[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] [Starwars] If you drop a lightsaber facing directly to the ground, is it gonna burrow till it reaches the core of the planet?

[Assistant]
Even if you bypass all safety features, manage to keep the blade activated and the saber angled correctly, this won't happen.

That's because a lightsaber doesn't *delete* matter, it *heats* it. Some matter may be displaced to the sides but ultimately mass is conserved. You'll eventually end up a saber suspended in a thick gooey pool of magma that will stop growing when the energy output of the saber matches thermal dissipation of the surrounding environment.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] [DCU/Marvel] With super powered beings running around and new ones popping just about everywhere has this shaped gun laws within those universes? Or is the number of these people with super powers so small that we can consider such laws to be similar to our own?

[Assistant] From what I've seen in Marvel (mostly from the Punisher comics) it appears like gun laws generally match our own. There may be general a weapons ban on energy or tech based weapons (similar to our old assault weapons ban) though since it is mostly villains or SHIELD that appear to use them and even Frank doesn't use them very much.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
CMV: Making small assumptioms about a person based on their appearance is OK

I live in a very progressive and liberal area. Throughout my school career, I have been taught that you should not make any assumptions about a person based solely off of their appearance.

However, I think this is wishful thinking. A person's appearance is (for the most part) a *choice* by that person. I believe that this choice can reflect a lot about a person's character, likes, their social groups, etc.

I know that a person's appearance is by no means everything. I still treat everyone new I meet with respect and kindness, but I definitely take into account that person's appearance while doing so.

Thanks in advance.

[Assistant]
Sure you can make assumptions about people's backgrounds. We give people clues about ourselves all the time in the words we use, our accents, or clothes, or hairstyles.

But if you are intending to assess a person's value based on their outward appearance, then you are mistaking the wave for the ocean.  Cruelty isn't softened by a thousand dollar suit, and gentleness of heart isn't sullied by a tattoo.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] ELI5: Can a 'loud' sound frequency outside of our hearing range cause damage to our ears?

[Assistant]
Sound is the vibration of an object. Our ears translate sound to our brains by turning the vibrating energy into electrical energy. They're tuned by tissue thickness and flexibility to pick up a range from 20 vibrations per second to about 20,000 vibrations per second.

Sounds outside this range are still vibrating the air, which mean the ear drum is vibrating whenever any sound occurs. Too much vibration causes damage to the drum. Since that vibration goes through some bones then on to the cochlea (which has hairs to sense high or low pitch), those parts can also be damaged. Enough vibration, even though outside our range of hearing, can damage the parts that hear sounds within our normal range.

To put it more simply, the ear can only detect one set of sounds, but is affected by all.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
Does the magnetic field energy around a magnetar type neutron star have mass?

From wikipedia: A magnetar's 1010 tesla field, by contrast, has an energy density of 4.01025 J/m3, with an E/c2 mass density more than 10,000 times that of lead.

If I'm understanding this, it's saying that the energy stored in any given cubic meter of magentic field around a magnetar is 10,000 times the energy of 1 cubic meter of lead converted to energy in accordance with E =mc^2

First off, this completely blows my mind. I didnt realise *anything* could store energy at a higher density than matter besides maybe a black hole.

Second, does this magnetic field energy have mass? Does this mass make the neutron star more massive? Like, from outside the strong field, looking in, is the total mass in a sphere around the neutron star and its magnetic field higher than the mass inside a sphere around only the actual neutron star?

Could this energy be released quickly?

[Assistant]
**Short answer:** The magnetic field doesn't have mass; it is a massless field. However, the energy stored in the field is very real and can contribute to the overall effective mass of the star.

**Long answer:** Recalling general relativity, mass *and energy* both curve spacetime, meaning that they contribute to the strength of gravitational fields. For example, a charged battery would register as ever so slightly heavier on a scale than an uncharged battery. This doesn't mean the battery is more massive or that there are more particles of matter present, it means something very different. It means the energy stored in it and that energy is gravitating too. This has funny consequences, like a kugelblitz- since light has energy it will curve spacetime, so it would be possible to create a black hole without any matter by just shining enough light in one spot.

A strong magnetic field is a bit like this battery too. So, as you say, the very very strong magnetic field of a neutron star results in an energy density higher than the energy density of matter on earth. That's pretty wild.

For comparison though, a neutron star is about one hundred trillion times the mass density of lead, so even though this magnetic field has an enormous energy density by earth standards (and by objective standards, these are the strongest magnetic fields in the universe), their energy density still pale in comparison to the energy density of neutron star matter.

As for your last question, the magnetic field energy of neutron stars can be released, and such things have been observed. A handful of phenomena have been linked to rapid releases of magnetic energy from neutron stars, such as soft gamma repeaters. Hypothetical events include neutron star merger crust shattering flare, and explanations for fast radio bursts. All these phenomena use the reservoir of energy in the magnetic field to create high energy astrophysical phenomena, like snapping giant magnetic rubberbands.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] ELI5 : Can anybody tell me why all Netflix original series, such as "House of Cards", "Orange is the New Black", "Bloodline" and the newly released "Daredevil" all contain 13 episodes per season? Is there any significance or reason for this?

[Assistant]
Most answers here are generally correct, but to be more precise, this an old convention in the world of TV.  In the old days, when there was no cable, no recording, only 3 antenna channels, and very few content creators, the networks  had to think about how to fill all their timeslots and get viewers.

So there are 52 weeks a year.  Do they want to show something new always?  New is better, but they know people are going to miss episodes from time to time, and the episodes don't really have a strict order, so why not give people more chances to tune in? So they compromise.  26 episodes and the contract with the content creators would allow the network to air each episode twice in the year (afterwards it would be open to syndication).  So, to have a new season every year, they traditionally made 26 episodes a season.

This became known as a full order.  The first run would begin in the fall, the second run in the spring/summer.

Then, networks learned how hard it was to know if a show would be a hit.  So they managed risk by only ordering half-orders (13 episodes) with an option to extend the run.

As shows got more expensive, complex and serialized, networks learned that in some cases half orders were more reasonable for some hits going forward.  Making 26 hours of GoT would be a Herculean feat.

In the last few years we've also lost the practice of the second run as networks do new summer programming, especially cheap reality shows.  Survivor was the big step in popularizing this.  So now, without more abundant programming and no second run, networks don't show a full set of reruns and just skip low viewership weeks (holidays, big sporting events).  This has lead to full orders being 20-24 episodes and halfs being 10-12.

Netflix is really just following tradition/convention with their season sizing.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[Star Wars] Can a jedi theoretically tap deeply into the dark side and have Sith eyes on their own?

Without being a Sith apprentice?

For example, a Jedi is placed in an enclosed chamber and he rages so much that he does enough to unleash the Dark Side of the force within him.  Can he self-transform his eyes into a Sith Lord's without being an actual Sith himself?

If I recalled correctly, Dooku never tapped fully into the dark side to have the same Sith eyes, but he was in every way an extremely powerful Sith Lord already.

[Assistant]
They are not "Sith Eyes." You make it sound like they are exclusive to Sith Lords, which they aren't either. They are simply a sign of being deep in the Dark Side.

Dooku did get the yellow eyes, but usually only at certain points when using the Dark Side in *The Clone Wars* CGI series.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: Since we're aware of the elements required to create water (H2O), are we able to do so? Are the elements scarce/abundant? If not/so, why don't we just create water and supply it to places in need?

This might be a dumb question, but it seems so simple...which might be exactly why it isn't...

[Assistant]
The elements of H2O are Hydrogen and Oxygen, two gasses. They're not all that common in their raw form because they react with things, so they're normally in compounds, like water. You can get hold of pure hydrogen and pure oxygen quite easily though - the easiest way to do it is to use electrolysis to split water. Water is extremely common compared to almost anything else.

It takes a lot of energy to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, and when you combine them back again to form water, you get a lot of energy out. You can power a rocket with it.

None of this is more practical than just piping water to somewhere that needs it.

Edit: BTW if you think "there are no stupid questions", have a read of some of the lower-rated replies to this post.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5:How do we "know" black holes are infinitely small with infinite density? Why can't they just be extremely small and extremely dense so the math isn't ridiculous?

Why can't a black hole simply be massive and dense enough to have an escape velocity higher than C without being infinitely small and infinitely dense?

[Assistant]
With what little we *know* about black holes, the math shows them to be essentially infinitely small and infinitely dense.  Of course, intuitively, that makes no sense to our brains, which are used to seeing matter take up space and have defined density.  This means that there are two broad possibilities:

* The math we're using is wrong, and there's an undiscovered way for the math to more accurately map reality.

* Black holes really do approach infinity; the math is correct, and we need to update our understanding of the universe to include this fact.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
Does the electromagnetic spectrum abruptly stop at gamma rays.. or are there higher energy/shorter wavelengths out there?

If so, where do they originate? Would it be possible (or worthwhile) to attempt to make them artificially? Is there some reason why a shorter wavelength would be impossible?

Thanks in advance to anyone who could give some feedback!

