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

[User]
[Star Wars]How does armor inhibit Force powers?

In the video games (at least in KOTOR) wearing armor reduces the effectiveness of force powers. Why does  that happen? Obviously, if armor can be any good vs blasters and such it has to be of a very strong material or involve some sort of force fields. Can these affect the Force? As far as I know (and its not much) there is no material that can disrupt the Force. Also, if non-Jedi wore armor would it protect them form Force powers?

[Assistant]
There are several reasons why heavier and heavier armors hamper use of the Force.

First is that the armor weighs down the user, slightly slowing their movements. This has an effect on Force use, since most Force powers are usually accompanied by a movement of some sort.

Another reason is that the armor would slightly hamper the wielders perception. The armor, especially if it has a helmet, would obscure the wearer's view and their ability to(for lack of a better word) *feel* their surroundings. Since many Force powers revolve around being connected with their surroundings, having armor that decreased their perception and connection would decrease the power of their Force abilities.

So this would not protect a non-Jedi from Force powers, as they don't actually dampen the Force itself, just a Jedi's abilities to use it.


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

[User]
[MCU] Why wasn't recreating Spiderman's origin spider a bigger priority?

As I recall the spider was created accidentally. So given the ridiculous potential power it has to give an average human, on par or superior to the SSS, wouldn't it be a much bigger deal? There's been so much conflict around recreating the SSS, but I haven't really seen anything about recreating the circumstances that developed the radioactive spider. With all the geniuses in the Avengers I wouldn't think it would be that difficult.

Side note/bonus question- Would spiders from Carl King/Thousand contain the same genetic structure as the OG spider?

[Assistant] As far as MCU goes, spiderman just joined the ranks real recently. But as far as marvel in general goes, the race to recreate that special radioactive spider is about the same results as creating another SSS, Hulk, etc. It's not that it hasn't been tried, but that the results aren't consistent, so instead of having an army of Captain americas, Hulks and Spidermans, you have other super heroes that have similar powers but not exactly the same, or worse, super villains. Which bring the real big reason why things like this isn't replicated for the masses, it doesn't take much for a couple of bad apples to fuck everything up and once again that tech is lost.


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

[User]
CMV: History can never truly be "objective". It is flawed storytelling and should be focused strictly on the facts of what happened.

History can be compromised of recorded facts, but ultimately, history is storytelling. It is the construction of a point of view and a narrative rather than an objective retelling of the facts. Many parts of history are missing or other narratives are purposefully rewritten or glossed over to conform the majority narrative. Sometimes this can be a good thing (such as fighting Lost Cause mythology) or a bad thing (the perspectives of the Native Americans and the genocide committed against them).  So, in reality, instead of history being more like a science, it is more like literature. Sometimes, history can be completely fabricated and faked. To the public, the story that is created from the historical facts strung together is more important than the facts themselves.

I hold this view because this method of flawed storytelling has tremendous influence on the ways people view the world and interact with other people. This is expressed through politics and culture wars. The way history is told can firmly cement people's views on everything from politics, society, religion, so on and so forth. This has led to some of the worst crimes, wars, genocides, and other atrocities.

When we focus on the why, rather than the what, this method of history comes into play, leading these potentially horrible things to happen. Unless reasons are explicitly given, focusing on the "why" of history is an exercise in futility since there are many different views of the "why". They become entrenched if taught at a young age or if it confirms a previously held bias.

Edit: This topic is about how history is taught. Particularly in public schools but often times at the university level depending on where it is and who is teaching. My apologies if I wasn't clear on that.

[Assistant]
>instead of being more like a science, history is more like literature... this method of flawed storytelling has tremendous influence

this kind of sounds like you think literature is flawed and science is good. is something bad simply because its not a science?

one of the most valuable things about the humanities  like history and literature  is that these disciplines teach us to compare and critique narratives, and understand how they are shaped by biases, rather than simply dividing everything into a simplistic binary of true and false


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

[User] Why is it when a speck of something gets on my glasses (dandruff, dust, etc), blowing on it, no matter how hard, doesn't dislodge it from the presumably smooth surface?

[Assistant] Static forces that are commonplace between small particles and smooth plastic/glass surfaces are greater than the force you can generate by blowing across the surface. Small particles mean low surface area, which means low Reynold's number => means low Stokes number => means difficult to overcome the static forces by just blowing on it.


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

[User] ELI5: How does our bodies regulate the amount of blood it needs to produce in order to compensate blood lost or donated?

[Assistant]
The magic of the kidney! The kidney is a really cool organ that does more than just filter your blood. It also has an endocrine (hormones that control what your body does) function. Specifically, it produces erythropoeitin, which causes your bone marrow to make red blood cells.

The kidney also has cells that act like little oxygen sensors, and when they detect persistent decreases in oxygenation (such as if you're missing blood) they will cause more erythropoetin to be produced, so your bone marrow increases red blood cell production.


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

[User] [Brooklyn 99] When wunch demotes Capt Holt to beat cop how much would his salary be affected? Also how does the union not get involved?

[Assistant] Between Wunch having a lot of pull and her technically being right (his promotion technically was against regulations) she was able to keep the union at bay.  His salary probably wasn't affected, which was one of the things she pointed out to any union rep who tried to give her trouble.  She also had bureaucracy working in her favor.  She was demoting a captain (are they even part of a union?) to a uniformed officer (they have a separate union from detectives) they may not have been able to agree who gets "custody" of the case.


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

[User]
What is the healthcare system like in countries like America, Canada, Sweeden, Denmark, Austrailia, etc? And how does ObamaCare compare?

Living in America, our healthcare system is (from what I've read about) is vastly different from other countries (in the sense where it is strictly a ploy for money). Can somebody explain the similarities/differences? Why can't America have more affordable healthcare, especially when other countries have more affordable healthcare and delegate less money towards healthcare? What is ObamaCare aiming to do, and is it similar to the healthcare system of other countries?

[Assistant]
Denmark has a public health care system. We pay through our taxes and everyone can use ambulances, hospitals and doctors without paying anything but taxes.
Everyone is entitled to help, not only the rich.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is Occam's Razor a thing?

I see it used a lot on Reddit. I've done some looking around but I must not be fully comprehending what it means and entails. What I'm getting is that "the simplest explanation is best". Why?

[Assistant]
one of the more famous examples, often used in medical stuff is "if you hear hooves, don't think zebras."

So let's say you're in Kansas and suddenly you hear what appears to be a stampede of animals coming towards you. Now, being an inquisitive type of person you start wondering what kind of animal it is.

Now, it could be a bunch of horses. You do know theres a horse farm in the area and the owner is kind of old and isn't keeping up on the fence.

*or*

maybe it's zebras. But you're in Kansas and there aren't a lot of zebras around. But maybe there is a shipment of zebras getting sent from one zoo over on the east coast to another one over on the west coast. Of course, for travel time it's probably likely that they'd try and fly them if they had a plane that could, but maybe they couldn't get one so they put them on a train. but there isn't a train stop anywhere nearby, so that means the zebras would have been jumping off the train at full speed which is just crazy, so the train must have derailed. Of course that would probably have killed the zebras so the car in front of the zebras must have been carrying down pillows and they all spilled out ahead of the zebras and then the zebras got thrown into the pillows and now they're running away from the train wreck.

Or, it's just horses from Old Man Johnson's horse farm.

the simple answer that explains everything is more likely to be right than the very complicated one.

EDIT: Multiple people have told me that there is at least one good sized zebra farm in Kansas, though so far it seems the zebras haven't escaped so it's probably still horses.


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

[User]
Would it be difficult to create computer vision that could distinguish between an open and closed soda can?

Hello. I am quite new to computer vision, but am planning on taking on a fairly ambitious project this summer. I am willing to put all of my time an effort in and am ready to learn, but I just wanted to get some more experienced opinions on whether this was a feasible project.

Essentially, I am trying to use computer vision to distinguish between two nearly identical objects. My primary question is: would it be possible to have computer vision distinguish between an open or a closed soda can (the only different being that the tab is open and you can see inside?). It would probably take a lot of training, but is it feasible?

If this is not possible, would it be possible for a CV program to distinguish between a white, paper cup that is empty versus filled with a colored liquid?

Thanks so much!

[Assistant]
These would both be possible, as long as the differences are visible and you have ~thousands of training images or more.

The number of training images needed is kind of dependant on what kind of images you will be classifying later, in the product. If the product always sees the same kind of can from the same angle with the same lighting, you will get ok results with a few thousand training images. If your product must work on many kinds of cans and lighting and angles, you will need many more training images.


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

[User] [Anything really] Examples of druids that aren't named as druids?

[Assistant]
Ancient Druids were the educated elite of the Celtic people, like doctors and poets, and were responsible for the religious aspect of Celtic society.

The more common interpretation of the druid is generally of someone who communes and lives in harmony with nature, often gaining magical abilities in the process, such as spells and the ability to shapeshift into various animal forms. They might worship nature itself directly, or a nature god/goddess, or they might simply strive to keep the 'balance' of the world between civilisation and the wilderness.

Radaghast the Brown from Middle Earth, while technically a wizard, is very similar to many of the more popular interpretations of what druids were like. He lives in the wild and is a little odd from being alone so long, can communicate with animals, etc. He just lacks the shapeshifting.

