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

[User]
Multiple Offers! Help!

I lucked out and ended up in the envious position of a second T-T offer coming in after my first. Rub is, I already signed for the first several weeks ago; however, the second is significantly better. The first is a 4/4 at a SLAC, and the second is about 20k more for a 2/2 at an R1. This seems like a no-brainer from a business angle, but I've read other threads where current profs insist you don't burn a bridge, regardless. (P.S. the first position is a very small college and burning a bridge wouldn't cause a stir in my field.) Could there be more ramifications than a failed search, e.g. legal? I'm a newly minted terminal degree, really without mentors, so any advice you all would have for me would mean a ton! Thank you so much in advance :)

[Assistant] Take the second offer, get it signed ASAP, and then let the first school know. They won't be happy but ultimately, you gotta look out for yourself first, and it'll be quite hard to make that jump from a 4-4 type school to an R1/R2 if you do stay at the SLAC for a couple of years.


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

[User]
What is the differnce in AMD cpus that make them less effected by spectre/meltdown?

Surely AMD also uses similar technology such as speculative execution so why are AMD less affected ?

[Assistant] The Meltdown flaw is caused by letting a user-level program speculatively execute on supervisor-level data (which is a permission failure). Most processors (like from AMD) immediately stop executing past the failure, but Intel apparently doesn't check the failure occurred until later.


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

[User] ELI5: When and why did the US political parties "switch"? Ex. Republicans in early 1800s being generally progressive and Democrats being generally conservative, but now it's the opposite.

[Assistant]
The switch started in the 1940's when the Democrats officially adopted Civil Rights as part of their party platform. What really kicked it into gear though was the 1960's.

After JFK was assassinated and LBJ became President, he rammed the Civil Rights Act down Congress' throat. This was the first real sign to a lot of voters that Democrats were now interested in progressive values.

In the 1964 Presidential election, Republicans reacted by nominating Barry Goldwater, a very conservative candidate. He lost in one of the largest landslides in American history. The Republican party had to do some soul searching, and the hard-core conservatives seized the party power positions and started using populism to win elections. By scaring white voters about crime and civil rights and the end of morality in America, they could win elections. Ronald Reagan was swept into the CA governor's mansion on a wave of populism. The result is a more conservative Republican party.

Meanwhile, northern liberal Republicans are getting ostracized in their own party (like John Lindsey) for supporting civil rights and voted out of office by voters for not being Democrats.

At the same time, northern Democrats are going harder for civil rights and voting rights while southern Democrats feel abandoned by their party and are starting to flip to Republicans  (like Strom Thurmond) or going rogue (like George Wallace).

At the end of the day, the crazy cultural liberalism of the 1960's drove a huge conservative backlash that found root in the Republican party and turned it more conservative.


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

[User] Is there a certain altitude where CO2 is concentrated?

[Assistant] The lowest ~100 km are very well mixed, so the concentration of most gases (including CO2) doesn't change that much with altitude, you can find it everywhere. Above that heavier gases, including CO2, drop in their concentration.


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

[User] [Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith] If Vader had died on Mustafar, who would Sidious have chosen to be his apprentice?

[Assistant]
I don't think he would have chosen anyone we have met yet. Most likely another powerful force user stolen at birth.

It may also be that Obi-wan tells Luke the truth and trains him, at which point Luke may reveal himself and his identity to the Emperor. Technically speaking if Luke revealed himself, we would be right back to the Death Star II Throne Room with Palpatine trying to bring Luke to the dark side.


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

[User]
Why does Neptune have such strong winds?

According to Wikipedia, it has the "strongest sustained winds of any planet in the solar system, with recorded wind speeds as high as  2,100 kilometres per hour (580 m/s; 1,300 mph)."

Why are the winds so strong there?

[Assistant]
There's a lot of conjecture in the other answers here, but as someone who specialized in this for his PhD, the only real answer is: we don't really know yet. This is one of the big unsolved problems in the field, though we have some ideas.

There are a few scaling relations for planetary winds that are generally true but lack precision, and there are an awful lot of exceptions, too:

- **The bigger the planet, the faster the winds.** In general the larger your planet is, the more angular momentum a parcel of air will have near the equator. As it moves towards the pole, angular momentum must be conserved, and that translates to faster winds. This generally explains why giant planets have faster winds than terrestrial planets, but doesn't really explain why Neptune's winds are faster than Jupiter's, which is quite a bit larger.

- **The faster the planet rotates, the faster the winds.** Again, the faster your planet rotates means the more angular momentum there is to feed into winds. Nonetheless, with this explanation alone one would again expect Jupiter (10 hour rotation) to have the fastest winds, but the winds of Neptune (16 hour rotation) are quicker. This also really fails for Venus, which has a 243 days rotation, yet has some impressively speedy winds at cloud-top.

- **The bigger the source of internal heat, the faster the winds.** It takes energy to fight against drag and pump the planetary jets, and localized release of energy, generally starting as small local storms, feed into the jets to keep them strong. Again you'd expect Jupiter to win out here in terms of total internal energy, but this does explain why the winds of Neptune (with a fairly substantial internal heat source itself) beat out the winds of Uranus (essentially the same size, temperature, and rotation period as Neptune, but no internal heat).

- **The lower the temperature, the lower the viscosity**. This one is probably really important for both Uranus and Neptune. As you decrease the temperature of a gas, its viscosity also decreases, so there's very little to slow down the winds and act as a source of drag. At low temperatures, you don't need to feed the winds much energy to get them going and keep the going.

It's something of a holy grail in the field to understand how each of these general rules play off one another. Which rule is most important? How many jets would we expect for each planet? Why is Venus so very different?

**TL;DR**: Neptune seems to have hit a sweet spot of relatively large (good for angular momentum), relatively fast rotation (also good for angular momentum), strong internal heat source (good for feeding the winds), and very cold (low viscosity, so little to slow the winds down).


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do couches need legs/to be elevated?

It seems to me like having couches elevated is just asking for dust and rogue toys to collect underneath. Is there a real reason why we screw on legs after the item is delivered? Can I just put my new couch flush with the floor to avoid needing to clean under it?

[Assistant]
It's for air flow and to prevent damage to the floor.

Leaving the entire flat bottom of your couch (especially if it's upholstered, or otherwise doesn't let air flow properly) enables mold to grow on the floor. The air is stagnant and humidity may collect there, leading to mold.

Also, it's easier to protect the floor from being scratched by the legs in just a few places than it is to protect the floor from the entire surface are of the couch. As you use the couch, it'll move around slightly and cause scratches.

In old timey days, having the furniture on thin legs was a mark of good construction. To design slim legs in an appealing manner while also supporting the weight of the couch indicated good craftsmanship.

It also helped to avoid pests climbing on to the softa/couch. Smooth wood with a finish is hard for insects and small rodents to climb, saving the furniture.


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

[User] [Buffy] Why would anyone besides the Scoobies choose to remain living in Sunnydale with all the near-apocalyptic shit going down?

[Assistant] The hellmouth seems to affects people's view of normalcy. They were dealing with those problems before Buffy showed up and they seemed to have thought it was perfectly normal. They are even self aware of the issue enough that they gave Buffy an award for keeping them mostly alive.


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

[User]
[General Zombies] How much good would a shelter-in-place order do to curtail the spread of a zombie outbreak?

Almost every piece of zombie media I've ever seen uses an emergency broadcast with some variant of "lock your doors, barricade your windows and remain in your homes" as part of the set dressing. Shaun of the Dead is the only movie I've ever seen where it becomes clear in the end that that would have worked if the protagonists had been a little smarter.

So how much good would it do if everyone holed up at home? On the one hand, fewer crowds. On the other hand, canned meat.

[Assistant] It depends on how effective the zombies are at breaking through doors. Assuming that they can be held at bay this would clear the streets, allowing the military to operate with less difficulty in determining friend or foe. With slow zombies a coordinated sweep (assuming that they know how zombies work) should clear out almost all the zombies eventually. Clearing a major metropolitan center would take time though, so they would probably need to have a means to deliver supplies to people sheltering in place ahead of the army (perhaps riot-police going door to door with supplies). Those in cleared areas could go back to somewhat normal life with some restrictions and education on how to handle stragglers.


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

[User]
Why is Lex Luthor Superman's arch-enemy?

Regular old guy vs alien from another planet.  What keeps Superman from just throwing this guy in jail?  Why Lex and not someone like Doomsday or Brainiac?  Granted, I'm not a huge superman fan, but this relationship always seemed really interesting to me.

[Assistant]
Well, Lex really isn't a "regular ol' guy", he's literally the smartest human being on the planet (and several others). A charismatic and strong leader on one had, and an egotistical, obsessive and petty man on the other.

For the most part, Luthor is jealous of Superman and his power. He often speaks of his fear that one day, the world will worship Superman like a god as he fixes everyone's problems forever. Humanity will stagnate and become useless under the heel of the Kryptonian. Lex hates useless things above all else. While he doesn't hate the idea of the world worshipping HIM, he would at least lead the world as a human being and not an alien.

Besides, it's very likely threats like Doomsday or Brainiac wouldn't have arrived if it weren't for him. (Well, maybe not, but like Batman, you can argue the hero/villain arms race also happens with Superman) And sometimes, Doomsday can be controlled. Braniac can be bargained with if you know how to deal with him, and Lex is intelligent enough to know exactly what to say.

