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

[User]
My slightly complex issue about plagiarism

So I am an engineering major but we are required to take this entry level writing course. I submitted an assignment to Turnitin which was the unfinished version with grammar errors then I asked the instructor is it OK if I could submit the final version with another account since he disabled resubmitting. The similarity rate came up to be a 96% since I basically just corrected a few grammar issues here and there. In his words "Since I was one of his top students so far" he will disregard this and gave me another chance to rewrite the paper but I am pretty certain this will really effect his grading attitude to me from now on. I am not sure if he can still check my first submission's similarity rate and if not, I can't think of any ways to defend myself. Re-writing the thing also will be time consuming in my already busy week, if anyone experienced something similar or have any suggestions about the issue I highly appreciate it.
Edit: It appears since he kicked my first account out of the class he only saw my second 96 percent submission. After I reenrolled my first account the issue was resolved. Thanks everyone for the response/suggestions!

[Assistant]
To be clear, you (essentially) submitted the wrong version of your paper, got permission to submit the correct version and submitted it, and now the professor is considering this an act of plagiarism?

Did you get permission from him in writing?

In any case, meet with him and ask for clarification. Recap the situation and tell him youre caught off guard by his reaction.


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

[User] ELI5:Why do drinks feel so cold after I eat a mint?

[Assistant] Your tongue senses cold because it posseses a sensory protein called transient receptor potential cation channel subfamily M member 8 (TRPM8). Thats what tells you when something is cold. But it doesn't just react to cold temperatures, it also reacts to menthol, the primary part of mint that gives its mintyness. So when you eat a mint, it not only creates a mild cooling sensation, it makes your tongue much more sensitive to other cold stuff. So a water and other drinks, even at room temperature, will feel much colder, pretty much anything with a lower temperature than your mouth will feel cold because the mint has made you so much more sensitive to it.


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

[User]
Does light orbit black holes?

Black holes are always explained in terms of a thing so heavy that not even light can escape its gravitational pull. I always thought of this in terms of the light that would be produced by the thing itself (i.e. as a kid I thought as black holes as really big stars that were compressed to the point that the light they produced couldn't escape). But what about light produced elsewhere, passing by the black hole? Does it end up orbiting the black hole, going just fast enough not to fall into it? Is there a place just far enough away from the black hole that the light doesn't fall into it but close enough that it doesn't just curve around it or shoot past it? Would this place be blindingly bright, with light from all the surrounding stars and universes spinning around the black hole endlessly? Or am I thinking about this all wrong?

[Assistant] Theoretically, it could. Even other perfectly spherical bodies with a radius smaller than 1.5 Schwarschild radii, a neutron star for instance. But it had to orbit it at precisely the right distance (namely 1.5 times the Schwarzschild radius), or else it will fall in or shoot out. So in reality you will never find light orbiting a black hole, because the slightest perturbation is going to be the end of it.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why can't members of Congress and the Senate vote remotely?

Hello,

Allow me to begin by saying that it's my understanding that members of the US Senate and Congress are required to be present in the Assembly Room to cast a vote.  If this is incorrect, then I apologize and I'll go ahead and remove this post.

With that disclaimer, I recall a number of years ago when I visited DC as a kid, I went on a tour of Congress and the guide explained that members of Congress need to be present to cast a vote.  Now, back in the early 90s that made sense because in my mind, how else could they vote?

However, now that we have the telecommunication infrastructure that we do... why are members of Congress and the Senate still required to be present to vote?

[Assistant] Article 1, Section 5 of the Constitution specifically allows Congress to compel the attendance of absent members, and to determine the rules for proceedings, which presumably include in-person attendance. As for why they don't expand "attendance" to mean teleconferencing, it's probably because of tradition, and because it would look bad for a member of Congress to be able to vote while absent.


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

[User] [Unbreakable] Did 'The Orange Man' have any abilities himself?

[Assistant]
Thankfully no. Otherwise David Dunn would have had a much harder fight on his hands.

Orange jumpsuit dude was a fucking psycho, physically large and strong, and when his fight-or-flight response kicked in he was able to last a really long time while being choked out by an unbreakable sleeper hold. That's all.

Easily the best moment of the film .


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

[User]
[Star Trek] Where is the anti-phaser armor?

The equivalent of a Bullet proof vest.

[Assistant] The problem is that phasers are ludicrously powerful by the time of Next Gen. Like you see them reduce people to a carpet-stain at least a handful of times. Short of personal shield-generators, which are pretty impractical, what can you do against that, short of wearing ship-grade plating?


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

[User]
When I trip on the stairs, and have a 'mini heart attack' what is it I feel happening?

Obviously not just when tripping on the stairs, another example is leaning too far back on a chair. It seems to be so instantaneous, is it just adrenalin or something more?

[Assistant] What you feel is a rush of adrenaline. Your brain detects the danger of falling which could be harmful, so it releases lots of adrenaline to prevent that from happening. You may remember that many times you get this you didnt actually fall, you reacted fast enough to prevent that from happening. Without adrenaline you would probably fall more often, and could harm your self if you are unlucky, your body doesnt like taking that chance.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does everyone have such distinctive voices when the make up of our throat area is very similar?

[Assistant]
Trained as a linguist here.

"Similar" is only in the most basic terms. People vary a lot.

More importantly, our brains are specifically attuned to speech, and we can perceive very *very* subtle differences. Like, a timing difference of 30 milliseconds, and a pitch difference as low as 1 Hz at 200 Hz (male speaking voice).

We are sensitive to a fraction of a millimeter's difference in placement in consonants (think of the difference between where your tongue lands when you say T and CH).  We are sensitive to less than 100 Hz differences in vowels, or a fraction of a millimeter (think of how close the difference is between the "e" in DRESS and "a" in FACE in terms of where your tongue is to make the vowel).

"Distinctive" comes from all kinds of things including fundamental pitch (vocal chord length), pitch changes (relative pitch), stress (relative loudness), vowel placement, consonant articulation placement, speed, timing, accents, "sets" of the tongue and jaw and soft palate, and other social things people do with their voices, consciously and unconsciously, to show they're part of a group.

Voice identification to one individual is actually very difficult. In court settings, people get it wrong a lot.

TL;DR - We are very, very, very sensitive to subtle differences in speech, and people do lots of things to differentiate themselves.


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

[User] Is $1 of tariffs considered to be significantly worse for the economy than $1 in additional income tax?

[Assistant]
A tariff is distortionary because the increased tax on the relevant good changes optimal market behavior. E.g. Consumers start substituting the taxed product A for untaxed product B which reduces total welfare compared to if no tax was in place.

An income tax is distortionary because it puts downward pressure on the incentives to work. The higher the income taxes, the more welfare is lost because people will work less than is optimal.

So the answer depends on which of these effects is greater, and that depends on the specific numbers of elasticities and all. You could certainly imagine a scenario where either could be true. In the real world, though, it's fairly obvious without any math involved that the welfare lost from an equivalent tariff is greater. Labor markets are much more rigid and we find that income taxes don't have that extreme of an effect on how much labor an individual supplies. Meanwhile, purchasing decisions are pretty fluid. If you see two similar items of similar quality on the supermarket shelf, you'll choose the cheaper one. So intuitively, knowing both of these things tells us that more behavior will be changed into the "less efficient zone" through the tariff.


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

[User]
Is it unethical for a professor to send a mass e-mail with every student's graded assignment in one attachment? (context inside)

So a professor of mine just sent us an e-mail with a scanned copy of our graded assignment attached. What really bothers me is that she included everyone's assignment in the e-mail. This was not an unintentional mistake, as she stated in the e-mail that we need to scroll through the attachment and look for our assignment. These assignments were completely graded with comments written on them. We are a small cohort of nine undergraduate students in an honors research program, so I am sure that we will eventually be giving one another critiques of our theses. However, the point of this particular assignment was not to peer-review each other's work, and was to simply make an outline of our method's section for grading by the professor. I am not comfortable with other people seeing my assignment without my consent, nor am I comfortable with seeing other people's assignments. Would you consider this to be unethical, or at least unprofessional? And if it is, then what should I do? I don't know if it would be appropriate to confront the professor about it, and even if I did, I fear that it may cause some tension between us if I was to criticize her (I'll be taking classes from and working closely with her for the next year since she is the head of the program). Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Assistant]
That certainly sounds like a FERPA violation to me, if it was done without your positive consent (assuming you're in the US). Technically, email is not considered a secure form of communication and graded assignments, or the grades themselves actually, are not supposed to be transmitted in that fashion.

At the same time, in this research context, you should try to get yourself into the mindset of openness and the proper research and graduate outlook of 'grades don't matter'. If you want, maybe send a note of concern to your department chair, who can do something, but don't rock the boat too much either and just try to keep things in a longer-term perspective.


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

[User] Does restorative justice reduce recidivism?

[Assistant]
Yes.

Sherman, L., Strang, H., Mayo-Wilson, E., Woods, D., & Ariel, B. (2015). Are Restorative Justice Conferences Effective in Reducing Repeat Offending? Findings from a Campbell Systematic Review. Journal Of Quantitative Criminology, 31(1), 1-24.

