabited worlds for him to eat.  So far, this has gone poorly, and they either decide they feel some moral qualms after all, or they have *too few* qualms, and go rogue with the power cosmic.

Overall, your best chance of becomming a herald is to be acquainted with the Fantastic Four, but not popular enough to be an A-list, or even B-list recurring character.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do game producers keep getting better graphics in games played on consoles, that keep getting older?

Take forinstance the new GTA:V. How do game producers like Rockstar keep getting better and better graphics from the PlayStation 3? It's not like the hardware gets better?

[Assistant]
Literally ELI5:

At the beginning of a consoles lifespan developers have an idea for a game but no idea of the practical limitations of the console. It's like trying to fit a square peg into a round circle hole. They shave the edges of the square peg down until it fits, but its never a perfect circle.

At the end of a consoles lifespan, developers know exactly what the limitations are of the console and are able to optimize their game for it from the ground up. They are essentially designing a round circle peg to the exact size of the hole it will fit into.


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

[User] Are the umbilical cord part of the mother or the child? Whose genes does it contain?

[Assistant] The placenta consists of a layer that contains maternal cells and a layer that contains fetal cells. The fetal layer of the placenta is connected to the umbilical cord. The umbilical cord consists of fetal cells.


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

[User] I've never read a lesswrong article. What are they and what problem do people on here have with them?

[Assistant]
Lesswrong articles are articles on the website lesswrong.com, usually written by a man named Eliezer Yudkowsky. If we take the site at face value, its goal is to help people think critically while taking advantage of the findings of cognitive psychology, e.g., cognitive biases.

People here presumably have a problem with lesswrong articles because they often cover philosophical topics like epistemology and the nature of morality, and they do so in an arrogant fashion without engaging with any of the relevant philosophical literature, because Yudkowsky and his followers consider him a brilliantly original thinker who is solving all the problems of philosophy with hard empirical science.

Actually, as a general rule, this is why pretty much anyone who is disliked here is disliked here.


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

[User]
[Marvel Cinematic Universe] Is Extremis a game changer?

Soldiers modified with Extremis were able to tear through Stark Industries Iron Man armors like cardboard, had healing factors that rivaled Wolverine's, and could be mass-produced from trained commandos, rather than having their powers randomly bestowed on unpredictable civilians.

While it's true that some of the prototype soldiers had an unfortunate tendency to explode, this seemed to be a minority of cases, and a problem that could likely be solved through further research. With this in mind, is the concept of the rare standout superhero about to disappear forever? If governments can mass produce supersoldiers with power sets that put Captain America to shame and can destroy A-listers like Iron Man, then what will the future of war, and the world itself, look like?

[Assistant] Why limit ourselves to super soldiers? Extremis is also a potential solution to our energy crisis. If an individual modified with Extremis can produce massive amounts of heat energy in a fairly sustained manner, imagine engineering simpler and dedicated Extremis-modified organisms to do so to serve as the basis for all sorts of energy applications.


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

[User]
ELI5: Overclocking

From what I understand, overclocking refers to getting your computer equipment to work faster. How does that work, and why is it even necessary?

EDIT: OK guys, I think I understand overclocking now. Thank you for all of your detailed answers.

[Assistant]
First time answering on ELI5, here goes:

Computers or rather the microprocessors inside them, and most digital devices and chips use what is called a clock signal. In concept it is very similar the guy in front of a roman ship beating a drum to help the rowers keep their rhythm. Every time he hits the drum, all the rowers pull back in unison.

Similarly, the clock signal is an electric signal that sends a brief pulse (which is an increase in voltage) and all the listening microprocessors do 1 unit of work. Some operations take 1 clock cycle to finish, some take several.

Now, faster this clock ticks, the faster the microprocessor works, and greater the work output. Again this would be similar to beating the drum faster, resulting in the ship moving faster.

It would be a fair question to ask at this point, why dont we just run our clock or drum as fast as we can, all the time? It is easy to see how rowing at a fast pace all the time wouldn't work. There are problems with high clock speeds in electronic circuits as well!

The foremost of which is heat production, the higher the clock speed, the more the heat generated within the processor. So unless you have a system in place to cool the processor very quickly, excessively high clock speeds heat up the processor and can damage it.

Manufacturers design for a certain clock speed, which is called the rated speed or stock speed. Running a processor at stock speed is deemed safe. Enthusiasts often try to increase this to get more work output from the processors. This would be termed "Overclocking". They will most often need to put in better cooling fans or radiators or such. Otherwise they risk damaging their processor and it wouldn't last very long.


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

[User]
[Pacific Rim] What exactly was humanitys strategy with the Pacific Wall?

So humans decided to abandon the jaeger program because it was supposedly too costly, and instead build a giant wall around the Pacific Ocean.

Did they think that the kaiju would just come up to the wall and be like screw this, Ill go back into the ocean?

Sure, the wall may delay a kaiju attack, but then what?

Eventually the kaiju breaks through, and you still have a kaiju to deal with.

[Assistant]
"Fortress Earth" has some conceptual advantages when the politicians are debating where to spend money:

* workers come from local areas (Kaiju attacks have devastated the economy)
* power sources don't need to be armored, and can benefit from economies of scale
* weapons can be fixed in place, lowering costs and increasing potential size
* "walls" protect people by "keeping kaiju out" (theoretically)
* lower training/recruitment costs: "drift compatible" people are apparently rare and made a bad name for themselves with their antics.  It's easier to train people to sit in a chair and click a button, rather than pilot a giant robot with a mind-meld buddy

Also remember that the Jaegers were beginning to lose.  The pilots had gotten too full of themselves, and no one else had accepted that the Kaiju were getting bigger and smarter as time went.  The government needed to be seen doing something.  They just picked the wrong thing.


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

[User] When We Visualize Something, Does Our Brain Create One Image, or Two, as in One for Each Eye?

[Assistant]
the brain embodies dozens of images of whatever you are viewing.

you have two eyes; in each eye a light image is absorbed by the retina, where it is transformed into a neural image that is transmitted to the thalamus, where the neural image is segregated into several layers, alternating between the different source eyes.

from the thalamus the neural image is sent to primary visual cortex ("V1") where stuff is still more-or-less segregated into left- and right-eye images, i.e. neurons in V1 tend to get most of their input from either one eye or the other. V1 then sends its neural image to other visual areas like V2 or MT, where new neural images are established, except that now they are merged - each neuron in post-V1 areas gets input from *both* eyes.

after V1 (and V2, and V3, and MT, and FEF, and etc), the number of distinct visual areas - and the neural images they embody - multiplies.   there are dozens of these images, which you might think of as representing distinct aspects of your visual experience (some areas embody more of the motion aspect; some more of the depthful aspect; some more of the color; etc). something like a third of the surface of the human cortex is occupied by these visual maps.

but then, it all *feels* like a single image, doesn't it? hmm...


