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

[User]
[Spiderman: Homecoming] How does the vulture...

How does the vulture (plus his crew) work so well on the alien tech?

They managed to understand what the technology did, managed to tinker with it on their own, and develop working technology ridiculously fast and seemingly on their first (or at least first few) tries.

How did they do this so fast?

[Assistant] A lot of the technology was designed to be used by alien soldiers.  Things like ease of use, standardization, and modularity were likely design priorities.  Ease of use may have meant that the Vulture's crew didn't need to fully understand the technology in order to make good use of it.  Standardization would have enabled the crew to apply what they learned about a particular piece of technology to understanding other pieces, snowballing their competency.  Modularity would allow them to take the technology apart relatively easily and mix and match components to meet their needs.


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

[User] ELI5 how do cars know the outside temperature when they're driving down the road at 100kmh? Does the wind not effect the readings?

[Assistant]
Wind does not cool things innately, it just tends to help things of different temperature cool or heat faster by replacing the air nearby with new air that hasn't been changed in temperature via conduction. The thermometer will be aided in changing temperature faster by the wind but it should still be reasonably accurate otherwise.

Humans tend to view wind as cooling because we produce heat internally and the wind allows it to be shed faster than otherwise.


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

[User] Is there an evolutionary advantage to right-handedness?

[Assistant] Possibly not. One interesting thing about evolution, a trait doesn't strictly need to have an evolutionary advantage as long as it doesn't interfere with survival or reproduction. Some traits may just be "harmless accidents" that stuck around because why not?


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

[User]
How did scientists predict that at 3,500,000 psi hydrogen would become metallic?

Our one probe that journeyed into Jupiter was destroyed pretty much at the surface of the huge planet. However, I have heard speculation regarding the interior of gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn, with a common theory being that there is metallic hydrogen on the inside. How does science predict the pressure needed to form metallic hydrogen? Is metallic hydrogen still in the form of molecular hydrogen or do the atoms interact in a different way in this type of environment?

[Assistant]
Liquid metallic hydrogen has been made in shockwave experiments, but since it doesn't stay in that form it has only been made in minute quantities for very brief periods of time.

At great (but experimentally accessible) pressures, only about five percent of hydrogen molecules dissociate into atoms. Hydrogen maintains an essentially molecular state as it adopts a liquid state. Pressure forces the atoms to pack so tightly that the electrons move freely throughout the packed nuclei, much as conducting electrons move freely among metal atoms. As a result, the hydrogen conducts electricity and is called liquid metallic hydrogen. Flow patterns in this fluid conductor generate a magnetic field ten times stronger than that of Earth. This is what leads scientists to believe there are large amounts of liquid metallic hydrogen within Jupiter (which has the largest magnetic field in our solar system).


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

[User]
[Star Trek] Does the computer core on every starship include the collective knowledge of the Federation? Meaning all classified data and everything?

Specifically, I'm thinking about Voyager and the Omega Directive. Obviously, the computer core included all of the information Janeway might have needed to deal with the Omega molecules. Did the database also include classified information that even Captains cannot access? Is there classified data that's only stored at Starfleet HQ or maybe a starbase with an Admiral?

[Assistant] No.  The Omega Directive database is a special case.  Every captain has access to it because the Omega particle is so very dangerous that any ship that encounters it much be able to destroy it ASAP no matter what the situation.  Waiting for instructions or backup is too risky.  Any time the thing is encountered, it must be dealt with immediately, so every ship has all the files on it so the captain has every tool possible to destroy the thing before it is too late.


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

[User]
How to read philosophy?

I'm reading Descartes' Meditations right now, and I feel like I'm getting the overall picture but not many of the finer details, the exact logic of his reasoning, and in general I don't feel that I'm understanding all that I should be.

I'm not used to reading philosophy, is there a specific way of reading so that I can understand the concepts better? I'm going to reread Meditations after I finish.

[Assistant]
It helps to try and analyze the logic of the text as you read. Most philosophical texts give arguments for or against a particular thesis. This is in fact the case of the Mediatations, where each meditation gives an argument to underpin a proposition in Descartes philosophical system.

Try to first locate the logical conclusion of the chapter (paper, book). The rest of the text should relate to this in some way (though there will be some filler also). Then as you read keep the conclusion in mind, and ask yourself how what you are reading supports the conclusion. Try to ask yourself whether there is anything else that needs to be proven in order to make the conclusion follow, and see if you can find it later on. You may also keep notes of this process if you need to.

This active engagement with the text will provide you with a more structured understanding of the issue. You will not only read but also critique at the same time, which is supposed to boost retention rarte as well.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do things that go above the speed of sound make a huge boom?

[Assistant]
This sound is the sonic boom. It is the sound of the air crashing.

When the thing moving fast moves so fast the air can't keep up. It leaves a "hole" in the air where it was before. The sound is the air slapping back together, filling the hole.

It's like if you throw a big rock into the water, the splash of water will slap back against itself, making the splash noise.


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

[User]
ELI5: Where do the extra bits of root go when baby teeth are pushed out?

A question from my 5 year old, who hath a looth tooth.

[Assistant]
As the adult tooth develops beneath the baby tooth, it signals the body to resorb (eat) the roots of the baby teeth. So while baby teeth do start off with fully-formed baby-tooth roots, they get shorter and shorter as the adult tooth grows, which is why the baby teeth start wiggling in the first place.

So there are no extra bits, they are resorbed over time.


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

[User] ELI5 If HDMI has a really high Gb bandwidth and is readily available on most computers, how come its not used for data/file transfer?

[Assistant]
Think of a computer network like the road network - You can make turns, merge, drive onto highways and bumble along country roads, all part of the same system. But there's a tradeoff - You have to follow a lot of rules to participate, so that you get from your starting to point to your destination without being rammed off the road. Also, the car you drive has to be up to code, and carries lots of safety features and standardized/tested parts to meet the requirements that make it 'road worthy'.

HDMI is more like a drag strip. There's one start and one finish, and you're completely isolated from the regular road network. Your car is adapted for this - You'll get from start to finish real fast, but you're not about to make any hairpin bends. You also lack turn indicators and all the other formal stuff that's part of participating in a proper road network. But the tradeoff is you can go really fast because you're isolated.

Computer Networks are like the road network and HDMI is like the drag strip.

How come HDMI isn't used for data transfer? Because there's not many cases where you purely want to go 1-to-1 between 2 points in a fixed fashion. In cases where you do, the speed isn't worth the cost of adding HDMI support over something much cheaper and well-supported like USB 3.


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

[User]
ELI5: why tears come out of our eyes when we became sad.

what is the purpose of crying. basically why we cry when we are sad.

[Assistant]
Why do we smile? why do we have more facial muscles? A lot of our social behaviours are there... to show others how we feel.

By communicating with other humans we can more easily form a group that can work together.

Our body took something we could do: "tearducts form liquid to help eye be lubricated and protected" and just repurposed it for a social use.


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

[User]
How do you respond to 'idea' people who want you to program their app for free?

Looking for some good ways to help these people achieve their goal, but stay out of their life.

I usually recommend that-

\>They play with Python for about 2 hours. Recommending the official tutorial or automate the boring stuff tutorial. If they think its cool and doable, they can build a prototype in 6 months and something amazing in 2 years.

\>That if they are idea people, that their ideas should have amassed them enough money to pay programmers. If not, refer to the idea about Python.

Curious what you do with these types. I am pro-entrepreneur so I dont want to tell people to 'shove it'. Any suggestions?

[Assistant]
Just say no, you don't have the time.

Giving them advice on programming themselves could be a good idea if you can do it politely but it might not be worth the risk of sounding flippant since 99% of them aren't going to do it anyway.


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

[User]
Is your belly button still connected to anything after birth? If so, could you use it as a feeding tube?

If it is, what is it connected to? If it isn't, what happens after birth?

[Assistant]
Hi there,
After birth the Umbilical cord starts to turn turn into a ligament and close of certain sections to become part of the circulatory system. The ligaments are Medial umbilical ligament, ligamentum venosum, and the round ligament of liver.

You could not use it as a feeding tube as there are only ligaments. The parts of the umbilical cord which became part of the circulatory system could not be used as a feeding tube as the feeding tubes go into the digestive tract[Stomach/Intestine].

The umbilical cord contains three sections: Umbilical vein, artery, and Allantois[which later becomes Urachus]. The vein carries oxygenated blood[unlike what veins are typically known for excluding the pulmonary veins] while the artery contains deoxygenated blood and waste. The Allantois is used to help with exchange gases and handle liquid waste.


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

[User] [Game of Thrones] How does the Iron Bank protect its gold from theft? And who owns the bank and enjoys its profits?

[Assistant]
**Who owns the Bank?**

It's jointly owned by the descendants of its original founders, plus whichever other wealthy Braavosi have been able to purchase, scheme, or bribe their way into owning portions of the bank and/or sitting on the boards that make decisions and select its officers. Profits are divided between the shareholders according to how much of the Bank they own and its (presumably byzantine; its inner workings are notoriously secretive) interior profit-sharing rules.

