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

[User] ELI5: How old TVs are getting fixed after you slapped it?

[Assistant]
What you're referring to is called "percussive maintenance".  It's an age old technique that mainly works on older, analog equipment and appliances, but still has its uses with some newer technology.

Sometimes an electrical connection gets a little loose or the contact points become corroded due to age and the environment.  A good whack on the side can often times jolt that bad connection back into place and allow the offending equipment to work again, at least temporarily.


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

[User]
[Eli5] Selling land in the metaverse

I'm reading articles about companies making a fortune "selling land" in the metaverse.

My understanding is that the metaverse is virtual reality, so what is being bought here?

The value of land in the real world is related to its location and features, but physically and temporally the space you buy in the metaverse can exist anywhere because you don't meaningfully travel to it, you just load in? And you can code it to put whatever you want in it?

Is it more like buying a website?

[Assistant]
> so what is being bought here?

Zucc sold bootleg SecondLife to tech illiterate boomers and cryptobros, that's what happened.

> Is it more like buying a website?

More or less, yeah. A website that you need a VR headset to look at. It has been tried before (with all these companies buying their "virtual plot of land" even) just as a normal 3D computer game instead of a VR thing, and the conclusion was a resounding "neat for erotic roleplay, horribly impractical otherwise".


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

[User]
[BioShock] How does Rapture expand and repair itself?

In the BioShock series, the city of Rapture is shown to be an astounding testament to mankind's technical expertise and the tenacity of the "utopian" vision of Andrew Ryan.

In the viral game Something in the Sea, we are shown that the initial construction of Rapture (with stage I being completed in late 1946) is financed by shell companies such as Warden Yarn who buy large quantities of materiel from Scarlet Sovereign with these contracts then being reneged upon receipt of the raw materials.

This presents a problem, however. With Ryan disappeared to Rapture and his shell companies on the surface surely made pariahs by his lack of payment on large contracts, he was surely cut off from receiving raw materials from sources on the surface. However, we're told that Rapture continued to expand until 1951. This surely would have required a vast amount of material well in excess of the sums we're shown in the Scarlet Sovereign receipts. Further, any civic planner worth a damn would have a setup for procuring additional materials for repairs and expansion to keep pace with population growth.

Now, as we're not shown any sort of method by which Rapture can quarry stone or mine ores and the trees in Arcadia are surely insufficient for providing lumber in addition to oxygenating the city, I've got to wonder: where did the additional raw materials for Raptures maintenance and expansion come from?

[Assistant] Ryan only needed his shells for the initial work - setting up the infrastructure to harvest the sea floor and below. He was smart, you see - placing Rapture's foundations where the crust was thin and rich in minerals. He powers Rapture geothermally, and who's to say he doesn't have a legion of Big Daddies working as miners? They do have those drills, after all.


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

[User]
ELI5: How is it possible to snipe someone from 2000+ meters away?

I'll admit that I just watched American Sniper and became curious about long distance sniping. With all of the factors that must be accounted for (wind, gravity, etc) how is it possible to hit a person with one shot from that distance?

[Assistant]
Practice, practice, practice.

They have to take into account lots of variables -- *wind speed/direction, gravity, size of bullet, explosive load of bullet, distance to target, curvature of the earth, rotation of the earth, and several others* -- in order to make a successful long-range shot.

They also have spotters with them to help range the target and establish wind patterns. The spotters also track the shot after it's fired and give data on where it hit, so that a second shot can be adjusted for better accuracy.

Again.... practice, practice, practice.


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

[User] ELI5: Why didn't Colombia just tell the US to fuck off and embrace the drug trade as a means to pay off their national debt?

[Assistant]
There are very few countries that would import drugs as a legitimate "good". This means that all exports and imports of these drugs would have to be done in an illegal fashion, a very time consuming and costly venture. Once countries catch on (and they will, it would be exceedingly hard to keep such an operation under wraps). Once these countries know that shipments from Colombia are now possibly loaded with drugs they'll cut political and economical ties with them. That or be subject to incredible sanctions/searches to everything they import.

