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

[User]
[Days of Future Past] What claws does Wolverine have & how did he get them?

In the dark future he has adamantium claws again, after they got cut off in Japan, how did he get them?
And in the good future what claws does he have? Because would he really land in the same trap with Striker?

[Assistant]
One possibility is that he just went out, found the severed claws, and essentially spliced them back on by breaking off his bone claws where the metal ended and holding the adamantium claw to the stump, letting the two pieces grow together.

Either that or Magneto helped him out. He's been shown to be capable of manipulating adamantium before, so it's not a stretch to say he could do it again.


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

[User] ELI5: What happens when someone goes into a coma? What wakes them up? And how can it last from days to decades?

[Assistant]
- Your brain basically go into "sleep" mode just like a computer. Most times you go into coma so your body can progressionally repair itself.

- There is a lot of variables that can wake a person up from coma, but normally you're in a safe place like a hospital, where your brain will eventually "start" your functions/body again.

- Depending on the damages on the brain itself or body it can last longer or shorter.

TL:DR Humans are computers more or less, Coma is for a human, as sleep mode is for a computer.


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

[User] ELI5: During opening credits of a tv show, all of the actors and actresses names appear at the bottom of the screen but the last person getting the credit gets a special "Derp McDerpison as Steve" credit. Why is that?

[Assistant]
Contracts. If given the choice, all the actors would want more money for appearing in a show. The unions generally set the pay scale, so more money is out. The next thing the actor wants is more work. More work means more money. The easiest way to get more work is to have more people know your name. So an actor would like to have his name fill the entire screen during the opening credits, but, again, union rules prohibit this.

The next best thing an actor could get is to have his name listed first on the credits. There aren't any hard rules about the order of the names listed, so everybody figures the biggest star is first. And sometimes it is. But then you get a lot of people fighting to have their name listed first for an ensemble cast. Even if you could list everybody at the same time, the top honor position would be the top right position.

So what producers decided to do is add something special for the guy who's name is listed last. Usually you want a big name, and they producer will have something special about that name. For example, Derp McDerpison as Steve, or Featuring Derp McDerpison. Or even, With a special guest appearance by Derp McDerpson as Steve.

In short, it is just a way to make the cast members happy.


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

[User] If the symptoms of flu(fever, coughing) are from the immune response, rather than the virus. Why don't we get flu like symptoms after a flu vaccine?

[Assistant]
Those that are applied by injection are inactivated flu viruses, so they don't have the ability to actually infect cells. They serve as a "sample" for the immune system to develop defenses against the pathogen. So, symptoms-wise, you may develop fever, headaches, fatigue, etc *due to the immune response* but nothing specifically in the airway dept because the virus is not reproducing. (The immune response is not localized in the usual tissue)

If it's the nasal spray vaccine, in that case it uses attenuated viruses (meaning live ones, but a strain that doesn't cause disease). Some people get a runny nose, but that's the closest to the flu-like symptoms you mention.


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

[User] ELI5: How do nutrients "survive" gastric acid and how are they spread in the body?

[Assistant]
They don't survive really, that's mostly the point.

When we eat things our stomach acid and other chemicals break it down into their constituent components. E.g. protein gets broken down into amino acids, carbohydrates (e.g. starch from pasta) gets broken down into simple sugars (e.g. glucose).

These simple components of the more complicated chemicals that we eat are then taken up into the blood in the intestines. The intestines have a very intricate blood supply and allows all these products of digestion to be travel through the wall of the intestines and into the blood.

Once into the blood, our body can 'build up' these simple compounds into the more complicated ones that we need.

Things that do 'survive' the process of digestion are probably things that we don't want in our bodies anyway, and they end up in the toilet.


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

[User]
Physics ~If a tree (or any organic object) were placed in a vacuum...?

So my friend and I were sitting at a table and he asked me this question. Hopefully Reddit will have an answer! Help solve this lunch break dispute.

If one was able to place a tree within a vacuum, and then raise the temperature, would the tree melt?

Honestly any organic object could be substituted but hey let's go with a tree.

Edit: Many thanks!

[Assistant]
It wouldn't melt. Most organic structures would break down in what is known as thermolysis at a lower temperature than their melting point.

Your tree would probably give off carbon dioxide along with water and sulfurous compounds and end up as a chunk of carbon.


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

[User]
[Lord of the Rings] Why is Sauron having the Ring such a big deal? He had it once, and was defeated.

Even if Sauron acquired the Ring, he could still be defeated, no?

[Assistant] Because so long as he and the ring were separated he couldn't use his full power. It took an monumtal amount of effort to beat him once. The people of middle earth doubted they could pull off a similar feat again.


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

[User]
What is the State of Philosophy and Ethics of the Future? Building my career path now and can't figure out how.

Context:

*  In my 3rd Year University, pursuing Computer and Electrical Engineering.
* found myself gravitating towards Philosophy and Ethics ever since I took an online course with  Yale University 2 years ago.
* I do wish to pursue further in both arenas, possibly an amalgamation of both.

My concerns at the moment are:

1. What is the state of philosophy/ ethics/ morality as a field in the future?
2. Upon doing brief research, I found myself resonating a lot with what an ex-Google employee, Tristan Harris is doing as a tech-ethicist. What is the future prospect of this or anything akin to it?
3. Any suggestions for education path? Ie. taking a full degree course of Philosophy next, or Masters in Engineering with a minor in Philosophy.
4. What are the possible alternative career paths?

Thanking to those who entertain this post in advance.

[Assistant]
It's very hard to get a job in philosophy, but the subfield with the most growth right now is tech ethics. People with technical competence and philosophical training are in demand, at least relative to other subfields. There are even a few industry positions (e.g. Google hires ethicists with philosophy PhDs and technical backgrounds).

If this is an avenue you want to pursue, I'd say it's ideal to finish your engineering degree, then take a philosophy MA at a good MA program with tech ethics faculty.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do coupons always say "cash value 1/20 of one cent" or something similar?

[Assistant]
During the early 1900s, stores had trading stamps, where for every dime you spent at the store, you got a stamp, and when you saved enough stamps, you can mail in those stamps for free merchandise (Kind of like an analog version of Areoplan Cards). These stamps were HUGE business back in the day.

But merchants had to pay the stamp makers for the stamps and that payment increased prices of goods, custumers who didn't collect stamps thought that the price increase was unfair so Congress passed a law saying that the stamps had to have cash value so that customers can redeem them directly with the merchant for money (thereby offsetting the increase in good prices.. And the 1/20 of one cent was a considered a fair price back in the early 1900s. In certain states, coupons are still considered trading stamps, so by law, they have to include the disclamer.


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

[User]
ELI5: How did Georgia become such a favorable place for the entertainment industry?

Over the past years, I have noticed an increasing amount of shows/movies filmed in the state of Georgia. CNN Center and The Weather Channel are also headquartered from the states capital, Atlanta.

[Assistant]
The state has one of if not the best tax credit laws / loopholes for filming industry. That means the filming industry businesses in Georgia are getting money from the government of Georgia.

Whether that's a good or bad thing can be debated. But that is the simple answer.


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

[User]
ELI5: What is P vs NP?

Comes up occasionally in conversation with some of my nerd friends; will never admit to not having an inkling as to what they're talking about.

[Assistant]
P stands for "polnomial". A P problem is one that a computer can solve "quickly", which is to say, there's a particular limit to the amount of calculations the computer has to perform to solve the problem.

NP stands for "nondeterministic polynomial". It means that the computer can *check* a result in polynomial time, even if it can't necessarily find that result from scratch at a reasonable speed. Think of it like doing a jigsaw: If you want to do a 1,000,000 piece jigsaw, it'll take you a while. If someone says they've solved a 1,000,000 piece jigsaw, all they have to do is show you the completed picture, which will take a second or two.

Obviously all P problems are also NP, because if you can solve something from scratch quickly you can just do that to check it. The big question is: Are there NP problems which are not also P? (The experts believe there are, and they're pretty sure that a particular class of NP problems called "NP-complete problems" are not P, but they're not sure.)


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Could Clone Troopers leave the army if they wanted to?

The Clone Army is essentially treated as a product, people artificially commissioned and created for the sole purpose of being used for war. They never really agreed to be a soldier or fight in the war, its just something they were expected to do. If a Clone Trooper wanted to leave, who could they talk to about it? In one episode of TCW, there was a Clone that went AWOL after his ship crashed and started a life on a farm with a Twilek wife and a couple kids, which is one of the reasons I started thinking about this. What were their options if they wanted to leave? Was that even an option for them?

[Assistant] Not legally, no.  They are considered Republic/Kaminoan property and thus do not have the same rights as most non-clone citizens in the galaxy.  While clones leaving the GAR were few and far between, one named Cut Lawquane deserted and started a family on Saleucami.  Commander Rex came across him and eventually decided to turn a blind eye to the desertion.


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

[User]
[Avatar TLA/LOK] Airbending vs Earthbending vs Firebending vs Waterbending; What are the pros and cons of each element and which would be better for combat, defense, and mundane uses?

Also, what kind of creative and unique techniques could a bending master of each element perform if they mastered each specialised technique for their element. Morals off for each bending master.

[Assistant]
All have great industrial benefits. You could make buildings with earth, have furnaces and heating with fire, irrigation with water, wind turbines with air.

