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

[User]
Worst first day of graduate school

So I started Masters in Computer Science in top 15 USA University. I just graduated form bachelors in CS from same university recently.

I still have doubts and felt the imposter syndrome because I dont think Im very smart for this. But yet again, Im an international student and want to work hard to find sponsorship later on.

*During my undergrad I have gone through depressive episodes and have certainly faced a lot of problems also concerning health and had a surgery. *

Covid really weakened my learning during sophomore- junior year. And In my senior year, I just thought of graduating.

But going into Masters I have motivated myself to get serious and change habits like waking up at 5am, working out, and setting out studying hours.

Anyways I started masters today and went to see professor who I had been working for as an unpaid research intern during undergrad. I set an appointment and reached his office.

I was humiliated. I guess for the right reasons.

He asked me what I was there of, and I told him respectfully about restarting my research.  He replied infront of other students, saying why should I keep you in my team, so that youd disappear again for few months?

I replied that I take full responsibility and this time its different but his response was that you said that last time.

Well its true, there have been times when due to mental health I stopped my research and focused mainly on my health and pushing for graduating as an undergrad, but in masters I wanted to start my first day with a different mindset yet got rejected by the same professor who was excited and motivating when I got into the program.

He told me to find another faculty as I have broken his trust and I dont deliver.

This setback really upset me today and I did contemplate life for hours.

Words are everything. It can definitely make or break a person.

Today was just not my day.

[Assistant]
It sounds like you got a very honest appraisal and a valuable lesson from that faculty member. It kind of sounds like your problem was not covid or surgeries, but communication.

Sounds like you are taking responsibility for your actions and hopefully will learn from the experience.


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

[User]
[General]Rick Sanchez from Rick and Morty destroyed multiple galaxies in an incident related to powering his car. What fictional characters who lack "superpowers" have PERSONALLY killed more sentients than him?

God like beings blowing up universes are boring. What are examples of others who lack superpowers who killed if not the most sentients ever, than a LOT of them?

[Assistant] Does Rick Sanchez actually lack superpowers? His engineering prowess is immensely advanced. He can out engineer super natural beings like the actual devil. His own species is barely capable of leaving their own planet, yet he alone of that species developed not just space flight powered with near unending power supplies, but inter dimensional transport as well, seemingly on his own. At what point are you so much advanced beyond every other member of your species that you do have de facto superpowers?


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

[User]
[X-Men] Would Magneto take in a human that purposely turned himself into a mutant?

Im not too familiar with comics lore, but in the X-Men movies theres a machine that turns humans into mutants. If someone deliberately turned himself into a mutant for whatever reason and asked to join Magneto, would he accept him?

[Assistant] Well if Magnetos strict enough to kick Mystique out after she unwillingly became human, perhaps a human who turns him/herself into a mutant willingly would be welcome into the brotherhood. Although this is less likely than Magneto simply saying nah, you used to be human, so fuck off.


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

[User] [Avatar: The Last Airbender] Why did the Fire Nation need a Drill to break into Ba Sing Se? Could they not have used rogue Earth Benders to break down the Walls faster?

[Assistant]
No, they couldn't, because Ba Sing Se is the most powerful citystate in the earth kingdom. The Fire Nation can get some traitors or captives, but Ba Sing Se has a literal army of the greatest earth benders in the world. In an earth bending contest, they're just going to win with no difficulty.

Using earth benders is going against Ba Sing Se with the thing they're an expert in and you have basically no idea about. It's a fight you're going to lose. Use the drill instead.


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

[User]
How far do you have to go beneath the ocean floor before the earth becomes dry again?

If you dig deep enough through the ocean floor, assuming no water backfills your hole, how far until you reach dry crust again?

Edit: clarification - how far down does the ocean saturate the earths crust.

[Assistant] Based on OP's clarification, nobody has answered the question yet. All the answers so far basically state, "There's water in the crust everywhere, so you'll never find crust without some sort of water." That answers the title's question, but OP doesn't want to know where the crust is no longer wet. He or she appears to be asking where the ocean's influence ends downward from the ocean floor. Right?


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

[User]
[MCU] Will Quicksilver or another speedster cast spells significantly faster than normal wizards?

We see in the movies that hand gestures are used in order to cast spells, would a speedster (Who has magic obviously) be in an advantage?

[Assistant]
Maybe, maybe not. It's possible that being able to perform spellcasting gestures faster would equate to casting spells faster, as you're suggesting.

But it's equally possible that the cadence/tempo of an incantation is just as important as getting the words/gestures right. To put it another way, saying the words faster might be the same as saying them wrong.


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

[User]
[Skyrim] Is the Jarl like the Mayor, or a King answering only to a higher King?

They obviously rule over their providence but how far is their rule? Do they control which crops get grown, what gets build, what citizens can sell? Its not quite clear since your interactions are simply "go fetch"

[Assistant]
A Jarl is a feudal lord. They have complete sovereignty over their own Hold, however they are obliged by an oath of loyalty to provide tribute and military support to the High King, just as the High King is obliged by the same oath to protect the Jarl's territory if it comes under attack.

So yes, they are essentially a king of their own little kingdom, within a bigger kingdom, inside an Empire (or not inside an empire). But they're called a Jarl.

I should probably clarify that which crops get grown, what gets built and what gets sold is mostly unregulated and left to individual merchants and landowners, though a Jarl or High King can pass declarations affecting various things if they really want to exercise power (most don't bother, especially in a time of war).


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

[User]
ELI5: If a child loses a limb, and it's successfully reattached, can the limb still grow?

I'm talking about something small, like a finger (but more than just the tip of the finger).

For example, if a child loses a whole finger in an accident, but then the finger is reattached, will the finger always remain the same size and appear deformed? Or is there any chance that it could grow as normal *after* being reattached?

I thought I could easily google this, but I'm not finding what I'm looking for.

(In case anyone's wondering, what made me curious is a documentary I watched about people who lost limbs during shark attacks; none of the victims were kids though).

[Assistant] It depends on how clean the separation is, how the limb was preserved (cooled) and how skilled the surgeon is. It will never stop growing. If it is attached successfully and is still alive then it will continue to heal and grow as usual. And it does not matter if it is kids or adults. Sharks do tend to tear the limb off instead of a clean cut and they tend to go for larger limbs and even swallows pieces of it. So it is very rare to get a good enough limb to reattach after a shark attack.


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

[User]
ELI5- What does it mean when a video game is powered by a certain "engine"?

ETA- Thanks guys, that was very helpful!

[Assistant]
Developers dont write most of the code in their games from scratch.  Instead, they either develop or purchase a toolkit that already includes most of the code required to run the underlying systems the game relies on.

Then the developers use the core engine and associated frameworks to assemble assets (artwork, music, models, etc.) and their unique game logic.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] What protection do non-force users have against force users?

What type of protection is there from Luke force slamming Boba Fett into the ground or Darth Vader force choking him when they fought that one time in the comics (I don't know I've seen two panels of that)? Is there any way a non-force user could ever win? I understand that Force users can summon a force shield but can others do the same?

[Assistant] The element of surprise and overwhelming numbers.  The most frequent way we see a Jedi die is an entire squad of troopers turning on them and firing at once.  One on one, you'd need to be very good.  A lot of distractions, if you can have droids or automated guns attacking them, it's good.  Not being susceptible to mind tricks would be good.


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

[User] [Aliens] So I just picked up this egg, it opened up in my hands so I quickly put it in a sturdy containment chamber. Are there any uses for this thing besides a weapon or selling?

[Assistant] Destroy it immediately one of your crew might be a Weyland-Yutani android. In which case that thing will get out, impregnate someone which will be the start of a xenomorph infestation that will result in the deaths of everyone on board.  Or it might get out on its own, or maybe you or  your crew mates curiosity  might get the better of you. So just get rid of that thing right now.  Burn it, eject it from the ship, blow it up, something, anything just don't let it get out.


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

[User]
CMV: Copywrites should only be valid for 20 years like patents

It is unjust that creators of copyrightable works are entitled to legal protection of their works for their lifetimes plus 70 years when patents only last 20 years (21 if you include the provisional 1 year period). Both types require creativity, effort, and resources but the amount of resources dedicated to the creation of ANY copyrighted work are inconsequential compared to what it cost someone to create some types of patented inventions.  Tens of billions can be spent on a single patented idea and yet someone is only entitled to benefit from this investment for 20 years while someone who writes down a story is entitled to benefit from it at the very minimum 3  times longer. Furthermore, I would argue that not do patented things cost powers of magnitude more than copyrighted works as a whole those things that are patented have a much larger and more important impact on the lives and happiness of the world population than anything copyrighted as well. I love my copyrighted works as much as anyone but I would rather be alive (due to patented medicine and other quality of life inventions) then read a great book, listen to the  greatest song, or watch the most amazing movie.

So can anyone convince me that someone that creates a copyrighted work deserves to be entitled to be rewarded for their product for so much longer than someone who invents something.

Edit 2 ----

Just to clarify the argument is not that patents should last longer rather that if someone creates something they deserve the same protections for the same time period no matter if it a product or a song.

