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[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "ELI5:Why do companies like Google, Microsoft, apple etc largely support liberal politicians but then hide money overseas from taxes and higher cheap labor in China?\n\nWe all read about these plans like building giant barges for financial headquarters so they can sit in international waters where there are no taxes. They higher workers at the Foxconn place etc. Why do they support liberals but dodge their policies?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Google, Apple, and Microsoft are all publicly traded companies. Because, unlike a private company, they are ultimately obligated to provide good returns to their investors, if it's legal and it saves them money, they're obligated to do those things."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "ELI5: What's the difference between an Embassy and a Consulate?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Its kind of like a library system, you have the main big library in your area and the smaller branches depending on it. \n\nIn simple terms the embassy is the main headquarters, where the ambassador lives there can only be one ambassador from a country so therefore only one embassy. \n\nConsulates are offices of the embassy spread out in bigger cities so you dont have to travel to the embassy, they provide the same services but slower at the Consulates because they usually send or forward the paperwork to the embassy."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "ELI5 how a moon pool (aka wet porch) works, and why a ship with one doesn't sink.\n\nI know it must have something to do with water pressure, but was hoping for a concise ELI5 answer to understand it more easily. Thanks."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "There are a few different kinds of moon pools. The easiest one to understand are basically a hole in the floor above the waterline of a drilling platform or ship with multiple hulls that lets you look down into the water.\n\nYou're probably thinking of moon pools below the water line though. Imagine taking a cup, turning it upside down and then pushing it under water. You will have trapped some air inside the cup. The water wants to get in the cup, but it can't make a lot of progress because the air is taking up the space (the air does compress a little).\n\nNow imagine drilling a hole in the side of the cup while its under water. Obviously the air will leak out through the hole, and the water will rise to a bit above the drill hole. \n\nThis is how moon pools work, except that the hole in the cup is an airlock that keeps all of the air from escaping. While the air is kept in place, the water cannot enter. If the moon pool were turned sideways, or had a hole, it would indeed fill with water."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "ELI5: Why is it so hard to dispose of trash?\n\nHear me out... earth has trash I know and it piles up. But how? The trash was MADE on earth and it’s still on earth. How is there not somewhere to put it like where things were previously mined?\n\nIsn’t there technically less stuff on earth now than before mankind now that we’ve sent up a bunch of satellite and other rocket-related space junk? Isn’t there room where the elements of the now “space junk” was originally located to put current trash?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The problem with trash is that **nobody wants to spend any money on it**. There are fine, safe, approaches to recycling and storing it. However, none of those things makes money - except aluminum can recycling. So, somebody would have to pay. Local governments don't have money, and raising taxes to process trash more isn't popular because taxes isn't popular. Do you want to sort and dispose of trash for no paycheck? Neither does anybody else, nor are there companies that want to truck it to a mine or store it in the mine for no money. Most of the plastic in the ocean doesn't come from the countries that use the most plastic bags and straws, it comes from countries that throw trash in their rivers. Trash isn't a trash problem, it's a money problem."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "[Pokemon] If mewtwo is a clone of new, why does he look more like an evolved form of mew and not mew?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Mewtwo isn’t a perfect clone. Before it was actually born, its embryo was tampered with to modify its DNA. After being born, there were further gene-splicing experiments performed on it to make it more powerful."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "ELI5: Why are seas different from open ocean? Why do we name some swaths of water but not others?\n\nThis has been on my mind for a while, and I've never gotten a real answer. Why do we name seemingly arbitrary places in the water a sea? Are there any differences between the sea and another part of the ocean? Why are these artificial boundaries created?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "We name all swaths of water. Locals will often name stock ponds and tanks. \n\nA sea is smaller than an ocean and separated/partially separated from it in some way. \n\nThese boundaries are created like all boundaries are and are just as arbitrary. Boundaries show who owns what area, clarify the location you are talking about, and help general navigation."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "[General Fantasy] Why are werewolves most allergic to silver?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Alchemists used to associate different metals to different planetary bodies. Gold for the sun, iron for mars, copper for Venus. Guess what metal is associated with the moon? So if the full moon makes a werewolf transforms, it's possible that direct contact with the 'moon metal' breaks that connection. Then you're just a dude that's been shot and you die."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "[LoTR] I'm an Maia by the name of Giorfin. When I arrived in Middle-Earth 300 years ago some guy called me Biam. Now every few decades some new person gives me a new name. I've got like 40 names now. I've noticed that a ton of people have a ton of different names. What the hell gives?\n\nWhy does everyone keep getting new names all of the time? My buddy Olórin got to Middle Earth a long ass time ago and some guy randomly gave him the name Gandalf. Now he's also known as Mithrandir, Incánus, Tharkûn, Greyhame, Stormcrow among many other names and designations. This other guy Aragorn is also called Estel, Telcontar, Thorongil, and Strider.\n\nThat asshole Morgoth is also known as Morgoth, Bauglir, Belegurth, Belegûr, Arun, and Mbelekor.\n\nWhy the hell can't people seem to stop giving each other like 30 names? I'm immortal for Eru's sake! Do you know how many people I'll meet in even a century? How the hell am I to be expected to remember that King Bill also goes by Crongar, Thork, Mallgaeter, Halfnark, Quignar, and Steve??"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "That's it exactly. You're immortal. Languages change, you remain the same. Even if you build a tower and never leave, every few generations of men and elf there's going to be another group wandering through and calling your something else. Sure, you could put a sign up - but the sign is going to be in Quenya A or something and the fucking Noldor are going to start mispronouncing things, and then some Man in a bear shirt is going to roll over and just start calling your \"Bright Lord of Morning\" or something which will get totally butchered in translation when he tells it to the Dunedain ranger he's sharing a pint with at the Dancing Pony. \n\nAnd that's before you meet the *poets*. Kennings are just de rigueur in Middle Earth this century. You're lucky to get through a cocktail hour without six new sobriquets.\n\nBut look on the bright side: the time of the elves is fading, the memories of Men grow dim, and vellum only lasts a couple centuries. Hide out long enough and they'll forget your old name and you can just introduce yourself all over again."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "[40k] How could someone get recruited into the Inquisition/become an Inquisitorial Stormtrooper?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You are very good at your job. \n\nInquisitors see... *promising* soldiers, they then *recommend* them to the Schola Tempestous (totally mangled the name), who then trains them alongside the other Stormtrooper candidates. They pass then get shipped off to their inquisitor... assuming they dont die. \n\nInquisition generally the same, find someone you like, recruit them.\n\nOn the other hand the Scholas, schools for the orphaned children of officers are prime recruiting grounds as they provide Sororitas, Commissars, Inquisitors, Stormtroopers and clerks. Just take your pick of the thousands of malleable children ready for your... education."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "ELI5: If singers can perform others' songs, why can't comedians use jokes from others?\n\nWith proper acknowledgement, like in the beginning of the act the comedian would explain there will be jokes from others, maybe even list the originator of the joke.\nAfter all, I just want to be entertained, do I really care from whom the joke came from specially if I never heard it?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "When a singer performs another person's song in public, or records and releases that recording to the public, the songwriter not only gets written credit but also gets payments over time at rates based upon the sales of that recording or performance.\n\nWhen an honest comedian uses other comedian's jokes, the honest comedian has purchased the right to perform those jokes. Nearly every comedian has purchased jokes, and most will tell you where they came from if asked.\n\nMost recent discussion has been about a female comedian who did not purchase the rights to some jokes, and then used them in a performance AND made money from that performance. That's the problem."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "[Marvel] I want to be a superhero.\n\nSo the other day I was walking past the nuclear power plant and I was struck by lightning. Now I have super strength and I can fly. My town has had a lot of crime recently, and I've heard about this guy Spider-Man in New York and War Machine out west, and I want to do what they do. But how do I do that? Can I just go out and fight crime whenever I want? Do I need a costume? Is there a superhero union that I can join? Do I get paid, or is it like volunteer work?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Put on a costume and get to work! I'd recommend starting small, maybe your local home town or burg. Nab some criminals, pose for some photos, have a good time. Just because you have powers now doesn't mean you are ready for the big leagues. Too many newbies make the mistake of running off into the warzone known as New York and trying to sucker punch Electro the minute they they think they got the spark. It NEVER ends well. \n\nSo start with purse snatchers and work your way up from there. After that, it's all networking. Try and get in touch with other empowered folks nearby. Don't worry, once your name starts to get out they'll find you. Put together a team if you can, that'll help you tackle bigger problems (natural disasters, maybe the odd C-list villain) and will help you start making waves. Remember, for every big individual name like Spider-Man or Captain America there are dozens and dozens of supers like yourself grinding it out below them, doing their best to tackle the small stuff so they can concentrate on the big threats. Everyone is important, no matter how many headlines they make!"
