AMA Computer University Puns

Hi, I’m Barack Obama, President of the United States. Ask me anything. I’ll be taking your questions for half an hour starting at about 4:30 ET.

Proof it's me: https://twitter.com/BarackObama/status/240903767350968320

We're running early and will get started soon.

UPDATE: Hey everybody - this is barack. Just finished a great rally in Charlottesville, and am looking forward to your questions. At the top, I do want to say that our thoughts and prayers are with folks who are dealing with Hurricane Isaac in the Gulf, and to let them know that we are going to be coordinating with state and local officials to make sure that we give families everything they need to recover.

Verification photo: http://i.imgur.com/oz0a7.jpg

LAST UPDATE: I need to get going so I'm back in DC in time for dinner. But I want to thank everybody at reddit for participating - this is an example of how technology and the internet can empower the sorts of conversations that strengthen our democracy over the long run. AND REMEMBER TO VOTE IN NOVEMBER - if you need to know how to register, go to http://gottaregister.com. By the way, if you want to know what I think about this whole reddit experience - NOT BAD!

http://www.barackobama.com/reddit [edit: link fixed by staff]

Former Vice President Joseph Biden has secured the 270 electoral votes necessary to defeat President Donald Trump and become the 46th President of the United States, according to multiple sources.

##Submissions that may interest you

[How Indigenous voters swung the 2020 election - In Arizona and Wisconsin, Native turnout — which often leans li

We regret to hear that Stephen Hawking died tonight at the age of 76

We are creating a megathread for discussion of this topic here. The typical /r/science comment rules will not apply and we will allow mature, open discussion. This post may be updated as we are able.

A few relevant links:

Stephen Hawking's AMA on /r/science

BBC's Obituary for Stephen Hawking

If you would like to make a donation in his memory, the Stephen Hawking Foundation has the Dignity Campaign to help buy adapted wheelchair equipment for people suffering from motor neuron diseases. You could also consider donating to the ALS Association to support research into finding a cure for ALS and to provide support to ALS patients.

Everyone on this planet has been affected by the SARS-Cov-2/Coronavirus/Covid-19 pandemic. You may have been in lockdown, you may have been forced to work under some form of duress, you may have lost a loved one to the disease, you may be left with long term side effects of the illness, you may have found that regular food, housing, and/or medical care is less attainable or more expensive now.

We could have been better off months ago, but disinformation and lies have been allowed to spread readily through inaction and malice, and have dragged this on at the cost of lives. There are those who deny that the pandemic even exists, there are those who think that wearing a mask will literally suffocate you, there are those who think it's no worse than a regular flu virus, that it's a bioweapon, and everything in between. This volume of blatant misinformation is problematic and dangerous.

It is clear that even after promising to tackle the problem of misinformation on this site, nothing of substance has been done aside from quarantining a medium sized subreddit, which barely reduces traffic and does little to stop misinformation.

 

The disinformation and false information is manifold. There is no area of recognised safety procedures when it comes to battling the spread of a dangerous virus that is not under attack here. All empirically proven measures which can help save lives are under attack. Masks work^1 , but not according to the propaganda. The vaccine is safe,^2 it is not untested, and it is not experimental technology or DNA manipulation, but people getting their information from these propaganda subreddits are told the opposite. Social distancing is valuable^3 , but people are being persuaded to not even do that. Cynical plays on emotion are made. Trying to keep children safe is painted as "child abuse". Lies are repeated so frequently that misinformed people begin to believe them wholeheartedly, trusting that they can't be incorrect because they're surrounded by people who believe it also.

There needs to be a more active involvement in preventing the spread of the disinformation that is keeping us within a pandemic that at this point is entirely manageable. The main problem with a concerted disinformation campaign is that such a message attains an air of legitimacy through sheer volume of repetition. This is dangerous when it comes

My fellow redditors,

When Steve and I created this site twelve years ago, our vision was simple but powerful. We wanted to create an open platform for communities and their members to find and discuss the content they found most interesting. And today, that principle is exactly what net neutrality is all about: preserving an open internet with consumer choice and unimpeded access to information.

Net neutrality ensures that the free market—not big cable—picks the winners and losers. This is a bipartisan issue, and we at Reddit will continue to fight for it. We’ve been here before, and this time we’re facing even worse odds.

But as we all know, you should never tell redditors the odds.

A level playing field

Net neutrality gives new ideas, online businesses, and up-and-coming sites—like Reddit was twelve years ago—the opportunity to find an audience and grow on a level playing field. Saving net neutrality is crucial for the future of entrepreneurship in the digital age.