[Assistant]
No, there is no sharp cut off, though we don't have a standard term for super-high energy photons.  Typical gamma rays from nuclear have energies of 10^(5) to 10^(7) eV.  Astronomical sources can yield energies around 10^(13) eV, indicating that they coming from processes other than radioactive decay.  If you can find a way to create a high energy photon, it will have more energy.

In fact, the notion of a photon's energy is dependent on the frame of reference of the observer.  The fastest particle every observed was a cosmic ray (likely a proton) with an energy of 3x10^(20) eV.  Imagine that that cosmic ray was observing a gamma ray that we observed as traveling towards the cosmic ray and, in our frame, with an energy E.  To the cosmic ray, that gamma ray would have an energy that was between 10^(11) and 10^(12) times bigger.  That means, if things were lined up right, nuclear gamma rays we observed at 10^(7) eV or astrophysical gamma rays that we observed at 10^(13) eV would, to this cosmic ray, have energies of over 10^(18) or 10^(24) eV, respectively.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: How exactly does Deja Vu happen, and is it abnormal to experience it daily?

I remember one of my professors giving me this thin, run down explaination of it, but he didnt say more than two sentences. I still don't understand it.

[Assistant]
Humans have two kinds of memory, a short term memory that lasts a few hours and the long term memory that archives the memories. What you perceive from your senses is processed in your short term memory and is eventually shuffled off to long term memory when the brain no longer deems it useful for the current time. Deja Vu occurs when the signals to your short term memory either go to long term memory first or ends up in both at the same time. Seeing the sensory input in both the short term and long term memory confuses the brain into thinking that it has experienced the event in the past and at the current time creating the feeling that you have experienced before.

Since it occurs when something goes wrong in the brain anyone who gets it on a daily basis should seriously see a neurologist on that.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: How high and how low do a nations borders go?

Does a bit of earth still count as part of a nation even if it were far below the surface? On the same note does a nations air space go as high as the atmosphere goes or is there a different cut off point?

[Assistant] National borders are usually understood to travel all the way to the center of the Earth below. Above they extend to the border of the atmosphere with space which is typically defined as 100km in elevation.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] Is happiness meaningful without any knowledge of pain or suffering?

[Assistant] If you take the absence of pain and suffering as allowing a neutral feeling, then pleasure will at least be preferable to a neutral state. So that allows for meaningfulness without pain or suffering. Certainly with pain involved, it makes sense that pleasure might have more meaning to a person though.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
Did Venus once have an atmosphere like Earth, and are volcanoes the reason that changed?

I was watching a short documentary on Venus, and it mentioned a hypothesis that Venus was once much like Earth, but a major greenhouse effect drastically affected the climate there, giving us the hellscape we have in the night sky today. IIRC, one of the possible ways this may have happened was through excessive volcanic eruptions, with the after-effect being said drastic greenhouse effect. Is this a legitimate hypothesis for Venus' current conditions ?

[Assistant]
There's evidence that Venus was basically covered in lava due to tremendous volcanic activity around 500M years ago. So much that it was basically resurfaced by the lava outflows and the solidified lava became the new surface of the planet. Needless to say, anything even approaching that level of volcanic activity would release enough carbon dioxide to send Venus into a runaway greenhouse climate if it wasn't already there in the first place.

Scientists are divided on whether the resurfacing event 500M years ago was an isolated incident or the latest in a string of resurfacing events throughout the planet's history. There is no active plate tectonics on Venus today. The leading hypotheses on plate tectonics is that large amounts of liquid water are crucial in allowing continents to slide past one another (due to how water affects mineral formation, rock grain size and other factors that influence subduction and heat exchange from the mantle to the crust). Depending on when the Venusian oceans boiled away, plate tectonics could have stopped very early in the planet's history or in the lead up to the latest resurfacing event 500M years ago. When plate tectonics stops happening, heat cannot really be transfered out from the core & mantle nearly as effectively. That heat builds up until the crust fractures catastrophically and the built up heat and pressure escapes all at once as lava in a massive, planet-wide resurfacing event.

The loss of oceans on Venus also meant that geologic weathering stopped, preventing the main way to remove carbon dioxide from the planet's atmosphere. It could very well be that Venus might have been habitable and may have had primitive life in its oceans. Maybe the loss of its magnetic field caused the oceans to slowly be lost to space to kick the whole process off. Or maybe the primitive life on Venus never managed to get photosynthesis figured out and the planet slipped into an unstoppable runaway greenhouse as the Sun increased in brightness over billions of years. Venus was most likely made from the same kinds, amounts and ratios of materials the Earth was, so the planetary "ingredients" were very similar starting out.

The funny thing is, Earth experienced several major glaciations where thick ice caps basically expanded to the equator and the entire planet was covered in ice. The latest round of these severe ice ages happened right around the time Venus' oceans could have been boiling away or even within a few million years of Venus' last resurfacing event itself. How depressing or absolutely misleading it would have been if any interstellar explorers or probes visited the two planets during this time. One planet was a noxious hellhole with temperatures so high, METALLIC SNOW fell on its highest mountaintops. And the next planet out from the Sun was a frozen wasteland way colder than Antarctica is today, and could have been locked in a deep freeze for tens of millions of years at a time. Any notion of a "Goldilocks Zone" in our Solar System would be unthinkable given the contrast of these two planets even though they were not that much different initially.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[Star Wars] What's stopping a Force user from ripping someone apart from the inside out?

When Force users are able to project lightning and constrict someone's throat, why can't they just rip a person apart either by physically ripping off limbs or stopping someone's heart? I guess if you were trying to do that to someone who was also a Force user they could prevent you from doing so, but take Grievous, for example. He just had a bunch of lightsabers, no mastery of the Force whatsoever. Why not just rip off his arms or crush his exposed heart?

[Assistant]
Yoda and Obi Wan both teach that the Force is created by all living things, and that from all living things it reaches out to bind together the world, the galaxy, perhaps all of reality itself.

It's one thing to use an engine as a energy source, perhaps even to power attacks against one another.

It's another thing to expect to be able to reach inside an engine without harming yourself.

If such things were possible, the Sith would have tried to master it long ago and the Jedi would have needed defenses against it. But it seems that the presence and proximity of so many living cells prevents such direct intrusions of the body.

So attacks need to be made by proxy. A Force-guided projectile. A lightsaber that requires the Force to properly wield. But not the Force itself.

Thoughts can be altered, yes. But thoughts come from our consciousness, the luminous beings we really *are*, not the crude matter we temporarily occupy.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
What will happen to Earth when the Milky Way collides with the Andromeda galaxy?

So in 4 billion years the Milky Way is going to collide with the Andromeda Galexy, but if for some reason that were to happen in our lifetime, how might it affect our planet/ solar system?

[Assistant]
We'll *probably* be fine, though it's complicated.

Galaxies are enormous, but mostly empty space, so most of the stars end up missing each other, often, not even coming particularly close to each other.

The gravitational interactions will be considerably more complex, and the solar system may be flung out of the galaxy(s) altogether, but that's not a big problem, because we'll move together, it's not likely that the planets will be stripped away, although it might lead to an uptick in comets or something.

That's actually probably the best case, because eventually, the black holes at the center of both galaxies will merge, possibly causing a lot of devastation around anything nearby.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: How did the center of the earth get so hot?

I can understand how it stays so hot now but do we know how it initially got so how?

[Assistant]
This isn't how the center got so hot, rather its about the "cooling" of the outside.

When the planets of our solar system were formed, they were just balls of random gas and plasma and ... stuff. The masses of matter flying around the sun came together and formed the planets. So you have the Sun... and orbiting the sun you have these hot balls of gas.  Hot because as all this mass comes together (because matter attracts other matter = gravitational attraction), there's energy and stuff. Like rubbing the palms of your hands together. Friction.

Over time, the surface of the earth cools and life happens, atmosphere forms, dinosaurs, Benjamin Franklin, cable TV and Jennifer Lawrence. Given enough time the center of the earth will cool enough to solidify, and then compasses will stop working, but at the rate we're going, we'll all be dead or living on other planets by then.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
What is the difference between Obama's debt and Trump's deficit? Stent they, essentially the same thing?

I don't mean to start a shit-storm and please feel free to refer to and comment on Reagan, Bush 1,Clinton, Bush 2's policies as well. I am sincerely curious to learn the difference.

Thank you and I apologize in advance if I've stirred and negativity.

[Assistant]
The large fiscal deficits of the early Obama years can be justified economically as a fiscal policy response to the 2008-09 recession. In many economic theories, the deficit ought to be countercyclical: larger deficits in recession, smaller deficits during economic booms.

No similar justification exists for the current level of deficit spending.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] [General Sci-Fi] Why Earth? Why is it always Earth? Fifty billion planets and everything happens on this ball of rock and water! Why?!

[Assistant]
In Marvel there's a celestial egg in the planet.

In WH40K the astronomicon starts at Holy Terra.

Most of the stories out there are from human points of view - so by applying the anthropic principle - we couldnt be part of the story unless it was happening around us.

Lots of things happen elsewhere but we're not there to tell the tale.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] [Iron Man 2] Were there any functional differences between the Hammer Industry Drones made for the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines variants?

