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

[User]
[Ocean's Eleven(2001)]What was the point of the Lyman Zerga gag?

The overt purpose of Saul Bloom playing the character of Lyman Zerga was to get the door explosives (disguised as jewels) into the vault. In order to do this, he had to stay at Benedict's hotel, play a high roller long enough to get noticed, and con Benedict himself personally to get the man to allow a briefcase into his vault. And then he pulls a fake heart attack to distract people in the control room and get extracted. This is a tall order, and Saul performs it beautifully.

HOWEVER, the reason to get the explosives into the vault is so that Yen can use them to blow the door... but he can do this because **he** gets smuggled into the vault in the money cart delivered by the Malloy brothers. Now, granted, there isn't all that much room in the money cart, but there's enough for Yen, and his air supply. Surely there is enough for four jewel-sized lumps of shaped explosives.

If they can smuggle Yen in, why can't they smuggle the explosives in in the exact same cart? Why bother to go through the difficulty of convincing Benedict to allow Zerga's briefcase into the vault? Why allow mission-critical items to be completely out of the team's control? What if Benedict had said a flat "no" to Zerga's request? What if he'd said yes, but then put the briefcase in a locked cabinet in the vault, unaccessible without a key, etc? Was distracting the guards during Zerga's "heart attack" really the only way to get Linus into the elevator shaft (note how easily Ocean managed the same trick)?

Could not the job have gone exactly the same, with fewer potential failure points, had they simply put the explosives in Yen's belt (exactly where he puts them when he retrieves them) and skipped Saul's role entirely?

[Assistant]
Possible yes, but they took the risk for a couple reasons:

* Guard distraction when the video ticked over is vital.  There are a lot of things that could go wrong with the transfer, and they don't want anyone to notice while they're running troubleshooting.

* It got them a giant room at the hotel to stage out of without drawing attention.  A high roller with a big room and a bunch of people going in and out all day is less concerning to the hotel than pretending to be something like a bachelor party.

* They got Rusty into the control room as a backup plan.  If something went wrong, they now had two experienced con men in the center of it all ready to think on their feet.

* It gave them a chance to distract Benedict from his strict schedule right before the heist goes off.  The more frustrated Benedict is at an imposition from a demanding high roller, the less he's looking at possible people that may be trying to rob him.

* More moving parts and pieces.  While this raises the risk of not getting the explosives in, it provides more opportunities for 'fixing the script' as they go if they run into issues.  If the cart doesn't make it into the vault then they now lack a grease-man in the vault AND the explosives in the vault.  If one or the other make it in they can start improvising.


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

[User] How come water does not flow deep into our ear canal?

[Assistant]
Water has a high surface tension, and clings to the walls of a container.  In order to flow deep into the ear canal, the water would need to displace the air already there.  But the air has no way to escape past the water.  You might thing that the air would just rise above the water allowing the water to flow under but surface tension forces dominate gravity at this point.

 If you trap air and water in a straw and cover both ends you can see that the water won't change position relative to the air no matter how you orientation the straw, unless you do something like shake it violently.


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

[User]
CMV China is as bad as 1938 Germany.

I know that comparing things to nazis really isn't generally a good idea, however I think that the comparison is apt.
China is a totalitarian government that currently has millions of its own citizens in concentration camps.   They are constantly looking to expand territorially through buildup.   Their government disappears anyone who disagrees or if necessary will take brutal measures to remove them.    Their current level of electronic spying means 1984 is a reality.   Their culture while different from the nazis is more reserved and not as demagogic still does comparable actions.
I do not think China will invade a significant country like Germany did with Poland because there is no japan on the other side of the world to work with, however I don't think annexation of say Mongolia would be out of the question.

[Assistant] They're certainly comparable, but to suggest China is as bad as 1938 Germany asks us to be intentionally ignorant of the fact that Germany's policies in 1938 were a buildup to WW2 and the Holocaust. China is very unlikely to take things to such extremes, if for no other reason than it would be unprofitable. China is far more pragmatic and less ideological than Hitler, so even if they wanted to escalate to genocide and conquering Asia, they wouldn't.


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

[User]
Is there an Eastern "Marcus Aurelius"?

I don't know a lot about Eastern philosophy and the different figures from history the way I do more Western ones. Is there an Eastern philosophy person in the same archetype as Marcus Aurelius? Ruler, book they've written, governed by philosophical principles?

[Assistant]
Are you looking more for philosophical similarities to Marcus Aurelius' stoicism, or biographical? (i.e. a ruler who wrote a philosophical work and whose actions were governed by philosophical principles)

If you're looking for the latter, there are a couple Chinese philosophers of the Warring States period, Mengzi (often Latinized as Mencius) and Mozi in particular. They were never outright rulers, but were heavily involved in the politics of the era and at points held positions of leadership/governance.

In addition to being the second most prominent Confucian philosopher behind its founder, Mencius was also at one point an official for the state of Qi. He tried to convince the duke of Qi to enact Confucian reforms, but was ultimately unsuccessful and resigned after realizing that the duke wasn't going to listen to him. He then travelled to other states, trying unsuccessfully to convince those rulers to adopt Confucian reforms. Many of these conversations, both with the duke and other rulers, would be compiled into his main work, also called Mengzi/Mencius.

Mozi, meanwhile, was most well known in political spheres for leading a utopian community based around his consequentialist philosophy of "impartial care." The Mohists, as they are called, were heavily involved in issues of social justice, doing things such as defending cities that were victims of aggressive expansion by other states.

I can go more into the actual philosophy of either of these figures if you're interested. Meanwhile, if you want to do some reading of your own, I'd suggest checking *Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy* by Ivanhoe and Van Norden. It has sections of both philosophers' eponymous works as well as sections explaining their biographical and historical context.


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

[User]
CMV: Stannis did nothing wrong (all show spoilers)

Stannis Baratheon just barbecued his daughter and was completely justified in doing so. In fact he was morally required to.

First semi-aside: Melisandre has proven magical powers. She's a sadistic psychopathic religious zealot but she didn't just knock on Stannis' door and ask her to speak about the fire lord. She has delivered before under similar circumstances and trusting her to do so now is reasonable.

Now the real point: The lives potentially and actually saved by Shireen's sacrifice (somewhere between "a few dozen" and "everyone in Westeros for the next million years") demanded it. Stannis' men are dying in the snow. He loses more every day of the siege. His camp will break before Winterfell does, and his forces cannot overcome Winterfell's defenses. He can neither continue the siege nor attack.

Is Shireen's life worth ten of his men's? A hundred? A thousand? The lives of everyone who stands to starve or be killed by the Bolton's if he fails? The lives of everyone in the North, present and future, who would suffer under the Bolton administration?

Is it worth the lives of the millions who will die and the many more millions who will never be born if the Long Night falls once again?

Against those stakes the life of one person must be sacrificed for even the most minimal bump to humanity's chances for success. Even if she's a sympathetic little girl who didn't sign up for this and who we are made to, rightly, like.

Wasn't she just going to die in the snow or suffer some terrible fate as a Bolton captive if things kept going as they were anyway?

This is the classic ethical hypothetical about whether or not you should throw a switch to kill a cable car with 10 people in it in order to avoid a catastrophe that will kill 100. Stannis has thrown the switch on his own daughter for, at a minimum, the end of a siege where people are dying in droves and will result in the victory of a family of vicious tyrants. On the upper end of the possible scale, the stakes are the safety of Westeros from the White Walkers for the next hundred thousand years.

This was an agonizing sacrifice for him to make but it was done in the credible service of a battle where the consequences very well may include the future of everything. And given the situation, Shireen probably didn't lose a long life of regal comfort wisely ruling Westeros so much as she lost a short life of freezing until she was killed by the elements or the Boltons.

Stannis did nothing wrong. CMV.

[Assistant] Your whole argument rests on the assumption that sacrificing Shireen was *necessary* to gain the favor of the Lord of Light.  Thoros of Myr has brought Berric Dondarrion back to life how many times, now?  And all without a single sacrifice.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] How sure was Palpatine of his plan to become emperor?

There are plenty of instances where Palpatine will be in extreme and unpredictable situations, yet he always seems so calm. In episode 3 when anakin lands the battleship, he doesnt seem worried at all.

[Assistant]
That's Palpatine's secret, he's never calm when he appears to be, because peace is an illusion.

Despite his abilities with the dark side, He didn't see every curve ball coming, the future doesn't work like that. Even if the force allowed complete vision (it doesn't), the future is always in motion, so it's always changing. Besides perfect prescience doesn't leave room for free will, which is a central theme to the two sides of the force. Anakin could have helped Windu, brought an end to the emperors scheme (depending on if you EU or not), but his choice to save Palpatine doomed the Jedi order.

So in summation, Palpatine could not have been certain, he could have been confident in his abilities as a Sith Lord and a master manipulator, but it was his skills and talent in the end that pulled off the Jedi Purge and the formation of the empire. To steal a quote, "If it was destiny, it sure did a good job disguising itself as talent and hard work."


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

[User]
[Batman] Does the Batsuit have a zipper?

Kind of a silly question but still I was wondering how simple or not simple it would be to have to use the bathroom while wearing a Batsuit. No way Batman wears a bat diaper.

