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

[User]
Brits and bad teeth. History of a stereotype

Everyone knows the stereotype, but where did it come from? British people have the best dental hygiene in the world, so is the stereotype one of opposites. Maybe we once had awful teeth and now we are over compensating. Where did the stereotype come from?

[Assistant]
It's a stereotype that originated in America. In the early parts of the 20th century, aesthetic dentalwork like braces and teeth-bleaching became absolutely required for Hollywood actors, in the classical era where the studios cultivated an image of glamour and perfection -- Hollywood being America's cultural representative to the rest of the world -- and as such they became pretty common for even ordinary middle-class people. By the 50s, it became just assumed that if your teeth were crooked, you'd get braces to fix it. Fixing crooked or stained teeth became a medical issue to Americans.

This didn't happen in the UK, or in fact in *most* countries. As you said, the British actually have quite good oral hygiene. But British actors and celebrities didn't cultivate the same Hollywood image of glamour, and so the aesthetics associated with that culture didn't become standard. People went to dentists to fix cavities and infections, but braces and bleach were considered a part of the *aesthetic* field, akin to botox or  collagen in modern times. While the Americans were mocking the British in their comedies for having crooked teeth, Britons and Australians were mocking Americans in theirs for being vain and effeminate enough to bleach their mouth and don braces.

Both of these things have faded in recent years, both as Britain started consuming more Hollywood culture, and as less-glamorous aesthetics like rock, punk, and hiphop music and gritty realistic cinema became the new hotness in the 70s and beyond.


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

[User] [General Fiction] Which normally-ruthless villains have the most interesting moral code, in terms of certain evil acts they will flatly refuse to do because of their personality or backstory?

[Assistant]
FMA Brotherhood Kimbly had a real interesting moral code. He hated people who claimed to believe in something but then acted otherwise. If you couldn't walk the walk, he had nothing but contempt for you.

Kimbly himself liked murdering people, and slaughtered hundreds.

But he had more respect for surgeons who risked their lives saving innocents caught in war, than for fellow mass murderers who chickened out once they were in danger of actually dying.


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

[User] ELI5: Who can the authorities prosecute during all these celebrity leaks, and is actually looking at the pictures illegal?

[Assistant]
To answer what you're probably more concerned about, the only way they could really prosecute you for just looking is if any of the pictures are of someone when they were under 18, and honestly even then it's probably way too much trouble for the authorities to track down and load up the court systems with everybody who checked them out, given it sounds like hundreds of thousands have seen them.

Now, for who they can prosecute:

* The guy who hacked the iCloud accounts or whatever to get access to the pictures. Assuming they can find him and he's in a jurisdiction that would give a damn (lots of hackers are from places like Russia and China where the authorities don't really care to cooperate with US law enforcement), there's a lot they can charge him with, like unlawful access of a computer system (or some similar term), as well as lawsuits for harassment, copyright violation, etc.

* People who distribute the images may be less targets for prosecution and more for lawsuit for copyright violation and harassment, but there's probably some kind of actual offense they can charge under. Here they'd probably only go after people who make a really big effort to distribute them, like people who maintain mirrors in the face of takedowns, if even that. Most likely they're going to focus on the guy who nabbed the pictures. One thing that recent history has shown is that people who try to take stuff off the internet tend to get huge blowback. Also note that in the US at least it's a pretty widely-held doctrine that you can't get in trouble for publishing something regardless of how obtained, except obvious things like libel/slander or classified information that you know is classified. So it's unlikely anybody distributing would get charged at all, and probably lawsuits wouldn't go anywhere either.


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

[User]
[Star Wars: Original Trilogy] Is the power to blow up a planet *really* inconsequential compared to the power of the Force?

The Death star blows up a planet, wholesale. On the other hand, the force users can wield a lightsaber. It would take several thousand years for them to dust the plant, at minimum. The best feat of raw strength of telekinesis is Master Yoda lifting the X-wing. So what? A crane can do that too. Manipulating weak minds? Unless the Jedi Mind trick can control the head of the estate and all his ministers, it is still not something that can compare to blowing up a planet.

So my question is, under what grounds did Lord Vader claim that the power to blow up a planet (not the Death Star) is nothing compared to the Force?

[Assistant] Thanks to the dark side of the force, Palpatine and Vader were able to rise to positions of power where they are now able to tell the guy with the planet killing weapon what to do. That's what Vader means.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are many female animals larger than their male counterparts but human males are larger than females?

[Assistant]
It all has to do with how selective the females are for mates. Typically in mammals, the reproductive process involves really significant resource expenditures by the females. Plus, the amount of offspring produced in one birth event is relatively low. Cats will have maybe 4-10 kittens in a litter, dogs will have 5-10, and humans will have 1-2. Contrast that with a turtle who will lay 20-100 eggs depending on the species or spiders that lay hundreds. Mammals expend far more resources, time, and energy to produce fewer offspring, so the females are going to be very selective with the mates they choose. When competition among males for females is intense, the larger males will win the fight. As a consequence, animals with reproductive tendencies like mammals (high female selection, social animals, and extensive parenting), tend to have larger males than the females.

As a contrast to that, animals who produce tons of offspring over a short period of time, expend less resources, and have low levels of parenting will have the females larger than the males. In these types of species, so many offspring are produced that there's little incentive for the males to compete with each other for females. Every male can get the chance to reproduce. Without a selective pressure for them to be large, they will be just large enough to survive to breed.


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

[User]
How big would an explosion have to be to measurably affect the Earth's orbit?

For instance, (ignoring environmental issues), if we took all the nukes and blew them all up in one location, would it affect the Earth's orbit?  Or if we somehow took all the world's radioactive material, put it in one place and managed to ignite fission, would that do it?

[Assistant] None of those would do anything (other than destroy all life on the planet).  Momentum is conserved, so assuming no debris from the explosion can escape Earth's gravitational pull entirely, the Earth must continue on its path.


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

[User] [MCU] What would have happened if Hela fell out of the big rosy and landed in Sakaar?

[Assistant] She's too powerful most likely for the net or the obedience disks to work on so she'd most likely just try to find a way back to Asgard.  She would probably go to the Grandmaster and ask for passsage to Asgard.  If he refused she'd lay waste to the place.  Remember Grandmaster thinks Hulk is awesomely strong Hela can wreck Hulk easily.  Valkeryie probably goes out suicide by Hela trying to get revenge.


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

[User]
ELI5: Are there any other societies like the Amish that stopped with tech at different points in history?

They Amish chose not to use any technology after a certain point. Are there people out there that stopped even before the Amish or more recently?

[Assistant] That's not how the Amish choose what tech to use or not use. They didn't 'stop at year xyz.' They evaluate technological innovations amongst their communities and determine what technologies are considered useful enough, and what technologies are too disruptive to their way of life. Some use cars, some use phones. Each community has its own rules on technological usage, and the determining factors tend to be the protection of the family unit and guarding the self against sinful excess, sloth, greed, and the like.


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

[User] ELI5: How does anti-venom render venom useless so quickly?

[Assistant] Venom is like a bunch of evil LEGO pieces that are designed to fit into critical spots on your cells (nerve, blood, etc). Antivenin is a collection of antibodies, which physically attach to the venom molecules like sticking more LEGO to them. The result is that the venom can no longer fit into the spots in your cells it must to have its devastating effect, and your kidneys filter the mess out for you to piss away.


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

[User] So, Nuclear Subs can stay submerged for about as long as they can keep the crew fed and sane - no worry of oxygen. Why cant we make a space station like that - without worry of oxygen running out?

[Assistant] Nuclear submarines can produce oxygen by using electric power to electrolyse water. Spacecraft can do that too, and in fact that's how the ISS produces its oxygen, but spacecraft aren't surrounded by water so it needs to be sent up on rockets anyway.


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

[User]
ELI5: How come our bodies adapt so we only get the chicken pox once, but we always get the flu and other things?

Why can people's bodies adapt so we can only get the chicken pox once, but we can never adapt to the flu or the cold or other small sicknesses? [Answered]

[Assistant]
It isn't our bodies. It is the illness. The cold and the flu are actually tons of different rapidly evolving viruses. You do actually become imune to a particular cold strain once you get it... but there are a few hundred more waiting to get you next.

As to why the flu and cold viruses adapt faster than the chicken pox virus, i don't know.


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

[User]
What exactly are tensors?

I recently started working with TensorFlow and I read that it turn's data into tensors.I looked it up a bit but I'm not really getting it, Would love an explanation.

[Assistant]
The word "tensor" is overloaded in mathematics, statistics, and computer science. In this context (TensorFlow, and data science more generally), tensor usually just refers to an array of numbers (which may be higher dimensional than a vector or a matrix, which are 1- and 2-tensors, respectively). This is similar to the way that "vector" is often used to mean "a list of numbers", even though the word has a more technical meaning in mathematics.

