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

[User] [Michael Jackson - Billie Jean] Why do the tiles light up below Michael when he has his invisibility field on? Surely this side effect defeats the whole purpose of this technology?

[Assistant]
The tiles appear to be either pressure sensitive or capacitance/proximity sensitive. Neither would be effected by invisibility as that is a different effect than levitation or fading to the astral. So in the particular such tiles would be created to do that very thwarting.

It would indeed defeat the purpose of being "invisible" if that purpose is to "pass without trace", as opposed to being "unseen" or immune to laser fire.

But you've missed the actual point, and technologies, completely.

There is actually no technology in "the tiles". Those objects are all completely mundane. Michael himself is causing them to glow at his touch by act of will. This is why the concrete, the pole, and the mailbox all act identically despite having distinctly different construction, composition, and purpose.

So why go invisible and still cause the objects to glow? To fuck with people.

Michael is "The Cheshire Cat", appearing at will and affecting what he desires to affect.


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

[User]
[DC Comics] What is the climax of the DC Universe?

Out of all the moments, battles, fights, discussions etc, what is the climax DC Universe? What is the largest, most grand in scale moment? This can be personal but what do you think is the climax?

[Assistant] The Crisis on Infinite Earths. The entire multiverse was threatened and many entire universes were destroyed. It involved battles across time, space, and reality with almost all of DCs greatest heroes battling to save their universe from annihilation.


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

[User] ELI5: How do combustion engines (for example all 4 cylinder unleaded gasoline car engines) have varying levels of efficiency if the concept and design is relatively the same? What improves the efficiency?

[Assistant]
Gasoline engines control power by restricting the amount of air that can enter the engine. This reduces efficiency because youre wasting some energy to pull air in past the restriction, as well as reducing peak temperature/pressure and other factors that would allow the engine to work at its peak efficiency.

So an oversized engine run at a small fraction of its possible power is often less efficient than a small engine run near its full power.

Gasoline engines also have limits on how much they can compress the air/fuel mixture (compression ratio) as well as the use of turbo pressure, and limits on the ratio of air to fuel. These are *all* related to the issue of fuel burning before it is supposed to (preignition or detonation) or failing to burn.

Modern direct-injection systems (which share some of these benefits with Diesel engines) get around these limitations by waiting to inject fuel until the moment its supposed to burn, and combined with advanced spark systems make sure it burns even in less than ideal conditions.

Fuel injection itself was already an improvement over carburetors, with the advantages of simply making sure all the fuel was mixed with air so that it could burn, and allowing more precise control over air/fuel mixture in different cases.


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

[User]
[JJBA Pt. 3] Why is DIO not affected by The Sun?

Not THE Sun. The Sun as in The Stand wielded by Arabia Fats.  It was clearly some kind of Sun judging from his battle with Jotaro and co.  But why is he even on DIO's side, when that Sun could pretty much incinerate a vampire like DIO?

[Assistant]
DIO is Charismatic. And attractive. And can control your brain with flesh buds. And he's rich. And so attractive... why would you want to hurt Lord DIO?

Also he probably doesn't advertise that he's a vampire to people who can summon suns. Just a thought.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do brains keep track of sleep debt?

For example: If you normally sleep 7 hours per day and one day you only get 5 hours of sleep, chances are that the next day when you fall sleep you will sleep for around 9 hours. Or if you only sleep for a normal 7 hours that day you will still need more than 7 hours the day after that to feel fully rested.

How do brains keep track of how much sleep they lost and need to make up for?

[Assistant]
How do you keep track of if the garbage is full?

Sleep does things for the body, things we don't fully understand. One of those things is "tidying up" a bunch of blood chemicals and other things that accumulate over the waking hours. If it can't clean all of them up, then you wake up with some already present. If those chemicals interfere with other things in a way that makes you "feel tired", then guess what? You wake up tired.

It's not that there are sensors in the body for all of these things, some of them are low-key toxic depending on how you want to define toxic. For example, some byproducts of exercise create chemicals that make it harder for your muscles to work hard. That's part of why we get tired: the more those chemicals accumulate the harder it is for your muscles to do their job. So it really is like a trash can or dishes in the sink: if you let it pile up enough it starts to cause problems for unrelated things!

You "make up" for the sleep when you sleep enough to clear out all those things.


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

[User]
[LOTR] Is Morgoth/Sauron evil or just different?

Without getting too philosophical, I would like ask that question. When Eru created the universe Melkor kept interrupting and creating a different song that wove into the pattern.

Isn't it likely that Melkor merely perceives an anti-creation and that he can't comprehend or support the designs of Eru? His works look revolting to us because we are of Creation and it's built into us, but perhaps Melkor, Sauron and friends have a perpetual inner feeling that this is not what Creation should be and they do everything in their power to destroy and redesign it.

[Assistant]
It's an interesting question to ask. I'd say as far as the individuals are concerned, it probably doesn't matter much. Say Ungoliant was just doing what came naturally when she devoured the Two Trees of Valinor. Probably doesn't really comfort the elves who've had the lights of their world destroyed (for a second time). Overall, I'd say it's not really Melkor's works that are the problem, but his destruction and corruption of the works of Valar, Maia, and Elves.

If you want to explore a similar concept, The Last Ringbearer is a Russian work (since translated into English) that looks at the War of the Ring from the perspective of an Orc soldier, and turns the typical moral compass of the world around. Really good read.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does throwing an extremely light object, for example a golf ball, strain the arm as opposed to a baseball that is relative in mass?

[Assistant]
The same reason you should never dry fire a bow (shooting a bow without an arrow in place). If there is no arrow to transfer the energy of the pulled bowstring, all of that energy will go into the bow itself and can damage or shatter the bow.

Your arm functions the same way as a bow: transfering energy into the ball (arrow). A lighter or smaller ball doesn't require as much energy to launch. If you perform your normal throw on the lighter ball, the excess energy not transferred to the ball will travel back through your arm and can strain it especially if you don't do a full follow-through to help release the energy.


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

[User]
[Star Trek] Do hand phasers have an auto aim function?

Ive been poking around online, Ive been seeing arguments for either way, many of them from a Doylian perspective rather than a Watsonian one

On one hand, we see Starfleet officers practicing their aim, as well as missing with their weapons. But written sources apparently mention some degree of target acquisition and auto aiming?

Suffice to say, we probably cant rely too much on what we see on screen, or that would bring in lots of gnarly issues related to production errors and 80s era SFX, which may or may not be canon to the lore

And it would be a little strange if hand phasers had no sights, either iron or holographic, or linked to some funky cybernetic eye implant, that would help them actually aim the things. Which suggests some amount of auto aim?

Is there definitive evidence either way?

[Assistant]
The TNG technical guide says "The STA [Subspace Transceiver Array] adapted for phaser use is augmented with target sensors and processors for distant aiming functions." p. 134-135

Seems to indicate auto-aiming that only kicks in during some cases.


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

[User] [Repo: The Genetic Opera] Can someone defaulting on their loans voluntarily submit to repossession to avoid the violent path, possibly surviving (like with eyes or cosmetics)?

[Assistant]
Absolutely. It was common knowledge that Mag had to give up her eyes if she left, but no one thought it would have resulted in her death.

It's mainly people who wouldn't survive without their organs who try to avoid repossession.


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

[User]
[Any] Theres a common thing of energy shields blocking projectiles, but not people, how does it distinguish the difference?

This is mostly referring to video games, and it could be its for gameplay reasons in a lot of them.

Like, lets say the Bubble Shield form the Halo series. People can walk in and out just fine, but its able to stop bullets. How?

If it somehow just detects that kind of projectile, wouldnt it just not allow the whole gun, that has bullets in it, through the threshold?

Thanks in advance!

[Assistant]
The Codex in Mass Effect actually brings this up. In short, the shield uses mass effect fields to manipulate an area of ozone around the shield's wearer with a VI (a computer) running scans and calculations to see where it needs to enhance the shield to block incoming attacks.

But one of the things that it takes into account is the velocity of a projectile; if it's going too fast, it's automatically flagged as something that needs to be blocked. But if it's too slow or stationary then the shield won't react to it.

This means that if you go to sit down in a chair, the shield won't react and push it away.


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

[User]
If you looked at the earth from 1000 lightyears away through some kind of ultra magnifying glass, would you see events that happened 1000 years ago?

I'm trying to wrap my mind around the concept of a light year. If a light year is the distance light can travel in a year, I'm assuming that means if you see something a light year away, you are seeing what happened to it a year ago - am I right?

[Assistant] Yes, you are right.  The way we see the stars, we see them how and where they existed long ago.  If you're observing the sun from the Earth, and witness a coronal mass ejection, that ejection actually occurred about 8 minutes ago, and the light from it is just now reaching us.


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

[User] [General Sci Fi] Why is it when something is locked with a keypad and the protagonist uses powder to figure out which keys people press, they always get the order right on the first try?

[Assistant] The user typically presses the first button "straight on."  That makes one kind of impression.  After that, the user moves their finger up/down/right/left causing the print to smudge in from that direction.  After the last button press, the user lowers their finger, causing a rather large smudge from the center to the bottom.  This gives an experienced investigator a good idea of what order the buttons are pressed in.