Malfurion Stormrage from Warcraft is another one, and he can shapeshift as well as use a whole host of other magical powers.

An argument could be made for Merlin being a druid in certain interpretations, though he's more commonly viewed as a wizard.

There are a bunch of D&D characters that are druids. First one to come to mind is Pikel Bouldershoulder, who's a *dwarf* druid.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do headphones have lower frequency responses than speakers?

[Assistant]
Small drivers, like those in your headphones can reproduce low frequencies but they can't do it with enough power to be heard at any real distance.

Typical home speakers overcome this issue by using large drivers just for the low frequencies and using a cross-over circuit that routes more power to those drivers.

The lower the frequency the more power and larger driver you need. In a set of speakers this requires more materials and engineering to accomplish. While great sounding low frequency response can be achieved, most consumers choose a less expensive system.

It's much easier to engineer headphones that can accomplish the same thing because the drivers are so close to your ears.


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

[User] (Eli5) Is it true that people with joint diseases like arthritis can feel the weather? If so, what mechanisms are at work to cause that?

[Assistant]
When you watch the weather reports with the map, you can see the high/low pressure areas moving around. These can be measured locally with a device called a barometer. Very broadly speaking, low pressure areas bring in "bad" weather.

Now, if your body were a little on the sensitive side, your aches might make you something of a human barometer. Certainly not as good as the machine, but if it sets in relatively quickly, you'll notice it in ways other people might not unless they check the barometer a lot, and notice the needle moving.


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

[User] [DC] In the continuities that his intelligence is a power, Would Superman get dumber under a red sun?

[Assistant]
A lot of Supermans intelligence (at least his super-intelligence) has to do with speed, raw number-crunching ability, and memorization.  That stuff probably wouldnt be available.

Even without his powers, Clark is a really smart guy.  Hes a college graduate with a demanding job in a competitive field.  His natural intelligence is on the level of a main character in a tv drama with good writers, where they have to catch the murderer or figure out what disease a person has.  Hed fit right in on The West Wing or Greys Anatomy.  He doesnt lose that.

So in a red sun system, he wont be able to speed-memorize a set of encyclopedias in 5 seconds, or compute pi to 100,000 places, but he wont come across as *dumb*.  Hell just seem like a normal very smart person.


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

[User]
CMV: Patriotism is stupid and evil.

I believe patriotism is stupid and evil. Why? A few reasons:

\- Patriotism is rarely ever grounded in any logic or reason, but is rather rooted in a blind and strong sense of attachment/love for the country. People who claim to be patriots rarely base their view on actual good aspects and qualities of a country, they often ignore and don't admit the negative aspects and can't take criticism of their country.

\- Patriots are not willing to admit the flaws and negative aspects of their country which means that these flaws will remain and progress, because people are not willing to protest against issues in the country, which prevents the country and nation from any advancement altogether.

\- Patriotism encourages and reinforces social division. The belief that your country is the best simply because you were born/raised in it is not only extremely close-minded, but also leads to separation and alienation from other nations.

\- Patriotism is dangerous and evil as it encourages and reinforces fascist and nationalist ideologies. The belief that your country or nation is the best leads to division as these people separate and portray themselves or their country/nation as superior, which is discriminative in nature. There is evidence throughout history that highly conservative and patriotic beliefs lead to development of extreme ideologies (e.g. Nazi Germany).

EDIT: A lot of people say I confuse patriotism with nationalism - that's not true. I know the difference, but what I mean is that the line between the two is very thin and can be crossed very quickly. There is a direct relationship between patriotism and nationalism, in fact you can say that nationalism is an extreme form of patriotism, which isn't entirely false. In addition to that, patriotic culture is extremely silly and just cringeworthy. You can love your country, but you don't have to hang a flag on your bedroom wall or put a bunch of stickers and decals on your car. Which leads to my next new point: in addition to all of that, patriotism also promotes consumer culture. What Im trying to say is that the entire label and concept of patriotism is dumb and unnecessary, and you can still love your country without putting this label onto yourself.

Change my view.

[Assistant]
I think youre confusing patriotism with nationalism.

Patriotism is loving your country, and wanting the best for it.  A patriot will also not shy away from criticizing their country when it has fallen from the ideals that it claims to support.

A nationalist will believe their country is doing right no matter what, as long as theyre doing better than the other side.  How better is defined will vary wildly, as long as theres someone they can point to and say at least Im not that person.


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

[User]
Why are some viruses only transmitted by blood/sex and some only by saliva

Reading about HIV I got wondering *why* it's not transmitted by spit? What's special about blood and sex fluids that saliva lacks?

And then I realised that the cold & flu are transmitted by coughing/sneezing (presumably saliva) and I've never heard anyone get the flu from sex.

Why do some viruses get transferred by some methods while others get transferred by others?

[Assistant]
Viruses rely on receptors on the outside of cells to recognize cells (and gain entry into them). Different cells have different receptors, and so different viruses recognize different types of cells.

The same way that a lock pick will not get you into a door with a digital keypad, and a circuit analyzer will not get you into a door with a regular key lock.


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

[User]
[General] So I used my first wish to make entropy easily reversed...

I asked a Genie to make entropy easily reversed. How does this affect the universe at a human level? Can the Genie even pull this off and how spectacularly will this backfired on me?

[Assistant]
Congratulations, you just broke/changed one of the fundamental laws of the universe.  If the Genie does have the power to do that (which it seems to, since it's happened), he's clearly the kind of Genie that doesn't care about you or humanity in general.  Being able to reverse Entropy means that closed systems don't act like they're supposed to anymore.  Power plants, computers, cars, even coffee machines all now function differently.

Think you know how you like to make coffee? think again, water doesn't boil right anymore.  Want to turn on your lights? Maybe not, since the steam generators in the powerplants probably aren't actually putting out power anymore.

The Genie is going to laugh, lots of people probably die, and the universe spins on into a new and weirder form.

Some say this has already happened multiple times.


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

[User]
Do NASA scientists and engineers have to take into account the rotation and movement of the entire Milky Way when planning and maintaining trips into space?

The trips can be anything from simplying sending supplies to the ISS, all the way to sending rovers to Mars or probes to other planets.

[Assistant]
No, because everything is moving, so from our point of view nothing moves. Any object in our solar system is moving pretty much at the same speed relative to center of out galaxy.

For the same reason if you are launching a satellite for earth orbit you don't really care about the fact that earth is orbiting around the sun (this is not entirely true because of gravity of the sun).


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

[User]
I contested the breach of free-speech claimed by J.B. Peterson, in return my former supervisor writes me unsolicited messages doubting my credentials and logic

*Context:*

Well, you may think I am crazy by putting myself out there in such rows. I entered it in a very local manner. My former university in eastern Europe was one of those that invited Peterson in support of his free-speech claim after Cambridge's School of Divinity rescinded the visitor's fellowship. I expressed in a very clear way, how Peterson has not proved the claim and if anything it is questionable how his application was initially considered as he never published academic material in the field of theology. (there are other arguments as well) My former uni wants to bring this figure and presents him as a suppressed voice--a true irony as our post-communist block is not known for having well-developed discourse on questions like PC, gender, and other subjects he addressed in his non-academic work. I am hurt that my small uni that is otherwise such a lively place of scholarship decided to invest money into this person instead of other brilliant scholars, who could address the problems of our post-communist society.

*This is the issue I need help with*:

Now I am, however, receiving emails and messages from my former supervisor that acts rather compulsively. It seems that me not answering makes it even worst. I have read some of the messages, and the later ones call me inapt, not making sense, failing the basic principals of logic, ready to call everyone a misogynist just because they are better than me, judgemental, damaging academic freedoms and principles of human conversation, etc. These words are (of course) written in a form of a well-meant, begging me not to join "the dark side." Now this bridge is burned obviously and it seems it will have some impact on my career in future. but what the hell am I supposed to write to end it in a civilized way, because I do not think he will listen to arguments (as I made them clear already). And i am so drained, all i want is not to see another new message.

[Assistant]
If this person is putting you on blast like this while you're not responding, its hard to imagine how responding is going to help.  Either this person will get tired of hitting send or they won't.  If the relationship can be (or is even worth) repairing, do it later when they aren't rage-mailing.  (There's always the small possibility that they'll feel stupid later for their reaction and you'll have done them a kindness by setting it aside.)

Set up a little inbox rule to safely deposit these messages in the trash.


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

[User] [Star Trek] How does the "stardate" calendar work? In the captain's logbooks, it really seems like they just rattle off random numbers for their entries.

[Assistant] Originally a stardate was a random selection of numbers, plus a percentage point. This has now been changed to a working and useful system, which is the year followed by the day. Today's stardate (in AEST) would be 2015.343.


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

[User]
[DC] What would happen if The Flash went back in time to fix something that went wrong, then ensured things couldn't go wrong ever from that point onward by almost constantly moving at top speed and fixing anything that started going wrong, even if he ha-

-d to take breaks and timetravel to maintain this?

[Assistant]
You are seriously underestimating the Flash's power to fuck up a timestream.

The number one rule of time travel is: don't.