Edit ----

Since the point of patents having a bigger benefit then copyrights has been brought up multiple times I wanted to add some questions for those arguments

If the benefits to society are the difference what about copyrighted works that have a huge impact of society? Also most patents don't have a big impact on society so why shouldn't they have the some protection as a book or song?

[Assistant]
The copyright allows them to keep on creating.  From the first Harry Potter book being released until the last was 10 years.  JK Rowling made those characters, why should she have to give them up?  She is still creating material.  This is why.

Patents are granted for novel and non-obvious creations.  They advance their art.  The patents that make money are rare, but when they do it is because they meet a need.  The 20 years for the patent is a balance to incentivize the creation of new things and allowing it to go into the public domain so that others can improve it.

A copyrighted work does not meet a need other than, it is art and it should be enjoyed.


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

[User]
[ATLA] Did Ozai ever get released from prison?

I feel like after 20 years in prison he'd no longer be a threat and Zuko could parole/pardon him. He'd be an elderly man with no bending and Zuko's reign would have been well-established by this point so it's not like he could lead a revolution. Keeping him in prison any longer would just be cruel.

[Assistant]
No.

Ozai is essentially the Hitler of the Avatar world.  If he had been defeated by any other person than Aang, they would have killed him and the entire world would have viewed that as justified.  A life in prison is mercy for Ozai.


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

[User]
[Game of Thrones] Would Robb Stark survive and keep independence if he just returned to the North after Ned Stark died and organized defenses on Moat Cailin?

Wouldn't  Lannister army reaching Winterfell be  only real way to lose the war?

[Assistant]
Not without forsaking the riverlands, and leaving them to be crushed by the lannisters without his support.

Not only would the North frown on their new King abandoning his subjects, but hed be betraying his family ties on his mothers side.

Its worth mentioning he was on his way to take back winterfell and moat cailin right before he was betrayed.


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

[User]
ELI5: how do stab/cut proof shirts work?

A buddy of mine works with glass and they recently gave out stab proof shirts, we tested it out and you can not cut through, even with a sharp knife the material couldn't be stabbed through. It feels like normal fabric how does this work?

[Assistant] The threads are made out of Kevlar in many protective fabrics.  They are knitted into a loop-locking fabric so that there aren't slots for the knife to get through.  It's not a cool as chain mail, but much lighter.


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

[User]
[Dune] What was so bad about Leto II's reign?

Apparently he was so malicious that he is forever known as the Tyrant, but I see little textual evidence of his supposed oppressions. I can understand why some of the Big Powers of the Old Empire disliked him, but what about the regular people who are the majority population?

[Assistant]
As part of his plan to go on the Golden Path, he stopped all interplanetary travel for thousands of years, leading to a buildup in planetary ennui and a stagnation of culture so that the Scattering would happen after his death.

Were his actions justified? Probably, but if you didn't have access to his future vision, you have an all-powerful Emperor who stopped things for seemingly arbitrary reasons, someone who does not look like a particularly good leader.


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

[User]
I've heard it reflects badly if you do your PhD at the same place as your undergrad. Is the same true if you have a different undergrad but a Masters and PhD from the same institution?

I'm currently in a terminal Masters program which results in not only the degree but a industry credential, thus why I am in this program instead of going directly to PhD. However, my long-term goal is to teach at the university level. My main interest is teaching but I would be pleased to be involved in research as well.

I am happy with this geographic location and with the faculty in my department, and would be interested in staying here for a PhD. Is this something that would come back to bite me if I were to finish a PhD here then go out to find a job as a professor and/or researcher?

[Assistant]
The stigma attached to this varies a lot by field and is mostly an outdated concept. Your collaborative opportunities aren't as strongly tied to your geographical location anymore.

*If* you're going to move, move up. Don't move just for the sake of moving.


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

[User] ELI5: In regards to hills and valleys, what determines whether a roadway will be a tunnel, a cutout, a bridge, or just go with the curve of the land?

[Assistant]
Civil Engineer here.

The biggest factor in determining a tunnel, a cutout, a bridge or following the natural curve of the land has to do with....Geometrics.

Roadway geometrics deals with how a road can handle a vehicle as it speeds along pavement.  Ever notice how it feels like you are being shoved to the right or left side of a car as you round a curve while going fast?

If the intent of the roadway is to carry traffic at high speeds (70 mph posted - usually designed for 80 mph), you can't have any tight turns; otherwise vehicles will fly off the road - literally.  This is the reason why racetracks have high angled banking turns.

With that in mind, if engineers want to maintain traffic speeds, they have to maintain gradual grades over hills, through valleys and around turns to accommodate high speed vehicle flow.  This also holds true for the super fast trains that speed around central Europe and Japan.

Secondly, after geometrics, is money.  As stated earlier - cost is a huge factor when determining whether to dig out a cut section in a hill or just bore right through it with a tunnel.  Sometimes it is easier to lop a cut in a hill with some explosives and bulldozers versus the specialized equipment and personnel needed to bore through thick rock for tunnels.

Bridges are usually resorted to when a stream can't be filled or a valley must be crossed high above the ground below.  The engineering economics associated with these projects are a new topic entirely!


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

[User]
I saw an asteroid impact calculator and it said the maximum speed of something orbiting the sun is 72km/s. Why?

Is there really a limit to how fast something can orbit the sun? Why? Does this limit apply to things entering the solar system?

[Assistant]
Escape velocity of the solar system at the earth's distance from the sun is sqrt(2GM/R) where M is the solar mass and R is 1 AU. This speed is about 42 km/s. Anything orbiting the sun (ie gravitationally bound to it) cannot be going faster at than this speed when it is at earth's distance from the sun. The orbital speed of the earth is sqrt(2) lower, about 30 km/s. The greatest collision velocity would be a head-on collision, the sum of these two speeds (72 km/s).

Of course, you did guess that something traveling greater than escape velocity could go arbitrarily fast, which would be true of an object that fell into the solar system or was scattered to high speed through multi-body interactions with planets, but this would be rare and would have only one chance to strike the earth, compared to asteroids on earth-crossing orbits which get many many chances.


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

[User] ELI5: How do Tesla coils work?

[Assistant]
Imagine you're pushing a swing. If you push the swing with the right timing, the swing will go higher and higher. When you push the swing, you're store energy in the system. With each push, you add more and more energy.

If you push at the wrong time, the swing system will lose energy as you will be using energy to absorb some of the energy from the swing.

In a Tesla Coil, a similar principle applies. Instead of a swing, you have an inductor and a capacitor, both components which store energy. When you put apply a voltage source across a capacitor, the voltage across the capacitor will take some time to reach the full voltage of the voltage source.

In the context of a Tesla Coil (at least for one type, we'll get to the other types later) once the voltage across the capacitor is high enough, a spark gap fires and becomes conductive. Once this happens, the energy stored in the capacitor is transferred into an inductor.

The inductor stores energy in a magnetic field (unlike the capacitor, which stores it in an electric field). Once the energy from the capacitor is exhausted, the magnetic field around the inductor begins to collapse, transferring the energy back into the capacitor, and the cycle repeats.

This oscillation is electrical resonance (unlike the swing, which is mechanical resonance). In the case of a Tesla Coil, there are two resonant circuits. The first takes energy from transformers powered by the mains. The second resonant circuit gets it's energy from the expanding and contracting magnetic field around the inductor in the first resonant circuit.

The magnetic field around the inductor in the first resonant circuit is used to induce a current in the inductor in the second resonant circuit, transferring energy into it. The two resonant circuits have their frequencies matched, so this energy being added is just like the swing being pushed; the voltage swings up and down higher and higher with more energy being added. In Tesla Coils, the oscillation is at a high frequency (~100kHz-1MHz), meaning the large voltage swings in the secondary circuit build up very quickly.

As for other types of Tesla Coils, the one I've described is called a Spark Gap Tesla Coil. There are also various types of Solid State Tesla Coils. The simplest of these does away with the primary resonant circuit, and instead feeds a pulse of energy into what was the secondary resonant circuit. This causes a few oscillations, which create radio waves. These radio waves are picked up by an antenna, and amplified and fed back into the resonant circuit. This feedback loop can be interrupted, and by turning an audio signal into a square wave, you can create sound (this is how the musical tesla coils work).

**TL;DR, It's sort of like pushing swings, but electrically.**


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

[User]
Atomic Orbital Theory, Molecular Orbital Theory, Valence Bond Theory.

What are the differences between these three theories?

[Assistant]
All three are models of the wave-particle duality of electrons in an atom, and are essentially related to one another. Atomic orbital theory is used to describe the energetic nature of electrons in a single atom; molecular orbital theory (related to VB theory) qualifies these wave interactions between multiple atoms in a molecule with mathematical equations (the shapes assumed by the orbitals) and quantifies them in terms of energy (in the form of an energy diagram).

Source: student in inorganic chemistry. :)


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

[User] ELI5: Why does watered down coffee still give me the same amount of caffeine and alertness?

[Assistant] You'd have to go into more details in the brewing variables. When you use less coffee grounds it could still be enough for the water to reach its saturation point. So additional coffee grounds may not had more caffeine.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why was/is Communism considered so bad, and why were people so afraid of it in the 50s?