Fire and earth have the most powerful attacks.

Earth, air and water offer great defense.

I'd take earth.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Is Earth in the Star Wars series?

What would a Jedi think if/when they came to earth in either the time period Star Wars is set or in the future (post long, long time ago)?

[Assistant]
A galaxy far away.

We don't know how long ago it was. Could have been completely uninhabited by humans when the films take place, for all we know. If they came now, they'd probably think "huh, weird that this world has massive cities yet such primitive space travel. Also, weird that these people look so much like humans from our galaxy."


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

[User]
Tenure fail?

What would the circumstances be if someone were to have their tenure denied at the very last moment? Going into the meeting with the committee where you expect to get tenure only to have the committee say, Im sorry, we found out that and they are denied? Faked data? Affair with student? Things like that?

[Assistant]
If tenure is denied at the *very* last moment (if you're accurate in this description) then it is almost certainly the Chancellor or the Trustees (for whatever reasons, but usually political.)

Tenure cases fail at the Department level for personal (she's a jerk) and professional (he just can't teach/just didn't get the work done) reasons.  But this is *not* "the very last moment."  It's the beginning.

Every time it goes up the line (Dean's committee, Dean, Provost's committee, Provost, Chancellor, Trustees) a case has more 'momentum' for having passed the previous stage.

So the cases that *fail* at the top (i.e. the last minute) are cases where the top is overruling every committee & authority below them.  Very unusual, and usually because the research is "politically controversial" or because the Chancellor/Trustees have some sort of bug up their butt (i.e. they insist on "only field-changing scholars get tenure" or something.)

Cases that *succeed* at the top (where they've failed in previous stages but the failure gets kicked up for confirmation) usually "succeed" in order to avoid a lawsuit (i.e. gender/racial discrimination, irregularities at the department level, something like that)


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

[User]
[The Giver] There is no honour in being a birthmother?

In The Giver, Jonas's sister says she hopes she'd get to be a birthmother, and their mother replies by saying something on the lines of 'there is no honour in that profession'. What did she mean by that? The concept of 'honour' in this context doesn't seem consistent with the genetically engineered, socially programmed society of the book to me.

[Assistant]
The society of the book is one where about anything related to basic human affection or attachment is held in very low regard, and completely eliminated whenever possible. If they had the tech to do so, they'd happily go straight to mechanized asexual reproduction, but they don't. They're stuck with the birthmothers, and they aren't happy about it. They go out of the way to make the gig a bad one; a birthmother receives no vocational education, and once they have a mandated number of offspring get condemned to spend the rest of their lives at grunt labor.

While the people don't have any real hard emotions, they still can have concepts of social acceptability and inclusion. "Honor", in the context of employment, would be a job that contributes to the society *while being in line with it's norms*. Giving birth is essential (they literally can't have a society if they don't keep the population up), but flies in the face of their norms. They put it down the same way some people think less of garbage collectors or plumbers in spite of the fact that those jobs are the only things keeping any urban area from turning into a disease-ridden cesspool.


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

[User] [Fallout New Vegas] i have been chosen as the glorious Caesars successor, what changes can i make to make the Legion even more mighty?

[Assistant]
The problem with the legion is the problem that Despotic systems have always had: Every legate and Centurion with a gleam in his eye is after, if not that seat, some carved out niche. Assuming you can hold it, you've now inherited a greatly weakened Legion. You've got a few years of rebuilding to do at minimum.

Now, this is both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, you can introduce at least a few major reforms in the chaos and turmoil, your loyal core is likely to leap upon whatever you're offering while the less adaptive branches can be culled. On the down side, you have to keep the ravening hordes busy long enough to get your house in order. So what do you do?

Pitting them against each other is an obvious answer, you *might* get a leaner, meaner, more modern legion out of it. the risk is obvious however. You might *lose*.

So, assuming you're not at outright conflict with your former colleagues off the bat because you were hand-picked by the man himself before his unfortunate passing, the choice is obvious. Drive the legion against a new foe. Lead them into a war immediately. Have the ones you suspect to be a potential problem at the spear-tip. Either they die "gloriously" for the legion, serving as an example, or they live and you salute them and you can hopefully bring them over, showing you can bring them victories just as well as Caesar. Or simply arrange a tragic "accident". All strong possibilities.

If you lead them into an easy victory you've picked up some new loyalists and inclined them to listen to you. If you get into a prolonged fight, you're at least keeping them busy and the knives away from your back while you work on figuring out what you want to do with the legion as a whole. Of course, you could lose, but hopefully you picked a sensible enemy to fight.


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

[User]
[Toy Story] When could we estimate the first ever living toy came to be and what could it have been?

I'll start by saying I have no concrete knowledge of the history of children's toys. A cursory google search reveals that dolls and teddy bears date back in our various cultures over thousands of years, but I'm wondering if something more basic and primitive could have been the first ever living toy?

[Assistant]
The rules for which toys are alive are quite ambiguous. In Andy's room, the only toys that are alive are the ones with faces. In Sid's room, though, there are several mutant toys that don't have faces (like the fishing rod with legs) that *are* alive. One possible explanation is that a toy gains life when a child thinks of it as alive. So in one child's hands, a dump truck toy would be a machine and not alive, but another child could imbue that toy with life by including it as a speaking character in a tea party.

By that logic, the first toy to be alive would be the first doll that a child played with or the first stick a child picked up and pretended was sentient.


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

[User] If I'm in polluted air or there's an awful smell, is it better to breathe through my nose or my mouth, to have as few molecules reach my lungs as possible?

[Assistant]
It honestly depends on what is in the air. Is is particles or chemicals? For larger particles (think dust) , breathing slowly through your nose would be best. Your nose is built as a rough filter.

For a chemical, think paint thinner or another solvent, it wouldn't matter. You need specialty air filters to remove these (think gas mask).

Smells, which are generally chemical, will enter your lungs through either your nose or mouth. Your body has no real method to filter out things like this.

If you are concerned about particals, wear a N95 or N100 rated mask. For solvent or smells, which would not be considered particles, you will need a respirator rated for solvent.

Hopefully this helps.


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

[User]
[Star Wars]Why did the rebel fleet do a really dangerous trench run to get to the exhaust port of the Death Star? Couldn't they've just dive bombed it from above?

The thing is wide open and uncovered so why skim a really dangerous trench littered with TIE fighters and turret towers instead of just dropping from above and blasting it?

Also another question; how did Luke's missiles/blasters/torpedoes make that 90 degree turn in space?

[Assistant]
Coming in from 90 degrees lets every tubo laser and anti ship weapon around the exhaust port to fire at him. We're talking about a few hundred weapon systems locking on to him, but in the trench only guns in the trench too can fire at him. Sure he has low manoeuvrability in the trench but he has far less to dodge then flying it outside the trench.

The torpedoes make the turn down the exhaust port because they had been specially programed to make that turn.


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

[User]
[General] Why does the boss always undercut my expert estimation of the timetable when he asks how long it's going to take?

I say it will take 24 hours and he says I only have 12. I know better than he does how long it will take.

[Assistant] When he's saying that, he's not saying "Do it in 12 or you'll be written up", he's saying "Do it in 12 or the local alien superpower/5th dimensional space wedgie/incoming meteor shower will mean there's no ship left". He's authorizing triple shifts, safety check bypasses, and cold start 50/50 it works or we blow up risk taking.


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

[User]
If a human being were genetically engineered to replace each rod cell (in the eye) with a cone cell, how would their vision differ from that of an ordinary person?

As a follow up question, what if the cones were packed in there at macula level densities across the whole retina? Would our brain's occular processing centres be up to the task? Would we need an optic nerve the size of a femur?

[Assistant]
This isn't a fun answer or anything, but there would likely be horrible processing problems in the occipital lobe.  First of all, there are only specific parts specialized for color (which wouldn't be linked up to all the excess cones), and the other parts specialized for processing light/darkness wouldn't get much information at all.

Each constituent part of visual processing is incredibly important to the 3d representation that we take for granted.  Disrupt a few and weird things happen.

Edit: also, there would probably be problems with depth perception since light/darkness information is vital to certain heuristics the brain uses.


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

[User] [Dungeons & dragons] if I choose to become a necromancer, does that meean that I could be wanted for crimes of grave robbing the moment I summon the dead in a graveyard?

[Assistant]
I mean, someone would need to notice that the body is missing before any accusation of grave robbing would make sense. That said, if disinterring a corpse is a crime under local law, you'd be commiting it.

Even if disturbing a corpse is legal in itself, casting *animate dead* is also likely to be a crime. Zombies and skeletons will attack random people if you lose control of them. Raising them is frowned on.


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

[User] ELI5:Why do energy companies want us to save energy? Isn't that the product they are selling?

[Assistant]
Say you have a bucket of water and a few friends who all want a glass of water. You charge your friends $0.10 per glass because one bucket is pretty easy to bring. At first everyone can take as much as they want because there's plenty in the bucket. As more and more people show up who want water you have to go buy another bucket to start bringing more water. Soon you have more people who want a glass than you can carry in two buckets.

At this point you can't carry more water. You only have two hands. You can hire someone to help carry water, but that costs money and eats into your nice water profits.