[Assistant] Look, the suit probably has a flap or hatch or something; but if you don't think Batman has pissed in his Batsuit before you're crazy. He does crazy long stake outs. He routinely gets into situations that have him stuck in dangerous situations for days at a time. He's been held prisoner before. Not putting a contingency diaper in the batsuit would in fact be very *un-Batman* of him.


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

[User] Why are non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) bad for inflammatory related diseases like ulcerative colitis? Why don't they help reduce the inflammation? Aren't they anti-inflammatory?

[Assistant]
The arent bad for inflammatory conditions in general - theyre actually very good for them.

Theyre just not very good for bowel conditions in general as they can irritate the gastric mucosa - making any inflammation there worse (even eventually causing ulcers themselves).

Hope that helps?


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

[User]
[Death Note] Why do law enforcement assume that Kira is a human being?

Once Kira starts becoming known in the public eye for causing hundreds of criminal's to get heart attacks, almost immediate Interpol and L seem to assume that Kira is a person who is murdering criminals as a vigilante. However, based on everything they've seen, the fact that criminals are able to be killed without Kira touching them or poisoning them or otherwise interacting with them, there is no explanation for it besides magic.

Why do they assume Kira is a human who they can find and prosecute? By all evidence, Kira has supernatural powers that reach across the globe. At the very least, the most scientific explanation would be some strange illness or hysteria that only affects criminals.

Why does everyone jump to the conclusion that Kira is a human being who can be thwarted and caught?

[Assistant]
L's broadcast was three part: it proved the effect was deliberate and actively selected targets (caused by a being rather than disease or chance), it proved the effect was not caused by an omniscient being, and that the being was operating from a specific location.

Using that information it is more rational to deduce human than some unknown being.


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

[User]
Medically speaking, what is the difference between an elevated heart rate from drugs vs exercise?

If a heart rate is 110 from walking versus 110 from an adrenergic drug, what differences will there be? Is stroke volume vastly different? Does that affect peripheral vessels at all? Does the heart suffer any sort of damage from the drug compared to the exercise? Is it strengthened similarly?

[Assistant]
Physical exercise releases many chemical processes that affect the muscles and blood vessels, usually making vessels more elastic while muscle tissue fills with blood. This entire process causes the heart rate to increase to compensate and keep blood flowing fast enough for adequate circulation and respiration.

Increased heart rate from a drug isn't going to have the system wide effects of exercise, so the increase in heart rate and blood pressure isn't being compensated by the physical effects of exercise. This is usually detrimental because the increased pressure without elasticity of exercise in the vessels leads to other problems like stroke, heart attacks, and atherosclerosis over time.


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

[User] Reading the post about Uranus and its 90 degree axis - Why do planets rotate to start with?

[Assistant]
Planets rotate because of the Conservation of Angular Momentum. The gas and dust that forms planetary systems has some net rotation to it before it starts contracting. There are a lot of reasons for this, but basically it's very hard to not have angular momentum. If any particle moves in a way that's not directly toward or away from the center of mass of the cloud, then the cloud has angular momentum.

Since, like normal momentum, this must be conserved, as the gas contracts and forms stars and planets, these objects must also spin. Some of this angular momentum goes into the revolution of the planets around the central star, but some of it also goes into the rotation of the planets themselves.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is it that after we've laughed a lot, things become even funnier and it's harder to stop laughing?

aka falling into a laughing fit where you find everything funny for some reason.

[Assistant] It's a positive feedback loop, and is the same reason that laughter is often thought of as contagious. Laughter releases endorphins, those brain chemicals that make you feel good. Hearing friendly laughter releases some, laughing yourself releases more. (this is why there are laugh tracks on tv; if we hear laughter, we are more likely to laugh as well.) Normally, the endorphins are released, do their business, and then go away. However, sometimes there is reason for them to hang around a bit longer. Sustained periods of laughter can release the endorphins a little faster than they can go away, and so they start to pile up as the brain tries to restore equilibrium. The better we feel, the more apt we are to laugh, making us feel even better. Or, we are tired, and the brain was already starting to shut down for the night and so isn't ready to help clear out the flood of endorphins that have suddenly showed up. Eventually, the brain kicks itself into overdrive to clear out all the backlogged endorphins, and the giggle fit ends. This often leaves us feeling quite worn out afterwards, but still kinda good.


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

[User]
[DBZ] How are the scientists and astronomers reacting to things as of DBS?

I mean, it was maddening as it was before; the moon disappearing and reappearing, Cell's powers, so much more.

I've only started watching Super and they just used the big dragon.  At this point the fights are more energetic than cosmic events; there were like "gravity waves" warping reality through the universe when Goku fought Beerus along with several unexplainable explosions of huge magnitude in the atmosphere.

Now they've summoned a dragon ~~the size of a solar system~~ large enough to encompass dozens of galaxies, and it's roars seem to shake the fabric of space too.

How exactly are earth's scientists trying to explain and understand these highly anomalous events?  What conclusions have they come to so far other than "the laws of physics seem to be suggestions"?

[Assistant]
anti-intellectualism is very strong on dbz earth, it was already so bad that they elected a dog to be president to show up those know-it-all science types, and under president dog's administration science and education funding is lacking.

also theres the well documented instances of martial artists destroying the mighty red ribbon army and mr satan killing a city destroying mutant monster, which has led most of dbz earth's citizens to look upon physical prowess as the be-all end-all of power.

and of course their's dr. gero's androids, who gave science a bad name as well.  And of course his death, and also obsession with killing goku, effectively deprived mankind of it's greatest technological genius.

so when you say "the scientists and astronomers of dbs" the group you're identifying is basically just bulma and her dad, and they already know whats going on AND regularly shit on the laws of physics themselves already so...


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

[User] [The Road] What exactly destroyed the world?

[Assistant] While it is never directly stated in either the book or film, there are hints that can be gleaned from the details of the world. Noting the ever-present ash and the progressive cooling of the earth and darkening of the sky, we can assume that the world ending event ejected enough particles into the atmosphere to create a "nuclear" style winter. Since there doesn't seem to be huge signs pointing towards a nuclear war (no descriptions of destroyed cities or danger from fallout) we can probably assume that the collapse of civilization was due to the eruption of a super volcano or an asteroid impact.


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

[User]
Do goosebumps appear in the same location every time?

Say you are cold and have goosebumps on your arms. The next time you get goosebumps on your arms will the individual bumps be in exactly the same place?

[Assistant]
Goose bumps are formed when a tiny muscle at the base of your body hairs contracts.

This means that the bumps will appear in very similar places every time. It probably wouldnt be the exact same every time because theres no guaranteeing that every muscle will be contracted every time. It will probably be very similar though.


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

[User]
[Star Trek] Why are Vulcans often misunderstood by human Starfleet officers?

The emotional "deficits" generally exhibited by Vulcans are similar to the symptoms of high functioning autistic individuals, right? Shouldn't officers have at least a passing knowledge of this comparison and use that information for better relations between the species, by relating to Vulcans like they would autistic individuals?

[Assistant]
Also remember that Vulcans are largely a secretive and traditional race. Humans that join Starfleet are a largely rare breed and those that excel are rarer still. They have to be a combination of scientist, diplomat and soldier, which not many people are capable of doing. Vulcans with that same aptitude are even rarer than that.

Most Vulcans keep to their planet, or ships made by Vulcans or crewed by all Vulcans. This is logical to them. If they deviate from their centuries of tradition, or consort too much with more volatile species, they might find themselves slipping back into unbridled passion and unchecked logic. They don't express emotions, but they do feel them, and the fear of regressing back into those old ways frightens Vulcans more than anything.

So they keep themselves isolated and a little stagnant. Unfortunately, this means few people really understand Vulcans. Add on top of that the already inherent difficulties of another species trying to understand the culture of another and you have a recipe for constant misunderstanding.


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

[User]
ELI5 Why were we attacked on 9/11

there are people who say it is because they hate our values (like how we dress and whatever) but that seems too simplistic. What were the real events that led to the attack? Did America do something specifically bad? I hope this doesn't sound insensitive to the victims of 9/11 but i just wanna know if there is another side to the story that we probably don't hear about.

[Assistant]
* You have to go back to the origins of the Cold War.
* The US made allies with some not-nice dictators because the US needed allies and resources to stay even keel with the USSR.
* One of those dictators was the Shan of Iran, who gave us cheap oil.
* Many of his people hated him, because he was sometimes brutal to them. The fundamentalist Muslims were particularly upset with him.
* In the 1970s, the Shah got deathly ill. He came to the US to get medical care.
* Then there was a fundamentalist revolution in Iran, and they wanted the Shah back to put him on trial.
* The US said no, and then the Shah died.
* Around the same time, two things happened. 1) The USSR invaded Afghanistan. 2) Iraq invaded Iran.

