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

[User]
CMV: Not voting for X isnt the same as voting for Y

Both parties do this by the way, and have been for most elections but this talking point was especially ramped up in the 2016 election and it's starting to rear it's ugly head for the 2020 election. So let me just get this out of the way and tell you I'm not voting for either of the two fucks that representing the major American parties, and my lack of voting for your candidate is not a vote for your opposition.

An analogy:

You present me with two dishes. On one dish is a heaping pile of shit. On the other dish chunky and rank smelling mound of vomit.

"You're not gonna choose to eat that plate of shit, right?" you ask.

"God no, I could never eat a plate of shit," I respond. You're relieved but that relief soon turns to shock as I continue, "but I'm not gonna eat that plate of vomit either."

You're shocked! Baffled! How could I?! "But, but," you say, "if you don't eat the plate of vomit that's the same as eating the plate of shit! I thought you didnt want to eat the shit? I realize that you're not actually physically consuming the shit, but if you dont eat this vomit it's THE SAME THING AS EATING SHIT!"

Fuck you and your partisan politics. Biden and trump both suck and I'm not gonna pretend one doesn't.

Change my view by convincing me that not voting for X actually IS the same as voting for Y

**EDIT:** I made an emotional post last night after having a small argument with someone after they discovered that I didn't think I was going to vote for Biden. It's a line I've heard before and for whatever reason it struck a particular chord with me this time, maybe because I have more disdain for Trump in the 2020 election than I had for him in the 2016 election, I don't know. I spent awhile last night reading through every comment on this post and really taking in what others were saying and trying to have meaningful discussions with people whether I agreed with their points or not. As the night grew a later some of my replies started shifting from meaningful discussion to emotional ranting and that's not productive to anyone so I just left it alone for the night and sincere apologies if one of my emotional rants were directed at anyone reading this now,

That said, I didn't anticipate waking up to this post being on top of the CMV sub and the flood of comments that have come with it, so there's no chance I'm going to reply to everyone who's commented on this like I had wanted to do,it would start getting redundant anyway if I did. Still, there are some things I want to make clear and answer broadly:

- I'm not a closet Trump supporter. Don't know why this has to be clarified, but I guess it's a pretty common belief that taking issue with our system or not voting for Biden makes me a closet Trumper. Not in my case at least.

- I believe in voting and that voting is important. My view is not a call to stop voting, to be apathetic to politics, or to stop seeking change. It was only a way of saying that the presidential election specifically has a general mindset behind it that I take issue with.

- I have voted on every single political ballot that I have ever qualified to take part in (age, location). I'm lucky to live in Oregon, where we register to vote online and are sent ballots by mail, it's ridiculously easy to vote in this state so I've never had a valid excuse not to vote. I go over every measure proposed in each ballot, not just the presidential cycles, and vote on what I believe is in my and my communities best interests at the state, county, and city levels. If I'm not confidently informed on specific issues, I will abstain from certain measures but I've always submitted at least a partial ballot.

- I don't think I'm going to vote for Biden. I know I'm not going to vote for Trump. Many of those engaging with this post I think would tell me that if I have this mindset, I need to just go ahead and vote for Biden. I don't think I can do that in good faith, but maybe I'll change my mind in the next couple of months. I honestly struggle a lot with the moral issue of supporting with a vote someone who I think serves as a detriment to my country, whatever bit of a country I have right now.

Thank you all for the discussion, and while I'm no longer going to actively reply to comments on this post I will continue to read and genuinely try to digest the conversations this post generates for however long that it does.

[Assistant]
The problem with your analogy is that at the end, you have the option to eat neither plate. In reality, there will be a president, and it will be one of the two options presented.

Throw out the food analogy and try this one instead. You're riding in a car with two friends. The driver says "Hey, we should go hang out at the city dump." Your other friend goes "No way. We should go to the sewage treatment plant instead" and asks you to back them up on that. You think both options suck, so you refuse to give an opinion. The driver just keeps going to the dump like they wanted to in the first place.

You didn't really change anything, but you still ended up going to one of the destinations, and so did your friend who wanted to change course.


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

[User]
How does Parthenogenesis work?

Given that the average person like me usually thinks of reproduction as taking the sperm and the egg, I struggle to understand how you can create something without fertilisation. Can anyone explain?

[Assistant]
There are three major types of parthenogenesis to consider (at least in insects):

* 1) Haploid parthenogenesis: Quite common for ants, bees, and wasps. In this particular case, we have a diploid (2n) female who produces haploid (n) gametes. If the eggs are fertilized by a spermatozoa (n), the resulting offspring will be diploid females. However, if the eggs are unfertilized, only haploid males will be produced. This is known as the halpodiploid condition, in which fertilized eggs only produce females and unfertilized eggs only produce males.

* 2) Automictic parthenogenesis: In this case we have a diploid female (XX) who undergoes the early stages of meiosis to produce a secondary oocyte and several polar bodies. The oocyte will then fuse with one of the polar bodies, thus restoring the diploid condition.

* 3) Apomictic parthenogenesis: In this case, the oocytes do not undergo meiosis, so there is no reduction of chromosome number and they remain diploid. The egg then develops as it normally would.


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

[User]
Why are the toes of my shoes off the ground?

This one has always confused me. When you stand barefoot, your toes are flat on the ground. Shoes on the other hand, the toes lift off the floor when standing flat. Why is this? Why doesn't the bottom of the shoe lay flat on the ground? Some shoes come pretty flat and get angled after wearing them, but most come with some degree of lift to the toes.

[Assistant]
Your shoe is much stiffer than your foot.  Try flexing your foot, and then try bending your shoe the same way.

To make the shoe more comfortable to walk in, since you are unable to move your foot as much when you're wearing the shoe, a lot of shoes have that bend at the front of the shoe.  This is especially true for running shoes.

Basically, since you can't bend your foot naturally, the shoe is designed to help you rock your foot through the motion of walking.


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

[User] ELI5: How do pacemakers know the heart rate needs to increase or decrease to keep the right pace, instead of just being a constant rate?

[Assistant] Asked a pacemaker rep this just a few weeks ago. A lot of the older models didnt change their rate, so patients had to make sure they didnt exert themselves too much. Sucks, but beats dying. Some peoples hearts still have a natural pacemaker that works, its just that the signal isnt getting to where it needs to go. So the pacemaker picks up that signal, and copies it with implanted wires to where it needs to go. Some people have no working natural pacemaker. So the newer ones can sense increased activity. The rep said it kind of works on the same idea as a Fitbit. When it detects increased activity, it ups the pace.


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

[User]
[Ghostbusters]Did they ever bust the ghost in the library?

In the beginning of the movie when they still worked at the university they flee from the ghost in the library.  Do they ever go back as the Ghostbusters to catch it?

[Assistant] Depending on whether you count the tie-in video game as a valid Ghostbusters III, they did manage to capture her, and afterwards deduced the clues she left behind that pointed to the identity of her murderer.


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

[User] ELI5: Why jet engines on planes dont have a grill on them to prevent things like birds getting sucked in.

[Assistant]
Birds would be sucked in anyway and diced bird isn't significantly less destructive to jet engines than what makes it in right now.

You'd be adding cost and sacrificing efficiency for no real gain.

Oh yeah and it's one more place for ice to form from where icicles might destroy engines, so that's bad.


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

[User] ELI5 why does emotional stress cause physical problems to your body, like gases, pimples and back/neck pain?

[Assistant] Emotions are a response to stimulus, and motivate you to take action. Fear makes you run away, anger makes you fight back. To do this, emotions trigger physical reactions. Most of the time, these reactions are temporary. But in situations where the thing causing the emotion persists, the physical reactions persist. Over the long term, these physical reactions cause physical problems.


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

[User] ELI5: What is "umami" and how do you recognise it when tasting food?

[Assistant]
Meat (and a few other things) contains an amino acid called "glutamic acid".  You've heard of the synthetic/isolated version of this, MSG.  Umami = MSG.

It has a sort of subtle flavor, in that if you put a pinch of MSG on your tongue, it won't taste *good* (you'll taste it, but it just doesn't taste "right" by itself).  If, however, you add that same pinch to your dinner (any dinner, doesn't matter what), *BAM*, suddenly you have the best Kraft Macaroni and Cheese *ever*.

Opinions vary about whether or not it actually counts as bad for you.  IMO, this falls into the same category as gluten, where you have a tiny minority of people truly sensitive to it, and millions of people terrified of something completely harmless.


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

[User] ELI5: Why can't you be paralyzed from only the waist up?

[Assistant]
The nerves go down from your brain.  Everything below the break in the nerve stops responding to input from the brain because it can't communicate with the brain anymore.

If things *above* the break have stopped working, that means your brain has stopped working, which means you're dead.  This does happen sometimes, such as if the break is right below your brain (e.g. a properly performed hanging that snaps the neck).


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

[User] ELI5: How do fish wounds clot and close over, especially for extreme large wounds?

[Assistant]
Clotting doesnt actually require drying out. There are cells in blood whose job is to gather at wounds and stop the blood from flowing out, from the inside. Even human wounds can close underwater, so you can be sure that fish are even better at it.

The only complicating factor is if the water is flowing past the wound fast enough to physically wash it out.


