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

[User]
ELI5: why is the "L" sound often mispronounced as "R" by certain Asian people?

It's always an explanation that ive wanted to hear from a linguist or other expert.

[Assistant]
In Japanese, there is no "L".  Hiragana and Katakana (basic writing systems, analogous to the English alphabet) have 40-something characters, most of which are one syllable consanant-vowel, like "ka" or "re".

In transliterating foreign language words, the letter "L" is most often written as "R", although it should be noted that the Japanese "R" sound is a soft one, not a hard one like in "right".

So, a word like "Lana" might get changed to , or "RANA".


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

[User] ELI5: Why is discovering the Higgs-Boson particle so significant?

[Assistant]
The Higgs boson was the last major prediction of the Standard Model of Particle Physics, but for many years it's discovery eluded physicists.  The Higgs mechanism tells us how elementary particles get their mass.  You can imagine the Higgs field being like treacle.  Particles which couple to the Higgs field will slow down from the speed of light in the field.  If they do so, they have mass, like the electron.  If not, they are massless, like the photon.  There Higgs boson is an excitation of this field, like a vibrating spring in a mattress, and finding one confirms that the field exists and the mechanism is correct.

But the Higgs boson was predicted to have a very high mass (although the exact value could not be predicted), and therefore would be very short lived because it could quickly decay to lighter particles.  This means you don't see many of them hanging around, so you need to put a lot of energy into one place to make one.  This is one of the reasons why scientists built the LHC, as it allows us to accelerate particles to extremely high energy, smash them together, and see what the energy of that collision makes by analysing the products.  They managed to do this in 2012.

So, finding the Higgs boson confirms the last major piece of the Standard Model.  But it also has more potential than that.  While the Standard Model does a great job of explaining everything it tries to, it leaves a lot out, namely gravity.  If we can find any irregularities in the properties of the Higgs from what the Standard Model predicts, we might be able to find a lead to the new physics we desperately need to connect quantum field theory with gravity.  More analysis of the Higgs will be done in the coming months and years to see if we can find any such leads.


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

[User]
[His Dark Materials / The Golden Compass] Would a dolphin daemon suffer out of water? I.E. do the daemons have the same environmental requirements as the actual animals?

In the books it mentions that sailors with dolphin daemons (for example) can't go very far from the water. But since it's not a real dolphin would it suffer from being out of the water? Or could a sailor load his dolphin into a wheelbarrow and head into town?

[Assistant]
Daemons can be physically harmed, in La Belle Sauvage (the newest book in the series, set 12 years before His Dark Materials):

>It is also confirmed that dmons can be permanently injured, at least after settling; the hyena daemon of Gerard Bonneville is struck in the leg during a fight (albeit with a stick, thus not violating the taboo) and is later shown with an amputated leg.

So if a stick can permanently injure a hyena daemon, it's reasonable to expect that a lack of water would be painful, likely fatal for a dolphin daemon. Probably as dangerous as it would be for a real dolphin.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is the decrease of population growth in countries like Japan considered a bad thing? Shouldn't it be the other way?

I understand the need to have new generations of young people to keep the country going, but isn't overpopulation a bigger problem (like in China or other countries in Africa)? Also, if they need young workers, couldn't they get people to migrate to Japan?

[Assistant]
The problem with Japan and many countries like it is that they have a society that is build up on the fact that the young will carry the costs of the ageing population. With the ageing population becoming too big, that is no longer possible. Is immigration an answer? Well, it can be part of an answer, but it is often not that simple. They don't all need unskilled workers, they also need skilled ones. There is not a huge supply of these. Plus there is the issue of not being able to speak the language and understand the Japanese culture. Which can be solved by education  but you'd need people open for that education and again it costs a lot.

(this is not even taking into account that most countries don't like huge masses of immigration, and Japan especially is pretty bad at it.)


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

[User] ELI5: Why do some trucks have a spare set of wheels hanging? Wouldn't it better to just have all the wheels on the road?

[Assistant] Having the extra set of wheels down adds transmission drag (and thus reduces fuel economy) and also causes more damage to the tyres when turning, so unless you absolutely need them to support the weight of the load, it's better to have one out of the way.


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

[User] Why are there so few women philosophers?

[Assistant]
Do you mean today or historically?

(To be clear - there are today a lot of women holding FT academic positions in philosophy departments, but they represent something like ~20% of the field.  So, we might say there are *relatively* few.)

ETA - Also, it turns out that even in history you can find women philosophers working on all sorts of things, but often in ways which goes unrecognized (ex: Christine de Pizan).  Still, of course, there is a huge difference in proportion.


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

[User]
[Charlie and the Chocolate Factory] What would happen if multiple children made it to the end and passed the Slugworth test?

Who does he give his chocolate factory to then?

[Assistant]
Wonka *knew* the kids wouldn't make it. He studied up on the winners, and knew they were all likely to fail on certain tasks. That's why there wasn't a seat for Augustus on the Chocolate Riverboat, and why the Oompa Loompas had such quick response times for sorting out the kids who fell victim to certain hazards in the rest of the factory. Wonka knew they were flawed, and only a worthy child would inherit the factory. Anyone else was expected to lose, and hopefully gain some hindsight into what made them lose (hopefully changing them for the better in the process).

If the kids defied all temptations and made it to the end, it's likely that Wonka would have still picked Charlie to be his successor as he was inherently a good person with not many lucky breaks in life. The rest are pretty well off, and were mostly assholes their entire lives *but* happened to put aside their temptations in order to make it through Wonka's competition. They'd leave unharmed and with a much better reward (perhaps bigger trucks of chocolate or lifetime supplies of sweets of their choosing), but Charlie still gets the factory.


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

[User]
Looking for some advice on how to word some constructive criticism for a student

I'm a post-doc and I supervised an undergrad student this summer and her program requires me to fill out an evaluation. My PI is going to help me out but I'd like to craft something halfway decent before present it to him to look over.

My student has a lot of great qualities:

* She is self-motivating, independent, and comes up with great solutions on her own and by researching and asking questions
* She works hard and is technically proficient
* She's very friendly and got along well with everyone in the lab

However, I think she has some qualities that could use some work, both related to a general lack of respect and sense of entitlement, and I'm not sure how best to word this in her evaluation:

* She rarely says please and thank you, snatches things out of my hands, and has a sense of entitlement that I can't quite put my finger on. When I was an undergrad and I wanted my supervisor to do me a favour, I knew it would put them out (especially if it involved doing extra steps off hours/over the weekend, and I knew my place in the "hierarchy" of the lab and tried to show my respect and ask super politely. I've gotten none of that from her; she routinely *tells* me to do things for her instead of asking, and rarely says thank you. It's small, but it's a sense of entitlement/arrogance that to me translates to a basic lack of respect and selfishness. It doesn't affect her work, but I think it's in her best interest to correct this behaviour if she wants to move forward in any career.
* She is putting together a talk to present to the lab (her first ever) and I have been firm in guiding her through the steps. For example, I asked for her slide deck, she didn't give me one. I asked for it in its final form yesterday, and she just showed me the same slide deck again, not altered. In other words, she has done things on her own time as she saw fit, and doesn't seem at all concerned that she isn't following my instructions. This is related to my first point in that it's a basic lack of respect for peoples' time and energy and entitlement.

(I realize I should have nipped these in the bud early, but I have a hard time being stern sometimes, and that's something I need to work on. Happy for any tips you guys have here too.)

Does anyone have any ideas on the wording you might use to write out some constructive, polite, and useful criticism on these two points? Thanks!

[Assistant] I really dont think the first one belongs on any sort of form in any sort of protracted way. It is sometimes necessary to teach a younger colleague "their place" if it is their first time in the workplace or whatever, but dont put that in writing. For your own sake.


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

[User]
eli5:What exactly is entropy?

I know there multiple definitions and that it's a law of thermodynamics but I can't quite understand what exactly this "measure of disorder" is.

[Assistant]
The most practically useful description of entropy I've ever encountered goes something like this:

Everything that happens in the universe is the result of energy moving from a place where it's more concentrated to a place where it's less concentrated. The stuff that happens is a side effect of this movement of energy. Over time, place 1 has less energy and place 2 has more energy. If place 1 and 2 have the same energy, energy can't be transferred between the two places. Since stuff happens as a result of movement of energy, no energy moving means nothing happens.

To help imagine this, think of a waterwheel. When the river flows, the wheel turns, and the turning of the wheel drives whatever's hooked up to it, like a millstone. If the river is stagnant - ie no water is moving around - the wheel doesn't turn.

Whenever energy moves, the difference in energy between place 1 and place 2 decreases, until eventually they have the same energy. This decrease in energy difference is entropy. One day, the universe will all be the exact same energy level everywhere, and at that point, nothing can ever happen.


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

[User]
CMV: No form of protest will ever be acceptable

No form of protest will ever be deemed acceptable

Between people blocking roads and throwing soup at paintings over climate change, there are a ton of posts on Reddit raging over protestors doing it the wrong way.

First, the road blocks. These are nominally nonviolent but very disruptive. They get a LOT of media attention whenever they do it (as compared to self immolating in front of the Supreme Court which no one seems to care about). The only people at risk are the protestors. And in theory it could draw attention to the lack of public transport available because people lack alternatives. This isnt perfect though, while most people are just very inconvenienced by it, there was that one guy who missed his parole because of it.