We weren’t always in the top ten most-viewed sites in the U.S. When Steve and I started Reddit right out of college, we were just two kids with $12K in funding and some computers in Medford, MA. Our plan was to make something people wanted, because we knew if we accomplished that, we could win—even against massive incumbents.

But we wouldn’t have succeeded if users had to pay extra to visit our website, or if better-funded alternatives loaded faster. Our start-up got to live the American dream thanks to the open internet, and I want to be able to tell aspiring entrepreneurs with a straight face that they can build the next Reddit. If we lose net neutrality, I can’t tell them that.

We did it, Reddit, and we can do it again.

You all are capable of creating movements.

I’ve had a front-row seat to witness the power of Reddit communities to rally behind a common goal—starting when you all named a whale Mister Splashy Pants in 2007. It’s been heartening to watch your collective creativity and energy over the years; it’s easy to take all these amazing moments of community and conversation for granted, but the thing that makes

I had a phone interview scheduled this morning, but accidentally slept through it. When I got up and saw that I missed it, I had the desperate urge to call and offer up excuses, in the hope that maybe, just maybe, they'd be understanding and give me another chance.

Instead, all I did was apologize and ask if we could reschedule. That's it, one sentence, no additional information, no explanation or excuse as to why I missed the first interview.

They replied within 20 minutes, apologizing to ME, saying it was probably their fault, that they'd been having trouble with their computer system for days, and of course I could reschedule, was I available that afternoon?

Don't ever volunteer information, kids. You never know what information the other party has, and you can always give information if asked for it later.

Edit: I still get notifications when people comment. Keep them coming, I'm glad I've helped you out :)

Lets Go !

Edit: Since people keep asking. Spoilers for a 30+ year old movie ahead: Anakin brought balance to the force in two ways (depending on interpretation, pick one or the other). He killed off the Jedi until there were only 2 Jedi and 2 Sith, so balanced in a way. Or, in a different interpretation, this action distabilized the Force since the Sith had more control over the universe. The action that brought balance to the Force was when he, as Vader, killed Palpatine. As u/Sarahneth mentioned, he also brought balance to his pod racer as well, if we're being very literal.

Today was the day I realised I messed up by not realising sooner and just thinking my content was shit

For the last 12 months I've been commenting on peoples posts, I've created my own posts. I haven't had a single upvote or reply to anything.. my karma has been at 885 for as long as I can remember so I just figured I wasnt very interesting (still likely true!)

Last month I started to try and see my own posts through guest accounts and figured out they weren't showing, I could still clearly see my comments and posts on my account.

Anyway, I finally mailed the help team and found out my IP was accidentally mixed in with some action to take out spammers, if you can see this it's all sorted now (and if you cant, I'm still in my own little Truman show)

If you're procrastinating (and let's face it, you are) feel free to go through my post history and verify the lack of any human engagement..

TL;DR I was muted one year ago and didn't notice. Since then I've spent the whole time thinking how boring I must be because nobody replies or updoots me.. :-/

Edit: So I've gone from castaway to a full room of people handing me little arrows! Wilson and I thank you xx

Edit 2: this is crazy! Thanks to everyone for all the jewels and things I know nothing about. I'll figure it out and pay it forwards! Special thanks to those that are answering my unanswered questions from previous posts - MVPs!

Please dont be too sad about this, i find it kind of funny that I've been such an idiot for so long. It's ok to laugh with/at me :)

Edit 3: Reddit is awesome. I've missed you guys! Dont feel mad at the mods, its a tough and thankless job and flooders/bots are a real PITA. Its just one of those things and I thank them for putting in the hours.

I also want to use this very brief soap box to raise awareness for mental health. Most of us here use Reddit as an escape, some people here have fewer friends irl than they do on the net. Make sure each other are ok every once in a while (if someone goes missing, like for more than a month....) - if you see someone struggling send them a message of support, even a stranger can help.

I love all of you weirdos <3

Edit 4: No more I promise. I'm completely overwhelmed by the response and the nice feedback. I'm trying to answer all of the questions but its difficult to keep up. I created an /AMA when this thread went down, if you relate to any of the topics close to me like diabetes, gaming, mental health, parenting etc then keep in

Ellen Pao resigned from reddit today by mutual agreement. I'm delighted to announce that Steve Huffman, founder and the original reddit CEO, is returning as CEO.