* The US supported Iraq (led by Saddam Hussein) against Iran, and started training an underground militia in Afghanistan (including a young bloke named Osama bin Laden) to fight against the USSR
* Eventually, the Iraq Iran war ended in a stalemate. And the Afghan rebels forced the USSR to leave Afghanistan.
* The US then forgot all about Afghanistan, and let fundamentalism take over that region.
* Low on funds because of the lengthy war against Iran, Iraq decided to invade Kuwait (for its oil).
* In a surprising 180 degree policy change, the US (led by GWH Bush) began calling their former friend Saddam Hussein evil. The US put together a military coalition to push Iraq out of Kuwait.
* But where to put the US troops? The only place available was Saudi Arabia (Osama bin Laden's homeland, and the site of Islam's most sacred sites). Note: Fundamentalist Muslims consider it blasphemous for non-Muslims to set foot on Saudi soil.
* Fundamentalist Muslims from Iran, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan wanted the US off of Saudi land.
* Two years after the US pushed Iraq out of Kuwait, Muslim fundamentalists blew up a car bomb in the basement of the world trade center. 6 people died. 1000 were injured. The US military continued its presence in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia.
* A few years later, Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri co-signed a fatwa in the name of the World Islamic Front for Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders which declared the killing of North Americans and their allies an "individual duty for every Muslim" to "liberate the al-Aqsa Mosque (in Jerusalem) and the holy mosque (in Mecca) from their grip".
* Later that year, hundreds of people were killed in simultaneous truck bomb explosions at US embassies in the major East African cities of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya. (they were linked to Osama bin Laden). The US increased its military presence in Middle East, including in Saudi Arabia.
* Two years later in Yemen, a small dingy carrying explosives rammed the destroyer U.S.S. Cole, killing 17 sailors and injuring 39 others. Supporters of Bin Laden were involved. The US continued its military presence in Saudi Arabia, and its support of Israel.
* None of these terrorists attacks got the attention of US foreign policy.
* The attack on 9/11, a few years after the attack on the Cole, had nothing to do with the fundamentalist muslim terrorists hating our values or our clothes or our music. These fundamentalists wanted the US off of Saudi soil, and out of Israeli affairs. The US would have none of that.
* Take note: They did not target the Statue of Liberty. They did not target Disneyworld. They did not target the Olympics. Their attacks were on embassies in the Middle East, military sites, globalization financial centers, and the CIA head quarters.


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

[User]
[Code Name Kids Next Door] Where does the KND get their resources?

Rudimentary technology like the S.P.L.A.N.K.E.R just seem like D.I.Y projects but these kids also live in 100ft tree houses, pilot mechas, and have a moon base. The average operative is 5-12yrs old so their no where near old enough to get a job and there's no way adults are funding them.

[Assistant]
Lemonade stands and magazine sales.

Schools have sleeper agents who route fundraising finances to the organization, and adults buy the magazines because they think they're supporting things like new textbooks.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do touch lamps work?

Also, how do touch lamp adapters work? My friend made his regular lamp into a touch lamp by plugging it into an adapter which baffles me.

[Assistant]
The same way your phone's touchscreen works.

An electric charge is sent to the lamps housing. The lamp can store a set number of elections based on its size. It has an electrical *capacity*. Basically, it builds up a slight static charge just like a sock in a dryer.

You can measure how many elections it's storing by how long you can send it electrons before they start slowing down as it fills up. If you reverse the flow of elections and empty it out, you can reverse it again and measure how long it takes to fill the second time. If it takes longer the second time, something has changed.

Anything conductive that touches it will allow it to store more because you effectively made the lamp larger by adding more conductive material. People are conductive. So when you touch the lamp, it takes much longer to fill with electrons because some of them flow into you.

The plug can measure the lamp wirelessly, the same way wireless chargers work. The fast switching electric current in the lamps wire induces a magnetic field which induces an electric current in the nearby lamp housing. This field should switch at the same speed of the capacity of the lamp stays the same. But the capacity goes up when you add yourself to the field. This is also how a theramin works.


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

[User] ELI5: If we can't regrow enamel, how does fluoride rinsing help?

[Assistant]
Imagine enamel as a fishing net.

It consists of many ropes who are tied together. Say you go fishing with it, the problem is that the knots between rope intersections keep  breaking.

Now a bit of fishing won't make you lose any net, it will just become slowly undone. As more knots get undone, some pieces of rope will become completely detached from the net and float away into the ocean completely. But a single fishing trip will just make some of the ropes dangle due to not being completely knotted.

As the knots break, you fix them by driving metal rivets or some kind of metal reinforcement through them. This makes the net far stronger. But undoing each of the knots by hand is hard, so instead you do this progressively, instead of redoing the net completely you just fix any loose ends as you use the net. Over time, you get a far stronger net.

This metal reinforcement is fluoride. The key fact is that the enamel does not completely float away, it just gets loose.

Chemical explanation:

The chemical formula of enamel is Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2, enamel of course is a crystal and there are many of such units within enamel, all bonded together.

The problem: Acids are of course chemicals which give off H+ ions, which really really like to steal OH sections from atoms, like our enamel has. This of course produces water, and the acids can either come from the food we eat or bacteria found in our mouth, who consume sugars for energy but release acids as waste. One or two stolen OH sections won't completely get rid of the enamel, enamel is chemically bound together in many places, but nonetheless, if enough enamel around the same place loses its OH, then that section will get loose and just washed away.

The solution: As it turns out, the F- ion has similar chemical properties to the -OH ion. Except it is stronger. Acids can't steal an F- ion that easily. So the idea is that as the acids and food we eat steal the OH ions, we replace them with F ions, which both repairs the enamel and makes it stronger against future attacks.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does a CPU know to keep executing instructions over and over again? What schedules the programs I write and run on the computer?

I can't find a simple understanding of this anywhere. I understand concepts like the reset vector and how the CPU essentially "initializes" and starts working, but once the OS and kernel are introduced into main memory is it basically just a series of jumps and loops that keep the CPU running tasks over and over again until told to either shut off or power is just lost?

Also was wondering what exactly is scheduling the programs I run in say, C, for example. Like, I write a program and compile it and I understand that, but how is it determined by the kernel "Hey, it's a good time to run this guy's program", like how does the CPU know to go fetch my program in memory? What is telling the CPU to do that? I imagine the kernel but I do not know.

[Assistant]
You're exactly right. This is what a multi process kernel is doing. It has a core process called a scheduler which keeps a table of all  "running" programs. If you click or type a command to run a new program, there are standard OS calls that get invoked that add that new process to the scheduler's roster.

Think of your computer running like a busy gym. There are 20 people (programs) all wanting to use  8 treadmills (say your CPU cores). The kernel's scheduler points to 8 of them and says "ok you guys get 5 minutes" and "you guys get a turn after that." and so on. Some programs are lower priority (old and sore), so don't get or don't want a turn as frequently as others. Some programs are blocked, waiting on some network message (talking on cell phone) to arrive or some disk access (the bathroom/water cooler), so the scheduler will skip their turn until they're ready. Some programs aren't paying attention (busy on phone) and the scheduler goes "hey. Explorer.exe you want a turn on the treadmill? Hey! Get off your - fine. Moving on. Photoshop, you get a turn." and the scheduler just skips over a nonresponsive program.

Now, how the kernel "switches" to a program in memory, is pretty simple. When the OS "loads" the program into memory it knows its starting address amongst all the other programs. Internally, all the program code jumps and branches are addressed as an _offset_ from its starting point. When its time for that program to start execution, the OS simply points the relevant CPu core to the programs start point and the CPu core goes from there. When the scheduler butts in and says "times up!", a pointer to where in the program the CPU core is currently at gets saved; when that program gets another turn, it simply points the CPU back to that address of where it left off.

Now, how does the OS scheduler "interrupt" the CPU to switch the code that's running? Those are hardware interrupts. Literally the kernel has a physical switch that tells the CPU to stop and listen to where the scheduler wants it to redirect to.


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

[User]
[Judge Dredd] Why was Mega City 1 spared in the Atomic Wars?

Mega City 1 appears to be built over some pretty massive population centers like New York, Washington DC, New Jersey, etc. How were these places still intact enough to glom together to create Mega City 1, while places like the Mid-West were nuked to a radiation filled hellscape? Wouldn't this area especially be a primary target in a nuclear war?

[Assistant] A combination of technical difficulties with incoming missiles and point defenses could have allowed for enough intact infrastructure to exist.  The better question is, how the hell do you feed and power that place when the entire rest of the country is a radioactive waste?


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

[User]
[Black Panther] Wakanda and international relations

[Spoilers for the Movie and possible some comics]

Is it possible for such an extremely isolationist country to thrive so well without any foreign aid at all?

I mean, sure, they basically have an unlimited supply of a magic metal, but Vibranium alone cannot possibly fulfill all their needs. They'd definitely need other raw materials such as metals, fabrics and all. Without international trade, is it possible for a nation to be this self sufficient?

Wakanda is geographically diverse, as shown by the existence of Icy Mountains as well as desert/low grasslands. It is also said to be a "farmer nation" so I guess they could be self sufficient when it comes to food and clothing, but what about fuel? How does it manage to maintain its economy? How does the King fund his "missions" in other western countries? Is this explained in the comics?

[Assistant]
So... the comics primarily had Wakanda's rise to technological superiority be a relatively recent phenomenon, and that selling small amounts of Vibranium to fund an economic kickstart based on educating their next generation was the main thing that happened. Wakandan aeronautic firms make great airplanes that other countries buy for instance. (The Avengers fleet of Quinjets are usually Wakandan built.) So the comics do have Wakanda involved in international commerce, but on their own terms.