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

[User]
ELI5: The QANTAS groundings

I can't really get my head around what's happening, can anyone break it down for me?

What does it mean for staff to be "locked out"? Why are they being locked out? What is the QANTAS management trying to achieve?

[Assistant]
Qantas management have essentially said that the demands for which their unionized workers are currently striking would bankrupt the airline, and have therefore halted all flights until the strike is resolved.

The unions argue (among other things) that Qantas posted increased profits at the same time as they are cutting jobs and denying raises, and somehow managed to increase their CEO's salary by over $2 million a year.

The Australian government looks as though it's about to legislate both sides back to work while the strike is resolved by arbitration.


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

[User] [General Hard Sci-fi] I'm a space pirate and I just acquired a whole resource rich moon with a space port as my pirate haven. I need some defenses, what should I install if money/resources are no problem for me?

[Assistant]
This depends heavily on what kind of technology is available in your setting, and how "hard" your hard sci-fi is.

Based on our current understanding of physics, it's very hard to beat chemically- or magnetically- motivated kinetic weapons. Think missiles or rail guns.

The rail guns will probably need to be mounted to some kind of orbital vehicle, like a satellite, but the missiles could be mounted on-orbit or launched from the surface.

Also, don't underestimate the power of a debris field. Running into random space junk is a major problem for space vehicles. If said vehicle is traveling at a noticeable percentage of the speed of light, running into a pebble would absolutely destroy the ship.

If you knew a ship was incoming, and it was going fast enough, you could toss a bag of sand in their way, let it spread out a bit, and watch their ship get torn to shreds.

The problem with this approach, of course, is that you will also need to navigate around the debris field when entering/leaving your hideout. On the other hand, if the missile or railgun is successful you're going to have a debris field anyway, so it's better to solve this problem up front.

On the directed energy front, a sufficiently powerful radio transmitter will fry most electronic circuits. A spacefaring craft will be shielded against this, but there's a limit to how much you can protect yourself.


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

[User] [Marvel] So how powerful would Sandman be if you fought him on a beach? Would he be have god-like powers when fought in the Sahara dessert?

[Assistant] He'd be powered up because he would have a lot more "ammo" and could easily slip in and out of his surroundings. It would be a lot of "homefield advantage." That said: Sandman can't infinitely control sand, and even if he could, he's still dramatically limited by the mindset of a regular person. He's not omniscient or a super-genius, he's basically a dumb criminal and the degree to which he can use his powers has a ceiling on the fact that he still thinks like a human being with a body. Like, realistically, it would be more "efficient" for him to move as a big abstract mass of shapes (dynamically reshaping for wind-resistance, stability, flexibility, etc.), rather than like a big man made of sand, but he still thinks of himself as a man, so, his transformations are truncated.


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

[User]
CMV: Mocking Americans for their awful healthcare system is every bit as sociopathic as mocking someone under a dictatorship for being executed

This should be common sense, but it seems it isn't, because I see these comments everywhere. The first reaction from people in other countries when they see someone suffering because the American government is too corrupt to provide basic healthcare is point and laugh. As this stems completely and utterly from the unimaginable corruption in the government, it is morally identical to mocking someone for being executed for speaking out against a dictatorship in their country. Nobody seems to recognize this, however.

[Assistant] Someone under a dictatorship has no ability to change their countries circumstances without huge risks to themselves and their families. Americans can vote and push for better healthcare system without fear of punishment.


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

[User] [Games of Thrones/ASOIAF] Is Greyscale their version of leprosy?

[Assistant] There are similarities, but leprosy doesn't have an end state where you turn into a rabid zombie-type figure.  Leprosy is named after lepra, latin for 'scaly', but while leprosy gradual numbness in the skin and can shorten fingers and toes, it doesn't touch the mind.  By contrast greyscale victims gradually turn insane until they attack everyone they see.  Leprosy's also not as contagious.


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

[User]
[Berserk] What exactly made Griffith betray Guts and wipe out the Band of the Hawk?

I know this may sound like a rookie question, but why did Griffith feel the need to ruin the life of the man who had become his best friend, and massacre the group of soldiers that he had put together from the ground up?

[Assistant]
As Ubik pointed out to him, hed already sacrificed so many people for the sake of his dream, and if he didnt sacrifice what remained of the Band, all of those other sacrifices would have been for nothing.

His body had been ruined by a year of torture, to the point that he would never be able to fight, walk or speak again, as far as anyone could tell. And on top of that, theres the fact that Guts, the man he cared about more than anyone else, had fallen in love with Casca, and Griffith was jealous.


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

[User] [Marvel/DC] Which Supervillian has done a good deed? And what was it?

[Assistant]
Poison Ivy took care of kids during the No Man's Land story, where Gotham was devastated by a natural disaster and President Lex Luthor seceded the city from the United States and abandoned it to its fate.

Deadpool and Taskmaster are friends with a woman. When they learned that she was being physically abused by her boyfriend, they kicked the shit out of him and warned him away from ever approaching her again.

The Rogues, the Flash's main villains, had a strict code of conduct when on the job. When a hero's wife was killed, they not only quit their current bank robbery without taking the money but they also delivered flowers to her funeral.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why don't present-day Italians speak Latin? And where does the Italian language come from?

I am just a little lost as to why Italians speak Italian the way they do and why it bears little resemblance to Latin, which is the language of the Roman Empire.

[Assistant]
**Actual 5-Year-Old Explanation:** Because all languages change over time. The longer a language exists and the more people use it, the more it changes from its original form. It's the same reason we don't still speak the "old-timey" English you hear in movies that are set hundreds of years in the past.

**Longer Explanation:** First of all, it's important to understand the difference between "Classical Latin" and "Vulgar Latin". **Classical Latin** is probably what you think of when you think of when you think about the language that was spoken in ancient Rome. In reality, Classical Latin was mainly used for writing and public speaking. The works that are most often studied in Latin classes (such as those from Cicero or Caesar) are representative of Classical Latin. **Vulgar Latin** is the everyday language that the average Roman citizen would speak. The word "vulgar" itself comes from the Latin word meaning "common". Vulgar Latin was the common language of the people. In the same way that you would probably use more formal, proper language when writing a paper for school than you would when talking with your friends, the Romans used a more formal version of Latin in their writing than in their speech.

Because Vulgar Latin was the common language, it evolved and changed more quickly than Classical Latin. The Romans used slang and borrowed words from other languages just like English does today. The common English spoken 50, 100, or 500 years ago is not exactly the same as the common English spoken today. Different areas of Italy also spoke different dialects of Latin, just like there are different dialects of English spoken throughout the United States and England. The more time passed, the more the language changed from its original form.

Modern Italian is heavily based on the works of Dante, who wrote *The Divine Comedy* and other works in the common language of 14th-century Florence. This was important because it was a written form of the common language that was easily understood by most Italians. Sometime in the 1800s, a standardized version of the Florentine dialect became the official language of Italy. Since then, the Italian language has continued to slowly change in the same way that almost every other language changes with time.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why is it that force lightning is only practiced by the dark side?

I couldn't help but wonder why I have never seen a Jedi use Force Lightning. It looks like a really effective power, and I find it curious to why it's only the Sith and the dark powers practice this ability.

[Assistant] Force lightning is a very offensive power. It causes pain and tissue damage in its victims, the ones not killed by it. This agony feeds the force user and affects him/her. The Jedi do not shy away from violence, not when it is used to defend the innocent or to protect the common good, but they would never use such a painful ability against their enemies.


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

[User]
[Predator] Has it been ever that the Yautja were the prey/Was hunted?

In their universe the Yautja are supposed to be the top of the food chain. Hunting is the center of their culture.

Aside from xenomorph attacking them are there any event where a group of people for example lured the Yautja to a trap and hunted them?

Like a survivor of a hunt decides to pay back and use every resource possible to plan a complex plan to kill the Yautja.

Bonus question: in an ideal scenario where a human plans out a trap like that where for example somehow manages to hack the base computer of the Yautja and put the Predator in a disatvange. Would the Yautja consider it fair fight? Would the Yautja cheat out of spite?

[Assistant] It might be argued that toward the end of the first movie Dutch started to hunt his Yautja. Setting traps, using stealth tactics, using the terrain to his advantage by driving it where he had the upper hand and could ultimately score the kill.


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

[User]
[Marvel] I Saw spiderman without his mask. What do I do?!

I swear, I SWEAR I wasn't trying to! I was walking home from a night shift and saw him packing up his costume! ~~And I think I recognized him.~~

Damnit! What now! Do i tell somebody? Do I just...forget about it? Help me out here people!

[Assistant] Best bet is to forget about it. Chances are, if any of his enemies find out you know, they'll come after you and put your life in danger. You never saw it. Now delete this post and your account and hope nobody important found it.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why was Queen Amidalia, young leader of a seemingly unimportant planet, at risk of everything from invasion to assassination?

I'm sure there's some back story to explain it, but other than Palpatine needing to garner sympathy to help with his rise to chancellor and manipulating the Trade Federation to invade (and what was the end game if the occupation wasn't lifted by the unexpected Skywalker stunt that destroyed the lone control droid ship?). Then for some reason the Queen's always needing to use decoys then Jedi guardians to keep from getting killed. Was she *that* much of a threat or just a victim of a grudge match?