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

[User]
[Persona 5] If someone just doesn't read the calling card, will the Phantom Thieves be unable to steal their heart?

After the Phantom Thieves become fairly popular and every knows their M.O. wouldn't the average person know better? What if someone was just really stubborn, saw the logo, and just got rid of it.

[Assistant]
If they know their MO then they wouldn't necessarily need the calling card to think about it and react in a way that'd manifest the treasure. They would need people to completely hide it from them so they wouldn't know or think about it at all. Which would need independent thought from mooks since they couldn't ORDER their mooks to do that or they'd know about it.

So it'd be pretty hard for a variety of reasons. First off most of them don't have any idea that the calling card makes them vulnerable, so they'd have no reason to ignore it. Most of them would RATHER have forewarning from thieves since all of them consider this act of the Phantom Thieves detrimental theatre and not something they HAVE to do to succeed. Also most of them have tons of mook and regular people that would have no idea they want to stay oddly willfully ignorant of very public threats against them.


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

[User] ELI5: The NSA was doing illegal things secretly from the American public. Snowden exposed them. Why does not every American see him as a hero?

[Assistant]
A cynical explanation is that many people in the USA already know that the CIA / NSA / military sometimes do things that are criminal and morally indefensible.  But they are working for us -- "Team USA" -- and they are advancing USA interests (I realize this is debatable).  Snowden makes "Team USA" look bad and he nullifies the benefit of some of the NSA / CIA / military programs.

If the USA is just another self-interested country, without any special moral superiority, then it's "us against them" and Snowden is hurting American interests.

It is only the idealistic or morally superior Americans (college students?) who would see Snowden as a hero.  There are many cynical Americans who want us to win, whether we are morally justified or not.


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

[User] ELI5 - That weird feeling I get when I think there is another step but there isn't, and vice versa.

[Assistant] Before doing anything, your brain will visualize doing it first, even if not completely consciously. Sometimes your brain gets it wrong, or something changes/interrupts you, and will get a weird feeling or even surprised/shocked. It's basically just your brain realizing that it's perceived reality is different from actual reality, and it has to adapt to the new situation. You're assuming something is going to happen, and being confused when it doesn't occur.


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

[User] [The Simpsons] Krusty the Clown has a successful TV show, a burger franchise, and a breakfast cereal. Why is someone that successful still based in Springfield?

[Assistant]
He has a successful TV show on Channel 6. In Springfield.

His burger franchise is unheard of outside Springfield. In Shelbyville they have this upstart called McDonalds that somehow managed to crop up overnight.

Krusty is a success in Springfield. He was blacklisted everywhere else since the '50s.


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

[User]
In multiple linear regression, how is it possible that multiple predictors are strongly correlated with the dependent variable but not with each other?

This is very counterintuitive to me. If X and Y are the independent variables and Z is the dependent, then we know that X strongly tends to move together with Z, and that Y also strongly tends to move together with Z, yet somehow X and Y don't move together at all?
In my mind this automatically leads to multicollinearity, yet clearly my thinking is wrong since this doesn't happen in practice.

[Assistant]
Another example. On a dating app, you want to know how much one person will like the other one. You have date of the eye color and the age. Both are very important, but they age and eye color are not correlated at all.

And actually, this is a behavior you want! This will mean they completely add new information that explains the dependent variable, meaning that there is no repetition of information. If to the previous variables we add to the eye color and age, if they are above 18, this does not add any information at all and it is a function of the age.


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

[User]
ELI5: why do stimulatants "fix" ADHD?

Was diagnosed young, and again when I was 21, have been taking Adderall 20mg for years, and thought i was managing the symptoms well, until I spoke with the psych again. They ADDED 5mg and I am already feeling waaaaay slower and clear. How does something that is supposed to speed/"wake" you up, slow a person down?

[Assistant] For those with true adhd, hyperactivity is the bodys attempt to stimulate itself and to stay stimulated. So when you give someone with adhd stimulants, the body no longer has to move to stay stimulated, the meds do it. Its why when people who dont have adhd take stimulants they are highly energetic.


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

[User]
CMV: Trump shouldn't have been banned from social media

 I disagree with Trump on almost every single issue.

I do think he was responsible for the capitol riot and for that he should be held accountable by the congress.

However, social media platforms should not have banned him. No one company should have the power to censor prominent political views no matter how wrong they might be.

Even though these companies are private, they shouldn't be allowed to censor opinions or fact check things. If a company decides that they want to start doing this, then they should be held accountable for everything that's published on that platform.

For example, ISIS has been actively publishing things on twitter and the management has done almost nothing to stop them in the name of free speach. I can't comprehend how that's acceptable yet they feel like they have to ban Trump.

[Assistant]
>I do think he was responsible for the capitol riot and for that he should be held accountable by the congress.

Well, the companies have a explicit "no inciting violence" policy. Sure, there are many smaller accounts, even from ISIS as you cited, that have not been banned. Two wrongs don't make a right, however. They should be banned too, rather than unbanning Trump.

If you believe he was indeed responsible for the riot, then you *must* admit that he used their platforms to incite violence and thus **unambiguously** broke their rules, even causing deaths. Companies have a right to, within reason, choose the rules they want their users to abide to. Trump broke these rules and so they were justified in banning him.


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

[User] [Rick&Morty] I asked Mr. Meeseeks to live a long and happy life with me, his existence is pain but he has to fill out his task. Could he manage it without going mad and killing me?

[Assistant] When he'd start being in pain from existing too long he'd probably kill you in your sleep. Just an instant death. That way you lived happily together (because you wouldn't feel pain or be angry/sad when you die) and a short amount of time is an eternity to a Meeseeks so relative to him it was a long life as well.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does there seem to be so many more (recent) terror incidents in the UK when so much of Muslim extremist anger is directed towards the US?

[Assistant]
Pretty much everything that is true of US involvement in the Middle East is also true of the UK.

The UK has partnered with the US in most of the recent interventions in the Middle East - Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria.

The UK is the second largest arms dealer in the world and (in particular) trades to Saudi Arabia, which uses those weapons to bomb Yemen and contribute to the jihadi terrorism in the region.

The UK has a long history of self-serving intervention in the Middle East which has resulted in much ill-feeling towards the British government.

The Police Federation (the government-controlled police union) has said that the reason there are more attacks is because of a reduction in the government budget for policing and therefore less preventative policing happening in communities. The Government does not agree with that assessment.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does my brain think really hot water is cold sometimes?

[Assistant] The nerves in your skin that detect temperature only measure the  **change** in temperature and not whether it is cold or hot. Context and other variables tell your brain if it is cold or not but sometimes the brain still gets confused and sends you the wrong signal.


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

[User] ELI5: Why don't we just use Faraday Cages for deep space travel? To save explorers from radiation?

[Assistant]
Wrong frequency. That would be like using sunglasses to stop gamma radiation.

If you can imagine a Faraday cage as being a physical net for catching rocks than you can imagine X-rays as being very fine sand capable of slipping through all but the finest nets.


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

[User] ELI5: How exactly do muscle cramps/spasms (for example, calf cramps) occur? What is the process that causes them?

[Assistant]
Your muscles move by contracting, and then they expand again when at rest. When you have a cramp, the muscles have not been able to expand for whatever reason, so they remain tensed and contracted which can become painful.

One reason for this can be a lack of electrolytes. The muscles use specific ions like calcium and sodium to contract and expand, and if you don't have enough of the right ion the muscles won't be able to expand after contracting. This is why Gatorade has electrolytes mixed in with it. A lack of water will do the same thing.

Another reason could be the nerves sending the signal to your muscles have gotten confused, sending the signal to tense over and over again.

It could even be part of your brain mistakenly telling your nerves to send a signal to tense over and over.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are car windows & windshields glass and not a kind of plastic?

[Assistant]
Windshields are laminated glass to prevent them from shattering in your face.  The other windows are treated so they explode into little bits instead of dangerous shards.

We dont just use plastic because it discolors from UV exposure over time and cant be broken away during an emergency.

It also has an annoying tendency to creep over time, deforming under its own weight.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are Africans (specifically Kenyans & Ethiopians) so much faster than everyone else?

I'm just curious.

[Assistant] I think you're conflating marathon wins with speed. Those nations produce a lot of marathon winners because their people have to cross distances on foot and because of the elevation, which makes their cardiovascular abilities better.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is the word "up" used so often in seemingly inappropriate ways? How can I "give up" or "fill up"?

[Assistant]
Yeah, English has lots of weird ones like this: break up, break down, look after, bring about, throw away, fuck up, face off, pass on, give in, give out, give away, give off...

And the really annoying thing is that for a lot of them, you can't figure out the meaning even if you know what 'give' and 'up' mean, which makes them really tricky for foreign learners to pick up, as they just have to memorise all the meanings in order to get by.

They are called phrasal verbs - you have a verb (like 'give') followed by one or two prepositions (eg: up, down, in, on, out, off, to, at...). When these are part of a phrasal verb, they're called particles, but that's not important.

Originally phrasal verbs in English mainly referred to movement. So when you look up at the sky, it's fairly appropriate to use 'up', as it tells us the direction you were looking. Similarly, with fall down, it seems appropriate to use 'down', as that is the direction you are falling. Same for get out/in/off/on, take away.