Now, the main thing the movie did was set up a situation where Wakanda officially is isolationist, but has agents in various countries. So the implication is that the Wakanda as portrayed in the movie has been doing trade with other nations covertly, in ways that kept the illusion that they were just another African nation full of farmers. It is likely that Wakanda isn't just rich with Vibranium, but that they had other resources that they could sell to foreign powers, such as conventional metals. They just made it seem like "Poor Wakanda has one mine for copper ore." They were isolationists, but not idiots.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do sea mammals move their tails up and down while fish move it side to side?

Is there an evolutionary advantage to either one of them?

[Assistant]
There's no "advantage" it's just different.

They're different because in a sea mammal's evolutionary history they were quadrupedal land animals. If you watch a dog or other land mammal run, you'll see how their spine arches up and down. A whale's tail swinging up and down is just an evolutionary tweak on the same movement they used before they adapted to the water.


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

[User]
[Elden Ring] Why does almost everybody hate the tarnished?

I can understand the aggression from wolves and bears, but sometimes the tarnished will be minding his/her own business and purposely avoiding run ins with Knights and such when, all of a sudden, they attack. There was nothing in the way of antagonizing any of these people/monsters so, what gives?

[Assistant]
Tarnished are supposedly on a mission to topple the powers that be. Anyone serving those various powers is likely to aggro on what they view as a potent terrorist.

Its a prophecy trope IMO. Its "prophecy" that a tarnished will succeed, so let's suppress any tarnished to be safe.


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

[User]
[Friday the 13th] How would Jason react to Deadpool?

Imagine if Deadpool decided to go on a camping trip and ended up at the abandoned Crystal Lake campground. Jason would obviously want to kill this intruder ASAP. So Jason chops off his head and to his amazement Deadpool is soon back in one piece. Assuming that Deadpool does not fight back, how long would this go on? Would Jason eventually get frustrated and give up? Or would he keep on killing Deadpool for as long as Wade allowed for it?

[Assistant] I think this would be a case of euphoric frustration. In pretty sure young master Voorhes would kill him over and over again and Wade would be a good sport and provide all kinds of dramatic overreactions to being killed. Quite possibly he'd start dressing up for it after a while.


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

[User]
[The Legend of Korra/The Last Airbender] Shouldn't waterbenders be able to control people anyway?

Bloodbending aside, shouldn't more experienced waterbenders be able to have at least some form of control over people simply because of the sheer amount of water molecules that make up our bodies?

[Assistant] Bloodbending isn't bending just the blood. It's doing exactly what you describe already.  However, it is still very difficult and can only be done when water benders are at their strongest (aside from a few prodigies).


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

[User]
[Jurassic Park] Would the scientists and genetic engineers, presumably experts in their fields, actually overlook somethig like a frog's sex-changing abilities?

Grant is the one who points this out so it's not exactly unknown. Of all the animals they could have chosen to fill in the DNA gaps, you would think they would have realized the potential problem.

[Assistant]
Every time an issue is passed up the chain of comand its severity drops.

"There's a problem here, these frogs could cause the assets to change sex if they are all one sex!"

"There's the possibility these assets could change sex if there's a lot that are the same."

"There might be a sex change issue because of all the females,  something to do with frogs."

"Someone pointed out the possibility that these assets might be able to change sex under specific conditions."

I was talking with one of the accident investigators for Challenger and this was exactly what she described when talking about the O-ring issue. The engineers at the bottom found a issue and told their bosses who told their bosses and so on until the severity was all but lost.

It started with "this will kill people," and ended with "There's a potential issue."


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

[User] [Star Trek][Doctor Who] The Borg encounter the Daleks. What goes down?

[Assistant]
The Daleks biggest advantage is they have easy and reliable time travel.   They have any numbers of ways to defeat the Borg with time manipulation.

In a conventional fight the Dalek empire, at its hight, spans galaxies.  Has weapons that can destroy galaxies, or the entire universe (even if that is self defeating).  The Borg only have a portion of a single galaxy.  From a recourses standpoint the Borg just can't compete.


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

[User]
Shouldn't a black hole have only as much gravity as the star that formed it did?

A question fueled by Dr. Who. Where does the extra mass come from that makes a black hole so dense if it was only made from a single star?

[Assistant] Black holes have *less* mass than the star from which they formed. As a general rule of thumb, when a star undergoes the kind of supernova that can create the pressure necessary to make a black hole, about three-fourths of its mass is blown off out into space. A twenty-solar-mass star becomes a five-solar-mass black hole. In general. Ish. Roughly.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] What did the Clone Troopers think of Jango Fett?

En**e**my of the Republic? Fath**e**r Figure? No Opinion?

[Assistant] They see his as a father figure, but espite this feeling for Jango, the Clones were bred to be loyal to the Republic and therefore when he seemingly "betrayed" the Republic and went to join the Separatists, they saw him as the enemy. However, as the Clones were brought up in Mandalorian customs, they realize that bounty hunters join sides for profit so it was nothing personal. Though they are individuals, they still see him as their father, even after his betrayal and death.


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

[User]
[Transformers] Are the Transformers held together with nuts and screws, or are they held together by something more organic?

I have a hard time imagining something as complex as a Transformer can be held together with bolts and stuff, but I dont know.  Is this covered in lore?

[Assistant]
They are indeed made of recognizable mechanical parts...which are totally natural and alive.

There's a great scene in the IDW comic More Than Meets The Eye where Prowl, a police officer, orders a full autopsy performed on a body. We then see the unlucky Cybertronian disassembled with every gear and screw carefully arranged and labeled, exactly as if you had taken apart a car.

MTMTE is an amazing book, btw, which delves a lot into interesting sci-fi ideas with the Transformers.


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

[User]
Because temperature affects the speed of sound, how slow could the cold bring down the speed of sound?

I assume it's not possible for sound to not move at all. I'm not exactly sure how this works other than temperature affecting energy levels.

[Assistant] Well the limiting case is if you get it so cold that it becomes liquid, and then sound becomes much faster. If you treat nitrogen as an ideal gas down to the transition temperature, the lowest speed will be about 180 m/s, just over half as fast as at normal temperatures.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does bleach solution lose effectiveness after 24 hours?

ELI5: Why does a bleach solution such as one made up at home and stored in a spray bottle or other jar lose effectiveness as a disinfectant after 24 hours? (Basing this on information posted by MSU, but they didn't give an explanation of why or how.)

[Assistant]
Because bleach breaks down into salt.

Bleach works because it is very reactive and it breaks down a lot of organic material it comes into contact with, but the bleach itself also reduces to salt.

Pure bleach breaks down over time which is why bleach that is a year old isn't as effective.

When you mix it with water, it breaks down faster and so isn't as useful the next day because there isn't as much bleach left.


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

[User]
Are the orbital planes of other solar systems parallel to ours?

 I know that we can observe exoplanets when they pass in front of their star and we can get a peek at the atmosphere because photons are able to pass through it and then reach us. However, it seems like such an event is very unlikely. Why is it that all of these exoplanets seem to be going directly in between their host star and earth in order for us to be able to view them so consistently? What are the chances of that? Are the orbital planes of different solar systems parallel with each other? This is the only explanation I can think of.

[Assistant]
You're right that it's unlikely - we can only observe a small fraction of exoplanets using the transit method. So we have to survey huge numbers of stars to find the few that are lined up right at the right time. These are ongoing surveys that continually take pictures of large amounts of sky to see when stars get dimmer. The Kepler satellite in particular can see 116 square degrees of sky, which is almost 600 times the apparent area of a full moon.

There is obviously a bias here, but it's a well known bias that's easy to understand. Orbital inclinations seem to be random, so we can reasonably accurately say that some x% of planetary orbits should be inclined correctly for us to see them, and use that to estimate the total number of planets we should expect. We can also take into account the sensitivity limits - i.e. what fraction of correctly aligned orbits might have planets too small to be seen etc.


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

[User]
The ten black hole merger events detected by LIGO over the past five years seems like a lot. Is it?

LIGO has been running for five years, or about one three billionth the age of our universe.   I'm amazed that it has already detected ten black hole mergers.   Can we interpret this as: 1) there are a LOT of black holes in the universe.   2) the universe is SO huge and mind-boggingly expansive that even rare events are common.
 3) there are black hole clusters.  or 4) we are seeing mergers from a time when black holes were more common.

[Assistant] Space is really big and has a lot of stars. If the average distance between galaxies is 3 million lightyears, there are 100 billion stars per galaxy, and LIGO has a detection range of 1 billion lightyears, that makes something like 10^18 stars in the detection range. A tiny fraction of those are big enough to form black holes, and a small fraction of those are in binary orbits. But those that are in binary orbits eventually collide.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does a full stomach lessen the effects of alcohol?

Is it because the food absorbs the ethanol which lowers its effects on the body? Because thats what I assumed.

[Assistant] I once read that it was because when your stomach is empty, the alcohol proceeds straight to the intestines to be absorbed into your blood stream.  But if there was solid food in your stomach, you stomach's sphincter would be closed, forcing the alcohol to wait there before being absorbed.  This spreads out the absorption time, reducing the intoxicating effects, like others said, but also gives time for some of alcohol to be broken down by enzymes in the stomach and be rendered non-intoxicating.