Let's say the Flash goes back and prevents someone from dying. It turns out that this death was the lynchpin that forced Batman to build the McGuffin that stops Lex Luthor from wiping Superman's memory.

So the Flash goes back and tells Batman to build the thing. But because that one guy isn't dead in this timeline, Batman secures a faulty anti-mindwipe gem, and his machine turns Superman into a madman.

The Flash can't figure out that it was a faulty whatsit that caused this disaster, so instead he goes back to stop Luthor from building his brainrapeatron 9,000. In doing so he leaves a door open in the Lexcorp tower.

A janitor trips on a banana peel, falls through the open door, and tumbles down the 37 floors to the Lexcorp floor. She's paralyzed from the waist down.

Luthor agrees to provide her with a suit of power armor that allows her to walk again, knowing that her hatred of the Flash will turn her into the latest opponent of the Justice League.

Flash goes back and removes the banana from the building. This piece of fruit was needed by a diabetic to control her blood sugar. She dies. Her son flies into a rage and vows revenge.

The Flash ...


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

[User] ELI5: Why is fear such an effective motivator?

[Assistant]
Its not an effective motivator in terms of long term performance.  Creating an environment where people are always afraid doesn't produce particularly strong results.  So if you're running an office, leading a team, doing anything where you're trying to motivate people, fear tends not to be effective in terms of psychology.

Fear is good for running away from bears, it does more harm than good for anything longer term.


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

[User]
"Dwell with yourself, and you will know how short your household stuff is."

Came across this in the beginning of Kant's *Critique of Pure Reason* and I'm totally at a loss for the meaning of the statement, let alone it's implications in the context of the preface.

Original Latin:
Tecum habita, et noris quam sit tibi curta supellex

What does this mean and why does he say it?

[Assistant] He's talking about how we can solve questions of metaphysics by looking within ourselves/examining the necessary structure of our experience of the world. The metaphor is that if you live in your house, you'll end up familiar with what's available to you, in such a way as to make it clear that you had less than you thought you did. Kant's point is that when it comes to metaphysics, we can resolve all of our classical questions by realizing that the answers depend on ourselves in a crucial way. So "dwelling with yourself" here is the idea of reflecting on oneself/using one's own reasoning capacities.


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

[User] ELI5: How did nations pick which side of the road to drive on? Why don't we all use the same side?

[Assistant]
I remember reading somewhere that people originally starting riding horses/carriages on the left side of the road was to make it easier for them to use their swords against others on the road. by being on the left side of the road they could hold the reins in their left hand and a sword in their right.

This switched in America because more wagons with multiple horses were used. To control all the horses they'd use a whip, which would be held in the right hand. If you're holding a whip in your right hand you want to be sat on the left side of the wagon so you can best reach all the horses with it, and if you're sat on the left side of the wagon you want to be driving on the right side of the road.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] And, well, a lot of space sci-fi: why are laser/photon/plasma/ion blasters the standard for projectile weaponry? What was wrong with good ol' -fashioned bullets?

are they not cost effective enough? i would imagine that, with the large amount of metallic materials required for, well, any starship, metals for bullets shouldn't be an issue.

(and for a out-of-character follow-up: is it mostly because blasters are cool and futuristic, while bullets are archaic and something we have today?)

[Assistant]
The Blaster held several advantages over archaic slugthrowers, ammunition and performance wise. A single power-cell from the E-11 used by the Stormtroopers can fire up to 500 rounds without reloading. The weight from carrying 500 rounds of metal slugs for a single weapon is ridiculously heavy. Furthermore,  a blaster bolt only dissipates at maximum range, making shots more accurate and easier to hit. On the other hand, slug ballistics ensure that the gunner constantly need to compensate for the parabolic arc of the slug as well as a reasonably long training to hit accurately.

EDIT: Grammar and words. Don't drink and post, kids!


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

[User] [Marvel Comics] How much of Norse mythology actually happened in the literal sense? Did Loki really give birth to the eight-legged horse Sleipnir? Was Bur, Odin's grandfather, really born from a cow licking a glacier?

[Assistant]
>Did Loki really give birth to the eight-legged horse Sleipnir?

In comics - yes, in MCU - no. And humans already know about Loki being bad and Ragnarok because of weird timeloop related to Ragnarok(like Kalpas in TES).


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

[User] When I see a blurry gas above a bonfire or charcoal grill, what is causing the blurriness? It is colorless and transparent, but makes whatever I see behind it appear blurry in a wavy way. Is it carbon dioxide? Carbon monoxide? H? O? HO?

[Assistant]
The blurry air near a source of heat is just that: Air. Air has different optical properties at different temperatures and near a heat source there are often large difference in temperature within the air, as hot air rises, cold air flows in and all of it mixes in a turbulent way. These zones of different temperature that shift rapidly cause light to be refracted in different, constantly changing ways, generating the blurring effect that you see.

This phenomenon, often called "heat haze", can also be seen just above a road on a hot, sunny day (when the hot asphalt heats the air) or near active aircraft engines (for example on a jet about to take off).

It's not caused by a specific gas, but rather by large temperature fluctuations in the air.


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

[User]
[Marvel] How respected of a superhero is Spider Man?

Spidey seems like a superhero veteran now, so how is he viewed among the wider superhero community? Is the revered on the same level as Iron Man and Captain America?

[Assistant]
Spider-Man has extraordinary potential, even among metahumans. Mr Fantastic sees it, Tony Stark sees it, and Captain America sees it. The only thing holding Spider-Man back is a massive inferiority complex and a lifetime of acting alone. Spider-Man is in many ways Marvel's Nightwing, without the leadership ability.

In New York, Spidey is beloved. Outside of New York, if you know about him you are more likely to dislike him, thanks to JJJ's campaign against Spider-Man.

Among heroes, Spider-Man has great relations with almost every major player. He has connections to SHIELD, multiple Avengers teams, the X-Men, Black Panther, the FF, etc. Carol Danvers has a sort of exasperated respect for him, which is a fairly typical reaction. Peter could be the next Mr. Fantastic -- he has the brains to cobble together powered armor and he deals with more science villains than anyone short of the FF. Peter could use some Parker Particles and become the next Blue Marvel. But Spider-Man is so used to operating alone and thinking of himself as a screw-up that he is essentially allergic to leadership. So while he may come on in and help any team out, he is unlikely to get the level of respect natural leaders like Tony and Cap get.

There's also the fact that Peter combines the "smartest kid in teh class" mentality with "biggest smart ass on the block." He is sometimes painfully hard to deal with because of his motormouth tendencies. So while everybody knows he is a stand-up guy, some folks hate dealing with him regularly (Wolverine).


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

[User]
What are some of the critiques of Kant's universalisability principle?

Has anyone seriously challenged the moral precept that people should only act when they wish the corresponding maxim to become general law?
I am especially interested in radical answers, perhaps even attempts at exposing the _immorality_ of this precept, and answers which refuse to adopt a utilitarian framework.

Thanks!

[Assistant]
Hegel makes what's called the "empty formalism" objection against the CI.

Take, for example, the law against theft. If everyone were to steal, there would be no such thing as property, and then no one would be stealing. Accordingly, Kant claims, theft is contradictory if made a universal law.

Hegel argues that this only works if we already presuppose the existence of property. In a world without property (like the kind imagined by Rousseau), theft wouldn't exist in the first place.

Likewise, take the distinction between private property and public property. Trespassing on land, if everyone where allowed to do this, would be contradictory, because then there would be no such thing as private property. Yet one cannot trespass on public property, and so we're presupposing the ground (private property) that makes the contradiction possible.


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

[User] ELI5:Why do older television sets emit a brief flash of white light when being turned off?

[Assistant] The older CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) TV's and monitors work by using an electron gun to shoot differently charged electrons at a phosphorescent material, which is then screened to make pixels. Depending on the charge of the electron, it makes either a red, green or blue pixel, or any combination of the three. This beam of electrons is controlled by a strong magnetic field, which "scans" the beam across the surface of the screen in horizontal lines. When you turn the TV on, the magnetic field is created immediately, but the ray gun takes a few seconds to warm up and start firing, hence the slow buildup. When the set is then turned off, the magnetic field collapses instantly, but the ray gun still emits particles for about a second. Without the magnetic field to guide them, they all hit in one focused beam instead of diffused lines, causing all the phosphorescent material to fire at once, hence the white flash.


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

[User]
[Pacific Rim]What did the rest of the world look like?

We were never told what other parts of the world look like. I'm assuming that resources were scarce because of the Kaiju, but what did things look like in parts of the world not touching the Pacific Ocean?

[Assistant]
Global economy would have taken a huge hit.

Top 15 GDP countries in 2014 - bold are on the Pacific Rim

**1 United States**

**2 China**

**3 Japan**

4 Germany

5 United Kingdom

6 France

7 Brazil

8 Italy

9 India

**10 Russian Federation**

**11 Canada**

**12 Australia**

**13 South Korea**

14 Spain

**15 Mexico**

Further more, the US would (among others) would have been very vulnerable. A Kaiju hits the Bay Area? - Then Apple, Google, Intel, NASA, the US Navy are all hit pretty hard as is one of the largest cargo ports in the US.