Objectives: This paper synthesizes the effects on repeat offending reported in ten eligible randomized trials of face-to-face restorative justice conferences (RJCs) between crime victims, their accused or convicted offenders, and their respective kin and communities. Methods: After an exhaustive search strategy that examined 519 studies that could have been eligible for our rigorous inclusion criteria, we found ten that did. Included studies measured recidivism by 2 years of convictions after random assignment of 1,880 accused or convicted offenders who had consented to meet their consenting victims prior to random assignment, based on 'intention-to-treat' analysis. Results: Our meta-analysis found that, on average, RJCs cause a modest but highly cost-effective reduction in the frequency of repeat offending by the consenting offenders randomly assigned to participate in such a conference. A cost-effectiveness estimate for the seven United Kingdom experiments found a ratio of 3.7-8.1 times more benefit in cost of crimes prevented than the cost of delivering RJCs. Conclusion: RJCs are a cost-effective means of reducing frequency of recidivism.


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

[User]
How Does A Towel Gaining/Losing Water Function On A Atomic Level

I was thinking about this early, but couldn't think of a reason that satiated me. My basic hypothesis was that, the towel functions like a net and "catches" the water and the water "escapes" when it evaporates into a gas.

I don't feel quite satisfied with this answer though and would like a tad more elaboration/correction.

[Assistant]
Atomic level is too small, you need to look at molecular or even the micro scale for that phenomena.

A towel is designed so that it has a relatively porous structure with a lot of surface area and interconnected pathways.  These porous channels allow for water to be wicked away from your skin and travel into the cloth of the towel, using capillary action the same way a candle wick works.  The water then sits in the wet towel using intermolecular interactions with the towel fibers.

Drying the towel happens through normal evaporation.  The high surface area of the towel means there is quite a bit of surface area over which evaporation can happen, so towels can dry relatively quickly (compared to the same amount of water in another container).


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

[User]
Has Bruce Banner ever killed an innocent?

Considering his history it seems exceedingly unlikely that he hasn't accidentally killed a bystander. Yet I can't find any evidence that he actually has.

[Assistant]
Depends on who you ask. According to Amadeus Cho, one of the smartest people alive, the Hulk is actually a genius who uses math with his every gesture to keep from killing innocent people during one of his blindingly furious tantrums where he levels entire towns and turns city blocks into craters.

He told this to Reed Richards, who had recently thrown the Hulk into space. Except, however, the reason that Reed and the others shot Hulk off in a space rocket was because Hulk had killed innocent people in one of his rampages. In addition, Bruce Banner has mentioned that the Hulk has inadvertently caused civilian deaths.


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

[User] [Revenge of the Sith] What if Mace Windu decided he did need Anakin to fight Palpatine and brought him along?

[Assistant]
I don't think that, itself, would make a difference. In the ROTS novelization, Windu's mistake was not looking into Anakin to see what his shatterpoint was. Meaning, he didn't try to see what would make Anakin decisively choose to kill Palpatine.

I swear, this could have all been avoided is the Jedi had actually listened to Anakin and help him with his problems.


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

[User] [General Sci-fi] How can a multi planet/multi system empire be governed in any effective way? Isn't there just too much to govern? And how does life really change much for the average person?

[Assistant]
Technology is a major contributing factor.

High tech settings like Star Trek or Star Wars where communication between systems is almost instantaneous and travelling light years can be done in days or hours, it's more than manageable.

Settings like The Expanse where FTL doesn't exist and traveling to other systems can still take months or years, ruling other systems is done pretty loosely.


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

[User] ELI5: How does freezer burn occur?

[Assistant]
Freezer burn is from sublimation. Ice, when exposed to air can evaporate without melting into water first, this process is called sublimation. Carbon dioxide does this, its why you don't see dry ice melt into a liquid. There is nothing exactly inedible about freezer burned foods they're just oxidized and dried out so they'll taste funny, but they aren't rotting.

You can actually slow down freezer burn from occurring by first properly packaging your foods(vacuum sealing) and secondly by having exposed ice in the freezer. The ice will sublimate and increase the humidity in the freezer so the water in your food wont have to evaporate as much for the freezers humidity to reach equilibrium.


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

[User] [MCU] who originally put the space Stone in the Tesseract and for what purpose?

[Assistant]
Wasnt it an old Norse relic?  The Asgardians probably made it then. As for why, it is hard to say. Maybe it was what they used for Bifrost.

Or maybe it is what Hela used to travel to and conquer worlds. Then Odin hid it on earth after he sealed her away. Bifrost only seems to connect the 9 realms, and they need other methods to go to other worlds.


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

[User]
ELI5: When people say that climate change is a hoax, what is the purpose of such a "hoax"?

I don't get it. Jim Inhofe says it's the greatest hoax ever perpetuated on the American people. But I don't understand what people like this think we are trying to gain?

[Assistant]
They think that the scientific community is trying to collect funding with a scare tactic, or that's at least the story they give the public.

The real reason they speak out against climate change funding is because the politicians are firmly in the pocket of corporations that make a lot of money destroying the environment, such as fossil fuel companies.

You'll notice that most of these same people oppose funding research for renewable energy sources.

Follow the money, as they say.


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

[User] If energy neither can be created nor destroyed wouldn't that mean that the universe must be eternal and lack both a beginning and an end?

[Assistant]
There's something called the zero-energy universe hypothesis. It postulates the net energy of the universe is zero, which means you can create one from essentially nothing. A beginning would be when "nothing" was split into positive energy (e.g., matter) and negative energy (e.g., gravity).

Currently it's assumed there really isn't an end. There will just be a point when the universe no longer has enough energy concentrated in one place to do anything interesting. The universe is expanding so the concentration of "stuff" is getting less and less dense.


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

[User] [Halo] What are the strongest UNSC ships?

[Assistant]
The UNSC Infinity is far and above the most potent of the UNSC's ships.

Second to it are the Marathon class heavy cruisers. While only slightly larger than the Halcyon Class, they typically have heavier ordinance.

The Phoenix colony ships are sometimes refitted for military use, and while twice the size of either the Marathon or Halcyon cruisers, are usually used as a command and supply role and don't have the same ordinance. Their increased size does make them somewhat more durable though.


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

[User]
Why is causing children suffering as punishment via physical harm unacceptable but causing them suffering via mental harm (by say, isolating or boring them) acceptable?

Obligatory Im not saying we should do x but just want to know why exactly.

[Assistant]
How's three choices of how you want to tackle this:

If you want to make a purely philosophical case, you also need to ask what your ethical framework is. Is it consequentialist (achieving desirable ends), deontological (a defined set of rules), normative (what people just.. think?). the level of acceptability can change depending on what stance you take.

but as this seems to be a more concrete and practical question, we can fall back to the concrete principles of bioethics

* nonmaleficence: With boredom/isolation there is usually no intent to harm. With physical punishment, if we go with the idea that corporal punishment leads to no desirable outcomes (as can be argued for the child's development), and it comes from an attempt to violate, then the common sense moral judgement that this is not good or desirable
* autonomy: this is where it gets tricky, but its far easier to say that children have the ability to choose what they want to do when they're isolated or bored. When you beat a child, it is conventionally by force and restraint. Second, someone might say that the body is one's personal property and essential for living. If you beat the shit out of a child, you are damaging that which does not belong to you, and you are comprimising their ability to sustain their lives.
* beneficence: is the intent to better the child or the situation?
* justice: Could the punishment be just? **That is largely dependent on whether you think the child is morally responsible for their actions**

That last part is the clincher. Many times we presuppose children are helpless and incapable of being accountable for their actions. If they can't be blamed for what they do, is punishment ever acceptable? Your call on that one. Based on that, you can plug and chug to see whether boring a child and beating a child fall in the same moral vein.

Third, if you approach this from a politico-philosophical perspective (in the broad sense of examining about how groups of people should fall into place and interact and whether/or how they should be "ruled) you could just say it's precedent and that's ok, or that certain forms of isolation are wrong and others aren't, or that this has little political content, or that you cannot delineate when non-physical control of children goes from ok to all-out not okay.

 there are infinite ways to skin this cat.


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

[User]
Under what geographic conditions do salt mines form?

I am writing a novel where salt is an even more important item than in real life and so a big part of the setting has to do with salt production and trade. I know I can't be 100% accurate but I wouldn't want my geography to be outrageous and have salt mines where it would make no sense. Are there any specific geographic conditions for salt mines to form? Like, does the place need to be arid or humid? Cold or warm? Near the coast or deep inland? I have researched a bit about how they get formed but I'm not entirely sure about these more pop-science questions. Feel free to give me any tips or further information on this!

[Assistant]
Well, salt mines are formed when humans find salt and build a mine. But a salt deposit is formed when bodies of salt water, ex. Salton lake, great salt lake, dead sea, dry up and leave millions of years of salt in the ground.

Often those deposits get buried over many millenia. Over time, buried salt tends to rise, pushing upwards in a mushroom shape. These big formations are ideal for mines. Many of these exist in the deep south of the United States.


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

[User] ELI5: If Iron, Nickel, and Cobalt are the only magnetic elements, then how/why do rare earth metals make stronger magnets?