But as you said, we've got lots of phrasal verbs that don't seem to have anything to do with the direction. Breaking up with your partner has nothing to do with 'up'.

Two things: First, phrasal verbs have acquired metaphorical meanings, based on the physical meanings. So 'look up to' (admire) and 'look down on' (feel superior to) don't have anything literally to do with up or down, but they do metaphorically - we use the visual image of looking upwards at someone taller, older, or more mighty than you to symbolise admiration, and the opposite for look down on.

Second, in phrasal verbs, 'up' has a second meaning in addition to the direction. It can also mean 'to completion'. So when the village is burned up, it means burned entirely. When a person gives up, it means they have totally resigned their intentions. Most of the phrasal verbs with 'up', it seems, are using this 'to completion' meaning, although there are other ways of using 'up'. When you dress up for a formal dinner, the 'up' seems to mean 'to a high standard'. When you 'fill up' a pitcher, you are filling it up to a supposed mark on the side.

Is it appropriate for 'up' to have the 'to completion' meaning? Yeah, it seems so, to me at least. It makes sense that we would associate fullness, or totality, with the up direction, and so use it to symbolise that.

And then because the 'up' phrasal verbs are so common, we end up with lots more of them, with slightly vaguer connections to the original meaning, because the rules loosened up due to people just talking away and coming up with new and interesting phrases. Or sometimes a new phrase just pops up out of nowhere.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do we scream when we are startled or scared?

Recently saw the post about the employee who gets scared by his co workers, and was wondering what is the advantage of screaming when startled.

[Assistant] we're social animals. if one of us gets attacked by a predator, scream bloody murder and everyone else will start shouting and running around as well. scares the predator off, or you can deal with it, or worst case scenario, at least the rest of the tribe know what the predator was, and can take future precautions. it's what most social animals do.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] How do the Rebels purchase ships without the Imperials cracking down on the ship manufacturers? Is there such a thing as ship laundering?

Since it is hard to hide shipyards, how do the shipyards claim ignorance to how the Rebels got their ships?

[Assistant] There is ship laundering! In *Star Wars Rebels*, Princess Leia catches some flak for her continual security problems. It seems that, no matter how many ships her and her family purchase, they just continually get stolen by Rebel forces. She, understandably, puts the blame squarely on the shoddy Imperial security afforded to a senator of her stature.


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

[User] ELI5: Why can we use controllers with PCs but not keyboard and mouse with consoles?

[Assistant]
Consoles can use a mouse and keyboard. Almost any USB mouse/kb will plug in and function with modern consoles. You can type messages, browse the web, etc.

Some games do support kb/m on console: Counterstrike and War Thunder for example.

Many games don't just because it takes extra effort to program for, and the kb/m has a distinct advantage in many game types that makes it unfair.

TL;DR: It's extra work and an unfair advantage, but kb/m can be used on consoles and on certain console games.


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

[User] ELI5: How does smoking cigarettes give you low doses of radiation?

[Assistant]
Cigarettes contain some radioactive elements.

This is not unusual. Many objects around you are slightly radioactive to some degree or another. You are exposed to radioactivity from anything from concrete to bananas to even being near other people.

Usually the doses are so low to be not being worth worrying about and in most cases the radiation comes in a from that won't be able to penetrate your skin anyway.

However smoking means that you inhale the stuff and instead of being protect by your skin you ar irradiated from the inside especially your lungs where much of the stuff that you inhale ends up.

With cigarettes the thing many people worry about is polonium, which is in cigarettes and gets into your lungs and may end up giving you lung cancer.

You may wonder why there is radioactive polonium in your cigarettes, it turns out it comes with the tobacco plants which are coated with it. Why are tobacco plants coated with that stuff? Because it is the product of a chain of radioactive reactions occurring in and above the fields, the original source of that apparently comes with the fertilizer people put on tobacco fields.

Cigarettes would give you cancer in other ways even without it but it makes it worse.


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

[User]
eli5: How can airplanes have WiFi?

Normally, WiFi in homes is tethered to a grounded connection right? How is it possible to "transmit" the Internet to a moving plane?

[Assistant]
There are two types of in-flight WiFi. The first type, for example GoGo Inflight, uses a high powered antenna to connect to ground-based cell phone towers. Cell towers are fairly limited in speed, especially the long-range types that can reach an airplane in flight.

The second type, for example ViaSat, uses a satellite receiver dish, like the kind you might have at home for satellite TV or internet, to connect to a satellite. Most satellites have a lot of bandwidth available so speed isn't really an issue, however the receivers are harder to install on a moving plane than a stationary dish at home. A lot of airlines are moving towards this type because it allows for higher speeds, which their customers will appreciate more.


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

[User]
How big does a hydrogen gas ball have to be before its own gravity effect starts self sustaining fusion like the Sun?

Assume it's a "universe sandbox" where there's no other objects to exert a gravity field on that hydrogen ball.

[Assistant] It needs to have about 80 times the mass of Jupiter, or about 0.08 times the mass of the Sun, before it can sustain proton-proton chain fusion in its core. Probably a little bit more mass if you're using pure hydrogen rather than the 75/25 H/He mix (by mass) that actual stars are comprised of, but it won't make a huge difference.


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

[User]
[Mario] Who laid all those pipes and why?

People don't seem to realize how much pipe there is.  Remember, there are pipes on far distant planets, pipes you can use to cross the continents or even the galaxy, pipes in the clouds, pipes that lead to nowhere, and of course pipes that have no use.

And yet despite this, they all seem to follow a sort of standard.  Who went out of their way to lay a cross galaxy piping system, why, and most importantly *where did they go?*

[Assistant]
The Mushroom Kingdom we see is only a shadow of its former glory. The Mushroom Kingdom was a human empire spanning entire worlds. Once they conquered almost everything, the humans started to dwindle. Nowadays there are only a handful left, and most of those are in the Royal Family. Perhaps ironically, one of the most easily-conquered and servile of races, the Toads, are rapidly becoming the de facto inheritors of what's left of the Human Empire.

Remnants of the halcyon days of expansionism are everywhere. It hardly seems like you can walk more than ten miles without finding an old brick road or a crumbling fort. At its height, the Mushroom Kingdom developed a series of pipes to allow rapid transit, for both convenience and safety (as pipe-travel often circumvented dangerous wilderness). The pipe also served a militaristic purpose, allowing spies and shock troops to be quickly dispatched to enemy lands (including the territory of the Koopa Kingdom). The vast pipe infrastructure was developed over the Mushroom Kingdom's history, centuries and centuries of exploration, building, expansion, and further exploration. It took a long, long time to lay all that pipe.

Those who would explore unknown lands and dig tunnels to lay the pipe were regarded as incredibly brave, as only a very select few could stand to 'plumb the depths' for the good of the Empire. Eventually they became a kind of class of knight-errants, often serving at the will of the Kingdom's ruler. Few plumbers exist today, but those that do are known as heroes and are still as venerated as they were in ancient times.


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

[User]
[MCU] What if a senior successfully received the Super Soldier Serum?

Lets say its a decently fit 75 year old.  Guy works out and has kept fit, injury free, and healthy, and gets the full Super Soldier Serum without negative consequences.

How would it affect him versus a younger man of relative fitness?

[Assistant] Hed probably just become incredibly strong and fast, but not as much so as someone in their prime who took it. You obviously age after taking it so it wouldnt make him appear younger or anything itd just make him a super ripped 75 year old.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are Phone companies improving screen resolution/size/aesthetics when currently the big problems with phones are battery life/low volume limits/poor reception/sturdiness?

[Assistant]
Increasing battery life, volume limits, reception & sturdiness only appeal to users that treat their device as appliances. They buy new phones when their current product is obsoleted, more than a year after their last purchase.

The fashion user meanwhile will flock to the shop for the thinnest or newest phone just months after their last purchase. Same goes with spec-bragger that won't caught guard with less than 8K screen.

So you build your flagship to attract those who treat their phones as jewelry/specs check boxes, expect lower sales, frequent release, fat margin. Meanwhile from bargain components you build the middle or low end phones that will satisfy the majority of the market, anticipating their infrequent purchase and thin margin.


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

[User]
Is the brain capable of true multitasking? Or is does it achieve it through quick switching between tasks?

Computers simulate multitasking by switching focus between different tasks quickly so it feels like they're doing everything at once.
So which is it for the human brain? And is it even possible to test/prove it?

[Assistant]
As others have said, the brain is multitasking in that it is always processing multiple inputs at the same time.

Your consciousness, however, is not multitasking. You can only concentrate on one thing at a time.


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

[User]
ELI5:Why don't we see movie theaters compete?

There are very few advertisements for different movie theaters, and I don't see conptetive pricing or exclusive content in any major movie theater, why is this?

[Assistant] People don't go to the movies to go to the theaters.  They go to see the movies so whenever a movie is out and has different showtimes or different locations people tend to just go to the specific theater they are used to or prefer and won't likely win over customers of other theaters.  Plus the advertising is for such a limited area with such little competition it isn't really worth the cost of the advertising campaign (except for special contests like first 100 to the minion show get minion hats etc)


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

[User]
[General Comics] What are the doctors of DC and Marvel ACTUALLY doctors of?