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "[starwars] what's up with chewbakas laser cross bow?\n\nIs there laser arrows or something?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "At base, a bowcaster is literally a crossbow. As in, functionally identical. It uses a string and high tension rods to propel a quarrel downrange.\n\nSpecifically though, a bowcaster has a few key differences.\nInstead of a \"string\" it uses a very high tension wire.\nInstead of just relying on the potential energy of a flexed rod, it uses magnetically polarized orbs to boost the force applied to the quarrel.\nInstead of a simple sharpened metal bolt, it fires an short metal rod that is charged with plasma - as it exits the bowcaster, the physical projectile is sheathed with high energy plasma that greatly increases destructive force. These projectiles are also generally charged with impact detonated explosives.\n\nIt's the traditional weapon of the Wookie's. Typical bowcasters are manually drawn and require incredible strength to do so. Chewbacca's was equipped with an autococker.\n\nThey're much more powerful and destructive than blasters, trading limited ammo and cumbersomeness."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "ELI5: How does GPS work in smart watches/phones? Who gets paid by companies making these in exchange of gps services?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "GPS is just a signal sent from satellites, end users are not sending a signal back. It's much the same as tuning in a radio station, that is \"free\" as well (just paid for by advertising mostly).\n\nIn the case of GPS, USA taxpayers are the source of the funding."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "ELI5: Why is two weeks notice traditional when quitting? Why not longer/shorter?\n\nMy first thought was that it gives the company enough time to replace you but, that seems super arbitrary and not nearly long enough for a skilled position."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It's long enough for a company to replace you, but also short enough for the employee to wrap up any truly urgent things, say their goobyes, not have to deal with (too much) hostility or coworker retaliation for quitting (if applicable). \n\nIf an employee wants to quit, it's usually because they're not satisfied with their workplace or they found a better position elsewhere (which implies the current position is unsatisfactory in comparison). Dissatisfaction often means reduced productivity, so it's a good thing for an employer to only have to keep them that extra 2 weeks.\n\nPlus, if an employee feels their workplace does deserve more than 2 weeks, nothing prevents them from hinting around beforehand or even working with the employer to ensure a better transition."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "ELI5: what happens inside the body when athletes get a “2nd wind”?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Your body doesn't want to exercise. Your body gets whiny and says, \"We're tired, let's go lie down under a tree and take a nap.\"\n\nThen you push through and your body says \"Fine, if you're going to be that way, let's go nuts! Let's really kick those glycogen fires up, let's throw some fat on there too.\"\n\nNow you have a timer running. That time is your glycogen stores. You only have so much until your muscles are out for a while. That means you can only burn fat which is piss-poor for intense energy. \n\nThat's where you \"Bonk\". You feel it when your muscles kind of start to feel limp and week, you're a little nauseous, and you could eat all the pancakes in the world. It's the pancake thing that gets me. \n\nNow you're done with anything like sprinting or high intensity for a while. You can keep pushing but it takes time for your muscles to rebuild glycogen. Eating lots of carbs before and during the workout helps."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "ELI5: Why do bows have a longer range than crossbows (considering crossbows have more force)?\n\nEDIT: I failed to mention that I was more curious about the physics of the bow and draw. It's good to highlight the arrow/quarrel(bolt) difference though.\n\nPS. This is my first ELI5 post, you guys are all amazing. Thank you!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Crossbows have a big disadvantage due to having short limbs compared to a bow. This is true for all types of bow, but it has to be balanced with how unwieldy it would be to have a huge longbow or crossbow.\n\nThe biggest difference is the length of the power stroke. A fairly typical archer will have a draw length (the distance between the drawn string and the back of the bow) on their bow of about 27-31 inches, and a brace height (the distance between the undrawn string and the back of the bow) of about 6-8 inches. This gives you a power stroke of somewhere in the 19-25 inch range. Most crossbows have a power stroke somewhere in the 9-13 inch range. That dramatically reduces the amount of time the string is imparting force on the arrow. That's how you can have an arrow flying the same speed as a bolt despite having a much lower draw weight.\n\nThere's also a penalty in efficiency for having short limbs that affect crossbows. All bows have a draw force curve that shows how much force the string is imparting compared to how far it is drawn back. In a typical longbow, this curve is shaped like an upward facing banana. That means that when it is barely drawn, almost no force is imparted, and as you draw it farther the force increases more and more. The flatter the curve, the more efficient because the force on the arrow isn't dropping off as much during the power stroke. Having longer limbs gives you a flatter curve, which is why longbows are so long. So, the crossbow with its very short limbs has the force drop off very quickly, giving less speed for the same amount of force.\n\nFinally, since crossbows need to have a lot more initial force to make up for the inefficiencies we've already talked about, they have to have shorter, thicker, heavier bolts so the initial shock of the force doesn't destroy them. Heavy bolts also need more fletching to straighten their flight path. The short, thick bolts are much less aerodynamic than the longer, skinnier arrows."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "[40K]What's to stop the Tau from becoming a major superpower?\n\nThe Tau don't seem to have a major flaw like the Eldar or the Imperium (Eldar have a declining population and the Imperium has stagnant technology) so what's to stop them from becoming one of the most powerful factions?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Numbers. What the imperium lacks in development it makes up for in bodies. You have battle Mechs that can challenge space Marines? Ok here's 50 guard battalions. Deal with that. Maybe they're not as well equipped but artillery is artillery and they'll eventually will through shear weight of numbers. \n\nYou have an Armada? That's cute, because imperial have world's have local militia navies with more ships. \n\nThe only thing the tau have going for them is that they're not on the radar of the imperium as far as xeno threats. Once they are?..... They'll be crushed under the millions of guard corpses that the imperium will find at them."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "ELI5 why New Zealand is changing the design of its national flag?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Kiwi here:\nIt looks the same as the Australian flag and a lot of people feel like it doesn't represent us as a modern nation. There is going to be a vote to agree on one of four proposed new flags, and then another vote to choose between new and old. It's not necessarily going to change yet."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "[Terminator franchise] Due to some space-time anomaly, all the terminators and humans that have been sent back in time arrive during the original terminator movie. What happens next?\n\nWhat would the original T-800, Uncle Bob, all the Kyle Reeses, the T-1000,T-X, the T3 T-800, Pops, and so on do in this situation? Is Sarah Conner worst off or better off now?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Each terminator acts according to its initial programming, to kill or protect SK, which leads to a huge battle royale in Downtown LA. The total mayhem it would involve would draw the attention of the authorities and the army, which would eventually succeed in neutralizing and capturing at least a few of the terminators. Dyson/Pentagon acquires the tech much sooner, Judgement Day proceeds with gusto."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "ELI5: How does buying a house \"build equity\"?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Lets say a house is worth 250K. You borrow 230K and put down a 20K deposit. You now have 20K equity in the house. It's the value of your holding minus your debt. As you pay down the mortgage, your equity percentage rises until eventually you own the house. If the prices have remained stable or risen, you've also gained a paper profit that you can realize when you sell. \nThe process of paying off the mortgage is what builds the equity."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "ELI5:Why is it that if you shape your mouth like an \"o\" you breathe cold air but if you shape your mouth like a \"0\" you breath warm air?\n\nThe title is self-explanatory."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "An \"o\" mouth forces the air to move out faster than an \"O\" mouth.\n\nBoth kinds of air technically have the same temperature, but the \"o\" breath is moving fast enough to evaporate moisture on the skin, causing it to feel cold."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Can a brain completely deprived of sensory input perceive time?\n\nI wonder, with no outside reference, if the human brain has way to tell that time has passed. I have heard that people in sensory deprivation tanks lose track of time, but what if, somehow, no sensory input made it to the brain at all, would it be able to perceive the passing of time?\n\nThanks, Science is Awesome <3\n\nEdit: (Question I asked in comments) What if I lost all sensory input for an incredibly short period of time, sub-millisecond, would I notice or would that millisecond just cease to exist for me? Memories are built upon sensory input so wouldn't that time be lost like moments spent in sleep?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You can, you'd just be really bad at it. See: Campbell, S. S. (1990). Circadian rhythms and human temporal experience. In R. A. Block (Ed.), Cognitive models of psychological time, (pp. 101-118). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.\n\nI think where you're going wrong is that memory is *not* dependent on external sensory input. Repeat a word over and over in your head and pretty soon, you have a new memory with no sensory input."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What changes in our cells as we grow older that makes it more difficult to recover from an injury?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "A part of it is that we have fewer stem-cells ready to take the place of any damaged cells. As we grow our initial stem cells take find their homes and begin specializing. We always have a certain number of stem-cells in our bodies, but fewer as we age. Also, each time a cell divides it loses a link in a chain of \"telomeres\". After it loses all its telomeres it will stop dividing. Obviously as we age, fewer cells are replicating themselves to replace damaged ones. Under normal circumstances you don't need your cells to keep diving except for maintenance, so this is expected behavior, but can lead to longer recovery times from injury."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "CMV: Copyrigtht lasting longer than the lifetime of the creator stops more creativity than protect it.\n\nCopyright is a brilliant thing, protecting the ideas of an artist, writer or director. With that they are encouraged to produce something and sequels to successful stuff.\n\nBut no person on earth can produce new things, after they died. They don't need any encouragement or protection after their death. It benefits only profit driven companies. They will keep the rights and don't promote creativity based on the pool of the artists work.\n\nI think one or two years after the artists death could the copyright be extended, so the legacy can rest. After that it would only be profit not the idea of protecting artists, that put the copyright at death+75 yrs."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Copyright is a transferrable asset; this is why you can sell, license, or give away all or part of your copyright. Because it's an *asset*, it has value, and our current system of inheritance is generally very averse to removing any value that somebody might get from inheritance.\n\nCopyright existing past the death of the author does not just apply to large companies or to allow the \"legacy to rest\", but also to the family members of authors, and can protect those family members from having residual income taken away by a company swooping in and making knockoffs or simply republishing the original works.\n\nNow, this isn't to say that 70 years makes sense, or that it's exclusively beneficial to estates or whatever, but just to point out that there are impacts of copyright aside from allowing Disney to keep exclusivity over Mickey Mouse forever or whatever."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Why do you not feel hungry after not eating for a long time?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "In short, adrenaline and cortisol. If you haven't eaten in a long time, your body doesn't relax, it instead increases stress hormones which induce the metabolism of energy stores (ie, fat tissue, glycogen) and help mobilize you so that you can find food or fight for it. \n\nOnce you eat, stress hormones decrease, blood flow to the intestines and visceral organs is restored, and you feel hungry again (this is why appetizers induce appetite)."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "CMV: If a leader is democratically elected, the people are absolutely to blame for the bad things he or she does either domestically or abroad\n\nPeople always talk about how people are different from politicians, and you are not supposed to judge a person based on what their politicians do. However I would argue that this is simply a tactic used to avoid responsibility. I do not want to point fingers at specific countries in my actual post, even though I will probably do so in the comments anyway, so my apologies if the names of these fake countries sound cheesy to you, but anyway, here we go anyway. Imagine the following hypothetical scenario:\n\nThe people of Awesomeland elect President X, who wins by a landslide. Then, President X makes some very unpopular choices domestically, and many people say:\n\n“It is what it is, it’s not up to us.” \n\nYes it is, you specifically gave him power.\n\nBut OK, to make up for his shitty domestic choices, President X now invades Evilstan. A lot of Evilstanjans are killed by airstrikes and Awesomeland soldiers. Their economy is crippled by sanctions.\n\nYet the people of Awesomeland will argue, that the average Awesomelandian should not be blamed, because they’re just people. \n\nIn reality, no. Every single Awesomelandian who voted for President X now has blood on his hands.\n\nAgain, not directly naming any countries, so as to not get shit in the comments."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "This really depends on the electoral system. In the USA, the Electoral College determines who is President. Most states allocate their electoral votes to the candidate that wins the plurality of the votes in the state. That means if you vote for candidate X and the plurality of your state voted for candidate Y, then all the voting power of your state goes to candidate Y despite your vote. Even if candidate X wins overall, your vote did nothing to put them there because all of the electoral votes from your state went to candidate Y."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "ELI5:When I touch my face while I am looking mirror, which one my brain perceive first? touching or seeing?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Follow up question: would the answer be different if someone else touched your face? When we touch ourselves, our brain knows we are about to touch ourselves so perhaps it recognizes the sensation \"ahead of time\"?"