The mathematical meaning is more complex, and is a bit hard to motivate if you're not already working in a field that would have use for them. A high level conceptual view would be that a tensor is a function that eats vectors and spits out a number. These generally arise in situations where you have a space, along with some kind of geometric structure, and the tensors themselves encode some kind of geometric information about the space at each point -- that is, at any point you have a bunch of vectors (which may describe e.g. the dynamics of an object, or some other kind of information), and the tensor takes those vectors and spits out a value quantifying some feature of the space.

One very common example is given by objects called Riemannian manifolds, which are essentially spaces which locally look similar to Euclidean space, but globally might have a very different structure. At each point, these spaces can be "linearized" to look like the vector space Rn, and they come equipped with a dot product that takes two vectors and spits out a number. This dot product in some sense defines the local geometry of the space, since it determines when two vectors are orthogonal, and allows us to define things like the length of a vectors and the angle between two vectors. This "thing" is called the metric tensor.


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

[User]
[FMA]Why can't Father just use alchemy to make the giant transmutation circle?

Couldn't Father just use alchemy to make a hole in the shape of a giant transmutation circle rather than using Sloth to dig it?

[Assistant]
Maybe, but it would be an immense effort and Father had better things to do. Sloth can dig the hole in a reasonable timeline without much trouble, and that gave Father plenty of time to work on the rest of the plan. In addition, an alchemical work of that magnitude is very likely to be noticed. Having someone dig a large hole isn't go to set off whatever alchemy detection methods are out there.

Plus, why not? He didn't need Sloth working on a different project, so might as well put him to use.


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

[User] [General] From where or when did the class/title of Paladin develop?

[Assistant]
The Paladins were another name for the Twelve Peers-- basically, like the Knights of the Round Table, except there were only 12 of them, and they worked for Charlemagne rather than King Arthur. The name itself derives from the Palatini, the guards of the Roman Emperor's personal palace of Palatine hill. Like the Knights of the Round Table, the Paladins were famous for their feats of heroism (especially in battle against Moorish invaders from Spain) and their piety.

As to the Paladin in fantasy, it came through D&D (like so many standard fantasy tropes), through Poul Anderson's novel Three Hearts and Three Lions, about a World War II resistance fighter, Holger Carlsen, who travels to a parallel, high-fantasy universe where the legends of the Twelve Peers are real, and turns out to be that universe's version of Ogier the Dane, one of the Paladins. Other important D&Disms that come from that novel include trolls that regenerate their wounds and Law and Chaos as forces that exist in opposition like Good and Evil.


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

[User]
[Seinfeld] How does Kramer keep his apartment?

He hasn't worked in 10 years (I think), how does he survive at all?

[Assistant]
"*Kramer* goes to a fantasy camp. His whole *life* is a fantasy camp. People should plunk down $2,000 to live like *him* for a week. Do nothing, fall ass-backwards into money, mooch food off your neighbors, and have sex without dating. *That's* a fantasy camp."

Kramer always has some scheme going on. Coffee table book, J. Peterman tours, recycling cans, tons of business ideas an inventions. He practically has a new one every week.


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

[User]
Would destroying the moon effectively rid our world of werewolves?

On Dragon Ball Earth during a tournament, to prevent Goku (who had transformed into a gigantic ape) from hurting anyone and to bring him back, Master Roshi destroys the moon, ending Goku's rampage.  Assuming we could repeat the feat, would such a solution work at preventing people with lycanthropy from becoming werewolves?  Would there be any disastrous consequences besides changing the ocean tides?

[Assistant]
I can imagine one particularly disastrous scenario - if you just "blow up the Moon", ie, blast it into dust, you'll create a gigantic ring around Earth composed of moonrock. That moonrock will be reflecting an enormous amount of sunlight. It'd be clearly visible throughout both day and night, from every place on Earth.

Every werewolf will transform permanently. Anyone bitten will rapidly succumb, overdosed on "moon rays" as it were. You could spark the very werewolf apocalypse you hoped to avoid. I'd advise against this risk, all other dangers aside (climate effects, meteors, etc).


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

[User] [MCU] Why isn't Thor's hair burnt off on Nidavellir?

[Assistant] It's made of the same extra durable Thor-matter as the rest of him. There's no reason to assume that a creature who's body is able to withstand direct exposure to a star, won't also have really tough hair.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are there nuclear subs but no nuclear powered planes?

Or nuclear powered ever floating hovership for that matter?

[Assistant]
It's been tried! But nuclear generators are very heavy, especially with the kind of shielding that you'd need to actually protect your crew from being irradiated. If you're in the ocean, that's a lot easier since added weight just makes you slower, it doesn't change what you need to stay aloft.

For a plane, you gain the benefit of being able to stay powered almost indefinitely, but with the tradeoff of losing a lot of your capacity for crew and cargo.


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

[User]
[Star Wars ROTJ] Why did taking out the super star destroyer's bridge cause it to go careening down into the death star?

Surely the crew should be able to stabilize the attitude, take evasive action or simply bug out from some other part of the ship.

[Assistant]
The Executor was in the process of a maneuver to better accommodate the approach of Rae Sloane's star destroyer, the Vigilance, so it could have a covered flank, the other flank protected by its extremely close proximity to the battle station itself. While its engines were firing (hence the order to intensify firepower rather than move the vessel. Remember the Executor's shields were down after sustained Rebel bombing), the primary bridge was destroyed and command couldn't be evacuated in time. Nor could backup command be restored before the maneuver continued to push it directly into the Death Star.

Alternatively, the engines pushed it into the Death Star's gravity well. And since the ship was in a state of total chaos at the time, no one had the authority or foresight to save the ship before it crashed.


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

[User]
ELI5: How is it that Mayonnaise, which is made out of whole eggs and egg yolks, have absolutely ZERO protein?

I'm talking about on the nutrition facts. I mean, it must be in there, right?

Thanks to a few people this post is now:

[Explained]!

[Assistant]
It has some protein, yes. Nutrition facts are essentially rounded, though: that's why you can have things with "0 calories." They still have calories, but if it's like .4 calories, they can say it has 0.

A serving of mayonnaise is very small since it's a condiment, so if it has like .3 grams of protein or whatever, they have to list it as 0.


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

[User]
ELI5 : Why can't internal organs be itchy?

If internal organs can hurt, why can't they get itchy?

[Assistant]
I think the body would evolve to discourage that.  The only way to scratch that kind of itch is going to harm you.

Consider the reason for an itch evolved in the first place... it's to get you to brush off bugs and other critters. And for this it's better to have false positives.  But bugs don't tend to get inside you.  And if they do,  no amount of scratching is going to help.


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

[User]
How do we know the population of deep sea fish?

People bring up that the bottom of the ocean is less known than the surface of the moon, and yet, when I go to the Wikipedia page for Frilled Sharks, I see that it's classified as 'near threatened'. How do we know the population of such a deep sea species well enough to term it 'near threatened'?

[Assistant]
In biology, where a species is either widespread, or for some other reason, counting individuals exhaustively is too difficult, numbers are calculated from exhaustively surveying a set area of habitat then extrapolating based on area of known territory.

E.g. A bird species has confirmed sightings in 10 different areas that correspond to its known habitat. The combined area of these 10 sites is 1000km^2. Biologists sample 10km^2 and find 20 individuals and so the population is estimated at 2000 individuals.


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

[User] [1984] The epilogue implies that The Party is no longer in power. What exactly caused this fall?

[Assistant]
When reading *The Principles of Newspeak*, it is tempting to say it's referring to the Party in the past tense, but that would not necessarily be an accurate deduction.  Instead, the passage only goes so far as to refer to Newspeak in the past tense.  Admittedly, Newspeak was such an important aspect of Ingsoc that it's hard to see how one could continue to exist when the other does not, but remember the Party is not a monolithic, immutable entity, no matter how much it would like you to think so.  The Party *does* change, it *does* adapt, and it *does* make adjustments and accommodations based on the current situation.  For example, witness how Newspeak was gradually introduced to the populace over a period of decades, in a series of editions. Each edition was produced based on observations and feedback from the previous one.  For another example, is Oceania at war with Eastasia or Eurasia?

Therefore, the possibility that Oceania would abandon Newspeak and leave it in the past tense is not altogether unthinkable.  Perhaps they replaced it with a newer version of Newspeak, one with such different grammatical and conceptual rules that it deserved its own title, eg Newnewspeak or Truespeak.  Perhaps the Party managed to suppress speech entirely.

Ultimately, the nature of the Party, where they control the present ergo control the past ergo control the future, make it so that accurate historical records are by definition impossible.  Therefore, while it's certainly *possible* that the Party is no more, we cannot say for certain that this is the case.  And if the Party truly does not exist any more, it is also impossible to say for certain what the causes of its downfall were.

Oh, and as an interesting final note, *The Principles of Newspeak* was written in Oldspeak.  Apparently someone managed to preserve the old tongue long enough to write this tract far in the future.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do pills such as Paracetamol come in a nice number like 500mg, But others such as Aspirin come in numbers like 81mg? why not 80?

[Assistant] For some medications it's because they come in both micrograms and milligrams so they make one of them slightly off so people don't accidentally take 1000x the usual dose.  Baby Aspirin comes in 81mg because it's 1/4 as much as normal Aspirin which is "5 grain" or 325mg.


