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

[User]
[Marvel] Can Galactus Drag Planets as Inter-Solar Snack Packs?

Had an idea for a cosplay involving a purple hat and a bag of planet-decorated cookies.  Occurred to me that Galactus often starves himself between meals, thought gravity-carried snack packs could help.

[Assistant] Galactus's primary ship, Taa II is capable of dragging planets and even stars with its massive gravitational pull.  But once a planet leaves its star system, it starts to lose energy quickly, which makes it 'stale'.  No one wants to eat a stale snack.


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

[User] [the Culture] Why did The Affront alter their females to make sex painful for them?

[Assistant] The Affront genetically engineered most of the life on their planet to feel more pain/fear.  The Affront just really enjoy seeing others suffer.  They are also a male dominated society so they did the same to the females.


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

[User]
ELI5: What is the difference between whisky, bourbon and scotch?

I'm becoming more of a sophisticated drinker and i want to understand more about liquor store. So what is the difference between whisky, scotch and bourbon?! Appreciate the help.

Edit: really appreciate all those giving the responses, grateful for the help.

[Assistant]
Scotch is whisky made in scotland. Bourbon is american whiskey made from 51% or more corn mash. Regardless of what it's made from, it comes out clear and then goes into a wood barrel or some type for aging. The combination of what its made from and the wood its aged in gives it flavor, body, etc.

You should also look into rye whiskey, irish whiskey, Japanese whisky and wheat whiskey. There's also 4 (or 5 if you're a purist) different types of scotch, the differences between which Wikipedia can explain better than i.


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

[User]
Does metabolizing your own body fat raise your cholesterol since your body fat is saturated fat?

It was my understanding that consuming saturated fat raises your bad cholesterol. So when an individual metabolizes their own fat when faced with a caloric deficit does it still have this effect?

[Assistant]
When you are metabolizing fat instead of glucose in times of fasting, you are breaking down fats in the form of fatty acids (eg triacylglycerols).  These fatty acids undergo a process called beta-oxidation, in which fatty acid chains lose 2 carbons at a time to create acetyl-CoA and succinyl-CoA.  These molecules can then feed back into the citric acid cycle or into ketogenesis to create energy for the body.

Acetyl-CoA can also be used as a precursor for cholesterol synthesis, but in the fasting state this should be down-regulated by an AMP-regulated protein kinase.

TL;DR: You don't create cholesterol during fat metabolism.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is there a "seam" on scrotums?

I've always wondered but never cared enough to ask. But now I'm bored so ya know... Reddit.

[Assistant] Early in development of the fetus all humans are basically arranged as females. The seam of the scrotum is where what otherwise would have become a vagina binds together. The penis is basically formed from what would otherwise be the clitoris.


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

[User]
What is happening in our brain when we are TRYING to recall something?

My wife told me she watched a stand-up comedian recently but couldn't remember their name. She said it was "something German-sounding". I knew exactly which comedian she was referring to (I could picture them and their routines) but couldn't recall their exact name. I ran through a series of "German-sounding" names in my head, eventually landing on the correct name - but what was happening before I got there?

[Assistant]
What you are trying to do is a type of memory retrieval that refers to relearning the information that has already been learned in the past but is not remembered. People may not be able to recall but they know that they have learned this before. Relearning shows improvement in retrieval of the information as it strengthens neuronal connections.

There are 6 predominantly involved in recall and recognition work in our brain...

1. The Prefrontal cortex is related to the retrieval attempt.
2. The Hippocampal and Para-Hippocampal areas of MTL are related to conscious recollection.
3. The Anterior cingulate cortex is related to response selection.
4. The Posterior midline area including the posterior cingulate is related to imagery.
5. The inferior parietal cortex is related to spatial awareness.
6. The Cerebellum, especially on the left which is related to self-initiated retrieval

The phenomenon of your situation refers to the failure to recall a word from memory which is combined with the feeling that retrieval is imminent. There may be a partial recall in this case. There is a perception of a wide gap between the knowledge of a specific word or subject and being able to retrieve the names involving said subject or the word. People sometimes recall other features of the target word such as its first letter or the words that have a similar meaning.

Two theories have been given by scientists to explain this phenomenon. The first is thedirect-access perspective, according to which the memory is not strong enough to recall but it is strong enough to trigger partial recall. Thesecond is theinferential perspectivewhich states that the state of partial recall occurs when the subject can infer knowledge of the target word but is not able to join the pieces of information together usually because those pieces do not exist in the memory. Also called the tip-of the tongue phenomenon.

Hope that helps...


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

[User]
I really want to study philosophy. Does this mean I should go to grad school?

 I hear many say that the only true or real (or best) way to do it is in academia. But many people also advise strongly against going to grad school for philosophy. So it sounds like a double-bind if the best way to study philosophy is something you shouldn't do.

Then if a person wants to seriously study philosophy, what other option is there? How sound is it to attempt to be self-taught in philosophy?

[Assistant] Certainly you will study philosophy if you go to graduate school, but unless you are wealthy or have an alternate career path mapped out, graduate school is for learning how to be an academic.  That is, graduate school is for leaning how to *do* philosophy and *be* an (academic) philosopher.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] What would happen if Palpatine had been killed by the broadside from the Venator on the Invisible Hand in Revenge of the Sith?

Everything before that point is the same, but the broadside that hit the Invisible Hand kills Palpatine. What happens?

[Assistant]
Considering the proximity, odds are good that Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi are also vaporized.  Depending on the timing, General Grievous might also bite it, so thats four major players down in one shot.  Id hate to be that clone gunner...

Anyway, unless theres some contingency for his premature death (not likely, given his profound arrogance), the plans and machinations of Darth Sidious die with him.  A successor is nominated by the Senate while the Jedi take control of the armies in the interim, and the war eventually ends with a vastly higher chance of a diplomatic close.


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

[User]
What is Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky about? And is it worth a read?

I've seen it pop up many times in the related items of philosophy books I get and, when I searched for it on google I got answers I didn't fully understand.

Edit: I would like to know the philosophy of it not the storyline.

[Assistant]
It is definitely worth a read. Dostoevsky has a strong influence on the work of authors like Camus, he can be noted as a precursor to existentialism.
The themes of Crime and Punishment vary and are somewhat complex. One of the most important to me is the whole reflexion on if reason is beyond morality, if a man with exceptional capabilities is able to act freely to any measure, including taking another person's life.


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

[User]
What happens to a person dying of thirst if they drink seawater?

If a person is dying of thirst on a raft adrift in the sea, they'll likely be tempted to drink seawater even though they know it won't help.

What will happen to the person once they consume some seawater?

I know they will eventually die, but I'm curious as to how. Specifically, what happens biologically and psychologically?

Biologically: What happens to the body.

Psychologically: Do they still feel thirsty? Do they feel any pain?

[Assistant] Our bodies maintain a very narrow range in concentration of sodium and chloride inside (intracellular space) and outside (interstitial space) cells. The only way to maintain this is through the diffusion of water down the concentration gradient. So as soon as the salty water hits the blood stream, your body will move water from the interstitial space into the blood,   then water will move from the intracellular space into the interstitial space in order to equilibrate the concentration. This can have deleterious effects on your kidneys as it now needs to remove the excess salt by producing urine, which requires water. So it will further dehydrate you. Your body will also try to compensate from losing all these fluids by constricting your blood vessels to maintain blood pressure which is further damaging your body. Eventually you can go into organ failure, coma, and death.


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

[User]
CMV: Necromancy within D&D isnt evil

So lots of people have on necromancy, and say that it is an inherently evil act, even to the point where in earlier editions using Animate Dead would literally corrupt your soul. But here Im talking about 5e, so we arent selling our soul for power anymore here. Honestly, I think the hate on necromancy is a bit undeserved, and may just be related to our fear of death. So heres my rundown of why I think that necromancy isnt evil, but is more like a chaotic neutral.

1. The main argument against necromancy is that the gods say its evil. But thats not all true; only a few say its evil. Heck, not even all the good gods say its evil and are more just like yeah, it exists. And then theres the Platonic argument that since all the gods are equally powerful, they naturally should all have equal say in morality. Since they disagree over what is right or wrong, they clearly shouldnt be our waypoint of accuracy for our morals.

2. Second most common argument is that it enslaves the soul when you make a zombie or skeleton. This is very, very inaccurate, as some ghosts use their body as a weapon with Animate Dead. Only soul-based magic can do that to a person, and THAT is evil magic.

3. Necromancy isnt the only class of magic to have evil spells, and is arguably one of the less nefarious spell types. Conjuration, when used to conjure a demon, requires human sacrifice. Blood magic requires literally using the blood of your enemies. Illusion and enchantment are used to make people go crazy (or worse). Compared to these rather terrifying displays, necromancys Soul Bind is a bit less nefarious. Liches kind of suck, but thats a more advanced version of soul binding, using your own soul.

4. If people werent scared of it, villains wouldnt gravitate towards it like children to the candy aisle at Walmart. It isnt the strongest form of magic, and it certainly it isnt the most terrifying in its potential (see point 3). They just use it because people are scared of zombies. If it were more accepted, it might be used somewhat, but it would probably be used just for some grunts or cannon fodder in front of the actual threats from the conjuration/evocation spells.

