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

[User] [40k] What would happen if the emperor of mankind miraculously woke up, were full strength and stepped off the golden throne?

[Assistant]
Unless he imposes his authority absolutely pretty much as soon as he wakes up, the Imperium will fracture. One side would follow the Emperor without question. Another side would denounce the Emperor as a fake and refuse Imperial authority and another side would take advantage of both sides.

The Ecclesiarchy would either implode internally, or be completely stripped and rebuilt into some kind of secular missionary organisation.

The Inquisition would splinter spectacularily, with some inquistors going rogue to try to maintain their level of influence, their ex-fellows hunting them down in the name of the Emperor.

The Astartes will probably be the most solid base to follow the Emperor.

The High Lords of Terra may try to resist or work around the Emperor, but that won't last long since they are on Terra with the Emperor.

Individual governors would declare for or against the Emperor depending on their circumstance, whether they are well armed/trooped/far away/corruption.

But once the Emperor asserts his authority (at least of the Sol system), he will most likely find/heal/rescue whatever of his Primarchs are left, gather his legions of Astartes, and go on a crusade to properly reunite his Imperium.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do printers do "something" for 1-2 minutes each time I want to print a paper that prints in 5 seconds?

My printer will just spin the parts for a minute before printing a paper each time, I spend 95% of the time just waiting and listening to the sounds the printer makes when printing a document.

I understand there are more expensive models that are faster, and that it cleans or unclogs the nozzles, but surely you don't have to clean for ages before each document, since when I print multiple pages, the following pages are just as good as the first one.

[Assistant]
When you let an inkjet printer sit idle for a day or more, the ink that is on the ends of the ink jets tends to dry out and get gunky.  When the printer turns back on, it rubs the ink jets against a small sponge to get the gunk off.

Also: sometimes, the print head contains a little sensor that says "I've bumped into the left end of the printer."  This is called a "limit switch."  Sometimes, this little sensor is the *only* way for the printer to know where the print head is.   So it *deliberately* bumps the print head into the left end of the machine so that it can be sure of where the print head is.


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

[User]
ELI5 - Why does physics break down at extremely high energies

I've often heard that trying to model or simulate the first few milliseconds of the universe is near impossible as our understanding of physics break down. Why does physics all of a sudden stop working at such high temperatures?

[Assistant]
Milliseconds after the big bang everything is well understood - even microseconds afterwards it is fine. Before that it gets more challenging.

There are three issues, sorted by increasing energy where they become relevant:

* We run out of ways to test it experimentally. We can study the energies we can reach in particle accelerators, and studying cosmic rays hitting the atmosphere gives some insight a little bit above that, but the very early universe had conditions we cannot reproduce.
* As the energy gets higher, gravity (which acts based on energy) gets stronger. At some point the gravitational interaction between individual particles becomes relevant, and there you have to use gravity and quantum mechanics at the same time. Currently we don't know how this works. Our current physics simply cannot make predictions for this.
* Even if there wouldn't be gravity, our laws of physics are limited: While not as fast as gravity, the strength of the electromagnetic interaction increases with increasing energy as well. At some point our current theories predict that it becomes "infinitely strong". That doesn't make sense, of course - and it means our theories are not valid up to this point.


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

[User]
CMV: The minimum age of 35 to become POTUS is arbitrary and should be abolished.

In the United States, anyone under the age of 35 is ineligible to serve as President.

In my view, this is completely arbitrary. I understand that the reasoning behind it is to encourage the election of candidates with political experience, but I don't think this is a good reason in theory or practice. First of all, it clearly fails to do this. In 2016, Trump was elected despite having zero political experience, in elected office or otherwise. Second of all, if the electorate want to choose a candidate who is under 35, I think that stopping this goes against democracy, and is arguably a form of age discrimination. It is also worth noting that right now there are potential candidates who are far more qualified than Trump was in 2016 who cannot run in 2020 just because of the age restriction. A prime example is AOC, will not be eligible to run until 2024, despite the fact she could have, and likely will have, served 3 terms in Congress by that point. Whether or not you like or dislike Trump or AOC, that does not make much sense.

[Assistant]
>I understand that the reasoning behind it is to encourage the election of candidates with political experience

Its not about political experience. Otherwise there would be a requirement to have held political office. Its about the general experience and wisdom one gains through the years.


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

[User] ELI5 Why does the back of a bus go over a bump so violently but the front of the bus is not impacted the same ??

[Assistant] It has to do with the placement of the wheel axles and weight distribution. At the back of the bus, the wheel axle is further forward leaving several feet of the bus extending outwards. Thus, when the bus goes over the bump, the entire back raises up and slams down.


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

[User]
[Daredevil] So did Rand Enterprises ever payout any money to the Murdock's for the chemical spill blinding Matt?

(*Murdocks, damn autocorrect.*) And to clarify, I meant **MCU** not 616 or 701306 (the main comics and Daredevil/Elektraverse respectively).

Might have been mentioned in a flashback, but based on Jack's money troubles I doubt it happened. Was Rand Enterprises under the control of Howard at this point, explaining why they wouldn't take legal responsibility for blinding a kid? Or was Danny's father just as willing to plug his ears and pretend it's not his problem? Where's the corporate liability?

And if nothing was done then, would Danny Rand attempt to make things right should he learn of Matt's blinding thanks to his company's incompetence?

[Assistant] Probably not. Depending on when that exactly happened, Rand would have been controlled by Meachum and the Hand. They would have probably been a second Roxxon corporation and we see from Daredevil season 1 that these types of businesses are very good at not only escaping culpability but also squeezing extra money off of the victims, just like the poor old man who was poisoned by Roxxon chemicals, the case the inspired Matt to start his own firm.


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

[User]
i want to use a graph from an academic article in my publication. How does this work?

It is a chart of some dry academic stuff. Will academics generally give permission to use it (free) or do i ask the publisher? My other option is to rewrite it, I guess, and present the same material with my own graphics.

[Assistant]
If you're wanting to use a figure from an existing article in a new article there's a well-established process for this in most cases. Go to the website for the original article, and then try to find a link related to Permissions or Rights or Copyright. For example, for RSC journals there's a "Request permissions" link on the right side. Click on that and give the requested information. For the most typical cases, you won't have to pay anything, but there's often a requirement for a Copyright notice, and when you submit your new article you may need to also submit the proof that you got permission to reuse the figure. As another commenter implied, it's weird to use someone else's figure in your work unless you're writing a review or there's another very good reason.

Edit: Changed reviewer to review


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

[User] [DBZ] What would have happened if Cell had fallen out of the ring during his match with Goku? Would he accept defeat. What if he slipped off and forgot to fly during Hercule Satan's match.

[Assistant]
VS Goku? At that point Cell was having so much fun that he wouldn't want the match to end, and it is debatable that Goku would let the match end either.

VS Hercule? Cell would admit defeat. He just lost to the strongest man in the world, and there is no shame in losing to that. At which point the only thing that was at stake was Cell's pride, and Cell would look rather foolish on LIVE TV if he were to refuse to admit defeat.


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

[User]
[Animorphs] Why don't Yeerks share Ax's food euphoria?

They're blind slugs for most of their lives, but don't they share the sensations from their hosts? It doesn't seem like the Yeerks (or even Visser 3 in human morph) play with their words or enjoy foo-duh as much as Ax does.

[Assistant]
They do, they're just (usually) a lot more disciplined about it. There's also less of an onboarding for Yeerks, since they share their hosts' memories. But the first time a Yeerk takes a new host is a pretty bizarre experience for them.

The first two Yeerks to take human hosts long-term actually had a much worse time of it than Ax; they were separated from the Empire and the experience of "being human" almost made them abandon their mission. It was only the threat of death by starvation that made one of them (The future Visser One) finally reach out to the Empire for support.


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

[User] A while ago it was announced a particle went faster than light. After some tests, it was revealed it was juts a miscalculation. What would be the implications if a particle could go faster than light?

[Assistant]
Actually, we don't know. Right now physics says that it's impossible, unless you want to give up some pretty sacred notions of cause and effect, because if you can send a signal faster than the speed of light, then those signals can effectively go back in time. If you send a faster-than-light message, you can get the reply before you ever send it. If you're shot by a faster-than-light bullet, you can die before the gun was ever fired. Physics doesn't really know how to deal with that.

More likely, if this result had been correct, we'd have to modify our understanding of physics, particularly special relativity, in some way so that such drastic consequences would be avoided. But there are quite a few ways to do that, each with its own different consequences and predictions, so if this faster-than-light neutrinos result had turned out to be correct, we really wouldn't be able to say definitively what the implications would have been, until we did more to understand the underlying science.


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

[User]
Could humans best vampires in any Olympic event?

Edit: shall we assume, in the interests of Olympic spirit and fairness, that the events take place in non-sunlight conditions where Vampires can at least compete...

[Assistant]
How would vampire athletes even work?  Would they carry around hyperactive little kids to use as sport drinks?

'Seriously' though, humans would win most swimming-based events.  In most interpretations, vampires are undead with shriveled or useless internal organs.  That means that neither their lungs (they don't need to breathe) nor their digestive tracts holds any gas, so they'd no longer be naturally buoyant.  They'd come out in their little speedos and ghastly white skin, dive into the water, and sink right to the bottom.  Meanwhile, all the human competitors zoom past them up on the surface.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] How could Anakin Skywalker become a force ghost?

