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Nitral's Archive 21

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: How does the A1C test measure your blood glucose levels over the last 3 months instead of what it is at the time blood was drawn?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Red blood cells in your body live for about three months. That's where the three month span of the test comes from. As you live, glucose binds to this red blood cells, the more glucose in your blood the more red blood cells it binds to. They test the percentage of red blood cells that have glucose bound to them, and this reflects a three month average of blood glucose." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Why did philosophy never become as dominant as religion and science?\n\nI understand that the lines between these three are often blurred, but even so, it's hard to miss that philosophy isn't as mainstream as religion and science. 84% of the human population identifies with a religion. But if you ask a random person whether they identify as a utilitarian or deontologist, you'll probably get a confused look or a vague, middling answer. Each year, governments invest billions of dollars in scientific research: much of it theoretical and with little application. How much funding does philosophical research get?\n\nI see philosophy as having the same goal as religion and science: to find the truth, and to use it to explain the world. But it hasn't been popularized the same way. Why?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But philosophy in one sense is an institutional and academic discipline, and in the other sense it is just everyday thinking about the same subject-matters that the academic philosophy is also interested in.\n\n> But if you ask a random person whether they identify as a utilitarian or deontologist.\n\nIf you ask a random person whether the consequences of an action or the intentions behind the action are more important in determining whether it's moral or not, then they will have answers. You can simplify it much much more. While \"84% of the human population identifies with a religion\", only a small portion of them are knowledgeable about actual theological discussions. The same goes for science as well. You can ask a person whether he think evolution is true or not, and you will get an answer. But you won't likely to get an answer if you ask him whether sociobiology can help evolutionary biology.\n\nAlso \"finding the truth\" is rather an unpopular opinion in metaphilosophy these days, understood as the Platonic ideal of philosophy.\n\nAs for fundings, thought experiments don't cost nearly as much as hadron colliders." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[WH40K] I'm an eldar that's been banished from my craftworld for... reasons. What are my options for not getting eaten for eternity by Slaanesh?\n\nSo I was hanging out on Craftworld Ulthwe and we were having a bit of a feast when someone suggested we pass the time by having a funny little \"Roast.\" Eldrad graciously offered to be the roastee, but I must have said something that *really* pissed him off during my set and he banished me from Craftworld Ulthwe and \"Every other ****ing Craftworld [I] can find. For good.\"\n\n\nReally not looking forward to my afterlife now since I probably won't get to hide out in the Infinity Circuits. What are my other options to avoid She-Who-Thirsts?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Step 1 – Seek Harlequins\n\nStep 2 – Seek out the Laughing God\n\nStep 3 – Ask them about saving your soul from She Who Thirsts\n\nStep 4 – ???\n\nStep 5 – Profit… err don’t get eaten. \n\nThe plus side is at least you and Cegorach should share a sense of humor." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: Why do they call it Legend Of Zelda and not Legend Of Link?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Because you are Link, and his name is whatever you put for him. His name doesn't matter, and for all the games history knows his name changes from game to game. The one constant is Zelda because after the first Zelda was cursed to sleep forever the king decreed, \"So that this tragedy would never be forgotten, he ordered every female child born into the royal household should be given the name Zelda.\". Skyward Sword changes this a bit, but you still have all the female children being named after the first one. So since the royal bloodline seems to be the keeper of the Triforce of wisdom, and it presents itself only in the women, you get the Legend of Zelda's." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Hulk] The gamma accident allows Banner to change back and forth into Banner/Hulk -- an act of conscious will -- while retaining 100% of Banner's each person's capabilities (intellect, strength, healing, etc). How does this affect his place in the Marvel universe?\n\nHulk never goes on a rampage, never becomes the out-of-control monster that so many people see him as. There are never any spontaneous battles with the Army; the military still wants him but now it's more political, in the same way that the military wants the Iron Man armor.\n\nHow does Banner live his life? Does he embrace his Hulk side, or does he still try to get rid of it? How does this affect his relationship with Betty? How does the world see him?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "So just to be clear, Hulk is never hunted. He never commits an act the military is trying to stop. \n\nSo just to clarify as the Hulk, the Hulk is as smart as Bruce Banner? \n\nSo like genius level intelligence with unstoppable strength. Hulk still retains the madder he gets the stronger he gets, but now that Hulk is intelligent what's to be angry about. \n\nThe Hulk becomes less strong and solves crime by deductive reasoning." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "how accurate is that thing you used to do as a kid where you count the seconds in between a lightning strike and thunder to see how many miles away the storm is?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If you do the trick where you take the time in second and divide by 5 to get the distance in miles, that amounts to approximating the speed of sound by 0.2 miles / second = 322 m/s. The real speed of sound is ~ 340 m/s, so the error of the approximation is around 5%.\n\nI've heard it as 1 km every 3 seconds. This means 333 m/s which slightly better with a 2% error.\n\nAnyways humans aren't exactly great timekeepers, so it doesn't matter much." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Matilda] How did the Trunchbull avoid being sued for the various injuries she inflicted upon the students?\n\nIt's established that for a lot of the things the Trunchbull does that the parents don't believe their children, but several of her actions cause injuries, so it's hard to believe that no one would pay any attention after a while." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ronald Dahl based Trunchbull off his childhood. It seems outlandish now sure but way back when it wasn't that unheard for corporal punishment to be a thing. Historians have found evidence of spanking and hitting being used in schools in the 80's. Heck corporal punishment is still legal in half of the US. \n\nAlso if you notice Trunchbull is actually fairly careful about her punishments. Her only punishment that leaves injuries is the Chokey and that only leaves small cuts." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: How did people know what the world looked like before satellites?\n\nHow did people back i the day know the shape of countries and oceans look like without a clear view from space? How did they make accurate globes and maps back then?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They made land measurements, i.e. they determined distances and angles between various landmarks through a process called triangulation. This involves looking from two different points with a known distance between them (baseline) at some distant third point (or landmark). The difference in view angles allows one to calculate the distance to the third point. Now the calculated distance can be used as a baseline for a new triangulation, and so on. People also could make measurements of coordinates for different locations through careful observation and measurement of positions of the Sun and stars. Covering an entire country in triangles paired and adjusted to coordinate measurements will provide one with a map of a country." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[SW:TESB] Why didn't Vader kill Admiral Piett for seeing Vader in a moment of weakness when his helmet and face plate was removed?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Vader tends to only punish incompetence or those who question him. \n\nPiett probably embarrassed him but he's not so psychopathic to kill a loyal officer who wasn't really at fault. \n\nPlus, it doesn't take a genius to realize Vader must be all kinds of messed up under the suit when he's breathing like that." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: How would a bank make money if I deposited 1 billion dollars into my savings, considering the interest would be millions?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They take like 80% (or whatever % the Fed caps them at) of your $1,000,000,000 and loan it out to a bunch of people at an interest rate much higher than what they are giving you. They then sell those loans in big bundles to other banks and use that money to make more loans and so on and so on..." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Warcraft] If the scourge are an even bigger threat without a lich king. Then what was the point in killing him?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The scourge would be like a raging wildfire without a lich king guiding them, but with them they are strategically more powerful when directed well.\n\nWhile the forces of good and not-so-evil would be hard pressed on more fronts across the world if the scourge ran wild, they would still manage to hold the threat back, albeit at a constantly stressful pace. The Lich King is considered a more deadly threat on the whole due to him/her/it being able to direct the forces against strategic points in the opposing forces' defenses, dealing quicker, more crippling blows that are harder to come back from than widespread, lesser waves of attacks.\n\nWhile it is doubtful that Bolivar or even Tirion can subdue the Lich King's presence and influence indefinitely, they were and are both definitely better alternatives to Arthas controlling the scourge. While the former's restraint may not last forever, they are less potential threats than Arthas himself due to the latter's inherent great prowess and driving cause. As well, with the frozen throne secured, keeping the Lich King in check is made much easier (relatively speaking)." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Harry Potter/Wizarding World] If Voldemort ever won the Battle of Hogwarts and took complete control over the Ministry of Magic, how would the other magical countries/governments react to this?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Voldemort had already taken control over the Ministry of Magic at the start of Deathly Hallows, and there was no reaction from the the international community at all. \n\nThere were a few mentions of fleeing abroad, so it's likely that some places were at least accepting refugees, but doing little else. Most likely they would be either unwilling or unable to intervene against Voldemort." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Predator franchise] Do Yautjas pity the weak, or disgusted by them?\n\nThey refuse to hunt those who are unarmed or can't fight due to their code of honor, but is this a form of respect for the weak, or is actually an insult?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It's because the weak won't do anything for them. Killing an unarmed creature doesn't give them any glory, which is gained from hunting and killing strong foes. It's a waste of resources for themselves and the universe, which is strongly frowned upon." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5:Why is it that when i get 8-9 hours of sleep i wake up tired but when i get 3-4 hours i wake up energized?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When we sleep our brain goes through a cycle of activity. This cycle will vary between 80 - 120 minutes and may repeat 4 or 5 times during the night. The \"deepest\" part of this cycle is called REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep. This is the state usually associated with dreaming. We will enter REM sleep various times throughout the night, each time lasting longer than the last. \n\nIf you wake up during REM sleep, you may feel more groggy than if you woke up in an earlier stage of the sleep cycle. If you don't have a regular sleeping schedule then your body may not regulate these cycles and you might wake up in the middle of one and feel \"worse\". Where if you wake up after 3-4 hours of sleep you may be waking up during a more natural part of the cycle." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I believe forcing high schoolers to read the \"great works\" of literature is a waste (and only turns them off from reading in general) because they lack the life experience to appreciate them. CMV.\n\nHey CMVers. I think the \"great works\" of literature are meant for adults. Stories require the reader to feel empathy with the characters--for the reader to identify with what they are going through, and recall their own experiences of love, loss, pain, confusion, family strife, death, etc., alongside the characters in order to get drawn into the story. If you do not identify with and experience feelings alongside the characters, your experience of the novel will be shallow. \n\n\nI think this lack of connection is why so many high school students don't care for their assigned readings and 90% will just default to Sparknotes--and many will never read for pleasure because of the negative association with being force-fed boring material. It made me resentful and thought \"You can't force me to care\" while Sparknoting most of my literature assignments.