[Assistant] Yeah? You can see the differences in operation when the Hammerhoids get loose. The Air Force ones can fly better, the Army ones have shoulder-mounted guns, and the Navy ones have shoulder-mounted missiles.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[Batman] How would the Joker react to a serial killer in Gotham

Say Ted Bundy appeared in Gotham and started doing what he did. How would the Joker react to him? Would he try to recruit/befriend him or would he be more hostile towards Bundy?

Assume the Joker gets to the killer before Batman.

[Assistant] Gotham already has serial killers, like Mr. Zsasz. As long as he stays off Joker's turf, Joker has much more important people to deal with. Compared to most of the crap in Gotham, serial killers are fairly small-time, and not worthy of the attention of the Clown Prince of Crime.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
CMV: I don't understand how anyone can believe that animals have no emotions.

I can understand that a very simple creature such as an oyster, for example, can be without emotions, but more complex animals show them all the time.

Anybody who ever owned dogs or interacted with them, *must* have seen them show emotions. Seeking to be close to a human, getting scared of loud noises or storms, showing enthusiasm when they're about to go for a walk, playing with each other, enviously fighting for the human's affection...

You can see similar behaviors in most animals, from cows to lions, wolves and crows.

I don't understand why any human that sees animals showing emotions with his/her own two eyes would jump to a counterintuitive conclusion that they're not actually feeling them. This seems like a colossal cognitive dissonance.

[Assistant]
I think youre confusing emotions with qualia.

The question isnt whether they emote or *show* emotions. The question is whether they experience or *feel* emotions or any subjective experiences at all. Its not a physical question of having them. Its a philosophical question of whether animals feature subjective conscious experience at all.

I can program a furby to emote. It can react and display and communicate. But it isnt sentient and lacks consciousness. So its possible to express what isnt experienced. The question is to what degree animals of various kinds have subjective first-person experience at all.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: What happens in the brain when you drink so much alcohol you cant remember what you did?

I recently turned 21, and I drank so much (in a safe environment with my husband, no driving or drugs or anything like that) that I mentally blacked out, but during the course of like 6 hours I was still active and doing ridiculous things - all of which are now documented on video. What causes that? I remember very small bits and pieces but mostly its just blank. Nothing. Sorry if this is a dumb question or has already been asked and explained, its just been on my mind recently. Thank you!

[Assistant]
So there is a part of your brain called the hippocampus. This plays a huge part in the creation, care, and feeding of memory. Alcohol slows down how your nerves communicate in that part of the brain. This basically interferes with your brains ability to transition short term memories to long term memories.

That's why you can't recall. Your brain wasn't able to form the memory.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[MCU] was Cap weaker and slower in Avengers compared to later due to recently getting out of the ice? Does the serum make him physically better as time goes on?

Going along with that, could Cap do better against Loki as of Phase 2/3 compared to what he did in Avengers 1?

[Assistant] The serum won't continue to make him stronger or faster, he is already at peak level. But he has been improving his technique and strategy over time. Since he has started fighting enemies that are significantly stronger than he is, he has to adapt.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: Area 51

I know surprisingly little about it. Just brief me on everything. The extent of my knowledge is something about aliens and is it possibly in Nevada?

EDIT: Thanks to everybody answered :)

[Assistant]
Area 51 is/was a military base in southern Nevada where the military tests/tested its latest and greatest military technology. Planes like the SR-71 Blackbird and B2 Stealth Bomber were tested here, before anyone had ever seen anything like these planes. Because of this, people would occasionally catch a glimpse of some new tech like this flying in the air, and be unable to identify what it was (Unidentified Flying Object). Because the military wasn't about to tell people what they were looking at (Top Secret) they made really bad/lazy lies about what these sightings were of (weather balloons, swamp gas etc.).

Because of how bad or boring these lies tended to be, many people assumed they were covering up aliens. The most famous event being the Roswell, New Mexico crash in 1947. The government says it was a top secret surveillance balloon for Project Mogul meant for early detection of Soviet ballistic missiles. People instead preferred to believe it was an alien crash that the government covered up.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] ELI5: What is the difference between programming & scripting? Also, is "coding" the act you're performing while programming or scripting, or is coding something totally different?

[Assistant]
Scripts are usually a set of coded instructions that are run by the computer on the fly.  Programs can be scripts but often they are 'compiled' code.  In a compiled prgram, the computer converts the code into a special binary file that will run the instructions faster.  Compiled programs are often shipped to users without their source code, so you can't see what is inside.  Scripts *are* the source code.

"Coding" usually refers to writing either compiled programs or scripts.  Maybe in some circles in implies one more than the other, but you can't depend on that.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] ELI5: why do we have data plan limits?

[Assistant]
There are some good points talking about how it's due to infrastructure and the cost of maintaining their systems and how they have to pay for the spectrum and all that, and while ideally that would be the cause of data limits it's not. ISPs make an insane amount of profit, and a few years ago the government gave the largest ones money to improve their infrastructure (which they didn't do a very satisfactory job of).

So if that isn't the cause then what is? Money. They want to make more money. If they set limits they can charge more for larger plans and charge overage fees. At least in the US it all comes down to making more money by screwing the customer.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[The Simpsons] What is Krusty's largest source of income?

Krusty seems to have two primary jobs - he is the beloved childrens entertainer Krusty the Clown, and he runs Krusty Burger which at least in Springfield appears to be the dominant fast food restaurant.

In addition to all that, Krusty's had a number of other jobs and money making endeavors like his time as a congressman and his gambling. Krusty also licenses his image on a number of low-quality but frequently purchased items.

So what's the largest source of wealth for Krusty, and what would his estimated net worth be?

[Assistant]
For Krusty's income, the biggest source of wealth is selling out. Putting his name and face (which he both personally owns) on all manner of trash (Krusty merch, theme parks, burgers, and so on) is the main source of his sweet, sweet cash. Yes, advertising on and syndication for his show brings in some solid bank, but you sell ads on a show once, but each kid who watches that show buys a fuckton of product.

His net worth... not great. He's absolutely garbage with money, buying the craziest stuff, living the wildest life, and blowing cash on the dumbest things. Gambling was mentioned, but let's be blunt, Krusty bet *on the Generals* **AGAINST THE HARLEM GLOBETROTTERS**. The Generals haven't won against the Globetrotters since 1971. If his gambling habit has anything other than a negative outcome, it's by pure luck, and more often he's getting himself into hot water with the mob for racking up debts with bookies and not delivering the cash on time.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] ELI5: What's the difference between using a hotspot and tethering?

[Assistant]
In the olden days, Wifi based sharing wasn't the way you accessed the internet from your phone. You more commonly used a USB cable. Hence your phone was tethered to PC/laptop, a wireless device tied down to something more anchored to the ground.

Hotspot specifically refers to the WiFi version of sharing your internet, which has largely won the popularity contest for cellular data sharing.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
Eli5: How exactly does everything we see and experience around us get turned into chemicals in our brain? For example, how is a memory nothing more than a chemical?

Edit: Hello, I just wanted to say thank you for all of the answers. Im a very curious person and this is one of the topics Ive always struggled to understand. I have to go to work but hopefully when I come back, there will be more replies for me to look at!!! :)

[Assistant] I think it's more accurate to say that what you experience is turned into a pattern of excitation of neurons, so the pattern of firing neurons encodes the patterns of the experience.  The "chemicals", or neurotransmitters, are just the carriers of excitation between neurons.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: Recalling lyrics perfectly when associated with music?

Why are we able to recall, word for word, lyrics to entire songs we haven't listened to in over a decade, so long as the song is playing, but couldn't provide them on demand without the music?

[Assistant]
Your brain associates the lyrics to the music while you listen to the song, and if you hear it again, it remembers what comes next, aided by the memory aid of the melody.

To put it short, the melody is a memory aid.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: Emergency room admission prioritization.

I just feel like there's probably some crazy system in place and I'd like to know more about it in case I ever find myself in a situation.

[Assistant] It's called Triage.  Not a crazy system, but a long time medical practice.  Fix the most broken people first.  Treat the worst injuries/time sensitive threats first.  I.e. You have a broken wrist, the other guy is having chest pains, and someone shows up with the sniffles.   Your wrist isn't getting any broker, but swift intervention may stop a heart attack.  Assess for heart issues.  Chest pains turn out to be a gas bubble.  place on ignore.  Now we look at the wrist, gas bubble waits.  whoops, gunshot victim shows up.  Wrist waits for a while while gunshot person is stabilized and sent to surgery.  Sniffles over there watches another rerun of SportsCenter, and we go back to that pesky wrist.  Gas bubble falls asleep, but then farts it all out so he's woken up and discharged.  Sniffles complains, but then again, who cares.  Back to the wrist. call someone in to X-ray and cast it, but then a motorcycle rider shows up, on a stretcher.  Tox screen and radiology.  Holds up the wrist x-ray for a while.  Sniffles is now on his ipad signing up for a fantasy football league.  You get fed up, grab a scalpel and cut your other wrist, up and down, like a pro.  Start bleeding on the floor.  Now you're a priority.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[MCU] Was Tony Starks first draft of the IM suit in the cave or did he have ideas for it before?

Either from comics or movies, just interested in knowing if there was any sort of proof that shows he had ideas for the suit before being in the cave.