[Assistant] The rare earth metals are magnetic, but only at lower temperatures. By combining them with iron, nickel, and cobalt in alloys, you can raise the temperature at which their magnetism would normally disappear. The stronger magnetic field comes partly from the high number of unpaired electrons they have.


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

[User]
I believe that having children should require a license. CMV.

The licensing process should be designed in such a way to (as much as possible) weed out people who are drug addicts, violent in nature, mentally ill in a way that could likely be damaging to a child, or do not have the means to support a child.  This will help lead to a situation where fewer children are raised in bad situations caused by having parents who weren't qualified to be parents.  CMV.

[Assistant]
This infringes on basic human rights. This also would lead to a whole scale eradication of cultures; people in ghettos can't afford this shit.

Basically this is Hitler but not directly killing Jews.


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

[User] [General] I've always thought I was human but now I've discovered I'm actually a fragment of a near-omnipotent entity that wanted to experience mortality. Now it's calling me to merge back with it again, but I have a life and family here now. What are my options? I don't want to go.

[Assistant] If you have any way to communicate with it, simply explain that you can't experience mortality without death. Try to get it to let you finish your run. If it's almost omnipotent, it's probably near immortal to, so a few decades won't really matter to it.


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

[User]
[Buffy the Vampire Slayer] How did the minor small town all-ages club the Bronze manage to draw bands like Cibo Matto, Supergrass and the Breeders?

Any podunk below-18 club I've seen was lucky to get a passable cover band or half-assed Oasis imitator, yet the Bronze consistently pulls in hot national famous acts. Is there demon-magic involved?

[Assistant] Sunnydale is relatively close to LA and San Fransisco.  It wouldn't be crazy for a band that was doing a show in LA to make a stop in Sunnydale for a fun club show  on the way to San Fran.  One band into the occult could have made the stop because of the rumours spread about the Hellmouth and made it known its a fun town to do a small show for the Sunnydale UC kids.   It's also possible that the bands representation has ties to Wolf Ram and Hart in LA and the manager needs to disguise a stop at the hellmouth so signs the band up for a tune up show between the LA and San Fran dates.


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

[User] ELI5: I read today that the SpaceX space suit was tested to double vacuum pressure. If a vacuum is zero, then how can it be doubled?

[Assistant]
A single vacuum pressure is when you have a vacuums worth of pressure on one side and an atmospheres worth of pressure on the other.

If they double this, this means they had double atmospheric pressure on one side and a vacuum on the other.


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

[User]
[X-Men] If Nightcrawler can teleport to anywhere hes been before or places he can see then does that mean he has the ability to fly if he just repeatedly teleports a certain distance in front of him?

Using this same theory then he should be able to move extremely fast as well (on the ground, I mean). However, definitely not on Quicksilver levels of speed because the speed at which he perceives stimuli around him would be the same.

[Assistant] There is a scene in an X-men cartoon when he does exactly this. He basically bamfs his way from Geonosha to the mainland to warn them of some threat or some such. He was basically near dead exhausted by the time he actually got to shore.


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

[User]
Why is double taxation bad / often something people want to avoid?

Title says it all.

Ive seen people say things like the corporate income tax / the capital gains tax / the estate tax etc. etc. is double taxation (which is when the same money is taxed twice)

why is this often seen as a bad thing / a downside when people discuss tax policy?

Thank in advance! Thoroughly appreciate it as I am not well informed on economics :)

[Assistant]
People often don't like paying taxes, and paying taxes "double" sounds twice as bad. Basically, it's a boogeyman that lends itself well to Facebook memes.

At the end of the day what matters is often the total tax burden. If you pay 30% of your income via taxes by one tax or five is absolutely secondary. Of course that means you have to pay attention to actually count everything if that's what concerns you, and when implementing new taxes you should make sure to take into account how that affects the total tax burden as well.

But really, things aren't just double taxed, they are triple, quadruple, quintuple, etc. taxed. Think about it, imagine you go and buy a candy bar, you buy that from your income, which was taxed, you pay sales tax, the store you buy it at pays taxes, the manufacturer the store buys the candy from gets taxed, etc. ultimately all money is taxed pretty much infinitely as it cycles through the economy. Does that matter? Not really. From a big perspective, what matters is what share of GDP lands in the pockets of the government so it can finance itself, and from a small perspective what matters to you is what share of your income you can keep to spend.

"Double taxation" for the most part is a boogeyman for interest groups who don't like taxes, nothing more than that.


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

[User]
[MCU] Where has "Nick" Fury been for the last 5 years?

 (Spoilers for Captain Marvel, Infinity War, and Endgame)
If Talos was the one to page Captain Marvel before being snapped (Hill repeatedly refers to Fury as "Nick" in the EC scene), where has Fury been since Talos and he switched places?

[Assistant]
Far From Home spoilers below.

After Thanos, Fury most likely came to the conclusion that Earth's most serious threats are not native to Earth. They're in space, and he doesn't know nearly enough about them. Luckily, his pal Carol Danvers knows a whole lot about those threats; she's been dealing with them for decades. >!Fury's partnership with the Skrulls can only imply one common enemy; the Kree. Talos and his wife even mention that the Kree have sleeper cells on Earth. It seems very likely that "SHIELD", the Skrulls and Captain Marvel have united to respond to the impending threat of the Kree empire.!<

[Out of universe]: >!Word of God is that Fury was *only* being impersonated in Far From Home, not before. It seems very likely that he is building the organization we know from the comics to be SWORD. In the same way that SHIELD defends the Earth from native threats, SWORD protects it from intergalactic threats. SWORD is essentially SHIELD, in space.!<


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

[User] [DC] If Lex Luthor actually succeeded in getting rid of Superman forever, would he actually try to make the world a better place ?

[Assistant]
No. There was a point where Superman lost his powers for a full year. At the end of the year, when his powers finally returned, he confronted Luthor with the fact that Superman had been gone, and Luthor did NOTHING of the things he always promised he'd do if Superman wasn't around anymore.

This did not make Luthor very happy.


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

[User]
Why do men not get engagement rings?

I suppose this means a little bit more to me since I am in a long distance relationship and I would want my boyfriend to have one as well.

[Assistant]
The engagement ring used to be like an insurance policy for the woman. If a man gave a woman an expensive piece of jewelry, he would be less likely to not do as he had promised: to marry the woman. That way, the women could be more intimate with him without risking that, if he didn't marry her in the end but her virginity has been taken or was at least in question, she would be left poor (she could sell the ring, after all).

These days it's more normal to have sex before you get married, female virginity isn't as highly prized and engagement rings for women are no longer necessary, but many people still follow the tradition.

Because men's virginity ir purity was never relevant for their life prospects, they didn't need rings. However, sometimes men choose to also wear a ring. You could say that engagement rings for men are a signal of equality :)


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

[User]
[John Wick 2] Wouldn't it be more practical to line the shirt with the body armor instead of the jacket?

In the scene where he goes to get himself a new suit and decides to get the jacket lined with the body armor, why is it restrictive only to the jacket? Wouldn't it much better to sew it underneath the dress shirt instead of the jacket to ensure better survivability?

Because the armor plating seems pretty flexible and light considering that the man handles it like a piece of paper with some weight on it.

[Assistant]
Lining the shirt with it may cause him to overheat during strenuous activity. Plus he has the added bonus of pulling the jacket up to block his face, which he does a few times in the gunfight in the ruins.

Edit: The lining might also be irritating or cause a rash.


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

[User]
ELI5: What's wrong with the word 'negro'? How is 'black' politically more correct than 'negro'?

From wikipedia: The word Negro is used in the English-speaking world to refer to a person of black ancestry or appearance, whether of African descent or not.

I am from India, where 'Negro' is still a well accepted term for blacks, so I am curious what happened elsewhere?

[Assistant] Apparently words that have a neutral definition can become slurs if they are constantly used to describe someone we don't like.  Negro, just as a word outside of any context, is completly neutral; it's the Spanish word for black.  However, because it was previously used to name people that we oppresed, the word is now bad.  Just like Chinaman or Jap.  Chinaman is bad but Englishman is good, and Jap is bad but Brit is good.  These words are bad because at some point in time, they were used negatively.  If there was a big war, and the word "person" was used to describe the enemy in propaganda, you would not be allowed to call anyone a "person" afterwards.


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

[User] ELI5: If protein based foods are more likely to make us feel full, and carbohydrates or sugars usually make us crave more food, why do we eat a sweet dessert last?

[Assistant]
Basically, because we save the best for last.

People are hard-wired to crave sweet things because of the natural assumption that sweet = nutritious (which made sense before refined carbohydrates, agriculture and bee-keeping, as the sweetest things around were fruits). Add in basic psychology, and you get people eating the least "rewarding" food (i.e. salads) first, the bulk of the meal second, and the sweet, most pleasurable thing (dessert) last.


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

[User]
[Marvel] How does Gambit's power work with bullets or being shot?

I guess there are a few stages in my thought process.

1. Could he charge a bullet in order for it to explode on impact?

2. If he was shot in a non lethal place (say through his palm) and the bullet keeps traveling, after it hits him, could he charge it through the process of being shot.