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "ELI5: What is the big deal about Google's privacy? Is it safe/smart to use?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Google provides a huge number of services for free. In order to do this, they make money by showing relevant ads when you search, check gmail, watch YouTube, etc. People are more likely to click ads relevant to them, so Google collects information about you when you use their services. For example, they might use your IP address or phone's GPS radio to figure out where you are, then show you ads for local businesses.\n\nIn fact, if you have an android phone and opt-in to Google Now, they will try to learn all sorts of things like where you work, where you live, what you search for, what sports teams you follow, what stocks you own, what flights you are about to take, and all sorts of things. They use this information to show you relevant information in Google Now before you ask for it, like automatically showing scores for a local sports team or telling you what gate your flight will be departing from.\n\nPeople freak out about all this because it feels like a company knows way too much about them. While it's true companies like Google or Facebook collect data about everyone who uses their services, there isn't a human being sitting down and reading it. All this information is used in aggregate to make Google more money by providing you with more relevant information.\n\nThis isn't \"unsafe\" by any means, but if you are paranoid about companies knowing about you, don't use Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc. It's been reported that Google and Facebook never search through people's personal information to look for illegal or suspicious activity. The only way these companies release their information to other people is if law enforcement forces them. Google has publicly stated they are just as concerned with organizations like the NSA snooping on their data, and have started encrypting more and more of their services."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Where does the light go when you turn off the lights in a room with no windows?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Scattered and absorbed. \n\nNothing is perfectly smooth so there is a lot of scattering.\n\nAnd anything with color will absorb some light. So it all scatters and absorbs over and over until it's all \"gone\"\n\nA good question is what happens in a room with nothing but mirrors (spoiler: mirrors diffract and absorb a little bit too, so same thing)"
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "[Dune] Please tell me more about the universe in general, anything really.\n\nThings I've got down:\n\n* Takes place in the far, far future, like 20000 years\n* The novels are really detailed\n* There is an Emperor, but I don't know a thing about him\n* Spice is a hell of a drug\n* Desert world with sand worms that eat people\n* Robots are banned\n* Warhammer 40000 borrows from it heavily\n\nThat is all I know. Just tell me anything I *should* know about dune."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Dune is set around 20,000 years in the future, long after a lot of \"regular\" scifi tropes have come and gone. Humanity used to use sentient machines for a lot of its heavy lifting, but as usual, they rebelled. Unlike many other scifi universes however, the war between man and machine was SO brutal that not only was artificial intelligence outlawed, it was made religiously heretical. \n\nHumans have kept many ancient traditions, languages and religions from old Earth in this distant future. In fact, most religions have come together into beautiful new combinations. Most people follow the Orange Catholic Bible, which combines all major Abrahamic faiths and some others. Naturally, one of the most important tenets of this religion is the hatred of AI. \n\nHumanity used to use standard FTL and cryo-sleep ships to travel between the stars, but the Spice changed all that. People who are infused with enough of it (which is an extreme amount) become navigators, who have the ability to fold space and make ships travel instantly. The spice also extends human life by hundreds of years and expands human mental capacity, allowing specially trained people to do intense mental calculations just like computers of old used to. They're called mentats. \n\nPolitically, this spice-dependent empire is a tripod, the most unstable political arrangement. There's the Emperor at the top, the great houses and the spacing guild, which holds a monopoly on ALL legal space travel in the empire. The houses control individual planets or small numbers of worlds and do much of the day-to-day ruling. A single powerful great house is usually responsible for mining all spice on Arrakis and legally selling it to everyone. House Harkonnen has ruled Arrakis for a long time by the beginning of the first novel and are ludicrously wealthy. \n\nArrakis is 100% a desert. There used to be abundant life and water on its surface, but the sandworms changed it over time. People do not wish to change this because the sandworms also make the spice as a by-product of their life cycle. It's complicated, so just remember that the huge and deadly sandworms are essential for the spice and the spice is essential to the worms. A group of reclusive people live independently on the surface. Called the Fremen, they live outside the Empire's laws but usually don't wish to change the status quo... until their savior arrives."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What would happen if a buddhist monk got dementia?\n\nIve bene thinking about this a lot recently. If a person who devoted their entire lives to learning and practicing calmness, acceptance and being in the present got diagnosed with dementia, how would they act, what would they experience? \nFrom what I understand, when you have dementia, you forget who people are and who you are, however if, say, we had a monk experience this, would they be able to accept their situation and present or somehow understand using their already trained brains?\nOr does dementia also affect mental faculties in a way that their reasoning would be altered too?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Dementia is not always characterised by memory issues. For example, frontotemporal dementia generally affects inhibition. Your might be referring specifically to Alzheimer’s disease, which is the one most commonly associated with the term “dementia” and memory deficits. \n\nEither way, it would be interesting to see how frontotemporal degeneration affects one’s ability to maintain inner calm and meditate, as it were.\n\nSo really, it depends on the type of dementia and what faculties specifically are affected. Current best practice in dementia is to try and keep people engaged with their regular lives as far as possible, which may be protective like continuing to meditate might be."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "ELI5: How is therapy effective when it is in the therapists' financial interest to keep you as their patient?\n\nSame goes to other medical fields, I guess. \n\nHow can a doctor make you better when their job requires people to be sick?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Aside from the personality types looking to get into these fields of work there's two objective factors that would make it a bad idea to prolong treatment and they kinda go hand in hand: supply and competition.\n\nMany therapists have lines of patients waiting to get appointments and if you have a bad reputation they will go somewhere else.\nThis is also the case in countries with free healthcare, but there you also have the added reason of costs."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "ELI5: What exactly happens to muscles when you massage them and why is it good for them?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Massaging reduces the production of compounds called cytokines, which play a major role in inflammation. Also, it stimulates mitochondria which helps convert glucose into energy used for cell repair and growth. Massage causes microtrauma also, which stimulates nutrient flow to the targeted area and speeds recovery."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Could there be an island of stability somewhere further down the periodic table?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Do you mean further than the island of 104-118? It might be possible that the same mechanism of completing a closed neutron shell stabilizes even heavier super heavy elements around 126-164. Or it might not. You'd be a very famous person if you could prove it one way or the other!"
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "[Resident Evil] What was the Umbrella Corporations master plan with the T-Cell virus and zombie apocalypse after all?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Pretty sure Umbrella Corp on the surface was just trying to develop new bioweapons to sell to world governments, while the various Management heads were seeking out the \"cure\" for death so they could do what all billionaires dream to do: live forever and never lose their money.\n\nAll the apocalypses are just a result of their piss poor planning in some cases, and direct results of their warfare application experimentation in others."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "ELI5: What makes the iron in food stuff like spinach digestible in our body? How is it different from consuming small quantities of iron directly?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It's really not different. It's a common grade school experiment to take some iron rich cereal or something and spin it in water with a strong magnet for a long time and you eventually end up with a bunch of stuff that is just iron filings stuck to the magnet."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "[Doctor Who] When The Doctor regenerates, do his personality and morals change?\n\nRight before 10 regenerated, he says he doesn’t want to go. When 11 regenerated he says “I’ll always remember when the Doctor was me.”\n\nIt seems to imply that his current self “dies” with each regeneration. What about him (apart from physical appearance) actually changes when he regenerates?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Personality: yes. Morals: Kind of.\n\nHis \"core values\" don't change, but everything around them does.\n\nThe doctor will always be willing to put himself (or herself now) in danger to protect innocents.\n\nBut his favorite food, book, song, time period, etc. That all changes when he regenerates.\n\nNow, what he finds acceptable to do may change between forms.\n\nThere is some conflicting evidence regarding his memories but it appears on the whole he keeps them from form to form.\n\nThink of it kinda like a hardrive you put in multiple different computers. What it looks like from the outside and how it does things might be slightly different, but it still has all the same information.\n\nMake sense?"
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "ELI5: How are unwitnessed behaviours (such as an adult bird building a nest the chick never saw the construction of) passed onto the next generation?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Nest building is a species-specific innate behavior, birds don’t learn how to build a nest, they’re born with an instinctual drive that lies in their genetics. It’s also why different species make different types of nests which be radically different in construction. \n\nFor a contrast, brown bears are NOT born knowing how to fish, they have to both learn from their mother by watching her, and also they develop their own unique style. Each bear fishes in slightly different ways, some like to wait under the water, others prefer to wait at the top of a fall for a fish to practically leap into their mouths, others wait behind the boil of the fall to pick up fish that failed the jump, some use jaws first and others use paws."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "CMV: Bitcoin mining using non renewables should be banned immediately.\n\nGlobal warming is a serious threat to the survival of the human species and it's insane we are adding to this problem for no good reason. Currently Bitcoin mining consumes more power per year than the whole country of Argentina. There would be hardly any downsides in banning the mining of crypto currencies using non renewables and the benefits would be immediate.\n\nEven with a 'carbon tax' mining for bitcoins should be banned immediately if it's being done using non renewables. There is no effective way to capture carbon at this point and it's unclear if there will ever be. \n\nWhat am I missing?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "They are buying this energy legally. They are paying for it. Producer of this energy will still produce that energy and sell it to others. So what is the point of that ban? \n\nThat \"dirty energy\" will still be there, the only change will be distribution - BTC mining will start getting fueled by renewables and renewable energy that were used for other purposes will be used to mine BTC. At the same time, \"dirty energy\" that were used to mine BTS will be used to supply those who aren't supplied with renewables anymore, because that energy is being sold to BTC miners. \n\nYour proposal solves nothing. It will make BTC mining \"cleaner\" by making other energy uses \"dirtier\"."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "ELI5: Why are Windows, OS X, and Linux the main operating systems out there? Why are there no newer operating systems?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "there are many others. those 3 are the big consumer OS's. there are many other backend industrial OS's that are still in use like VAX.\n\nLinux is a branch of the *nix family of OS's. Other members of the *nix family include the BSD branch, the Solaris branch, the AIX branch, among others. There are many many published flavors of Linux in its branch, Redhat, Gentoo, Centos, Ubuntu, etc. Other branches have multiple members as well, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, etc. \n\nIt takes alot to make an OS. you need not only the working core, but you need vendor support. The Linux branch in its infancy had quite a problem with consumers because no vendors published hardware drivers for it, because there's not enough market share of consumers. it's a catch 22."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "[ALIEN] whats the purpose of the spooky chains and water room?