In my honest opinion, I think Enchantment is an evil school. It has a couple friendly spells, but mostly its used to hypnotize the enemy into attacking their own friends. That seems a lot more evil than desecrating a body that isnt useful to anyone anymore.

So, anyone disagree? Anyone have new ideas that counter my arguments? If so, feel free to try and change my view.

Edit: thanks to the guy who reminded me of this. Healing spells are necromancy. Theyre definitely not evil.

[Assistant]
If memory of DND is correct there is explicitly positive and negative energy. Which suggests there is some abstract arbiter if good and evil, or at least that these are actual things present in the DnD world and not simply labels humans apply to moral and immoral behavior.

I you can then make the argument that regardless of if the result is moral or immoral, a spell using negative energy is evil, because it is powered by this abstract evil energy.

Edit: DND also plays into standard tropes, like vampires are evil, then leaves it up to the DM and the players to add in variations. So calling necromancy evil because most necromancers are evil, but allowing a DM to make an exception for a god necromancer is in like with that standard practice.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is dialogue in movies whisper quiet, then gunshots and explosions happen and damn near blow your speakers?

[Assistant]
When using your tv's built-in stereo speakers, go to your set-top box's settings and play around with the dynamic range setting.

It's because you aren't using a surround sound system. Movies are made for a surround sound system, dialogue is on a dedicated center channel, and all non-dialogue audio goes on the other channels, when listening to your tv's built-in stereo speakers, the dialogue channel is mixed with the other sounds.

Edit- for using VLC and stereo speakers, use dynamic range compression, set a low value for threshold (at what volume to activate compression), and play around with some of the other settings as well, such as gain.

Edit again- for surround sound systems, increase the volume of the center channel and play around with the dynamic range.


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

[User] How can the "Big Crunch" idea work, if all objects are moving away from one another, and gravity weakens as distance apart becomes greater?

[Assistant]
Gravity never stops acting between two bodies. It gets weaker as you travel away but there is always some force.

The idea behind the Big Crunch model is that eventually the expansion of the universe will halt, thus bodies will no longer be moving away from each other. As gravity will still remain, bodies will move towards one another and over time this will result in all the mass forming a single body.

However, as far as we know, the expansion of the universe is actually accelerating, not slowing down or stopping; hence the Big Crunch model seems less likely at this point.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does our body start to shake after holding a strenuous position for like an extended period of time?

e.g. planking or wall-sits and starting to shake before failure.

[Assistant] In short, holding a position or working out requires muscular stimulation which involves neural signals from the brain. These signals come in the form of neurotransmitters, which can get depleted after strenuous exercise. Low levels of these neurotransmitters mean muscle contractions are not as fluid and prolonged, so we feel our muscles "shake" as some muscle fibers fire and others do not. It's similar to a lawnmower engine: as the available gasoline supply declines, the engine sputters and dies.


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

[User] [LoTR] So if the sun and moon are inferior replacements for the two trees of Valinor what did the world look like before their felling?

[Assistant]
Where'd you read that the Sun and Moon were inferior replacements?

In many ways, they're better. The Two Trees' light was pretty much entirely limited to Valinor, leaving Middle-earth in a permanent state of near darkness (starlight provided some light) where evil was allowed to grow with hardly any impediments.


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

[User]
ELI5:How do electronics keep track of the time if they are turned off for a period of time and never connect to the internet?

For example if I have an iPad that I turn off for a couple days, and when I turn it back on while it has no internet access, how does it know what the time and date is?

[Assistant]
Your iPad uses a small amount of its battery to keep the internal clock running, which is the only thing it's doing while it's shut down.

Laptops also do this, though sometimes it's through a small watch battery instead of the main battery.


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

[User]
Terms in electrolysis which confuses me.

**What is it meant by a negative and positive electrode, and negative and positive terminal of electrolysis?
**
In a simple electrolysis setup, there is an anode and cathode. The anode which is positively charged is where electrons are flowing away from and the cathode, which is negatively charged is where electrons are flowing to. Hence, is the anode the positively charged electrode, negative electrode?

[Assistant]
The anode is ALWAYS the electrode where the oxidation reaction occurs. Similarly, the cathode is the electrode where reduction reaction occurs. Just remember

*AnOx, RedCat*

The anode and cathode switch depending on whether the cell is galvanic or electrolytic.


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

[User]
eli5 Gills can absorb oxygen from an aqueous environment. Why cant gills absorb oxygen from a non-aqueous environment?

Additionally, in the instances like salamanders that absorb oxygen through their skin is this the same function?

[Assistant] They can, but they collapse and stick together when out of the water and as a result there's far far far less surface area for oxygen exchange exposed to the air than exposed to the water.  If you could somehow keep gills fully open and exposed in air, they would likely work.  Gills work in water because there is a huge amount of surface area presented to the water.  Lungs don't need to present nearly as much surface area for the same amount of oxygen absorption because there's nearly 20 times the amount of oxygen in air as their is in water.  Lungs avoid collapse by having lots and lots of tiny pockets that stay open in air, so there's plenty of surface area for gas exchange.


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

[User] ELI5 how we can determine that tiny particles like quarks and neutrinos exist, but cannot determine what is ultimately the source of matter.

[Assistant]
Because, in general, it's easier to know something exists than to know how it exists.

We can determine they exist 1. Because we can break things apart into them and 2. Because we can see how they interact with things.

But, of course, we can't actually see them, because they are so small, and we can't break them into smaller parts, at least not that we know of.

So while we know they are there, we don't know what they are.

I assume that was what your question was, but the wording is weird.


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

[User] [Superman] Ma and Pa Kent notice that little Clark's teeth are coming in crooked. Can human braces fix this?

[Assistant]
With the level of genetic engineering that went into in most continuities kryptonians they probably fixed the chances of this happening eons ago.

Lex Luthor might be able to invent some super braces though.  Upper limit of earth tech level there is way above ours.  Or they can put normal bracer on and keep him in a red sun room.


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

[User]
[The Boys] Even if Homelander was exposed, what's to stop him from destroying the world?

The Boys talk about exposing the Seven, and most of them could probably be arrested eventually, but what about Homelander? If publicly exposed, couldn't he just flip out and start killing people? Does the government have a contingency plan for Homelander? Does Vought?

[Assistant]
In the original comic books, there *is* a contingency plan in case Homelander ever went rogue. >!Black Noir was a clone created of Homelander but ordered to hide the fact they had the same powers. If Homelander ever went rogue, Black Noir was ordered to kill him.!<

Unfortunately, the *contingency plan* went horribly wrong. >!The crimes supposedly committed by Homelander were actually an undisguised Black Noir going on a rampage to frame him. Black Noir went insane because he knew his only purpose was to kill one particular person and he'd be useless after that, but still wanted to complete his purpose. So he committed crimes, framed Homelander and tricked him into thinking he had done them, driving Homelander insane and thus getting Vought to authorise his death.!<

>!Also, whomever won the fight was going to be nuked to death. They couldn't survive that after such a thorough beating.!<


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

[User]
ELI5: Why don't I like the idea of my partner sleeping with other people than me - Is it cultural or natural?

I am aware that some like the idea of sharing their partner with other people, however, most couples, married or not, seems to solely rely on each other when it comes to having sex. But why is that? Is it our nature and instincts that tells us to stick with one person at a time, or is that just our culture, maybe originally derived from religion?

[Assistant]
It's a bit of both. Western culture puts extreme emphasis on sexual fidelity not found in other cultures, but a certain amount of jealousy is natural as well.

Humans did not evolve in nuclear families. The Stone Age was not like "The Flintstones". The general culture schema in which humans evolved was in bands of 20-100 nomadic hunter-gatherers. Different such tribes are different but the general trend seems to be a moderate amount of pairing together within an overall environment of sharing everything including sex.

There was no issue (as others have and will try to tell you) of "bringing home food to children not your own" because all members of the band share in the food anyway. No matter what you bring home it will be shared by everyone, so you will always be feeding children not your own (but still probably closely related to you because they're on the same band as you, so evolution smiles on this).

Because children were generally supported communally by the band, the issue of raising children not your own is a null one. All the children are yours and you supported them all. In fact evidence of strong sperm competition in our biology and hidden periods of female fertility indicates that at least some females were having sex with the entire band, giving every male reason to support her children. And of course males were sleeping around too.

Anyway the upshot seems to be that there was a lot of monogamy in our past, and a lot of nonmonogamy too. A moderate amount of jealousy is biological, but the trope of undefeatable extreme romantic jealousy is cultural. Social monogamy is nature, but strict sexual monogamy is nurture.


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

[User]
[Terminator] How did the humans figure out that their enemy was Skynet, not other humans, and how long did it take?

Were there subtle signs that indicated something was interfering with combat operations that couldn't have been done by humans? Did leaders eventually talk to each other and figure out no one knows why they are fighting and everyone thinks they are purely doing self defense? Did the machines openly start attacking humans and if so, at what point did the machines decide to do so?

[Assistant] According to the video game Resistance it took about a year to figure things out another year or two to connect the dots to judgment day and skynet. Bout six months after judgment day rumors of killer robots were out in the survivor enclaves. By a year nearly everyone had seen an HK or terminator unit in the distance or narrowly escaped one. A year or so after that the resistance started forming to protect people and the discovery of how widespread and prepared skynet and it's machines were led to the conclusion it had started the war. Really only after John Conner had proven himself that people really believed him that skynet started the war and wasn't just some left over rogue weapons system.