So you start charging people $0.15 a glass. As the price goes up people get a little angry about how much their spending on water, but they need the water. You start telling people how they can get by on a little less water. You up the cost to $0.20 saying that so many people want water that it's getting hard to get and we should all try to conserve water. People seem satisfied to start slowly buying less and less water to offset how much they're paying. At the same time more and more people are coming over to buy water.

So as a savy business person, you've not had to hire anyone to help you carry water (transmission lines), nor bought any new buckets (power plants) by making twice as many people buy less water individually but at twice the price. So people feel they're doing good and saving money. Meanwhile you just doubled your profits and added nothing to your expenses.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why cant they just pull the metal pin/rod/wire striaght out of the c4 clay in bombs?

Like in movies, they always struggle to desarm the thing. Why can't they just pluck away the clay, or pull the pins out of it?

Is it just a movie thing?

Also, sorry if I flaired it wrong!

[Assistant] Reasonable bomb makers might add a component to sense the removal if the detonator and trigger it; and trigger the backup they molded into the middle of the block of clay.  It fact, there is no reason to leave detonators sticking out in a real bomb, that's just a thing they do on TV to signal "BOMB".


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

[User] ELI5: How are so many of Jesus' years of life undocumented?

[Assistant] They are referred to as The silent years. In the Catholic Church, it is taught that Jesus worked as a Carpenter. There are reference to Jesus in other places that he used to work as a carpenter (Matthew 13:55 and Mark 6:3).


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

[User] If an organism sexually reproduced with itself, would the offspring have greater chances of genetic weakness compared to asexual reproduction or cloning?

[Assistant]
The answer really depends on the organism. As you quite rightly point out, several taxa are locked into life strategies which call upon self fertilisation. These species have a few ways to avoid paying the cost of inbreeding depression.

Most taxa which rely on self fertilisation produce very large numbers of offspring, which allows for sucessful reproduction in spite of large numbers of expressed harmfull recessives.

One approach used by occasional self fertiliers is to selectively abort defective offspring, thus limiting the investment in defectives. In some cases, an individual will abort the whole inbred seed set if it subsequently comes in contact with pollen from a non related plant (ex: ceiba pentandra).

When it comes to obligate self-fertilisers, such as peas and Pyemotes mites, one finds that harmfull recessives are surprisingly rare. This is presumed to result from the fact that several generations of self fertilisation have brought those specific taxa through inbreeding depression, out to the "other side", so to speak, thus flushing out harmfull genetic variants from these species genetic pool. They paid the cost, in other words, by exposing all of their recessives to natural selection in order to adapt to systematic self fertilisation..

So to come back to your question, you have to factor in the effect of self-fertilisation as a breeding strategy across a whole species. The mid to long term efffect is to pay the price of inbreeding depression, in exchange of a cleaned up genome. So these taxa should have less harmfull genetic outcomes than clones, which will maintain whatever expressed recessives the parent had.


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

[User]
[MCU] Loki's memory regarding the destruction of the bifrost.

When Thor destroys the bridge, he catches Loki and Odin catches Thor.  The both of them are ready to pull him up and work it out, but Loki lets go.
Later when Thor and Loki reunite, he says he remembers Thor "tossing him into an abyss" and seems genuinely angry about it. Why would he say such a thing? Has he convinced himself that's what happened?

[Assistant]
Blame shifting is classic narcissist behavior.  Although Loki himself was the one who decided to release his grip, he may be unable to see himself as anything but a noble victim.

He is a true master of deception, perhaps because he is constantly practicing it on himself.


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

[User]
Question on Marginal Utility Theory

Does the Marginal Utility Theory necessarily assumes that people are rational utility maximizers?

[Assistant] Marginal utility is like velocity: it's not so much a theory as a concept. It's the utility you get from a little bit more of something. Since marginal utility can be positive, zero or negative, it's not disprovable.


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

[User] ELI5: How do those website "link-shorteners" work?

[Assistant] When you put in the original URL and click shorten, it generates a new unique alphanumeric ID to be the shortened URL and then store the association between it and the original URL in a database. Then when you visit the shortened URL, it first hits the URL shorteners server, which looks up the original URL and then issues a redirect to the original site.


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

[User]
Why do some languages form creoles and pidgins more readily than others?

I recently came back from a trip to Namibia and South Africa, and I was struck by the difference in language. Namibia was colonised by the Germans; South Africa, by the Dutch. In South Africa, this resulted in a rather unique blend of languages that gave rise to Afrikaans. In Namibia, however, they still speak what is very clearly German. The blending didn't happen there. Why did Dutch mix with local languages in South Africa, but German didn't mix in Namibia? For that matter, why do some languages just seem to blend better than others?

[Assistant]
AFIAK, there's nothing inherent about a language that makes it easier to form creoles and pidgins, and regardless, German and Dutch are very similar languages.

The difference between the two probably has to do with early contact between the langauges - the Dutch settled there for trade and intermingled with the local population, while the Germans had more of a conquer-and-colonize mission.


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

[User] ELI5: Why was Germany held responsible for WWI when Austria-Hungary was the one that started it?

[Assistant]
That depends on who you ask.

One point of view is that Germany is the one who turned WW1 from a local skirmish between Austria-Hungary and Russia into a conflict between all of Europe by declaring war on France, violating Belgian neutrality, and committing unrestricted submarine warfare in the atlantic.

Another point of view is that France was itching to get Alsace-Lorraine back, and both France, Great Britain and Russia were all scared of having a strong Germany next to them, so break it as much as possible to keep it down.


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

[User]
[Crazy Conspiracy Theories] What's the deal with the lizard people? Where did they come from? What's their agenda?

In the world of crazy conspiracy theories, there is one inescapable truth, the world is ruled by lizard people.  So...what's the deal with these guys?  What's their origin story?  What is their ultimate goal?

Are they part of a wider universe?  Are they aliens?  Demons?  Is there a mythology surrounding them?

[Assistant]
They were here before us, and were forced underground during the last ice age. We rose up to take their place, but when they woke up they decided that instead of crushing our armies and feasting on our flesh, they would simply take over our society.

Now, they control everything from the shadows, and almost nobody notices. But why do *you* think the people with the highest body fat are most likely to *mysteriously* die for no adequately explained reason?

Food. Food for lizard people.


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

[User] Can the nose detect the direction a scent comes from?

[Assistant] When you have two eyes/ears it is used to pinpoint the distance/direction of the source.  Our ears for example hear a sound in the closer ear first.  Our brain determines the time delay between the two sounds and calculates the direction.  With our nose, there are two nostrils but they are very close together making this a less exact science.  Take something fragrant and put it in front of your nose, you can tell which side it is one.  But with non-localized smells it is less exact.  This is why hammerhead sharks have their nostrils so far apart, it gives them more information about which direction the smell is coming from.


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

[User] Eli5: How does a single cell multiply into exact copies of itself yet somehow knows to start building into different body parts? They are all in the same environment with the same DNA yet behave differently.

[Assistant]
Each cell has all the DNA, however based on external signals the cell activates certain enzymes that read specific DNA to become whichever organ.

Theoretically, you can introduce a reading enzyme from a liver cell to a heart cell and that enzyme will read the heart cell DNA to make liver stuff.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do undercover cops still drive the ubiquitous "cop" car, and wear uniforms?

You know when you see those black Ford sedans with the antennas out of the top? They're missing that cop paintjob, but when you pass them they're just sitting there in full uniform, in what is supposed to be an undercover police car. Why not have a fleet of PT Cruisers and Priuses and Escalades and Civics with plainclothes officers in them? Are the cops not allowed to be that sneaky?

[Assistant]
Those aren't undercover cops. They are just cops in unmarked cars.

Generally police officers who aren't on patrol or doing traffic enforcement drive an unmarked car because it's less conspicuous. They aren't trying to hide, they just don't necessarily want to stand out or cause a commotion.


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

[User] [Star Wars: RotJ] Did any of the officers or stormtroopers massed in the hangar to meet their Emperor find his propensity to cackle menacingly somewhat questionable?

[Assistant] And on a related note: Did any erstwhile loyal supporters of Chancellor Palatine find his immediate transition toward wearing a black robe and withdrawing from life at all odd? How did they reconcile their image of a chancellor they loved with such a radical and immediate transformation?


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

[User] Is the universe beyond what we can see unobservable because we don't have the technology to see that far, or because the light has not reached us yet?

[Assistant] The latter. Specifically, the "observable universe" refers to the portion of the universe from which light could have reached us in the amount of time that has passed since the Big Bang. Anything outside of that region is unobservable because no signal could have reached us so far.


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

[User]
[Tolkien] Wait, wasn't Gollum a Hobbit?

In "The Hobbit" Gollum at one point wonders aloud "what is a hobbit?", but it was also shown in "Return of the King" that Gollum recieved the one ring from a friend as his birthday present, and he seemed to be a hobbit at that point.

Is there a good reason why he doesn't seem to remember Hobbits when he first meets Bilbo?  His unnaturally long life caused him to forget what he once was?

[Assistant]
Gollum is a descendant of the Stoors. There used to be three tribes of Hobbits, the Stoors, the Fallohides, and the Harfoots, who lived in different regions and were somewhat different both physically culturally. Distinct ancestors of the Hobbits we all know.

The three groups gradually became one when they settled in the Shire. The Hobbits of the Third Age are descendants of all three tribes, although the Brandybucks and the Tooks are closer to the Stoors, and the rest of the Shire seems closer to the Harfoots.