\n\nI just saw this a few hours ago, and I dont get why a cargo ship has a spooky chains and water room.\n\nto specify the room I am talking about, when one of the engineers (Im bad with names) goes after the cat, and he gets to this room he looks up at the water and lets it drip all over his face."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The chain hangs from an industrial rail-crane. Its purpose is to help lift heavy objects, when the ship is in full-g. Since the ship is a longhauler, there is probably a lot of heavy equipment to lug around.\n\nThis would be epecially important in a water room (which is essentially an internal water-tower) since such a room would be much taller than its width, pretty much a shaft with a water tank in it."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "ELI5: Why can't we remember dreams very well?\n\nI sometimes wake up and remember entire dreams, but five minutes later I completely forget what it was about. Why is this?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Think of your head being like a computer. There's permanent memory in hard drives and then there's temporary memory in the RAM. \n\nThe permanent memory is kept but dreams is temporary data and gets flushed out when you close the program which is sleep. You can remember them if you try and focus kind of like saving but if you don't they're useless ramblings of your brain and get thrown out.\n\nSomeone please go more sciencey on this I'd like to hear the big fancy words behind it."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "ELI5: How did Germany become one of the richest countries in the world after losing two world wars and having to pay huge reparations and recovery costs and having the country split into two."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Germany is ideally positioned to become astronomically wealthy. That's also the reason it fought 3 major European wars in less than 75 years - all its neighbors realized that was true and tried to put a stop to it.\n\nGermany is centrally situated in Europe, has access to the sea, and has great river connections. Germany can service markets across Europe from its central location.\n\nGermany has access to both iron and coal which means it can make steel and generate power without having to import anything. The coal/steel complex centered on the Alscace/Lorraine area is the proximate cause of friction between France and Germany, and placing that region's resources into the European Coal and Steel Community laid the foundation for the European Union and also helped keep both country's economies steady after WWII.\n\nThe Germans have a fairly homogeneous culture (barring a lot of immigrants from Turkey in the post-war era). That culture stresses values of hard work, thrift, education, and collective action - a perfect storm for creating successful companies and industries.\n\nThe Germans came out of WWII with a destroyed infrastructure but a lot of smart people. With the help of the Marshall Plan they were able to rebuild the infrastructure and the smart people worked with great diligence to restore their material wealth. Germany had a pre-war reputation for making high quality goods and German companies traded on that reputation in the post-War era; making things like cars, industrial equipment, chemicals, cameras, etc.\n\nThe German people have had a very stable political system since the war. Debates in German politics are very centrist - the difference between the party of the Left and the party of the Right are of degree, not of substance. When reunification became possible the West Germans mobilized quickly to make it happen, and deployed a lot of money to smooth the transition. There was relatively little objection in German society to the reunification even though it was expensive.\n\ntl;dr: A resource-rich, geographically central country, with a population of people with the right values to be successful and a political system that is very stable."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "ELI5: Why do some medications cause weight gain?\n\nIn the case if you are eating normal amounts of healty food as you were before the medication? Isn't your body starved of energy if all is stored in fat tissue?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Some medications greatly increase hunger. Others make you feel more lethargic, making you less likely to exercise, or making your exercising less effective. And some can actually affect the process of how your body burns calories, or how they store and absorb sugars and other nutrients."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "[Marvel] Why is Galactus humanoid, in armor, and muscular?\n\nHe looks like some normal supervillain on earth, in a costume.\n\nHe has armor on but he will never encounter anyone to defend against physically. \n\nHe's jacked, but just sits in space all day."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He's not. That's just how he appears to you, because it's easier for your mind to be afraid and in awe of a 40 foot tall jacked dude in purple cosmic tech armor.\n\nAnd if that doesn't have the suitable effect, the crust of your planet cracking soon after usually cements the desired response."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "When nucleons bind to form a nucleus, does each nucleon \"retain ownership\" over its quarks (is each nucleon a truly unique entity)? Or is it possible for quarks to swap from one nucleon to another? Or does it not make sense to talk so exactly about them?\n\nI was reading about the strong force and color confinement recently, but everything I read seemed to only talk about an isolated nucleon. \n\nA brief reading of the Nuclear Force (the binding force between nucleons) which can be viewed as a \"residual strong force\" indicates it is mediated by virtual mesons. To my completely uneducated mind, that reads as though the nuclear force is almost like nucleons swapping quarks between one another (as a meson is a quark-antiquark pair). \n\nI'm assuming I'm reading too much into it and letting my uninformed imagination run a bit too wild. Because my loose understanding of virtual particles is that they're just a byproduct of random fluctuations in the quantum fields. But then that makes me think that maybe it doesn't make sense to say that a nucleon has \"ownership\" over its quarks at all, if its quarks can't really be distinguished. Which only furthers my question of if each nucleon is clearly a separate entity while in a nucleus or not."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "In short: Yes nucleons can exchange quarks via mesons, but because of confinement the baryons will always have three valence quarks.\n\nBut all, e.g., up quarks are indistinguishable. So it makes no sense to say that a particular quarks left the proton and travelled to another (as part of a pion for example). At the same time a new up-quark must have been created and remained in the original proton.\n\nAnd then there is the issue of energy scale. The quarks are still bound inside the nucleons, meaning the energy required to get one out is larger than the random energy fluctuations in the system (= temperature). That is why you only exchange virtual mesons rather than real particles. Mathematically this makes it convenient to describe the nucleons as their own things that than interact with one another, rather than looking at all the quarks and gluons and whatnot separately.\n\nYou can create states of matter where the quarks are no longer bound, i.e. it makes sense to model things on the quark level. It is called \"quark gluon plasma\", and it exists at much higher energies/temperatures. E.g. it is created briefly in particle colliders, when you smash nuclei into each other."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "ELI5: Why do muscles sometimes involuntarily twitch?\n\nI’m laying on my futon and my left quadriceps starts to twitch on it’s own accord. Made me curious as to why."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Usually that's an electrolyte imbalance (sodium, potassium, magnesium, etc). Your body runs on electricity and those ingredients help transfer that energy by making the blood more/less conductive. So when you have very low amounts of these your legs twitch because they are forced to construct from an intense signal that under good balance would not be a strong enough shock to \"wake up\" the muscles. That's why momma told you to eat a banana if your legs hurt (potassium)."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "ELI5: The end of the Lord of the Rings\n\nWhere are the elves, Gandalf, and Bilbo going? Why does Frodo have to go? Thanks."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The story takes place at a crossroad where the age of elves and magic is dying out and the age of man is emerging. Lothlórien and Rivendale are two of the last bastions of elven magic in the known world, overall it has been waning and dying out as elves leave. With the rise of the kingdoms of man the remaining elves led by Galadriel and Elrond decide to pack it in and migrate to Valinor, or the \"Undying Lands\" and leave middle-earth to to man.\n\nFrodo is so much in agony due to being wounded by the Nazgul, he is also just totally spent by carrying the ring all that time. The elves allow him to come with them. His friends are distraught over this but in many ways understand."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "[Star Trek] [Voyager] Capt. Janeway's decision to ally with the Borg against Species 8472\n\nI'm wary of asking this, since it skirts the borders of objective fact(in the Star Trek Universe) but here goes:\n\nTLDR: My core question is this: was Capt Janeway sufficiently justified in believing that Species 8472 were a comparable threat to all galactic life as the Borg? After a single violent encounter, with a single individual of the species, she deigns them a greater threat than the entire Borg Collective. And thus justifies an alliance with Borg, where she helps them fight off Species 8472. This seems at odds with various Starfleet norms, not least being the Prime Directive. Am I missing something or disregarding some facet here?\n\nI've been rewatching Star Trek: Voyager recently and I've just finished the episode VOY 4x26: Hope and Fear. In that episode, >!the last survivor of an alien race - recently obliterated by the Borg - attempts to trick Voyager's crew and sacrifice them to the Borg. He does this in revenge for Voyager helping the Borg overcome Species 8472 - a conflict they would have otherwise likely lost.!< One particular line was striking - \"Who were you to make that choice? A stranger to this Quandrant!\", and it echoed a like from Chakotay one season ago (in VOY 3x26: Scorpion) , where he says - \"How much is our safety worth? We'd be helping a species guilty of killing billions\". At the time and later Janeway points to what Species 8472 did to her crewmember Harry Kim and the psychic visions transmitted to another crewmember Kes warning \"The weak will perish\".\n\nBut this seems a rash judgement in my opinion. I assume 8472 are new to our universe and their initial contact, possibly sole contact before the crew of Voyager, was with the Borg - an antagonistic species if ever there was one. Voyager's crew encounters one of their pilots in a derelict Borg cube, in the wake of a large battle, where he attacks Harry Kim and infects him with a unique \"virus\". But this doesn't seems to have been a deliberate act, but rather a feature of their biology. Their subsequent interactions, including psychic threats, are after Voyager has allied with the Borg. Looking at these actions as those of soldiers and field commanders in a warzone, it seems a stretch to characterize the whole species. Imagine if the Klignon's were judged solely by their warcrys and battle prowess?\n\nFurthermore, consider how Starfleet has interacted with other inscrutable, violent forms of alien life. For example, the Crystalline entity in TNG - a creature with a far higher Federation body count than 8472, but they still attempted to establish communication with it rather than kill it.\n\nFinally, I would consider the Prime Directive applies here. Since Species 8472 has made no overt threats towards the Federation or Voyager, this seem like a purely internal matter between them and the Borg. Simply because the two species involved are as advanced(arguably more so) than the Federation, does not preclude the non-inteference that is the foundation of Star Fleet. To interfere is to change the natural course of history for both species, and in fact for all species in the Delta Quadrant.\n\nThus I submit that it seems to me to have been the wrong choice going by Federation principles and indeed the general principle espoused by Star Trek as a whole."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The facts available to Janeway after the initial encounter with 8472 but before entering negotiations with the Collective were:\n\n* 8472 is advanced enough to be a major threat to the Federations most powerful adversary.\n* 8472 have shown themselves to be hostile when they attacked a Starfleet officer.\n* 8472 have fired upon a retreating Federation starship without provocation.\n* 8472 Have threatened to purge the galaxy (i.e. kill everything).\n* Borg generally don't kill but rather assimilate.\n* Borg assimilation is reversible (Locutus/Picard).\n\nIt is perfectly reasonable to conclude that 8472 is a more pressing threat than the Borg.\n\nThe PD certainly doesn't apply, it ceased to be an internal matter when 8472 fired on Voyager."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "[DC] why aren't a lot of batman villains considered terrorists\n\nYou would think after all the biological weapons that joker, scarecrow, and poison ivy have used in their attacks on Gotham. The us government would probably go black ops and have someone like Walker to take them all out. Before you say their insane so they can't kill them do you think that would matter to groups like the CIA and FBI groups that plenty of shady business before."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "> The us government would probably go black ops and have someone like Walker to take them all out.\n\nOh, the irony...\n\nWaller is probably 80% of the reason the feds **don't** smoke super crooks. Where most folks see a problem, she sees opportunity; an ever rotating array of disposable, deniable superfreaks who can make shit happen and take all the heat for it. Waller keeps the maniacs and weirdos in play because it serves her purposes."