There is also the hypothetical ambulance criticism. What if they dont let an ambulance through? Extinction Rebellion claims (or at the very least used to claim) they let EMS through. Other groups may or may not but ER is the most visible. Yet every time theres a post people seem so worried about what if there was an ambulance (which there isnt) and they didnt let it through (which they say they would) and someone got hurt (which no one did because it didnt happen). What if they ignored their own protocol for a hypothetical situation that isnt happening but one day could?

Needless to say, I find that criticism disingenuous at best. Because of these protests, some states passed or discussed passing laws making it legal to run over protestors who are in the streets. In the comments people always seem very in favor of this and dont think about the consequences of such a law.

Heres a question for all you people who want to run over anyone standing in the street. Some states have passed laws making that legal (ie Florida), some states have stand your ground laws (ie Florida). Say this happens in a state with both. Someone is protesting for whatever cause. Someone sees it and decides its legal and they dont want to be inconvenienced. They dont slow down and run one of them over going 45. The protestor sees the driver trying to kill them with a 1 ton vehicle going 45 and defends themself. They have concealed carry license and are carrying their legally acquired firearm which they defend themself with.

Whos in the right. Are they just legally allowed to murder each other? The driver was mildly inconvenienced but people want to pass laws and some have already passed them letting them get away with killing the people inconveniencing them. The protestor definitely fears for their life since in this example they die of their injuries afterwards and both driver and protestor end up dead.

Enough about road blocks. Lets go on to the new hotness, throwing soup on paintings. Despite these being completely nonviolent, harming no one, and inconveniencing nearly no one, the response is nearly identical. Rage, saying its the wrong way to protest, claiming they are hurting their own cause. For the record, no paintings are damaged. They chose targets that are protected, typically by a pane of glass. It just creates the appearance of defacing the painting. And this gets even more news coverage than the road blocks while harming/inconveniencing even fewer people.

Their message is a bit vague admittedly. It is something along the lines of people are upset about us defacing paintings but not oil destroying the world or we put all this effort into protecting paintings but not the earth. Either way the message is we are valuing art over the earth when the earth is much more important and we wouldnt have any art if not for it.

Yet this is still the wrong way. People claim they should be going after Pol companies directly instead of making symbolic gestures that get them millions of dollars of free publicity and liking a lot of revenue from donations. Incidentally, they do target oil companies. They block roads to refineries. This doesnt get coverage because it can be easily hidden from public view by the media not reporting it unlike blocking a major street or defacing artwork in a museum.

One of the only times those legitimate targets got enough coverage for me to notice it was when they vandalized one of Rupert Murdochs buildings. Yet this too was told it was targeting the wrong people. If Murdoch and his right wing media empire that has spread climate denial for decades is not a fair target, nothing is.

Lets come up with what would be the hypothetical right way to protest. It would have to be nonviolent obviously. But thats not enough apparently. You cant just not hurt anyone, you cant even inconvenience them. So something peaceful that doesnt disrupt anything. But you need an audience to get your message out. So something peaceful and not disruptive in front of a large crowd or better yet a national audience. Perhaps if you were a famous performer or athlete you could make a symbolic gesture in support of a cause before a game. Like for instance, refusing to stand for the national anthem. But some people may interpret that as disrespectful so to be on the safe side you should talk with a veteran about the plan and instead kneel during the anthem. That way you are respectful to the troops and still sending a message while being peaceful and not even inconveniencing them by delaying the game.

Except no. Even Kapernick got massive amounts of hate in the media with even the president saying he should be fired and thrown out.

Even things like boycotts get criticized and even made illegal. It seems pointless to care about criticism if the criticism for a riot is less harsh than for kneeling.

Just to be clear to people who want to cmv, Im not saying these forms of protests are good or effective or there arent better. Im saying that no matter what protestors do, they will be criticized for it not being the right way to protest.

[Assistant]
There wasn't much criticism of the way the Women's March was handled. Mockery, sure, but not criticism.

Because it truly was non-disruptive. A million women basically... walked downtown and went for a stroll, and then went home.

Now, the million-dollar question is: did that actually *accomplish* anything?


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

[User] ELI5: Why does one player having bad ping bring down everybody in the match in online games?

[Assistant] That's an older model that isn't used much anymore. Back in the day lag controll was mostly handled by checking in on all players and the system would slow down to allow one to catch up. Now lag compensation is handled in several different ways, but eternally avoids this older model.


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

[User]
[40k] Why aren't Necron Tomb Worlds blown apart with Cyclonic torpedoes as soon as they're discovered?

It seems far less risky.

[Assistant]
Usually the tombs aren't discovered until there is already something of value built on the world. You don't want to blow up a valuable forge world or agri world just to eliminate a Necron tomb. Planets are valuable, and the Imperium is not as trigger happy with Exterminatus weapons as some people claim, for good reason.

Also, unlike Orks or Tyranids that will sweep across a sector, Necrons tend to just go back to sleep when the finish eradicating life on a world, so the tomb world is generally not a big threat to anything other than itself. Blowing up a Necron tomb world to stop the necros would be like blowing up a building to save the hostages trapped inside.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why do the Jedi only use lightsabers?

Why do the Jedi only use light sabers in battle? Why not blasters and grenades too? We saw during the Clone Wars that the Jedi flew fighters and used the blasters on those to kill the enemy. They have often been seen reflecting blaster fire back at the enemy. I've even heard that one of the last of the Jedi once used a blaster to shoot someone in the heart in the heat of battle. It seems they have no moral issues with blasters or using blaster fire to kill an enemy. And if a Jedi just want to keep using those ancient weapons for tradition's sake, why not also back it up with a good blaster at his side?

[Assistant] The Jedi aren't meant to be a military order. The lightsaber is a defensive weapon that allows them immunity to blaster fire and the ability to protect another. They're not supposed to be going into war zones and fighting armies with them.


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

[User] [Warhammer 40K] What is an STC?

[Assistant]
A Standard Template Constructor is a combined fabricator/database that was issued to all human colonies during the Golden Age of Man.
The database contains the schematics to everything a colony will need to survive, from simple tools like shovels to complex machinery like mass water purification systems and even self-propelled defence vehicles. If something is too big for the STC to produce itself, it can still produce the parts and a printout of the instructions to assemble it.

In the 41st millenium, STCs are a much-desired piece of archeotech as an intact STC will literally have the sum of human technology at the time of the Golden Age stored within it. Even the hardcopies from a STC are valuable, as most of the time they could contain secrets that have been lost for millenia.

As an example of how valuable they are, a small squad of scout marines discovered a fragment of a STC printout that detailed how to make sharper knife blades. They each received a world as a reward.

There are also specialised STCs, such as ones that manufacture war machines. The Land Raider is one such vehicle that was recovered from a STC fragment and is still in use today.


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

[User] ELI5:When it comes to ice cream, what is the difference between french vanilla, natural vanilla, and vanilla bean?

[Assistant]
* Regular Vanilla - Flavored with vanilla extract, either natural or artificial.
* Vanilla Bean - Flavored with vanilla bean.
* Homeade Vanilla - Made with egg and flavored with vanilla extract, either natural or artificial.
* French Vanilla - Made with egg and flavored with vanilla bean.

I personally like french vanilla much better than regular vanilla; vanilla bean and homemade vanilla are pretty good also.


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

[User] What is speculated to occur when atoms achieve absolute zero?

[Assistant]
Nothing magical. All atoms would be in their lowest (ground) energy state, which some of them are already at higher temperatures. Even at room temperature almost all atoms are in their ground state as far as the electronic energy goes, and a significant proportion are in their vibrational ground state as well.

In short, they don't behave that differently. For which reason it's very common than we do ground-state (0K) calculations to predict room-temperature behavior, basically neglecting the effects of temperature entirely.


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

[User] ELI5: How does a vinyl record work? How are we able to trap sound into a piece of vinyl?

[Assistant] The lines in the record contain little bumps and ridges. As the needle from the player passes over the bumps it creates a vibration in the needle, which is converted into an electrical signal and transferred into the machine, where it gets sent to the speaker.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why, although planes are highly technological, do their speakers and microphones "sound" like old intercoms?

EDIT: Okay, I didn't expect to find this post so popular this morning (CET). As a fan of these things, I'm excited to have so much to read about. THANK YOU!

[Assistant]
Im a commercial airline pilot and there is a lot of misinformation here. First of all, 99% of the time were on VHF AM, not HF AM radio like people have suggested. Second of all, the radio has nothing to to do with the intercom anyways. The real reason is weight. Good speakers are heavy and the fuel to carry those around for the life of the airplane costs thousands to millions.

TLDR; Good speakers are heavy and cost too much fuel to carry around.


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

[User]
[Devil May Cry] What was lady doing during the events of DMC1?

If you know the dmc timeline 3 takes place before 1 and at the end of 3 lady joins devil may cry but in the beginning of 1 Dante seems to be by himself so is there an explanation on what she's doing? I know Dante wouldn't have taken her anyway but I just wanna know if it's ever explained what she was doing other than not be invented yet lmao.