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

[User]
Can the world's economy survive without exploitation?

I don't think anyone could possibly answer this, but it's more intended to spur a discussion.

I've wondered about this: is it necessary for certain people to be exploited in order for the economy to function? The US south famously ran on slave labor for years. Even now they use migrant workers who work long hours for practically nothing and have no rights. We all know about child labor in other countries and sweat shops.

Would it be possible for the world to continue functioning if all peoples were paid a decent wage and had worker rights?

**Edit**: For some reason people seem to have gotten the idea that I'm some ultra-liberal hippie asking a slanted question. That wasn't the case when I wrote this. I asked the question in the best way that I knew how and I was just curious to hear opinions by people more educated than I.

[Assistant] The problem is so many of those terms need to be defined. What is exploitation, what is a decent wage, what worker rights, do you mean the current world economy or any functional economic system? Most importantly, what's the definition of success here? Is it a certain level of growth? A level of income per capita? All of those also need to be discussed in order to get a coherent answer to this.


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

[User]
[dbz] What would a war look like?

How would battles play out if both sides have ki users? Would it be lile what we have seen in the show with just very powerful people fighting or large groups?

[Assistant]
Do you mean soldiers, or the z fighters?

Soldiers would just use ki instead of guns, but use pretty much the same attack form.

Z fighters, well they are so different in strength, they really can't have a war. Goku vs an elite team proved that. He made light work of them like they were a warm up exercise. The same would happen with a team vs a team, if one member was OP.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do escalator handrails never run at the same speed as the escalator itself does?

I assume some of you observed this before. When using an escalator I mostly notice that the handrails run just slightly faster/slower than the escalator itself. This is especially noticable when leaning against the handrail at the beginning; when at the finish you'll most likely be tilted either up- or downwards.
I noticed this at multiple escalators around the world. It seems like this is a worldwide problem.
Can someone explain this difference in speed between the escalator and the handrail?

[Assistant]
As Don-Slade has already kind of pointed out (at least in Germany) escalator handrails have to run a certain percentage faster than the escalators itself to pull your point of weight forward. By being just slightly faster, when you grab a hold of them, your weight will be distributed more to the front, thusly reducing the risk of you falling backwards down the escalator.

Likewise, when youre going downwards, the handrails tend to run a bit slower to pull your weight back so you dont fall down.


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

[User] [Futurama] Farnsworth said that there was a second coming of Jesus in 2443, but later, Nibbler says that the universe started with the Big Bang, rendering every to be false. How is this possible? If all religions are false, then how could Jesus exist?

[Assistant]
Jesus is a person. Not the second coming of christ.

God could have created a big bang and then jesus so nibbler could be wrong.

Jesus could have come back as a zombie or creation. He didn't see the rapture happen.


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

[User]
[NOLANVERSE] was Liam Neeson Ras Al Ghul from the start or did he inherit the title from the guy who died?

I always saw the nolanverse ras al ghul as more of a title. Like instead of the Lazarus pit the role of leader is passed on to the next when the current Ras Al Ghul dies. Is this the case? Or am I wrong here?

[Assistant]
I think you're right and that it's a title. That was Ducard's lesson to Bruce if you recall - that he must become a symbol, because a symbol can't be killed. That was the reason Bruce created the Batman persona.

>"If you make yourself more than just a man, if you devote yourself to an ideal and if they can't stop you, you become something else entirely - legend, Mr Wayne."

And that's why Ra's is 'immortal' in the Nolanverse. He isn't a man, he's an idea or legend, and so long as the league of Shadows exists, so does Ra's All Ghul.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do products have such seemingly arbitrary numbers and letters? What goes into the naming convention? E.g "HP Pavilion 15-bc200" or "Sony Bravia KD-55XD8505".

Like why is it called "Sony Bravia KD-55XD8505" instead of just "Sony Bravia" or "Sony Bravia X" or something?

[Assistant]
This will vary by manufacturer and product, so there's no general answer. It's safe to assume the digits and letters represent features and options within a model series.

I can give one example that makes sense and is specific to Taylor acoustic guitars, e.g. 514CE-N.

First digit: 500 series.

Second digit: Number of strings and type of top wood. "1" is 6 / softwood. "2" is 6  / hardwood. "5" is 12 / softwood. "6" is 12 / hardwood.

Third digit: Size. Dreadnought, concert, orchestra, etc.

If the "C" is there the guitar has a cutaway on the treble side of the upper frets.

If the "E" is there the guitar is acoustic / electric.

If the "N" is there it's a nylon classical.

So something like 256E will be 200 series 12 string spruce symphony electric. Assuming that one really exists.


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

[User]
[Breaking Bad] Saul advises Jesse to buy a nail salon so he doesn't look like a tax cheat, how would an unemployed barely 20 something have the money to buy a small business?

Wouldn't the logic of meth profits looking suspicious also apply to the nail salon? At least with Walt it's foreseeable that a middle aged man might have enough saved up to consider a risky investment in a car wash he worked at, or a laser tag business.

[Assistant]
Not really, because legit folks start nail salons and similar on low incomes all the time.  Most of them fail, but not all.

That's the point Saul is making there, it's a high risk venture with low up-front costs, which is exactly the kind of thing someone like Jesse would try to get into to improve his future, were he not selling meth.

It's definitely not a smart investment for a sans-meth Jesse, but it is common enough, and it does sometimes work out.  That's all you need for cover.   Not smart, just plausible deniability within a reasonable doubt.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are signatures still relevant, if they can easily be forged?

Even in movies, you often see the bad guys trying to get a real signature from the good guys. Why cant they just be forged?

[Assistant]
The strength of most signatures is the act of signing with a witness.  The scribbles on the paper are just a physical way to note the act.

For example, signing the pad at the store for credit card purchase.   The strength of the signature lies in the security camera footage of your face doing the signing.

In many legal documents where the strength needs to be increased, a third party notary is used where another neutralr person attests to your identity (by you providing gov ID card of some sort) and the signature act.


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

[User]
CMV: Newspapers should have to maintain certain factual standards to be classed as news outlets.

In the UK, we do have an Independent Press Standards Organisation, but it is ineffective and several news organisations have opted out.