I have never understood this. It was said that becoming a force ghost would need an immense study at the light side. Anakin Skywalker had neven been a fullscale Jedi. Most of his lifetime he spend studying the Dark Side as Lord Vader. Furthermore Yoda died: disappeared = Forceghost, Kenobi died:disappeared = Forceghost. Vader had no chance of becoming one...

[Assistant]
You seem to be mistaken; records indicate that Anakin Skywalker was a Jedi Knight for quite some time during the Clone Wars. Not enough time to study the deep secrets of the Force, certainly, but still a point worth making.

Qui-Gon Jinn also became one with the force without physically disappearing at the time of his death, so that doesn't seem to be a necessity to the process.

While the process of becoming one with the force (a "force ghost") isn't well-understood by any stretch, it seems to be largely related to accepting one's own dark side and truly finding balance in the force, something which Vader come to terms with and embodied strongly in his final moments.


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

[User]
According to Kant, what reason does one have to act in accordance with the categorical imperative?

Why should one bind oneself to this imperative? Admittedly, I'm a non-cognitivist, and moral realism is baffling to me in general. Morality for me seems to be completely bound to emotion, so the idea that it should be purely rational is practically senseless to me.

It seems to me that Kant's theory is only useful in something like a legal sense. It's a consistent theory that is very practical and fairly agreeable. It would allow someone to judge an action fairly easily.

Who do we have this duty to? What happens if we fail to perform it? It all seems arbitrary to me, something like a set of rules for a game, not anything to do with truth.

[Assistant] Everything you do for a reason presupposes some sort of end you are acting for. Ultimately every end you act for is yourself, or more specifically your humanity. But it turns out your humanity is not any different from anyone else's humanity. So on pain of irrationality, you have to treat humanity as an end in itself, never merely as a means. In other words, the reason to act on the categorical imperative is that it is irrational not to. If you fail to act according to the categorical imperative, you act irrationally.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do people get that eerie feeling that something's under the bed when they're younger?

Or, similarly, that feeling like there's someone behind you after you turn the lights out in the basement and sprint up the stairs.

[Assistant]
For most of our evolutionary history, the thing that was most likely to kill us was other, bigger animals intent on making us dinner. It's only been relatively recently that we've had big enough brains to rely upon fires and weapons and big walls to keep us safe from hungry carnivores. As far as our subconscious is concerned, we are still an animal that could be preyed upon.

Now, as far as our instincts are concerned, there are certain times when we're pretty safe, such as when we're among a large group of our own kind, and when it's broad daylight and can see anything that might be about to "get" us. But when we're alone in the dark, we are theoretically in a high-risk situation. Oh, and if we happen to be a child, our vulnerability is of course even greater. As rational human beings we may be aware that it's unlikely there is a sabre-toothed tiger with superb night-vision and stalking skills about to pounce on us, but our evolved subconscious still thinks it's a distinct possibility.

So, how does our brain respond to this? By putting us on extra high alert mode. It pushes forward into our consciousness the idea that there *might* be something lurking there. It makes us ready to run. We have probably all been in a "scary" situation, alone at night time, when we suddenly start thinking about monsters lurking in the shadows, and all of a sudden the slightest innocent noise put us straight into panic mode and we go running to safety. This instinct would have saved the lives of our ancestors on countless occasions.

Also, this is why if we are not in a position to run away we get the urge to hiding entirely under the covers, meaning any imaginary prey animals cannot see us.


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

[User] ELI5: Whats Fermis paradox?

[Assistant]
Look up at the stars. There are more stars in the sky than grains of sand on earth many like the sun. Because there are sooo many stars, there should be many places just like earth. There should be aliens and we should know about them.

So, where are the aliens and why dont we know about them?


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

[User] ELI5: What is ego death and how is it achieved?

[Assistant]
Ego death, is as simple as the death of your ego, but it's more complex than that. Your ego is the collective information you have pooled together, that you believe comprises who you are as a person.  All the things your good at, all your accomplishments, how you view the world, etc...all these things affect your every day interactions.  Your ego is often the biggest reason for how you act the way you act, why you treat others the way you do, etc etc...

Ego death occurs when all these beliefs about yourself, essentially, die..or more simply, are reset.

This occurs usually with the help of strong psychedelics like large doses of mushrooms, Acid/LSD, DMT, Ayahuasca, etc. These chemicals induce very strong visual hallucinations, and play on your deep insecurities and issues.  And above all, they really play on your inner fears...not just a fear of commitment or something simple as that, but your true, deep down, hidden fears.

There's one thing that most humans beings share a fear of: Death. This is why the common theme for a lot of deep mental exploration through psychedelics, occur a playing out of one's death. Often very violently. Then they experience how they view themselves from a third person point of view. And a combination of these experiences often totally resets one's outlook on life, their existence, and our place in the universe. So in essence, they experience ego death, and by resetting their mind and ego, they are now "new people" free to pattern themselves purposefully rather than being the outcome of their environment.


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

[User]
CMV: "Protest" is just a polite way of saying "make alot of noise and get nothing done."

The title says it all. Protesting doesn't work. Nobody really cares. When you protest, you get run over by a car in Charlottesville and people praise the driver. And then they encourage others to do the same. And nothing changes. You can March, scream, hold signs and strike all day long, but nothing will ever change. Maybe that's just me being pessimistic about it. Or, in milder examples, you're a snowflake if you want a better world for yourself and the people who come after you.

Like I said, probably pessimistic and absolutely wrong, but that's the way I see it, and I want to be given hope. Thanks for taking the time to read, Reddit. Hit me with what you might have.

[Assistant]
Did the Civil Rights Movement accomplish nothing?

Did the Hong Kong protests that are still ongoing accomplish nothing?

Did the mass protests in South Korea to demand impeachment accomplish nothing?

The list goes on.


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

[User] ELI5 why flying takes so much out of you physically and mentally when you haven't done anything but sit there?

[Assistant] A few reasons. First, airplanes are pressurized to an altitude above sea level; usually between 6,000-8,000 feet. This means there's not as much oxygen as at sea level. While it's not enough of a decrease for you to be aware of, it does tax your body a bit more, especially on longer flights. If you've ever done any hiking or mountain climbing at high altitudes, you'll recognize that you get fatigued much more quickly than at sea level. Second, airplane is is very dry. This tends to make people dehydrated. Third, travel is just plain stressful. You're packed into a small area with a bunch of other people (and their germs) for hours on end subject to engine noise, various cabin noises, people bumping into you...etc.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] What would happen if in the clone wars era, the rule of 2 was discarded

What would happen if in the Clone Wars, when there were 5 separate sith running around (Palpatine, Dooku, Ventress, Maul, and Savage) they decided to reform the with empire?

[Assistant]
What historically happens when the Sith form an enemy nation and wage war: They get crushed by the Jedi.

The thing about the dark side of the force is that it withers and dies in alliance and cooperation. The living force grows more powerful when someone puts the will of the force and the good of the whole above their individual needs or even survival. This is why Sith empires historically tend to lose knock-down-drag-out wars with the Jedi. They get an advantage early on from the element of surprise that they even exist, but tend to lose momentum and implode in the long run.

The rule of two worked as well as it did because it concentrates the power and does not rely on cooperation between the only two "actual" Sith lords - the master uses the apprentice for increased reach and the apprentice uses the master to grow more powerful, despite the master deliberately holding them back.


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

[User]
ELI5: What exactly makes smartphones screen responsive to touches, swipes, etc?

What's that ingredient that helps interface are fingers so that the smartphone screen recognises the input?

[Assistant] There are multiple types, but for a common type the simple answer is that your skin conducts a bit of electricity and closes a circuit hidden in the screen. Based on which circuits turn on, it knows where your finger is.


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

[User] [Avatar,Film] What's actually inside an avatar's head? Do they have a full brain (making them slaves?) or not?

[Assistant]
Yes they have brains, no they're not slaves.

For them to be a slave, the brain would have to be able to work when it's not being used. The fact is that it can't, so it's essentially just a remote drone made of meat.


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

[User] We're told flu viruses mutate to multiple new strains every year where we have no existing immunity, why then is it relatively rare to catch the flu multiple times in the same season?

[Assistant] It is actually quite common to catch the virus multiple times a year but due to the existence of antibodies in your plasma the infection will be way more subtle. Thus you don't really consider it as bad of an experience. On the other hand there are more than 100 rhinoviruses that can cause upper respiratory infections leading to "Common cold" symptoms and you can catch one of those every day of the winter! :)


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

[User] ELI5: It's 92 degrees. Why do furry animals, like my dog and cat, like to lay in the heat and how are they not uncomfortable?

[Assistant]
Cats have a higher average body temperature than we do! We are 98.6 and they are at 101.5. Because of this, what is "room temperature" for humans is actually a bit nippy for cats. That's why cats like to hide in insulated spaces like boxes, or lay in the sun. Cats are perfectly comfortable in 85 degree weather while it can get stuffy and uncomfortable for a human much sooner.

Not sure about dogs, sorry.


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

[User]
Is it easier for a woman to get pregnant again once she has been pregnant once?