[Assistant]
It doesn't seem so. It seems his abduction by the Ten Rings was the first time he thought of making a suit of armour.

Here's something you might find interesting. In the film's novelisation, Tony was directly inspired by a story Yinsen told him.

It involved a prince who was banished and enslaved by a local king. He was forced to work in a mine, deep underground. Years of mining gradually made the prince stronger and stronger, until his skin became as tough as the metal ore that surrounded him. He used his hard-earned strength to escape and kill the king who had enslaved him.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: why is hot good for some inflammations, but for others it's better cold?

For example, if I have an inflammation in my arm resulting from bumping into something, or someone kicked my balls, I would use an ice pack. But if a woman is on her period (since the uterus swells), or I have a swollen throat, it's better for the woman to use a heat pack, or for me to drink something warm or hot. Why is that? Aren't inflammations basically areas of the body with enlarged blood vessels or filled with liquid? What's the difference between inflammations that require hot or cold?

[Assistant] Heat opens blood vessels, bringing more oxygen and nutrients to an area. Cold shrinks blood vessels, it is used to reduce swelling and inflammation of an acute injury. For situations where muscle spasm is part of the problem like a back sprain or uterine cramps, heat relaxes muscles, helping to reduce the pain.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] ELI5: Please explain to me how prisons are allowed to be privatized, and what their purpose is compared to public (as in, are they better for prisoners, better for the state, etc?)

[Assistant]
Prisons are allowed to be privitized because local and state governments passes laws saying they were allowed to be privitized.

The purpose was an effort to reduce the  incredibly high cost of prisons (and lots of corruption by people who have financial gain from it--which from any perspective or stance on the situation cannot be ignored).  It hasn't really reduced costs, conditions are questionable, but people (private prison companies) are making shit tons of money off of it from the government.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
Why do we start to hallucinate if we don't sleep for days?

I have heard that people who stay awake for 4+ days start to go rather crazy. They might begin to hear things and even suffer visual hallucinations. What is the brain missing from sleep that causes this?

[Assistant] Long term insomnia has an effect on the sensitivity of neurotransmitters like GABA, seratonin, and neurepinephrine that would be down or up-regulated during sleep. The result is abnormal synaptic activity in certain parts of the brain. The results are unpredictable but can cause tremors, twitches, changes in attitude/behavior, and hallucinations among others. Basically, something in your visual cortex or thalamus is experiencing abnormal neuron firing resulting in random extraneous signalling that cause hallucinations.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[Face/Off 1997] The Archers have been married for more than a decade and the face swap surgery didn't actually change Castor's body other than his posture. Why didn't Eve realise something was off about her husband's body (i.e. his weight) while they were doing it?

And yes I just went through an Honest Trailers marathon.

[Assistant] It was clearly stated that Castor Troy and Sean Archer had near-identical physiques, hard though that may be for the casual observer to believe. It was also stated that the surgery came with a general physical makeover, removing and adding scars and blemishes as necessary.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[Star Wars] Why would a Jedi bother fighting something like a battle droid with a lightsaber when they could just disarm them from afar with the Force? Human opponents even more so?

What was stopping Obi Wan from simply restraining Jango Fett or General Grievous, as we see Kylo Ren do with Rey?

[Assistant]
Kylo Ren used an advanced technique called Force Stasis, which he specializes in.

Skilled opponents such as Jango Fett and General Grievous are usually too fast and aggressive to use such tecniques upon. Grievous in particular was able to fight Jedi at speeds of up to 20 strikes per second, breaking Obi-Wan's defense. Once someone like Grievous got in close, a Jedi had to focus on defending themselves in combat instead of mustering up the focus for a Force technique. But when Jedi are given time tl focus, they often do so. When Ventress pulled out lightsabers against Yoda he easily just Force Pulled them out of her hands, and when Grievous did the same to Windu, he got his lungs crushed.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[Scifi between the late 60s and very late 80s] Between the giant spinning tape reels this computer I'm looking at has a TON of rapidly flashing lights. Assuming that's a data display, how do I make sense of it?

Am I sure it's not just looping?

[Assistant] It is looping! That's the idea; though it's dazzling to look at the whole dashboard at once, the trick is just to focus on the relevant output nodes. Explaining it fully is beyond the scope of a short reply, but in a nutshell the frequency and synchronisation of different lights relates to mechanical and software states. These variable states are colour-coded into related groupings for ease of reference. The tape is just a log, though some setups support *input* via tape too.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] ELI5: If you drill a small hole in the ISS spacestation, would you get sucked whole out or would your body seal the hole?

[Assistant]
This has actually happened before. It was a hole in a Soyuz capsule docked to the ISS during Soyuz MS-09

It took special sensors to detect that it was happening, and once they found it, astronaut Alexander Gerst supposedly plugged it with his finger, until a cosmonaut fixed it with kapton tape. It was then repaired properly using epoxy sealant.

So no, you wouldn't get pushed through like spaghetti by the atmospheric pressure just from a small hole drilled in the ISS, but it is still important these holes get patched up before you lose all of your air.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] [Marvel] Why didnt Asgard or any other of the realms contact Midgard?

[Assistant]
When Thor brought Jane to Asgard, Odin remarked that she belonged  there "no more than a goat belongs at a banquet table".

Odin was regarded as a wise and level-headed leader among his people. Still, *that* was the opinion he had of a very remarkable human. From their point of view, Asgard setting up an embassy on Earth would be like the parents' conference setting up an embassy with the kindergarten children.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[Game of Thrones] What was Littlefinger's plan if Jaime Lannister didn't push Bran?

SPOILERS: Littlefinger had John Arryn poisoned and was able to start a feud between the Starks and Lannisters, but I realized last night this relies on framing Tyrion as the one who attempted to kill Bran. If Bran never caught Cersei and Jamie and was never pushed from the tower, it seems like Littlefinger's plan wouldn't have gotten very far. He probably had a backup plan, but what was it?

Rather, it seems like he had a plan and was able to change it to capitalize on the situation, but what was his plan if the events of the first episode had happened differently.

[Assistant]
If Bran hadn't "fallen", one of two things would have happened.

1) Ned Stark would have become Hand of the King. In King's Landing, Littlefinger would have steered him into discovering Joffrey's illegitimacy, thereby setting the Starks and the Lannisters at odds, creating chaos and giving him an opportunity to rise.

2) Ned Stark says no. Somebody else - probably Tywin Lannister - would have become Hand of the King. Littlefinger cancels that plan and looks for a different way to create chaos.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] ELI5: How did the various birthstones get associated with each month?

[Assistant]
In 1870, the jewelry company Tiffany and Co. created an advertising campaign around the birthstones. Previously, there have been some theological/astrological debates about assigning a gem to each of the 12 signs of the zodiac or the 12 apostles, and the company kinda messed around with the traditional listing to make sure they only included Tiffany's stock of gems. The list then took a life of its own and the various jeweler's association around the world took it up as a convenient marketing symbol. They "updated" the list something like 3 times and the US and England both have different lists.

Basically, a Jewelery company ran an ad campaign to encourage the sale of the "lesser" gems like garnet and topaz.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[Middle Earth] What exactly ARE Uruk-Hai?

At first I thought they were half-orc, half-goblin, but I noticed that Tolkien seems to use the word interchangeably, and apparently considers them the same thing. So what are Uruk-Hai supposed to be? Well-fed orcs?

[Assistant]
"Uruk-hai" translated literally means "Orc-folk." "Uruk," from the black speech related to "orc" and the Quenya word "urko" of the same meaning. The "-hai" meaning "folk."

They are a sub-species of orcs, Gandalf mentioned Saruman breeding the Uruks to possess the traits of "orcs and goblin men" without the two races' weaknesses. So not necessarily half-goblin, but possessing the traits of goblins.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] ELI5 why stars have the same colour when you look at them from earth, but in reality they have all kinds of colours?

[Assistant] They do not appear to have the same color when you look at them. If you are looking at them from the city or anywhere else there is light pollution you might have a hard time telling them apart, but on a clear night you can easily distinguish the colors of most bright stars. Try looking at a constellation with brighter stars like Orion and you will notice the difference. One of the stars in Orion is very red, while the others are blue.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[AMA] [Overwatch] Lena "Tracer" Oxton

Cheers, love! The cavalry's here!

I'm Lena Oxton, callsign Tracer, of the formerly-extant Overwatch organization. Ask me anything about the organization and I'll do my best to give you an answer if I'm able. I'm currently in Gibraltar with a friend who's going to help me with this, I've never done one of these before.

A bit about me - I was a pilot years ago, and thanks to my friend Winston, I was able to survive a horrible accident that happened to the experimental jet that I was tasked with piloting. Ever since then, I've mostly been trying to do my part to fight the good fight.

That's all I can ask for, right? Anyway, ask away!

[Assistant]
Heavy weapons guy has question: You fight to defend robot, yes? Heavy does not understand! Why fight robot, then fight for robot? Heavy has killed many robots. Robot is poor imitation of good fighter! Not good ally!