3. Say 2. is possible, could he do so with a fatal blow (i.e. the brain)?

I imagined some made up situation where Gambit is in a stand off with a bad guy (say the Punisher for simplicity), but needs to blow up a thing for his team. Could he engage in hand-to-hand and cup the barrel of the gun while it is firing at a certain position in order to blow up the thing for his team?

[Assistant]
Gambit's powers don't work instantly - it takes him time to build up a charge in an object. The longer he touches it, the more he can charge it. The time it takes a bullet to go into or through him would not be enough time for him to charge it.

Plus, even if it were possible, the result would be that he was just being hit by an exploding bullet, instant of a regular bullet.

On the other hand, if he was holding a bullet in his hand, he could indeed charge it to explode on impact - but that's impact with *anything*, including the firing pin of a gun, and possibly even just the force of being chambered into a gun.


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

[User] ELI5: Wooden instruments such as violins are praised for their age because of sound quality growing over time (at least that's what I was told growing up). Why does it seem like this is not the case for guitars?

[Assistant]
as other commentors have noted, it is in fact also the case for the guitar. however, the guitar was both invented (or let's say achieved its final form) and popularized later than the violin, so there were fewer guitars made and fewer survived than violins of comparable age. the metropolitan art museum in nyc has a guitar made by stradivarius, and you better believe it's praised! also early martins and gibsons from a much more recent era, newer but still praised.

one interesting theory about why violins from that era are prized, aside from the quality of their manufacture, is that they were made from trees that we don't have access to today due to logging. another theory is that trees in a certain era had grown during the little ice age in europe and so their wood was more dense and conducive to acoustics.


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

[User]
Could a Star Wars type Blaster Gun ever be made? Or is it physically impossible? If yes, how would this be done?

If you shot it, would you be able to see the projectile/beam? Would it just be a big laser? Or would it have some substance to the shot?

I am completely serious about this.

[Assistant]
Of course a blaster is possible, but it is important that you understand that a blaster is not a "laser".  A blaster generates and propels a quantity of superheated and ionized gas contained enclosed within a temporary particle shield.  The shield contains the plasma so that it doesn't immediately burst into a flash of heat upon contact with air, burning the user and anyone nearby.

As for how to build one, simply tune a particle shield generator so that it creates a weak and entirely enclosed field.  Then, introduce a pellet of highly pressurized tibanna gas.  The pellet, as it passes through the particle shield will become super heated, burning away the casing and releasing the ionized gas into the shielded space.  Finally, engage an electromagnetic coil while overloading the shield generator.  The overloaded shield generator will allow the field to exist independently for a short time while the EM coil accelerates the projectile toward your target, leaving a glowing trail of hot atmosphere in its wake.

When striking a solid target, the particle shield will heat and displace the target substance before collapsing entirely, generating a sort of armor-piercing effect.  When the particle field collapses, the superheated gas explodes, further displacing armor and releasing an electrical pulse that tends to overload nearby electrical systems.

*IRL, can you make one now?  Not really.  No force fields like the ones they have in SW.*


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

[User] ELI5: the difference between 2G, 3G, and 4G. I understand that they get better but what makes them better? What would prevent me from taking an old razr phone and putting it on 4G?

[Assistant] G is for Generation, different generations of cellular data transfer technology. 4G isnt even truly a new generation its more of an expansion on 3G technology. When you buy a phone it has a chip in it for data/cell service and an outdated chip will not work with the new protocols and requirements for a 4G connection type if it wasnt made for one. Its as simple as that.


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

[User] ELI5: After a private conversation with family about skin conditions, our phones began showing advertisements on Facebook for Psoriasis medication. Are our phones "listening in" and picking up keywords? We have never searched for such topics or discussed besides verbally.

[Assistant]
Alllllrighttttt guys. Your phones are NOT listening in on your real conversations... They are however, tracking your browsing history and displaying relevant ads to what pages you've been on. In this case, someone on a phone or shared computer must have searched, liked a page or commented of something to do with Psoriasis.

Edit: Cause people don't believe this, let me tell you a bit how targeted advertising works. Advertisers build comprehensive profiles of their users based on activity on basically any site you go to... That's why people have tracking cookies on their computers and mobile phones. They then take these browsing patterns and "guess" which products and services you might be interested in. Of course, companies have a ton of incentive to be very very good at guessing this stuff since they get paid per click... Hence, customers get freakishly relevant ads.


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

[User] ELI5: How does starvation kill a human being?

[Assistant] We need energy and nutrients to survive. We get those things from food. If we stop eating, we run out of energy and nutrients, and our body starts to consume itself. Eventually, even that runs out. Think of it like a car needing gas to run. If the car runs out of gas, the car shuts down, except unlike cars, we can't be turned on again once we're turned off.


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

[User] eli5 How do sperm come back to life after being frozen then unfrozen for fertility treatments?

[Assistant] The reason why cells usually die when frozen is that the water contained in them forms ice crystals with sharp edges and points which also take up more space than the water they have formed from. These crystals destroy the internal cell structures and its outer membrane, so the cell basically is burst open. Sperm cells are very small and have lower water content than other human cell types and for this reason they are more capable of surviving freezing. To improve the odds of survival, cryoprotectors like glycerol are also added which inhibit crystal growth. Another, even better technique is vitrification which uses super fast cooling to extremely low temperatures (like down to almost -200 C in less than a second). This makes the water pass through to a glass-like solid state without forming crystals. This is the preferred method for egg cell and embryo cryopreservation,  because those, unlike sperm cells, are few and hard to come by.


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

[User] ELI5: What's the ringing in my ears when everything is silent?

[Assistant]
It sounds like you're describing tinnitus.

Yes, almost everyone experiences it at some point. For some, it's transient and not bothersome, but for others it can be constant and quite intrusive. It can take several forms, such as a single high pitched frequency, chirping similar to cricket noises, or even be pulsatile. Not everyone hears it at the same frequency and there are actual tests an audiologist can do during a tinnitus evaluation to determine the frequency of the particular tinnitus you experience.


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

[User]
[Hollow Knight] What happens to cloth if she doesn't die to the mantis lord?

I remember playing through hollow knight having an amazing time and when I beat the mantis lord it was a great well fought tough battle. Then I got more into the community and found out she's supposed to help you fight him which for some reason I did not get I fought him solo. So what happened to her? Is she still alive? Did she just leave hollownest? Was i the only one to get this weird event?

[Assistant] From the wiki: If Cloth was not rescued in the Ancient Basin (the condition in game to have her help you) before killing the Traitor Lord, she decides to leave Hallownest, having found no challenge she could not overcome or die trying. She returns to Dirtmouth and sleeps outside of Sly's shop for a quick rest. She thanks the Knight for the inspiration they gave her but states her plan to find more challenges outside Hallownest's ruins. In her mind, she still hopes to be reunited with Nola in death. Cloth leaves Dirtmouth after she is listened to and the area is exited.


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

[User]
ELI5: How/why are college sports so big in America?

Being English, it is mind-blowing to see how big college level sports are in the states. The scale/professional and crowd attendence of college football games for example, is immense. Such games even have media coverage. We have nothing like that over here at university level. In fact, even students of the university do not attend and support thier teams in my experience. How/why are college level sports so big in America then and are the players treated like celebrities like it appears?

[Assistant] American football was made popular by colleges and universities, then the pro leagues formed, not the other way around.  The colleges and universities spent many years and lots of money creating the market for American football. The pro leagues were formed to try to capitalize on that market.  In fact, a popular anecdote is when the pro leagues were still in a fledgeling state, a college star named Jim Thorpe mentioned he was thinking of going pro, most thought he was kidding as the pro leagues were considered a joke.  By the time the NFL became the powerhouse it is today, the college scene was a well entrenched participant.


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

[User] ELI5: How are carbon nanotubes similar to/different from carbon fiber?

[Assistant]
Let's say you have a bunch of sheets of paper.

If you lay them all flat on top of one another, and glue them all together, you'll pretty much get a big block of paper. If you push hard enough from the side, you might be able to separate the papers again, though it'll be tough...but if you try to rip the whole thing, good luck. You probably can't. So you have a material that's pretty strong, at least if you're trying to rip it. However, the papers are packed pretty tightly together, so nothing can really get through them. If you tried to drop a tiny little bead through them, nothing would happen. It's sealed off. If you use sheets of carbon instead of paper, this is **carbon fiber.**

Now suppose instead you rolled the sheets of paper up into tubes, and connected the tubes end-to-end. It would definitely be weaker than your big brick of paper, since you could just crush the tubes flat, but now you can drop that small bead through them and it'll fall through easily. So while you have something made of the same basic stuff, it behaves way differently; instead of being strong but allowing nothing through, it's (comparatively) weaker, but in the right direction, things can easily pass through! This new tube structure is **carbon nanotubes.**

In real life, the "glue" in the big block of papers is actually more carbon that chemically bonds them together, and the "beads" in the tube example are actually electricity. Also, carbon nanotubes aren't anywhere near as weak as a tube of paper.


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

[User] ELI5: How can US/Jordanian forces tell that who they're shooting at is a member of ISIS?

[Assistant]
Educated guesses.