[Assistant]
Her name - Lady - is not just for show or to indicate how refined her manners are, you know. Behind the scenes she runs a successful Law firm and helps Vergil evade taxes and child support.

She's a busy lady.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] If the clones weren't genetically engineered to be more docile, would it have been possible for some to fight against their inhibitor chips?

Clone troopers followed orders, such as Order 66, without question due to their inhibitor chips. But what about their genetic engineering? Without it, could some of the more independent clones been able to "fight" against their chips?

[Assistant] No. The inhibitor chips were placed in not only to prevent independence and rebellion, but also to prevent control by rogue jedi/sith. This was only possible because the inhibitor chips could override the brain, making things like mind tricks useless.


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

[User]
ELI5: Pornography censorship in Japan.

C'mon, we've all seen it. Little black bars placed somewhere on the genitals. It doesn't even hide anything, so what's the point? I know the censorship has a lot to do with westernization, but my question is more about the bare-minimum effort into actually censoring things.

EDIT: In about two hours, this post has racked up nearly 600 karma and 200 comments (a personal best). In line with reddit tradition, I'd like to say that I'm really glad my highest rated post is about dicks and how much of them we should see.

[Assistant]
It comes from an old Japanese law that came from the Meiji Era (1868-1912) where content "injurious to public morals" was forbidden.  This law was influenced by Western Victorian morals.  Over time the law was relaxed in other cultures but Japan was more conservative and kept the law around.

The law was eventually reinterpreted to allow you to show breasts and pixelated genitals, but fully uncensored genitals is still illegal under the old law.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do animators sync up their characters talking with audio?

How do they make their character's mouths move at just the right speed? Is there a lot of overshooting/undershooting and then having to go back and fix the frames? Or is there some general rule of thumb (x amount of frames to each second of audio)?

[Assistant]
actual animator here:

experience and timing.

if you do as others in this thread say and just plug in whatever lip shape happens for whatever sound you get terribly ugly uncanny valley lip sync. It looks terrible and fucking creepy, it looks unprofessional and slapped-on. What mouth shape you think there'd be is not actually what would be there. The shape you'd use to make one sound in one instance, is not the same elsewhere. there's like 4 different ways to do an "eeeeee" noise, that changes in context to the dialogue it's in. An animator's talent lies in their ability to see how people actually move, not how they think they move, but also vice versa, so by compounding this experience and observation we animate characters- including dialogue- to look the best it can not just realistically but have it "feel" good as well.

but the vast majority is just a large amount of eyeballing it with expertise and experience.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does something gets contaminated from radiation?

Re-watching Chernobyl and this doubt just got to me after seeing the cloths disposal of the first responder firefighters.

As far as I know radiation works by collision with other's atoms and breaking them, so, how does something that has been affected by this collision become radioactive?

[Assistant]
First off, radiation causes damage by breaking chemical bonds or by knocking electrons off of atoms in a way that causes unwanted chemical reactions, not (usually) by splitting other atoms apart.

But there are two main ways:

One is chemical contamination, where bits of the original radioactive material are mixed in with the other material. For example, small particles of dust containing radioactive metals could contaminate clothes worn at Chernobyl, or radioactive iodine could replace the normal iodine present in a human thyroid gland.

The other is *activation*, where radiation itself turns an atom that was previously not radioactive into a new radioactive form. The most common form of this is neutron activation, where a neutron released by a splitting atom is absorbed by another nucleus, converting the other nucleus into an unable form. For example, non-radioactive Cobalt-59 might absorb a neutron and become the very radioactive Cobalt-60, so that a sample of cobalt near a neutron emitter can become radioactive even if none of the original radioactive material comes along with it.


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

[User]
[Jurassic Park] I read a fan theory that the animals in Jurassic Park were actually created by genetically modifying existing birds and reptiles, not by cloning DNA from mosquito butts, why would they lie about that? and how have they kept the secret for 22 years?

why are raptors created by devolving chickens less impressive than ones created by cloning? also people aloud   to touch the animals in the petting zoos, it would would be so easy for a competitor to take some DNA samples and figure out the supposed sauropods is really just elephant iguana  hybrids?

[Assistant]
I haven't heard of this theory, but if you're the Jurassic Park company, advertising dinosaurs is more attractive than advertising Genetically modified birds. Never mind the genetic similarities, the average consumer doesn't appreciate that. So it's likely a marketing desicion.

As for the deception, it would be very easy. One would only keep a few key scientists in the know, and the rest would simply be working on DNA of unknown origin. Most geneticists wouldn't be able to determine the truth without a lengthy study using very specialized equipment and knowledge. So even if a few people suspect the JP company of lying, no one wants to expends the resources to find out for sure.


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

[User]
When I pour water from a container with a small opening, why does it appear to twist?

I say water, but I suppose this applies to any liquid with low viscosity.  As the liquid leaves the exit, it seems to spiral down into the cup I'm pouring it in.  Why?

[Assistant]
It's not twisting - it's oscillating.

Surface tension tries to pull a poured liquid into a circular cross-section.  If the liquid emerges from the spout with some other shape (say, an ellipse with the north-south axis being larger than the east-west axis), that bit of liquid will oscillate as it falls.  It will shrink along the north-south axis, and grow along the east-west axis, and inertia will cause it to overshoot.  Viscosity damps this oscillation.

As the liquid falls, it gathers velocity, and so its cross-sectional area diminishes.  At some point, the stream becomes so narrow that surface tension dominates and the amplitude of these 'elliptical' oscillations diminishes (while their frequency increases).  The stream becomes a narrow circle.  Eventually it stretches to the point that surface tension is insufficient to hold it together, and it breaks into droplets.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do designers have strange cloths on cat walk ? Does any one actually buy them ?

[Assistant]
The clothes on the catwalks- generally speaking- aren't intended to be purchased whatsoever, nor are they really intended to even be worn by people. The crazy fashion you see at haute couture shows can be more compared to, say, a sculpture or fine arts piece. It's about the designer's vision, not the wearer. You're supposed to just look at and enjoy the whimsical designs and wild creations.

These designers- based on their catwalk designs- will later design haute couture pieces at high prices for rich clientele. These pieces will be INFLUENCED by the catwalk design, but made more practical. Major design houses will then hire these designers based on their successful haute couture sales to design limited, expensive lines. These in turn are imitated by pricy but more common brands to be sold at Macy's and the likes. Those will then be imitated by common brands found at places like Target.

Each generation, however, moves further from the original inspiration and becomes more utilitarian. .


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

[User] Why is the outside of the human body symmetrical while the inside is not?

[Assistant] The organs, muscles etc. are 'packaged' super efficiently. If it were symmetrical, then nothing would be able to fit, as every organ would have to be set out in a straight line (unless there were 2 of the organ i.e. kidney). This would make it a logistical nightmare, as, if every organ was laid out end to end, thus being symmetrical, then it would cover something like 6 metres from mouth to anus. It has to be compressed and convoluted in order to fit inside the body in the first place.


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

[User]
I don't think being vegan helps animals. CMV.

I don't see the benefit in not eating animal products such as milk. I made a tumblr post about this earlier, and it seemed to piss off alot of people. Cows will still need to be milked, and chickens will still lay eggs (regardless of whether or not the eggs are fertilized, so technically, by eating an egg, you are not eating a baby chicken). I feel bad for the animals that are mistreated in facilities, but as long as the animals are properly cared for before they are used for their products and come from high quality sources, I don't see how being vegan helps. I am really interested to see the responses, because I feel pretty strongly on this.

[Assistant]
>You feel bad for the animals that are mistreated in facilities

Well then what ways can we limit the suffering of these animals?  Currently, these factory farms are the only way to produce meat and eggs in a way that can actually meet demand.  If you want to end this suffering, you must reduce the market and demand for meat.  Once companies realize that treating animals like this is bad for buisness, they're going to try and keep their current customers by raising animals in a way that doesn't make the market cringe.

Vegans reduce demand for meat and make it possible and necessary for companies to institute less efficient models of food production.


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

[User] What would happen if two black holes of equal size were within each other's event horizon?

[Assistant] You would end up with one black hole with a mass equal to the sum of the masses of the original black holes. The singularities would end up meeting, just like what happens to any other object that falls into a black hole.


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

[User]
ELI5: Peru is the world leader in producing counterfeited dollars with super good quality, and those are just individuals, so if a small group of people can do that why wouldn't corrupt governments print dollars since they already have more resources to them?

I just watched this small documentary on ViceNews on youtube that was really well made. It shows how Peru is the number one country at producing faker dollars. So I was wondering if those individuals can already produce such dollars with really close textures, security features and everything why wouldn't corrupt government overseas do the same since they already have all the printing machine, more experts and resources etc?

[Assistant]
They can and do.  North Korea and Iran, in particular, are suspected to print counterfeit dollars.

However, those countries have the same problem that drug dealers have when trying to spend the money.  For example, if you show up at a bank with $50,000 in cash and try to make a deposit the bank will ask you where you got the money from.  If you can't demonstrate that the money came from a legitimate source, the bank will refuse to accept it because of the risk that you made the money from selling drugs or some other illegal activity.

Likewise, legitimate companies, banks, and governments will be very suspicious of cash payments being made in dollar bills that are coming from countries which don't have a legitimate source of dollar income.

