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

[User]
The McDonalds CEO just returned a $105M golden parachute why was it so big to begin with?

Why do CEOs get such big severance packages? Whats the benefit to the company?

[Assistant]
>Why do CEOs get such big severance packages? Whats the benefit to the company?

A severance package is just another benefit of the job.  The bigger the severance package, the better the benefits.  The better the benefits, the more attractive the position for potential CEOs.  The more attractive the position, the better the CEO, which benefits the company.

Obviously you can ask why these benefits seem absurdly attractive, but that just comes down to supply and demand.  CEOs are apparently worth the cost.  To put it another way, if McDonalds didn't offer such great benefits to the CEO, then good CEOs will look to other companies with better benefits for employment.  Despite the "mythos" surrounding CEOs, it *is* just another job, and CEOs are just people looking to maximize their value in the job market.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] "These tracks are side by side. Sandpeople always ride single file". But why do the Stormtroopers bother attempting the deception?

In *Star Wars: A New Hope*, Stormtroopers searching for R2D2 attack the Jawans, and make it look like an attack by Sand People. Nonetheless, Obi Wan easily sees through their deception. Why do they bother doing it in the first place?

* Scattering sticks and making fake Banta tracks is a waste of time in what's meant to be a search they have to complete quickly.
* The deception is obvious at first glance to Kenobi. If it's a legal question, then presumably it wouldn't stand up to forensic scrutiny.
* This comes just after news that the Emperor has dissolved the Senate and given autonomy to the regional governors, so it's not like there are any political considerations.
* They're Stormtroopers equipped with weapons: the people they were searching for couldn't have stopped them anyway.

So, what was the point of faking an attack by Sand People at all?

[Assistant] The deception was obvious to Obi-Wan. It would not have been obvious to anyone else. For one thing, Obi-Wan was a highly experienced and very intelligent Jedi Master, which nobody would have expected to be in the area. For another thing, Obi-Wan had lived in the Jundland Wastes for nearly 20 years. Over that time, it would have been absolutely necessary to learn how the Sand People move and act. Nobody else traveled the Wastes often or long enough to need to learn that much about Sand People, which were widely considered to be savages and the only good one was a dead one.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Regarding Feliz felicius, the luck potion, if I want to win the lottery, should I use it while making the bet, or at the time they are drawing lots?

Basically, the title. If I just have one dose of the luck potion, and I want to use it to win the lottery, should I use it while making the bet, to have the luck of choose the right numbers, or should I use it at the time the people are drawing lots to have the luck that they are the ones I choose?

[Assistant]
Making the bet.

What the luck potion technically does is make all your actions succeed, or at least be as successful as possible. But you have to meet it half way and actually *do* something for it to amplify. Even with the luck potion, Harry still has to go seek out information on Tom Riddle. He can't just sit in his room and expect Slughorn to stumble in and drunkenly give him a memory.

Making a bet is an action, so it amplifies that and you're very likely to succeed. But sitting there watching people draw lots isn't doing anything, so there's nothing for the luck potion to actually give you luck on. At most, you might be supernaturally good at not losing sight of the TV.


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

[User]
[Stephen King's IT] How did Stanley know?

When the Losers confront It in 1985, Ben realizes that It is pregnant and thinks the following:

>*It was pregnant then and none of us knew except Stan, oh Jesus Christ YES, it was Stan, Stan, not Mike, Stan who understood, Stan who told us...*

1) Why was Stan the only person to notice that It was pregnant?

2) How did Ben come to this understanding about Stan?

3) How does this tie in, if at all, to Stan's decision to commit suicide?

[Assistant] Stan had a bit more of The Shine,  The Touch, Psychic Power, or whatever you want to call it than the others. This made him an easier target for It's power, and the fear it produced probably held sway over him for most of his life.


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

[User] [SciFi] I'm a general of an advanced alien race at war with humans. Despite our technology and experience advantage our laser and plasma rifles are about as strong as their bullets and we lose almost every major battle due to humans outsmarting us tactically. Why is this happening and what can I do?

[Assistant]
Because you keep making the mistake of actually fighting them on the ground, where they can beat you with copious experience on their home planet. When Oda Nobunaga had to fight the Ikko Ikki monks in their impregnable fortresses during the Sengoku period, he threw countless soldiers at their walls for over a decade. In the end, he came to his senses and simply set the whole thing on fire.

Earth is the same. There is nothing an advanced civilization cannot simply scoop off its remains, so just saturate the atmosphere with several thousand nuclear weapons and wait a few years. Make sure to enforce a strict quarantine for ships coming back from Earth!


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

[User]
How does the stomach disallow acids into the intestines and bowels?

I was talking with a friend about a lecture from biochemistry back in school regarding digestion. It occurred to me that I wasn't clear on how stomach acids and digestive enzymes are relegated to the stomach and/or prevented from damaging the pipes downstream.

[Assistant] The stomach itself doesn't disallow the acid into the rest of the plumbing; when the pyloric sphincter opens, chyme (the mix of food, ingested fluids, and stomach acid) flows into the duodenum of the small intestine. Here, the acid would present a hazard to the intestinal epithelium, so it is neutralized by added secretions, in part composed of bicarbonate (which is basic) from the pancreatic duct.


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

[User] ELI5: How does carbonation aid with an upset stomach?

[Assistant] A lot of times nausea is caused by your stomach being very full, not necessarily just with food but also with air.  If you have a bit of soda it can make it easier to burp and release some of the gas in there which puts pressure on the top of your stomach and nerves that make you feel uncomfortably full and nauseous.  Release some of that air and there is less pressure and less nausea.


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

[User]
Post doc tips

What are 3 non negotiable expectations you have when applying to a STEM post doc position? The ones I intend to be made known are:

1. I expect mentorship and training in the techniques and protocols the lab uses

2. Training and experience writing grants

3. A healthy life - work balance.

4. A good environment made up of kind, helpful, and positive people.

Wait. Thats four things.

[Assistant]
Assuming that you're doing a postdoc so that you can become a PI afterwards:

5. How to determine which work you will be able to take with you to your own lab.

6. Mentoring to become independent and getting a job.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do some frozen products say "do not refreeze after defrosting"?

Is there something harmful about it?

If it was already frozen wouldn't it go back to the way it was?

[Assistant]
It has to do with bacteria. When they initially froze it they froze it at the peak of freshness before a lot of bacteria was able to be introduced into it and multiply. When you thaw it out bacteria is able to grow and multiply and make it more of a health hazard. If you then refreeze it, you freeze all that bacteria along with it. So now, if you thaw it again you have an abundance of bacteria that is far more likely to cause food poisoning.

Usually as long as you thouroughly cook something you really don't have a lot to worry about. However, not everyone follows proper cooking procedure so the companies add that to the box to cover themselves.


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

[User]
ELI5: How were websites created before web hosting services?

I know that you can create websites using services like WordPress, but before those existed how did people code websites and put them on the internet?

[Assistant]
<HEADER>HTMLv4 static web pages. <\HEADER>

<BODY>Geocities was a very popular tool with templates to make static HTML pages, or write your own code. You could host there, and setup a CNAME in DNS to get your custom domain to point to it.

There were also services you could rent space on other peoples servers for a monthly fee, just like today, but again: static HTML.

You could also setup a web server in your home. Today it sounds scary AF to open a port in your firewall to a web server on your home network, but frankly back in 1990 almost nobody even had a firewall to speak of.<\BODY>


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

[User]
[Discworld] Do Werewolves die of old age?

I know they're kind of undead, but they're not like ... *proper* undead, right?

[Assistant]
In Discworld, "undead" is more realistically defined as "damn near unkillable by normal means".  A troll may be hard to kill, but will still go down with enough smacks from a sword, as opposed to a vampire, which only goes down with holy water or sunlight and will come back eventually.

Werewolves are only really harmed by silver - they heal quickly from other wounds.  Since this is not a common choice of weapon (because that's just expensive), people treat this as a big enough a challenge to move werewolves into the "undead" category.

Compare this with Elves, who are more deadly and technically harder to kill than werewolves, but are not treated as undead.  This is partially because other than (most) witches and blacksmiths, most people forget that elves are a real threat, but is also because their main weakness is iron.  Since most simple weapons (and impromtu weapons, like a fry-pan) are made from iron, the ones that fight back are too caught up in the moment to analyze exactly which weapons work and which don't (other than maybe "a sword hurts more than a stick", which isn't much of an observation) and those that try to fight back with anything other than iron either end up charmed or dead.

Anyway, Werewovles might die from old age (though there's no evidence for or against this in the books).  But that's a property exclusive to being labeled "undead".


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

[User] ELI5: Sometimes when my tongue rolls in a certain position water sprays out from under it. Is this normal? And why does it happen?

[Assistant] This is called gleeking, and is completely normal. Your salivary glands are located underneath your tongue. When you move your tongue in certain ways, you express (put pressure on) these glands, which will force them to release any saliva that the glands currently contain.


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

[User] [40k] I discovered an impossibly ancient manuscript describing these "Catoholic Nunns" that look a lot like Sisters of Battle, the "Poap", which looks a lot like an Ecclesiarch, and ancient cathedrals that look like ours. Has the Imperium been plagiarizing ancient society?

[Assistant]
Can you really plagiarize your own history?