Once these sanctions are in place around the world, all of Columbia's other legitimate exports will suffer heavily and thus be a net loss for the country as a whole. Not worth in the big picture for the country.


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

[User] [Fallout] Why are Super Mutants sterile?

[Assistant] The FEV (Forced Evolutionary Virus) that creates these super-humans targets half-cells like gametes (sex cells), incapable of seeing the difference between sex cells and ordinary body cells and it "fixes" the half-cells back into ordinary body cells.


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

[User]
How can fish swim their entire lives?

I know that not all fish need to keep moving in order to prevent suffocation, but that some fish do. For the ones who do - how are they able to swim their entire lives? I realise that fish are perfectly adapted for life in the water, and that they probably use very little energy by swimming, but surely even then their muscles must get fatigued eventually? If I was to leave my house now and walk an infinite distance, I'd get far, but at some point I'd have to stop and rest my muscles. Don't fish have this problem?

[Assistant]
How do you breath all your life? Your diaphragm muscles must surely tire of pulling air in all the time, if you spend all your life breathing. Or your heart, which pumps blood nonstop your whole life.

Some muscles don't tire because they can't. They're too important.


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

[User] [Star Wars] Admiral Ozzel doesn't come out of hyperspace too close to the Hoth system, allowing Vader to sneak attack as planned. What happens now?

[Assistant] The Rebellion dies on Hoth.  By not dropping out of Hyperspace too close to Hoth, Death Squadron is able to redeploy and advance further in system to block off all avenues of retreat without having to come into range of the Rebellion's Ion Cannon.


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

[User] During Polymerase Chain Reaction, Why does Taq polymerase only extend the primer-DNA hybrid upto 1.5 kilo base pairs and not beyond that?

[Assistant] Processivity has to do with the likelihood of the polymerase falling off the DNA. In cells there is a protein called the clamp which literally clamps around the DNA and anchors the polymerase to the DNA. This increases processivity enormously. Its not included in the PCR design because its an extra step that is hard to control by temperature alone and requires ATP to reload the clamp every time. For most gene lengths it turns out to not be necessary in a PCR.


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

[User] ELI5: Why when we get little sleep, throughout the day we may experience moments of feeling delusional (especially when trying to concentrate) ?

[Assistant] Essentially, it's because you ARE sleeping/dreaming. If you deprive your brain of sleep long enough, different parts of it will shut off to rest at different times during the day (fun fact, even at night during sleep not all areas of the brain are actually resting, hence dreaming). So mostly people experience low concentration and slower reflexes, because not all of your brain is alert. Functional studies have been done and no particular order or pattern has been found, so depending on which section is asleep at the time, you experience the symptoms like fatigue and the occasional (very short) delusional/hallucination like episodes if you're that sleep deprived.


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

[User]
[Alpha Centauri]UN Peacekeeper here, I would like to know more about recreational commons of other factions.

We got large reading halls dedicated to philosophy, history and intellectual topics, but I wanted to ask about the other factions who also have their own rec commons.

[Assistant] In the great commons at Gaia's Landing we have a tall and particularly beautiful stand of white pine, planted at the time of the first colonies. It represents our promise to the people, and to Planet itself, never to repeat the tragedy of Earth.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is Florida such a big deal in elections?

These pundits are ranting about Florida again...what's the big deal compared to other states?

[Assistant]
Florida is the fourth most populous state, behind California, Texas, and New York.

CA and NY are strong Democrat states, and TX is a strong Republican state.  They will almost certainly vote party lines no matter who the candidate is, so no one bothers to fight over them.

FL, on the other hand, is divided very evenly between the two parties.  So of the states that can be won or lost, it is the biggest prize.


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

[User] ELI5- What does it mean to "rebuild an engine"?