Overall, Luthor is the mental match to Superman's physical powers, and he just can't stand the idea of someone out there he can't buy, bargain, kill or destroy.

As for why Superman doesn't just throw him in jail, most of the time Luthor's hands are kept legally clean of any nefarious schemes he comes up with. He's rich enough to hire the best lawyers in the world, remember. He can also just instantly pay any bail set by a judge, no matter the cost. And then he'll buy the courthouse and jail to boot.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do cockroaches fall apart so quickly when they die?

I've noticed that whenever I find a dead cockroach it always has some of its legs lying nearby and when I pick it up to throw it away it's brittle and crumbly. I'd understand if it was behind some dresser that I hadn't cleaned in a year, but this one appeared overnight.

[Assistant]
Well one possibility is that it's not a dead cockroach, it's a molt; the cockroach just shed its exoskeleton.

But also remember that bugs are kinda.... inside out compared to us.  We die, and maybe if we dry up our flesh wraps around our bones and might hold us together.  But their "bones" are on the outside, so as their meat decays the sections of their exoskeleton separate.


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

[User]
Can skin ever grow together?

I phrased this kinda weird in the title.  What I'm wondering is if, for example, you kept your arm on your stomach for huge amounts of time, never moving it, would the skin that touched grow together?  If not, what would actually happen?  Maybe a better example is rolls of fat: what happens to the skin that is folded to touch itself?

Another question I have is what if you got some sort of really serious injury that involved losing all/most of the skin on two parts of your body and you pressed those injuries together somehow and didn't move them at all.  Would they grow together?

Sorry if this is all inane and absurd and would never happen. :s I'm just curious.

Edit: I just wanted to thank everyone who replied.  The human body can do some weird and creepy things at times.

[Assistant] The serious injury part: If the blood supply was worked out, it would grow together. That's how they repair or reduce people's earlobes that have been stretched to accept large gauge earrings. They pretty much cut the excess off and sew the rest together.


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

[User] [Kill Bill] If someone has the five point palm exploding heart technique done on them, and then they do not take another step (lets say they live in a wheelchair), will they live a long normal life?

[Assistant] The exertion of pushing yourself around in a wheelchair would likely have the same effect as taking 5 steps, causing your heart to explode.  Its possible one could survive by using an electric wheelchair and having someone on hand to move them in and out of the chair, though that'd be a major impact on their quality of life.


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

[User] What's the difference between 'hearing voices' and imagining/remembering someone's voice?

[Assistant]
It depends what you mean when you say "hearing voices" and "imagining." Most of the time, when people say someone is "hearing voices" they mean someone thinks they can hear voices that aren't there, but they do not know that these voices aren't really there. The voices sound as if they are coming from outside, like any old people on the street talking. Sometimes, a person "hearing voices" can realize that it makes no sense to be hearing what they heard and understand that the voice is in their head, but "hearing voices" generally means, at least at first, a person hears a voice as if from the outside and is unaware that the voice is not real.

When imagining and remembering cannot be distinguished from things taking place outside the mind, they become "psychosis," which is a condition where a person cannot tell the real from the not real. "Hearing voices" is considered a psychotic symptom. So most imagining and remembering are things people know are going on inside they're heads. Even if the remembering and imagining takes place without conscious control, as in some dissociative disorders or flashbacks, the person is aware they take place within and does not mistake them for outside sounds.

In mentally healthy individuals, imagining and remembering are also often voluntary, healthy, and under control. They are completely normal. Sometimes, a person can recall a voice or imagine a voice so clearly it seems almost real - but they still know they imagined/remembered it and that it comes from within.

Similarly, everyone some hears voices, usually their name, or mumbling, for just a second, and it doesn't bother them much. This is also normal. If it happens just as they fall asleep or wake up, it is even more common.

If hearing voices, imagining, or remembering becomes scary or bothers you, tell a grown-up.


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

[User] When we carbon date items, how do we know how much carbon started in them?

[Assistant] We aren't measuring the amount of carbon, we are measuring one isotope, carbon fourteen.  C-14 is formed by cosmic rays hitting the atmosphere.  Carbon fourteen is unstable, it has a half life about five thousand years.  Plants get their carbon from the atmosphere, animals get their carbon from plants, living things have an exact ratio of carbon 14 to normal carbon.  It doesn't change during their lifetime, because they continue to grow and take in new carbon.  But once they die, they stop taking new carbon 14 in, and the C-14 begins to decay.  A 5000 year old object has half the c14 of a fresh one; it is a quarter when it is ten thousand years old. By fifty thousand years, there is too little to measure, and the technique only treks you that it is over that age.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is the ice that comes out of my fridge's ice maker white, or cloudy, while the ice you get at a restaurant or bar is clear?

[Assistant]
The white/cloudiness is mostly small bubbles of air that was previously dissolved in the water when it was a liquid. Residential ice makers form the top down. The top layer of water freezes and slowly the ice grows downwards into the mold. This trap the air that was previously dissolved into the water.

Commercial ice makers form ice from the bottom up, this lets the gas escape. Additionally they may use water that was additionally filtered through a carbon tank to remove off flavors, water softener to reduce calcium and other minerals, or reverse osmosis to make it "pure" water.

Boil and cool the water before freezing it, and you'll get almost clear ice.


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

[User]
[MCU] What does the world think happened to Captain America?

The deaths of Tony, Nat, and Vision all seem to be public knowledge, but I highly doubt that Steve told the world that he was going back in time to the 40s to be with his girlfriend. So what does everybody think became of Captain America? Did they think he died in the battle against Thanos or something?

[Assistant] There are conspiracy theories that Steve's living on a moon base.  Joaquin Torres asks Sam Wilson if it's true, but also seems a bit embarrassed when he does as if neither of them take that theory too seriously.


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

[User]
[MCU] Why is a 'destruction' of the stones, even a thing?

Sure they'd be broken into smaller pieces, but they're still pieces of the first stuff ever created. How does 'breaking' one work? How is it even possible?

[Assistant] Normally it isn't, except for the fact that the Scarlet Witch has some ultra-mega-reality-warping powers. It should be impossible for anyone except the Living Tribunal or the One Above All as they stones are fundamental aspects of the universe.


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

[User]
What is the actual science behind cutting flower stems at a 45 degree angle?

Can anyone explain the science behind this? I know that's it increases surface area, but does this increase capillary action? For instance, if I have a bundle of straws, and I cut them at a 45, the SA does increase, but I can't necessarily drink faster just because of that. A detailed response is very much appreciated.

[Assistant] It is beneficial because if they are cut at an angle, the crushing of the xylem (vessels) will not cut off the flow of H2O and minerals to the rest of the plant.  If cut straight across, the xylem can be crushed closed.


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

[User] ELI5: As a non-american person, why is the Confederate Flag associated with Nazis and racism?

[Assistant] THE confederate flag was a symbol of the south(who fought and supported racism/slavery) in the civil war and beyond, many people see the confederate flag and associate it with slavery, much as when people see a swastika they associate is with hitler.


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

[User]
When and why did money become a taboo subject?

Hi. I'm mainly looking to see if anyone knows when money became a taboo subject to talk about (particularly salaries, but money in general is fine.) I would also be interested to know why it became taboo.

I tried searching for the question and didn't find anything. If there is something I would appreciate being pointed in the right direction. Thanks!

[Assistant] This isn't going to exactly answer your question, but the place you should 100% start is with Viviana Zelizer. She's based her entire career (and started the field) on how money is rarely just *money,* and is more often than not loaded with social and moral meaning. I'd start with her book The Social Meaning of Money.


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

[User] [X-men] When nightcrawler teleports, does he need to just see the destination, or also the path? Could he teleport into a room if he can see it through a security camera?

[Assistant]
Nightcrawler doesn't need to see the destination, especially if he's familiar with it or knows it's layout in 3 dimensions by heart.

As to your example, if he knows exactly how far the room is away and its elevation relative to him, if it's in his range he can easily teleport there.

He could teleport blind if he chose, but he doesn't displace matter when he *bamfs* back in, and to teleport into a solid object would be either crippling or fatal. So he avoids that if at all possible.


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

[User]
[LotR] Why did Illuvatar make it so that magic would gradually disappear?

Given that the elves, one of his two favorite children, suffer greatly by the gradual diminishing of magic, why wouldn't he make magic constant and undimishing?

[Assistant]
It's kind of the other way around; magic is diminishing because the Elves are diminishing.

Morgoth messing with the creation of Arda led to a concept called Arda Marred, which is basically the corruption that Morgoth forced upon the world. The Valar abandoned Middle-earth and colonised Valinor instead, allowing it to be the only place on Arda to be free of Morgoth's corruption. That's why the Valinor brought the Elves to Valinor, because only there could their bodies and spirits not suffer the effects of Morgoth's taint upon the world. This is because their spirits are tied to Arda in a way that Men's spirits are not, so that damage to Arda essentially also means damage to the Elves.