Kaiju bleeds out off Alaska...then major fisheries are hit, not just for the US, but for Canada, Japan, Russia and China. A fishery stops producing and food prices spike and then people go without protein in their diet.

Shipping gets much more expensive...factories close, people are laid off...not just in that country or region...but globally.

The 1995 Kobe Earthquake cost $100 billion just to replace the structures...what would the cost be of a Kaiju hitting any major city now? $250...500...700 billion?


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

[User] ELI5:Why is a bra just called a bra when it covers two things, but a pair of panties is called a pair when it only covers one thing?

[Assistant] We don't call them a pair of shirts either.  Panties came from pants, and pants originally came from hosiery, which came as two separate pieces.  We kept the "pair" nomenclature even after we starting joining the two leg pieces together in the middle.


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

[User] ELI5: How do actors cry on command?

[Assistant]
Professionally trained actor here.

So, there are several ways of doing this. There are physical ways, some people have things they can do to their body to induce tears, like pinching a nerve or the such. But most actors who need to generate tears do so through emotional memory. We think very intensely about a memory when we were sad, concentrating on that memory and bringing it to the present. If done intensely enough, it can reliably bring you to tears.


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

[User]
How will cleanup crews in NYC fix things like flooded subways?

I know nothing about Civil Engineering, so I can't even imagine where someone would begin on a project like that.

[Assistant] The subway has had water pumps since the 1920's, and they regularly pump water out of the system (it's underground and below sea level). However, this is more water then they've ever dealt with so no one is sure how long it will take or what damage was done by the water.


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

[User] Why do you need to take malaria pills BEFORE you travel?

[Assistant] General rule of pharmacokinetics, start with high dose, probably double what the goal is. This gets the drug passed "first pass" which is removal by liver and kidney, but leaves "target" dose in the blood stream. Then keep dose steady, which takes a little while to reach equilibrium since the bodies natural response is to clean things up. If you have to be exposed, you want it to be in this "steady" state when there is adequate supply in the blood to adequately fight off the invading condition. You don't want a inconsistent amount in the blood leaving yourself susceptible to infection. Once the risk has cleared, the dose is stepped down, for one of two reasons, 1) to fight off any small lingering amounts of whatever the drug is for 2) some drugs cause shock to the system if not stepped down (prednisone and most steroid based drugs) and slowly let the body clear it with little to no repercussions from taking the drug. Hope that helps.


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

[User]
CMV: Legacy admissions to colleges and any other preferential treatment due to being associated with someone famous or someone that works their is unfair

I mean this is not a rant.

I feel that legacy admissions are a bit unfair sometimes. Since oftentimes (if not always) the legacy admissions policy gives preferential treatment to the poor 2.0 student that didn't give a shit in high school over a straight A high school valedictorian all because the 2.0 student is a son of a alumni to the institution and the A student isn't. This is especially unfair when the admissions to the college is very competitive.

It's said that 69% of students agree that legacy admissions is not fair, and 58% of legacy students say that legacy admissions are unfair.

I mean I don't see how being the song or daughter of a alumnus makes your more deserving of admittance to top institutions.  Also, some people have a higher chance to get admitted all because they have a relative or friend that works at the university. This is also not fair since it's anti-meritocratic in a situation that's supposed to be meritocratic.

[Assistant]
Legacy admissions are a significant fundraising tool for the school. Many alumni donate to the school knowing that theres an increased chance that their kids will go there. Without legacy admissions, there would be less money for financial aid, ironically making it *harder* to admit the most deserving students.

If a few legacy admits each year fund a significant amount of financial aid, that seems like a good trade-off.


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

[User] ELI5: If glass is tightly packed atoms (solid), how can it be completely transparent?

[Assistant]
Density of atoms doesn't necessarily relate to the opacity of a material.

Basically, any atom has a cloud of electrons, which has specific energy levels. When light hits these electrons, they can cause these electrons to change energy levels - this means they can absorb specific frequencies. This is called atomic absorption.

When you have bulk material, like in glass, you no longer have specific, discrete energy levels. Instead, energy levels combine to form _bands_, and the energy difference is called a _band gap_. Just like atomic absorption, only photons with enough energy to cross the band gap can be absorbed.

So the answer is that glass has a band gap in the UV range, so visible light passes through fairly easily.


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

[User] Skin cells constantly regenerate. So how/why is it possible to have scars?

[Assistant]
The process of wound healing involves more than just the replication of epithelial (skin) cells. Skin is composed of both epithelial cells and an extracellular, collagen-containing, connective tissue that is laid down in a meshwork pattern when skin develops naturally. In a wound, both the cellular and connective tissue components must be regenerated.

Scars form primarily due to the regeneration of the connective tissue. The first reason for this is that the body relies more on the regeneration of connective tissue rather than cells to fill in the hole left by the wound. This is because it is quicker to synthesize a lot of collagen than it is replicate a lot of cells. This makes the healed region more fibrous than cellular. In fact, in larger scars, the central regions may be entirely connective tissue, devoid of actual epithelial cells. Second, unlike your pre-wound connective tissue which is arranged in a meshwork, the collagen in a healing wound is laid down in a single orientation which leads to the tougher feeling, but ultimately weaker scarred tissue.


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

[User]
[Avengers: Endgame spoilers] how does a certain timeline pan out?

With Thanos and the entirety of his forces disappearing during the very beginning of Guardians of the Galaxy how does this version of the MCU develop?

[Assistant]
Earth will be better protected, because they have both Stark and Strange, but Danvers never comes back to earth in this timeline, which might end badly for them.

Wanda and Vision probably get a happy ending. Banner might never have the incentive to create Professor Hulk. Black Widow might finally cancel out all the red in her ledger.

But really, it's impossible to say. Yes, the Thanos threat is gone, but how many other threats were kept in check by Thanos' mere existence? Maybe Ego picks up the Infinity Stones, or maybe a Celestial wakes up and decides that humanity was a mistake?


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

[User]
ELI5: What exactly is glass?

How does glass become transparent if its made of sand. My lil brainy cant make sense of small rocks (my knowledge of sand) becoming transparent by any process like melting or pressure.

[Assistant] Think of it like ice cubes.  Most ice cubes you see aren't clear, they're white.  This has to do with impurities and bubbles while solidifying.  But there is a way to make completely clear ice cubes (many companies are in business to provide clear ice), and it's done using a specific process.  In this process, when water crystalizes, the water crystals form in such a way that light doesn't diffuse while passing through.   The silica crystals that are made into clear glass do the same.  the light passes all in the same direction (I don't say pass through, because in both water and glass, the light gets refracted, but all in the same direction).


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

[User]
[Star Trek] What are Federation Credits? Why do they exist?

I don't know much about this Federation, but for the most part. I like it. However, when I was deciding which incarnation Earth to visit, I always read about how the Federation and Earth as whole had "moved beyond" the need for money. Yet it seems like these credits just act as a place holder for money. Do people earn them, like a wage? Or are people just given them for a certain amount of time? If it's the latter, why have them at all? I'm really quite confused by all this, dimension hopping is quite tiring, though I can tell that this galaxy has some pretty nice things (HERE I COME RISA!)

[Assistant]
Federation credits are the currency of the United Federation of Planets. While the Federation internally has moved beyond most uses of currency, like goods (which are now replicated) or services (most of which is free), credits are necessary for some rare goods and services within the Federation and, more importantly, vital to trade outside of the Federation.

Credits outside of the Federation can be used in purchasing goods and services from the Federation. Since the Federation is peaceful, large, and powerful, it stands to reason that it is also a major economic power in the quadrant, with a healthy supply of technology, goods, and services that parties outside of the Federation might be interested in purchasing. While direct trade can be a medium, currency is far superior in trade.


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

[User] ELI5: What actually happens to our memories when we have Alzheimer's? Do they fully disappear, are they still there but we can't remember them? And how much does a person actually forget?

[Assistant]
Memories are a little more complicated than what we imagine, they're not simply like a folder on a pc that can get corrupted, but rather a Mish mash of many different things. For instance, the sights of a certain memory might be "stored" in a different place to the sounds, to oversimplify it.

So for a person with Alzheimer's, the part of their memory that links a name to a person's face may die, so they forget their name, but a familiar smell like that person's perfume might allow them to access that lost memory of their name even if they no longer remember their face. Or any combination.

Sometimes a memory will be gone entirely. Other times, it might simply be one of the "pathways" to retrieving that memory, like a sight clue, a sound clue, a smell clue and such.


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

[User]
[Marvel] does Bruce banner age? And if so, does the hulk? Can Bruce die of old age along with the hulk?

I was wondering if Bruce could die of old age? (organ failure and etc) or does he just continue to live? If Bruce where to die would the hulk also die?

[Assistant]
On Earth 2081 (Hulk: The End), Bruce explains that his body continues to age like a normal human, but transforming into the Hulk as well as his regenerative abilities means that this process stretches into several centuries. And in that universe, Bruce does eventually succumb to a heart attack as his human body gives out. But the Hulk manages to emerge at the last moment and preserves Banner's unconscious body for himself. Leaving Hulk at last completely alone. Because if he ever transforms back, he and Bruce will instantly die.

