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RCSI-v1_ShareGPT

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Nitral's Archive 20

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[WH40K] How powerful is the Ork collective gestalt field?\n\nI've seen it described from just nudging red cars to go faster to basically creating a blaster out of piece of wood and some nails with the power if imagination. So how much of an effect does it actually have?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It varies wildly. In some cases, Ork equipment is usable by others (albeit with a lot jamming and malfunctioning) - it only runs smoothly because of the WAAAGH's effect. In others, an Ork 'gun' can consist of a metal pipe with a belt of bullets fed in and a trigger assembly - no firing mechanism required, and the pipe may not remotely fit the bullets.\n\nWhere it gets confusing is that there's no apparent correlation between size of the WAAAGH involved and how powerful its effect is. Certainly warbosses will pull off crazier stuff the more renown and followers they get, but some quite small (by 40k standards) Ork groups still had quite an effect, while the largest weren't noted as pulling any more overtly spectacular displays of psychic manipulation. A larger WAAAGH may manifest itself in other ways - for instance, more 'advanced' Ork technology being 'invented', rather than 'basic' equipment working in increasingly absurd ways." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[DC comics] Would Batman take on Billy Batson on as a Robin? Has he considered it before?\n\nIf he didn't know Billy was also Captain Marvel that is, seems like the kids moral compass is on point, even if he does lack a certain 'edge' or apparent detective skills." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Batson (heh) would make a good Robin for a few reasons. If he's really in danger he can turn into Captain Marvel. And he's basically good-hearted, so less reason to worry about him going bad. Captain Marvel is already one contingency against a rogue Superman, but a Batman-trained Marvel would be a contingency against *anything*, even Batman himself. \n\nIn-universe, Batman doesn't trust magic or technology he doesn't understand, but that's not really a problem. He'd simply insist that Batson remain a kid while operating as Robin. Out-universe, [REDACTED]" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Is mountain air really the healthiest/least polluted air?\n\nIs there less polution in the mountains (for example the Alps in France) than in some desolate village at sea-level?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It's not so much the altitude as it is proximity to large cities and prevailing wind patterns. There aren't a lot of large cities with manufacturing and chemical processing plants near the French Alps, for example, and the higher you go, the smaller the population is - therefore, the air is much cleaner. \n\nIn Hawaii, some of \"most pure\" air in the world is blown in from the Pacific, because although these winds originate in China, they travel over the pacific for approximately 3 weeks before making landfall in Hawaii which allows all the pollution to settle out." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Why can both X-rays and radio waves penetrate things that visible light can't?\n\nSomething about the energy being on the scale of eV so high adsorption there? Did we evolve to be able to see the energy range that is absorbed by everyday objects?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Light tends to interact with molecules whose size are either near its wavelength, or densely packed enough that an integer group is near the size of its wavelength. The visible spectrum covers a large range of molecule sizes, so its convenient for us to see in. Longer and shorter wavelengths only interact with high density or very large molecules. E.g. you'd want lead or thick HDPE between you and a gamma ray." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Power Rangers] How do they control the megazords?\n\nLike for instance, in Power Rangers Turbo, they use steering wheels to control the megazord. There are 5 of them controlling it, how does it work?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "> Woolowoloololowooololowlwollwoolowoolowlowlooolwolooolowoloowlwolowlowololoool\n\n- Putty Patrol PP10485927\n\n\nTRANSLATION: *They do not. The poor human children are but puppets of the evil wizard Zordon and his war machines. We fight to free them from his control. Wollowoolowooolowo.*" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Do traits that humans regard as feminine appear in other animals?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Depends what you think of as feminine. There are numerous species in which the female cares for the young and takes care of the nest/den/home. There are also many species in which the female is smaller and less dominant in appearance than the male. \n\nWhen it comes to looks however the males are generally \"prettier\" than the females in nature. Most noticeably in fish and birds, males tend to have the vibrant colors and otherwise unnecessary adornments that human females use to gain attention from the opposite sex." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: Why did USSR allow for Austrian reunification but not German?\n\nBoth Germany and Austria were divided into four occupation zones following World War II, and Vienna was divided like Berlin. So why was there an East Germany and a Berlin Wall for so long but there was never an East Austria and a Vienna Wall?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Austria was willing to sign an agreement that said it could never enter a military alliance with either side. This satisfied both the USSR and America and to this day Austria is just as neutral as Sweden. \n\nGermany was not given this option." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: Why the Spanish civil war drew so much influence from outside powers? What was its signifigance at the time?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was a cause celebre for left-leaning Westerners because there was a democratically elected leftist government overthrown by a military coup. It was a matter of great public attention, kinda like how Kony or Darfur took off in the recent past. So, individuals and governments with sympathetic political leanings had a situation that pitted a like-minded elected government against a coalition of the traditional institutional enemies of the left: royalists, the military and the church.\n\nOn the opposite side, the elected government was a European traditionalist's worst nightmare. They were opposed to the church and king, socially progressive and were viewed by many as a threat to the fabric of European identity.\n\nIn essence, an internal Spanish struggle became an ideological proxy war in a very liminal period in history. The old order had just led to WWI and the Great Depression, and people were trying to decide in what direction to chart their future. Communists and Socialists flocked to the Republican cause, Fascists and Nazis to the Nationalists.\n\nIt became a test by which three new powers, Stalin's USSR, Hitler's Germany and Mussolini's Italy, could test both their newly developed military hardware but also their global influence." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "CMV: suspension of disbelief “plot armor” kills movies and TV shows.\n\nSuspension of disbelief “plot armor” is having impossible situations occur or characters surviving certain death actions. \n\nExamples: characters surviving plane crashes without a scratch. Outrunning dinosaurs. Or other impossible actions. Please note: this occurs even in sci fi genre. Just because there’s a monster doesn’t mean Physics doesn’t work. \n\nI’m my view movies and TV that Break physics Break common laws or break any form of reality distracts the audience from the plot and makes it work. It is the result of bad writing and should be shunned. \n\nTo CMV: you will have to explain to me the Rationale of plot armor, suspension of disbelief. Also convince me that for instance a character out running a dinosaur that can run 80 miles an hour is acceptable. \n\nTLDR: plot armor ruins movies and TV\n\nEdit: while I am talking about plot armor the main issue I have are characters who are able to break the already established rules in the series. For example while E coyote is able to walk on air I’m fine with that. If he randomly got the power to clone himself like agent Smith in the matrix that is breaking the rules of the series and that is the problem I have too many characters in popular movies and TV shows consistently do this." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Some plot armor is invented within the universe. If the universe says Thor can survive a plane crash because of superpowers, then he can. If it says dinosaurs are slow, then they are. If it says we have artificial gravity, then we do. \n\nThe problem comes when the show breaks out of the rules of its own universe even if those rules have nothing to do with physics. In The Walking Dead, Daryl was established as the ultimate hunter, the one to fear out in the woods, silent and deadly, unstoppable. And then a couple random dudes manage to catch him by surprise out in the woods and capture him. No, that broke the rules of the show's universe. He should have heard them coming from far away and taken them out." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: Why is the skin on our palms lighter than the rest of our skin?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Stratum lucidum\n\nThere is a fifth histological layer for palms and soles of the feet. Literally thicker skin and greater distance to the melanocytes. Less light stimulation gets through less pigmentation. Yada yada." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: When your body keeps \"throwing up\" when there's no more to get out, why does it fell like getting your chest kicked in by a horse?\n\nEdit: This..\nIt's just a normal case of throwing up - ate something bad, drank to much, etc. Not a 3 week flu (or worse).\n\n2nd edit: I might have made it sound like I'm vomiting for a week, but that's not the case. But when throwing up for half an hour, there's usually nothing left to throw up. Your body makes the reflex to throw up and when nothing comes up it feels like getting your chest kicked in." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Well, ELI5 version, your body doesn’t know how to fix itself so it keeps trying to get everything out. That “chest kicked in by a horse” feeling (or fell-ing, no judge I’m bad at spell check too) is your lack of anything to push out. So all you’re doing is pushing with no substance. Think lifting up a box you thought was going to be heavy, but then is empty. It throws you off and can really hurt, except instead of throwing the box to kingdom come with all your force going out the force goes to you. Which hurts!\n\nSounds like you may be experiencing this now, if you keep getting sick with nothing coming out (or bile coming out) for over 12 hours please go see a doctor." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[X-Men] What would have happened if Erik Lehnsherr and Professor Xavier had been born with each others powers.\n\nBasically, the question is what would have happened if the Telepath had grown up in concentration camp, while the Master Of Magnets had grown up in the upper class." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Funnily enough Lensherr might not have become the villain we know him as. One of the reasons Xavier has such faith in humanity is because he is constantly hearing the thoughts of those around him, the good and the bad. Erik is naturally distrusting and while he may not change his view on Mutant supremacy, he would probably be more empathetic to the plight of homo sapiens." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "If stars have more planets than previously thought, would this \"add \" enough mass to galaxies so we don't need dark matter for explaining their dynamics?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This can't explain astronomical observations. There is about 4-5 times as much mass as we can see in star form, and planets typically weigh at most a few tens of a percent of their stars, but often much less. If planets weighed more than stars, we wouldn't see the orbits that we do.\n\nThere was an idea that the missing mass might be in the form of starless brown dwarf planets or other massive objects (the MACHO hypothesis), but their existence has largely been ruled out by the non-observation of microlensing." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5- What is the static that plays when a radio is tuned to a number without a radio station?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The entire radio spectrum is \"noisy\"--there's interference in it from both man-made sources and natural ones (e.g. lightning strikes). If you tune the radio to a dead channel then all it will be picking up is that noise, which it amplifies and turns into the static that you hear. You still get the noise on actual radio channels, but it gets drowned out by the radio station you're tuned in to so you tend not to notice unless it's very bad." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Digimon,02] Davies puts himself in danger so Vemon has to Digivolve or he might die (he cuts a rope on a bridge well he’s on). This is a onetime thing for Davies, but what is a digimon supposed to do if they get saddled with an emotionally abusive partner who does this kind of thing regularly?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I think this is addressed in the first series with SkullGreymon. If the trainer starts doing stupid and reckless things to fake the necessary emotional response, the digimon will digivolve in extremely aberrant ways. This is a natural warning to the trainer, in case the digimon's protests weren't enough. There's a high chance each time it happens that the trainer will be severely injured or killed, either by the trainer doing something dangerous or the digimon going on a mindless rampage." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Eli5: Why is grip strength significantly worse when you first wake up? And why do hands feel so stiff in the morning?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When you sleep, your body turns turns off a lot of movement circuits so you don't act out everything you're dreaming. These may take a while to turn back on when you wake up, varying between people and which stage of sleep you woke up from (as others have pointed out, called 'sleep inertia')." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Since friction originates from electromagentic force, does that mean that neutrons, Which are neutral to each other, can overlap?\n\nOverlap = exist in the same spot in case it isn't clear.\n\nThis question can be taken a step further, since the force that keeps protons together should be stronger than the force that repels them (otherwise there are no atoms). Would that mean that protons in an atom should be compressing into a single point so that the nucleus has the volume of a single proton?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Two neutrons can have the same spatial wavefunction as long as they have opposite spin projections.\n\nThe nucleus is not a single point. Rather, it’s more like a liquid drop of approximately constant matter and charge densities. The spatial size of a nucleus is on the order of a few femtometers." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[X-men] specifically wolverine. How was it that his claws were perfectly sharp.\n\nAfter he was infused with adamantium how was it that wolverines claws were perfectly razor shap? I mean he didn't sharpen them or anything they just were already there." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The blades, like the rest of the adamantium he carries, were bonded to his existing bone structure. The exact means that they came out razor sharp instead of jagged is unknown. As they are adamantium, once they were set they could not be sharpened further, so perhaps they had been molded with a very finely crafted mold, but frankly we don't have a solid answer beyond speculation." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Is there a way to do floor and ceiling functions using only 4 operators ( + , - , * , / )?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "No.\n\nEach of the binary operators (+, -, \\*, /) is a function from R^(2) to R (in the case of division, some subset of R^(2)). Furthermore, each of the operators is *continuous* on its domain. So any *finite* combination of them would also be continuous on its domain. However, the ceiling and floor functions are not continuous on their domain. (If we allowed *infinite* combinations of the basic operators, then there are ways to write the floor and ceiling functions, e.g. by Fourier series.)" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Star Wars] What technological progression has there been from the ancient Old Republic to the Post-Empire republic?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If you mean \"technological progression\" as in the development of new designs for technological devices, there have of course been a great many. Most of the ships, tools, etc. that are built in the modern era are quite different in many ways from those built in ancient times.\n\nIf you mean \"technological progression\" as in the discovery of new *atoms* of design, there haven't been many. The exploration of the galaxy has been slow and almost every new civilization that's been discovered has had the same basic elements of technology already known. So there's really no way for such radically new game-changers to come along. It's a well-known theory that we've discovered pretty much all of the basic building blocks of technology that are possible, it's a waste of time to tinker with such fundamental things in the hopes of stumbling across something new. Just have the droids build you the parts and plug them together.\n\nThe real creativity comes from the artisans who assemble those building blocks in new ways. Take the Death Star, for example. It was an unprecedented machine, but the basic building blocks are all very familiar. A hypermatter reactor, standard hyperdrive system, and a turbolaser with external focusing dish. They were just scaled up to unprecedented size." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: How come the human genetic code can fit roughly in ~1.5GB of data yet we turn out such complex organisms? Furthermore, the code that separates us from other mammals can fit on o floppy disk." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A few key differences between the genetic sequence and a computer sequence:\n1. Computers run in binary. Genes run in quaternary (4 types of nucleic acids). That immediately increases the amount of data you can store exponentially. One step further, gene sequences build amino acids. There are 21 total amino acids that can form thousands of different proteins.\n2. People are made of matter. Matter is comprised of 120-something (the number keeps changing) different elements, each with unique interaction with each other and interactions with groups of other elements, which is even more information than a simple quaternary system. Electricity, on the other hand, is not matter. \n\nThere are various theories about coding data in different voltages or currents or whatever to allow electricity to provide more than a binary system, but we don't have the technology yet (and it may not even be possible)." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: How does Humblebundle work?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Each customer pays whatever he feels like, lets say 10 <insert currency here>. That amount is distributed among all of the game creators + some charities and and some money go to huble bundle itself. \n\nFor the most part it's a win-win-win-win situation.\n\nFirst win : you. You win by getting a butload of games for fraction of the cost.\n\nSecond win : the developers. This is sometimes not such a big win, but some bundles could generate 10's of thousands of (~65% of total sales divided by the number of developers in the current bundle) <currency goes here> for each developer for games which otherwise may not sell so well or to serve as a sort of a kickstarter to an upcoming game.\n\nThird win : the charities. Charities like \"Charity Water\", get ~15% out of every purchase .\n\nFourth win : Humble Bundle by default they seem to get ~20% of each purchase you make.\n\nN.B. Please take into consideration that all the estimates above might differ as you are able to change which party gets what amount of <currrency>" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I don't think I should try to reduce my carbon footprint. CMV.\n\nI DO think that we, as a species, should reduce our carbon footprint. But I think this change will happen over the next few years due to economic incentives (solar getting cheaper, gas getting more expensive, etc).\n\nClassic tragedy of the commons, but I don't see why I should reduce my carbon footprint when my personal contribution to atmospheric carbon is negligible. I could multiply it by 100 or reduce it to nothing and it wouldn't hurt or help anyone." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "You individually will probably not have a significant impact, but if you convince a large number of other people to do it, that will make a difference, and taking part yourself would certainly help with that." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Star Wars] What would’ve been the downsides of Qui Gon surviving to become Anakin’s master?\n\nObviously Obi-Wan did his best, and was a great master, but I usually hear that Qui-Gon was the master Anakin really needed. But considering that the two have completely different teaching styles, what would’ve been Qui-Gon’s “Obi-Wan should’ve been Anakin’s master” moments?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "We don't really know his teaching style.\n\nPeople assume that he would allow Anakin to be less pressured to follow the rigid Jedi rules, but his two know pupils are the opposite of what people aspect.\n\nSo he might have made the same mistakes." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Ant-Man] If Ant-Man shrinks himself and gorges on cake crumbs until he can't eat anymore, when he reverts back will his blood sugar levels stay spiked or be normal?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Presumably, any food inside Ant-Man changes size along with him. Otherwise, he would explode if he were to shrink after eating a full meal\n\nSo we can assume that when he reverts to normal size in your scenario, the cake crumbs, digested or otherwise, would grow proportionately. His blood sugar levels should be the same as they were when he was small." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "39% of all american dollars were created in the last 12 months. Is that a problem?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Money printing is bad assuming there's no productive place for the money to go. The money you're referencing was created in response to a very unique situation in which a large portion of the economy was, by law, prevented from continuing production, but this had a cascading effect where they couldn't pay their bills and their workers couldn't maintain their consumption or pay their bills because they were laid off. \n\n\r \nHowever, a lot of the downside effects of this shutdown were mitigated because of the quantitative easing by the fed which encouraged credit to continue to be extended and the fiscal bailouts of companies and people so they can continue their consumption. This means there's not a lot of reason to expect an incredible amount of inflation or devaluation of currency because, for the most part, that money had a place to go in so far as it brought the economy closer to its productive capacity during a downturn." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "CMV: Trickle-down economics is ineffective as a whole and only results in consolidation of wealth to the wealthiest 1% of individuals.\n\nMany politicians have proposed tax cuts to wealthy corporations on the premise that they will use the extra money to hire more staff and give them higher wages. Based on this, the corporation's wealth will be passed down to the workers and the middle class. However, I believe that these corporations don't generally do this when given the chance. Instead, the money gets lost in bureaucracy and lines the pockets of top officials. Since tax loopholes have been increasingly exploited by corporations, we are now in a situation in which much wealth is consolidated at the top. \nMany economists also agree that wealth and growth are created by innovation, not by corporations and wealthy people \"trickling\" it down to the poorest. Free-market economics should not be ruled by few, and tax cuts to large corporations make monopolies and oligopolies a little more wiggle room to develop, crushing many of the small businesses attempting to rise up.\nIn the newly proposed tax plan, tax cuts are planned to wealthy individuals, so this issue is becoming relevant yet again.\nIs this view misguided in your opinion? What is the case for trickle-down economics/tax cuts to corporations and the wealthy?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Trickle-down' is a slur used to refer to Supply-side economics. All of economics is determined by the meeting pints of various supply and demand curves, and Supply-side economics is based on policies that make it easier to increase the supply of goods.\n\nSupply-side policies are a good idea *if* supply is insufficient or overly limited in relation to demand, especially if that limited supply is due to market failures or inefficiencies that can be easily corrected with economic or monetary policy. This situation *has* been true in the past, especially during and after the Great Depression; supply side policies were instrumental in bring the country back to the relative bounty and higher standards of living we now enjoy.\n\nHowever, supply side policies are only appropriate when supply is too low. Right now, and probably for the last 30-40 years, and moeny has flowed away from consumers and into the financial sector and to the rich, and we have been suffering instead from low aggregate demand. Demand-side policies (like minimum wage hikes or UBI or higher corporate taxes or etc) would thus be more appropriate, and supply-side policies are likely to only make things worse.\n\n\nSo, while supply-side policies are a bad idea now and have been for a while, it would be wrong to think that they're *never* a goo idea, and can *never* raise the standard of living for the average person." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: How is oxygen regulated in a submarine?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "We store it in tanks and bleed it off as we need it. We also have special candles that, when burned, generate oxygen, so that if the tanks are empty or the oxygen generator is down we can still make O2." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Why is the kilogram the 'base unit' of mass instead of the gram?\n\nThe SI sytem of units would have been more elegant if the gram instead of the kilogram had been chosen as base unit of mass. Why and when did they choose the kilogram as base unit?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Are others actually reading his question? \n\nYes when using metres of things they are more likely to weigh kilograms but why define a gram as 1000 times less than what would be used with other base units?\n\nThe original kilogram was 1 dm^3 of water. So why not define *that* as a gram?" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "If the human body stores 2 hours worth of glycogen and considerably more than 2 hours worth of fat, why do people get tired before 2 hours of jogging?\n\nWhat is the biological nature of physical exhaustion? Especially after low intensity aerobic exercize - jogging, or even walking for a long period of time?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Glycogen is mobilized quickly. Fat needs some extra processing to become available as muscle fuel.\n\nAdditionally, it's true that most people have ample reserves of \"fuel\", but their bodies are not prepared to mobilize and burn vast amounts of it quickly. A large part of endurance training involves changes in the body that just increase its ability to process and burn energy reserves.\n\nAn easy measure of that is the amount of oxygen burned in a given time (or the amount of CO2 released - same thing). An athlete can burn a lot of O2 per minute; a couch potato, not so much." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Predator] What happened to Anna after they got back to base?\n\nShe was a communist guerrilla extracted from a hostile foreign country by the US military. She saw her entire camp, including Soviet advisors, murdered by Dutch's covert team and she was an eyewitness to an alien visitor. \n\nBased on her background and everything she knows, she seems like somebody they wouldn't want to just let go. Was she imprisoned in the US, returned to her country's authorities, or something else?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Saying she witnessed an Alien Hunter fight a convert American Spec Ops would make her look like a lunatic. The Soviet would either think she went crazy after surviving an Enemy Attack or would think she snaped and killed them herself. Her best Bet would be to ask the US for Protection as a Witness to avoid her Supervisors." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "(Star Trek) Why do the species and individuals in the alternate universe have such opposite personalities to those in the prime universe?\n\nI understand that humans are different because of some past event went differently for them but why are all the species in the alternate universe the opposite of their prime universe counterparts. Was there some sort of universe wide event that changed all this?