[Assistant]
Trying to answer in actual ELI5 form:

An engine contains lots of small parts that move against each other really fast. These parts get worn out over time (friction), leading to worsening engine performance, and eventually engine failure as some parts can completely disintegrate, or at least wear down so much they don't work at all anymore.

Rebuilding means: take it apart and put it back together again, replacing any badly worn parts in the process. So that it performs like new and will have a longer life.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are the ceilings in so many grocery stores so high?

Doesn't this increase both initial building costs and subsequent heating costs?

Edit: Thank you to everyone who helped to answer my question. I had no idea so many factors were involved.

[Assistant]
It makes the store feel open and less crowded, and it lets you set up displays that take advantage of the height, such as signs visible anywhere in the store. It also makes moving things with machinery like forklifts easier.

Psychological experiments have shown that people don't like being in areas with low ceilings. Some airports have made use of low ceilings in places where they don't want people to linger, like the front of the check in line.

edit: check in, not check out.


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

[User] ELI5: NASA recently took a photo of a galaxy 13.4billion light years away. Can you look in any direction out to space and see galaxies this old, or are they generally seen in the direction of the big bang?

[Assistant]
There is no "direction of the big bang". The universe has no centre, or rather every point in the universe can be thought of as the centre as every point in space is moving away from every other point in space.

The universe is a big place, and a lot of it is completely empty, but there's no special direction where you're more likely to find another galaxy.


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

[User] [SCP] Wouldn't the foundation have hundreds of thousands of employees, with insane monetary and political resources to do what they do at the scale that they do it? Even with liberal use of amnesiacs, how is it anything close to clandestine?

[Assistant]
The Foundation owns dozens, if not hundreds, of shell corporations and international NGOs, and has many contacts in virtually every state government. There's also a need to know basis and a staunchly monitored security clearance hierarchy.

Not everyone who works for the Foundation is actually aware that they do.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is recycling items made of cardboard so essential when they will degrade anyway?

[Assistant] You are using them again, saving the use of other materials to make new cardboard.  All forms of recycling prolongs things and saves us using up raw materials unnecessarily.   That is why we do it for anything we recycle.  Eventually something will get to the point where it can't be used again, but we will have got better use out of it.


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

[User] how do the lungs get rid of solid stuff I inhale? (like dusts for instance)

[Assistant] The cells in the linings of the trachea and the bronchi have very small hairs called cilia. Furthermore, there are goblet cells in the lining which produce mucus. All the stuff that gets into the lungs gets trapped in the mucus. The cilia then move the mucus up to your throat where you then swallow it or spit it out. The carrying of the mucus to your stomach is a process which is happening all the time without you knowing.


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

[User]
CMV: If I was exposed and have symptoms, there is no point wasting resources on getting a COVID test.

Genuinely looking for flaws in my thought process to make sure Im not missing anything, because my friends think Im being silly and I dont want to make a dumb decision.

I live in lower Manhattan where tests are an absolute nightmare to get/find, I wont belabor the details to keep the post short. But resources are incredibly strained.

I was exposed on NYE (9 friends, all vaxxed + boosted, rapid tested morning of, opened windows, individually packaged snacks etc., so we took as many precautions as we reasonably could), now have a sore throat 5 days later. NYC has ~33% positivity rate (seen conflicting numbers, but all point to very high positivity), and both friends I cuddled up to all night are positive.

In my mind, theres no point in a test. The logical deduction overpowers the likelihood of a false negative, and I would probably isolate for 5-10 days regardless of the result. If nothing else, I have a throat cold and dont want to spread that right now.

It makes total sense if someone needs a positive test to get off work, or thinks its a cold/allergies and needs a negative test to travel. But in my case Im just not seeing the point of waiting in a 3+ hour line or riding the subway to an outer borough to check 5 pharmacies in hopes of a test. Even outside with a mask, the chance of spread is more than 0%. Everyone else I know is doing the line or pharmacy goose hunt.