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

[User]
CMV: Friendships are reciprocal, and you should only put into a friendship as much as you're going to get out of it

I had a discussion with someone recently, and we were talking about the nature of friendships.

I am of the opinion that you should only put in as much effort into a friendship as the other party/parties are putting into it. For the sake of your own mental health, I don't think that it makes sense to be devoting a lot of time and effort to give emotional support to someone who isn't going to be able to return the favour, particularly when the friendship is just starting to develop. For someone who is a long time friend, I'd be more inclined to stick around through the tough times, but there isn't enough incentive for me to be a pillar of support to someone who is a new friend. I believe that at the end of the day, we only have enough mental capacity and time to care about a few individuals, and it isn't beneficial to us to be spending these resources on people who can't or won't reciprocate. This is also where I'd like to draw the distinction between reciprocation and transactions.

Transactional relationships are ones where one or more people in the friendship are specifically looking to gain something out of the friendship. For example, if I were to make friends with someone who is taking the same classes as me in school specifically with the intention of being able to gain notes, but also being willing to offer academic help in return. There is an actual sense of obligation to the transactional friend to provide a certain service.

Reciprocal relationships, on the other hand, are ones where multiple parties in the friendship willingly contribute to the relationship, not because they are forced to or bound by obligations, but simply because they appreciate the other person and they want to repay the favour as well.

My opinion is that good friendships are reciprocal, and that both parties are going to be putting in as much time and effort as the other person. It's mutual care, not one-sided.

The other side of this is a "sunshine and rainbows" type of friendship in which one person is not actually contributing to the friendship, but yet is gaining a lot of support and is draining the other person. The person who isn't getting anything out of it might stay in the relationship in the name of "friendship", but to me this is undesirable as it will take a toll on the person's mental health with no guarantee of ever getting any returns out of it. I think that people should not invest time into such friendships as there is no value to them for such a friendship.

I'm open to seeing things a different way, CMV!

EDIT: After getting a few responses I think it might be necessary to clarify my stand on the idea of transactional friendships. Instead of framing it as reciprocal versus transactional friendships, I am more of the idea of trying to frame the actual argument here as friendships in which you get as much as you give, versus friendships in which you are getting less than you give. Both transactional and reciprocal friendships would fall under the former.

[Assistant]
What about when your friend is going through a bad time? Lets say they just lost a family member to an early death. Surely they need you to support them extra for a while with no expectation of reciprocity.

To turn friendship into a scoreboard watching game means friendships end when they are needed most.


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

[User]
ELI5: What makes scientists think that there is more than three dimensions?

And how is time considered the fourth dimension?

[Assistant]
It's based on math.

You need two dimensions to determine the location on a piece of paper, or plane. You need three dimensions to determine the position in space. the fourth dimension you can determine the position in space at any given time.

What will blow your mind is getting you head around the fact that some scientist believe their are even MORE dimensions.


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

[User]
Last night, I was running my fingers through my blanket. I could hear crackling sounds, and when i saw from inside the blanket, I could see flashes of light. How and when does this phenomenon occur ?

I also noticed that more fingers I used, the bigger the area of the illumination was.
Is this due to static electricity ?

[Assistant] It's static electricity. You're seeing the sparks from the discharges, they should look blue/white colored. If you have a carpet or fuzzy jacket you can make your own "lightning shows" in the dark by building up voltage and discharging it with another object.


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

[User] ELI5: How does a VPN change my location and IP address, even though I'm still going through my router?

[Assistant] A VPN will create a connection between two machines over the internet and send other traffic over that link where it is routed to the open internet on the other end. Think of it as a mail forward service. You can send an envelope within an envelope to your mail forward service and they will take off the outer envelope and send the inner one. When they receive a letter for you they will not open it but just stuff it in another envelope and put your real address on the front and send it to you. A VPN service works very similarly. Your ISP only see packets going between you and your VPN provider and all others only communicates with your VPN provider and don't know that they are sending all the traffic to you.


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

[User]
CMV: The current US bailouts for all the large companies is unfair to both the US taxpayers, small businesses, and every company that responsibly managed their money in recent years

Recently, the US government has given out trillions in bailouts to the airline, retail, hospitality, etc industries. However, as a tax payer, I'm outraged that these large corporations are getting these handouts from the government and getting rewarded for their greedy behavior. The bank bailouts of 08 made me sick and I can't believe we're doing this again. Millions of Americans lost their jobs and their homes due to the bank's irresponsible and illegal behavior, and yet all these bankers made out with millions.

Take the airline industry for example. 96% of their Free Cash Flow was spent on stock buybacks this past decade. These C-suite executives and investors made millions off this type of behavior despite not creating any type of value for both the company and for their employees. If your company can't last a few months of stagnant revenue, you shouldn't be spending all that money on buybacks and dividends. Especially when a large reason these companies found so much excess money in the last couple years was an egregious gifted tax cut from the government. Sure no one could have foreseen the current environment, but nearly every economist was predicting a recession within the next few years. They should have prepared for some type of downturn.

Furthermore, this punishes the companies that actually acted responsibly with their capital. In normal circumstances, this would be their opportunity to gain market share and even buy up some of the failing companies. Instead, they are robbed of this opportunity. The way our market works is that feedback is all seen through the lens of risk and reward. When a company decides to spend almost all of their profits on buybacks, they are taking the risk that a black swan event in the future can cause bankruptcy. Now we are removing the incentive for prudent decision making for companies. What's to stop companies of only acting recklessly since they know the government will always bail them out?

Lastly, lots of small businesses are going bankrupt everyday. Where are their bailouts? Why should large companies with every advantage in the world be given this lifeline for acting so irresponsibly, when normal everyday people struggling to get by are not allotted this same opportunity.

Before anyone says it, I understand bailouts are not free money. They're a loan by the government. But the interest rates are typically much lower than they would command in the free market. The government should either charge a high interest rate to compensate for that risk, or inject money into these companies through equity investments that could be put in a blind trust. At least in this scenario, the bailout is seen through the lens of a prudent investment. It's also pricing in the risks of investing in these companies since we never know what will happen to them in the future. If they don't want it, they can find someone else to give them money or go bankrupt. It's not like these companies will just disappear, there will be a buyer somewhere out there.

No one is ENTITLED to a low interest loan from the government, especially these mega corporations who barely pay above minimum wage for their lowest employees while constantly upping the C-suite's compensation. By handing out bailouts that actually reflect the risk for these companies, we can actually punish the C-Suite and investors who squeezed every bit of profit out of the company during good times since these deals will negatively affect the stock price. The bailouts in its current form reward the CEOs and investors who already cashed out in the past couple of years pushing for buybacks and increased dividends.

[Assistant]
Bailouts arent about fairness, theyre measures taken to minimize the damage of a steep economic downturn.

Should hundreds or thousands of employees really suffer because executives made some bad decisions? Certainly THEY should be held accountable but all the people on the front lines? Not to mention the countless small businesses directly depending on their economic relationship to said large businesses?


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

[User] What is the sensation I get in between my eyes on my forehead when I hold something like a pen or my finger close to it? What causes it?

[Assistant]
This is a more scientific answer than it sounds: it's all in your head.
Try having a friend hold a pen there randomly half of the time. You guess when it's there, the more you guess the closer to chance you should get.


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

[User]
[Warhammer 40,000] Could any of the Chaos gods touch upon my fascination with Xenos?

I'm a member of the Ordo Xenos.

I'm fascinated by Xenos, and I will never pass up an opportunity to learn more about the myriad of species that the galaxy has to offer. Their biology, culture and society, technology, weaknesses and battle strategies...

If I ever get a chance to see one - alive or dead - in the flesh, I take it.

It's my greatest obsession. I get the feeling that some of my fellows are unsettled by my enthusiasm, but I'm good at my work and have helped in the capture and extermination of several species, so they don't say anything.

However, I've heard stories that such obsessions can be an opening for the Ruinous Powers to worm their ways in. Is there any way for my interest in Xenos study to open my heart to Chaos? Are there any warning signs that I should notice in myself so that I might not stray from the Emperor's light?

[Assistant] Sounds like the taint of Tzeench to me, you filthy heretic. Lust for knowledge is his forte, as is fascination with the new and different. And what xeno could compare in sheer novelty and amazement with a change demon? This quest for knowledge will drive you to madness and ruination, unless you return to the safe and bland fold of the imperium.


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

[User] Why are electromagnetic railguns not used to launch rockets into space?

[Assistant]
Because then it wouldn't be a rocket, it would be a bullet.

But seriously, many people have considered this approach and put together designs to do just that.  The biggest barrier to their implementation is that with a railgun you need to impart all the kinetic energy into the payload before it reaches the end of the "barrel," whereas with a traditional rocket you can spread that acceleration over the entire flight.

In practical terms this means you either need cargo that can survive hundreds or thousands of Gs and a relatively short barrel gun (not to mention incredible heating from friction once out of the evacuated barrel), or you need an incredibly long barrel and can then transport more delicate cargo/humans.  Unfortunately the lengths of barrel you need essentially take you all the way into space (tens to hundreds of kilometers).