**How Does it Protect Its Gold?**

All of Braavos, in a general sense. Anyone wishing to sack the Iron Bank would have to take the City of Braavos, which is protected by a natural harbor and significant land barriers.

All of the other political elite who rely on the Bank for funding would also move to stop any attack on Braavos, which would threaten their own power and throw the entire economy into chaos.

On a smaller scale, they protect their physical assets with high walls, locked vaults, and well-compensated guards like anyone else.

But most importantly, the Iron Bank just doesn't hold as much physical gold as it has on paper. Gold currency is heavy and a perfect target for bandits; it's much easier to exchange paper (not paper currency exactly, but letters and ledgers) that stand in for exchanges of debt and credit. We've been doing this for thousands of years, and Planetos has almost certainly come up with the same innovation.

For example, if the Iron Bank is receiving payments from five Westerosi princes, it can funnel that directly to a Meereenese shipping magnate who is taking out a massive business loan. No gold would actually need to enter the Iron Bank's vaults, and likely none would have to travel across the Narrow Sea at all; this entire exchange can be conducted with letters of credit. The princes repay the interest on their debts by sending either cash or letters of credit to Iron Bank agents, who verify that they're collectible and then let headquarters know the Bank now has possession of those assets. The Bank approves the loan to the shipping magnate with a letter of credit. The magnate would take out a low-interest cash loan from a local moneylender (the moneylender can give a low rate because of the unimpeachable Iron Bank's backing) for any liquid funds they might need and conduct any large purchases through letters of credit themselves.

The wealth of the Iron Bank isn't in the vaults of treasure it has (though it assuredly has many vaults crammed with priceless artifacts). Its wealth is in the debt it holds and its unfailing ability to collect on that debt.


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

[User]
[Magic School Bus] What's sex education like with Ms. Frizzle?

What sort of outfits do you think she'd wear? What sort of field trips would they go on? How would she apply her philosophy of, "*Take chances, make mistakes, and get messy?*" in the context of sex education?

edit: I planned to delete this post on account of it being something I thought of before going to bed while I was highly intoxicated. It wasn't as funny as I thought when I sobered up. But I'm keeping it because the answers were actually well thought out and some discussion was had.

[Assistant]
The Frizz actually covered this twice over in the original show, using the examples of reproduction in salmon and chickens.

She's an American public school teacher with students in the third grade, they're not gonna get into that much specific human detail.


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

[User]
eli5: Why do noodles and things like potatoes take so long to cool down after cooking?

Just need a scientific (Thermochemistry) explanation.

[Assistant]
Because they're full of hot water. Water has a high heat capacity, while the heat conductivity between the surface of the noodle/potato and air is poor (mostly coming from the water evaporating).

Tl;dr they hold lots of heat and shed it slowly.


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

[User] [Dungeons & Dragons] Why did the gods make many monsters that prey on humans? Don't the gods want a larger human population so they have more worshippers and more power?

[Assistant] No. That's not how the pantheon works. There are gods that humans (and elves, dwarves, gnomes, etc) worship. But there are also gods that the orcs worship (like Gruumsh) or that goblins worship (like Kurtulmak). Moreover, there are gods of discord that relish seeing civilization being terrorized, and they created monsters to see such a thing happen. Their (humanoid) worshippers accept this as a necessity.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Is there any evidence in new canon that talks about the empire having homophobic views?

i recently came across a tweet where a user claimed that in the new canon one of the books talk about the empire having homophobic views. i know that the empire is a fascist state and has many discriminatory policies such as xenophobia but i've never came across the idea of the empire being homophobic. i've tried researching it but couldn't find anything. does anyone know which book explores the empire's views on homosexuality and how exactly is the empire homophobic and what are there views on it ?

[Assistant] They prioritized heterosexual relationships because it led to families that could help produce more soldiers and strengthen the Empire. They preferred that if you had any other sexual preference you kept it private and engaged in it behind closed doors. The novel cited for that info is "Aftermath: Life Debt"


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

[User]
[TMNT] Why is Shredder's armor affected by the ooze?

At the end of the most epic of all Vanilla Ice scored fights Shredder becomes covered in the ooze and turns into Super Shredder. Sure okay Super Shredder that makes "sense" but his spikes and helmet go crazy too. How? Shouldn't he have "hulked" out of them?

[Assistant]
Shredder's armor is actually made out of living chitin bio-engineered for him by Krang in return for the exo-suit. They chose living chitin because it's fairly tough when properly treated but will also heal itself over time. Not within the span of a single battle, but it's ultimately much more practical than eventually running out of spare custom pauldrons and having to machine more. It's not the expense, so much as having to swap out the molds in his machine shop. That's a whole wasted week making new spares.

Since the armor is living chitin, the ooze was able to affect it.


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

[User] If two siblings have a kid, as a product of incest, is that kid genetically a son of the grandparents as well? Is it also genetically a sibling of its parents?

[Assistant]
While on average, the grandchild would share 50% of its genes with each grandparent, the distribution of those genes would look quite different from the grandchildren than for the children.

Let's refer to the genes from the male grandparent as M and from the female grandparent as F.

For the children, all the genes will be (MF) -- one copy from M and one copy from F.

For the grandchildren, something different will happen.  The siblings are combining, at each gene spot, an (MF) and an (MF).  Assuming the pairings are randomly distributed, this means that the genes in the grandchildren will be distributed as follows: 1/4 of them will be (MM), 1/4 of them will be (FF), and 1/2 of them will be (MF)  [coming from either an MF or an FM pairing].  Also, when you have something like MM or FF, it doesn't necessarily mean both genes are the same -- just that both come from the same grandparent.  (So if the grandmother has a spot with genes {Aa}, and that spot is (FF) in the grandchild, it could be {Aa}, {aA}, {AA}, or {aa}.)

Thus, based on overall percentage of DNA, both the children and grandchildren will be 50% M and 50% F, but the way that is achieved is quite different.

Note, of course, that we are talking only about that piece of the genome that varies; the vast bulk of the human genome is the same from person to person.  Also, this leaves out the mitochondrial DNA; here, everyone but the male grandfather will have the same mitochondrial DNA, since that is inherited exclusively from the mother.


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

[User] ELI5: What happens when I power off or unplug my computer while it's installing an update.

[Assistant]
I like to think of it like this:

Lets say you are fixing a roof on a house (you are the only one that can do this), right after you tear off the roof, but before you you start rebuilding the roof, you get shot. Damn no one can use that house, as you are the only one that could fix the roof.

* "You" -- Update Program
* "house" -- The computer
* "roof" -- A Program or other thing being updated with in the computer (OS or otherwise)
* "get shot" -- Power turned off

If there is luck involved, you might turn into a zombie and finish the roof. Thus the house can be used again. But most of the time you are in the ground, and the house has no roof.

* "Zombie" -- Update program restarting itself upon reboot.


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

[User] ELI5: how ants deal with raindrops? Do the rain feel like missile to them?

[Assistant] Ants will typically end up being moved or on top of a raindrop due to surface tension.  They will then do a well scientifically documented search pattern that will find their chemical trail back to where they belong.  During a flood they will attach to each other and make an ant raft that others will ride to save themselves.  Again, the surface tension of the water keeps them above water.  If they do go under they curl up and trap air that remains around their breathing area.  This occurs because, again, surface tension of water :-).


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

[User] In terms of number of planets, how big is our solar system compared to other planetary systems discovered?

[Assistant]
One important part of this answer is that we have discovered very very few planets as far from their stars as Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus are from our Sun. Theyre naturally harder to discover, and this is more indicative of our lack of instruments that can detect those kinds of planets than it is of their rarity.

I believe that transit surveys estimate somewhere around 1-2 planets per star on average, which makes some intuitive sense  our sun is about 3 times larger than the average Milky Way star, so we should have some more planets. However, most planets weve discovered are larger and closer to their stars than our solar systems planets, mostly because that makes them much easier to detect, and we dont have good enough instruments to have detected a large and unbiased set of planets.


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

[User]
[DC] if I killed the joker on plain daylight and the witnesses "didn't see anything" and the courts would let me out for lack of evidence, would batman actually find evidence to convicte me?

 This question is based on the real case of Ken McElroy, he was killed on plain daylight, the sheriff was out of town for "official business" and the witnesses refused to talk since he was hated by everyone, so let's say in this case joker is Ken, and any witness refuse to talk, would batman look for evidence and try to get me convicte me or would just let the justice system run its course?

[Assistant] So Batman wouldn't really do much. He'd investigate and so long as you're not a serial killer in the making he wouldn't do much more than spook ya a little. Bruce Wayne on the other hand would campaign hard against you regardless of the court's decision to try and send a message that extra judicial killings should never be allowed or forgiven just because the person who died was undesirable.  Batman would leave the courts as the final word but Bruce would drag you through hell and back in the court of public opinion.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why even give Stormtroopers/Clones armour?

Standard issue armour clearly doesn't deflect much, if any, blaster fire, so why? Is it an intimidation thing? Does it actually serve any practical purpose?