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "ELI5 - Please explain this economics to me, I just can't wrap my head around it\n\n This is a common math problem that floats around the internet in many forms but I just don't get it.\n\n1. I borrow $50 from person A\n2. I borrow $50 from person B\n3. I buy something for $97 leaving $3 change\n4. I repay $1 to person A leaving $49 owing\n5. I repay $1 to person B leaving $49 owing\n6. I keep $1 for myself\n7. I now owe $49 each to persons A and B making a total of $98 owed and I have repaid $2 total ($1 each to person A and B)\n8. $98 owed + $2 paid = $100 that I initially borrowed\n9. How the f\\*\\*k did I magically get to keep $1 from seemingly nowhere?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You're looking at it all wrong. You started with $0. You borrowed $100, which brought you to -$100 net worth. You bought a $97 widget. That left you with a $97 widget and $3, with a total debt of $100. You paid $2 on your debt. That left you with a $97 widget, and $1 in cash, and a total debt of $98. Thus, you have assets worth $97+$1=$98, and debts totaling $98, which is the same as the $0 net worth you started with."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "ELI5: Why do weightlifters looks “fat” rather than just pure muscle?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "To build muscle, you need to lift weights and eat a calorie surplus. The extra calories allow you to grow -- both muscle and fat.\n\nBody builders then cut -- they stop eating as much, but keep working out, to reduce the fat. \n\nBut for weightlifters, the cutting is just a waste of time. It makes more sense to keep eating and keeping building muscle. (Mind you, they need to cut a bit, they can't get so fat that it gets in the way, but they don't need to be crazy low fat like body builders). \n\nAll the same muscles are there, they just aren't as visible."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "CMV: Playing video games as a single hobby without interacting with the community is way better.\n\nBasically the older I get the more I realize how annoying and obnoxious the video game community is at times.\n\nThis isn’t everyone by the way, but from the past 10 years of meeting different people in the video game community, the wide majority of them are obnoxious and uninteresting people.\n\nI’m not saying I’m special either, as I’m a fairly boring person but I like that about myself. I find playing games as a singular hobby way better them interacting with the general public.\n\nIs this an unhealthy mindset to have? 9 times out of 10 I don’t find the majority of gamers interesting to talk to."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "> how annoying and obnoxious the video game community is at times.\n\nIt really depends on the game and community. Some games have really toxic communities. Other games like Kerbal Space Program and Factorio have wonderful communities with very little toxic behaviors. It also will depend on which part of the community you encounter, for example, a game's modding community, fanart community, fanfiction communities, or speedrunning communities are going to be a very different slice of the community.\n\nThere are lots of players just like you that want a mature community, and in many games all that is required is finding a guild of like-minded people."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "ELI5: Why is it hundreds of stars at night can be seen from Earth, but videos/picturs of astronauts in orbit never have stars in the background (it is just black)?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It's about exposure.\n\nA photo from Earth at night looking up has probably nothing in the frame other than stars. This means the camera can keep the shutter open for a longer period like 10 seconds, allowing dim objects like stars to be visible.\n\nVideos and pictures of astronauts have an astronaut in the foreground. The camera is exposing for the astronaut, probably at a shutter speed of around 1/200th of a second. This is too short to see any stars except maybe the very brightest few."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "[supernatural] What fraction of deaths are monster related, and why haven't epidemiologists noticed?\n\nSupernatural has had 30+ monster species each of which must propagate either by sex or by turning new people. Each must feed on a schedule, and most feed on humans in some way. \n\nFor each species to continue it must have one or more members. Given the number of monsters they've killed, there must be thousands of total monsters in the us at any time. Why haven't epidemiologists started to notice the patterns of vampire or werewolf related deaths? How many monsters live in the US at any time, and how many people do they kill?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Hundreds of thousands of people go missing every year in the US alone. Those people are just part of that number. When you consider that like most predators, vampires and other terrible things that go bump in the night tend to go after the most disenfranchised and vulnerable members of society, it's no surprise that epidemiologists are unaware."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "ELI5: Why can't Windows accurately predict file transfer times?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Disk drives have on-board memory or \"cache\" with which to smooth out data transfers. Data is often at various places on the disk, and there needs to be time to swing the reading arm and head around to find the right place to read it from the disk. There is also the matter of when the data is read the disk is spinning by at great speed; the computer isn't always ready to accept the data from the disk, so it needs a buffer area (the cache) to put it in the meantime.\n\nThis means that drives exhibit \"burst\" speeds when reading and writing. If you wanted to save a file your computer could say \"save these memory addresses!\" and dump them directly from your computer's random-access memory into the drive's cache very quickly. Slightly later the drive actually gets around to positioning the heads and writing what is in the cache to the platters of the disk itself. However, if you have a lot of data to save it will eventually overwhelm the drive's cache and it will be forced to stop just storing it in the cache until it can work through the backlog.\n\nWhat this means is that when Windows looks at how quickly a file is being written by the drive it gets confusing results. The first few bits of the file are being accepted extremely quickly so it thinks it will finish the transfer very quickly, but after a little while the drive seems to slow down significantly. Now something it looked like would take 10 seconds is taking a minute. If you tell that drive to do other things too that minute could be come two, or even three!\n\nUltimately, the timer included in the box by Windows isn't going to be very smart. It only compares the clock to the rate of data transfer, which often doesn't consider the whole picture at all."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "ELI5 How did they manage to get big ships docked before the invention of motor engines ?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The first thing to do is wait for the right weather. You anchor outside the harbour or sail around until the wind is of the right strength and direction to allow you to get in.\n\nThe next thing to do is take on a pilot, this is someone who knows the harbour intimately and so where to turn, where to avoid shoals etc. You pick them up out at sea where there is space to do so.\n\nThen you sail into the harbour and up to a quay. You need to control your speed by adjusting and taking in sails so that you berth slowly. This is quite within the capability of a skilled skipper and well drilled crew.\n\nThen if you need to move the ship to another basin, another quay, turn it around etc then you warp it around, which basically means pulling it about using ropes. You might have mule teams to help, certainly you use capstans on the ship and ashore.\n\nSteam tugs were used long before ocean going cargo ships were powered by engines. They could help manoeuvre the ships into tight spots, or tow them into harbour in calm weather.\n\nAll of the same techniques are used in modern shipping with modern ships, in fact modern ships are arguably harder to dock given how much larger they are."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "ELI5: why do we lose weight more easily when we drink lots of water?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "1. Your stomach has stretch receptors that tell your brain you are full. If you drink a lot of water, your stomach is streched out by a 0 calorie drink rather than a high calorie food. That's partly why eating a giant low calorie salad makes you feel as full as a small high calorie baked good. There are other things that contribute to fullness, but the stretch receptors are an important one.\n\n2. If you drink cold water, your body has to burn calories to warm it up to body temperature.\n\n3. You drink water instead of other high calorie beverages. You will swap out water for soda, juice, etc. That keeps those empty calories off.\n\n4. Your kidneys have to burn more calories to get rid of all the extra water you drank.\n\n5. Water is an important part of many calorie burning chemical reactions in your body. If you don't have enough water, your body stops the less necessary reactions to conserve water."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "[AOU] Spoilers, why not Asgard?\n\nIs there a reason they chose to hide out at Hawkeye's with Lindsey Weir instead of having Heimdal bifrost them up to Asgard? Asgard would be completely out of reach of Ultron so would be a perfect place to regroup. Also is there a reason Thor didn't ask for a bunch of Asgardian warriors to bifrost down to protect Earth in the final battle?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Thor has just seen some terrible visions of Asgard getting completely wrecked. Its not in his vest interests to take the Avengers to Asgard when they're seemingly safe with Hawkeye. Thors priority is figuring out exactly what he saw and how to stop Rakgnarok, which is what Heimdall mentions. Its natural that he would be wary of doing anything to set the events of Ragnarok in motion, including getting the most destructive people he knows to his home planet."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "ELI5: Saltwater to fight fires?\n\nCan firefighting helicopters use saltwater to fight wildfires or is it just freshwater?\n\nWill the salt have a negative impact on the area after?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "They can use saltwater, too. Some things to consider though:\n\nAs you mentioned, salt isn't great for re-growth.\n\nMost sources of water nearby forests usually aren't the ocean but instead lakes.\n\nSaltwater can be damaging to water tanks and it causes corrosion more quickly."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "ELI5: Why is 2% inflation rate good, and what would happen if the rate falls below this?\n\nWould people notice sudden changes in daily life?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Inflation means that a dollar gets less valuable over time (by 2% a year). Too much inflation, and money becomes worthless, like in Weimar Germany. The too-little problem is a bit trickier. \n\nInflation encourages people and corporations (and especially banks) to do things with their money, specifically, invest it in businesses, education, or something else. If money loses 2% of its value each year, companies have to be doing something with it that earns at least a 2% profit - like lending it out.\n\nBasically, inflation forces banks and billionaires to stop just sitting on money and instead reinvest it, creating new businesses and jobs and driving the economy forwards."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "CMV: Businesses should not be allowed to discriminate based on race, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, etc.\n\n1. You can effectively run people out of town just because of who they are by withholding essential services from them. You could also basically ban blacks, gays, etc. from town if all of the hotels decided not to accommodate them. This happened before the Civil Rights Act, something you have to oppose if you're being consistent. That's why when JFK came up with the Civil Rights Act he wanted to outlaw discrimination by private owners of public accommodation.\n\n2. It is a dangerous precedent to set. What if I interpret my holy book in a certain way that I believe I should pay certain people below the minimum wage? Isn't the minimum wage violating my religious freedom? If you actually want to be consistent, then minimum wage shouldn't be required either.\n\n3. You never know when a new class of people could become the new hated group. Imagine if, hypothetically, we went to war with China, or there was a terrorist attack. There would certainly be a lot of people who would refuse service to people of these nationalities. So you can't just say that we've forever moved past it.\n\n4. Private owners of public accommodation (retail stores, rental establishments, recreational facilities) are already not allowed to discriminate based on race, color, religion, or national origin according to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This is very important legislation and will have to be repealed is you disagree.\n\nLet me make myself clear: I think businesses should be allowed to refuse service based on *what the service is*, not who is asking to be served. So a bakery can refuse to bake a cake shaped like a dick or something. I also think if a service is purely religious, like a wedding ceremony, a religious establishment can refuse that service."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "At a college campus, lets say that the law technically allows minors to be in a drinking establishment so long as they are not being served alcohol. However, to help prevent prevent older +21 students from passing drinks to younger ones (which happens frequently and is hard to prevent), the college bar decides simply to not allow anyone under 21 at the bar after 8pm. \n\nThis is clear cut age discrimination, so would you argue that the bar owners should be fined for taking this precautionary measure to help prevent underage drinking?"