Humanity has been made up of many cultures with many religions for tens of thousands of years, so is it any surprise that we would settle on a genre that most closely aligns with our current ways of doing things? Hell, a huge amount of what we use comes directly from the Dark Age of Technology, so, if anything, they're the ones that were "plagiarizing".

We use what we know works, and what works appears to share features with ancient Catheric styles. It's that simple.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why do the battle droids physically fly ships? Wouldn't it be easier to just plug their processing unit into the ship itself?

I mean, the only task you really need droid bodies for is combat. Why not just use computers to pilot the ship, and save materials and money?

[Assistant]
Remember that there are pure droid star fighters  And they appeared to be the main way that the Trade Federation handled star fighters.

In capital ships it makes far more sense to have ships that can be operated by multiple beings both organic and droids.  That way if any specific pilot is damaged another can take it's place.  So it makes sense to have droids simply use the same interfaces vs merely plugging in.

Of course for production reasons this allows the use of standard production droids with specialized programing.  Having a handful of designs that are then uploaded with various programming is a great way to mass produce droids.


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

[User] The LHC created quark-gluon plasma. How long did it last for? and are there any implications that can be drawn?

[Assistant]
Quark gluon plasma was first created in the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider in 2010 and also by the Large Hadron Collider since then. What is new about the story in the news is that it was accomplished in a collision between two protons, whereas before it was done with large nuclei.

To answer your question, it exists for roughly the time it takes for the two protons to go through each other, which is roughly a 7000th of a femtometer divided by the speed of light, which is about 10^-28 seconds (a proton is about a femtometer in radius, and because it's going so fast it is length-contracted by a factor of 7000).

The earlier ones were slightly longer lasting (like 10^-26 seconds) because the nuclei weren't as length-contracted.


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

[User]
Given three buttons, which one will Immanuel Kant press?

So, Immanuel Kant needs to press one and only one button (that's the premise), which one do you think he will press?

* Button 1: The person who Immanuel Kant loves the most in the world will die.
* Button 2: 5% of the world's population will die. However, all of those people are people who IK doesn't know anything about and whose deaths are guarantee not to affect his life in any way (i.e. those people's deaths wouldn't cause world famine, war, economic collapse, etc).
* Button 3: Pressing this button has a 75% chance of killing 95% of the world population; but, there is a 25% chance that nothing will happen.

[Assistant]
Kant doesnt say much about the ethics of risk. In fact, even his account of beneficence (in the Groundwork) is curiously limited and contingent.

Rather than saying you must help others because they matter, he argues that there would be a contradiction in your will if you refused to help since, Kant assumes, you would want them to help YOU if you were in their shoes. This is really more like a duty of reciprocal aid than straight up beneficence. (Of course, he does also have the formula of humanity, which might be of some help.)

Theres a reason why Kantians are so cagey when you ask them these questions.


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

[User]
ELI5: What is going on in Syria?

From the different factions to what the US is doing shipping weapons around what's going on?

[Assistant]
Syria has been in civil war since 2011.  Remember, the US had one of those about 150 years ago too.

The reason for the fighting centers around the President.  His family has provided that country with all of its' presidents for the past 40 years.  Some of the Syrian people don't think that's quite fair and they want a chance to have their wants and needs represented by someone who they have some hand in choosing.

Why didn't it happen earlier?  40 years is a long time to accept single-family rule.  Syria isn't alone in their outcries against their ruling class. Since 2010 rulers have been ~~deposed~~ removed from office in Tunisia, Egypt (twice), Libya and Yemen.  Additionally, serious protests have occurred in Algeria, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Sudan, Mauritania, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Djibouti and Western Sahara.


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

[User]
[WH40K] How do the Farsight enclaves resist the influence of the Ethereals?

The Ethereal caste is said to command an unquestioning loyalty from their fellow Tau. To most Tau, following the orders of an Ethereal is as easy and natural as breathing, and they would have a hard time even imagining the concept of saying no to an Ethereal.

So how is that Farsight, and his enclaves, can remain opposed to the greater Tau Empire? Why are the Ethereals incapable of bringing them back into line through diplomacy alone?

[Assistant]
The answer will ultimately lie in HOW the Ethereals maintain control. Early speculation was that it was psychic in nature, but that has long since been almost entirely discounted. The Tau have such an extremely minor psychic signature that any measure of telepathic control would be almost impossible, and studied Ethereal specimens have shown no deviation from the norm in that regard.

Another proposed explanation is the use of pheromone control. This is based on an obscure reference in Xenology, but should be taken as questionable due to some of the other content of that text, and the fact that it was pure (and at the time untested) speculation of an already somewhat unstable Magos.

The most likely explanation is that the influence of the Etherials is socially ingrained. It's not natural, but rather cultural. This importance is constantly reinforced in Tau society, particularly through the Caste system, not through the authoritarian oppression of the Imperium, but rather to coercive reassurance and congratulatory praise of contribution.

Individuals are rewarded for contributing to the Empire via the means their Caste lays out, encouraging them to respect the specialised contributions of other Castes. Earth Caste don't try to fight, because they respect the Fire Caste's superiority in that field, just as the Fire don't try to manufacture weapons. The Ethereals are the recognised leadership Caste, and all others accept their leadership out of a socially conditioned mentality that they are the best equipped to do so.

The Farsight Enclaves, however, lost their Ethereals at some point during O'Shovah's campaigns. Free from the leadership of an Ethereal, or the resources of the Earth Caste, the Fire Warriors of the Farsight expedition were forced to do something that no other Tau has. Step outside their socially defined boundries. Fire Caste were suddenly expected both to step into a leadership and decision making role (beyond simple military command) as well as maintain their own equipment and facilities. This led to a deep  philosophical rift between the Farsight Enclaves, and the Tau Empire proper, because it compromised the established structure of the Castes. This is also the root of the Farsight belief that the Tau are able to stand on their own, and that they don't need any other races. If the Tau can adapt to any situation, even without the Ethereals, what do they need vassal species for?


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does oil end up in the same places?

I might have a crucial misunderstanding of how oil works but if oil is made from dead organisms wouldnt it be evenly spread out across the world? Like why is there a lot of oil on norwegian coasts for example when these places arent really known to have had that much wildlife? Why are there places with little to no oil to find?

[Assistant]
Oil is made mostly of marine algae and phytoplankton, which as you point out, are pretty much everywhere. However, in order to be converted into oil, that algae and plankton have to be buried for thousands of years without rotting. Rotting is specifically when dead organisms are broken down by bacteria and fungi. The chemical reactions required to break down algae into oil won't happen if bacteria beat them to the punch, so to speak. So you need your algae and plankton to die in a place bacteria won't get to them, which in the case of oil is generally areas of the sea floor with extremely low oxygen levels. So even though the ingredients are abundant all over the world, oil can only form in places where a lot of specific environmental conditions are just right.

A similar thing is actually true of coal, too. You get coal by burying wood for thousands of years without rotting, but modern fungi are super good are decomposing wood. The reason almost all the coal we have was formed between 200-300 million years ago, is that's the window when large woody plants had evolved, but fungi hadn't yet evolved the ability to break down wood. As soon as fungi developed the enzymes to digest wood, coal immedately became much rarer.


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

[User]
[DC] Why did Bruce's parents not have bodyguards or security?

You'd think such high-profile people would have near round-the-clock protection in a city as dangerous as Gotham.

[Assistant] In addition to what others have said, (in most continuities) Gotham deteriorated dramatically after the death of the Waynes; The city wasn't exactly thriving, but it was basically just like any other. Their philanthropic efforts were keeping the worst parts of the city at bay. It wasn't until their deaths that things got really bad.


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

[User]
[Batman/DC] Joker taunts Batman because he knows that Bats won't break his no-kill rule, so it makes Joker feel safe deep down. Would Joker dare run his antics near a hero who has no problem killing? I'd assume Joker would be way more cautious and afraid.

Someone once said Joker isn't afraid to die. But then, KNOWING that dear sweet Batman won't cause him any harm, he carries on with his schemes as usual, not at all being fazed by Batman. I think Batman's no-kill rule gives Joker the benefit to rest assured that in the end the worst that could happen is another trip in Arkham or a prison cell.

But what if it wasn't Batman? Would Joker still bank on them not killing him in seconds? I think Joker wouldn't dare with other superheroes who have nothing against killing if Batman isn't around. Even in Injustice I think in the room with Superman he was banking on Bats to save him, too bad it backfired.

Anyways, I'm wondering if the Joker is different near other superheroes than Bat's because he is more vulnerable to getting his neck snapped or vaporized?

[Assistant]
The joker is more... flamboyant because of the safety, but thats not really his concern: he WANTS batman to kill him.

If he were to go against a hero that kills, say like the punisher, he wouldnt set up a huge amusement park with clues and an invitation, he probably just shoot him in the back of the head. With like, a rubber duck shaped gun or something.


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

[User]
ELI5: What is the most calorie dense food, and is there a limit to how many calories something can have?

I've been dieting for a while now and I was thinking about calories. Do we know what the food with the highest calorie density in the world is? And is there a limit to how calorie dense something can be? For example, would it be physically possible for something that weighs 1 gram to contain 1,000,000 calories, or is there a physical limit as to how much energy something can provide?

[Assistant]
Pure fat is the highest calorie food that humans can eat. It is about 9 calories (kcals) per gram.