[Assistant]
I got the impression that Naboo was the Archduke Ferdinand of the galaxy. Few actually cared about it, but all the great powers were itching to go to war and just needed an excuse. The Sith kept them itchy, then turned Naboo into the excuse.

I guess that would make Padm the equivalent of the Archduke's head.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are so many people dying building in Qatar?

[Assistant] Largely because it is really really hot and while local regulations state that workers shouldn't work during the hottest hours of the day that has been forgotten regarding the workers from abroad. That combined with long hours and general hard labour is leading to lots of people dying of exhaustion.


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

[User] Diogenes purportedly threw away his only possession (a clay cup) after seeing a child drink with his hands. He also Allegedly wandered the streets of nightime Athens with a lamp looking for an honest man. Who owned the lamp?

[Assistant] Maybe it was from the trash, or maybe he borrowed or stole it, or maybe the lamp episode was prior to the cup episode, or maybe because these are both after the fact reports of stuff that purportedly happened, one or both is mistaken either entirely or partially.


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

[User] ELI5: During food poisoning, how does the body decide whether to expel the bacteria through vomiting or diarrhea?

[Assistant] Depends on its location before or after the small intestine. Closer to the stomach means it's still in a liquid medium of stomach acid or bile and can be sent back up. Further in the SI or in the large intestine means that it's too far into becoming poop to stop.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Would wizards and witches have intervened in the event of a global thermonuclear war?

I imagine they would HAVE TO intervene at some point or they would die too, but I wonder if they would let the muggle world die and just use magic to protect themselves or would they stop the nuclear war somehow? Also, how?

[Assistant] Although the wizards seems pretty oblivious to muggle dealings, we know that at the highest levels they are in contact with British government. They seem to only communicate in times of direst need but all out nuclear war would likely qualify. It's likely that the wizards will intervene to prevent the all out destruction of the world, if there is absolutely no other recourse . They probably would only help in secret and subtle ways, nothing that would break secrecy.


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

[User] How did schrdinger's cat go from criticism of observation theory to being an example to teach it?

[Assistant] It's not really used as an example to teach it. Physics classes are more likely to talk about double slit experiment, spin of an electron, polarisation of light, or a contunious does-this-particle-exist-in-this-box type system. It's just caught the attention of the popsci crowd.


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

[User]
[batman] Why doesn't Batman use fear gas?

You'd think if he can cure scarecrow's gas, he'd be able to synthesize it. Why doesn't he just get a gas mask and use fear gas against his enemies?

Side note: why doesn't he just wear a gas mask to avoid getting gassed in the first place?

[Assistant]
Some versions of Scarecrow's fear gas can be absorbed through the skin, and most versions are too fine to be filtered out by a gas mask.  The only way to protect oneself from those versions of the gas is a hermetically sealed suit with its own air supply.  While such a suit is feasible for Batman, it's not practical since O2 tanks are heavy and the suit's seals can still be ruptured by damage, turning it into a significant hindrance.  While Scarecrow does use a gas mask to limit his exposure, he's usually immune to his own gas anyway.  It's likely that any functional mask scarecrow wears is actually using an antidote to neutralize the toxin rather than attempting to filter it out.

Scarecrow also frequently uses other delivery methods for his toxin such as pills, darts, or liquids.  A gas mask doesn't help when he can get it directly into your bloodstream.

Batman usually doesn't need fear toxin to incapacitate his enemies, and it's not really the wisest thing to use liberally since a squad of joker goons suddenly exposed to it will act unpredictably and are just as likely to shoot each other or civilians as the are to cower.  In the Frank Miller book Dark Knight Returns, Batman does use something with a similar effect to Fear Toxin at one point but it doesn't actually work the same way.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is it called "going commando" when you don't wear pants under your trousers?

I wondered if there was some cool historical anecdote related to this.

[Assistant] It comes from the British Commando which were a WWII special unit that were supposed to go deep behind enemy lines to attack them where they were most vulnerable. This meant that they would often carry very light gear to be fast and travel far. Any unnecessary equipment were left behind and required equipment were even modified to become lighter. And when life and death were dependent on how little you carried then some pieces of clothing were unnecessary.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why can your body have a "sleep debt" but not a "sleep surplus"?

Why does my 15 hours of sleep on the weekend not counteract the 4 hours I get on a weeknight?

[Assistant]
Your brain is like a trash can. Throughout the day it fills up with garbage, and at night that garbage is slowly removed. If you don't get enough sleep, only some of the garbage gets taken out. Over time, it builds up until your can is almost always full. A full can is bad and makes you fall asleep or hallucinate.

However if you sleep lots and lots, your trash-can can't get under 0% full. It will always only hold a certain amount of garbage.


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

[User]
ELI5: Is there a reason why suicide rates are SO much higher for men than women?

There are only 2 countries where suicide rates are higher for women than men: China and Bangladesh. Every other country has a way higher rate for men. Is there a good explanation for this or is it a mystery?

[Assistant] One reason is that while women actually attempt suicide more frequently than men they choose methods which are less immediately lethal so there is more opportunity for help to arrive or for them to change their mind and call for assistance. Men tend to attempt suicide in much more immediately lethal ways.


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

[User] ELI5: Eating too much sugar in a day, could it kill you? Doing this consistently, could it kill you then?"

[Assistant] Yes, everything is toxic in excess amounts, this includes things like water. The statistic used to measure this is called LD50, or Lethal Dose 50% is how much something needs to be consumed at once to kill 50% of the test population. Of course, it is highly unethical to do this on humans, so mice are used instead and we assume humans will behave similarly. The LD50 of glucose is 30 grams per kilogram of body mass.


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

[User] ELI5: Why don't we simply desalinate/clean ocean water for situations like droughts?

[Assistant] It's very expensive currently, and you have the problem of brine left over.  The process is not perfect so you don't end up with pure water on one side and salt on the other, you get about half salt-free water and the other half is doubly-salty water, or brine.  Disposing of brine is a problem.  It is usually put back into the ocean but it needs to be done slowly or it sinks to the bottom and raises the salinity at the ocean floor to dangerous levels for the creatures that live there.


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

[User] Why does a spine have protrusions on it? What causes this and how are they evolutionarily useful?

[Assistant] The *spinous processes* that protrude from each vertebra in the spine have two main purposes. The longer ones are attachment points for ligaments and muscles, giving muscles more area to attach, and also acting like long levers to help the muscles bend, straighten, and rotate the spine. There are also smaller protrusions, called *articular processes*, that help each vertebra fit together with the vertebrae above and below it.


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

[User]
ELI5: How did the idea of weekends come to be?

Who when and what decided what days would be considered the weekend and what that would mean?

[Assistant] Henry Ford has been credited with creating the weekend as we know it today.  Apparently the normal work week used to be six days, and Sunday was the day of rest.  When Ford was paying workers $2 per day (maybe $2.50, not sure), the going rate at the time, there was lots of turnover and constant hiring and training, so Ford decided to double the rate to $5 per day to reduce turnover and keep employees instead of constantly training new hires.  At the same time, he also decided to make a five day work week to give his employees Saturday off, thinking they would buy more cars to ride around in for the weekend.  The local business community told him he would bankrupt his business.  The day after he ran a full page ad in the paper for the $5 per day jobs, there were massive lines of people applying for jobs with Ford.  The idea was extremely successful, and the weekend was born.


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

[User]
What is the value of Monte Carlo method? Doesn't it just return the expected set of results and variance?

What is the value of Monte Carlo method?

Using a simple example of a coin toss: I can expect 1/2 chance of landing on either side, with a Gaussian distribution. Running a Monte Carlo simulation with say, 10^9 coin tosses won't get me valuable results. It'll return my initial setup.

Why is Monte Carlo exempt from "garbage in, garbage out"? How can this be used to gain insight?

[Assistant]
The point is using it to calculate something you don't know.

Say you throw an dart at a random point within a square. Inside the square you've inscribed a circle. 'Hits' are counted within the circle, misses outside it. Geometrically, the ratio of hits to throws will approach .

So you can determine pi that way. You can even do it as an algorithm (Matlab code):

>hit=miss=0;

>for i=1:100000

>x = rand(); y = rand();

>if x\*x + y\*y < 1

>   hit++;

> else

>   miss++;

>end

>end

>pi = 4*hit/(hit+miss) # The factor 4 enters here as we're only testing one quadrant of the circle

Which gives about 3 digits for that number of iterations, and isn't terribly useful in practice as there are more efficient ways of calculating . But that's not the point, the point is that you can calculate it that way, only knowing the Pythagorean theorem and random numbers. Since you know the statistics here, you _know_ the expectation value will be /4 - _and that's the point_. You're setting up your method in such a way that the statistical expectation value is the number you're looking for, rather than what you already know.


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

[User]
[Marvel] Why Is Galactus Allowed to Live When Defeated?

I have started digging into Marvel Lore. Currently their website is down and/or experiencing serious issues. But from what I remember Galactus can be defeated and he is allowed to live... possibly multiple times. From what I gleaned from the site before they put a new coat of paint on it and had failures, he had a discussion with Death and Eternity. The three decided he was likely a balancing force between Death and Eternity. This does not explain the rest of the MU occupants' motives for keeping him alive. Please explain why this hungry world killer is allowed to live.