I strongly believe that the lack of accuracy, sensationalism and propaganda spread by newspapers (especially those like the Daily Mail and the Sun) is a massively damaging force in society. The Daily Mail is the most read paper in the UK, but frequently misrepresents facts and uses this to fuel hatred (and recently - borderline fascism). And people believe what they read - the majority of people don't have the time or desire to cross-reference articles from different sources to piece together what might be the truth. It's not defensible to allow opinion to masquerade as news simply when 23 million people are ingesting it. I should add here that I'm not simply disagreeing because they hold a different political opinion to me - but for instance, I have a law degree, and the Mail often gets basic law wrong. The Guardian has definitely fallen guilty of this too (in the recent Ched Evans case).

The best way I see to combat this is a more vigilant watchdog organisation, and the clearest way to send a damning message about the quality of papers would be to only allow newspapers which maintain a set standard of factual accuracy to classify and market themselves as 'newspapers', with the remaining ones lowered to something along the lines of 'magazines', 'entertainment papers', or other options - I am definitely open to other labels.

I don't particularly want to argue about how they can judge factual accuracy - press watchdogs all over manage to do this, and obviously there would be enough leeway granted not to frighten journalists into failing to publish reports out of fear of being sued. I don't think this would stifle freedom of expression.

Ultimately, this would send a clear message to the public about the quality and accuracy of the information they rely on. It would allow readers to make an informed choice about where they get their news, and would hopefully result in newspapers drastically upping their standards of journalism.

[Assistant]
People would just do what they do now: Attacking the gatekeeper watchdog organizations as biased and so ignoring them.

One thing that may not translate from the UK is that here in the US, we have an enormous, all-encompassing underdog narrative.  If you can frame it such that your viewpoint is being held down somehow, you feel more sure about your opinion.  Watchdog groups would just make that easier to do.


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

[User]
[LOTR] Can someone wear all 3 Elvish Rings of Power at once?

Would their hand explode? Would their mind melt? Would they be totally fine and become ridiculously awesome from the Rings' combined power?

[Assistant]
Im sure it could be done. In *Unfinished Tales* Gil-Galad wore two of them, Narya and Vilya.

The three rings had different powers.

Nenya, The Adamant Ring worn by Galadriel, had the powers of Preservation, Protection, and Concealment from Evil.
Narya, The Ring of Fire worn by Gandalf, had the power to inspire others to resist tyranny.
Vilya, the Ring of Air worn by Elrond, was said to be the mightiest of the three, but no specific powers were told of it, but it may have the power of healing.

All three rings give the wearer resistance to the weariness of time, as well as the ability to hide from remote observation (save for from The One Ring)


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

[User]
ELI5: If dogs can smell some odors as accurately as one part in a trillion, how do they distinguish that one part from the other 999,999,999,999 parts?

This is more of a question of how they analyze the available data rather than how much data they gather.

[Assistant]
You need to not think of this in terms of how *you* and other humans smell things, but how a dog smells things.

As vision is your primary sense, let's use that for comparison.
Stand outside and look at an enormous building, then look at a flower growing beside it- you can easily distinguish the two.
For a dog, odors are the same way- they can coexist but remain entirely separate and distinguishable.


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

[User]
How much pain do small insects experience when they are smashed and killed by humans?

I know pain is relative which is why i'd like if there is a comparison with a certain kind of pain humans experience.

[Assistant]
Current scientific thinking is that insects don't feel pain. In fact the only invertebrates thought to feel pain are cephalopods - octopus, squid, cuttlefish.

The IASP (International Association for the Study of Pain) define pain as requiring both an automatic physical reaction to noxious stimuli (nociception) AND a component of emotional suffering.

Lots of invertebrates have nociception, but emotional suffering is impossible to prove. We can only infer it by the presence of a complex nervous system in the animal, which insects do not have.

That is not to say that insects definitely do not feel pain. It's not even possible to prove that another human feels pain. There's also the problem that politics in science can affect the outcome. Currently if you want to test on animals, you are limited on what you can do to animals thought to feel pain. So the more animals categorised as such, the less free experimentation can occur.

It makes sense that insects do not feel pain, as their survival strategy is based on having a high number of offspring so that some survive despite low survival rates. What would be the benefit of the additional energy-cost of those insects having the ability to feel pain? Whereas animals which have fewer offspring but put more resources into ensuring the survival of each one, benefit greatly from the ability to feel pain. Expending a little more energy per offspring to keep them out of trouble is a worthwhile investment. Evolution has sorted out these little optimisations long ago.

There's been a lot of research on pain in crustaceans (crabs and lobsters) recently, and if another invertebrate becomes categorised as feeling pain it will probably be them next. Even in these research articles though, there is often confusion as to what pain is, and I've seen many papers conclude that crustations do feel pain, but what they've actually proved is nociception.

TLDR: we can't know for sure, but currently we suspect that insects don't feel pain.


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

[User]
ELI5: Where do Space Stations get their oxygen from?

Where do Space Stations like the iss get the oxygen for their workers from? Flying it all in from earth?

[Assistant]
The primary source of oxygen is water electrolysis, followed by O2 in a pressurized storage tank.

The process of electrolysis uses electricity from the ISS solar panels to split water into hydrogen gas and oxygen gas.


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

[User] Do we have any compounds or materials on Earth that compared to the rest of the universe is incredibly rare?

[Assistant] Wood is a far more rare material than any stone type materials on the scale of our solar system, let alone a grander scale. Assuming of course that life is not incredibly common and tree like species dont evolve at rate that puts carcinization to shame.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why did the Empire destroy the cloning facilities on Kamino instead of claiming them for their own?

Hey so this is OG-2205 of the Zero-G Assault Stormtrooper Corps here, and I had a question about a previous mission I was on. I was thinking about asking Emperor Palpatine when he did the AMA on the Holonet a while back, but we talked about his nice new robes and I figured it wasn't the time... Anyway.

So the 501st ("Vader's Fist") was assigned to defeat the rebelling Kamino Clone forces created after the rise of the Empire to attempt to help the terrorists I guess. The 501st was a man down because CT-6969 was ill or something, and I requested to go in his place. Anything to get me off this boring Super Star Destroyer (and if anyone could fill me in on what policy these guys operate vis a vis intimate liaisons with a female squadmate, I'd be grateful). So I was assigned to the Kamino mission, but I don't get the objectives. We sabotaged the facilities and eliminated the Clones.

Surely we would have been better off subduing the Clones for reprogramming/brain washing or whatever they did to those original Clones, and then taking the facility for ourselves? We wouldn't have to worry about losing troops to the Rebels if we could Clone a badass soldier  into an army of badasses. I'm thinking Vader, but maybe he's too grouchy. I'm a crack shot and rapidly shooting up the ranks (eh? Get it?), but too much of a good thing is a bad thing though, and too much of a great thing is a terrible thing. Or maybe not. I'm thinking we bring in some anonymous mercenary type like Boba Fett for the template. Thoughts?