I hear that people were afraid that Communism would spread over the world back in the 1950s. I don't see how that would affect anyone, other than just being a different economic system. Can someone tell me what caused the fear of Communism?

[Assistant]
From a communist's point of view the reason that people were afraid was that communism threatened the position of the ruling class (the bourgeoisie), and they used their influence to pass on this fear to the working class (the proletariat).

One of communism's main aims is to remove the class system. In a capitalist structure, the bourgeoisie own the means of production (factories etc.), and the proletariat who don't own the means of production have to work on the factory owner's land. This means that the factory owner is free to exploit his workers, and that the factory owner will become richer and richer.

If you were used to being a rich member of the upper class, would you want to share with the proletariat? This is what made people afraid.


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

[User] ELI5 the difference between the concept of time and the concept of spaceTIME.

[Assistant]
Because the originally idea was time AND space were 2 different things.

You change space (tracking an object by a few feet) then time (by sec) moves independently with no influence with each other.

Now, turns out for a cosmic speed limit to exist, space and time needs to influence each other to compensate.


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

[User]
ELI5: Math! If something has a one-in-a-million chance, how likely is it to happen at least once in a million chances?

I can't figure out a way to figure this, or other probability questions with big numbers, out using normal math. So what am I missing? What are the principals of sorting out a question like this?

[Assistant] The basic idea is to take the chance of it NOT happening x times in a row, and subtract it from 1. The chance of it not happening is 999,999/1,000,000. So the chance of it happening in 1,000,000 tries is 1 - (999,999 / 1,000,000)^1,000,000 = 0.63. There's a 63% chance it will happen in 1,000,000 tries.


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

[User] ELI5 Why do people hiccup?

[Assistant] It happens when your diaphragm gets irritated. Normally when you inhale, it pulls down to help pull air into the lungs. When you exhale it lets and air flow out of the lungs, back out through the nose and mouth. Sometimes the diaphragm becomes irritated. When this happens, it pulls down in a jerky way, which makes you suck air into your throat suddenly. When the air rushing in hits your voice box, your vocal cords close suddenly and you're left with a hiccup.


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

[User]
Space Mining: how feasible would it be to catapult the mined materials instead of loading it onto rockets?

For what I understood, there's a minimal velocity required to escape a celestial object... around 11km/s for Earth.

I don't know if this would be feasible on the Moon which is already quite large but let's take anasteroid full of whatever we'd like to get on Earth: How could we get robots to mine it, then throw their findings to Earth's orbit where it'd be routed to land somewhere safe?

What would be required in order to achieve this?

[Assistant]
The energy required would be the same. So it's just a matter of whether the energy catapulting the minerals or the fuel for the rocket is cheaper per energy unit output. Also, rockets provide a reentry vehicle. We'd have to design a catapult reentry vehicle.

Incidentally, the novel "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" operates on this premise, where a moon colony uses a magnetic accelerator to catapult mined material from the moon to earth.


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

[User]
How do I help people who refuse to see beyond their bias? In other words, how does one talk to loved ones about BLM, Trump, Illuminati conspiracies, and more without it devolving into merely talking at each other? Sorry in advance for the long entry, and thank you for your help.

My parents only understand Black Lives Matter as harmful to cops and promoting of violent crime that is, apparently to them, inherent in black communities. They wholeheartedly supported Trump and defended him through all critiques, eventually forming an insane apologetic that he will be a new Pauline figure who will be "used by God in great ways." Both grew up in the worst kind of Reagan-era, capital driven, close minded, literal biblical interpretation Christianity that prides itself in its abuse of martyrdom to never challenge itself.

In the wake of the Trump election, Ive been reading through Alasdair Macintyre's *After Virtue,* and a couple quotes in relation to this have stuck out so far:

* "Hence it seems that underlying my own position there must be some non-rational decision to adopt that position. Corresponding with the interminability of public argument there is at least the appearance of a disquieting private arbitrariness. It is small wonder if we become defensive and therefore shrill."

* "In practice, victory was with those who could speak with the greatest appearance of clear, undoubting conviction and could best use the accents of infallibility. [G.E.] Moore  was a master of this method  greeting ones remarks with a gasp of incredulity  Do you really think that, an expression of face as if to hear such a thing said reduced him to a state of wonder verging on imbecility, with his mouth wide open and wagging his head in the negative so violently that his hair shook. Oh! he would say, goggling at you as if either you or he must be mad; and no reply was possible. [Lytton] Stracheys methods were different: grim silence as if such a dreadful observation was beyond comment and the less said about it the better, but almost as effective for disposing of what he called death-packets. [Leonard] Woolf was fairly good at indicating a negative, but he was better at producing the effect that [it] was useless to argue with him than at crushing you."

Both quotes so clearly remind me of my parents and those I have come in contact with who defend themselves at all cost against any challenging ideas. Any attempt I have at disagreeing with them ends in their hurt feelings as, no matter how calmly, flatteringly, or friendly I try to make my point, Im dismissed and attacked for being an idealistic college kid studying philosophy and lacking in "real world experience." I reached a point of never instigating these conversations myself as I know they will only lead to hurt feelings and frustration; however, they cannot help but bring them up themselves. I have this suspicion that they feel the need to either convert me or prove their own self worth to themselves by being able to defend themselves against me, and get mad when the discussion goes poorly.

I am also interested in Slavoj Zizek's and Peter Sloterdijks notions of cynical ideology and see antecdotal evidence of theat everywhere in my life. My parents are not hateful people. Like Zizek's example of the anti-semite who can kindly greet and care for his jewish neighbor after work, I see my parents love the immediate world, but struggle with any level of abstract thought. Violence in Detroit is because black people are lazy and likely to commit crime, not because of years of institutional racism and white flight decimating the area's education and socioeconomic standing (not to mention living in Detroit doesnt even = being black necessarily). Capitalism is perfect, and lazy people on wellfare are hurting it. Socialism is just for lazy people who grew up with participation trophies (such a strange rhetoric Ive seen repeated).

TL;DR Venting aside, I guess it would be nice to hear of some ways to handle these conversations from people with far more experience than this naive undergrad. How can I talk to my parents and others who insist on these conversations when they
1.  take any dissent as an attack on their character and
2. believe any differing opinion is simply a conspiracy against their cause (Christianity apparently).

[Assistant] A gadfly who is anxious about being a gadfly will be lead astray! There's nothing to be anxious about! You're not trying to 'change minds', you're just trying to get people to think. Throw out your critique, then get the fuck out of there. Their 'my cultural identity shall not be challenged' temper tantrum is to be expected. But it's only the after-dinner mint, it has nothing to do with the activity itself. The activity itself is to spur others into anxiety about their own lack of thought. That's it! Don't try to do 'more'; that just reveals your cynical belief that these pobrecitos couldn't possibly think themselves out of the anxiety that you've produced in them, not even if they really wanted to! Fuck that! Treat them like humans! Humiliate them and walk away! And be cheerful about it, for fucks sake!


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

[User] ELI5: Why do Crypto-currencies need to be 'mined'. Why can't they just be created in a certain amount and then bought and sold at a set rate?

[Assistant]
The "mining" is really running the brains of the encryption itself. Without miners, their is no computing power to protect the currency or make it work.

That really was the novelty of bitcoin. An independent economy where helping the currency run paid you in the currency itself.


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

[User] [Blade Runner] If Deckard was a replicant who didn't know he was one, what was he doing on police detail? The only other such model was an experiment close to Dr. Tyrell himself.

[Assistant]
Deckard was implanted with the memories of Gaff. Remember how Gaff walks with a limp and Deckard is has been "retired"? Gaff got injured in the line of duty and now they have the mother of all replicant problems with their best Blade Runner unable to hunt. So they take all of his skills and memory and put them in a replicant, Deckard.

It's why Gaff is so resentful to Deckard throughout most of their time together. Deckard is doing the job *he* should be doing but can't because of his injury. It's also why Gaff knows that Deck dreams of unicorns those are literally his dreams.

He only softens up to Deckard in the very end when he's finally done with Batty. And what does he say "You've done a *man's* work, sir". To Gaff that's the ultimate compliment - you've done as well as a human.


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

[User]
How does our body heat itself up so significantly when it's sick?

What exactly does it do to accomplish this? Presumably the fevered person is just lying in bed all day, so how does the body produce so much more heat than usual?

 I'd imagine it has something to do with burning more energy in your body, but it's not like the chemical energy stored in our fat can be directly converted to thermal energy, right?

[Assistant]
> it's not like the chemical energy stored in our fat can be directly converted to thermal energy, right?

Actually, it can. There are compounds called 'uncouplers' that disconnect the energy from the electron transport chain with ATP synthesis, so that energy is converted to heat instead of ATP. The body probably has a way of doing this internally to induce a fever. An example of a synthetic molecule that does this is 2,4-dinitrophenol (2,4-DNP), which was used as a diet pill but is now banned.


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

[User] ELI5:If a calorie is a measurement, does that mean we would have the ability to creat explosions that produces explosive energies that would correspond to the caloric levels of certain foods? If so what would the explosion on a Big Mac, large fries, and a large soda look like?