[Assistant]
The actual reasoning tends to change a little over time; the older explanation is that Galactus serves to maintain the balance in the universe between Death and Eternity (playing a comparable role to the In-Betweener and Lord Kaos and Master Order), or he plays some critical role in the universe - like keeping the cosmic entity Abraxas at bay. Of course, when Reed Richards let Galactus live, the rest of the galactic community didn't approve of that, which is why they put Reed Richards on trial.

In other universes, the reasoning is a little sketchier. In Earth X/Paradise X, Galactus (or equivalent Franklin Richards) acts as a counterbalance to the Celestials, to prevent them from multiplying too rapidly. In the Cancerverse, Galactus didn't serve any real purpose in a universe without Death and was turned into a literal engine of destruction.

As another note, the entire thing where Galactus went from Devourer of Worlds to Lifebringer and back again suggests his place in the cosmic hierarchy is not fixed.


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

[User]
I believe purposefully loud vehicle exhaust should be made illegal for street legal cars and trucks. CMV

I live in the eastern US and am sick of people who drive around loud pickup trucks with Flowmasters or little dodge neons and honda civics with muffler tips that go tear assing through neighborhoods causing noise pollution. Much of the time, their "upgraded" exhaust system makes their vehicle run worse than it did before. I'm all for people modding their cars to their hearts desire until it has an effect on my ability to sleep, listen to the music in my own car, or carry on a conversation with someone without having to shout over the person who has pulled up beside us. If you want a loud racecar/truck, save it for the track, or the farm. I won't even get started on loud bass cabinets in cars.

Sorry if this was too much of a rant.

Note: I didn't include motorcycles, because of the argument for safety: "It makes their presence known on the road."

[Assistant]
I would like to see a study showing that loud exhausts increase awareness of motorcycles on the road.

In the situations where a car is most likely to hit a rider (rider behind a car at speed, or a yielding left turn at an intersection), the exhaust isn't even audible in most cases until it's far too late. And that's assuming that it would be audible over the stereo/cell phone/wind noise/passenger talking/whatever in the first place.

Motorcycles shouldn't be exempt from noise pollution laws.


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

[User] [Warhammer 40k] What would happen if a massive fleet of Tyranids flew directly into the eye of terror?

[Assistant]
Near-endless battle.

The Chaos forces would rapidly replenish their numbers with undying daemons. The Tyranid forces would rapidly replenish their numbers from the biomass of the slain (discounting daemons) as there is material biomass in the Eye of Terror.

Eventually, the Tyranids would lose if they fought it out as daemons can never truly be destroyed and there is only a finite amount of biomass in the Eye. However, if they managed to consume all the biomass in the Eye of Terror they might actually emerge stronger than ever, having adapted to becoming all but immune to the corruption of the Warp.

So best case scenario: 'Nids all die, weakening the Renegades as they do.

Worst case scenario: 'Nids destroy every Renegade in the Eye of Terror, but emerge stronger than ever.


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

[User]
[Marvel] What are some unforeseen problems with becoming a giant, Ala Giant man or Stature?

Would I be able to breathe? Where does the extra mass come from? What should I know that I probably wouldn't think to consider?

[Assistant] Assuming you're using Pym Particles, you have nothing to worry about.  If you're becoming giant without them, and aren't a mutant or otherwise have some superpower to help you do it... well it was nice knowing you.


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

[User] What would happen in mathematicians decided to change the order of operations? Would math still work if everyone agreed, or is something about it intrinsic?

[Assistant]
Mathematics doesn't depend on the order of operations. That concept is just something we need for the way we typically write down operations. If we were to change the order of operations, all that would be needed is for existing texts to be rewritten to add parentheses to formulas that were affected, but nothing would fundamentally change.

Note that there are other ways to write down mathematical operations where something like the order of operations isn't even a thing, because the notation is unambiguous. One such example is the "Polish notation". This notation places the operator in front of the operands. So instead of "1 + 2", one would write "+ 1 2".

Combining operations is easy too: "(1 + 2) * 3" becomes "* + 1 2 3".

To evaluate expressions in Polish notation, you always evaluate the innermost expression first and work your way outwards. There is no need to decide on whether multiplication or addition takes precedence or where to include parentheses. There is only one way to interpret this notation.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Did Lukes last name ever get him in any trouble before a New Hope?

Anakin Skywalker was a very famous Jedi. As I understand it he was the Captain America of the clone wars. Luke went by the name Skywalker and with Jedi being hunted was this ever an issue for him?

[Assistant] Likely not. We have no idea how common of a name Skywalker is. It sounds like the old job-based names for space merchants or caravanners or something, so it could be very common (as far as common would be in a galaxy with quadrillions of sentient brings). To go to your Captain America analogy, do you think the average Rogers gets harassed in any Marvel universe for the same reason?


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] During the sorting hat scene, Ron says "there's not a witch or wizard who went bad that wasn't in Slytherin." Why then, were the students who were sorted into Slytherin not put under any sort of special watch to prevent more Voldemorts?

Title.

Not that every witch or wizard who is in Slytherin turns bad, but all the worst villains were at some point in Slytherin. So, why does Hogwarts allow them to train in powerful spells? Why aren't they pulled aside and treated as the potential dangers that they are?

[Assistant] Because Ron is an 11 year old boy who doesn't know what he was talking about.  Does Slytherine have a higher share?  Yes, but their defining trait is ambition.  There are plenty of good wizards from Slyherin and bad wizards from the other houses.


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

[User]
[X-Men] When Xavier uses the Cerebro in the films, it shows there are TONS of mutants out in the wild who are not affiliated with X-Men or Brotherhood. What happens to the majority of these mutants? Do they just go on living ordinary lives? Do they even know they have powers?

I remember in X-Men 2 movie when Xavier was forced to use the Cerebro to target mutants, it showed there were thousands of them out all over the country. Just what happens to these mutants within the marvel universe? Do they go on living their lives blissfully unaware of their true potential, or do they just exist out in the wild? I'm guessing there must be a huge bulk of them not affiliated with any organization, so how does the world deal with these "random" mutants, some of which could very well be Omega Level?

[Assistant] I had an impression that majority of those probably don't actually have any powers and just carry the x-gene somewhere in their junk DNA. Ones who actually have powers would probably ping stronger, which is how Charles and Co were able to show up in time for their outbreak and handle the consequences.


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

[User]
Why do Protons and Neutrons have almost the exact same mass?

Is it a coincidence, or is it something fundamental about the laws of physics that makes this so?

Would the universe look/be any different if those masses weren't similar?

[Assistant]
It is a combination of an apparent coincidence and a something fundamental that we understand.

The proton and neutron are each made of three quarks that are held together by a force called the strong force.  The resulting particle has a mass that gets its contribution primarily from two places: the intrinsic mass of those quarks, and the energy of strong force fields that hold it all together.

The strong force effects produce a mass that is essentially independent of the kinds of quarks involved, so this mass contribution will be the same for the proton and neutron.

For the proton (2 up quarks and 1 down quark) and the neutron (2 down quarks and 1 up quark), it turns out that the intrinsic masses of each of the constituent quarks is just a tiny fraction of the mass contribution due to the strong force effects, so even when added together provide no more than about a 1% modification to the total mass.

So the reason that the proton and neutron have about the same mass is that the up and down quark intrinsic masses are really small compared to the natural scale of strong force effects.  As to why these masses are so small, we don't know.

In fact, there are other quarks that are much heavier, and if you take an object that is like a proton or neutron, but replace one of the quarks by a heavy quark like a charmed quark, you will get an object that is much more massive.  For example, a charmed lambda baryon with an up quark, a down quark, and a charm quark has a mass about 2.4 times as big as a proton or neutron mass.  This is because the intrinsic mass of the charm quark is all by itself about 1.4 times as big as the strong force contributions to the mass.

There are some other small effects, such as electromagnetic corrections to the mass.  These, too, are small, since the electromagnetic force is so much weaker than than the strong force.


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

[User]
CMV: Sci-Fi has gotten too negative

The future is full of bright possibilities, not just dark corridors full of monsters. Not just disasters on a vast scale. Not just dystopia.

Some of the most successful Sci-Fi was positive, like Star Trek, while Star Wars balanced light and dark with gleaming rebel ships and beautiful exciting worlds successfully fighting back against evil. But all we see now are bleak futures. Even great films like Gravity focus on things going totally wrong.

Id like to see a story set 50 years in the future in which things have improved as much as they have the the last 50, but conflict arises when some people are afraid of a big new innovation. The good guys win and the improvement is enacted, making things even better. Surprise the audience with positivity.

[Assistant]
I think you've overestimated how positive old shows were. Star Wars was a story of mass genocide, societal decay, and mixing evil and good. The premise of Star Wars was that the whole system needed to be destroyed and rebuilt by Dark Side Anakin Skywalker, because the old habits of the Jedi and Sith needed to be removed. Star Trek was supposedly the end result of years of nuclear war, internal genocide, and fighting over resources.

Also, all stories are based on fighting something that's gone wrong. The bigger the problem, the easier it is to write the story. A film about a mild shipping problem with a batch of healing nano-bots isn't as engaging as a film about a shipping problem *and* corruption.