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

[User]
[Halo] How is the Master Chief able to utilise overshield and active camo pickups?

If active camo and overshield pickups Covenant inventions, why is the Master Chief able to utilise them? Surely there would be incompatibility between his armour (UNSC tech) and the pickup (Covenant tech)

[Assistant]
If memory serves, the UNSC was pretty quick to study Covenant tech and often in greater detail than the Covenant themselves.

I'd not be surprised if his suit is based on the same technology as the elites' armor. It's an imperfect match, mind you, which is why the upgrades are so short-term.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do people snoop in on unsecured wifi networks?

I think I understand it if someone makes a network called "Free Public wifi", and then (through the router app??) they can read what you're sending to, and from the network. But can people pick up  information sent to and from the network if they did not set up the network?

[Assistant]
Sure. If you've got a network with no password or other form of authentication, then the connection to that access point is completely unencrypted and broadcast all over the local area for anybody to grab and read right out of the air. There are even tools for some of the older encryption protocols (WEP, most notably) that can grab enough information to be able to decrypt any of the information sent through the wi-fi.

Think of it like eavesdropping on a conversation at the table next to you. The sound waves are there in the air for anybody to hear, you just need to tune into them and pay attention to what's being said.


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

[User]
[Phoenix Wright/Marvel] Would Phoenix, Maya, Apollo, and Athena have to register their lawyer powers?

So the Phoenix Wright series takes place in Jamarica (America with Japanese culture and legal systems.), and in the series all members of the Wright Anything Agency except trucy have some sort of weird pseudo-superpower.

**Phoenix:** has the magatama a green stone that can tell if some one is lying and display those lies as "Psyke locks."

**Maya:** Has the ability to channel spirits into her body.

**Apollo:** Has the ability to instantly sense "tells", his body tenses up when he spots them but he needs his bracelet to focus on and spot them.

**Athena:** Has super sensitive hearing that somehow allows her to even hear when someone has conflicting emotions in their heart, she uses a gadget to make it easier to show and pinpoint the discord in the subjects heart.

So if jamerica was in the marvel universe would Maya and the trio be subject to the SHRA?  the details of the act were vauge with some saying you only had to register if you were a vigilante and others were saing if you had any power at all you had to be *registered and drafted*

*I am asking two questions.*

* 1. would their status as lawyers that due to jamericas legal system are also investigators be close enough to be considered "crime fighting"?

* 2 If the second interpretation of the shra is correct would their abilites be considered superpowers?

[Assistant]
Phoenix's and Maya's actuall constitutes as superpowers.
Apollo'a, Athena's and Trucy's (she can also make out tells, just doesn't have a bracelet for it) are pretty much super psychology powers, hardly something to be concerned about and not really supernatural.


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

[User]
Is There a Limit To How Hot Something Can Get?

I know that there is and absolute zero, but is there an absolute hot? A point where something is so hot that it can't get any hotter? Also what is the hottest thing in the universe?

[Assistant]
It depends on whether you are speaking of a small finite system or not. For a small finite system (like a handful of atoms), you can end up with negative temperatures which are hotter than any positive temperature, and so there is an 'absolute hot' which happens to be 0 (or arbitrarily close to it at least, just like absolute zero). This is because temperature is defined as the inverse ratio of the change in entropy of a system over the change in energy. If you end up in a situation where adding energy lowers entropy, as can happen in finite systems, then the system will have negative temperature and then be hotter than any positive temperature, in the sense that heat will naturally flow from the system to any other system with positive temperature.

Outside of 'small' finite systems, the question is a little more difficult to answer. There is a very high (positive) temperature called the Planck temperature, after which energies are so high that we need a theory of quantum gravity just to say what is happening. This isn't an 'absolute hot' though, it is just saying that we don't know what happens when you raise the temperature beyond it. It could be possible that you can still achieve negative temperatures in a large finite system, but we don't really know what that would mean anymore.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is spending a lot of time reading socially acceptable but spending a lot of time on screens isn't?

[Assistant] It's associative properties. That books are liked to knowledge, while screens are *associated* with forms of non informational stimulation. Or it could come from a time when sitting in front of the tv meant a higher electricity bill or even in the time of AOL, when you could either be online or on the phone. Just a guess.


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

[User]
I feel that if you had no control over something, you shouldn't have pride when it comes to that subject. CMV.

I see these celebrations that happen all the time, whether it be puerto rican day parade, Gay pride, Black pride, people cheering the sports team from their country, what ever the case may be. I feel that these are completely unnecessary and in some cases offensive. It feels hypocritical in the sense that it would sound absurd for a white pride parade or a heterosexual pride parade to be a norm.

I understand things like veterans being proud of serving their country or a hypothetical group that has just changed laws concerning unjust laws being prideful, they actually did something. People celebrating because they happen to be born in a certain country or because they were born a certain sexuality is absurd.

[Assistant]
Some of the examples of "pride" you point to aren't really examples of being proud of something you had no control over.

In each of those cases, people have been made to feel *shame* for things that they have no control over, time and time again.

Surely if you honestly feel pride is unjustified for these things, you'd have to agree that it's wrong that people are shamed for things that they can't control, right? Because the statements are logically equivalent.

"Gay pride" is really better understood as "refuting gay shame". It's just clearer not to speak in double negatives (/irony).


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are rabbits not a preferred source of meat, seeing as they breed so easily, and are so easy to keep?

Rabbits breed, well, like rabbits. They are easily tamed and don't take up much space. Why is the rabbit meat industry not bigger?

Wouldn't it be better to breed rabbits rather than cows (from a methane/global warming point of view)?

[Assistant]
Rabbit consumption is higher in Europe than it is in the Americas.

Rabbits are relatively useless farm animals and were not a significant part of American agricultural life. Chickens provide an ongoing protein source in eggs, pigs can live largely off of waste products. Cows provide milk and meat cows are relatively low maintenance on low-quality land. This created cultural associations with these animals and their products which compete with rabbit.

The greatest competitor to rabbits are chickens and chicken breeding programs have been very successful at producing a relatively large amounts of food in a short period with few inputs. It is possible that, with sufficient demand, a fattier, lower-input rabbit could be developed, but it is unlikely that demand would increase sufficiently without large cultural shifts.


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

[User]
ELI5: help me explain dropping the bombs on japan to a bunch of tweeners.

Hola folks. im working as a camp councilor as a summer job. long story short, the topic of dropping the bombs on japan came up (space camp, was doing the section on Werner Vonbraun and the use of rockets in WW2). most of the kids had an extremely negative opinion of the event and seemed to think it was an example of American imperialism. i tried to explain how it was more complicated then that. but i kept getting overwhelmed as to which details were most salient. i also wanted to keep from sounding like some Fascist puppet for a tremendous racists for not glossing over japans war crimes during WW2. i told the kids i would do some research, and bring them a better answer when i was done.

so as apart of that, anyone have any advice on how to explain this incredibly complex bit of history to a pack of 5th graders without sounding racist, fascist, or boring?

[Assistant]
An invasion would have been even more costly in both American and Japanese lives, because culturally, they could *not* surrender without losing face.  Did you know that they haven't made new Purple Heart medals since 1945?  We're *still* drawing from the enormous supply of medals that were struck in anticipation of invading Japan.

The Cold War was already heating up, if you'll excuse the mixed metaphor.  'We needed to cow the Soviets.'

If we had threatened a particular Japanese city, saying, "evacuate it by August 6," they could have trucked in our captured soldiers to use as shields.  And, they *would have.*  Imperial Japan wasn't a nice bunch of people.


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

[User]
[DC/Brightburn] would batman be about to come up with a contingency plan to take form Brandon?

Say Bruce Wayne was in the world of Brightburn at the end of the movie when Brandon went off the rails. Can he save that world from Brandon?

[Assistant]
If he has access to the technology of the Justice League? Absolutely. The metal Brandon is vulnerable to can be analyzed by the Bat-spectrometer, the bat could drop him into the Phantom Zone, and the Hellbat can go toe-to-toe with Darkseid for a few minutes, so ... the Bat has options.

If you're talking Nolan-verse, though, no, he'd be fucked.


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

[User]
Trying to explain to a friend about the statistics and probabilities of single events and multiple events, but lacking the vocabulary.

Yesterday a couple of friends and I were discussing going to a casino, and roulette was brought up. One of my friends tried to tell us that you could do really well at roulette by paying attention to what numbers are 'hot' or 'cold', and by using knowledge that over a certain amount of spins, you knew that every number had to come up an equal amount of times, and so could bet that way and make a lot of money.

We tried telling him that each single spin on a fair roulette wheel was a separate event meaning that you couldn't bet with any certainty on any number with any more than that average 1/37 chance of getting it right, but he was adamant this wasn't true.

I'm pretty sure he was wrong,  but we were lacking the correct vocabulary and ways of explaining to him why he was. Can anyone help me out?

[Assistant]
Your friend is indeed wrong. It's simplest to start with a single coin toss and work up from there. After a thousand coin tosses, you'd expect to see roughly 500 heads and 500 tails. This is what we're led to believe based on our understanding of the probability being 0.5 for each event.