Compared to protein and carbs (4 cal/gram) and alcohol (7 cal/gram).

That is the known limit for caloric density, as fat are purely hydrocarbons, as close to pure chemical energy we know of.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are screens flickering when you're trying to take a photo of them?

[Assistant]
The screens are flickering all the time. 50 or 60 or more times per second, thats how you see movement on the screen. Our eyes however cant see this; we can see a flicker of a few times  to 10/12 times per second (and we see them as individual images in those cases) , but going beyond 24 per second, our eyes and brains cant process them individually and we interpret that as motion.

Cameras, like ones on your phone, can actually capture the moments between the image changes; so you see parts of different images being replaced by new ones, and parts remaining the same, so you get streaks


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

[User]
ELI5: Is there a maximum speed a bubble of air can achieve when moving towards the water surface? What does it depend on?

I know about the "terminal velocity" of a falling mass. And i guess it could happen something similar with air bubbles... at the end it's just water falling...

If there is a terminal velocity for bubbles... what does it depend on? Just pressure? The volume of air?

Thank you so much.

English is not my mother tongue; please excuse any errors.

EDIT: Thank you very much to all of you for your kind answers. I'm learning a lot. And i'm very pleased to see that so many people considers this an interesting question.

[Assistant]
Bubbles speed up as they go up because they expand. Terminal velocity is dependant on air pressure, which is pretty uniform in the atmosphere for a really long distance. While water doubles pressure roughly at 10 meters, then adds a bar/atm every subsequent 10.

So at any given depth there is a terminal velocity dependant on the boyant forces of the bubble and the Archimedes principle, but that speed increases as you lower the water pressure (which happens as it rises in an open system).

EDIT: only doubles pressure for the first 10, then adds every 10 meters.


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

[User]
[The Thing, 1982] Why did they have all these guns in Antarctica?

The commander of the American base wore a pistol belt at all times, and they had an entire rack of shotguns. The Norwegian camp had at least one semi-automatic rifle, and a whole heap of ammunition.

Were they expecting burglars to come out of the snow? Or really aggressive penguins?

[Assistant]
The shotguns may be a conservation tool, actually. They're good for hazing (scaring off) animals, and taking birds and animals (killing for scientific work). Shotguns are nice because you can put all kinds of non-lethal stuff in them and launch them at stuff, and you can also shoot a bird or even a seal. I've done work on an island where we had a shotgun that we used a variety of pyrotechnic shells with to scare off birds. We also had birdshot to remove particularly problematic seagulls preying on terns.

A pistol is good in the long periods of non-law enforcement or transport in antarctic. It's not obvious that they would need one, but if they have one, it may be for the months where nobody can come to the station and people go crazy.

I suspect that the norwegian camp had a rifle out of tradition - A rifle is a useful tool for a variety of reasons, and also because if you need to send one firearm, it might as well be one that can take down a large animal.


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

[User] ELI5: if we have enough grain and milk sitting in silos around the USA to feed the world why do we give farmers subsidizes to burn it instead of using that money to give it away?

[Assistant]
To stabilize the price. Too much supply will result in price drop which will drive lot of farms out of business which will decrease the supply and cause price spike.

We are doing this to stop volatility in prices.


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

[User] Why do so many drugs end in HCl (hydrochloride)?

[Assistant] Hydrochloride salts of drugs are often easier to work with. The native form of the drug is often an oily liquid at room temperature, while the hydrochloride salt is a powder which can be shaped into a pill for easy administration. Once the drug is in your stomach, it dissolves into HCL + the drug. Conveniently, theres already a lot of hydrochloric acid in your stomach, so adding a little bit more is basically harmless, and the drug can go on to the intestines to be absorbed into your bloodstream.


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

[User]
CMV: We should cut our relationship with Saudi Arabia and pull all troops out of the Middle East.

Oil. Oil is the reason ISIS can be financed and oil is the reason we have to remain on good terms with Saudi Arabia. If the U.S. were to cut all relationships with SA and withdraw all troops from the middle east, significantly cut it's military budget and place all that money and effort in to renewable energy could we not become more independent as a nation?

Firstly we would be reducing our reliance on foreign assets, and secondly we could share any advancements we made with the rest of the world, thereby strangling any oil based economies like ISIS and SA. An insatiable lust for energy is making us, and others, tolerate the desecration of basic human rights across the globe, and if we want to fight this we must do it with economic tact and not military strength.

[Assistant]
For the sake of the argument, assume this is feasible.

> thereby strangling any oil based economies like ISIS and SA.

If the KSA's economy is strangled, the country will collapse. Whenever a state collapses, there will be chaos and tragedy, like we see with Syria right now. This is especially the case for the KSA, because:

* It has a welfare system that will suddenly collapse in this scenario
* Controlling Medina and Mecca is the wet dream of any Islamist militant group. The two holy cities are also the center of Islamdom and a collapse of the KSA will also harm millions of innocent and mostly poor pilgrims.
* Like Syria, the country also has a Shia-Sunni dichotomy that's worsened by the Salafist fundamentalists
* Saudi Arabians are generally very conservative and religious, and a sudden collapse of the kingdom that is obviously because of America may well cause more acts of violence towards the Western world and a greater spread of militant fundamentalism throughout the Islamic world.
* Regional powers such as Iran, Israel or Turkey are strongly invested in this country.

Thus, even if total American withdrawal leads to the collapse of the unsavory Saudi regime, the collapse of the kingdom will be even more grisly and lead to far greater desecration of human rights.


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

[User]
CMV: If a state treated men the way certain Islamic nations treat women, the UN would ostracise that nation.

This is more a collection of views rather than just one, but I believe is nicely summarised in the above point.

From an outsiders perspective, it seems to me that some Islamic nations essentially practice slavery when it comes to the treatment of women. I should not think this view too radical; the restrictions placed upon women, restrictions that some countries have codified into law, are absolutely the definition of slavery. These slaves may be kept well, but they are kept nonetheless.

 We have fought wars over slavery. We excluded South Africa from the community of nations for arranging its laws so that blacks could never live as well as whites, but some Islamic countries do exactly that all the time.

If any men in the world were treated like these nations treat women, the UN would ostracise that nation.

It's precisely because it's happening to women that people (men) in power look away. It becomes a cultural matter, a religious matter, something not to be interfered with.

It is not called slavery because it is only an exaggeration of how women are treated elsewhere; this is as much an issue of introspection as it is anything else. Our relative silence on this issue  undermines all our talk of gender equality when examined in the light of the global effort to eradicate international racial prejudice.

Change my view.

[Assistant] It's possible that the international community has changed tack over the last few decades and now tries to engage with other nations wherever possible. Isolating other countries in an attempt to get them to change their policies doesn't have a stellar track record (Cuba, North Korea, Iran). Engaging with countries we disagree with opens them up to other mentalities and ways of doing business. Myanmar, China, and Vietnam were (and maybe still are) repressive states, but where they are now is amazing compared to where they were in the 80's.


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

[User] If there was a perfectly symmetrical circular spinning top spun perfectly horizontal on a frictionless platform, would it continue forever since air resistance wouldnt be able to grasp on the top since there are no deformations on it?

[Assistant] As long as the fluid around the top has nonzero viscosity, it will be dragged along with the top a little bit and leech energy from it. Microscopically, gas molecules scattering off of the side of the top will be preferentially scattered in the forward direction, along the direction of rotation of the top, and the gas as a whole would begin to rotate, taking kinetic energy and angular momentum from the top.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is it that "German Engineering" is considered superior to all others when talking about cars?

I don't know if this is STILL the case (I know almost nothing about cars), but I feel like I've always heard that nobody can compete with them.

[Assistant]
Three of the best-selling luxury automakers are Mercedes-Benz, Audi, and BMW. They're all German. (Other strong luxury brands, such as Lexus [Japan], Acura [Japan], and Cadillac [US] are more diverse in origin.)

Other countries have multiple famous luxury brands, but those brands may, for example, be targeted at really small, hyper-rich markets (like Lamborghini.) So German automotive engineering has more visibility as a high-quality manufacturing process, and it's easy for the mind to find stereotypes to deal with people it doesn't know, be they positive or negative.

Throw in that the most famous non-luxury German brand, Volkswagen, has a long reputation for reliability and economy -- regardless of the current state of their products, think back to decades past -- so even at the low-end market, people associate it with reliable engineering.


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

[User]
ELI5: What is happening when I'm so sleepy that my eyelids feel heavy?

You know when you're so tired that you can barely keep your eyes open and when you finally choose to close them, you get this sense of relief around your eyes and you quickly start dosing off,  and it just feels good. What exactly causes that feeling? And why is it that we have to close our eyes to fall asleep?

[Assistant] Your eyelids are raised by a muscle that is partially controlled by the part of your nervous system (the "sympathetic" nervous system) that is responsible for activating and energising your body (you may have heard of it in relation to the "fight or flight" response). When you get very tired that part of your nervous system is less active/dominant and so it is harder for you to raise your eyelids. The reason you experience this as "heaviness" is that you can still partially (consciously) control the muscle to try to open your eyes, but without the unconscious assistance of the sympathetic nervous system. You try consciously to open your eyes but you just don't have the usual, expected amount of power to work with.


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

[User] eli5: Why are the oceans salty?