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I assume you're speaking of the \"mirror universe\" experienced by the crews of two Enterprises as well as station DS9. \n\nIf that's the case, the timeline had its primary divergence at First Contact between the humans and the vulcans (the event you referred to as the past event). Instead of having a meeting of peace, the first interaction between Vulcans and humans was tainted by Zefram Cochrane shooting the Vulcan with a shotgun, inciting the humans to raid the Vulcan ship. \n\nIt was the character of that interaction that would forever taint interactions between humans and every other interstellar race. Humans were propelled forward technologically through the raiding of the technology on the Vulcan scout, but other species would be less willing to share technology, driving the \"Terrans\" to a hostile campaign of enslavement. \n\nThe result is that in the 100 years or so between the different first contact and the species you've seen, at least an entire generation of many species you are familiar with was born and died under the yolk of slavery. Their cultures destroyed and their outlooks tainted by being completely dominated by the Terran Empire, many species may look \"opposite\" to you. But the incident that changed them was the interaction with the humans over an extended period. Peaceful species who survived the first attacks became warlike over a generation, as it was the only way to survive. Species known for their aggression were either destroyed in the first attacks and forced into captivity (and thus the next generation would be one born away from the warlike influence of their previous culture), or learned to fight differently as a way of surviving. \n\nSo, in conclusion, it isn't that some event changed every species, turning some \"evil\" and some \"nice\", it's that the massive spread of the very violent Terrans forced a number of changes over the years. In 100 years of conquest, a lot can happen, and the cultures that one would associate with species in our \"prime\" timeline became warped or outright destroyed." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5:What is drophacking?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ever have a 3rd person try to talk over you when you're talking to someone else?\n\nNow imagine if they didn't stop, but kept getting louder and louder until neither you nor your conversation partner can hear anything except Guy #3's exceedingly loud voice. You eventually quit trying to hold a conversation because his shouting is so loud nothing is getting through.\n\nYou and your friend in the example are you and whatever you're trying to connect to. Guy #3 is the drophacker, flooding the connection with a bunch of random shit." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Hamlet] Is there indication what Denmark will be like following Fortinbras' rule?\n\nWith Denmark's royal family now dead, how will things turn out for the royal palace?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He's generally more capable than anyone else. Definitely a better option than the mentally unstable Hamlet would have been, and less conniving than Claudius was. His reign is probably a good thing, which is why Hamlet named him heir. His accession was also a lot less bloody than things would have been had Claudius remained on the throne (because of the war that would have been pursued)." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Should I go to a PhD program I'm not excited about, or apply again next year/in later years (computer science)?\n\nI am applying for Fall 2018 entrance into grad schools for theoretical computer science. I have been accepted into one \"safety school\", and rejected by a number of other schools. There is a fair chance I won't get any other acceptances, and I want to be ready if that happens.\n\nBasically, I'm not very excited about the school I've been accepted to. It's a fairly good school for CS and I've been recommended for a fellowship. However, there are a number of I'm not that interested in going there (location, people I've met from there, aesthetic). I'm somewhat interested in the work I'd be doing, but there are plenty of things I'm more interested in.\n\nI also feel like I should be technically qualified to get into better schools, and maybe I've just been unlucky with which professors are looking for PhD students. Additionally, I didn't have time to apply to as many schools as I would have liked. This makes me think I should try again next year. But will there be a big difference next year in which professors are looking for more PhD students?\n\nI'm just not sure what I'd do in the gap year. A lot of CS hiring has already been done. I could probably find some kind of job, but I'm not that into industry, and I'm worried I'll hate it.\n\nAny thoughts on whether or not I should reapply next year if this happens? Just looking for new things I should consider or personal experiences from people in similar situations. I'd like to determine this soon so I can start applying for jobs ASAP." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Everyone is different, but if it's a good school, you're interested in the work, and you're getting a fellowship for it, \"location, people I've met from there, and aesthetic\" seem like really terrible reasons to turn it down. Very few academics get to pick where they live and being best friends with everyone you work with isn't going to happen. If those things are super important to you, it might be a better idea to go a different route than academia." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: How do embers stay burning for hours, even while buried beneath soot/ash?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The oxygen in the air is burning the fuel in the wood. Imagine the oxygen as a thirsty person, and the wood/charcoal/whatever as a glass of water. If the embers are completely open to the air, the oxygen can just drink it all up quickly. When the fuel is covered up with ashes and soot, it is more like trying to drink through a cocktail straw, as there is a much smaller path for the oxygen to get to the wood. So, the fuel takes longer to burn (and doesn't burn as hot)" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I find myself in my spacesuit floating in space next to a space station. Is it possible for me to somehow \"swim\" to the space station from a standstill situation?\n\n*Zero gravity.\n*Zero speed (relavite to the space station). \n*100% vacuum.\n*No strings attached. \n*All I have is my body and it's normal ways to move.\n\nOr am I doomed forever?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "You're doomed forever. If you have something to throw, you can change your momentum but it's very, very difficult to do by hand and it would probably lead to nothing or worse. If you're in EVA and you're not attached, you're dead." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Would animals with non-round pupils (such as cats and goats) see a different shaped image to us, additional to that which is granted by the different eye position?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When light passes through an aperture, each point of out-of-focus light (what photographers call bokeh) takes on the shape and size of that aperture. If you took a near-sighted member of each species and put them far away from a point-source light, each of them would see it as a different shape. A cat would see a vertical slit shape, a goat would see a rectangle, and so on.\n\nWhy is this useful?\n\nLet's take the cat for example. The vertical bokeh created by their pupils means they see things with a vertical blur to them and the horizontal remains sharp. If their prey tends to flee sideways, this means they can let more light in their eyes while still seeing exactly where their prey is going.\n\nThere are similar evolutionary reasons for the shapes other irises take." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5 Why do we bury the dead 6' under and not 2', 3', etc." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Tradition and wild animals. The last thing anyone wants is for a passing dog to dig up Grandma and bring her half decomposed leg home.\n\nAlso, putting them six feet under makes it very unlikely that a flood or other natural disaster will dig out and deposit the corpses all over the place, as that is both a sever health risk and a hassle to re identify and bury *each* and *every* corpse back into it's place." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: Why are people more attractive when they smile?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Actually a study found that's only true for women (in regards to male being attracted to them), the study found the inverse for men, it found that men who smiled in a picture were perceived less attractive (on average obviously)" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Futurama] How and why do the Neutrals do anything?\n\nHow does anything get done in a civilization where no one cares about anything?\n\nLike, people build shelter because of protection from the weather and other elements, but I imagine that a Neutral would be like, \"I feel nothing about this cold weather\" and promptly freeze to death.\n\nOr starships? If Neutrals have no feeling towards space exploration or anything, why did they build them (or at least join a space-faring civilization that did build them)?\n\nLikewise, how do relationships work? At one point, a Neutral goes, \"If I don't survive, tell my wife that I said, 'Hello'\".\n\nWhy does he feel the need to say anything at all if he presumably has no feeling one way or the other towards his wife (and she presumably would have no emotion towards his death or survival)?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Just because you have no strong opinions doesn't mean you can't accomplish things and doesn't mean you don't feel *anything*. Shelter is necessary to survive, that's not controversial. Cold weather isn't an opinion, if you freeze to death you die. If they're anything like us advancing technology is only natural and nobody would have strong enough feelings to oppose or abuse it." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5 how the pyramids were built, and why there are conspiracy theories about it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The pyramids were built using ramps and pulleys and thousands of workers who labored for decades.\n\nThere are conspiracy theories about them simply because they are old and big and unique. There are very few buildings around that are as old as the pyramids -- 4000 years. People wonder why anyone would build something as huge and impractical as a pyramid. But we simply do not know enough about ancient Egypt to explain everything about them." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "How is single sign on (SSO) more secure than having several logins when it’s basically using the same password for everything?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The theory is that heavily securing the SSO system is far more effective and efficient than trying to heavily secure each other system independently. Would you rather trust a specialized SSO company to secure their stuff or trust all tens or hundreds of sites you may login to, ran by admins of varying capabilities? Not to mention having a single really good and long password you can remember is far superior to having many different weak, or even strong, passwords you'll have to put down somewhere. Of course in a personal environment SSO is in a bit of competition with password managers, which don't require the same level of trust of a third party entity (especially if it's an open source password manager)." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "how do I explain butler's gender performativity to a biologist?\n\ni've entered a discussion with a biologist about butler's theory, and he keeps saying that butler \"denies biology\". he *does* seem to understand the difference between sex and gender, but is having a hard time understanding the idea that \"sex is already gender from the start\". any ideas?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Butler doesn’t say there is no such thing as biological sex, just that gender ends up producing significant constructed notions about biological sex and what a biological sex entails. Just reaffirm that the existence of sex is not without its own major presuppositions, projected onto it by the performativty of gender." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[ASOIAF/GOT] Are any of the gods real? Which ones, and how do we know?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There is no definitive proof either way.\n\nThe only two Gods we have any kind of proof that they might exist is the Lord of Light and The Many Faced God, and that \"proof\" could be followers attributing wild magic to an imaginary source deity." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "CMV: I don't think everybody deserves the right to vote.\n\nIm talking about the U.S. here because I'm not sure how it works everywhere else. I don't think those who are uneducated about politics and the candidates that they're choosing between should be allowed to vote. It doesn't seem to have any benefits if a person votes based on factors like what their friends/family think about the candidates or something they heard on Reddit.\n\nI started to think about this when my friend told me I should register to vote. I should note that I know almost nothing about the current presidential candidates (or any election for that matter) and never had any interest in politics. I know I should be more educated about whos running the country Im living in but as of right now Im not too interested. My friend convinced me to register and I decided I was going to vote for Bernie because I heard he supports weed legalization and I heard some people say he was a good choice. Then I realized, why should I be allowed to vote if I have no idea about anything in this election? It feels like my vote, based off of a couple minutes of research and what I've heard online, would not be beneficial towards the selection of an appropriate leader for our country. \n\nI understand most people who don't know much about politics would choose not to vote anyways, but what about those who are doing something similar to what I was doing, making judgements off of what other people say, which could be biased and lacking important information.\n\nI don't know how a system could be implemented in order to \"test\" individuals for political competency but I do feel that some people just shouldn't be allowed to vote, myself included.\n\nThank you for reading, please change my view Reddit.\n\nEdit: ∆\nWow that was fast, read through 5 replies so far and I have changed my view. Thanks for the great replies everyone." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Pragmatically, restricting the right to vote is nearly impossible to enforce fairly. The people in power have a vested interest in keeping their power and, if the government can restrict the right to vote, then they can selectively enforce those laws in order to change election outcomes. Because of this possibility, the only way to make sure all elections remain fair is to allow everyone an equal vote." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: Why are eSports so much more popular in South Korea than other places?\n\nI've been watching a lot of Overwatch League and one pretty apparent thing is that a ton of players come from South Korea. I've heard the explanation to this is that eSports in general is extremely popular in South Korea. Is this true? If so, why aren't they more popular other places?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Rewind back to the mid-90's. The country had decided to heavily prioritize its broadband infrastructure. (Google the Korean Information Initiative for more info) Between 1995 and 1998, the government heavily funded the laying of fiber-optic lines throughout the country, making for readily-available, cheap, and fast internet access.\n\nOf course, you need a computer to use this infrastructure... and computers are expensive... So there was great demand for internet-cafes where you could access this high-speed resource without necessarily needing to pay high prices for your own computer.