I was wondering this since we had to try for a couple years to get pregnant, so after we have our child, would it be as difficult to get pregnant again, more or less difficult?

[Assistant]
Immediately following pregnancy, if your wife is breastfeeding, there is the potential to reduce the likelihood of a subsequent conception.  This process, lactational amenorrhoea, can lead women who are breastfeeding to not have their menstrual period.  It's one way that even in the absence of modern contraceptives, individuals can practice fertility control.

If you're beyond that period, there are a couple other issues that could come into play.

First, you're older now.  Older women are going to have more difficulty conceiving, assuming that we're talking a wife outside of her teens.
Second, time has passed.  In the space between your first child and this subsequent attempt, there are any number of possible life events that could have occurred and altered the likelihood of conception.  Diseases, stresses, environmental exposures that could affect you, her or you both.

On the plus side, having previously had a child, you have shown that you are both fertile and you are fertile together, so one of the major hurdles has been crossed already.

As you've stated the question it's hard to specifically evaluate which of these issues has/would come into play.


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

[User] ELI5: How are things like drug tests and polygraphs not violations of the 5th Amendment?

[Assistant]
The supreme court has also ruled that compelling urine tests from employees qualified as a "search" and thus the 4th amendment applied. *Treasury Employees v. Von Raab, 489 U.S. 656 (1989)*
However, The Court also ruled that positive test results could not be used in subsequent criminal prosecutions without the employees consent.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are lights yellow?

Asking for a friend. All the houses on my street look yellow on the inside at night.

[Assistant]
The standard for streetlights for at least the last 50 years (probably longer) is *low pressure sodium lamps*.  This bulb design emits light in the yellowish end of the spectrum and the human eye us very sensitive in that area. On the downside, they render colour poorly.   They are/were used because they are rather efficient.

 There is a huge push to move to LED lights, which are more closely full spectrum (i.e. whiter).

Edit:  Low pressure, not high pressure!


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

[User]
How long did it take for the dinosaurs to go extinct?

It has been determined that the dinosaurs went extinct due to an asteroid hitting Earth. I feel that many people, myself included, believe that once the asteroid hit, the dinosaurs died almost instantly. Was this actually the case or did it take days, weeks, or even years for the dinosaurs to go extinct after the asteroid hit?

[Assistant]
For a couple million years before the asteroid hit the earth, volcanos had been ejecting large amounts of CO2, and also the lava that created the Deccan Traps in India.  The resulting climate change had resulted in the extinction of many dinosaur species.

The asteroid strike was a final coup de grace for the non-avian dinosaurs.  The impact was immediately fatal for nearby dinosaurs. A large amount of vaporized rock dust was ejected into the upper atmosphere, which greatly reduced sunlight reaching the earth's surface so that the plants at the bottom of the food chain could not grow.  That lasted long enough to starve off the dinosaurs and all other large animals, as well as a long list of marine species.  In the geological record, the extinctions after the asteroid impact were essentially instantaneous.  Depending on the area, a few individuals of some dinosaur species may have lived for a few more months or years or decades.

As the dust settled over the following years and sunlight returned to normal, plant seeds and spores germinated which allowed flowering plants to become dominant.  Avian dinosaurs and other small animal species had some survivors, who reproduced and evolved to fill the various ecological niches vacated by the extinct species.

So the answer to your question is that many species of dinosaurs went extinct during the two million years before the asteroid impact.  All of the remaining non-avian dinosaur species went extinct over a few years or decades after the impact.  Avian dinosaurs are still with us, but we call them birds.


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

[User]
Can magnetic and electrical wave propagation be used as a part of a coordinate system?

Magnetic waves and electrical waves propagate 90 to each other. Is there a third entity that is perpendicular to both? If so, can these three entities form a coordinate system? Would it show anything useful?

[Assistant]
The third direction is the direction of propagation of an electromagnetic wave. The vector that points according to the cross product of the E and B vectors is, funnily enough, called the Poynting vector.

These directions are usually used to define polarization vectors, which is in a sense the coordinate system you're talking about.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why can we never tell the exact moment we fall asleep?

This concept has always baffled me.
Any help understanding this would be greatly appreciated!

[Assistant]
This is because your body goes through a series of transitions as you start falling asleep. Muscles relax to the point where you should be unable to move them at one point, breathing slows, body temperature decreases and your brain goes through some transitions as well. Changes are, amongst others, how we process memory and thoughts.

For you to remember the act of falling asleep, you would need to tell your brain to help you retain full consciousness til the very last second, only then would you be able to perceive the change of consciousness itself, but since it is a process, your ability to remember you falling asleep to the second is, unfortunately impossible.


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

[User]
[Predator franchise] what is stopping a lazy, dishonest Predator from killing a weak human, stealing his skull and making up a story how the skull belonged to a powerful warrior?

I have seen Predator, Predator 2 and Predators. Afaik it is common to send a Predator on the hunt alone, and give him weapons to use as he sees fit. The predators do have an honor system and they are expected to pick the toughest, most powerful enemies, but besides this honor system is there anything else keeping them in check? What if a predator decides he wants the bragging rights without having to work for them?

What if he decides "I want the respect, but I really don't want to get shot at, or do the work of scouring the Earth to find the toughest, hardest humans I can find so instead I am gonna go to the suburbs, find some couch potato who never fired a gun in his life, take his skull, come back home, and say the skull belongs to the deadliest outlaw in all of America? Their skulls all look the same, so my buddies won't tell the diffrence.

If I remember correctly, they only bring back skull of the human, and there is no way to tell if a human skull belonged to a couch potato, a highly trained commando, a hardened experienced police officer or a ruthless drug lord.

[Assistant]
Funnily enough, this is sort of the big twist of the head-scratching "Archie vs. The Predator"

Throughout, the Predator stalks and attacks ordinary teenagers or innocent townspeople; while they were always holding weapons at the time (i.e., a knife used for carving cake), nobody with half a brain should have interpreted them as real threats.

We eventually learn this is because this specific Predator is... a stupid teenager who is out of his depth but is trying desperately to impress girls.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] What's the government of Coruscant like?

I know Couruscant is home to the Galactic Senate that legislates interplanetary laws, but who makes the laws specific to Coruscant? (Traffic laws, city planning, business licences...) Is there a monarch? President? Congress? High council?

[Assistant] Propably like in a normal State or Nation: a regional Mayor or Administrator for the Planets Zones or Levels with a highter Officer to report to. The Existents of a *Supreme Chancellor* dictates the existens of *smaller Chancellors*, who got turned into the Regional Moffs in the Empire.


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

[User]
If a body rejects an organ transplant, can that organ be used for someone else, or is it no longer usable?

If my body rejects a kidney, can it be used for the next applicable person on this list, or is it toast?

[Assistant] It's no longer usable. Rejection implies your immune system attacking and trying to kill it. Not only does that damage the organ, but it fills it with your immune cells. Moving it to another person not only exposes them to the foreign cells from the organ, but also any lingering cells from your body, making it more likely to trigger their immune system and cause another rejection.


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

[User]
ELI5: Average speed cameras

If the purpose of average speed cameras is to measure your speed between one fixed point and another fixed point, why do they need to have so many cameras in between? Why not just have one at the start, one at the end and one at each exit point in between?

[Assistant]
Pretend you have 2 cameras, 1 at mile marker 0, and the second at mile marker 1.

At 60 mph, it should take you 1 minute to cover that distance. But what if you drive at 80 mph for the first 1/2 mile, then get stuck in traffic and go much slower for the remaining 1/2 mile? You were speeding at some point in that 1 mile gap.

A third camera at the 1/2 mile point would have caught you. Plus what if maybe a semi-truck was in the way, and blocked the camera from seeing your plate at the first camera? Or maybe the sun's glare made it hard to see, etc

More cameras, more chances to nab you.


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

[User] If only 4-5% of the air we exhale is CO2, how many times can we breathe the same one breath? And at what point would we pass out.

[Assistant] Interestingly, your body registers suffocation not by the lack of O2 in the air but by the concentration of CO2 in your blood. Without a way to get rid of CO2, you would still feel the same as if you were holding your breath.


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

[User]
Why is the computer arrow slightly tilted?

Or why is the hand not tilted?

[Assistant]
The up-and-to-the-left arrow cursor originated at Xerox PARC in the 1970s on the Alto computer. The reason the left edge of the arrow is vertical is simple: it displays as a straight line without any jaggies. An arrow pointing straight up was found to be harder on the eye due to the jagged diagonals. That arrow shape has been used ever since.

Oh, and why point the arrow up and left? Simply because the origin of the cursor bitmap is in the upper left. This put the cursor's hot spot conveniently at (0, 0), saving the mouse tracking subroutine a couple of compute cycles by not having to calculate x and y offsets.

ELI5 - It made more sense/looked better on old computers. We just haven't changed it because it'd be weird.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why do so many Sith wear masks?

Is it a majority of them, or only the more popular ones?

[Assistant] It symbolizes their embrace of deceit. It symbolizes (as does the adoption of the Darth honorific) the abandonment of old identities and old restrictions, the search for limitless power and possibility. Ironically, while a Sith celebrates self and the pursuit of selfish ends, a Sith also gives himself over to something larger. He acknowledges the power and allure of the Dark Side. It lends him strength - but at the cost of knowing it is not his own to begin with. To celebrate oneself, one must efface oneself - and so the mask.