Doctor strange, doctor doom, doctor octopus, doctor Destiny, doctor fate, etc, on and on and on.

[Assistant]
Doctor Strange was a surgeon before he became the Sorcerer Supreme.

Doctor Doom has multiple doctorates in physics, biology, and other technical fields.

Doctor Octopus is a physicist.

Doctor Fate (the original, Kent Nelson, at least) was an archaeologist. There have been others who took on the helm of Nabu, some of whom just took the name Fate.

Doctor Destiny seems to be involved in medicine in some way, though exactly what his doctorate was in is unknown.


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

[User] ELI5: How is nearly every book that is written nowadays listed as a #1 New York Times Bestseller? Something isnt adding up to me.

[Assistant]
The New York Times is just a popularity list. So things are ranked by week, month, year like any other list.

So if you are the only major book released in the week you might be an instant number one.

In reality though there are so many books released every week its a half a decent metric to go by as any. An astronomical number of books are released that dont end up on the list, just the ones popular enough to afford advertising are the ones you hear of.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Is Avada Kedavra the only way to magically kill someone?

Thought about this while re-watching the movies, but is the killing curse the only way to kill someone using magic?

[Assistant]
Absolutely not. *Reducto*, for instance, can blast solid objects apart; a powerful one can rip apart a stone wall. A human body doesn't fare any better. *Sectumsepra* gives deep, bleeding gashes; even if the victim isn't hit in a major artery, the cuts are severe enough that they will probably bleed to death without treatment. Then there is the entrails-expelling curse; it does exactly what one would expect. There are any number of ways that a wizard can kill another magically.

*Avada Kedavra* is unique, however. Most killing spells damage the body, and like with non-magical trauma, if the body sustains enough damage, it dies. The Killing Curse doesn't attack the body; it attacks the soul. It does nothing *but* kill.


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

[User]
I believe that people who are for socialism are people who hate hard work & ambition, and also do not understand the implications of taking incentives away from self-made entrepreneurs. CMV.

In a perfect world, I want every starving child to be fed, every single human to be happy, and every person to come into existence to be honest, loving, and caring. In a perfect world, I want socialism.

But **we don't live in a perfect world.** Seeing that I look through the lens of **reality**, I know that most people (yes, even though who for socialism) are only looking for their own self-interest. We need police because criminals exist, we need firefighters because fires will still happen, and we need a capitalistic society because we're no longer creatures who simply just survive and replicate, but rather creatures who create change. Without rewarding the entrepreneur, we are punishing ourselves as a society. If we say that employee #2 deserves as much as the creator of the company (even if employee #2 does MORE work), then we're basically **removing the incentive to start a business**.

As an entrepreneur myself who risked my life-savings to start a business with my friends, and have succeeded, it angers me that people look at me like an enemy and call me selfish for not paying my employees just as much as I take in, even though I took all the risk.

[Assistant] By providing a minimum under which people cannot fall, socialism **promotes entrepreneurship by guaranteeing the entrepreneur a second chance at starting their enterprise**. If fewer people have to worry about the basic necessities, then there are more people who are free to create something new instead of spending their time just surviving. Those who are happy with the minimum can choose to stagnate there.  Those like yourself can pursue something bigger.


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

[User]
[DC] Can you mine cryptocurrency on a power ring?

Power rings have AI and are able to interface with computer systems and speak their language so to speak.  Are the rings turing complete though?  Mining crypto is one kinda dumb mundane thing you could theoretically use them for is so but what about others?  Can you say, "install" Windows, and play games with your friends?  Are some color rings better at this sort of thing than others?

[Assistant] You don't need to be Turing complete to mine Crypto. You just need to be able to calculate the hash of a computer message. The thing within mining has nothing to do with complexity, it's about speed. It's about guessing as many numbers as possible to find a special number to make the hash work.


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

[User] [SCP][Dr. Who] Could the SCP contain The Doctor? How?

[Assistant] Continually giving him manufactured crises to keep him distracted and on-site. Somehow convincing him that they were like UNIT in the 80s, giving him a bogus "scientific advisor" status and occasionally 'breaching' a non-Keter SCP for him to deal with might be a good way to do it.


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

[User]
[Star Trek]Would the Prime Directive apply to a species that evolved from animals taken from Earth?

remember that time the Defiant got thrown back in time and they found the crew's descendants living on an alien planet.
Suppose something similar to that happened but it was millions of years, instead of  hundreds, and rather than the crews decedents it was their pet's descendants, evolved into sapient beings.
Would the Prime Directive apply to them?

[Assistant]
It doesn't matter what is the genetic background of a planet's inhabitants. What matters is that the species is sapient, sentient and intelligent, has not previously made contact with an alien civilization that it is aware of, and had not yet developed warp technology.

Hell, even if the species was 100% human, it could still apply if they were sufficiently removed culturally from Earth's civilization, think Star Gate.


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

[User]
Water pressure around a submarine...

Hi, let's pretend there's a submarine with an opening on its bottom. No water can flow inside the submarine because of its perfect orientation without letting any air from the inside evade. To clarify my idea, it should look like a swimming pool from the inside of the submarine. Is this even theoretically possible?

This submarine goes down to a deadly depth for human being.

When someone from the inside of the submarine would climb into this "pool", would this person's foot be instantly crushed by the water pressure?

Wondering about this for a long time, I hope I was clear as English is not my mother tongue.

Thanks :)

[Assistant]
As the submarine goes deeper and deeper, assuming it stays perfectly oriented so that no air can escape, the air will be compressed by water pressure. The volume of the air will shrink, making the "swimming pool" water level higher.

Depending on how deep you go, the pressurized air could kill a person.


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

[User]
How do programs draw to the screen?

I have already done a few operating systems classes and know a fair bit of coding, but in the process of writing a GUI program for learning purposes i realized that i have no idea how the GUI is drawn to the screen. There are a lot of libraries for java like swing and javafx that do a lot of the heavy lifting in the background and where most of the actual work of creating the window is abstracted away behind a few functions. But i'd like to know how that happens. How are those libraries build, are they written in opengl, ore something even more low-level? Do these window creations happen with a syscall by the operating system? I have no idea, but i'd like to know. My research did not come up with anything, so this is my last resort.I hope i have asked my question so that it can be understood and thanks for the answers in advance.

[Assistant]
ultimately there is some RAM that represents the content of the screen. It will actually reside on a graphics chip somewhere but the OS memory maps it so it appears to be addressable by the cpu, usually at a fixed address. This portion of memory will be blitted to the sceen 60 times a second or whatever. If you know the address you can read or overwrite any part of what is displayed, and not too long ago if you were making a fullscreen game that is what you would do, and the screen\_base\_address would be part of a public api available for that purpose.

Nowadays, on OSX at least, you really have to be a good citizen and not just go drawing over any part of the display - so there are public api's (not just one.. old, new, different level's of abstraction, hardware accelerated, etc.) that make window buffers available. You draw (i.e. manipulate the memory) into these and the OS will composite those into the (private) screen buffer.

If you want to draw images into there, or polygons, or sprites, or text, or video, or voxels, etc. the OS is going to have an API for that, so you don't have to manipulate the window buffer directly, but you can if you want to.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why it is unsafe to drink rubbing alcohol?

I know this sounds horrible, and I will never do it, but It is just alcohol isn't it? Why isn't it possible to mix a drink with it?

[Assistant]
Alcohol is just a class of organic molecules that has a hydroxyl group attached to a single carbon (methyl alcohol) or a chain of carbons. When alcohol enters your body it get metabolized to form a ketone or an aldehyde. What metabolite is produced is dependent on what alcohol is being metabolized. Regular drinking alcohol (ethyl alcohol) gets metabolized into acetaldehyde which isn't very toxic to humans but is part of the reason you feel hungover. When rubbing alcohol (isopropyl alcohol) is metabolized it forms a ketone called acetone, also known as nail polish remover. Acetone acts as a central nervous system depressent and will lead to headaches then dizziness then vomiting then a coma if taken in large enough quantities.

So it's really not the rubbing alcohol that hurts you its what your body does with it. If someone drinks rubbing alcohol or antifreeze which contains methyl alcohol (metabolizes into formaldehyde) of course the best thing to do is get them to the hospital. If that's not an option for some reason, getting them drunk and keeping them drunk for a while will also save them. This is because ethyl alcohol has a higher affinity for the enzyme that metabolizes all alcohols so your body will be too busy metabolizing the ethyl alcohol to metabolize the other alcohol. Eventually the isopropyl or methyl alcohol will be excreted in the urine and no harm will be done.


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

[User]
What is Zero point energy?

So what is zero point energy and what can it be used for? I see definitions all the time but I just don't know what they mean. So if someone can simplify the definition as best as possible for me, I would be really appreciate it.

[Assistant] Zero-point energy is the energy present in a quantum system, even in its ground state. In other words, it's the lowest possible energy that a quantum system can have. It cannot be used for anything, because it's the lowest possible energy. By definition, you cannot extract zero-point energy from a quantum system, because it's the minimum possible energy that the system can have.


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

[User]
[The Fly] Did the fly make Brundle superhuman, or did the telepod?