However, if you have just thrown 999 heads, is the coin suddenly more likely to come down tails to "balance it out"? Of course not, it's the same coin and its properties haven't changed. Your friend can't see how you reconcile "on average, equal" with "no balancing effect" and he is not alone in this by any means. The answer lies in a bit of statistics. Let's take a two-toss series as a starting point. What possible outcomes can you have from this? You can get HH, HT, TH, TT. Each of these outcomes is equally likely because the chances of heads or tails each time is equal. However, note that you have two ways of achieving equal numbers, but only one way of achieving each of the single-side results. So the most likely outcome, disregarding the order of throws, is one in which you have equal numbers of heads and tails. As you increase the number of throws, you'll find that the number of possible sequences in which you have equal numbers of heads and tails is larger than the number of possible sequences of any other distribution.

There's no magic to it - all sequences are equally possible but there are more in which you get a balanced outcome. The fallacy lies in giving too much importance to the sequence that has come before. Getting 999 heads followed by a tails occurs with probability 1 in 2^1000 but (and this is key) *so does* 999 heads followed by another heads. So does 568 heads followed by 432 tails or any other particular combination you want to dream up. There are just many more sequences in which they end up with about 500 each.


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

[User]
Does more exposure to a virus make you sicker?

A few months ago, there was a meme about how all of the COVID virus in the world would be able to fit into a tablespoon, and the meme was about someone eating it (very silly, yes). But that got me thinking about what would happen if that was possible. Does more exposure to a virus cause you to get sicker, or would the immune response be the same? Maybe as a side question, would the person from the meme (assuming they were healthy and wouldn't have died from COVID normally) have died from that much exposure?

[Assistant]
The measure of how many viral particles are either circulating or you are otherwise exposed to is called "viral load" or similarly "infectious dose." Speaking very generally, our bodies do pretty well fighting off infection when viral load is small, as those few particles would have to successfully reproduce, and there would be simply more time available for the immune system to catch up. If your viral load is higher, then the infection can begin to rapidly spread throughout the body before the immune system had a chance to stop it.

With respiratory viruses like COVID19 the infectious dose correlates with how sick you get.

There are, however, a ton of variables to this.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why didn't the clone troopers use camouflage or utilize cover during the Clone Wars?

Same question for the CIS Forces. During the Battle(s) of Geonosis and Utapau the Clone and Sepratist Armies engaged in line and column tactics/warfare and rarely appeared to use cover. Similarly, few if any of the combatants appeared to be camouflaged or using any environmental advantages.

Given the strength and accuracy of blaster weapons of those days, what is the purpose behind the lack of camouflage and the tactics that these units deployed?

[Assistant]
some did, but it's wasn't as useful as you might think. even B1 battle droids had infra-red scanners in their eyes, visual camoflauge might as well not exist. scanning and detection tech is insanely advanced. they can literally scan an entire planet in seconds and come back with accurate life readings for specific species and pin point locations. even with the smallest of ships.

as for their tactics? I'd guess outdated Military doctrine.


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

[User]
What were the ideological goals of the frankfurt school? Were they still communists? Or social democrats? A mix?

I heard that Marcuse has been accused of having some weird ideology that was somewhat elitist.

[Assistant] Neither. They only ever identified themselves as 'critical theorists' -basically they sought to rigurously examine social norms, and in the process reveal contradictions therewithin. They never sought to propose solutions to the problems they identified, hence they can't really be placed into any political category.


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

[User]
AskScience AMA Series - IAmA Entomologist working on molecular systematics and genetic barcoding. AMA!

Specifically, I work on producing phylogenies of moths and (soon enough) fireflies as well. This process involves DNA extraction, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), gel electrophoresis, and a lot of computer analysis. Feel free to ask any questions you may have about insect evolution, experimental procedure, or about bugs in general!

EDIT: I apologize if some of my answers start appearing twice. My connection is spotty and I keep getting submission errors.

[Assistant]
Have you discovered any cryptic moth species which were previously unknown due to common morphological characters?

How well resolved are your phylogenies? Do you stop at the species level, or are you interested in sub-species diversity?

Why is it important to develop moth phylogenies?


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

[User] ELI5: Why is it acceptable for celebrities to receive millions of dollars in salary while a CEO of a billion dollar company is often criticized for that?

[Assistant]
Because despite their big salaries, the celebrities are often not the top dog in the chain, they're just employees of someone making even more money.

It might seem crazy that an NFL player is getting paid $14 million for a year, but in the current agreement with the owners, all of the players combined only get 47% of the league revenue. The other 53% goes to the 32 owners. Sure the owners have to pay a bunch of costs out of that, but they're almost certainly all pocketing at least 10's of millions of dollars per year, and all without sacrificing their bodies the way that the athletes do.

It might seem crazy for someone to pay Brad Pitt $20 million to star in a movie, but if the movie grosses $350 million just in box office receipts, there are people making way more than $20 million from it.


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

[User]
[LotR] I'm one of the Rangers of the North/Dunedain- what would have my life been like growing up/when I'm not being a ranger? What would interacting with my fellow rangers have looked like when I'm not out Rangering?

The Rangers/Dunedain aren't just a club of neighborhood watch enthusiasts, but an actual society with customs, traditions- and presumably families. My question is, what would life would have been like for these Rangers outside of their Ranging? I know they didn't really have any major settlements (though they might have some association with Elrond/Rivendell if Aragorn is any indication, but he's one of their elite), but presumably they had some sort of social life and didn't bring the wee ones to go orc hunting before their single digits.

[Assistant]
They lived in small, out-of-the-way villages, far from other significant settlements and major travel routes. You're right that only the line of Chieftains were fostered in Rivendell. If memory serves their homes were mainly in the Angle between the rivers Bruinen (Loudwater) and Mitheithel (Hoarwell), some distance south of there, although of course the adult men were away from home as often as not.

They were accustomed to marrying later, since they were of pure Numenorean blood and very long-lived. The men customarily held off marrying until they had spent some time on the job, so to speak, and the women would not marry until their 30s or older. The upbringing would have involved a good deal of education in history, various arts and sciences and other lore, and martial training.


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

[User] when astronauts use the space station's stationary bicycle, does the rotation of the mass wheel start to rotate the I.S.S. and how do they compensate for that?

[Assistant]
The ISS has a total mass around 420,000kg. The effect of the spinning bike will be nothing compared to the inertia of the station.

ISS has four control moment gyros (CMG) used to adjust attitude that are something like 100kg spinning up to 7000rpm IIRC. That dwarfs the component from the bike.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do magnets damage electronics?

How do magnets damage electronics on a small scale? For instance, how does a magnet damage the data on a hard disk drive?

And, on a bigger scale, how do EMPs (electromagnetic pulses) cause mass absolute destruction to all electronics in the vicinity of the EMP detonation?

[Assistant]
Most electronics will not be damaged by a magnet. The things that do get damaged by magnets get messed up because they use magnets to work- hard drives store data by magnetizing tiny portions of the disk, and then a magnetic needle "reads" which way each section of the disk pulls. Other electronics, like flash memory or a CPU, won't get damaged by a magnet.

Now an EMP is another issue. Electricity and magnetism are related, and a change in magnetic field near a loop of wire will create a current. When you have a gigantic sudden change in the magnetic field, it can create a current so high that the electronics heat up really quickly and things start to melt. However, the only thing we have that's capable of creating a big enough magnetic pulse to do this is a nuclear weapon which will also damage electronics in other ways. We don't have movie mad-scientist supervillian "I will blast the city back to the stone age mwahaha" EMPs.


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

[User]
ELI5: If sound travels fastest through solids and slowest through gases, why does heat do the opposite?

Aren't they both just the vibration of molecules?

[Assistant]
Heat transfer in a gas is primarily through the movement of the gas.  As the gas gets stirred up the hot gas can move across its container very quickly.

A hot solid can transfer heat very quickly in the same way.  Heat a bucket of ball bearings up.  Then through the bucket of bearings across the room.  All the heat just moved across the room in a second.


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

[User] ELI5: How did autographs get their value? Why did we one day declare that someone touching a ball makes it worth more?

[Assistant]
As the old axiom says, "everything is worth what the purchaser will pay for it."

Nothing, not even money, has an inherent value. Its value is only what someone would trade for it.

Since people like autographed baseballs (it makes the baseball feel more unique and concretely related to the autographer and less like a generic baseball you buy for four dollars at Dick's), they're willing to pay more for them.

But, remember they aren't worth anything unless someone is willing to pay an amount for them. You could list your autographed baseball for $10,000 on eBay; that doesn't make it worth $10,000 unless someone pays you that amount for it.


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

[User] ELI5: What makes walking on train tracks so dangerous? Couldn't the average person hear a train coming long before it reaches them?

[Assistant]
Unless impaired via listening to music, drugs or alcohol you will hear, see or if you're standing on the rails you will feel it coming. And unless you're on a bridge or in a tunnel you don't need much warning. You just need to side step the train, not out run it.

Source: played on a lot of tracks as a kid and still have a stash of flattened coins.


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

[User]
How far away do we have to move from the sun before we can stare at it without hurting our eyes?

Just wondering. At our current distance from the sun, we would be blind within minutes. But exactly how far away would be need to be before it wouldn't hurt our eyes to look at it? Jupiter/Saturnian distances? Thanks!

[Assistant]
I'll talk about the physics involved:

The relevant physical unit (I believe) is flux (F): energy per time per area. It is proportional to the luminosity (L, energy per time) of the source and drops off as the square of the distance (r) from the source.