Anyway, Gollum is a descendant of the Stoors who did not settle in the Shire, settling instead in Gladden Fields.


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

[User]
[MCU Doctor Strange] Why is combat magic so limited?

Ok, in this universe magic can defy gravity, create portals, heal nerves, travel between dimensions, and so on.

Yet, even when we see two masters go at it, the combat magic is mostly punching with some glowy orange light effects.

[Assistant]
Casting and maintaining magical spells requires intense concentration and focus.  Witness how simply opening a portal with a sling ring, for example, took Strange months to master.  Most of the more impressive feats of magic were done during relatively calm periods, when the practitioner had the luxury of being able to completely focus on the task at hand.

If someone's punching you in the face, it becomes much harder to maintain such concentration.  Therefore, in combat, magic is primarily only used to create weapons and/or make alterations to the battlefield to try to find an advantage.  No one tries to make a sling ring portal in a fight, for example, because the intense focus and visualization required is almost impossible in the heat of battle.

Ergo, when someone's punching you in the face, you really can't spare the time or effort to try to fight back magically.  The best you can hope for is to punch him back, supplemented by your magic as best you can.


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

[User]
Do obese people get as cold, in low temp. conditions as a normal weight person would?

Is there a correlation in humans between body temperature and body size or weight. Outside of humans, other creatures use body fat or blubber to stay warm. Does this carry over into humans? Will a person who is 300 pounds, be as cold as a 160 pound person in the same weather conditions?

Edit: I am inquiring about internal and external temperature, as well as how they feel and their overall cold resistance. Sorry if that was unclear.

[Assistant]
You don't even need fat/blubber, just size helps a lot. Large organisms have a lot more thermal inertia.

In fact, sauropods are hypothesized to have been gigantotherms, as opposed to exo or endotherms; they maintained a constant temperature just through large size.


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

[User]
[King Kong and Gozilla.] Do the two most recent movies take place in the same universe?

Also is Kong still growing like it states in the movie.

[Assistant] They sure do. The evidence that led monarch to Skull island also suggests other Kaiju. Besides fossilized remains, there is also evidence on a butterfly kaju and some sort of multiheaded dragon coexisting along with mankind. Watch the post credits of the doc you mentioned to learn more!


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

[User]
Why was the federal reserve unable to prevent inflation in the 1980s?

I saw that 1979, inflation was 11.35% and in 1980, it was 13.5%. If the federal reserves target rate is 2%, how did they allow the inflation to get so out of control?

[Assistant]
The 1970s and 1980s saw a paradigm shift in economic thinking about inflation. The phenomena that existed at that time is called "Stagflation" because there was both inflation and high unemployment at the same time. According to the dominant theory at the time (Keynesianism) this should not have been possible. Monetarism was the new theory that did a much better job explaining the stagflation of the 70s/80s. The following decades would see many attempts to merge keynesianism with monetarism into a single theory.

tldr; they were still figuring it out. we have better understanding of inflation today than we did back then. but we still dont know everything.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why can't Godzilla-esque monsters exist in nature ?

I understand that food and energy levels would be and issue, but is there anything else stopping gargantuan creatures evolving ?

Same for giant flying creatures, bigger versions of real animals, insects and sea creatures.

Thanks.

[Assistant]
Gravity and oxygen are your limiting factors. Too big, and you can't form bones strong enough to support the weight, and you would need gigantic lungs to support the body mass required. You find larger animals in the ocean, such as blue whales, because gravity isn't a factor there.

In the time of the dinosaurs, there was a much higher concentration of atmospheric oxygen, so it was easier to get the required oxygen.


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

[User] eli5: Why do laughter and sobbing with grief appear to be so physically similar, even though they're caused by such different emotions?

[Assistant] Laughter is originally a reaction to an incoming threat which turned out to be harmless or fake. Crying (sobbing) is for the real threats. Imagine a parent making some sort of angry face at a toddler - if they keep it angry/scary, the toddler would start crying in fear, but if they only keep it for a second and then smile, showing that it was a joke, the toddler would laugh.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does it look like the eyes of a painting are following you but not the eyes of a statue?

[Assistant]
A painting is two dimensional, usually when this effect is observed the eyes are painted in a way which depicts the irises as circles, which your brain interprets as eyes fixated on you. When a three dimensional eye, real or on a statue, is observed from different angles the iris' shape changes from the point of view of the observer, your brain has evolved to accurately determine where a set of eyes is pointing based on their geometry relative to you.

TLDR: Flat 2D eyes confuse your brain as the irises are perfect circles, which usually means they are facing you. 3D eyes don't confuse your brain.


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

[User] [Skyline] So, like, were the aliens actually cymeks? What the hell was going on?

[Assistant] The protagonist of skyline was an aberration. His love for his unborn offspring was powerful enough to prevent his brain from being dominated by alien programming. A human brain is a great central processing unit, and its energy requirements are fairly simple organic molecules. Throw that processing unit into a bad ass body and you can take over the world. An intact brain maintains its memories, however sufficient oxytocin levels ("the love hormone") can prevent the action potentials of the robot body from effectively accepting exterior orders. The tech is pretty simple, order chip connects to the brain. The brain controls the body.


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

[User] Why do mosquitoes carry West Nile and other viruses, but not HIV?

[Assistant] HIV doesn't reproduce in insects. When the mosquito bites you, it injects it's saliva, not its own blood or the blood of previous bite victims. Since HIV doesn't reproduce in insects, it's not transmitted via saliva unlike malaria or yellow fever. Plus, it usually takes a while to digest the blood after they sucked it out of you. They don't go from person to person sucking blood like a chinese buffet.


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

[User]
What are the top 5 most important works in political philosophy?

If you had to pick the top 5 works in philosophy on politics, what would you choose? I'm compiling a reading list to educate myself on the topic, and decided to ask for suggestions.

If it isn't to much trouble, please also include why you picked the work you did. :)

[Assistant] If your goal is to educate yourself, you're probably better off starting with a broad overview, like *Contemporary Political Philosophy: An Introduction* by Kymlicka, rather than a grab-bag of a few primary texts.


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

[User]
[Marvel] Why hasn't Magneto killed Red Skull and Baron Zemo?

Or really just, Hydra as a whole? Like I understand that there is the meta reason of, comics still want Hydra to be reoccurring bad buys, but I am disinterested in meta explanations.

Is there a in fiction reason it hasn't happened? It has it actually happened in a previous run, and I missed it? Do tell.

[Assistant] He locked Red Skull in a room to starve to death in Acts of Vengeance but he was rescued. Besides that Magneto is simply too busy or doesnt care enough about the existence of fascists. It helps that Zemo and Skull have an impressive amount of resources, followers and superhumans under their control which would deter assassination attempts. Magneto is powerful but not unbeatable by any means. For example theres nothing stopping even a mildly powerful magic user from incapacitating him in a way that he cant defend against.


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

[User] How come when you work out you don't get sore till the next day?

[Assistant]
We don't know. The term is called delayed onset muscle soreness if you were wondering though.

Our current theories are that

* high tensions (particularly those associated with eccentric exercise) in the contractile/elastic system of the muscle result in structural damage

*  cell membrane damage leads to disruption of Ca++ homeostasis in the injured fibers, resulting in necrosis that peaks about 2 d post-exercise
* products of macrophage activity and intracellular contents accumulate in the interstitium, which in turn stimulate free nerve endings of group-IV sensory neurons in the muscles leading to the sensation of DOMS.

The most commonly accepted theory is that it is due to the activities of the macrophages.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do you need a NASA lens to record candle lit scenes on film, yet the human eye is as small as a mobile phone camera and can see low lit scenes just fine?

[Assistant]
Our brain is incredibly powerful and can 'compute' the dynamic range and the white balance of everything we see. Even the the most expensive sensors on the best cameras available today can't recreate the wide dynamic range our eyes do for us, at least not without combining multiple images.
Example. When driving through a tunnel as you approach the end your eyes see fantastic detail in the tunnel around you, AND in the bright outside the tunnel in front of you. Now try taking a photo of that (passenger!!) and see that you either get detail in the tunnel and super overexposed outside, or detail outside and underexposed inside.
One day cameras may reach this level but not for a long while.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do strangers want to follow me on Twitter?

I have minimal interaction with social media (no Facebook, no online gaming, etc.), but I did sign up for a Twitter account just so I could follow a handful of organizations I'm interested in.  I follow about a dozen Twitter accounts, and I've never once tweeted anything myself.  Randomly, though, every few weeks I still get a request from some stranger that wants to follow me.  Some are just regular looking people and some are kind of porn looking with suggestive pictures/comments.

For someone not social media savvy, why would these people have any interest in following me?

[Assistant] They don't have an interest in following you, they're either ways of getting you to go to some site (like the latter group) or they're people who follow you in hopes you'll follow them so they can up their number of followers... for some reason this is valuable to people.


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

[User]
[Stranger Things] What kind of DM pulls an encounter with demogorgon to a mid-level party?

I mean, in the first episode they were still casting fireballs at troglodytes and such. Later they're shown to use the blue expert level rulebook, so still not quite demogrgon-tier (which I believe was included in the immortal level monster compendium).