...also, Scout says he could race you after drinking two pack of Crit-A-Cola. Scout is stupid little man.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] [Star Wars] An enemy of mine is in an asteroid field. Instead of picking my way through, I order all power to be redirected to forward shields/guns, and begin blasting through in a straight line. What are the consequences of my brash actions?

[Assistant]
Hundreds of thousands of micro asteroid impacts reducing armor to 63% and external modules to 81%. Fire control systems drop to 16% resolution as computer systems begin tracking millions of particles that 'might' be the enemy. Thrust is reduced to quarter-speed to allow point defenses to respond to larger asteroid particles that present significant danger to exposed weak points such as the command bridge and shield reactor. The enemy escapes while your detectors are clouded with a debris field that you created at a distance that will not impede their own escape path in any way.

Simulation terminated. Objective failed.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
I am in my thesis writing phase, and cannot stand working with my adviser anymore. How do I best handle this situation?

Nothing is special about this situation. In fact, google can produce enough articles about bad managers / bosses to let me know that people go through this all the time. I might as well learn how to make the best out of this situation.

The things that I am upset about:

* They are narcissistic. "The Little Prince/Princess" package.
* On the surface they appear to be very well accomplished, well rounded, ... After many months, when all of that peeled off, I realized that they know how to squeeze ideas out of one person, look for another person to develop them, and they either take all the credit, or write themselves as a co-author. They are always name dropping, lying about their contributions, ...
* They have personal qualms with many researchers in the field who can see through their facade, which is not my business. My problem is that I was used as a useful idiot for a while. (For example, they made me work on something, and add it ad hoc to a paper, and submit it to one specific referee in a journal. The referee praised the paper, and had problems with the part that did not fit in. I later realized that my adviser wanted to show off in front of this person, got pissed off that they shot his ideas in my paper down, and now I have to apologize to the referee, pull my paper, and submit it somewhere else.)
* Whenever they get upset, they refuse to write me recommendation letters, tell me that they are not going to discuss my work, that I am free to publish in small online papers, ...
* They ask me to do work that is related to a project they are working on, but not research-related. I wrote and handed brochures, created websites, ... All quid-pro-quo ("do X and I will write you a good recommendation letter", "do Y and I will tell your committee that you are doing well", ...)
* I was harassed by some of his other students who realized that as long as you are giving them admiration and results, nothing will happen to them. I checked with the university, and was told that I could escalate this if I wanted. I recognize that this is going to make things worse.

I do not want to work with them. I have my projects and thesis problems, and am going to finish in time. I am starting to get known by others in my field, ... I just want to survive the remaining year, and prevent them attaching their suckers to any of my ideas / projects. I only need them for recommendation letters. :(

It goes without saying that I am not taking this personally (but still do want to maintain boundaries between me and them), and that I want to choose my battles very carefully.

What do I do?

[Assistant]
Be around and available enough that you do not appear to be flaking/not showing up to work, but no more. Blend in and do your best to be invisible, while still being responsible and responsive enough to not provoke anger in the vein of "where have you been?". Make sure all important decisions are discussed and decided well ahead of time when everything appears to be far away and not stressful (and there are no random immediate threats to be made at you).

Depending on how well your boss responds to this kind of thing, you can also set very specific schedules and deadlines well in advance. Of course, research doesn't work that way and the deadlines will be largely meaningless, but it gives you a very convenient excuse such that when random last minute things come up, along with random threats of pulling your rec or whatever, you can always say you are already working 24/7 towards important X deadline.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
Is it possible to create new elements with different baryons and leptons?

Let my do a little clarification. Since elements are composed of protons and neutron cores (baryons) and elections (leptons). there are more types of baryon than just protons and neutrons. Let's pretend that we progressed technologically to the point where creating a synthetic element made of protons and neutrons was cheap and easy and creating other baryons was easy as well. Would it be possible to make new periodic tables of elements using different kinds and combinations of baryons?

[Assistant] Some of these already exist, for example muonic hydrogen and muonic helium (which is similar to hydrogen because the muon sits so much closer to the nucleus, making it appear to an electron like a +1 nucleus). It is unknown whether there are any stable nuclei consisting of exotic baryons.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] mass curves space-time. to where does space-time curve into?

[Assistant]
Curves is another word for distort in this context.

Imagine an elastic sheet. You can distort this sheet without changing the overall shape of the sheet by bunching it together at some points, for example. This will "curve" lines that were drawn on the sheet before the distortion without any parts of the sheet leaving the plane.

The point is, the space-time does not need to curve into anything. It is just changes the local geometry.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] [Avatar ATLA/ALOK] Would it be possible for an Airbender to bend sound waves? Could the Avatar universe make the Air Guitar a reality?

[Assistant]
Well sound is air so by definition yes. They technically create sound every time they use air bending.

As for the Air Guitar, probably not. Guitars have very precise ways of making sound. In order to emulate that sound, an Air Bender would need unprecedented amounts of control over how they move air. All bending techniques have be precise but they still affect things on a large scale.

It's more likely they'd could manifest air drums or any simple percussion instrument with strong bass.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
CMV: Producing more UK-based fossil fuels is the right thing to do in the short term to mitigate the effects of the cost of living crisis in the UK, and not doing so will cause severe harm to climate change mitigation goals.

Disclaimer: I personally hold this view and I would like an alternative perspective. My personal stance on climate change etc. is that it's an incredibly serious problem that must be addressed. Taking the long-term pragmatic view is essential, but this doesn't mean that action shouldn't begin right now.

The Ukraine-Russia situation is undoubtedly causing an acceleration away from fossil fuels towards renewables and nuclear power.

Part of the conversation in the UK at the moment is that we should not be considering increasing North Sea oil and gas production, or restarting fracking in the UK, because they are diametrically opposed to our climate change reduction goals.

It is possible for the government to introduce measures to help with the cost of living crisis, but there is very clear opposition to this from Rishi Sunak, e.g. that a windfall tax would deter "green investment" by fossil fuel companies. So I'm not hopeful.

I think that as a very temporary energy stop gap we should absolutely increase home-grown fossil fuel production to help consumers and help prevent another economic lull.

I think that by NOT doing so, the UK public will become resentful of green policies if they are being used as the reason for not trying to lower prices directly through increasing supply. Like it or not, energy costs affect the costs of basically everything else.This directly feeds into the narrative of the right wing of the Tory party (Net Zero Scrutiny Group), and others', that Net Zero 2050 is ineffective and highly expensive. This narrative has the potential to snowball and cause extreme harm to the vitally important medium- and long-term climate mitigation goals. This paragraph might come across as contradictory to my disclaimer at the top of the post, but I think it is a real possibility that NZ targets could be derailed within the next 2 parliaments. So immediate climate action should be considered with this in mind.

The war in eastern Europe is likely to be protracted. I accept that ramping up fossil fuel production is not possible at the flick of a switch, but this is not a good reason to not embark on doing so just because the war might end 'sooner than we think'.

CMV.

[Assistant] It would take years to scale up a domestic fracking industry. The wells wouldn't operate long before they would need closing down to meet net zero. It makes more sense to fit non gas central heating and insulate buildings.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[The Witcher game series]With how many monsters roam the countryside, how is Witchering not a thriving trade?

Theres so much emphasis on the fact that witchers are dying out, but the demand hasnt seemed to subsist at all, and other parts of society certainly havent picked up the slack in terms of dealing with monsters.

[Assistant]
The games are not entirely canon in terms of the monster density.

In the books Geralt is broke most of the time, taking odd jobs along side of monster killing. Imagine a witcher more like a big game hunter and less of a kid with a rifle shooting anything that moves outside of town.

The monsters that roam the country side are still alive mostly because they dont fuck with humans and they dont sit outside of the gates eating any traveler who wanders near by. They avoid humans and avoid confrontation. Its only when humans push into their territory do problems start, which is another one of the themes the witcher pushes. Monsters arent monsters because they are monstrous, they are just doing what they do like any other pieces of wildlife. Its usually the humans that are doing monstrous things.

Also worth noting that humans can deal with most of these monsters themselves, they dont need witchers anymore.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: Franz Kafka and the meaning of "Kafkaesque".

I've heard the term "Kafkaesque" many times in my life through television, books, or movies but I've never been able to grasp the concept. The wiki doesn't help much. Who was he and what does the term mean?

[Assistant]
Franz Kafka was a writer. His stories are full of situations in which people are restricted or mistreated for apparently no reason. The situations never seem to make sense and there aren't any options to escape them.

For example, in *The Trial*, the protagonist is suddenly arrested and charged with a crime. He's not told what he's being arrested for, or which agency is arresting him, he's just told to go to the courthouse on a certain day. When he goes, the courthouse is a gigantic building with a million rooms, which he has to explore on his own to find the one his appointment is in. In his most famous story, *The Metamorphosis*, a man wakes up one day to find that he is now an insect. He becomes an incredible burden to his family, who begin to hate having to take care of him, and so he kills himself. Nothing is ever explained.

Something is *kafkaesque* if it resembles these kinds of situations. The defining features are confusion, dread, and lack of free will.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: Why are citizens of Greece ripping apart the cities in response to government spending cuts that will keep the country from total financial collapse?

Are they too uneducated to understand? Is there not an open line of communication between the government and the citizens?