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

[User]
[Fallout] About Power Armor...

What exactly are the capabilities of the armors? What makes Advanced Armor Mk II superior to T45d? what does the d in T45d stand for anyway? Do the armors have an onboard computer? how about a HUD?

[Assistant]
Okay, let me just get a few things together. Done. Now let's start teaching you about power armor.

[screen fades out]

[screen fades in]

And that's how it all works. Now you know all about power armor and can use it. Good luck out there in the wastelands, vault dweller.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is it that car companies that sell cheap cars (i.e. honda, hyundai) don't design a car that looks as stunning/sexy as an expensive car (i.e. tesla, ferrari, etc.)?

[Assistant]
They could, but the expensive cars are not appealing just because of their looks but are a sum of many parts: the looks, finely tuned suspension, high quality interior, high horsepower engine, brand name, etc.

Imagine a car that looks like a Ferrari but has a loose suspension, 145-hp 4 cylinder auto, and cheap interior with a stereo that sounds like a boom box sitting on the back seat? Who would be the market for that?

The exterior looks of the car need to be equivalent to everything else or it creates this weird sensory, expectation issues like giving a male some boob implants. Yeah, they are nice boobs, but they are on a man.


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

[User]
Are all central banks created equal?

I think it's safe to say that, generally speaking, most countries' Central Banks are run by economic experts and are usually safely decoupled from the government enough to do their job effectively.

With that being said, why do central banks take fairly different actions when presented with similar scenarios? E.g. ECB putting negative rates when the US Federal Reserve expressed no interest in doing so, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand raising rates to counter inflation even though the Federal Reserve believes inflation to be transitory and to wait things out a bit longer before a rate hike.

Is this difference just in mentality towards different scenarios? Is it a difference in expertise? *Are* there differing level of expertise among central banks? A lot of people seem to give the Federal Reserve grief for QE and related stimulus, but the ECB is engaging with these activities as well, are they not?

Any help or literature pointing to comparisons would be great.

[Assistant]
Central banks jobs are to maintain steady price levels in an economy. If different central banks act in different ways its because they're dealing with different economies.

The ECB might set negative rates to promote growth but the fed might think the US economy has no need for further stimulus or thinks QE is a better tool to achieve their goals.

Central banks are also given different tasks by their government. For example in the UK it's set a 2% inflation target. In other countries this differs.

Finally some central banks have different political influences. Most western central banks are thought of as being relatively Independant from government. Other central banks much less so. An example of this is Turkey. Which is lowering interest rates despite high inflation because that's what the government wants.


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

[User] What makes a substance addictive and why does the brain and/or body think that it's required or that it needs more?

[Assistant]
Hey.  In basic terms, the brain is set up to encourage survival-promoting behaviors.  So, sex feels good.  Eating feels good.  Affiliating with other members of the species feels good (usually).  We have a reward circuit that is activated by these survival-promoting behaviors.  So your brain goes, "Do that again!"

When you take certain drugs, this reward circuit is overstimulated.  The stimulation is beyond anything that "normal" survival-promoting behaviors elicit.  So your brain goes, "HOLY SHIT, DO THAT AGAIN.  AND DON'T DO THE OTHER STUFF THAT ISN'T NEARLY THAT GOOD."  Your brain doesn't know that this stuff isn't survival-promoting and, in fact, will eventually destroy you.  The brain is doing what it is supposed to do = keep doing the stuff that activates the reward circuit.

That's a pretty simplified explanation.  There are many other factors and theories about addiction.  There are theories that posit that some addictive behaviors are the result of avoiding withdrawal, some are avoidance of emotional pain or anxiety, some revolve around difference in endogenous levels of neurotransmitters among individuals, self-medication of psychological problems, etc.  But when you are talking about that desperate desire to repeat a negative behavior in the face of life-destroying consequences, there is reward going on in the brain.


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

[User] ELI5: Is there REALLY any difference in effectiveness between the tasty pink bubblegum Act mouthwash my girlfriend uses vs. The burning stinging alcoholic green mint Listerine mouthwash I use?

[Assistant] The difference between the two is that the stinging green alcoholic Listerine mouthwash is right there in the question title! Mouthwash for children doesn't use any alcohol as the taste is very abrasive and strong for children. Bubblegum mouthwash is more of a fluoride rinse rather than a bad breath killing rinse. Alcohol pretty much decimates bacteria in your mouth, getting rid of the bad breath and stray bacteria which can harm your enamel, etc. The mint flavoring used in many conventional mouthwashes is to accentuate the alcohol, and give you the feeling of freshness many of us associate with mint. It's good at covering up any potential bad breath remaining, and is generally a better smell than "plain".


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

[User] ELI5: is thunder the sound of lightning moving through the air, or of lightning hitting the ground?

[Assistant] It's the sound of the shockwave caused by the air as it is rapidly heated from the lightning. The sudden increase in temperature creates a sudden increase in pressure, causing the air to expand and create said shockwave.


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

[User]
CMV: The President of the United States should be elected through the popular vote.

Yes, I understand the importance of the electoral college and I do understand that having our representatives elected by popular vote would create a majority rules system that would ignore the minority. Im not advocating for Congress to change.

Right now our system is designed to cater to the interests of a few areas that arent densely populated with disregard to the needs and interests of the majority. This creates a system that holds the views of the minority with more regard.

If the majority of people agree with one view point, the president should also hold those views and be representative of the majority people.

If the president could be elected through the popular vote it would also open things up more for a third party if they managed to convince the majority of the people about their platform.

Edit: a lot of comments are missing the point of my post and going straight to disenfranchisement but my post makes it clear that the minority would still be represented through congressional representation. The only difference would be the president and I dont see how a president representing the majority of the people would disenfranchise anyone.

You are saying that having a president based on majority only helps them majority but I could say the same about a president elected by the minority: they would ignore the majority.

[Assistant]
>If the president could be elected through the popular vote it would also open things up more for a third party if they managed to convince the majority of the people about their platform.

If one of your goals is to open the field up for third parties, the popular vote won't help you do that.

You need to change the voting system away from first-past-the-post, and replace it with something more representative. There are a lot of potential voting systems, each with their own pros and cons. FPTP will always devolve into a two-party system.

Honestly removing FPTP should be first priority for America, it would solve many problems they are currently facing. It would mean no longer "choosing the lesser of two evils". However since FPTP seems to have bipartisan support from the two evils, and of course it would, there is no way for the American people to have a democratic say in the matter.


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

[User]
[DC UNIVERSE] How does a common thug explain his injuries from a run in with Batman?

"yeah honey, oh my broken rib? Yeah Batman did it"

[Assistant]
I mean, it's not that weird for a common thug to come home from "work" with some injuries, and most of 'em don't really even try to hide the fact that they are thugs from what family they have.

So yea, they just say they got their ass beat by Batman.  That's a lot more respectable than having to say they got their ass beat by some rando.


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

[User]
[General] It's stated that some magical beings cannot lie, honor oaths as the highest priority... but will use half-truths to manipulate mortals. Could you prevent this by making them swear to tell the truth, the WHOLE truth and nothing but the truth?

Special emphasis on the second point.

[Assistant]
Taken literally, a Fae bound to tell "the whole truth" is pretty quickly going to be useless.

>Where's the hidden treasure?
>
>Well, our story begins 14 billion years ago, when a singularity rapidly expanded...

You'll rapidly have to amend the oath to something like "the whole relevant truth" or "the whole pertinent truth", and then all the loopholes come back.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Has there ever been any indication in the books or EU as to which galaxy in our universe Star Wars takes place in? And/or is there any basis on which to make an educated guess?

Star Wars takes place in a galaxy far far away... which implies it's within our universe. So which galaxy is it?

[Assistant] ET claims his home is 3 million lightyears away from earth, which would place it in The Andromeda Galaxy (I think). Since ET's species has appeared in Star Wars you could argue that's proof Star Wars also takes place there.


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

[User]
[Batman] I know Batman wont, but why hasn't the state executed the Joker?

And failing that, why hasn't he been sent to Guantanamo or some other high security military prison for his countless acts of terrorism?

[Assistant]
1. Because he's (probably) insane and the state cannot execute the mentally ill.
2. No one knows his real identity and the state can't execute unknown people.
3. There's possibly no death penalty in whatever state Gotham is in.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does dopamine seems to calm down people with ADHD? What's the science behind it?

[Assistant] So basically, dopamine, a happy neurotransmitter, is often at low levels in the brain of someone with adhd. A person with ADHD responds to the low levels of dopamine by seeking out ways to produce it, like taking a lot of exciting risks, or eating sugar. When someone takes a medication that gives them dopamine, they no longer feel the urge to do things to seek out the dopamine, allowing them to be more focused and calmer.


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

[User] ELI5: What is that weird 'milk skin' that forms on top of milk after boiling it?

[Assistant] Proteins in the milk lose their solubility as the result of heat, and coagulate or come together to form a sticky film that floats on top of the liquid milk. Its the result of the chemical transformation of those proteins caused by the heat. Biochemists call this process denaturation.


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

[User] How does the air inside the tire of a moving car behave? For example does it "spin" at a similar rpm to the tire? Also what effect does centripetal force have on the air if any at all?