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

[User]
ELI5: Stars blinking

Does anyone know why stars blink as they do? I would love to know as I have always loved looking up onto the skys. and this questing always comes up.

[Assistant]
The atmosphere consists of many many layers of air "pockets", and these pockets are constantly moving around in the atmosphere. What makes each pocket different from another is that they have slightly different temperatures and densities.

Here's why that's important: if you've ever looked at a straw in a glass of water, you've seen how it appears to be bent, even though you know the straw is straight. This is a result of an effect called 'refraction'. Essentially, light moves and different speeds in materials with different densities. To understand why this causes refraction, imagine if you were running with a bunch of your friends in a straight line, shoulder to shoulder. If people at one end of the line started slowing down, then the people at the other end would start moving past them, and your line would slowly wheel and change direction. Well, when the leading edge of the light ray hits the water, a similar effect happens, and the light ray "bends" and changes direction.

Just like with the water in the glass, light moves at different speeds through the different pockets of air, and so every time a light ray moves through a pocket, it changes direction slightly.

Now because those air pockets are all moving around, sometimes a bunch of light rays from a star get bent toward your eye, and the star appears brighter. Then the air pockets move around some more, and now most of the light rays from the star are being bent away from your eye, so the star appears dimmer. This constant brightening and dimming of the star is what we call "twinkling".

This also explains why the planets in our solar system don''t appear to twinkle: stars are so very far away from us that they are just tiny little pinpricks of light. This means that the apparent size of a star is much smaller than the size of one of these air pockets. But the planets are much closer to us, and so their apparent size is very big--much bigger even than the size of the air pockets. So the light from a planet passes through a bunch of air pockets instead of just one at a time, and this means that even though the light from one part of the planet is getting bent away from us, the light from another part is being towards us, and so as a whole, the planet doesn't appear to get brighter and dimmer. The brightening and dimming average out, and the planet's brightness stays roughly constant, which means no twinkling!


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

[User]
ELI5: Baseball rules.

Having grown up in a country where baseball doesn't exist, I have never leaned the rules. I've watched a few matches now and finds it interesting, but I don't know about the rules except the obvious ones like that you're supposed to hit the ball and run the bases.
Can someone explain?

[Assistant]
The pitcher tries to throw the ball to the catcher without the batter being able to hit the ball. If the batter hits it, the ball is in play. The batter is now called a runner. The runner's goal is now to advance around the bases as far as he can without the other team getting him "out". There are three main ways that runners get called out:

1) If the batter hits the ball and it gets caught by the other team without touching the ground

2) If the batter/runner gets tagged with the ball while he is not touching a base (this is where you see runners slide, they're trying to get on base while avoiding the tag)

3) If there is only one base the runner can be on once the ball is hit, he is out if a defensive player touches that base while holding the ball. For example, after hitting the ball the batter MUST go to first base, so if the fielding team gets the ball to first before the batter, he's out. Another way this happens is if there is another runner advancing behind him, e.g. he's on first and the next batter gets a hit, then he must go to second. This is called a "force out" or "force play".

Once the runner(s) are all either on base or out and the fielding team has control of the ball, the play is over, since the runners won't be able to advance without easily getting tagged out. ("Stealing" bases is possible though, by running as the pitcher gets ready to pitch - the pitcher can throw one of the bases to try to get the runner out). Then the next batter comes up, and the pitcher pitches again.

If a runner gets all the way around to home plate, the team scores a run. The batting team gets three "outs" in an inning to score as many runs as possible. One inning consists of each team batting once, so there are two halves in an inning (called "top" and "bottom"). After nine innings, the team with the most runs wins. If they're tied, the game just keeps going into extra innings until there is a winner.

That should cover what's basically happening, except for how pitching/batting works: each pitch is called a "ball" or "strike" by the umpire standing behind the catcher. "Balls" are called when the pitch goes out of the batter's "strike zone"; i.e. where the ball is considered easily hit-able. This is determined by the umpire's judgment. Strikes are called when...

1) The pitch is in the strike zone, and the batter doesn't swing

2) the batter swings and misses, regardless of whether the pitch was going to be a ball or strike (they can start the swinging motion and not get called for a strike if they stop quickly enough)

3) the batter hits the ball out of play ("foul ball" - either too far to the sides, or behind the batting box)

If the batter gets three strikes, he's out. He can't get called for a third strike after hitting a foul ball, though. If the batter gets four balls, he gets to go to first base for free (called a "walk"). He also goes to first base if he gets hit by a pitch (I think he can't purposefully get in the way of the pitch though). A "full count" of 3-2 means there are 3 balls and 2 strikes, so something has to happen on the next pitch (unless the batter hits a foul ball).

Those are the basics. There are tons of smaller rules that only come into play in certain situations, and others that are unwritten but are more like a code of conduct between players.


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

[User]
[MCU] Was Thor stronger than pre-gauntlet Thanos?

I was re-watching Infinity War these days, and I could not help but notice that when Thor and Rocket meet the dwarf Eitri,  he immedially demands explanations from Thor, because in his words *"You were supposed to protect us. Asgard was supposed to protect us.*

Multiple lore channels and reddit posters have stated the reason Thanos never gathered the stones before Infinity saga was because Odin was alive.

Making a move on the stones would mean getting killed by Odin, thus.

The fact Thanos never went to Eitri's helm or made a move on the Stones prior to the Allfather's death points to Odin actually bring stronger than Thanos. There's no sound reason for Thanos to wait until the All-Father is dead, unless he knew Odin could defeat him.

In Ragnarok, Odin states Thor is stronger than himself. Right afterwards, Thor is able to tap into the Thorforce/Odinforce (whatever is the thing that actually turns his eyes blue and his godmode on) and lighting bolt the fuck out of Hela, who, in fact, is stronger or or the leven with  Odin.

Following this logic, and Eitri's statements, I gather that Thor was **more than a match** for Thanos, in his regular self.

However, by the time they fought, Thanos had the stones, hence why Thor lost in their first encounter (plus he had just fought a rebellion, a battle against Hela, getting stabbed and losing an eye).

Another reinforcement point to this theory is that once Thor gets Stormbreaker and instant acess to his Odinforce/Thorfoce, he not only can decimate Thanos army single-handedly, but could throw Stormbreaker so hard that it **beat the combined power of all infinity stones** and shunk into Thanos chest .

In lieu of the presented facts, what do y'all think?

Makes sense? Or is Thanos simply OP & Marvell dummy thicc inconsistent?

[Assistant]
Thor has never been stronger than Base Thanos. For one the notion that Thanos avoided Odin is largely unfounded. According to the Russos, Thanos waited to collect the stones, because he wanted to know the location of every one to gather them in one fell swoop.

Additionally, Odins statement of Thor being stronger than he was is most likely figurative. Especially considering Odin was able to defeat Prime Surtur, who one shot Hela, a being that Thors most powerful lightning blast did nothing to.

The Russo brothers stated Stormbreaker overpowered the power of the combined infinity stones because it was designed specifically to counter the power of the Gauntlet, not because it or Thor was more powerful than the stones.

Not only that, but Thanos stomped Thor in Endgame. While many people blame this on Thor being out of shape, the Russos have stated that Thor was the strongest he had ever been at that point.


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

[User]
ELI5: What's stopping me from traveling to another country and abusing their free healthcare? (from US)

Let's say I get cancer or something and don't want to go into debt for the rest of my life. Is the realistic solution to hop on a plane to Denmark, walk into a hospital and say "hey, I've got cancer."? Or apply for citizenship? At face value that seems like an easy solution to the lack of universal healthcare in America. I got food poisoning and sent to the ER one night where they did nothing but pump me full of fluids and the bills put me back more than my 3 week trip to Sweden.

[Assistant]
No, it's usually not that simple. Most countries that provide universal healthcare will still charge foreigners for any medical treatments or hospital visits they have while visiting the country (although the cost will usually be significantly less than the US rate charged to non-insured patients). That's why travellers are usually advised to get traveller's medical insurance before going on trips to other countries.

You usually have to be at least a resident of the country before you qualify for free healthcare and sometimes you must be a citizen. It can take years to obtain citizenship in many countries but obtaining permanent residency is a little easier (though would still take months to apply for and often things like medical illnesses may disqualify you from applying).


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

[User] ELI5: Why is it that some farts sound like thunderclaps, while others sound like the air is being slowly released from a balloon? And then, there are the silent ones that usually smell worse than the audible ones. I need some help understanding the science of flatulence.

[Assistant]
Think of your ass as your mouth for a second. Your lips are now your ass cheeks.

Open your mouth (lips) and blow air out of your mouth.  Here's the "air out of balloon" sound.  Now close your mouth and blow (force) air out - you may have to lick your lips for added sweaty ass lube.  The lips will vibrate and create the general fart noise.

Take those thoughts/feelings to your ass, and this is what happens to your ass cheeks when air passes past them. Length and strength of the fart will alter the sound in volume and type.


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

[User]
Can I escape harm from a fireball by diving under water?

I was watching "True Lies" earlier today, and there is a scene where Arnold dives into a body of water just as a fuel truck explodes above him. As he swims a few feet under water you can see a massive fireball right above him.

Is this situation possible in real life? Given that I'm submerged in a few feet (or even inches) of water, what temperatures can I survive, and for how long?