When the Noldor returned, they were essentially at full power. Their spirits were unmarred and they'd learned plenty of things from the Valar, plus they'd all seen the light of the Two Trees of Valinor (which Elves born during and after the First Age would never see). However, as time passed, the Elves in Middle-earth slowly diminished, even after Morgoth's defeat. Due to Arda Marred, Elves in Middle-earth would slowly "weaken" over time, eventually resulting in them travelling west to Valinor. This can take thousands of years, in the cases of people like Cirdan or Celeborn, but it was ultimately the inevitable fate of all Elves.

That's why the Three Rings were created - so that Elven rulers would delay the passage of time and decay in their lands. This is why places like Rivendell and Lothlorien are so magical, because Elrond and Galadriel are using their rings to artificially enhance the beauty and majesty of their lands.

Once the Three Rings lost their power, most of the remaining Elves left Middle-earth shortly afterwards as they could no longer stay. Even if they wanted to stay, their bodies would eventually weaken to the point of which they would become harmless wraiths.

So to put it bluntly, the Elves brought "magic" to Middle-earth from Valinor. As the Elves weakened over time, as did the "magic" in Middle-earth.


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

[User]
Does time dialation effect how old we see the universe to be?

Its said that the age of the universe is roughly 13.8 billion years old but since all mass has an effect on space time how do we know if thats the true age? Like from the perspective of someone next to a black hole the universe would be younger and someone in intergalactic space older right? Do scientists take this into account when they estimate ages of space objects? And if time doesnt run at exactly the same speed in any two parts of the universe is there any way to know the exact age of anything far away?

[Assistant]
Yes.  The given age of the universe is in the frame of reference of minimal motion relative to the cosmic background radiation.  This means that if we look left, right, up or down we can't tell the difference between the temperature of the background.  If we had a large motion it would be blue-shifted in some directions and red shifted in others.

It is also given relative to being in an area with no strong gravitational fields.

If you were travelling with a high speed relative to the background you could calculate a different "local" age of the universe.

If you were stationary in a strong gravitation field and you would also calculate a different age of the universe, however this would not help you much, as you would be dead.


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

[User]
Why is our right to die for unsatisfying lives not mainstream?

Is there a movement that grants a person their right for a humane death? Such a procedure would need a long waiting time, like 14 months with multiple doctors appointments and antidepressant treatments such as vitamin D.

I feel like a lot of suicides are impulsive decisions, sometimes out of rage, or helplessness, and are sometimes unsuccessful (or successful) with devastating consequences, and a right to die for any person would make suicides inpractical. Copycat suicides would be less likely due to the process being more clinical.

Secondly, what grants a parent, or the state, a right for their child lives if they are artificially kept alive after a *suicide* attempt? I am thinking of terrible cases such as Kyle Osadnick or Michael Morones.

[Assistant]
Well outside of the terminally ill the thought that the right to die is inappropriate because bad lives are generally contingent, as in they can be transformed into good lives. The other motivating reason is that the terminally ill are often physically incapable of committing suicide, and so without the right to die have a very concrete inability to kill themselves, but this does not apply in the case of the dissatisfied.

>Secondly, what grants a parent, or the state, a right for their child lives if they are artificially kept alive after a suicide attempt?

The reason we don't permit guardians  to let disabled children to die is that otherwise people would kill lots of disabled children who wanted to live/should be allowed to live on.


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

[User] ELI5: How do sharks detect electrical signals fish emmit when they move?

[Assistant]
They have special organs called the ampullae of Lorenzini. They're basically clusters of pores with electroreceptors. These organ cells are specialized to have high concentrations of voltage dependent ion channels. The cells are also connected very tightly to one another by gap junctions. There are some other anatomic features that also help direct the current inwards and prevent current leakage.

What the sharks actually sense is the difference in electric potential between the skin and the base of the pore. Fish swim around using their muscles, which produce electric fields by contracting. Salt water is a good conductor, and the movement of the conductor in the presence of Earth's magnetic field produces an electric field. Sharks sense this and their ampullae of Lorenzini are excited.


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

[User] [Harry Potter] What are the odds that modern muggle Governments would be aware of an underground world of wizards?

[Assistant] The (muggle) prime minister got told by the (wizarding world) minister for magic, so at least one person knew.  The wizarding world's ongoing secrecy relied on the fact that no-one would believe a head of state telling people about secret wizard societies.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Why didn't anyone fix Harry's eyesight?

He magically regrew his bones and came back to life. Even us muggles have contacts and lasers.

[Assistant]
You'll note that other wizards have glasses, including Dumbledore. You'll also note they can't regrow eyes - Moody had to have an enchanted one.

It's possible eyes are one of those things that is too difficult to magic.


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

[User]
[MCU] so does Caps shield absorb energy or not?

So in Winter Soldier he falls 30 stories and uses the shield to break his fall. So it seems to absorb energy. But when he throws it it bounces all over, almost increasing in energy. And when Thor hits it with his hammer in Avengers it deflect energy everywhere. What is it supposed to do?

[Assistant]
It can both store and release energy. Think of it as a less refined version of Black Panthers suit.

BP absorbs energy and can release it as a shockwave. He has more control over the release than Cap does with his shield, but he does have to release the energy if its too much. Thor swinging Mjolnir onto the shield was too much energy to store so it released as a shockwave. A bullet hitting it is not.

Theres also evidently a difference in composition from the center of the shield which seems to have more Vibranium and the edges since the edges have more bounciness to them.


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

[User]
If water is 'unable' to be compressed, how can it be pressurized?

I put 'unable' in quotes, because any fluid can be compressed just a little. But practically speaking, it cannot be compressed. So how can it be pressurized?

[Assistant]
I'll attempt this.

The water is not really the factor here, it is the container (in the case of open containers like an ocean, the force of gravity acts as a top to the container.

Say you have a bottle of water that has been "pressurized" with the water. The water hasn't changed much at all. The container is deformed and the elasticity of the container is what pushes the water out when you open it, rather than a property of the water.

In cases where air is included with the water, the air is the matter being deformed, and is what pushes the water out when the closed system is breached.


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

[User]
What is the difference between aquatic and terrestrial plants?

Whats the difference in, say, cell structure between a terrestrial and aquatic plant? There are a lot of plants that can grow in water and above, but their leaves/appearance tend to change depending on their conditions.

[Assistant]
One big difference is the waxy cuticle that terrestrial plants have to prevent water from escaping.

They also rarely have xylem (the vascular tissue that carries water) and often do not have phloem (the vascular tissue that carries sugars) since larger portions of the plant are often photosynthetic (make sugars) and do not need to transport sugars long distances.


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

[User]
If protons and neutrons both have a mass greater than 1 amu how can an atom with a mass number of N have a mass of less than N amu?

As an example according to my chemistry book Cl-35 has a mass of 34.97 amu.

[Assistant]
The mass of a bound nucleus with Z protons and N neutrons is less than the mass of Z free protons plus N free neutrons.

The attractive strong forces between nucleons lead to a lower mass of the overall system than the sum of the masses of the individual parts. That's why the nucleus is bound to begin with.

The difference between the mass of the bound nucleus and the sum of the masses of its parts (times c^(2)) is the nuclear binding energy.


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

[User]
CMV: In case of emergency, it's better to save adults over children

Everybody says, "In case of emergency, women and children first". Well, i'll refrain from the women part, i'll discuss about saving the children first.

Why "children first"? I've heard so many people said "because children are the future and they'll continue our human race". To me, that is absolute nonsense. I'm not gonna debate about the moral or emotional point, i'm talking about the practical point. Saving children first is an idiotic move.

First, adults are more likely to survive the disaster. For example, in case of sinking ship, put the adults on life boat and they'll survive longer until help comes, or they will know how to navigate to a safe place or nearby land unlike the children who most likely will wait until rescued or die.

Second, adults are more likely to survive after the disaster. For example, in a zombie apocalypse, save the adults and they can form a group, build shelter and fend for themselves. Save the children and they will hide in the corner and get eaten in a day or two. Not to mention, when fighting off the zombies, more adults mean more fighting power, while more children will drag you down as you have to look out for them when fighting and can easily make fatal mistakes, like when you're safe in your fort but Sophia gets a panic attack and run out to the wild and you have to risk going out to find her? Yeah, I would hate to be in that situation.

Third, for the purpose of reproduction and preserve our specie, the adults are much more suitable. Adults can breed immediately as long as they find a safe shelter. Children need to wait years until they reach puberty, and most won't even survive to get to that, and even if they get to the point they can breed, the lack of experience in sexual relationship and child birth makes them less likely to produce a healthy and safe offsprings, not when they can hardly protect themselves. Therefore, their chance of preserving the human race is extremely low.

All in all, i don't see any reason to save the children first in case of emergency or apocalypse.

[Assistant] "Children First" almost never refers to an actual apocalyptic scenario and instead points out the fact that adults are much more capable of saving themselves than a child and in the event of a panic, are more likely to be crushed by a crowd.


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

[User] ELI5: when you slowly rotate the mug/jar/glass/etc, why does the water (or other drink) in it not rotate with it?

[Assistant]
Objects at rest want to stay at rest, this includes liquids.

However, in the case of a rotating glass with liquid inside, the liquid near the side of the glass will rotate with the glass when it starts. The longer you rotate it for, the liquid near the middle of the glass will start rotating, until eventually all the liquid is rotating at the same speed as the glass.


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

[User]
[Marvel] What are the limits (if any) to the Reality Gem?