[Assistant]
They feel they have been duped.

Greece was so poorly run for many years there is no way out of this situation without someone getting really hurt and going though a lot of pain for the next decade or so. The only question is at the end of negotiations who will be left holding the idiot ball.

The 'greek rioters' blame shitty government and large European banking and don't see why their social services and salaries have to be cut. They feel like Greece should default, not pay back their loans or leaving the Euro and regain control of their currency.

The European banks want to get their money back, but to do that Greece has to remain a fuctioning state, so they can pay their bills. This needs bailouts to keep greece going. The Banks and Eurozone dosen't want to bailout greece if they don't make changes to their government and civil laws to stop the problem from happening again. They would like to avoid Greece leaving the Euro because it would hurt the currency and their economies in the long run.

Looks like the interest of the Eurozone and the banks won and the greek people lost. Lesson to learn : don't elect idiots in the first place.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: Why does the military want a multi-caliber rifle for snipers

I don't see why anyone would want to change the caliber in the military.  Don't you always want to train with your 'real' equipment?
I can't see why you would not always go with your biggest caliber.

*Edit* I am talking about the new US army PSR that shoots 308 300win 338.

[Assistant] The largest weapon is not always the best, like the largest hammer or the largest shovel isn't always the one to use. A smaller round might yield a lighter load on the soldier, more ammo capacity, an easier rifle to fire without beating up your shoulder... Any of a variety of reasons would compel someone to use a different caliber.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[Star Trek]  How exclusive are the holodecks?  Do only officers get to use them most of the time?

It seems like there are never many on ships that have hundreds or thousands of crew members.  Or when they say "holodeck" do they literally mean there is a deck consisting of only holo-rooms, in which case it might be a bit better.

Also I know they do tend to book time slots in them.  But still.

[Assistant]
Well, during the mid 24th century, holodeck technology started to mature and come down in price. It was found on more Vacationy planets and more matured and industrialized planets first. There were tons of them on Earth and Riza before they became standard on starfleet ships.

One of the great boons for serving on the Galaxy class ship, and its counsin class the Nebula, is that they were among the first ships to have holodecks as standard compliments.

And during the later half of the 24th century and first quarter of the 25th, Starfleet has a retrofitting program to get all their ships that meet their requirement to have them installed, as well as an extensive program to get them installed on all major starfleet facilities.

Now, as for restriction. Its a free society. As long as you're not on duty or under a demerit, you're free to use the holodeck, but holodecks can only accommodate so many so there is a reservation system in place that handle generally by the Operation Officer, with Official Business and seniority, and rank coming into play for who gets what time slots and how long. So while no coms and first year ensigns might not get the times most convenient for them... they still all get some time on the holodeck.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
Are there an infinite amout of mathematical theorems?

Hello, I was wondering whether the number of possible mathematical theorems (so proprities) are thought of infinite of finite, to go for a little tangent I would also want to know if there is also a case for scientific laws that govern nature, will humanity ever be able to reach full scientific and mathematical knowledge?

I am sorry but I don't know anything about the topic and I have nothing to add to the conversation but I'd be curious to know other people's views. Thanks!

[Assistant]
Sure seems like there are an infinite number of theorems. Here is a trivial countably infinite list:

Theorem. There are an infinite number of prime numbers.

Theorem #1. There are an infinite number of prime numbers greater than 2.

Theorem #2. There are an infinite number of prime numbers greater than 3.

Theorem #3. There are an infinite number of prime numbers greater than 5.

...

You see where this is going. All of the numbered theorems are trivial corollaries of the main theorem. So, unless we're understanding "theorem" in a more robust way as something like "interesting theorem" or in a way where corollaries don't count, then it looks like there are an infinite number of theorems.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5:Why does USB have fewer reliability issues than older interfaces?

NES cartridges are famous for their unreliable connections. We've seen people blowing on them to get games working. Also, I've had experience with (relatively speaking) more recent consoles like the DS or Gameboy having intermittent issues (needing to be re-inserted) as well. On the other hand, I still have USB devices and ports from the same era that rarely (if at all) require re-insertion to work, and most don't have any issues at all. How come USB, with its higher transfer speeds, fewer data lines (less redundancy?), and smaller contacts (think Micro USB) maintain connection integrity? Are there any software features that USB has to make it more reliable or is it mostly hardware design?

[Assistant] USB was actually built to be hot pluggable, so they've got the ability to shut it down, reload it, and refresh the drivers, device everything HOT.  This means that if there's a hiccup, timing issue, or crash during load they can handle it.  Whereas the old games and such were built very bare bones, streamlined for speed and performance, and much simpler and older languages in use.  If there's a hiccup, timing issue, or a crash when it loads.. it has nothing to handle it, you need to reinitialize it to make it work.  So, you have to turn it off, make reseat it, and power it back on.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[Warhammer 40k] What is the average life expectancy of an Imperial naval ship crew?

Just found out I am to to be stationed on one of the God Emperors finest ships. I've heard a lot of rumors however on the life expectancy of this position. So my questions are;

1) What's the average number of jumps before something goes wrong?

2) Does the life expectancy vary among different members of the crew?

3) How long am I expected to survive on board the Imperium's ships?

[Assistant]
1: almost every jump will cause something to go wrong. Navigation problems, resulting in not arriving exactly where you want to be, are by far the most common, but usually minor. Every dozen or so jumps you may have someone go crazy. Catastrophic problems are rare though, and could take thousands of jumps.

2: very much so. Officers tend to live far longer than general crewmen, who live longer than the scrubs, gun crews and such.

3; your whole life. Unless you make it into the Admiralty, you are unlikely to ever live planetside again.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] ELI5: Why do batteries lose charge when they're not being used?

[Assistant] It varies based on the battery, but for the most part it's because the chemical reaction used inside batteries to create the electricity can't really be fully turned off. Even if there's nothing connected to the battery. There's still some residual activity inside that uses up potential energy.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
How many galaxies are there in the universe?

My girlfriend and I just watched a video on the Hubble Deep Field and are curious about how many galaxies there are in the observable universe?

Thanks.

[Assistant]
There are probably hundreds of billions in the observable universe alone, but since we can be pretty confident that the observable universe isn't the entire universe, it's not unsafe to assume that what we can see only represents a tiny fraction of what's out there in total.

So, 150-200 billion that we can see, perhaps, but potentially trillions. Depends on exactly the size of the universe, which is substantial and currently unknowable.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: American gun laws, Canadian gun laws, and the difference between them

I understand that gun laws differ by state and I guess that's important too but I want to know the overall picture of federal gun laws in both countries.

Also, what major differences are there in the philosophies behind each countries gun laws?

What different consequences generally speaking do those different laws have on people in those respective societies? *Edit:* For example,

* How would a Canadian answer the "American" question: "If I don't have the right to a gun how do I protect myself from intruders/tyranny?"

* And how would an American answer the "Canadian" question: "If everyone has the right to a gun, how do we deal with guns getting into the wrong hands and being used irresponsibly/dangerously?"

[Assistant] The USA views gun ownership as a right, while Canada views it as a privilege. Everything, from laws to public opinion, reflects that in each respective country. In America, the right's existence is the only justification for gun ownership needed, while Canada offers no such protection.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] ELI5: "Clutch" in Car. Why we have to press clutch to change gears? Why can't we directly change gears?

[Assistant]
Here's a way to mentally visualize it. Imagine a bunch of treadmills lined up side by side, each going at different speeds.

 You're on one treadmill running, and you want to move over to the next treadmill, but in order to move over,  you have to make sure your legs are running at the speed of the new treadmill, otherwise you'll fall off.

You can try and run directly onto the next treadmills, but you probably won't be able to change your running speed fast enough, and you'll fall down (Grind gears).

Or you can step off the current treadmill (disengage the clutch), grab the rails of the new treadmill and hold yourself over the rotating belt until you're confident that your legs are running at the correct speed (modulate the clutch) , and let go of the rails (engage the clutch) and continue running.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[Fallout] Will the world ever go back to normal?

What do you think will happen thousands of years from now in the Wasteland? Will the radiation ever diminish? Will the trees and ecosystem grow back again? Will society ever go back to its pre-war state?

[Assistant]
Depends on what you mean by normal.

Just like pre-war, where there are just pure humans and un-mutated animals around? That will probably never happen, at least not naturally.

Normal as in little radiation, normal weather, with healthy flora and fauna? Sure, and some parts of the world are already there. The Mojave desert and Zion valley both have no background radiation, clean bodies of water, and plenty of plant and animal life. Other places like the Commonwealth or even the Capitol Wasteland aren't too far behind.

There will be pockets of radiation, places like the Glowing Sea or just nuclear waste dumping areas that will always have some radiation (at least for thousands and thousands of years) but the majority of the world has mostly recovered 200 years after the great war.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
If a planet is tidally locked and in the relative habitable zone of its star, would the tidal forces be strong enough to increase volcanic activity on the side of the planet facing towards the star?

And would this also increase volcanic activity on the side facing away from the star?