[Assistant]
Tire engineer here,

The air does move, and it will be lagged behind the carcass (which is lagged behind the wheel a bit, kind of).  The air will lag, but not very much, and the effects are minimal.

Currently even the most advanced tire models (F1 or aircraft) do not even model the effect you are talking about.  There just isn't enough mass of air to make a difference compared to all the other things going on when tires are in use.

As for the centripetal force, this is negligible, again, because the air has so little mass.  Tires also rotate a lot slower than most people think.  Even NASCAR tires at 200 mph are only turning about 2400 rpm (2.22m rollout), which is really slow as far as centripetal forces on air are concerned.  Still about 2300g though (V/r)/9.81

The volume of one of those tires is about 0.4m which means at 1.2kg/m and say, 5 atm (70 psi is realistically the highest pressure a right side tire will use at Charlotte) the air in the tire will have a mass of about 0.5kg.  Even if we consider all of this to be at the loaded radius, the total centripetal force at 2300g is about 10kn (2500lb).

This may seem like a lot, but distributed around the circumference of the tire it means this is about the same as 2 psi more pressure.

Compare that to the centrifugal force of the actual tire, which is more like 10kg, and it looks pretty insignificant (230kn and 45psi effective).


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

[User] ELI5: How are there no taxes on digitally downloaded content? What makes it different from physical copies that the government chooses not to tax it?

[Assistant] The federal government does not levy any sales taxes, only states do. That's easy enough when something is purchased by a consumer at a physical location in the state, but when a consumer purchases content from a provider in another state, it's a little more complicated. The law hasn't quite figured it out yet, so digital content stays exempt from sales tax.


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

[User] [Harry Potter] What's stopping Harry & Co from abusing the Taboo on Voldemort's name to repeatedly ambush Death Eaters?

[Assistant]
Let's say you're Voldemort. You send a couple of Death Eaters to chase down a Taboo, and they get captured/killed/whatever. The next time someone in the same area has balls big enough to use your name, you're going to go over there and personally sort this out.

Remember, you're the strongest wizard alive on the planet, and the only reason you're not chasing every Taboo down is because you're too busy. But if someone at the same location keeps using your name and dispatching your Death Eaters when they investigate, you're going to go in loaded for bear, and Harry couldn't deal with that kind of power, especially without taking out the Horcruxes first. By the time the Horcruxes were all destroyed, they knew where Voldy was.


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

[User] ELI5: Can someone briefly explain chaos theory and any modern practices/uses of it?

[Assistant]
Most mathematical functions we use regularly are relatively well-behaved: if you take a few inputs and their respective outputs (both of which can be multiple variables) you can predict what other input would get you in terms of output, at least in the ballpark. This is especially true if the initial outputs are almost the same: you can expect outputs which are almost the same.

But sometimes that is not the case: you slightly alter the input and you get a very different output. This is especially true in cases where you aren't taking exact inputs but approximating them (such as what we do in pretty much every actual physical application of physics): what you initially thought were two equal inputs were not equal and their end results are very different.

However, we are still dealing with functions: they are actually predictable if the input is the same, but it's much more difficult to approximate them. We can study them to see if there may be some interesting things we discover about how they behave, but they are harder than other functions.

One application is developing what looks to us as randomness generators: you take a sufficiently exact initial measurement, and then run that into a chaotic function. This is not truly random as if you knew the input you would know the output (a series of numbers), but it's hard to land on the same sequence twice.

Similarly, good encryption requires functions which behave somewhat "chaotically" to an observer: you want an output which does not give you a clue of the corect input even if you only have near miss. You can technically reverse engineer most encryption algorithms with enough correct key-value pairs, but the goal is to make such a calculation completely impractical.


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

[User] ELI5 : How do humans feel temperature differences and how precisely can we feel it?

[Assistant]
Your body is like a combustion engine, constantly producing heat, and you need to dissipate that in order to keep it working properly. If you are losing too much heat you feel cold, lose too little and you feel hot.

The amount of heat you dissipate through your skin depends on 2 factors, the thermal conductivity and the temperature of the material you are touching. That's why air feels comfortable at around 21C but water or a piece of metal at the same temperature will feel cold, as they will "suck" more heat from your body due to their higher thermal conductivity.

So what you are feeling is not exactly temperature, it's heat loss. And your body is very sensitive to it because your internal "machinery" needs to be at a very specific temperature to work.


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

[User]
This may sound dumb, but is it possible for animals to have a mental illness?

I know this may sound ridiculous, but I was wondering if animals can be diagnosed with a mental illness? For example, can some dogs have behavioral issues that are linked to mental illness? Or is mental illness a strictly human condition?

[Assistant]
Behavioral illness do exist in animals, and can be treated with neuroactive compounds. Some causes are organic, such as in prion disease (mad cow) some causes may be structural, and some causes may be chemical.

Behavior is ultimately a result of how the brain is working (thinking from a completely mechanistic point of view), so any aberration in brain function can lead to an aberration in behavior.


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

[User] When someone has cancer they typically lose a lot of weight. Is this due to an inability to eat due to nausea or is there something about fighting cancer that is metabolically expensive?

[Assistant]
Cancer itself can cause weight loss because of the metabolic expenditure (see: other comments explaining cachexia).

Cancers in the GI tract especially around the stomach, pancreas and initial small bowel can cause anorexia (lack of appetite), early satiety (feeling full quickly) and nausea, through tumour mass taking up physical space in the gut, through chemical release and through invasion of the nerves supplying the gut. It is because of these effects that unintentional weight loss over a relatively short period of time sets off alarm bells and is seen as a "red flag symptom".

Treatments of cancer can also affect weight:
- chemotherapy can cause horrendous nausea and vomiting but can also strip away the lining of the bowel, causing inadequate absorption of your food.
- chemotherapy is also very metabolically demanding; by essentially damaging cells throughout the body (hence why hair falls out), the body is forced to replenish them, those using energy
- radiation treatments of the mouth, throat and chest can cause burns and scarring of the oesophagus and make it difficult or even uncomfortable to eat
- plus surgeries etc are hugely demanding, not including bowel surgery affecting ingestion and absorption of food!!

Hope that helps.


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

[User] ELI5: What does code compilers actually do and why does a language like python doesn't need any compilation?

[Assistant]
It's the difference in implementation between "Interpreted" languages and "Compiled" languages. The reasons and pros/cons are way out of scope but the long and short is that some languages are designed from the ground up to be ran through an "Interpreter" - such as Python. These languages are considered "Scripting" languages and the interpreter reads the script and runs as required.

Other languages are "Compiled" languages, and require compilation before execution. Compiled languages get converted into computer assembly code.

To make matters even more confusing, some (many?) interpreted languages can actually be both; it's possible to compile Python code for example.


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

[User]
[Marvel] What happens if Ghost Rider uses the Penance Stare on someone with amnesia?

Let's say hypothetically I know I'm about to take on Ghost Rider, but I've done enough bad things that the Stare would probably mess me up. Can I get my good friend to put a mental block on all my memories, then through mind control command me to fight GR. Would I be immune to the Stare?

I'm asking for a friend, no reason to look into it.

[Assistant]
Your soul is stained with your sins for the entirety that it exists. The penance stare doesn't ask your mind what it remembers, it wrings out all the dirt in your soul right in front of your eyes.

You will experience every tiny bit of suffering you've ever inflicted on anyone, ever, and you may not remember the event, but you will *know* that you did it.

If you live and keep your sanity through the process, you can then start to ask yourself when and where you did all these horrible things you experienced and consider redeeming yourself for them.


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

[User]
[Fallout] Why did Vault-Tec bother running the Vault experiments?

It just doesn't make sense. Why risk destroying the remaining population of North America just to see what would happen if the door didn't close all the way, or if you filled the thing with world-class musicians?

Why not fill *all* of them with the best possible candidates and make sure whoever comes out is ready to rebuild the world?

And *who is going to see the results if everyone else is dead or crazy?* It just doesn't cotton.

[Assistant]
As said, not every vault was an experiment. A great deal of them were made and operated exactly as intended.

The vaults subjected to experiments were the work of a joint deal between Vault-Tec and the American government. By the mid-21st century, everyone knew war was coming. The resource wars had already destroyed Europe and the middle east just before the bombs fell, and probably many other countries as well. Everyone was starving for fuel as their machines crumbled around them. It was only natural the people with a solution wanted to make sure the human race not only survived the end of the world, but would survive what happened after.

That's why some vaults had those experiments run. If every vault had been run exactly the same, there would have been NO way to predict what would happen when the doors opened. The government, the Enclave, needed to know what would happen in every contingency and scenario so the surviving American people could rebuild America's glory as fast as possible.

Yes, it was unethical and sometimes downright evil what happened in the experiment vaults. But the Enclave justified it by saying it would save more lives in the future than it cost. An almost... mechanical way of thinking.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is your urine yellow when you don't drink enough water?

[Assistant]
Your kidneys are constantly filtering waste products from your blood.  They do this by dissolving the waste materials in water, and sending the waste-materials-plus-water, which is called urine, to your bladder, so you can pee it out.

When you don't drink enough water, your kidneys end up having to dissolve the waste products with less water, which makes your urine more concentrated, and thus darker yellow.