[Assistant] IIRC, cloning just isn't a cost effective way to maintain an army. The clone army was useful in establishing control once The Republic fell, but keeping it going would just be a lot of unnecessary cost. Especially considering how little initial resistance there was when the empire was established. A clone army would be the best option in terms of military strength, but the empire doesn't need that much military strength. Instead, the Emperor opted for strength in numbers.


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

[User]
[Avengers] If a person's spouse is snapped away in Infinity War and the person gets remarried, what happens when the spouse is brought back?

The consequences of 'The Snap' are more than just the plane crashes, economy drops, and all the rest. Some families will have been torn apart, and likely some may have found a new partner in the 5 year gap between Infinity War and Endgame. 'The Snap' has some big implications with 50% of all life getting dusted. Being snapped back must have been a shock for spouses who found their partners with a new spouse, right?

[Assistant]
This is covered in Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

If you survived the lucky dip and during the wait between Snap and Blip you live in the house of someone who got brought back, you get kicked out.

If you own the house, they become homeless.

In your scenario, i suppose the husband could choose which partner they want to get with and send the other away, or give them a place to stay for a while while they made other arrangements, it all depends on who's land it's happening on.


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

[User]
ELI5: How is machine learning and artificial intelligence different from each other?

AFAIK, both involve a machine to learn certain tasks and evolve over time and get better at it.

[Assistant]
>both involve a machine to learn certain tasks and evolve over time and get better at it.

False. That does not apply to AI

AI most often refers to a process that can evaluate and intelligently react to its enviroment. A Chess AI will not evolve over time and get better. It will not learn chess from the ground up. It will be given an algorithm to scan the game for possible good moves and is programmed to be able to evaluate the current board, but it does no organic learning. Once you start the AI it will never change its skill.

Machine learning involves the computer learning patterns and discovering its own solutions trough a wide array of strategies and via trial and error. AI can do that, but is just ad apt to describe computers who are told the method to find the solution beforehand.

Machine learning is a sub field of AI research. It is one tool in a toolbox, but AI does not need it for all tasks and in some tasks it is just the wrong tool.


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

[User] Would anyone be that kind so as to explain to me the main differences between a web developer, a web designer; a multimedia designer and FE? Thanks in advance

[Assistant]
Web developer: coder/programmer who is specialised in HTML/JavaScript/css and common frontend frameworks like angular or react.

Web designer: a disigner specialised in website design. This can be completley non technical.

Multimedia designer: a designer focused on multimedia, can include web design and other media.

FE is frontend? So a frontend developer. A coder who can develop GUIs(this can be a website, or any other GUI)


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

[User]
Jobs with a purpose with an Economics degree?

I have an internship for an investment bank but I realised I want something with purpose and not that fussed about money. But there doesnt really seem to be jobs that you can do with an economics degree that has a purpose.

[Assistant] Probably not the answer you're looking for... But going and earning enough money that you can afford to donate to charities and volunteer in your free time is a legitimate way to contribute to the world.


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

[User]
[X-Men Origins: Wolverine] How come the US Armed Forces hasn't picked up on these two dudes who don't age and get back up after getting riddled with bullets?

So, we see in the opening of the film that Logan and Victor have pretty much fought in nearly every major American war. Aaand, from the looks of it, nobody has even so much as batted an eye until Stryker came into the picture. Why is that? Wouldn't the military have caught wind of it?

[Assistant]
Not really.

The military doesn't keep great track of individuals, and especially didn't back then.

If those individuals have been in the army long enough to know how to get around the paperwork, they can more or less be faceless.

They likely just retired / reinlisted regularly.

Plus battlefields are chaotic places, nobody is watching faceless sgt logan (or whatever pseudonym / rank he was using / had).

If he didn't report getting shot, and he wasn't visably wounded at the end of an action, he could just keep his head down and nobody would be the wiser.

It wasn't till recently that it got harder to manage that, and even so somebody had to be specifically looking to find him.


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

[User]
[LOTR] Was Saruman ever a friendly or nice person?

Saruman was said to have become jealous of Gandalf and hated Radagast even before coming to Middle Earth but Treebeard in The Two Towers says Saruman was polite.

"I wonder now if even then Saruman was not turning to evil ways. But at any rate he used to give no trouble to his neighbours. I used to talk to him. There was a time when he was always walking about my woods. He was polite in those days, always asking my leave (at least when he met me); and always eager to listen."

[Assistant]
He was never nice or friendly, nor was he ever comically evil, he was just himself.
Just because he was power hungry doesn't mean he couldn't enjoy walking around woods and talking to ents, he was cold and calculating, but also a proper and intelligent man.
You also forgot to quote one final sentence said by Treebeard- 'I told him many things that he would never have found out by himself(...)' - Saruman was always looking for knowledge and Treebeard was providing it, no reason to get rid of a useful tool.


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

[User]
ELI5: After two horrible wars just two generations ago, how did Europeans get so close and warm with each other ?

I mean, look at China, Russia, US, African nations, middle east etc. They still have massive conflicts while Europe went so far in economic and social integration. How did this happen ?

[Assistant]
Basically in the 1950s, France and Germany decided that forming an economic alliance based around coal and steel exchange would be a good way to solve problems.

Fast forward 60 years and dozens of European Countries joined because everyone being economically co-dependent makes fighting wars very unfashionable.

Also, for the most part two democracies have never gone to war against each other.


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

[User]
Are there benefits to accepting a Research Assistant position?

Hi everyone, I recently left a job where I was a junior lecturer. I'm 25 (f) and not in my doctoral program yet, but despite this I got a lot of 'wiggle room' in my role as a junior lecturer- I got to design and teach my own undergraduate course in my discipline and was able to teach first-year master students as well (again in my area of interest which is African gender studies).

I recently got offered a research assistant position to someone who is an extremely high profile academic in my field of study. I am very excited but also a little hesitant because the position would involve a whole lot of admin work (like a lot ). I was wondering about people's experiences as research assistants before pursuing their PhD. How well did being an RA prepare you for a doctoral position, if at all? How does it read on an academic CV?

I also got an offer to lecture full time in a masters program around African Studies and Global health, which I have not yet declined. To be able to fully make an informed decision, I just wanted to hear some experiences from others :)

Thanks a lot!

[Assistant]
"Research assistant" is not some kind of standardised position - it can be almost anything: a glorified admin, a random group minion, a lab technician, a programmer or data analyst, a PhD student's stipend, or even a junior postdoc.