[Assistant]
Salt is a mineral which can dissolve in water. The water cycle has water evaporating from the oceans and falling onto the land, running back into the oceans eventually. When the water evaporates from the oceans it doesn't take salt with it so what is falling onto the land is fresh water. But as it runs over the rocks and minerals on the land some of the salt will dissolve and go with the rainwater down through streams, rivers, and eventually into the ocean.

Over a long time this means salt tends to move into the ocean, making it salty.


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

[User]
What happens to the energy when a solar panel is not plugged in?

I have a small portable 14 watt monocrystalline  solar panel. I was wondering what happens to those 14 watts when it's not plugged in. Is it turned into heat in the panel or?

[Assistant]
Tl;dr: It's dissipapted as heat.

A solar pannel works in the following way: Light is absorbed by an electron in the valence band, increasing it's energy and promoting it to the conduction band. This electron is now free to move and it leaves behind a hole in the valence band that can also move. There is a built-in electric field in the solar cell that forces holes in one direction and electrons in the other, and this can be used to force these charge carriers into a circuit and do work.

However, when the solar cell is operating under open-circuit conditions, the charge carriers (holes and electrons) have nowhere to go and pile up at the edges of the solar cell. This produces an electric field that cancels the built-in electric field in the solar cell and the electrons and holes pile up all over the cell. Now, when electrons and holes meet each other they can recombine, anihilating the electron and the hole and releasing the energy stored in the form of heat. At some point, the pile up is so severe that the rate at which electron-hole pairs are generated is exactly equal to the rate at which they anihilate and all energy is lost as heat.


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

[User]
ELI5: What cores, threads and other related terms are when talking about game performance

I recently updated my Stellaris game and the game has slowed down a lot. Apparently this is something to do with cores and threads, but I can never follow the conversation. Could someone please explain?

[Assistant]
Up until the mid-2000's the most common CPUs could only do one thing at a time. It could only be doing work on one set of calculations. It had the ability to pause its work, set aside one set of calculations and work on another set but the first set would be waiting on the second one before it can finish. We say that those CPUs had a single core.

A common problem in computing is that sometimes the CPU has extra power that isn't being utilized because the active program can't get data to the CPU fast enough. So, it has to wait until data can be loaded from RAM before it can keep working. To try and avoid wasted time they started doing something called simultaneous multithreading (SMT). The CPU would tell the operating system that it actually had two cores so that the operating system would send it twice as much work. When the CPU was waiting on a program to get its data ready to be processed, it could work on a second program. This sped up overall processing by reducing wasted time.

So, a single core CPU with SMT enables is what we would call a 1 core, 2 thread processor. A core is the actual chunk of circuitry that does the processing and a thread is a sequence of instructions coming from a program. The CPU only has 1 core but it can work on 2 threads at the same time, quickly swapping between them.

Eventually CPU manufacturers started adding in multiple physical cores to their processors. Now they could truly work on two distinct things at the same time. Depending on the exact CPU they would still enable SMT and so you now had a 2 core, 4 thread CPU. This has continued to scale up and now we have mainstream 8 core, 16 thread CPUs.

Some programs scale really well with more cores and more threads because their workload can be easily split between the different cores. However, if the program is only doing a single thing at a time then having multiple cores won't speed anything up because that program can only use a single core.

Modern games are commonly built to run well on up to 4 physical cores because that was the standard number available for years. But, depending on the game and how it is written, some games can benefit from more cores and even virtual cores in the form of SMT.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do box fans make you go through high before you turn them off? The powers go 0 - 3 - 2 - 1, for example.

Every box fan I've seen, as well as some other fans, are made so that you must turn them higher before you can turn them lower. Why is this? Wouldn't it be more intuitive to have the powers in order, especially if it's controlled by a knob?

[Assistant]
Some fans don't have enough force from setting one to overcome the friction from rest. Setting 3 ensures the mother revs up to speed without burning out.

Try setting the fan to one and plug it in. Caution this will hurt your fan.

Edit: what the fuck. Wrote this to pass time at 4am on a night shift.


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

[User] Is the size of an atomic bomb's blast radius limited by aspects such as scientific laws or current technology, or could a potential bomb have enough power to coat the entire surface of the Earth?

[Assistant]
I'll take a stab at this, since every other answer has completely ignored the fundamental nature of any explosion, ever.

All nuclear weapons, or explosions of any kind, create a spherical blast wave (ignoring shaped charges), which makes a "circle" of damage on the ground where it impacts. This blast wave, by its own nature, could never cover another entirely spherical object. Even if you had a nuclear weapon the size of North America and detonated it, the blast would have no reason to follow the curvature of the Earth. You would also lose a significant amount of energy to space, as the Soviets did in their Tzar Bomba 50 MT blast.

TL;DR: Impossibru.


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

[User] [DBZ] Why didn't Goku ever meet Bardock in HFIL?

[Assistant]
Hell is massive. You'll note that Goku didn't really meet any other Saiyans while he was there. Nor did he meet many of his old enemies, such as General Blue.

Remember, Goku was only in the underworld for a relatively short time. He was busy trying to get to King Kai, not meet and greet other dead folks.


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

[User]
[Comic Books]If a hero catches someone when they're about to hit the ground, How is it not the same as them just hitting the ground

In my physics class the teacher asked this question as a though experiment, and he said it would be the same as hitting the ground. I tried to object saying it was explained in some book.

I however couldn't find anything, could you guys maybe find something?

[Assistant]
The hero in question is able to cushion the fall slightly, might have some power to cancel out momentum, or is actually changing the vector of the fall gradually (though that isn't possible if it's *just* above the ground).

This is actually brought up in the earlier Spider-man comics.  Green Goblin throws Gwen Stacy off a bridge.  Spidey shoots out a web to catch her, but unfortunately, the force from stopping snaps her neck.  This was later retconned into her secretly surviving and having Osborne's kid or something though.


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

[User]
CMV - I don't think people should be able claim they want to be referred to as ze/hir or they/them.

Personally, I am a straight cisgender male, but I do have many friends who are LGBTQ. Some of them say they prefer other pronouns like ze/hir or they/them instead of he/him or she/her. The premise (correct me if I am misunderstanding) is that they choose to identify neither as male or female. I humor their request because they are my friends; however, secretly I do believe this is taking the issue too far.

I couldn't say to people, "I don't like it when people refer to me as he/him. I want to always be referred to in third person as 'concerningzombies the great.'" This request would seem strange, and it would make me seem awfully conceited. The general response would be, "You don't get to determine how people refer to you. That just complicates everybody's life and makes conversation very difficult. It defeats the entire purpose of having things like pronouns in our language."

Of course this is quite an exaggeration, but the point is everybody can't have their own way of being identified. Yes you are an individual, but so is everyone. To say you don't identify as male or female is making a crude generalization for how men and women are supposed to behave. There are many different people in this world, each with unique personalities. I am content with using he/him or she/her, whichever you prefer, but I'm not okay with you inventing new words.

Pronouns aren't meant to be degrading. The English language has three singular pronouns: he, she, and it. I understand "it" is degrading because it is reserved for objects; however "he" and "she" are not insulting, but some people react as if they were. My belief is that the blame here lies not with the speaker, but with the one taking offense.

I understand that this is an unpopular viewpoint, so somebody explain to me why I'm wrong. CMV.

**edit:**
I've seen many repeated arguments that aren't quite responding to my view. It seems like they don't quite understand the issue. I've tried to clarify these points below.

Names are different from pronouns. I'm not saying people aren't entitled to choose their own name. Pronouns and proper nouns are different parts of speech for a reason, so stop saying it's the same as calling someone Joe when their name is Bob. It's not the same.

I know languages change. This is fine; however it is a natural process. You can't be offended by someone not conforming to your change. The only exception to this I can see are slurs, which are meant to be derogatory. If you say people shouldn't use the N-word because it is used to be insulting that makes sense. For words that aren't insulting, and especially words so basic as pronouns, I don't think anybody has any right to force a change in convention.

I'm not saying people should be identified by their sex. Sex is different from gender, but gender is a spectrum. That is why I think it is futile to add more pronouns. You can only subdivide it more. You can never encompass the entire spectrum accurately.

I do sometimes use the singular they in conversation; however the issue is there are many different choices for third person pronouns. I mentioned ze/hir because it is the one I've encountered in my life. From the Wikipedia there is also 'e/h', zhe/zher or zhim, shi/hir, hu/hus, and many others. If there was a single commonly accepted convention, that is fine. I have no qualms with that. The issue is that currently there are many different sets of pronouns trying to be popularized, and the ones in favor of using these pronouns believe that everyone is entitled to whichever they like best. Furthermore, they get offended when someone doesn't use their invented pronouns of preference. This defeats the entire purpose of having pronouns as a part of speech.

[Assistant] Among most young speakers, "they/them" is already a gender neutral singular pronoun, much to the chagrin of stodgy English teachers everywhere. Introducing a brand-new one like "ze/hir" is probably not going to catch on, but a singular "they/them" should be pretty easy to get used to.


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

[User]
ELI5: If I found a bag full of millions of dollars on the sidewalk, what would the U.S. Tax system do? Is it tax fraud? Do I have to give it to the government?

Title

Edit: Thanks for all of the response!