[Assistant]
The new canon, I've been told, is that deflecting isn't the goal. Protecting is. Sure, you take a blaster bolt to the chest and you're out of the fight. But the armor prevents that from being a hole in your chest. Instead, it diffuses the impact and you suffer a bunch of fractured ribs.

So, instead of needing to train another trooper for years, we just have to let a fully-trained soldier soak up bacta for a few weeks and send them out with more experience and a newfound hatred for the Rebels.

Meanwhile, those unarmored Rebels you see get shot...well, they're gone. The end.

So, one side just gets more and more experienced and takes minimal casualties, while the other has to keep putting new, inexperienced people into its ranks to fill in from all those gaping chest wounds.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] How expensive is it to build a standard Battle Droid, and how much does it cost to buy one? What about clones? Did Palpatine pay for his armies or did he acquire them for free somehow?

In reference to the Droids/Clones that make up the bulk of their respective armies, so a B1 Battle Droid and whatever is standard for a clone, including the cost to outfit them with armor/weapons.

[Assistant] The money to make both armies actually came from the same place. The Clone Army was originally funded by Damask Holdings, a sect of InterGalactic Banking Clan under the control of Darth Plagueis. The Droid Army was also funded by the Banking Clan, with some financial support from the Trade Federation as well.


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

[User] ELI5:How is Scoville Test performed?

[Assistant]
They take a small, exact amount of the dried pepper in question, dissolve it in alcohol, then mix this solution into a cup of sugar water.  They have 5 tasters drink that concoction to see if any of them can still detect the heat of the original pepper.  If 3/5 tasters can detect the heat, then they'll dilute the solution further until they can't.

The more dilution needed before the heat can't be detected, the hotter the pepper, and the higher its score on the Scoville scale.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do modern military generals use ancient military tactics/strategy's?

I hear this every so often when I watch historical documentaries, for example they go on about a certain tactic or strategy that Alexander the Great used in a battle and then they say that a modern general used the same tactic in a modern battle, but how can that be possible with all the changes to military hardware, the use of tanks and other things?

Just wanting to know how it can be transferable aside from just taking basic movement tactics or something else from basic.

[Assistant]
On the level of military *hardware*, you're right. A lot has changed in the last few thousand years.

But the *goals* of military conflict are basically unchanged: do enough damage to the other guy that he can no longer prevent you from carrying out your operational objectives while keeping one's own casualties to an acceptable minimum.

With that in mind, certain patterns emerge, patterns that can be applied *across* history, even if the specific way they are *implemented* has changed rather drastically over time. Examples, many of which overlap:

* If at all possible, fight at a place of your choosing, not a place of your enemy's choosing.
* Don't attack a fortified position if there's any way of avoiding it.
* The mobile force has the operational advantage over the force that is fixed in place.
* Attack when your enemy least expects it, not when he would prefer it.
* Attack from the direction your enemy least expects it (one of the things mobility lets you do), not from the direction he has anticipated.
* Attack where your enemy is weakest, not where he is strongest.
* Attack in ways your enemy is least prepared to defend against, not in ways he has anticipated.
* It doesn't matter how many more troops one side has if he can't bring them all to bear at the same place and same time.

So yes, *particular* tactics, e.g., the massed heavy cavalry charge, the spear-armed phalanx, the massed infantry charge, broadside-style naval tactics, have certainly gone by the board as military hardware has evolved. And even where *categories* of tactic/formation have survived, the *specifics* will change with hardware (e.g., there's a reason tank units are called "armored cavalry"; many of the principles are the same, even if range is measured in tank fuel instead of horse feed, etc.). But a commander focused on pulling off specific tactics obviously suggested by his hardware has, in the long run, already lost. The successful commander will remain focused on *accomplishing his objectives*, and will seek to use whatever hardware is at his disposal in bringing that off as efficiently as possible, guided by principles like those listed above.


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

[User]
Does the edge of the observable universe sway with our orbit around the sun?

Basically as we orbit the sun, does the edge of the observable universe sway with us?

I know it would be a ridiculously, ludicrously, insignificantly small sway, but it stands to reason that maybe if you were on pluto, the edge of your own personal observable universe would shift no?

Im sorry if this is a dumb question.

[Assistant] The observable universe expands faster than that, so just the growth is a bit asymmetric. The observable universe of "the Earth 6 months ago" is fully contained within our current observable universe. How else could it be - every information that could have reached Earth back then could also reach us now (e.g. by someone writing it down back then).


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

[User]
CMV: A character's skintone does not matter if it isn't an integral part of that character's backstory.

There has recently been some controversy regarding a new character called Nessa in the new Pokemon game.

A Japanese artist was given backlash by western fans for "whitewashing" the character in their fanart. You can google it easily, currently on mobile so can't link easily.

Now, my problem with this entire ordeal is that, other than the obvious outrage culture that's being paraded around in action, is that I don't think it really matters what Nessa's skin color is.

At least, for the moment.

From my perspective, an artist should be free to draw characters in whatever way they see fit. Of course, people are free to backlash against them, but it doesn't make it any less dumb.

Why is it that making light skin characters dark (not just tan, dark) or for western cosplayers to play usually Asian characters is okay, but this is considered racism regardless of context? If the artist did not have any intentions, apparent or otherwise, of downplaying a race for the color of their skin, it shouldn't really matter.

Take for example, a black man cosplaying as Spike from Cowboy Bebop. This is fine, in my opinion, because Spike's skin color is not an integral part to his character. Spike's background nor story does not rely on him being Caucasian, black or Asian. For Nessa, all we know is that she is a dark skinned Asian lady. I'm happy with her design and it's good to see Pokemon, a series which rarely has any dark skinned characters, show some representation and diversity.

I mean, even WHEN there is cultural significance, they are STILL fictional characters. A lot of very pale Asians love Black Panther and cosplay as him because they love his heroism and fins him cool.

However, I don't think fans should be hounded if they make art of her that depicts her lighter. Frankly, the vibe I get from those who are hating on the different shade of dark is that it's "not ethnic enough" for them, which is a lot worse. Nessa's character seems to be someone who spends all their time at the beach, so it's more important to reflect that. I have some hangups about artists making her straight up white out of spite, but for the most part, it's just an artistic choice. Most of the fanart is still pretty faithful to the character's revealed personality, that being a water trainer.

I know I might have some gaps in my knowledge here, so I want to hear other views.

[Assistant] Cosplaying isn't the same as artistic representation though. Cosplaying is humans, with unchangable features, dressing up like characters. Artists who draw things can decide exactly what shade to draw something. In this case, a Japanese artist who recreated a previous work of art that wasn't theirs made a character different in a way that wasn't theirs to really do. Let's not paint both artists as being equal.


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

[User]
[Alien] What is the full extent of Weyland-Yutani's products?

Everyone knows they're a massive conglomerate that delves into sectors like R&D, space, robotics and so on. But what do you think is the full extent of their range of products? What are ALL the industries they do business in?

[Assistant] Androids, weapons, personal electronics, starships, home appliances, medicine, personal vehicles, fast food, mercenary organizations, government agencies, human services, genetically modified produce, and a nice shampoo.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do we say "T-minus" when counting down to an event or time?

I'm guessing T=the set time. Is there more to the story?

[Assistant]
The military uses the nomenclature of Y year, D day, H hour, M minute, S second, and T time.  "D-Day" was really just one of many D "days" of WWII; the day when something important was scheduled to happen.

T time just means "the time when something is supposed to happen".  T minus means "before that time", T plus means "after that time".

This nomenclature seeped out of the military and is used in a lot of engineering applications for its clarity and convenience.


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

[User] [DUNE] If the only means of FTL is through the Spice, and the Spice can only be found on Arrakis, how did the first humans get to Arrakis?

[Assistant] Before the advent of spice using Navigators, faster than light travel (or space-folding) was not safe as one in ten ships that used space folding engine disappeared. The spice allows navigators to plot safe courses.


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

[User] Why is honey the only food item that does not spoil?

[Assistant]
Spoilage of food is mainly due to infestation of microbes.
Microbes in food, like almost every other living being, need water.
Honey has almost zero water content. If there are microbes in honey, they would soon lose whatever water they have in their cells to the the surrounding honey, due to osmosis and perish.

You can apply this same rule to oil as well. Edible Oil is a very good natural preservative for perishable foods (e.g. pickles from Indian sub-continent), due to the absence of water.


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

[User]
[Rick and Morty] Was Rick Sanchez always smart?

Or was he like Morty as a kid?

[Assistant]
It's established early on that Morty takes after Jerry, while Beth is smart like Rick.

I haven't seen any indication that Summer is smart like Beth, though. It would maybe have been a bit cooler if Summer was jealous of Morty's adventures because she was always the smart one, but from her perspective Rick seems to prefer her idiot brother for reasons she doesn't understand.


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

[User]
In a classroom, (especially science, engineering and mathematics), there are students that clearly don't understand the material, yet they never ask questions, even if the teacher asks if there are any.  Why don't they ask questions?

Many times, they ultimately end up doing poorly on quizzes and exams.