You're asking very sensible questions, but no one here can give a reliably meaningful answer without an actual job description.

As for your CV, again, it doesn't mean anything on its own.  What matters is whether the specific skills, experience, and  professional network that you gain there will make you a stronger candidate for whatever you're applying for.  You'll need to consider what your weaknesses are as a PhD applicant and evaluate whether this particular job will help boost your credentials in those areas.


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

[User] [40k/MCU] Every Imperial guardsmen is given an Iron Man suit equivalent to the one Tony Stark wears in Captain America: Civil War. Assuming that no one sees this technology as heresy, what impact does this have on the 40K universe?

[Assistant]
The main benefit is it would give humanity a massive advantage against material forces. People underestimate how much of a buff this is. Some guardsmen are basically given a uniform, horse and something comparable to a WW1 rifle. The best have flak jackets and perhaps a plasmagun.

An Iron Man suit is an upgrade for all IG and a huge upgrade for most of them. This much fire power dramatically increases performance of the IoM against Tau, Orks, Necron and Tyranids. This performance boost compounds because it will free up men to produce overwhelming force in some theatres.

Against the immaterial threats though it doesn't do much. It might make shutting down Chaos incursions more likely but it doesn't resolve those issues. You cannot just pour a trillion Iron Man soldiers into the Eye of the World and call out Khorne.


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

[User]
How does a hard disk create space for new files after deleting old ones but is still capable to recover those deleted files?

As soon as I empty my recycle bin my windows PC tells me, I got now more space to put new files in to. I can even limit out this space. Still with apps like Windows File Recovery I can see files which has been deleted months ago and recover like they were never gone. How is this possible?

[Assistant]
The operating system uses a file system which is the schema used to store the files on the disk. Different file systems have different capabilities: file name length, maximum file size, encryption, etc...

The general idea behind a file system is that it creates a table somewhere on the disk that it uses like an index for where the data for each file is stored: file 1 is between bits 1 and 100, file 2 is between 1001 and 15,500, and so on.

When you delete a file it removes its index entry which, essentially, marks that space as empty and can be written on. However, the data is still on the disk, its just not accessible (because of the missing index entry). If you can get to the data on the disk before its overwritten then you can retrieve it.

To securely delete a file, you need to replace the files data with other data. Some even say you need to do that multiple times. Theres software that does that if youre paranoid.


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

[User] ELI5: Why adding sugar to the water make it more viscous than adding salt?

[Assistant]
Salt and sugar might look very similar and both dissolve in water, but they are chemically VERY different. Salt is sodium chloride, it  is made up of one sodium atom and one chlorine atom.  For salt to be made, the sodium atom must lose an electron and become a sodium ion and  the chlorine atom must add the sodiums electron and become a chloride ion.  The sodium ion is then attracted to the chloride ion and a bondis formed from the attraction between a positive and negative ion.  This is called an **ionic bond.**

If one dissolves salt in water, the ionic bond breaks and the ions let go of each other, so the molecule does not stay intact in the process.

Sugar on the other hand consists of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen forming large molecules with **covalent bonds**.  The atoms in sugar do not form ions; instead, they share their electrons. When sugar is dissolved in water, the bonds stay intact and thus are the molecules. Because whole molecules remain in the solution, it becomes viscous and sirupy.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why Did They Fly the Trench Instead of Dropping In Near the Chute?

I don't see the tactical advantage in this.  There were turbolaser batteries in the trench, so it's not like flying in it helped evade those.  If anything, flying a long stretch of narrow space was suicidal; there was little room to outmaneuver the turbolasers or Darth Vader.

They could've come in like 200 meters out from the chute and still been able to line up a shot.

[Assistant] The rebels raced down the trench because the ammount of turbolasers in the trench was significantly less than those on the surface and coming in from any other angle wasn't going to produce a shot that would send the proton torpedos directly to the reactor core. If they came at it from above the torpedos would never have made it through the exhaust port, and because the fighters were flying so close to the guns and so fast the turbolasers were unable to target them properly since turbolasers are meant to target far off targets or larger capital ships. Essentially the Empire didn't even think that the fighters the rebels were using were even a threat to the Deathstar even taking into account the difficulty with targeting them close up with the turbo laser batteries.


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

[User] [ELI5] Why do our bodies move involuntarily while we are sleeping?

[Assistant]
Your brain is processing your memories and thoughts for the day. As well as creating your dreams.

Your body wants to move along with those thoughts, but your brain also produces a powerful sedative that puts all your limbs to sleep, so that you don't move around and hurt yourself.

Sometimes you are able to break-free from that sedation and your limbs may jerk around a bit. Nothing is perfect.


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

[User]
[Avengers 3/4 SPOILERS] What if Thanos failed in a specific way...

So, Thanos goes ~3 weeks (I apologize, I don't remember the specific numbers, but it's not too relevant) before destroying the stones, then accepts his death.

What if, after some amount of time, it could be *proven* beyond a shadow of a doubt that halving all life did *not* save people with abundant resources, but screwed over or led to the death of more and more life?

We see in Endgame that humanity (and presumably other civilizations) are learning to live with the snap and move on as much as they can, but let's pretend things went much more negatively.

Like, as if the condition of life and number of living things just kept going down and down, and there's never an upswing that Thanos can claim happened because of the snap? And in a material, physical way, not people being distraught over the deaths (since Thanos obviously doesn't care about that).

Is there any length of time after which Thanos would accept he was wrong? Or will he always believe that *eventually* people will be thankful for the snap?

[hypothetical situation in which Thanos continues living indefinitely and no one ever discovers a way to undo the snap]

[Assistant]
Thanos was a fanatic to his own cause. He was incapable of accepting that he was wrong. No amount of logic will convince someone who has made up their mind so thoroughly. As Issac Asimov said "Against stupidity, the gods themselves contend in vain."

This is why in end game that when he sees the universe will never accept his "gift" as a good thing, he decides to remake all life in the universe in a form that will believe his insane, flawed logic.


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

[User]
How to rocket engines use liquid fuel while in zero gravity?

With the liquid fuel just floating around, how can a rocket light up its engines again?  Is there some sort of RCS thruster activation that needs to occur before the fuel is in its proper place?

[Assistant] Yes, this is indeed a problem. Aside from the gas pressure methods already given there are procedures to settle the fuel at the bottom of the tank before firing the engine. Because the rocket needs to be accelerating up small thrusters can be used after a stage has flamed out. Another possibility is lighting the next stage before the previous stage flames out which is called hot staging. In that case the exhaust gasses from the next stage need a way to escape. This is the reason why some (mostly soviet) rockets have struts between two stages and exposed engines rather than a closed fairing.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do iodine tablets purify water in a safe way for people to drink?