* If they are waving an ISIS flag, then well, duh.
* If they attacking known allies (Kurds, etc.), then we assume they are ISIS or an affiliate.
* If they are attacking a city that we know is not occupied by ISIS, we assume they are ISIS/Affiliate.
* If they are acting suspicious, armed and not on a friendly list, then we'll probably lump them in as insurgents if we shoot them.
* If we get a tip and they are armed, we assume ISIS.

Generally though, if we shoot them, they are ISIS. It saves a lot of paperwork that way.

Edit: and if they give you gold, we assume they are a friendly, and don't shoot as a way of saying thanks.


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

[User] Why is it easier to feel the air blowing out of a fan than the air the fan is sucking in?

[Assistant] The front of the fan is basically like the skinny end of a funnel, concentrating the air and accelerating it out at a higher pressure. The air behind the fan is drawn from a large area of still air behind the fan.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are polygraph tests still widely used in law enforcement investigations even though they are so unreliable?

I have been watching Forensic Files a lot lately on Netflix.  Almost every case they mention suspects taking a polygraph test.  Many times a suspect will fail one only for the DNA evidence to prove he/she wasn't lying.  Why are these highly unreliable polygraph tests still used?

[Assistant] To scare people into making a confession, basically. If you threaten someone with the fact you can tell if they're lying and then inform them that they can make it easier on themselves to confess now to lighten their sentencing you can get a confession out of them faster. It's like playing good cop/bad cop. "Make it easier on yourself kid, tell us what we want to know, otherwise if we find out later you were lying to us its only gonna make it harder on you, see?" Only the bad cop in this case is your heartbeat, which you have no control over if your nervous and guilty, or even not guilty. But if you're innocent and tell the truth, they wont need the lie detector to tell that based on body language and tone of voice. Hell, pretty sure the damn thing hardly ever gets any use these days anyway.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] I'm a relatively strong Jedi that survived Order 66. I managed to sneak into Vader's Castle at Mustafar. He's now chilling in his Bacta Tank. Can I easily kill him while he's out of his suit?

I know that there are Royal Guards inside, but I do not assume they will be much of a problem.

[Assistant] Vader can sense other Jedi from pretty far off. He knew obi wan was on the Death Star and that luke was on the shuttle going to Endor. You didn't sneak in, his job is hunting and killing Jedi. He let you in.


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

[User]
ELI5:What mystic wood are electric poles made of, and how is that they never need to be replaced?

I've literally never in my life seen a single one replaced.  Boggles my mind.

[Assistant]
I worked for a utility in the department that was responsible for inspecting the wooden poles. Here's how they test if the pole is still sturdy enough.
First, they hit the pole with a hammer, listening to determine if it is hollow. Poles usually rot from the inside out.
They then drill small holes in the pole near the ground. They stick a long hook inside and feel whether the wood is still hard or if it has started to rot. If so, they can also measure how much of the diameter is rotten.
They then place drying agents in the holes they drilled and cap the holes with wooden plugs. The drying agents will absorb the moisture and slow down the rotting.

As said before, the poles are treated with some kind of preservative before being installed.
The wood is usually very dry so it has set. Hence, it won't warp much and won't be affected by rain and snow.

Typically, poles will need to be replaced if they are physically broken: hit by a car, touched by a nearby fire, struck by lightning.

In warmer climates, a big issue is insects. They will hollow out the pole and nest inside. Sometimes, it's hard to actually notice because the outside wood looks fine.

A pole that was properly prepared before installation and that had an easy life (no rotting, no insects, not hit by a snow plow) can last up to 100 years (we've seen a few of them during our inspections).


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

[User]
CMV: It's possible that radical absolute pacifism would have lead to a preferable outcome to World War 2.

I've been pondering the pros and cons of pacifism for some time now, and one uncomfortable position that I hold is that it is possible that radical, absolute pacifism on the part of the Allies would have lead to a better outcome from the World War 2 conflict. Some ideas to consider...

**1. The war itself was a particularly bad outcome.**

With so many millions dead, both civilian and military, it would take an enormously negative outcome to compare with the cost of war. Yes, under evil Axis rule, France would have been utterly subjected, but would the Nazis have really killed 500,000 civilians during occupation?

**2. The Holocaust - Arguably a result of the war?**

From what I've read, there is a decent (and terrifying) argument that it was World War 2 itself that caused the Holocaust, that it was under the guise of militarization and the threat of war that the Nazi party justified their genocidal actions. With the Holocaust being so horrifyingly widespread during the war itself, it's difficult to imagine that it would have been even worse without the war.

**3. The Axis Powers marking the end of an era.**

A common fear to the idea of the Axis powers winning the war is that we would all now be Nazis if that were the case. But subsequent history seems to suggest that the idea of an ongoing Nazi occupation of all mainland Europe was always infeasible. The world had been (and still is) undergoing a massive liberalization and democratization, and even those fascist and totalitarian parties that survived the war were 'doomed' to modernize. Even if we assumed that the Nazis would openly ignore their claims of "only fighting for self-preservation", and would try to hold an empire over other western states (like England and France), it simply wouldn't be worth their effort to maintain all these territories. Just as all the Allied empires dissolved, in many cases to peaceful resistance, so would the Axis empires.

It's not a pleasant idea, and not even backed by particularly strong evidence. I'm just looking for evidence to the contrary. Change my view!

EDIT: Grammar and formatting.

[Assistant]
>would the Nazis have really killed 500,000 civilians during occupation?

Yes, and then some. This was the *Lebensraum* policy. In the east, clear out the Slavs and take their land for German families.

>there is a decent (and terrifying) argument that it was World War 2 itself that caused the Holocaust,

It's a spurious one. The momentum toward genocide was well underway as NAZI ideology coalesced in the 1930s, and Hitler committed to The Final Solution as early as 1941. Nothing in history is inevitable, but in this case genocide was as close to inevitable as it got. Of course the war created internal pressures, but the groubdwork for atrocity had been lain.

>The Axis Powers marking the end of an era.

The idea was that it was the *beginning* of a new era. In many ways, it was. Imagining that these Powers would have collapsed under their own weight ignores the forces that assembled them to begin with, and it would have been a very dangerous and brutal waiting game to see when/if it would happen.

Radical pacifism would have resulted not only in mass casualties, but widespread extermination of populations as the Axis powers dominated the world. It would have been a Holocaust lasting generations rather than just years.


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

[User] How has the understanding of exoplanets changed since the first were detected in 1988?

[Assistant]
Among various discoveries:

* Exoplanets seem to be very common for many types of stars - other than failing to detect planets due to technological limitations, just about everywhere we've looked for planets, we've found them. We've even observed what are believed to be the remains of destroyed planets around white dwarfs, the dead remnants of stars.
* Planets can exist both much closer and much further from their stars than we see in the Solar System. The discovery of "hot Jupiters" (and then hot Saturns, hot Neptunes, hot Super-Earths...) came as quite a surprise, and their formation mechanism is still an open question.
* Planets come in all shapes and sizes. Whilst there is quite a gap in size between Earth and Neptune in the Solar System, we've found plenty of planets with intermediate masses and radii. There is still debate as to whether these are Super-Earths, Mini-Neptunes, or an entirely different type of planet.
* Exoplanet atmospheres are also diverse. We've seen clear atmospheres, hazy atmospheres, thick cloud decks, no atmospheres, atmospheres visibly being boiled off by a star - again, attempting to describe these variations and work out what types of clouds exist are hot topics in research.
* Multi-planet systems are common, especially for rocky planets. Once again, a feature that is unlike the solar system is how close some of the known planets are to one another - theoretical work implies that they are about as close as they can be without disastrously affecting each other's orbits.


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

[User]
CMV: Film Directors should not be as valued as the Screenwriters

Whenever we see people talk about whos in charge of the film and who is blamed/appreciated for the quality of it, its the director. But 9 times out of 10, the complaints or things that make people like or dislike the film are down to the story, characters, and plot- so surely we should focus more on the people who write the scripts and actually make the story!

Yes, Directors are very important. They do a lot of work, have a hand in most aspects of the film, and a good director is needed for a great film. Especially if the film is one like Wes Andersons or Edgar Wrights, the direction really can make or break its uniqueness.

But unless theyre one of the actual writers (if they are as well, then obviously this doesnt apply) then why are they the famed and spotlighted creators of the work? I can remember many Directors and which films they did, but I would struggle to think of any of the writers of those films, and thats not just me. We should give far more credit and mainstream reverence to the script writers than we do now, they should be the ones that the general public recognises first and foremost.

Directing can be incredibly important, but surely its more the icing on the cake, rather than the real backbone of the film, and I think our credit should go to the makers of that first.

[Assistant]
The problem here is that we often don't get to see many films using the same script. But we CAN see that with theatre. So let's look there instead. Go to an amateur playing of Hamlet one day. The go get the RSC version with David Tennant. One is clearly superior.

But, you may say, that just says actors are important, not directors. You might be right. So go and get the Ethan Hawke one. Hawke is a quite decent actor, but the film is NOT good.

We can do this also with music. Just pull up YouTube and type in "Covers of Hallelujah" and hear all the horrible renditions out there, while we all argue if the original was better or worse than Jeff Buckley.

Yes, the script matters a lot. But it's what you do with it that makes a performance.