This means that countries printing fake dollars can only use them to make payments to small entities in places where oversight is lax, like India or Pakistan, which itself severely limits the amount of counterfeit dollars that they can produce in a year.


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

[User] ELI5: How do sharks sense/smell blood in the water so quickly and efficiently?

[Assistant] Smelling is a shark's primary sense. Their nostrils are on the outside of their body, and they only use them for smelling not breathing. Water continuously flows through a sharks nostrils interacting with highly sensitive membranes that feed information to the shark's brain. This information allows a shark to pinpoint the source of blood.


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

[User] ELI5: why does the new sprint cut your bill in half promotion not include T-Mobile?

[Assistant] Because some of us on T-Mobile pay $35 a month for 200 minutes, unlimited text, and unlimited data (full speed capped at 2.5GB/mo). Sprint would probably lose money taking customers at $17.50 a month for all that.


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

[User] Why are blueprints always that colour?

[Assistant] They're not really anymore. They were for a long time because of the method used to make them. Special paper was treated with chemicals that would be hit with light passed through something like an old slide projector. The lighted image allowed for the white lines to show up. Now, we have big printers that are just like the one you might have on your desk, so you can just print big diagrams with color and everything.


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

[User]
[MCU] Thor had his magic hammer and belt - did Loki get similarly powerful gifts from Odin?

If so, what were they?

If not, why not?

[Assistant]
I don't know about MCU, but the whole reason the dwarves forged items of power was because Loki tricked them into it.

1. Loki steals Freya hair (Like, at the root. Really).
2. Thor threatens to break every bone in Loki's body. Everyday. Forever.
3. Loki promises to get *better* hair.
4. Loki suggests to the dwarves that they compete for "Best Blacksmith Ever" and also suggests one of the items be Golden Ever-Growing Hair, pleasethankyouverymuch.

Loki doesn't *get* anything out of the deal, *per se*. But does get to keep his head, despite losing a bet to one of the dwarves about the outcome of the competition.


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

[User]
ELI5: the difference between a psychologist and a psychiatrist

I have a feeling I know the difference on some levels, but I still get confused. Especially when I want to explain it to someone else, I can't find all the right words.

edit: thanks everyone for your insightful answers!

[Assistant]
A psychiatrist is a medical doctor, who went to medical school and chose to specialize in psychiatry (just like how other medical students choose to specialize in being heart doctors or lung doctors).  A psychiatrist prescribes medicine and uses medicine to make you feel better.
A psychologist does not use medicine. Instead psychologists use other methods for therapy such as counselling and making life and mentality alterations to make improve mental health.

Some times psychiatrists don't think medicine is the fix for a patient so they refer them to a psychologist.

Hope that helps.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does Microsoft care so much about people using Edge?

I understand pushing Bing over Google due to revenue from advertisements, but what benefit does Microsoft gain from people using Edge over chrome?

[Assistant]
Your user data is a valuable advertising tool, directed ads are *worth money*.

You may recall that a law was passed saying your isp gets to sell your browsing data.. **Google has been collecting that kind of data for years!** That's why you get targeted google ads. If you search for a new deep fryer on google, then you start getting ads for deep fryers nestled in your gmail and on websites with google ads. They sold you out for those valuable clicks.

If you use Edge, Microsoft gets to farm that data instead of google and Microsoft gets to target you for targeted ads instead.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does alcohol make you confident?

I know it's to do with losing your inhibitions etc. but I was wondering what Physical/mental/chemical processes within the brain are actually involved with confidence and how does alcohol change that?

[Assistant]
Alcohol is a GABA ~~agonist~~ positive allosteric modulator.

This means it affects certain receptors in your brain that modulate "inhibition". You brain needs to get excited in order to do things - but it also needs a way to calm down to avoid freaking out in a state of hyperactivity. In general, GABA accomplishes this.

We find that certain mental states, like anxiety, are correlated to different levels of GABA activity. More GABA, more inhibition, less anxiety (and also less physical coordination, etc). Other compounds that act on GABA receptors include the benzodiazepines, like Xanax, which are used to treat anxiety. The effects of alcohol on anxiety tend to come into perceivable effect at lower doses than those that affect physical coordination.

Basically, alcohol acts on certain receptors in your brain that "calm" the brain, which results in a generalized reduction in anxiety. This, for many people, tends to result in an increase in confidence.


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

[User] ELI5: How much do insects know? What do we know about bug consciousness?

[Assistant] Bug brains are what we call ganglia. It's the middle ground between regular neurons and an actual brain. Think of it as a simple machine, it reads sensory receptions and then dishes out appropriate responses.  There isn't any actual "thinking" going on.


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

[User]
How do I really reach diverse groups of PhD candidates?

Hi all,

I am a researcher at a German Uni in climate physics, non-binary and neurodiverse (and not German not English). At last, I am at the point where I will be advertising my own PhD position. However, from past experiences and friends' ones, I noticed that there is a lack of diverse applications.
Does anyone has some suggestion on how to improve it in the pool of candidates?
I am aware that removing the looked traits as mandatory, helps. But what else?

Cause for myself the "the university X strives for a diverse blabla" does not work, it seems like prepacked front-words .. and I wonder if I am not the only one.
Any suggestion on how to improve it is welcome!! :) thanks!

[Assistant] actively recruit. As in you go out and find folks that you think would do well, either by social media groups or conferences - am thinking of professional organizations like oSTEM or National Society of Black Engineers, or conferences like The Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS) - which of course may not fit with climate physics but something similar for your field.


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

[User] ELI5: In a motorcycle, why is the neutral position typically above the first gear and below the second?

[Assistant]
This pattern (6-5-4-3-2-neutral-1) keeps the bike in gear at all times until you purposely put it into neutral with a half click up from first.

If the neutral position was at the bottom position (6-5-4-3-2-1-neutral) you would need to shift out of neutral every time you stop or slow down to be sure you are in first gear.


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

[User]
Why isn't the steam released from nuclear reactors radioactive?

So unless my understanding on how the reactors work is wrong, don't they use the radioactive material to create steam to turn the turbines? Wouldn't this cause some radioactive material to be released with the steam?

[Assistant]
Massive oversimplification, but:

A.The fuel is clad in tubes, so there isn't any direct contact between the fuel and the cooling water.

B. the cooling water isn't directly turned into steam. It is kept under pressure to prevent it from boiling.

C. The superheated cooling water is pumped through a heat exchanger. The water in the heat exchanger then boils, and that is where the steam in generated.


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

[User]
If gravity is a wave, is it possible to create standing gravity waves?

Can gravity waves be reflected? Would there be points where wave interference would create anti-gravity?

[Assistant]
While in principle possible, the problem here is that gravity couples extremely weakly.

Let's say you wanted to make a standing wave in a tank of water. Well, the waves reflect off of the sides of the tank (that is some pretty strong coupling), so all you have to do is drive the water at some point (not a node) at one of the normal mode frequencies of water waves in the tank. Easy.

Ok, now let's say you wanted to make a standing wave in the ocean. That's harder, because if you drive the water in one place, the waves are not confined. But don't let that stop you! You can still do it, but now you have to do something like have a wave generator that's a ring and drive this ring up and down to generate a standing wave in the interior.  Harder but since you can generate waves wherever you want, you can still do it.

What if you didn't get to generate waves wherever you wanted to? Well then you'd be pretty hard pressed to create standing waves. This is the case with gravitational waves.

Sure, you can generate ridiculously tiny gravitational waves wherever you want -- you are already doing that all the time. But to generate any sizable gravitational waves takes a very large time varying mass quadrupole moment -- that is, enormous mass, very compact[1], moving a significant fraction of the speed of light, and accelerating. Basically you're asking for a compact binary system, which you can't just choose to put anywhere you want in space.

Finally, this would not create "anti-gravity". A gravitational wave is a propagating degree of freedom, just like a radio wave is a propagating degree of freedom. A radio wave is not the same thing as charging up a balloon so that it sticks to your hair. Similarly, a gravitational wave is not that part of gravity that makes you fall toward the Earth. They are different *components* of the metric (or curvature)[2].

[1] Compactness can be measured dimensionlessly as GM/(Rc^2) for some object of mass M, radius R, with G being Newton's constant and c being the speed of light in vacuum. This is O(1) for black holes, O(0.1) for neutron stars, and tiny for basically everything else in the universe.

[2] Ask if you want to know more about this.

EDIT: Just some typos.


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

[User]
How much does what you do your PhD in affect what research you can do if you become a professor?

In other words, how far from your PhD can you stray and still get funding? What if you do your Master's in one subfield and your PhD in another, can you do research in both fields? Computer science/software engineering specifically if that makes any difference.

[Assistant]
If you can show evidence in your funding proposal (participation in a related project, publications etc) that you are capable of what you want the money to do, then your specific PhD topic is not really relevant.
Your PhD topic becomes less relevant with time as you career evolves.


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

[User] Eli5: why is Spanish often considered "easier" than German for native English speakers to learn, despite English being a Germanic language?

[Assistant]
Spanish has no noun case system while German has four noun cases. Spanish has two noun genders while German has three. Overall the learning curve for grammar is harder in German. English being a Germanic language means that English and German have developed from a common ancestor language. However, English has experienced a massive French and Latin influence, and Latin is the common ancestor language of French and Spanish. For this reason you will encounter a lot of similar words in English and Spanish.