F = L / 4 pi r^2

(The 4 pi assumes the source is radiating equally in all directions.)

So if there is some flux above which your eyes get hurt then you can solve for the distance away from the Sun you must be using:

r^2 = L / 4 pi F

and plugging in the luminosity of the sun and whatever that flux is.

To build your intuition consider the following:

The sun's luminosity is 3.8x10^26 W and its distance is 1 AU = 1.5x10^11 m (150 million kilometers), so the flux (at Earth) is: 1.3x10^3 W/m^2

Consider instead a 100 W lightbulb (L = 100 W, no lampshade). The distance at which you would receive the same flux from the lightbulb as from the Sun is: 0.077 m = 7.7 centimeters.

At what distance would the Sun would look like a 100 W lightbulb 10 ft (about 3 meters) away? The flux is 100 W / ( 4 pi (3m)^2 ) = 0.88 W/m^2 . The required distance from the sun is then: sqrt( 3.8x10^26 W / (4 pi 0.88 W/m^2 ) ) = 5.9x10^12 m = 5.9 billion km = 39 AU, approximately Pluto's semi-major axis.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is it that certain word associations just have a single way that sounds "right."

For example, if I tell someone to fetch me some pepper and to get the salt as well, I'll never say that. It's "Salt and Pepper." Not "Pepper and Salt." Just "Salt and Pepper." Then you have "Nieces and Nephews," "Ladies and Gentlemen" (Though that seems to be more of a phrase), "Fruits and Vegetables," etc. There's obviously many more, but I can't think of them at the top of my head.

[Assistant] Because these are commonly used combinations and the more you hear it the easier it sticks to your brain. Its a historical accident that we use "Salt and Pepper" instead of "Pepper and salt." If half of america used "Salt and Pepper" and the other half "Pepper and salt." eventually one of them would win over the other, because it represents an unstable equilibrium, the more people which use one, the more influence that will have to get even more people to use it.


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

[User]
[Rick and Morty] Regarding S1E06 'Rick Potion No. 9"

Towards the end of the episode when Rick is explaining to Morty how there are infinite timelines, he says "It's not like we can do this every week, anyways. We get three or four more of these, tops". My question is, if there are "infinite timelines" why are there only finite universes where certain events happen?

EDIT:Thanks for all the helpful responses! Watched a couple of YouTube videos and I am grasping the concept now.

[Assistant]
Of the infinite universes, there were a finite (though a vast amount) number of them where Rick cured the infection in time for the world to return to normal.  Of those uncountable worlds where Rick solved the crisis, there were also a finite, but smaller amount than the first, where Rick and Morty died soon after due to whatever.  If Rick and Morty manage to doom their current world, they are cutting their possible future escape worlds down further.

Infinite universes do exist, but there are only a finite number of them where Rick and Morty could conceivably insert themselves into. Think of it as when Rick was trying to find a planet for them to live on after becoming fugitives.  Out of the millions of places they could have went to, only three planets were livable.  While there are infinite universes, when you start applying filters to them and cut them down exponentially the numbers get small real quick.

Also keep in mind of the original worlds where Rick cured the infection, and then died soon after, they were reasonably similar to his original world.  I.E.  they don't have giant telepathic spider problems, they all don't look like Rocky Dennis from Mask.  So Cowboy Rick and Morty could also destroy their whole planet, but they would be limited to the infinite universes where Cowboy Rick and Morty exist to escape to.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does inhaling steam seem to clear up clogged sinuses?

[Assistant]
Think of your mucous as a kind of hydrophilic (strongly attracted to water) slime. If you're sick, suffering from allergies, exposed to irritants, etc... then it can be valuable to move that mucous along faster than it would normally. By inhaling water vapor, you increase the water content of the mucous, and it becomes looser, less sticky and more subject to being cleared.

Another reality of the situation is that often what we perceive to be clogged sinuses due to mucous are actually just inflamed. Steam and warmth can be soothing, especially since dryness or the presence of an irritant is often a cause of that initial inflammation.


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

[User] ELI5: Athletes that throw spears are fit, while those that throw neck-boulders are more of the bulky type. Why so?

[Assistant]
Bulky is not the same thing as 'not fit.' Strength takes muscle, and more muscle can take up more space. This can lead to an appearance in very strong athletes that we may erroneously consider 'fat' or something along those lines. Part of this confusion arises due to body builders, who workout in ways to emphasize a specific muscle form that is, at least in part, tailored to appearance over raw strength. And so some people get the idea that is how a 'muscleman' looks.

But if you look at strongman contests and the like, where strength is a more important end goal than appearance, you often see 'bulkier' contenders.

Beyond that, achieving and maintaining muscle takes a lot of energy, which means a lot of food. This can contribute to the overall bulky appearance, and cutting weight would reduce the dividends in strength as well. It's hard to build muscle while cutting weight, and can even be hard to maintain it.

And finally, even if you don't have all that much fat, if you have a ton of muscle under it, it can contribute to a fattened appearance.


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

[User]
What happens if someone seals a completely empty box in space and brings it to earth?

My thermos has a vacuum, but my coffee still gets cold. If I bring home a vacuum from space, what will happen? Will I be able to use it to keep my coffee hot forever? Will the box close in on itself?

Thanks in advance for all the answers!

[Assistant]
If the box is not strong enough, the pressure difference between the inside (0) and the outside (1 bar) will cause it to collapse.

If the box is strong enough and it is sealed well, then you'll just have a box with a near-vacuum inside it. This isn't anything extraordinary, since we can produce vacuums that are more pure (that is, fewer particles per unit of volume) in labs than what you can find in space in the general neighbourhood of our planet. Since no seal is perfect, over time the vacuum will become less and less pure as atmospheric particles leak in.

You won't be able to put your coffee into it after bringing it back to Earth without opening the box and breaking the vacuum, so that might be an issue. But suppose that you are able to do so in some way, then a generic box will likely be less effective than a thermos.

To see why, it is important to know how heat is transferred. Heat transfer happens through 3 primary modes: Convection, conduction and radiation. The first is the movement of heat by the movement of a gas or liquid. A breeze blowing away hot air of a campfire or the hot air near a radiator rising to the ceiling, for example. Conduction is the transfer of heat through a material or between different materials. Some materials conduct heat very well (metals for example), others conduct quite poorly (air), but stuff is the least conductive when there's no material to conduct the heat (vacuum).

Last, but not least, is radiation. Every object or substance emits radiation, with intensity (and spectrum, but that's not relevant right now) depending on its temperature. If all objects are at the same temperature, they'll receive roughly the same amount of radiation as they emit and things stay pretty much the same. If one object is much hotter, it will emit more radiation than it receives from the cooler surroundings and the object will cool down (and the surroundings will heat up, slightly).

Now, in case of a thermos, the contents are confined and there is no flow out of the thermos, so convection doesn't play a role. In order to minimize conduction, the contents are, as much as possible, isolated from the outside world by a vacuum. This makes the heat loss through conduction rather small, but still non-zero. In order to shield against radiation heat loss, the walls of a thermos are made reflective, which ensures that most of the radiated heat is reflected back.

Unless your hypothetical box filled with space-vacuum that was somehow filled with coffee has the same reflective walls that a thermos has, it's going to be less effective than your thermos since more heat is lost through radiation. If it does have reflective walls, it'll have more or less similar effectiveness, depending on the construction of the box and the quality of the thermos you're comparing to.


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

[User] ELI5: Kosovo and Serbia? What is it all about and who is right?

[Assistant]
The story starts a way long time ago. Kosovo was part of the Serbian Kingdom for a long time. Then it was taken over by the Muslim Ottoman Empire for a long time. In 1913, the Serbian empire got it back. They sort of recognized it as independent though, calling Kosovo an "autonomous province" within Serbia. After WWII, Serbia (and thus also Kosovo) became part of Yugoslavia, a communist federation of countries. That lasted until the late 80s/early 90s.

Probably since they were tired of being traded around like goddam baseball players, the ethnic Albanian people in Kosovo wanted to make Kosovo its own country. Some of the Serbian people in Kosovo didn't.

Meanwhile, Yugoslavia was having other problems- it was basically disintegrating. Turns out the communism thing hadn't worked out well, and now all the little countries wanted to leave. The Yugoslavian government didn't like that, and so while most of the other little countries escaped around 1991, Yugoslavia kept Serbia (including Kosovo) and Montenegro. When Kosovo said it wanted to leave too, Yugoslavia/Serbia was like, "No fucking way, we've already lost too much, you're staying!"

Everything got really tense. The ethnic Albanians began the Kosovo Liberation Army, which was either a group of freedom fighters or a group of terrorists, depending on your point of view. Starting in the mid 90s, the KLA harassed and killed Yugoslavian/Serbian police/army forces. Those guys lashed out at the KLA and a lot of civilians in return.

The official war started in 1998. The Serbs/Yugoslavs did a lot of bombing, raping and killing of the Albanian/Kosovo people, attempting to stop the KLA uprising (and stomp on the Kosovoans in general). Thousands upon thousands of regular folks became refugees and were dying because of sickness, lack of shelter, etc.

The international community got involved. They wanted everyone to quit fighting, and they demanded that the Serbs/Yugoslavians stop killing the Albanians, and they wanted the KLA to stop asking for Kosovoan independence. Of course neither side would agree, so NATO dropped some bombs on Yugoslavia. (Bill Clinton was USA Prez at the time, and needed the media to look away from the Monica scandal anyway, so it was convenient for him to start some shit anyway.) The bombs kept coming from March to June of 1999. Eventually Yugoslavia was like, "FIIIIINE," and they mostly left the area.