[Assistant]
If the planet is tidally locked then we are in a one sided equilibrium. The tidal force still exists but there is no spatio-temproal variation, that is, given a point in space on the planet the tidal force remains constant in time. So all that tides then do is act to adjust the equilibrium shape of the body.

You can be tidally locked and still have some tidal effects such as from precession due to a slight departure from a perfectly circular orbit (like occur for the Moon). However, these are negligibly small.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: Why does interspecies breeding not work?

HUGE disclaimer: I just watched a video about how homosapiens and neanderthals likely mated. I have no desire to experiment at home

So like hypothetically, if I, a male human, injected my seed in to a female muskrat, why wouldn't that result in some really messed up muskrat/human hybrid?

Is it because none of the DNA connects? And if so, what's the breaking point? If homosapians and neanderthals can make a human baby. Why can't chimps and gorillas make a chimpilla baby?

[Assistant]
Imagine youre assembling IKEA furniture, but are taking alternate pages from two sets of instructions.

If both the sets are for the same model table, just from boxes where the table was different colors youre gonna be able to assemble the table just fine.

If one of the instruction sets is from an older version of the same table youre *probably* going to be able to assemble it just fine provided they didnt make any major updates. Eg a while back they made certain pieces of some model lines a little thinner but no other changes. Youll be able to get away with mixing instructions there.

If one is for a different model table entirely youre going to fairly quickly have a mess of MDF and fasteners thats obviously going nowhere.

If one instruction set is for a bed youre not even going to get started.

Humans and Neanderthals are around Option 2. Chimps and Gorillas are closer to Option 3.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
Would spraying boiling water over a fire put it out as effectively as room temp water?

Was thinking about sweating and water evaporating and somehow my mind stumbled on this question. I can think of a few different reasons why this may just be a bad question but figured I'd ask it anyway! Thought process here is: I guess pouring water on a fire cools it down both by direct heat transfer (water is cooler than whatever it is that's on fire) and by taking energy from the fire and evaporating (maybe this isn't accurate and my understanding of evaporation [and possibly also fire] is shitty?). So if water is already at or near boiling point, it needs less energy to evaporate and doesn't take as much from the fire?

[Assistant]
The main mechanism of water to put out a fire is via evaporation. There are two reasons for this:

1) The latent heat of vaporization--converting water from liquid to gas at 100 degrees Celsius--requires about 2.2MJ per kg. That means, every kilogram of water on the fire will absorb 2.2MJ of energy from the fire, helping to reduce its temperature. This all happens at 100 degrees. The water vapor doesn't begin to rise in temperature until all of that energy is absorbed. The heat capacity of liquid water is around 4.2 kJ/(kg K). Almost 500 times less than what it takes to convert to steam.

2) Water Vapor is much less dense than liquid water. This expansion will displace oxygen in the region of the fire and retard the flame through oxygen starvation.

So to answer the question, using boiling water would do just as good a job putting out a fire (that is able to be put out with water) as room temperature water.

Of course, never use water to try and extinguish certain chemical or electrical fires. It'll just make things worse.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: Why are there Laws of War? Why do they follow rules when they're battling to the death.

Why do war crimes exist?

[Assistant]
1. Eventually the war will be over. If you are still alive but you committed war crimes, you may be punished.

2. Some things are so horrible that neither side wants them used, because then *both* sides will lose. Example: nukes.

3. Some things are so horrible that they will convince neutral countries to join the struggle against you.

4. You want the enemy to treat your prisoners and civilians decently, so you do the same -- knowing that if you stop the decency, they may stop too.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: A modern GPU has Billions of Transistors, how do they not break at the slightest shake?

So I saw an interesting figure today:

The announced GTX 1070 has 7,2 Billion transistors. WTF.
Well considering the size of a GPU (the die for the chip is only 314 mm, a 20 Cent coin is 391 mm), those have to be insanely tiny.

How does something that consists only of a couple of hundreds of molecules, something that's only 16 nm large, not get completely destroyed at the slightest movement?

And more insanely: how do they pull it off 7,2 Billion times on a single chip? How many of those are usually broken?

[Assistant] For the same reason you can shake a book, or drop it off a 10 story building, and none of the words come loose from the page.  The transistors in a CPU (or any solid state device) are printed directly on the substrate.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
Which of the four fundamental forces determine concentration gradient movements?

There's osmotic pressure if there is a different concentration of some solute on one side of a compartment than another. Ultimately , what fundamental force is determining the strength of the pressure?

[Assistant]
I wouldn't say it's any of the forces that give rise to any chemiosmotic potential, as it arises from statistics (i.e., driven by entropy).

Let's examine another case of entropy at work. There are only so many ways that a deck of card can be ordered sequentially. What is the "force" that causes a brand new deck of ordered cards to become disordered when you shuffle the deck? Nothing but pure statistical probability.

The idea is the same for concentration gradients. The "forces" of diffusion and osmosis arises simply because there is more movement in one direction than another. While you can argue that atomic and molecular collisions are mediated by electromagnetism, it by no means is a _result_ of it.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
When getting a scent, why do dogs do a bunch of short, little sniffs instead of one big one?

I would imagine you would take the scent in a lot better on one big inhale through the nose.

[Assistant] No with scent you need lots of movement of the particles over the nasal cavity for the receptors to catch them.  Short sniffs do that.  A long breath doesnt as much  and if what youre smelling ends up being bad, you just breathed the bad thing all the way to the bottom of your lungs.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] What happens to the gas inside a car's tires when it starts moving, while it's going, and when it stops after already moving? Does it stay stationary, or spin with the tire?

[Assistant]
Since air is a fluid, it would do the same thing that water would do if the tire were filled with that instead, just to a lesser extent to the point that you don't notice it.

So when you start moving, inertia keeps the gas stationary until friction with the sides of the moving walls causes the gas to start moving along with the tire. Eventually it all comes up to the same rotational speed. When you start stopping, the gas keeps moving until friction with the slowing tire walls cause the gas to slow as well. Once stopped the gas continues to move until friction brings it all stationary.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: What, exactly, is a skin tag?

How do they come about?

[Assistant] They are small harmless skin tumors. Not really sure why they pop up, could be from friction (they appear in areas with skin folds like armpits). There could also be a genetic component to it or an infectious component (some infections cause tumors, it could be a lower risk subtype of HPV)


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[Rick and Morty] Would Krombopulos Michael kill his wife/significant other if you put a bounty on her?

Krombopulos Michael is very emphatic to Morty that he will kill *anyone*, and that he has zero morals or compunctions. Later, we get to see him look at a photo of a woman, presumably his wife, prior to undertaking his final mission. Does he value her enough to not kill her?

[Assistant]
Spoiler for the Rick and Morty comics

His wife is exactly the same as him and is currently on a vendetta to avenge his death.  That aside he'd happily murder her and she would do the same to him.  In the army he killed everyone his enemies his squad mates his commanding officer.  Any excuse to kill he takes it.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[Avatar: The Last Airbender] Could a waterbender bend a fizzy soda without it going flat?

This is a ridiculous question but I'm kinda curious.
I'm a thirsty, yet not quite healthy waterbender. I want to pour myself a nice cola but I am way too lazy to grab a bottle and get up.
Could I bend the soda to my glass without it going flat? Would the fizziness somehow make it harder to bend?

[Assistant]
We see Katara and Toph separating mud at one point, and it's possible to use waterbending to move plants or mud.

You'd probably be able to move the soda, and the carbonation (and the bottle) would just get carried along with it. You probably wouldn't be able to separate the dissolved gases out without airbending, or a unique waterbending technique. This would probably agitate the gases in the container and make it spray you when you opened it, so be ready to catch the spray with waterbending or you'll look very silly.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: How does the transmission speeds across twisted pair cables keep getting faster with each new category (Cat5, Cat6, Cat7, etc...) When it is still essentially just four twisted pair copper cables?

See title.

[Assistant] The copper cables themselves haven't really changed much, but the insulation between them and shielding around them reduce interference and noise. The data doesn't get from one end of the cable to the other any faster, but you can squeeze it tighter without electrical interference mucking it up by the other end. Think about listening to someone talking really fast in a quiet room versus in a noisy public space or over a crappy phone, the clearer the connection, the faster they can talk and still be understandable.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[Sonic] Why is the Ultimate Lifeform... A hedgehog?

Like, Shadow was developed by humans, right? With the help of Black Doom. But what's the deal with him being a hedgehog? Why not a human? Did they experiment on hedgehogs? Why hedgehogs? Why are there Sapient two-legged animal people anyway?

[Assistant]
Basically there was an ancient mural in some old ruins that Professor Gerald saw and he based the Bio-Lizard and Shadow off of those murals. Essentially it was a prophetic mural that depicted the final battle between Super Sonic and Perfect Chaos. Professor Gerald decided to base his Ultimate Lifeform off of those murals with Shadow being based off of Super Sonic and the Biolozard being based off of Perfect Chaos.

This is why Shadow calls Sonic the True Ultimate Lifeform at the end of Sonic Adventure 2.

Basically the Ultimate Lifeform is a Hedgehog because Sonic happened to be a Hedgehog.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
Confused about what ideas I'm allowed to "copy"

I'm starting to get into developing mobile games but there's so many similar and even direct copies of games on the play store that I'm confused about what ideas I'm allowed to use. Like if I search Flappy Bird on the play store then hundreds of copies "sloppy bird", "flappy crow", etc.. all pop up that's the exact same game with a different colored bird.