It seems like this Gem should be by far the most powerful.  Are there any limits to it?

[Assistant] The reality gem's ability to distort reality is  limitless in theory but it does have several limitations. On it's own, the reality stone can cause massive (to you and me) distortions in the fabric of reality. However, if one wanted to distort reality on a cosmic scale, or across all of time and space, or across the multiverse, one would need other infinity stones to enhance its power. That's why Thanos simply couldn't grab the reality stone to end half of the life in the universe. Even when one bears all infinity stones, there are still limitations. For starters, there is the limitations of the beholder. One cannot distort reality in a way they cannot imagine. One can also only distort reality in a way in which the Living Tribunal and the One Above All will accept. One could not destroy the multiverse or destroy the One Above All with the power of the infinity gauntlet because if one had serious intentions of doing so, these forces could stop the infinity gauntlet from working.


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

[User] If your balance is determined by fluid in your inner ear, how does one "practice" their balance?

[Assistant] Your sense of balance is measured with your inner ear.  Maintaining your balance requires practiced neural control of muscles.  That is what you are practicing.  Possibly some part of it is learning to pay more attention to minute changes in your sense of balance.


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

[User]
Is there a "universal speed limit" lower than the speed of light for an object of a given mass?

Let's say there's a 100kg object traveling through space. Obviously it can't reach the speed of light because it has mass. But since we know its mass, do we know how fast it *can* go according to the laws of physics? Or could it theoretically reach 99.9999999% of *c* but just never quite reach *c*?

[Assistant]
An object of non-zero mass can in principle attain any speed less than the speed of light.

In fact, since velocity has only a relative meaning, there are frames of reference in which an object of non-zero mass has whatever speed less than *c* you wish.


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

[User]
What are the macro economic drawbacks for canceling student debt?

From an unbiased stance, are there any negative economic impact for the American nation on a macro scale for just canceling the trillion dollars in student debt?

[Assistant]
1. Increased national debt and the consequences that come along with that

2. Increased inequality. Student loans are disproportionately held by Americans with well above average lifetime incomes

3. If this is a recurrent event  - moral hazard (this is microecon). Even not explicitly stated, merely the expectation that debt might be forgiven in the future could distort decision making.


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

[User]
ELI5: Baking Soda and Baking Powder. The difference between them and what they both do.

While making some tasty chocolate chip oatmeal cookies I reflected on the fact that both of these substances go in so many baking things yet I have no idea what the difference between them is or what they even do.

What is baking soda and baking powder? What does it do?

[Assistant] Baking soda and baking powder are both leavening agents - they make your baking rise through an acid/base chemical reaction (like the baking soda/vinegar volcano in every show/movie involving a science fair). Baking soda is pure sodium bicarbonate (a base), and baking powder is sodium bicarbonate with cream of tartar (an acid). Which one you use depends on the other ingredients in your baking - if there's no acid to activate the baking soda, then the recipe will call for baking powder.


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

[User] ELI5: If i had a nosebleed, would i be able to use that blood from the nosebleed for regular blood testings?

[Assistant]
If you could manage to keep it sterile, get it into a tube and store it properly like really fast then most likely yes. The chances of your being able to achieve this are pretty low though, so youre probably better off collecting the traditional way.

Blood required for testing need to be fresh, in some cases still alive and uncontaminated by chemicals or microorganisms from the environment. Satisfying all of these is pretty hard if you arent in a doctors office where that have proper equipment.


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

[User] ELI5: What's happening in my brain when when I read an entire page or so of a book, only to realize that I wasn't actually paying attention and have no idea what I just read?

[Assistant]
"Mind-wandering", an extremely common phenomenon, but understudied subject in cognitive and educational psychology. MW can take the form of task-related (e.g., imagining scenarios utilizing current material) or task-unrelated (e.g., dwelling on relationship issues, dinner planning, etc.). MW can be mitigated by reaffirming your internal motivations (e.g., interest in the topic) or external motivations (e.g., upcoming exams, being paid to absorb material). However, MW has also been correlated to higher creativity measures, so it ain't all bad.
Source: cognitive neuroscience researcher.

EDIT: Man_Fred_Beardman 's comment below is insightful for those interested in the cognitive mechanisms at play during mind-wandering:
"To expand a little on why you don't remember what you read, you have to understand memory is divided into three categories: Short-Term Memory (which only lasts approximately 4-7 seconds), Long-Term Memory (memories beyond 7 seconds), and Working Memory (memories being processed from short-term to long-term memory).
When you're reading and your mind becomes preoccupied with something else (like day dreaming/mind wandering) your working memory kind if shuts down (or at least focuses on processing your daydream into long-term memory instead of what you just read). So you end up remembering your day dream, but not what you read. Your short-term memory is still working, so you end up remembering the last few words you read, but nothing else."

EDIT 2: Thank you kind stranger for the gold!


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

[User]
How is Dostoevsky viewed in philosophy circles?

Is Dostoevsky considered a heavy hitter in philosophy?  Many great philosophers commented on his works in a positive light, from Nietzsche, Wittgenstein and even Freud.   So, are his ideas still relevant and  discussed within academic philosophy circles today?

[Assistant]
Unfortunately, serious academic study of Dostoevsky's thought, along with that of most other Russian philosophers, has in America tended to be largely relegated to the realm of "Russian studies" or "Slavic studies." The vast majority of major Western studies on his thought (as opposed to his literary significance) come from scholars associated with that field, and so they don't tend to integrate him well into Western philosophical conversations. Some theologians engage him heavily too, and recently some very good theological treatments have come out (such as the monograph by Rowan Williams, mandatory for anyone with a strong interest in D.).

In Russian philosophy itself, D. is undoubtedly a canonical source, and the subject of some of the greatest studies in Russian philosophical scholarship (e.g., Bakhtin's *Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics*). His own writing also brilliantly captures, and in some cases responds to, earlier pioneers of Russian philosophy (e.g., the strong resemblance of Ivan Karamazov to Bakunin and Herzen). Russia's own traditional self understanding of what philosophy *is* tends to be vastly different from, say, Western analytic philosophy. It is far less disconnected from literature, from political agitation, from cultural studies ("the Russian idea"), etc., than most of what you find in the Western academy, likely because it has a very different developmental history than Western philosophy. It's hard for Western philosophers to engage it deeply without also engaging all of its historical, cultural, and linguistic baggage, which is probably part of the reason that the work has tended be done by the Russian studies folk.


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

[User]
CMV: You can be a kind and mentally healthy person and still get off to fantasies of torture and murder.

There seems to be a common trend of sensationalizing what people enjoy or find thrilling in their private thoughts as being dangerous if it does not fit into the narrative of what others deem normal or acceptable. People seem to believe that your thoughts influence your actions so much that you couldnt possibly just enjoy a harmless fantasy for your own pleasure without it being who you are at your core.
Well, I disagree. You can be a kind, empathic person in reality who would never hurt a fly, but get off on the thought of torturing someone to death in the private fantasy world in your head. You know in reality it would be sickening and wrong to do such a thing, but in your mind, it is a fun indulgence where you get to be as cruel and heartless as you desire. This doesnt mean you are at all influenced in your daily life by these thoughts.

You see the same kind of overreaction from people when anyone gains any kind of pleasure from something considered taboo. People call it normalizing and sick and dont even think people can enjoy fictional stories or drawings depicting such things. But people fail to realize that fantasy is never the same as reality and humans are into a lot of shit they would never do. Thats why roleplay exists in the first place.

[Assistant]
Where does the enjoyment in torture fantasies stem from?

>You know in reality it would be sickening and wrong to do such a thing, but in your mind, it is a fun indulgence

I think the thing is, we don't act based on what we think is acceptable. Our behavior is a response to what we feel. If a feeling is strong enough, we will act on it regardless of whether we think it is acceptable.

So if you have fantasies of torturing and murdering people, that means that you would enjoy it. If you incubate those feelings in fantasy, they could overpower your will to stop them playing out in real life.


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

[User]
Will we ever be able to "see" the cosmic microwave background radiation?

As I understand it, the cosmic background radiation leftover from the big bang is currently in the microwave spectrum, but is constantly redshifting as the universe expands; so logically that means eventually it will redshift enough to be in the visible spectrum. Does this mean that at some point in the distant future we will actually be able to see it with the naked eye, and what would this look like? (Assuming of course we survive that long as a species)

[Assistant]
"Redshift" means that the wavelengths get longer, and microwaves are already longer wavelength than visible light, so no, it won't ever become visible (barring a Big Crunch scenario, but that is pretty much excluded by cosmological data).

The CMB radiation currently peaks at about a wavelength of 1 mm (10^-3 meters), while the longest-wavelength light that our eyes can see is around 750 nm (7.5 x 10^-7 meters).

When the CMB was emitted, the universe was at a temperature of 3000 K, which is a little hotter than your typical incandescent light bulb, so the emitted light was mostly in the visible and near-infrared, and would look like a warm yellowish glow.


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

[User] ELI5: How come when you have a sore throat it gets significantly worse if you sleep with the fan on?

[Assistant]
Your throat relies on staying moist. But the moving air from the fan tends to remove moisture from you, so your throat dries out more. That makes it feel even worse than it did.

The effect doesn't happen much if you point the fan at your legs instead of your head.