[Assistant]
Aye. 1 Calorie = 4.184  kJ (kilojoules) of energy.

1 kiloton TNT =
4 184 000 000 kilojoules.

1 Hiroshima bomb (a small nuke) = 15 kilotons TNT = about 63 TJ = 62 760 000 000 kilojoules = 15 billion Calories.


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

[User]
[MCU] Steve Rogers in Age of Ultron vs Endgame: what changed?

At the end of AoU, Steve tells Tony that he is "home", which suggests that he is finally ready to leave the past behind.

Yet, at the end of Endgame, he goes back to the past? What changed -- wasn't he content in staying in the future?

[Assistant]
I would imagine it was the combination of

>![Seeing Peggy again when he and Tony went back in time, and an actual opportunity to see her again when he took the stones back]

Its easy to accept your fate with no other options, but when you have a real chance, things change.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Could a single jedi master end the civil war in Syria or resolve the conflict in the Central African Republic?

Who would the jedi order dispatch for such a mission?

[Assistant] If they sent someone capable of Battle Meditation, yes. If not, barring ancient planet-destroying force users, no, but they could make a big difference doing tactical reconnaissance and striking at key targets.


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

[User] [Doctor Who] What exactly IS the sonic screwdriver; what all can it do; and what was it originally created for?

[Assistant]
At its most basic level, the first time we ever see it, it's basically just a screwdriver.

Then a curious thing happened. The Doctor got stuck on Earth for a lot longer than he really liked. So, he got bored, and decided to see what all he could do with it. At this point, it started to become more a general purpose tool, but it mostly opened locks, undid screws, exploded mines, that sort of thing.

After a while, he got off the Earth, and then got tired of the sonic for a while. A long while. Like 3 regenerations.

In his seventh and eighth lives, he started tinkering with it again, giving it new capabilities. At some point, out became capable of doing complex atomic calculations (though it would take centuries to actually complete one calculation)

During and after the Time War, he just stated cramming any kind of settings he could think of into that thing. The actual number of functions it has is unknown, but it's somewhere in the thousands, most likely.

On a side note, the actual software is pretty much the same from the second Doctor all the way to the twelfth. The hardware itself is grown by the Tardis, and is an extension of the ship itself.

Also, it doesn't do wood.


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

[User] How was avogadro's number initially calculated? How is it calculated now?

[Assistant]
Originally it was calculated with an electron. Currently it is calculated with an electron... but in a different way.

The original measurement involved measuring the charge created by the loss of some amount of silver in an electrolysis cell. If you know the atomic mass of silver and the charge of one electron, you can back out N*_A_*.

The modern measurement involves measuring the relative mass of the electron (i.e. relative to 1/12 the mass of C12), which can be measured precisely. You then use the molar mass constant (1 g per mol for an a.m.u.) and calculate the mass of the electron from various fundamental physical constant. The uncertainty in the Planck constant is the biggest barrier to a more accurate estimate of N*_A_*.


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

[User]
[The Punisher] Is Frank Castle actually insane like how many heroes say he is?

Does he suffer from some sort of mental illness or is he simply a cold, cynical person that simply does what others can't or won't?

[Assistant]
He's rational.  He understands exactly what he's doing.  Now yeah, he's suffering from PTSD and depression and probably half a dozen other conditions.  The man's not leading a happy life.

But he's perfectly rational.  He's just operating like a special forces guy behind enemy lines.  He's conducting war against his target.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do we hold onto our injuries after we get hurt (Holding your head after it hits something) ?

[Assistant]
It is a natural reflex to prevent the injury area from receiving additional damage. Taking an injury to our limbs is less severe than to our torso or head.

Injuries are not additive but multiplicative. This means that injuries close together can cause much more complications than if they occur separately at different locations.


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

[User]
Does E=mc^2 imply we can create matter?

Well, does it? I seem to find different sources saying different things.

[Assistant] Yes, it does. Put in enough energy, and you can create matter. For instance, a collision of  two photons with a total energy of 2 x 0.511 MeV has a high probability of producing an electron-positron pair.


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

[User]
Is our sun orbiting something?

As a follow up question I was wondering about G-Force. How come we don't experience it the same way if we are hurdling thru space at astronomical speed?

[Assistant]
Yes, we orbit the center of the Milky Way Galaxy.

As for G-forces, these are caused by *acceleration* not by speed. For a test you can do at home, accelerate in your car really fast. You'll feel yourself be "pushed" into your seat. Then stay at whatever speed you are at. No matter how fast you are going you won't experience that force anymore.


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

[User]
[DC Comics] How does Flash not cause wrecks or panic attacks when navigating central city? If he ran between cars at 1000 mph, surely that would freak people the hell out.

Nobody has any idea when or where he could run by or show up. If I was just walking around or driving and a yellow streak zoomed past me at 1000 mph I would shit my pants. Surely this would be causing wrecks or heart attacks or something.

[Assistant] At 1000 mph you don't see a yellow streak zoom past you. You *might* see a yellow flicker. Probably not even that. The shockwave would kill you, but you don't have to worry about that because Speedforce.


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

[User] [Dragon Ball Super] So Vegeta kind of seems like a dick. What keeps his marriage/relationship with Bulma together? Why hasn't she left him yet?

[Assistant] She's always been a brat, and of the relationships we know she had that didn't workout, she's always been with pushover type characters. She has finally found someone who can put up with her attitude and push back and she probably really likes it.


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

[User]
[Final Fantasy VII] What is Sephiroth?

Just finished watching Final Fantasy VII. I have played VIII but not VII. I just know, is Sephiroth some type of mystical being. What is he?

[Assistant]
Sephiroth in the FF7 movie is dead. Or quasi-dead, existing only as a force of will in the Lifestream. The three Remnants of Sephiroth, Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz, are what physically remains of him, pseudo-clones generated by the power of the Lifestream. Their goal is to find the remains of a being called Jenova, which has the power to fully resurrect Sephiroth.

What Sephiroth was before he was dead is a different matter. What the main focus of FF7 is regards an ancient race of beings called the Cetra (or just referred to as ancients), which are believed to be extinct, who had the power to control the Lifestream, which is made up of energy called Mako. Sephiroth (as well as two others, Genesis and Angeal) were attempts by the Shinra Corporation to resurrect the Cetra by using the genetic material of a long-dead being called Jenova. Jenova was mistakenly believed to be a Cetra, but was actually an ancient alien that almost destroyed the planet two thousand years prior. While the subjects of Project Jenova were not the Cetra-Human hybrids that Shinra wanted, they turned out to be incredible beings of immense strength, speed and fortitude. Lacking imagination, Shinra made them the top tier of their super soldier program; SOLDIER, and used similar process to create other super soldiers, although without the use of Jenova cells (actually this part is unclear, the only thing used for sure is Mako Energy).

***Spoilers for FF7 below:***
***
The main "crisis" in the FF7 universe actually happens years before the original game. While investigating the reports of monsters spawning from a Mako reactor, Sephiroth and Zack Fair (both 1st Class Soldiers), as well as a no-name Shinra guard called Cloud, discover the location of Jenova. This leads Sephiroth to discover his "true" nature (as a Cetra-Human hybrid and experiment test subject, but really his actual nature goes undiscovered in his lifetime) and goes insane, destroying the nearby town before fighting Zack deep in the reactor's core, and being killed when Cloud pushed him into the Lifestream beneath the reactor.


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

[User]
ELI5: What would happen if you took off your helmet in space ?

Like i know you would die, but would it be an instant death or would u suffocate ?

[Assistant] You definitely wouldn't explode or anything dramatic like that. There have been a few astronauts who were exposed to vacuum or near vacuum and were successfully revived. IIRC less than 45s or a minute is survivable.


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

[User]
[STAR-WARS] What is Civilian life under the Galactic Empire like? What are the opinions of the average Imperial Citizen?

In the Star Wars franchise, we see plenty of the Empire, we see it's Twin Ion-Engine Fighters, It's DS-01 and 02 Battle Stations, it's Star Destroyers, and it's countless Stormtroopers...but we never get that much of an idea of what life under the Empire is like outside of two Stormtroopers asking for some identification in Rogue One and a Military Checkpoint in a New Hope. This makes me ask, what is life like under the Empire and how does the average person living under the Empire feel about it all? Is support of the Rebel Alliance widespread or are the majority of Imperial citizens loyalists?

[Assistant]
This depends entirely on two factors - species, and the planet's location.

Core worlds, which were majority human, saw daily life mostly the same as it was under the Republic, except more taxes and more military patrols.

Mid and Outer Rim worlds, and especially worlds that were predominantly non-human, didn't fare so well. Planets were mined to exhaustion, their people forced to work longer and longer hours for less pay, a large number of species were enslaved and several were wiped out.

The only real actually good thing that the Empire did for the Outer Rim was crack down on pirates and similar criminals.


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

[User]
What do aquatic mammals drink?

Mammals need to ingest fresh water to survive, right?  Seals, whales, etc. are mammals that live in salt water.  So how do they stay hydrated?

[Assistant]
Please note that they don't perspire, and have a much lower need for hydration.