[Assistant]
In most (if not all) states, you are required to turn in lost property to give the rightful owner a chance to claim it. If the owner does not claim it within a given timeframe, that property is considered "abandoned" and you may keep said property. If you never turned it in, and the rightful owner managed to trace their lost money to you, you've "stolen" their property.

Anyhow. If you find the million dollars and it's not claimed by anyone, you get to keep it. It's still taxable income (in theory). Since there's no paper trail linking that income to you, the government will not automatically tax you for it... but that doesn't mean it's not taxavle income. If you suddenly deposit a million dollars into your bank account, flags are going to be raised, and the IRS might decide you're worth auditing.

So, **TL;DR**: You are legally obligated to turn the money in and pay taxes on it.


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

[User]
[Samurai Jack] why don't the gods intervene and stop Aku?

I mean they helped out before but now when the world is in desperate need of their help they ignore it?

[Assistant]
You humans...

There are numerous major threats out there. Interdimensional monsters that ravange galaxies. Mad gods that destroy countless worlds. Intergalactic empires that enslave hosts of worlds. Ancient forces of evil from before the universe's origin that seek to return all to dust.

They stopped a major, universe recking threat. A small fragment broke away, and is threatening one world and influencing a few other near ones. We gave you a weapon to handle that. Why are you not intervening and stopping him?

Besides which, if major deities like the chief ones did intervene and sought to destroy him your world would be fire before that fragment was destroyed. Easier if you just stab him. Why is it taking so long?


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

[User]
What will double the energy do for the Large Hadron Collider?

With the LHC due to come back online with almost double the energy being used in collisions, what are they hoping to achieve if the particles are already moving at near light speed? Does this allow for more or bigger particles or groups? Maybe it will allow for longer reactions?

My ignorance makes for annoying curiosity, sorry.

[Assistant]
> what are they hoping to achieve if the particles are already moving at near light speed?

Just to clarify, the actual speed of the particles is mostly irrelevant at this stage. Everything is basically going at the speed of light already, what's interesting is their energy. A particle's speed is capped at the speed of light but it's energy can keep getting bigger possibly forever (at least to the plank scale).

The energy of the particles in a particle accelerator determines the likely hood of producing specific things. By increasing the energy you increase the likelihood of seeing something new that wasn't seen at lower energies. You also increase the number of times you produce things we've already seen, allowing us to measure their properties more precisely by getting better statistics.


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

[User] [Infinity War] Thanos refuses to sacrifice Gamora, resolving to take the rest of the stones and finish his task the hard way. What happens now?

[Assistant]
He spends the rest of his days zipping around the universe killing half the populations on planets one by one like he did before, just faster and more efficient.  He doesn't need ships or armies anymore.

With billions upon billions of galaxies, though, each with hundreds of billions of stars, he'll only ever get through a tiny fraction of them.  Even if he lives for a few thousand years.  No retirement for him.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do we vote on politicians and not policies [UK]

[Assistant]
Because most people don't have the time/knowledge and, originally, doing referenda was more a pain in the ass.

Now, thanks to tradition/already having an established system, and the age-old reason of "Leave it to the experts", it makes more sense to vote for experts that think like you and have the know-how.

I have a friend in California who *hates* all the referenda, and wishes that the state government would handle more things in-house, so there's also that.


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

[User]
ELI5: Given that America has one of the most powerful armies. Why don't they use that power to stomp out Mexican cartels and the gang problems in and around the USA?

Like instead of using the money to go to war. We'd use it for that sort of thing.

Thanks for the responses guys! Learned some interesting stuff.

[Assistant]
The first one would mean the US is invading Mexico.  You can't just take an army and go into another country and blow shit up and kill people.  Mexico has their own police that should do that, and they partner with Americans and get support from Americans all the time.

Similar thing with the second situation.  States have their own police force to combat gang violence.  The National Guard cannot go into a US state and enforce laws unless Martial Law is declared.


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

[User]
cmv: the ads and trailers before movies are good for the overall experience

The trailer time lets people get adjusted: open snacks, find their seats, get comfortable, turn off their phone, use the bathroom, etc. without disturbing people watching the actual movie.

It allows people who are running late (there will always be some) to get into the theater without disturbing the movie watching experience for others.

Most importantly, imo, it gives time for the person adjust from being outside the theater to being ready for movie time! You get to get into the headspace of being there to watch the movie, in other words, turning off your outside world brain and entering movie watching time.

So, although they are annoying, I think they are good for the movie watching experience.

Note: the trailers can be far too long but I do think a small chunk of time, lets say 15-20 minutes can actually be good for the movie experience.

[Assistant]
> The trailer time lets people get adjusted: open snacks, find their seats, get comfortable, turn off their phone, use the bathroom, etc. without disturbing people watching the actual movie.

Maybe people should learn how to be on time for things instead of being late all the time. These wouldn't be necessary.


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

[User]
[Star Wars Ep. III] Why did Dooku & Grievous 'kidnap' Palpatine?

Watching III at the moment. Why did they actually 'kidnap' him?

[Assistant]
Palpatine needed to amp up the 'threat' of the separatist to gain even more power.

Did you know the Separatists can attack Corusant at any moment and kidnap anyone then want?

That really got the Politicians attention.


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

[User] [Star Trek] I'm a citizen of Earth and I want to visit Bajor, but I hear they still use currency out there. How do I get a hold of some latinum?

[Assistant]
Understand that the core worlds of the Federation basically operate in a post-scarcity economy, meaning that money is basically useless as we think of it.  Bajor, on the other hand, still has a cash economy and will have it for some time.

To get money for travel expenses, you just talk to the Federation Embassy on DS9 or Bajor and you will be allocated a reasonable stipend for tourism.  The amount is based on having a reasonable amount of funds to do whatever you were planning on doing, within reason.  The actual limits are set by the local economy and any applicable treaties with Bajor.

In essence, any Federation Citizen could go to Bajor with a 'Federation Credit Card' and blow up the local economy in any reasonably sized town very easily.  That tends to be disruptive, so reasonable limits are assigned to ensure that while you will still have the funding of a very affluent traveler, you aren't just walking around buying office buildings because you can.

And before you ask, the Mudd Act of 2237 would be the cornerstone case of why you don't let Federation Citizens run around with limitless funding on a world.


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

[User] ELI5: What determines if a queen bee produces another queen bee or just drone/worker bees? When a queen produces a queen, is there some kind of turf war until one of them leaves?

[Assistant] The workers feed a special food to the larvae and it turns into a queen.  The new queen then takes her mating flight, and then finds a place to live.  If she's a replacement, she comes back to the hive, otherwise she (and some of the colony) swarms (flies as a group) to found a new colony.


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

[User]
[Star Trek] Why is the Klingon restaurant owner on DS9 content with being a chef and not trying to be a warrior or start fights?

Is he disgraced or something? How do other Klingons view him?

[Assistant]
All Klingons As Warriors is a Federation stereotype.

A civilization cannot run and last on only warriors. There must be doctors, scientists, cooks, artists, politicians, etc.

While Klingons seem to look down upon the sciences, they have a fondness for the arts, of which a good chef would be held in high honor.


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

[User] ELI5: Since plants do not have muscle fibers, how do they get flaccid when deprived of water and stiff again when watered?

[Assistant] Plant cells fill up with water when there's water around and lose water when there isn't.  You know how when you blow up a balloon, its skin is rigid and you can bounce it off of things, but when you let all the air out it's just floppy and useless?  Plant cells are basically like that, but they're filled with water instead.  They're rigid when they're full of water and flaccid when they aren't.


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

[User]
[Time Travel] How would Wikipedia denote date of death in an article about someone who time-traveled and then died?

I feel like it would be disingenuous to say Kyle Reese (2003 - 1984) or, if Marty McFly died after traveling to the future, 1968-2015.  I'm sure it would also rub a Wikipedia editor the wrong way due to inaccuracy.  What would be the approved method of denoting this?

[Assistant]
It would likely state "Kyle Reese (2003 - 1984)" and in the sidebar with more info stating that he died in 1984, aged 26.

If you wanted to expand that in the text body, you could just add the "aged 26" inside the parentheses.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does an electric kettle heat up water so much quicker than a stove does?

[Assistant] Electric kettles have more efficient heating methods. One of which is an immersion heating element (an electrified wire inside a metal tube immersed in water). This ensures that almost all of the heat produced is transferred directly to the water. Conversely, if you put your hand (safely) above a kettle on a gas stove you will feel the residual convection heat that is going around the kettle and being wasted.


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

[User]
[WH40K] Do Chaos Marines customize their armor?

Do Chaos Marines customize their armor to look so "evil"-looking or is it chaos or warpy-stuff that does that to them? I figure the look of Plague Marines' armor are effected by the diseases and stuff they carry around.

[Assistant]
Little column A, little column B.

Adding things like spikes and chains and painting on blasphemous symbols the mere sight of which can induce horror and panic in the righteous are the Marines having a little fun, but other stuff, like horns growing through the helmet from the skull beneath or daemonic faces forming on the surface of their armour are down to the Warp, which twists them so that their exterior reflects the soul that resides within.

That, and sometimes you've just taken a skull, you want to carry it around with you but still want to be able to swing your chainaxe, so you just hang it off your codpiece until you can find something better to do with it. Next thing you know it's three thousand years later and the crotchskull has become part of your iconic look.