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

[User]
[Star Trek] What tactical situations warrant the use of phasers versus photon torpedoes?

What are the advantages/disadvantages of these two types of weapons? Are there other weapon options available?

[Assistant]
* Phasers are good for shields and don't run out.

* Photon torpedoes are an expendable resource but are absolutely devastating on unshielded enemies.

You drain their shields using the phasers and then finish them off with a photon torpedo double-tap.


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

[User] I have a cold and am curious, what defenses will the virus encounter (in order, from entry)?

[Assistant]
First, there are physical barriers.  Skin, for example.  Then, assuming you got it through contact between your mucous membranes (mouth, nose, eyes) and particles containing the virus, there are antimicrobial agents in these mucous membranes (though most of these are geared toward being antibacterial, not antiviral) as well as the actual fluid (tears, saliva, mucous) presenting something of a barrier as well.

Most colds are infections of the upper part of the throat.  Viruses enter cells and begin to replicate inside them.  Interestingly, most rhinoviruses use a receptor called ICAM1 to enter the cell, and up its production once they're inside.  However, ICAM1 is also a signalling molecule, and it signals to macrophages (cells of the immune system) and starts a signalling cascade which leads to cytokine release, signalling, and imflammation, which gives you the local effects (sore throat) and broader effects like runny nose and fever.  Furthermore, cells like leukocytes can phagocytose (essentially, eat) virus or destroy infected cells.  These steps are generally referred to as cell-mediated immunity.

Meanwhile, B-lymphocytes are running around.  If a lymphocyte whose antibody matches the virus is found, that cell is activated (this requires interacting with a T "helper" cell).  The B cell differentiates into "memory" B cells, that stay around to remember the antibody in case of reinfection later, and plasma cells, that divide rapidly and start churning out the antibody.  This part is generally called humoral or antibody immunity.  The antibodies bind to the virus, which prevents virus particles from getting into cells and identifies them to other players in the immune system which can come along and scoop them up.  At this point, the infection is generally cleared rapidly, unless the person is immunocompromised.


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

[User] ELI5: Why will people flying at high altitudes lose consciousness so quickly in a depressurization event when a human can normally hold their breath for much longer?

[Assistant] You won't be able to hold your breath in a rapid depressurization. Anything full of air, like your lungs, is going to try to expand due to the lack of air pressure and will severely injure you if you don't get rid of it. You have no choice but to let the air get sucked out of your lungs. You won't be able to "store" some to use for the next couple of minutes, like you could while holding your breath.


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

[User]
Why are some types of cancer more common?

I've always wondered why some types of cancer are more common than others. Especially breast cancer, what is it about the cells there that make easier to get cancer there than in other parts of the body? I know lot of cancer can be directly caused by someone's lifestyle like lung cancer for smokers, and I can kind of guess at ovarian and testicular cancer being common because I'd guess that since that region is just really like used a lot, with a lot of specialized stuff happening there all the time it makes sense.

[Assistant]
It's a combination of exposure and high cell turnover.

Lung cancer is common mainly because of smoking and exposure to carcinogens whereas colon, testicular, skin, and pancreatic cancers are common because they are sites of very high cellular activity.


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

[User] [DC]What would happen if Arkham staff gives Two Face a dice instead of his coin?

[Assistant] This actually happened in the graphic novel "Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth".  They first gave him a dice, then a deck of cards, thereby gradually increasing the number of choices he has.  The increase in choices basically made him incapable of making the simplest of decisions, like using the restroom.


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

[User]
[General Sci Fi] The Ballistics of Coilgun Small Arms

I apologize in advance if this isn't the right place to ask. I saw an artist's personal Sci Fi setting on Tumblr the other day, and one of their characters carried a handgun that used coilgun mechanics (rather than gunpowder) to accelerate small 2mm bullets. Their thinking was that a small round without a casing, propelled at high speeds, could preform similarly to a conventional round and allow for very-high capacity weapons.

That got me thinking about real-world ballistics, and the debate between smaller, faster rounds, and bigger, slower rounds. What are people's thoughts on the properties of a high-speed (lets say comparable or slightly above modern weapons), very small round against armored and unarmored targets?

EDIT: To abide by the Watsonian criteria of the subreddit's rules, I'll clarify that this applies to both terrestrial combat (planetside) and boarding actions on spaceships, where the character was depicted. I was under the impression that Hi-Velocity firearms and livable, pressurized spaceships wouldn't mix well.

[Assistant] iirc, the speed of a projectile is the most important part of penetrating armor. Small and fast rounds would be perfect for powerful, armor-piercing sidearm. But a larger bullet has more inertia and therefore is more resistant to changes in velocity, so long-ranged weapons like sniper rifles should be firing larger projectiles.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why can you not just brush your teeth to the perfect white, like a car or a tea stained cup?

I have always thought about this since I was young but never actually asked my dentist. In theory surely your teeth are just like objects that should just get sparkly clean if you put in the effort? So for example if you brushed your teeth for 3 hours or so.

[Assistant]
With anything that's stained, unless the stain is absorbed all the way through the entire thickness of the object, sure you can scrub it with abrasives until the stained layer is removed.
Deliberately removing layers of your teeth is obviously a really bad idea though, as they don't grow back.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do you lose your radio signal(FM) when you've driven a fair distance into a tunnel, but you don't regain it until you're completely out of it?

Title.

[Assistant]
It depends on the direction the FM signal is coming from. Think of it like a beam of light (actually, radio signals technically *are* light!) where solid structures casts shadows.

If the light is shining towards the entrance of a tunnel, then the inside of the tunnel is still lit up near the entrance. At the exit, the shadow of the mountain or building still blocks light past the tunnel exit. That is why different places have different signal strengths.

It depends on where the FM transmitter is and where the blocking objects are.

---

**EDIT:**
This is one explanation, but if you find that it doesn't matter which side of the tunnel you enter/exit, then this next explanation may be what's happening...

If you think of the FM signal as having a particular address (the frequency), then you can only read the signal if you know exactly where it is, and you actually have to know much more accurately than the number you put into the radio. Luckily, your FM radio can find the exact address once you give it the ballpark number and is able to stay locked onto that signal.

The hard part is finding it in the first place, since once you see it, you can follow it even if the signal becomes faint. However, your FM radio can't find it if it's too faint to begin with. So on both sides of a tunnel, the signal is weaker, but you can still hear it as you go in since you've locked on to it. When you come out, your radio needs to wait for the signal to be bright enough to pinpoint and lock on to it again.

Other answers explain this in more detail: it's called a phase-locked loop.


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

[User]
[Lord of the Rings] If Sauron wins, does Middle Earth become as Mordor? What's in it for human traitors like Wormtongue and Saruman?

As well as the Uruk-hai and the Haradrim?

[Assistant]
Saruman is a Maiar like Gandalf and Sauron, not human. And he had no intention of ever serving Sauron. He coveted the ring and the power it would bring him. Isengard was not an ally of Mordor more than it was convenient for them to not kill each other right away.

As for the Men that served both Sauron and Saruman, they had their own goals.

The Easterlings are traitors to the Edain and wanted land. The Haradrim were convinced by promises of riches and the natural resources they coveted in the north (Water and food, namely)

The Uruks, Orcs, Goblins, and so on are just evil. They're evil to the core. They served Sauron out of fear but hated him all the same. They're cowards, if you want to boil it down.

And the Uruk-Hai were bred to serve Saruman. They didn't have a choice.

As for the rest of Middle Earth, yes. If Sauron won there would be no green places left in the world. All of it would become as Mirkwood or Mordor. And in the end, even Tom Bombadil would die. But only at the very end.


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

[User]
CMV: Video games have traded content for greed.

In today's video game culture, why have let the developers sell us "unfinished" games and then charge us for the remaining content? 10 years ago, you would pay once and have the entire game. With Destiny 1, for example, you paid $60 for the base game. Then another $35 for the season pass. Then $40 for The Taken King. Then rounded it our with another $60 purchase for Rise of Iron. That's almost $200 for just one game.

I get it, they want to make money, but I would be perfectly happy to pay once for the ENTIRE game and have micro-transactions, but not have anything needed to be better or give you an advantage behind a "Pay Wall".

As a gamer since the N64 and before, I miss only having to pay once for a game. The video game culture has changed, and the biggest hit goes straight to wallets.

[Assistant]
There's still plenty of completed games released with free or no DLC. Or at the very least real DLC that is post-game content and not stuff that should have been included from day 1.

You bring up your N64, maybe you should buy a Switch. Mario Odyssey, Zelda Breath of the Wild, Kirby Dream Allies, Mario and Rabbids Kingdom, Celeste, Splatoon 2. All of these are games that were complete on release, and either have no DLC, free DLC, or true DLC that is actually worth paying extra.

I would argue that nothing has changed about video game culture itself. There's still loads of companies putting out games that are complete and don't have faux-DLC or loot-boxes.

You only want to play games that are complete on day-1? Don't buy anything that isn't.


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

[User]
[Beauty and the Beast] What would have happened if the servants, enraged at being turned into furniture, killed the Beast?