[Assistant] The kind who runs a more realistic campaign where the character's physical force can simply be grossly outmatched, requiring them to flee or come up with solutions other than directly combating the foe themselves.


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

[User] ELI5: How do painkillers like Ibuprofen work?

[Assistant]
There's two parts to this.  Well, probably a lot more than two, but we're ELI5ish here.

First, you eat the pill.  It gets broken down in your stomach and intestine, just like regular food.  Food has nutrients that get broken down into base chemicals, and absorbed into the bloodstream.  Ibuprophen, and similar drugs, break down into base chemicals just like food.  But these chemicals are special.  Let's call our chemical Mac.  Mac likes to bind to other enzymes in your bloodstream, including one we'll call Charlie.  Charlie likes to hang out with a special enzyme named Frank.  Frank and Charlie together are bad news, and cause inflammation.  But if Charlie is hanging out with Mac, Frank can't join the fun.

Now, side track, what is inflammation?  It's when things swell up.  That doesn't necessarily hurt on it's own, but if there is nowhere for the swelling to go, because say, you've got a bone or some skin there, we get pain.

Back to the Charlie and Mac.  Now that they are hanging out, and Frank can't join the party, we don't get inflammation.  Without the inflammation, we don't have pain.

This is an incredibly high level and basic description, but the gist is, ibuprofen and other similar over-the-counter painkillers block the production of a chemical that ultimately leads to pain.  Less of the chemcial, less of the pain.


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

[User]
[LOTR] How are the Orcs created?

The only thing I took away from the first movie is that they're found underground in some sacs?

[Assistant]
First, every single answer in this thread so far is wrong.

Orcs do NOT originate from Elves.

Professor Tolkien did extensive research into this topic during his study and the manuscripts he found.  At first he believed the fallen Vala Morgoth created them from stone but later found Morgoth could not create life.  Then he hypothesized Morgoth took Elves and mutated thenlm into Orcs but he quickly REJECTED this idea. There was no way Morgoth could wholly corrupt a race like that,  especially so much so to remove immortality from them as a hereditary trait (orcs are mortal). Tolkien went through several other ideas. Orcs from beasts, Maiar, Men, corssbreeding... he never found an answer.   To this day no one knows the exact origin of the Orc race. Tolkien's latest writings suggest Men may have been the ultimate source, but that would mean his previous research into when Men awoke would need to be greatly reexamined.

Also, orcs reproduce like any other race, they have sex.  The mud sack thing is only in the films.


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

[User] Since Mercury's days are very hot, and its nights are cold (relative to Earth); if Mercury's rotation were to slow to be 1:1 tidal locked, so one side were always facing the sun, would there exist a ring around the planet that were suitable to support terrestrial life?

[Assistant]
For quite a while, astronomers actually thought Mercury _was_ just so tidally locked, since it always seemed to showing the same aspect when we could see it.  Turns out it just was an artifact of its 3:2 locking and the limited times of the year when we could clearly see it, what with it being so close to the sun.

But anyway.  There would indeed be a ring probably towards the dark side of the terminator which would have human-tolerable temperatures, but that's only part of it.  You still need an atmosphere, which will get blasted away into space by solar wind on the day side, and you need water, which will gravitate towards the night side and be locked into permanent ice.

And even if Mercury had a strong magnetic field to help prevent atmospheric escape and the night side was mostly a vast ocean that allowed water to flow back to the habitable zone, you've still got to deal with what the furnace-like daytime temperatures would do to the molecular oxygen in the air.  Any chemists please correct me here, but O2 is terribly reactive at room temperature, even moreso as it gets hotter.  What life there is would have a devil of a time using the (admittedly 9 times brighter) twilight to produce enough oxygen to stay ahead of it all combining and combusting with everything on the dayside.

I guess maybe if you let it sit for a billion years, you'd wind up with an equivalent of the banded iron formations in terrestrial geology, and there'd simply be nothing left on the dayside to react, letting free O2 exist no matter what the temperature.  But Mercury is pretty short on light elements as it is; it's really not so much a small planet as it is the metal-rich core of a larger planet stripped of its mantle and crust.

TL;DR: Mercury's most practical contribution to human life would be to disassemble it for purely space-based habitats, not terraforming.


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

[User] If you injected yourself with the oxygenated particles, would you still keep exhaling CO2, or you would need to inhale in order to exhale?

[Assistant] You would still need to exhale to to get rid of CO2, and you'd still need to inhale because otherwise the pressure in your lungs would go down and they would collapse.  Your lungs are like a bellows in that you can't pump air out without also pumping air in.


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

[User]
[Star Wars ep. IV] Why did the storm-troopers bother to disguise their attack against the sandcrawler as a Tusken raid?

It seems odd that the storm-troopers in looking for the droids, presumably acting under the command of Vader, went to the trouble of riding banthas and planting gaffi sticks with the aim of throwing off blame for slaughtering that jawa sandcrawler. Second, that implies the Empire has any concern at all for looking non-oppressive despite being on the cusp of initiating their plan to openly blow-up any planets that annoy them. Third, why even slaughter the jawas? They hardly seem to all that loyal to recent customers; seems like it'd be faster and easier to buy the information off them with a couple bags of cast-off junk.

[Assistant]
But they *do* have some concerns on looking non-oppressive.

An Imperial officer is willing to put his neck on the line to caution to Darth Vader (again, DARTH VADER) that Leias cover story that she was on a diplomatic mission might generate sympathy in the Senate.

It may be a very miniscule concern but it is still a concern.

(In addition, obscuring Stormtrooper operations might be less about appearing non-oppressive and more about avoiding the interest and/or competition of the Hutts; at least for long enough for the Empire to assemble and send troops to Mos Eisley.)


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

[User]
SQL Versus SQL (crosspost - AskTechnology)

I had a job interview today and I was asked if I had ever used SQL. I told them "I used it on a website". The interviewer quickly said SQL can't be used on websites, and "you must be talking about MySQL". I just said "yeah...of course", but is that true? I know that MySQL is the database management system, but wouldn't 'SQL' code used in conjuction with PHP just be considered 'SQL'? Which would make my statement true.

The guy was kind of rude about it and really made me doubt myself for the rest of the interview. So which is right?

[Assistant]
It sounds like the interviewer doesn't entirely know what he's talking about.

SQL itself is just the querying language, where each database application (MySQL, MSSQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, etc...) use a dialect of.

So yeah, the MySQL application itself is a popular one to use in conjunction with a website or web application, but that website is still going to be using SQL (MySQL's dialect of) to query that database.

In the case of PHP, if you're not using an ORM, then you'll still be building SQL queries inside of you PHP code, and then firing them off to the DB; that process is going to be pretty similar no matter whether it's MySQL or some other database application sitting on the back end.

So if you've used "SQL" with one database application, then you should be able to use what you learnt there to use SQL with some other database application.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Are the sound of the TIE fighters an intimidation strategy?

I was wondering why were they so coarse and high pitched. It would be an annoying/scary thing to hear in the battlefield. Is it intentional or was it the norm for different brand of aircraft to have different sounds?

[Assistant]
I mean, it doesn't hurt.  But no, that was not a primary factor in selecting the engines for the TIE series.
Also, it's a bit of a chicken-or-egg situation.  That engine whine is particularly intimidating because it means a lot of fighters are coming to kill you.  If it was coming from a civilian speeder, it wouldn't be as bad, and whatever other noise the TIE ended up making would be the scary thing.


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

[User]
[Superman] Would Lex care as much if Supes was an angel or mutant?

Literally anything that isn't just a filthy xeno. Like if he was bitten by a radioactive kryptonian, or turned out to be something genuinely supernatural and made of magic. I've always taken Lex v.s. SM to be about humanity being judged by a xeno, more than an actual super powered god. What if he was a Thor like figure and actually a literal god? (I dont remotely care about the MCU, please dont railroad this with Thor being an alien)

[Assistant]
Lex is a sociopath who, in almost all media he's present in, has a tight grip over Metropolis and is doing illegal things on the sly. The fact isn't that Lex is racist (Speciest? Spiciest?), if Superman tries to get in Lex's way, Lex will hate him. If Superman has any sort of power and does good with that power, power that Lex would otherwise exploit better, but for more selfish means? Or if Supes continues to be some boy scout who can thwart Lex because Lex simply isn't powerful enough in the physical sense? Lex will still hate him.

Another question would probably be: would we?


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

[User] What exactly is it about smoking that causes all the negative repercussions? Is it the smoke? The nicotine or tar? Is an electronic cigarette a safer method?

[Assistant]
Few of the well known negative health effects of smoking are directly caused by nicotine. It does have some negative effects on blood pressure regulation and large pure overdoses can be lethal. Nicotine overdose is possible if you combine smoking and patches. There is also some evidence that nicotine may contribute to birth defects.

Damage to the lungs and the cancerous effects are principally a result of the combustion products and tar from the cured tobacco leaves.


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

[User] [Watchmen/DC/Marvel] A major part of Doctor Manhattan's isolation was due to his being the only one of his kind. How might his outlook have been different if he had been born into the Marvel or DC universes respectively?

[Assistant]
He would more than likely be more personally fulfilled, but his attitude toward the humans of Earth would probably be unchanged. They're still essentially a bunch of ants, running around with their tiny little lives, producing very little of any real interest.