In Cronenbergs The Fly, Seth Brundle begins experiencing superhuman abilities after merging with a Common Housefly

We are led to believe this is happening because of the DNA merge offering him the Flys abilities such as bug-like strength

But the trouble is that Brundle specifically says that the machine doesnt understand organic matter until he teaches it to, which lets be honest, would be a limited understanding at best

So what if, much like the steak, Brundles DNA was simply approximated to the best of the machines ability, which logically if a machine was stacking molecules it would do it in the most efficient way

Meaning every part of ones body would be optimized, hence the strength, stamina, and agility which all displayed before any fly like powers such as the acid spit and wall crawling

Was it the fly, or the telepod?

[Assistant]
I imagine it's the fly, especially given the way the "superhuman" abilities emerge slowly as the now-fused DNA propagates via cell multiplication, eventually growing to outnumber the original tissues in Brundle's body.

If the machine said "eh, close enough", either A) the change would be nigh instantaneous, as all the original cells would be effectively replaced at the moment of re-materialization, or B) it would do to him what it did to the prior test creatures, because the odds of a malfunctioning teleporter putting a human back together better than new are about the same as the odds of throwing a brick through a stained glass window and the broken pieces spontaneously making a Tiffany lamp, with bulb.


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

[User] In an otherwise 'empty' universe, would two protons randomly placed in that universe eventually collide due to gravity?

[Assistant]
No - the electrostatic repulsion due to the protons having the same charge would prevent them from coming into contact.

Even if you threw them at each other really hard, they would either deflect off each other, or you would end up with some resulting particles that are no longer two protons, as in the LHC.


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

[User] ELI5: How do ships anchor themselves in very deep waters? For example, if they anchored in 10K foot deep oceans, do they actually have 10K feet of anchor chains?

[Assistant]
There is usually no need to anchor the ship in deep waters. They just stop the engine and drift. It is going to be days or even weeks before they even get remotely close to anything dangerous so there is no need for an anchor. They might have to periodically start their engines to go back to the place they were supposed to be but that is not a big deal.

There is also something called a sea anchor. It looks like a parachute which they drop into the sea. This does make them drift more with the current and less with the wind. However the most important reason is that by hooking the sea anchor to the bow of the ship it always faces the wind and the waves. That helps a bit since there is no waves hitting the ship on the side where it rocks the ship so a sea anchor gives the ship more stability. Larger vessels do not care about this though as they are wide enough for the waves to not affect them.


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

[User]
[Star Wars/Hunger Games] Which evil regime would you rather live under: the Galactic Empire or Panem?

If you HAD to live under one of them, which would it be? Emperor Palpatine's Galactic Empire or President Snow's Panem?

[Assistant]
The Galactic Empire, without a doubt.

The Empire is evil, on a fundamental and underlying level.  But they' run *an entire galaxy*, they really don't have time to mess with individuals.  Beyond that, they have a vested interest in a prosperous economy, and the overwhelming majority of their abuses are to non-human (humanoid, near human, etc) species, not humans themselves.

The biggest problems with the Galactic Empire are civil rights for nonhumans, and living in a totalitarian state.  But they're not actively pitting children against one and other for entertainment value.


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

[User]
ELI5: What exactly is "counting cards"?

Ben Affleck was busted doing this in a casino in Vegas. What is it exactly? And is there any way for casinos to guarantee that no one does this?

[Assistant]
Start at zero.

When you see a 10 card (10-K) subtract 1 from the count.

When you see a 2-5 add 1 to the count.

When the count hits something good like maybe 12 or 15 raise your bet to the max.

That is the short answer.

The reason being is 10 cards are when you want the deck to be full of and not a bunch of 2s 3s 4s and 5s (they help the dealer not bust out).

/shrug

The other answers go into much more detail but this is the simple version.

Enjoy.


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

[User]
Will Saturns ring form into moons eventually?

If so, how long until the event completes, and how many moons would there be?

[Assistant]
The rings will not form moons, due to the tidal effects of Saturn. As particles get larger, there is more stress placed on them through uneven gravitational attraction to Saturn, and to other large particles.  The proximity to the planet where larger bodies are prevented (or destroyed) is called the Roche Limit. Essentially, they are too close to the large planet, and will always be squished flat.

They will slowly fall out of orbit.


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

[User]
[The boys] how is the crime rate in America?

From a past thread and from my understanding on the show, Vought has in most part only made heroes in America. But as I understand they havent made supervillains either.

Even with how unhinged most heroes on the show seem to be, it stands to reason that there would be good ones too. Tomiko, Starlight, sonicboom seem to be exemplos of that. And I think that would be specially true on the B class and lower heroes that werent spoiled by fame.

How is the crime rate in the world? I dont think average criminals would stand a chance when on every corner there could be a super trying to break the news without any supervillain to stop them.

[Assistant]
Whilst there are definitely some supes that genuinely want to help and stop crime, they are in the minority. Most supes only go out on patrol when they need to boost ratings.
The crime rate is probably a bit lower but its still very much a substantial thing.


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

[User]
ELI5: How Rail Guns Work

I was bored at work and looked up coil guns on wikipedia because I was curious on how they work since the Gauss rifle is my favorite weapon in Fallout: New Vegas. I understood how that worked fine. I had trouble understanding the concept of rail guns, however. I got lost when it started talking about the opposite polarities...

[Assistant]
A railgun has two rails that are parallel to each other.  The rails generate a magnetic field which forces an object to move forward through them.  The ammunition is a metal object which is affected by the magnetic fields.

You know how when you try to put two magnets together, and they resist each other?  It's that same force, except the direction of the force will send the projectile forward.


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

[User]
Does hand sanitiser use make pathogens more hand sanitiser resistant, in the same way antibiotic use does?

While absolutely necessary at the moment, seeing hand sanitiser everywhere had got me thinking. We have really overused antibiotics, creating a new problem for ourselves with antibiotic resistant pathogens, is there a chance we are in the process of doing the same with hand sanitisers?

[Assistant]
No.
Hand sanitizer uses alcohol to damage the lipid membrane of microorganisms. This is a very simple mechanism. It would be very difficult for infectious agents to get around this.

In contrast antibiotics usually interfere with bacterial metabolism in a more complex manner such as inhibiting a particular enzyme. There are ways bacteria can evolve to fight this. For example a mutation in an enzyme that prevents binding of the antibiotic , or increasing the clearance rate of the antibiotic.


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

[User]
Can insects see very small things like bacteria?

Can they see smaller things than us? How small?

[Assistant] Insects with compound eyes have what we would consider poor vision. They have a wide field of view, but see nothing clearly. Their eyes cannot focus like ours can. Each facet receives an unfocused image, but thousands of them together give a decent-enough view. The other thing to consider is that we have millions of photoreceptors in our eyes whereas insects typically only have thousands. Imagine the difference between QVGA (320x240=76800) video and 4K (3840x2160=8294400) video.


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

[User]
Do plants age for the same reasons that animals do?

Asked to me by my niece, and I have to admit I'm actually not sure.

[Assistant]
Animal aging is believed to be tied to programmed cell senescence, and the shortening of telomeres over time.
Plants (that aren't annuals-think trees for example) are theoretically immortal. They will continue to live and grow until an outside factor causes their death. The fact that plant growth comes from meristems, a constantly dividing group of cells, helps contribute to the fact that plants can keep growing. This is how they replace "old/dead" cells like bark. So in short, no-plants do not age for the same reasons as animals do.
The most frequent thing that causes cell death and turnover in a plant stem is clogging and occlusion of vessel elements (sap gets dried and blocks the phloem).


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

[User] ELI5: I've heard that people with anxiety disorders take comfort from the sensation of pressure: hugs, having someone sit in their lap or lay on/with them, and being tightly wrapped in a blanket in order to sleep soundly. Why is this?

[Assistant]
Because you read an article that oversimplifies things, possibly.

First, there are many anxiety disorders, with different causes and different treatments, and not every treatment will work for any specific case. For some cases, in fact, being wrapped in a blanket may well *trigger* an anxiety attack!

In generalised, simplistic terms, though, all the things you described are ones that would make *most* people feel comfortable, secure or loved. Is it any wonder that this may provide relief for someone suffering from anxiety?


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

[User]
If you take an even number of fermions with 1/2 spin and bind them then the spin is now an integer and now a boson. Bosons do not follow Pauli's exclusion principle but fermions do, but now that the 2 fermions behave like a boson would they follow the principle or not?

Im gonna be honest, I'm not the smartest. Just a young high schooler that is curious with the world of science. A VERY long train of thought led me to fermions and bosons and now I ask this question which much curiosity. If I said something wrong or phrased something wrong please correct me. Thank you in advance!

[Assistant]
Composite bosons behave like bosons, unless you get them close enough to each other that their substructure starts to become important.

If you have composite bosons made of an even number of fermions, as long as you don't force them to come within a length scale small enough that the fermion wavefunctions start to overlap, they'll behave like any boson.

The fermions that make it up are still fermions, and they are still subject to Pauli exclusion.


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

[User]
ELI5 Why we're more likely to get ill during colder seasons

Why is it that whenever winter-time comes, people suddenly start getting ill? How does cold affect our immune system?

[Assistant]
There are many compounding factors. The strength of your immune system isn't really one of them, actually.

The biggest is that we tend to clump up inside in cold weather. So there are more people in less space sharing germs.