Would they transform back into people, or would they remain as furniture with no way to ever transform back?

[Assistant]
Better than that, they track down the enchantress who brazenly ruined their lives over a perceived slight by their employer.  It's a long journey filled with many adventures, but at last they find her.

In the climactic final battle with Lumire firing blasts of flames, Cogsworth and Plumette manage to corral the witch into the wardrobe.  But Chip is mistakenly locked in too!

The enchantress holds Chip hostage, threatening to smash him unless the furniture let her out.  They seemingly agree, but when she steps out she lands right on the stove.  Chapeau, the coat rack, uses the distraction to snatch Chip away.

The stove then proceeds to grab the enchantress in its many hands.  Amid her screams it proceeds to dice her, place her in various pots and pans, and roast the remains in an assembly line process.

As the oven door closes on the last bit of her, a still twitching eye, the enchantment is lifted and all of the furniture become human again.  Cuisinier, the stove, is shown to have a bloated belly.  He belches and the assembled servants all laugh.

Credits roll.


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

[User] Does the pupil shape of specific animals (goats; rectangular, cats; oval) affect the way they create an image in their mind?

[Assistant] We know it affects the way they perceive the world (vertical pupils are better at pinpointing one target, horizontal ones give a wider field of view), but it's kind of hard to see whether the animals' subjective experience is affected. After all, we can hardly ask them to describe the way they perceive the world.


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

[User] ELI5: How does a person know where their body parts are located, (nose, mouth, etc.) without looking? Such as eating popcorn without taking eyes off movie.

[Assistant] It's called your proprioception sense, and it's provided primarily by 'stretch' receptors in your muscles that tell your brain how far the muscle is extended.  Your brain then knows where your limbs are, and can use that to build a map of where the rest of you is (like your nose and mouth).


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

[User]
[The Martian] How did The Watney Incident effect future space exploration?

We know that Mark Watney's ordeal on Mars was one of the most watched and studied episode of human space exploration. We also know that it led to some unexpected cooperation between several of the world's space agencies in both this incident and future ARES missions.

What effect on the future of space exploration of this? Did it hinder or expand NASA's future goals?

[Assistant] New colonial efforts include an emergency back-up food supply. Safety and survival protocols are set in place for new astronauts to learn. All equipment are designed to be modular and allow colonists to rebuild after an unexpected catastrophic failure of the main equipment.


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

[User]
How do man made structures get naturally buried and forgotten over time?

Often times you hear of long lost buildings or even full cities that get buried underground and forgotten over the years. How does that happen? How does ground level get higher and higher over the years?

[Assistant]
People tend to build near bodies of water, and areas near bodies of water tend to be depositional environments.  Basically you've got two types of environments...your hills and mountains are where dirt erodes _from_.  Your flatlands and floodplains are where dirt erodes _to_.  People tend to build in the latter, so over long timescales, sediment tends to accumulate (often through occasional floods).

Also, people bring their own dirt.  Before the advent of dumptrucks, nobody was really interested in going through the massive amount of trouble it would be to haul out the rubbish of a knocked over or burned down house.  Or even the rubbish of everyday life.  The debris would get left behind and the next house built on top.  Eventually you wind up with many layers of old junk burying the ruins of old buildings.  This is especially important in ancient cities.


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

[User] Could anyone explain why raising minimum wage does not increase unemployment in layman terms sans studies and math?

[Assistant] If you want no studies, no math, no nothing, not even the faq, ELI2 -- it boils down to: "Employers often have a bit of an edge over workers that allows them to pay a little bit less than you'd expect given the amount of value those workers generate. If you force them to raise wages a little, but not too much, they lose some of that edge over their workers, but nothing too catastrophic overall happens to the companies. On average they tend to just eat the loss and move on."


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

[User]
ELI5: When should I use _or vs _er?

For example, "bisectOR" vs "teachER". Is there a rule?

[Assistant]
-or is for words with Latin origins, -er is for the rest.

I don't think there is an easier way for telling which to use, a quick google search results in a rather hit-or-miss rule of thumb where nouns which can end in -ion (profession, education) end with -or.


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

[User]
[Marvel Comics] Since the Mad Thinker always loses, I have to ask: is he just bullshitting for the sake of having a gimmick when he says he uses probability calculations to predict the future of the crimes he commits? Or is he just statistically very unlucky/bad at maths/both?

Even though I personally feel that he's a D-list relic from the silver age, I still feel that surely he should have an advantage and at least win once  if he always mathamatically predict future outcomes of his plans like he claims to do.

**has he ever actually won. Is his gimmick bullshit,  or is he just incompetent?**

For example: When Spider-Man or another hero shows up at his base the Mad Thinker usually says something like "I'm prepared to fight you,  I knew here was a 70% chance that you'd show up" but he would then get beaten by the hero anyway.

[Assistant]
He is very good at calculating probabilities. BUT! He also has a MUCH higher opinion of his own capabilities than is true, so all of his math is biased and wrong when it comes down to the part of the plan which is "get attacked by superheroes." He can plan the rest of his heist wonderfully, but because he's so full of himself, he calculates as if he's totally going to beat up Captain America solo, because that's totally a thing he can do, right?

If he was just making plans for other villains to follow, he'd be fantastic. But his ego is too large to accept just being a support villain.


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

[User]
ELI5: do people with ADHD react differently to depressants then other people?

 hello, i recently stumbled across this article explaining how people with ADHD react differently to stimulants than other people, making them more calm instead of more active:

" For many **people with ADHD**, **stimulant** medications boost concentration and focus while reducing hyperactive and impulsive behaviors. "

after reading about this, i got curious: Since people who have ADHD react differently to **stimulants** than other people, do people with ADHD react differently to **downers/depressants** then other people?

[Assistant]
Let me preface by saying everyones adhd/add is different but in general no. The reason stimulants relax them is because there is an imbalance of dopamine/norepinephrine/serotonin in their brain stimulants like amphetamine methylphenidate and bupropion increase these neurotransmitters thus causing a more stable state within their brain this leads to relaxation. If an adhd person were to take a recreational dose of these drugs they will get stimulated just like us regulars.

Cns depressants dont act on these 3 neurotransmitters  (for the most part) they tend to act on the opioid system or the gabaergic system. Adhd does not effect these system as such their reaction to cns depressants would be the same as people without adhd.


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

[User]
[The Boys] What does Vought make supersuits out of?

The costumes Vought Supes wear are costumes, but they are also extremely resilient.  High speed collisions, point blank machinegun fire, supersonic running shoes.  The only damage weve seen (in the show at least) has been when Black Noir was blown up.  Even then, his suit was fairly intact considering the size of the explosion.  Has it been explained in the comics what Vought makes the suits out of, or do the Supes just run around naked after tanking a grenade?

[Assistant]
Depends on the supe in question. TV vought seems to have a more standardized group of supers unlike the comics. Each speedster is similar in ability for instance. Vought just dumps millions of dollars into making sure they're looking their best even if it's just a single piece of armor custom made for them at such a ludicrous price point it couldn't ever be mass produced. Or more morbidly it may be formed by another supe in some grotesque way in a secret lab somewhere and simple formed into clothing.

In the comics they wore mostly just above average costumes that frequently ripped or burned leaving them partially or fully nude in unscripted events. Only the major money makers were given higher quality materials and even then they weren't as tough as the supe wearing them.


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

[User] ELI5: Why would banks and exchanges need to pause withdrawals if they're in financial trouble?

[Assistant]
If you're a bank, the worst thing that can happen is someone coming up to the counter asking for their money and you not being able to give it to them. That causes your customers (account holders) to lose all confidence in you, and they will all promptly try to withdraw their money in hopes that they can get some of their money out. This is called a bank run or a run on the bank.

Side note: most if not all privately held accounts at banks are protected by the FDIC, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. The FDIC protects banks and their customers by guaranteeing each account up to $250,000; if you try to withdraw and the bank is unable to pay you, the FDIC will pay out for you instead.

So a bank temporarily stopping withdrawals is a way to get ahead of a bank run. The idea is to buy time while the bank tries to get more funds in (from loan payments or other assets), so that they can reopen later, pay out withdrawals, and not run out of money.


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

[User]
Why do my speakers "toot toot toot" whenever a mobile phone comes near?

I know this has something to do with my speakers picking up the radio signals my phone is sending to the local tower. But why is it only some speakers and not others that behave this way?

Another thing I have noticed:

Whenever my phone is near my speaker, and another mobile phone enters the vicinity, it does the "toot toot toot" sound. For example, sometimes I'll be sitting upstairs (by the speaker) and I'll hear it go "toot toot toot" and I'll know someone is at the door, before they even ring the bell (provided they have a mobile phone). Why does this happen. Is my phone able to detect there is another phone near by?

[Assistant]
Your phone sends and receives electromagnetic signals in the air.  These signals are waves that can interfere with and slightly change the current of electricity going to your speakers and cause it to make the sound.

On a side note if you want to see something cool put your cellphone underneath an oldskool CRT computer monitor and send it a text message.


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

[User]
My advisor showed me his LoR and asked me what I thought. He mentioned my poor undergrad grades but "put a positive spin" on them. Should I ask him to remove it?