I think his Quantum Miracle epiphany might have come sooner if he sat down for tea with Uatu or or Ganthet or someone like that, but eventually he'd leave Earth out of boredom, just as he did in the original material.


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

[User]
ELI5: With the presence of Airplane Mode, why do air stewards still insist that we turn off our mobile phones?

With the presence of Airplane Mode, why do air stewards still insist that we turn off our mobile phones? From what I understand, Airplane Mode totally cuts off your contacts with the outside world, so that it will not interfere with radio communications should you be on an airplane.

[Assistant]
It is far easier to have one single rule to enforce than to check every phone and other electronic device to see if it's in that mode. If they see it they ask you to switch it off.

Imagine the flight delays if every device required an attendant to make sure it was in a safe mode.


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

[User] [DC Universe] The Joker has pulled some strings and managed to have an airstrike delivered to Wayne Manor. Batman isn't present for the attack. What happens from here?

[Assistant] He buys a new house. Uses one of his spare bat caves. Tracks down whoever the fuck thought it was a good idea to give Joker a UAV. Beats the shit out of them. Beats the shit out of Joker. Decides to rebuild Wayne manor...again.


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

[User] [General] Santa's elves are replaced by your favorite depiction of elves. How does Christmas mythos/culture change?

[Assistant]
Tolkien elves give you something that is beautiful, amazingly practical, but has a super depressing backstory that causes sad, ethereal music to play in your head whenever you look at it.

*Dragon Prince* elves all quit because humans are inferior beings who don't deserve presents

*Elder Scrolls* elves can't get anything done because the bad blood between the different kinds of elves means they can't work together.


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

[User]
[Star Trek] What's the advantage of using a rifle-style phaser over a handgun-style phaser?

Looking into the phasers shown in TNG and other series, it seems like there's not much of an advantage to the rifle-style. Handheld, handgun-style phasers can be set powerful enough to completely disintegrate someone. Phasers don't have recoil so the second handhold isn't really for that. I don't recall anyone running out of "ammo" so the extra size isn't for that either, so far as I'm aware. I don't know of any special/extra features that rifles have over the handguns. They're heavier I'm sure, and are probably harder to handle and turn with. The only advantage I can see if that they have better aiming down the sights, but if you have a weapon with unlimited ammo that can harmlessly stun an enemy no matter where they're shot, I don't see exceptional aim as being that useful.

So what's up with the rifles?

[Assistant]
Phaser rifles use a different targeting computer that can track multiple simultaneous fast moving targets at greater range. They are also more effective against armored or shielded opponents and small craft. The rifle can fire in beam and pulse modes and for longer periods on a single charge - and can accept an easily replaced plasma battery. Handheld phasers are good for close work and in tight conditions, but they haven't got the stopping power to disable a Klingon, Nausican, Breen, or Borg without killing them.

The paperwork for unintended disintegration takes forever.


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

[User]
Are there viruses that target viruses?

Given that we have for example phages that specifically target bacteria is there something that is like a virus for virus? Not counting antiviral medication.

[Assistant] Kinda but not quite. A virus needs to infect a cell in order to replicate. Another virus can't infect that virus on its own. However sputnik virophages infect cells that a 'helper virus' has already infected and takes over the cell. Kinda comes down to semantics in a way.


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

[User]
Is there a reason light travels so fast?

My only guess is that it is a result of having no mass, or close to no mass, but the extreme acceleration puzzles me, photons move at 299,792,458 metres per second without incredible amounts of energy accelerating them..why?

[Assistant]
Snarky answer: why does everything else move so slow?

Seriously though, that's the real question.  If we decided to rename *c* from 2.99\*10^8 m/s to 1.00 (*i.e.*, switching to units of light-second per second), then why does everything else travel so much slower than 1?

The answer seems to be tied up in the fact that everything else has inertial mass, which seems to require great amounts of energy to accelerate.  But that raises the question: whence the mass?  Our best guess, the Higgs boson, has proven elusive in laboratory experiments, so we're all left scratching our heads...

Less snarky answer: good question!


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

[User]
Why is the integral of 1/x = ln(x)+C?

I mean I get that you cannot integrate it normaly as in:
x-1 --> (x0 )/0
because you obviously cannot divide by zero.
So why does this just happen to equal ln(x)?

[Assistant]
First of all, you mean to ask why the *antiderivative* of 1/x is ln(x) + C. An *integral* is a limit of Riemann sums, i.e., a single number, and it has various interpretations: area, volume, probability, etc. The fundamental theorem of calculus simply provides a link between integrals and antiderivatives. But the two objects are not the same thing.

Many introductory textbooks simply define ln(x) to be an antiderivative of 1/x, and that's that. So the answer to your question is "because it is". A better way of defining ln(x) from first principles, at least in real analysis, is that g(x) = ln(x) is the inverse function of f(x) = e^(x). The immediate question is then whether these two definitions are equivalent. They are.

Consider the function y = g(x) = ln(x). By definition, e^(y) = x. Now use implicit differentiation (w.r.t. *x*) to find that

> e^(y) (dy/dx) = 1

Solve for (dy/dx) to get

> dy/dx = 1/e^(y)

But note that e^(y) = x, so we get

> dy/dx = 1/x

Voila. If we define ln(x) to be the inverse of e^(x), we still get that its derivative is 1/x. (By a similar method, you can show that if we define ln(x) to be a function whose derivative is 1/x, then ln(x) is just the inverse function of e^(x).)


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

[User]
If a piece of modern technology such as a mobile phone were sent back in time to say the 1940's, would it be possible for scientists to reverse engineer much of the technology?

This is a premise that appears a lot in sci-fi: a time traveller goes back in time and accidentally loses a device such as a mobile phone. Usually some stereotypical bad guy reverse-engineers the technology and takes over the world.

My question is: using technology, equipment, and knowledge of science from the 1940's would it be possible to reverse-engineer the technologies such as semi-conductors, microprocessors, LEDs, etc. from a mobile phone?

[Assistant]
I think folks are a little too pessimistic here.

As the Cyberdyne scientist said in Terminator 2, "We didn't understand it, but it pushed our research in certain directions."

Just dissecting a cell phone battery might be enough for chemists to leap years ahead in rechargeable battery technology. And while CPU etching would be too small for optical microscopes to fully resolve, simply *knowing* that such electronic components were possible would push research into silicon components. And we would learn about the chemistry of LCDs or OLEDs, etc.

Engineering research is always going in lots of directions, only a few of which turn out to be both successful and marketable. Knowing that certain types of components based on certain underlying materials were likely to be successful could significantly guide research.


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

[User] In Layman's terms, how do the new RTX graphics cards calculate the path of light rays?

[Assistant]
The maths behind raytracing isn't too complex. You work out where a beam of light hits a surface, and then you work what direction it bounces to etc. The problem is that you have a *lot* of rays of light to deal with, and that gets computationally expensive.

So what you do is you run the calculations in *parallel*. That is, instead of having one processor chip doing one ray at a time, you have several chips running one ray each at the same time, and that speeds things a up a lot.

Now, this is where you have a choice. You can either use a small number of expensive but fast chips with lots of features, or you can use a large number of cheap but slower chips with minimal features. Which is better depends on a lot of things, but mostly on how complex your problem is, and how easy it is to split up your problem into small chunks. If the chips have to do a lot of communication with each after to solve the equations, then it's usually better to have a small number of fast chips. But if the chips can solve the equations independently of each other, then it's usually better to have a large number of cheap chips.

Raytracing is one the best examples of the second type. The maths for the rays can all be done independently, and the equations are actually pretty simple. So what you want is a large number of cheap chips. *And that is what a graphics card is*. Your computer might have 2-16 expensive "CPU" processor chips, but a GPU (a graphics card) might have hundreds or thousands of cheap "GPU" processor chips. So, for these particular problems, the GPU solves them much much faster.

Additionally, because people use GPUs for problems like raytracing so often, they can actually hard-code some of the maths onto the chip to make it extra fast. So if you're doing something like matrix multiplication, which involves several steps of additional and multiplication, you'd normally have to do each of those steps one at a time, sending the results back and forth each time, storing things in memory along the way etc. A GPU might have a special section dedicated to matrix multiplication, so you send in a chunk of data and it spits out the result extremely fast without having to go through the intermediate steps.

But the key thing is that a GPU is a big pile of cheap processors, and that's often a lot faster than a small pile of expensive processors.


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

[User] During a solar eclipse if you followed the path of totality how fast would you need to be moving to stay in darkness?

[Assistant]
It comes out to basically the speed of the Moon's orbit, which is about 1 km/s or 3600 km/h.

As the Moon orbits the Earth, it moves relative to the Sun, and that makes its shadow move relative to Earth. If the Moon moves 1 relative to the Earth-Sun line, then its shadow moves 1 from that line. So the angular speed in degrees/second of the Moon's motion relative to the Earth-Sun line is the same as the angular speed in degrees/second of the Moon's shadow.

To convert angular speed to linear speed in km/s, we convert the angular speed to radians/second, and multiply by the distance to the object. As the angular speed of the shadow (at some fixed distance, i.e. the Earth's surface) and the Moon are the same, this means that the difference in linear speed is just the ratio of the distances.