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

[User]
CMV: If Covid taught me anything, is that there is no chance for us to actually combat climate change, to the extent where it is almost foolish to try.

The tiniest bit of background - I'm a med student who spends a lot of time in the hospital/Covid wards.

The fact that a huge % of the population don't listen to experts in the field and won't do the most minimal changes in their life to minimize the spread of this acute ongoing pandemic (things like putting on masks) with clear obvious evidence, just makes me realize that there is 0 chance that people will ever do long-term hard changes in their lifestyles to combat something so global, long-term and complicated like climate change.

Because climate change is a global phenomenon, we need the vast majority of people to do actual changes in their lifestyles. Something I just do not see happen, even when it literally is too late.

Honestly, I've reached a point where I believe spending any amount of money or effort on this matter is futile, just looking at the actions of people today. We should just enjoy doing whatever we want with the earth as long as it lasts for humans because we won't do anything meaningful about it (not because we can't, but because too many people won't).

Again, Climate change is obviously real, ideally, we should do something about it, I just have zero hope for humanity to actually do something about it, so I just think we should enjoy the ride on this burning ship as long as possible.

God, I wish someone would change my mind on this. It's kind of a depressing realization tbh.

[Assistant]
Look at it the other way: vaccination was the technological game changer that reduced the death rate and allows us to get back to a mostly normal state.

That innovation was brought by a relatively small number of people - researchers in the thousands of less in a world population of billions.

The solution to climate change is less about individual behaviors, and much more about technology of renewables becoming far more cost efficient. Thats a much more solvable problem.


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

[User]
ELI5: Early Credit Card Tech

How did credit card tech work pre internet days?

[Assistant] There was this machine that would take an imprint of the raised numbers on the card using carbon paper (it was a kind of paper that had ink which copied onto another paper when you pressed on it). Youd run the credit card and the triplicate receipt through a machine that pushed down on them in order to create copies. Then youd sign and that too would go on all the copies. Youd get a copy, the store would get twoone for their records and one to send to the credit card company.


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

[User]
[Matrix] So what's the deal with the screens in the Architect's room?

Do they just show Neo's possible reactions to the Architect's monologue?

[Assistant]
Most everything machine-related in The Matrix (Agents using earpieces, rogue virus programs presenting as "werewolves", using hardlines to link and out) is some kind of shorthand or abstraction of a real-world process.

In this case, it's a simple physical abstraction of the fact that the Architect knows and sees everything, including possible future predictions based on current trends. He doesn't really *need* all those screens since he's tied into the system itself. They're more for The One's benefit than anything.


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

[User] [Bioshock] What were the requirements for living in Rapture? We're people banished? And could outsiders possibly move there?

[Assistant]
You needed an invitation, which required you to be one of the best in your chosen line of work.

No, people weren't banished. They were locked up or executed though depending on the severity of their crimes.


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

[User] ELI5: What causes some heart attacks to be instantly fatal while others you might not even notice?

[Assistant]
The main issue is whether the clot causes an arrhythmia or not.  People often confuse the terms "heart attack" and "cardiac arrest", but they are not the same thing.  A heart attack is when blood flow is blocked to the heart muscle, usually via clot (though the arteries that supply the heart can sometimes spasm and cause a heart attack as well).  As a result of the heart attack, the muscle starts dying (slowly, so there is time to stop it and save it) and can respond erratically to the heart's normal electrical rhythm.  At this point, the heart can go into "cardiac arrest", which means that the heart stops beating.  Sometimes it means the heart still beats, but too weakly to generate an effective pulse (this would be called pulseless electrical activity or PEA), or it may cease all electrical activity altogether (called asystole).

The heart attacks that kill quickly are those that induce a fatal cardiac arrest, through the disruption of the heart's normal electrical pattern.  A heart attack can also kill relatively quickly by making the heart so weak (a big clot in the left main coronary for example) that it can't pump blood around the body anymore.  The brain will quickly die without a pulse and oxygenated blood.


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

[User] [MCU] I get how Stark's nano-armor generates lasers and repulsor blasts, since those are just energy from the reactor, but don't missiles need internal chemistry so they can explode?

[Assistant]
Missiles and other explosives need a rapid release of energy in order to explode.  Sometimes this is done chemically, sometimes this is done through other means (eg, nuclear bombs, compressed air canisters exploding, etc).

In Stark's case, he may have super-charged some of his nanites with excess amounts of energy, and when the nanites are disrupted (such as when they impact against a surface) the energetic integrity is disrupted, thus leading to a rapid release of the stored energy.  This would lead to an explosive result.


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

[User]
[MCU] Did the Avengers consult the world government before attempting to bring everyone back from the Snap?

I know the MCU is kind of hand wavey with the darker implications of a post - Snap world, but this is something I've been thinking about. Wouldn't bringing everyone back after five years actually be a bad idea? The world has stabilized somewhat, so suddenly doubling the population again might cause as much chaos as the original Snap did. I know the emotional impetus is there, but I'm fairly certain that if the decision to un-Snap was to be made by a world council (or an intergalactic council, for that matter) there would be some people who would oppose the motion for logistical reasons. If the events of Endgame took place, let's say a week, after the Snap, I don't think there would be any question in anyone's minds, but five years is a long time and any society that hadn't completely collapsed would have have had to rewire itself completely.

[Assistant]
The Avengers sought no permission before executing the Time Heist or performing the counter-Snap.

That said, you aren't wrong, and a big part of the Falcon & The Winter Soldier series is dealing with blowback from the snap. It was a win, but the aftermath wasn't clean or pretty.


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

[User] ELI5 Can animals get PTSD ?

[Assistant]
Yes. Abused animals can react in a specific way to the stimuli of the abuse. They can also mistake stimuli that is not related to the abuse as a sign of the abuse. I.E a car backfiring might be mistaken for a crack of a whip.

I used to ride horses and the one did not want you standing behind it. Irrespective of who you were because it was sexually abused. It would kick and buck at anyone that got too close. We had to be really careful with it when taking it out to train because of it.


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

[User]
How cold is the water at the bottom of the deepest parts of the ocean?

I know water is most dense at 4 degrees Celsius so is the water at the bottom of the ocean 4 degrees Celsius or does the pressure of that depth have an effect on the temperature or am I on the wrong track entirely?

[Assistant]
Density rules. The heaviest, or most dense, water will always be on the bottom. Pure water is densest at 4 C . To make it heavier, it has to get saltier. As the surface of the Arctic ocean freezes, the left-behind part is very salty water at 3 to 4 C. This North Atlantic Deep Water sinks to the bottom and flows worldwide. Warmer less salty water sits on top of it.

In the Antarctic, there is no warmer fresher water to sit on top of it, so NADW is exposed at the surface. When fresh water freezes out at the surface, this already salty and cold water gets even saltier and can cool to about -0.8C before sinking. This is Antarctic Bottom Water - the deepest, coldest water layer in the world.

An interesting point is that the Marianas Trench, the deepest spot in the oceans, is only at about plus 2 C. This is because it is completely surrounded by water shallow enough (at only a mile or so deep) that AABW would have to flow uphill to get to it.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do we say "Ow" when we're in pain?

[Assistant] Because we've been conditioned (trained, basically) to say "Ow" or "Ouch when we're hurt by everyone around us since birth doing it.  Other cultures and languages have other words to express pain. Seriously, yell "BUTTERED TOAST" if you want, there's nothing physically requiring you to say anything.


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

[User] [StarCraft] Who was a better ruler for the average joe, The Confederacy or The Dominion ?

[Assistant] There was not much difference, Mengsk was fine with tyranny once it was his tyranny. Of course the whole getting slaughtered by aliens, and getting vaporised by aliens, distracted many people from the lack of social and political progress.


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

[User]
[Chronicles of Riddick] So, what is the underverse? And what's the Necromonger's end goal?

If i understood the movie's lore correctly the leader of the Necromonger saw/found something on the underverse which is why they are going around turning other species into Necromongers (like they did to the Furyans) their main goal seems to be related to the Underverse, either to go there themselves or to make it "appear" in the normal galaxy, i didn't understand it completely.

But what is it? Is it some sort of afterlife? Another dimension? Another universe?

[Assistant]
In this verse, life is antagonistic to the natural state. Here humans in all their various races are a spontaneous outbreak. An unguided mistake. The solution lies in another verse. A verse where life is welcomed and cherished. A ravishing ever-new place called the  Underverse... but the road to that verse crosses over the threshold.

When you look up to see a group of shooting stars it is already too late. What you are seeing is an army, an army unlike any other... crusading across the stars toward the UnderVerse, their promised land - a constellation of dark new worlds. Necromongers, they're called. And if they cannot convert you, they will kill you. Leading them, the Lord Marshal. He alone has made a pilgrimage to the gates of the UnderVerse... and returned a different being. Stronger. Stranger. Half alive and half... something else.


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

[User]
Why cant a human body heal teeth in case if it breaks or there is a cavity?

Everything in a human body can heal except for the teeth. Why did evolution leave that part. It perfectly makes sense to heal the part that plays a vital role in consuming food and surviving.

[Assistant] Evolution only selects for traits that are just good enough to be passed down, so not being able to repair damaged teeth just wasnt necessary to survive long enough to reproduce. Also, teeth can heal to a small extent, just not enough to repair cavities or breaks.