[Assistant]
Three reasons (that may overlap somewhat):

1) Not knowing what question to ask. If you don't understand something, it can be hard to formulate a question that makes sense and will increase your understanding. That's why so many questions you do hear in a classroom are garbled and make no sense, and as a consequence often the teacher fails to understand what the student is missing, or the teacher may just subtly scold them for asking a poorly-formed question.

2) Knowledge that further discussion isn't going to help anything. It may be that the teacher is not good at explaining things in different ways, or hat the concepts being taught are sufficiently complex that they can't be absorbed in a single sitting/lecture, but require further study. In this case, to ask the teacher to repeat his or herself is just wasting time that could be spent covering more material.

3) Maintenance of an image of a good, smart student. Students want to appear to be good and smart in the hopes that teachers will grade them higher. This often works, though less often in STEM fields.


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

[User] ELI5. How do doctors know when someone is about to die and they say something like, "Call the family and tell them it's coming."

[Assistant]
You start breathing weird is the simplest way to put it.

Most commonly it's Chyene-Stokes respiration (alternating periods of shallow fast breathing and slow breathing).

There is also what is called agonal breathing--this is a very distinctive pursed lip gasp that looks like a dying fish gasping on land.

And there is times where you notice a patient going into a long sustained period of rapid breathing.

The respiratory control center of the brain stem is generally the last thing to fail in the body, but when that starts to go. It's not long until the entire body goes with it.


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

[User] [Gremlins] How do different timezones work if you feed them after midnight? What happens if you pass one?

[Assistant]
Timezones are a human invention to make our day to day affairs easier. Mogwai are affected by *solar midnight*.

Solar midnight is dependent on longitude and time of the year rather than on a time zone. In fact, with daylight savings and other changes your clock could tell you that it's well before the witching hour, yet if you fed your mogwai it would transform.


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

[User] Does a computer display use more energy displaying white pixels rather than black pixels?

[Assistant]
It depends on the specific display technology and implementation.  As a general rule of thumb, if a display tech is emissive, it most likely uses more power as the picture gets brighter.  It might also be better to think of it as "using less power for the black pixels," because in general, we're comparing displays like LCDs that have an "always on" backlight to displays that don't produce light in parts of the picture that don't need it.

CRTs intrinsically use more energy showing white than black.  The power consumption is directly proportional to the light produced.

Plasma displays are similar.  Each pixel is its own light source, and they use more power when they're bright than when they're dim.

LCDs, in their most straightforward implementation, don't use noticeably more power in either direction.  The backlight is the largest power draw, and it is always on, whether individual pixels are white or black.

LCDs that implement some sort of Dynamic Contrast Ratio can use more when the picture is bright rather than dark because they adjust the backlight brightness to suit the scene.

LCDs with local backlight dimming are more similar to something like a plasma, since the backlight can be dimmed in specific areas, reducing power use (and improving black level) where the pixels are black.

OLED displays (actual OLED, not LCDs using OLED backlights) are emissive, so they go in the list of stuff that uses more power when pixels are bright.

VFDs LED array (like stadium TVs), SED, and the like are also emissive displays with power proportional to brightness.

Reflective LCD, DLP, LCD projection, LCoS, and Laser (really just DLP with a laser light source) televisions are also technologies where the power either doesn't vary with brightness, or only does so if there is some sort of Dynamic Contrast Ratio implementation.


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

[User]
What'll happen when the X1 flare's CME hit Earth later today?

I've been watching the Sun for some months (thanks solarham.net) but since I'm a noob, I don't really understand what'd happen when it arrives (within the next 24 hours).

I knew that X class flares' CME are bad news. And in many articles there are warning that the effect will be global. But for years, we haven't got any X-class directly hitting Earth. (although we had many X-class flares every month)

Now a X1 is coming. It sounds weak when you've been watching X10, X14 shooting around for the last few years. But it finally comes right at us. With our technology today, do you think that this event will pass as nobody even noticed? Or will it affect us minorly like, some static radio noises, some lag in online games? Perhaps the GPS will act funny for a while?

As a Vietnamese, I won't be able to see the auroras, and I'm pretty sad...

[Assistant] Honestly most of us probably won't even notice.  If you're far north or far south, then you'll get some nice auroras, those in the mid-latitudes might get something.  The satellites are designed to take radiation storms like this.  The GPS might get impacted mainly from interference in the upper atmosphere. We shouldn't experience electrical outages. The utilities are well aware of the risks and have taken steps to mitigate any damage.  A lot of this is hyped up by the news media who need a story.


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

[User] [Marvel 616] Would Avalanche's powers directly affect Ben Grimm or Sandman?

[Assistant]
Ben Grimm may have rock like skin but Avalanche's seismic waves have not been seen to be at a sufficiently high level to seriously hurt him. Ben can tank a hit from the Hulk and while Avalanche is a serious local threat and can crumble some stone, but he's not going to do nearly enough damage to hurt the Thing.

Avalanche would certainly mess up the Sandman at first and probably dissolve his shape and make him fall to bits, but that is no problem to the Sandman. He'll simply reform and probably once he has been hit a few times he'll work out how to let the seismic waves flow through him.

So yes, his powers will work on both, but neither will be all that harmed and Ben will probably make a joke about it tickling or something.


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

[User]
(DC) Why did the guardians of the galaxy (green lantern) request help from the Justice League?

Green Lantern is in the Justice League, and the guardians monitor the lanterns. They must know about them but even in Crisis On Infinite Earths they just say "We need the complete Green Lantern corps. And even then I fear for our success."

And surely there must be another group(s) of superfriends like the JL in the universe somewhere. Why not just tell all the lanterns to get their groups of superfriends for an enemy threatening the universe?

Edit: I meant Guardians of the Universe. I'm a dumbass.

[Assistant]
There are other planetary teams, yes, but their powers are either highly situational, to the point where it only really works on their planet, or they're incompetent.

That said, the Guardians are also a little arrogant and believe that the Green Lantern Ring is the ultimate weapon in the universe. Which it is. A skilled ring slinger could thrash the entire League if they tried. Even Hal Jordan had plans for such back in the 70s or 80s.

Even without that, the Green Lantern Corps consists of 3600 people. 7200 in modern times. The addition of six or seven more individuals, of varying power levels, honestly wouldn't affect things that much.


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

[User]
How does the brains of conjoined twins process sensation?

Like if they touch a hot surface does that immediate response to move away get sent to both brains or just one?

[Assistant] It depends on where and how they are conjoined. If they're conjoined at the hip through a very narrow bit of tissue they will have fully independent nervous systems. If they're conjoined at the chest they might each control an arm and share what's below since their spine is fused below a certain point. There's even a pair of conjoined twins that have interconnected brains and can see through each others' eyes.


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

[User]
[DC/Batman Beyond] What scientific feats does humanity need achieve before Neo Gotham exists?

I'm talking the city as a whole: a sprawling, mega-metropolis with its buildings, structures, products, economy, sociology, vehicles, technologies, etc...

[Assistant] "Present day" DC already has most of the technology from BB. It's just that the tech like hovering cars, advanced computers, holograms, etc tend to be pretty specialized in and aren't widespread. Even Terry's suit was from the near-future using pretty much present day technology.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] How dangerous is Darth Vader out of his suit?

Out of his suit and with his artifical limbs removed, how dangerous of an opponent is he?

[Assistant]
He can still force choke, force throw, force throw objects at an incredible range.

The suit allows him mobility, the suit helps him breath.

But for a short amount of time, the rage force is off the charts for Darth Vader and he is extremely dangerous to answer your question.


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

[User]
(Star Wars) What do the different lightsaber colours mean?

For example the sith seem to generally have red blades, whereas the jedi tend to have blue or green most of the time.

[Assistant]
Sith have red blades because their lightsaber crystals are usually synthetic. This makes their blades slightly more powerful, but not really enough to stand out, and supposedly makes the crystals more fragile.

The blade's color is decided by the focusing crystal used. The Jedi have access to caves which usually grow blue and green crystals. Post-Empire Jedi had to rely on a variety of other sources, including pearls and synthetic crystals, giving them a rainbow of options.

In an older period in the Republic, Green was for Consulars, Blue was for Guardians, and yellow was for Jedi Sentinels/Temple Guards.


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

[User] [Star Wars] If Dooku survived the Clone Wars and Palpatines machinations, would he have joined the Rebellion?

[Assistant] No. Not unless he has a real "come to Jesus" moment about everything - by the time the Clone Wars starts he's as firm a believer in everything that he and Palpatine are doing that he would never turn against him, and even if he was abandoned, he would probably turn out more like Maul - using his abilities to fight against the Empire, but still not be a part of the Rebellion. Most of the Rebels wouldn't accept Dooku anyway, given that he was the leader of the biggest enemy the Republic had faced in centuries.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are humans attracted to certain color combinations over others?

Why do we like complementary colors so much, but not really other color combinations? For example, we seem to be drawn to green/red often.

I understand that the color wheel is the source of complimentary colors, and how they're appealing to the eye. But *why* our eyes are so drawn to these combinations versus others?

 My best theory is that when we were hunter-gatherers, contrast meant a meal (berries, animals, ect.)