As of right now, even though rocket launches might cost hundreds of times more per kg of cargo, they are still the easiest and best understood method for putting stuff up into space.


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

[User]
ELI5: If a mosquito sticks his "needle" into someone with AIDS, then into someone who doesn't have AIDS, why doesn't the second person not get AIDS as well?

Wouldn't it be almost identical to sharing a needle with someone who has AIDS? Other blood-based diseases spread with Mosquito bites, so why not this one?

[Assistant]
Very few blood-based diseases spread via mosquito bites. The main one is of course malaria, but the malaria parasite is an organism that actually needs to be inside mosquitoes (as well as inside humans) to live.

HIV, the virus which causes AIDS, cannot live for long outside of a human body. What's more, mosquito bites aren't really like an injection from a doctor -- that they're not putting anything *into* the bloodstream, rather they're taking blood out of you.


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

[User]
CMV: Celebrities and politicians that believe in climate change should adopt extreme lifestyle changes and donate bulk of their $ to the cause.

(I actually do believe in climate change, FYI). Many mega-rich celebrities and politicians love to talk about climate change, but most of these same people seem to make little to no significant change in their personal lifestyle or use their considerable resources to effect change.

Of course, there are many ways to cause change (influence, governmental, private industry) - it just seems very hypocritical for these people to say they want to "save the world" and then jet off to their 4th vacation house. I am sure there are a few examples of individuals who have committed to the cause, and while that is great I wonder why it does not happen en masse.

From my perspective, if you truly believe in something then you should follow through with it. If you do not - then it makes it hard for me to believe that these same people actually believe and/or care. The politicians I can see doing it for votes, so the celebrities stick out to me more.

I am hoping someone can provide an argument that helps me understand why I should give any of these people my time/attention if they are just spouting words without any real action.

EDIT: Adjusting to specify "mega-rich". My argument is not about making everyone do this, it is about those people who could dedicate 80-90% of their resources without impacting their day-to-day lifestyle.

EDIT 2: I also want to state that systematic change (e.g., government, private industry) is needed, this post is just not focused on that part of the equation.

[Assistant]
> if you truly believe in something then you should follow through with it

I think your main flaw here is that you think "following through" on believing in climate change means making drastic individual changes, when in reality climate change is not that kind of issue, and raising awareness of the systematic issues behind the main problem will probably be making a much larger impact anyway.


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

[User]
CMV:Buying one, and only one, lotto ticket is a worthwhile venture

Have had this conversation with a couple of friends and my partner, and I wanted to know if my reasoning is flawed.  I believe that the lotto is, a.) in general, a tax on poor people, b.) of an infinitesimally tiny chance of winning, and c.) a tremendous waste of money.

All that applies above, but with the caveat of saying, '...except for buying one ticket'.

Because your chances of winning are so absurdly low, and you almost certainly will not win, so buying more than one ticket makes no sense whatsoever.  Having said that, if you buy zero tickets, you have no chance at all of winning.

One ticket (infrequently bought, say, once a year) buys you in for the possibility that you might win.  You won't, but you might. It's like qualification, and, at the cost of $1.00 (or whatever small monetary amount), it's a small price to pay for the chance.  That seems like a worthwhile purchase to me.

This, of course, does not take into account all the possible consequences of actually winning the lottery.

**EDIT**: Thought I'd catch everyone up with where I'm at following all your wonderful responses (which I really appreciate!).  To summarize, the major arguments I'm hearing are, plus my thoughts:

* *From a traditional economic standpoint, the numbers don't work out.*  This I'll accept. I know nothing of statistics or economics, so I'll buy that (for a dollar).

* *From a behaviorial economic standpoint, it might make sense to get a lotto ticket, as the potential improvement to one's life makes it worth the small loss of the investment.*  I do believe this.  The possibility of making enough money to serve me for the rest of my life definitely seems worth blowing a buck every now and again.

* *Playing the lottery is not worthwhile, because it is inherently bad for society (evil), i.e. the effects it has on the poor, and so on.* So far, this is the closest opinion to get toward changing my view (not quite there yet, folks).  In this case, even winning is participating in an evil, and thus not worthwhile.

On the last point, I feel like I can't call this done yet, because my original question has to do with winning money rather than judging the system.  I concede that it's stupid statistically to think you will win by putting in a dollar.  But, again, I haven't seen anything yet to convince me that I *absolutely cannot* win by putting myself on the board with one dollar.  Whereas I certainly will *not* win by not buying a ticket.

**EDIT 2** Thought I'd address the "entertainment value" argument--I think it's a good one, but I think it's outside of the point I was going for, which is that having a ticket qualifies you to win money--which would be why I would buy a ticket.

**EDIT 3** I've been swayed a bit by the arguments that playing the lotto is inherently evil, and, as such, not worthwhile, and the notion that buying an infinitesimal chance is virtually as worthless as not buying into the system at all.  I'll admit, I'm not *totally* swayed, but I thought we were at the Delta awarding point.  Thanks everybody for your great discussion!

[Assistant]
>One ticket (infrequently bought, say, once a year) buys you in for the possibility that you might win. You won't, but you might. It's like qualification, and, at the cost of $1.00 (or whatever small monetary amount), it's a small price to pay for the chance. That seems like a worthwhile purchase to me.

You can actually do the math to see what is the expected value of return, and regardless of how many you buy, except zero, you are losing money. The chance to win you get from buying $1, is not worth $1.


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

[User]
What does an economy of scale mean in a tv show sense?

I was reading the Black Mirror Wikipedia page when it said The series was expensive for Channel 4, as the anthology format meant there were no economies of scale. I looked up what an economy of scale meant and the video made sense in the context of making bread, but how does it apply to a show? I guess it means the higher budget of the show should mean it makes more profit, but how does an anthology not apply to that? Is it because the episodes arent continuous and dont build up to some bigger thing?

[Assistant]
If you take a long running TV show like, say Game of Thrones, although it may be hugely expensive in terms of building sets, designing special effects and employing actors and crew, you get eight seasons worth of show for your investment - hence you have economies of scale in production of a lot of shows with the same set up.
In an anthology show like Black Mirror, because every story is different, you need to start from scratch with new sets, cast and effects. Each investment is a one off which has to pay for itself from only one show.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does (did) static on TV look like that white snow?

Back in the days before streaming, if there was no signal, TV would be a dynamically changing, usually black and white, blank image. How did the lack of signal translate from the antenna/cable input into that image? (And why was it called "static" if it wasn't actually static--not changing--anyway?)

[Assistant]
When you tune any receiver to any particular frequency, it's going to pull in the strongest signal. Older analog TVs would show the station when it was close enough, but the farther away the source, the lower the signal strength. If that signal couldn't overcome other signals on that frequency, including the cosmic background noise (radio bursts, microwave background noise, etc...) then the electron gun that shoots the signal at the phosphors on the CRT screen will fire with that background noise. Thus, it looks like 'static'.

The same thing happens with digital TV, but you end up with bars and skips due to list data instead of a fuzzy signal. And, you don't get static because there is no data signal for the receiver in the digital tuner to lock in on.


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

[User]
Eli5. Why do you only get dandruff on your scalp and not anywhere else? What causes flakes to happen

Since your scalp is just skin like everywhere else like your arms etc why do we get dandruff up there, since its just skin, why does your scalp that gets all those flakes?

This is a stupid question, please no hate. I have autism and perseverate, wonder about weird things and I dont always comprehend well. :)

[Assistant] You do get dandruff everywhere on your body (I believe you shed all your skin every two weeks or so). The reason we seem to see more dandruff on our heads is because the skin gets trapped by your hair.


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

[User] How are telescopes and space observatories arranged at the L2 Lagrangian point so they do not interfere with each other?

[Assistant]
Spacecraft placed at a Lagrangian point are not literally parked at that singular point in space.    In reality, they are placed in orbits with the L-point at their center.

For example, the JWST will orbit L2 at a distance of about 800000 km  (500000 mi).  There is plenty of room.  The L2 region is essentially empty space.


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

[User]
Would it be possible to jump off of Ganymede?

Friends were playing the CCG "Wars" and debating whether the dinosaur creatures could simply leap  off of Ganymede rather than needing a spaceship. I am not smart enough to answer this query I hope that reddit can help.

[Assistant]
Gravity on Ganymede is about 15% of that on Earth, only a little less than the Moon.  Escape velocity is 2,741 meters per second, so, like the Moon, you'd need a small rocket to escape.

Deimos, Mars' smallest moon only has surface gravity of 0.003 m/s^2 (as opposed to Earth's 9.81), which gives it an escape velocity of 5.5 meters per second, or about 20 km/h.  Kameson Konz recorded a 46" vertical jump at an NFL pro day, which means he left the ground with a velocity of about 4.78 m/s.  Not quite enough to escape Deimos, but enough to have him in a suborbital freefall for 53 minutes.


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

[User]
[Marvel] How and why were Black Widow and Hawkeye selected to be on a team with superpowered beings such as the Hulk, Thor and Captain America and Tony Stark's armor? Aren't they hopelessly out of their league?