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "[Luigi's Mansion] Why is this mansion filled with so much money? And why is it hidden in so many weird places, like in chandeliers or toilets?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Money in the Mario series carries with it magical properties. Note how collecting 100 coins will grant Mario the ability to rewind time and prevent his own death, or hitting Toads that have transformed into bricks will produce a stream of coins before transfiguring those Toads into a different type of block.\n\nLuigi's Mansion was a mansion that \"popped up out of nowhere\" because King Boo created it with his magic. Because there is magic in money, and it requires a lot of magic to maintain a gigantic structure, we likely find lots of money in the mansion for one of three reasons: either A) King Boo collected all of this money and used its magic to create the mansion, B) the money acts as a sort of crystallized version of the magic emanating from the walls of the Mansion, taking on physical form in the shape of money over time, or C) this magical currency is the equivalent of ghost ectoplasm in the Mario universe; as the ghosts roam the hallways, the magic that they radiate turns into money that is then spread throughout the mansion."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "ELI5: How do my electric guitar's pickups, together with my amp, create their sound?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Magnets. In simplest terms, the magnets in the pickups “pick up” disturbances in the magnetic field surrounding it, the capacitors and other electronics turn it into an electronic signal that is pushed through the amp which “amplifies” the signal into the speaker and our ears.\n\nIn more complex terms\n\n The basic science behind pickup function is Faraday’s Law of Induction. It states that a changing magnetic field causes an electric field to be set up in a nearby wire, causing a current to flow if the wire is part of a closed circuit (a loop of wire for example).\n\nSince Faraday’s Law tells us we need a changing magnetic field to make an electric current, how does the magnetic field from the static permanent magnets change? That’s where the string comes into play.\n\nSee, the string is made of nickel and steel (iron+carbon), materials that are ferromagnetic. That is, a magnet attracts guitar strings. When this ferromagnetic metal vibrates in the magnetic field of the pickup, that disturbs the field which also crosses through the coil. That changing magnetic field makes a current flow that tracks the vibration of the string, and we have a working pickup!"
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "ELI5: What is meant by the phrase \"Nice guys finish last\"?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It's a cynical statement that you can't win by playing by the rules, you have to have some kind of advantage, or be willing to bend rules (or outright cheat) to get by in whatever situation they're talking about.\n\nIt is used in different situations from career to romance."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "[Batman] Does Joker have a lawyer on retainer for when he gets caught or does he go with a court appointed one? Does he have any kind of relationship with his representation? What’s that relationship like?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Pretty sure court appointed, or he’d demand to represent himself.\n\nOf course if they were court appointed, could definitely see him killing the first few next time he escapes for not being able to get him off. Probably would be hard to find anyone to do it after that."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "ELI5: Why is it that bad singers cannot recognise themselves as out of tune or off key when everyone else can instantly hear it? Makes even less sense because a bad singer can pick out other bad singers without any issues, yet they fail to hear how bad they are."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I think it is because when you are listening to someone sing (or talk,...), you hear the sound conducted through air, however when you hear yourself, not only do you hear the sound that goes through air, but also through your own body (mainly bones). And since bones have different sound properties than air, the pitch is different and the result in your ears might be perfect, yet unbearable for others."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "CMV: It is completely possible to be racist to people of your own race\n\nRacism:\nprejudice, discrimination, or antagonism by an individual, community, or institution against a person or people on the basis of their membership of a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized\n\n\nI hope the title is clear but more and more I'm coming across scenarios where people think it's OK to make a racist judgment/joke/argument and then defend it by saying \"But I'm that race/background\". In example I am White British, and it WOULD be racist of me to say I dislike White British people because of XYZ reasons, as i am making assumptions and generalising people based on their race. \n\nMost recently someone at work was giving a presentation and did a silly little, classic Egyptian hieroglyphic dance thing. Someone passed a small comment that it's a bit stereotypical and unfunny and they responded with \"I'm allowed to do that, I'm Egyptian\""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "This is called internalized racism. It’s well-documented. Was the aforementioned friend born and raised in Egypt or around Egyptian people? Because there’s a difference between using an ethnicity you might *be* but weren’t brought up in to justify stereotypes vs POC joking about their experiences in a way that would be racist coming from a white person.\n\nLike, it’s pretty distasteful to make jokes about all the black people in the ‘hood’, but a black person who grew up in an impoverished area making jokes about other black people who also grew up in poverty is fine imo."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "eli5 How does the process of throwing up work?\n\nI was driving about 20 minutes ago and I could feel myself about to throw up. I was less than a minute away from home and so I tried to hold it down but despite my best efforts it came up anyway and I had to open the door just seconds before spewing my guts out. Why aren't we able to hold it down? How does that bodily function work?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Your stomach is like a bag of fluid and mashed up food. It is surrounded by muscles that \"squeeze\" the bag. They usually just mash food around to help with digestion.\n\nWith throwing up, your body decides that it needs to get rid of your stomach contents (more on that later). It has all the muscles around your stomach squeeze hard. Picture a small Ziploc bag of water with a tube coming out the top, then you squeeze the bag hard in both hands. The contents has to shoot up the tube.\n\nWhy can't you stop it? Evolution has \"decided\" that over all when the situation is dire enough that you need to vomit (which is usually because you are being poisoned by something you ate), getting the poison out ASAP is more important than being able to choose where that happens. You can wash out your car or your carpet if you don't make it to the bathroom - but not if you're dead from whatever you've gone and eaten."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "[Matrix] Why doesn't anyone bother cleaning up the sky?\n\nI just thought about this. During the big events during the Matrix I would imagine the humans wouldn't have had the capable or the time but the machines have free run of the planet. They could easily find a way to clear up the massive clouds blocking the sun so they could have a secondary power source."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "There's a theory that the \"scorched sky\" is actually a massive cloud of EMP generating nanomachines. This would explain why Neo's ship failed as it escaped into sunlight while he was trying to reach Machine City. It also makes sense as a protective measure by humanity to ensure that the machines never escape Earth. Given that humans had hover technology before the war, it's likely that they had extraterrestrial colonies, and when the war happened, they released the cloud to contain the machines to Earth."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Why is it that there is no planet that orbits the sun in the opposite direction to the other planets?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "All the planets in our solar system would have emerged from what's called a 'proto-planetary disk'. This was a fairly flat disk of gas (largely H and He) and dust (solid stuff, including rock-making stuff and, at farther distances, solid ices). The planets inherited how they orbit from the direction in which the disk rotated, which would have been about the same as the spin direction of the sun.\n\nThere are several observed cases where the one planet in the system rotates in almost the opposite sense to the sense in which the star is rotating (or at least in which the sense of the orbit and the sense of the star's spin are at some large angle relative to each other). In these cases the system went through some sort of violent upheaval or maybe the star somehow had a different spin than the proto-planetary disk. This topic is a hot area of ongoing research."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What causes raindrops to be different sizes?\n\nI ask because when it rained today, I looked up at a streetlight and saw that rain was coming down in sheets though I was barely getting wet. What makes these drops so small as compared to when it rains and the drops are huge and get you soaked?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "A raindrop gets bigger in the cloud by combining with other drops, also called coalescence. Coalescence happens in the air, and the cloud, so the raindrops that combine in the air, are larger than the ones that don't.\nAnother reason why raindrops vary in size is because a raindrop can be ripped into pieces on a windy day, creating tiny droplets of water that fall to the ground.\nHope this helped :)"
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "ELi5: When giant ships like the Titanic sink is there a whirlpool effect that can drag people under when the ship fills with water? Can someone please explain why or why not this would happen?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Let's get this out of the way. \nThe effect is a real thing that happens with large ships. \nThe Mythbusters did one small scale test, with a boat far too small for the effect to be noticeable. \nThere are many accounts and engineering studies showing that the effect happens. \nYou need a large ship such as the battleship HMS Hood, and it needs to go down fast (the Hood went down in a few minutes after it blew up) \n\nAs to why it works. \nEver move you hand through a pool of water?\nBehind you hand there’s less water because your hand pushed it away, so water fills in that place. The water moving into fill that place is what’s sucking you down. \nIf your hand moves fast, the water has to move fast to fill the space.\n \nAlso there’s air trapped in a large ship that bubbles up to the surface as the ship goes down. In some cases, the bubbles make the water light enough to make it impossible to swim or float. The air going up also displaces water, causing it to rush in from the sides."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "How do chemical reactions work on the quantum level?\n\nI'm an undergrad student studying chemistry and biology where (especially in organic chemistry) we do a lot of \"arrow pushing\" (i.e. drawing arrows to signify where electrons travel during a chemical reaction). Earlier today I was watching a video in which Sean Carroll (physicist) goes on to explain how electrons actually form a \"cloud\" of probability around an atomic nucleus, where according to its wave function you can predict where you might find that electron if you went looking for it. He also stated, most importantly, that the electron is actually just a cloud of probability until you look for it, that the electron isn't anything more than a wave function until we look. What does that mean for my arrow pushing? If the electron is just a wave function does it collapse when chemical bonds are formed? What exactly goes on in this sense?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Arrow pushing is a way of visualizing the quantum processes. When you push two electrons from the valence shell of an atom to an \"empty\" orbital of another atom, these blend to make a new bond.\n\nFor example, you can take two electrons from an s orbital and put these into an empty s orbital of another atom. The spherical cloud of each s orbital then blends together to form an oblong sigma bond cloud of probability. The sigma bond is now just as the original s orbitals were a cloud that describes the probability of finding the two electrons in a given place.\n\nBasically, the orbitals, which are clouds of probability, blend together when you push the arrows, so to speak, and create a newly shaped cloud of probability that spreads out between the two nuclei. \n\nThis is nicely illustrated by two p orbitals interacting. For example, if you are forming an alkene, you already have a sigma bond between the C atoms. The p orbitals then can interact, through for example beta elimination, and form a pi bond. The p orbitals' clouds of probability have an hourglass shape, and the resulting pi bond (or double bond) looks like hotdog bun that wraps around the sigma (single) bond with no probability of finding the electrons on the C--C axis, just as the p orbital has no probability of an electron at the center of the hourglass.\n\nSo a chemical reaction creates a new wave function (sigma bond), a new cloud of probability. Collapsing the wave function refers to observing where exactly the electron is at any particular moment. This means that you no longer have a cloud of probability, but an actual measured location for that electron. In a sigma bond, that electron could be found near one atom, near the other atom, or in between the two."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Who's a bigger asshole, Joffrey or Feyd Rautha?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I have no idea where Joffery is headed, but as it stands now in the TV series vs the books, Feyd by a large margin. He was not only cruel, but trained to be so AND capable. Had someone of lower status slapped him, they'd have been slowly tortured to death. If he didn't have The Barons blessing, it would be known by the public and suspected by The Baron. If he did have his blessing, it would occur publicly. \n\nFeyd has skill, he fought Muad'Dib and nearly won. Joffery uses his authority, but is still childlike in his abilities."