The little they need, however, they extract from their food, and they use their specialised kidneys to regulate their salt levels in case it is too high, but they **don't** drink salt-water.


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

[User] Will Mount Everest always be the tallest mountain?

[Assistant] No, eventually enough physical weathering will take place that it has worn down and plate tectonics will create newer mountain ranges that are higher given enough time.  We are talking about long long periods of time here of course. Possibly millions of years.


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

[User] ELI5:At night time, why do windows appear to act as mirrors and lower the visibility through the glass? If you want to see outside the window at night, why is it best to turn out the lights?

[Assistant] Glass reflects a certain percentage of light passing through it. When you are on the darker side of the window, the light coming through the window is much brighter than the reflection. When you are on the bright side, the reflected light is much brighter than the light coming through the glass.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does having noise in the background (TV, music, etc.) make me feel safer when I'm home alone?

[Assistant] Your ears are sensitive through a wide ride of volumes.  When it is very quiet, you hear faint noises you are unaccustomed to, which can be disconcerting.  Background noise hides those sounds with ones more familiar to you, restoring your comfort level.


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

[User]
[Doctor Who/Torchwood] what would Jack Harkness' body look like in space?

Say Captain Jack Harkness (after being turned unkillable) was ejected into deep space, where a normal person would suffocate, freeze, depressurize, and die, not in that order. Would his regeneration keep him alive against the constant degeneration? Would he experience a cycle of death and rebirth? What would it look like to an observer?

Also, I know he doesn't live forever forever, but if he did, what would the Heat Death of the Universe do to him? Any different from just space?

[Assistant]
Firstly, to correct a common misconception: You don't freeze in space. You burn. Space is cold, yes, but it's also a near-vacuum so is a brilliant insulator. For this reason, you lose heat **very** slowly while being subjected to blistering cosmic radiation.

As for Jack, he's not really unkillable (he's died many times since his first death) and he doesn't regenerate quite in the same manner as some comic book superhero. It's just that if his body gets into a state different from the way it was in when he first died, it reverts. This means he can withstand stuff like radiation exposure.

For this reason, when he gets ejected into space, the normal stuff happens. He swells up, passes out, and burns, while his body reaches some kind of equilibrium with the destructive forces on it (so he'd look like a normal charred corpse in space, but a little better off than you might expect). But with no oxygen, he still dies. It's just that once he's back to a safe place he comes back to life again.


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

[User] [Buffy the Vampire Slayer] Why aren't there any male Slayers?

[Assistant] Magic. The original spell said that the slayer would be a woman, and so the slayer is a woman. Why was the spell cast that way? Don't know. Maybe something about the magics involved is just more effective on a female target.


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

[User] [Marvel] Whats the current state of mutant rights in 2019?

[Assistant]
Currently? Utterly terrible.

A few months ago X-Man (Nate Grey) flipped out and decided to conquer the world and force it to accept mutants as equals. The X-Men went to fight him en masse, and it ended in a big explosion and all of them vanished.

In the aftermath of that, the US government was able to pass a law allowing childhood genetic testing and administration of the cure for mutation which has been knocking around in the background for a while.

There are no X-Men, mutants are effectively dying out... and then Cyclops reappeared. Cyclops, who for some reason is considered mutant Hitler for the crime of not letting people get gassed, is now leading a vestigial band of X-Men to try to clean up the X-Men's legacy by finding a solution to all the villains who are still knocking around.

(Meanwhile, the main force of the X-Men are living in an alternate reality created by X-Man where everyone is a mutant, interpersonal relationships of all kinds are banned, and everyone is happy and everything is good and if you disagree the secret police will rewrite your memories as necessary, or possibly chain you up in a basement and call you bigoted names)


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

[User]
How come when the invisible woman is invisible she can still see? Or can she?

don't photons need to hit something so that the brain can register visual input?

if i looked closely enough would her retinas and pupils be visible ?

[Assistant] Reed actually wondered the same thing following the accident that gave them their powers. Being a genius in physics, biology, chemistry and a number of other things, he studied the phenomenon quite closely. He came to the conclusion that her optic nerve actually acts as a one way mirror, both absorbing some light, but at the same time letting most light through. The amount that it seems to absorb is insignificant to the human eye, though it has been theorized that humans or other beings with specialized or enhanced sight could see the fluctuation in light if standing on the correct size of her, were aware of the phenomenon and looking for said fluctuation.


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

[User]
CMV: There shouldn't be anything other than the metric system.

Posting this because I'm genuinely curious about Imperial systems advocates' POV.

The metric system is much more precise, and the breakdown of units makes much more sense.

Distance for example: there are 10 millimetres in a centimetre, 100 centimetres in a metre, and 1000 metres in a kilometre.

Versus the imperial system:
There are 12 inches in a foot, 3 feet in a yard, and 1760 yards in a mile....what? And if you want to go smaller than an inch, or between yards and miles, then you need to bring in fractions.

The benefits of being precise far outweigh the benefits of less precise units of measurement, which I only see as being able to generalize (which you can do using the metric system as well).

If we phased the Imperial System out everywhere, we would have no use for teaching it, and we would have little need of it in society.

[Assistant]
Benefit of the imperial system (and base 12 system in general): They are divisible by more numbers.

10 is only divisible by 2 and 5. However, 12, is divisible by 2,3,4, and 6. This is helpful in areas like construction as now you have more options for scale.

EDIT: As other's have pointed out, yes this is only relevant for feet/inches. However, people come across ft/inches conversions frequently enough to warrant a conversation about its benefit.


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

[User]
ELI5:Why is it that we get this natural cringe behavior when we hear certain sounds like nails on a chalkboard?

I realize there are people who don't react, but most people I know absolutely abhor the sound of a dog whistle or forks on porcelain plates. Why?

[Assistant] These sounds are close to alarm calls of macaque monkeys, or possibly of some predators.  This has led to the theory that these sounds are imprinted in our brains as unpleasant by evolutionary means.


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

[User]
CMV: The 40 hour work week is an outdated concept and needs to be lowered to 30.

I am an hourly worker in the US, so this mainly applies to the laws here, but it can apply anywhere that has similar wage laws. The basic idea behind the 40 hour work week was great when it was adopted, and it has given us a solid foundation to build off of in regards to overtime pay. However, people seem to forget that it is an arbitrary number that is only moderately connected to how we live our lives.

The premise is that we should have 8 hours for work, 8 hours for home, and 8 hours for sleep. That, of course, doesn't take into account a lot of what goes into the wotk day. First, there's the unpaid half hour or more for lunch. Second, there's the commute that for me can average 45 minutes each way, but for some people it's even more than that. Already, that's 10 hours centered around work instead of 8, and that doesn't even take into account a lot of the unpaid work that people do off the clock like receiving calls or answering emails at home (this happens way too often and everyone is too afraid of negative consequences to refuse to be available after hours).

This is happening at the same time as people are worrying about automation and the future of the labor force. Concepts like a universal basic income are pretty radical and could be a necessity in the future, but I think they skip past a much simpler solution to keep people employed, that being shortening the work week.

I know that France already has a 35 hour work week, but I think that it should be shortened to 30. This could mean five 6 hour days, or four 7.5 hour days, or even three 10 hour days (although I used to live in a state where anything over 8 hours was considered overtime regardless of how much you worked the rest of the week. I still like that concept but will give it up in favor of this change). Some businesses would still want workers to put in more hours than that and would pay the overtime, but others would have to hire more workers to make up the extra time.

This would work best with a strong increase to the national minimum wage so that workers whose hours get cut wouldn't necessarily see a huge pay cut, as well as a universal health care system so that companies don't play the "cut worker's hours to avoid paying benefits" game. We also have to have a conversation about salaried employees and contract/self-employed work to make sure that companies don't circumvent hourly wage laws through those loopholes.

I'm sure this will be met with a ton of resistance from business owners, but we live in a society, and workers need to be able to live, and also have time to live. I'll change my mind on this if it's entirely economically unsound, or if there's a better way to go about it.

EDIT: For clarification, this would not automatically limit people to 30 hours, just that overtime would kick in at anything over 30 hours instead of 40. Also, thanks to the great discussion here I'm rethinking this a bit due to the vast differences there are in how, where, and when people work.

[Assistant] It seems you are approaching this solely from the perspective of the employee. What about the customer/client? The window to visit some businesses will now be tighter. Medical offices and lawyers will lose time to see patients and clients or be forced to higher people for ridiculously short 2 hour shifts to maintain the same office hours.


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

[User]
[DC] Do Lex Luthor and Bruce Wayne have a business relationship?

Do their corporations deal with each other? Are they business rivals? Do they hang out at the same billionaire country clubs?

[Assistant]
They have interacted in the past.  Both own a bit of each other's stock to help keep tabs on their rivals.

I'd like to see an 'Elseworlds' where there is no Superman and Lex and Bruce go at it.  A combination of high finance and street fighting...


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

[User] ELI5: Why did Latin stop being commonly-spoken while its derivations remained?

[Assistant]
I'd say what key is that its not that its derivations remained, its that they developed.

The roman empire was massive. But it feel, with Latin being the dominant language all over.