We are thankful for Ellen’s many contributions to reddit and the technology industry generally. She brought focus to chaos, recruited a world-class team of executives, and drove growth. She brought a face to reddit that changed perceptions, and is a pioneer for women in the tech industry. She will remain as an advisor to the board through the end of 2015. I look forward to seeing the great things she does beyond that.

We’re very happy to have Steve back. Product and community are the two legs of reddit, and the board was very focused on finding a candidate who excels at both (truthfully, community is harder), which Steve does. He has the added bonus of being a founder with ten years of reddit history in his head. Steve is rejoining Alexis, who will work alongside Steve with the new title of “cofounder”.

A few other points. Mods, you are what makes reddit great. The reddit team, now with Steve, wants to do more for you. You deserve better moderation tools and better communication from the admins.

Second, redditors, you deserve clarity about what the content policy of reddit is going to be. The team will create guidelines to both preserve the integrity of reddit and to maintain reddit as the place where the most open and honest conversations with the entire world can happen.

Third, as a redditor, I’m particularly happy that Steve is so passionate about mobile. I’m very excited to use reddit more on my phone.

As a closing note, it was sickening to see some of the things redditors wrote about Ellen. [1] The reduction in compassion that happens when we’re all behind computer screens is not good for the world. People are still people even if there is Internet between you.

If the reddit community cannot learn to balance authenticity and compassion, it may be a great website but it will never be a truly great community. Steve’s great challenge as CEO [2] will be continuing the work Ellen started to drive this forward.

[1] Disagreements are fine. Death threats are not, are not covered under free speech, and will continue to get offending users banned.

Ellen asked me to point out that the sweeping majority of redditors didn’t do this, and many were incredibly supportive. Although the incredible power of the Internet is the amplification of voices, unfortunately sometimes tho

My 6 Questions:

1. How did you enjoy your time working at Reddit?
2. Were you expecting to be let go?
3. What are you planning to do now?
4. What was your favorite AMA?
5. Would you come back, if possible?
6. Are you planning to take Campus Society's Job offer?

Public Contact Information: @happysquid is her twitter (Thanks /u/crabjuice23 And /u/edjamakated!) & /u/chooter (Thanks /u/alsadius)

Edit: The votes dropped from 17K+ to 10K+ in a matter of seconds...what?

Edit again: I've lost a total of about 14K votes...Vote fuzzing seems a bit way too much

Science and technology development has been the story of the past 100 years. The discoveries and innovations are progressing at a dazzling rate, much of this lead by researchers at universities in the USA. At these universities, a substantial amount of the work is done by graduate students, who work long hours (80 hours weeks aren't unusual) for little pay. These graduate students go on to work in good paying jobs, where their innovations make more jobs for others.

Start-ups develop to bring new innovations based on the skills graduate students learn (Google was the project of a couple of Stanford grad students, even Reddit benefited from the skills of a physics grad student/PhD, /u/keysersosa, the current CTO.) Grad school has been for decades a path to prosperity for those who come from humble beginnings but are willing to work hard, and make sacrifices, a system that has greatly benefited all of us.

This is why we scientists are shocked and appalled by the recently passed tax bill in congress which will result in the tax bills of already poor grad students going up by as much as 300%, which would see their take-home pay drop by 25%. As a former grad student myself, I can tell you that I would not have been able to continue if my pay had be reduced by $7,000, and many students would make the same conclusion. Instead, some will not go into science or they will leave the USA to be a grad student in Europe or Asia, most of these students will never return to the USA.

This is why every major science organization has voiced opposition to the current tax plan, make no mistake, this plan will undermine research and eventually the economy of the USA.

In comic form from PhD Comics.

What can we do to stop it? Call your representatives in congress and let them know. It hasn't passed yet, but it's about to. If we don't raise voices now, we will all regret it.

Edit: There is an official White House petition you can sign to express your opposition: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/opposition-taxation-graduate-student-tuition-waivers-and-remissions

Aslo: https://medium.com/@avandervort/an-open-

The FCC just voted to throw out the Net Neutrality protections. Now cable and phone companies are free to block, slow down, or charge for fast lanes for content on the internet. This vote was a complete disregard for public opinion, facts and the law itself.

Free Press will be suing the FCC and fighting this in Congress in the coming months. I'm a lawyer for Free Press here with our friends & allies and we're happy to answer any of your questions on Net Neutrality. AMA!