Things settled down, but no one was happy yet. Everyone got busy being politically mean to each other. "YOU GUYS committed more war crimes!" "No, YOU GUYS did!" At this point, there were still some Serbs in Kosovo, and so the Albanians said, "Fine, if you like Serbia so much, go live THERE" and kicked many of them out of their homes and businesses. There was (and is) a lot of discrimination.

By 2008 Kosovo had kind of gotten its shit together and declared themselves a new country, The Republic of Kosovo. "It's for real this time everybody!"

Serbia was like, "Aw nah you didn't!" and refused to recognize the new country. They wouldn't trade with them or negotiate anything either. The international community was like, "Guys, we are not going through this shit again. Work it out."

Right now, things are still tense, but no one has started any real hostilities, and Kosovo and Serbia are sort of talking. They still harass and arrest each others' people, but it's probably not anymore violent than an average day in New Jersey.

By the way, Serbs are mostly Serbian Orthodox (Christian).
Many of the Albanian people in Kosovo are Muslims.
So obviously, the religion thing creates tension as well.

No one is right, because they are all fucking crazy.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do springs originate at the top of the hills and how do they acquire such volume of water?

One explanation that I found was rainfall but it is not apparent that rainfall could contribute to such volume of water.

[Assistant]
Answer:

Think of a rock mountain actually more like a sponge. A sponge seems like it fills with water perfectly evenly, but when you zoom in if you were to fill a sponge certain holes would fill faster than other ones. There are little pockets of water in the side of the mountains. Sometimes the entire mountain is full of water, but oftentimes there's just a little pocket where it collects before pressure or gravity causes it to flow down to the next little pocket. A spring is just tapping into one of those pockets.


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

[User]
[Any space faring] What is the least weaponizable FTL system?

Many settings like Star Wars feature ships with shields and armor that can take an incredible beating but they should be destroyed by high speed projectiles that should be quite doable considering how inexpensive a FTL missile should be compared to a capital ship.

[Assistant]
Hyperspace is actually not especially weaponizable, considering its easily countered by a simple interdiction system that is already installed on any ship that would actually be worth using such a weapon on.

In the Halo series the Prophet of Regret initiates a Slipspace jump while still in Earth's atmosphere, causing a huge amount of damage to the city of New Mombossa and scattering the UNSC ground forces. And this was (mostly) on accident, he just wanted to gtfo in a hurry and didn't bother to fly away first. Didn't really seem to hurt the ship any either. Slipspace bombs would be extremely effective, albeit expensive.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do Webpages on mobile devices especially still jump around frequently while loading? It goes as far as you cannot reliably trust what you about to hit will be still there when hitting it. Can't there be a load order that prevents that?

[Assistant]
Scripts load at various times, often triggered by other scripts and elements on the page. Also, many images are not properly coded with width/height info causing the image load to make the page fluctuate.

A fun way to learn about how the web really works is to use an add-on like noscript. You will have the base page load (html) and each script in the page will need you to manually turn them on one-by-one. Well, you don't HAVE to, there is an "allow all scripts on the page" button.

Some pages only have one or two script approvals required. Journalism/media sites will have so many you will need to approve them all, then approve the scripts those scripts loaded. Possibly multiple times.

As the scripts load, you can watch the content on the page jump around as they load in. That's what is happening normally every time you load that page, just mostly all at once.


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

[User]
[Batman] Is Gotham really that dangerous or does it just look that way due to all the highly publicized incidents. Furthermore, how does it compare to other real-world cities with high crime rates?

Say I'm born and raised in Gotham and never leave. How likely is it that I'll have a moderately comfortable life (not a luxury or anything) and live well into my 70s before passing of old age or will I be constantly living in fear that I'll meet a truly horrific demise for seemingly no reason?

Is Gotham truly that dangerous a place to live or does it only look that way due to the large-scale devastation of some of its crimes (Due to the superpowered beings attacking it) and how the local and probably even international press surely sensationalizes the incidents whenever they happen giving the impression that it's so much worse?

And if Gotham truly is as bad as it appears would I have better chances of living to old age in say Honduras, Colombia or Somalia?

[Assistant]
Its not the best city but its not an active warzone either (most of the time) . City wide destruction events don't happen that often and most super criminals are not that powerful.

But the city is ruled by multiple criminal organisations and the governement is corrupt as hell. So you have a good chance to have to deal with the mafia at some point.


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

[User] Why are nuclear bombs detonated while theyre still thousand of feet in the air?

[Assistant]
To get a bigger area of effect.

If you detonate the bomb at ground level, only the part of the explosion around the horizontal circumference that will do major damage to buildings and the surroundings. You lose a lot of the force of the explosion upwards into the sky, and down into the ground directly under the explosion (which will do massively damage, but to a small area).

If you detonate the bomb in the air, the force of the explosion that is directed upwards still does no damage, but all the force that would have gone directly into the ground on a surface detonation now spreads out over a much larger area.


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

[User]
If I forget something in my short-term memory, will it ever come back to me in my long-term memory or is it gone forever?

For example, if I meet a guy who tells me he lives in *x* city, but a few days later I can't remember what city he lives in, will that information ever come back to me without me actively trying to recall it?

[Assistant]
Short term memory is normally described as seconds. So if you forgot sonething after a few days thats yiur long term memory failing you.

And yes, your long term memory might recall something later that you thought you forgot.

Interestingly, and maybe helpfully. If you ever need to commit something to ltm you can repeat it aloud to yourself for 10 seconds. That should store it.


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

[User]
[MCU] Why Won't the Avengers Travel Back to the Moment Before Thanos Atomized the Stones?

Well, it seems that it have been exactly 6 months after the release, or 7, so I don't have to put a spoiler warning here according to the rules. Several months ago, HISHE poked fun at this, when Youtube recommended this video to me again few days ago, I rewatched it and decided to ask people online.

Why won't the Avengers just travel to the final stage of the Battle of Wakanda or the moment before Thanos atomized the stones? This way, Black Widow wouldn't have to die, and because Thanos would be killed, Tony wouldn't have to sacrifice himself because the gauntlet is completed (or nearly completed) at this point, they can have all 6 stones in one go. Thanos would also be without his army, armor, and sword, and if the Avengers decided to travel back after the first snap, Thanos would most likely be too weak to win in a fight against the Avengers - if anything, they could probably talk their alternate selves into fighting Thanos, doubling their manpower. Is this a simple plot hole or there's justification for the Avengers to go with this decision?

[Assistant] Too risky. Fighting a fully armed Thanos is a massive gamble that they lost the first time around. All it takes is for him to recognize the attack and close his fist and they probably lose. It's much safer to travel back in time where they can grab the stones with as little resistance as possible. And even that was risky, as someone ended up dead and they brought Thanos to the future.


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

[User]
Why is Internet Explorer inferior to other browsers?

I've used IE since my family purchased our first PC in 1998.  I've never had any problems with it.  I've used Firefox and Chrome on other people's computers and I honestly can't tell the difference between them and IE.  Maybe that's because I'm not much of a technology person, maybe it's because there were huge differences and I just wasn't paying attention, but either way, I have no idea why people make a big deal out of it.
So please, being as specific as possible, explain to me what makes IE so bad.

[Assistant]
To explain like you're 5: Internet Explorer is like the kid who eats paste during arts and crafts and can't follow basic instructions from the teacher. He can't color inside the lines and barely knows how to read (do 5 year olds know how to read? sorry, maybe ELI10). Not to mention his poor hygiene which causes him to get sick and pass it along to the rest of the class.

To be fair, his parents and teachers have talked to him about his problems and he been significantly more well-behaved in recent years, but he may still need some counselling.

---
To explain like you're actually an adult: IE has, historically, not been standards-compliant. Web developers often have to code around IE peculiarities to get their sites to work correctly. And, unfortunately, IE also historically has the largest market share due to it coming pre-installed and default on a majority of the world's computers. So it's not something web developers can just easily ignore.

IE has also historically been very insecure - susceptible to things like drive-by downloads and other exploits which can give your computer viruses.

Also, IE6 was the latest version of IE for...quite some time (citation needed)... and lacked several features of all other modern browsers, most visually tabbed browsing.

Fortunately, IE7/8/9 have been getting progressively better. I'd say 8 and 9 are actually pretty usable. I'd say most people are just still sore over IE6 at this point.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why my dad points the pedestal fan outwards to cool down the house?

No idea why, but my dad faces the fan outside my window, shouldn't it be facing inside to cool down the house?

[Assistant]
Putting the fan on you causes a breeze which cools you down. Pointing the fan out is blowing the hot air out, thereby causing negative air pressure inside the house and forcing fresh air to flow in.
So, if it is hotter outside than in, point your fan at you. If it is hotter inside than out, point your fan out.


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

[User] [Star Wars] What's life like on a Star Destroyer?

[Assistant]
Most of the time very cramped, uncomfortable, and a little smelly, especially as an enlistedman. Regardless of whether you work in the power-plant, weapons, deck department, or what have you, you most likely hot-bunk (share your bunk with one or two other crewman who sleep in your space while you are on watch) due to the premium placed on space and room. The ship probably smells pretty funky most of the time thanks to the recycled air and everyone having to limit their showers due to limited amounts of freshwater.