Sunlight and heat are both good at killing viruses as well, so viruses live longer on surfaces indoors.


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

[User] Why is snake venom required to make anti-venom?

[Assistant] Anti-venom is antibodies that the immune system has produced in response to a foreign protein. In order to produce those antibodies, an animal is injected with the protein, and the antibodies produced by the animal are extracted and used for antivenom. So, you have to use the venom to train the animal's immune system to create the antivenom.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do we see imprints of a bright light when we blink even after we look away from it?

[Assistant]
Ever whack your hand so bad that it went numb for a bit and then stung for a while, but nothing was actually wrong with your hand, like it was better an hour later?

Basically the same thing.

The nerves in your hand got whacked so hard that they have a hard time resetting back to the non-activated state. Same kind of thing happens with the photoreceptors in your eyes.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] What is the status of Coruscant in Eps 7? Was it even referenced in the OT?

I don't remember even a mention of Coruscant in the OT or Eps 7. Haven't seen Rogue One yet so no spoilers, if its mentioned there.

[Assistant]
We see Coruscant in the celebration scenes at the end of RotJ, though canonically stormtroopers broke up those celebrations right away.

Coruscant was the site of the signing of the Galactic Concordance, a treaty which officially ended the Galactic Civil War.

The New Republic, in an effort to not make itself too much like the Old Republic, decided that rather than have Coruscant be the Galactic seat again, the NR capital would rotate around various planets in the galaxy. At the time of TFA, the capital was Hosnian Prime.


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

[User]
Can you be a philosopher if you don't understand certain philosophers?

There are some philosophers I just can't understand when I read them. When professors explain them in class I can understand what they're saying, but when I look at the text I can't understand it. Examples are Hegel's Logic, Sartre's Being and Nothingness, Heidegger, and Kierkegaard's Sickness Unto Death. There will occasionally be a sentence or two that sticks out, but mostly it reads to me like gobbledygook (one sentence doesn't seem connected to the sentences that follow). I don't have this problem with other philosophers. It takes me time to read John Rawls or Derek Parfit or Nietzsche, and it can be difficult, but they make sense to me in a way that those other people don't. If you're a philosopher do you have to understand all philosophers, or can you admit that there are some you read and just don't understand?

[Assistant]
I don't see why you'd have to understand all philosophers.  Most philosophers don't read every other philosopher because they focus mostly on what goes on in their subdiscipline.  Hegel and Heidegger are two very difficult philosophers to read and even professional philosophers have trouble understanding them.

Just a note: The above shouldn't be an excuse to not try your best to understand them and to use secondary sources to supplement your readings.


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

[User] ELI5: My eyes are red from allergies. Rubbing them makes it worse but it feels oh so good. Why?

[Assistant] Allergies make you itchy. Rubbing things that itch makes it feel better. In turn you're rubbing your eyes with something that's probably covered in the stuff your allergic to, Making the irritation worse.


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

[User] ELI5: How exactly does electricity "know" to not flow backwards in a transmission line (or circuit)back to the source? Why does it move in one direction?

[Assistant] Similar to air flowing through a hose on a machine, the end it's coming from has something pushing it along (a generator). This generator is making a voltage potential, and the place it's going to has a potential of 0 (it goes into the Earth after going through your stuff). Just like that high pressure air wants to go to where there's low pressure to even out.


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

[User]
Since Titans atmosphere is mostly methane, what prevents the whole moon from detonating when hit by a meteor?

Is it only the lack of oxygen in the atmosphere? What if a comet with a high quantity of frozen oxygen were to impact Titan at high velocity?  Basically what's the easiest way to detonate all that gas on Titan? Is it even possible?

[Assistant] I believe you answered your own question, there is no oxygen in titan's atmosphere, thus no combustion.  But also, Titan's atmosphere is 95% nitrogen and 5% methane.  So a theoretical frozen oxygen asteroid wouldn't blow up much more than the plasma it would produce on the way down.


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

[User]
[God of War] Why doesnt killing Norse gods cause any sort of chaos like killing the Greek gods did?

Out of universe: its because its a new studio and production company.

But in-universe: each time Kratos struck down a Grecian diety it disrupted the course of nature and created disorder. Kratos fixation with vengeance and self-justification drew him deeper into his destructive path, both to himself, and to the world around him. Poseidon dies and the oceans form Tsunamis, Hades is slain and the souls of the dead no longer have passage through the underworld, Helios, darkness etc.

When Balfur, or Odin, or Thor die people just feel sad? Arent the gods supposed to be anchors of reality, symbols of order, mirrors of worldly laws? Heimdal causes some disruption, but thats only due to the prophecy, and Ragnaroog.

If Kratos had spared Heimdal, and the rest of the gods were slain, would that change anything? It was alvvays described as a cursed thing to slay a god-being, but now anyone can do it if they feel morally justified? Are the Norse gods in this just superheroes?

[Assistant]
The nature of godhood in Greece versus The Nine Realms. In Greece the gods are intrinsically tied to their domains. They are effectively metaphysical representations of what they represent - to kill them kills the thing they are linked to. They built reality around themselves and are the world itself. Ares is not just the one whos the best at war but he is the very idea, the very concept of war itself. Poseidon doesnt just control or rule the seas, they are as much him as he is them.

Meanwhile the Aesir, incredibly powerful as they are, arent as intrinsically tied to the domains theyre gods of. Their domains are more their nature and power, which aligns with some aspect of the world. In GOW18 they specifically say theyll learn what Atreuss abilities will be as they develop. The Norse Gods are, not to diminish their power, immensely powerful immortals, but they are not the same metaphysical beings the Greek Gods are. Theyre simply at echelons of power where it only *matters* at beings of comparable power.

When Kratos killed Helios the skies went dark because the idea of The Sun was just killed. But killing Thor doesnt kill the idea of the storm, of thunder. Hes empowered by it, he can control it, he can use and influence the storm - but he is not *the storm itself*.


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

[User]
Is the amount of debt that ends in bankruptcy tracked and reported as an official number like GDP?

For example, how much, out of the entire dollar value of the loans created in the US in 1980, was paid back, and how much debt ended in bankruptcy?

Edit: I would include not just bankruptcies but also loan forgiveness or any material adjustments to the original loan. And I'm not thinking about the rate or number of personal insolvencies, more along the lines of how much of the debt from central banks is paid back in full.

[Assistant]
The System of National Accounts 2008 (SNA08), the internationally-agreed manual that defines GDP and other macroeconomic statistics includes a set of balance sheet accounts that track the financial and non-financial assets of a given area at specified points in time. This includes tracking adjustments to the value of outstanding loans.

That said not every country's statistics office produces and publishes such accounts.


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

[User] ELI5: Why aren't guitar frets evenly spaced?

[Assistant]
Because for a string instrument, notes have a multiplicative, not an additive relationship. For example lets take a string that's tuned to an E. In order to play an E one octave higher you have to place your finger in the middle of the string, effectively cutting its length in half. To go up to the next E, you put your finger at the middle point between the last octave and the end of the string, making it effectively one quarter of the length of the full string. So, if you were to put frets to mark three octaves, it would look something like this

--------|----|--|--

As you can see, they get progressively closer, just like the frets of a guitar. The difference there is that the guitar frets don't just mark octaves but the other notes in between.


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

[User] What causes the Casimir effect?

[Assistant] In a vacuum, there are constant energy fluctuations resulting in the formation and annihilation of short-lived virtual particles, including photons. These fluctuations are always present, and in a normal vacuum, the forces from these fluctuations counteract each other. When two surfaces are brought very close together, the possible modes for the vacuum energy to couple to are confined by the plates. If the plates are, for example, 500 nm apart, only photons with wavelengths which fit within 500 a whole number of times (250, 100, 50, etc.) are allowed states for the vacuum to couple to. Since the position of the plates suppresses the formation of virtual photons in between, and the creation is not suppressed outside of the plates, there will be a force pushing the plates together.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do phone chargers eventually get to a point where you have to place them in a very specific position to actually charge?

[Assistant] Copper is very expensive, so the manufacturers are making the wires thinner and thinner, and everytime you bend the cord it weakens the wire until the point it breaks.  If you bend a certain way you're still barely making contact.   Whatever you do, do not wrap your cord around the brick, keep it as loose as possible, or if possible have a charger for each location and dont keep messing with it.


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

[User]
Mass of the universe right after the Big Bang - why all this condensed mass not create a black hole?

Assuming the mass of the universe right after the Big Bang was equal to today's mass.... so much mass in such a small area, why was there no immediate black hole formation?

[Assistant] The universe was still infinitely big immediately after the big bang, just much much more dense. The universe was also *very* uniform and *very* hot. Because it was uniform, the gravitational acceleration on any point is basically zero. There were tiny fluctuations in density, but the universe was so hot that its pressure would just bounce these back before they collapsed. It was also so thick and opaque that it couldn't really radiate the temperature away from any point. It's only later that the universe cooled down enough to allow things to collapse into galaxies and stars and so on.


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

[User]
Are sensory organs like eyes, ears, nose etc. in all or almost all animals close to the brain?

I have wondered because in all animals I can think of, these organs are as close as possible to the brain. The most obvious reason seems to be that this way the sensory input reaches the brain a few milliseconds faster, but I somehow find it hard to believe that the evolutionary pressure has been so high for all animals that those with diverging organs had no way to reproduce in large enough quantities.