On the other hand, on Earth 807128 (Old Man Logan), as Bruce ages, so does Hulk. And they're both considerably weaker and show all the classic signs of old age by the time Wolverine kills Hulk from the inside out. But this may not be a natural thing, but a consequence of the radiation/madness that overtook Bruce when the world fell apart. Just as his mind snapped, his body and power also started to wear away.


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

[User] [Star Wars] How do you recharge a blaster? And how many shots before you need to?

[Assistant] Blasters use two consumables:  tibanna gas and a power pack. The pack is basically a battery while the gas is what actuality gets fired out of the weapon. Power packs can give a variety of number of shots, depending on the make/ model and how much power your blaster draws per shot. The gas lasts much longer than the packs but still does run out eventually.


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

[User] Can you get parasites from eating rare or medium rare steak?

[Assistant] Yes. The protozoan *Sarcocystis hominis* and beef tapeworm (*Taenia saginata*). The former resolves on its own after a few days; the latter sets up home in the colon and sheds a gazillion eggs, but is generally without symptoms unless one is heavily colonized with worms.


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

[User]
An ontology of society?

Do you know of any resources I can use to get information on what exists within a society and what some necessary processes are. These seem like obvious questions, but I haven't found anything that answers them thoroughly. I'm also not talking about something as fundamental as an ontology of the *social world*. I'm aware of social ontology. I'm asking for an ontology of a society itself. A more empirical, less abstract approach of just 1) What exists within it (people, governments, markets etc.) and 2) What the main processes are

Isn't this supposed to be common knowledge among anyone in the social sciences by now?

[Assistant]
Well, this is not going to be very satisfying, but you're going to get very different answers depending on what field you ask, and there is no one resource that anyone can point you to that is going to make them all coalesce into something unified, because there is no unified theory of society, and many of the existing ones are either mutually exclusive, or simply largely ignore one another.

Your intuition is much the same as Auguste Comte's was two centuries ago, when he was writing The Course in Positive Philosophy. "We take a problem, we smash science into it until we figure it out. So why can't we just do the same thing with society? If we haven't figured it out, then it's probably because we haven't smashed enough science into it yet."

But it hasn't quite worked out that way yet. If you ask  Berger and Luckmann, their going to give you an answer on how we interact collectively and how our shared meanings form. If you ask Paul Krugman, he's going to give you a very different answer with a focus on macroeconomic forces. If you ask a whole bunch of people *over there* they're going to tell you about how we shape society, *over there* about how society shapes us, *and over there* how evolution has shaped us and collectively shaped society in turn and also shaped the extent to which it can shape us and we can shape it. And in the corner there's a bunch of people mumbling to themselves about how evolutionary psychology isn't really a science.

The short answer is, we don't really know, but a lot of people have very strong opinions on the matter.


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

[User]
[StarWars] Why didn't the rebels simply fly a ship at light speed into the Death Star?

Surely a craft at that size and at that speed hitting it would do significant damage to anything really.

[Assistant]
Several reasons.
One, the most significant, is the way in which hyperspace allows "faster than light" travel. A vessel enters hyperspace, which has navigable features that mirror realspace, but more compact. A ship in hyperspace doesn't so much have increased *velocity* as it does *reduced travel distance.* The Galaxy in hyperspace is far smaller and denser than the Galaxy in realspace. And those "navigable features" that mirror realspace in hyperspace? Those are realspace hazards to vessels in hyperspace. The reverse is significantly less so. Hypothetically, let's say we have *two* Death Stars. One is stationary in realspace and the other intends to ram it from hyperspace. In the end, the Death Star is realspace might experience some significant turbulence and gravitational distortion, but nothing that would cause anything beyond some sensor weirdness and confusion over how massive things are. Were it a living organism, it might have a "dizzy spell." The Death Star in hyperspace would be obliterated. *This* is why "traveling through hyperspace ain't like dusting crops." What hyperspace giveth in the form of ridiculously fast travel, it taketh in the form of physical durability.

The flip side of this is now simple. A vessel (or projectile) in hyperspace simply won't do the damage you want. As soon as you emerge into realspace, all your crazy FTL velocity (and thus, energy) is now simply *gone.*


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

[User]
CMV: Football is an institution which causes more problems than it solves, and receives far more money than it deserves.

First disclaimer: I don't like football; I've never seen the appeal of men kicking a ball around a field while lots of people scream. I'm putting this here so my biases on the issue are clear.

Second disclaimer: as a Brit, I'm focusing on English football, not handegg. References to the latter are fine where relevant.

I don't think football provides any external benefit to society - by which I mean, it doesn't actually help anyone outside of the football industry. All I see, when I see football supporters, is people trying to assert their dominance over other people by reinforcing the status of "their" team, or putting down the other team. This is usually light-hearted in uni circles, but I know this gets a lot worse.

The 100 hour war, between Honduras and El Salvador, was triggered by a football game. Granted, the game itself was a small block removed from an already very unstable Jenga tower, but it seems to me that all football does it bring out the tribalistic, irrational animal in people that allows the 100 hour war and the Hillsborough disaster to happen. I can't see it as a tool for peace or friendship or discourse or understanding; all I see is anger, rivalry, shouting. It reinforces the same sort of in-group-out-group "You belong to a different tribe therefore you are bad" mentality that leads to xenophobia, and from there, racism and overzealous nationalism (read: UKIP.) This sort of mentality is something we need to keep a lid on, I believe, if we want to have a more peaceful society.

I'm aware, though, that there's likely a lot I'm not taking into consideration, and that my strong dislike for football has coloured my views no small amount. I'd like to gain a rounder perspective on the issue, so please CMV.

[Assistant]
It's a form of entertainment, the only problem it was created to solve is boredom.  It is no different than pop music or superhero movies.

So long as people find it entertaining, it is working correctly.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do we need the Moon?

[Assistant] The moon stabilizes Earth's axis so that it doesn't wobble too much. It essentially acts as a weight, pulling on the Earth and keeping it on a fairly uniform rotation. This means that we have regular and consistent seasons and temperatures, which allow for agriculture, modern civilization, and all that fun stuff. Possibly even life itself because it's kind of hard to grow in a region when you can't predict what environment you'll be in within a year.


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

[User]
Why do some materials become ashes and other melt?

Well that's kind of my question really... like why iron and cheese melt but wood or Doritos melt...I know it sounds silly to ask that but I was thinking about and damm I don't really know and just kinda wanted to ask reddit.

Stay safe and good deeds.

[Assistant] fire is an exothermic chemical reaction. wood (carbon source) is chemically different after burning. melting iron is merely a physical change. it remains iron regardless of it being in a solid or liquid (or gaseous) state.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is there an absolute zero, but not really an exact maximum temperature?

[Assistant]
At Absolute Zero, molecular motion comes to a complete stop.
You can't get lower than that.

A maximum amount of molecular motion has yet to be established, so no maximum temperature has yet been determined..


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

[User]
How can you tell if it's Imposter Syndrome or actually real?

I figure that Imposter Syndrome is rampant in academia, and so you've likely experienced it at some point (or still do). I understand that Imposter Syndrome leads you to think that you don't belong and aren't good enough for whatever endeavour you're attempting, but how can you know if that feeling is actually correct or not? If I have a gut feeling that I'm just not cut out for something, how do I know if it's Imposter Syndrome or an accurate bit of intuition? Surely since I know how hard I work and how the results scale with that, I should be in the best position to judge how good my work is.

[Assistant]
Judge yourself by the same metric everyone else does: publications, citations, and research output.

If a few years go by, you try your hardest, and you still can't manage to publish anything at good venues, maybe it's time to try something else. I'd give it at least a few years though, you can't really expect to do much meaningful work for a while. I'd dig in until then. Comparing yourself too prematurely is likely to just induce unnecessary stress.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does helium end up underground if it's lighter than air?

I was surprised to find out that helium is mined like natural gas, and I always wanted to know how on earth they end up trapped underground (like other lighter than air molecules and elements) when they're lighter than air.

[Assistant]
Helium is generated underground when heavy radioactive elements deep inside the earth decay.  One common decay process is for a helium nucleus the break away from the larger nucleus and decrease the atomic weight by 4.

The gas then has a tendency to accumulate with natural gas deposits over time, although much of it does slowly make its way out into space.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why didn't Sith ever carry a blaster pistol?

Seems like there are situations where a quick blaster shot (bearing in mind that a force user with a bit of training would likely be sporting 100% accuracy) could deal with an enemy that would otherwise require a lot more time and attention to deal with using the force/ saber.

Granted, Jedi have the whole 'only in defence' thing going on, so it's understandable that they don't carry guns, but Sith seem more about getting the job done, so why don't they carry additional weapons?

Note that I'm talking about the old republic era and prior, when Sith were more numerous, I don't want to know about Palpatine's or Vader's personal compunctions.

[Assistant]
What, and degrade themselves down to the level of a typical soldier?

 The Sith have the ability to use the *Force*, the ultimate power in the galaxy. Using the weapons of *commoners* is not how you prove, and remind, to everyone how much better you are over them.


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

[User] How does cling-film (Saran-wrap) stick to itself? Does it leave any residue on the food?