[Assistant]
The eye evolved to be sensitive to things that were beneficial to our ancestors survival. Spotting a ripe red fruit in tree full of green leaves, for example.

People actual preferences are developed over the course of their lives, but at a certain level it comes back to the eye having evolved to spot certain kinds of things, mostly related to food.


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

[User]
How can there be no straight lines in space?

So I was doing higher maths in school (sixth form) and my other class mate told the teacher how he enjoys astrophysics and the teacher replies with a "do you?" And proceeded to tell us how there are no straight lines in space, so could reddit explain to me how or if this is true? It might have been that you can't travel in straight lines? I'm not sure but could someone please explain?

[Assistant] Astrophysicist here - it is not really correct to say there are no straight lines. It is very possible to have a line go radially out with zero curvature for as long as the human heart could desire. However space time is curved and thus even photons will curve their trajectories (according to the least action principle) but this doesn't really mean straight lines don't exist. Space is weird but it isn't that weird. Things are just very huge.


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

[User] ELI5: what makes a cough dry?

[Assistant] Dry coughs lack mucus and are the result of tissue inflammation. Basically your lungs are swelling, but not producing much mucus (also called sputum when it's from the lungs). Other types of infections tend to trigger your nose or lungs to make a lot of mucus, which will come out when you cough or sneeze.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does newly paved asphalt sound so much quieter when driving over it?

[Assistant] When new pavement is put down, the paving machine smooths it out with a roller. Freshly paved roads have a very smooth surface with no bumps or irregularities. Thats why theres less road noise. The noise is caused by your wheels hitting things on the road surface. Over time, the asphalt surface will start to wear out in places, or settle in places, and youll start hearing more road noise.


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

[User] Is there any philosophy that critiques the notion that the reduction in crime / overall safety of citizens within a society is the ultimate end goal of that society?

[Assistant] Arendt argues that providing for basic physical needs of citizens is a precondition of a well-functioning society. For her, society's end goal is enabling citizens to express their freedom in the public political forum.


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

[User]
[Star trek] What Powers all the non warp systems in a starship?

If the warp core powers the Warp engines, What powers the rest of the ship? Often times the warp core was taken off line for maintenance and the ship still functioned fine (without Warp capabilities). If the ships are powered by the core, how does the rest of the ship remain functional?

[Assistant]
What's commonly called the "warp core" is actually the matter-antimatter reaction assembly. This is connected to the plasma grid, which distributes energy to the rest of the starship, not just the engines. The electro-plasma is bled off into canisters which form the basis of "auxiliary power" that the ship functions on when the warp core is offline. This system can also be used to boost power to certain systems while the warp core remains functional.

In addition to that, there are EPS taps which connect to standard batteries where electricity is stored. This is "emergency power", its main priority is for use when all other systems are offline to maintain life support and communications.


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

[User] Can you determine the volume of a bottle by the note it makes when blowing over the opening?

[Assistant]
Engineering student here and a musical enthusiast. Different shapes produce different notes/tones. So no, you wouldn't be able to determine the volume this way. Also the design of the opening determines the frequency of the tone produced as well as intensity of your blowing.

**EDIT:** Since a lot of people are telling me that bottles that contain water at different volumes make different tones, that is true, but you have to think, if you place the same volume of water into a another bottle of a different shape but the same volume,you will produce a totally different tone.

Also, you can test this by simply blowing into a bottle that contains some water and as you blow change the angle of the bottle and you'll notice you produce a slightly different tone. This is because the shape of area you are blowing into is changing.


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

[User]
ELI5: What is the difference between the Army and the Marines? (strategically and generally)

I have a friend in each one, I just don't fully understand the difference between the 2.
I have a pretty good understanding of the navy and the air force but I would love to hear some elaboration on this
thanks!

[Assistant]
The Marines are an expeditionary force, more or less. Ready to go anywhere on short notice, bringing their own air support, logistics, etc, and also specializing in amphibious operations.

The army is generally for larger and/or longer term jobs: take that area from a large opposing force, hold it, etc.  They have bigger logistical requirements generally, and rely on the USAF and/or USN for most of their fixed wing air support.

The gist of it is that if you need an area secured immediately, you can use a Marine Expeditionary Unit (or certain specialized army units, like the 82nd airborne).


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

[User]
Is there a C++ compiler that can quickly build the code like tcc for C language?

Is there a C++ compiler that can quickly build the code but doesn't really care about performance like `tcc` for C language?

[Assistant]
Not really.  If your code is complex enough that gcc/clang/msvc is taking a significant amount of time to compile a debug build it's not because of performance optimizations.

Make sure your build system is cacheing as aggressively as possible.  Full rebuilds should be relatively rare.


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

[User]
Probability distribution

Disclaimer: Stupid question ahead.

We've seen many a times (while giving an exam or something) that something (like some readings) follows a particular probability distribution. For example, there's a data of something, that follows Bernoulli distribution. Or something that follows normal distribution. How would they (who ever took the reading) have come to that? What I'm trying to ask is if I have a reading of (say) everyone's height in a particular city, how will I know what distribution they take? Or to make it simple, how can I know a set of reading I have follows a particular probability distribution?

[Assistant]
Probability distributions are models.

They're approximations. They abstract out some aspects of what you're looking at and attempt to reproduce other aspects more or less accurately (in a similar sense to the way a a model car might completely abstract away - in effect, ignore - the internal mechanics but attempt to fairly accurately reproduce the external appearance, albeit at a different scale). It's somewhat like the thing it models in some - hopefully useful - way, and unlike it in other ways.

You don't know that a set of data was drawn at random from a population with some probability distribution -- though sometimes you can be pretty clear that it *wouldn't have been* (such as when a largish sample has an empirical distribution very far from the population distribution being considered).

In some cases a model is chosen not by looking at data but by pondering whether the circumstances would match up well with a process that would produce that distribution. So for example, you don't conclude that some 0/1 data has a Bernoulli distribution by looking at the marginal frequencies ("there were 24 '0's and 78 '1's"), but if you judge that the probability of a 1 should be essentially constant and that outcomes will be essentially independent, then using a Bernoulli process as a model for the data-generating process may be an effective model (in that the model should describe the behavior you would then observe reasonably well).

How well you might need a model to approximate something really depends on the circumstances, like what you're using it for.


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

[User] The oldest human being in history was 122 years old. Will this record easily be shattered in time? Just how long are humans actually capable of living?

[Assistant] Our advanced medicine does a great job of extending average lifespan, but we haven't had much success in extending *maximum* lifespan. That is to say, we can ward off all kinds of disease, but humans seem to have a biological limit around 100-110, and we really haven't improved it. Go to any graveyard with graves from 200 years ago and you will find people who lived into their 100s. You'll also find a lot who died in their 30s of diseases we don't worry about any more, but the super-old haven't changed.


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

[User]
Will Saturn's rings eventually form a moon/moons?

Since the matter is spread out around the body, in a similar way to the matter around the sun in the early stages of the Solar system, will this matter too go on to form bodies that will orbit Saturn?

[Assistant]
No, because they are too close to Saturn.

They are so close to Saturn that the tidal force from Saturn is larger than the attraction between two rocks of the ring. That's what we call the Roche limit.
And actually it could be an explanation of their formation: a moon came too close to Saturn and was ripped apart by the tidal force, spreading its matter which then organized into rings.


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

[User] [General] What's the cruelest thing a character with a "no kill rule" has done?

[Assistant] Wally West, furious at the murder of his cousin Bart by the evil teenage speedster Inertia, used his powers over speed to slow down Inertia's body but not his mind, so that Inertia was now a living statue, able to think but never move ever again, forcing him to stare at the statue honoring his victim forever.  Or as Wally put it,   "forced to stare, with eyes that take a hundred years to blink... at the ghost of a man he could never be."


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

[User]
How can we can have motion relative to the CMB if it is observed from all directions?

I just got put in my place by trying to call bullshit on someone who was saying we can measure our velocity relative to the cosmic microwave background. Apparently this is an actual thing. Can someone explain this please? How can the CMB rest frame exist if CMB photons are observed from all directions?

[Assistant]
CMB photons are observed from all directions but not all with the same energy.

To be more precise: there exist, well, at least one frame where the CMB is seen as an isotropic blackbody spectrum (meaning the temperature does not depend on the direction). That's obvious or calling the CMBR "isotropic" would not make sense. Your claim is that an observer moving relative to this frame does not see anything different, and is unable to determine his motion wrt this preferential frame.

This is wrong because the relative speed between you and the CMB frame implies the photons coming straight ahead get blueshifted, the ones behind redshifted. (You can explicity see this as the effect of the Lorentz transformation on the photon's 4-momentum). There is this cute property about the Planckian / blackbody spectrum: if you multiply all the frequencies by a constant, it is still a blackbody spectrum, but at a different temperature. So the CMB ahead of you is warmer and behind you colder. In detail you have a **dipole** anisotropy due exclusively to your relative motion to the "CMB frame".

It's a pretty small effect unless you're moving at relativistic speed. Earth's speed is around 400 km/s plus an annual term. This gives a smallish (order of the mK) but very measurable dipole anisotropy in the CMBR that allows us to measure the above speed and direction.