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

[User]
ELI5: How valid are claims of plastic eating bacteria; is this media-overhype?

If not, how does this work?

Thanks in advance.

[Assistant]
The plastic that you typically hear about in terms of pollution is polyethylene and polypropylene, which combined account for the majority of global plastic production.  Those are what make up all the cheap plastic garbage that gets dumped into the ocean - things like plastic bottles, bags, and straws are all made out of polyethylene or polypropylene.

Thus far a few fungi and bacteria have been found that can degrade the "soft" versions of those plastics under perfect laboratory conditions.  They aren't actually "eating" the plastic - they're just degrading it, and it doesn't necessarily degrade into stuff that's more environmentally friendly than plastic to begin with.

They typically can't degrade those plastics at all if they've been hardened, which most plastic is.

Under real world conditions, the rate that they degrade those plastics is so slow that it might as well not be happening and other processes, like photo-degradation, are responsible for the bulk of degradation even when those fungi and bacteria have been deliberately cultivated on the plastic.

There is a bacteria that can actually eat polyester - although polyester only accounts for about 15% of global plastic production.  And, again, it can only eat the soft version of that plastic - while most polyester is hardened - and even then it eats the soft polyester very slowly under laboratory conditions.

There is some hope that the enzymes responsible for degrading plastics may be able to be fine tuned with genetic engineering, but we're still a long way from being able to turn that into something that can break down plastic in a meaningful way.


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

[User]
[Doctor Who] What makes the Time Lords so strong?

Is it just their advanced technology & mastery of time? What gave them the power over time, like being able to know what moments are "fixed" points?

Further, why is the doctor so special? Why don't the Daleks ever just shoot him?

[Assistant] Their bodies are technological marvels, each engineered cell as valuable as the starships of younger species. They have dwelled in the time vortex for ages, developing instincts necessary for survival as time travelers. The Doctor is a social and technical genius whose reputation for thwarting death and predating Daleks goes back centuries.


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

[User] ELI5: What does adrenaline do with your brain that you feel sharpend and stronger?

[Assistant]
When your body releases adrenaline it's because your brain has sent out an alert that you need to prepare to either stay and fight or run to safety (flight). You brain prepares your body by increasing your heart rate, so that your core organs are functioning at their highest level of performance. Your brain will also increase your vision to be focused on what is straight ahead of you (tunnel vision). Also, your brain increases your respirations to increase oxygen flow to your brain and organs.
It's interesting to note that when this fight or flight trigger is misfired from your brain, when there is no need to fight or flee, it is was millions experience as a panic attack. The physical symptoms you experience during a panic attack are due to the adrenaline released by your brain to prepare for fight or flight. Beta blockers have been found to assist in decreasing the amount and frequency of adrenaline in people who suffer from panic attacks.

Oh and the sharper vision is to assist you in your escape. For those in the panic attack category, they report feeling as though they have tunnel vision or that things appear dreamlike or surreal.

Hope that helps to answer your question.


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

[User]
Google announced in October that its 53-qubit quantum processor had needed only 200 seconds to complete a problem that would have required 10,000 years on a supercomputer.

My question is, if one day this processor is implemented for commercial use, what effect would this kind of processing power have on day-to-day computer tasks and applications?

[Assistant]
None whatsoever. They hacked the choice of problem, they did not do anything remotely useful.

In lay terms, they discovered that simulating the noise a useless broken quantum computer outputs is very easy on a noisy useless broken quantum computer.  It happens to be extremely hard to simulate that on a working non-quantum computer.

What would be a good sports analogy?  How about, they discovered that Tiger Woods is really bad at throwing out his back if asked to simulate mistakes beginners make playing golf.  Random beginners are really good at that, & so we have achieved "amateur golf superiority."


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

[User]
CMV: The term "mansplaining" is overtly sexist.

This argument is stupid and doesn't hold water, primarily because it's used to deflect an argument by way of making it a gendered issue. And to me, that's sexist and dismissive of any type of dissent.

If a male or female makes a valid point regarding the discussion at hand that rubs the other the wrong way, reducing an argument to gender because one doesn't want to continue talking is sexist and cowardly; and the sword slices both ways. The dismissal of women's thoughts and opinions based solely on the fact that they're women is just as harmful and stupid.

If you are in a discussion and you don't agree, just say you disagree. If you don't want to continue talking about it, say you don't want to continue talking about it. It's not guaranteed to go your way, but stand your ground and move on without assigning "gender roles" to opinions solely because of the gender of the other person.

That aside, aren't status-quo "gender roles" a concept that many people are trying to move away from, yet allow terms like "mansplaining" to continue? Seems to be playing into the patriarchy by relying on old and outdated gender role. Asking for a friend.

Gender should not be a means of disapproval for opposing views, nor should it be a shield for one's opinion or presentation of facts.

[Assistant]
The term "mansplaining" is pointing to the personal expertise of the speaker (or lack thereof).

The correctness of an argument does not depend on who voiced it. However, people without any experience in a subject tend to speak accurate claims less often than those who do.

When women voice their personal experience of discrimination day-to-day, and a guy dismisses it because he doesn't see that kind of discrimination, he is speaking outside of his expertise.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are we so worried about a water shortage when there is plenty of ocean water? Why don't we just filter the salt out?

[Assistant]
Filtering ocean water to the point of it being drinkable is an INCREDIBLY expensive process. Just getting the salt out alone is very expensive. Then the water still has to go through the whole usual water cleaning process.

On top of that, the solution really only helps those close enough to an ocean to get to the water. There'd be no feasible way to get the water to the center of large continents that didn't involve literally shipping it in trucks/trains/etc. Water in large volumes is incredibly heavy, thus very expensive to ship.

So the question becomes how do you deal with all of that? Who pays for what? Do we have enough of the materials needed to filter that much water long term? Who's responsible for building new infrastructure? Where does the money come from? All that money being sucked into maintaining the current water supply would cripple most economies.

And this is just the 1st world discussion. In 3rd worlds, where EXISTING fresh water is already hard enough to come by, there'd be no good solution at all.


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

[User]
ELI5:Home Owners Associations.

Can they actually tell you you can't do something or can they just strongly advise against it and tell the rest of the neighborhood to give you dirty looks?

[Assistant]
Home Owner Associations are started by someone who owns a big area of land and decides to subdivide it into lots and sell the lots to people who will build houses on them. These groups of lots are called subdivisions because they were subdivided from a single big area.

The person who subdivides the land wants to get the most money that he can for the land and he knows that people will pay more if they know that the lot next to theirs won't be bought by someone who wants to build a some noisy or smelly business. So he (the subdivision developer) puts a list of rules into the purchase contract that you sign when you buy a lot. If you don't agree to the rules then you can't buy one of the lots.

Most buyers are willing to follow the rules and feel better about buying one of these little lots even though it means that they will be living very close to a lot of other people because they know that everyone else who buys lots in the subdivision has to agree to the same rules.

One of the rules in the purchase agreement is that the rules can change over time, but only if the majority of the lot owners agree. That is why they have meetings and rule changes from time to time.


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

[User]
[Dune] By what measurements or standards or traits would the Bene Gesserit identify and choose humans for their breeding program? How would they know to use one child vs another child from the same parents?

For thousands of generations/offspring the bene gesserit have been trying to breed a superhuman the kwizatz haderach.

but how would they know one person born from the program was worthy of continuing in the program vs being discarded/not included in further offspring for the program?

beauty?  intelligence?  if so, what type of intelligence?  physical athletic performance?  how would they judge if offspring were worthy of continuing in the program?

what would feyd and paul have which other normal humans from the masses wouldn't have?  obviously they were close to achieving their kwizatz haderach, but how would they know they were close?

[Assistant]
By their DNA.  The knowledge of genetics wasn't lost in the Butlerian Jihad, and while the Bene Gesserit might not be as great of masters of that art as the Bene Tleilax, they have more than enough skill to guide their breeding program.
Now, it's true that many intermediate steps in their breeding program resulted in people with exceptional beauty or ability, those were essentially side effects.  They were breeding for specific genetic markers.


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

[User] [ELI5] Why do plumbers hate Drano?

[Assistant]
They only encounter it when it doesn't work; and it's a hazardous chemical that makes their job harder.

If your sink drain is blocked up, here are some things that could happen:

1. *You just call the plumber.*
2. You try plunging it with a sink plunger; that works. You don't call the plumber.
3. You try plunging it, but that doesn't work. *You call the plumber.*
4. You put drain cleaner down it, and it works. You don't call the plumber.
5. You put drain cleaner down it, and it doesn't work. *You call the plumber.*

The plumber only sees cases #1, #3, and #5. They don't see the cases #2 and #4 where you were able to unblock your sink yourself.

The plumber's opinions come from the cases they see:

* Case #1 is usually a really easy fix.
* Case #3 is less easy (because the clog is bad enough the plunger didn't work) but still okay.
* Case #5 is now a sink drain full of nasty chemicals that want to eat organic matter (including plumbers' skin).

So from the plumber's perspective, they'd rather you didn't use drain cleaner. They never see the upside of it (case #4), so for them it's always the absolute worst.