I know that there are iodine tablets to purify water, but I have no clue how. And how do they work in a way where it doesn't kill us as opposed to other purification techniques like chlorine?

[Assistant] Iodine, chlorine dioxide and bleach is strong oxidizing agents. If you add them to water they increase the pH and will dissolve the cell walls of any bacteria , parasites and virus. Your cells will be attacked in the same way but while the bacteria in the water is exposed for theirty minutes your cells will only get exposed for a few seconds before the solution gets neutralized by your stomach acid. And you have a lot more cells then there are bacteria in the water and are able to replace your cells. Adding to this you have a layer of dead cells which protects the live cells underneath. All in all you can handle the high pH much better then any bacteria in the water. However you can also dissolve an acid, for example vitamin-c, into the water once the iodine have done its job to neutralize the water again to make it more plesent to drink. The iodine and vitamin-c will react and form a powder that settles at the bottom of the container.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does a facial hair, that is "pulled", "plucked" or "tweezed" out, grow back?

Why does a facial hair, that is "Pulled", "plucked" or "Tweezed" out, grow back?

[Assistant]
The follicle in the skin grows the hair. If you pull out the hair, the follicle grows another one.

It's not like pulling out a plant; there is no seed or root. The hair itself is not really even alive; just the follicle is.

EDIT: If you pull out a hair by the root, the white bulb you see is made up of follicle cells, but the hair-producing part of the follicle is (usually) not damaged.


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

[User]
Does wearing glasses help eyesight in the long run?

To clarify: if someone had prescription glasses, would it be more beneficial for long-term eyesight health to constantly wear the glasses or keep them off until needed?

Scenario: Clone A and Clone B, aged 18, both need prescription glasses to see clearly. Clone A wears glasses (constantly updates the prescription as needed) and Clone B does not wear glasses ever. By the age of 30, whose eyesight would be better without glasses?

[Assistant] Neither option has any effect. Glasses don't permanently affect eyesight in any way. Imperfect vision is due to light not properly meeting at the back of the eye, and either a convex or concave lens is used to bend the light to compensate for this. Natural vision will deteriorate over time regardless of this simply due to aging.


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

[User]
Is Dwarfism immediately recognizable at birth?

Can doctors immediately recognize an infant has dwarfism when its born or does it take a while to begin to see the signs?

[Assistant]
most of the time, yes.
When a baby is born, doctors can see the characteristics that point to dwarfism, like: a shorter than average neck, flattened cheekbones, shorter arms/legs but average size hands/feet.

Doctors can sometimes diagnose dwarfism during the pregnancy as well, either by an ultrasound (they can measure the legs/arms and see its not at the right length) or, more in depth, look in the babys DNA.  Dwarfism, or achondroplasia, is cause by an inherited altered FGFR3 gene.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why certain tasks like video rendering and bitcoin mining are better to run on a GPU instead of the more powerful CPU?

I heard it has to do with "sloppy math" or something...

[Assistant] The CPU has something like 4 or 8 really fast cores that are good at doing just about everything. A GPU has something like 2000 slower cores that are pretty good at doing certain types of math problems but not much else. If you're doing lots of that certain type of math problems, the 2000 cores in your GPU will solve way more problems than the 8 fast cores in your CPU.


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

[User]
Why does disinfecting a wound cause it to "sting"?

Using first-aid spray, hydrogen peroxide, alcohols, etc. causes that sharp stinging feeling when applied to an open wound. I know this has to do with the death of bacteria, but why exactly does it feel like that?

[Assistant] Intact skin has layers of dead cells that protect it, but when the skin is broken, tissues are exposed. If they come in direct contact with alcohol, they are damaged. Alcohol takes lipids out of the membranes of cells, allowing dehydration, killing your cells and thereby causing pain.


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

[User]
How do cancer vaccines work?

Ive recently read about BioNTech developing a cancer vaccine with the same mRNA tech used to develop the COVID vaccine. I always thought vaccines were for transmissible diseases such as COVID, polio, measles etc, but as I understand it cancer is not transmissible - you cant catch it from someone. So how does a cancer vaccine differ compared to a regular vaccine and how does it work?

Edit: thanks for the responses - very helpful! I am blown away that we can do this stuff. Science is bonkers.

[Assistant]
Your immune system constantly makes antibodies at random and fine tunes them to bind to foreign antigens. There is also a process called tolerancing where the immune system ensure these randomly made antibodies dont bind self proteins (i.e. your own cells).

Cancer cells have self proteins that cant be targeted because they are your cells, however cancer cells also have mutations that allow them to multiply unchecked and be more resilient. These differences means that there are some proteins on cancer cells that are different enough from self proteins to be targeted by your immune system.

The idea behind a cancer vaccine is you find those different/unique cancer proteins and train the immune system to target them and destroy cancer cells. There are already cancer treatments that involve manufactured monoclonal antibodies that bind to cancer cells, so cancer vaccines are similar to these treatments except much cheaper and likely more effective. Monoclonal antibody treatments can easily run into hundreds of thousands of dollars a year , and CAR T cell therapy, an approach that uses engineered immune cells, costs even more. So cancer vaccines offer a more affordable and effective way to treat cancer with less side effects than traditional chemo.

Also cancer vaccines dont have to be mRNA, there are other types of vaccines that work as well.


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

[User] If our observable universe is only the light cone back to the Big Bang, is it reasonable to assume that there is an entire in observable portion of the universe that was ejected in the opposite direction?

[Assistant]
> observable portion of the universe that was ejected in the opposite direction?

Well, nothing was 'ejected' from the big bang. It's simply an expansion of space, probably from a singularity. Nevertheless, your intuition is right. When we look further away, we are really looking back in time. The further you look back, the younger the universe is. You'll eventually hit a point where the universe was a hot dense plasma that wasn't exactly transparent. The moment where this plasma 'froze out' into atomic matter is the furthest point we can see to in the universe.

This is called the Surface of Last Scattering, and it released the Cosmic Background Radiation into the universe, which has since been redshfited into very long microwave wavelengths. Since we can look in any direction to see back in time, you'll see that we really at the center of a sort of onion, where each shell is at a certain time before us, and as you go further away, the shells get older and older, until you hit the Cosmic Background Radiation. Since the CBR is opaque, it forms a shell around the observable universe at the 300,000 year old mark, which is about 45 billion light years away.

As of right now, we cannot see past the CBR, but where we see the CBR today you can bet there are almost certainly other galaxy clusters, galaxies, stars, and planets much like our own local group, Milky Way, sun, and solar system.