What's stopping me from just copying the exact idea of a popular game and placing ads on it?

Obviously I don't want to do that but I'm just wondering what the rules are.

Thanks!

[Assistant] Basically whatever you can get away with. If you get a cease and desist, then take it down and change it a little and try again. There really isnt a set limit short of exact name as ideas arent really able to be copyrighted, unless they are super unique and in a specific application, which usually wont apply to mobile games. Unless they have insane and aggressive lawyers, usually its just a cease and desist and the tip off artists may change it and try again.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] Why does earth have so fewer visible craters than other celestial bodies?

[Assistant]
Earth has an atmosphere. This burns up smaller asteroids before they have a chance to hit the surface. If they do hit, it only takes a few hundred or thousand years before they're swept away by things like wind, water, and other things that come with having an atmosphere.

The few craters on earth's surface are really big, in locations with not a lot of water to erode them away, and are relatively "new" compared to the age of our planet.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
Do other animals have blood types similar to humans?

Humans have several different blood types A, B, AB, and O. Do other animals have something similar and does it work the same way as humans? Do some animals need a specific type?

[Assistant]
Human blood types refer to "antigens" (proteins or polysaccharides) present on the surface of human blood cells. The most significant antigens (when considering possible immune reactions) are "A" and "B", and "Rh(D)" (which we represent with a "+" or "-". "O" means a person lacks both A and B antigens, "-" means they lack Rh(D). So an O- person doesn't have A, B, or Rh(D) antigens on their red blood cells, and an AB+ person has all three.

(There are actually over 50 antigens that may be present in humans, but most of them aren't likely enough to provoke a severe immune response.)

Having these antigens means the person's immune system ignores those antigens...otherwise their immune system would attack cells expressing those antigens. So an "AB" person can safely receive "A" blood...the AB person's body already ignores the "A" antigen, so "A" blood is safe. An O- person has none of the three major antigens, which is why we call that the "universal donor" blood type...nobody's immune system is going to attack O- blood cells, because they have none of the major antigens to provoke an immune attack.

On to animals! Yes, animals have blood types...but because those blood types are determined by these different possible antigens on the surfaces of blood cells, every animal has their own number and types of antigens. We're most familiar with the blood types of domesticated animals, since transfusions are more likely to be performed on those.

Cats, for example, have an "A" antigen and a "B" antigen. (These are different from human A and B antigens, just named the same.) In cats, these are mutually exclusive...the "A" antigen gene is dominant to the recessive "B" antigen gene, so a cat with "A" antigens can (almost) never also have B, and vice versa. So while humans can have a "universal donor" blood type ("O-"), cats cannot...A cats cannot receive B blood, and B cats cannot receive A blood.

Some animals have a LOT of possible antigens. Cows have 11 blood groups (and their "B" group has 60 different possible antigens in it), making it a little more work to find a good blood transfusion match for a cow.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
If working wasn't mandatory to live, would we psychologically need to work ?

I'm at work right now and I'm wondering if working is something we HAVE to do to be healthy mentally. Say everything is free, would we need to work to be mentally healthy ? Like do we need a professional purpose in life ? Could one not work in his entire lifetime if all of his physical need were met ( food, clothing etc.. enough to live normally, not poorly, not wealthily ) ?

My guess is kinda yes for some people, to be social and meet other people, and have something to pursue in life. But I don't know much about psychology unfortunately.

[Assistant] I dont think we would need to work the way we define work now. However, we do need to have some sort of purpose as this adds to our psychological health, but this could be in a form other than a job. Historically speaking, great furthering of humanity and wellbeing has come directly as a result of some machine or processes taking away jobs and allowing for people to spend more time pursuing their dreams. So an extreme view of this could conclude that jobs, in their current state, actually inhibit, to a degree, our potential for greater psychological health. Great question, its really interesting to think about.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] As modern humans, we spend a significant percentage of our lives wearing shoes and other related footwear. How does this affect the development of our feet and legs, if at all?

[Assistant]
There are definite morphological implications.  People who grew up barefoot (ie native tribes in South America, Africa, or Australia) tend to have significantly wider feet. This is because the confinement of shoes, while slight, is enough that it alters the shape of the foot. In addition, the intirnisic muscles of the foot in shoe-wearing populations tend to be relatively weak and/or underdeveloped, as the shoe structure replaces many functions of the foot. The weakness of those muscles tends to lead to over-pronation, which in turn can lead to increased tibial rotation during the stance phase of gait, and tibial rotation can cause a misalignment of the tibia/femur/patella complex.

That being said, feet are very unique so you may not see all of those things or even none of those things in any given person who usually wears shoes. Things like 'barefoot' shoes are also primarily marketing gimmicks meant to prey upon ignorance and utilizing psuedoscience.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: Why do Hip-Hop/Rap artists collaborate on albums more often than other genres?

Just wondering because I can get a Tech N9ne album with every other song featuring another artist, but go and buy a Rock album with just the guys on the cover.

[Assistant]
It has a lot to do with production process, and just differences between genres. In hip hop, the people writing the music and making the beats are generally not the same people spitting the verses. So if a producer makes a beat, he'll get 3 or 4 different MCs on it to give it more variation or reach a larger audience.

It scales up, too. Top 40 producers will shell out literally hundreds of thousands of dollars to get a popular rapper on a track (listen to that new Taylor Swift song with Kendrick on it for a really blatant example). So you have producers deliberately seeking out multiple MCs or even "buying" verses to make the songs more interesting or more marketable.

Rock music is different. Even commercial rock bands generally try to give the impression that the people in the band are the ones writing and performing the music. So it's often less desirable, from a production standpoint, for a lot of outside collaborators to appear on a rock album. It's also more economical to just have someone else in the band sing if you want more voices. Or somebody's girlfriend. That always works.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] ELI5 HIV, AIDS and how are they related to each other?

[Assistant] HIV is a bug that causes AIDS. AIDS is a sickness where the bits of your blood that hunt down other sicknesses stop working. Those bits are your T cells. HIV can sneak into T-cells and take them over, so instead of hunting down sickness, they make more HIV. When there is enough HIV, then many sicknesses can attack you all at once, and that is what kills you.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
eli5 Why does our body sweat out salt when we need it?

Since sodium is so important to keep electrolytes up in our body why does our body sweat it out instead of just simply water?

[Assistant]
I think we're thinking a little circularly here! We only "need" extra salts *because* we are sweating them out. We are told to keep our electrolytes up because we sweat.

The reason why we sweat is to cool down the body. Since it takes energy to turn water into a vapor, biology has evolved to use "evaporative cooling" as a way to stop our bodies from overheating. When we are hot, the heat from our bodies can be put into the water in our sweat, which will cause it to evaporate and leave our bodies.

Have you ever heard the idea that salt draws water, e.g. in cooking? We're using the same principle to get water out of our bodies, so it can wick away the heat from our bodies. Sweat contains salts because it is the best way to get the water out of our bodies. This is due to a property called "osmotic pressure", which basically says water moves into solutions that contain more solutes, like salt or sugar.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] [Demolition Man] What do you think was the significant turning point in the Franchise Wars that gave Taco Bell the upper-hand?

[Assistant] It is *much* easier to make a good taco without meat than it is to make a good burger without meat, especially at the scale that franchises operate.  When eating meat was outlawed, burger chains pretty much collapsed.  Pizza places lasted longer, but taco bell won out.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
Where does the energy from black body radiation come from?

I was thinking about black body radiation and how nearly everything emits radiation at different frequencies and then it hit me--where does that energy come from?

For arbitrarily large amounts of time, does black body radiation exist as a way for things to slowly degrade? Is matter being transduced in any way (much less like fission but more along a less violent route) to account for a loss of energy in the local system (sort of how neutrons outside of a nucleus become protons via decay)?

[Assistant]
>where does that energy come from?

It comes from the kinetic energy of the particles.  Basically Bremsstrahlung ("Braking Radiation") when particles collide with one another (accelerating charges emit EM waves, a collision is an accelerating even).  They lose some kinetic energy and as a result the material cools as it emits unless there is an equal input of energy also being put into the system (i.e. it's in thermal equilibrium with something else).

>For arbitrarily large amounts of time, does black body radiation exist as a way for things to slowly degrade?

No.

>Is matter being transduced in any way

No.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5:Why do the vast majority of modern Hollywood movie trailers/teasers reveal such a large amount of the plot?

I remember the trailers in the 90's revealing almost no plot to the movies (the Terminator 2 teaser comes to mind) whereas the new Ghostbusters, pretty much all the Marvel movies, etc, seemingly give away pretty much everything except the ending.  The only exception I can think of recently to break this trend was Star Wars.  What gives?

[Assistant]
Psychological/marketing studies have found that people actually enjoy things like movies or books more if they've already had a portion of the story spoiled.

It seems counter intuitive, but it makes sense. Before you consume any other product, from beer to cars, you want to know a fair bit about it before you buy it. Turns out entertainment isn't much different.