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

[User]
ELI5: How did ancient civilizations make ovens so hot that they could melt metal without the kinds on materials we have today?

EDIT: Thank you to everyone for such an insightful conversation!

[Assistant] Making a really hot fire doesn't require modern technology. That's all you're doing when you're working with metals or building kilns to fire pottery - just making a really hot fire. It's perfectly easy to make a fire that's thousands of degrees with just wood or coal. All you need is some structure to contain the heat (brick, ceramic, stone...etc), fuel, and some way to blow oxygen to get the fire really hot and keep it hot. These are all things that require no modern technology whatsoever.


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

[User] Hyper saline lakes such as the Dead Sea have extra buoyancy. Would a boat have to be designed differently than for a normal lake, and how well would a normal boat work on a hyper saline lake?

[Assistant] you'd just have a lower water line with more of the boat sitting out of the water. in most cases it wouldn't make that much of a difference. an inch or two probably. in the case that  the boat was sitting so high that it wasn't stable, you could just add weight, but that's highly unlikely. the difference made by the extra buoyancy likely isn't as much as the difference made by loading the boat to capacity with people. in short, unless it's a really small and top heavy boat, then it doesn't make a difference. if it is really small and top heavy, an extra 50 lb plate should do the trick.


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

[User]
ELI5: How come when a neutron star spins incredibly fast, it creates radio jets and becomes a pulsar?

On the same note, are there neutron stars that spin rapidly just like a pulsar but just don't have their radio jets? If that's the case, then how does a pulsar obtain it's radio jets?

[Assistant]
Every neutron star spins rapidly and produces radio jets. This is because as the star gets compacted down it has to maintain its angular momentum, the same way a dancer brings their arms in to spin faster. The radio jets come from the fact that you have a lot of mass spinning very very fast, which produces very strong magnetic fields.

 However, not all neutron stars will have their jets pass over the earth as it spins/wobbles. The ones that do are what we call pulsars(blazers if they're pointed directly at us).


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

[User] Why do we use Half-Life for elements and not Quarter-Life or any other fraction?

[Assistant]
Nuclear physicists use half-life (time it takes for number remaining to halve). Particle physicists often use the mean lifetime instead, which is the time it takes for the sample to drop by a factor of 1/e.

In principle we could use any other (nonzero) fraction. It's just convention. 1/2 is an easy fraction to visualize, it's easy to calculate powers of 2 in your head, etc.


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

[User]
[The Elder Scrolls] If I were to invent a synthetic skooma, would it be illegal?

Let's say that I, as a master alchemist, found a combination of ingredients that produced an identical high to skooma. The recipe does not involve moon sugar in any way, and all of the ingredients are legal.

Would it be legal to make, use, and sell?

If so, how long would it take before a new law was passed that prohibited it?

[Assistant] You want a bunch of Khajiit thugs to show up at your alchemy lab, smash your shit up, and put the boots (or claws) to you? Or for whatever passes for the Khajiit mafia to put a hit on you with the Dark Brotherhood? You better have some pretty good protection or be like that Dragonborn guy running around Skyrim fucking up dragons for laughs. The moon sugar monopoly is not to be fucked with, regardless of whether it is legal or not. Plus, do you really think the Jarl or whatever regional government is going to care what it's made out of if it does exactly the same thing?


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

[User]
[The Matrix] In The Matrix trilogy, if the hackers and agents want to remain undiscovered by the general populace while doing their missions, why do they perform superhuman feats and, in the case of the hackers, why do they wear stylized capes and glasses instead of normal clothing?

Don't that call more attention to a group who want to remain hidden? And why do both the hackers and agents perform martial arts moves if the first want to stay hidden and the second wants the Matrix to seem like the real world?

[Assistant] Awoken humans risk being undiscovered by the mere act of jacking into the Matrix.  It's only a matter of time before they are caught so they need those abilities to complete whatever mission it is they are trying to accomplish.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is target fixation much more common on motorcycles than when driving a car?

[Assistant] Have you ever heard the expression "where the eyes are so goes the hands"?  If you are driving a car and stare at something in the rear view mirror you will more often than not end up drifting off to the right. Same as if you are watching something to the left. Your brain is directing your body in the direction of your eyes. In a car though, your only manipulation of direction is your hands turning the steering wheel. On a motorcycle many factors come in to play, handlebar input, center of gravity changing, even the use of the brake and throttle. Turning your head to look at where you want your bike to go in a corner does a couple of different things. It helps your mind to make the decisions on how much to lean, slow down, speed up or turn the bars to get to where your eyes are telling it it wants to go. There is one more thing that's makes it more common. It helps to suppress the fear of falling over. Something you don't have when your in a car.


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

[User]
What are the long-term effects of repeated soft tissue bruising and damage?

Athletes often suffer injuries to parts of the body from repeated stress over time. What about soft tissue? What happens if a spot on your body is repeatedly bruised and subjected to damage over and over again over a period of years?

[Assistant]
There's two ways it can go, since your question is not specifying what soft tissue you are talking about. If it's hairless skin - it will develop calluses, and become less soft and more resistant to following damages, like string players or gymnasts get really thick and hard skin.
If it's muscle - Inflammation, which can become chronic, then pain and discomfort.
Also in case of any damage - regeneration, more divisions, higher chance of cancer. In dentistry they sometimes change teeth shape, if there's a spot of soft tissue, constantly irritated by teeth. Even if there's no pain or discomfort, just the fact that it keeps regenerating a lot increase the chance of cancer.


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

[User]
Is a rug burn a "real burn"?

Me and my boyfriend don't agree one says it's not the other thinks it is.  I say since friction causes it, it's a burn.  We googled it and still cannot come to an agreement.  Please help us figure this out Reddit, we need your help!!!

[Assistant]
Good question, but it's not. Rug burn is more similar to road rash. In a thermal burn, your skin's epithelial cells die and eventually slough themselves off (that's why your skin waits a few days to peel off after a sunburn.)
In rug burn, the cells are being mechanically separated from their attachments to the basement membrane. Of course friction could also cause some heating, but not enough to cause even a first degree burn.


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

[User] ELI5: How do refrigerators work?

[Assistant]
Well, son, say you have a balloon. When you squeeze the balloon really tight, you force heat out, but when you let the balloon open up again, it sucks heat back up. If you suck heat out of one area and move it to another area, you make that area colder. In a refrigerator, there is basically a balloon of air that sucks up heat from the inside and squeezes it out on the outside.

The amount of heat in the balloon can be explained by the equation PV = nRT. n (basically the amount of air in the balloon) and R (a constant) don't change in this case, so T (temperature) is given by multiplying P (pressure) by V (volume). When you increase pressure or volume, temperature increases, and if you decrease pressure or volume, temperature decreases. So to get heat out of the refrigerator, we want to

1. Decrease pressure in our balloon (while keeping volume the same) by using a pump of some sort
2. Bring our balloon inside the refrigerator
3. Suck the extra heat into the balloon by allowing the pressure to increase (if the balloon's pressure goes up, it's temperature goes up, so the temperature of the area around it goes down)
4. Bring the balloon outside the refrigerator
5. Decrease the volume of the balloon, squeezing the heat out (if the volume goes down, the heat inside goes down, so the heat outside goes up)
6. Repeat this until our refrigerator is cold enough

One thing to think about is that the point of this cycle is to move energy (in the form of heat) out of the refrigerator. But because this is a closed system, we have to add energy (in the form of electricity) that is roughly equal (minus mechanical inefficiency) to the energy being sucked out.

Incidentally, the refrigerator doesn't use air or a balloon, but instead a fluid refrigerant and a series of tubes. Refrigerants are a lot better at sucking up and squeezing out heat than air is, but unfortunately, a lot of the refrigerants that people used to use are bad for the ozone layer. So when you grow up and buy your own house, you should try to look for appliances that are good for the environment, and dispose of old appliances safely.


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

[User]
[POWER RANGERS] What are the Power Rangers actual powers?

I checked previous questions in this subreddit and none directly address this question. I mean I know they get stronger but how much stronger do they get? They can fight the Putty's (or equivalents in other series) without suits but usually don't stand too much of a chance when the monster shows up.

Are their suits armor? Are they actually being protected from the blasts or are the suits negligible in providing shielding against the monsters? I mean I understand from a production perspective the miniature explosives can safely be attached to the suits as opposed to when they don't wear them the explosives are at their feet but is their any canonical reason for this?

So they can control giant anthropomorphic robots that combine or sometimes transform into humanoid robots but what does that mean? Are they taught how to pilot these? Do they inherently understand how to pilot them when they are bestowed the powers? If so do they understand enough to be able to fix and maintain these robots? Who built these robots and why? Why not share this technology with others?

I know I am getting really picky here but I am a pretty big fan of these sentai shows being half Japanese and having grown up with them my entire life. If someone with more knowledge than just the American versions could answer any of these questions it would be greatly appreciated.

[Assistant]
The suits are low-profile powered armor, multiplying any movement with additional strength and speed. Not quite enough to throw a car (although some rangers like Andros *could*, thanks to suit modifications). The suits are especially effective against energy weapons, but also provide a bit more protection than modern kevlar against blades and projectiles.