In addition to your actual "job" you like have several other duties to perform which may include anything from latrine detail to firefighting. usually once a day the Captain will "beat to quarters" or call for battle stations in which case every member of the crew will go to their assigned task and location as if contact were made or imminent with the enemy.

What little free time you have is likely spent in the galley, gym, or an open part of the flight deck for some sort of organized activity like sports.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Were there any 'good' Sith?

As far as my understanding goes, *Sith* only refers to the use of the dark side of the force over the light side. Has there been any record of a good Sith? Or at least, a sith that wasn't out and out evil?

[Assistant] Many, if not most, who turn to the dark side originally do it out of a desire to do good. Revan sought to unite the galaxy against a terrible threat. Vader wanted the power to save the one he loved. Even Palpatine envisioned an age of order and prosperity for the galaxy. The problem is that tapping into the dark side - twisting the living Force to your will - is itself an abuse of power, and once you've crossed that line it becomes easier to cross the next, and the next, and so on. Small cruelties lead to greater ones.


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

[User]
How does sun bleaching work?

I get the science of how we see color via reflected light but I'm genuinely curious about how if an object is left in the sun for an extended period of time it will seemingly lose its color. How does it happen and what causes it?

[Assistant] The UV in the sun is pretty damaging and will chemically decompose many compounds (like dyes - whether artificial or natural) If you leave plastic out in the sun, the UV will usually make it brittle and yellowed fairly quickly unless the plastic is designed for outdoor use.


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

[User] ELI5: why are spicy things so much spicier when it touches your throat in a wrong way/ goes down the wrong hole?

[Assistant] Because our saliva dilutes and surrounds capsaicin molecules, protecting our digesting tract. Swallowing it "wrong" usually means that it touched our throat without a saliva layer. Even worse when we mistakenly inhale some.


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

[User] If a bottle is completely filled with water and I shake it. Does the water still move inside?

[Assistant]
If it's completely filled such that there's no air, the bottle is completely rigid, theres no particulate, and *you don't rotate it* the water will effectively be like a rigid body and not move at all. You need some kind of force differential to get things to move relative to one another, and assuming the fluid to be incompressible it's sort of like shaking a cylinder of solid metal.

If you apply angular momentum though, the fluid wants to stay at rest, but the other fluid is driven by friction, and you create a shear stress in the fluid. Unlike a solid, a fluid deforms in the presence of any shear stress.


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

[User] [DC] Where did the meteor that gave Vandal Savage his immortality come from?

[Assistant]
Outer space.

Seriously, nobody knows anything about that meteor.  Savage himself was just a caveman then.  And while he gained super-intelligence and immortality, he didn't instantly gain *knowledge*.  It would have taken him a while to figure out how the world works.  It's still just a weird rock to him until much, much later.  It's not like he instantly knew he was immortal and that the rock had caused it.

By the time Vandal Savage figured out what had caused his changes, the meteor itself was long lost to history.


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

[User] [Batman] I am a good citizen walking home from work. What are the chances I run into trouble? What are the chances Batman saves me from said trouble? Should I cut through alleys, or just take the sidewalk?

[Assistant]
It's a big city, the bat can't be everywhere at once.

You could get attacked and he might be in the vicinity and he might save you. But please, don't take tempt fate.

You never know what clowns are lurking in the shadows.


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

[User]
Does your digestive system work like a queue, I.e. first in first out, or can food pass other food in your digestive tract?

If I ate corn Monday, peas Tuesday, and carrots Wednesday, would I poop corn, peas, and then carrots in that order? What if the peas were no good and got me sick, could my body poop them before the corn?

[Assistant]
Almost. There can be mixing in the stomach, even over the course of a few hours. But after it moves to the small intestine, it's first in, first out.
So expect to get your dinner appetizer and dessert scrambled and mixed,  but breakfast is coming out before dinner.


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

[User] Do cables between Europe and the Americas have to account for the drift of the continents when being laid?

[Assistant]
I am in the submarine cable business, and can answer:  No, there is not compensation as drift is inconsequential (2.5 cm or 1 inch per year).  One reason is the bottom of the ocean is not flat - but has mountains and valleys like dry land, so extra cable is 'payed out' (let off the ship) to fill in the valleys so the cable isn't left suspended between peaks.  Think of paying out rope from the back of a helicopter over the alps.  If you just let out a meter for each meter of flight, the rope would be suspended across all the valleys.  If there is any wind (equivalently sea currents for undersea cables) it would rub through the rope where it contacts the peaks.  So the bottom line is there is excess cable laid just to accommodate the topography of the ocean bottom, so the inch/year is not an issue.

Hope this helps!


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

[User] Is protein from meat "better" than protein you get from other sources?

[Assistant]
Proteins are made of chains of amino acids. If you take apart the protein, you get a certain amount of each amino acid. Meat/dairy is more "efficient", because the ratios of the different acids are the same from one animal to another. Plants will usually be short on one or two amino acids, so you don't effectively get as much protein as it says on the label.

You just need to have more than one kind of grain/nut/legume in your diet, which you probably have already, unless you're a farmer going through hard times in 1400.


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

[User]
Why is America so hesitant to cut Russia off from the SWIFT banking system?

The only reason I can think of is that cutting Russia off from the SWIFT network would push some countries to adopt a blockchain-based monetary system, which in turn would reduce their reliance on a US-centric international monetary system.

Is this the main fear? Is it the ONLY fear?

[Assistant] Russia has its own Swift alternative SPFS that it could impose on say the BRICs type countries as a condition for buying its oil. In short cutting off Russia from Swift would mean making cutting anyone else from Swift less powerful in future as there would then be a good alternative.


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

[User] [Mecha] How do Mecha compare against more conventional types of vehicles such as "regular" tanks and planes?

[Assistant]
That depends on where it is on the scale of Real Robot vs. Super Robot.

Real Robot:

They're able to go on rougher terrain than tanks. You can't just drive a tank up a mountain. Planes are even better than that for obvious reasons, but they can't be given as heavy loads.

Mecha pay for this by being much more expensive and prone to breaking than tanks.

Super Robot:

They're much easier to control since they can just copy the motion of the pilot. Due to using extremely expensive alloys, they're incredibly well armored and they rarely break down. Since the materials are so expensive, a tank with the same armor would be almost as expensive, but not nearly as agile, so it's not worth it.


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

[User] ELI5: What happens when you crack your knuckles?

[Assistant] Your joints are filled with liquid to keep things lubricated and moving properly. Sometimes air bubbles get stuck in this fluid in your joints. When you crack your knuckles you are popping the air bubbles.


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

[User]
[Buffy verse] Why on earth don't vampire slayers wear shirts with crosses on them?

If all it takes to repel them is just two crossed lines; then why on earth wouldn't you put that symbol onto everything you own, wear, and use?

The only excuse I can think of is damaging friendly vamps (somewhat valid but doesn't occur enough to justify the idea being used at least occasionally) and principle; I could see maybe Christopher Hitchens refusing to wear one but not Buffy.

[Assistant]
The Watchers keep a relic from the 1600s, the armor worn by a slayer named Jeanette.  It was a light plate in the French mode, with blessed crucifixes on each major armor piece.  The thinking was that if a vampire should attempt to grab one's arm, one's arm should have a crucifix there to counter it.  Fourteen separate crucifixes were used in the construction, and the armor itself was a marvel, light and beautiful.

It is slightly marred by the large iron crossbow bolt embedded in the back plate.

It is to the benefit of the Slayer to look like a harmless young girl, to encourage the predator to reveal itself within striking distance.  Announcing yourself as a greater predator only encourages them to remove you with a more... *oblique* approach.


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

[User] ELI5: When weather cancels 2800 flights, and 50k people are displaced, how to they all get back on schedule since so many of the flights for the next few days are already booked up?

[Assistant] When 50K people can't get home due to cancellations, that means about 50K never left home due to cancellations.  A lot of those people are going to cancel their trips, or reschedule them a ways into the future.  Their seats become available to help the stranded get home.


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

[User]
[Marvel] If Wolverines bones are coated in solid metal adamantium, how does his body transport blood?

Wouldnt the metal coating kill off any nerves or veins going in to his bones?

Does his healing factor affect how his body accepts ot rejects foreign materials?

How can he even walk with all that extra weight?

[Assistant]
> If Wolverines bones are coated in solid metal adamantium, how does his body transport blood? Wouldnt the metal coating kill off any nerves or veins going in to his bones?

Wolverine's healing factor was active and at its most potent when he was given the adamantium coating. As he was given the coating his bones were pumping out new blood cells like crazy; as the adamantium was coating his bones, it was still pliable for a few moments so the blood/veins were able to force their way through and create micro pores to travel through.

> Does his healing factor affect how his body accepts ot rejects foreign materials?

Yeah, his healing factor is weaker. When the adamantium was ripped out if his body, his healing factor went into overdrive mode and distorted his body to be much more inhuman.

> How can he even walk with all that extra weight?

Regular humans can break through walls with though training. Someone with a healing factor as advanced as Wolverine can get gains almost instantly, so the extra weight doesn't affect him much, even in situations where it should.


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

[User] ELI5:Why does really hot water rinse food off of dishes so much faster than cool water?