Beyond that, Im not sure if I even understand the point of testing symptomatic people. If you have a cough/sore throat during the covid pandemic why wouldnt you just automatically isolate (aside from the caveats above). I would think testing people who dont have symptoms would be way more important to prevent asymptomatic spreading. But that seems to contradict the CDC, global health professionals, and everyone I know so I do genuinely think Im being dumb there, I just cant wrap my head around it.

[Assistant]
I have a possible reason for you since you mention travel:

You, generally speaking, need a negative COVID test for travel purposes. However, COVID tests can still flag you as positive even some time after the infection has resolved. You could therefore find yourself in a situation where you want to travel in a month (ie, after you've recovered) but your pre-travel test results come back as positive.

Without solid documentation that you've already had and recovered from COVID recently, you aren't going to get on that plane to the Bahamas or wherever. Part of that documentation is often a positive test from at least 14 days prior to travel along with a note from a doctor attesting that you've recovered from COVID. Thus, getting tested serves a purpose if you're thinking of travel in the nearish future.

This is aside from helping create a solid statistical model of how infectious Omicron really is.


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

[User]
[MCU] Did Tony give Rhodey the War Machine because he felt like he deserved it?

Or did Tony give it to him because the timing fit and he realized that if he gave Rhodey the suit, it would get the military off his back and for convenience.

Also, why is the War Machine always look like it's using older tech compared to Tony's more upgraded suit. You can see it in Civil War and in the upcoming Infinity War where War Machine's suit seems like it's one or two techs away from what Tony can make.

[Assistant]
>Also, why is the War Machine always look like it's using older tech compared to Tony's more upgraded suit. You can see it in Civil War and in the upcoming Infinity War where War Machine's suit seems like it's one or two techs away from what Tony can make.

Because it is. By Infinity War, Tony will be in the IM Mk. 48 while Rhodey will be in the WM Mk. 4. ony's constantly revising and upgrading his armor, pumping out a new suit whenever he thinks of something new - it seems to me like Rhodey only gets one whenever his old one falls too far behind the latest IM armor.


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

[User] [The Matrix] How do humans reproduce? If you have kids with someone in the matrix, do the machines outside have you both have kids outside too? In other word: Are your parents and children in the matrix your parents and kids outside of the Matrix? If so, how?

[Assistant]
The short answer is maybe, but probably not.

The Machines are not running a nature preserve with the Matrix, it is a power source/processing bank. They are trying to be efficient. We know that women in the pods do not actually become pregnant and carry children to term. There is a whole "farm" that gestates babies for implantation into the Matrix.

Now it is possible for the Machines to monitor the people's lives in the Matrix and find out who is trying to procreate, then harvest eggs and sperm from the individuals involved, bring them to the Farm and grow a baby. But that would be wildly inefficient. Most likely they just grow the babies from randomized sperm and eggs, and when they are ready to introduce a baby to the Matrix they just pick a sexual active woman, and run a program making her think she is pregnant. The baby has no real relation to the supposed mother or father, but they don't know that.

Now you may ask, well won't people know if their kids dont look like them? The answer is, that doesn't matter. The Machines tell elegant lies to keep the Matrix running, and the power of suggestion and the programming involved makes people believe that what is there in front of them is the truth. Remember, it is the rejection of the reality the the Machines present in the Matrix that causes people to seek out the truth, but very, very, few people are willing or even able to do that.

As for genetic testing, well there is a reason that the Matrix is meant to resemble the late 90s/early 2000s, there is still technological advancements, but not too much. Besides, the Machines can still tell people whatever they want, so even if for some reason a parent is unsure of their "child's" paternity, and goes through the trouble of trying to find out, the Machines still control all the "official" information handed out, they can tell the parents exactly what the Machines want them to hear.


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

[User] Eli5: If you're dehydrated and then you drink water, how long does it take to get where it needs to go? How does it get there?