\n\n\nEven though I was otherwise a good student in high school, I would get really frustrated at reading the huge novels that grappled with adult themes that I, personally, had never experienced and couldn't get into. As a teenager, I lacked the will and the perspective to identify with the characters and their struggles. Examples:\n\n\n* **Grapes of Wrath:** as a suburban 15 year old, I never understood the feeling of being down on your luck, starting over with a new life, the burden of taking care of a family, the challenges of finding work in a bad economy. It was just really long and I didn't particularly care what happened. This was one of my least favorite books ever.\n\n\n* **Ivanhoe:** This was a summer reading assignment. I read the first few boooring pages, said \"lol nope\" and Sparknoted it.\n\n\n* **Catcher in the Rye:** Psyche! I actually loved this book in American Lit class. You know why? Because it was a story *about a teenager*, dealing with *problems that teenagers actually understand*: struggling to find your identity, fitting in with your peers, relationships with parents and siblings, adolescent sexuality, etc.\n\n\nNow that I'm older, I watch TV dramas and get really into them because I can identify with the characters' struggles. In Orange Is the New Black (spoilers) when Jason Biggs essentially breaks up with Piper, I really felt a shared pain with his character, because I have had to break up with people myself. Life experience. Makes me care about a character. \n\n\n**TL,DR:** Literature requires readers to bring their own life experiences to identify with and care about the characters. Most \"great works\" require life experience that is alien to that of a typical 15 year old.\n\n**Edit:** Glad this inspired a lot of discussion, I enjoyed reading the feedback. I'll award some deltas on the posts that made me think of things in a different way. Also, I assure you my username is a mere coincidence. ಠ_ಠ" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I think the way the books are taught is often the problem, more than the material covered. Drain every last ounce of enjoyment from the reading trying to squeeze every drop of what the author might have mean by the car being pale blue instead of just blue. Dammit, Gatsby." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Mario Bros] When Mario is doing other stuff (go carting, tennis, everyday) is he big Mario or little Mario?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In Kart, Mario and others use Super Mushrooms and don't grow a stage larger. This implies that they're already in their full size, like what happens when you grab a second Super Mushroom while already \"Super\" in other games: you either bank it or waste it, but you don't grow extra Super.\n\nI think as \"Super Mario\" he is often Super by default; a Super Mushroom will return Mario to his regular (Super) size, not make him larger than normal. Little Mario seems to be his injured or distressed state.\n\nLittle Mario is half the height of Peach, while Super Mario is contemporary in size. In his sports and kart showings, he's not waist-high to Peach as Little Mario is shown during SMB1. He's not knee-high to Bowser. And while Bowser has some variance in size (I believe due to how much power he's possessing or utilizing), it's clear that this is normal sized \"Super Mario\" alongside Bowser.\n\nAlso, while Little, his dimensions are far more minimized than we see in these games.\n\nThe New Super Mario series shows a good modern example of how Mushrooms affect his size. If he was Little Mario, this would seem to be suggesting that Sports/Kart Mario are currently small and would become even larger when touching a Super Mushroom, but that would be from the effects of a Mega Mushroom instead, which we also see used (and follows the same Mushroom rules I've explained above) in the Kart games." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Marvel] What is the difference between a being like dormammu and a being like surtur? Also who has more power?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Surtur is a flame elemental and a god from Muspelheim, he and his ilk are Muspelheim's equivalents of the Asgardians.\n\nDormammu is a being of pure magic from another dimension.\n\nIn terms of actual power, Dormammu is the stronger by far, though Surtur is no slouch, being on the same tier as Odin is.\n\nDormammu, on the other hand, goes toe-to-toe with beings like Eternity and Galactus. And that's when he's weakened - outside of his own domain, his powers are lessened. If Dormammu were to come to Earth directly, he's weak enough there that the Sorcerer Supreme could pose a significant challenge to him; in his own dimension he's essentially only beatable through trickery." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: why does a phone’s battery keep working if plugged in just before dying, but takes a few minutes to turn back on if plugged in after dying?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Because once the phone dies, it needs to boot back up.\n\nThat boot up process is a bit more sensitive, a crash/the phone shutting down again during a boot up could possibly corrupt the files needed to run the boot. If that happens, you’re just dead in the water.\n\nSo, smartphones will refuse to turn back on right away, allowing the battery to get enough charge that it definitely won’t die while booting up even if you unplug it again." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Explain how 0.999 recurring = 1 (LI5.)\n\nThis was explained in class when I was younger. Never got my head around it. \n\nEdit: Well and truly explained. Thanks." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "All the numbers can be ordered on a very, very big line, like on a gigantic ruler. Now, if two numbers are different, that just means that there is some space on this ruler between them. That space is full of numbers, too. So, for example, 2 is a different number than 4, because (for example) 3 is between them. In fact, you can find more numbers than you could write a piece of paper between *any* two different numbers. Try it!\n\nNow, 0.99999... = 1 is just another way of saying that there are no other numbers between them. It makes sense once you try to come up with such a number yourself: Obviously it would have to start with 0.99999 as well but then be a little bit higher. But there is no such number that's still smaller than 1." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: What is hypnosis?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hypnosis is a state of consciousness where an individual loses much of their peripheral awareness and experiences extreme focus and attention, and has enhanced responsiveness to suggestion.\n\nHypnosis is *not* something that can be done to you. It is an ability of the subject. A person with minimal training can hypnotize someone *that is capable of voluntarily being hypnotized*, but hypnotization does not work if the subject does not follow the directions, relax, focus, and set themselves up for being hypnotized. Also some people simply can't be hypnotized.\n\nThe waving watch back and forth and making people do stuff is fake. However, hypnotists do have success making people quit smoking and the like." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Intense sound can deafen, intense light can blind. Can intense smell damage your olfactory system?\n\nAnd I don't mean the nature of what you're smelling, i.e. Smelling chemical x will damage olfactory. I mean is it possible for something to smell so strongly that it damages your sense of smell?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Let's get this clear. Damage to your retina due to intense light is a result of the light having sufficient intensity to damage your rod and cone cells. Damage to your ears due to intense sound is a result of the sound's intensity damaging your hair cells. This isn't the same for olfaction, since a large amount of any one smell can't necessarily cause damage to the sensory cells. Certain noxious chemicals which can be inhaled, such as acids, can damage and kill the olfactory cells, but a strong smell alone is not enough to kill those cells." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "2 weeks before taking C++ intro summer class, learn c++ or c?\n\nCollege student here, I am taking C++ intro summer class, and have 2 weeks before that, so I want to watch some tutorials on youtube so I could do well in my class, so should I watch C++ or C? \n\nI've always heard it is better to learn C so you get the logic and basics, but in this short amount of time is it better to just learn C++ if I want to do well in my class?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If 2 weeks is all you have then just go over c++. C (even though it share a similar name) is VERY different from c++ and in two weeks before your class it is better to go over the relevant section beforehand in college." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5 why in movies they tell the soldiers not to fire until they get closer\n\nWouldn't I want to start taking them out as soon as I can?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Letting the enemy get closer is advantageous in several ways:\n\nA. It allows more accuracy in a ordinance-expended-to-kill ratio, being that accurate shots are easier to make at closer distances, especially in times before rifled barrels were in wide use.\n\nB. It gives the enemy less time to seek shelter and dig in, avoiding a drawn out stand-off.\n\nC. In relation to B, it provides a much more lethal element of surprise, and doesn't allow the enemy to form defensive formations, leaving them in unorganized disarray and easier to pick off and break their line." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "CMV: There are only two genders\n\nYeah, I know that it's a meme at this point with the whole Change My Mind thing. But, I still never understood how there are more than two genders. With the exception of a few rare genetic disorders, people are born with either XX or XY chromosomes, which determines their gender. I know that there are people who truly feel that they are some third/non binary gender, but that doesn't change the science. Why is different than someone who truly believes they are a duck? I think the science is more important than what people feel. But, I'd like to hear reasons why gender is fluid and can be non-binary. Change my view\n\nEdit: I don't think I will change my mind, and I'll probably stop responding to this thread now. I am going to address some common arguments here.\n\n\"You are confused between sex and gender. Sex is based off of chromosomes, gender is simply how someone identifies themself within the rules society places.\"\n\nGender and sex are synonyms. Modern gender theory says otherwise, but that's exactly what I am arguing against. How someone feels is not the determining factor in their sex, it is their chromosomes.\n\n\"People can identify with 'non binary' or something else because they do not believe they fit neatly into either man or woman.\"\n\nPeople can say they are whatever they want. This doesn't mean other people should or should be required to adhere to this. Other people determine your identity. Hitler thought he was a reasonable person. We do not call Hitler a reasonable person, because we determine his identity, not him.\n\n\"You can't exclude intersex because they are different and/or rare.\"\n\nI am not excluding them because they are different or rare. I think that we can all agree that people with XXX or XXY are exceptions to the general population, and do not fall neatly under male or female.\n\n\"You are going against science and academics by not accepting modeen gender theory.\"\n\nThere are qualified people who believe that there are only two genders, like Dr. Jordon Peterson. I understand that most of you are not fans of his, but he is an example. Besides, even though I acknowledge I am not the most qualified person to talk about this, a layman can still have an opinion that goes against a consensus. Like how people used to use Darwanism to \"prove\" that blacks were inferior to whites. They called that science.\n\nAlso, I know that I have offended people who are trans or identify as nonbinary. I do not express my view to be offensive, and I'm sorry to those who may be offended. But, science should not be based on what people feel. It should based on fact, even if facts may be offensive.\n\nStill, thanks to everyone who tried to change my view." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Try this:\n\nGender isn't sex. Gender is a *set of stories we tell ourselves* about our identities as persons. This set of stories does *include* stories about our bodies -- but it's not *limited to* stories about those bodies.\n\nI'll prove that claim --\n\nWhat gender is Optimus Prime?\n\nOptimus Prime does not have sex. He has no chromosomes and no sexual anatomy. But he does have *gender*. We identify him with a set of cultural narratives that have to do with physical power, strong leadership, fatherly guidance, a deep booming voice, etc. We exempt him from the \"penis\" stories because those are not important to who he *is*.\n\nThere are more than two genders because there are more than two *sets of stories* about our identities as people. Other cultures already have such sets, like the Native American Two-Spirit people, and the Bugis people of Indonesia with five genders. And now in Western culture we have people constructing new sets of stories for new genders. How successful these new constructs will be in the long run remains to be seen -- they could fade and be forgotten if they don't take hold in our culture. But they do *exist*." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Insomniac's Spider-Man] Could Spider-Man sue Jameson for slander?\n\nIn Insomniac's Spider-Man (PS4/PS5), Jameson owns a podcast/radio show called \"Just the Facts.\" He usually discredits Spider-Man frequently and will oftentimes say some extremely outlandish things about him.\n\nFor example, he suggests that Spider-Man is in cahoots with his supervillains, such as The Rhino, and has them enact crimes to swoop in and save the day. Jameson seems to think that Spider-Man is a glory-seeker.\n\nJameson says other things too, like when he talks about Spider-Man having no loved ones. How does Jameson know that? Does he know the man beneath the mask? Granted, Jameson will occasionally say an insightful comment, like how Spider-Man's presence attracts supervillains. I think that's a valid case. Outside of that, though, Jameson is usually slandering Spidey left and right, and even casually admits to being jealous of Peter's abilities.