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

[User] ELI5: What is it that our bodies do when we sleep? Why do we need it, what is "replenished" etc?

[Assistant]
We don't really have a definite answer, some say it's important in the conversion of short term to long term memory, that when you sleep your mind basically gets a chance to"De-fragment" all of the information you took in that day.

Others say it's necessary in order to give our bodies time to heal and recover, but our bodies are constantly healing and generating new tissue, while sleep may make the process easier it's not as if our bodies only heal while we're asleep.

Some scientists believe it's something living organisms simply adapted to do as a way to conserve energy, we can't hunt or gather food when our vision at night is poor, so it would make sense to go dormant as a survival mechanism in order to not waste energy.

It could be one of these, it could all of them, or something we don't even know, but at this point the jury is still out.

Sleep is necessary to us, but why we and many living organism developed this nessecity is still unknown.

*Edit some typos.


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

[User]
[MCU] What is the difference between planets, realms, dimensions, and universes?

In Thor, they reference the nine realms and Hela says that Odin stopped after conquering only nine. What exactly are these realms compared to other places in the MCU? I know Earth is in Midgard, but is mars also a part of Midgard? Or what about a few of the nearest stars? Is Xandar its own realm that Asgard never conquered? Also in Dr. Strange, Dormamu lives in the Dark Dimension but consumes entire universes. Are the nine realms different universes that the bifrost teleports you between? If so do other places have their own secret orders of wizards to protect against Dormamu?

[Assistant]
The Nine Realms are a set of solar systems connected by a naturally occurring cosmic phenomenon (Yggdrasil) that allows for more easily creating wormholes between them using the Bifrost (with wormholes sometimes occurring naturally as well, such as during the Convergence).

Each Realm exists in the same universe and you can travel from Earth to Asgard to Xandar via other FTL methods (or even slower-than-light, if you *really* have time to kill). However they are widely spread out rather than forming a single contiguous political entity, and travel between them without the Bifrost would be lengthy and tedious.


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

[User]
ELI5: What would happen to you if you fell through a tunnel going through the centre of the Earth?

This question is in regard to Earth's gravity and whether you would fall through to the other side or oscillated to either side?

Also, let us assume you cannot die, there's no lava and that we are capable to drilling through to the other side.

[Assistant]
You'd smack into the side of the tunnel. Coriolis force.

But *ignoring* that in our imagination, the Earth is not spinning  and it's perfectly spherical and uniform and it's entirely alone in the whole universe  and the tunnel has no air in it and also all cows are spherical you'd fall all the way through the center of the earth, come to a stop at the top of the tunnel on the other side, then fall back through ending up back where you started after about 84 minutes.

Fun fact? If you fall freely and frictionlessly through *any* straight-line tunnel through the Earth, the trip from one end to the other takes about 42 minutes. *Regardless of whether the tunnel goes through the center of the Earth or not.*


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

[User] ELI5: Why does waiting until you're older to have a baby increase the chances of it having autism?

[Assistant]
Women are born with all the eggs they will ever have, they aren't created month to month.  Those eggs age and can break down like all the other cells in the body.  Autism and other disorders happen because of problems of brain development, most often between parts of the brain that create links between the part of the brain that processes information in a conceptual manner.
TL;DR old eggs are more prone to developing abnormalities.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does a fly survive a powerful swat from a human hand?

Flies are so small and fragile. Why aren't they really fucked up, and still able to fly, after you smack them away?

[Assistant]
When you swat a... well, anything, your hand builds up a small layer of air in front of it.  When you swat a small thing, for a brief moment, they accelerate as the air layer pushes them.  By the time your hand reaches them, they are not hit as hard as you think they were hit.

Now, if you take something larger than your hand, say, a friend's face, then the air layer is not big enough to push them, and they will feel the full force of the blow.

I am just trying to re-create this from memory. This was posted many months ago.

EDIT: Yes, this is exactly why fly swatters have holes, to remove as much of the lair^^^^heh as possible.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do people think that blacking out their eyes in pictures protects their identity?

Is it for plausible deniability or what? I feel like I would recognize someone with enough visible markers on their face or body. I dunno, but that's why I'm asking.

[Assistant]
Eyes presumably show the most emotion / personality etc of any body part, so we're most likely to remember those, if we see them again.

Also, who blacks out their own eyes..? It's usually done by others to protect the identity of someone.


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

[User]
Are people with aphantasia less effected by PTSD?

From my limited understanding, aphantasia sufferers are incapable of picturing images in their head, be it a memory or a fantasy, they just can't do it. So if PTSD sufferers suffer from "flashbacks" to their traumatic event, would somebody with aphantasia just not experience that?

[Assistant] Flashbacks often involve people, places, and events.  Part of the flashback is the association of the people, place, or event with the trauma.  For example, a car backfiring can remind a military veteran of gunfire.  A mental image is not required.


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

[User]
[James Bond] How much luggage does Bond take with him on trips since he has so many fancy clothes?

It seems like he would need multiple checked in luggage but lugging all that around wouldn't look suave. How does he manage all of his travel needs while still looking like he travels light?

[Assistant]
Most of the really good hotels, if you call down to the concierge and say: "I need a tuxedo, 19" collar, cut to accommodate a ~~Walther PPK~~ hip flask without showing a bulge, by tonight", the concierge will say: "Certainly, sir. I'll have someone up to check your measurements in ten minutes, and send the fitted outfit up at 7.45pm."

Basically, he buys - and abandons - most of what he needs as he goes, and bills Her Majesty's Government.


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

[User]
[Annihilation] Why couldn't they helicopter in? Please read additional text before commenting.

Why don't they helicopter in? I saw another thread from a year ago that had some counters. But that just raised more questions and maybe the answers are in the books.

Issue 1: there is only one doorway into the dome. Perhaps this implies a helicopter couldn't fit through. But they also imply that it's easier to escape by following the coast. This implies there is either a second way out or they didn't take the fastest route to the lighthouse in the beginning. More questions raised.

Issue 2: their memory gets affected for the first week or so when they enter. Except that wouldn't stop them sending a chopper since nobody outside of the dome would know this information. Not to mention that the people entering the dome were able to effectively travel towards their destination, set up camp, and remember to eat. Their memory seemed effective but their capabilities to fulfill their tasks seemed fine.

The second issue doesn't seem valid at all. The first issue, a small doorway a helicopter can't fit through, seems plausible. But if there was indeed a second exit from the lighthouse by following the coastline it adds some more questions. If following the coastline leads back to the same entrance they came through then why didn't they follow that to begin with?

[Assistant]
Remember the zone bends, mixes, and otherwise fucks with all types of information including electromagnetic information. Hence why their radios and the like didn't work properly.

I would assume the military sent in a drone or two at first, and when those went fuzzy the second they hit the zone they probably figured sending a manned helicopter would be pretty risky. Better to just send in a single group on foot and wait for them to report back.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do birds and other small wildlife seem to have fast "twitchy" movements compared to humans and other bigger species.

[Assistant] It is generally their primary defense mechanism against their natural predators. A squirrel or hummingbird can't really fight a wild cat like a lynx, so they've evolved fast, unpredictable movement patterns, rapid tree climbing, digging dens deep into the ground or into trees, etc, etc.


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

[User] [predator] how intelligent/advance are the predators?

[Assistant] Well, seeing as how they have mastered interstellar flight, have the power of to blow up their arms with the force of a small thermal nuclear device, and can go toe to toe with one of the galaxies most dangerous aliens, I'd say they are far more advanced and intelligent then humanity is at this point.


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

[User] Do big cats (tigers, lions, etc.) have the same self righting reflex as domestic cats? If not... when did the self righting reflex first emerge?

[Assistant]
Not all cats, even the domesticated ones, land on their feet all the time, sometimes they get it wrong and land wrong.

When they do land on their feet, it is because of the vestibular apparatus (a fluid filled organ in the ear) and the flexibility of their spine.

All cats have the vestibular apparatus, and have a flexible spine compared to other animals. So, in general, a big cat could/would probably land on its feet.

Size must be taken into account also, however. Since house cats are small, they are able to right themselves quicker during a short fall then a larger animal.

Larger cats require more time to twist their body into the proper form, and so if a big cat fell from a low height, it would probably not land on its feet. Again, this depends on the orientation of the cat when it started falling.

Also, the larger big cats get, the less flexible.

More agile cats like leopards, cougars, and jaguars are very flexible and much lighter than tigers and lions, so they would be more likely to land on their feet.

Lions and tigers, which can weigh 700 lbs, would have a harder time correcting their balance in midair. Lions are especially notorious for their lack of grace when climbing, and subsequently their lack of grace when falling.

There are documentaries where a lioness tried to climb a tree, slipped, and fell to her death. So basically, whether or not a big cat lands on its feet depends on the cat's size and height of the fall.


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

[User] [Marvel] About how much does it cost Tony to make a standard Iron Man armor? What about extremis, bleeding edge, hulkbuster, or other advanced/specialized suits?

[Assistant] I recall one instance in Marvel-616 when Peter asks something akin to "Why don't we get special suits?" and Tony replies with "Do you have 7 billion dollars?". So his more advanced suit creations are definitely up there in the multi-billion dollar range.


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

[User]
Has there been any attempt to create one of the elements thought to be in the island of stability?

Is it even possible to create such large nuclei? How does one go about to create one?