TLDR: English and German are related, but English and Spanish are kinda like fellow students or something. Im sure you have some friends whom you understand better than some relatives.


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

[User] ELI5: How did Christmas become associated with a snowy/wintery landscape and aesthetic, given Christianity didn't originate from a nordic country?

[Assistant] Christianity had the habit of usurping exiting religions as it converted a population. Pre-existing gods, or their domains were converted or taken over by Saints and their religious holidays were converted into Christian ones. Samhain became a 3 day holiday of Halloween, All Saint's Day, and all Souls Day. Spring festivals became Easter. And Solstice festivals such as Yule or the festivals of Sol Invictus became Christmas.


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

[User]
How do we use our legs to walk?

More specifically, how do our muscles, bones, tendons and ligaments work together to make walking possible?

[Assistant]
Falling with Style.

With much practice, our eyes and inner-ears work together to provide the brain with information.  We aren't aware that this is going on, but fun house spinning tunnels mess with our eyes and spinning around really fast messes with our inner ears, both making walking difficult.

We don't "think about walking" the same way you don't think to remove your hand from something hot. You just react.  When your inner-ear (very tiny hairs in a fluid which sway like trees in the wind) says "I am falling left" your brain reacts by shifting to the right.  You are almost always falling, but the brain reacts so smoothly and consistently that you can hardly notice it.  Try this.  Spin around 10 times, then stop, stand on one foot, and close your eyes.  Standing up becomes very, very challenging.

Walking is just falling forwards and catching yourself over and over again.


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

[User] Are there any mammals with the same or similar vocal range/abilities as humans?

[Assistant]
Dogs actually have pretty similar ranges as humans, from a deep bark to a high pitched wimper.

More interesting is vocal ability question... Both birds and (some) whales are known to be able to imitate human speech.


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

[User]
ELI5 why some people have naturally curly hair and others straight?

I know it's genetic but I want to know why everyone doesn't have the same.

[Assistant]
Hair is made up of keratin fibers, just like your nails. As it forms, the protein twists and turns, folding around itself and doing some pretty weird things, but because more keratin is being formed behind them, they get pushed out at a regular rate, and this is why hair grows.

Thing is though, in some people, the keratin containers more of 2 specific chemicals, building blocks called amino acids, than in other people. These amino acids are called cysteine and methionine, and they both contain sulphur (The stuff that gives rotten egg gas and farts part of it's terrible smell). The thing about sulphur, though, is that it likes sticking to other bits of sulphur, and when it gets stuck on the side of this windy protein fiber, the amino acid it's attached to, methionine, likes getting stuck to cysteine, and they start winding up together. This means the hair gets all twisty and turny like the fibers inside it. In normal hair, this doesn't happen much, but in curly hair, there's lots of cysteine and methionine, and so they get twistier and turnier.

When you straighten your hair, though, you split the methionine and cystenine apart by making them reaaaally hot, just like how spaghetti gets squishy and breaks apart when you boil it. When this happens, the hair stops sticking together and it goes straight again, but over time, the methionine and cysteine match up again, and that's why it doesn't last forever, just like how spaghetti can get harder again if you leave it out after cooking.

Thing is, people's genetics make them more likely to produce lots of methionine and cysteine in their hair, which is why it gets curly.


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

[User] Why can we eat sushi raw but not other meats?

[Assistant]
The short answer is: If it's clean, you can.

Weather we can eat a food raw or not depends on if it carries things that might make us sick, or might have picked up something that would make us sick.

In particular, with Sushi, fish is processed in methods that separate the "dirty" bits quickly, and completely.  (gutting a fish)  That leave you with clean, safe, slabs of fish to work with.  Also, things that make fish sick, don't necessarily make people sick.  Importantly, care is taken so the surfaces of the deceased fish are kept clean.

Something such as beef, isn't processed as cleanly, or quickly.  And cleaning and speerating the cuts isn't as clean.  They also can be made sick by the same things that make us sick.

If you treat "meat" right, raw meat is just fine for you.  Steak Tartare, and Carpaccio are both rare preparations of beef.  If you take the same sort of care that you do with fish, you "can" eat meat raw.

Rare steak, is essentially raw in the middle.  The advantage there is by quickly cooking the outside, you kill the bugs that might be on the meats surface.

There are also other ways of making meat "clean" that don't involve cooking. Pickling, salting, smoking, all could still be "raw" food, depending on how you define it.


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

[User] [ELI5] Why do these lawmakers say "I move to strike the last word" as the first thing when they start talking... what does it mean? (SOPA talks)

[Assistant]
Anyone offering an amendment gets to talk for 5 minutes, so by saying "I move to strike the last word", they are satisfying that requirement. This is also why you will typically hear the response "The gentlemen is recognized for 5 minutes", whenever they make this request.

In theory someone could second the motion and then there would be a vote on whether to strike the last word, but you won't see this happen since it's just a mechanism used by all members to allow for extended discussion on a topic.


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

[User]
Burnt out - want to quit research project

(somewhat venting - mainly asking advice on how to talk to PI about burnout)

\[Recent Graduate BS - 2020 - USA\]

I've been with this lab for 2 yrs as an undergrad and started a research project with them for my senior dissertation. They wanted to turn the project into something publishable and I agreed thinking I could do it. We had bumps along the way with figuring out how to do our project and it somewhat changed so now it's just taking longer to complete. I've since graduated in 2020 and am still working on this with them (2yrs on this project) but after I graduated, I really just wanted to move on and have the project passed on to another undergrad to finish, though I know I've made a commitment to create this paper with them. I honestly don't care about having my name first on the publication at this point - which was something that enticed me at first being an undergrad. I'll be starting graduate school in fall and really want to cut ties with this project.  I just feel like it's being dragged out and I want to focus on a project that's more my own.

I'm not sure how to approach my PI about this - like it'll probably look bad since I'm going to do more research in grad school right? And if I drop out of this project it won't look good on my resume or something, or say something about me as a researcher? I'm not sure if it's a bad thing that I don't care about it would I look if I stop this project, I just want to be done with it.

[Assistant] In research, there is always going to be an ongoing project. You might be working on 5 at a time in various stages of publication. This is just the nature of the job. Just move on and make sure to discuss authorship and how to keep in the loop regarding publication before you leave, preferably in writing. PIs understand the nature of research and the revolving door for students.


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

[User]
[40K] So what were relations between Humanity and the Eldar Empire like before 30K and the Fall.

Did they even care that Humans were expanding all over the Galaxy?

[Assistant]
By the 25th millennium the Eldar already had the pleasure cults and decadence that led to the fall, at this point it's very unlikely the Eldar would have concerned themselves with humanity (or anything else) except when the Humans attempted to settle Eldar worlds.

Between the 15th and 25th millennium is more debatable. The Eldar didn't seem to consider humanity a threat (if they had, they were at the height of their power so could have eradicated the Humans), which to me indicates they were already on the path to the fall. They may have been a tad more aggressive with humans, perhaps keeping them off of Necron worlds in addition to Eldar worlds but the fact that Humanity made it that far, certainly indicates a lack of open hostility.


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

[User]
Why dont we have vaccines for all Herpes Viruses?

Ok so I hope I dont sound like a complete idiot, keep in mind I have very little medical knowledge. So we have vaccines for shingles and chicken pox, which are herpes viruses. However we dont have a vaccine for Cold sores, Genital Herpes, or Mononucleosis (also a herpes virus). Why is this? I know they are obviously different mutations but they all stem from the same viral tree. Is this something that the medical community is working on or is it a lost cause to find an umbrella Herpes vaccine?

[Assistant] Vaccines work by training your immune system to respond to the pathogen. Herpes simplex virus 1 and 2 (the kinds that cause cold sores and genital sores) are immunoevasive, which means that they have a mechanism to avoid destruction by your immune system. As your immune system begins to respond to the virus, herpes will hide inside nearby nerves (but not destroy them like other tissue). Normally, virus-infected cells are detected by your immune system and destroyed by cytotoxic T cells, but your nerve cells have *immune privilege*, which means your immune system does not attack them. Herpes lies there in a dormant state until a biochemical stressor (high stress, hormonal changes associated with menstrual cycles, new medications, etc) cause them to pop back out and reinfect the nearby tissue. Also, since nerves dont move around, this is why herpes almost always reappears in the same location. It just pops in and out of the same hidey hole.


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

[User]
[MCU] If Spiderman was holding onto webs between 2 buildings, and yanked with all his Spidermany strength, would his arms or his webs snap first?

This is assuming the buildings ~~exist in a frictionless vacuum~~ are indestructible. I'm stumped because his webs have been shown to several tonnes (cars and the like) but then again his body is reinforced/strengthened from the spider juice.

[Assistant] The webs would snap first.  Firstly, they are made with common Earth components. Spider-man's physiology is unnatural, but his webs are self-made by Peter's own design.   And that said, they would be more prone to breaking simply by design.   He wouldnt design a web that could cause his own body fatal injury.


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

[User]
[ASOIAF] Was the kingsguard ever staffed with fighters who were not traditional swordsmen?