Now when it collapsed it broke into separate kingdoms. With time comes change. However the kingdoms would not change uniformly. The comparative isolation meant local dialects began to evolve into new languages with a common base.

Now add in that they each had to deal with outside political forces. The Spanish had more north africans to deal and trade with meaning they would be more affected by them than the eventual french would be by their respective non-latin neighbours. Over time they all developed differently, creating derivations.


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

[User] [Looney Tunes] is there ANY way of incapacitating that damned Road Runner, that cannot be defeated by mechanical malfunctions or optical illusions suddenly becoming real?

[Assistant] There really isnt. The Road Runner is one of the most powerful Toonforce users there is. Toonforce allows the Road Runner to defy any physical or mechanical means by which he might be captured. The only way the Road Runner could be incapacitated is if its funnier that way.


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

[User] ELI5: How do singers deal with having to cough, grunting or saliva build up during performances?

[Assistant]
You turn away from the microphone,
( the volume decreases quickly with distance from the microphone and they are usually fairly directional, depending on the type), or if you have a headset/ body pack type unit  you hit your mute switch. Or you just suck it up and hold out.


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

[User] After the first initial moments after the big bang, why didn't the universe collapse in on itself and form a black hole?

[Assistant] To collapse into a black hole, you need to collapse onto a central point. For stars this is simply the centre of the star. But the early universe has no central point it could collapse onto - it is homogeneous and isotropic and all points are identical.


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

[User]
I dont understand the value of gold?

So, in terms of the applications of gold as a conductor and its value to computing and technology today its appeal is obvious. What Ive never understood is why it has always been valuable thousand even tens of thousands of years ago. Is it really just a matter of it being considered visually appealing making it initially desirable and then the rarity and difficulty of extraction making it a mark of wealth/power or maybe its relative malleability made it useful?

[Assistant]
Lots of metals where used as similar to gold historically.  Gold is just the one we typically think of today.

Basically, it is a measurable unit of something that was easy to carry, durable, and you could cut into smaller versions of it self.

Gold was valuable compared to other metals because it was rarer.


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

[User]
[LOTR] Were Numenoreans exceptional in any other way besides being taller and living longer than the average human?

Whenever Aragorn is brought up on the WhoWouldWin subreddit, it is always mentioned that he is somehow super human in abilities. I know the guy fought could fight for days at a time and ran for days after those orcs, but is there any textual evidence of Numenoreans being somehow super human aside from being tall and living longer?

[Assistant]
I would say that you're underestimating the advantage of extended lifespan. The longer you live, the more time you have to gain experience while you still have the energy of youth.

The *other* two long-distance-running orc-hunting, battling-for-days-with-incredible-skill characters that we see are *also* from races with even more extended lifespans.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are beesuits not stingproof..?

[Assistant]
When one dresses like a bee, one doesn't usually expect to be *around* bees. Beesuits are popular at halloween and children's birthday parties, not really places you expect to find a large concentration of bees, so the extra padding to make it stingproof would be pointless in most cases.

Beekeeping suits, however, usually are to a degree. There are limits though. You can't make them out of some lightweight but supertough fabric their stingers can't penetrate because it'd cost loads to develop some ridiculous high-end suit. You can't make them out of something thicker but cheaper because you have to be able to do delicate work with beehives and honeycombs which are fragile. So most beekeeping suits just try to find a balance. Something thick and strong enough to protect a little without inhibiting movement. Really though most beekeepers want to reach a stage where they're good enough to not even *need* a beekeeping suit, the suits are mostly only for newbies, so it's not like there's some big push from the beekeeping community to develop something.


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

[User] How does Google search using images?

[Assistant]
What you need to do is produce a "hash" for the image. A "hash" is a small set of numbers that categorizes the image enough that you can search using the hash instead of the whole image (it works like the first couple letters of a word in a dictionary). Any image you want to consider "similar" should produce the same hash.

The tricky part is that you want the hash to be just a few bytes (even though the whole image may be megabytes) and the hash should be identical even when there are:

* subtle changes in hue/luminance/color-profile (re-encoding often changes color slightly)
* noise (JPEG adds DCT noise, and any encoding, even lossless, may add quantisation noise)
* subtle boundary changes (due to minor cropping)

A simple hash is to scale the image down to a tiny 4 by 4 square and then normalise the color values. You then have 48 bytes for your hash. Or an 8 by 8 and only use luminance for 64 bytes or only use *bits* for an 8 byte hash.

Other more complicated hashes involve using Speeded Up Robust Features (aka SURF, can find subimages and image fragments), Zernike moments (rotation invariant, highly noise tolerant, will find similar not just identical), singular value decomposition (good for finding exactly the same image with some jittering), feature point extraction (SURF is a sophisticated version but simpler versions are good for hashing faces and objects with specific shapes).

The difficult part is using an algorithm that includes all the changes you need to count as "same" without including images that you want to be "different".

I don't know what Google uses exactly.


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

[User] [Harry Potter] Following the events of Deathly Hallows, would Harry ever be able to get into his vault at Gringotts?

[Assistant]
I expect that Harry and Co. were pardoned by the Ministry for any crimes they committed while saving the world from Voldemort. Gringotts likely would have had no choice but to forgive and forget, otherwise they may have faced sanctions from the Ministry, not to mention public outcry. Harry was the Chosen One, who defeated Voldemort not once, but twice. The people are bound to be on his side.

Furthermore, if you're the president of Gringotts, a bank which is renowned for being impenetrable, would you want it widely known that three barely qualified wizards broke into one of your most secure vaults and escaped?


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

[User]
[Terminator] [Spoilers] Are T-800s the strongest and durable Terminators? If so, then why

Didn't Legion continue mass producing it?

In the first movie, it survived an explosion, shedding its human skin and was only killed by machinery in a warehouse.

In the second movie, it loss an arm and kept on fighting the T-1000. It wanted to be terminated in a pit of lava, which was enough to kill him.

In Rise of the Machines, it was beheaded and kept on functioning. It was finally killed by using its own fuel cell, taking the T-X with him.

In Salvation, it was COATED IN LAVA and managed to keep on moving and nearly kill John Connor and Marcus Wright.

In Genisys, it survived in the time-travel machine and killed the T-3000. It was then combined with the liquid metal, essentially becoming a powerhouse version of the T-X.

In Dark Fate, the thorium reactor was enough to kill him as well as the Rev-9.

Why didn't Legion create their own versions of T-800s? Grace, a human with cybernetic implants, was able to dance around with the Rev-9. Marcus, the 'first' infiltrator prototype was able to powershove the shit out of the new T-800.

[Assistant]
It's neither the strongest nor most durable, but it is the most efficient.

As an example, take the AK-47. Its functional design hasn't radically changed since well... 1947. Why are people still using it? Many, many more advanced rifle designs have been created since.

Well, it's simple, tough, versatile, inexpensive to mass produce, and it *works*.

Same with the T-800. It's durable  enough, strong enough and with its neural network, versatile enough to serve perfectly fine as a human-hunter. It doesn't require extremely advanced materials, and can be covered with flesh easily allowing time transport.

It's only with the advent of the ability of human targets to reprogram T-800 for defense in the past, and development of effective tactics to destroy T-800s in the future, that it becomes necessary to create advanced models.


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

[User] ELI5: Why water in the Caribbean is so clear while it is so cloudy further north?

[Assistant] There is little to no water surface plant life in them like algae, as the climate does not support it, which is part of it. This allows for scattering of light off of the white sandy beaches formed by the coral reefs, making it appear clearer. The other part is the cyclical nature of pollution that occurs much more frequently in the north than it does in the Caribbean.


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

[User] ELI5:How does our body gain tolerance for things? (alcohol, Caffeine, drugs, etc)

[Assistant] There are proteins in your body called enzymes. There are many enzymes in your body that breakdown drugs so your body can get rid of them. When you ingest more of a certain chemical over a period of time, your body makes more of the enzymes that are used to break them down. Since the chemical is being broken down more quickly, you need more of the compound to get the same effect.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does acid burn through things?

Is it creating heat or does the acid just 'disassemble' everything it touches.

[Assistant]
It disassembles things. Most acids consist of a Hydrogen ion (essentially a single proton) and another ion. For example, Hydrochloric acid (HCl) is actually a bunch of H+ and Cl- ions suspended in water. Those Cl- ions are highly reactive. They will combine with most things.

Take HCl and expose it to, say, Iron (Fe), and you'll end up with FeCl and a bunch of Hydrogen gas. So those Cl- ions essentially removed Iron atoms from the block of iron.


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

[User]
[Vampire the Masquerade] Is draining a hostile human giving in to the beast?

At the start of bloodlines Jack tells you to never do this, and if you drain someone like a hobo or a clubber dry it's a humanity loss, but I do it on purpose all the time to thugs and anyone else trying to kill me. Is it just cool as long as it's an intentional murder or is that a game oversight?

[Assistant]
Yes the less human you pretend to be the closer you are to the beast.
It's all about what you see as 'human', draining someone is self defense isn't an instinctive response to hunger it's just another way to defend yourself.


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

[User]
If the purest white reflects all light, why isn't it a mirror?

This sounds like a joke because of the way it's worded, but it's not.