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

[User]
How do forbidden quantum transitions happen?

Ok, so I majored in (bio)chemistry and work in chemistry for my job. I have an introductory knowledge of quantum physics and how it is different from classical models, but not a deep mathematical understanding. One thing that spectroscopists mention often is "forbidden" quantum transitions. I gather that these are supposedly against the rules of physics, so in my understanding they should never occur, but they very much do.  So, they are much longer lived quantum states because of their "forbidden" nature disallowing  an "allowed" path to relax back to ground state, but they still manage to do so, but slower. I don't understand how something can be against the laws of physics and still happen. Wouldn't that imply that our understanding of what's happening incomplete and we need a better model?

[Assistant] "Forbidden" transitions are not actually forbidden, just suppressed. If the transition carries one unit of angular momentum, it's a dipole transition. Higher-order transitions (quadrupole, octupole, hexadecapole, etc.) are called "forbidden", but they're still possible. They're just less likely than a dipole transition, all else being equal.


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

[User] [Star Wars] At the Battle of Endor, why did the rebels not attack the Death Star from the other side?

[Assistant] The Empire knew what direction the Rebels would be coming from so pointed the DS that way.  This was a trap remember so they had intel on the rebel plans.  Once in system they couldn't sublight around the Deathstar fast enough without exposing themselves to the Star Destroyers that were also there.  The Empire most likely had interdictors in the mix so the rebels couldn't hyperdrive out and come back in from hyperspace on a different vector.


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

[User]
[Deadpool 2] How badly did Deadpool fuck up his own timeline? [spoilers]

So, Deadpool goes back in time and kills the man that kills his girlfriend, thus technically unraveling everything, right? She doesn't die and so he doesn't get depressed enough to blow himself up, to meet Colossus, become an X-Man (In Training), going to jail, etc. Right? Cable comes to the past, kills the kid and leaves? But then why doesn't Deadpool have his entire timeline unraveled or fixed or... SOMETHING!

[Assistant]
In Deadpools Defense, the xmen universe timeline was already fucked up during the events of Days if Future Past. That event severely fractured the X-men timeline so you could probably do a running total of timelines in the movies.

1. The X-men trilogy timeline

2. The X men origins wolverine timeline where Deadpool turns into Scott Adkins and Emma frost is a kid

3. The Logan timeline which seems like a the X-men trilogy timeline where the sentinels never happened so Logan never went back in time

4. The Deadpool timeline which seems linked to the first class timeline

5. Cables hell world timeline that he tried to fix

6. The legion tv series timeline which may or may not be any of the aforementioned timelines

7. The Gifted tv series timeline which definitely isnt part of any of the timelines above

And then any other timeline created by Deadpools fuckery. Time is very strange in the X-men universe and it seems that rather than the timeline sorting itself out, it just unravels and just sort of goes its own way so that might be why Deadpool can get away with all sorts of time travel shenanigans.


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

[User] [star wars] what happened to the Jedi Temple on courascant after the purge? Was it left alone? Was it bulldozed to make way for a high end subdivision? Did Palpatine like to go there and reminisce?

[Assistant]
Disney Canon has Palpatine making it into his new palace.

Its fate in Legends was never confirmed beyond that it still existed a couple years prior to the Battle of Yavin, as Starkiller underwent some training there.  It's presumed by many to have been destroyed when the SSD Lusankya launched from its hidden position beneath the capital.


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

[User]
How to answer questions about why do you choose this school? Why do you think you're the best fit for this position?

Well, I'm applying assistant professor positions in social sciences, and I found that the hardest interview questions that I'm facing now is how to answer the questions such as why do you choose to come to xxx university? Why do you think you are the best fit for this position?

From what perspective should I answer this type of question? Thank you!

[Assistant]
Before you go to the interview, do some research about the school and the department and see what you find interesting about it. Some things to look for:
* Where is is located? City vs rural, what part of the country/world, what physical climate / geography. What can you do in the area in your down time?
* How big is the school?
* What is the school known for?
* What is the schools mission statement?
* How big are class sizes?
* What research is being done in the department?
* what courses do they offer?
* among those courses, what is one youd really be looking forward to teach?
* among the courses they *dont* offer, what is one youd like to develop and teach for them?
* are you more interested in teaching grad or undergrad courses? Intro or advanced undergrad?
* who is faculty in the department? Do you know any of them personally or professionally, like have you met them at conferences or read their work? Who would you most want to collaborate with?
* How does your research fit with their research?
* What facilities do they have (teaching or research) that youd be looking forward to using?

Do your HW - honestly half of these are useful to find out before applying even - and itll help you to answer those specific questions and others.


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

[User]
CMV: On scene news reporters are despicable human beings.

Im gonna tell you all about a story that happened about a year ago.

Me and my girlfriend heard sirens outside, and walked out to see smoke coming two blocks up from our house. We knew our good friends lived on that block, so we decided to walk up, and make sure it wasnt their home. It was. The neighbors grill malfunctioned and took out three connected homes.

We sat there and tried to console our friends as they literally watched everything they own burn. In the middle of the street was a camera man, and news reporter filming. My friends fianc began to get upset at their presence, but her family kinda explained that it comes with the situation, which I also understand. I watched them approach a neighbor, then saw the neighbor point in our direction. They began walking over to us, obviously seeing how hysterical our friends were. I pointed out the fact they were coming. My friends fiancs mom intercepted them, and yelled NO! And this is what he said...Listen, I know its shitty, i figured she would wanna talk to us before we interview all the neighbors We all shouted a bunch of not nice things to them and they walked away.

Thankfully this is the only time I had to witness something like this. I admit, its possible they were young, and this situation was a rare occurrence. How can you not as a human being put yourself in a victims situation and say How would I feel if this were me? Dont you wanna share the worst experience of your life with the world? These people cant have any redeeming qualities. Change my view.

[Assistant]
Some of the most iconic reporting ever done would fall into this category. Newsworthy stories occur when people are at their worst. Respecting privacy is important, but capturing raw emotion on camera and eyewitness testimonials is important too. It connects humans and real people to the stories being told. The people with the power to effect change in the world need to see that the world is in need of changing.

For example, in 2015 during the height of the Syrian Refugee Crisis, there were pictures taken of families who had just lost their children due to the conflict, or due to the boats capsizing as they fled. These images were extremely powerful and they touched the emotions of many people in the world. As a result, many governments decided to take in more Syrian refugees.
Sure, those reporters were probably being rude by capturing these peoples' worst moments, but if you look bigger picture, these reporters' stories helped those people.


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

[User]
Origins of Marx's quote about California and Mexico?

"Is it a misfortune that magnificent California was seized from the lazy Mexicans who did not know what to do with it?"

This line is heralded on the Internet as a reason Marx is/was racist. I remember having found it once and this seemed to very clearly be wrong. I'm only finding sources on it that display this one quotation out of context, though.

[Assistant]
The paper *Were Marx and Engels White Racists: The Prolet-Aryan Outlook of Marxism* by Carlos Moore (1974) includes the quote, saying it was written by Engels (not Marx himself, although reportedly expressing their joint view) for an article in the February 15 1849 copy of Neue Rheinische Zeitung, and citing it as:

> Marx and Engels, Gesamtausgabe (published by the Institute for Marxism-Leninism of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party, Dietz Verlag, Berlin, 1959), Vol. 6, pp. 273-271 (Quoted in: Gustavo Beyhaut, Raices de America Latina [Eudeba Editorial Universitaria de Buenos Aires, 1964], Chapter II, p. 74, our translation and emphasis).

I don't know if the entire article is available anywhere in English, but for slightly more context the full quote included in that paper is:

> Is it a misfortune that the wonderful California was wrested from the lazy Mexicans, who did not know what to do with it?... All impotent nations must, in the final analysis, be grateful to those who, obeying historical necessities, attach them to a great empire, thus allowing them participation in a historical development which would otherwise be unknown to them. It is self-evident that such a result could not be obtained without crushing some sweet little flowers. Without violence, nothing can be accomplished in history...

Another quote by Engels on the same topic from an article in Deutsche-Brsseler Zeitung from January 23 1848 (republished in the same source as the above) is also provided:

> ...we have been spectators of the conquest of Mexico and have rejoiced in it. It is progress that a country which, up till now, was concerned exclusively with itself, torn asunder by eternal civil wars and alien to any form of development...should have been propelled, through violence, to historical development. It is in the interest of its own development that it shall, in the future, be placed under the tutelage of the United States. It is in the interest of the whole of America that the United States, thanks to the conquest of California, should achieve mastery over the Pacific Ocean.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is it when travelling in a car and sleeping, it seems easier to stay asleep while the vehicle is moving around, but more often than not we wake once the vehicle slows/has stopped?

[Assistant]
a vehicle's movement has a rhythm, and that steady (or mostly steady) rhythm is reassuring to very low-level parts of your brain (the so-called reptile brain). So long as the rhythm continues, your body thinks that you're safe.

Once the vehicle's movement changes significantly (slowing down, coming in for a landing, swerving to avoid road moose, etc.), you sense the change. That change could be dangerous, so you awaken.


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

[User]
What did Albert Camus mean when he said "Morality, when formal, devours."?