Any famous archers, for example?

[Assistant] Balon Swann, a current member of the Kingsguard is described as excellent with a morning star and outstanding with a bow.  He uses a mace in the Battle of the Blackwater and was narrowly beat out by Anguy at the Hand's Tournament for Archery.


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

[User]
What is the difference between 99% humidity and 100%?

Not sure if this is correct but isnt 100% humidity just water. If so, what makes that one percent go from air to water?

[Assistant] Humidity is expressed as a fraction of *saturation*, not the fraction of the air that consists of water. 100% humidity is the maximum amount of water that the air can carry before it condenses into droplets - fog or dew. The actual amount of water carried in the air at, say, 99% humidity, will depend on the temperature of the air. What we're looking at is really "relative humidity" - how the current humidity compares with the maximum possible humidity.


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

[User]
How are wind turbines accelerated from rest? Purely from wind or are they jump-started?

Do they need a motor to get them accelerated to a reasonable rpm or is their movement purely dependent on the wind?

[Assistant] Wind turbines do use starter motors to spin up in low winds. Once the wind reach about 15 mph most turbines have enough inertia to keep spinning even if the wind speed drops to around 7 mph but they still need a starter motor to get going. Some even draw power to keep spinning in freezing weather to keep the blades from icing over.


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

[User] ELI5: Would dyslexic people be okay with languages that aren't letter based such as Chinese? Is that how dyslexia works?

[Assistant]
Dyslexia has several different symptoms, such as orthographical awareness deficiencies, naming speed, motor programming, or even phonological awareness deficiencies. Someone who suffers phonological awareness deficiency might have trouble with latin based alphabets, but not Chinese alphabets. Someone with orthographic awareness deficiency might suffer in Chinese alphabets, but not latin or cyrillic.

It just depends on the kind of dyslexia that they have.


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

[User] Why is human manure bad for crops and us but other animal manure is not?

[Assistant] Human manure isn't significantly more dangerous than any other animal. That said, you should never apply raw manure to any plant that will be consumed by a human - manure from both humans and other animals should be thoroughly composted before use on edible plants. It's important to know that we are already using human waste as fertilizer on a large scale through the reclamation of sewage.


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

[User]
ELI5: How can instruments be in a key?

Background on me: I am a classically trained trombonist who struggles with music theory.

I know that a trombone is in the key of Bb, but what does that mean? The key is determined by the piece your playing? Additionally, a trombone with an F trigger is shifted into the key of F when the trigger is depressed (same with the G trigger on bass trombone). What does that mean? For me it just means that first position is now 6th.

[Assistant]
With instruments it means that the notation is conventionally transposed.

For example: a piano is easy to play in C and music is easy to read in C.

However, a Bb trumpet is easiest to play in Bb. So music for it is commonly written in Bb. But Bb is more difficult to read, unless you enjoy lots of accidentals in the key signature. So the music as written as though it is in C, but C on the stave is sounded as a Bb, D is sounded as a C, and so on.

It therefore means that music in the easiest to read key is easiest to play.


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

[User] ELI5: How can 20 year old movies like Jurassic Park and Terminator 2 have really convincing special effects, whilst the CGI in newer films looks completely unrealistic?

[Assistant]
Well to be honest there are some movies that are just one big special effect ( Gravity or Life of Pi ) that look extremely realistic.

CGI is basically an art form you can think about it like painting a picture. If you rush an artist and only pay him little money your picture will look stupid even with the newest tools like Photoshop.

With CGI this problem is even bigger you need to perfectly fit to the movie scene (shadows, color, size, clipping, ...). And that isn't even enough to make effects look right you need to know about physics and construction to make your imaginary effects look like they could be real.

If you want a realistic dinosaur your artist needs to learn the anatomy of a dinosaur, he needs to learn how dinosaurs move and he needs to make very detailed model (every pump in the skin has to be there to make it look real). And you usually need additional footage from the movie scene to make any reflections perfect. So basically you get what you pay for.


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

[User] ELI5: How do calls to emergency numbers like 911 get placed even without a sim card?

[Assistant]
A SIM card just has the credentials that you need to connect with your network.  Its basically ID for your phone so the tower knows who you are, what your phone number is, what carrier handles your account, etc.

Even without this information, your phone can still see and connect to the tower; the tower _has_ to accept the connection because that is how the SIM data is normally passed on (right after connection).  In normal circumstances, the tower simply rejects your attempt to call without the SIM information - it basically says "No ID, no phone calls."

However, if you dial 911 the tower will accept that call no questions asked.


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

[User] Are venomous snakes immune to other snakes, or other kinds of snakes, venom?

[Assistant]
Somewhat. There are a few different types of venoms that work in different ways. Some that attack blood, the nervous system and just tissue itself.

Some animals contain anti venom to common predators. For example a wood rat can get bitten by certain snakes and still survive.

Keep in mind that venoms need to be injected for them to hurt an animal. If an animal eats the venom, it won't do anything. It must get in the bloodstream to cause issues.

Snakes usually carry anti venom to their own venom, If a snake bites itself, it is unlikely to die. If a snake of the same species bites it, it is unlikely to die. Even though they are unlikely to die, they still can if enough venom enters them, or for some reason the snake doesn't have enough of it's own anti venom.

To answer the second part of your question, it depends on the snake species, and how similar they are. The anti venom might work, it might not. The closer a species they are together, the more likely that their anti venom would protect them.


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

[User]
[Animorphs] How global was the Yeerk invasion?

The Yeerk HQ was based out of Southern California, but the Yeerks had operated for years. Did they branch out from America and build smaller pools in other continents and countries besides America? Or was the invasion largely localized?

[Assistant] Their first priority was the United States, because, IIRC, they first learned about Earth in detail by infesting a human abducted by the Skrit Na during the first Gulf War, and said abductee believed that the United States were the most powerful group on the planet. It wasnt their first encounter with humans (which involved a pair of Americans somewhere around the late 1960s-early 1970s), but it was the one that prompted them to invade after they realised the potential value of humans as hosts.


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

[User] ELI5:Why is it that the barrel of the gun is the part that becomes hot when fired instead of the area where the bullet is struck from?

[Assistant]
1.  The brass shell casing absorbs quite a bit of heat which is then carried with it when it's ejected after each bullet fires.

2.  The area around the chamber tends to have a good deal more metal in it than the barrel, so it takes more energy to heat it up.

3.  The chamber does get quite hot during prolonged firing. Machine guns fire from an open bolt in large part so that you're not putting a live round into a firing chamber that's so hot that it will just go off spontaneously.


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

[User]
ELI5: What changes (if any) occur to the circulatory system when someone becomes an amputee?

Are there pros, cons, or does the heart just know to account for the lost limbs?

[Assistant]
At first, your blood pressure would increase, as the heart is working just was hard to push less blood a shorter distance.

But your circulatory system has a feedback system that monitors both how much blood is needed, and what pressure it is at.  It would eventually recognize the you were getting plenty of blood, and could lower the blood pressure by dilating arteries.


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

[User] ELI5: What happens that causes our voice to sound "old" when we're 70+ years old?

[Assistant] As we age our vocal cords and surrounding muscles start to wear out which results in a change of pitch and adds extra vibrations making our voices sound more rough. You can think of a new guitar string compared to an old stretched out, worn, or frayed guitar string.


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

[User]
Does the Sun have poles?

Similar to either the two geographical or magnetic poles that Earth has? Do stars in general have poles?

If the Sun does have poles, are the orbits of most planets roughly perpendicular to the Sun's polar axis?

[Assistant]
The sun rotates. So yeah the North and South pole are the points where the rotational axis coincides with the surface. Furthermore the sun has a magnetic field that has a significant dipole component. This dipole is aligned with the rotational axis, so the dipole poles are at the North and Southpole as well.
The planets orbit roughly on the solar equatorial plane. The orbits are slightly inclined but only a few degrees. (Pluto has a much stronger inclination with ~17, another factor that makes it different from the other planets.)


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

[User] [MCU] In Iron Man 2 (2010), Stark tells congress other countries are 5-10 years away from a functional imitation of the Iron Man suit. Are Russian or North Korean Iron Men knockoffs currently posing a threat to the west?

[Assistant] No, our Crimson Dynamo project is strictly defensive measure. Unlike some people we won't name, Russian Federation doesn't have a policy of sending our Winter Guard all over the world to mess with perceived injustices.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does eating "junk" food after a long time of eating "clean" wholesome food result in discomfort in the body.

Like if you have been eating wholesome healthy meals for a long time without consuming "junk food" (e.g. fried/oily food, fast food), your body will feel discomfort when such "junk food" are consumed compared to people who have been eating "junk food" regularly in conjunction with normal wholesome meals.

[Assistant]
Actually, going from junk food to healthy food also makes you feel discomfort in the early stages.

It's not so much the type of food that makes you feel discomfort, than the sudden change of diet. Your body is simply not used to breaking down these ingredients and needs time to adapt. In the meantime, you feel discomfort because your body is struggling to take care of these long-forgotten type of food.


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

[User] Eli5: Why are tears, sweat, and nasal (whatever the right term is) salty? What is the purpose and function?