The distance from the shadow on Earth to the Sun is 1 AU. The distance from the Moon to the Sun during a solar eclipse is (1AU - 384,400km), where 384,400 km is the distance to the Moon. 1 AU is about 150 million km. So the speed of the shadow is about (moon's orbital speed)\*(150,000,000km + 384,400 km)/(150,000,000km). As 1 AU is much much bigger than the distance to the Moon, (150,000,000km + 384,400 km)/(150,000,000km) comes out to basically 1 - it's like 1.002. So the shadow on Earth moves like 0.2% faster than the Moon. The Moon goes at about 1 km/s, so the shadow goes at basically 1 km/s.


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

[User]
Question about Hume, Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche

I've heard it said that to understand Nietzsche you need to read Schopenhauer. To understand Schopenhauer you need to read Hegel. To understand Hegel you need to read Kant. And to understand Kant you need to understand Hume. (Possibly back to Aristotle, but I'm not sure).

Are all these references in regards to their metaphysics? What is being said with this idea?

[Assistant]
Nietzsche takes Schopenhauer's notion of The Will and develops it, and it helps to know where he's coming from in that.

I'd disagree that Hegel is necessary for Schopenhauer, because he wholesale rejects Hegel and all the other post-Kantians. But knowing Kant's system is essential and he even says as much in *The World as Will and Representation*.

And to fully understand Kant it does really help to understand the context of the problems he's trying to solve. He's coming after a seeming impasse between European 'rationalist' thinkers and British 'empiricists' (Of whom Hume is the major figure), and Kant's system tries to overcome with deadlock. Kant himself says it was reading Hume which woke him from his 'dogmatic slumber' as he says.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is saline the default hydration method for IVs and not just regular water?

[Assistant]
Fluid in your body has an average concentration of 0.9% NaCl so it is most effective to hydrate a person with this type of fluid. If regular water is used it will disrupt many cells in your system.

Basically it is easier for your body to take care of saline.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does using data on phones cost so much money?

[Assistant]
One reason is because they can - they control your ability to connect to the internet from almost wherever you want, so they can charge more for it than you would pay for home internet.

Another reason is that it costs them a fair bit of money to build and maintain that network, so the cost gets passed on to you, the customer.


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

[User]
ELI5: How can banks not accept loose change?

Recently went to my bank, a larger chain, with a bucket of spare change I've been saving for a few years and they informed me that they do not accept loose change.

So how is it that banks are allowed to do this?

[Assistant]
Legally speaking, no one is required to accept loose change, except for very specific situations. IIRC, it involves settling a debt.

Banks actually aren't required to take any of your money, and can refuse you as a customer as they see fit, like any business.


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

[User] ELI5: What causes trees to grow rings and how are they exactly a year old?

[Assistant]
There's a lot of good answers here, but the simple ELI5 answer is that the color of growth in the tree depends on how fast it is growing. In the winter, trees grow slowly, which creates the dark part of the ring. In the summer, trees grow more quickly which creates the light part of the ring.

Because of this pattern, each ring marks the passing of the seasons, and thus a year.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does an egg yolk seem to always end up in the exact centre of a hard-boiled egg?

[Assistant]
Because the yolk isn't just free-floating around in the uncracked egg, it is in the center.

It's breaking the shell and splattering the contents out that makes it seem otherwise, whereas cooking the egg whole doesn't free the yolk from its position.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does Eye color work? How does one group end up with Hazel, Blue and Green eyes while another is mostly Brown and Black?

How does inheriting these colors work?

[Assistant]
It's more complicated than basic genetics. So, there are two genes that matter for eye color. Both genes come in two variants. Gene one is brown and blue, gene two is green and blue. Brown is dominant. In your body you have two of each gene, and each gene can come in either variant. So, if you have one brown copy of gene one, regardless of any other copy, you have brown eyes. So, it doesn't matter if the other copy of gene one is blue, and if both copies of gene two are blue, your eyes are brown. So, brown is very dominant. If you have a brown gene at all, your eyes are brown. Now, green isn't as powerful as brown, but it dominates over blue. So, if both copies of gene one are blue, then if one or both copies of gene two are green, you have green eyes. So, if you only have blue and green genes, your eyes are green. So, the only way to have blue eyes is for every copy of both genes (so, four genes total) are blue. Blue is completely recessive.

So, to answer your original question, a group will have mostly brown eyes if you have lots of brown copies of gene one in your population. Remember, the other genes don't matter if you have  a brown copy, so having lots of brown copies ensures most people have brown eyes. If you don't have the brown genes floating around, gene one is totally blue. So, gene two takes over, and you either get mixtures of green and blue eyes (like with Ireland for example) because you've got that green gene floating around, or nearly everyone has blue eyes, because blue eyed people are pretty much only going to have blue eyed children.

It's actually somewhat more complicated than that, because there are also shades of color, but that's the basic idea.


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

[User] ELI5 : Why do larger more powerful ground vehicles use diesel fuel rather than normal car gasoline?

[Assistant] They tend to be commercial vehicles, which place a premium on reliability and durability. Diesels do amazingly high mileage with little more than oil changes. Also they produce more torque at low revs, which is good for moving heavy vehicles.


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

[User] ELI5:Why aren't there different subspecies of Human but there is of other animals?

[Assistant]
There have been many subspecies of human-like species over the eons, we are but one.

The question *why are we the only extant species* is more likely what you're after, and there are many hypothesis being worked on in that regard.


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

[User] ELI5 : Why is it that discs(CD's and DVD's) need to spin at a very high speed in order for data to be read/written on them ?

[Assistant]
They spin at high speeds in order to get better results. There is a limit to how small the dots can be on a CD or DVD. To get faster data acquisition the disk is spun faster.

Vinyl records used the same principle to a degree. There were 45's, vinyl records with a single recording on each side which spun at 45 rpm. They produced music. LP records were produced to play for longer. They were bigger They spun at 33 and a third rpm. Another format was the 78. It spun faster, 78 rpm in order to have a higher quality sound.

The CD format calls for recording on one side. So the other side is used for a visual label.  LP records stored data on both sides. The label was in the middle of the disk around the hole used to center the record. A blank space had to be left in the middle of each disk because too small a circle could not be used.  All the formats of LP's could be recorded on both sides. Symphonies and Operas were too long to fit on a record. The CD format enabled the recording of longer pieces of music. About twice as much music could be recorded and played on a CD. It seemed perfect at the time. Then we wanted movies which use a lot more data. When DVD's were developed the dots were recorded in layers. The focal plane of the laser was altered to read each layer. Blue Ray uses a different laser, higher frequency, so the dots can be smaller and more data recorded on the same size disk.


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

[User]
[Marvel] Does Spiderman have super bite strength?

Do Spiderman's jaw muscles have super strength too? How much force could he bite with?

[Assistant] He can bend steel and toss trucks around. Of course he can bite with superhuman force. All you have to do is calculate how many times stronger he is than a normal human, find out how much force a person can bite with and then multiply the former by the latter.


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

[User] How are we finding such intact remains of Neanderthals, yet Denisovans/other homonins remain out of grasp, so to speak?

[Assistant] Neanderthals lived in some of the most heavily dug-over regions on the planet--Europe and the Near East.  No doubt the prevalence of archaeologists has something to do with the prevalence of known fossils.


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

[User] ELI5: In cars, why does oil need changed, rather than just refilled like other fluids?

[Assistant]
Engine oil wears out. It also  becomes contaminated with byproducts of combustion, dirt and debris.

Oil is made from long chains of hyrdocarbon molecules and other compounds. This makes oil thick and allows it to keep moving parts from rubbing directly on each other under pressure and heat. But those moving parts eventually chop up the molecules, making them shorter and less able to keep moving parts from each other. The parts will rub more, increasing wear and friction.

Oil is also intended to capture and hold harmful contaminants, like partially burned hydrocarbons, moisture, dirt and tiny pieces of metal from engine wear. Some contaminants are removed from the oil  by the oil filter. But others remain suspended. Eventually the contaminants build up so much the oils ability to lubricate and protect is compromised. The contaminants are removed when the oil is drained and fresh oil is added.


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

[User]
Is there any advantage to not creating melanin? Why don't our bodies stay tan?

I know that melanin is supposed to help suppress the sun's rays, but why does your body stop producing it when not consistently in sunlight?

[Assistant] Vitamin D- or more specifically, the conversion of a Vitamin D precursor to a useable form in the body.  UV light triggers this conversion; melanin blocks UV light, so more melanin means less active Vitamin D production.  The body strikes a balance between avoiding sunburn and avoiding Vitamin D deficiency.  That's why people of an ethnicity that evolved in an area with attenuated sunlight magnitude have lighter skin.  They produce less melanin, since converting Vitamin D is more of an issue than getting sunburned.  This also occurs with increased production of melanin due to tanning.  The body is receiving more than enough UV radiation to convert its Vitamin D, and needs to protect itself from burning.


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

[User] [Fallout] If Vault-Tec wanted to experiment on the general populous, why did they wait until the end of the world?

[Assistant]
They wouldnt need information from any of these experiments unless the world actually did end. The Enclave in their infinite wisdom decided that it would be easier to just wait until the nukes actually hit before they started gathering research.

Its important to think of the Vault experiments as an Enclave project, not a Vault-Tec project. Vault-Tec was just a government contractor taking advantage of a bloated national defense budget.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why can Netflix stream at 2.0 MB/s, but Steam can't get above 500 KB/s?