Even in the movie, Scarlett Johansson's only role was ass and character development for Hawkeye, and Hawkeye's only role was shooting shit with fancy arrows, while the other hero's did the ass-kicking and name-taking. So why were they even considered, let alone selected, for the Avengers Initiative?

[Assistant] Hawkeye and Blackwidow were not part of the Avengers Initiative. They are shield agents who were assisting those members of the Initiative that accepted the call to assist when the asgardian attacked.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Which of the professors could take on the Basilisk and win?

That is after we exclude Dumbledore (away at the moment) and Snape (who would have to maintain his cover).

[Assistant] I think Flitwick or McGonagall could do it if they knew what they were up against. *Maybe* Sprout too, we never see her do much spell casting, but one would expect a head of house to be pretty skilled. On the other hand, she deals mostly with plants.


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

[User]
CMV: I believe the Collegeboard is a scam

 As I said in the title, I believe the Collegeboard is a scam. The reason I say that is because they are slowly taking over the US educational system. Public schools are paying the Collegeboard for having AP courses in their schools. Some schools pay for students taking test, as it will make the school look good. People use the amount of AP courses in order to determine how good a school is. It also shows the amount of income inequality, as schools with a lot of money have more AP courses than ones without. I believe that instead of schools having AP courses and making students take a stupid test, schools should offer dual credit courses, which would offer both college and high school credit and teachers would have a broader curriculum.

The SAT is the same story. Instead of using that test, universities should make their own test, and the students that are interested in taking the test or want to go to the university would take and the test would determine If the student is qualified for that ONE university they want to join.

I see it inside the school I attend how it has been affected. I hope we, as people, can change it.

Edit: added  the last part and I wrote this on mobile, so sorry for not knowing where to put the disclaimer.

[Assistant]
If Choate and Municipal High both offer dual credit courses, MIT isn't about to give college credit for both of those.  It knows that Choate has a good dual credit course, so it might accept Choate's course.  But Municipal High's "dual credit" course might not be at that level.  Right now, MIT can say that an AP course at Municipal High with a score of 5 counts for college credit.  But without the AP test, what tells MIT that Municipal High's "dual credit" course is at a college level?

Regarding the SAT, the main issue is that having to take twenty tests to get into twenty schools would be a serious cost (in $ and time) for the applicants.  This wouldn't matter too much for rich kids, but it would be a severe handicap for poorer students.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do bodies of water exist above ground?

How come bodies of water (lakes, rivers, wetlands, oceans even...) exist above ground instead of the water simply being absorbed by the earth?

[Assistant]
1) They *do* sink into the ground. Eventually it'll hit an *impermeable* layer of dense bedrock that the water can't go through. The ground will become saturated and no more water can drain down.

2) The ground slows the water down: imagine a cup with small holes in it. The water will drain out, but as long as water goes *in* faster than it drains, the water level will stay elevated.

3) Some kinds of soil are less permeable to water, like clay. Rock, obviously, doesn't allow water to sink through very easily.

4) Water that drains through the soil will eventually either sink into an aquifer or get forced back up from pressure and form a spring.


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

[User] What textbook or general interest book would you recommend for people with an interest in your field?

[Assistant] Dan Ariely's *Predictably Irrational* and *The Upside of Irrationality* for general interest books. Anderson's *Cognitive Psychology and Its Implications* and Baron's *Thinking and Deciding* for textbooks.


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

[User] Atmospheric pressure is 14.7 psi - does that mean the true psi of my car tire is the difference of the tire pressure from the atmospheric pressure?

[Assistant]
Normal tire pressure is 30-33 psi.  We describe that as "Gauge" pressure.  The "Absolute" pressure would be 30-33 + 14.7 psi, which is the pressure in the tire and the pressure of the atmosphere.

Therefore the pressure in the tire is 44.7-47.7 psi (a)


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

[User]
[General/The Fermi Paradox]What would a "predator civilization" look like?

One of the proposed solutions to the Fermi Paradox is that other civilizations don't broadcast their existence for fear of "predator civilizations".

What would such a civilization look like?  Just a conquering empire, like we've seen on Earth, or something more alien?  The empires of Earth have generally made a lot of "noise".

[Assistant]
Realistically? Without a form of FTL, a "predator" civilization would almost have to rely on mass production of Von Neumann machines  self-replicating machines with the sole mission of exterminating life they encounter. They would 'seed' the stars with thousands, millions, or billions of these machines.

Upon arrival of these robots in a stellar system, they'd scan for any signs of intelligent or technological life (radio transmissions, etc), then camp out in the far reaches of whatever solar system. Depending on the technology available to these machines, the best bet would be to create a sufficient number of dense probes/machines/rocks at some fraction of the speed of light. They would then ram those projectiles into the planet, killing all life.

After that? The machines would use the materials from the solar system to produce even more machines and begin the hunt anew.

Without FTL, there's zero hope of peaceful contact between different alien civilizations (and the risk of hostile first contact is too high). Too much can change in the hundreds of years it takes to send and receive a simple message. The safest bet is the immediate and total annihilation of all alien life, performed with self-replicating machines that require no communication with their makers.

Space is too big and life is (probably) too rare to make fighting over resources or territory meaningful. Given that space is infinite, if there's even a 0.001% that first contact would end poorly, it goes without saying that immediate, silent, and preferably anonymous xenocide is the safest option for alien civilizations. Kill them all, because the risk that you're wrong is simply too high.


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

[User]
[The Matrix]Does the limitation that no physical mass can reach the speed of light exist in the Matrix Universe? Did the Machines simply put that into the Matrix so that the humans don't leave the planet which would require additional processing power?

I don't mean the actual Matrix. I mean in the real world. In the real world outside of the Matrix, in The Matrix movies.

[Assistant]
Probably not.

They wouldn't need to mess with physics to keep humans on earth - the Matrix is set in the 90s, and there's no way humans develop to the point they can leave the solar system before  the Matrix gets rebooted anyway.

The speed of light is actually pretty intimately tied to a lot of things - it's an essential part of the equations for relativistic space distortion that is the reason gold is gold-colored, and non reactive. If there were no speed of light, stars would be rainbow-colored streaks rather than dots. You'd have to fabricate all of human history and a whole lot of day-to-day details to cover up a change there.


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

[User] Is the form of a galaxy influenced by the black hole in its middle?

[Assistant]
There are many things that determine the morphology of a galaxy, one of them being the black hole at its core. There is a well known relationship between the mass of the black hole and the mass of a galactic bulge- namely a spherical conglomeration of stars in the middle of the Galaxy. Black hole mass is correlated with other aspects of the Galaxy too besides the bulge mass, namely the luminosity (and velocity dispersion but never mind).

Furthermore the black hole can also feed off nearby gas and grow. In the process of ingesting ambient material, the black hole can cause massive outflows of super hot relativistic gas - like a fountain - basically spraying plasma into the universe. This gas can heat the environment well beyond the Galaxy disc to millions of degrees inhibiting the future condensation of gas into stars. The effect of black hole heating can be to suppress the formation of new stars meaning that the Galaxy will appear older and redder lacking young newly formed young blue stars. Although this process (known as "feedback") can be short in duration, the effect can be dramatic and cause what's know as an active galactic nucleus or even quasars.


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

[User]
[Star Trek] What are the transporter's limits?

Throughout the various shows, films, and shorts, the transporter is often shown as being capeable of transporting people of various races, and objects of various sizes. This process is often explained as breaking something down to it's atomic structure, and then reassembling said structure in another location.

What I'm curious to find out (if people more knowledgeable about Star Trek have any idea), is does it have set limits? Like if I wanted to transport an entire planet, and all the people on it, could I do it if I had suficcient power to do so? And if I could do it, how far could I transport it?

I'm assuming that there are some limits, otherwise why couldn't Voyager simply get transported closer to home?

[Assistant]
There are several limits:

* Range: You can beam down to a planet from orbit, but you can't beam across a star system.
* Size: Something needs to be small enough to fit on a transporter pad. "Site to site" transports without a pad are a bit of a misnomer, they're actually 2 different transports where they first beam you to a pad, then to sickbay or wheverever you need to go.
* Power: Transporters take a lot of power. Transporting a handful of personnel here and there is nothing to a starship, but transporting a lot of stuff begins to strain their power.
* Cooldown: It actually takes the transporter some time to charge up between transports. We never see this because it's "precharged" when they step on the pad, but if they need to transport  two sets of people it takes a while for the transporter to recharge. Transporters are super fast for a small group but if transporting a large number of people or a large volume of cargo shuttles are actually faster.
* Warp speed: Transporting to and from ships moving at warp is not  technically impossible but *very* different. Even Montgomery Scott, one of the most brilliant engineers in Starfleet, had trouble with it.


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

[User]
ELI5: How are we able to hear more than 1 sound at the same time?

How can I hear two sounds at the same time when my eardrum can vibrate at only 1 frequency at a time? How can my brain decipher that 1 frequency into its component sounds?