\n\nIn a heartbeat, internet-cafe culture was EVERYWHERE. Per-capita, the US doesn't hold a candle to South Korean connectivity. If you had a cafe near you, you could get online, and given that such a high proportion of the country lives in high-density urban areas, this basically permeated the entire country.\n\nNote that at this time, in the US, you'd be lucky to even have a 56.6k dial-up modem, let alone broadband.\n\n1998 rolls around, and Starcraft gets released. Korean school children eat it up. It becomes the most popular activity at internet cafes (which are ubiquitous). An entire generation grows up on Starcraft. And overnight, it becomes the national pastime.\n\nEntire channels pop up to broadcast Starcraft. Sponsorships, teams etc. arise. Korea becomes the birthplace of eSports, and the rest is history." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5 why increased atmospheric CO2 levels don't just mean healthier more lush plant life which in turn offset that CO2.\n\n." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Photosynthesis = H20 + CO2 + Light (particularly UV/V/B light) made into O2 (oxygen gas) + C6H12O6 (Sugar).... Let's keep that simplification in mind for now.\n\nWhen we think about plants making O2 to offset the CO2 production, you run into two key limitations: water and rate of photosynthesis. When there is no water (particularly clean, harmless water), it prevents the process of photosynthesis from occurring. That is why a drought can be devastating in that regard. This usually isn't an issue as rain forests contribute much of the plant-based global-O2 generation and these environments are not insanely water deprived (but global warming and deforesting have still affected this cycle in some regards).\n\nThe biggest issue is rate of photosynthesis. Just because more CO2 is present, that does not mean the plant will engage in photosynthesis much quicker. Think of it like this: let's say your car tops out at 100mph. Does adding more gas in your tank make your car faster? The answer - no. Your car (plant) is still limited by its internals (plant chlorophylls) regardless of how much gas (CO2) is in the tank (atmosphere).\n\nAlso, the Ocean makes about 70% of oxygen. Phytoplankton and the sorts, and they are also in danger due to the dropping quality of ocean water in some regions.\n\nEDIT: Phone auto corrected \"in danger\" to \"endangered.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "How much water does it take to offset the dehydrating effects of an alcoholic drink (0.6 fluid oz)?\n\nAlcohol dehydrates you. But how much water would you need to drink to offset the dehydrating effects of a standard alcoholic drink (0.6 fluid oz)?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There is no simple answer to this, because the dehydrating(diuretic) effects of alcohol are a function of your BAC, not the ABV of the drink. There is a relationship between ABV and BAC but it includes other factors such as body weight, amout of drinks consumed, when the drinks were consumed, personal tolerance to diuretics effects, how full your stomach was when you started drinking, whether you are male or female, age, and other things. Without accounting for these factors it is very hard to simply correlate ABV and dehydration.\n\nP.S. This is why you should treat \nyour pharmacist with respect. It's not an easy job they do." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Are there any modern Philosophers who defend Polytheism?\n\nHey, I have recently been reading about early Christian Church history and something that seems to be brought up a lot are these \"pagan philosophers\" in places like Egypt which critiqued Christianity. I also heard some people mention that polytheism may have stronger responses to things like the problem of evil, due to the existence of evil Gods, as well as the good Gods. This made me wonder, are there any modern philosophers who still defend polytheism? I tried searching \"polytheism\" on the SEP and IEP but the closest I got was the article on Hindu Philosophy on IEP. If there aren't any, which book or person should I read if I want the most sophisticated articulation of polytheism, or is that not a thing in western philosophy? Thank you." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In *Neoplatonism of the Italian Renaissance*, Nesca Robb argued that the fashion for (often veiled) polytheism among the scholars of Renaissance Italy, such as Ficino and Poliziano, was not passed onto the next generation of philosophers for complex religious and social reasons; the witch-craze had emerged and the Reformation had become the locus of theological thought.\n\nHowever, while academic philosophy moved away from polytheism (and eventually any religion), it was championed by artists and poets. That affection for polytheism became very prominent within the Romantic Movement and, through it, passed into later Western culture where it's remained a strong theme.\n\nThere are writers around associated with Neo-Paganism who advocate polytheism (Timothy Jay Alexander is the latest to do so with some philosophical understanding) but few work in academia and none are part of the \"canon\" which is heavily orientated towards Aristotelian modes of thought and exclude nous and other kinds of apprehension. *Esotericism and the Academy: Rejected Knowledge in Western Culture* by Wouter Hanegraaff might be worth reading in relation to some of these ideas." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: What can high-profile law firms do to win cases that smaller law firms can't?\n\nIn other words, what's the difference between highly-paid attorneys and lower-paid attorneys?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Larger top-tier/Magic Circle law firms pay their employed solicitors very well, and they're very large organisations. This gives it three main advantages. \n\nFirst, they have more people that they can put on the project (which achieves certain economies of scale/cost). \n\nSecond, the people they have are likely the best lawyers around, because they are given more money for working with the big firms than the little firms. \n\nThird, and perhaps most importantly, the size of the firms allows the lawyers within to become more specialised. Many big legal matters are complicated, and your local attorney will have to know about things like contracts for goods or services or land, conveyancing, family law, basic criminal law, etc. That means your local attorney will necessarily have less experience and knowledge than a specialist in any one technical area because they won't have the time to devote to other things, like corporate insolvency, or intellectual property. They'll only know the basics well, where a lawyer from a big firm can have specialist knowledge of the area of law that's relevant." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: What exactly is happening when you squirt one drop of Dawn in a pot of greasy water, and all the grease radiates away to the sides of the pot?\n\nBonus points if you can explain to me why it's so damn satisfying." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There is a layer of oil floating on the surface of the water. The water holds together and the oil rests on top. \n\nThe soap molecule attracts oil on one end and water on the other. When the soap connects with the water it breaks the surface tension and the oil moves to the outside. It's like if you were hanging on a rope bridge and the middle broke and you swung to the side. \n\nAnyway, this happens with all soaps. Dawn is not special. If soap didn't do this it wouldn't clean." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Is there a way to use radioactivity to produce energy, other than using the heat it generates?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yes, there is something called a beta-voltaic cell, which operates similarly to a photo-voltaic cell, except the high-energy electron from the decay excites electrons in the semiconductor, rather than a photon doing that." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Back to the Future] What would happen if I put the DeLorian on a roller bench, ran it up to 88 MPH on the speedometer and then turned the time circuits on?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nothing.\n\nIt's not the speedometer or the wheels that triggers the time travel, otherwise when Marty was stuck in 1885 they could have rigged up a gear system to spin the wheels to 88MPH.\n\nThe time machine itself needs to be traveling at 88MPH relative to its location in spacetime to break free of the time steam and travel through time." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Can a star have more than one fusion core?\n\nOther than supernova, could for example a blue supergiant/hypergiant have hotspots not in the center that cause fusion?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Evolution of some very massive stars (> 8M⊙) leads them to a state in which fusion is occuring at numerous locations within the star. For example:\n\nInitiallly H fuses into He in the core\n\nAfter 10 Myr,\n\n* core H is exhausted, \n* He core contracts, heats.\n* H fuses to He in shell around the contracting core\n\nWhen core temp reaches 170M K,\n\n* core He begins fusing into C and O\n* H fusion continues in a shell surrounding the He burning core.\n\nAfter ~1 Myr, \n\n* core He is exhausted.\n* C/O core contracts and heats\n* He fusion continues in a shell surrounding the contracting core\n* H fusion continues in a shell surrounding He shell.\n\nAt core temperature of 600M K, \n\n* core C begins fusing into O, Ne, and Mg.\n* He fusion continues in a shell around the C burning core\n* H fusion continues in a shell around the He shell.\n\nAfter < 1000 years, core C is exhausted, \n\n* the O/Ne/Mg core contracts and heats\n* C fusion continues in a shell around the contracting core,\n* He fusion continues in a shell around the C shell,\n* H fusion continues in a shell around the He shell\n\nAt core temperature of 1.5B K, \n\n* core Ne begins fusing into O, Mg, ...\n* C fusion continues in a shell around the Ne burning core,\n* He fusion continues in a shell around the C shell,\n* H fusion continues in a shell around the He shell\n\nAfter a few years, \n\n* core Ne is exhausted,\n* O / Mg core contracts, heats\n* Ne fusion continues in a shell around the contracting core,\n* C fusion continues in a shell around the Ne shell,\n* He fusion continues in a shell around the C shell,\n* H fusion continues in a shell around the He shell\n\nAt core temperature of 2.1B K, \n\n* core O begins fusing into Si and others\n* Ne fusion continues in a shell around O burning core,\n* C fusion continues in a shell around the Ne shell,\n* He fusion continues in a shell around the C shell,\n* H fusion continues in a shell around the He shell\n\nAfter a few months, \n\n* core O is exhausted,\n* Si core contracts, heats\n* O fusion continues in a shell around the contracting core,\n* Ne fusion continues in a shell around the O shell\n* C fusion continues in a shell around the Ne shell,\n* He fusion continues in a shell around the C shell,\n* H fusion continues in a shell around the He shell\n\nAt core temperature of 3.5B K, \n\n* core Si begins fusing into Ni and Fe\n* O fusion continues in a shell around the Si burning core,\n* Ne fusion continues in a shell around the O shell,\n* C fusion continues in a shell around the Ne shell,\n* He fusion continues in a shell around the C shell,\n* H fusion continues in a shell around the He shell\n\nThis lasts perhaps a day. Tomorrow the star explodes." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "CMV: You should be mindful of others while exercising your own freedoms.\n\nNowadays I see a lot more protests and just people generally wanting to assert their rights despite it causing obvious stress for unrelated people. My view is that I think that people should be mindful of other while they are being themselves. Essentially that even if they have the right to be somewhere or to do something, they should exercise self control for consideration of others.\n\n \n\nHowever this is a subjective topic, I can’t really give you absolute rules in my logic but essentially I believe people shouldn’t be selfish when asserting their rights.\n\nI think the majority of the examples that I can think of are protest-related for example:\n\n1. You shouldn’t protest in a public space like a library or hallway where it will affect the people unrelated/uninterested in your cause. They have their own daily agendas and even though you are not outright infringing on their rights, you shouldn’t unnecessarily make their lives more difficult. Much like blocking traffic too during protests. \n\n2. Another example I can think of is public spaces like the beach or spaces with children, I know it’s your right and your body. But even if the beach doesnt have rules on dress codes please don’t wear anything borderline nudity. Families often go there for a family time. \n\n3. But in events like gay pride events where it is expected that there are some risqué costumes, I don’t think it is selfish because the date was set specifically for that event. All participants that go there should expect a certain amount of nudity or risqueness. Much like the library example, if the library is holding a protest event, I don't think it's selfish to be loud and disruptive because that space has been reserved. Or like how you should expect traffic to be blocked during a pride event. \n\n&#x200B;\n\nTo summarize: I know it is your right to be who you are and sometimes you need to think about yourself, but there are others around you and should think about them too." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sometimes oppressed peoples have to mildly inconvenience unoppressed people to gain awareness and *hopefully* gain allies. None of these things are ever usually more than a slight inconvenience for the people that are “not interested in their causes” as you put it. \n\nIt forces people to take a second and realize that some people live their entire lives in an oppressed position. Any random interaction can be violent and confrontational and most people don’t even care about the cause as you said." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Death Note] Why do Shinigamis need to constantly kill multiple humans in a short timeframe if the years of each victim gets added to their own? Surely one human every 10-30 years would be sufficient or is there some kind of exchange rate between human and Shinigami lifespans?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Shinigami are *incredibly* lazy. Like, lazy enough to almost die because they let the clock run down.\n\nSo when they realize that they haven't killed anyone in ages, they go and \"fill up\" by whacking a whole bunch of people. Then they go back to being lazy." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Shrek] How did Farquaad become start leading Duloc? If we look at the musical he’s not royalty so how did he take land from the fairytale creatures?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Perhaps he was a pettier landholder that seized power after a previous monarch died. Or maybe he DIDN'T seize power. Maybe Duloc is actually quite small and simply enjoys autonomy due to larger powers being occupied with more important military matters at the moment than securing such a pitiable holding. If that's the case, he's in a pretty precarious spot, once it becomes worth it to take Duloc, the actual kings of surrounding kingdoms will probably make quick work of him. Marrying into a royal family is a pretty savvy move here, even if he's doing it for his own petty reasons. Instead of being conquered by a larger power he can join the royalty and be in a far stronger position to defend his lands. That is, unless he marries himself into a Kingdom so far, far away that their armies are incapable of defending his seat of power, but who'd be dumb enough to do that?" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Star Wars] Did Vader ever reminisce about his life as Anakin?\n\nI know he's basically miserable and bitter 24/7, but, did he ever have moments where he's just sitting in his meditation chamber and thinks to himself \"Remember that time I cut off Dooku's hands, that shit was awesome\". Basically, was Vader ever even the tiniest bit nostalgic?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Probably not. Like you said, he lives a very miserable life. Hell, his palace is set on the planet he lost his limbs, humanity, wife, and supposedly his unborn child. \n\nIf he does look to his past, it's just to make himself more angry or upset, which helps reinforce his connection to the Dark Side. Being on Mustafar is a source of psychological pain as it serves as a constant reminder of the horrific moment he became what he is now. During his meditations in this dark place, he might think about past moments like watching his mother die, Ahsoka abandoning him (that's totally how he would interpret it over the years), or other dark moments during the war. Never to think about how awesome they were, but to self-flagellate over not being powerful enough to change the outcome. That anger and desolation only makes him more powerful in the long run, no matter how much it hurts." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Alien] Are all facehuggers identical, regardless of Xenomorph variant that laid the egg?\n\nCan all facehuggers turn into any variant of Xenomorph from human to Predalien?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The face hugger is the xenomorph at its absolute base form. They're designed to take on the most needed traits of the host to maximize the resulting morphology of whatever spawns' survivability and lethality." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "CMV: Transitioning to publicly funded healthcare necessitates a drop in healthcare quality for upper middle class citizens\n\nThe country I live in has likely begun the transition from a public/private sector medical system, to an almost entirely publicly provided system. Currently the wealthiest citizens use the private sector exclusively, and pay large amounts to medical schemes who fund the bulk of this use.\n\nWith the shift to a national healthcare system, the medical aids will be dissolved, and the government will begin paying medical expenses for those who need it. The price will now be set by the government, and all healthcare that can be provided through the public healthcare system must be given through that system. Private individuals cannot seek to bypass the healthcare system in order to choose their own medical professional, except in situations where the public healthcare system will not provide the necessary treatment.\n\nFrom my perspective, this leveling of healthcare rates will naturally push those healthcare professionals who excel in their specialization to seek out other systems that reward based on merit and ability, likely resulting in them leaving the country, and the healthcare system that they once were apart of.\n\nI don't deny that such a system will result in a net increase in the quality of healthcare received by the entire population, at least in theory, and as a tax payer I think that it is justified that I should contribute towards subsidizing this system if it has a net positive effect on public health as a whole. However, I don't see how this cannot negatively impact the quality of healthcare that those considered upper middle class would otherwise receive, and I don't think such a sacrifice on my part is justified." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Having a national healthcare service doesn't stop people getting private health insurance in itself, regardless of your own countries policy. In the UK, which has socialised healthcare, a fair number of people still have private healthcare (often through their employer) and some even have plans which pay for healthcare abroad. This means wealthier people can still access better, or at least faster, healthcare if they choose." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Do airline crews suffer a higher ratio of radiation illnesses?\n\nIt seems to me that even a marginal exposure, over a large number that work in the business would result in a higher incidents of cancer or other illnesses vs the average population." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The amount of radiation received by airline crews is small roughly 2 mSv per year. It's not known with certainty whether these levels are harmful or not. According to the linear no-threshold model, any amount of radiation increases the risk of cancer, however, according to the radiation hormesis hypothesis, small amounts of radiation actually decrease the chance of cancer. If the linear no-threshold model is correct, then the effect would still be small, 1 Sv increases the chance of developing cancer by 5%, working for 20 years would receive roughly 40 mSv. Which would result in a 0.2 % higher chance of developing cancer.\n\nThere are studies underway in areas with high levels of natural background radiation to determine the effects of long term exposure to low levels of radiation. The city of Ramsar, Iran has the highest natural background radiation levels in the world, with some people receiving doses great than 100 mSv per year. Wikipedia has this to say about the area\n\n>Early anecdotal evidence from local doctors and preliminary cytogenetic studies suggested that there may be no such harmful effect, and possibly even a radioadaptive effect.[8] More recent epidemiological data show a slightly reduced lung cancer rate[9] and non-significantly elevated morbidity, but the small size of the population (only 1800 inhabitants in the high-background areas) will require a longer monitoring period to draw definitive conclusions.[10] Furthermore, there are questions regarding possible non-cancer effects of the radiation background. An Iranian study has shown that people in the area have a significantly higher expression of CD69 gene and also a higher incidence of stable and unstable chromosomal aberrations.[11] Chromosomal aberrations have been found in other studies[12] and a possible elevation of female infertility has been reported.[13]" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: If all ingested carbohydrates are just reduced to glucose anyway, what makes \"simple\" carbs (soda, pastry, Wonder bread) different compared to \"complex\" carbs (whole wheat, rice)?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Simple carbs are broken down very quickly, while complex ones are broken down much more slowly. Complex ones offer a more stable source of energy. You'd have to eat a lot more of simple ones to get the same result.\n\nComplex ones also have other compounds in them that are helpful to metabolism in general." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Is crying an inflammatory process?\n\nAfter I cry, especially for a while, my eyes feel sore and my eyelids get puffy and red, and they can take almost a day to feel back to normal. I also feel tired for the next +/-12 hours. \n\nIs there an inflammatory feedback mechanism from crying? \n\nAlso, this brings up another question: does anyone know the scientific or evolutionary origin and purpose of crying? Is it an adaptation? \n\nThanks 🥲" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It's a release of certain hormones, whether it's a sad or happy cry, that can cause swelling/inflammation of certain glands and ducts around the sinuses. This is a automatic reaction to keep producing moisture so neither your eyes or sinus drys out to a detrimental point." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: Why does liquid sometimes pour straight down the sides of a cup when held diagonally, instead of straight down where we’re actually aiming?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Water likes to stick to things (that's why it runs down your arm in the shower). Pour spouts are shaped so that the water can't grab on. If it doesn't have a spout, you have to turn the cup almost upside down to prevent it from holding on to the glass (like it does in the shower)." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Harry Potter] If magic suddenly ceased to work in the world where would that leave the wizarding community and how might they adjust to the new paradigm?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Grief Counseling Services Contractor here!\n\nWhat you're suggesting here would be tantamount to us muggles losing electricity. Their entire civilization is founded on the principles of magic. Many fundamental services and goods are rooted in magic (think transportation, communication, construction, protection, banking). On top of that, wizards that are not directly connected to the muggle world tend to have very little knowledge of it. With that in mind, we would basically see the wizarding world split into two primary factions: those who can integrate and those who cannot.\n\nThe people who can integrate comfortably with muggle society will be mostly fine. Many of them already hold muggle jobs, or are at least educated enough to survive. Expat wizards higher up in muggle society (government officials and the like) will be able help their family, friends, and close acquaintances with the integration process, minimizing the impact on their lives as much as possible. It would take a number of years, but by the second or third generation, these folks will be fully integrated and will not feel the sting of loss.\n\nThe other side will have a much, much harder time. They've lost their way of life. Some will suicide at the prospect of having such a radical shift in their lifestyle. Some will actually go insane. Some will try to cling to their old lives and die. Some are in dangerous places that were otherwise protected by magic, or that they could easily magic themselves away from, and they will also die. There will be riots, and others will be killed or hurt.\n\nThose who survive the initial hellstorm have a difficult prospect in front of them. Try to merge with a society they never had any interest in being a part of (and may hold in contempt), or cling desperately to the old ways. Again, many of these wizards have no marketable skills outside of wizarding society. What does the world need with a Floo Network inspector? Or a wandmaker? Or even a seamstress?\n\nThe most hardcore base will struggle to find and fix the missing magic. Your question seems to preclude that possibility, so we assume they spend years and years, become a secret society as membership dwindles from people losing faith, and eventually most of the old ways will be lost as their knowledge turns into legend." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "CMV: Writing is more persuasive when we vocalise it (say it out loud) first.\n\nA curse on business and academic writing is the Myth of Professionalism. This is the belief that to sound like we know what we’re talking about we have to use formal, abstract, high-register language, ie long, fancy words derived from Latin and Greek (think ‘construct’ instead of ‘build’, ‘depart’ vs ‘leave’, ‘request’ vs ‘ask’). High-register language is solemn, emotionless and soulless. I think it makes writing sound more drone than human; it alienates readers and kills personality.\n\nInstead, I think any piece of persuasive writing has more impact (ie clearer, more readable and livelier) when you vocalise what you’re trying to say and use that as your first draft.\n\n There are three reasons I think vocalisation works: \n\n1. Because we use normal, mid-register language (aka ‘plain English’) when we vocalise, as opposed to formal, fancy language, it makes us sound more human and more approachable. So it helps tone of voice. \n\n2. For the same reason, it helps us clarify our message; we immediately know when something sounds clear and when it doesn’t. It makes our writing clearer. \n\n3. Mid-register language has more emotional energy than high-register language. It gives our writing more energy.\n\nChange my view." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Interesting topic. A couple of clarifying questions, if you will?\n\n1) How about a non-native speaker, who has learned most of their vocabulary and diction from books and movies (rendering it vastly different from what you refer to as \"mid-register language\")? Can they not be as persuasive, even if their writing is clear and concise?\n\n2) Why do you think vocalization would be the solution, and not something different, e.g. a diagram of interconnected ideas, a list of bullet-points?\n\n3) Why would \"more (emotional) energy\" make the text more persuasive? Wouldn't the text then constitute an appeal to emotion more than an appeal to logic? What if the concepts being communicated rely on logic more than emotion? Should you not make the text fit the idea, rather than the other way around?" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: The Boltzmann Brain\n\nI've read a bit about it but I still don't quite understand. Is a Boltzmann brain a consciousness that just randomly forms in the vacuum of the universe? This question stems from a Wikipedia page, about the timeline of future events, and trillions of years from now is around the estimated time that a Boltzmann brain will form." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The \"Boltzmann brain\" isn't really *anything.* It's a thought experiment in thermodynamics created to explore an interesting and complex question.\n\nThermodynamics is basically the study of heat and the flow of heat. Heat is a property of matter — it's got to do with energy on very small scales — but it *behaves* like it's a kind of fluid, moving from place to place across gradients the way water flows downhill. Since literally *all work in the universe* is a function of the flow of heat, a lot of work's been done on the subject of thermodynamics to better understand just how heat behaves.\n\nOne of the fundamental principles of thermodynamics is the idea of *equilibrium.* This is the notion that *differences* in heat will, over time, tend to \"even out.\" When you drop an ice cube into a glass of water, you create a thermodynamic system with a significant heat gradient in it. Heat will flow out of the water and into the ice cube, melting it, and eventually the entire glass will reach a uniform temperature.\n\nOne of the interesting conclusions of the idea of thermodynamic equilibrium is that while it's *possible* for a system in equilibrium to move into a non-equilibrium state, it's so *vastly improbable* that you can safely assume it'll never happen. There's no physical law that says one spot in your glass of water can't spontaneously get cold and freeze into an ice cube. But it's so incredibly unlikely that you could watch a glass of water for infinite time and never see an ice cube form.\n\nAnd yet … we exist. We, hugely complicated and structured collections of matter, exist in nature. We're *here,* when the laws of thermodynamics seem to imply that we shouldn't be here. Our emergence would seem, at first glance, to be even more improbable than an ice cube spontaneously forming in a glass of tap water.