[Assistant] The principle behind creating heavy elements is bombarding particles together to supply sufficient neutrons/protons. The island of stability is centered around very heavy isotopes, which require far more neutrons than protons. There is not enough access to the stable, heavy isotopes needed for synthesis to even come close to the number of neutrons required.


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

[User]
How hard would it be to apply Kierkegaard's "Leap of Faith" to something other than a Christian God?

Just curious... I'm not super-well-versed in Kierkegaard but I'm wondering if his whole Christian Existentialism schtick could be successfully transplanted onto other faith systems. thinking specifically in a context of a local political leader worshipped as divinity, laying a foundation for a hypothetical post-capitalist pagan theocratic system, but any other thoughts/angles help! have any writers outside of Christianity applied Kierkegaard's "Leap of Faith" to non-Christian subjects?

[Assistant] Interestingly enough, Albert Camus, in his Myth of Sysiphus, likens the Kierkegaardian leap of faith to the existentialists leap for meaning. Another approach could be to consider the question from Weber's essay Science as a Vocation; in the essay, he likens the modern world as a pantheism where idols fight for your alliegance. In his view, there is an irreconcilable split between fact and valueso it is a question of choosing your poison (or opium, or sacrament) in terms of value. Going back to Camus, his absurdist thought centers around the idea of keeping the absurdthe relation between man's search for unity and a silent universelucid and always in sight, in a sense rejecting any sort of leap.


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

[User]
What are some examples (preferably horrific) of statistics being misused?

I have a project for the use and misuse of statistics and I'll have to present it to around 40 people in my class. I've taken some good, normal misuse graphs for my first half, and I want my second half to actually yknow *hit* the audience. Like I want them to hear my speech and actually refer sources instead of blindly following fake data and contributing to misinformation of the masses and stuff. For this I'd need some pretty heinous cases where statistics was misused and contributed to a lot of problems in society (Like in Purge they say theres virtually no unemployment by killing the unemployed, something like that)

Also it would be pretty helpful if you guys could give me tips for presenting this, thanks :)

[Assistant]
You remember that advice that 1 glass of red wine per day is good for you?

It really isn't, but the category of people who never drink had indeed worse health outcomes than the ones who drink on average a glass per day.

And that is because in this analysis, the group of people who never drink contains also ex-alcoholics which will have far worse health outcomes than light drinkers.


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

[User]
How do organisms break down diatomic nitrogen?

I was watching an old SciShow episode and Hank Green said something to the effect that the NN triple bond is so strong, it can't usually be broken except by lightning or a comparably powerful force. Yet nitrogen is arguably one of the very most prevalent and important components of nutrition for most organisms on the planet (in my understanding?).

So how do organisms break that triple bond in order to render nitrogen reactive enough to bond with other elements?

[Assistant]
The short answer is that certain soil bacteria break N2 down using an enzyme called nitrogenase.  It catalyzes the reaction:

N2 + 6 e^- + 6 H^+ --> 2 NH3

This is a thermodynamically favorable reaction, but it is very slow due to the strength of the nitrogen triple bond, which has to break on the way to forming ammonia.  The active site of nitrogenase contains a large iron sulfur cluster that serves as a powerful and fast source of electrons to make this reaction happen.  At the same time, to maintain charge balance, amino acids near the N2 binding site quickly deliver the hydrogen ions that name up the rest of the reaction.  Overall, we call reactions like these proton coupled electron transfer, or PCET.

The trick in this reaction is that every time you give an electron to N2, its bond gets weaker.  This is due to the increasing population of electrons in what are called antibonding orbitals.  Consequently, if you add 6 electrons to N2, the bond gets completely negated.  Maintaining charge balance through proton delivery makes the injection of additional electrons much easier.


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

[User] ELI5: What would happen legally if a "prankster" was shot and killed?

[Assistant] If the person being "pranked" had reasonable cause to believe their own or someone else's life was in danger, they might well get off by vitrue of self-defense. This is why it's a really fucking dumb idea to do this kind of shit, especially to complete strangers. It's just a matter of time before someone gets hurt or killed.


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

[User] Is there anything written about when humans became self aware?

[Assistant]
Julian Jaynes's *The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind* is a controversial classic in this field. It is sometimes called brilliant, sometimes nonsense.

The issue of the origins of human self awareness is also at the heart of a lot of Enlightenment thinkers. It's worth reading Vico's *The New Science* for its bizarre but fascinating story of how people became aware. Condillac takes it up, and so does Herder in his book on the origin of language.


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

[User] [WH40K] How do power weapons and chain weapons actually work?

[Assistant]
Power Weapons generate a disruptive energy field micrometers from the surface of the weapon that disrupts the atomic bonds of matter it comes into contact with. The system also generates a substantial amount of heat. This combines to atomically and structurally weaken any material it struck, allowing the weapon to basically cut through anything.

Chain weapons work like... well... chainsaws. However, they don't operate on gears, but rather magnetic rails. Well, most of them. Orks just use whatever is around.


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

[User]
[Fallout] If the nukes fell in 2077 why do the survivors listen to music from the 1950's.

I get that its an artistic choice for the game.  But I always found it weird that everyone is jamming out to music that is well over a hundred years old and not any new music.

[Assistant]
I remember reading something about how in the Fallout universe, the transistor was never invented, meaning a lot of future music instruments/playback devices would never have been possible. So in that world, analog recordings would have still ruled (despite the fact that laser weapons exist).
The other more likely explanation is that it was a cool design choice that the series has been playing off of since the beginning.


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

[User]
[DC] Where do fictional cities like Gotham, Metropolis, Central City, Star City etc exist in the DC universe if there are also real cities?

As far as I know, real places like New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Washington DC exists in the DC Universe. So where do all these fictional cities fit in with the real cities?

[Assistant]
* **Metropolis**: is located in Delaware, but functionally it fills the same role as New York City (complete with UN building). In real life Delaware really doesn't have any cities that big.
* **Happy Harbor** is in Rhode Island, and is home to the JLA's first Secret Sanctuary. It's located in a giant mountain which must be the only one in the state (good hiding job there).
* **Gotham City**: is located in New Jersey (some sources suggest that in this world, New Jersey is actually CALLED Gotham state). Still heavily based on New York (the seedier aspects), and given its proximity to Metropolis, the two must be in the same metropolitan area, though they're never really stated to be as such.
* **Bludhaven** is presumably equivalent to Buffalo to Gotham's New York
* **Central City**: despite some zigzagging, it's pretty firmly nailed down in Missouri and is apparently most like Kansas City with possibly a dash of St. Louis (in Young Justice they've even got their own Gateway Arch)
* **Midway City** seems to be Chicago or Detroit, and is in Michigan (Detroit actually exists and is the home of Cyborg and Firestorm, so... take that as you will).
* **Hub City**, **Illinois** is sort of based on the worst of the Rust Belt; it's considered one of those cities even worse than Gotham. Come to that, so is Static's home of **Dakota City**.
* **Opal City** seems to be Baltimore, or at least it's in Maryland and has the sort of gothique atmosphere... but it also has Old West history (which Maryland obviously does not)
* **Civic City** might be Philadelphia, at least it's in Pennsylvania
* **St. Roch** is quite obviously New Orleans, Louisiana. In fact, there's even a St. Roch neighborhood in IRL New Orleans.
* **Freeland** is usually in Metropolis but in the Black Lightning show it's pretty obviously Atlanta, Georgia.
* **Coast City** seems to be based mostly on San Francisco and is located in roughly the same place.
* **Star City**, according to modern writers, is apparently straight-up Seattle.


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

[User]
[Blade Runner] Deckard is a retired blade runner, why does he need to be told what a Nexus 6 is? Eldon Tyrell makes replicants, why does he not already know what voight kampff is?

Maybe Nexus 6s are a really new thing, but did previous models not have a short lifespan? How long was Deckard retired? He seemed to know the names of active blade runners so it could not have been that long.

Tyrell not knowing everything about what a blade runner is and their methods, including voight kampff test, just seems unrealistic to me.

[Assistant]
Both of these questions have the same answer: there are extremely few blade runners on earth, because escaped replicants are almost unknown. They're banned from the planet and generally segregated from the human population.

That means only a few blade runners are necessary for the entire planet - hence the need to pull one out of retirement long after he stopped working. He has not kept up with new replicant types because it's not his job any more, but he is aware of the very few people currently working in the field as it's such a small community.

Similarly, a replicant manufacturer doesn't take much interest in the extremely rare and unusual task of blade running, which is a largely irrelevant facet of a huge and complex industry.


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

[User] How does caffeine withdrawal cause headaches?

[Assistant] Caffeine constricts the blood vessels in your brain. If you're a heavy user, then going cold turkey will let the blood vessels in your brain expand back to their original size, which can often create pressure headaches, and usually does.


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

[User] ELI5: How does gravity "bend" time?

[Assistant] Light travels at a constant speed. Imagine Light going from A to B in a straight line, now imagine that line is pulled by gravity so its curved, it's gonna take the light longer to get from A to B, light doesn't change speed but the time it takes to get there does, thus time slows down to accommodate.


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

[User] ELI5: How is rabies "controlled" in the wild? Why doesn't it just destroy large populations of wild mammals?