\n\nI got to thinking, could Spider-Man actually sue Jameson for slander? We know that Peter has a secret identity, so it'd be problematic, but Spider-Man can still be considered a legal entity under a court of law.\n\nThoughts?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Theoretically, yes. Practically, no.\n\nThe main issue is that, under US law, you have to prove the claims are knowingly false for a slander case- true claims cannot be slander, nor can claims made in good faith. Obviously, this poses a problem for Spiderman, because even were he to be allowed to sue as Spiderman, to prove libellous intent he would have to reveal his secret identity, or at least a significant amount of identifying information.\n\nIn other commonwealth countries where the accused slanderer has to prove their claim was true or good faith, maybe, but under US law it's simply not worth it- when he has to prove it was slander, any evidence he could put forward would be too risky for the satisfaction it would cause." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: (As an American) Why is freedom of speech protected from the government, but not corporations?\n\nQuestion asked in light of Tumblr's new policies on NSFW-related blogs." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Freedom of Speech does not grant you the right to say whatever you want, whenever you want, it merely prevents the GOVERNMENT from restricting your right to free speech. When it comes to private institutions, they are free to set their own rules regarding things like speech, because you always have the option to not use them. \n\nYou are still allowed to keep your right to free speech, Tumblr is simply denying your ability to use THEIR website to do so." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: why is france a permanent member of the UN security council, but not germany?\n\nseeing that germany is bigger in every aspect.\n\nexcept maybe unofficial influence in former colonies. And WWII." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The UN was created at the end of the Second World War, partly to try to ensure that a global conflict never occurred again. At that time not only was Germany being punished for 10 years of Nazism, but the German economy was in ruins, the country and its capital city were partitioned and permanently occupied, and few could forsee that within a couple of decades that West Germany would become one of the world's strongest economies.\n\nOn the other hand, Britain was still head of the largest empire the world had ever seen, and its resolve in keeping a western front open, along with the military might of the USA and USSR, had all proved absolutely decisive in winning the war. So these three countries were natural choices as permanent members.\n\nJapan was also being punished in the same way that Germany was, and that's the main reason for China's inclusion. China was officially allied with the USA and UK during the war, and Chiang Kai-Shek was seen at Allied summits almost as frequently as Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt. Again, at the time few people foresaw a Communist revolution in China and nobody could predict that by the 21st century it would also be on the way to becoming one of the world's largest economies.\n\nAlthough France had been partly conquered by Germany during the war, it was still one of the world's Great Powers in 1945, commanding an empire only a little smaller than Britain's.\n\nTL;DR - the Security Council's permanent members were created based upon the five most powerful Allied countries in the world at the time." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "If fish accumulate mercury in the more toxic, methylmercury form, is it toxic to them?\n\nMercury is toxic to humans. Is it toxic to fish? If so, are fish affected at all by all the mercury they absorbed in their body?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It is toxic to everything as far as I’m aware. The major danger of the bio accumulation idea is that the higher up in the food chain an organism is the more it will accumulate those toxins and die. So for example a plankton might have only a few molecules of mercury in it, but then zooplankton eats 20 of those so it has 20x the mercury in it. Then a fish eats 20 of those and so it has 400x the mercury in a plankton. And so if a human eats fish five times a week that human is potentially eating lots of mercury, and that mercury isn’t ever excreted by the body." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[US][PhD][Stat]What to expect in academic job?\n\nThanks for answering. I was asking this because I would be finishing my PhD soon and I am contemplating future career paths. I want to go in an academic position (My PhD is in theoretical Statistics) but there are some causes for concern and confusion.\n\n I like\n a. Thinking thoroughly about a problem.\n b. Reading related literature.\n c. Discussing the problem with knowledgeable people.\n d. Finding interesting research problem and their effects in society.\n e. Serving some administrative roles.\n f. Collaboration with people from different disciplines\n I am neutral towards\n a. Teaching. I have extensive instructor experience. I don’t particularly like teaching. I don’t hate it.\n b. Mentoring. I like collaborating more. My mentoring experience is arguably limited.\n c. Making money. More doesn’t hurt, but I am not dying for it.\n d. Not doing research. I want to do research, but most people don’t do research and make good money. I am perfectly content with a traditional job.\n I hate\n a. Publication pressure. Good research takes time and effort. I don’t work well under pressure.\n b. Grant demands. It is not as bad in statistics, but I want to be researcher for working on interesting problems. Grant writing shouldn’t be my main focus.\n c. Unpaid labour. If I am not paid in summer, I am not working for the uni in summer. No meetings, no administrative roles, not a single thing. My students can go do internships, I don’t care.\n d. Research trends. I am against towards jumping for any hot buzzword. Pivoting research fields to something else takes years. Research is not fast fashion\n e. Deceit. Selling something for what it is not to garner interest/citation/research funds has become all too common in recent years. I understand why people do it, but I don’t like it.\n\nTL;DR.\n\nI want to do research, preferably “myself” (not primarily via mentoring). If an academic job does not grant that, and expects me to teach/mentor/write grants/fill administrative duties, with time for research being something I am fighting for constantly, I don’t want it.\n\nConsidering all of this, what do you recommend for me? Should I go to academics? Is it not for me?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "You've done a PhD. You've been around academics, including your supervisor(s). Has a single one had a job that reflects your wants and misses your hates? Your own experience should tell you this is wildly unrealistic, and that the academic career path is not for you." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: Why did it take so long until radioactivity was discovered\n\nIn my country, uraninite was mined alongside silver at least since the 15 century, useless at the time. It is kind of strange to me that nobody noticed anything \"weird\" about it for such a long time (or did they?)\n\nIs the concentration too small in this form to have effect? Even if they piled it up in junk heaps along with everything that wasn't silver? Or were the people working with it already too ill to notice anything extra going on (mining was not a particularly safe or healthy occupation for a very long time)? Or did they actually know something is weird about it? After all, what did tip off Marie Curie that there's something odd about this mineral?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "So the thing about radiation, outside of the most extremely high concentrations it isn't going do much of anything immediately where you can really easily see cause and effect. Those super high concentrations don't exist naturally, they have to be refined into that.\n\nEven in modern times after something like the chernobyl disaster only 31 people directly died from it, the rest of the effects are long term increases in things like cancer rates which we can really only figure out because of statistics and having a huge sample size." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Dota 2] How are heroes able to wield varying equipment despite anatomical restriction?\n\nBoots are nice, but Slardar has no feet for example. Or someone's holding three single hand weapons but only has two hands." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ah, but no one in DotA actually wields any of the items they acquire during a battle. The various shopkeepers all offer magic talismans, some minor and some major. Whatever a hero comes into the possession of magically augments their abilities as long as it remains on their person. In a satchel is sufficient. Slardar is at no disadvantage, because no one else actually wears their boots of speed either.\n\nThis is also why gunmen and archers benefit from buying swords and daggers. Experienced heroes can even take advantage of the properties if these enchanted knickknack and combine some of them into more powerful relics." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Inception] I am going to a ball room dance event tomorrow night but I have absolutely no experience. Can I use my Inception machine to learn years worth of dancing, overnight?\n\nI am planning to live in the dream world for a while and practice with my partner. \n\nWill I retain the dancing prowess and muscle memory when i wake up?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Muscle memory won't be with you since your own physical body wasn't actually doing the activities. You'll remember the cues and steps well, but the body is going to have trouble keeping up. It's similar to a student that just learned to drive. All the correct algorithms are there, but the body isn't use to actually performing." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: What is the logic behind fast food places making their next size up in soft drinks only like 25 cents more. Wouldn't they make more money if the difference in price was proportional to the difference in size?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I believe there's two factors at play:\n\n1. For something like a soda, it's mostly water, which is essentially free. The cost is mainly the container. The volume of a container increases as a cubic function, while the cost of the material is closer to a square, so bigger containers cost less per unit volume. Taken together, that 25 cents is mostly profit. \n\n2. Psychology. People sometimes ignore the base cost, since they either want a particular product, like a soda, or not. They are, however, more conscious of the upgrade cost. By setting the base price high, but then having small steps to the large size, the net effect is more people buy the most expensive size. In contrast, if the base price was low, but the steps were large, more people might buy the small size." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5:Why do Canadian car models use slightly different icons than the other NA country counterparts?\n\nSo I just got my first car, a 2012 Toyota Yaris. I was going through the car manual and I noticed that in the manual it had a few \"tweaked\" icons for Canadian models. For example, on my US car, when the parking brake is enabled it says \"BRAKE\" in red letters, but it said for the Canadian model it had this weird symbol that looked like a \"!\" inside (). I went to get my mom's car book from her Mercedes, and it was the same situation. It wasn't just those icons too. It was almost like Canada doesn't allow text for icons? Can someone explain this? I never understood." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "it is the other way around, there are standardized universal symbols/icons for stuff in a car used by car manufacturers in almost all their cars. but America require them to be written in English, i think top gear made fun of that once." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "What is super-symmetry?\n\nI recently watched the documentary Particle Fever and this word was used often. \n\nCan someone explain to me what it is and why Super-symmetry would be supported by the Higgs Boson having a mass of 115 Gev.\n\nAnd since it has been found that that the Higgs Boson has a mass of 125 Gev what could that mean?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Basically it's the idea that for each particle with a given spin (electrons have a half, photons have one, etc), there is another particle with a spin that differs by one half. Some processes might occur differently if, for example, these particles were being created, but there hasn't been any evidence of that thus far in the LHC experiments." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Gravity and Oxygen in Star Wars: Is it the same on every planet? Are there variances?\n\nI'm left with the question after realizing that in our own solar system, the amounts of gravity found in all 9 of our closest planets (scratch that, 8 because pluto isn't one anymore, supposedly) differ greatly, not to mention gases. Let's assume that all the planets in SW have the same gravity and air quality, from Hoth to Tatooine, to Bespin, to Endor... How is this even possible?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There are variances. A good example of the gravitational issues is the Empire opting for the AT walker program. Though repulsorlift technology is tried and true, there are still planets with serious variances in their gravitational and magnetic fields which wreak havoc. Walking around in a gyroscopically stabilized tank is better then bottoming out or being flung several meters into the air due to some anomaly. On Coruscant alone, the difference in gravity between the Senate Chambers, and the outlying auxiliary maintenance shafts can be as much as 20%." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Current climate surrounding Eastern Philosophy\n\nA trend that I have been picking up on lately is a shift towards more acceptance and seriousness taken toward Eastern Philosophy. I know that there was some aversion to it being taken seriously in some departments and subreddits, but lately i've seen a trend toward studying eastern philosophy as a more legitimate philosophical genre. Do any of you know what is responsible for the previous aversion to it and why it is moving in the direction that I have seen recently?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I mean, it might sound awkward to say but one reason for it being taken more seriously is probably quite literally just racism decreasing. In the past a lot of people thought eastern philosophy was just vague nonsense. And some others thought it was real philosophy, but is not really worth considering since the modern west took off faster in terms of this type of scholarship, and has everything covered. But the problem is that its becoming more obvious that there's a lot of depth in the east, and some parts that have trends heavily different form the west. But more importantly that these trends come from divergences that started hundreds of years ago rather than anything new discovered by modern western philosophy. Making dismissing their relevance come off highly racist as if its just a given that western philosophy was always more accurate in a way that makes everything done outside of it irrelevant.\n\nTake open individualism for example. Its a mainstream position in parts of the east. In the west its been more or less barely considered by most people, other than indirectly by spinoza and directly by schopenhauer. But neither of those people are read for this reason when read. Bringing it to light in the modern relevant sense is done by someone who is still semi obscure named daniel kolak. The truth is that philosophy got to modern day without actually even considering it that much. And at this point its hard to ignore that this is something way different than how the east played out, and that it definitely has racist connotations to not accept that these people were right that its more worth considering." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Men in Black] Why did the bug always have cockroaches and other bugs around and on them? Are these it's offspring, or are they Earth bugs that are somehow attracted to this giant space bug?\n\nEdgar-Suit Bug always has bugs around and on them, but are they normal earth cockroaches that are just drawn to them somehow, or is it leaving a trail of offspring everywhere. It seemed pretty mad when J started crushing them, but if they're just random bugs from earth why would it care? \n\nI suppose maybe it's just that protective of bugs, but I wonder why they would be drawn to them, or if it's collecting them or what the deal is there..." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The bugs from space release a constant cloud of pheromones. Most humans can't notice the smell but insects are drawn to it. The earth bugs end up serving the space bug by keeping it's skin and exoskeleton clean and free of any unwanted parasites. And there is a small possibility that the roach like bugs seen in the dumpster and falling off of Edgar are some larval form of the space bugs. They very closely resemble Madagascar hissing cockroaches which aren't native to north America or New York City so it could be just coincidence that the space bug spawn resemble an earth species. Or Edgar hit up an exotic insects shop for more effective symbiotic bugs while on earth and felt a kinship with them when J was killing them after he put them in the dumpster." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Have you ever had a collaboration that turned into a nightmare? Please share!\n\nPlease share any less-than-ideal experiences you have collaborating with others, so we can learn to recognize them! I'm in the process of entering into a few, with some trepidation." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Had a collaborator steal a research idea and pass it off as his own. He built a series of papers on it with no mention whatsoever of any correspondence with us, not even an acknowledgement :/ But he was in such a rush to publish before us that he didn't realize a huge flaw in the methodology, and I've been beating him over the head with it in the literature ever since." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: When something falls into a drilling hole on an oil rig, why is it so catastrophic and expensive to fix? What goes into fixing it?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Drilling into the ground for oil or gas is expensive. If, during a bit change or other time there is an open hole, a piece of metal falls in, it can damage the tri-cone or hammer bits used to do the drilling. The carbide buttons on the bits do the work, and are very hard, but brittle. Metal in the hole can snap these and slow or halt the drilling process. A bit can cost around $2000 per inch of the diameter of the bit. Sometimes, the bits can fail if the bearings go out, due to too much weight put on them, or from a manufacturers defect. The entire drill stem needs to then be \"tripped\" back out of the hole, to gain access for what is called a \"fishing trip\", where magnetic ended, barbed, or other means of grabbing what fell in or fell off back up out of the hole. At any time, there are 2-4 large diesel engines running on a rig, to drill, pump fluids, or to compress air for drilling purposes, which can use around 55 gallons or more of fuel per hour. That fuel cost, plus cost of the 3-5 man crew, the waste of time for the setback, the possibility of a downhole pipe casing cementing crew being on location and on hold due to unforseen problems like an idiot dropping a pipe wrench down the hole when breaking apart a flange on the casing and leaving it in a precarious spot...wait time and fishing trips can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in added expense." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: Why are some ships’ decks numbered/named from the bottom of the ship, and others are named/numbered from the top?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Former Squid here, as far as I've ever known it was just sort of the convention. At some point in the past it was convenient to start numbering, and if you chose to start from the top or bottom was fairly arbitrary excepting perhaps in cases where it is easier or more clear to differentiate between certain numbers depending on the language. But one specific designer or organization is likely to stick to one method because that leaves less room for confusion. \nThere's even a third option. Numbers that start in between top and bottom! Our (US) aircraft carriers do that. You start with the flight deck, and the numbers increase as you go down. But if you go up, vertically, now you're on levels, not decks, and those numbers also count up numerically. The decks are just called like \"3rd deck\" while levels are \"the O-3\" (that's a dash not a negative). It helps prevent having to talk about decks or levels in the teens or beyond. Given how much we love to shorten names and messages, ease of use seems to be the culprit." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "CMV: The European-style \"free\" higher education proposed by Bernie, among others, would never work in the US.\n\nI'm quite liberal but I think that this is a unattainable goal for a number of reasons, primarily:\n\n1. American College culture. Americans expect and place value on the college experience, and that costs a ton of money. Dorms, stadiums, sports teams, Greek life, drama clubs, student newspapers, political/religious/hobby groups, paid guest speakers. European Universities have much more of a focus on pure academics and cost much less as a result.\n\n2. The American desire for everyone to go to college. No matter what you end up doing, everyone still wants to go to college, and most parents strive to send to send them, and rarely accept a trade as an acceptable and equal option. Most of the kids that go to college here in Switzerland do so with the goal of a career that necessitates higher education. (sciences, medicine, etc). The rest go to trade schools or enter apprentiships in their teens.\n\nAny attempt at making this idea workable will have to be focused on making colleges more selective and less of a necessity for the average American, and will be met with a massive bipartisan outcry far worse than what was seen during the Obamacare debate." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Well, 1. is solvable. If education is free, no one has the ability to complain if their expectations are not met - they aren't paying for this stuff, so if they want to have it, they can figure out how to get it themselves. The government doesn't need to be paying for these amenities, since they aren't essential, but a university may choose to spend a portion of its budget on student activities - which most European universities, even the free ones, do. And after a few generations, American culture will shift away from their movie-based expectations and will come to understand that university is a place for learning. \n\nFor 2. We have this in the UK, where education is *essentially* free - ie, the payback rates on the loans are so low you don't even notice it, and unless you're extremely well-payed you'll never actually pay it off. We also have a culture of wanting our kids to go to university, so similar to the US, we get a lot of people going to university just for the sake of going to university, with no particular career in mind. It's not ideal, but it works fine, and it's better than the alternative if the alternative is spending tens of thousands of pounds on it, even for the people who already have a career path.\n\nIf these were the only problems, free higher education in the US would work fine. The real problem is that America is the land of looking out for yourself. Even if you shuffled the budget around so that giving everyone free education had absolutely no increase in tax, people would still not vote for it because they hate the idea of their money helping other people to succeed. It's the same argument that you see against nationalised healthcare. People are more concerned about their taxes paying for someone else's health than about whether or not they're actually paying more taxes. \n\nThere's also the universities to consider. Given how extortionate the prices they currently charge are, they may lobby against a program that could potentially see them get less money. The only reason British universities don't complain too much is because they can still charge excessive prices to foreign students (which we get a *lot* of). As such, any solution to this would probably have to be one that increases the number of foreign students coming in and paying high prices for education, and because of how big the US actually is, there's going to be an awful lot of american universities that no foreign student wants to go to in the first place." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Marvel] I hear Vibranium is stronger than Adamantium. Would Wolverine be more powerful with Vibranium?\n\nIf so, what kind of characters could he now take on with Vibranium compared to Adamantium? \n\nAnd if Adamantium is in fact stronger, how would Captain America be affected by wielding an Adamantium shield as opposed to Vibranium?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Vibranium absorbs/dissipates vibrations with near perfect efficiency, whereas Adamantium is an extremely hard yet non-fragile metal. The two can't be measured in terms of which is the stronger as they gave completely different properties with different intended functions.\n\nFor example, an adamantium shield would be a lot worse than a vibranium one. The shield would be able to absorb massive impacts, but because the impact would continue through the shield to its wielder, the shieldbearer would get destroyed by the transmission of force. Similarly, claws made of vibranium would be useless as they wouldn't have the same hardness (and therefore lose their sharpness). They'd also absorb/dissipate vibrations, so any attack would be heavily dampened by the effect and the transfer of force would be greatly lessened as well." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Japanese philosophy\n\nHi,\n\nRecently I've read something about an old Japanese philosophy about the 3 masks that humans wear. I forgot the name, and I can't find any resource or book about this.\n\nCan anyone please tell me what book I can read about this?\n\nThanks\n\ntl;dr I'm looking for a book about an old Japanese philosophy about the 3 masks humans wear." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Probably from *Shogun*, a fictional novel that is a pretty good example of Orientalism, that quote in particular being pretty dumb. An actual cultural concept is honne and tatemae, which you can find plenty about." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Mario] Are Mario and Donkey Kong still enemies?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "No. In fact, Mario and Donkey Kong were never enemies. Back in the Donkey Kong games, Mario aka \"Jumpman\" was fighting Donkey Kong's grandfather, Cranky Kong. The modern DK we see today is actually Donkey Kong Jr. all grown up. Mario and DK jr decided there was no point in being bitter enemies despite the past Mario has with his family and that they should just have fun in friendly contests." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: How is it that copying a 1Gb file takes less than a minute, but copying 22,000 lines and 20 columns in MS Excel takes forever and potentially crashes the software?\n\nCan't they make a copy/paste procedure similar to how the hard disk normally copies files? I know that it's Excel and that moving data around inside an application is different from moving it around a hard disk, but why? Nowadays computers have gigabytes of RAM, and multi-core 64-bit processors, and they can even scratch your balls for you, but still it's a real hassle to manipulate large amounts of data in Excel, and probably many other programs." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "You can compare it to trying to move a 10 kg box filled with marbles, and 5 kg of marbles without a box. For some reason moving the marbles are easier when they are in a box, even though you are moving more." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: What do producers and executive producers do?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It really depends. In some cases, they do *nothing*, and appear on the bill just because of a contractual obligation. Sometimes they are providing financial backing for the film, operating an an overseer management role, creative consultant, or are even the same person as the writer or director.\n\nStan Lee is an executive producer on every Marvel film & series whether he actually did anything directly for that production or not." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Matrix] When Neo said \"I know kung fu\" after loading the Kung Fu training into his brain was this only inside the Matrix or he also become a kung fu fighter outside of the Matrix?\n\n^" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He knew kung fu in the real world as well. However, knowing Kung Fu and being able to use Kung Fu are completely different beasts. His weakened musculature, finite energy stores, and real body mechanics would have meant he would not be a kung fu master in real life despite knowing every maneuver as a master." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "CMV: USA is not that bad of a place to live\n\nI’ll preface this by sharing my background. I was born and raised in Germany to sub saharan African immigrant parents. I’ve only lived in Europe my whole life.\n\nAs such, I am wholly aware of my privileges compared to the US and how it may affect my bias. We have far better worker protection laws, far less income/wealth disparity, generally better govt support, cheaper education and healthcare, etc. And I’m not saying EU isn’t a better place to live in than the US.\n\nI would say that in the “first world” as we know it, the US is one of the worse places to live. However, I think it is still one of the better places to live from a worldwide perspective.\n\nI feel like a ton of Americans exaggerate how bad the country is sometimes, and as someone who’s heard countless experiences retold by my African parent, I know for a fact that it can get far far worse in the world. Is the US bad compared to other countries with similar amounts of money? Probably. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t a far better place to live than a large portion of the world.\n\nThere’s countries where women often don’t even get the right to basic needs such as education, or are oppressed heavily in other ways. There’s countries where being gay or trans will have you locked in a prison or killed. There’s countries where your life isn’t even certain every day due to war and violence. (to a more severe degree than in the US) There’s places where clean water or food isn’t guaranteed for many. Just look at the average age in most of Africa compared to the US. Child death is immense over there and it’s tragic.\n\nI feel like the amount of freedom of speech you have in the US is also massively underrated. The fact that so many Americans can even complain about their life is amazing and also a privilege. We’ve seen countries where that isn’t the case and people get jailed for criticising their governments.\n\nThe takeaway here is not “dont complain bcuz ppl have it worse” it’s moreso “be aware and somewhat thankful of the privileges you have in life over a lot of other people.” I often see Americans make large encompassing statements about how the US is one of the worst places to live ever, and.. that’s just insensitive to me. Many people would kill to live in the US, despite its many shortcomings, it can get a lot worse in the world.\n\nEDIT: Okay, I think I ended up being convinced. I believe there still remains a small amount of Americans that do make their life out to be harder than it is; but I don't think that is exclusive to the USA. Largely though, I've reached a middle ground on this where I do start to slowly understand where many are coming from. The USA is not an amazing place to live, and it's not a terrible place to live either. However; the flaws that the USA suffers from are largely unique to the US, despite it technically being a rich country. I can see why that would be frustrating to many. The issues can be changed right now, but they're not. I feel like the conversation won't get much farther like this because we'd be going in circles, but I appreciate everyone who responded." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Things could always be worse. Things could always be better. Nowhere in the world is all bad for all people. Saying America, one of the wealthiest nations in the world, is not \"that bad\" to live feels like an understatement. But for some, it is that bad and worse. For some America is the worst possible outcome. It's different for everyone." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "How relevant is Camus in modern academia?\n\nMy friend was telling me that Camus and Absurdism is not too relevant in modern philosophical academia. How true is this statement? Is existential/absurd philosophy not popular in academia?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Camus is a figure around which there is a little cottage industry (There is an Albert Camus Society which has a journal that does one issue a year). His work, even while he was alive, was outside of the field of philosophy. He was a journalist, an author, an essayist, etc., but he never even pretended to be an academic philosopher.\n\nYou can still find plenty of papers about Camus in Literature departments, but very very very few in straightforward, high-impact anglo-american philosophy journals." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Pirates of the Caribbean] Would Davy Jones have been able to collect if Jack had been part of the Curse of Isla de Muerta?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yes. He collected Bootstrap Bill when BB was under the curse of Isla de Muerta. \n\nA cursed Jack might be harder to take though since Jack would be fighting against him and immortal, but ultimately Davy Jones can press you into his crew even if you’re already cursed." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Avatar] Why does everyone speak the same language? Even back in the days of Avatar Wan, every human shown had a common language. What event took place that prevented the fracturing of language seen in our own universe?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It's possible that the language is actually that of the Lion Turtles. Since humans spent countless years living in cities on the backs of these giant beings, and communicated with them, they either learned language from them or just started using it after a while." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Firefly]What was Saffron's plan?\n\nWhat was Saffron's plan? Did she move from place to place, reading up on strange marriage rituals, taking advantage of drunk people so she could steal their ship? Because that sounds like a plan with rare opportunities, and there's the fact that she'd probably only be able to use each settlement a few times, depending on its size. Even if she only does it for the thrill of the crime, the space-net people would probably be unable to function with a lack of steady income.\n\nAm I missing something? Or is this just unexplained?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She was a con woman, we only saw her doing the ~~two~~ three marriage cons not the multitude of other scams. \n\nI also have a feeling she was more interested in transportation and then making a quick buck, spending it until she was out and finding a new mark to get money out of." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace] Why does the opening crawl refer to Obi Wan as a Jedi Knight even though he is only a Padawan?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I believe the reason is much the same way that Obi-Wan makes reference to The Jedi in the original trilogy despite being a Master at that point. \"I was once a Jedi Knight, the same as your father... For over a thousand generations, the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic.\"\n\nIn a general sense, the Jedi were referred to as \"The Jedi Knights,\" despite the different rankings within the order itself. Qui-Gon is also a Master, but the crawl refers to him as one of the two Jedi Knights. It is much the same way that Jedis are referred to as \"Master Jedi\" as a show of reverence or respect (both Anakin and Ahsoka are referred to as such notwithstanding neither being Masters) even though they may not hold the rank of Master." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: If I was dehydrated and there was only alcohol to drink, would drinking it make me even more dehydrated?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Beer? Compared to drinking nothing, it would often hydrate you. Especially light beer. There is after all a little bit of alcohol (5% or less, in most beers) and the rest **is** (mostly) water. \n\nAlcohol itself is counterproductive and is not in *any* way a water substitute. So 100% alcohol (or very near it) could not possibly provide any benefit.\n\nAs the strength increases, at some point there is a crossover where dehydrating effects outweigh the water contained in the beverage. I’m not sure where this point is, but it would be different depending on the person and circumstances." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Second choice in job\n\nAny advice on how to handle things when you've been informed post-interview (which you thought went excellently well by the way) that they were impressed but think another candidate might be an even stronger fit and they're moving forward with that while still trying to accommodate your time constraints?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It means exactly what they said. You are second in the line for the job. If the job negotiations, e.g. salary, starting package, etc, fall through, they will offer the position to you. It happens quite often. Some universities go as far as having 2-3 candidates as 'reserves.'\n\nThe time constraints bit sounds like they are expediting any actions to ensure that they can come back to you within your time frame. This may also indicate how close you were to the first choice (i.e. it was not a clear-cut case on who was the better candidate of the two).\n\nThis is perfectly normal. If you like the position and it is offered to you, then go for it." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Megamind] Do other superheroes exist or are Megamind and Metro man the only superpowered beings in the world?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If there were other heroes, one would assume they would've gone after Megamind. If there were other villains, you'd think they'd be mentioned in the news as well when Metroman was \"killed\". Megamind and Metroman are the only alien babies we're aware of to be sent to Earth and humans haven't been shown capable of naturally developing super powers.\n\nSo as far as we're aware, they either were the only powered people on Earth at the time or heroes/villains are very strict on keeping to their turf." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Amazing Spider-Man 2] The NYPD sniper doesn’t shoot at Electro—how does this change things in the long run?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I think Spidey manages to talk Electro down and seeks help, bringing him to the only people he knows who can deal with someone if this caliber: Harry Osborne and Oscorp. This, of course, doesn't sit well with Electro, and so he lashes out and we see similar events to the rest of the movie." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[40k] Is there any joy or any peace in the Warhammer 40k universe?\n\nThe Imperium of Man controls 1 million planets. Surely on some of them, there is no war. There is peaceful countryside. There are shopkeepers and accountants, scientists who aren't focused on war and police who aren't glorified thugs. How do you pay tribute and your taxes if you don't have a functional economy.\n\nEven if the empire is constantly fuelled around war, there must be some peaceful world's where the war is far away. \n\nSurely.....right?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yes, of course. but you don't hear of the planets where nothing happened, or whose PDF force fends of a pirate warband or the regular Ork skirmishes. It is just that it never makes the news compared to the more dramatic stuff.\n\nIt's for the same reason the Space Marines always seem to have to save the Imperial guards ass. Because the Space Marines obviously are not deployed to situations the Guard are handling on their own." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "What are researchers and scientists primarily doing on Antarctic missions? What have been the most significant discoveries or advancements from this study?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "One of the most historically significant discoveries made in Antarctica was the work of Joseph Farman (and many others after him) on the ozone hole over Antarctica and its relationship to CFCs. Farman begin collecting ozone readings in Antarctica in 1957, although his work was largely dismissed by the scientific community at the time. It wasn't until 1974, when two American scientists showed that CFCs could destroy ozone in the stratosphere that anyone begin paying attention and a dangerous ozone hole was theorized. In 1985, Farman and colleagues published a paper in Nature showing that ozone levels over the Antarctic had decreased by 40% since 1975, and that the ozone hole was a very real problem. The discoveries of Farman, and many others over the years, lead to the Montreal Protocol, an international treaty intended to phase out the use of ozone-depleting industrial compounds. The Montreal Protocol was signed by 24 countries in 1987, and has been signed by more than 200 today. The story that begins with Farman's work in Antarctica and ends with the Montreal Protocol, which has effectively eliminated CFCs and stopped the expansion of the ozone hole, is one of the greatest success stories in the history of modern science." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "If the US adopted universal healthcare, what would the economic effect be when all the health insurance companies collapse?