Title\^

[Assistant]
There are some quotes which could help to elucidate this further. One (from his Notebook) is:
"Those who prefer their principles over their happiness, they refuse to be happy outside the conditions they seem to have attached to their happiness."
In another place (can't find it at the moment) he writes that in most occasions you don't need principles because just being merciful is enough.


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

[User] ELI5: A friend of mine who lives in Germany told me citizens receive help from the goverment if they do not have a Job or a home, how can Germany afford it to do so, and why do they do it?

[Assistant]
This is commonplace throughout Europe.  We have high tax rates that enable a high quality of welfare provision.  This extends to free or low cost medical and dental care,  housing,  and cost of living benefits.

The answer to why is because these societies have decided that the expense of helping people through rough patches is worth it in the long term. It can help reduce crime,  keep people out of worse poverty,  which saves health costs further down the line.  Or they just support it on moral grounds.  Or a mix and match combination of factors.


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

[User]
Would cancelling all US student loan debt tank the economy a-la a subprime mortgage crisis?

Basically title - isn't it possible that cancelling all student loan debt would tank the economy? what if our debt has been packaged, sold, and speculated upon by banks a-la subprime mortgage crisis? wouldn't value just disappear?

[Assistant]
The debt that is having a call for cancellation is federally owned student loan debt- because the government owns the debt directly, they have the power to forgive via fiat (though whatever process this fiat takes is currently a matter of political debate) and they have not resold the debt.

Hence, it has not been "packaged, sold, and speculated upon", at least the stuff of interest.


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

[User]
ELI5: what happens when lightening strikes the ocean?

What happens when lightening strikes while there are people swimming near by? What about the fish? If water conducts electricity, how come everything in the water doesn't get electrocuted

How far would you have to be from the point of impact to barely feel the electrical current?

[Assistant]
A lightning bolt is a huge amount charge transfer that is very focused.  Once it hits the water, there are a lot of conductive pathways for the charge to follow, so it starts to rapidly spread out.  Thus, near the striking point the moving charges are all close together and you get a huge amount of current, which is harmful.  The farther away you are from the spot, the more the charges get to spread out and the lower the current is at any given point.  Thus, eventually it becomes safe and people/fish are unharmed!

I do not have a good feel for how far that distance is though.


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

[User]
ELI5: Touchless car washes that spray liquid after liquid to "presoak", "power wash", "sealant", "protective coating" and other things, how does this work? Does spraying X liquid after Y liquid after Z liquid really clean and do anything to protect a car's paint?

Edit: as in no need to really dry/wipe off the prior application?  Or is it really just a soap and wash that gets most of dirt off?

[Assistant] X liquid gets things loose so Y liquid can spread it apart when scrubbed. Then your car is clean. Then they spray on Z liquid which acts like plastic wrap. Sticks to the car but lets other things slide off.


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

[User] If we can "freeze" light for a minute, does that mean that we can "freeze" time?

[Assistant] No. The freezing of light actually involves absorbing light in a very cold gas. It's so cold that the atoms have an "absorbed" state that lasts a very long time before re-emitting the light in its former trajectory. Not directly related to relativity or anything like that.


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

[User]
How do Black Holes exist?  How do we know?

A friend of mine doesn't believe in Black Holes especially with the complex ideals.  Please tell me something that I can just read to him to prove/explain to him how Black Holes exist and why we know its there.

[Assistant] Black holes don't emit light so we can't directly see them, but because they have lots of gravity, some objects get locked into orbit around them just like the earth orbits the sun. We know they're there because we see stuff orbiting around them with telescopes.


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

[User] ELI5: How do airplane tires not explode on contact with the ground even though they bear the weight of several hundred tonnes and travelling well over a few 100km/h?

[Assistant] The tires are engineered to be extremely tough and to distribute the weight evenly. That said the challenges for aircraft tires is very difficult and they wear out quickly. And of course sometimes they *do* explode.


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

[User]
CMV: People who take a halfway, sometimes stance on a womans right to abortion are invariably wrong.

To clarify, I dont have a specific view on the morality of abortion. Would I have one myself, no; but on the legal side Im pro choice because I dont believe that I or anyone else should be entitled to decide whether someone else should be allowed to have one based on moral judgments that are always relative and subjective. That said, I am not posting to argue for either the 100% pro-life stance OR the 100% pro-choice stance. Rather Im here to make a point on the wishy-washy stance that abortion should only be legal if certain conditions (e.g. the mother was raped, incest is involved, etc.) are met. I think this view contradicts itself. Allow me to explain.

If you think a fetus is an innocent life with a right to be born, it stands to reason that you think abortion is the murder of an innocent life.

But if you think abortion should be legally permissible in scenarios in which you pity the mother or believe the child may be deformed (incest), you are saying that its okay to murder deformed babies, or babies that inconvenience/emotionally harm otherwise chaste women whose pregnancy was not their fault.

Therefore it appears to me that its not the life of the fetus that is sacred to you (after all, why would it be justifiable to murder any baby for someone elses problems or for something that is not their fault?) but the punishment of women who failed to be chaste. After all, the circumstances of a childs conception should make little difference if you truly believe that abortion is murder. Murdering babies cant be sometimes okay, if that is what you genuinely believe abortion to be.

My conclusion here is that those who take a sometimes stance do so not because they genuinely and wholeheartedly believe abortion is murder (like the 100% pro-life folks) but because they wish to impose repercussions on women whom they view as promiscuous or irresponsible. These are the women who must carry to full term. That is why I see this stance as disingenuous.

Change my view.

EDIT to clarify that I am referring to social reasons to permit/not permit abortion (not trying to debate the ethics of late-stage abortion, for example).

[Assistant]
I think for pro-life people, it's not necessarily the fact that they consider abortion to be murder *alone*, but rather the fact that they consider the right of the fetus to live to be above the right of the mother to choose. Meanwhile pro-choice people believe the reverse.

If you look at it on this comparative scale, a decision of the more important between two fundamental rights, then it makes total sense that context can change someone's view on it. For instance, a pro-life person might believe that a fetus's right to life supersedes a woman's right to choose in most cases because the mother already *had* the ability to choose not to have sex, or to choose to take better precautions against getting pregnant, and thus she doesn't deserve a 'second chance' at the expense of the fetus's right to life. But the same person might feel it's different in the case of rape when the woman didn't have that choice to being with, and that in such a case, the woman's right to choose does come above the fetus's right to live.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is Carfax, a commercially owned company, allowed to collect all kinds of information on our cars, and sell it to others for money?

The more I'm researching the company, the stranger this seems. Apparently mistakes are common, and hard to get fixed, yet they severely affect the value of your vehicle. They get this information from insurance companies, from *police*, but also for example from oil change companies that will report your mileage to them. How is this allowed? It's not like I signed up with Facebook and they then sell my info. I never made any agreement with Carfax. Where did we give permission for this extensive reporting?

I ask, because I'm selling a car, and the buyers just emailed me this morning to say that the Carfax report lists my car as having been totaled in Florida last year. Not only has my car never been in an accident at all, my car hasn't even been in Florida (it's registered in OREGON), and I'm the only owner.

I can't believe that an idiotic mistake by a company I want nothing to do with, and that I never authorized to collect my information, has now reduced the value of my three year old car to virtually nothing, until they fix it. IF they fix it. They don't even have a phone number listed. How can all this be legal? Why isn't this kind of service run by the DMV?

[Assistant]
Every bit of information that is on Carfax is either:

1) Not information that qualifies for privacy protection

2) Information that is already public - this includes police records

3) **Information that, somewhere down the line, you agreed to allow another company to sell**, likely in a very long sale contract, online agreement, or other similar instrument.

That's how they do it.

Source: IP attorney.


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

[User]
Why is the inner solar system rocky (inner planets), the outer solar system gas (outer planets), and the far outer solar system rocky (Oort cloud, transNeptunian objects)?

I get why the inner planets are rocky and the outer ones gas, but why do we "go back to rocky" when you go even further out from the outer planets?

[Assistant]
Fundamentally this comes down to the "frost line": how far out from the Sun do we need to be before water freezes?

This also depends on the reflectivity of the object in question (the more reflective it is, the less sunlight it absorbs, the colder it is), but generally speaking, it's somewhere in the outer portion of the Main Asteroid Belt separating Mars and Jupiter.

This turns out to be crucial for which planet forms where. A forming proto-planet needs to weigh in around 5 - 10 Earth-masses before it has sufficient gravity to hold onto hydrogen gas. In other words, a proto-planet needs to build up a pretty substantial mass of just solids before it can grow even faster using gas. That is far more likely to happen if you can build your planetary core out of both rock and ice beyond the frost line rather than just rock inside the frost line.

Also note that subsequent migration can then alter planetary positions later. We see a lot of exoplanet systems where Jupiter-sized planets spiraled inwards after formation to end up with an orbit closer than Mercury is to the Sun; we *think* our own Solar System was spared from this fate only thanks to a resonance between Jupiter and Saturn.

I would challenge your assertion that...

> why do we "go back to rocky" when you go even further out from the outer planets?

When you get beyond Neptune, the bodies out there are somewhat rocky, but primarily they're *icy*. For example, the density of rock is usually somewhere around 3 g/cm^(3), while the density of ice is about 1 g/cm^(3). The density of Pluto, meanwhile, is 1.88 g/cm^(3), suggesting its got a *lot* of ice. To some extent, you can think of Pluto as a giant proto-planet core that never really gathered enough mass to get started.