Hello community. Please remove if not appropriate. Thanks.

I'm an international MS student looking to apply for PhD programs in the US this round. My advisor called me in and showed me what he wrote for my LoR and asked me if I wanted to change anything (I don't think this is normal or "ethical" but who am I to say no to a kind gesture).

I'm not originally from my current major (CS) and I did a double major in undergrad. My grades suffered because of my unfamiliarity and, to be honest, immaturity. My advisor mentioned it in the letter and said something like (from memory):

>Although I admittedly had concerns as to whether Joe would be able to keep up with graduate courses and conduct research due to his unconventional background and his undergraduate record, he immediately proved that my concerns were silly as he was able to maintain a near-perfect GPA and was able to successfully participate in research.

I'm honestly extremely flattered that my advisor thinks so highly of me (he's not the expressive type), but at the same time am conflicted because I've heard that anything critical or mediocre on a letter is going to be viewed negatively.

This has led me to wonder if I should bring it up and suggest that leaving out the part about concerns may be best.

I don't really have anyone around me who's experienced higher education (my school doesn't really receive international students/faculty and no one really goes abroad either, I'm also the only one of my friends or family to have went to college) and so I decided I'd try to make a post here. Thanks for any feedback.

[Assistant] Part of the purpose of LoR is to address things on your CV that an admissions committee might find questionable, such as poor undergraduate performance. Its good that your advisor brought it up and - this is key - said how it did not negatively impact your higher-level academic success.


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

[User]
What did Camus mean by "there are truths, but no truth"?

I'm reading through The Myth of Sisyphus, and in it Camus says,

>Of whom and of what indeed can I say: I know that! This heart within me I can feel, and I judge that it exists. This world I can touch, and I likewise judge that it exists. There ends all my knowledge, and the rest is construction. For if I try to seize this self of which I feel sure, if I try to define and to summarize it, it is nothing but water slipping through my fingers. I can sketch one by one all the aspects it is able to assume, all those likewise that have been attributed to it, this upbringing, this origin, this ardor or these silences, this nobility or this vileness. But aspects cannot be added up. This very heart which is mine will forever remain indefinable to me. Between the certainty I have of my existence and the content I try to give to that assurance, the gap will never be filled. Forever I shall be a stranger to myself. In psychology as in logic, there are truths but no truth.

What does he mean by the last phrase?

[Assistant] There are groups of properties or aspects which are truths, however we cannot sum them up to form a truth.  There will for Camus always be parts of the equation which we cannot know, which are as well to numerous, such that we can only construct a partial equation.  X+Y+?+?=?


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

[User]
[Stranger Things] How did Suzie hack Dustin's grades?

How was she able to access the computer system of a small-town middle school from several states away, in the 1980's, if the internet wasn't released to the public until 1993? Even if she had access to ARPANET via military connections, how and why would the school be connected to it in that way?

Why did the school not have any record of the grades besides a single ASCII character in a computer system that would've been new technology at the time? No paper documents? Did the teachers not have their own records?

[Assistant]
The school's computer had a modem connected to it for remote access.  It doesn't need to be part of the internet or ARPANET for that to be true.  Perhaps the local school district wants remote access, or even just the principle wants to be able to do some things from home.  It's cool technology after all, and we know they have at least one highly technical teacher working there.

As for the single ascii character, they probably do have it on paper in other places, and teachers do have their own records, but you have to look at the intent and purpose of the hack.

Dustin isn't trying to change his permanent record, he just wants the report card to look good when it gets to his house.  So hack the machine that prints the report cards.  If nobody ever brings it up, there's no reason for a teacher to even see the report card, let alone validate the accuracy of the grade that got printed.  In all likelihood this never gets caught because nobody has a reason to compare the paper records to the digital ones.


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

[User]
Power losses in computing?

How much of power supplied to PC's gets turned to heat? Would a random mesh of wires about the size of CPU use more / less power than a CPU? We get new CPUs every year with less watts, is there some kind of lower limit for this?

[Assistant] Essentially 100% of what goes into a typical PC gets turned into heat. There's a bit of energy that gets turned into light/sound from the LEDs/boot and into mechanical energy for the fans but anything used to "compute" is turned into heat.


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

[User]
ELI5: how are muscle size and muscle strength not 100% correlated?

Question comes from different workout strategies. You can focus on hypertrophy (muscle size) or strength. How is the actual biology of the muscle different if it's big but not as strong? If not biology, what's the physics involved?

[Assistant]
Density and efficiency at utilizing energy (endurance). Big muscles are strong, no doubt. But they are trained to do high weight at low rep. Smaller, denser muscles are trained to do lower weights but at higher repetitions.

Think of it like... a big, thick tree trunk vs a relatively thinner, but denser concrete lamp post.

A power lifter feels like solid rock. A skinny martial artist is described as having muscles like corded steel.

Also, strength is measured by different metrics depending on how it's being leveraged. A length of rebar can chip a boulder down to pebbles with repeated hits, but that same boulder rolling down a hill will warp the same rebar upon impact rendering it bent and useless.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why can't two anti-virus protectors work together?

My new Kaspersky anti-virus program sees Windows Defender as malware. This isn't the first time I've heard of two anti-virus protectors seeing each other as threats. Why do they recognize another protection program as malware/...? What part of the program do they identify as bad, and why that part?

EDIT: Thanks everyone!

[Assistant]
Let's say you hire two security guards to guard your bank - without telling each other. When one of them sees the other enter the bank at night, with a gun, would you be surprised if he just shoots him?

The security guards will be able to work as a team, only if they know each other and work out a way to share their duties.

Two different Anti-virus programs can play well together if they are designed to recognize each other and play well with each other. If you use two programs not originally designed to work with each other, expect problems.

As a trivial example, if one of them locks access to some system files as a matter of protection, the other can recognize that it is being blocked and will identify the blocking software as malware.


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

[User]
CMV: The Nickel is the least valuable coin in U.S. currency.

The Nickel, despite being worth 5 times more than the penny, is far less valuable than any other coin or note in U.S. currency. Here's why:

1. It can easily be mistaken for a quarter from a distance, causing people to pick it up only to be disappointed by what it really is. The penny does not have this problem, as it is the only coin that is brown.

2. It does not have ridges on the edges. This makes it slightly harder to scratch off things like lottery tickets or gift card codes compared to a quarter or dime.

3. It is far too big for what it is really worth. The penny and dime are very small, making it worthwhile to carry a lot of them since it does not take up too much space compared to their worth. The nickel is almost as big as a quarter and is actually thicker than one despite being worth 1/5 of a quarter.

4. Finally, the nickel defaces the name of a great American: Thomas Jefferson. This man wrote the declaration of independence and was responsible for the Louisiana Purchase, one of the most important and valuable deals in U.S. history, and we put him on a coin worth 5 cents. Lincoln, another hugely influential American, is on the penny, but also the $5 bill, which makes up for it. Jefferson only gets the nickel.

I'm on mobile, so sorry if formatting is off. I look forward to some arguments against any of these points. Thanks!

[Assistant]
None of these proves that it is less valuable than a penny.

>It can easily be mistaken for a quarter from a distance, causing people to pick it up only to be disappointed by what it really is. The penny does not have this problem, as it is the only coin that is brown.

This may be annoying but it doesn't affect its value. It's still worth 5 cents, much more than a penny.

>It does not have ridges on the edges. This makes it slightly harder to scratch off things like lottery tickets or gift card codes compared to a quarter or dime.

So it's worth less than quarters and dimes. We already knew that. Still better than a penny, which is also smooth-edged and not as easy to grip when scratching.

>It is far too big for what it is really worth. The penny and dime are very small, making it worthwhile to carry a lot of them since it does not take up too much space compared to their worth. The nickel is almost as big as a quarter and is actually thicker than one despite being worth 1/5 of a quarter.

A penny weighs 2.5 grams, while a nickel weighs 5, so it is actually 1 cent per gram where the penny is only 0.4 cents per gram. If you have compared rolls you would know that a roll of nickels is only a bit bigger than a roll of pennies and it is worth 4x as much. It would make way more cents to carry many nickels than many pennies.

>Finally, the nickel defaces the name of a great American: Thomas Jefferson. This man wrote the declaration of independence and was responsible for the Louisiana Purchase, one of the most important and valuable deals in U.S. history, and we put him on a coin worth 5 cents. Lincoln, another hugely influential American, is on the penny, but also the $5 bill, which makes up for it. Jefferson only gets the nickel.

Jefferson is on the $2 bill.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does semen ball up and get hard when introduced to water?

[Assistant]
Semen contains a lot of protein. Proteins are rally long molecules made of amino acids (mostly Carbon, Hydrogen, some Nitrogen and Oxygen). In their "normal" state they are nice long strings, but under the right (wrong) conditions they tangle up like the headphones in your pockets and become a weird ball.

Same happens when you cook an egg.

Cold water is your friend when cleaning up.


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

[User] Why do desktop fans look more like boat propellers than aircraft propellers?

[Assistant] Slow moving air is much more like a classical fluid than fast moving  so the desktop fan can look a lot like a traditional non-cavitating propeller (efficient in water = efficient in slow air). Look at the fans in large buildings or on windmills, and you can see this difference in shape along the length of the fan blades. They get narrower and more streamlined down the length because the farthest tips of these blades experience higher air speeds.