And when that critical temperature/duration threshold is reached, how will I be hurt? Will the water become hot enough to burn me? Will it evaporate away exposing my body to the raw heat? Or something else entirely?

[Assistant]
I have recently had a class about mass and heat transfer so i'll try to help you out:

Okay, you dive into the water to escape the raging fire, you stay submerged at 2 meters below the surface of the water. Lets say the firebolt is at 1000C and remains constant. Lets also assume the water is perfectly still to simplify the calculations.

Let's say your body is at all times the same temperature as the water (which is very close to the real situation because the human body is largely made up out of water and therefore will heat at approximately the same rate as the water it's in). When your body (or the water) reaches 42C, you will pass out. Lets say the initial temperature of the water is 15C.

Now follows a bit of a technical part which you probaly won't be interested in:

We use the solutions developed for transient heat transfer in a semi-infinite region, the non-dimensional temperature is (T-Ti)/(Ts-Ti) = 0,027. We now calculate the estimated time out of the error function to be: t = 800 hours.

Conclusion: It would take a VERY long time for you to get hurt. The reason it would take so long is because water can consume alot of heat before rising in temperature, and also because we assumed the water you are in to be a semi-infinite region. This basically means that we assumed the body of water to be very big in surface and in depth.

Even if it was just a small pool you dove into, it would still take a long time for you to get hurt, so to answer your initial question: yes, you would be completely safe.


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

[User]
[Infinity War] How was Tony Starks Iron Man suit able to withstand a blast from the power stone?

I remember there was a bit when Tony makes a shield when Thanos blasts him with the Power stone. How was rhe suit able to withstand it but also come out with little to so damage to the suit at all?

[Assistant]
I dont think thanos was trying to use lethal force at this time. Leading up to this fight, everybody thanos fought against was also met with non lethal force. He probably didnt use the full force of the stone against him.

I think he wanted to put him down at the end only after realizing that he could be a real threat.


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

[User]
ELI5: why are there so many coding languages?

Why are there so many coding languages (Java, C+, HTML, ect.)? Do they all serve different purposes that simply can't be condensed into one single code? Are we not advanced enough to have an "Official" coding language? For example I understand why we have so many different spoken languages (English, Spanish, ect.), but we seem to be slowly moving toward English as the default. Is this going on at all in the computer world, or is this just an impossible concept?

[Assistant]
Different programming languages are good at different things.  For example the first high level programming language from the 50s, Fortran, is great for doing math.  It's really easy to make a computer do math really fast with Fortran which makes sense because at the time, the main use for computers was to do simulations for physics and other stuff.  That way scientists could make the computer do huge amounts of math without a lot of training in programming.

However there are a lot of other things that we need computers for besides just doing a huge amounts of arithmetic.  Computers now need to be able to talk to other computers, fetch different kinds of information, turn that in into graphics... all kinds of stuff.

Different programming languages are good at these different tasks.  There is a language called SQL (pronounced sequel) that makes asking databases for information almost as easy as talking.

There is no one official language because no language is the easiest one for all jobs.  However there are some that are kind of like a basic underlying language.  There are a lot of languages that when people use them the computer turns them into C before actually doing anything.  C#, Visual Basic, F#  ~~rubyonrails~~ Iron Ruby, and all the other .net languages get turned into a language called CLI which people don't use but the computer uses. Underneath all languages is the computer code that each processor understands (there are only a handful of those still used).

The problem with using those basic languages is that they are not as easy for people to write.  C may be able to do just about anything but the trade off for power is difficulty unless you have a lot of training.


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

[User]
Starting a research group after achieving financial independence

I have a Ph.D. in Computer Science, graduated in 2012 from a U.S. institution. I've been working in the tech industry in machine learning and doing well, so I expect in the not so far-off future to achieve my "FIRE" goals and be able to live modestly off my investments.

I miss the academic world and I'd like to rejoin that community and contribute my ideas to the research world, but I'm not sure the best way to go about it. My primary goal will be to work on my own research projects (i.e., I'm more interested in research than teaching, although I'd enjoy giving special topics seminars to interested students) and to build up a community of like-minded people to work on problems of interest with me.

Does anyone have examples of people doing something like this successfully? I don't think it makes sense for me to try to get a tenure-track job since these seem to favor new graduates, and I won't need the salary. But I would like to be associated with a university just to be in the right community to discuss ideas (in my case, I'm interested broadly in human-style AI (AGI) as opposed to mainstream machine learning).

In an ideal world, somehow I would raise the funds (e.g. through external grants etc) to run my own research group, but again I don't know how feasible this is unless I'm a tenure-track professor as opposed to a crazy independent scholar on the fringes of some academic institute.

Looking forward to suggestions here. Thanks!

[Assistant] Cant you just apply as an adjunct faculty or research faculty at a university? Im not sure if you can have your own research group in those roles though. Maybe starting a company would be a better fit.


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

[User] Why are rocky planets spherical in shape and not irregular, like asteroids?

[Assistant]
Because more massive bodies have stronger gravity!^1 Smaller bodies can have bigger mountains. For example, the biggest mountain in the Solar System is Olympus Mons, on Mars. No mountain on Earth comes close to Olympus Mons' 16 miles high, about 3 times the height of Mt. Everest! In fact, the Earth is smoother than a billiard ball compared to its size. Irregular asteroids are an extreme case where the mountains can be close to the same size as the object itself. In the other extreme are neutron stars, where the highest mountains are no more than 1 cm!

^1 The mass goes up with radius^3 , while the gravitational pull from a given mass only falls off with radius^2 . So, more massive objects have a surface further out, but have even more mass to make up for it.


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

[User]
CMV: Suicide is not *necessarily* an indication of mental illness.

It's common that if anyone expresses any desire to kill themselves they are automatically treated as mentally unfit, and hence it is seen as permissible for someone else - i.e. the state - to deprive them of their physical freedom and lock them up some where so they don't kill themselves. Now the reason given for this is that we are 'helping/protecting' them, which we often are. I am NOT saying a desire for suicide is never a result of mental illness, nor am I saying that mental illness is not USUALLY a factor either. But usually does not mean ALL.

 I don't see any reason why it suicide - lacking anything like being terminally ill or other extreme scenario -  can't just be a rational, fully autonomous choice that someone arrives at. Someone can be completely mentally sound, and say 'I think life is not worth living.' And decide to act on that by ending their own life.  If that is the case, then in such scenarios there are no moral grounds to force that person not to kill themselves.

Now you can believe this, while also believing that we can have many well funded and publicly available mental health resources available for people of all socio-economic placements. But if you think that basic facts about the universe/life/human mortality/whatever make like not worth living, then NO amount of therapy is going to change those basics facts, and it does not stop suicide from being a rational choice.

And any argument that says 'I would never want to do that' or 'but I think life is so beautiful and worth living and la di da' those are based on your SUBJECTIVE values and experiences, and I don't see why such subjective values should be forced on someone else's relationship with their own body/existence.

[Assistant]
Here's the thing.

It's already like that.

If someone truly, rationally decides they don't want to live anymore, they quietly commit suicide.   The state doesn't even know, and it's impossible for them to intervene.

If the state finds out, the only way that is possible is if they have made their intentions known.

This is a cry for help, and it is the duty of the state to answer that cry.

 It's not the *intent*.   It's *declaring* your intent.


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

[User] ELI5: How come bars of soap feel slippery on the skin initially, but soon afterward leave your skin feeling coarse/rough?

[Assistant] Soap itself is slippery. But it also dissolves fat. Your skin secretes fat for protection which does also make it soft and smooth. The soap can dissolve this fat and get it to rinse away which leaves your skin bare. This makes it feel rough and dry until the fat layer reforms. A major difference between body soap and cleaning agents is how well they dissolve fat. You want body soap to just clean off dirt and bacteria but leave most of the fat alone.


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

[User]
ELI5: How everything in existence coming from absolutely nothing (Big Bang) is any less ridiculous than theological explanations?

It just doesn't even seem like a real answer to me. I'd classify myself as an agnostic theist just simply due to this (seemingly) gaping hole in logic. So there was nothing, then there was everything? Reads a lot like Genesis.

To be clear, I've read a little on the events after the "event" and how everything formed and I find it fascinating and pretend to grasp some of it. It's just the "nothing to everything" part I find ridiculous.

[Assistant]
Compare scientists going "Okay, we don't know how this works yet. There's still research and studies to be made, we know we don't know, but this is our best estimate with the knowledge we currently have." to "God did it."

We know that the Big Bang theory, and other competing theories for the origin of the universe aren't quite there yet. But we're still looking, because Science is about learning and refining your ideas as you get new evidence.


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

[User] [Star Wars] for a guy who so patiently and thoroughly plans his moves, Palpatine seemed to have a lot riding on his ability to sway Anakin to the Dark Side. Did he have any other replacements for Dooku in mind as a viable apprentice if he wasn't able to get Anakin?

[Assistant]
If anakin couldn't defeat dooku he would have just kept dooku. Anakins real turn to the dark side began with dookus death.

Papa Palpatine knows if anakin has the will to kill dooku, He will be turned dark..


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

[User] What kind of reflection/image appears if two mirrors are facing each other perfectly?