Proof

Want to help? Here are a few things:

Visit BattleForTheNet.com to urge Congress to pass a resolution of disapproval

Join 500K Net Neutrality activists at Team Internet

Donate to Free Press to support our legal fight

Support our amazing allies:

Fight for the Future

Demand Progress

Center for Media Justice

18 Million Rising

National Hispanic Media Coalition

Color of Change

Public Knowledge

Open Technology Institute

We have lost one of the greatest minds in history today as Professor Stephen William Hawking has passed away on March 14, 2018 at the age of 76.

It is a terrible loss and we wanted to create this thread for people to share their thoughts about Professor Hawking, from favorite quotes, to theories, to whatever he and his work meant to you.

We also would recommend checking out the AMA he did a couple of years ago. Additionally, here is a link to his official website.

Edit: We are also including a link to The Stephen Hawking Foundation in case anyone is interested in donating in honor of his memory.

>The Stephen Hawking Foundation was established on the initiative of Professor Stephen Hawking to facilitate research into Cosmology, Astrophysics and Fundamental Particle Physics both at school and university level. It will also facilitate and support work relating to Motor Neurone Disease and those living with the disease.

Hello Reddit,

I’m just a normal guy, who spends his free time with his hot wife and cat in St. Louis. I didn’t see any of this coming, it’s been a crazy week. I want to make something good come out of this moment, so I’m donating a portion of the proceeds from my Represent T-Shirt campaign to the St. Patrick Center raising money to fight homelessness in St. Louis.

I’m an open book doing this AMA at my desk at work and excited to answer America’s question.

Please support the campaign and the fight on homelessness! Represent.com/bonezone

Proof: http://i.imgur.com/GdMsMZ9.jpg

Edit: signing off now, just like my whole experience so far this has been overwhelmingly positive! Special thanks to my Reddit brethren for sticking up for me when the few negative people attack. Let's just show that we're better than that by not answering hate with hate. Maybe do this again in a few weeks when the ride is over if you have questions about returning to normal.

My client will be answering no further questions.

NEW EDIT: This post is about to be locked, but questions are still coming in. I made a new AMA to keep this going. You can find it here!

After two weeks abroad, I was looking forward to returning to the U.S. this weekend, but as I got off the plane at LAX on Sunday, I wasn't sure what country I was coming back to.

President Trump’s recent executive order is not only potentially unconstitutional, but deeply un-American. We are a nation of immigrants, after all. In the tech world, we often talk about a startup’s “unfair advantage” that allows it to beat competitors. Welcoming immigrants and refugees has been our country's unfair advantage, and coming from an immigrant family has been mine as an entrepreneur.

As many of you know, I am the son of an undocumented immigrant from Germany and the great grandson of refugees who fled the Armenian Genocide.

A little over a century ago, a Turkish soldier decided my great grandfather was too young to kill after cutting down his parents in front of him; instead of turning the sword on the boy, the soldier sent him to an orphanage. Many Armenians, including my great grandmother, found sanctuary in Aleppo, Syria—before the two reconnected and found their way to Ellis Island. Thankfully they weren't retained, rather they found this message:

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

My great grandfather didn’t speak much English, but he worked hard, and was able to get a job at Endicott-Johnson Shoe Company in Binghamton, NY. That was his family's golden door. And though he and my great grandmother had four children, all born in the U.S., immigration continued to reshape their family, generation after generation. The one son they had—my grandfather (here’s his AMA)—volunteered to serve in the Second World War and married a French-Armenian immigrant. And my mother, a native of Hamburg, Germany, decided to leave her friends, family, and education behind after falling in love with my father, who was born in San Francisco.

She got a student visa, came to the U.S. and then worked as an au pair, uprooting her entire life for love in a foreign land. She overstayed her visa. She should have left, but she didn't. After she and my father married, she received a green card, which she kept for over a decade until she became a citizen. I grew up speaking German, but she insisted I focus on my English in or

Liver cancer, mouth cancer, bone marrow failure. Will probably be dead before April. I've heard of people getting early screenings before.

How do I get in on this action?

I'm not a child or anyone with a particularly tragic story. Just a normal guy. I'm 33, lost my sister three years ago to the same rare genetic disease it turns out I have too. I'll leave behind a devoted girlfriend and an adopted greyhound.

I thought I'd make it to April at least but my bone marrow is toast.

Any suggestions?

Edit:

...

Wow.

Girlfriend brought me coffee in bed and I just read this entire thread. People offered me their organs. There's a hashtag on Twitter:

"Avengers4Alexander"

This is crazy.

God I hope I've never said anything dodgy in my comment history.

Thank you all.

Edit2:

It's been a surreal day for me. There are articles on blogs and I heard someone talking about me in a YouTube video.