TLDR: Yes, and the explanation is far too cool to boil down to once sentence, so just read the post.


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

[User]
[Event Horizon]Where is the "Other Place"?

Is it the Warp of WH40K or something else?

[Assistant] It's basically Hell. It's a parallel dimension of pain, populated by malign (apparently non-corporeal) entities whose only aim is to spread madness and destruction. The Warp of 40k is a very good explanation for it, but there are similar planes of Hell in the Hellraiser universe, in the Buffyverse... Even in Supernatural.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] What is the rationale of equipping your army with energy weapons as opposed to normal bullets?

Is is it just because of a much higher amount of bullets per weapon and sustained output or are there other reasons?

EDIT: wow, lots of great responses. i will never doubt the efficiency of energy weapons again!

[Assistant] Most of the common armor, like Storm Trooper armor, is too tough for bullets to penetrate, blaster shots are stronger. Also, one energy pack for a blaster is equivalent to several (maybe even dozens of)  pounds of slugthrower rounds.


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

[User]
How can any two places be more than 12 hours apart?

This just doesn't make sense to me. The farthest apart two places can be is on opposite sides of the earth, Wouldn't that correspond to 12 hours (1/2 a day)?

Or does the earth's angle of rotation have something to do with it?

[Assistant]
A point immediately to the west of the international date line is 23 hours ahead of a point immediately to the east. In this sense, the farthest apart two places can be is *not* on opposite sides of the Earth, but rather surprisingly close to each other!

Of course, plotted on a 24-hour clock, they're only an hour apart, but if you want to take dates into account as well (and you do, otherwise there's not much point), it's a different issue.


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

[User] ELI5: Why Does Your Breath Smell Bad When You Don't Eat For A Long Time?

[Assistant]
What you are smelling is acetone.  Your brain is the one organ in your body that cannot use fat as an energy source.  When you are eating regularly, your body can maintain the sugar glucose at a high enough level in your blood to provide plenty of energy for your brain.  During short times of fasting, such as when you are sleeping, your body breaks down stored sugar in the form of glycogen to provide glucose for the brain.

When you undergo prolonged fasting, however, your body runs out of glycogen, and your blood sugar drops.  In order to continue providing energy for the brain, your liver converts fat into molecules known as ketone bodies, which your brain can then use as an alternative energy source.  Acetone is produced by the breakdown of ketone bodies for energy, and that's where the bad smell comes from.


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

[User] What is a birth mark and why do so many people have them?

[Assistant]
Some are blood vessels near the skin (like a capillary hemangioma that grows for several months and then starts to recede).

Some are just moles, but it makes people feel better to call them birthmarks.

Some are basically large freckles that don't mean anything unless you have several of them over a certain size (for example in neurofibromatosis).

Some, like the "Mongolian spot" near the butt areas of some babies, show up in a ton of babies and slowly fade with age like the "stork bite" redness behind the neck or the "angel's kiss" between the eyes/forehead.

Why do people have all of these benign marks? In the absence of a more sinister condition... just plain ol' unexplained luck or genetics (Mongolian spots more in Asians for example).


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

[User]
[MCU] Does Vision have constant access to the internet? Can he mentally look up information?

In Civil War we see Vision making paprikash while reading the directions off pieces of paper.  Can he mentally look up such information?

[Assistant]
Yes, Vision was able to go in and block Ultron's access to the internet during their battle in Sokovia.  Vision was built as a replacement/upgrade to Ultron, who had a connection, so it makes sense that Vision would have one too.

In Civil War he is using instructions printed off of the gourmet recipe site, Saveur.  Using the paper might be part of his attempts to become a "real person", like the sweaters and slacks he wears, and using doors instead of phasing through walls.

It's a way to ground the experience tactilely.  He unplugs and tries to live in the moment, relying on his human senses.


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

[User]
[Crazy Taxi] Why don't the customers just walk to their destination?

Some of these air-heads only want to go to a destination that is like 200 metres away. They would rather pay hundreds of dollars to a crazy person to drive them there than just walk?

[Assistant]
- The driver always has good music.

- The experience is always fun as hell. How often are you going to be able to go off a jump and land at your destination while also suspiciously never harming anyone?

- Some people simply can't walk any meaningful distances due to disability. Don't judge.


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

[User] If an astronaut travel in a spaceship near the speed of light for one year. Because of the speed, the time inside the ship has only been one hour. How much cosmic radiation has the astronaut and the ship been bombarded? Is it one year or one hour?

[Assistant]
You get the full year's worth of radiation.

From an outside point of view, we see that time is dilated and the astronaut is moving very slowly inside their spaceship. But we see the spaceship take a full year to reach its destination, and gets hit by all this radiation along the way.

From the astronaut's point of view, there is another effect - length contraction. From their point of view, the reason it only takes an hour to reach the destination is because the distance has shrunk down by a huge amount. So, from the astronaut's point of view, they still have to move through the same amount of "stuff" - interstellar gas, radiation, whatever - it's just that this "stuff" is packed really close together, and the astronaut hits it all really quickly.

Of course, it's not all that simple - you have to deal with redshift and all that - but it does often work out that length contraction and time dilation basically cancel out, and that can allow different reference frames to not contradict each other.


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

[User]
ELI5 Somalia - Recent History (1900 onwards), the Civil War and the actual ground reality there

I Can't understand the actual situation there. It's portrayed as a war-ravaged wasteland in most places but it seems to have a thriving telecom sector? What's the reality like?

[Assistant]
Today 'Somalia' is basically a geographic expression, the country has had no central government since the 80s.  The previous government did a lot of bad things in the north so when that government (Siad Barre) fell they were able to step away and run their own business.  So the north is a pretty decent place.  They have their own (unrecognized) government and their own (unrecognized) currency.  You can even go their as a tourist and you'll be relatively safe.

The southern part of the country is a different story.  When the Barre government collapsed there was no more governmental authority.  Warlords and clan chiefs stepped into the void and spent about 15 years fighting one another in an anarchic free for all.

Eventually a group of Islamists called the Union of Islamic Courts was created to attempt to end the civil war and restore stability.  While they were fighting to take over the south the U.S. gave millions of dollars worth of weapons to the warlords.  The UIC won anyways, and for a little while they were doing some good.  They were more moderate than the Taliban and while some of their punishments were barbaric they made progressing in restoring a semblance of order.  They also got the airports and port running for the first time since things went to shit.