\n\nLudwig Boltzmann was one of the great thermodynamicists. But even he was perplexed by the existence of seemingly thermodynamically impossible things like human beings. He proposed an idea to get around the apparent impossibility of our existence: Maybe we *are* just ice cubes that formed spontaneously. After all, as we said before, there's no physical law that says ice cubes can't form in glasses of water. It's just *really improbable* that they should. But in an infinite universe, isn't it possible for the vastly improbable to happen? Since there's nothing *preventing it,* then it in fact *can* occur, and the fact that it did isn't itself a violation of the laws of thermodynamics. We're only surprised to find that we exist because, well, *we're the ones who are noticing we exist.* If \"we\" were somehow disembodied minds observing the cosmos at a larger scale, the fact that there's a tiny, completely insignificant thermal fluctuation in this one invisibly small spot doesn't seem all that surprising, or even particularly interesting.\n\nThere's a problem with that idea, though. If it's possible for *us* to have emerged in the universe in the way that we did — as complex biological organisms that evolved greater complexity in a steady process taking place over millions of years — then it's also possible for a conscious, thinking being to just emerge *spontaneously* out of, for instance, a glass of water. Boltzmann advanced the idea that, thermodynamically speaking, in fact it's *vastly more probable* that a thinking being should emerge spontaneously out of thermodynamic equilibrium than what happened with us. So if we exist, then the universe should, mathematically speaking, be *packed wall to wall* with these spontaneously emerging \"brains.\"\n\nExcept it isn't. And that, to Boltzmann, looked like a paradox. If a vastly improbable thing happened once, then why didn't a *much more probable* thing happen proportionally more frequently?\n\nBoltzmann never resolved that problem to his own satisfaction. But he also died more than a century ago, before the advancement of biological science gave us the insight we have today into how natural selection works. The short version is that natural selection *amplifies the improbable.* Because organisms reproduce, and pass on their traits as they do, an improbable thing only has to happen *once* for it to be amplified and distributed through an environment. Over a long enough timeline, *tiny* changes give rise to vast complexity. It ends up *looking like* something hugely improbable happened, but in fact what happened is that over a very long span of time, a long series of only *slightly* improbable things happened. Those many slightly improbable things added up to what appears to be a highly ordered system, but which in fact is just the product of a gradual process of emergence over time.\n\nBasically, it's like the idea of flipping a quarter and getting ten heads in a row. The odds of that happening are quite small — just one in a thousand — but anybody who's spent time flipping a coin knows that that kind of \"run\" happens really often. In fact, it's far more probable that the tosses of a coin should present series of heads or tails than it is to get heads-tail-heads-tail-heads-tail for a long time. That's because the coin itself has no memory. It doesn't \"know\" that it came up heads three times in a row, and therefore coming up heads one more time in a row is unlikely. The coin has no natural tendency to \"balance itself out\" by giving you a tails after you've gotten a heads. Every flip of the coin is a whole new proposition, one with a 50/50 chance of going either way.\n\nSo the ultimate resolution to the \"Boltzmann brain\" thing is that we — human beings — aren't so vastly improbable after all. Our existence doesn't flagrantly violate the laws of thermodynamics, like the spontaneous formation of an ice cube in a glass of water would, or indeed the spontaneous formation of something that can think. Our existence is cumulative, the product of a great many things which weren't really that improbable at all." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Avatar: TLA] Why doesn't Long Feng point the Gaang to the Generals?\n\nLong Feng more or less explains to the gaang that the Earth King is a figurehead and is not concerned with the war. The gaang puts all their energy getting through to the Earth King in order to mobilize an invasion force.\n\nThe Earth King doesn't even know of the war. But there *is* an Earth Army fighting the Fire Nation, so the Council of Five knows of the war, and are evidently directing miliitary action without the knowledge or consent of the Earth King. So why didn't Long Feng say *\"I am Long Feng, chief advisor to the King and head of the Dai Li. The King does not deal with matters of war, only domestic policy. I'll arrange for you to meet with General How, on condition that you do not bother the Earth King with any of this.\"*" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The generals are nominally acting under the authority of the Earth King, but they may not know that Long Feng is controlling the Earth King. If the Gaang got too involved with the generals, the generals could realize that, or the king could find out about the war through them. Either way, Long Feng’s grip on power would be threatened, which is why he tried to keep them away from anyone with authority." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "CMV: Incest should be legal.\n\n## \n\nYeah. You heard right.\n\nYup. I know. God the horror right?\n\nThis is not Alabama, nor do i have any hidden feeling for family members. The thought of that alone makes me want to vomit. I would like to think i am a decent person, and i did not experience any tragic childhoods or anything. This is just a pure opinion.\n\nI used to think incest is gross, and i still do, but i realized that i could not come up with any reason to make consentual sex between family members illegal, without shooting myself in the foot. I only tried evualuating it logically and i have no baggage with this topic.\n\n\\- I thought \" Well, i think it is gross\" but i then again, since when is another person's comfort with your activity THEIR concern? And since when is that grounds for legalizing or delegalizing anything? For example I think any form of anal sex is disgusting, but that does not give me power to stop others who want to do it.\n\n\\- I also thought about the children born with defects argument, and that too cannot be entirely valid. For one, does that mean as long as it is protected sex than it is okay? Are same sex partners exempt from this rule? Although it is true that people born from incestuous couple are significantly more likely to have birth defects (about 10x more than non incestuous children) that raises a question, are people with dominent genetic disorders not allowed to have sex because of the child they may likely produce? It is also weird to arrest parents for having a child, even if that child is given an unfortunate life and body. Is policing sex even a good thing?\n\n\\-I also thought about the \"it's rape\" argument but no. **Rape is rape. I am not going to even pretend that forcing yourself onto another person is okay in the slightest, but incest alone is not rape**. Ofcourse if one of the partners is not in the right state of mind to have sex or are too young then i will root for that bastard's arrest, but incest can be consentual. However if the person is using their position as a family member to coerce a person into sex that too is contemptible.\n\nThe other arguments i came up with are arguments that coincidentally are used against homosexuality. **Ofcourse the 2 are in no way the same**, and homosexual sex and heterosexual sex deserve to be treated the same, but the arguments and their counterarguments still hold. You know the \"it is unnatural\",\"it is against God\", etc.\n\nI do not support incest in any capacity, but i ultimately believe that if all parties are consenting, and no illegal items are being used, do whatever the hell you want. I find it hypocritical to say \"what you do in your bedroom is your business, except when it is incestuous. Then it is our business\". I certainly do think that those who have incestuous sex are troubled, but they are entitled to sex too.\n\nI won't go rooting for incest any time soon, but i personally do not see the need to make consentual sex amongst family members illegal.\n\nThere, you may call me crazy now. Wanna change my mind?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The issue is there is no way to protect people from grooming at the earliest of ages and in the privacy of their own home. There is no problem with people of consenting age who have been free to develop their own thoughts and feelings on the issue but children and babies cannot protect themselves from been brought up to believe and behave and want things decided by their parents behaviour." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Are psychosomatic symptoms cultural? Regional?\n\nSomatization and psychosomatic symptoms (such as headaches, back pains, diarrhoea, stomach cramps, respiratory distress, chest tightenings, etc) are prevalent in most populations.\nBut do those symptoms tend to be more prevalent in specific cultures? Does one group of people exhibit primarily psychosomatic gastrointestinal symptoms, whereas a different group of people will have mainly musculoskeletal symptoms? Do people in Japan somatize mostly in headaches whereas people of a middle upper-class income exhibit mainly backpain?\nAre these differences of a cultural or regional nature? Do they evolve over time?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yes they are. \n\nPeople from collectivistic cultures (China) are more likely to report somatic symptoms as a result of depression - things like sleep problems or difficulty concentrating. Meanwhile people from individualistic cultures (U.S.A) are more likely to endorse the typical depression symptoms Americans are familiar with - depressed mood, suicidal ideation, feelings of guilt or worthlessness. \n\nSchizophrenia also has a different presentation depending on culture. Some cultures experience catatonic behaviour whereas some cultures tend to psychologize with delusions and hallucinations. \n\nMeanwhile, some psychosomatic disorders are culture-bound. For example, frigophobia involves intense sensations and fears of cold and it's seen almost exlusively in Taiwan and Sri Lanka. \n\nThere are a variety of proposed reasons for these different presentations. For example, people from collectivistic cultures may experience greater percieved stigma as a result of mental illness for fear of burdening their very close and valued relationships. Therefore they will report physical symptoms (for which they can't reasonably be held accountable) like muscle pains and sleep disturbances." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Star Wars] Solo: A Star Wars Story Megathread (Solo questions go here ONLY!)\n\nY'all know the drill." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "So, sorry if this is a stupid question, but does this movie confirm that the Imperial Infantry is mostly made up of the basic imperial troopers and the stormtroopers are more like elite forces like in the EU?" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: Monsanto Protection Act\n\nI've read other ELI5 regarding why Monsanto is bad, but I don't get the Monsanto Protection Act. What is it? All the articles I read are saying it's bad but don't explain what it is in an understandable way." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Genetically engineered crops are regulated. Once they get approved, farmers can grow them. However, if someone screws something up (like the environmental assessment), the approval can be revoked. This means farmers might be in the position of having crops that were legal when the planted them but illegal now. The thing everyone is up in arms about right now allows farmers to request that the USDA, if they deem it fit, to allow the planted crops to be grown as normal that season and not be destroyed until the GE crop in question can be officially cleared for cultivation again.\n\ntd;dr This thing isn't to protect Monsanto, that's just sensationalist nonsense, it is to protect farmers." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[ASoI&F] Do the old gods have individual identities?\n\nIs there a list of the actual gods worshipped by those who follow the old faith anywhere? Is the drowned god an 'old god'? How about the various gods worshipped across the narrow sea? Or is it just a vague belief in a vast number of indistinguishable nature spirits?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "> Or is it just a vague belief in a vast number of indistinguishable nature spirits?\n\nThis is it. The term \"Old Gods\" came from followers of the Seven. The \"old gods\" are actually nameless spirits of a religious system closer to animalism than modern theism. It was a type of religion worshiped by children of the forest and later adopted by by the First Men." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[DC] Have there ever been times DC heroes have killed without becoming horrible monsters?\n\nIt seems that in nearly every single timeline, whenever a DC hero kills for any reason, they end up becoming bloodthirsty and often tyrannical shells of their former selves who mercilessly slaughter everybody for the smallest offenses, or for even so much as whispering unkind words about them, and it seems like the League treats this is an absolute guarantee, without negotiation and compromise.\n\nWith that, has there been a time where the heroes have killed without this happening to them?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Wonder Woman killed Maxwell Lord. The rest of the Justice League wasn't exactly thrilled about this, but they eventually accepted that she was right and at no point did she become a bloodthirsty tyrant as a result. \n\nGreen Arrow has killed in several timelines, either as a last resort or by accident. \n\nSuperman executed General Zod, Quex-Ul and Zaora by exposing them to kryptonite. He doesn't talk about it and he's not happy about it, but they were genocidal." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[The Matrix]when people in the matrix breed are the kids they \"have\" actually related to them?\n\nLike suppose a man & woman in the Matrix have sex with the aim of having a baby. \nWill the machines actually go the trouble of finding the two of their sleeping bodies, extracting sperm and egg, combining them, so they can provide them with a kid that's actually theirs?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Tech is a bit more advanced.\n\nThey can probably extract a cell from each parent, splice it into a single offspring, and then it would gestate in an artificial womb. No need for it to specifically be egg and sperm." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Why are rotary engines considered unreliable, or \"bad\" when compared to piston engines?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "One of the main problems are the rotor tips. In a piston engine, the cylinder and piston have a rather large contact surface which is constantly lubricated and seals the combustion chamber against the crank case. In a rotary engine, the tips of the triangular rotor drive along the chamber walls to seperate the chambers. This means they have to be very precisely positioned and bear a lot of load, compared to a regular cylinder lining.