This also makes sense because there's more than just one kind of frost line. While we usually means the *water* frost line just inside Jupiter's orbit, there's also the CO2 line farther out (where carbon dioxide freezes into dry ice), the methane line beyond that,  and the nitrogen ice line even farther out than that. So far as we can tell, the objects beyond Neptune have lots of nitrogen ice, because that's just about the only place it can form.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do wall sockets only have 1 or 2 plugs?

I've always wondered why there were only two. Can't we add more?

[Assistant]
There is typically a code (for safety) regarding electrical wiring. There is always the option of running more wires to more outlets, but there is a limit to how many sockets can be wired for a single pair of wires (by code).

Also a outlet boxes are very standard items - they are low cost because they are made in large volumes and made to common specification. Anything custom will be very expensive. More outlets means more circuits, means more wires, larger distribution boxes and more circuit breakers.

Lots of things can be done (within the electrical code for homes) but it is a matter of paying a lot more. Most households don't bother with the added expense.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are 'do' and 'don't' pronounced differently? If 'do' is pronounced 'doo', shouldn't 'don't' (do not) be pronounced 'doont'?

[Assistant] It's just one of those quirks of the English language. "Won't", for "will not", adds an 'o' before the 'n', which makes even less sense. Languages change over time, and clunky pronunciations like "doon't" or "willn't" get smoothed down to easy pronunciations.


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

[User]
In comparison to the sun, as viewed from Earth, how large does the sun look on Mercury?

Does it basically look the same size? 2x larger? 3x? 1.2x?

[Assistant]
The sun as viewed from Earth subtends an angle of about 0.533 degree.  From Mercury, it subtends an angle between about 1.14 degrees at aphelion and 1.73 degrees at perihelion.

So measuring (approximately) linear dimension, the sun appears between about 2.1 and 3.3 times as large from Mercury as it does from Earth.

Measuring *solid angle*, however (i.e., think "area"), the difference is between 4.6 and over *10 times* as large.  It depends on which measure you think is more appropriate-- for example, if you look at two circles, one of which has twice the diameter of the other, is it "twice" as large (twice the diameter), or "four times" as large (four times the area)?


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

[User]
How many years will it be until the 'maps' NASA sent out on the interstellar probes to locate Earth will no longer be useable by possible aliens who pick them up?

Wondering how long until the star maps that NASA had sent on the voyager probe (the gold disc type messages with the star chart to find our solar system) will be outdated due to star deaths etc.  Will the Sun burn out first, or will stars drift far enough through space to render them unreadable?

[Assistant]
Star maps sent out on spacecraft are based on pulsars. These stars are extremely long-lived and easy to identify based on their frequency. The maps should be relevant for billions of years.

Although keep in mind that the plaques are mostly symbolic. The chance of anything finding those probes is nearly nonexistent.


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

[User]
I think they're called 'for profit' colleges, but I'm not sure.  Places like ITT Tech and University of Phoenix: why are they bad?

Or is that just a matter of opinion?  My parents made me watch a special on it a while back when I was looking for schools to apply to, but it all went completely over my head and was so technical and confusing...I think I ended up falling asleep.

[Assistant] They have a profit motive. The thing is, academic standards aren't really profitable; to get the most money, you want to accept as many students as possible and ensure that none of them drop out. So a for-profit college's degree doesn't really mean anything; nobody will care if you have it.


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

[User] Is there an actual difference between, say, microwaves and infrared waves, or did we just decide on random numbers to separate them?

[Assistant] Photon frequency doesn't have any well defined natural boundaries. Practically, the categories we separate EM radiation into has to do with how that particular radiation is created, manipulated and detected, i.e. how it interacts with matter. It makes sense to separate radio waves from microwaves from visible light because the methods for generating them and ways of using them are completely different. However, there is certainly a degree of arbitrariness in exactly where those boundaries are.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Do some force users have more precognition then others? Who has the best precognition?

Also do some force sensitive people get precog? Why isn't there a sniper character with precog?

[Assistant]
Yes, Sifo Dias is known for his ability to predict events; even as a padawan, the Jedi Masters were in awe of his abilities. He predicted the clone wars when no one else did.

The reason we dont see force sensitive snipers is because we've yet to meet many force sensitives who are not part of the two major groups. The Night Sisters used bows which was no doubt aided by their abilities, though.


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

[User]
How can Nietzsche like Christ and hate Christianity?

Like, did he have some secondary sources that talk about Jesus? All his info comes from the Bible, but if his message was perverted like he says, why would Christians compile the New Testament when most of it contradicts its main work, the Gospels? And what is his admiration of Christ then, when his figure was invented by Christians?

[Assistant]
>Like, did he have some secondary sources that talk about Jesus?

He had thoughts about which aspects of Christianity strayed from Jesus's message, and which did not. It's not like he's the only one to draw these conclusions: when you read something like Paul it's not hard to get the picture that there are parts of Jesus's message and life that he places less emphasis on and parts that he places more emphasis on (think about 1 Corinthians 15:17 for instance).

>All his info comes from the Bible, but if his message was perverted like he says, why would Christians compile the New Testament when most of it contradicts its main work, the Gospels?

Why indeed! Nietzsche has a lot to say on this, both in *The Anti-Christ* (his big anti-Christian screed) and much of his other work too.

>And what is his admiration of Christ then, when his figure was invented by Christians?

This too is covered in *The Anti-Christ*. Nietzsche doesn't think Jesus was invented by Christians - he think Jesus existed.


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

[User]
Does hypnosis work?

Is it a real thing? Or is it just a magic trick? And if it works, how so? Can one get hypnotized by watching videos?

[Assistant] Suggestion works to some degree - for example, it has been successfully used as a mild alternative to analgesia, in dentistry for example. It is in no way comparable to what is popularly shown in media (e.g. against your own will; making you think you are a chicken, things of that sort)


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is the CIA allowed to black out parts of declassified documents?

Initially I thought it was just to protect the names of specific people involved - and indeed, that is definitely one reason they do this - but sometimes in declassified documents you'll see entire sentences or even paragraphs blacked out completely. I know it's the government, not just the CIA, who decides what gets declassified, but what's the point of declassifying a document if the CIA first gets to cover up the most sensitive bits? In the case of particularly damning documents, such the recent torture pieces, what's stopping them from simply blacking out the entire document? Do we know anything about the type of information that normally gets covered up? Is there *any* policy on this, or does the CIA just kind of do it and expect people to deal with it? Is it even carried out by the CIA in the first place, or is somebody else in charge of this?

I've been wondering this ever since I saw an old document about Charlie Chaplin in the communism witch hunts, where nearly full pages of the document had been removed despite it being a supposedly well-known and well-publicized scenario. It seems more relevant now than ever, though, as the torture documents have similar censorship and this is extremely unnerving for such an already controversial release.

EDIT: Thanks, everyone. The answers explained the law in place to determine what should and shouldn't be blacked out, and shed some light on the process and who's responsible for it. A lot of the info on what actually gets cut is still fuzzy, but that seems natural considering nobody can actually know exactly what that info used to be.

EDIT 2: Even the information on what's actually cut seems pretty clear now, or at least the type of thing they normally remove. I marked this explained a while ago but the explanations that are still coming in have been very helpful too. Thank you.

[Assistant]
The easiest, non-conspiracy way to explain it is simply that the act of removing the information is what allows the documents to become declassified.

For example, in the sentence:

"Mr. Ahmed Jones informed us of the super secret password to the al-qaeda clubhouse: pepperoni."

The sentence could be "declassified" by removing sources and methods:

"Mr. [redacted] informed us of the super-secret password to the [redacted]: [redacted]."

When you remove the sensitive information, there's nothing left to warrant the classification, so it can be downgraded.


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

[User]
[MiB] Why did Jay chase the alien in the beginning of the movie?

You never really get an explanation but it must have been big. I mean he had two uniformed cops and Jay who was in plain clothes.

What did he do to get such a reaction from the NYPD?

[Assistant] I would bet carjacking, grand theft auto, trying to jack a ferry, or something else. All the registered aliens were trying to find a way off Earth as fast as possible because the Bug was coming, and he was probably cutting legal corners trying to get to a spacecraft.


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

[User] ELI5: How do planes not become covered in ice when flying in -70F temperatures?

[Assistant] Planes try to avoid flying into areas that contain high amounts of moisture like clouds.  When that isn't possible there are de-icing systems on the plane that prevent the buildup of ice around critical areas like the engine inlets and leading edges of wings and probes.  They work by heating up or by passing bleed air from the engines underneath the surface or an electric heater.  This is the reason why the leading edges of engine intakes on most planes aren't painted.


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

[User]
Why does choked flow happen and why it is related to the speed of sound ?

I'm diving into the venturi effect (example: rocket nozzles and chocked flow happening in the admission valve of a ICE) and it seems that when the gas approaches the speed of sound, the flow starts to choke. Why does this happen ?

[Assistant]
To preface this answer: information about a medium travels at the speed of sound in the medium. So if you change the conditions of a flow at one point, the effect on the medium travels at the speed of sound upstream in the medium.