[Assistant] Because we aren't just able to pick up one frequency at a time as such. All the frequencies mix together ( as it's all moving air) and it produces sort of a frequency that keeps changing rapidly and that's what makes up the sound we hear.


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

[User] Is it possible for a terrestrial, life-sustaining planet to have rings?

[Assistant] I don't see why not although it would make sustaining life much harder as ring particles and materials would periodically hit the surface of the planet. Additionally a terrestrial planet would have a much smaller gravitational force than say a gas giant planet, which would mean that the actual rings would be smaller and less visible.


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

[User]
ELI5: How can it be profitable for AliExpress merchants to sell and ship an item across the world, for just $1

It blows my mind why anyone would do it, when you gotta factor in order processing, delivery to couriers, the shipping services, etc.

[Assistant] Think of it as there is this container already planned to go your city, on a specific date, from the shores of South China. It is booked on every ship, train & lorry it needs to get there. The company merely puts your extra item in the container.


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

[User] ELI5 - What makes someone a morning person? And the same with night owls? Is there a scientific explanation behind being one or the other or is it simply a lifestyle choice?

[Assistant]
The scientific concept is 'circadian rhythm' - basically you have an inner clock that gives you a sense for the time of day. Unfortunately for most people, the inner clock is not set to 24 hours exactly.

If you have a short circadian rhythm, you are likely a morning person because your subjective days are shorter and don't require that much sleep - on the other hand a long evening will feel wrong for you much quicker.

With a longer circadian rhythm you are likely an evening person. Your rhythm demands a longer night than reality can provide, so you will rise late and/or fight drowsiness. You can go much longer in the evenings though because in your rhythm barely a part of the day has passed.


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

[User] [Half Life]So what happens after humanity beats the Combine?

[Assistant]
Well, after the Combine Citadel was destroyed, they had no means of retreating or calling in reinforcements. This put them into a corner, which was further reinforced when the portal storm was shut down by the Black Mesa satellite network.

We don't know how many Combine there are, nor how distributed their forces are across the globe. However, I'd say it's safe to say that humanity has a fighting chance (the slug-things might be a challenge, but the Vortigaunts are adept at handling them, it seems).

What we have, after the Combine are defeated and purged from the world, is a very post-apocalyptic scenario. The Combine were in charge of food distribution, which is now gone. They were also in the process of terraforming Earth when they were defeated, and atmospheric conditions have changed for the worse due to it.

Further, the chaos of the initial Black Mesa Event led to alien flora and fauna spreading across the world - many of the planet's native species are extinct and replaced with Xenlike ecosystems, such as the headcrab and antlion (and Antlions are prodigious tunnelers and will not be killed easily, as witnessed during the chain of events leading to the collapse of the portal storm).

We also have to deal with restoring crumbling infrastructure: The Combine were using cities as ghettoes (evidenced by the *only* population outside City 17 being rebel cells), and did the bare minimum to keep humans alive so as to recruit them into their own ranks. Much work will need to be done to restore cities to properly working order.

You also have the issue of predation. With the animal repulsion systems down for the count, antlions and headcrabs can now swarm the cities left standing. A coherent military presence will be required to keep people safe from marauding headcrabs, zombies, antlions, and more. The Vortigaunts might be able to help on this front.

So, to conclude:

* Food distribution is down for the count

*  There's crumbling infrastructure everywhere

* There's no coherent military with enough force to repel threats

* There's a global mass extinction in progress due to Xen fauna

* The planet itself is less liveable due to Combine terraforming

* Humanity is not connected - no means of city-city communication

I'd say humanity survives, but with millions if not billions dying as we revert to an agrarian subsistence civilization within walls to keep out headcrabs and the like. Rebuilding might take 1-200 years, and the planet will never be cleaned of Xen animals, leading to massive ecological changes. Isolated regions with energy, such as Aperture Labs (Chell might've popped out in a wheat field tended to by a nearby civilization) and the Black Mesa laboratory, as well as anywhere near hydro plants will become the new centers of civilization as people flock to these most developed areas. Kleiner and Freeman would likely become teachers for the next generation in an attempt to preserve as much knowledge as possible.


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

[User]
ELI5 If diamonds and other gemstones can be lab created, and indistinguishable from their naturally mined counterparts, why are we still paying so much for these jewelry stones?

EDIT: Holy cow!!! Didnt expect my question to blow up with so many helpful answers. Thank you to everyone for taking the time to respond and comment. Ive learned A LOT from the responses and we will now be considering moissanite options. My question came about because we wanted to replace stone for my wifes  pendant necklace. After reading some of the responses together, shes turned off on the idea of diamonds altogether. Thank you also to those who gave awards. Its truly appreciated!

[Assistant]
Marketing and monopoly.  Diamonds are not unique or rare on this planet.  The DeBeers corporation has a long standing monopoly, and an incredible marketing campaign stressing that you should spend 2 months salary on a ring if you really love your future wife.

Truth be told, lab grown diamonds are so perfect at this point, that DeBeers is spending millions trying to figure out how to tell the difference.


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

[User]
[Borderlands] Do all these gun companies have specific models? Could you buy two of the same gun?

All of the guns in Borderlands are so diverse and all over the place, do the companies just spam out random firearms or do they have specific models? How does that shit work?

[Assistant]
In fact, each company has a strict set of design philosophies, models, and styles that no other company can replicate. Mostly because of legal issues, but also the fact that one company can always send a battlefleet to the HQ of another and bomb them to the stone age if they try.

However, the insane/genius (insaneous? genane?) denizens of Pandora, as well as collectors and inventors all over the galaxies, have figured out ways to digistruct the patented components of different companies and fuse them together into weird and totally-not-spec combinations that may or may not be more powerful than other guns.

Mister Torgue High Five Flexington is a prime example of this pioneering spirit. He built his entire fortune by taking a Jakobs firearm and attaching dynamite to it until he figured out how to make his own guns that shot EXPLOSIONS. *guitar riff*


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

[User]
Bitcoin's supply limit

If one can purchase fractional bitcoins, then how exactly is bitcoin supply-constrained?

[Assistant]
Ten apples are ten apples, even if you can in theory slice them into an infinite amount of slices.

Just taking smaller parts doesn't change the amount that exists.

Or, let's say for the sake of making an example that the total number of bitcoins that exist right now is 2. Can you buy 3 bitcoins? No, you can't. Because they are supply constrained, there simply are only so many in existence. In principle, it doesn't make any difference whatsoever that you can also buy 0.5 bitcoin, or 0.00000000001 bitcoin. Slicing them into smaller pieces doesn't suddenly enable you to buy 3 bitcoin if only 2 exist.


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

[User] ELI5 Why PS2 emulation is harder than Wii emulation.

[Assistant] the PS2 runs the "emotion engine" which is 8 processing units that run simultaneously. trying to emulate 8 processors in software is a lot harder than emulating the processing power of the wii, which was designed more like a computer.


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

[User] Is it possible to compute your latitude and longitude based on your surroundings like the sun, the moon and the stars?

[Assistant]
Latitude can be calculated from the stars. More particularly, the angle at which you see the northern star gives you an indication how far north you are (works only on northern hemissphere).

Longitude cannot be calculated without a precise clock, because any indicator west or east of you, rotates as earth rotates (and additionally depends on the time of year).

With a clock and some time you could also determine you longitude by observing the sun.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do some small engines (like my lawnmower) take 100% gasoline while others (like my weed whacked) require a special mix for fuel?

[Assistant]
2 stroke engines require gasoline-oil mixture

4 stroke engines do not.

The reason is that 2 stroke engines are much simpler such that the oil mixed in the gas will reach all the important parts that need lubrication.

A 4 stroke engine is much more complex. Oil needs to get places that a gas/oil mixture would never reach. So they design an oil system to manage that.


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

[User]
Writing a Book for Public Consumption

Does anyone have experience in writing a book on their field for the masses? I wish to do so for my field to better inform them in a short book but I don't know how the process works. My best guess would be I have to sell the publisher on the idea and then give them a rough draft and rework it til they accept it. Kind of like a paper. Any advice would be much appreciated. Also any suggestions for publishers that might be interested in the idea would be very helpful. Wetlands if it matters.

[Assistant] I work in publishing. Happy to answer any questions. Generally speaking, you send a proposal following their guidelines for submission (usually on their website), and then if they're interested, they'll invite a chapter or the whole manuscript and review it. If it's an academic publisher, the review is likely external by your peers, but if it's a commercial or non-profit, non-academic publisher, the review might just be in house. If the reviews are favorable, you can expect to receive a contract. The best fit publisher for you depends on how much control you want over the project, how much funding you can get to publish if relevant, whether you want to use the book for your tenure file, and your target audience.


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

[User] ELI5: why does 3G use so much battery life on my phone while wifi barely uses any.

[Assistant] Like you're 5: The phone's wifi is talking to your wifi router, which is in your house. So it can just talk to it without using much energy. But the 3G system is on some telecoms tower that might be miles and miles away, so your phone has to yell really loudly to talk to it, which uses a lot of energy.


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

[User] [The Mandalorian] Is the whole rule about never taking your helmet off something only Dins clan does or was it a new rule created for all Mandalorians ?