[Assistant] Diseases are self-limiting. If they infected and killed everyone in a population, there would be nothing left to infect, and the disease itself would die out. Diseases "want" to be spread (as much as a non-thinking entity can want), and so they take measures to be highly infectious but as low lethality as possible. It's a balancing act. Too strong = run out of victims, to weak = victims become immune and stop spreading it.


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

[User] [Christmas movies] I'm an elf who's trying to establish a labor union in the North Pole to demand fair wages and working conditions from Santa Claus for myself and my fellow elves. What would constitute reasonable demands?

[Assistant] Santa's a pretty good dude. He'll probably be shocked to learn that you actually want to do more than simply make toys, sing carols and eat fruitcake. Ask for a meeting in early February. After he's had a chance to unwind from Christmas, but before things start ramping up for the next holiday season. Explain things to him and I'll bet he'll work out something fair and reasonable.


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

[User]
Explain to me the Strong and Weak Nuclear force.

I understand the way gravity interacts with the universe as well as the force of electromagnetism, but I'm confused as to how the strong and weak nuclear force is propagated and what effect it has on anything.

[Assistant]
The weak interaction is mediated by W and Z bosons, which are unusually massive, and so decay very quickly. The short decay time of W and Z bosons contributes to the comparatively weak strength and short distance of the weak interaction. The primary "effect it has on anything" is the beta decay form of nuclear decay. Beta decay allows, for example, the decay of carbon-14 to nitrogen-14.

The strong interaction is mediated by massless particles called gluons. It binds quarks together to form hadrons, including protons and neutrons. The strong interaction is about 100 times stronger than electromagnetism at the atomic level, and most of the mass-energy of protons and neutrons comes from the field energy of the strong force. Similar to how electromagnetism is divided into + and - charges, the strong interaction has three "color" charges. The color charge is balanced within a proton or neutron, but there is a residual strong force, also called the nuclear force, that acts between protons and neutrons which holds them together in atomic nuclei.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do different European languages have such varying names for Germany?

Allemagne,  (Germaniya), Saksa, Deutschland, Germany, etc.

[Assistant]
The origin of the name for Germany in a certain language depends on that country's one time relationship with Germany.

Allemagne, Alemania (Romance languages) -- comes from the Alemani tribe of Germany.

Germaniya, Germany, Germania -- that is the name which the Romans used for the territory north and East of the Rhine.

Saksa -- Finnish, named after the Saxons, yet another German tribe.

Deutschland, Duitsland -- this was yet another German tribe which became the word for the whole country.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are we able to develop lifelong immunity to some infectious diseases like measles but not others like syphilis, gonorrhea, or throat infections/strep throat?

Does our immune system not work with STDs? I am learning about our immune system and how our antibodies work. I don't understand what happens in which we are able to get re-infected with certain infectious disease if we should have immunity. Im guessing our immune system just doesn't work properly against these infections?

[Assistant]
There are big swaths of this we don't understand and are still studying.

But one thing that affects it is how our body decides to respond. There are organs your body considers very important and if it detects infection there it will mount a very strong response. But it turns out your upper respiratory system isn't considered a big deal by your body, so it responds to infections there with a weaker immune response. (This may be because your nose/throat is a first line of defense against stuff getting into the lungs, so it's constantly being exposed to bad junk and if your body reacted strongly to every incoming threat you'd be exhausted. Or be a person suffering from allergies.)

That explains why flus and throat infections tend to take hold consistently. Our body sends in the B-team at first and waits until it realizes things are bad to mount a larger-scale response. This is a big part of how COVID gets its foot in our doors!

Some viruses mutate quickly. That means even if we did see it before and make antibodies for it, the new mutations might "look" differently enough our immune systems don't recognize it. One of the few breaks we got from COVID is the protein we target with vaccinations is crucial to how COVID infects people, so it's very unlikely COVID can mutate in a way that fully evades vaccines AND still be able to infect us. That's why despite new variants, the vaccines are still pretty effective at giving our immune system a head start.

But we still get sick, what gives?

Reproduction speed. Some viruses (and some mutations) replicate FAST. If they can reproduce faster than our immune system can make antibody cells, they'll overwhelm us. That's why Omicron seems to "evade" the vaccine. Our immune system can detect Omicron just fine, but our body sees a viral infection in our upper respiratory system and doesn't mount a very strong response. Then Omicron reproduces like crazy and by the time our body knows there's a problem we're already "behind" and the virus can move to other organs.

So we're the worst at handling diseases that mutate a lot, reproduce quickly, and target "unimportant" parts of the body. STDs usually qualify here because despite reproduction being a big goal for biological organisms, we can still live a quality life without those organs so they're treated as low priority by many survival systems.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does meat usually taste better when it's cooked?

[Assistant] Cooking is a way of outsourcing digestion. The heat breaks down the proteins and carbohydrates so your body doesn't have to. Carmelization of those carbohydrates produces a more pleasing flavor. The proteins become denatured and natural enzymes that might spoil it get destroyed.


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

[User]
What new philosophical ideas have emerged in the last 50 years?

Amidst the noise of the internet, social media, technology, it's easy to think we live in unprecedented times. And of course we do, but I'm wondering if there are any breakthroughs in the realm of ideas... along the lines of say Descartes or Kant?

Of course philosophy has splintered into a multitude of disciplines since those days, and some of those breakthroughs might now be considered sociological or psychological etc.

What's considered philosophically revolutionary from the last 50 or so years?

[Assistant]
Kripke is probably the living philosopher who is closest to "Kant" status, Naming and Necessity was revolutionary, his reading of Wittgenstein reinvigorated the field and so on. David Lewis is also up there, his modal realism and counterpart theory has left an indelible mark on the field. The two of them dominate any discussion of modal notions, possible worlds and so on.

Otherwise Rawls' entire theory of justice. Likewise the topic is unrecognizable from what it was 50 years ago largely because of his work and the reactions (Nozick, Dworkin, Cohen etc.) it inspired.


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

[User]
How did people decide on seconds/minutes/hours? How the heck do we even know how long a 'second' is?

The whole division of 60 (seconds and minutes) seems arbitrary, as does the 24 hour day.  How did civilzation determine these measurements of time?  And how the heck do we even measure how long a 'second' is??

[Assistant]
We basically use a base-12 number system for timekeeping instead of our normal base 10. We can divide 12 by 2, 3, 4, or 6, compared to 10 which we can divide by 2 and 5.

Remember that in ancient times they didn't have precise measuring equipment. They had a sundial. They new sunrise, sunset, and noon as precise times with significant events. Everything else was partway between them. As such, they started measuring in distinctively sized chunks that were easily divisible.


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

[User]
ELI5: why do I always wake up from a dream immediately before I suffer some kind of fatal physical harm (ex. someone shoots me, stabs me, hits me etc.)

Intentional human (or humanoid)-on-human harm.  I've read the threads about falling off of cliffs and so forth but I'm not really talking about that. I've been attacked in dreams from everything ranging from a gun to a rolling pin and I always wake up right before contact, with the in-dream implication being it would be fatal.  I thought it was just me but friends say it happens to them too.

[Assistant] It's because your brain is reacting to the fear of the situation. It's like "Oh! Bad situation. Done!" so you wake up. Your mind doesn't want to go through that, and you've never experienced it, so you also don't know how to react. :)


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

[User]
[DC, General] How far does Batman plan?

We know he's the essence of crazy-prepared, but how many contingency plans does he have for any given situation? Sure, there's a Plan A, a Plan B, a Plan C... but is there a Plan L? A Plan Z?

How much does he plan for the everyday stuff, versus the special occasions? How does he compare to other chessmasters like Luthor?

[Assistant]
Batman works with, fights against and in some cases is friends with people who have the power to completely destroy the world without too much trouble. It may seem that whenever a world-ending threat pops up it gets defeated, but that only happens because someone with the brains and the ability has put in place the groundwork to be able to defeat that threat. While there are many, *many* heroes, how many think about things like this and how many just hit the guy/girl in front of them.

Batman cannot fall back on his powers or strength to win the day, he will often only have what is in his belt, on his body and maybe one of his machines to fall back on, so he can't make a single mistake. One slip and he's dead, maybe we're *all* dead.

Batman has thought about how he might fight every hero and villain out there and in many cases, where he would need special equipment or circumstances, he has put this in place, just in case. As well as that he has backups and backups to those backups for the biggest threats.

He has also thought generally about scenarios and how he could and would deal with them, from a mass joker gas attack, to the raising of the dead. Again, he knows what he would do and is ready for it.

On a day to day basis he is ready to deal with any scenario he has judged to be anything more than possible and has the supplies for a more general response to a whole lot more. Batman's whole thing is that no matter what comes he is *ready* and if he's not then just wait 30 seconds for the backup plan to kick.


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

[User] [STAR WARS] Assuming her engines created enough heat to be vulnerable to a missile lock, how would a Tie Fighter fair against an F-14 Tomcat in a one-on-one dogfight?

[Assistant]
Everyone else is going at this from the wrong angle. Yes TIE Fighters are terrible in atmosphere but that's completely irrelevant because there won't be a dog fight. TIE's have no ability to shoot beyond line of sight. The F-14 locks on before the TIE pilot has any idea where to look and pops off a couple of Phoenix missiles. The fight ends as a couple hundred kilos of explosives slam into the TIE at mach 5.

Tomcat 10/10.