[Assistant]
You get the infinite mirror effect. If you can get them lined up perfectly and somehow look in the middle without blocking they will just go on forever until it is to small to see.

Fun fact mirrors are green, its impossible to tell most times but when you look in a mirror what you see has an ever so slight tint of green to it. When you put two together you can see that as the effect goes on the images get greener and greener.


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

[User] ELI5: What is a RAM in computers?

[Assistant]
In the good ol' desk analogy, where the whole computer is a desk:

- the CPU is the person sitting at the desk, doing work

- the hard drives are the desk's drawers, or the filing cabinets by the wall behind the desk

- the memory (RAM) is the desk surface

The CPU (person sitting at the desk) works on documents (files stored in a computer). The documents they are working on are on the desk, their working area. Any document they're gonna be working on/with, they grab from the drawers or the filing cabinets and bring them up to the desk.

The desktop (the actual top of the physical desk in this analogy, not what you see on your monitor) is very easy for our worker person to reach, they're right there in front of him. Whereas the stuff in drawers/filing cabinets require a bit more time and effort to get to. The more desk space you have, the more stuff you can keep on your desk, so you don't have to spend as much time shuffling things around to make space for things you get in and out of drawers/filing cabinets as you work on different stuff.


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

[User]
ELI5:How do genealogy websites that are used to reveal your family tree work? Do they work as well as advertised? Who is compiling all of this information?

I have friends who use these websites (they're pretty common so I don't think I need to list any names) and they seem to work pretty well to my surprise. What I don't understand is how they work, and who's job it was to compile this data.

[Assistant]
A lot of genealogy is compiled by Mormons but marketed as a standard family history site. They use the data they find to posthumously baptize people into the church.

I would also assume companies do it for the monthly subscription fees.


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

[User] [Star Wars] Did Anakin ever ask about getting his mom out of slavery? Was it ever brought up again?

[Assistant]
Shimi told Anakin "Now, be brave and don't look back."

She wanted Anakin to focus on his new life, not as a slave but as a free person.

(Almost) No one else at the temple has family, conversations would not stray to that topic, nor would anyone be that engaged in talking about it if Anakin bought it up.

He is also in the middle of being taught to let go of strong attachments.

When you are constantly busy time flies.


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

[User] [IASIP] According to Dante, what levels of Hell would the different gang members find themselves on?

[Assistant] I was going to say it depends, since they all have different vices, but they'd all probably end up in the ninth circle for treachery considering that appears to be the most severe circle.  They all stab each other in the back so often, they'd be in the first level of the ninth circle, reserved for those who betray their kindred.


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

[User]
Would Adorno have been aware of Heidegger's speeches as rector of Freiburg?

This may be a long shot as it's kind of a niche question, so here's hoping.

I'm writing a small paper on *The Jargon of Authenticity* and also looking through some of Heidegger's speeches as rector in *The Heidegger Controversy*, and they seem like a natural fit. I'm wondering, would the content of these speeches have been public knowledge in the 60's? Adorno doesn't mention them and mostly focuses on *Being and Time*. Did Adorno not see the speeches as worth referencing? Or were they just not available yet? Or...?

Thanks!

[Assistant] I did a quick pdf scan and Adorno's *Ontology and Dialectics* lectures of 1960/61 (published last year!) make reference to Heidi's Freiburg address (lecture 17 specifically, given in Jan of 1961). *Ontology and Dialectics* is an all out attack on Heidegger in general, so it might be of interest as a general point, especially if you're writing on *Jargon*.


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

[User] If inflation decreases the buying power of cash, why do people sell off stocks on reports of high inflation? Wouldnt it be better to have your capital invested in an asset?

[Assistant] The expectation is that the Federal Reserve will continue to tighten financial conditions in order to combat high inflation. This means credit will become more expensive and growth will be harder to achieve for these companies. There's so much more to it of course but that's the broad stroke explanation for why equities are responding poorly.


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

[User]
What is the probability of a star not having planets?

Can it be that all stars have/had planets at some point in their life-cycle? Or having planets is as unique as planets having satellites(moons)?

[Assistant]
The short answer is that we don't know.

We used to think that stars might very rarely have planets, and that the solar system was an outlier. Then we started to look for them, and we found planets almost everywhere; around big stars, around small stars, around almost every type of star.

That doesn't mean that every star has plants, though. Stars in dense clusters might not allow planets to have stable orbits; other phenomena might limit planet formation as well.

In the end, there are probably (speculation time) as many solar systems with a ton of planets (like us) as there are solar systems with no plantes.


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

[User] ELI5: How did we figure out what different parts of our brain does?

[Assistant] A multitude of ways. Watching the brain react to tasks while being monitored. Tumors on the brain turning on and off certain functions. Errors during brain surgery. Lobotomies taught us a lot. There are a lot of contributors to the library of brain functions.


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

[User] [Doctor Who] How come the doctor never runs into other time lords throughout history? I know he is the last one, but theyre time travelers.. shouldnt they still be around in some capacity?

[Assistant]
There's two major factors as to why he doesn't:

1) Most Timelords barely left Gallifrey outside of the Time War era. The Doctor is *extremely* unusual in the amount of time he actually spends in other eras. Even The Master doesn't come close.

2) He can't normally go back over his own timeline - and his timeline includes major incidents on Gallifrey, which has a special time lock that prevents anyone travelling backwards with respect to *its* timeline. As such he generally can't encounter any Timelords from *before* those incidents - although Timelords that are never going to make it back to Gallifrey are fair game.

Neither of those are 100% protections, but combined they make it such that he's about as likely to run into another timelord as he is to run into a different incarnation of himself.


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

[User] ELI5: How do save game files for large open-world games work? How is the game told exactly where everything is, who is where, etc in such a relatively small file?

[Assistant]
The amount of data required to save "everything" that is known about the save file is quite small. The locations of NPCs and usable entities are only saved if they are important for a quest or they are in the area of the map which is loaded by the player. Everything else is just ignored because the game will respawn these NPCs/entities when the player loads that part of the map. If they are dead, they are recorded as dead in the save file so are not respawned.

All the items the player ever has also take up very little space, they are essentially 8 digit codes, or similar simple pointers, that tell the game what item it is. Only items that were interacted by the player are saved, so if you pickpocketed someone, the save file records this and won't spawn that NPC with the item you stole, otherwise the game assumes it's default.

For many open world games, especially Bethesda ones, the save file gets bigger the longer you play, since you interact with more and more things that need to be recorded. However the map is also very frequently reset. Shopkeepers get new inventory, dead bodies disappear, items respawn to their default positions so that the information can be removed from the save file.

So TL;DR
Everything in an open world game can be explained with XYZ co-ords and simple digits that explain the state of all objects the player has interacted with, saved in some kind of array or other storage system. This is just text, text takes up very little space.


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

[User]
CMV: When Hasidic Jewish women wear wigs, it defeats the purpose of not showing their hair.

I really want to understand this, especially if I've got it wrong.

As I understand it, there is a belief in Hasidic Judaism that a woman's hair is sexually enticing, and so women are expected to keep it covered.  That I get, but I don't see how wearing a wig is really seen as an appropriate covering.  A wig, by design, is meant to simulate an authentic head of human hair.  How, then, is a wig not every bit as enticing as the real thing?

No disrespect is intended with this question.  I just really want to know.  Hasidic Judaism is very fascinating to me.  I have a limited knowledge of it, but I love much of what I have seen so far.  Thank you for your time.

[Assistant]
One thing you learn as a religious Jew, (I say as someone who is no longer really Jewish at all) is that Judaism is all about playing to the letter of the rule rather than the "spirit". Often, you're not supposed to even claim to know what the spirit of a rule actually is: God says what God says and it's not necessarily anything humans could possibly understand. (Weirdly enough this even happens in cases where the prohibition was made by rabbis trying to put some distance between people and the actual prohibition in the Bible, where they usually explained their reasoning fairly clearly.)

This leads to things like putting up a cord up on posts all around a town because that halachically counts as a "wall" sufficient to make the town a single "building" and therefore get around the prohibition on carrying things on Shabbat.

Which is to say, yes, a wig is probably as sexually enticing as actual hair. But the prohibition isn't on showing a wig, or on being sexually enticing, it's on showing your hair. The purpose of not showing your hair is to not show your hair. To even say it's not to be sexually enticing is to miss the point.


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

[User]
Why does Moore's Law, the law that states that computing power approximately doubles every 2 years, advance at such a linear pace if the continuing advancement of computers requires innovative approaches?

How do we keep finding space on flash drives for instance so that their storage capacity continues to increase at such a predictable pace?

[Assistant] One thing I'd like to point out is Moore's law originally that the same amount of transistors would double in density every 18 months. Due to innovation we changed the law... So it's not really like a law... Maybe a hypothesis?


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

[User]
[MCU] What sort of abilities does the Soul Stone give you?

Alright, long story short I spent several years of my life looking for the Soul Stone, eventually I was able to find it but to actually get it I needed to sacrifice the person I love the most.

I did all that, and the soul stone is mine to use.

But what exactly can I do with it? I mean what sort of abilities does it have?

[Assistant]
Thanos used it to target Strange's soul to find the real Dr. strange when he did that spell that cloned him. Afterwards he uses it to push Strange's astral form out of his body but Strange puts himself back together quite quickly. It was also used to target the souls when snapping people out of existence/back into existence.