If you imagine a venturi nozzle and a flow condition where the speed of sound is achieved at the throat, and your downstream flow is travelling at greater than the speed of sound, any disturbances downstream of the throat won't propagate upstream. Picture yourself splashing around in a river where the flow travels faster than the wave speed; no one upstream of the river will be able to see your splashing around. Now there are two ways to achieve a choked flow scenario from here:

* ~~Increase the pressure upstream of the throat~~ **EDIT:** Forcibly increase flowrate upstream of the nozzle
* Decrease the pressure downstream of the throat.

If you try ~~increasing the pressure~~ forcing the flowrate to increase upstream of the nozzle (perhaps by increasing power on a compressor), you end up forcing air to get to Mach 1 before the throat. If you picture it does that instantaneously before the throat, because of how supersonic flow behaves it will actually decelerate to subsonic flow just downstream of the Mach transition. And speed up again and slow down again, etc. etc.. This just creates a bunch of shocks in your convergent nozzle where heat is generated but the flow doesn't speed up. And once it gets to the throat, it hits mach 1 anyways and accelerates in the divergent section.

If you decrease pressure downstream, on the other hand, you get a situation of underexpansion at the outlet of your pipe system. Unlike subsonic flow where the information about the new reduced downstream pressure propagates through the system quickly and stabilizes the flow pressures and velocities, the underexpansion remains at the outlet in the form of an expansion fan. Remember: information can't travel in a medium faster than the speed of sound, and if the flow travels faster than the speed of sound, the information downstream never propagates to the rest of the system.

EDIT: Changed "increase pressure upstream" to "increase flowrate upstream". Your behavior from the reservoir leading up to the throat will not depend on absolute pressure of the reservoir.


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

[User]
Why did the first stage of the Saturn V use different fuel from the second and third stage?

I'm kind of wondering here, why did they use Kerosene (or RP-1) for the first stage, and Liquid Hydrogen for the second and third? Does it have something to do with the thrust and efficiency?

[Assistant]
It is solely to do with thrust and efficiency, actually. Kerosene is energy dense, and liquid at high temperature. It doesn't need to be cryogenically cooled, like liquid Hydrogen, and can be stored in a much smaller tank. You save weight on fuel tank size, insulation, etc. Being more dense also makes it easier to burn a lot of it in a short amount of time and produce more thrust, because you're not having to push huge volumes of liquid Hydrogen through your system.

However, because the combustion products are heavier, they can't be thrown out the back by the rocket engine at as high a speed as burning liquid Hydrogen. This means that the combustion is less efficient. Lower stages are always less efficient anyway, though, because they're dealing with the atmosphere (not the case in space).

For a lower stage, you want to produce a lot of thrust, and you aren't as concerned about efficiency. You want to pack a big bang for a little buck. When you get to space, you want to start using more efficient propulsion techniques and fuel sources so that you're getting more out of your payload.


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

[User]
[Transformers] What kind of components are transformers made of?

Are they made of human components like wire and motors? If so how do they come in to existence? And why do the have muscles?

[Assistant] They seem to be made from a combination mechanical, moving parts and advanced electronic circuitry.  Transformers actually start out a more simple mannequin like shape, with a relatively smooth surface.  Fully grown transformers are made primarily of durabyllium steel.  While their parts are similar to human components, they are decidedly much more advanced.


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

[User] ELI5: Why hasn't Youtube tried to remove Adblock?

[Assistant]
They get their revenue from ads, which come from viewers, which come because YouTube is, by far, the favored video sharing site.

If they block Adblock then those users leave so the content creators are encouraged to leave and then the other users leave.

Allowing a small percentage of adamantly anti-ad users to view the site without ads winds up hurting them less than trying to force them out.


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

[User]
I predict our eventual move to the cloud will end 99.99% of piracy. CMV.

With Internet infrastructure slowly developing and improving, cloud solutions are slowly becoming more viable. Sooner or later, as we are moving with Microsoft's Office 365 and Adobe's Creative Cloud, pretty much all applications and games will run virtualized on a server. Screenshots of the applications will be sent from the server to your PC and any input will be sent from your PC to the server. We can already see this happening for games with Nvidia's shield streaming service.

With complete cloud solutions (we haven't quite reached this yet), the companies no longer provide you with a copy of the program code (in binary that is) and therefore in order to modify the application, you would have to either physically go to the server or hack the server which is incredibly hard and relies on a finite and shrinking amount of security holes created due to human mistakes.

Change my view.

[Assistant]
That could only apply to utility software and video games, where the content is reliant on you getting interactive feedback.

But for every medium that can exist as a single data file, it would still be easy to rip that data out of the cloud and play on any device without the servers.

But how do you end music piracy, if every MP3 file can contain copyrighted music? How do you end ebook piracy, if every PDF file can have the text of a book inside of it?


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

[User]
[MCU] Was the original Captain America's shield as strong as the one he got later from Black Panther?

Given that Howard Stark had probably never worked vibranium before is it possible that he may have not been able to produce an optimum strength shield??

[Assistant] The double wrist mounted ones? Theyre both Vibranium, no reason to assume one is better than the other. The Wakandan shields are better offensively, but caps shield is larger and can bounce. Hed probably prefer his own.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do phone batteries die at low temperatures, even if the charge amount is nowhere near 0%?

I found a previous post on this but the explanations were not really something a five year old would understand.

[Assistant] The protection circuit in the battery shuts it off. Li-Ion batteries mustnt be discharged below ~3.0V voltage. Low temperatures make the battery voltage drop. There is a deep discharge protection circuit, usually built directly into the battery pack which shuts it off.


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

[User]
Learning to make good arguments?

I have noticed that I am not being able to make convincing arguments, probably due to a lack of formal education in Philosophy. How can I remedy that? Is there any book I can read or maybe even a short course?

To give some background information, I am a medical professional and active in medical research. I have never received any formal philosophy training. However, I feel drawn to philosophy quite a lot. My primary area of interest is the nature of existence, especially the philosophical implications of general relativity and quantum mechanics (again I regret to say that I don't have any training in physics or mathematics beyond high school and mostly depend on science communicators e.g. Carl Sagan).

Till now, I've read some works of Socrates, Nietzsche and a little bit of eastern philosophy.

Do you guys have any recommendation for me?

[Assistant]
Im going to tell you the secret to writing good arguments.

Write an argument. Let a smart person who disagrees with you (or can play devils advocate well) read and critique it. Revise the argument based on that critique.

Repeat over and over again.


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

[User]
[DC] Has Bruce Wayne ever run out of money?

The man buys a lot for himself, supports several members of the Bat-Family, pours a lot of cash into making Gotham a better place (for all the good it does), and supports the Justice League in a number of ways including paying for all the damage they cause and buying them at least one super-high-tech base. Has there ever been a time when Bruce just plain spent everything he had on all of this, or came close to it?

[Assistant]
There have been times in earlier DC continuities when Bruce Wayne has had to pull back on his spending, but that's not quite the same thing as running out of money.

Over the decades, the amount of money Bruce Wayne has had to throw around has significantly increased.   Back in the 1960s, for example, he was only one of a number of millionaires who lived in Gotham City and didn't even qualify for the Forbes top 100 wealthiest men and women in the world.   Back then, his socioeconomic authority came less from how much money he had and more from his aristocratic lineage, such as being the descendent of one of the founders of Gotham City and of a Revolutionary War hero, and from his constant public charity work.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why your vision becomes grainy when you're in a dark room or when you close your eyes

Repost since my post got ''[removed]'' when I did not remove it myself nor did I receive a message as to why so I am going to assume it was a glitch on Reddit.

Like tiny fine dots that change colors and are red green and blue.

[Assistant]
Our eyes have two different types of cells that detect light.  Rods and Cones.

Cones detect color, there are (usually) three types that detect different wavelengths, corresponding to Red, Green, & Blue.

Rods don't detect color, only amount of light.

Cones have a much harder time detecting light when the light levels are very low.   This is why we tend to lose our color vision when in low light.   The cones practically stop working but the rods still work.

I don't recall fine dots that change colors, but I'd bet that what you are asking about is because the cone cells are struggling while the rod cells make up the difference.


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

[User] [DC]Since the Flash speeds up his subjective sense of time, all of the time, how many years has Barry Allen actually lived?

[Assistant]
It's hard to say without knowing just how time converts from normal speed to his speeds and how many times he's used his speed (countless).

BUT when Bart Allen decided to read every book in the library he said he had spent around a year reading it all when it had only been 20 minutes to the other Titans. So I'd assume, relative to himself, Barry Allen has lived for a VERY long time.


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

[User]
What causes viruses to take different structures? As an example Ebola is a string like structure, where as the flu is spherical.

And does the structure change the effects, like symptoms, transmission,etc.

[Assistant]
Beyond giving and answer like evolution, it is like a lock and key. Over time viruses change to adapt to changing host biology since their only purpose is to reproduce itself. Sometimes it is the conection site itself that changes and other times the body simply makes it impossible for the virus to reproduce.
For example their are certain humans who are naturally immune to HIV,  their immune system actually recognizes and attacks the virus.

Viruses are sneaky and they rely on that fact to be successful.if the body detects the foreign invader or the virus cannot make a home in a cell then it fails and dies or gets passed on.