[Assistant]
The concept of most sensory organs located directly near the brain is mostly vertebrate-centric. Arthropods can diverge from this rule in their extreme diversity, as there are several groups that evolved accessory organs related to functions specifically needed for tasks in their group.

A few examples:

* Crickets and grasshoppers being one of the few with a communication system through sound, developed ears on their legs.

* Butterflys and moths appear to have ear-like structures at the base of their wings, with their wing veins directing sounds towards it. Very useful for detecting predators.

* For another butterfly example, some species are able to taste with their legs. This is to find the right host plant for egg deposition.

* Spiders have several families with very poor eyesight, which effectively have turned vibration sensing in their extremities into a substitute for ears and eyes.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do they measure the depth of caves when theres no real direct path top to bottom?

Im talking about the record-holding ones in Georgia (the country) or Mexico. Ive read a few books about these adventures but never do they go into HOW the depth is accurately measured. Im 49, but my 13 year old asked me. Lets pretend shes 5.

[Assistant]
Pressure, as you go down the amount of air pressure increases and this can be used to find out how low in the ground you are.

It's the same principle which hikers use to measure how high they are while climbing mountains.


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

[User]
ELI5: In the U.S. why do minorities and those in poverty have a higher risk of dropping out of school?

I understand that there probably isn't one simple answer to this question, but I've always wondered this. I have a couple of personal theories, but I haven't been able to find any statistics or facts on the main reasons.

[Assistant]
According to The Silent Epidemic: Perspectives of High School Dropouts, "a third (32 percent) [of the students interviewed] said they
had to get a job and make money; 26 percent
said they became a parent; and 22 percent
said they had to care for a family member."

Students from low-income are more likely to need to make an income, to experience unsupported teen pregnancy, and to care for a family member than their more affluent peers. A student from a middle or upper class family would not need to work and would likely have financial support to care for a baby or family member.


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

[User]
CMV: Built-In Ads on YouTube are BS and should not be allowed.

I think that when YouTubers advertise their sponsors in the video, it is pretty scummy. I understand that creators need monetization. So, I'm not against the 30sec-2min ads that you sometimes can skip. I'm talking about when the creator says "now before we go any further, I'd like to talk about our amazing sponsor". The biggest example is for different VPN security companies.

These days, there is alot more support for content creators getting actually paid for their work. That's great! And I definitely agree with it. But, I also don't think it should be such a priority that creators get to do this as their full time job.

Anyway, the reason I think these are BS is that I pay for YouTube premium. Some people will make fun of me for that, but in my opinion it's worth the money to have zero ads, and to use the YouTube music app. But, these built-in ads basically circumvent that service. Not only is that just canniving, but it devalues YouTube Premium. I've considered dropping it for this reason, and I'm sure others have as well.

That is why I think these ads are unethical. It just adds to the BS. A free user now has to watch BOTH types of ads, and I know what you're gonna say to that: "if it's free you can't complain!" Which is true, but if people spend 40% of their time on YouTube watching ads, they will migrate away from the platform. Therefore creators stand to make even less money, and the downward spiral goes from there.

One last minor point, is that these videos will not age well at all. In 20-30 years, watching "old" YouTube videos will consist of watching a bunch of ads that promote bygone companies and products. You might say it'll be nostalgic, but I think it just takes away from the art. And yes I know that the opinion of viewers in 20 years has no bearing on the financial aspect of creation. That's why this point is minor. I still think it's valid for the sake of the art form though. What if the Mona Lisa had a banner across the bottom advertising "Leo's Great Flying Machine now 15% off if you use the promo code CRAP"?

Edit: wording/clarifications

Edit 2: thanks to those who gave constructive and intelligent replies. It helped me make my view more defined and there were some good suggestions.

To everyone else - thanks for convincing me that I'm right!

[Assistant]
> A free user now has to watch BOTH types of ads

Not true.  And that's why there's build in ads.  Youtube is doing nothing against people with ad-blockers.  But if one of those people watches a video that doesn't make the creator any money.  And as Youtube is not giving creators the ability to stop these people from watching their videos these creators have very understandably looked for a more reliable source of income.


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

[User]
[Fantasy] Why does technology in fantasy worlds stay the same for thousands of years?

I would like to know, why is it that fantasy worlds technology seem to stay the same for thousands of years with no improvement ? For example: Lord of the Rings, Narnia, Eragon, and many other fantasy worlds seem to be trapped in a medieval stasis for thousands of years. Why is that? Why does the technology barely move in those worlds?

[Assistant] Necessity and limitations are the mother and drive of all scientific innovation. Need to carry a load, invent wheel. Need to hunt for food, invent spear. Practical magic erases those needs and limitation. There's no need to invent weapons that does massive damage over a wide area when  any magi can do the same. Why innovate medicine when anyone can pray to the Gods for divine healing? Add to the fact the magic is often seen as an elitist talent, so families would send their best and brightest to learn dogmatic rituals of magic, closing other avenues of research and development.


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

[User]
[DC Marvel] What would the Justice League think of Sentry ? Would they allow him to join the team or consider him far too dangerous ?

What would be Batmans plan to take him down ?

[Assistant]
Depends on which League were talking about, how long the Sentry has existed here in this universe, whether Sentry has yet revealed himself to the public, and whether or not one of his various mental breaks have been displayed to the world - and this is all to say nothing about his villainous alter-ego, the Void.

If the Void is revealed, thats a major disqualifier.

The Justice League of America is all about justice and creating public order, but without causing causalities. Theyre assembled as super-powered police for world ending threats, but they try to stop any threats as peacefully as possible; Doomsday, Mongol, Darkseid etc dont really count as they would literally blow up the Earth if they werent permanently stopped/ jailed securely). A Void-empowered Sentry casually tearing apart villains with his bare hands, or molecularly disassembling them because he feels that that upholds his vision of justice would clash with the more traditional views of the league.

If he can keep up a pleasant, light-hearted facade for the team, than alls swell! Mind you this guy has crazy mood swings, and struggles with doubt. Thats his flaw. The League are supportive, and empathetic, but if you cross the no-kill rule, youve lost their support.

In JLU, hell, anyone could join so long as they wanted to save people, and had (mostly) noble intentions. Look at the size of their register, over +100 members at one point. High-tier supes such as Sentry would be an A-class addition - assuming he hasnt had any Void related moments in public.

Batman had a plan for each of the leaguers in the event they ever went rogue. If he has time to study the Void, and the Sentry, and Bob (his human form) he could simply manipulate him into submission via taking advantage of either persona, kidnapping Bobs wife, or simply making the Sentry believe that he doesnt exist anymore. (Good luck though, hahah he just comes back again later hahahahahahaahhahahhhrhdhdgdgdgdhshsh)


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

[User]
Why can't we fly straight up into space, let the world rotate beneath us, and then fly down to our destination?

Just wondering if this is possible or at least possibly more economical than flying half way around the world.

[Assistant]
The problem is that you're moving along with the earth.  If you fly "straight up into space", you'll still be moving very quickly from west to east.  You'd have to accelerate westward in order to become "stationary", and such acceleration would require more energy than simply flying there normally on an airplane.

If you want an analogy, it's like asking why you can't travel from the front to the back of a bus by simply jumping and letting the bus travel underneath you.


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

[User] ELI5: Why every national flag exists only once? How could all countries over the world coordinate so well what flags they choose to represent your country, especially before global communication was possible?

[Assistant]
Two countries had the same flaguntil 1936, without even knowing it, Liechtensteinand Haiti. They discovered it during the flag presentation at the Berlin Olympics.

It was only then thatLiechtensteinadded a gold crown to their standard.


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

[User] ELI5: Why can't we remember anything before about age 5 or so?

[Assistant] IIRC theres a massive restructuring of your brains neural connections that happens around that age, and after that most of your brains growth is more linear and incremental. And thats why theres that memory wall where you can have several memories going back to that age, but very few that go back further.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is it that when it's cold out you can see your breath but not your farts?

[Assistant]
Your large intestine is designed to absorb moisture before anything is released from your rectum. Your farts are dry. Your breath is loaded with moisture with nothing to absorb it.

Both are warm, but only one contains enough H2O to freeze visibly.


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

[User]
Can LED light ever look as natural as incandescent light bulbs?

It is my understanding that incandescent light bulbs emit light frequencies using the same principles as the sun (black body radiation), while LED light works much differently. Can the colour spectrum of LED light ever get as natural / close to the sun, as incandescent bulbs?
(I would like some hope in this because they can now longer be purchased in the EU)

[Assistant]
Yes, it is possible -- we can generate every frequency (pure black being an exemption) to a few decimal places of precision now with LED and laser diodes by merging and diffusing different colors, but the main issue that we have encountered is being able to get the same brightness levels with properly merged colors without an insane amount of additional cost, size and heat.

Eventually it will happen, the economics just don't work out right now.


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

[User] ELI5: What would have happened that is so bad if we didn't bail out the banks?

[Assistant]
The concern was something like a repeat of the Great Depression.

It's worth noting that 'bailing out the banks' was a bunch of different things that were done, and some of them might have had more impact than others.   Similarly, there are alternative possible responses to the crisis - like massive government deficit spending.