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "[WH40K] Do the Chaos Gods have an impact beyond our galaxy?\n\nDo the Chaos Gods draw power from the hate/plotting/lust/rotting of beings all across the universe, or are they tied to our galaxy? If the latter, why? \n\nFor that matter, what about the Old Ones or other Warp-Beings?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "We don't know. What little records we have on the Old Ones don't mention anything about their activities outside the galaxy. And the closest galaxy is still to far away to use warp travel (the chances of getting lost is too high). The only lifeform we know that comes from outside the galaxy are the Tyranids and they won't be talking anytime soon.\n\nAlthough there was this one rumor; we sent out probes sometime during the Great Crusade and they came back filled with the chanting of Orks."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Why is falsifiability no longer seen as the defining characteristic of science (as opposed to philosophy)?\n\nI've heard from various people that falsifiability (falsificationism?) has become obsolete as a view in the philosophy of science, but I'm not sure I really understand what this means. From what I understand, it has to do with Karl Popper and the fall of logical positivism? Could someone explain this in more detail? Why would falsifiability be essential for something to be science? \n\nAlso, why is it taught (especially in the social sciences) as it *is* essential?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "There's an old view in philosophy of science that a theory must make predictions liable to be disproved and that as soon as one of these predictions is shown false, that we ought to discard the theory (any sort of after-the-fact modifications are called 'ad hoc').\n\nThe problem is that any good theory usually starts and ends falsified, e.g. Newton's theory of motion originally was unable to describe the motion of the moon, and so by a falsificationist criteria it should have been disregarded almost immediately. Yet this would have been a mistake because in fact Newtonian mechanics was able to explain the orbit of the moon eventually.\n\nOn the other hand, when Einstein's theory came in, the reason for it's support was because it effectively described the perihelion of Mercury, a prediction that Newton's theory got wrong and which came to be considered a falsification of Newton's theory (though we had been comfortable with the fact that Newton's theory couldn't explain Mercury's perihelion for several centuries before this).\n\nIt is taught by the hard sciences because the anti-dogmatic image it depicts is flattering, it is taught by the social sciences because they want to see themselves as like the hard sciences."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "ELI5 why can a person's weight change +/- 5-10 pounds a day when they definitely aren't eating 5-10 pounds of food/water a day. Where does this extra mass/wight come from?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Don't underestimate the weight of food and especially water. A half gallon of water (the standard-even-if-derided recommended daily amount) weighs over 4 pounds. A hearty meal can weigh 1-2 pounds on top of that. \n\nNot all of this material stays in the body long-term because we expel it as waste, but our body's capacity for storing water especially goes beyond the size of our bladders. Our cells literally get dehydrated overnight and will swell up with water over the course of the day."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "[DC Comics] Does Superboy (Jon Kent) being half human limit his powers in anyway?\n\nDoes he have all the same powers as his Dad - the heat vision, the freeze breath etc."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Well, because he was still growing, it was assumed his powers, which are the same as his fathers, were still adapting, and that was why even if his other powers were still active, his invulnerability was imperfect. Later it was made clear this was due to the manipulations of Manchester Black. But due to his human genes and the fact he is still developing, he is in a different position than his father. On one hand, his powers fluctuate with his emotional states. On the other, because of that, he has the potential to be even more powerful than his father."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "CMV: The statement that an armed population has no chance against a conventionally armed and supplied military force is naive and incorrect.\n\nI keep hearing the argument that civilian ownership of weapons is useless to combat tyranny because civilians cannot win against a military force. This flies in the face of universally accepted concepts of establishing an insurgeny. Many conflicts in the past 50 years have been exactly that and a good number of them have been successful to varying degrees. Also after a period of some time through training, establishing alliances, setting up supply lines and experience those former armed populations have for most intent and purposes transformed to become almost functioning military forces in their own right. Please show me the error of my reasoning and CMV.\n\nEdit: Apparently I am trying to reinvent the wheel here as I am told that this is a common CMV that's been dealt with repeatedly. I apologize and will read those threads. My reddit search skills are poor I guess. Thank you to all who helped me see the holes in my logic."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I’d like to also point out that most of these “successful” insurgencies occurred in third world countries, which, unlike the U.S., did not already have a high tech surveillance state already in place."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "[Game of Thrones] Wouldn't giant Wun Wun demolish entire Bolton's army in Battle of the Bastards if only he had armor and any kind of club weapon?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "If Wun Wun just threw logs and rocks as a artillery battery, could have pushed a giant mechanical push mower through the ranks, he could use fifty yards of chain and jump rope his way through divisions, etc. Wun Wun is juggxrnaught and that should with any coordinated support would be nightmarish to deal with."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "If earth stopped rotating what temperature would the side facing the sun reach?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Keep in mind that if it stopped rotating entirely, there would still be one day per year as the Earth moved about its orbit. If you want one side to be permanently facing the sun, you want the Earth to be tidally locked with the sun."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "[MCU] \"That's my secret Cap. I'm always angry.\" What does Bruce actually mean by this?\n\nI mean, he seems pretty chill most of the time. Was he actually seething at everyone and everything in the helicarrier the entire time, and for every part of the movie where he wasn't the Hulk?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Yep.\n\nBanner is not mentally well. Even if he had never been exposed to gamma radiation he would be a walking basket case. His father was not a good man, his childhood was not healthy, and his neurosis would fill an entire diagnostic manual.\n\nHe covers this well. He seems like a happy, easygoing man. A nice guy. But he's not. Like many people with a traumatic past, Banner knows how to play a role. He knows how to hide his pain, and his fear, and his anger. People don't see him as a man on the edge, because he doesn't let them.\n\nSo they see Banner is a bomb with a wonky fuse. Poke it the wrong way and *boom*, you've got a medium to large disaster on your hands. His default state is \"safe\", but if things go wrong, he'll explode.\n\nBut Banner isn't the fuse. He's the failsafe.\n\nBanner is *always* angry. The Hulk is *always* on the verge of taking control. He has to work to keep the monster at bay. And he's very, very good at it. So good that he can joke about it. So good that he can pretend he's about to lose control. So good that people are worried that he won't be able to summon the Hulk when he's needed.\n\nBut the Hulk doesn't have to be summoned. He's always there, always trying to escape. All Banner has to do is step out of the way. The anger will take care of itself."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "[General Sci-fi] How does gravity on space ships work?\n\nI know how it works on ships that use centripetal force, but how does it work on most ships from Star Wars, Star Trek, Firefly, etc?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Usually via gravity generators that can produce gravity fields and/or whatever the force carrier particle for gravity is in that universe (gravitons, typically). Sometimes these fields/particles can be manipulated and projected elsewhere, such as from emitters in the deck plating, to make sure that 'down' is always towards the floor rather than whatever part of the ship the generator itself is. Handy when your ship is long, so your crew doesn't end up walking 'uphill' towards either end.\n\nSome ships just use sheer acceleration to do it. In situations without FTL, travelling at a constant 1G of acceleration is usually the quickest and most comfortable way of handling long voyages where cryostasis isn't available. Technically, however, this isn't actually gravity in the same way that centripedal force isn't gravity."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "[Lord of the Rings] Where does the smoke go in an underground place like Moria?\n\nIt doesn't have to be Moria, it is just the most known example. Imagine an actual underground city in a medieval setting (so no electric lights, also not so much magic). You obviously need a lot of fire, or you just don't see a damn thing. Wouldn't they get a smoke poisoning sooner or later? The underground halls might be huge, but they're still closed rooms, the only openings would be tunnels.\n\nI am asking this question, because I am in the process of creating such a city for my ficitonal world. And then it is an interesting question for fantasy worldbuilding in general, if you think about dungeons in video games and such."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The mountain above the city is full of air ducts that not only direct smoke out, but allow fresh air inside. Many of them are artfully carved so as to blend seamlessly into the rock above everyone's heads, or are part of the buildings around everyone. Small curves in the vents would also prevent sunlight and rain/snow from falling into the settlement. \n\nThey are so numerous and relatively small that the amount of smoke released by each vent is negligible, and thus the mountain doesn't appear to be wreathed in smoke at all times. \n\nKeeping these vents clear would be a massive and endless job, but the constant maintenance would ensure that nothing clogs and ends up killing all of the inhabitants."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "ELI5: why isn't the US happy about Russia being in Syria? Isn't it good for us if they crush ISIS at their expense and with their soldiers?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "There is a pretty complicated war going on. It's more complex than this, but there are essentially 3 sides fighting at once:\n\nFSA - Rebels against Syrian government, USA-backed\n\nAssad Syria - Syrian government, Russia-backed\n\nISIS - Radical muslim, both USA and Russia enemies\n\nWhen the USA fights ISIS, they of course focus on fighting them in ways that benefit the FSA... attacking ISIS forces threatening FSA, etc. Russia, however, fights ISIS in ways to hurt the FSA and support Assad Syria.\n\nSo, while both USA and Russia are anti-ISIS, they are also indirectly fighting against each other by supporting their side in the war."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "[Blade Runner 2049] Nexus-9 models are known for obedience. How was K able to go against his orders?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He was obedient, but he’s still intelligent, sentient. \n\nGive a sentient person reasonable cause to believe their entire life is a lie, and they they aren’t actually a replicant but a human being, and they are capable of exceeding their programming. \n\nIn short, K had such an intense existential Android crisis that it overrode whatever his baseline programming was. His baseline tests he gets at the police station show he is capable of going “off mission” because otherwise they wouldn’t test for it."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "CMV: I believe planned obsolescence is wrong\n\nPlanned obsolescence is a manufacturing decision by a company to make consumer products in such a way that they become out-of-date or useless within a known time period so that consumers are forced to buy a product multiple times rather than just once. I believe it is betraying the structure of free market economy. It is just using its rules to stay for as long as a company would. Looking at from a customer's perspective this can be really hurtful. For example, fast fashion is always being promoted as very useful and stylish. Chanel sells a bag at a very high price, but Bershka can produce a very similar knockoff, isn't it amazing? But surprise, even you wear it a few times in a week, it's going look very bad in a year and you will no longer want to use it.\n\nWhen you look at the producer's perspective, it is reasonable that you want to keep the business going all the time so you need a factor to keep your products selling. But customer won't always accept this and they might turn into new alternatives. I'm open to every perspective of this issue. I really wanted to talk about it in automotive and mobile sector but I don't know strong arguments about them.\n\nEDIT: I think I made a mistake by giving an example from fashion. Let's say you just read the sole definition of PO. Would you think it is right? I believe Apple making iPhones go slower with every update is wrong.\nEDIT2: I don't know if it's against the CMV's format, but I'd rather discuss this issue in the definition of it, not examples. When we talk about examples I feel like this is a game where both sides are trying to come up with something different."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I think there's a fine line between intentionally creating a product to be useless after a period of time, and not prioritizing longevity.\n\nFor instance, that bag wears out more quickly because it's made of cheaper materials with less quality control. That allows them to sell it for less money, which many consumers value.