Once the warlords were beaten there was a lot of concern about terrorists going to Somalia.  So Ethiopia, whose military is largely a product of American money, went in (presumably with U.S. backing) and attempted to overthrow the UIC and install the U.N. backed provisional government.  The provisional government has a lot of problems though, it's mostly made up of warlords and has no presence inside Somalia-- they have to hold their meetings in Kenya.

Ethiopia tried occupying Somalia for a little while but since they'd gotten rid of the UIC and didn't have the resources to stay that long they got out.  The UIC of 2006 didn't really exist by this time, it had been splintered.  The previous leadership tended to be older and more moderate, but after the Ethiopian intervention the Islamists who were left fighting were the youngest, fiercest, and most extreme.  They call themselves al-Shabaab (meaning 'youth movement'.)  While the UIC cared more about restoring law in Somalia than international terrorism, al-Shabaab is much more sympathetic to terrorists who want to carry out attacks abroad.  They've provided a safe haven to some al-Qaeda guys and have carried out a few attacks of their own elsewhere in Africa.  Kenya and Uganda have both been bombed by al-Shabaab, in retaliation for support they've given to the provisional government.

So Somalia is a complex place, with regions that look radically different from one another.  The north will probably continue to do well and likely will be recognized as an independent state some day.  There's no reason to be positive about the south though; that's only getting worse and worse.  Especially since we've now got all kinds of drones flying around the place.


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

[User] Why is there a critical point between liquids and gases but not between solids and liquids?

[Assistant]
The critical point is the end of the coexistence curve. There is clearly one for liquids and gases, but it is not so clear in the case of liquids and solids.

If there were a critical point for solids and liquids, one would expect to have a region in phase space (for example, in temperature plotted against pressure) where the supercritical matter can change between solid and liquid without ever encountering a phase transition.

Can a liquid continuously transform into a solid? We're not sure, it seems unlikely, and we haven't observed it.


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

[User] Eli5 Who are the Koch brothers and why is everyone making a big deal about them?

[Assistant] They are two very wealthy very right-wing brothers who donate a lot of money towards political causes. Thus, people who are against the causes they support do not like them and feel that their money buys them an unfair amount of influence.


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

[User] What causes something that has been balancing for a prolonged amount of time to fall over, without anything touching it?

[Assistant]
Suggestions, more or less in decreasing order of probability:

- Wind/air currents
- Thermal effects on object or surface (expansion/contraction of something thermally causing slight changes over time in size, ultimately changing the geometry enough to move from stable to unstable)
- Effects of extremely minor gravitational pulls (tidal effects from moon).


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

[User]
[Dr Who] Question about the Pandorica

So, at Stonehenge, the eleventh doctor stated, "Who takes the Pandorica, takes the universe".
What did he mean by that? Was he being dramatic? Unless I was mistaken, the Pandorica has two uses. One, as a nearly inescapable prison, and two, uses in fixing or restoring the universe, since it held over a billion atoms from the original universe.

[Assistant]
>Was he being dramatic?

Yes, exactly. Remember, at that point the Doctor had no idea what the Pandorica was or what purpose it served. He was being dramatic to stall while he figured out a plan.

>!In reality the Doctor's enemies had assembled to put him into the Pandorica, and thus end his reign of terror.!<


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

[User] ELI5: Why does the gynecologist leave the room when you take off your clothes?

[Assistant] Because the doctor is there to examine you, which is necessary, not to observe you undressing, which is not necessary at all. They leave the room so you as the patient preserve your dignity, and they as the doctor feel comfortable. Some patients may not care if their doctor sees them undressing, but doctors probably don't see it that way. Their job as professionals is to examine you, but as people they still deserve to feel comfortable doing so. If they, as people, were to visit you at your house, you wouldn't change your clothes right in front of them because that wouldn't be something you'd do to make another person feel comfortable.


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

[User] [Marvel] Do people think Spider Man isn't human just like how people think Batman is a vampire?

[Assistant] Maybe not, since Spidey doesn't go out of his way to be a terrifying force of nature meant to scare bad guys into going straight. He's highly affable and in fact goes out of his way to help people even for minor inconveniences. Hell, he even uses Twitter.


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

[User] How does the human body generate heat?

[Assistant] At the chemical level, most body heat comes from the hydrolysis of ATP. ATP is the primary molecule used to fuel all the useful reactions in a cell, and about 60% of the energy from ATP hydrolysis goes to heat rather than to the reaction.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do we associate 'X' letter to erotic/porn related stuff?

[Assistant] There used to be an actual X rating for films that were considered extremely violent/pornographic/explicit. In the 70s, porn companies started using the X rating for their films. Then as a marketing gimmick they would say their movies were XX or XXX rated (note: neither XX or XXX were ever real ratings applied by the MPAA, they were marketing only), implying that their movies contained even more sexual content than films simply rated X.


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

[User] ELI5:Why do we get car sick as a passenger and don't as a driver?

[Assistant]
When you are driving, your body basically identifies the car as a tool you are manipulating. Your actions have direct effects on your motions and what you are seeing, so even though the kind of motion isn't one we evolved for, the brain is ok with it.

When you aren't driving, none of that is true. The brain identifies really fast motion completely divorced from any actions it takes and concludes you have been poisoned. Standard protocol for poisoning is vomit. Because evolution is annoying that way.


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

[User] [MCU] Would Thanos survive a single shot by that incinerator gun that Vulture used on Shocker on accident in Spider-Man Homecoming?

[Assistant] Probably. The Chitauri (from who the weapon originates) get absolutely demolished by Iron Man in Avengers, Iron Man in Avengers is far weaker than Iron Man in Infinity War, and Iron Man in Infinity War still only manages to lightly scratch Thanos.


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

[User]
Is the Large Hadron Collider living up to expectations in terms of findings?

Or is it disappointing?

[Assistant]
Both the accelerator and the detectors work wonderfully compared to previous such establishments. Measurements in heavy ion collisions - which generally need much less events to see something interesting than in p+p - are more precise and detailed than most people expected, surprisingly consistent among the experiments, and already killed several outstanding models. Now LHC is about to do proton + nucleus collisions, much earlier than originally expected.

Concerning Higgs search and other p+p program goals - LHC already excluded Higgs in the easy regions where most people thought it is unlikely to find one. It also eliminated some other beyond-standard-model theories, at least in some of their simpler forms. To find something interesting in p+p collisions takes a lot of interactions (~hundreds of billions), which translates into running time of many years. LHC is operating rather smoothly, and the current energy (7TeV) will be doubled to the full design energy of 14TeV in two years or so. The higher the collision energy the more likely it is to find something new.

TL;DR: LHC works great, new scientific results are pouring out of it. Media scientific reporting is generally shit.