Finally, when people talk about the anisotropies of the CMBR, they mean the remaining anisotropy after subtracting this mK dipole; the remaining fluctuations are of the order of the K and have cosmological relevance.


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

[User]
Just how clean exactly are we getting when we shower?

Are we killing germs or just spreading them? Is it basically only washing dirt off so one could smell good, if one does not use an antibacterial shampoo?
I was wondering this as I hung my pouf to dry and I realised that it never gets sanitized. Changed every couple months, yes, but it basically just hangs to dry after spreading around some germs.

I want to be actually clean, not dosed in scents to cover it up.

[Assistant]
News flash: You are 90% bacteria, 5 trillion animal cells and about 50 trillion bacteria.  They're all over you, living in symbiosis, and in fact being part of your first line of defense against hostile bacteria and viruses.  If you actually did manage to get rid of them, you'd be dead in a few days.

Antibacterial this-and-that makes the general public feel good about being free of "germs", but does little, if any, good when used in places other than food prep surfaces.


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

[User]
[The Martian] How long do you think the other members of the crew would have lasted had they found themselves in Mark Watneys position, stranded on Mars?

Keeping in mind that Watney was the crews botanist and a mechanical engineer.

The other members and their crew
jobs are as follows;
Lewis - Geologist
Martinez - Pilot
Vogul - Navigator & Chemist
Dr. Beck - Surgeon & EVA Specialist
Johanssen - SysOp & Reactor Tech

Given they are all scientists and astronauts chosen to go to Mars, you would assume they all have interchangeable skills outside their speciality. But I would think without botany as a specific qualification, they couldnt survive nearly as long as Watney did?

[Assistant] Everyone choosed for the mission was surely trained in all fields at least in basics. As we can see in the movie, there are laptops and other documents aroud that can be used to get information about anything. So if a non-botanist crew member wanted to know more about botany and to find a way how to grow something, they could use info from Watney's laptop.


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

[User]
[Star Trek]I'm a human being living on Earth, and my dream is to command my own spaceship that isn't owned by the Federation, but I live in a post-scarcity society with no concept of money. How do I go about acquiring one?

I find it difficult to believe that I could simply replicate all the components and have some sort of automated system assemble them, but could I do just that?  Or would a human have to go about another process to acquire things that humans from a less civilized age would associate with great wealth?

[Assistant]
What you described was actually done by Benjamin Sisko and his son, Jake.  The two of them undertook a father-son project in which they built a Bajoran lightship and flew it through space.

Please bear in mind that the Bajoran lightship is a small vessel whose design is centuries old.  If the Enterprise is like a modern day battleship, a Bajoran lightship is like a schooner.  Sisko and his son were able to build the lightship more-or-less on their own.  They had no apparent issue getting the building materials, and the construction was apparently easy since it was a two-man job.

No one on Deep Space Nine attempted to stop them, which suggested there were no legal obstacles to constructing a personal spacecraft.

In the end, the two of them flew from DS9 to Cardassian space, where warships intercepted them.  If they hadn't flown into Cardassian territory (and if they hadn't encountered critical technical difficulties along the way), their space voyage would have been unhindered.

Building and owning a relatively simple space-capable vessel is definitely feasible. Building something as large and lethal as a Starfleet capital ship is far more complicated, however, and will undoubtedly attract the wrong kind of attention from Federation authorities.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does carbon dating differentiate between the age of a material and the time that the material was shaped?

I see carbon dating used all the time to give the age of stone tools.  I always think to myself that the stone itself could be millions of years old, yet the carbon dating will put the age of the stone tool at tens of thousands of years old.  How does carbon dating differentiate between the age of the stone and the time that humans shaped it into a tool?

[Assistant]
Stone itself can't be carbon dated.  There are other types of radiodecay dating that may work, but as you're saying they tend to show a geologic age.

Rather than dating the stone axe head, archaeologists will date the surrounding material.  The axe was thrown in a garbage pile or buried with someone, and that provides the carbon-based materials for dating.


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

[User]
[DC] Why does the Bat-family to Jason?

Im aware that when Jason works with the Bat-family he uses non lethal weaponry but they must be aware of the fact Red Hood still kills people when not with them so are Batman and the others willing to just look the other way when Jason does it even though they've been nowhere near as lenient with this as others or are they just that oblivious?

[Assistant]
Bruce still cares for him and sees him as one of his greatest failures as a hero. Hell in some continuities what happens drove Batman to retire.

He also doesn't give on on old friends. He never stopped trying to help Harvey Dent either, who was a violent mobster when he became Two Face.


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

[User]
CMV: I think servers should be paid minimum wage

I would like to state that this topic is not about whether you should tip or not. Another point I would like to add is that we are assuming that every servers get paid minimum wage if one earns less than minimum wage from the tips. I was wondering why so many people get mad at others when they do not tip the standard 15%. Being a server isnt a strict job (no degree, education, training or danger). I see that it is a physically demanding job, but there are other physically or mentally demanding jobs are pays minimum wage as well (day care workers, customer support, etc). I thought that due to the fact that it doesnt have any strict requirements for one to get the job, it is expected to earn minimum wage, but some believe that one should make around 17$/hr from the tips. If the minimum wage should increase, then what about the inflation? This isnt a serious topic, but I thought that it was an interesting idea. I would like to clarify that I do not live in the US.

Edit: I see that inflation isnt an issue. Then we can ignore this argument.

[Assistant] Being a server, especially at a fine dining restaurant, actually does take a lot of training.  You have to be quite familiar with all the dishes on the menu, as well as the specials; have some knowledge of the wines, beers, spirits, etc on offer; be able to translate customer requests into language useful for the cooks/chefs; and more.  You have to deal with difficult customers while maintaining professionality, as well as providing excellent customer service.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do space telescopes use mirrors to get their images?

[Assistant] Large lenses exhibit a phenomena known as chromatic aberration, where the color of light is not equally refracted.  This gives pictures an undesirable rainbow-y look.  Mirrors do not exhibit this so they are more suitable for large sizes.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do little air bubbles collect on the side of a sealed water bottle when it's left in room temperature for a while?

[Assistant] Air can become dissolved in water. When the water sits still for long enough the air will come out of solution and stick to the inside of the bottle. This is made more obvious when you take a cold liquid and warm it up. Colder water can hold more gas than warm water can. So, as the water warms up the dissolved air will no longer be dissolved.


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

[User]
[My Hero Academia] What, if anything, do we know of the society and heroes outside Japan?

For example, does the list of top heroes such as Endeavor and Best Jeanist include only Japanese heroes or is it global? If it is global how does Japan do so well?

[Assistant]
Didn't All might only move to Japan to teach at UA? That seems to imply that the hero rankings are global since he was ranked #1 while not living in Japan. Although if that were the case than it's a bit odd that most of the top ranked heroes are in Japan.

Perhaps nobody outside Japan cares about Hero rankings? So someone like All-Might who's the widely considered the best in the world ends up at #1 since the ranking would be obviously wrong if he weren't, but otherwise only Japanese heroes stand a chance at making it to the top of the list thanks to a bias against foreigners.


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

[User]
How does heat transfer between a solid to a liquid?

So, I understand the process is called convection (right?), and I understand how convection works, but I'm curious about what is happening on the molecular level.  If I understand it correctly, the molecules of a substance move (or vibrate or something like that) at different speeds depending on their relative heat.  Hotter things move/vibrate faster, cooler things move/vibrate slower, and solids are so cold that their molecules are hardly moving at all, so the entire substance is locked up in the form of a solid.  I know this is super simplified and probably full of over generalizations, but I just want to lay down the concept first.

Now we come to the root of my question:  Lets imagine a glass of cold water, sitting on the table.  For the sake of my poor analogy, lets forget about the part where the air touches the water (say the glass has a lid on or something).  Now, the water will gradually increase to room temperature through convection.  Here's the bit I don't understand.  On the molecular level, the glass will have to heat up first.  The heat in the air will warm the glass, which will warm the water in the glass.  But the glass is a solid, and will remain so at very high temperatures.  So its molecules would be moving very slowly, right?  Slower than the molecules of the *liquid* water, *right?*   But the glass is warmer than the water, because it has a higher melting point, and therefor transfers heat to the water.  **So how do slower moving/vibrating molecules transfer their greater heat/energy to faster moving/vibrating molecules?**

If this belongs on a different subreddit, please let me know.

[Assistant] Your picture of solids is wrong. Imagine a solid as a 3D array of balls each one joined to It's neighbours by a network of springs. The balls can't change places but they can move backwards and forwards relative to each other. The motion of one ball gets passed on to the next through the springs and so on across the whole solid. As the temperature increases, so does the vibrations of the balls in their network.  The hot liquid molecules colliding with the cold glass transfer some of their momentum into vibrations that slowly get transferred through the glass. Eventually they reach the outside of the glass where the vibrations can collide with air molecules and transfer their momentum away into the atmosphere.


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

[User]
[Marvel] What is the most basic way to lift someone by telekinesis?