\nThe tips have to be extremely abrasion resistant and hard, but function as tight seals as well. That's a difficult trick to pull of and makes the whole system somewhat less reliable." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Star Gate] Why does it take a \"source\" chevron to activate the gate?\n\nWouldn't it limit the number of destinations, by requiring all gates to have one chevron that is specifically associated with it? Or is it a sort of \"vector\" marker that delineates the direction of the wormhole?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The point of origin symbol is unique to the DHD for every Stargate and it's always in the same place. This means we don't have to waste time finding out what the symbol is as Daniel did on Abydos.\n\nAs Daniel explains in the movie, the first six chevrons refer to specific points in space. Where those points intersect refers to the destination. The point of origin gives you, as you suggest, a fixed reference point." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "What prevents a normal, healthy heart from going into cardiac arrest during very, very intense exercise?\n\nDuring really high intensity anaerobic activity your heart rate can get to very high rates, close to 100 % of your theoretical maximum. Assuming a normal, healthy heart what prevents the heart from going 'too fast' and going into an aberrant rhythm, and cardiac arrest?\n\nI asked this question to an electro-physiologist and he basically said, you'd pass out, or be too fatigued, it really can't happen and that evolution would have sorted that issue out, if it ever existed, very rapidly. This answer made sense to me. I'm just curious as to what mechanisms exist to prevent it from occurring. It seems as though the human body has contingencies in place for a lot of things and I assume there would be a few for this." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The heart adapts to higher rates. For instance heart rate is normally controlled by the sino-atrial node by a balance of sympathetic (+) and vagal (-) inputs. But the heart also gets sympathetic inputs to other parts of the muscle which alter the action potentials and conduction (e.g. shortening it), so that the fast rate doesn't cause problems. The atrio-ventricular node in a healthy heart won't conduct rates higher than 150-200. Arrest rhythms can be 300 beats per minute because they are generated in the ventricle itself or down an abnormal pathway. \n\nThere is also probably regulation upstream of this, i.e. in the hormones and nerves. Some states and drugs can cause arrhythmias through abnormal stimulation so intense exercise must not cause as much." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: Why are protein bars so dense?\n\nThey are always so firm and heavy, like bricks. Whereas a normal candy bar is kinda light and fluffy. Why can’t protein bars be like that?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Because the ingredients that make up protein bars, which are high in proteins, are different that the ingredients that make up a candy bar, which is high in sugar.\n\nSo it isn't super simple to just do the same thing, because youre starting with two different things.\n\nThere is also the function of marketing, Protein bars market themselves to have XYZ GRAMS OF PROTEIN to appeal to those who want a lot of protein, to get that number bigger they pack the bar as densely as possible. A light fluffy protein bar wouldn't have as much protein in it." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Why are the seatbelts on cars, buses, and airplanes different?\n\nMore specifically, why does a bus use the fiddly two point seatbelt that takes forever to adjust? It’s not as secure as the three point car seatbelt, and it’s not as easily adjustable and removable as a airplane seatbelt." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Airliner seatbelts are different because airliners are vastly different from buses and cars.\n\nAirliner seatbelts are there primarily to move your body down as the plane goes down. If there's a patch of turbulence which causes a rapid descent, your body continues moving the way it's been going, and the airliner smacks into it, hitting you on the head and killing you.\n\nAirline seatbelts are designed to be easily removable via a clawing motion, because people are panicked and instinctive when there's an airplane crash, and the occupants likely only have minutes if not seconds to evacuate before the whole plane catches on fire. On the other hand, airliners are so comparatively safe that the airline industry has effectively lobbied the FAA to not have to install 3-point seatbelts, because the fuel/retrofit cost isn't worth it for the handful of people who might be saved per year (zero people died from an accident on an airliner in 2017, for instance, and only two people have died from an accident in the last decade on a plane operated by an American airline). \n\nAirliner crashes are essentially binary events: either everyone dies on an airliner, or nobody does. A three-point seatbelt wasn't going to save anyone in the 737 Max crashes, or UIA flight 752, or Malaysian Air 370." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[The Mummy] When Imhotep takes Mr. Burns' eyes (and his tongue) how was he able to see clearly as Mr. Burns' needed glasses and was pretty blind without them?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The eyes Imhotep had after the regeneration were Imhotep's actual eyes. He just had to use Burns' eyes as the catalyst and raw material. Also helped that the regenerated eyes were in Imhotep's ocular cavities, not Burns'. \n\nSimilar to how his internal organs weren't desiccated dust after he assimilated them, even though they'd been exactly that in the canopic jars for thousands of years." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Where does light go?\n\nIf I have an electric light switched on in a room it gives off light. Photons I presume. When I switch it off what happens to them? Where does that energy actually go?\n\nThe previous question may answer this but why doesn't light bounce around in the room forever?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When your light is switched on, electrons are being pushed along a Copper wire into a thin Tungsten wire, which is very resistive. The electrons in the resistor bump into the atoms as they flow around, which causes the material to heat up. When a material is hot enough (around 3000K) it emits a lot of light, through a process called blackbody radiation. Tungsten happens to have a melting temperature around 3700K, so it is a great material for light bulbs. There are many other types of light sources, but this is the simplest to understand. As long as the Tungsten wire is hot, it will give off light. When you turn off the light switch, the electricity stops flowing, and the Tungsten wire cools down.\n\nThe light emitted by the bulb travels in every direction, and hits the various objects in your room. The whiter the objects, the higher percentage of the original light is re-emitted each time they are hit by photons. The blacker the objects are, the higher percentage of light is absorbed and makes the object hotter.\n\nIf the room was filled with very smooth conductive surfaces like mirrors, the light would bounce around many times. Very clean mirrors are around 99.9% efficient, which means that 1 in 1000 photons are absorbed as heat and the remainder are reflected. Because photons travel at the speed of light, they will bounce around in the room a few thousand times at most and eventually all be absorbed. Light travels around 30cm per nano-second, so in a 6m wide room it would take 20ns to cross once and around 50-100us for almost all to be absorbed.\n\nTL;dr : The light is all absorbed as heat by objects in the room less than a milisecond after it is emitted." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5 How does sleeping late harm your body\n\nHi first time poster here. I understand sleeping late does harm to your body but what I don't understand is if lets say I form a habit of sleeping at a specific timing (lets say 4am, and wake at 12 the next day), so I get about 8 hours of sleep every night. \n\nWould this affect my body somehow because this just seems to me like my circadian rhythm has changed and its akin to just living in another country with a different timezone.\n\nSorry if I worded it badly, English isn't my forte." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hello! So quick disclaimer: I’m not a sleep specialist or anything but have read a few books on the subject. \n\nBasically your body has a natural circadian rhythm which ebbs and flows roughly with the time of day (e.g. sunset and sunrise). Sleeping through this circadian rhythm can cause your body to feel groggy (almost jet lagged) despite you getting your full 8 hours sleep. \n\nLack of sleep or poor quality sleep is extremely important to avoid and has been linked to higher rates of cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer’s and dementia. \n\nI really recommend getting into a good sleeping habit where you sleep and wake up roughly the same time every night and morning. It will help massively with productivity. \n\nAlso if you’re really interested in the matter, you should consider reading a book called “Why we sleep” by Mathew Walker. It’s very interesting and quite eye opening!" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Is a book from 2015 too old to learn from?\n\nHello all. I have in my possession a book on JavaScript coding, but it's from 2015. Could I learn from this book, or should I seek something more up to date? Thanks for any help." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "IMO - you can definitely learn the basics from it, but be sure to UPDATE your knowledge with current developments.\n\nES6 was a major milestone \\~ mid June 2015. If your book (u mentioned 2015) has included ES6 thats great, if not, make sure you follow the releases post 2015 especially ES6 (being the biggest one), with subsequent releases adding on new features." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[One punch man/Marvel] Could Mumen rider wield Mjolnir?\n\nI don't know too much in-depth knowledge of one punch man I've read most of what's out and watched the anime. But the reoccurring character Mumen rider reminded me of Captain America before the experiment. \n\nThe most prominent example was when he used his own body to occupy the deep sea king for at least a minute or too to try to save civilians. Another one was when he went to help the survivors of the attack by Boros and stared at the ship in the distance which made me think he wished he could do more. \n\nI know a big requirements for wielding Mjolnir is that you have to be willing to kill and that's one of the only thing I think might disqualify him from using it.\n\nWhat do you guys think would Mumen rider be able to wield Mjolnir?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Unlicensed Rider is the only character in the OPM universe who might be worthy. There is a fair argument to be made that he lacks the lust for battle of a Thor, but so did Jane and she was chosen. Lest we forget, Mjolnir is sentient, even if it rarely shows this. It chooses it's wielder. Mumen Rider is the most selfless, bravest, and fiercest hero. If anyone could wield the hammer with honor, it's him." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: What makes medical grade skin adhesive patches so sticky, and how are they able to stay in place for weeks at a time?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Really strong glue chemically bonds to the surfaces it's applied to. Scientists found a glue that chemically mixes with the skin permanently. \n\nBut it only reacts with the top layer of skin. As your skin cells die off and shed, the chemically bonded cells are shed too. \n\nSo when the patch comes off, it's not really the glue that wore off, but the skin it bonded to." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I believe children born with severe illnesses that have no cure should be euthanized. CMV.\n\nHear me out. \nIf you speak with people that have been clinically dead, or even if you have been under anesthesia or even just a deep sleep, you don't realize you were under until you're out of it. It happens suddenly, it's painless and most people recall to be at peace. Even if you look at dead bodies, they look very peaceful. \nIn some cultures, death is a gift and is the greatest gift there is. Even here we have a saying \"he/she is in a better place now\". So why do we let these kids live on and why do we test them and try and try even though we know the end result. I'm not talking about down syndrome or any manageable disorders, I'm talking about those that are painful and greatly reduce the life expectancy of the kids. \n\n**I should rephrase the \"should\" in the title. What I mean is that euthanasia should be be allowed, sometimes encouraged at the discretion of the parents and health care professionals. I do not mean mandatory euthanasia.**\n\nEDIT: Some clarification on my view. I'm also talking about severe birth defects, if you Google that you'll understand what I mean. Although reconstructive surgery has made some impressive breakthroughs, that only deals with a minor percentage of birth defects. What about the cost? The average parents can't afford to pay to keep these kids alive, especially knowing that it might not end well. \n\n\n\nEDIT 2: There are some really good arguments here mainly the fact that a lot of the diseases that can be cured were at some point incurable. Also we can't decide who deserves to live or die and the child or loved ones might actually cherish every moment the child is alive. However research is leaning towards being able to detect the defects early in the pregnancy to avoid this situation entirely. My view still stands but I do understand the other arguments. \n\nGreat discussion guys! Just when I slowly start to think about changing my view, someone brings up a great argument that re-enforces it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The problem with your position is that it requires someone other than the person with the severe illness to assess whether their life is on balance worth living. An individual can assess the entirety of their experience and determine whether the good outweighs the bad or vice versa, and they can make an informed decision on whether life is worth living. The problem arises when you say that *others* should be given the power to decide to euthanize those with birth defects -- are those others in a position to assess the whole of the child's internal life? What if the child, despite being in pain or having some disability, also greatly enjoys living such that despite their pain they very much want to remain alive?\n\nI have known people who had severe chronic pain but still found great joy in life. How would we know that the child does not in fact derive pleasure on balance from living? We can't ask the child unless they are old enough to speak and understand such weighty questions. And if we did ask the child and they wanted to die, that would not be euthanasia, it would be humane assisted suicide.\n\nSurely there are cases where it would be merciful to euthanize children whose lives are constant agony, but how do we tell these children from the ones who enjoy life despite their disabilities? Both types of child may cry, both may *seem* unhappy, but we cannot be anything close to certain regarding their subjective, internal lives.