[Assistant]
His clan is more orthodox than others. There may be more clans like his that follow the rule, but its not culture wide. (Well, presuming there are many of the others left out there)

Edit: probably should have led with this tbh but its actually stated in a current book that came out recently. *The Star Wars Book*.


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

[User] [Doctor Who] When the Cybermen's emotional inhibitors are disabled, the humans inside collapse in horror at what they've become. What would happen if one such human thought becoming a badass cyborg were pretty frickin' sweet?

[Assistant]
I believe there are a few examples of people being committed enough to duty and honor that they were able to take constructive action post-conversion and post-inhibitor failure. Though it was less "yay, dope metal body" and more fighting through the pain and terror on raw gumption.

You see, the act of becoming a Cyberman is profoundly traumatic; a live, typically conscious human is quite brutally disassembled and then rebuilt into a mind-controlled monster. When the inhibitor goes off, they deal with all of that trauma, plus whatever horrid stuff they were made to do while a Cyberman, plus the horrid body dysphoria of having a human brain in a cyborg frame.

For someone to experience all that and go "woot", they would have to be quite seriously disturbed. So, such a person would likely be a villain in the making. A heavily armed and armored nutcase, a walking tank with a defective pilot. Depending on how canny they are, they could either wind up an impossibly brutal spree killer or an ever- present specter over human civilization.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why, despite having a majority on both house and senate, President Obama had such a hard time passing legislation

I know the issue had something to do with the GOP's power, or threat of, fillibuster, but if I am not wrong, the GOP never really used this all that much. Many thanks in advanced for putting this in plain words and providing sources if possible.

[Assistant]
Two main reasons:

1) No party will have a solid 60 person majority; the country is too divided. Even if you have 60 "D" or "R" senators, a decent amount of those are going to be moderates that won't always fall in line with their party. This is because a few of these people will be D's in places that usually elect R's or vice-versa. Thus, they have to show they aren't a shill for their party.

2) There was only a 60 Dem majority in the Senate for roughly 2 weeks. Remember, it took months for Al Franken to get sworn in (due to the recount), and Ted Kennedy was incapacitated just a little later. Then, Scott Brown (R) was elected to take his seat.

Were there things the Obama Administration could have done differently to pass more stuff? Yes. No one, however, expected the R opposition to be as lock step as it was, particularly in regards to bills that R's themselves were trying to pass just a few months earlier. It was quite literally unprecedented. But as they say, hindsight is 20/20.


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

[User] AskScientists - what is the significance of Watson's performance on Jeopardy?  Is this a man on the moon moment for AI, or a gimmick?

[Assistant]
If it is a man on the moon moment is debatable.  The major significance of Watson's performance is the natural language understanding, and information search related to that.  To most, it will not seem like anything, but then again, we have been living in the world and learning language for years.  Computers don't have this ability.

Watson needs to first understand the category of the question, and then in that context parse the question to get an idea of what it is asking.  It doesn't seem like much to us, its a baked in ability to the human mind.  For a computer to do this is quite a feat, and a very hard problem to solve.


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

[User] Why is it that when you dig a hole and put some water in it it disappears, but it doesnt do the same with ponds?

[Assistant] It does do that with ponds. If you keep filling your hole with water, you will eventually saturate the soil in the area and it will start to fill. Just like when it rains and doesnt flood, the total amount of water matters. If there is a long dry period the pond will dry up, and hosing the area down will have the same result as your small hole until it enough water is present to saturate the soil again.


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

[User]
Are there any "solved" topics in philosophy?

Okay. So, first, folks do forgive me if my post contains erroneous misassumptions regarding philosophy. I don't know much about it, but my (possibly wrong) impression of the field is that it's very, well, diverse. Lots of different viewpoints regarding different problems and questions - so not really "objectively" definable in, say, the way science can prove the speed of light is equivalent to 299792458 meters/second, or that humans generally take nine months to give birth.

Are there any philosophical topics that were once the rage of the party - debated fiercely, to the death, perhaps - that are now settled, solved questions. Of course, I suppose that calls into question whether you can "solve" a topic in any concrete sense.

 To define it more simply, so, if we assume we can't "solve" something - say, what about an supermajority-type agreed consensus on a topic that was once, say, fiercly split or contested? (I suppose, as much as there can be an agreed consensus in philosophy...)

[Assistant] A pretty endless list of questions in Political Philosophy no longer have any defenders on one side of the question. Should we have an absolute monarchy, should we practise the institution of slavery, should women have the same rights as men, should our society be dominated by aristocrats etc. etc.


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

[User]
Why did mammals lose the ability to lay eggs?

I wonder why all mammals, (except monotremes) lost the ability to law eggs. What was the evolutionary benefit?

[Assistant]
Technically we still have eggs, they're just not eggs in the same sense as what we see with reptiles or birds.

Think about it this way: fish have eggs and fish fertilise externally by ejecting both sperm and eggs into the water where they can interact. The young then develop in "eggs" in the ocean. Mammal reproduction is essentially the same, the main difference being that we live outside water and so must replicate a water environment for our sex cells to interact with, thus the reason why land animals have sex.
With reptiles and their distant relatives the birds, they lay their eggs externally with the offspring and food stored within a protective shell. Mammals on the other hand allow the young to develop internally, so they don't need a protective coat and do not have eggs similar to that of chicken eggs.

To answer you inquiry on evolutionary benefits, developing inside the mother can mean better protection for the developing young, especially if the animal lives in a social hierarchy. The other major benefit is that there is a constant, potentially unlimited source of food available to the offspring - offspring that develop outside the body are provided with a limited food source which is limited by the size of the egg. It's thanks to the benefits of internal foetuses that humans have evolved to be as intelligent as they have, because we weren't nutritionally limited by things like egg size.


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

[User] Can you feed a bird so that it gets too fat to fly? Or would it die from health complications before it ever reached that point?

[Assistant] I remember hearing at a lecture about birds given by a guy who runs a conservation that some types of vultures will eat until they can't fly because they don't find meals that often, and will just walk on the ground until a predator appears, in which case they will vomit in its face to distract/blind it, thus lowering their weight and letting them fly again.


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

[User]
[Star Trek] Are there any other races in the Klingon and Romulan empires? If not, how is this possible given the large scale of both empires?

The Federation has at least well over 100 member worlds [sources vary, but it's at least 150 worlds in the TNG era], and we commonly see many different species from all across the Federation.

The Romulan and Klingon empires are smaller than the Federation, with maps of different sources varying to a great degree.  However, both empires are within an order of magnitude of the size of the Federation.  Where are the other species in those empires?  Why are they never shown?

And if there are no other species within the Romulan and Klingon empires, how is this possible given their relative sizes?

[Assistant] The Remans are part of the Romulan Empire.  Kriosans are a part of the Klingon Empire.  The reason you don't see a lot of the "client races" of those Empires is because they are not allowed to serve on their starships alongside Romulans or Klingons.


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

[User] When somethings travels at 99.9999...% the speed of light, does only it contract in length, or does the entire universe experience the same length contraction from its perspective?

[Assistant] From an outside observer, the moving object is length contracted, and the moving object's clock ticks slower. From the perspective of the object, the Universe is length contracted and everyone else's clock ticks slower.


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

[User] Eli5:why is it that when a clear item(like clear wrappers)is crumpled it turns white?

[Assistant]
A clear substance becomes white when tiny cracks, localized crystalline structures or other impurities are introduced due to strain.

The white look is due to the same dynamics that make clouds and seafoam look white. That is, the scattering features involved are the same or bigger than the wavelengths of light and so reflect them all similarly. When you get smaller particles you see color-selective scattering, and you get sunsets and blue skies!


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

[User]
[Scooby Doo] How CAN I get away with it, now that those meddling kids have arrived in town?

Hello all. Old Man Whithers here.

After thirty years of thankless work of scraping by as a street sweeper in my small town, I've decided to enact a sure-fire scheme to finally get myself a retirement fund so I can get out of this depressing place and live by the beach. My plan involves dressing up as a menacing ghost from local folk tales and scaring people off valuable land that I will then buy for pennies to the dollar before selling it off at full price to out-of-towners who don't believe in our local ghost. Brilliant, eh? I bet nobody's ever thought of that one before!

And it was going great, but now there's this new bunch of kids that arrived in town and they're looking into my whole ghost thing. Normally I wouldn't be worried, but these ones are giving me bad vibes. One of them (I'm not even sure which one, but probably the stoner) is doing some sort of constant ventriloquism act that they all play along with by pretending that their dog can talk. They're weirding me out, and I want them gone.

So what's the best way of getting rid of these guys? I can't just stop my ghost act, otherwise people might realise that there was a living person behind it who got scared off. Ghost don't run away, after all. And I don't want to kill or badly hurt any of them - I'm trying to scare people off, not murder them. I'm okay with swinging a sword around to make them think they'll be murdered if they don't run, I just don't want to do any actual knife-in-body stabbing. So what do I do to get rid of these meddling kids?