I live out in a rural area, where even the best ISP can only give us "up to 4 MB/S speed." Why is it that I can stream HD video quickly, but when I download a large file or even try to load an embedded video, it's slow?

[Assistant] I think you are confusing megabytes (MB) and megabits (Mb). Does your ISP offer you 4 MB/s or 4 Mb/s? Megabits are far more commonly used when ISPs tell you your speed. A 4 Mb/s speed is roughly 500 KB/s (kilobytes) per second) so that sounds about right and your Netflix is probably able to utilize near the full connection as they pick the best quality you can handle so long as you have use HD checked.


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

[User] [WH40k] I am a 15 year old boy from a strictly devout family, and I wanna grow up to be just like my hero Kaldor Draigo, who is killing demons daily! How do I do this?

[Assistant] Hello citizen. So you not only know about Grey Knights, but you know the name of there chapter master and his deeds. Can you tell me from were you have this information? (Ask Inquisitor with sad, sad smile. Maybe just mind wipe will be enough. But he was afraid that the boy, and all people that know him, must be purge for the good of the Empire. It all depends what this little brat will tell.)


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

[User] ELI5: What is Jury Nullification, and why do people refer to it as a "get out of jury duty" free card?

[Assistant]
There's no legal mechanism to overturn a not guilty verdict - no amount of proof will do it. So essentially, a jury that decides they don't want to punish a criminal can just refuse to do so, even if shown video of him doing the deed and narrating a confession.

If you tell a prosecutor that you've heard of this power and plan to use it, you're not likely to be selected.


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

[User] [Game of Thrones] Why wasn't Balon Greyjoy executed after his rebellion againist King Robert?

[Assistant]
He'd become a martyr rather than made an example of. Another Ironborn would take his place and rebel.

Better to pacify him. Have him bend the knee and keep his heir as a ward as insurance should he ever try again.


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

[User] ELI5: How do we construct things in water? Things like bridges or roads that need support pillars that go into the water. If they're made from concrete, how does the concrete ever dry if it's underwater? If it's in the ocean, does the very bottom of the pillar touch the seafloor?

[Assistant]
Concrete curing is a chemical reaction that actually requires water to complete, although excess water in the mixture can yield a weaker cured concrete. Special concrete mixtures are used which are more resistant to chlorides (when pouring in seawater), and care is taken not to agitate an underwater concrete pour too much so that the mix doesn't thin out. You don't need concrete to dry to cure it. In fact, keeping a pour damp throughout the curing process will generally lead to a more complete cure, because the process generates heat that can evaporate water away from the surface, leading to slightly weaker concrete at the surface. Underwater you don't have that problem, though you do need to take care to keep the concrete and the surrounding water at its surface from being agitated and intermingling too much.

Bridge pillars and the like are often constructed using caissons, which is like a waterproof shoring form that extends to the riverbed / seabed, and then has all the water pumped out so that dry construction techniques can be used.


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

[User]
Are nucleons greater than the sum of their quarks?

Is there a difference between saying "this Helium atom has 2 protons and 2 neutrons" rather than saying "this helium atom has 6 up and 6 down quarks" (2 protons = 4 up 2 down, 2 neutrons = 4 down 2 up).

[Assistant] Yes. The three valence quarks in a proton make up about 1% of its total mass.The rest comes from the binding energy holding them together. The quarks in nucleons are confined, you can basically talk about protons and neutrons as discrete units.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why doesn't a flat tax work?

Perhaps this is naive but to me it seems as though a flat income tax rate would be the most "fair" way to handle taxation - everyone pays the same percentage of their earnings.

[Assistant] Because money doesn't work that way. If someone making 100k a year loses 20% of it to income tax, it's not a big deal; they might have to cut back on some luxuries, but they'll do fine on 80k. If someone making 30k a year loses 20% of it, it's a much bigger deal; the dollar value is only 6k instead of 20k, but 30k is already not really enough to live on comfortably. That 6k could very well be what you need to get health insurance, or buy healthy food, or pay for heating in the winter.


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

[User]
CMV: There is no good reason against universal health care for children (<18) in the US

CMV: There is no good reason against universal health care for children (<18) in the US

1. Children can't get their own health insurance because health insurance is tied to employment and their full time job should be school
2. Children are part of a vulnerable population who as a society we deem deserving of extra protections and support regardless
3. Children shouldn't be punished if their parents can't afford to give them health care or if their parents made or didn't make smart financial decisions
4. Intervening early with solid routine health care means less medical issues when they are adults
5. "It's too expensive" - sure but it is certainly more cost efficient to have a single payer who can negotiate more strongly.
6. "Something like this already exists for low income" - I'm talking about automatically registering every children upon birth for universal health care. You go into any clinic or hospital in the country and can receive healthcare upon showing your state health card. For healthcare for low income families, they have to apply for it, or if the child is housing insecure or living in shelters, that serves as even more hurdles to receive health care. In a system where only low-income children can qualify for state funded health care, the child has to prove they are low income usually involving an application. I want to move to a system where every child upon birth will automatically receive their health care, and free at the point of care, unlimited health care until they are 18. Minimize these hurdles
7. One could make the argument that universal health care for everyone is better. This argument won't change my view because it is out of the scope of this CMV. This CMV is basically saying "at the very least, universal health care should be provided to children". Other vulnerable groups or universal health care for everyone is out of scope.

[Assistant]
Define universal.  Do you really mean single payer ?

For example Switzerland has universal health coverage for for everyone including kids.  In Switzerland that means parents must buy private insurance for there kids unless they are poor.  (Which is like the rest of the Swiss system)

That was essentially Obama care.  Are you ok with that system ?


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

[User]
[MCU] How does wakanda maintain image of being a poor country?

Does wakanda import anything? I would imagine Wakanda needs to import things they dont make themselves.

I several scenes you can see there's some grafiti on the walls.

Does wakanda make its own spray paint?

Does wakanda import any precious metals? or is literally everything vibranium?

it seems like wakanda would go thorugh a lot of steel and aluminum for all thier technology, since vibranium only makes a small part of each device.

so how does a seemingly dirt poor country import tons of different products, and consume them like a first world country?

surely some one would notice all these products going to a small African nation?

even if stuf is shipped to neighbouring countries and then secretly moved to wakanda, wouldnt wakanda need some sort of secret agreement with these countries?

[Assistant] They don't exactly have a massive population. It's more of a city of advanced technology and the rest is farmland. They could easily mine enough of there own iron. Which for plot purposes they likely have plenty of local sources.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why are so many members of the Rebel Alliance human?

Watching the documentaries I noticed that all of the regular soldiers are humans, why are so few alien Rebels? Are they all specialists like the Bothans?

[Assistant] Humans make up a large fraction of the galactic population, so maybe it's just reflective of that.  Also, non-humans would stand out more to the bigoted Imperials; they might be more likely to be investigated and less able to hide in the shadows.  The rebels probably rely on stealth and hiding a fair bit.


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

[User] What are the big name journals for Meta-Ethics?

[Assistant] Metaethics is written about in all of the major general philosophy journals, like Philosophical Review and Mind. For journals restricted to ethics, Ethics is probably the most well known and well regarded, but encompasses more than just metaethics. Lastly, theres Oxford Studies in Metaethics, which is an annual collection of papers presented at Shafer-Landaus metaethics workshop.


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

[User]
ELI5 What is aleph null? Ive heard somewhere that it is the smallest infinity, but that doesnt make sense.

Edit: Didnt think it would be this complicated. My brain is overheating ._.

[Assistant]
There are objects in mathematics that called sets which are literally sets of something. It may be people in the room, apples on tree, coins in your pocket, numbers, vectors and pretty much anything. The amount of things in set is cardinality. It's pretty simple if you count people in the room - the cardinality of such set will be equal to the amount of people. It's a bit more complicated when you speak about infinite amount of something.

Aleph null is the amount of all natural numbers. There is infinite amount of those but still we can count them: 1,2,3 etc. Some other sets have the same cardinality because there is a theorem and we can count the elements in such sets. Eg we can count all whole numbes: 0, 1, -1, 2, -2, 3, -3 etc. It's a bit funny that it seems you take twice as much numbers but their amount is the same.

But you can't count all real numbers: between two any real numbers you can put as many other real numbers as you want: you can pit 0.5 between 0 and 1, you can't put 0.25 between 0 and 0.5 etc, so it appears that the amount of real number is also infinite but this infinity is greater than aleph-null.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are there only a slim variety of Chinese/Korean last names?

[Assistant]
All the Kim's in Korea are self selected last names.   Until the 1890's no Koreans had last names unless they were royalty.   So then their Japanese overlords forced everyone to pick a last name.

Kim's, Park's (Paks) and Lee's were some of the richest and most powerful royalty, so everyone picked one of those names, as they were the most badass names available.

That's why most people in Korea have one of those last names.


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

[User] ELI5: What causes us to wake from sleep if no external force or sound does?

[Assistant] Basically, we have this internal clock called a Circadian Rhythm. Most organisms have this, and aside from sleep management, it also helps with hormone release and body temperatures. The science behind why it's able to make us wake up, or feel sleepy at certain times is beyond me, but TLDR hormones like melatonin build up after staying awake and gets cleared during the night.