\n\nPrivate health care and insurance is a huge market in the US. How many jobs would be lost there if universal healthcare became the norm? Would it be enough for a noticable recession? Is there a way to do this without any ill effects on tbe economy?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Universal healthcare implies nothing of the sort.\n\nUniversal healthcare in of itself means exactly one thing, that everybody has *access to healthcare*. It tells us absolutely nothing about the actual design of the healthcare system.\n\nFor the US, that could very well mean a vast overhaul and complete shift to a publicly owned healthcare system, or just an expansion of the existing one with relatively minor changes.\n\nDoes universal healthcare imply the loss of jobs? No. Is it possible to have a system of universal healthcare that would cause substantial job losses? Sure. But that could be the case for a non-universal system as well. The actual implementation matters." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: I know many rice cookers use fuzzy logic (or fuzzy math?) So it cooks the rice the right amount of time. How does this work?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The basic ones are a bit simpler than “fuzzy” logic.\n\nWater can only stay liquid up to 100 degrees C.\n\nWhile there is liquid water in the cooker it’ll have a max temperature of 100C. Any excess heat put in gets used to turn the water to steam.\n\nWhen all the water is absorbed or evaporated the temperature can climb above 100C\n\nThe cooker has a temperature sensitive strip on it that triggers just over 100C. This could be fancy circuits or it could be a bi-metallic strip with the right thermal properties. \n\nWhen all the liquid water is gone and the rice temperature goes above 100C the sensor trips and turns the cooker off." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[DUNE] If the Worms of Arrakis were territorial, why didn't the Fremen have to worry about attacks from other Worms while they rode on the back of another Worm?\n\nIt's been several years since my last read through of the series, but I remember the point that the Worms were often territorial and would attack other worms who wandered into their area. So why wasn't there a constant fear of attack when riding a Worm?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "You don't know that the fremen don't have to worry about worm attacks, you've just never seen it happen. Although it's also possible that worms avoid one another's territory to avoid trying to feed from ground already fed from, it may not require confrontation." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5:How did individuals become royalty and start a legacy?\n\nHow did an individual be determined as king? What was the process used to make or determine someone as royal?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The basic recipe to becoming a monarch is military power plus succession.\n\nIn terms of growth, they start off convincing a bunch of their mates to go intimidate and kill enough of their neighbors that everyone around agrees to go along with whatever they wanted. Then they use that power to round up a bunch of soldiers and go threaten to kill a bunch of people from the neighboring village until they go along with the whole scheme as well. Repeat this over and over, conquering more areas, forging alliances with other leaders, and so forth, and eventually they end up commanding a significant amount of military power.\n\nAll that can't usually be done in one lifetime (though sometimes it can), so you also need succession. In other words, when they die, someone needs to take over their position and have everyone agree that the new person gets to have all the power the old leader accumulated. This is frequently done through children, but sometimes an advisor or someone similar will end up in the role instead (whether by plan or by treachery). In any case, this means that the power that's been seized doesn't disappear when the leader dies.\n\nOnce all that is sorted, then they just need an appropriate opportunity. Sometimes they just have a pretty big area under their control and declare themselves king. Sometimes a kingdom nearby is weak, so they march over there, defeat the king's forces, and claim the throne. Sometimes the kingdom they're nominally a part of has a monarch that dies childless or with only weak children, and so they march their forces over to the palace and tell everyone that they're king now and anyone who disagrees can talk to the big men with the swords. Sometimes they're part of a democracy or republic or something but they think that's dumb, so they march into the capital and tell everyone that they'd all be better off (ie, not dead) if they switch to a monarchy instead.\n\nNo matter how you slice it, though, it pretty much always boils down to having enough people who are willing to kill anyone who disagrees that they're the monarch that nobody disagrees." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5 why do arrows need to have the feathers on their ends?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The idea behind this is to make the arrow more stable as it flies. Imagine the arrow as it flies. One would generally imagine it flying straight, but no one's perfect so imagine you just chucked it ( or yeeted if you prefer) ahead of you and it tumbles slightly end over end. The end with the feather has more drag which will slow the tumbling as it catches more air. On a smaller scale, this is what happens on a normal shot. The feather causes drag to enact a force on the back of the arrow turning the feather end away from the direction the arrow is going." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: Why cant \"offshore shell corporation\" tax avoidance methods used by the wealthy be used by the working class? Is it just because it's cost prohibitive to set up?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "1. It isn't cost prohibitive but it isn't inexpensive. The cost might run into the thousands per year at the lowest level so if you're not saving that much in taxes, it makes no sense.\n2. The right kind of income. Domestic wages and salaries cannot be hidden. So if that is where you're earning most of the income, no luck there - rich or otherwise. On the other hand, holding foreign investment assets and properties, then maybe. Domestic investments and trading income - harder to avoid.\n3. Know your end game. Lot of these arrangements are about avoiding estate taxes and such which is relevant if your idea is to pass down a lot of assets. If your end game is living off your investments domestically, these arrangements might be less beneficial.\n4. Your own sophistication level and resources. Scammers, fraud etc abound. You do lose protection of domestic laws as well. So there are risks involved and ongoing maintenance. Not for the ignorant - you'll need lawyers and accountants, trustees etc.\n\nBottom line though, generally speaking this sort of makes sense if there are tens of millions of dollars of assets in play." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: Non-HD TV looks worse than it did years ago. Have I just adjusted to HD or is the quality actually worse?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A lot of TV channels are more and more heavily compressing their signals in order to run more channels. For example, here in Australia, 7 used to run at 10Mbit, then they switched to 7Mbit on their main and 3Mbit on a secondary channel, and now 4Mbit/3Mbit/3Mbit across three channels, all of which look a lot worse. It makes them more money." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Star Trek] If time travel is so easy, why isn't it used more often? Who regulates time travel?\n\nIn the 29th century, the Federation has dedicated timeships to monitor incursions and alterations to the timeline, but during the 24th century no such timeships exist. It would appear that one could alter the past without anyone noticing. How does the Federation prevent this from happening? I remember hearing that Captain Sisko of DS9 was questioned about some sort of time travel incident, but I assume that's only because he reported it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "the nice thing about time travel is, that once you develop it, you can...travel time.\nthe people of the 29th century monitor all of the time stream, thus the argument that the 24th century does not have such an organisation does not apply. it has one, it is just not been founded yet, and still is monitoring us.\n\nthe fun of time travel.\n\nedit: \nalso something to think about:\nthe fact that the 29th century does have a federation means that up till then, no one before that date has went back in time to stop the federation, otherwise that organisation would not exist.\nthough our knowledge of that future might change the future, which is why all information on that matter is classified." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[The Incredibles] Why didn't Syndrome fight back against his own Omnidroid?\n\nDoesn't he has the Zero point energy glove that can immbolize anything? Why didn't he use it against his creation when it went rogue?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He was genuinely shocked that it happened so he froze up, and before he could get his bearings back together it had already KO'ed him.\n\nRemember, the entirety of the actual fight is the Omnidroid knocking the gauntlet off, Syndrome turning around in shock, and then him dodging laser blasts until one fucks up his leg jet, causing it to send him into a wall. This all lasts a grand total of 8 seconds, half of which is him in a uncontrolled flight." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: How do eyes move together?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Much like how a birds head stays completely locked in place when their body moves and for the exact same reason, your eye muscles are largely reflexive muscles.\n\nSo, just as the brain tells your lungs to move, it tells your eyes to move. And it tells both of them to move at the same time to maintain your binocular focus, either on whatever you were looking at if you move your head, or whatever direction you are shifting your gaze to look at if you move your eyes." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[MCU] Why were terrans basically the only people fighting Thanos?\n\nSure Thanos decimated Xandar, but destroying half of all life is somewhat of a universal problem. Why didn't planets get together and hunt him down before the stones were taken? Even if they didn't know his specific plans they knew he was hunting for the extremely dangerous weapons.\n\nIt seems like both stands against him were raged on Earth without much assistance. Couldn't the Guardians have petitioned an army from an alien species, or shouldn't some army have just gone without request - given what was at stake? Why, in the entire universe, were only like, 30 people trying to actively stop him?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "First off, nobody knew his true plans. Second, people were fighting back against him, and losing. Third, when he launched his quest for the Infinity Stones proper, it was a blitz operation conducted only when he knew he could get all six in a matter of days - far too quickly for anyone to effectively rally an opposition against him." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "What is with the whole “death of the American mall” thing and why isn’t the same happening in other countries?\n\nI hear a lot about how American malls are dying and struggling when they used to thrive. This is interesting to me as someone in Denmark where malls are still very much thriving, we have so many in the Copenhagen area alone. What is happening in the US that causes this and why isn’t it happening in Denmark?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Most malls in europe are in city centres, not in suburbs where you need a car to get to them. Malls outside cities in Europe also aren't doing well - they were built for a car culture that's (thankfully) dying." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "CMV: “Being the bigger person” as a concept is idealistic and naive at best and openly harmful at worst\n\nYou hear this expression in a multitude of ways - if not as written, then perhaps “When they go low, we go high”, or “karma will get them back.” The problem is, in my eyes, that the society that we have cultivated does not reward this kind of moral victory, and conflates it with weakness and submission.\n\nFirstly, the essence of this phrase is rooted in the idea that a moral victory is the best way to prove yourself as being the better person in the debate, and less willing to stoop to the level of your opponent. Once again, we saw this in the Michelle Obama quote: “When they go low, we go high.” But this approach functionally achieved nothing - going “high” in bipartisan approaches was just met with “low” mudslinging and eventually Obama stopped reaching across the aisle. So essentially, the “low” tactics worked more effectively, which I feel highlights the first issue I have with the phrase - holding the moral victory does not matter in a world where morality is either unimportant or subjective enough to literally be whatever it needs to be for one’s current situation. We find this situation repeated with one of history’s greatest proponents of the idea - Mohandas Gandhi, whose hunger strikes and non-violence were largely initially ignored by the British Raj, since the moral high ground did not matter to them. Only after military force was applied, and the financial exhaustion of the Raj after the war came to a head, did Britain leave India. \n\nFurthermore, the idea of Karma, and the more simplistic way children are taught to “be the bigger person” and not “stoop to their level” in school and throughout their childhood. Both were common quotes from my teachers and authority figures through my childhood, but ultimately, I would find friends who were being bullied trying to adopt this strategy, and it being taken for weakness or submission. The moral high ground held little comfort over physical pain. Yet, when they would actively oppose bullies, either by choosing to defend themselves, or confront them in other ways, they would see results.