[Assistant]
Cling film easily builds up static electricity, the mechanical handling of it causes some electrons to get separated from their atoms, and so there's a charged imbalance causing an electrical force as the negatively charged electrons try to get back to their atoms. Since the cling film is an insulator, they can't just flow through the material. The same static electricity is also responsible for the general 'clingy-ness' of cling film. You may have noticed that cling-film sticks better to insulators like glass and plastic than it does to metal, which is a conductor which allows the static electricity to discharge easily.

Cling film is pure polyethylene (PE) plastic. It doesn't leave any residue (unless you leave the film itself) and PE itself is non-toxic.


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

[User]
[Halo] How do Elites, who are big on honor in combat, justify using cloaking?

Stabbing someone in the back who can't even see you doesn't seem very honorable to me.

[Assistant] In your definition of honor it isn't, but using superior tech to destroy an inferior species probably isn't dishonorable to them. Also, they bring swords into gunfights and getting shot and dying charging at the enemy isn't honorable but stupid.


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

[User]
[LOTR] Why does Gandalf need to search through old, obscure, poorly organized documents to figure out what Frodo's ring is?

Wouldn't you want to have world-ending lore organized, and ready for inspection? Once he figures out that it's the One Ring suddenly everybody knows all about it, but before then he's sifting through papers for hours on end in some basement. Wouldn't you want information like that easier to find?

[Assistant] Only a handful of people ever saw the ring well enough to write about it. It's a pretty simple gold band that only reveals itself when thrown in a fire (which most people tend to avoid doing with their gold rings). All he knows is that it's magic, it's going to take more than that to figure out that it's the One Ring.


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

[User]
CMV: Political posts like Health Secretary, Education Secretary etc should only be held by academic experts in their field.

In the UK every few years the government's 'cabinet' has a reshuffle and the minister in charge of, for example, education moves job to become minister in charge of transport.

Surely it would be more sensible if every few years elections were held where academic experts in each relevant field (each nominated by one party) competed for the position?

The current system where a career politician can go from being a local MP, to being in charge of the entire Education system then suddenly switch jobs and be in charge of the nations Healthcare the next week makes absolutely no sense to me - CMV.

edit:  By academic I meant something along the lines of 'A recognised subject matter expert with relevant experience' rather than implying only university professors could hold office.

[Assistant]
Why would it make more sense for a secretary in the given field to be an academic expert in the area? You are assuming that knowledge of a subject makes someone a more effective political operative for their given position.

The MPs all have academics that they consult when their personal knowledge is inadequate, but the actual office requires little know-how or research experience. Rather, it needs a competent political official who can work with other secretaries and the larger body politic to get funding/achieve objectives.


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

[User]
Do normal actions feel normal for the Flash/Quicksilver?

When they go super fast, can they still do everything normally, except everyone around them is still, or does psychics make stuff they interact with still go slow? Like, would Quicksilver opening a door, turning on a gas stove, and frying an egg feel normal to him even if he's doing it 100x faster than normal?

[Assistant]
Quicksilver: unless the action is from Quicksilver's interaction (opening a door, turning a crank) the action will take as long as it does normally and from Quicksilver's perspective it is a very slow process.

Flash: Speedforce.


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

[User]
Why are the values of most major currencies so similar?

The US Dollar, Euro, British Pound, Australian Dollar, Canadian Dollar, Singapore Dollar, and Swiss Franc all occupy a range in value from about $0.70 to $1.40 USD.

Why are the values of these currencies so similar, and why do certain other currencies like the Yen and Rupee have values orders of magnitude less?

[Assistant]
It's just history.

For example, the Euro has its roots in the "European Unit of Account", which was just basically an accounting tool to make things easier for inter-european trade, etc. The EUA was defined as 1 EUA = 1 USD. Why? Because that's just easy. And that was carried over to the European Currency Unit and later the Euro. That's why the value of the Euro and the USD are still roughly the same.

Lots of other currencies have similar pegs. The pound for example was pegged at 1 Pound = 4 USD in 1940, after the war the Pound experienced several devaluations and it ended up at 1 Pound = 2 USD. It went up and down in value a bunch more times until it landed at where it is nowadays.

For Japan, the currency used to be worth a lot more, back in the 1870's, but it experienced several episodes of inflation.

But ultimately, none of this is necessarily particularly meaningful. It in of itself doesn't convey information about actual purchasing power and things like that.

I mean, 110 Yen are about the same as 1 USD, but if someone who earns $10 an hour in the US would earn 1100 Yen an hour in Japan given everything else is the same and these 1100 Yen buy the same amount of goods as 10 USD, then it's just a bigger number. Literally that's it. It's like if you would start counting things in cents instead of dollars, that doesn't make you any richer or poorer, it just means you have two extra zeroes.


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

[User] ELI5: How do we know a computer is "learning" in a neural network and not just keeping track of certain, very specific inputs to be repeated the same way every time?

[Assistant] Smart question. The latter case is called *overfitting the data* or *overlearning,* and you can test for it by seeing how the computer responds to new test inputs. If it's great at the original training inputs, but useless at the new inputs, that shows overfitting.


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

[User]
CMV: Gerrymandering in the name of racial representation is just as wrong as racial or partisan discrimination.

I watched John Oliver last night and the topic of republican gerrymandering came up. A long held belief of liberals like Oliver is that Gerrymandering for partisan reasons or racial discrimination reasons is wrong. He then perplexingly noted that it's not always bad like in Illinois 4th district because it gives Latinos representation.

Isn't this just as bad and anti democratic? If you let someone's voice matter more because a similar group of individuals hold the same belief isn't that tyrany of the majority (even if that majority is part of a larger minority).

[Assistant]
You misunderstood the episode, the point that was that not all squiggly districts are gerrymandered. The Illinois 4th district is merely drawn to encompass a latino community. *That is not gerrymandering.*

Gerrymandering *can* involve drawing lines around the whole of a community, that is known as "packing", but it only results in gerrymandering in tandem with "cracking", that is diluting a community as a minority in many different districts.

Imagine a state with 1 million people, 500k democrats and 500k republicans, that is to be divided into 10 voting districts.

Gerrymandering is when one district is drawn painstakingly around 100k republicans and no one else, so the other 9 districts can all equally be drawn with a slight but comfortable majority of democrats.

Replace democrat and republican with black and white, and it's the same deal. "Gerrymandering in the name of racial representation" is what republicans have been caught doing in Virginia. The Illinois 4th is not just a pro-latino equivalent of that, it is an entirely separate kind of situation, where there was one big democraticleaning area, and within it, the inter-district lines were drawn in such a way to create one latino and one black district, instead of two half-latino-half-black ones. No group got "cracked", only meaningful communities were defined for representatives to represent.


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

[User]
CMV: Apple Overprices Way Too Many Of Their Products And It Is Not Justified

A topic that has been raging for quite a few years now, and the arguments I hear from the people defending Apple are quite weak, so I am now turning to the more Intellectual people of Reddit to see if anybody can change my mind.

Before I start, I will state that I am not stating that ALL of their products are overpriced. For example, the reasons one might buy their iPhone are quite obvious. Buying a secondhand iPhone, you can find many for under $300 at this point that are still being supported with updates, but many of their other products are have insane prices without good reason.

Now onto the main argument, how their prices are not justified. For the beginners who start to see the truth of Apple, their first argument against the tech giant is most likely going to be the Price. This was the exact case for me, and with good reason.

Although their products are high quality, the competition just offers better for less.

There are many examples of this.

And so that I can target the average consumer, I will not be looking at their "Pro" Series.

For this, I can give many easy examples of how overpriced their products are.

Their Apple Watch Sleeves are $50 each

Beats Headphones, although doing better in quality, get outperformed by any other headphone manufacturer in the market.

The Macbook Pro has horrible specifications for $1200 (Edit: It seems like the value of the MacBook is very subjective because of the OS it runs on, so I will leave this out of the argument).

And even their repairs can cost upwards for $1000 because of an out of place cable.

[Assistant]
A lot of people have already mentioned the "consumers decide what they are willing to pay" aspect.

I would add that the reason apple is so high is not based on quality. **Having the newest generation of Apple products is a status symbol, and that is what people are paying for**. Apple is as much of a designer company as they are a electronics one.

For example: A $10,000 mechanical Rolex watch over the course of years tells time worse than a  $10 quartz crystal Casio watch. The $10 Casio also comes with more functions (calendar, time zones, timer, maybe temperature, can set alarms).

So why isnt the Casio watch $10,000? Because people are buying a ROLEX. And they can show their friends they have a Rolex. And those friends can be very impressed they could afford it, and the the buyer feels good about themselves.

THAT is why an Apple product is so expensive. It has nothing to do with the specifications, because the general consumer doesnt give a shit about the specifications.


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

[User]
How did the Jedi fall for the 'clone army' trick?

So there's a powerful dark force interfering with their abilities. Then a convenient army, that they didn't commission or request, turns up to fight their battles for them. Hadn't these wise sages heard of the 'too good to be true' principle?

I understand that they may have been desperate enough to use the clone forces anyway, but they started acting like they trusted them implicitly; sending Jedi out alone with large units to act as commanders, etc etc.