(Inspired by the levitating Hulk question...) If I were to get a job teaching at a mutant school, and needed to instruct a fledgling telekinetic on how to lift someone, what should I recommend?  I hear at mutant schools, you will often need to instruct people with powers different from yours.

Should I recommend that they create some sort of buoyant force (like water) that uniformly pushes someone upward?  Somehow generate zero gravity (not sure how to get a telekinetic to do that -- is it easy/possible)?  Create a psychic construct like a hand or hook that lifts from above or a platform that supports from below?  Maybe make a form-fitting psychic bubble?

I mean, I'm sure someone like Jean can lift someone by moving every single molecule in their body -- but that's advanced stuff.  How would I get my students started?

[Assistant]
Reach up and touch your nose. Did you think about how many individual cells your body sent commands to? Did you think about the air molecules that your arm displaced?

That's why a teacher can help a student with wildly divergent abilities. For the most part, the specific mechanics don't matter. (Sure, there are exceptions and in those circumstances a better teacher will be chosen.)

It's just a case of *doing* it.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do I never hear anything else about 99% of newfound scientific research?

I always see articles from credible news sources that say something along the lines of "researchers discover way of detecting cancer that is 20x cheaper" or "kid discovers HIV screening kit for $5." While they are good news and all, I just never see anything else about them. If they were so groundbreaking, wouldn't we see more about them? They seem important...

[Assistant]
The articles are hyperbolic. Discoveries are almost never as amazing as they are presented, or they are only that amazing in very specific circumstances which aren't that practical in real life.

Of course, even when one of these studies really is amazing, there are other issues. They require *tons* of testing, to not only confirm that they are accurate, but that they are safe. A $5 HIV screening kit is less impressive if it gives you diabetes or something.

And then of course there's simple price. Even if a new discovery is groundbreaking, and it's been confirmed by the scientific community, it still might be too expensive for it to be mass produced. It could be decades before they figure out how to fabricate enough of the product for it to actually show up in the mass market.


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

[User]
What makes nuclear fusion as an energy source difficult to produce?

I've read a lot about it and I'm studying mechanical engineering, so I understand the concept generally. But I'm curious/having trouble understanding the constraints on our ability to produce this kind of power.

[Assistant] The issue with fusion as an energy source is making it efficient. Right now even the best experimental reactors require more energy to generate and sustain the magnetic field (which contains the plasma at the necessary pressure and temperature for fusion) than they produce from the reaction. Lots of being work is being done to produce bigger reactors that may be capable of energy efficient, such as the ITER reactor in France, however it won't be ready for full deuterium-tritium reactions until 2027 at the earliest.


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

[User]
Are there any contemporary Transcendental Idealists?

As the title suggests, are there any modern day Kantian idealists, or such a position is dead for the modern world and our current understanding of science?

[Assistant] Absolutely - there are people working heavily in both Kantian and Neo-Kantian thought as regards his transcendental idealism. Major friction points include Kant's account of Space and Time as well as how he derives his categories, but there are absolutely a great amount of people in academia that describe themselves as Kantians outside of his moral philosophy.


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

[User]
[LOTR] Other than Frodo, who else in Middle-Earth could've taken the One Ring to Mount Doom and succeed?

Lots of people seem to ask just in general fiction who else could've taken the Ring to mount doom. You get answers like a Green Latern, the Terminator but is there **anyone in Middle Earth** that could've done the task?

Say in this universe Frodo just doesn't exists/died at an early age. Who could've taken the task of the journey of the Ring and succeed (or get as far as Frodo did, he did get to Mount Doom and kept it to himself, only for Smegol to fall in Mount Doom). I just got done reading Chapter III of Book 6 in Return of the King (chapter is called Mount Doom). Sam seems to be a possible person, he legitimately was the reason Frodo was able to keep on. So could he have done it? Who else?

[Assistant]
Someone with more knowledge can probably cite Tolkien letters or something, but almost certainly Sam could have done it. He carried the ring for a couple days and willingly gave it back to Frodo. This isn't quite the same as carrying it the entire trip, but a lot of people can't even be around the thing much less carry it.

I would also guess that Bilbo could have done it earlier on. By the time he leaves it for Frodo, he's already pretty far gone and probably could not have managed the trip to Mount Doom (leaving aside his relative frailty as well). But the fact that he leaves the ring at all by then indicates a lot of resiliency and he probably could have made the trip earlier in life.


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

[User]
ELI5:Why is a cold-boot bad for my computer?

Cold-boot/Hard-boot: Killing the power to shut down. I have always been taught that it's bad but never exactly why. If the programs on the computer are designed to run in the same way every time they're loaded, why is this bad?

[Assistant] Because some programs hold disk files open with data cached in memory. If the machine is shut down in that state, not only is cached data lost, the file on disk can be corrupted. There are more possibilities for corruption, but that's the main one.


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

[User] [DC Comics New Gods] Are the new gods more powerful than the 'old gods' were? I see Darkseid talked about as "outside time" and "impossible to REALLY kill" but if one set of gods could be killed and / or dethroned / very depowered, why couldn't the next set be? What makes the New Gods so special?

[Assistant] The Old Gods died in a huge apocalyptic battle with each other, which none of them survived, or at least those left were just mere fragments of their original selves. They still weren't the kind of beings you could defeat just by showing up and punching them super-duper hard.


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

[User]
Why can human eyes not see clearly in water?

Don't we have a, for lack of a better word, film over the cornea/iris that should allow for clear vision?

[Assistant]
The cornea is designed to refract light as it passes through. For terrestrial organisms like us, our corneas are of the right dimensions to refract light travelling through the air into the cornea.

The water-cornea boundary has a different refractive index (bends light differently) to air-cornea so when our eyes are submerged, the light is bent at the wrong angle to be focused onto our fovea properly.


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

[User] [Breaking bad] What would be some things that Walter Whites daughter would have to deal with as she grows up and learns all the things her father did?

[Assistant] Probably some shitty jokes and bullying at school, adults and law enforcement acting very cagey around her, the knowledge her dad destroyed hundreds if not thousands of lives, family tensions between her mom, brother, and aunt along with whatever their own problems in relation to her and/or Walt are, possibly some drug addicts or dealers coming after her and the family to find out Heisenbergs secrets, and that weirdo with the scars on his face all but ready to pass out when he sees her in Alaskafun times.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why buy an expensive computer monitor if a HDTV of the same size is cheaper and has the same resolution?

a 1080p 32" computer monitor can cost 500 dollars, but a 1080p tv thats 32" can be bought for 150. Is a computer monitor better, even though the resolution is the same? The picture quality is also pretty impressive on some of the HDTVs, would you really notice a difference?

[Assistant]
Monitors have better response times, more accurate colours and some even have features like USB hubs.

TV's don't have fast response times and therefore have a lot of input lag, which is fine for movies and such, but for applications and games, monitors are better. TV's process the image to try and make it look as good as possible, but it doesn't mean the colours are accurate, which is important for things like photo and video editing. This processing takes time, so a TV can have a response time of anywhere from 10 to 60 milliseconds, but a monitor usually has response times or less than 5ms, often 2 or even 1ms.


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

[User]
Why is Perfluorodecalin (C10F18), a liquid, breathable ?

The question is worded strangely, I know, but I'm curious as to what makes Perfluorodecalin breathable.
As you can clearly see, there is no Oxygen in Perfluorodecalin, so life expectancy couldn't be too long for someone suspended in this liquid. But why are we able to 'breathe' in this liquid, as opposed to other liquids (where we would typically drown)?

[Assistant] It's not the perfluorodecalin that sustains life; rather, it's the fact that perfluorodecalin can have so much dissolved oxygen in it (about 50 mL of dissolved oxygen per 100 mL perfluorodecalin at STP). This is enough to sustain bodily function, which is why it's breathable.


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

[User] [Harry Potter] How did everyone know what happened at Godric's Hollow?

[Assistant]
If you think about it, Voldemort is the wizarding world's version of Bin Laden: Some extremist nutcase who is trying to subvert the government, kill anyone he wants to, etc.

When Voldemort met his demise by trying to kill the potter boy, you can bet the media and politicians were all over it; finally, the bastard was dead, no more crisis.


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

[User] ELI5: How are Rats and other smaller Mammals with tiny limbs capable of moving so fast?

[Assistant] Fast may not be the correct term here. They are quick. Most small prey can accelerate and change directions very quickly, but can't run all that fast in a straight line. They look fast, but if you put them in an open area, a coyote or something similar could easily run them down.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are so few toothpastes ADA approved?

It seems like most reliable tubes of toothpaste I've seen don't have the ADA logo on them. Just wondering why they don't approve more types of toothpaste...

[Assistant] It's basically because of marketing. The manufacturer has to prove that any advertised claims of what the toothpaste can/will do is 100% accurate before the ADA will give the seal of approval. With all the different claims of what the product will do(E.G. reducing cavities, minty fresh mouth, straightening teeth) it has become near impossible for the ADA to give its seal on newer products. Plain varieties of toothpastes that simply advertise as fluoride toothpastes or refrain from making over-the-top claims are more likely to carry the ADA seal.


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

[User]
Is there a model of legalized prostitution that seems favorable over another?