[Assistant] Specular reflection is what you get from a mirror since the light is reflected in the same direction.  Diffuse reflection is what you would get from a white wall.  The light is reflected but it goes in many different directions, hence the image is destroyed.


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

[User] ELI5:In cartoons, certain clothing patterns such as checkered or plaid, it seems like it's a static pattern that the characters move around on. Why is this, and how is it done?

[Assistant]
On a technical level, their shirt is actually transparent, and there is a layer with the picture of the pattern behind the layer the character is drawn on. The character and their shirt moves, but the background layer does not, resulting in what you've described.

The reason for doing this is that its a cheaper/faster/easier way to animate clothing with those types of patterns. The alternative is redrawing the whole thing each time the character moves slightly.


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

[User]
[General scifi] If I have a time machine that will take me backwards/forwards in time, but it stays in the exact same coordinates it was in prior to time travel, how far backwards/forwards do I need to go for the geography of the start to be different?

Ie, lets say I go back in time whilst I'm on a boat inbetween South America and Africa. I go back to before the two continents separated and now I'm on the super continent in whatever year that was. If I did that in other times, how far back would I need to go for there to be a major difference (like, at least a mile)?

[Assistant] I would think that you would wind up in the middle of space considering that the Earth is travelling 30km / second, the Sun orbits the galaxy at 230 km/s, and nobody knows how fast or in what direction the galaxy is moving relative to space. Relativity starts to get involved.


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

[User] [Fullmetal Alchemist] What's the most powerful alchemic symbol you could use on the battlefield? Besides anything that heals or explodes.

[Assistant] an area of effect symbol that transmutes anything that steps into the zone into solid blocks of its constituent elements. So a tank rolls in and it becomes a block of iron and other metals, a person walks in and it becomes a few blocks of elements, ect.


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

[User]
[Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy] How exactly does the Earth-computer work?

Like, is there circuitry built into the planet beneath the crust, or does everything on the planet sort of work together to create organic circuitry, or what?

[Assistant] IIRC it was the latter, which is why the mice tried to drill into Arthur's brain after it was destroyed. He was one of the last surviving things from Earth so he supposedly had the data that the computer had been processing since its creation.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is there still a debate about minimum wage when every macroeconomic textbook I have read, class I have taken, and professor I have had has reiterated the same point that most economists do not support the minimum wage?

I am an economics major and I have never been able to decide which side is right. Please, someone explain to me why there is still a debate about this issue when it seems like most economists do not support minimum wage.

[Assistant]
Because most economists are looking purely at the economic benefit of the minimum wage and ignoring any social costs. The market functioning as predicted by most macroeconomic models is dependent on their being a large number of both employers and employees and workers being able to move freely. In reality, there are a lot of areas where only a few large employers dominate (like the coal towns) and there is a huge friction to moving somewhere else, beyond simple cost. When you have a lopsided employer-employee relationship like that, the market will end up with the guys on the low end of the totem pole just barely above starving which most people see as having a negative social cost.

The research in this area (as opposed to just economists running thought experiments) is mixed on what the impact of raising the minimum wage is- there have been quite a few studies that have not found any increase in unemployment corresponding to a minimum wage increase.


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

[User]
What do textbooks means when they say "enzymes are recruited"?

Let's take DNA replication for example. In initiation, the origin is found and initiators recruit proteins to form the pre-replication complex.

I understand that enzyme-substrate reactions occur due to diffusion, but how do initiators recruit other enzymes? Do they send out some sort of bat signal or is it really just diffusion?

[Assistant]
There is no signal, persay. The simplest example of how this occurs is allostery (although this is by no means the only way "recruitment" can occur). In the case of allostery, Protein A contains two binding sites, one that is ready to bind (BA) while the second site (BB), is unable to bind its partner (distortion of the binding site/occlusion of binding site are two ways this could be regulated). Since protein A is just hanging around in the cell, from time to time it will come into contact with its BA site binding partner (another protein, DNA, lipid, small molecule, etc). Upon binding of that partner, the shape of of protein will physically change, resulting in the second site, BA, becoming capable of binding its partner. Therefore, until protein A binds its first binding partner, it will never recognize or bind its second binding partner.

In another case, recruitment just may mean that the DNA will act as a scaffold for the other proteins to bind. Basically limiting its motion in three dimensional space to the extent that a complete complex can form.


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

[User]
[General Mecha/Giant Robot Sci-Fi] Where is the best place for the cockpit? Compared to human physiology?

Assuming a large sized 'mech' where the pilot could fit comfortably either in the chest or head, which is the better location for the cockpit?

In the human body our two most valuable organs (give or take a gonad) are the brain and the heart. Both are quite well protected: The heart is nuzzled in amongst the lungs deep beneath the strong yet flexible rib cage; The brain is suspended in a cushioning fluid medium inside the thick and rigid skull. Which one is technically better protected? How does this compare to optimal mech design?

[Assistant] Trick question, best place to pilot from is remotely. Both the mech and the pilot are expensive. No reason to lose both if you don't have to. And i know, i know, lag/range limits/jamming. But honestly, if you have the tech to build a giant mech you'd have the tech to telecommute.


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

[User] [overwatch] tracer is saving a child from a burning building and blinks while carrying the kid. What happens to them?

[Assistant] I don't think any problems would arise, Tracer's time travel can affect things she's carrying (reloading her guns by going back in time), the chronal accelerator should handle any issues with time traveling a living being (Tracer doesn't have to wear it, it can protect her from random time jumps from several feet away).


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does a bladder last only as long as someone sleeps?

People generally sleep anywhere from 6 hours to 14 hours. No matter how long they sleep, they wake up and need to pee really badly. How come after sleeping 6 hours, it feels like  an accident is about to happen, yet people can sleep 14+ hours with no accident and results similar to 6 hours of sleep as far as needing to use the bathroom goes?

[Assistant]
Your body actually produces a hormone called ADH, or "Anti-Diuretic Hormone," when you sleep. This hormone significantly reduces the amount of urine your kidneys produce.
Some people who have issues with bedwetting, or getting up in the middle of the night to pee, actually have a problem producing this hormone.


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

[User] ELI5: I am very nearsighted. Why does my vision appear to significantly sharpen when I squint?

[Assistant]
The black circle in the center of your eye (the pupil) lets in a lot of light.  It gets bigger and smaller to let in more or less light.  When your pupil is big, light from a single point in the real world is entering the eye at slightly different angles.  The eye focuses the light from these slightly different angles back into a single point to make a sharp, clear image.  But if you're nearsighted and aren't wearing glasses, light from far away won't be in focus.  Instead of the light focusing to a point, it hits your retina (the part of the eye that senses the light) in a circle shape.  Because of this, you see a blurry image.

When you squint, you're blocking part of your pupil with your eyelids and eyelashes.  Everything looks darker, but the light isn't spread out as much on your retina.

If you take a camera and set the aperture (the camera's pupil) to be big, you'll notice that only a small part of the image is in focus, and everything else is blurry.  Now if you close the aperture to make it smaller, a lot more of the image looks sharp.  This is for the same reason.  Unfortunately you can't control your eye's pupil size  - which is why we have to squint to achieve this effect.

Interestingly, if you look at a bright small light in a photo taken with a wide aperature, you can sometimes see big blurry circles or hexagonal shapes where the light was.  This shows the shape of the aperture and how much the light from a point spreads out on the camera's light sensor.


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

[User]
ELI5 Why it's so difficult for countries to build nuclear weapons.

I've learnt about how nuclear weapons work in high school physics. I'm assuming it's a bit more complicated than what I've learnt, but it seems like the science behind nuclear weapons has been public knowledge for a long time.

Are there certain aspects of the science behind them that aren't public knowledge, that a country looking to build nuclear weapons would have to research themselves?

Or is it just the materials/infrastructure needed to build nuclear weapons that makes them so difficult to make?

Edit: thanks for the great answers everyone! Really interesting.

[Assistant]
There are basically 2 kinds of practical nuclear weapons; gun-type and implosion-type.

A gun-type bomb is technically piss easy to build. Take two subcritical masses of high enriched uranium (HEU) and fire them at each other so they become one supercritical mass. The design is so idiot-proof the US didn't even bother to test it before dropping the first one. The problem with the gun-type bomb is getting the HEU. You need a *massive* infrastructure of specialized industry to enrich uranium to the required level, and you need a *shitload* of uranium. Gun-type bombs also don't miniaturize well, so they're no good for long range missiles.

Implosion-type bombs take a hollow sphere of plutonium, and then through a very precisely timed series of explosions implode the sphere into a tiny supercritical mass. Plutonium is comparatively easy to get. You need a nuclear reactor to make the stuff, but compared to enriching uranium the process isn't so difficult. The tricky part of an implosion bomb is the timing. Getting your explosives to detonate in just the right order and with just the right force to implode the plutonium core is very, *very* technically challenging. A few millionths of a second makes the difference between an earth-shattering kaboom and a wimpy little fizzle. Plutonium implosion bombs give you a lot of bang for your buck weight-wise, and can be shrunk to very small sizes. They're the ones you want for an ICBM or SLBM.