[Assistant]
The Jedi's powers were being suppressed for years before the Clone Army showed up. It wasn't step one block powers step two giant army. There was no reason to suspect the two were related like that in anyway. Furthermore, the Clone Army had been commissioned in secret by Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas, who was a widely respected member of the council and particularly gifted with precognition. In fact, Sifo-Dyas commissioned the Army *because* of the growing unease the Jedi had, and the cloud in the Force that was appearing. He didn't have time after that to explain himself to the other Jedi before he was betrayed and killed by Count Dooku, but it's likely that the Jedi found this in their investigation as to the creation of the Clone Army and Sifo-Dyas' death.

They still didn't trust the Clone Army at first, but they needed their help. The Republic had no army of its own, and here was one on a silver platter. So they took control of the army themselves and became the Jedi Generals once again to mitigate any potential issues. After three years of fighting literally alongside the Clones, the Jedi had absolutely no reason to believe the Clones would betray them like that. Many of the Jedi believed they had made friends with some of the Clones. Order 66 came completely  out of nowhere for the Jedi, and that's exactly how Palpatine wanted it to happen.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do you still feel the motion of waves after a long day at the beach?

[Assistant]
It is a form of vertigo. Your brain adjusts to the feeling and it becomes normal.
When you are back on land, your brain continues to go through the same process, trying to keep you up right, even though it's not needed anymore.


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

[User]
[Star Trek] Okay, so we know that "Holo addiction" is a thing, but...

We also know that material needs and wants are a thing of the past, so I don't NEED to have a job or anything.

What is to stop me from getting my own holodeck (after expending the minimum amount of effort required to obtain one, as the Picards have their own Vineyards and the Siskos have... something...), having all my food delivered to the entrance, and spending the rest of my life as a virtual Q, toying with the holo inhabitants at my whim?

Is the population monitored to prevent that kind of thing?  Would they have the legal right to break down the door and drag me out, kicking and screaming?

[Assistant]
Nothing, really, though Holodecks require quite a bit of maintenance to keep them functioning so you really can't use them anywhere close to 24/7. Though no doubt any friend or loved ones you may have would start stopping by to express their concern, and fairly soon.

And their concern would be warranted. Like with any addiction, holo addicts find they need a stronger and stronger "fix" to keep themselves entertained. At first, one may stay amused through simple adventures or sexual fantasies. Very quickly, though, the lack of any danger and complete control over the virtual inhabitants lead to boredom and loneliness. In cases where holo addiction goes untreated, the ultimate result is the same self-destructive pattern found with any other addict. Whether it is engaging in increasingly perverse sexual fantasies, or neglecting one's health in devising more and more intricate simulations, or turning off the holodeck's safety protocols in order to provide a real sense of danger, the addict will eventually kill themselves in one way or another.

And let me tell you, it's usually a combination of those factors that does it, and the results are the most embarassing death one can imagine. In the decades before World War III, men would occasionally be found having accidentally killed themselves by attempting something called "auto erotic asphyxiation" (you can look it up). As humiliating a way to die as that is, holo addicts can be far worse. It's not uncommon in these cases to be found dead, having died by turning the safeties off, while engaged in sexual practices so deviant that *the safeties were relevant in the first place*.


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

[User]
[Legend of Korra] What were the red Lotus doing during the Equalist rebellion?

What were the red lotus doing during the Equalist rebellion? did they have plans to stop it?

[Assistant] There is no larger Red Lotus movement.  Zaheer's immediate associates were the only true believers, everyone else who was swayed by his rhetoric abandoned ship, either when he abducted a five year old or after Chief Sokka caught them.


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

[User]
Why doesn't a pregnant womans immmune system attack the baby?

Why doesn't a pregnant womans immune system attack the baby? Because it is kind of a foreign object in the body since it's different dna?

[Assistant] It can. If a woman has rH negative blood (such as O-), and has had a prior pregnancy with a child with a rH positive blood type (such as A+), the mother may develop antibodies to the positive rH factor. This doesn't affect the first child, but can affect subsequent pregnancies with children of rH positive blood types. Basically, the mother's immune system would attack the fetus's blood. Immunoglobulin (Rhogam) is given after a pregnancy to rH negative women to counteract the likelihood of issues during subsequent pregnancies.


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

[User] [Civ V] One nation has total control over the World Congress even if every other nation votes vetos their resolution, why don't the other nations just leave?

[Assistant]
The Political points or whatever that the nation earns to takeover the world congress represents two things. One, would be the general respect that nation has in the world, as in everyone's believes that they are looking out for the entire world. The other more interesting thing it represents is how much blackmail and other things that nation has on the other nations leaders or members in congress. Gandhi isn't going to leave congress if Genghis Khan is going to release the information that all of his nukes (he loves to threaten people with) are really just giant 4th of July fireworks his uncle brought back from Mexico.

And, of course, as the other user said they are just waiting to be on top themselves. If they leave then there is no institution to ever be apart of. Some people argue that's why the poor vote for politicians who want to lower taxes on the rich, everyone believes they will someday be rich.


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

[User]
[Supernatural] Are there any monsters that don't look like humans?

I became a Hunter because I want to fight cool monsters.

So far, it's been pretty disappointing. Pretty much all monsters that we have seen either look like humans or are basically humanoid in shape.

Are there any monsters out there that are clearly inhuman, like giant spiders or reptilian creatures or tentacled abominations? I'm tired of encountering "guy with sharp teeth" or "girl with claws" 100 times a month.

[Assistant]
Monsters tend to prey on creatures in public, and ones that can't hide from hunters tend to die off.

There are a number of shapeshifters with inhuman forms- dragons, lamia, angels, kelpie, leviathans. They tend to have a human form and a more inhuman form.

There are some parasites, like khan worms, which hide in humans.

There are hellhounds, which look like devilish hounds.

If you want more inhuman, I'd suggest hunting in remote areas away from humans, or purgatory.


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

[User] [LOTR] How did Saruman possess Theoden?

[Assistant]
In the books - he didn't. The part with Saruman speaking through Theoden's mouth doesn't  happen.
Theoden has been lied to and demoralised by Wormtongue. Gandalf cures this by showing Theoden the truth. He shows him the light  through  window. He gets him to stand and walk. He gives him his sword to hold. He shows him the landscape - its not that dark.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do the mental processes of people with Down Syndrome differ from people without it?

(serious)

[Assistant]
People process their environment using their I.Q. and their emotional intelligence. Language skills are particularly important. If someoneone doesn't have a word for something, they can neither process nor remember it. (This is why you cannot recall your infancy. You did not yet have an active vocabulary to categorize and process the things you were seeing and experiencing.)
Typically, a person with Down Syndrome has an I.Q. aproximating that of a child 8 years of age or younger. This means that they also have the vocabulary and reasoning ability of a very young child. Also, much like young children, Down Syndrome people may not have a clear division between the two hemispheres of the brain (as a normal adult does). This inhibits their ability to distinguish between fantasy an reality, between the truth and a lie. The creative side of their brain and the logic center do not correctly categorize information. Also, the transference of learned information from the short term memory to long term memory is compromised in Down Syndrome people. This is why they have difficulty learning new information and skills, and may not recall things like family vacations or certain birthdays unless something unusual happened that would act as a "place marker" to assist in categorizing the memory.


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

[User] [Marvel] If Ant-Man shrank down, hid in Luke Cage's drink, waited to be swallowed by Cage, and then expanded to full size inside of him, Would Luke Cage die?

[Assistant] Probably. Ant-Man would be breaking bones and displacing/damaging internal organs. The skin may not, and should that be the case, Ant Man is trapped within a human-shaped prison without air and probably with broken bones and organs as well.


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

[User] [Star Wars] How does Luke's ranch not get attacked by Tusken Raiders, being out in the middle of nowhere? What keeps them away?

[Assistant]
Isn't a massive part of EP 2 the fact that they do in fact raid that specific farm and abduct Shmi Skywalker?

Perhaps the ensuing slaughter has passed into legend and keeps the next generation of raiders away from the area?


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

[User]
[Marvel] Why is Thor's combat speed so slow?

Thor can throw Mjolnir faster than light, he can travel faster than light, he can see and even catch Hermes, the god of speed, when other people can't even detect him because he moves so fast, and so on and so on. But when he's actually fighting, his combat speed is lower than Wolverine or Captain America. How is it that someone with thousands of years of fighting experience and the ability to travel faster than light can't combine those two abilities?

[Assistant]
You're addressing lots of different elements there.

Mjolnir is a reservoir of power that gives Thor a great many abilities that alone he would not have. Thor can throw Mjolnir at light speed because of Mjolnir, not his personal abilities.

When he travels faster than light, he is propelling himself bodily, not using his superior reflexes or actual leg speed to do this like hyper-speedsters do. He is using magical power, which only applies to propelling his entire body, not combat reflexes.

Another example is his perception. He can see things that travel extremely fast, it bears no effect on his ability to do anything about it. You yourself can detect events that occur faster than your reflexes can react.

Thor, without his Belt of Strength, Mjolnir and other accoutrements, is really just a very well-bred experienced Asgardian warrior with a very heavy frame. His reflexes are excellent, but he still has a lot of mass to move around in combat, and that slows him down compared to warriors with razor reflexes like Wolverine.