\n\nWhen companies don't prioritize longevity, it's generally for some reason that supplies something else consumers value, like a lower price. While fast fashion sellers may be happy that consumers buy new stuff when the old things wear out, that isn't the sole motivation behind their manufacturing decisions. They're also providing value with those decisions as in the example of a lower price point."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "[Greek Mythology] How did Cronos know what a horse was?\n\nThe first centaur Chiron was conceived when Cronos took the form of a horse and slept with an Oceanid. But Poseidon didn't invent horses until much later."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He just transformed into a random fleshy shape. He wasn't thinking of a specific animal, just some random traits and a big penis. If anything Poseidon ripped him off and took credit.\n\nOr because they're gods, and the fact he's the god of time, it works differently for them than mortals."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "ELI5: When transferring money between banks, where is it when it is not in either account?\n\nWhen I transfer money from one bank to another (whether by check or electronic transfer), there is always some period of time when the money is in neither account. Where is it? Who has it? Can they do anything with it (e.g. loan it out for an hour)?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It's still in the first account, but it's flagged by most computer systems as \"not usable\" to prevent overdrafting. If there were some error and the transaction didn't go through, it would remain in the original account.\n\nThe \"in between\" state is there because most banks immediately tag the money as \"gone\" so that users can get a clearer picture of their finances. And the \"receiving\" bank doesn't list the money in their system until it arrives, just in case there's a problem and the transaction doesn't go through. This way, nobody accidentally spends money that they don't have."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "[LOTR] Were the hobbits created by Ilúvatar, or were they an offshoot of another race, similar to the orcs and elves? If they were children of Ilúvatar, why was Sauron unaware of them until Smeagol's first trip to Mordor?\n\nWhen telling the story of the ring to Frodo, Gandalf says:\n\n>'Yes, alas! through him the Enemy has learned that the One has been found again. He knows where Isildur fell. He knows where Gollum found his ring. He knows that it is a Great Ring, for it gave long life. He knows that it is not one of the Three, for they have never been lost, and they endure no evil. He knows that it is not one of the Seven, or the Nine, for they are accounted for. He knows that it is the One. And he has at last heard, I think, of hobbits and the Shire. \n\nwhich seems to imply that Sauron was not previously aware of hobbits. Wikipedia claims that they are an offshoot of men, citing this passage: \n\n> It is plain indeed that in spite of later estrangement Hobbits are relatives of ours: far nearer to us than Elves, or even than Dwarves. Of old they spoke the languages of Men, after their own fashion, and liked and disliked much the same things as Men did. But what exactly our relationship is can no longer be discovered. The beginning of Hobbits lies far back in the Elder Days that are now lost and forgotten. Only the Elves still preserve any records of that vanished time, and their traditions are concerned almost entirely with their own history, in which Men appear seldom \nand Hobbits are not mentioned at all. Yet it is clear that Hobbits had, in fact, lived quietly in Middle-earth for many long years before other folk became even aware of them. And the world being after all full of strange creatures beyond count, these little people seemed of very little importance. But in the days of Bilbo, and of Frodo his heir, they suddenly became, by no wish of their own, both important and renowned, and troubled the counsels of the Wise and the Great. \n\nbut this is a pretty disappointing explanation considering how otherwise thorough Tolkien was in his worldmaking. They are nowhere mentioned in the Silmarillion that I recall, though I suppose that was intended to be written from the Elves' point of view. Was there a \"sundering\" of men and hobbits, like that of the Eldar and Avari?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Hobbits are a product of genetic drift in an isolated population of Men. At some point a small group, perhaps three or four extended family clans, were separated from the rest of Arda somewhere around the Anduin River valley. \n\nOne or more of the traits that distinguish hobbits as hobbits - short stature, large hairy feet, prolonged adolescence (aka neoteny) - appeared as random mutations within a family. Due to the small population size, these traits became fixed, i.e. they were inherited by all individuals in the valley within a few generations.\n\nOnce this tribe of proto-hobbits became differentiated, their unusual features would be a deterrent for interbreeding with other groups of Men. This would result in the fixation of further mutations, eventually resulting in the halfling races seen in the Third Age."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "[Independence Day] Was Russel really abducted by the aliens?\n\nRussel famously was...sexually...abused/probed by aliens, or so he says. He certainly seems to believe it, since he announces \"I'm back\" when he destroys the first ship.\n\nWere the aliens really conducting programs of this kind prior to the invasion? And would they return someone they'd abducted? Why? I got the impression that they arrived - and attacked - rather suddenly. I know one crashed at Roswell - was that part of the science program? An advanced scout?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The novelization explores some of this. At first, Casse doesn't recognize the aliens. Later he realizes this is because of their exosuits, as they look exactly as he remembers them once they are out of the suits."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What would happen to honey in high gravity?\n\nI was wondering how would a liquid with higher viscosity react to a planet with higher gravity (like honey). Would it drizzle slowly? Or would it flow like water flows on Earth?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It should flow more freely in a higher gravity field - and, to continue that train of thought, it should flow more slowly in a lower gravity field (on the Moon, for example). Adding honey to your tea on the Moon could take a while."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What happens when a sound wave encounters a vacuum?\n\nWe know that sound doesn't travel through a vacuum, but something has to happen to the energy of the sound wave when it hits a vacuum. Does it bounce back in the opposite direction? If so, what prevents spacecraft from constantly ringing like a bell? I'm guessing the sound energy will eventually become heat, but doesn't this take some time?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Sound reflects off a perfect vacuum with a 180º phase shift. As a result the sound energy is perfectly reflected back.\n\nSpacecrafts do, in fact, have to deal with this problem since they don't radiate any sound energy it gets trapped. However, the sound energy can get dissipated as heat in the materials of the craft."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "[DC/General Superhero] Is the evidence provided by superheroes against my client legal?\n\nI just became a lawyer at an elite and high-pressure law firm. (My replacement left because of some specter thing. I wasn’t paying attention to his rambling because I was too stunned by the salary offer.)\n\nAnyhow, my first client is Lex Luthor and I’m concerned by the evidence against him. The charges against him are that he was trying to manipulate time to wipe Clark Kent from existence.\n\nFirst, a lot of evidence stems from using Wayne Industries technology. Bruce Wayne is on record publicly attacking Mr. Luthor on multiple occasions. \n\nAlso, this ‘evidence’ is verified by a detective named John Jones. The problem is that I can’t find much evidence about this detective. It is like he just appeared on Earth a few years ago, because there is no proof that he existed before hand.\n\nThe prosecutors are claiming that they are going to bring in Superman as a witness to Luthor’s crimes. However, I’ve been given no evidence that explains how Superman knew Luthor was going to commit a crime. \n\nI can go on and on, but it seems like all the evidence that is being brought against my client either comes from a heavily biased source or simply can’t be confirmed by outside sources.\n\nSo, can any of this evidence actually be used in a court of law?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The evidence is absolutely *admissible*. Admissible just means that the jury can be presented it. Your job is to create doubt. Just because Mr Wayne hates your client, that doesn’t mean the jury will be prevented from hearing his testimony. You need to create doubt by your cross-examination of the witnesses, and by presenting your own evidence.\n\nSource: am a lawyer.\n\nThough as far as I’m aware, “manipulating time so that a person never existed” isn’t a crime. You could argue it’s akin to murder, but as far as the rest of the world goes it’s basically voodoo jumbo jumbo that shouldn’t work."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "[Star Wars] why do Yoga and Old Ben Kenobi try to get Luke to kill Vader and not the Emperor?\n\nJust watching ROTJ and it occurred to me that Obi Wan and Yoda never pressure Luke into killing ol' Sheev but they have it in for Vader. Obviously Anakin betrayed the order but why do they not tell him about the Emperor?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "That is a genuinely good question and it is one that needs a multiple part answer.\n\n\n* The jedi are blinded by their hate of the traitor Darth Vader, and they don't see him as redeemable\n\n\n* The emperor sits on the throne while vader does the leg work, the jedi do not care about the rebellion so they \nthink eliminating vader will do the most good.\n\n\n* Becoming powerful enough to kill vader would be a big stepping stone to being powerful enough to kill the emperor."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "ELI5: Why do extremely tall people have higher mortality rates?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Because doorways aren't high enough for them and eventually they bump their heads one too many times. \n\nOn a serious level though - this is a developmental defect. Organs don't scale the same way as body size does when it comes to supporting larger organisms, but humans don't have the necessary systems in place to make organs in the right way to properly allow for larger humans, so an exceptionally tall person is making do with organs that aren't quite efficient enough for their body's needs. Most importantly, gigantism is typically caused by overproduction of growth hormone. This makes the heart thicker, but doesn't make it bigger, so it just has a really hard time moving enough oxygen and other blood around the body. Eventually, it'll have worked so hard that it fails, which is the most common form of death in gigantic people."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "ELI5: Why is it that television shows from Britain seem to appear different than American tv shows?\n\nCan't quite put my finger on it... something to do with the cameras?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Couple things would give it a different look. First, they use PAL rather than NTSC. Pal uses 25 fps while ntsc uses 30 so pal will look more cinematic while ntsc will look more fluid. Also color encoding differences between pal and ntsc. \n\nWhen we in the U.S. watch a Britcom or other material produced in the UK, there will be some kind of conversion that takes place. The difference you see is mostly because of the conversion process.\n\nThe above refers to analog signals. Digital signals typically look more consistent between US and UK. Take a show like The Graham Norton show. It looks like it's produced in the US. The colors are on, no frame rate adjustment... All good. \n\nBtw the frame rate (25 vs 30) is due to the in-country electrical system. In the U.S., our AC runs at 60Hz. While in the UK, they run at 50Hz. So the frame rate is a multiplier of the AC cycles. \n\nIf you're looking for less subtle differences, they spell things differently. So you'll see honor spelled honour; color spelled colour; and other spelling variances."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Difference between antibodies made after infection and antibodies made after vaccination?\n\nWhen someone is infected by Covid-19 what part(s) of the virus does their immune system make antibodies against? I’m aware that the mRNA vaccine will be translated into the spike protein so that our immune system will make antibodies against that. I’m assuming that when getting infected by the virus our bodies make antibodies against numerous parts of the virus. But considering antibodies only protect people for a few months, it probably targets parts of the virus that mutate very often and the amount of spike protein antibodies made are too few to offer lasting protection?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Disclamer: Don’t quote me on this one.\n\nIt’s been shown that the most effective antibodies that neutralize the SARS-CoV-2 virus are antibodies that bind against the s-protein on the surface of teh virus, which is the protein that the virus SARS-CoV-2 uses to infect our cells. For the most part, it seems that people infected with the virus will make antibodies that will recognize the s-protein on the surface of SARS-CoV-2. Now, the virus does have other surface proteins that our immune cells could recognize and form antibodies against as well, so there is the chance that your immune system could make antibodies against sars-cov-2 that do not necessarily bind against the s-protein. \n\nThe vaccine will induce your cells to produce and present the s-proteins, allowing your immune system to respond to it and make antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 s-protein."
}
] |
[
{
"from": "system",
"value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "[MCU] Which part did Steve Rogers sing in his barbershop quartet: tenor, bass, baritone, or lead?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Hmm. Unlike princess Vespa, he doesn't seem like a base. And he doesn't want it to be all about him. For that reason and because he was so self-effacing, he's not the Lead either.\n\nHe wasn't a big guy so I'd say Tenor. After taking the serum his voice probably changed for the deeper, so I'd think him a baritone now.\n\nDoes anyone know the actor's voice range? - That's probably nail it down."
}
] |
Subsets and Splits