Of course, handling any radioactive material is technically challenging. Something as simple as putting it in the wrong shape of container or having people stand near it in just the wrong way can get you a bright flash and a bunch of dead scientists.


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

[User]
If every ~10 years or so a person replaces the majority of the cells in their body, why do most physical deformities (such as scars or burns) have the potential to last a lifetime?

I guess this question could be probed in a deeper (i.e., why does a heart defect last for an entire lifetime if our bodies are constantly replacing damaged/dead cells) sense, but I figured superficial changes might be easier to visualize.

I'm not sure how to really ask this question with the correct terminology, so please excuse my lack of proper phrasing.  I hope you get the general idea of my question.

[Assistant] As an analogy: imagine a brick house, you go along and knock one brick out of the wall and put a new one in its place. Continue doing this long enough and eventually all of the bricks in the house have been replaced, but the house still has the same layout and all of the rooms and windows are in the same places.


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

[User]
Can a tree "die" of old age?

I know species like the California Redwoods and the Great Basin bristlecone pine are known for their long lives, but I wanted to know if the same potential for age existed in other trees.

If not, what keeps an oak or other such tree from living for thousands of years like the Methuselah tree?

[Assistant]
No living creature ever dies of old age. There is always something that causes death. Natural causes is the term used when attributing death from cardiac arrest or aneurysm in humans. Simply age can't kill you.

What keeps trees living is their resiliency against drought and freeze which can cause embolisms, their wound repair mechanisms, and their ability to fight parasitism by bacteria, fungi, or animals.


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

[User]
[DC/Aquaman] How does the Trench work as part of a united Kingdoms?

In the Aquaman movie, the Trench are shown as basically blood thirsty  animals. While the Brine are shown the ability to talk and use technology. Anyone familiar with the comics, can tell me how it works in the comics? Can the Trench think and talk and advise the king? Or are they all being mind controlled by Aquaman?

[Assistant]
It's been a while since I've read the arc where the Trench were introduced, but strictly speaking, The trench are to Atlanteans what Falmer are to other Elven subtypes in *Elder Scrolls.* They used to be a real Kingdom, and on paper they still are, in the sense that none of the other players can set up shop in their territory without getting shredded. But they've devolved and mutated so wildly that they don't have a real government or anything approximating human thought.

 In the comics they operate like an Insect hive, with a king and queen who use the rest as dumb shock troops. Not clear if that's how it works in the movies.


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

[User] [Star Wars] In A New Hope C-3P0 states pretty clearly that hes not much of a storyteller, yet by Return Of The Jedi hes entertaining Ewoks by the fireside, not just with stories, but stories with sound effects. What the hell happened?

[Assistant] Several years without a mindwipe in between New Hope and Return gives him the time to develop the personality to tell a story, plus all the experiences he had in those times, it's a whole lot easier to tell a good story if you experienced that story.


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

[User] [Marvel] Is Odin Well respected by the cosmic entities ?

[Assistant]
Yes, he is.

He lead the chief gods of other pantheons to create the Destroyer armor to fight against the Celestials.

He was present at the Trial of Reed Richards side by side with Uatu and they summon Galactus. Odin gave all the aliens species there the truth about Galactus.

Recently, and this is SPOILER , it was stated that he dated a cosmic power in the ancient past (I will not say more here to avoid spoilers).


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

[User] [Harry Potter] What happened to the Harry and Hermione in the original timeline prior to using the time turner (where, presumably, Sirius Black had been caught)?

[Assistant] There is no "original timeline", the Time Turner operates on stable time loop principles. You go back in time and do what you've already done, even if you weren't aware of it before you did. Hermione mentions that it's impossible to actually change the past, and trying to never goes well, which is why it's so important not to run into your past self.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does being sedentary degrade our bodies and deteriorate our health faster than being physically active would if exercising is more directly stressful on our bodies?

Now that I think about it, it's seems counterintuitive that causing your body to work more will preserve it better than being less physically in the long run (assuming that you have the same body mass and composition in each case). Why is that?

[Assistant]
In essence, it's because your body is lazy, and it's evolved to be. In the environment we evolved under, being sedentary for long periods of time was simply not something that was possible (you'd run out of food and die) - so which muscles and other tissues you regularily used was a pretty good measure for which ones you needed. As a result, muscles you aren't using or are using less essentially gets maintained less well to save energy, because your body doesn't think you need them. Evolutionarily speaking, being efficient and saving energy is far more important than maintaining less-frequently used tissues.

On a more mechanical level, a lot of the mechanisms that repair and maintain your body rely on signals that are produced by exercise to get started. (This is also why physical therapy is important for healing many injuries - without the stresses of appropriate exercise a lot of repair mechanisms simply don't start.) A lot of cells in your body can sense mechanical stress and respond to it, and quite a few growth and repair pathways are the result of such responses.


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

[User]
[Warcraft 1 & 2... the games] Did all the orc spearthrowers just say "screw this, I quit" when the trolls joined their army?

I mean, each one trained for like 45 seconds to learn how to throw a spear, why waste that education and go back to battleaxes and wolfriding?

[Assistant]
Orc Spearmen were simply Grunts that had additional training in spear throwing, probably owing to the need for some form of ranged combat.

It's likely that this was undesirable work. Orcs love battle and would prefer to get in the face of their enemy which is why their *preferred* weapon is the axe. But one cannot deny the tactical importance of ranged weaponry and Orc armies that employed spearmen would outlast armies that did not.

But, upon meeting and elisting the help of Trolls, who were fine using ranged hit-and-run tactics using spears, the Orcs let them do that kind of work and the spear-throwing Grunts happily dropped their spears in favor of getting their axes bloody.


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

[User] [Harry Potter] Why did Harry only get a stern warning for inflating and endangering the life of his aunt for talking shit, but he got expelled for using a Patronus spell in order to save he and Dudleys life?

[Assistant]
This is explained in the book.

By the time of "Order of the Phoenix", Harry has been causing a politically awkward situation for the Ministry by openly spreading the word about Voldemort's return, and the Ministry is basically throwing its weight around to try and intimidate a popular figure with subversive ideas.


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

[User]
Why exactly does mass bend space time?

This could be the stupidest thing ever, but is the Higgs field somehow related to space time? If something that interacts with the Higgs field affects time, it seems like time and the Higgs field should have some relationship.

[Assistant]
The best answer we have right now is that it is in the nature of energy to curve measures of space and time.

Most of the mass of stars and planets and just about every kind of "normal" matter *actually* comes from the strong force holding protons and neutrons together, which has nothing to do with the Higgs field at all.


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

[User] [Scooby-Doo] can Mystery Incorporated be charged with any crimes such as braking and entering or trespass ?

[Assistant] Yes, they definitely can be charged for trespass when it's private property and they have been told to leave. But while breaking the law to apprehend a criminal isn't a good defense, apparently it works pretty well for them.


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

[User]
[DC] Aside from Identity Crisis, what would you consider Batman's biggest blunder as a detective?

Obviously in Identity Crisis, without spoilers, he should have figured out the initially believed cause of death was wrong. But I can ignore that by saying it's proof he works better alone.

Outside of that, when has he been wrong? When has anyone out smarted or out lucked Batman as a detective?

[Assistant]
In Tower of Babel, Ras al Ghul uses each League members weaknesses against them.  Turns out he stole the information from Batman's files.  Batman himself is distracted by the theft of his parents corpses.  It causes long term trust issues that Batman had ways to defeat the League but also allowed them to be stolen.

The story is the basis of JL: Doom but with Vandal Savage as the main villain.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why did Jedi fighting styles become less acrobatic after the time period depicted in the Prequels?

In the prequels, Jedi fights involved a lot of flipping and jumping.  However, in the original trilogy, Jedi fights bore a much greater resemblance to traditional sword fights.  The fights involved a little bit of acrobatics, but were overall more subdued and realistic.

In there an in-universe explanation for this?  Why did flipping and jumping go out of style?

[Assistant]
In the prequels, the Jedi had proper training. Large schools/classes and much younger pupils. There was time for the students to learn and refine their skills.

By the time A New Hope comes around, the only Jedi left are Obi Wan and Yoda, who are in no shape to train Luke like they were able to in the prequels. They also don't have the time. Obi Wan only got a few days before passing, and Yoda's training was cut short by Luke's persistence to help his friends on Cloud City. In Return of the Jedi, Yoda can barely get out of his bed.

This is also notable during the final fight between Luke and Vader, where Luke let's his emotions get to him, causing him to strike at Vader with much more force and exertion.


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

[User] [X-Men] Are there mutants with 'too mundane' of powers to be admitted into Professor X's mutant academy? What powers would they have?

[Assistant] Nope. As long as you have the X-gene, you are welcome to enroll. Especially now, when killer Terrigen mist is sweeping the globe and the institution is safely hidden in Limbo. (For a given value of 'safely').


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

[User] Why does paper lose structural integrity when wet with water, but not so much with oil?

[Assistant] The polymers that make up the cellulose in paper are hydrophilic. When theyre wetted, the water disrupts the network of hydrogen bonds that holds the fibers together. Oil will coat the surface of the fibers without interrupting the network in the same way.