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

[User]
[D&D/general]Would a +1 sword/+3 vs. goblins work on goblins in every universe, or just the universe the sword is native to?

Would *Glamdring* work in *Goblin Slayer*? What about in Shadowrun?

[Assistant]
It would *in every setting where things can be +1/+3*. Not all settings can accommodate the weapon, because magic either works differently (undermining the mechanical underpinning of the weapon) or is non-existent.

It would definitely work in GS; in the manga you can see the priest fill out a D&D 5th edition character sheet as her guild application. A +1/+3 sword would transfer with zero issues.

Shadowrun uses a different magic system. Perhaps the sword will work as writ. Perhaps it will change function to match the new ways in which mana and energy move in the awakened world. Perhaps it will explode.


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

[User] How exactly do refrigerators cool things down? And what qualifies certain chemicals as refrigerants?

[Assistant]
When a gas expands it takes in energy from its surroundings...making things around it cooler. When you compress a gas the gas gives off energy. Refrigeration works by compressing a gas and expelling the heat with a fan and/or radiator then moving the compressed gas to the area to be cooled and allowed to expand, drawing in heat. The expanded gas is moved back to the compressor and they cycle continues.

Any gas can be a refrigerant really, but a good refrigerant has a high heat capacity so each unit of gas can move more energy.


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

[User] If imaginary numbers were created to solve the otherwise unsolveable problem of roots of negative numbers then why dont we create other imaginary numbers to solve other unsolveable problems like x/0?

[Assistant]
First, imaginary numbers weren't created to solve the problems of roots of negative numbers. People were perfectly fine with negative numbers not having roots. Rather it was attempting to solve the seemingly unrelated problem of roots of cubic equations that roots of negative numbers came into play. It basically forced mathematicians to realize that there was something there, though resistance to these numbers remained, with mathematicians calling them "useless" and "imaginary." Nonetheless, they opened the way to expanding our understanding of math.

Unlike imaginary numbers, most attempts to find something to make things like x/0 work tend to break everything else. There are mathematical frameworks that do make sense of this, but tend to involve making sacrifices by way of getting rid of other mathematical concepts in order to prevent things like x/0 from just breaking everything.

In your typical, day-to-day math, that sacrifice is generally not worth it, so we leave x/0 as being undefined.


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

[User] ELI5: when I feel like I'm about to sneeze, but then I don't, what happened?

[Assistant]
Usually a person sneezes due to irritation in the nose, mucus, hair or any irritants that the body (or the nose) wants to expel explosively (hence the sneeze).

But as the body is preparing to sneeze, you are inhaling air, inflating your lungs and in general doing the "aah..aaaaahhh..." part, if the irritant is moved or is dislodged from it's place - the need and the urge to sneeze vanishes. Hence no sneeze.

tl;dr: the preparation to fight the enemy causes the enemy to go away.


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

[User]
ELI5: How did Russia, a country that lost an insane amount of people in WWII, manage to become a superpower a few short years later?

You'd think that after losing that many young men, it would take quite a while to recuperate. Not to mention the destroyed buildings, infrastructure, industries, etc.

[Assistant]
it's true Russia lost an insane amount of people during WW2, both against the axis powers and from within, but they had an incredibly huge pool to pull from to begin with. not to mention that they were one of the few countries in the war that enlisted both men and women to fight, helped to broaden the manpower pool.

The mentality of the Soviet Union at the time of the war and after was to sacrifice everything necessary for the good of and to strengthen the Union, this included the lives of it's citizens. Prior to WW2 the country was still struggling to modernize their industry, military and country as a whole, which is why their casualties were highest at the start of the war. They had very old equipment and not enough of it to equip their soldiers, so you'd hear reports of soldiers sent into combat in pairs, the first with a loaded gun, the second with an ammo clip. when the first man died he better have used his ammo, so that the second man could pick up his gun load his ammo and continue the push.

The Soviet war machine and industrial complex was made the primary focus for the country during the war and they invested every dollar and available man hour ( and woman hour!) not used in the fighting to construct massive factories and resource harvesting complexes, with very little concern to the safety and the lives of those working. With millions of people working in factories and building new ones, and harvesting the materials needed for both, they could grow extremely rapidly.

The soviets also got massive amounts of aid and lend lease supplies from the allies. over the course of just 4 years they received about 17.5 million TONS of supplies from the USA alone. This consisted of food, weapons, vehicles, ammo, industrial equipment.

the Soviet Union expanded and grew it's industrial and military capacity so much that by the end of ww2, not after, it was already a world superpower, with the most massive land military ever in human history.

TLDR: Russia was already a super power at the end of ww2 thanks to a complete disregard for life that was used to fuel their military industrial complex.


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

[User] ELI5: How come Type O- (O negative. . . ) can be given to most other blood types but it can only receive it's own blood type?

[Assistant]
When we talk about blood type, we're really talking about the different proteins in your blood. The biggest ones are the A protein, the B protein, and the Rh factor. If your body doesn't have the protein and you're given blood with the protein in it, your immune system will attack it. Someone with O- blood has none of these proteins, so if they get blood from someone with any of the three (either A, B, or +), their immune system will go crazy.

Getting blood that doesn't have a protein that you naturally have is fine, which is why someone with O- blood can donate to anyone.


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

[User]
How does water go stale?

Ever drink from a glass of water that had been sitting out for days? It tastes weird, or stale. Why is that?

[Assistant]
Water doesn't "stale" so much as it stagnates. If you leave a bottle of water in an environment that is favorable for the growth of microbes, you're going to end up with a nice soup of bacteria, protists, and other nasty critters that you probably wouldn't want to drink.

To avoid this, don't leave out water at room temperature after you've already taken a drink of it (and smothered it with your saliva-covered lips). Put it in a refrigerator, or something. Water that has never been contaminated as such can be left out perpetually until it is opened and drank.


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

[User]
[Lovecraft] What's innsmouth like in the present day?

Has the government sent law enforcement to investigate? Are all the deep ones in concentration camps?

[Assistant]
The government did send agents into Innsmouth in 1927 and the following year ended up arresting every Dagon worshipper they could find and then destroyed Devil's Reef with explosives.

With the town mostly depopulated and Devil's Reef bombed to bits, it's likely the Deep Ones would simply pull back to Y'ha-nthlei and cut their losses. Establishing a new Order of Dagon in the town would be difficult even if the government wasn't keeping tabs on the place. Even before the police raid Innsmouth had a bad reputation and its industries were failing, so it's very unlikely the town would recover. Today, it's just a deserted ghost town, rotting in the damp, salty air.


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

[User] [GENERAL SCI FI] In a Sci-Fi setting where Humanity is a prominent species, is it plausible that Earth would become a Ecumenopolis like Corusaunt?

[Assistant] That's basically 40k Terra in a nutshell. After 30,000 years of war, death, reconstruction, death, building, war and more death, then ascendance, then lots and LOTs of death, humanity has made its once green and blue haven into a city world, which is like Mecca plus every terrible metropolitan city combined into one, times 1000000.


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

[User]
CMV: Cream should be poured into a coffee cup before adding coffee, not after

I like to pour cream into my coffee cup before adding coffee.  My wife and I have an ongoing debate over whether what I'm doing is weird. She thinks it is but has not been able to convince me to stop.  So, since I'm bored at work, I figured that I'd see if this subreddit could help her out.  I maintain that cream should preceed coffee in almost all situations.  My reasoning:

1. Pouring cream first allows me to pour some out if I accidentally add too much without discarding an entire cup of coffee or drinking watered down coffe I won't enjoy.

2. Pouring cream first is more efficient in terms of time and effort as the act of adding coffee mixes everything without the need for stirring.

3. Adding cream and other mixers is often chaotic at coffee shops and other crowded locations with self-serve coffee available,  as a bunch of people all try to get the correct sweetener and/or cream/cream substitute (which are often all conveniently confined to a square foot of counter space) simultaneously while also juggling hot coffee and trying to find a place to stir.  The chaos, as well as the risk of spills, would be reduced if people added these things to their cups before getting their coffee because people would be far less likely to try and stir their coffee at the same place and because while they would still be jostling with everyone else for the cream and sugar in the one square foot, they would be doing so without a cup full of coffee.

In summation, my view is that switching from a coffee first to a coffee last model of serving coffee is beneficial for both the individual coffee drinker and the organisation of larger-scale coffee provision.  You might change my view by demonstrating that the prevailing coffee first model does not have the problems I described or that it has some other advantage(s) that I have overlooked and making a good argument for why they should outweigh the problems.

[Assistant]
If you add cream to an empty cup, you can't be sure immediately how much cream is good unless you use a specific mug with a marker at the bottom that suits you.  Otherwise you could eyeball it and guess, but this would affect how much coffee you add.  If you know you like enough cream to add a certain shade of beige or brown, then that'll mean you can add coffee till you get it.  Depending on how much cream you imprecisely added, it would mean that you could fill a cup or need a bigger cup in the end.  It might save time stirring and save time if done perfectly, but there are far more complications.  It most certainly won't go perfectly.  This could mean that you need to brew more coffee, which'll be wasteful, or throw out a remaining amount of coffee.