I've heard that in Sweden, it is legal to sell sex but illegal to solicit prostitution/pimping where in Nevada, prostitution is legal but only under regulated brothels.

Is there any research that suggest that one model is better than another?

[Assistant] What is your definition of better? Less drug use? Less people trafficking? Less street prostitution? Fewer STIs? More taxes? Fewer pimps? More sole traders? More licensed brothels? Fewer prostitutes?


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

[User] ELI5: What determines whether gas comes out your mouth or your butt?

[Assistant] It depends on where the air is released or generated in the metabolic process. If you drink a carbonated beverage, there's a lot of gas dissolved in the soda so you're more likely to burp it out. Other foods create gas as a metabolic by-product and that usually stays trapped in the digestive tract to produce flatulence. If gas is produced in the stomach, you are likely to belch it and if it is produced in the intestines, you would fart it.


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

[User]
CMV: Osama bin Laden should've been tried

As the title says, I think Osama bin Laden should have been subject to a trial. With extraordinary rendition and such that the CIA (among other groups) practices, it shouldn't be too difficult to grab Mr. Laden and transfer him to the USA or some other "friendly" territory. If we give the damn Nazis (master-minds of a plot that killed ~12 million) a trial, why not the "master-mind" of a plot that killed ~2,000 people?

TL;DR: If we can storm into his house, shoot him (killing him), taking his body, and dumping into the ocean... Why can't we take him, alive, to a "safe-zone," and try him?

As the Declaration of Independence says: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that **all men are created equal.**"

[Assistant]
If he had lived for a trial or imprisionmemt it would have exposed the US and it allies to attacks and kidnappings in the hopes of forcing the US to set Bin Ladin free.

With him dead, you eliminate this very strong motivation.


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

[User] [Star Wars] When you put up a planetary shield, what is the difference between the Hoth kind (that ships can pass through), and the Scarif kind (that acts like a brick wall)?

[Assistant]
I think the one of Hoth was only a partial shield, like a large plate that covered Echo Base.  Thats why the Empire landed ground troops and marched in.

Alternatively, it was like the Gungan shield where slow moving walkers could penetrate but not high speed objects like missiles or fighters.


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

[User]
ELI5: What's stopping new ISP's from popping up and competing with the monopolies some ISP companies have within major cities? Why isnt there more competition?

Spawned from the Japan internet article posted on TIL (I think it was TIL, maybe it was politics)

[Assistant]
Extremely high barrier to entry. To be an ISP, you need to have the cabling infrastructure. To have the infrastructure you need to dig and run lines (alot of lines) to literally everywhere. The costs associated with this activity alone are astronomical.

Example: It's estimated that Google's Fiber project in Austin is going to run upwards of $94 Million to implement.

Think back to the age of dial-up internet. There were a ton of small and local ISPs because access to the existing telephone infrastructure was cheap and regulated fairly. Barrier to entry was low and competition was high. This is not the case with broadband.


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

[User]
Why is the 4th order Runge-Kutta method so commonly used in numeric integrators?

Is it somehow optimally balanced between accuracy and efficiency? Or is it just popular because it's the lowest order method that doesn't usually fail on complicated functions?

[Assistant]
Whether it's "optimal" depends on your perspective, but it's a good balance between accuracy, code complexity, and stability.  It doesn't have many crazy artificial behaviors, and unlike other higher-order methods, it doesn't require extra un-natural initial conditions.

Adams-Bashforth 2 is another common choice, it's less accurate but simple enough to memorize.


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

[User] [Marvel DC] What is the most disturbing thing a Hero has done while still acting as a Hero ?

[Assistant]
Professor X has a long history of moral ambiguity.

He was infatuated with a young Jean Grey while she was both his student & a teenager.

He enslaved a sentient artificial intelligence to help train his X-Men & kept it's existence a secret.

He hastily assembled a makeshift team of new X-Men to rescue the original team. They all died. One of them was Cyclops' youngest brother.

Xavier then mindwiped Scott to forget the brother ever existed so he'd stop grieving & get back to work leading another makeshift rescue team on exactly the same mission.


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

[User]
[ELI5] /dev/null, /dev/random, /dev/urandom and /dev/zero

I've been reading about this files and also I have tried to inspect by myself about this files (file, ll, Stat and some other commands) but I just don't understand them.

Can someone please explain me what are these files and how can I used them?

[Assistant]
Whenever you read from or write to a file, you don't directly access the file. Instead, the operating system does that for you.

These three files are special in the sense that when you use them, the OS pretends they are real files when in fact they are "pretend" files.

When you try to write to /dev/null, the OS simply discards your input.

When you read from /dev/zero, the OS just gives you a bunch of zeroes.

And when you read from /dev/random, the OS just gives you a bunch of random numbers.


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

[User]
ELI5 how come eyes dont have more colors? Why is it just brown, blue, green, hazel?

How come we dont have mostly purple, red, orange, etc. colored eyes?

[Assistant]
Optometrist here.  Eye color is a function of pigment (which is brown).  All of us (unless you have albinism) have pigment on the back side of the iris.  Blue eyed people have little to no pigment on the front side of the iris.  It looks blue for the same reason the sky looks blue (essentially).  Light enters, goes though the iris, scatters and reflects off the pigment on the back.

People with colors other than blue have varying amounts of pigment on the front surface of the iris.  The darker the eyes, the more pigment.  Nobody actually has true "green" eyes when viewed under a microscope, however, many people have colors that can appear greenish especially under some lighting conditions. Some eyes do have a bit of a grey appearance, as well.

There is a lot of subtle variation between people.  I've seen people with some of the deepest, most gorgeous shades of blue you can imagine.  The "scientist" in me would explain it with a thicker iris creating more scatter, but the "artistic" side of me just wants it to be 'beautiful' just because it is. Contrary to what another poster said, eyes do not change color based on mood.  In fact, the eyes do not change color at all. However, the reflections and the scatter can vary depending on pupil size and lighting in the environment, so some eyes do appear to change color a little bit.


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

[User]
ELI5:Why is fraud a crime but being a 'psychic' not a crime

I know that people can't get everything right all the time but isn't it probable that a lot of people advertising as psychics or fortune tellers are just scamming others?

EDIT: ok so i guess to sum it all up, being a 'psychic' or a 'reader' isn't technically fraud in most place because the small print, informing people that it's only for entertainment purposes, covers their asses in a legal sense. Whether you think this is ethical or not, is entirely up to you but thanks to everyone who contributed :)

[Assistant] They generally get around fraud law by using phrases such as 'for entertainment purposes only'.  While they're clearly presenting the image that they can talk to dead people, or find missing persons, they cover themselves with legal technicalities.


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

[User] [General] whenever there's a decently sized group of nornal people who are trying to survive some kind of disaster, there always seems to be a much higher chance of the group containing a veterinarian opposed to a normal docter, even though there are many more doctors in the world. Why?

[Assistant]
In a disaster - natural, man-made, or horde of zombies eating everybody - the natural place for doctors is on the front lines, treating the injured and infected and trying to save the day. Which means, naturally, that they're the first to die when the aftershocks hit/the virus goes airborne/the patients start reanimating and eating everybody.

Meanwhile, veterinarians are surrounded by animals which, aside from serving as a natural alarm system for a whole range of deadly horrors, can be very protective indeed. They're also more likely to be based in rural areas. What with that and their access to medical supplies, they're extremely well set up to survive those chaotic first few hours or days of terror.


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

[User]
[DC] What relationship, if any, does the Green Lantern Corps have with Apokalips?

Rather self explanatory, I think. And before everyone starts going off on how Apokalips and the New Gods are more of a concept then anything physical (see Multiversity for a more thorough explanation), let be more specifc and state what relationship they have with the physical 'Avatars' as it were.

Because Apokalips has launched Boomtubes of Parademons at Earth and other worlds who knows **how** many times, and I can't think fo any instance on the Green Lantern Corps actually doing anything about that problem (although my list of comic books I've actually read is depressingly low, so I might just be ignorant of a certain event or whatnot).

So, what's the deal? Do they just ignore that world and its actions? Are Parademons and such just too much for the Corps to handle, or are they somehow ignorant of that worlds existence and its crusades (unlikely, I know)?

[Assistant] The Guardians held a protracted war against Darkseid, and lost, as Darkseid exploited the yellow weakness of the Rings to his advantage. A sole Green Lantern was stationed on Apokolips undercover, primarily to observe. But the Guardians found that their efforts were best placed elsewhere, and left the war against Darkseid to New Genesis.


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

[User] ELI5: What exactly does it mean when an album/song is remastered?

[Assistant]
You build a Lego castle and bring it to "show and tell!" You explain how you built it, all the pieces and time it took to make and how your dad helped with the final Lego bricks!

A few days later, your friend came over and helped to rearrange a few pieces at the top of the castle and while the whole castle looks the same, it's slightly different. He took some pieces away to see the inside, and added some bricks to other places to make the bottom look stronger!

You now bring this newer castle to "show and tell" and share with the class.

They are familiar with the original but have a new view (sound) because of the changes made (remaster).