\n\nI’ve always believed in this ideal, and think that a world where this was an approach we could take would be, for all intents and purposes, a better world. But my experience irl with it has significantly disillusioned me, so I’d like to hear people’s thoughts on the idea." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Being the bigger person\" doesn't mean being a pushover. It doesn't mean not standing up for yourself. You can still be honest, straightforward, and confident while \"being the bigger person.\"\n\nIf you do something vengeful or morally indecent just because they did it too, that would be \"stooping to their level.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: any reasons certain companies hire and train from scratch while others doesn't?\n\nEspecially those professional levels one that needs certs like engineer dentist accountant developers. I mean, if some companies does that, what make certain companies do it while the norm isn't that? Been trained to do cyber security from scratch work before and yet cyber security is a professional level work.\n\nAlso if the company expecting cert and not from scratch training sounds very normal to people, these also ask for a certain level of Foundation instead of just \"knowing something\"." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It's mostly company culture/philosophy. Some companies want a higher retention rate, so they invest in the employee early on and train them on their system/integrate them into their business. In theory this should lead to higher morale and productivity/reduced error rates. It can also be a case of a very niche business and they need to train since most people wouldn't have the necessary experience that is required.\n\nSome companies have very generic business that doesn't require any special training. Some companies operate in a \"lowest cost possible\" manner and are willing to have a high turnover to save on employee costs." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: What makes a good interviewer i.e. Charlie Rose, Larry King?\n\nI've been watching Charlie Rose interviews recently and aside from his asking questions that stimulate discussion, I was wondering if there was something more that makes him good at interviewing?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "These kinds of people are very intelligent and well-informed. They do their best to learn as much as they can about what they're interviewing them about, so they come up with genuine interesting questions in that research process." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Why do people have different kinds of laughter?\n\nLike, why are some laughs funny and others aren't?\n\nIf there has been another ELI5 post, it would be great if someone would redirect me, i couldn't find any." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Lots of factors. Some of them are physical - people have different pitched voices, different body sizes and differently-shaped insides, and that changes the way anything that comes out of their mouths sounds. And some of it is psychological. Some people, perhaps through shyness or social convention or just a habit of keeping their mouth tightly shut, actually stifle the laugh so it comes out as a snort or a pffffft sound. Someone else might be a big brash extrovert and let out big belly laughs. A lot of people will also have a fake laugh when they feel they ought to laugh at something out of politeness, and that probably just sounds like whatever their idea of a normal laugh is." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Is it possible to orbit a planet/star at its escape velocity?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "No, in Newtonian circular orbits, escape velocity is about 41% greater than orbital velocity. In highly eccentric elliptical orbits, the orbital speed at the closest point in the orbit (periapsis) can get pretty close to escape velocity. However, you must remember it's called escape velocity because it's the velocity that lets you escape.\n\nThere is also the case of photon orbits around black holes, which are technically at the black hole's escape velocity but it's a different set of physics." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: What causes the “refrigerated taste” food can get when it is uncovered in the freezer too long?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "All the food inside is drying out and all the moisture takes smells into the air with it. The fridge is closed and small, so all that smelly air is trapped in there. Over time, food left in there a long time will have a dry crust and the humid smelly air will start to go back into the dry crust. The yucky taste and texture is all those mixed smells and dried out crust combined." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "What is the difference between Anthropology and Sociology?\n\nI've done a Google search, but in general they seem to say they are in fact quite similar, with the difference that Sociology prefers using statistical data, and Anthropology prefers fieldwork but that hardly seems to do much identify what seems to me very different methods, vocabulary, and key figures in the two fields.\n\nWas wondering if someone could elaborate further on the difference, or at the very least, on a university curriculum basis?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Look in the etymology of the words in order to get a better view of their meanings Anthropology=science of man; sociology=science of society. Anthropology studies cultures, religions, small-scale interactions (in tribes or collectives or small groups), and mainly uses ethnography (field work), narrative studies and qualitative methods. Sociology, on the other hand, studies politics, economics, macro-relationships, social interactions, the influence of concepts such as power, ideology, class, etc., forms of organization, etc. Sociology tends to rely more on \"classic\" theory (linguistics, philosophy, politic economy, marxism, etc." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Why don't electrons crash into the nucleus of an atom?\n\nIf electrons are attracted to protons, what keeps them from falling into the atom's nucleus?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They do basically fall into the nucleus, in a sense. In the lowest energy state of hydrogen there is zero orbital angular momentum: you can't really say that the electron is orbiting at all. In this state there is a nonzero chance to find the electron inside the proton. A classical analog would be the electron perpetually falling though the proton, coming out the other side, then falling back in again... except this is Quantum mechanics and so you've actually got this smeared out wavefunction along that whole path plus smeared along all possible orientations so it's spherically symmetric.\n\nWhat keeps the electron from being able to be confined to the nucleus is the uncertainty principle: the smaller a volume you try to confine an electron to, the higher it's spread in possible momentum becomes until it has a high probability of escaping. If you try to confine an electron to the region of the nucleus (10^-15 m) then the electrostatic binding energy is like 1 MeV while the uncertainty on the momentum of the electron is like 100 MeV (give or take factors of 2). Clearly the electron will just escape in this situation." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Alien] What if the Xenomorphs were intelligent enough to set up their own advanced civilization? What would their society be like?\n\nXenomorphs are extremely clever, but they are basically still animals.\n\nIf they evolved to develop human-like intelligence, the ability to invent spacecraft/cities/tech and the ability to communicate intelligently with other alien species (without immediately killing them), what would they likely be like as a society?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Do we know that they're just animals? We don't really get much of a chance to attempt communication with them, and there's only ever a few of them around. We've seen queens, however, and we know they at least build pretty huge nests, they organize the workers under them and clearly communicate with them. Hell, even the regular drones can clearly observe, learn, plan and implement actions with clear goals - observe the escape in Alien: Resurrection.\n\nTheir structures don't look like ours, and their goals don't seem to be much like ours, but how do we know they *aren't* intelligent?" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Halo] Why was the UNSC Sabre program such a top secret mystery?\n\nI mean all they were doing was developing ship to ship fighters right? I get that you don't wan't the Covenant finding out, but three seperate administrations dismissing at as preposterous rumor? Why?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was the fact that the Sabre had shields. While the UNSC had a decent enough understanding in how shields worked, power generation was always a problem. No UNSC vehicle could be fit with a power source capable of generating enough energy to run the shields while also being small enough to actually fit in the vehicle. At least not without making it witheringly expensive.\n\nThe Sabre was the first time they cracked that problem and, as such, the UNSC went ham on the security for the program since it was such a game changer for them. Getting the shields working on the Sabres would lead to getting them working on larger capital ships, including Infinity, and closing the technology gap between UNSC and Covenant even more." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: Why do different car manufacturers have similar vehicle designs?\n\nI saw a post awhile back comparing a Subaru BRZ and Scion FR-S and its stunning the similarity. Is there more, and why?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Those are literally the same car.\n\nSubaru, Toyota, and Scion (which is a division of Toyota) all sell the same car under different names.\n\nPlenty of other car companies do this. Nissan sold the Ford Ranger under thier badge. The Mitsubishi Eclipse was also sold as the Eagle Talon and Plymouth Laser." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: How does wasp killer spray kill on contact?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "For the RAID type spray, the chemicals are a nerve agent (for the insect) that penetrate through their skin and cause paralysis and nerve damage. They can't move, they can't breathe, and they die (painfully).\n\nFor other insecticides, the chemical may cause uncontrolled muscle movements, or prevent the insects from growing from the egg stage, or destroy their digestive tracts. These are longer-term insecticides, and are less harmful to humans." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: Why are our teachers forced to teach to a standardized test instead of truly teaching? And how can we fix this?\n\nI know we want to make sure the kids learn but we're handcuffing our educators." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Because test scores are tied to the amount of funding a school gets in many states. And as long as money is tied to scores, administrators will attempt to get as much money as possible, and cut teachers whose classes are underperforming. So teachers are constantly in fear for their jobs." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Star Wars Legends: Hand of Thrawn] What would have happened if Thrawn's clone had successfully been created?\n\nWould he have joined the Empire in its current state? Would he have been successful in bringing them back to power? How different would the Yuuzhan Vong war have been?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The clone would not have been Thrawn for the same reason that every single clone trooper was not the best bounty hunter in the galaxy. How would it have been educated? Flash-learning has been established numerous times as no substitute for quality training and experience. In all likelihood, Thrawn intended his clone to be a figurehead creating the impression that he had never truly died, while Voss Parck and his other subordinates did the real work." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Why are clouds often discrete?\n\nEspecially those stereotypical bunny clouds on a windy day. Are all clouds big enough that each one represents a pocket of air where the conditions for condensation are right? If so why isn't the upper air more uniform?\n\nAre individual clouds sometimes directly from individual lakes, or other smaller isolated geological features? (not mountains or coasts)\n\nI've never really been satisfied with my understanding of cloud formation, but I get the theory (i think). There was a similar question on yahoo answers, but the answer wasn't very helpful for me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Clouds appear to have a very well defined boundaries because of a property of optics. If you went to a cloud an measured the density of water vapor you would find that at the boundary between the cloud and not cloud changed a little but not a lot. This is because the opacity of air is proportional to exp(density of water vapor), so that a small change in the density of water vapor will lead to a dramatic change in the opacity. If you could go up close to a cloud you would see a small transition region, but from far away it looks like a really sharp transition from transparent to opacity. This is what causes clouds to have their distinct shapes and features." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5:What is the financial benefit to EA for not selling games on Steam?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Valve takes a ~30% cut of every game sold on Steam. That 30% is a whole lot of money when you're settling millions of every game you put out. It's so much money that the expense of creating and maintaining your own distribution platform STILL saves you money." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Does lightning impart momentum onto an object it strikes?\n\nWhat if lightning passes through an airborne body?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The shock wave of expanding air will certainly push against the object. If the target is a flat surface, the air pressure would generate quite a bit of force.\n\nThe actual impact of the electrons isn't going to do much..." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Why are so many medications something-hydrochloride?\n\nMeaning, is there some metabolic property (for example) of HCl. Or some sort of chemical stabilizer?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Some medicines are organic compounds that are unable to be dissolved in water or acidic solutions (like the environment in your stomach). Whenever you see the hydrochloride, it means the pharmaceutical company has converted the insoluble drug molecule into a hydrochloride salt to increase its water solubility so it can actually be absorbed in the body. Other salts can be made, such as fumarates." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Does quantum indeterminacy affect macroscopic events?\n\nOf course it affects some macroscopic events (such as the behavior apparatuses used in physics experiments), but in general does quantum indeterminacy filter up?\n\nSuppose I were to drop a bagful of marbles. Would there be a non-trivial chance that they would have landed in noticeably different locations?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nope. Quantum behavior doesn't 'filter up'. The heavier something gets, the less 'quantum' its behavior is. By the time you've gotten to things as heavy as entire molecules, they don't behave very quantum-mechanically. For instance, you use x-rays and determine the positions of atoms in a crystal to within fractions of an Ångström, which is basically an 'unnoticable' distance on the _chemical_ scale, (much less the macroscopic one).\n\nBesides mass, the other thing that affects whether something acts quantum mechanically or not is the extent its able to interact with the environment, since that's what constitutes a 'measurement' quantum-mechanically speaking. If something is constantly being measured, it can't evolve into a quantum superposition state (aka the 'quantum zeno effect'). \n\nSo we see quantum mechanical behavior when you're dealing with light objects, such as subatomic particles. And you can see those objects acting together in large-scale quantum behavior when you're dealing with a system that doesn't interact much with the environment. For instance, the electrons in a superconductor (which are typically cold, rigid substances). Or superfluid helium (which is obviously very very cold). The main reason why it's so difficult to build a quantum computer (which works off superpositions) is precisely this - it's difficult to scale it up and still keep it isolated enough to preserve the superpositions. \n\nIf a bag of marbles at room temperature could act quantum-mechanically to any significant extent, we'd have discovered QM long before we did. But some quantum superpositions were in fact found before QM, although it wasn't known at the time. For instance, the bonds of the benzene molecule form two possible structures, which Kekulé described as 'oscillating' (in modern chem terminology 'resonance structures'). But they're actually a quantum superposition (or at least can be viewed as such - what qualifies as a superposition of states hinges on how you define your states)" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Star Wars] My planet just got invaded by the Vong. What can I expect will happen to me and my fellow planet-dwellers?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Slavery, torture, dismemberment and death. A ban on all technology, especially fire. Lots of physical pain, having you're organs yanked out to be grafted on Vong who may be going up in rank.\n\nShoot you're friends, family and yourself. You'll be better off." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[D&D] I'm in a group of Wizards who all know Planar Shift and just made a big mistake. Could we travel through time by going through the Planes in a certain order?\n\nWe know how time is distorted on the various Planes, is it possible for us to go visit different Planes and, by staying in each one for the right combination of time, go back to fix our mistake?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "First off stay calm. Second off, do NOT plane shift to the clockwork plane of Mechanus, and do not seek out a Secundus named Long-cog Sevenfinger and do NOT try to steal the rising hourglass which he leaves unattended for 15 minutes at midnight while he rewinds his coil. \n\nI’m asking you not to do this, because you and your friends have tried 7 times, and it is getting very frustrating to clean up after you." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "In a theorized multiverse, how are \"universes\" separated from one other and can they influence each other?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Which 'multiverse' are you talking about?\n\nOne view of the multiverse is that the big bang was a point origin of our universe, but there may be other point origins far removed from ours. This is the **Ergodic** multiverse. These universes are separated from each other by immense distances. They can never influence each other.\n\nIn the **Many-Worlds** multiverse theory, the universe branches off every time a quantum effect settles on a random number. (Or possible only certain quantum effects.) This is where you find your parallel universes where anything that could have happened somewhere did happen. They are not really separated from each other; in this theory, all possibilities exist somewhere, but we humans are only able to follow and understand one of time's infinite threads. There may be faint interactions between these universes, and we can speculate that may lead to one possible universe being able to influence another.\n\nThe **Brane** theory leads to a multiverse separated by distance in one of the ten dimensions of space-time, as described by certain quantum string theories. They do influence each other, sharing some gravitational wells and possibly other phenomena -- recently it's been speculated that dark matter is a brane interaction. But these other universes are alien and probably without the same physical laws, so it's not as if you'll see people living there.\n\nAnd then there are theories where all these possibilities (as well as other multiverses, such as the holographic universe) are all true *simultaneously*. When the theory gets that complicated it's impossible to say what can and cannot interact.\n\ntldr; We don't know whether there is a multiverse, or which of several theoretical multiverses may actually exist. Some allow interaction between universes and some don't." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Help understanding Kierkegaard's \"Pleasure disappoints, possibility never.\"\n\n\"If I were to wish for anything, I should not wish for wealth and power, but for the passionate sense of the potential, for the eye which, ever young and ardent, sees the possible. Pleasure disappoints, possibility never. \" - Soren Kierkegaard\n\n \n\n\nHow can pleasure disappoint? Wouldn't possibility be disappointing without some sort of reward (ie-pleasure)? \n\n\nI can understand that the seeking of pleasure is disappointing, or the aftermath of it...but not pleasure in itself, no more than possibility is disappointing without pleasure." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Here, Kierkegaard has equated \"Pleasure\" with \"wealth and power\"- obviously meaning material pleasures. This is a true-ism we see time and time again in literature. How many stories are there of people who strive for wealth and power, only to find those things empty and unfulfilling. The joys brought on by material pleasures are shallow, fleeting, and in the end, the are never as good as you THINK they will be. They are chocked to death by our disappointment that they do not live up to what we thought they would. The potential.\n\nIt's that joy in the potential that is greater. It pushes you forward, ever expanding. The joy of the potential is that joy of hunger, of future, of striving. After the realization of that potential, the doors are closed, and you can never go back again. \n\nImagining the feast is always a better feeling than having consumed the feast.\n\nKierkegaard is talking about hope. Living in the passionate sense of potential is living with hope. And hope dies when potential dies, especially when that potential dies by achieving material ends. Hope ends with fruition. It never endures." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Comics] What is the simplest superpower that could be used to take over the world?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The ability to create anti-matter at will. Hold the world hostage.\n\nTelepathy. Find the secrets of the most powerful people and use it to hold the world hostage.\n\nSuper Attractiveness. Make everyone love you." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "How would you explain the rows of a Linear Transformation matrix to a 5-year-old?\n\nI am not good at math.\n\nI'm trying to understand linear transformations intuitively. So far I understand that the columns of the matrix are the transformations of the standard basis vectors, and I understand why that's the case algebraically.\n\nWhat I'm struggling to understand is how to interpret the rows of a linear transformation matrix. What does each row *mean*? Why do you take the dot product of each row with an input vector?\n\nIs there any way to explain this without referencing the columns of a linear transformation?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A five year old is not going to understand linear algebra lol, stop wasting your time, you'd be torturing them. \n\nIf this is a serious question, keep it 2D you'd have to draw some triangles and circles and squares and show them what they looked like sheared and rotated and mirror imaged and expanded. Everything 2x2 matrix be decomposed in terms of those." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: What's the point of assigning people more than a lifetime sentence in jail?\n\nWhat's the point? If someone has more than one life sentences for their crime, they can only ever serve 1 of those life sentences. If it's just for saying they'll never make parole because of their crimes, wouldn't it be better to just say they've been sentenced to life sentence w/o parole? It seems rather stupid as a symbolic gesture because it feels like it's nonsensical.\n\nEdit: I just realized that after I hit submit that assign is the wrong word, and sentencing would be better :/" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Suppose John Killer goes out and brutally murders three people in three completely separate incidents.\n\nScenario 1: \n\nHe gets caught and the police have evidence for all three crimes, but the prosecuting attorney says, \"Look here, the first crime is heinous enough to put this dude on death row. It's a certain-win at trial. Let's save the state the cost of presenting evidence for the other two crimes, because the end result is the same, John Killer ends up on death row.\" So they try him for the crime and he lands in prison.\n\nScenario 2:\n\nHe gets caught and the police have evidence for all three crimes, but the prosecuting attorney says, \"Justice must be served. We understand that the first crime is adequate to put him on death row for his entire life. But the records must show that he was tried and found guilty for all three murders, and he must be sentenced accordingly.\" So he's tried for all three crimes and receives the death penalty for all three crimes, and he's put on death row.\n\nAt this point, you might say, \"Exactly! Dude is on death row! He can't die three times! It's a waste of time, money, resources, and in the end it makes no difference!\" And in a lot of cases, you could be right.\n\nBut suppose that ten years down the road some new evidence surfaces. It turns out that John Killer was framed for the first murder by Matt Mobster, who went out of his way to leave John Killer's DNA at the scene. Then some eye-witnesses recant their testimonies of watching John Killer take out the victim. And it turns out there's a video of John Killer across town at the time of the murder. In fact, there isn't just a preponderance of evidence, there's an overwhelming level of evidence. So naturally John's lawyer gets the first conviction thrown out.\n\nNow, in the first scenario, John would be freed from prison, because he was only sentenced to death once for the first crime.\n\nBut in the second scenario, John remains on death row, because he still must answer for the second and third murders." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I've been out of high school for years now, but I distinctly remember my high school bio teacher telling the class how we're living paradoxes, something to the matter of \"It's incredible how destructive oxygen is, yet how dependent aerobic organisms are on it.\"\n\nI tried rationalizing it as being something akin to rust, that eventually oxygen binds with too many elements in the body, and prevents certain processes from functioning properly. But I never did get a straight answer out of my bio professor. Did she mean that, in general, O is destructive, but it's a force for good in life? Or did she mean that it's destructive, and we battle it's destructive properties to utilize it for its life-giving ones?\n\nI wish there was more context to give; it was just a high school biology class." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Oxygen is very reactive. As such, it can be both destructive and useful.\n\nYour bio teacher seems to have found this remarkable. Looked at another way, though, it's not unusual that many of the most useful things are also the most dangerous.\n\nConsider the opposite case: a totally inert substance that doesn't react with anything is not as useful, but it's also not particularly dangerous, for the same reason." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[General Cyberpunk] Are there any cyberpunk settings that feature high-tech swords that aren't katanas?\n\nLike, say, a Longsword or a Messer? In a setting with vibroblades and superalloys, could the cruciform guard of a longsword give it some advantage in a duel against another melee weapon?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "System shock uses an electric rapier.\n\nThe cruciform guard can be useful depending on circumstances(for instance, I'd say Kylo Ren's guard is more useful offensively than defensively because you don't catch a sword directly on the guard and lightsabers don't slide.)" } ]