\n\nI think the situation is similar to the reason we require such a high standard of evidence for capital punishment. Surely some guilty people go free because of it, but we find that it is better to let a few guilty people go free than to execute someone who is innocent. In the case you are presenting, isn't it better to err on the side of caution to avoid killing children who would very much want to go on living?" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[Harry Potter] I just heard that the Dark Lord is back. What's in it for me if join his side?\n\nThis morning's Daily Prophet said that You-Know-Who is back and attacked the Ministry, Harry Potter is some kind of Chosen One, and Sirus Black is dead. \n\nAt this point, the war could go either way and I'm thinking about becoming a Death Eater. I've heard Dumbledore talk about how wizards should be nice to muggles but what's in it for me if I become a Death Eater? Do I get muggle peasants/slaves to work for me in our new world order? Is the pay good? When do I get my sweet ass tattoo? Tell me what a Death Eater recruiter would tell me.\n\nA little bit about me. I graduated Hogwarts with decent grades, I got Exceeds Expectations in all my O.W.L.s. I'm not political and I don't particularly like Dumbledore and muggles but I don't have a grudge against them either. Both my parents were half-bloods so I do have some muggle genes in the family but no one has to know that." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Not being murdered by You-Know-Who as a blood traitor as quickly. Maybe a place in the Ministry of Magic once he takes it over and if he likes you enough. \n\nThough seriously, I've got a wand pointed at your face, two giants behind me and a pack of dementors off hunting Muggles ready to be called at a moments notice. What's your pick?" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Why does my breath smell so bad in the mornings?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "You're dehydrated, and mouth bacteria thrive in dryness. When you go to sleep, your salivary glands stop moistening your mouth, and these drier conditions allow bacteria to multiply, and in turn, start crapping everywhere.\n\nThis is also why Mouthwash will make your breath smell nice at first, but make it smell like ass later: (nearly) all common types of mouthwash uses Alcohol to bind the its chemicals together, which will rapidly dry out your mouth on contact. Sure, it kills the germs, but it also sets the stage for them to make a whopping comeback." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Why is water immersion so effective at temporary burn pain relief?\n\nSay you burn your hand on the stove. It hurts a lot, but nothing serious enough to seek medical attention for.\n\nYou can tough out the pain until it eventually goes away, or you can put your hand in cool water, which makes the pain disappear until the water warms up. If you take your hand out of the water, the pain is worse than you felt before starting the water, and it seems to last longer.\n\nIs the cool water numbing nerve receptors? Or is it pulling the heat out of the burn to prevent further damage? Why does the effect wear off so quickly when you remove your hand from the water?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When you get a burn, the skin damage is just the surface of what is changing in your body; most of the damage is occurring internally under the skin as thermal damage. Running cold water does two things, it bombards your sensory nerves to distract it (same as distracting a child from getting a needle by rubbing the arm at a different site), but more importantly, cold water helps stop the spread if thermal burn beneath the skin which the naked eye cannot see.\n\nEdit on iPhone: in anesthesia for example, if u get a spinal for surgery, the doc has to test for pain before surgeon makes incision. You can do this two ways, one is with a blunt needle, the other is with ice. Pain and temperature and fine touch are carried by the same fibers. This is why you can run water to \"numb\" the feeling of a burn, the same nerve once depolorized needs time to repolarize before firing again and since the two sensations share the same nerve fibers, you only feel the cold and no longer the painful burn. If you stop the water, the nerves repolarize and fire again but this time with pain." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "How does one read information from qubits?\n\nWhen the qubits are being read by the outside world, they would collapse - how do we make sure they collapse so that the information is accurate?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This is the entire challenge of creating quantum algorithms, and there's no set method. The way that you manipulate your qubits will vary depending on what sort of problem you're solving. The basic idea, though, is that since quantum states can interfere with each other, you arrange it so that states corresponding to correct answers constructively interfere, while states corresponding to incorrect answers destructively interfere.\n\nThe simplest quantum algorithm is probably the Deutsch-Josza algorithm, which solves the following problem: Given a function that takes as its argument a string of 1s and 0s of length n and outputs either a 1 or a 0, and given that this function is either a) constant, meaning it gives the same result for all inputs, or b) balanced, meaning it returns a 1 for exactly half the possible inputs and 0 for the others, how can you tell which of a) or b) is correct?\n\nThe solution is essentially to take n qubits, in a superposition of all possible states, and manipulate them so that any state that returns a 1 picks up a negative phase shift, while any state that returns a 0 is unchanged. If the function is balanced, then the half of the states with a negative phase shift will exactly cancel out with the other half that are unchanged, whereas if it's constant, all states have the same phase and so all reinforce, and this is set up to be linked to the probability of measuring a particular state, where all the qubits are 0, in the output. So you measure the output, and if you get all 0s, then you know it's constant, and if you get anything else, you know it's balanced.\n\nThis is a simplification, but it should give at least a sense of how it works." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: Why does ball skin move on it's own and if I hover my finger over it, why does it all seem to rush towards the heat? What is going on there?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Your scrotum is a genius little bit of biology, that keeps your testes (and the sperm inside them) safe and at the right temperature even while your body has to get much hotter. Because the inside of your body is too warm for sperm to be made there, the whole thing has to hang outside, and respond very quickly and carefully to changes in temperature to keep the sperm and sperm-producing cells safe and healthy.\n\nThe most common movement you'll see -- where the balls seem to move up or down, sometimes one at a time -- are caused by the cremaster muscle. This expands and contracts to either hang your balls lower (to keep them cool) or pull them up inside you (if it's too cold outside). This is why men \"shrink\" in cold water -- the body is protecting the testes from the cold.\n\nAnother common change is caused by arousal and sexual activity, although many people never notice because it usually happens right before orgasm -- your testicles (usually your right one first, for unknown reasons) will actually raise up a bit into your body to help allow more sperm and ejaculate to make its way to the penis. This is actually really important to having healthy orgasms (or at least ejaculations) and older men often encounter problems when their muscles lose the strength to carry out this sort of precise reaction.\n\nFinally, your nuts can get congested. Yeah, congested. Actually, vasocongested. Basically, they swell with sperm and extra blood flowing into the pelvis to help your erection -- sometimes up to 50% larger than their normal size. In some cases of intense, long term arousal, testicles have been recorded as more than doubling in size. Regardless of the scale of the change, the scrotum almost always goes back to normal within a few minutes of orgasm.\n\nSo basically: Your cremaster muscle can pull your scrotum up into you or let it hang loose to cope with temperature changes; your testicles rise up slightly before orgasm to help you come more efficiently, and blood can swell the scrotum during arousal and make it larger.\n\nI never thought I'd learn so much about balls while trying to help answer a stranger's question on the internet at 3 in the morning..." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "[DCU] Can someone drown in the Lazarus Pit?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "No. People don't drown in water because there is a fluid in their lungs, they drown because the water is in the way of oxygen reaching their blood vessels.\n\nSufficiently oxygenated fluorocarbon liquids are breathable, and the Lazarus Pit has them as part of its makeup." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: How can you pinpoint your location with GPS on your phone without service on the ground, but can’t do the same on an airplane?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It works in plane too....if you have an unobstructed view of the sky with at least 4 satellites.\n\nGiven cramped space and metal ceilinge of typical airliner body this is 50/50 chance of working if you're in window seat. But if you do it on a private small plane with a big plastic window, it works just fine." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: Why are you always told to widen the crack before fixing it?\n\nWhen you go to fix drywall or tarmac, the first instruction is to widen the crack. Why is that?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "You widen the crack to remove loose materials and be sure to get the filler all the way in the crack. Nit widening could leave loose broken pieces that will inhibit the effective fix. Also, if the crack is narrow, it would be more difficult to get the filler all the way into the crack." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "What evolutionary advantage is there to internal organs feeling pain when without modern medicine, there's nothing a person or animal can do to fix what's causing the pain anyway?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Pain can be an indication of something you can change or be careful of. You could change your diet. You could exert yourself less. You could protect that part of your body. These types of changes could prevent further disability, allow for better healing, etc." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5 how seedless fruits keep being grown? Like if you have a seedless clementine, or grape, what is used to plant the next generation of that fruit?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There are two ways to get seedless fruits. For clementines, grapes, and other things that grow on long-lived trees or vines, the plants are propagated by cuttings. This is true even for the ordinary varieties of most of these plants. All grapes of a particular variety are descended from one original grape plant, which had cuttings taken and rooted to form new grape plants, and then cuttings of those taken to form new plants, and so on. The same goes for most fruit tree varieties. \n\nSo if you find a mutant grape without seeds, you just cut off a shoot, plant it in the ground (or more likely graft it to some rootstock but that's not really important for this discussion) and grow more seedless grapes.\n\nThere are exceptions though, for single-season plants like watermelons, seedless plants are usually produced through hybridization. It's similar to how horses + donkeys produce sterile mules...people figured out that if you hybridize certain varieties of watermelon with certain other varieties of watermelon (in this case diploid with tetraploid varieties) you get sterile offspring. The seeds of this hybridization grow into plants which can't make developed seeds themselves.\n\nEDIT: forgot one method. Some seedless fruits are grown by simply preventing the flower from being pollinated. Not all plants will do this, but some will still form fruit even if there's no fertile seed inside. Pineapples for example will grow seeds if pollinated, but can't usually pollinate others of the same variety. So farmers grow a bunch of the same variety and avoid getting seeds in the fruit (although you occasionally still find one). Pineapples are pollinated by hummingbirds and some bats, so in Hawaii they banned the import of hummingbirds to avoid having their pineapples pollinated." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Why do investors buy bonds with real negative interest rates? Are they irrationally incurring a real loss?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "TL:DR, the profit maximizing risk adjusted payoff can be (minimizing) a loss, if all your options suck. \n\nYou have to consider their other options. By making the distinction of \"real negative interest rates\" you say you believe that inflation is going to be higher than those bonds' rates, therefore they would be worse off if they held cash. Then there is a real possibility of stocks falling nominally given a recession which plenty of people think have a higher than normal chance in the next year or two, so given that might happen people could end up worse off if they buy stocks. So, for some people given risk tolerances and timelines, bonds it is." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "ELI5: Are GM crops/food as bad as many people seem to think they are?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Damaging health claims are nonsense. No reputable studies have ever been produced linking health concerns with GM crops. It's just the same kind of tenuous link people make because the rise of cancer diagnoses and the use of GM crops roughly correlate (like autism and vaccines, or ice cream and polio).\n\nAs for environmental concerns there are some concerns that are reasonable and some that are not. GM crops are often bred to be resistant to pesticides, which can lead to pesticide overuse. However the bigger problem as it turns out isn't that it kills off most of the plants in the area, but actually that it encourages resistance to pesticides, which is not good for agriculture. They may also produce pesticides. The genes that allow the plants to do this can escape into the wild and negatively impact insect populations. GM crops may also exacerbate monoculture issues, which are issues that result when lots of plants are genetically similar, making them vulnerable to disease. Part of GM research is involved in the introduction of apomixis to crop plants, which is a form of asexual reproduction that makes plant progeny identical to the parent.\n\nThe stuff about Monsanto being terrible is pretty much nonsense as well. They haven't actually done a lot of what they're accused of doing, and really they seem like a normal company.\n\nFinally, GM crops are useful in that you can increase yields and encourage plants to grow in otherwise hostile areas. However, a lot of the world's food problems come from logistical problems and corruption, so it's overly optimistic to say they'll solve everything. They're a useful and interesting method that should yield some good results though." } ]