user: Why are so many US Hollywood films made in the state of Georgia?

assistant: While film in the United States as an audience artform started in New York it moved to Los Angeles for the stated reason of longer and sunnier days.  Another part of the story was a patent dispute in 1898 between Thomas Edison and his patent for the Kinetograph.  Edison stated that he effectively had a say in how films were made and wanted royalties for their use.  Moving from New York near where Edison was based to Los Angeles was a simple way to grow the industry and distance themselves from a patent war.  

This mobility at the start of the modern film era due to costs continued through the 1960's and 1970's with westerns being shot in Spain.  The 1980's and 1990's continued this trend primarily shooting in Canada or Mexico.  At the turn of the century state legislators in the United States started provided steep tax rebates.  The practical outworking of this is studios are encouraged to hire local talent and use local services when producing their film.  The ratios for these rebates is fairly complicated and have created a new industry of tax professionals serving the film industry.

So then why Georgia?  Georgia currently provides one of the highest incentive structures at 20% with minimal restrictions on talent and a very low minimum budget of $500,000.

user: What is splitboarding?

assistant: First of all, a splitboard is a snowboard that splits in half length-wise to allow for enhanced mobility while climbing up a slope. When the splitboard is split in half, you adjust the bindings so the setup looks just like a ski setup. After you split the board, you put climbing skins on the bottom of the splitboard to give you traction on the snow. After reaching the top  of your destination, you remove your feet from the bindings, remove the skins and then put the splitboard back together. Once the splitboard and bindings are reassembled, you snowboard down the mountain.

user: What was the Byzantine Empire?

assistant: After the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century AD, it split into many nations. The eastern part of the Roman Empire became the Byzantine Empire with Constantinople as its capital city rather than Rome. The Byzantine citizens continued to refer to themselves as Romans, and believed themselves as the successor to the former empire, however their culture was more Greek than Latin. The Byzantine Empire continued to be the most powerful nation in Europe until the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453.