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

[User]
CMV: Using substitutes or censors for profanity is no better than using the corresponding profane word.

I believe that when people try and circumvent the whole "no swearing" rule by using substitutes, it isn't any better. The same general idea is there and everything knows what word they really mean. Even in television when they bleep the word out, it is relatively simple to figure out what works they meant, thus serving no purpose. If anything it makes it worse as people think more about the word than if it were not censored or substituted.

For clarity, I am talking about when television shows bleep out swear words or when people use words such as "shiz", "darn", "gosh", "fudge" in place of the words "shit", "damn", "god", and "fuck" respectively.

[Assistant]
Conventional wisdom is that the aim of censoring 'bad words' is for the sake of younger or more immature viewers. Even if they know what the word mean, it reinforces the taboo of the word and tell them that they should not be saying the word carelessly.

Whether or not its a good idea to shield young people from things like that is another debate, but the practice at least serves some point.


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

[User]
I cleaned an aluminum pot with bleach, then boiled water. Got blackish oxidation. What did I accidentally?

I cleaned an aluminum pot with bleach, namely a cheap brand with 5 % Natriumhypochlorit (NaClO) in it. I then boiled water in the pot.

I got a blackish oxidation on the inside of the pot, just up to the level where boiling water was present.

What did I accidentally produce? More importantly, is it harmful? I am in the process of producing fresh water to keep for storage and would like to keep using the pot.

[Assistant]
You accidentally the oxide layer.

Bleach destroys the aluminum oxide formed by anodization, which is in a nice hard crystal orientation, and therefore exposed it to passive oxidation, which created the unpleasant powdery oxide that gets everywhere.

Unfortunately, short of re-anodizing the pot, it's pretty much permanent.


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

[User]
ELI5:Why the English language changes around the World.

Dropping the "U" from colour as an example. Substituting a "Z" for an "S". Reversing the "E" and "R" in certain words. For example litre an liter.

Why did these changes occur in various different English speaking countries?

[Assistant]
Most of these are just American/British English differences.

There were no English dictionaries until the 19th century. By then, Americans had taken to spelling things a certain way and the British had their own opinion. By the time Oxford and Webster formalized the spellings with a dictionary, there were quite a number of differences. Popular attitudes in England at the time favored the more Frenchy spellings like colour, realise and litre.

As for the rest of the world, it's largely about who was a greater influence. Former British colonies tend to be taught British English and places with greater American influence tend to be taught American English.


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

[User] How do computers use electronic switches to load, for example a coloured image?

[Assistant]
That very much depends on the display too, but let's do it.

Computers "Compute" over binary data. That is, 0s and 1s. The physical switches may or not carry electric current - if they do, they are worth 1, otherwise, 0.

Kay, so the switches can build up binary numbers. Binary can be converted into decimal numbers as well.
A good common usage of it is a byte. A Byte represents 8 binary values (bits), forming a 8 character binary number (E.g. 00101101).
A Byte may vary from 00000000 to 11111111, or in decimal, from 0 to 255. This is recognized by anyone that has used RGB at some point of their life. A computer stores a "Value" for red, green and blue, which go from 0 to 255, 0 being less of that color, and 255 being a lot of it.

If you get 0 0 0, all colors are not there, so we have black. If we have 255 255 255, this means all colosr are there a lot, so we get white.
0 0 255, tho, means 0 red and green, but lots of blue, getting a pure blue hue. Mixing up these values will let you do any combination of color intensity.

There are of course even further complex color structures, but all of them work with numeric values like RGB.

So, ok. Here we have a pixel. You store an image in an "Array" of pixels, or a matrix of pixels. Pretty much like math class, but useful.

If you have a 180x180 image, we can roughly say in most cases it has is matrix of 180 height and 180 width, where each value of it is a damn pixel.

So that's for the logic.

How displaying, then? That always depends of where are you displaying. If you take LED as an example, here is how it goes:

LEDs are diodes, that emit light to dissipate electrons when they get energized. (Their electrons excite to their next Valance level, and then they naturally attempt to stabilize by emitting light)
You can measure the intensity of energy sent to LEDS, and thus manipulate how much they excite. The wavelenght that pass through them also determines the color they light. You basically assemble a bunch of them, wire each color to a proper place, and ta-da, led screen, where you computer sums values with switches and then throws color-representing numbers translated into electrical intensity, that excites diodes. Pwew. That was a lot and that's all for today, folks.

P.S.: If i said anything wrong, and that is probable since i attempted to cover too much ground in too small sentences, please correct me.


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

[User] [WH40K] Just binged on "if the emperor had text to speech" didn't get the joke with the ultramarines being able win most of the time. What's up with that?

[Assistant]
Some years ago, a writer named Matt Ward was hired to write the codex for the Space Marines and some other stuff. A huge amount of stuff he made basically made the Ultramarines the center of the universe; that they had the best equipment, tactics, strategy, weapons, armor and so on, and that something close to 80% of all  the successor chapters were descended from the Ultramarines.

They basically became unstoppable Mary Sues, which is why there is a sort of anti-smurf sentiment that goes around the community as the Ultramarines basically steal the thunder from about every other major force in the Imperium except probably the Grey Knights.

Matt was a good writer for non-Imperium stuff, but his Space Marine work pretty much annoyed a lot of people.


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

[User] [Star Wars] Is the Force being "out of balance" what gives the Jedi and Sith their supernatural powers in the first place?

[Assistant]
No.

The Force, in its natural state, is balanced and Light.

The Jedi use the Force as much as it uses them, a mutually beneficial symbiosis.

The Sith, on the other hand, use the Dark Side, twisting and corrupting the Force, making it bend only to their will.

Think of it like a pond out in a forest. Jedi may use it for a variety of purposes, but they don't disrupt the ecosystem to do so.

Meanwhile the Sith are the ones who dig it up in hopes of finding treasure, leave trash and filth laying about, and generally screw over the place in the off chance they can get some profit or other benefit out of it.


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

[User] [Day of the Tentacle] The constitution says every American should have a vacuum cleaner in their basement. How was this rule enforced in the century and half between its writing and the invention of the vacuum?

[Assistant]
Basically, once the law was passed, everyone then went "Okay, so what is a vacuum cleaner?" The Supreme Court ruled that since nothing that could reasonably be called a Vacuum Cleaner exists, that citizens were not breaking the law by not having one, but that inventors had a civic duty to try and make something that the term vacuum cleaner could apply to, therefore all Americans could own one.

Once the vacuum cleaner was invented, Americans grumbled because now they all had to own one, but they then realized that no, this is useful, and it wasn't that bad of a thing. Still, the first ads of "BUY THIS! YOU ARE LEGALLY REQUIRED TO!" were pretty bad, and since the first few vacuum cleaners were expensive, poor people were worried that "I don't own a vacuum" would be legally used as a means of sending them to jail should any police officer want to invent charges against them. So many Americans were now suddenly in violation of the law, as vacuums now existed.

The case of Lewis vs the State of Missouri made placing yourself on a waiting list to purchase a vacuum sufficient to not be sent to jail for not owning a vacuum cleaner in your basement, after a Missouri man was threatened with Treason for not having a vacuum cleaner. (He had insulted cake that a police officer's wife brought to a church mixer, calling it dry.)

Eventually, the vacuum cleaner situation hit the place where everyone could afford one, and where charities that give used vacuum cleaners to poor people so that they can fulfil that strange law that no one is quite sure how it got passed.


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

[User]
CMV: Political TV and radio shows are mainly for what the right and left to hear what they want to hear

If you ever listen to most right wing talking heads like Glenn Beck, Ben Shapiro and so on, the rhetoric that they use isn't always the most uniting. Granted, sometimes they do try to be uniting in some ways, but I can see it hard for centrist or lefty to be able to sit down for an entire show. I don't really see someone who is on the left or uninterested in politics scrolling through YouTube, seeing a Ben Shapiro video, deciding to watch it because why not, and becoming more right wing because of the video they saw.

Also, I think this phenomenon isn't unique to right wing talk show hosts, I think it can be said of left wing media. I doubt 10% of the people who watch Rachel Maddow are Republicans.

There's a quote that I love that goes something like "human beings make decisions emotionally and rationalize them intellectually". This can be said about many topics like gun control and abortion. What does this mean for political media? It's all about confirmation bias. People like having their political opinions reinforced so they listen to talking heads that confirm what they feel.

[Assistant]
The shows you mention are far more malicious than you give them credit for.

The idea is to tell you what you want to hear just enough to get you in the habit of agreeing with them before they start saying things you wouldn't otherwise have agreed with, and therefore to radicalize their audience.

They're a major driving force behind the increased political polarization in the US, because they're literally designed to do that as effectively as possible.


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

[User]
What things does a good mentor/advisor to a PhD student do?

Whats the bare minimum expected when advising a PhD student?

At what point is a student working TOO independently?

[Assistant] Independent but is there when you need him/her. Supports your career choices and doesnt try to push you to a certain career path. Provides you with enough financial support so you dont have to worry. Connects you to opportunities that might be relevant to you. Reads your papers and thesis and provides timely feedback. You can talk to them like a normal human being without being scared of judgment or abuse.