In fact, a lot of Thor's fights involve getting the crap knocked out of him. It's almost as if part of his fighting style is to absorb damage he knows isn't crippling in order to set himself up for the devastating blows he wants to land. He is known for being a skilled warrior, as in he knows many ways to strike and do damage, but not for his grace in battle.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do heads of state always board and deboard the aircraft using the staircase in full public view? Why don't they use more secure and easy methods like jet bridges?

[Assistant] It is easier to secure the airplane far from the airport terminal, where no vehicle can ever approach it without passing security forces. Near the terminal, numerous service vehicles are zooming by all the time.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is "Fortunate Son" the stereotypical song for the Vietnam war.

Feels like people cant make a movie or game about the Vietnam war that doesnt have the song Fortunate Son in it.

[Assistant]
It was a song written about the Vietnam War during the Vietnam War. It was about the feeling that people were dying for no reason, and the people with money and power could avoid fighting while the poor people couldnt.
It was a good song, so the people who were against the Vietnam War started playing it a lot.
So it became associated with the Vietnam War then.
I think a lot of our modern association with it comes from its use in Forrest Gump in 1993 though.


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

[User] ELI5: Why cant you donate blood or organs if you have lived in Europe in the 80s?

[Assistant] There was the mad cow disease period between 1980 and 1996.the mad cow disease affects the brain of the animals. People who consumed meat of an infected animal may be affected too. There are studies that suggest that the disease may be spread even with blood transfusion if the person had consumed that meat.,tho there is no real evidence.


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

[User]
ELI5: If the muzzle energy of a bullet is = 1/2 * M * V^2, wouldn't it make sense to make really small and fast bullets since it has a much greater affect on energy than mass does?

.

[Assistant]
Your intuition is correct, and that is exactly how cartridge selection for the military has progressed over the years.

The standard issue rifle for US troops, the M16/M4 fires the 5.56 Nato cartridge, which has a very small (0.15 ounce) bullet traveling at blistering speeds (2000mph!)

Compare that to the previous US military infantry rifle catridges that had bullets that weighed 3 times as much like the 30-06 in the M1 Garand.

There are other factors that went into selecting a catridge with a lighter, faster bullet (accuracy during full auto, amount of ammo a soldier can carry, politics, et cetera) but militaries around the world tend to favor light, very fast bullets for infantry rifles.


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

[User]
CMV: The best way to save humanity from the negative effects of climate change is to future proof our infrastructure and accept that we cant stop it from happening.

Im not going to be a climate change denier, I do however think that our approach to combating climate change is flawed.

We cant stop the Earth from heating up, and it is completely natural for the planet to heat up due to things like the tilt of the earth and its axial precession which change every so often.

We need to accept the fact that we arent gods, and we have no control over what this planet does. We need to adapt to the changing environment and create solutions to the potential problems that climate change can create instead of signing pieces of legislation that are really just wishful thinking and a way to improve the image of world leaders.

Organisms have been fine tuning themselves to meet the demands of this planet for billions of years, I dont see why we should be the only exception to the old rule of survival of the fittest.

[Assistant]
Youre aware that our current temperatures - and CO2 levels - are well beyond natural cycles, and that global warming as a result of climate change is man made?

Because you open by saying you wont be a denier but your second paragraph heavily implies denial.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] How does one invent new spells?

Most of the spells in the wizarding world (at least in Britain) are derived from Latin, so do spell inventors/discoverers randomly mix and say phrases and wait for something to happen? Or is there a 'science' to it?

On that thought, are there spells in other languages? For example in India are the spells in Hindi? Could one invent a spell using modern-day English for that matter?

[Assistant]
You don't invent spells anymore than you invent physics. Incantations obey natural laws. That's why pronunciation is so important. Spells sound latinish, but they are not Latin. Are there spells that sound similar to other languages? Probably. There's nothing inherently magical about Latin or wizards would have had a heck of a time speaking in ancient Rome!

Many of the most powerful recent magical breakthroughs are in constructing magical artifacts, potions, and transmutation which have no verbal components anyway.


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

[User]
Do a freshly laid egg and a freshly hatched chick have the same number of calories? If not, where do the extra calories come from?

If the chick has more calories, it must be getting the extra energy from somewhere...?

[Assistant] No, the egg would have more calories. The egg has all of the materials, including energy, needed to form the chick. The process of forming the chick involves chemical reactions that are driven forward by the use of the stored energy. The process is not 100% efficient and the energy lost escapes from the egg as heat. On top of that the chick moves in the egg, it's heart beats, it's nerves fire, all of which use calories, which is lost in the end as heat.


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

[User]
[Pokmon] Why do the bad guys still follow the traditional rules of Pokmon battling?

Like, they don't harm the player with their Pokmon, they don't try to capture your Pokmon in-battle, they skip a turn when they heal their Pokmon, they only send out one Pokmon at a time during single battles, they only have their Pokmon hold one item, and so on and so forth.

If they're evil and want to conquer the world/steal everyone's Pokmon/whatever, why do they abide by the rules? Ghetsis, the evil manipulative antagonist of Generation V, even tries to kill the player with his legendary Pokmon, Kyurem, in Black 2 and White 2, but he still follows all the rules during a battle.

Why?

[Assistant]
It's about preventing escalation. Sure, you could just attack the trainer, but so could they and are you sure that if your pokemon go all out that they'll win all out against the other guy? If it descends into a brawl, then the loser is going to get hyperbeamed in their face and no one wants that. This way the loser accepts their loss and you both move on, alive and not melted into a puddle.

It's tempting to abuse the agreed upon rules, but in the end the bad guys benefit too, so they stick with it.


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

[User] ELI5 Why does our stomach makes a sound when hungry? And are we the only animals do that, if yes, why?

[Assistant] It isn't so much that it makes a sound to tell you you're hungry, it's that it happens often *at the same time* that you're hungry, so you associate the sound with the feeling. When your intestines are not full of food and digestive juices, there is relatively more air inside them. When they squeeze what little fluid there is, it's kind of like the sound of a dripping faucet echoing in a big empty sink. All the air inside instead of fluid makes it easy for you to hear. It probably happens in animals too, but whether they notice or not is a good question.


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

[User]
[Superman] Does Superman have any personality flaws at all? Any insecurities? Any issues? He seems so perfect to me.

I know he's called the the Big Blue Boy Scout for a reason but he seems almost unbelieviably perfect. I'd really love it if there was some comic that showed Clark as a bullied nerd who had to keep his head down in school because he couldn't reveal his powers, then when he becomes Superman he gets all the love and adoration from fans which fuels his own craving for approval.

[Assistant]
Lex Luthor once got Superman's powers, every ability Superman possessed.  Within hours his emotionless and uncaring demeanor was crumbling and he was facing a moral dilemma tearing him apart.

See, you can ignore people suffering because you don't know they're suffering.  You don't have to see, or watch, you can turn that off.  Superman can't.  He can hear a whisper across a city, see the physiological changes as someone is heartbroken, watch their bones break as they're injured, see the pain flash across their nervous system and into their brain, see and hear changes in their breathing as they respond.

There's two pathways when you are faced with this.  You can become a psychopath who doesn't care or enjoys it (Zod) or you can know each and every time you've done something to hurt someone.  Superman not only cares that people are being hurt, he has the self-control to understand that he can't right every injustice, stop every pain, or he'll be a greater tyrant than any the world has ever known.


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

[User]
How much of a health risk is involved with flies landing on food?

For instance, I always imagine that the fly has just visited a mound of dog poop right before they try some potato salad. Also, are they laying eggs, or eating?

[Assistant]
If you are a healthy, young adult you have nothing to fear. Your stomach acid will take care of most of it.

Also, if the fly lands on the food just before you eat the food, the bacteria it might be carrying wont have time to grow and spoil the food. The problem might arise if a fly lands on the food during preparation and then the food is stored improperly for several hours before consumption.


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

[User]
CMV: Learning how to box, hunt or wrestle is good for a kid and not a 'legacy of violence', kids these days are overprotected and therefore, weak.

I had a very traditional upbringing where my dad encouraged us to enjoy things that are not considered PC anymore.

I had boxing lessons, a BB gun, a penknife. I was encouraged to defend myself and not be scared of getting bruised. It taught me how to protect myself, and that I was strong and able to control that force.

I recently watched a 'documentary' calling my culture a legacy of violence (gypsy/traveller). I don't really agree with that and would like to hear your opinions about why that is not just passing on traditions.

Imo, kids who don't learn to deal with getting hurt occasionally is making people weak.

Tldr, I think kids should be encouraged to be tougher.

[Assistant]
I believe the most important thing in playing "rough" in childhood is what is called the wind down. Children learn a lot while playing, but there is a different between violent behaviour and safe behaviour. You said it yourself, you had boxing lessons - the key part is "lessons". You did not go to the playground and started hitting other kids, you encountered violence in a safe and controlled space. The most important part of rougher play is not the roughness, but the wind down. To quote Alastair Spate with regards to fathers playing rough with their sons:

>The crucial thing is the winding down. Here a father teaches his child, through play, the mastery of his energy and angers, sets the limits of aggression and how to stay in charge of one's emotions and not be flooded by them. (Quoted after Steve Biddulph)

The goal is not to teach violence or to be tougher. The violence is only a secondary part in teaching kids to be not tough but to control their emotions.