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

[User]
[DC/Batman] Do Batman and other members of the Batfamily wear mouthguards?

You can get them custom made from the dentist for general fighting and usually it's hard to even tell theyre there.  You can speak perfectly clearly with them on too if they're custom fitted.

Just find it hard to believe they'd be taking hits to the face and have perfect teeth without some sort of mouth protection.

[Assistant]
No.

> ust find it hard to believe they'd be taking hits to the face and have perfect teeth without some sort of mouth protection.

When in doubt, "DC {THING} is more durable then real {THING}" is a rule to refer to.

"Why did this human survive being pulled through a car window by night wing?"

"He's more durable."

"Why can Batman punch this thug through a wall and he gets up fine?"

"He's more durable."


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

[User] ELI5 - How did the mafia make money off labor unions?

[Assistant]
It depending on your position in the mafia hierarchy.

Lower level people would be given "no show" or "no work" union jobs.  Those were jobs where an employer hired them but they either didn't show up or showed up but didn't work.

So, for example, you're a shipping company that needs to hire 20 teamsters to drive your trucks.  The Teamsters Union makes you hire 25 people.  5 of those people are low level mafia enforcers who just don't show up to work but get paid as though they do.  Any one person might have several of those plus a no work job - and those were all well paying, middle class jobs.

For the higher level mobsters, most were just given a cut of the union dues, which were quite high.  They would also get a cut of the salaries paid to their underlings who were working the no show/no work jobs.

For the mafia more globally, unions had huge pension funds.  Those funds would provide no-interest, no-recourse loans to legitimate mafia backed projects.  A good example of this is Las Vegas, which was built almost entirely with no-interest, no-recourse loans that were made to investment companies affiliated with the big mafia families.

What a "no-recourse" loan means is that if the project fails, the lender is limited to going after the assets of the failed business.  No recourse loans are basically unheard of in large projects because when a large project fails its assets typically become worthless.  Institutions that make large investments typically require the partners in the project to put up a substantial percentage of their own, personal wealth as collateral for the deal.

Being given a no-recourse loan is like being allowed to gamble with someone else's money.  If you get a $50 million loan from the Teamsters Union, you've basically just been given $50 million to gamble in a real estate investment.  If the investment fails the Teamsters lose everything while you lose nothing.  If it succeeds you could make hundreds of millions of dollars and the Teamsters only get their $50 million back despite having taken all of the risk.


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

[User]
[DC] 'Green Lantern' is Hal's superhero moniker... as well as Kyle's/Guy's/Jessica's etc. But isn't it more like their job title? Why don't/haven't they come up with their own monikers?

It would be like calling yourself 'Police Officer'. Or if Superman called himself 'Kryptonian' as a superhero. Besides, wouldn't it also be confusing out on the field?

E.g. "Green Lantern! No, not you, Hal. And no, not you, Cruz. I meant John!"

[Assistant]
Usually theres only one human Green Lantern at a time. Theyre *the* Green Lantern for our sector. Its more akin to what we have as Sheriffs. Theres usually only one Sheriff per county. So, when someone address someone else as Sheriff, you know who theyre talking about because theres only one.

However, when there are multiple Green Lanterns in a place, most would just refer to someone by their name (eg Hal as opposed to Kiliwog or Rayner).


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

[User] [Batman] I'm a regular civilian and I have found out that Batman's identity is Bruce Wayne. What should I do with this information?

[Assistant]
"Let me get this straight. You think that your client, one of the wealthiest and most powerful men in the world, is secretly a vigilante, who spends his nights beating criminals to a pulp with his bare hands, and your plan is to blackmail this person?
Good luck."


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

[User]
I think I may have found a paper with possibly faked data...how do I proceed?

Not only do calculations throughout the paper not add up, but the fundamental mechanism they claim is impossible based on my simulations and a year of trying to replicate their results. Should I just contact the journal directly? Should I email the group first to let them know about the issues I have and see if they have any reason why?

Thanks for any suggestions...

[Assistant] If the calculations don't add up, write the journal and just say that. If you can't replicate it and your simulations don't pan out, ask the group for advice (without implying they faked anything) and publish your results yourself after getting their input. People sucking at their jobs is ultimately way more common that people fabricating data.


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

[User]
If none of the primordial nuclides (Uranium etc.) had a long half life's would we be able to make power plants or bombs?

Most of the natural radioactive elements involved in the discovery of radiation seem to have been either radioactive since the formation of the earth or a daughter product of something else that is. If the half life of the here-since-earth-was-formed elements was (say) 1000 years or less, is there enough carbon 14 or other "replenished continuously" elements to discover radioactivity? Would we be able to make power plants and bombs etc.?

To turn the question on its head, was all the energy we release in power plants and bombs initially stored during nuclear synthesis billions of years ago? If half life's were shorter, would it mean (say) making a 10kt uranium bomb would require "making" kilos of uranium using some energetically expensive process?

[Assistant]
You pretty much got it.  The energy of some past supernova gets stored in uranium, and part of it gets released back as it is transformed into lead and other stable elements.

It's possible, at least in theory, to create an energy releasing nuclear process with *stable* isotopes...lead has more energy stored in it that iron, so you could get at that someone, you might get a bomb or a power source.  But there is no practical way of doing that with current technology.

Also, nuclear energy released by fusion would not be affected.


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

[User]
I'm about to become a PhD student in one week. What should I do?

What resources do you wish you had taken advantage of from day 1? What did you wish you had done from the very beginning. I'm going to be studying biology if that helps.

I know everyone's going to have different stories and advice and my 'mileage' may vary. Just wanted to see if there would be anything helpful for me, and other new grad students out there who will also be starting soon.

Edit: I'm in the US if that means anything.

[Assistant] Save money.  Explore healthcare and counseling options on campus in case you need it later.  Put a LOT of effort into starting and maintaining a digital annotated library of articles (use something like endnote or papers).


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does bottled water contain sodium?

Does all water contain sodium or is it just bottled? And why is it in there?

[Assistant] Unless it's been distilled, then sodium \(and other ions\) are pretty much always present in water.  Depending on where the water came from, they could have been absorbed from rocks or soil that the water touched, or from contact with living creatures like plants or animals.  Sodium dissolves in water very easily, so if water contacts any sodium it will take some of it.  Sometimes sodium is added on purpose to affect the hardness or the flavor of the water.


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

[User] [Marvel] How does Stark's inertia dampeners work?

[Assistant]
It's basically an anti-gravity device. When Steve Rodgers and Bucky Barnes go to the Stark Expo you can see an earlier, clumsier version of the device that Howard Stark was working on in his flying car.

Inside the suit Tony is basically suspending in a bubble of anti-gravity. If he accelerated to 5Gs one way the suit "pushes" the opposite way at say 4.8Gs so that he only feels enough feedback to keep him oriented.


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

[User] ELI5: In scientific theory, why do we need to hypothesize? Why can't we just go "Let's try this and see what happens!"

[Assistant] In reality there is no difference between hypothesizing and what you have described. In modern science you only publish hypotheses that turn out to be correct, and so you essentially play around, do this or that, whatever your intuition or other studies suggest might be a useful thing to do until you find something interesting at which point you stop, pretend you didn't know what would happen, write down your hypothesis and publish the results you found.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does an aircraft carrier store all the planes on deck? What happens if they need to scramble jets?

[Assistant] The aircraft are stacked, or parked in such a way that they can be quickly manned and in the air. None of them would be in the way of launching. If they were all below, in the hanger bay, it would take hours to get them flying. In states of readiness, most of the aircraft on deck are manned with crews, ready to be in the air in five minutes or less. Its called Ready 5.


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

[User]
[D.C./Marvel] What would happen if the Infinity Gems were scattered across D.C. universe?

Let's say each gem lands a hundred million light years from each other. What happens?

edit: Let's assume that the gems work normally because the Living Tribunal and the Spectre....willed it....

[Assistant] The Guardians of Oa would build giant, lantern-shaped batteries around them, designed to split their power into small enough amounts that mortals could wield them. They would turn these mortals into a space police force called The Infinity Corps.


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

[User]
What does it mean for a photon to have "more energy"?

Gamma ray photons are more energetic than visible light photons which are more energetic than microwave photons.

What does "more energetic" actually mean? More what? They all travel at the same speed, and are massless, so there's no additional kinetic energy. I don't think frequency has much meaning when you're referring to an individual photon (or does it?).

A gamma ray photon has more *what* than a microwave photon?

[Assistant]
Frequency *does* have a meaning in this case.  Higher energy, higher frequency.  A blue photon has more energy than a red photon.

Another way to think about it is what happens to a system that absorbs a given photon. If it absorbs a higher energy photon, it will see a greater increase in its energy.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do faces get wider as they age?

Looking at my wedding photos from 8 years ago and then happening across a celebrities then and now collage, I noticed that many faces widened as they aged.

I understand collagen loses its elasticity as time goes onbut wouldnt that cause droop instead of expansion?

[Assistant] Most people accumulate fat not only overall but also in their faces as they age.  So even if someone is the same weight as they were from 10 years before, they will often tend to have more fat accumulated in their cheeks and jowls, which adds to the visual perception of a wider face.