Adding cream or milk at the shop is only annoying during rush hour.  Otherwise that's just poor planning on the shop's part, but also isn't that big a deal.


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

[User] Why are there many different types of fuel (87, 93, diesel) and why can certain machines take only one type?

[Assistant]
First, between different fuel types, premium gas, regular gas (87,93)

Basically, the cylinders in each engine compresses the fuel/air mixture to a certain amount, the more compressed the mixture, the hotter it gets and more likely it is to explode.

however, sometimes, if the fuel explodes before the correct time (when the pistol is at it's highest position) that is bad for the engine, so a higher octane fuel (93 is higher than 87), it's less likely to explode before the spark caused by the spark plug.
performance and turbo cars usually have higher compression ratios, meaning the air/fuel mixture is compressed tighter, requiring a higher octane fuel to avoid that early, spontaneous ignition.

now gasoline vs diesel.

these are 2 different types of fuel, but to get to the point.

gasoline requires a spark plug to generate a spark and ignite, diesel on the other hand doesn't, and can be ignited safely and reliably on compression alone.

they aren't interchangeable due to the technology required for each to run optimally on each engine.


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

[User] ELI5: The importance of unplugging something for 10-15 seconds instead of just replugging it in when trying to fix an issue.

[Assistant] A lot of devices have capacitors (they're like small, quickly discharging batteries) inside them.  When power is removed, these capacitors may still provide enough electricity for a short time to keep the device from completely resetting.


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

[User]
[Destiny] Why can only 6 guardians do the raids?

It'd seem more logical to storm the actual raid with an army of guardians. Atheon and Cota would literally crap themselves.

[Assistant] Guardians lack the proper numbers to engage in massed battles, and rely on rapid insertion teams to neutralise threats. Committing larger forces to the field would draw greater attention, and the Guardians cannot stand against the full force of the Hive, or the Vex.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do showers/baths refresh and energize?

A very large portion of animals feel refreshed and energized after being clean.  Humans feel more relaxed and comforted.

Is this due to chemicals in our brain, or something else?

[Assistant] We are imprinted from birth (and from shared genetic behavior) that cleaning is caring. Mother or Father both increase levels of attention and care when cleaning their young. This reenforces the social connect and yields a positive interaction. That behavior is then carried forward to older independent self-care rituals like bath and shower. It's further reinforced by the isolating ones self from sources of stress and personal rituals marking that time as a moment of self-care.


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

[User]
If 3-phase is more efficient, why isn't everything 3-phase?

I was reading on the difference between 3-phase and 1-phase power, and I got that 3-phase has 3 wires + neutral, and 1-phase has 1 wire + neutral. Some sites I was reading on that 3-phase is more efficient and uses less conducting material, but it's primarily used for industrial purposes. Residences stick to 1-phase. If it's more efficient and uses less materials, why then isn't everything in a 3-phase setup? What's the drawback to 3-phase that keeps 1-phase relevant.

[Assistant]
3-phase is only more efficient if you have a balanced 3-phase load. It does then require less conductor area than the same power delivered over single phase. But every piece of equipment would need to be 3 phase to achieve this. For large industrial equipment it is worth investing in this, but it is not economic to do for lots of small pieces that can work equally well on single phase. You would save on the electrical distribution cost, but at the small scale the increased costs of connections, switches and controls would outweigh the saving in copper.

Large office buildings tend to have three phase up to the distribution boards, but then use single phase to the sockets and appliances.

There would also be higher voltage at the sockets, which would be a safety issue. The three phase is at 400v in UK, while single phase is 220, from the same supply, so more power is delivered for the same current in the 3 phase section, but at a lower, safer voltage in the single phase section.


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

[User]
How is allele dominant to another at a fundamental, chemical level?

Im a senior in college graduating with a degree in chemistry and have always been curious about gene expression at a chemical level. Like say height or eye color, what chemical force in DNA/RNA/organelles/whatever is causing a gene to be expressed more than another or make the allele/gene dominant?

[Assistant]
really hate the terms "dominant" and "recessive" for causing exactly the confusion you are describing.

In most cases, both alleles get expressed and turned into protein. If you're heterozygous, you'll have two different proteins made, one for each allele. Now, think it terms of what the expressed proteins actually do. If it's an enzyme, one functional copy is usually enough to do the job, so the activity of the functional protein makes up for the bad one and you don't notice anything phenotypical, aka recessive. It's it's a structural protein, the bad protein can interfere by blocking good copies of the protein from adding to the structure, making the bad protein mask the function of the good copy, aka dominant.

Basically, think about what actually happens when two different proteins express. The resulting action determines if it's dominant, recessive, or somewhere in between.


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

[User]
ELI5: How can we run out of clean water ?

From my understanding, water has a pretty complex life cycle that can boil down to (hehe) this : it'll move around in the ground and in the air forever, sometimes passing through  alive creatures in the process.

But water is water, if I buy 100L of bottled water and pour it to the ground, is it really wasted? It's just moving through the cycle and it'll come back just as clean eventually. The waste is financial for me or for the cleaning process in the water treatment plant. But really the water on the planet is always the same amount, right? It's finite, but both abundant and "self cleaning", no?

When I see the rivers being dry I can't help but think the water is just elsewhere, which is just a matter of reaching it.

Bonus question : How does toxic waste affect that cycle? Is evaporating enough to be clean again?

[Assistant]
>it'll come back just as clean eventually.

Your "eventually" is doing a lot of heavy lifting there. It might not precipitate out as rain for 1,000 years or more - and when it does, if it falls over the ocean then it's not going to be available as drinking water anyway.

So yes, over a timespan of millennia there is always "enough" fresh water on earth. But that sort of timespan is irrelevant to most living things on earth, who will die if they don't get water for a week, let alone for the next thousand years.


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

[User] Does wind affect the distance sound travels?

[Assistant] Wind represents a gradient in atmospheric pressure.  Low pressure brings wind (attempt to balance)  from high pressure.   Sound is a wave disturbance (oscillating pressure gradient).  So if there's a large wind, there's a large gradient in pressure that will absolutely affect sound propagation through the medium..


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

[User] ELI5: If an electricity line breaks under a river, how does the electricity company repair it?

[Assistant]
With a spice kit.

The line is deenergized and divers will bring the cable up to surface and install a splice kit at the needed section.  If too deep (typically ocean repairs) remotely operated vehicles will make the repair by cutting the cable and bringing the ends up to the surface. If the river is small, they will cut the cable on dry land make the tie in there and run another cable to the other side and make the other tie in. No need for divers.

Edit: clarified some things. Still leaving spice kit though.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do so many corporations choose to form in Delaware?

I've noticed that a lot of companies, including banks, choose to incorporate in the state of Delaware and always wondered why.

[Assistant]
The basic reason is that Delaware has turned itself into a expert in the area of corporate law. It's been a conscious decision by DE to do this in order to attract exactly this kind of activity. What does that mean in practice?

* Delaware has an extremely robust corporate code, with a very fulsome case history. So the law is clearer in DE than it is in most any other state on corporate law issues.

* DE's court system is designed to handle these cases, and you will have knowledgeable and experienced judges looking at your cases.

* DE's executive infrastructure is superb. Stuff like filing certificates, making payments to the government, etc. is extremely easy and fluid. DE can process filings in as little as 30 minutes; other states take days.

Contrary to some other claims here, taxes have almost nothing to do with it. The Federal taxes don't matter, because they apply in any state. State taxes almost entirely pick up activity within the state, whether or not you are incorporated there. Lastly, DE's cororporate taxes aren't even particularly low.

So, that's the basic answer. DE has made itself an expert in corporate law, and corporations therefore come to is as 'customers', if you will.


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

[User] Can someone actually use jet fuel at full strength in a car or will it cause the engine to explode?

[Assistant]
No. Jet fuel is very similar to kerosene, which is less volatile than gasoline.
Kerosene falls between diesel fuel and gas on

It is possible to use certain grades of jet fuel in diesel engines, not a good idea though as they burn hotter & faster than #1 or #2 diesel and can damage the engine.


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

[User]
[Saved by the Bell and other high school shows]What causes students who are supposed to be teenagers to look like they are in their late twenties? A nearby leaking nuclear power plant, has generations of inbreeding caused accelerated aging, is there something in the drinking water?

The distribution of ages of the adults seems appropriate, so is this something which is only affecting the students?

[Assistant]
We are seeing the shows as narrated by the characters in their adult life, based on their often faulty memories. People in general tend to project back in time their own levels of maturity. For an example, think about yourself at age 14 and how you remember being, vs. your reaction to 14 year olds today. You weren't unusually mature, we just tend to subconsciously filter and reconfigure our memories. This means that recreations based on their memories bring with them that exaggerated sense of maturity in terms of appearance and mannerisms.

This also explains several other oddities like:

* unusually attractive people (your teenage crush was the most attractive person you had ever seen, to you, so is recreated as a supermodel level beauty),

* Unrealistically well produced and high budget school events (the summer formal seemd elegent to 16 year old you, but would make your current self cringe),

* characters being unrealistically competent (your "computer wizz" friend seemed like he could literally hack the pentagon right?)

* and the surprising lack of adult supervision (because who likes to reminisce about being bored)