I should list my resources. I have access to some glowing paint that looks very unearthly, a sword (as part of my ghost cavalry officer disguise), and a really well put together rope/pulley system that's quick to set up anywhere and is pretty much invisible to the naked eye at night (it helps me look like I'm floating/flying). I also know all of the ins-and-outs of the local rickety abandoned mansion, including its long hall full of doors which face each other, if that helps.

[Assistant]
I think I've seen these kids driving down the freeway, and at a few rest stops.

I say the best bet is to give them something else to worry about than you. It is definitely animal abuse to be hotboxing that poor dog, and he *never* has a proper leash. A report to the right authority should have them heading for less restrictive hills.


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

[User]
Would it be possible to use gravity as an energy source?

If you could "capture" the pull of gravity somehow, could you use it as a power source?

[Assistant]
we already do it.

Hydro electric power.

We use different level of water to make some kind of waterfall and put a turbine under the falling water.

Hydroelectricity is the term referring to electricity generated by hydropower; the production of electrical power through the use of the gravitational force of falling or flowing water. It is the most widely used form of renewable energy, accounting for 16 percent of global electricity generation  3,427 terawatt-hours of electricity production in 2010,[1] and is expected to increase about 3.1% each year for the next 25 years.


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

[User] Why do accents disappear when people sing?

[Assistant]
singing is different from speaking because it uses sustained sounds. this changes the way we pronounce words because its drawn out, and it also changes the way the audience hears the words we sing because it exposes every little part of each syllable.

good vocal technique is very focused on vowel shape and diction (consonants) in order to get a full, rich, mature sound and be clearly understood. interestingly, vowel shape and diction are also a big part of what differentiates regional accents. singers who use good technique will naturally start to drop some of the hallmarks of their regional accent as they focus on using warm, open vowels and clear, crisp consonants.

I should also note that singers who are not classically trained do not focus on these techniques as much. This is why many singers in pop, country, rock, folk, and so on sing just like they talk.


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

[User] ELI5: Why can't saltwater fish survive in fresh water?

[Assistant]
Simply put, saltwater and freshwater fish have different systems for maintaining the right amount of water in their bodies. Think about salt, if you sprinkle it on a slug it makes the slug dry out, killing it. The same thing would happen to a freshwater fish if you plonked it in the middle of the sea. saltwater fish deal with this by clinging onto urea in their bodies. Urea is normally something we want to excrete because it's a waste product that gets produced by the detoxification of ammonia. Too much of even urea in your blood is very bad for you, let alone the deadly ammonia. However, saltwater fish are specially adapted to deal with this.

Let me explain something called 'water potential'. When you have something dissolved in water (a solute dissolved in a solution), we say that the water potential has been 'lowered'. The more that is dissolved, the lower the water potential. Water tends to move from an area of low to high water potential until it is balanced in both areas. The water actually moves both ways (its called a dynamic equilibrium) but eventually ends up with an equal concentration in both areas because of the random movements of the water molecules (the concentration of the solution = number of solute molecules per volume of water so larger volume of water needed for more solute).

By having urea in their cells, the water potential of the cells is roughly the same as the water potential outside the cells (caused by salt in the salt water) so no water movement occurs. hence, water does not gush out of the cells and leave the fish all dried up and dead.

Freshwater is 'purer' so has a higher water potential meaning that water would move into the fish cells, making them burst. Some fish can survive both environments due to different biochemistries but properly saltwater animals like sharks (excluding the bull shark) have this urea retention mechanism.


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

[User]
Why is there a distinction between the sounds of voices in humans (Females have higher tone, males lower) but not in other animals, like dogs.

Also, what animals (if any) have distinction between their voices for male and female.

[Assistant] Let's say you have two dogs.  They are brother and sister.  When they were puppies their voices were pretty high pitched because they had small throats.  As they got older their throats started to get bigger so their voices got deeper.  Now the brother, let's call him Spot, has a special part of his body that makes chemicals that would normally make his voice get even deeper than his sister's as he gets older.  Unfortunately this body part also makes Spot angry and causes him to hump your mother's leg.  Because of this your parents cut that part of him off when he was a puppy.  Because that part of Spot is no longer there to make those chemicals his voice ends up developing the same way as his sister's and so they sound the same.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do random little moments that I haven't though about for years, pop into my head at seemingly random moments?

Like, not even embarrassing moments. I'll be sitting at my desk, and suddenly remember being in a carpark with my friend 15 years ago..

[Assistant]
You know how you can often see or smell something, and it triggers an easily recalled memory associated with it? The easiest way to understand involuntary memory recall is that its exactly the same as any other memory. It is triggered by something.

The difference is you are not aware of what the trigger is. Unlike thingsi n the environment triggering memories, with this its other memories triggering the memories. Usually a chain of memories set off by some mundane process, in just the right way so as to trigger recall. But because you don't know what the specific thoughts are that triggered it, it seems random.


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

[User]
How effective are microwaves at sterilizing objects?

Let's say I drop a slice of apple on the ground. It is now covered in germs.  I have always assumed i could throw it in the microwave oven for a few seconds, and that would instantly kill any bacteria on it.

Am i right? Does microwaving an object sterilize it?

[Assistant] Microwaves can sterilize by heat - the radiation isn't at a toxic wavelength (i.e., doesn't pack enough energy) to kill most organisms. Microwave sterilization time would vary by the amount of moisture in the food, and wouldn't work to clean macroscopic dirt particles from food.


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

[User]
ELI5 how come in shows when a plane door opens up, everyone gets sucked into it?

Idk how accurate it is, but whenever a plane door opens in a show or a movie, its like some sort of gravity vortex gets activated and everyone is trying not to get pulled into it. What gives?

[Assistant] At high altitudes, the air pressure and density are extremely low, making it hard for people to breathe. Passenger planes pressurized the cabin to be of a pressure equivalentish to earths surface. This means that the air pressure win the cabin is constantly pushing outward. If a large hole is made, all the air will rush out, and will likely push unsecured objects or people out with it. Luckily its essentially impossible to open a cabin door at high altitudes, because even if it were unlocked, the door opens inward, which means the internal pressure will keep the door closed. But when for example the plane becomes damaged a large enough hole might exist and suck things and people out.


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

[User]
ELI5:How come shrimps are pale and semi-translucent when raw, but when cooked are turned red?

This goes for lobsters and crabs, as well.

[Assistant] It's a pigment called Astaxanthin!  It's red, and is present in the shells of those crustaceans, as well as in fish like Trout and Salmon, which is why those fish are reddish-pink as well.  As for why Crustaceans don't turn red until you cook them, that's because in their shells Astaxanthin is bound up in other proteins.  When you cook them, the heat begins to denature these proteins and the released Astaxanthin suddenly becomes apparent.


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

[User] [Yu-gi-oh / Marvel] Would Seto Kaiba and Tony Stark respect each other in a business meeting? What would their conversation be like? Both their companies used to make weapons that affected people's lives and both have egos.

[Assistant]
Tony is willing to put aside his ego and every personal concern when it comes to others. For example, he literally sent his suit of armor away and onto Pepper when he thought it would protect her more.

Kaiba is just not capable of that level of thought, consideration and operation.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is it that when my tv remote "dies", I can pull a battery out, put the same one back in, and it suddenly works again?

[Assistant] The battery contacts and the contacts in the remote control corrode very slightly due to the electricity flowing through the connection. When you move the batteries (you can just roll them in place for the same effect) you clean the contact points slightly and allow better electrical flow. The batteries are still probably close to death due to the time they have been in use, but 'exercising' those contact points gains you a little more battery life.


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

[User] ELI5 What are skin tags and why do we get them?

[Assistant]
A skin tag is actually a benign tumor that usually forms where skin creases, like the neck or armpit, and sometimes the eyelids. They are almost always harmless. They're very common (moreso in women than men), and thought to be formed by skin rubbing on skin, but the exact cause is unknown.

They're safe to leave and safe to have removed - they don't grow back. Be sure to consult a dermatologist for advice.


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

[User]
ELI5: How some restaurants make a lot of recipes super quick?

Hi all,

I was always wondering how some restaurants make food. Recently for example I was to family small restaurant that had many different soups, meals, pasta etc and all came within 10 min or max 15.

How do they make so many different recipes quick?

- would it be possible to use some of their techniques so cooking at home is efficient and fast? (for example, for me it takes like 1 hour to make such soup)

Thank you!

[Assistant] The kitchen is always running, starting from the morning to after closing, even when the restaurant has not yet opened. There's a lot of prep work that happens out of sight. The chefs do everything short of actually cooking most food in order to save time when orders come in. Long lead items like soup stocks get started in this time.


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

[User]
[MCU] Are there any people that are skeptical of Wakanda's power?

Is it likely that crazy people in the MCU would think that Wakanda simply cannot be as powerful as it is?

And what other conspiracy theories would people have regarding Wakanda?

[Assistant]
Literally everybody was skeptical of Wakanda's power because until 5 years ago the idea that Wakanda was anything more than a few poor farmers was a closely-guarded secret.

After that it was plainly impossible to deny-- they landed a spaceship in the middle of Oakland.