[Assistant]
The saltiness is how the body extrudes the water. Cells can't actively move water by themselves - they have to kind of *persuade* the water to move by itself. Water loves salt. But water is also socialist - it spreads out by itself so that every water molecule gets the same level of access to salt. So, when a cell wants water to move somewhere, it has to bait it. The cell picks up some of the salt it has inside itself and pushes it out into the sweat gland. Then, the water notices that there's less salt inside the cell but lots of unclaimed salt *outside* the cell, so a big horde of socialist water zombies charge out of the cell and hang out in the sweat gland with all the salt - enough socialist water zombies until each socialist water zombie both inside and outside the cell has equal access to salt.

Now of course, this is all just a clever ruse by the cell - once the water is outside the body, the sun's energy is free to evaporate it. Most of the water will do this, leaving just a kind of sticky, salty sheen on the skin.


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

[User]
[Torchwood] I've just joined Torchwood... who's actually paying me??

Hi guys

I answered a vague job advert in Cardiff and have just joined a rather sketchy organisation called Torchwood. They seem to live in a sewer and this guy tells me that they are "outside the government and beyond the police."

So like... are these guys actually legal? Lots of things are outside the government and beyond the police. Like tramps living under a sewer. Is this an actual proper organisation which is accountable to some authority or just a group of crazies?

The boss claims that Torchwood was set up by Queen Victoria, so does that mean this is some sort of secret organisation run by the Queen? Do we report directly to her and have meetings with her and no-one else knows we exist? Is that even something that can happen in this day and age? How does this even work?

I did ask if the government knows about us, but I was told they keep sending people to kill us half the time. Is my paycheck handled by Civil Service HR?

How screwed am I?

BRB - I've been told to go out on a mission because there's been a sighting of 'alien sex gas' or something. I assume that's a euphemism.

[Assistant]
Torchwood Cardiff is probably mostly funded by ownership of patents for initially alien technology, and accounts set up by Captain Jack Harkness himself. While the initial plan was to work for The Crown, which escalated into an implied attempt to create a new and possibly expanded British Empire ready to fight aliens as though they were opposing military forces, Jack states that an unspecified amount of those old goals were left behind when Torchwood One was destroyed in the Battle of Canary Wharf.

I wouldn't be surprised if at the point of the series pilot, Torchwood has no official backing whatsoever, and has merely gained the appearance and abilities of a "government" agency through careful use of money, retcon, and other advanced tech.


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

[User]
[Futurama] In ep1, why did Bender want to kill himself if he believed that after death he'd wake up in a new shell?

Why would he try to kill himself if he knew that after he died his AI would be transferred to a back-up body?

Was he just hoping that his new body wouldn't end up bending girders for suicide booths?  Wouldn't he just be shipped back there as a replacement?

[Assistant] Cause he was bored. Robots are shown to be hedonists pretty much all the time (Hedonismbot nonwithstanding), Bender was just having a dull day and decided to kill himself as a lark. Notice that once he and Fry start hanging out he completely drops the idea of killing himself, cause now he has something better to do.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does the music industry still make money when all music is available for free or almost for free online?

It used to be you had to spend $20 on just one CD. People would spend thousands on CD collections.

These days you can access so much for free, and what isn't free you can get for $10/month or less. Music piracy was rampant in the late 90s and 2000s with MP3s, these days no one even bothers with that because it's all free anyway.

How do they still make money?

[Assistant] It's all in the "almost for free".  That money pays everybody in the music industry.  That was the solution, make music cheap enough that people choose to pay for it.  With enough people, that's plenty of money.


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

[User] ELI5: Does caffeine actually stunt your growth?

[Assistant]
No.

Well.  How much caffeine are we talking about?  So much that it affects your overall calorie intake?  Because it can calm your appetite, so theoretically, you might end up starving yourself.  It happens with people who take caffeine pills as uppers or as diet pills.

But no.  There is nothing about caffeine itself that will limit your final form.


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

[User] [DC] I seem to remember Batman saying Plastic Man could potentially be the most dangerous man alive. Is he really that powerful?

[Assistant]
Most dangerous *man*.

Specifically human. Strictly speaking, plastic mans powers are incredibly diverse and amazing. Super strength on the level of Martian Manhunter, insane reflexes, a brilliant mind, unparalleled regeneration, and nigh immortality. Plus the sheer diversity of his abilities allows him to alter his fighting style to suit whoever he is fighting.

There are obviously more dangerous supers around in DC but think about it, most are aliens.

By Bruce's standards he's one the most powerful humans in the league.


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

[User]
[ASOIF/Game of thrones] What was the significance of there not being an afterlife with the Red priests?

Benderric tells the Red Lady that he's only ever seen "darkness" in the afterlife and she gets really scared.

Then, I don't think it's ever revisited.

The only thing I can think of is that the "Red God" is bullshit, and everything is a series of lies or theatrics. Dondarrion comes back to life around the same time magic comes back to the world (the red comet/dragons) and the Red Priest buys cheap swords from Gendry's master to set them alight as a scare tactic to his enemies, probably with some kind of chemical.

[Assistant]
> and the Red Priest buys cheap swords from Gendry's master to set them alight as a scare tactic to his enemies, probably with some kind of chemical.

He used to do that, he used wildfire. He no longer needed to when the red comet appeared.


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

[User]
ELI5: How your body knows you slept enough and wakes you up?

Always wondered how that work.

[Assistant] It's pretty intuitive. Your body goes through cycles of sleep. You'll naturally sleep deeply for a while and lightly for a while. Sooner or later, you reach a point in a cycle where you're sleeping lightly enough that something is able to break through and disturb you - for instance, hunger, thirst, worry, pain, a full bladder, a sound. The more urgent the stimulus, the less deeply you have to be asleep for it to disturb you. If nothing pressing comes up you can sleep for a long time, but sooner or later your body will always need to eat, drink, pee, go to work, answer the phone, relieve pressure off your aching shoulder, find out where that damn car alarm is coming from, etc.


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

[User]
CMV: Terminally Ill Individuals Should Be Able To Elect For Assisted Suicide

While the right to die is of course a very sensitive subject and can involve a lot of controversy; I feel that narrowing the scope of the subject down to the terminally ill makes it much easier to discuss. Whenever we, or at least I, think of death, I always think of my loved ones, which is why I think the subject matter is so sensitive. We as a collective rarely ever want to admit defeat to even the thought of losing someone precious to us; so, I feel that there is this societal pressure that makes it feel like it is unacceptable to let go. Given this; given the fact that we truly care for our loved ones, we might, or even should, be obligated to consider our loved ones' right as an individual to decide their fate. This is otherwise known as "self-determination'. Maybe, we are obliged to allow a person, especially one who's terminally ill and fated to die within the foreseeable future anyway, the right to choose when and how they would like to die. A more suitable term that I've seen used is "death with dignity". This may be especially pertinent when considering an individual who may be facing what they may consider particularly horrible deaths, such as morphine resistant pain. So, I consideration of this, though it may not feel right; perhaps giving terminally ill individuals the right to die, as other modern societies have, may be the more ethical option.

Thank you all for your thoughtful input, as someone new to Reddit I never expected such a high response rate. This has been really nice. :)

[Assistant]
"I feel that narrowing the scope of the subject down to the terminally ill makes it much easier to discuss."

Couple of problems with that sentence.  First, who gets to decide what constitutes terminal illness?  If you have a rare disease that is terminal in 99.6 percent of all known cases within five years, what about the 0.4 percent who survive longer than that?  Also, if we say people with terminal illness can commit assisted suicide, when?  Do they get to do it when they still feel reasonably well, or do they have to wait till the agony sets in?

Further, mental illness is just as much an illness as any physical illness, and can also be incurable.  Who gets to decide whether incurable mental illness which often results in suicide constitutes "fatal" illness?

Also, if self determination is a right, why is it only a right of people in pain?

I feel these questions, among 100 others like them, make a strong case for ALL individuals having the right to assisted suicide.


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

[User] How do dryer sheets work and how do they control static?

[Assistant]
"Static," otherwise known as contact charging, happens when two different materials touch each other.  Wool on nylon, the nylon ends up negative, and the wool ends up equally positive.  This works best when all of the water has been baked out of the materials.  (Dampness is conductive, and it can short out the opposite charges as fast as they can be separated.)

Now suppose both of those materials are coated with oil?  It doesn't take much, just a molecules-thin layer.   Oil is now touching oil, not nylon touching wool.   No more contact-charging effect.   The oily dryer sheets can halt the buildup of high voltage.   But if it was already there, then the oil does nothing.

Trivia:  science teachers have to learn to never use WD40 spray lube on their classroom VandeGraaff electrostatic generators.   If just the tiniest, most microscopic bit should get on the belt and rollers, the whole thing stops working.  A "VDG" needs the nylon or the felt rollers to be touching the rubber belt, with no molecule-thin oil layers getting in the way.  Fortunately WD40 is actually a solvent, so given enough days will entirely dry up.   If non-WD40 oil such as greasy fingerprints should ever get on the belt/rollers, the whole thing has to be opened up and scrubbed well with flowing alcohol.


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

[User] ELI5: How can we get sick from eating/drinking unfit products (infected/poisonous/rotting) when our stomachs are full of an acid that can break down most organic substances?