[Assistant]
it cleans grease and congealed fat off of dishes faster because it melts it back to liquid form.

Fun Fact though: the temperature of the water doesn't matter as far as sterilization. hot and cold water kills just as many germs with soap. To get to sterilization level of hotness with the water it would have to be well beyond the tolerable levels of your hands I.E. 2nd degree burns. thats what the dish washer takes care of for you.


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

[User]
[The Boys S2] What would happen if a Supe enlisted in the military as a soldier rather than as an employee of Vought?

And as a secondary question, in his lecture to Homelander about the founder of Vought, Mr. Endgar mentions that the earlier tests of Compound V were done with Soldier Boy who "killed Germans by the dozen". Assuming he meant German soldiers, it implies that Supes have been in the military before. But since a large portion of season 1 was about introducing Supes in the chain of command, this seems contradictory. Did something happen in between that time?

[Assistant] They would probably have to hide their powers as having them probably would bar one from military service. There may be a dont ask, dont tell policy in place regarding supes in the military. Theyre likely to explore this more in season 3 since theyve cast Jensen Ackles as Soldier Boy.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Can people leave the galaxy?

Everyone that wants to hide, goes to the outer rim of the galaxy. No one talks about other galaxies or leaving that one. It's possible? It's feasible?

[Assistant]
The edge of the galaxy features a hyperspace disturbance that makes extragalactic FTL flight impossible. The Outbound Flight project planned to use a cabal of Jedi to force its way through, but this was ultimately never attempted.

And even then, travel outside charted routes is an extremely risky activity.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] What is the canonical reason that Anakin & Obi wan didnt go back and rescue Schmi from slavery, after the events of the Phantom Menace?

If memory serves, Qui-gon jinn just didnt have enough money on him at the time to buy both slaves, & the plan was to go get some more from the Jedi council & return for her later.
Its not like they were in the full swing of the clone wars yet either.

[Assistant]
(From the canon book Queen's Shadow)

Qui-Gon probably would have, but he was the only one aside from Anakin. And his death closed one of the best avenues of rescue.

The Jedi simply didn't care. Nor did the Republic feel like messing with affairs in Hutt space. Even a minor thing like taking a slave from a backwater like Tatooine would cause problems with the Hutt cartels that the Republic at the time was ill suited to handle.

Obi Wan was too strictly adherent to the Jedi code at the time to allow Anakin that kind of personal attachment. All Jedi in one way or another is cut off from their families. It's supposed to be how they operate and how they remain neutral in a constantly changing galaxy. He and the other members of the order constantly told Anakin this, and he pretended to accept it. (although we see how he really feels in Episode 2)

That being said, Padme had some aspirations to do exactly that when her time as Queen was done. Not only to rescue Shmi, but to free more slaves from Hutt control. It was Palpatine who convinced her not to go, mostly because of the potential catastrophic political consequences.

Instead she sent her handmaiden to do the job. Unfortunately, the handmaiden reached the planet almost exactly after Shmi had joined the Lars family. She did not get any solid leads on Shmi's location, unfortunately, and considered the task a failure.


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

[User]
[Dexter's Lab] Where does Dexter get the resources to build and equip his secret lab?

I mean, it's full of state-of-the-art scientific instruments, not to mention the structure itself with its many secret entrances and vast airplane-hangar-sized spaces. How could an elementary-school kid afford or get his hands on all that? Even a simple collection of test tubes and beakers would be hard to come by for a regular person, let alone a child!

[Assistant] Judging by his accent, Dexter appears to be from somewhere in Eastern Europe. He was probably sent to the states by his country to build a laboratory in the middle of suburban America, likely to keep an eye on that American genius boy Mandark. Essentially turning the lives of two young children into another cold war. Mother Russia, or whomever, supplies him with everything he needs and he keeps them supplied with fantastic amounts of research data. Meanwhile, Uncle Sam keeps Mandark going and they're able to get a ton of research data without having to pay someone since they're basically using child labor.


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

[User] What does serotonin do in the gut, why is it there and how closely related is it to the serotonin in brain?

[Assistant]
Increases gut motility, propelling stuff along.

Why is it there? It just is. Serotonin is evolutionarily conserved. Tiny worms use it, fish use it, humans use it. Its functions can vary wildly, but it's always somewhere.

Relation to brain serotonin: Nil. Serotonin can't cross the blood-brain barrier. (The exception is in the area postrema at the base of the brain, which monitors the blood for certain chemicals, producing nausea in response to high blood serotonin.) Similarly, dopamine and norepinephrine have totally different functions in the brain vs in the body.


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

[User]
Why can't human cells use anaerobic processes to create ATP when in an atmosphere of no oxygen?

I know that some single-celled organisms are capable using fermentation to catabolize glucose and other sugars to create ATP in the absence of oxygen, so what prevents humans from being able to do the same? We have the enzymes necessary and use anaerobic fermentation at times of high exertion, so why can't we use fermentation at times of low exertion to keep the body alive when in the complete absence of oxygen? My best guess is that the body isn't able to use fermentation to create ATP at a rate that matches the body's energy needs, but I'm hoping it's a little more interesting than that.

[Assistant]
The majority of ATP resulting from respiration is generated through a process called "oxidative phosphorylation" which involves using an electron transport chain to generate a gradient of hydrogen ions outside of the inner mitochondrial membrane and then allowing it to flow back in through a molecule of ATP synthase which is basically a molecular turning engine embedded right into the membrane. The ATP synthase "turbine" can't function without the gradient of ions, and the gradient of ions can't be created without the electron transport chain, and the electron transport chain can't function without an oxygen atom to serve as the final electron acceptor.

The best we can do in the absence of oxygen is lactic acid fermentation. Fermentation involves only the initial step of respiration, glycolysis, which produces four molecule of ATP but uses two in the process for a net production of only two molecules of ATP for every molecule of glucose consumed. Not very efficient when compared to aerobic respiration, which can produce up to 32 molecules of ATP for every molecule of glucose consumed.


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

[User]
What causes pictures to appear discoloured after being in direct sunlight for years at a time?

Just clearing out some old Xbox games and the logo on the side of them have turned blue after being in sunlight untouched for several years?

[Assistant]
The effect is called photodegradation.

The part of a material responsible for it's color is called a chromophore. A chromophore is just a group of atoms in a molecule which are responsible for the molecule's 'color' - they have a specific absorption / reflection spectrum.

Sunlight can cause reactions in the molecule which change the structure of the chromophore so that it no longer has that specific absorption spectrum. Usually what happens is that the molecule no longer absorbs visible light, and now appears white. The more molecules are affected like this, the more bleached or white the paint will appear.


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

[User]
ELI5: If we all suddenly started driving Teslas, wouldn't the corresponding electricity demand (and coal burning) negate any positive effect of the drop in vehicle emissions?

Maybe I'm missing something in the equation?

[Assistant] Yes, you're missing the fact that a lot of energy is generated in other types of power plants, like hydro, nuclear, solar and wind power plants. Coal power plants are also usually pretty far from city centers, so it would definitely make the air quality in the cities better as well.


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

[User]
[Marvel X-23] How much do Laura's forearms weigh?

Logan is buff partially because he's carrying around a heavy metal skeleton but Laura only has the claws. Does she have weirdly strong arms or do the claws not weigh much?

[Assistant]
Adamantium is a strong metal but it's also light. Wolverines bone weight literally only added 100lbs to his overall weight (going from 240lb to 340lbs. If you factor in he's a fully grown male, that's even distribution across his body, it's not that much weight on his arms.

The same would apply for claws. I'd say conservative estimate is 1lb per claw which we can say for Laura. As such, her forearms only have 2lbs extra weight. It really isn't much.


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

[User]
How is testicual cancer (or any cancer in less than vital organs like cervix, breasts etc.) potentially lethal?

Of course, I am going under the assumption that such a cancer will, untreated, ultimately lead to death. I am, however, not exactly sure how.

What I am thinking is that, as organs like the testicles, ovaries, and breasts are (seemingly) not vital to staying alive, it is not that cancer in itself that will cause death. Rather, it is the metastasis to vital organs (or several non-vital leading to increased stress, in some way) that will lead to complications in those organs.

Am I on the right track with this way of thinking? If not, why?

[Assistant] Look at something called Cancer Staging, it will give you some defined framework on how professionals look at things. Here is a quick way to look at it. Lets start with an abnormal breast cell that is the start of cancer. This cell reproduces over and over but due to the mutations in this cell the result is not other healthy breast tissue but rather cancer. Since it is not typical breast tissue when it replicates the cells do not stay put. The bad cells can branch out, they reproduce and follow pathways in the body. Things like the lymphatic become mechanisms for these cells to grow in other areas of the body. So now cells that started as just mutated breast tissue are growing and taking over areas like the lungs.


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

[User]
[Nightmare Before Christmas] Shouldn't Jack be mayor?

Even at the beginning when Jack tries to be humble about their Halloween celebration, the mayor praises him saying that they couldn't have done it without his leadership. What does the mayor even do? Who was mayor before he was elected? Was it Jack? I feel like Jack just sort of does his job for him. You know what, fuck that guy. What a useless whiny piece of crap.

[Assistant] I think the issue is that being Mayor has a lot of other little duties to handle, paperwork primarily, that Jack doesn't want to do. He could be Mayor if he wanted to, but running Halloween is more fun.