Edit: Joe Russo answered this question during their Collider interview;

>The Soul Stone obviously has the ability to manipulate your soul, the essence of who you are. One key moment where its used is where Doctor Strange turns into multiple Stranges and then Thanos uses the Soul Stone to eradicate all the fake Stranges and momentarily shoves Strange out of his own body, and Strange has to pull himself back in... Of course when Thanos goes to the Soul Stone itself, to speak to his dead daughter, he obviously has an ability to resurrect, conjure the spiritual representation of the people who are dead."


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Is Tantive IV the actual name of Leias ship in Ep4 or a call sign?

In any of the trilogies, the only two ship names with numbers are Tantive IV and Home One.  The latter is generally interpreted as a call sign.

As a member of (and one assumes heir to) the Royal House of Alderaan it would certainly make sense for her to have a specific call sign assigned to any ship she travels on, but I cant find anything to support either scenario.

[Assistant] Tantive IV is the name of the ship, the Royal House of Alderaan employed a fleet of many consular ships and yachts (Which used the prefix RHA to denote their affiliation), including the Tantive III, and Leia has traveled on different ships with no mention of any call sign specific to her presence.


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

[User] How do seeds know which way to grow?

[Assistant]
Plants sense gravity and then bend in response to it. This is called called gravitropism. One of the major gravity-sensing parts of the plant is the root tips.

Plants also sense light, and bend to respond to it. This is called phototropism.

Both processes act in concert to orient a plant appropriately.

The bending is achieved through the action of a growth-regulating plant hormone called auxin. When it's secreted selectively, those regions with the higher concentration of the hormone grow and elongate more quickly, which causes a bend in the overall structure.


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

[User] Are there any philosophers that argue an infinite regress of essentially ordered causes can exist?

[Assistant]
Spinoza

>Whatever has been determined to exist and produce an effect has been so determined by God (by Ip26 and Ip24c). But what is finite and has a determinate existence could not have been produced by the absolute nature of an attribute of God; for whatever follows from the absolute nature of an attribute of God is eternal and infinite (Ip21). It had, therefore, to follow either from God or from an attribute of God insofar as it is considered to be affected by some mode.But it also could not follow from God, or from an attribute of God, insofar as it is affected by a mode which is eternal and infinite (by Ip22). It had, therefore, to follow from or be determined to exist and produce an effect by God insofar as it is modified by a mode which is finite and has a determinate existenceand in turn, this cause or modehad also to be determined by another which is also finite and has a determinate existence; and againand so always (by the same reasoning) to infinity.


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

[User] Eli5 - Why do we need the Electoral College? Shouldn't popular vote determine the outcone of an election?

[Assistant]
Federalist #39 (the series of letters written by the authors of the Constitution wherein they told us what it means) is very clear about why the Electoral college exists, and it isn't about "communications difficulties" or "the people are too stupid to directly elect a President"

They did it this way because they did a thorough study of the history of civilizations and discovered the both democracy and federalist governments have inherent flaws that tend to cause the society to collapse into despotism. The looked a Greek, Roman, and Lycean democracies, Germany Federal Republic, and others. The first 3 Federalist Papers are little more than a history lesson, and fascinating.

Our system of government is crafted to avoid those inherent flaws by combining some parts of democracy (the House of Representatives, every citizen has an equal say therefore populous states have greater sway) with some parts of a Republic (the Senate, every state has an equal say regardless of population). The electoral college is the combination of those two ideas, neither wholly democratic nor wholly federal, but a combination of the two that overcomes the weaknesses of each.


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

[User]
[The Muppets] How is a muppet made?

I was told to post this one here!

No. Not "when a mother muppet and a father muppet love each other very much"
Lore wise, where do muppets come from? In the Muppet Movie, for instance, Walter is just part of the family. It makes no mention of him being adopted or anything. Is there just a chance that one of the kids you pop out is a muppet? This could account for some chickens being 'muppets' and others being chickens.
Along the same lines, does the population of the Muppet Universe see these muppets as 'puppets' or are they meant to be a real as humans and other animals?

[Assistant]
I think some do come from mommy and daddy muppets, but others just show up.

For instance, we meet Fozzi's mother in a Christmas special, Emmet Otters ma, and there is a whole land of grouches and places like Frogtown that have only muppets, and Sesame Street where they are part of the diverse neighborhood.

Others do just seem to show up, possibly by magic. They seem to start young, like muppet babies, but stop aging at a point - Elmo is forever 3, but Kermit has been an adult for half a century without missing a leap. Kermit comes from a swamp, and seemed unique there. Kermit certainly sees himself as just a frog, and based on his opinion of Doc Hopper, sees regular frogs as kinfolk. He may have just hatched as an intelligent tadpole one day.

Muppets take the fantastic as normal. Kermit used to be a reporter for Muppet News, interviewing fairy tale characters. That a family on Sesame Street suddenly announces a new human child or muppet child would be taken with the same joy and congratulatory air.

So, like the bumper sticker says, "Muppets Happen"


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

[User] ELI5: Why are braces so expensive? I saw a car being sold for $4800 and my braces are $5500. How?

[Assistant]
Compared to any other medical procedure,  they're a great deal.  That price includes a year or two of regular visits to somebody with a doctorate in orthodontics, all the equipment and a custom fit retainer at the end.

If you look at the cost of seeing a doctor once without insurance,  it doesn't seem so bad anymore.


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

[User]
CMV: authoritarianism is unhealthy

I've been researching political structures for years now and I generally find the concept of state intervention (in anything, economy, lives of people) to be generally unhealthy in society.

A lot of authoritarian states are unhealthy socially (China, USSR, Russian Empire, etc.), but at the same time the people of the German Empire were satisfied and content, and the people of the Third Reich approved very much of their Chancellor (I don't support nor approve of anything relating to him, but it's an example).

I personally oppose the idea due to the fact that too strong of a state seems to have too much opportunity to intervene in the liberties people enjoy and can oftentimes get wrapped up in eliminating things about society it doesn't like rather than trying to better the economy, improve education, or build infrastructure. It also has the opportunity to polarize views due to the fact that more authoritarian states are going to be passing more laws than limited ones (which I see as an issue in of itself).

I'm interested to hear what you guys have to say on the topic.

[Assistant]
Authoritarianism seems to be more widespread in business than in government. In Busnesses, CEOs tend to take autocratic control. Board of directors are supposedly elected by stockholders but most stockholders don't vote, and often the CEO owns so much stock that the board of directors and other stock holders have no power. But even when boards are elected by stockholders, representation tends toward oligarchy. Only people with money, are able to purchase stock.

And when they do vote it will be in the interest of higher dividends and stock value, not in the interest of the public good. Government regulation is essential to countering business autocracy. Such intervention is healthy and when it's functioning properly it protects rather than restricts freedom. Because a government unlike a CEO is elected by and answerable to the people.


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

[User] I never used to like coffee but now I love it, I was told it's an aquired taste. Same with beer, how does that work?

[Assistant]
You're taste buds actually change as you get older.  Basically your ability to taste bitter things is reduced as you get older, so stuff with a naturally bitter taste (coffee) doesn't seem as bitter when you're older.

That's a major reason.


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

[User]
[Addams Family] After the Thanksgiving Day Play Massacre, is Camp Chipewa still occupied by the "Native" campers?

Happy Indigenous European Meal Day everyone!!

[Assistant]
No. All summers come to an end.

Eventually, order would be restored to chaos; without Wednesday to act as the brains of the operation the rest of the kids would lose their drive for random destruction (or run out of things to destroy). Camp Chippewa is gone as both a physical and legal entity, with most of their actual structures torched and the parents having drug them into court, either to seek damages (for the pilgrim kids) or to shift blame onto the Graingers for any crimes committed during the rampage (for the tribal parents). A combination of jurisdictional issues and rich parents assures that even identified ringleaders like Joel and Wednesday experience no consequences. Eventually the Graingers are forced to sell the land to cover their lawyer fees, and the grim end of Camp Chippewa becomes the stuff of schoolyard legend.


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

[User] ELI5: How do you go from feeling completely normal to having to violently and uncontrollably sneeze 5 times in a row out of nowhere?

[Assistant]
The cause can be mild dehydration and subsequent recovery.

When you are dehydrated, your body starts rationing water.  High priority uses, like maintaining blood pressure and clearing dust from the lungs still get their share.  Low priority uses, such as draining the sinuses, get less than their usual share.

When the body is rationing water, dust that gets in the sinuses gets trapped by mucus, and sits there, but does not drain.

This is a perfectly normal way for the body to operate.  It is a natural response to evolving in conditions of intermittent drought.  It probably occurs daily for most of us.  ( This is why drinking lots of water is recommended when you have a cold.  It prevents the occasional local dehydration that would give the bugs a chance to get another foothold. )

When your body gets more water, then the low priority users get more.  ( BTW, this doesn't necessarily require drinking.  Sometimes your large intestine starts squeezing the water out of a bolus of digested food.  You get more water and you aren't even aware of it. )

When a low priority user like the sinuses regains its normal supply of water, they attempt to regain their normal functioning.  In the case of the sinuses, this means vigorous sneezing to get rid of accumulated dust.