[Assistant]
People get the wrong idea about stomach acid. It's not strong enough to dissolve most things, it's more like the the bottle of dilute HCl in the school chemistry lab than something like battery acid which will cause burns.You don't get burns in your mouth if you throw up, for instance, just a foul taste and maybe some reddening and irritation.

 The acidity does mostly kill organisms in the food but those bacteria will have produced toxins while they were alive. The toxic effects trigger the body to try and get rid of whatever was causing it by emptying out the digestive system as quickly as possible, from both ends usually!


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

[User] [Dumb and Dumber] Between Harry and Lloyd, who's the smarter of the two?

[Assistant]
Definitely Harry

Lioyd is clearly the dumberer of the two:

He is the catalyst for the whole movie (he grabs the briefcase and tries to take it to Aspen)

He is a horrible driver (Harry is seen driving the ShaggenWagon safely, while Loyd dozes off and fantasizes which almost causes a head on collision and he got fired from his taxi job)

Harry seems to be a little more responsible when it comes to money. He tells Lioyd to "only get the bare essentials". Lioyd then buys a paddleball toy, a large foam cowboy hat, two cases of beer, and then has his wallet stolen by a little old lady (which he claims he never saw coming)

Lioyd drives the ShaggenWagon the wrong way for hours.

Lioyd doesn't get the hint that he has no chance with the girl of his dreams. ("So you're saying there's a chance?")

Lioyd is clearly the dumber one. Harry seems to be a decent driver, and has some degree of financial responsibility (At least with his own money)


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does America mostly use traffic lights at intersections when Europe uses a lot of traffic circles? What are the benefits to either?

My university recently removed a traffic circle in favor of traffic lights. It probably cost a bunch of money because they had to rebuild to whole intersection so it was a traffic light instead of a circle.

What are the benefits to either? Why would they change something that seemingly worked in favor of something that takes twice as long to get through.

[Assistant]
A roundabout (or traffic circle) can usually handle a greater volume of traffic. It's relatively rare, at least outside of the rush hour, for traffic to come to a complete standstill, which is the case with traffic lights. However, roundabouts do force traffic to slow down: at traffic lights, drivers may be tempted to speed through a green light, but at a roundabout you have to slow down. So you have this twin benefit of traffic that slows down (which is safer) but flows more smoothly (which is quicker). Also, while at a standard intersection you have to watch for traffic coming from several different directions, at a roundabout you only need to worry about traffic coming from one direction (from the left in countries that drive on the right, and vice versa).

But there are downsides. First of all, if you have an intersection where lots of pedestrians are likely to be milling around, traffic lights can be programmed to allow pedestrians to cross safely. This isn't possible with roundabouts, where foot bridges or foot tunnels become necessary unless you want to put in crossings on every road just before the roundabout, completely negating most of the advantages. Also, roundabouts can actually become choked at times, and while traffic lights can be programmed to take account of this, roundabouts can't be regulated in this way. Roundabouts also need more space, especially where large trucks and other vehicles have to use them.


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

[User] ELI5: I've heard building mechas is really difficult but there is no problem in building small humanoid robots (Boston Dynamics). So can't we just upscale them and make mechas this way?

[Assistant]
Square-Cube law is a bitch.

If you take a human, and increase them in volume so that length width and height are all 2x bigger, they will be 8 times the volume, but the area of their footprint will only be 4 times as big. The surface area of an object scales squared, while the volume scales by its cube.

This means that the weight per square inch of foot will increase significantly.

There are other similar reasons why things don't just scale up, but most come back to square cube law in some form.


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

[User] [Vampires: the Masquerade] How do newly embraced vampires get their Disciplines? Do they need to be taught them, or do they awaken on their own? How long does it take?

[Assistant]
It seems like it's sort of like fighting.

So, you can just *do* the basics of fighting. Even the most sheltered pacifist can kick at someone. That's innate.

From there, you can self-train. This may take a while, based on natural talent, opportunity to learn, etc etc. but you can do it, and get pretty good if you're good at it.

And, of course, you can get a teacher. This is the quickest way to learn, and probably gets the best result, but it also needs a teacher.

Same kind of principle. The basic uses of the discipline are just there, more complex (that is, higher dot) uses must be learnt, either through practice or training.


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

[User]
[DC] Wonder Woman is (almost?) equal to Superman, yet she has no discernible weaknesses. So why isn't the US government more terrified of her?

The US government has developed several countermeasures against Superman; kryptonite-laced weapons, red-sun weapons etc. And yet, Wonder Woman is (almost?) as powerful as the Man of Steel, but without any discernible weaknesses. She also has numerous "advantages" over Superman; e.g. magic weaponry/resistance.

So why isn't the US government (or any government) more terrified of HER?

[Assistant]
WW is, in a way, easier for them to understand, and in turn easier for them to get comfortable with. She's the ambassador/field agent for a foreign government, which is something that *makes perfect sense* to soldiers and politicians. They know she's got an agenda, that she's got a home base, and a boss. She gets too far off the amazon agenda they'll reel her back in, and if she starts shit they know who to gripe at. For politicians and soldiers, this makes perfect sense. It fits into their world view.

Superman does things for one reason and one reason only; *because he wants to*. The idea that some dude is just going to up and make himself mankind's best buddy is odd, and the awareness that the only thing stopping him is his own will is terrifying. He doesn't mesh with the worldview of people who have a chain of command, a flag, and someone who'll wreck their shit if they do something out of line. Kal El gets tired of the game and starts shit, there's no homeland for you to bomb or hotline for you to call, it's just you and the Man of Steel in a metaphorical steel cage. And since the in-universe U.S. lacks out of universe knowledge of how solid a guy Superman is, they need to make their plans on the worst case scenario. And that means harvesting kryptonite, weaponizing red sun energy, and cutting Lexcorp a billion dollar check for defense just in case the Big Boy Scout decides to skullfuck the President *because he wants to*.


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

[User]
[The Thing] How intelligent is the organism from 'The Thing'(1982)?

Is it just a parasite following extremely strong survival instincts with some basic reasoning or is it smarter than the humans? Would a smart survival strategy for the Thing be to actually communicate with the humans?

[Assistant]
At the beginning of the film its spacecraft is seen crashing into Earth thousands of years ago. It's possible that the Thing was just a stowaway on the ship with no knowledge of how to fly it. But the fact that it goes about assembling a rudimentary craft to escape towards the end of the film would seem to undercut that notion. So it's smart enough to fly and build a vessel capable of intergalactic travel.

Furthermore, once it has assimilated a human it is able to convincingly mimic their prior behavior to the point that other actual humans cannot tell the difference. It knows our language, customs, abstract concepts, etc. That suggests it is quite capable of opening up a dialogue with humans if it so desired. However, its ultimate goal is the assimilation of all life on Earth, something no human being will be amenable to. So communicating with humans would be pretty pointless.


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

[User] [SCP] How are memetic agents manufactured?

[Assistant]
Ahh, that's easy.

First you >!redactedredactedredacted!< and then you need to combine that with >!redactedredacted!<...Unless its to be an aerosol, then you substitute  >!redactedredacted!< with horseradish.


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

[User]
[Marvel] Why DO people hate mutants for their powers but love the Avengers?

It seems very nonsensical and hypocritical.

[Assistant] The average mutant is a terrified teenager who can't control their usually destructive powers. The average Avenger is a heavily propagandized paragon of American ideals or a sexy, charismatic billionaire philanthropist playboy.


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

[User]
Why does the Bluetooth still suck?

I mean seriously in 2020 why don't we have a better technology that can transmit audio through a wall or in the other room when WiFi can do it?

[Assistant]
This seems like it must be a rhetorical question. If it isnt then youre asking the wrong question. If you understood the reasons that these two technologies were created you would be able to ask a more enlightened question. Perhaps someone here is willing to go into more detail. The WiFi standard was originally approved in 1991 with development driven by AT&T & NCR. The goal of WiFi is essentially to move data packets via a wireless network. The original Bluetooth standard was written in about 1989 by a guy whose goal was to make a wireless headset. It is designed to have a short range and draw a small amount of power. Wikipedia or Google may be good sources of additional info for you.

Before you downvote this, Ive given this person enough info to go find an answer if they really want it.

Edit: A better question may actually be why hasnt anyone else come up with anything else in the 30 years since the WiFi standard was released? Not really a better question because the standard has been improved (different iterations) as technology has improved.


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

[User] How did Eskimos and Inuits living in harsh and snowy conditions not die of scurvy before modern food transportation?

[Assistant]
Scurvy is the lack of vitamin C which the human body cannot synthesize.

Vitamin C is available in organ meats and in whale skin + blubber, which the Inuits call "muktuk". These were their sources for vitamin C during times when berries or other vegetation sources of C were not available.


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

[User] [Joker] Why does Murray let Joker appear on his show with full clown makeup and even let him choose how he wants to be introduced, when he's just a rando he invited so he could make fun of?

[Assistant]
He's already being invited on as a tragic loser for everyone to point and laugh at. Every suggestion Arthur asks of Murray only makes him more of a laughing stock, he looks like a fool, he suddenly thinks he's a big shot comedian and everyone but him can see through the delusion...

In terms of the cruel laughter Murray was hoping to elicit, Murray thought he hit the jackpot.