The zords operate on a psychic link, they actually have low-grade AI built into them to manage all the basic stuff like movement and combat maneuvers. The ranger controls higher-level functions, like where to go and what enemy to attack, but can manually override the AI. The zords are very similar to biological organisms, and self-repairing (although they benefit greatly from having access to a repair hangar). Zords qualify as weapons of mass destruction, so you can understand why nobody is keen on sharing the technology.

You're going to have to be more specific about your questions, since each ranger team has access to different equipment.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do things moving fast (ex. fan blades) seem to disappear when they move very fast?

[Assistant] It's mostly because of how our eyes work. After we capture light, our photoreceptors have some down time before they can do it again. That means that our eyes have a refresh rate. But each cell is on its own timing, so one receptor will capture the image of the fan blade, while the one next to it will capture an image a fraction of a second later, when the blade is gone from that specific spot. So our brain averages these conflicting patterns out to a semi-transparent blade.


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

[User] ELI5:Why is ISIS fighting the Taliban? Aren't they all fighting for the same cause?

[Assistant]
"We want to rule the world under our interpretation of the Quran."

"Hey, we also want to rule the world the world under our interpretation of the Quran!"

"Hmm, is your interpretation the same as ours?"

"Ah, no, it is slightly different."

"Damn, so are you ok with us ruling you?"

"Hell no, how about we rule you?"

"Forget it! Hey everybody, kill these unbelievers!!!!"


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

[User]
What would happen if you had literally frictionless shoes?

While thinking about a certain speedy hedgehog, I came across the tidbit that apparantly his shoes are completely frictionless, and this is supposed to be one reason why he's able to run so fast.

What would happen if you had shoes that were literally frictionless, and how would that affect your ability to run?

[Assistant]
Without friction, you would not be able to run at all. Friction is what you use to push of the ground. When you are running, you want as much friction as possible. That is why competitive athletes in track, soccer, football, etc. wear cleats: to increase their grip on the ground so they can push off better. Soles of shoes are usually made out of rubber because rubber has such high friction.

UPDATE: Contrary to what some others have said below, it would not be strictly impossible to stay standing on a frictionless surface. It would be very hard to stay standing, but not impossible. For a human to stay standing, they have to keep their center of gravity in the area between the two legs. On friction-full ground, your center of gravity drifts towards the outside of this safe zone by regular movements, small perturbations, etc. but you are able to move your center of gravity back well within the safe zone by pushing against the ground. Without friction, this is not an option. But, you can also change your center of gravity by adjusting the position of your arms and torso. For instance, if you hold both arms out to the left, your center of gravity shifts slightly to the left. You can use this fact to keep your center of gravity well within the safe zone. You won't be able to walk, but you will be able to balance by swinging your arms and head about in the right way. It is hard and takes a lot of practice, but is doable. Picture a person standing on very slick ice flailing their arms about and managing to stay up.


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

[User]
[Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy] God's last message, and whether or not God exists.

If God's last message is known to exist, and anyone can go and see it, how did *Well That About wraps It Up For God* become a best seller, and why would the Babel Fish be the final and clinching proof of the non-existence of God?

[Assistant]
Proof of gods existence, nullifies his existence.

Under the rules of the Hitchiker's universe, God requires faith -> faith requires lack of evidence -> evidence of God destroys faith -> Lack of faith destroys god.


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

[User]
What is "thirst", on a scientific level?

I have always assumed that we feel hunger when our stomach is empty, etc., and I'm sure various things (blood sugar levels, for one) change. But how does the body detect when we're dehydrated and need to drink? I literally have no idea.

[Assistant]
The thirst centres in your brain react to the concentration of your blood plasma, which is measured by "osmolarity".
An increase in osmolarity cause the release of a hormone, anti-diuretic hormone, which causes your kidneys to reabsorb more water, making your blood plasma more dilute and your urine more concentrated. The brains higher centres are also stimulated causing you to experience thirst.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do we bob our heads/tap feet to music?

[Assistant]
Music is kind of a weird phenomenon. It likely wasn't an intended thing for humans to have (as much as evolution can have an intention), but is just a side effect of the brain developing to do other things. Music stimulates huge swathes of the brain across many different areas. One area is the part of the brain that also processes movement. The brain is a set of connected cells sending signals between each other, so when a signal is sent to do one thing, if it's sent along a pathway that's also involved in another thing, the other thing is likely to occur simultaneously. For example, when we recall a memory, we often also experience a milder version of the same emotion we felt when the memory was being encoded.

When the area of the brain that controls movement responds to music, it unintentionally also creates signals that compel our body to move, and these signals are triggered to some kind of pattern in the music, whichever pattern that part of the brain has decided to pay attention to. That's usually the beat, but it can be the melody or even a countermelody, whichever pattern is most predictable and prominent to the brain (the more you know the music the more likely your brain is to latch onto something other than the beat). Now, you can do something with those signals. You can consciously send a signal that suppresses the movement signals, but that can be quite uncomfortable and it's hard to do. Dancing was invented as a result of people leaning into the signals for movement and harnessing them for entertainment purposes, instead of suppressing them.


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

[User]
How did tyrannosaurus drink water?

I tried to Google the answer, but apparently the internet cannot take this question seriously. I am curious because apparently t-rex couldn't lean that far down due to a poor center of gravity, so how did this giant beast get liquid nourishment? One guess I had was that they lay on their sides like when they sleep, but seems super inconvenient and would leave the them vulnerable. If anyone has a real answer or theory to this it would be much appreciated.

[Assistant] T. rex probably drank like most birds, by bending down and taking a mouthful of water, then tilting its head back to allow the water to run down its throat. Tyrannosaurus also has a ling and heavy tail that can be used as counter weight when it leans forward.


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

[User]
ELI5: How did people deal with painful teeth issues like Wisdom teeth before modern dentistry?

Just had a wisdom tooth removed yesterday after about 16 hours of excruciating pain from it coming in I was able too get it removed and feel fine a day after.

All I could think of while I was in pain though was how could people back in the day before modern dentistry deal with that. If I had too go any longer I could definitely see suicide as an only relief from the pain.

[Assistant] Well before modern dentistry people generally had room in their mouths in the form of missing teeth. Aside from that, they either got you drunk and took them out or, more likely, left them in and you died of infection.


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

[User]
[Superman/Trek] An alien ship suddenly appears in orbit and crashes on a Kansas farm, ran by a kindly couple. Starfleet arrives, and discovers it has technology of utterly unknown and alien design, carrying what appears to be, at a glance, a human infant with black hair, swaddled in a red cloth...

The first Starfleet officer on the scene, pulling open his tricorder, immediately realizes the infant is anything but human, has presently unknown species DNA, and appears to be faintly catalyzing infrared, visible, and ultraviolet light into an unknown energy within its cellular structure. Within moments, the couple arrives, along with a huge Starfleet rescue and response team.

Pick a year between 2122 and 2375 for the crash landing.

What does the arrival of this strange visitor from another planet do to Earth, the Federation, and the Milky Way?

[Assistant]
Actually pretty good things.

Humans will be fine with Kal-El: aliens are common place. What they can do that the kents can't, however, is match the Kryptonians in tech. They study the Pod, decipher its messages and learn his origins. They confirm krypton is gone, and the Kal-El will get powers.

If this was a darker galaxy, things may go badly. But Starfleet and the Federation are benevolent and utopian enough they're unlikely to conscript him into war. They raise him, and like his canon counterpart, he becomes a hero.

With Superman, one of the kindest beings in fiction, leading the Federation, one of the kindest orginisations in fiction? Things change. The Borg, the Klingons, the Romulons- their power is shattered. Superman is powerful and proportionate. Things will go well.

The Galaxy enters a new light age, under the gaze of the federation and its new shining hero.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do artists performing on stage need in-ear pieces?

I've heard that in-ear pieces help the artist hear themselves better, but why is it necessary? Audience members can hear the artist fine, so what changes on stage?

[Assistant]
Speakers are typically pointed towards the audience, not the performer/artist. If you point speakers at the performer, theyll play into their mic, the sound will come out of the speaker, the sound coming out of the speaker will play through the mic, *that* reproduced sound will playback through the speaker, which the mic will...you get it. An endless loop results, this is called feedback. That squeaky riiiiiiiiiingiiiiiiiing sound you hear when Bobby stands nervously on the stage for his spelling bee, is feedback and should always be avoided. You can direct all your speakers away from the performers, however the performers need to hear themselves too. So, in order to reduce feedback you can use monitors, which are smaller speakers that direct sound close to the ground (away from the mics on the stage) or you can play the mix back to the performers through ear pieces.

Even if feedback wasnt an issue, another reason to use ear-pieces is that sound is awfully fickle. Sound bounces off walls, is absorbed by materials (and people) and can be reflected in all sorts of crazy ways. Playing back the  pure feed to the artist helps them gauge their performance as they perform and ensures that what theyre hearing is what their audience is hearing.

One last reason a sound engineer may want to use ear-pieces is that they can control what the audience hears versus what the artist hears. If you have a multi-person band, the drummer and guitarist may have different preferences on what they need to hear. A sound engineer can playback a mix that is specific to each member of the band so the members can better coordinate timing and tempo with each other.