I've had thousands of messages and comments of support and I'm very grateful. I've had lots of questions too and I've done my best to answer all of them. If I missed yours it's not personal, it's just that my inbox is out of control.

I've had background anxiety all day that I've said something offensive on reddit at some point and someone is gonna find it, but so far so good. That anxiety is of course drowned out by all the good feels.

I've had messages from people hinting that Marvel higher ups are aware of me and are preparing something.

Also, because Australia is a small place, turns out I know a guy who knows a guy who is chums with Chris Hemsworth. I think they called him tonight on my behalf.

A mod on r/thanosdidnothingwrong asked for some proof so I sent something a little while ago. I think he'll disseminate it to other mods but if mods here want to see something let me know.

I don't know what the outcome will be but this has been amazing. If it doesn't pan out don't sweat it - I'll carry your kind words with me and that's worth far more.

If I do survive until Endgame it's gonna feel strange because I'll feel sorta obligated to die :-P

Lastly, I don't mean to be greedy but since I'm triple dying can we throw Captain Marvel into the mix?

Bonus greyhound.

Edit3:

I've had a few messages from people assuring me that Disney/Marvel are going to reach out. Thank you all for all of your support. I'm hoping I get to say "we did it reddit!" soon.

A few commenters have offered financial support.

I’m excited to be back for my seventh AMA. I’ve learned a lot from the Reddit community over the past year (check out this fascinating thread on robotics research), and I can’t wait to answer your questions.

If you’re wondering what I’ve been up to (besides waiting in line for hamburgers), I recently wrote about what I learned at work last year.

Melinda and I also just published our 11th Annual Letter. We wrote about nine things that have surprised us and inspired us to take action.

One of those surprises, for example, is that Africa is the youngest continent. Here is an infographic I made to explain what I mean.

Proof: https://reddit.com/user/thisisbillgates/comments/auo4qn/cant_wait_to_kick_off_my_seventh_ama/

Edit: I have to sign-off soon, but I’d love to answer a few more questions about energy innovation and climate change. If you post your questions here, I’ll answer as many as I can later on.

Edit: Although I would love to stay forever, I have to get going. Thank you, Reddit, for another great AMA: https://imgur.com/a/kXmRubr

TL;DR – Call your Senators, then join us for an AMA with one.

EDIT: Senator Markey's AMA is live now.

Hey Reddit, time for another update in the Net Neutrality fight!

When we last checked in on this in February, we told you about the Congressional Review Act, which allows Congress to undo the FCC’s repeal of Net Neutrality. That process took a big step forward today as the CRA petition was discharged in the Senate. That means a full Senate vote is likely soon, so let’s remind them that we’re watching!

Today, you’ll see sites across the web go on “RED ALERT” in honor of this cause. Because this is Reddit, we thought that Orangered Alert was more fitting, but the call to action is the same. Join users across the web in calling your Senators (both of ‘em!) to let them know that you support using the Congressional Review Act to save Net Neutrality. You can learn more about the effort here.

We’re also delighted to share that Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts, the lead sponsor of the CRA petition, will be joining us for an AMA in r/politics today at 2:30 pm ET, hot off the Senate floor, so get your questions ready!

Finally, seeing the creative ways the Reddit community gets involved in this issue is always the best part of these actions. Maybe you’re the mod of a community that has organized something in honor of the day. Or you want to share something really cool that your Senator’s office told you when you called them up. Or maybe you’ve made the dankest of net neutrality-themed memes. Let us know in the comments!

There is strength in numbers, and we’ve pulled off the impossible before through simple actions just like this. So let’s give those Senators a big, Re

My name Borat Sagdiyev, I have age of 536 moons and length 19.3 centimeters. I from town of Kuzcek and am #4 journalist in all of Kazakhstan. Prior to this I train for two year for job sticking labels on apples, but week before I was due to commence employ my country apple tree fell over so I retrain 8 month and become ice maker. I was fire from this job after being false accused by my asshole neighbor Nursultan Tulyakbay of stealing this treasure and eating at workplace. I subsequent became traffic light operator – I would paint the discs red for cart stop then green for cart go – I then brief do computer maintenance removing dead birds from its pipes, then I become journalist.

Proof: https://i.redd.it/j79xnwidpwu51.jpg

Your questions give me great pleasure. I must now go make liquid release. Chenquieh.

https://preview.redd.it/9ue6ou7s5wq51.png?width=1200&format=png&auto=webp&s=d0e01c2c5ecb0b6e6a56b49160e020f519c72c90