[Assistant]
When you drink water, it gets absorbed through your intestines (like food), gets into your blood, and then travels to where it needs to go.

If you drink water on an empty stomach, it gets the green light to go to the intestines right away. It starts entering the bloodstream within 5 minutes of drinking it. Half of it is absorbed into the bloodstream by the 11-13 minute mark, and the rest is absorbed within 2 hours.

Drinking water at the same time as eating food changes the timeline.

It's the stomach's job to make sure everything is ready to be digested (all squished up and mixed together), and food takes way longer to get ready than water does! The water has to wait patiently while the food gets ready to go. When everything in the stomach is ready, the intestines open up and things start being absorbed.

(The time it takes food to get ready in the stomach varies, but it's somewhere between 45 minutes and 2 hours.)

Hope that helps!


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

[User] How does a species evolve to have a different number of chromosomes? Wouldn't the first individual with that mutation be unable to mate with any other individuals, and so the mutation would instantly die off?

[Assistant]
The first thing is that producing offspring is not the problem. Instead the problem is that offspring could be infertile. Evolutionarily, that amounts to the same thing, but the mechanism is different. Nothing prevents fertilization, it's the production of sperm and eggs in mixed offspring that might be problematic.

Second, though, it's a common misconception that parents with a different number of chromosomes will always produce infertile offspring. The mule is the example pretty much everyone has in mind when they think about this. In fact, though, chromosome count has pretty much nothing to do with it.  Mules are infertile because their chromosomes are not able to line up and separate correctly during the formation of sperm or eggs. That failure during gamete production is due to extensive point and structural mutations within the chromosomes so that they no longer "match" each other and can't pair properly.

If the only difference was that a single large chromosome split into two small ones or that two small ones fused into one large one (these are both called Robertsonian translocation, which is the most common way that chromosome number evolves), without any significant number of additional mutations within the chromosomes, then pairing during the formation of sperm and eggs would still work out fine. The two small chromosomes from one parent would just pair with the matching halves of the one large chromosome from the other parent. They would still match each other at the nucleotide level necessary for the process to function.

We see examples of this in many animals, like the domestic horse and the Przewalski's horse, which are considered different species, have different chromosomes counts, but are able to produce fertile hybrid offspring. Or black rats, which are all considered one species (Rattus rattus), but have different numbers of chromosomes in different populations or sometimes even in the same population, which doesn't seem to affect fertility at all.


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

[User]
[Pokemon] Why is there a disproportionate amount of electric mouse pokemon?

It seems like every generation has an an electric mouse pokemon. But no water mouse pokemon. No sewer mouse pokemon. The closest thing we have is rattata and raticate, but theyre more like field mice/rats.

Is there a reason why a mouse pokemon would develop with a hankering for electricity?

[Assistant]
The most likely explanation is that most of the electric rodents have a common ancestor that diverged from the Rattata line at some point. The most likely reason that ancestor flourished is that it's electric powers allowed it to survive over its competing prey.

Picture an early mouse Pokemon. (and it would have to be very early, since its ancestors become so widely distributed worldwide) If it learned even a simple move like nuzzle or thundershock, it would have a massive advantage against flying type predators. (Which, incidentally, there are a lot more varieties of when compared to electric mice) And after a couple dozen generations of refining those electric attacks, biological processes would start to change. The proto-pikachu that best learns to harness electricity would be best suited to survive in this environment.

TL:DR; Natural selection in a world where it is physically possible for mice to defend themselves with electricity.


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

[User]
The Coulomb force is inversely proportional to the square of the distance b/w charges. In the nucleus of an atom, with two protons next to each other, the repulsive force will be infinite as the distance between them would be 0. Is the 'Strong Force' responsible for holding them together, infinite?

Thank you all.. selfless beings..

[Assistant]
The distance between two protons will never be exactly zero. The strong force is very attractive at some distances, but becomes repulsive at very small distances. This alone keeps the distance between nucleons above some minimum level.

In addition, neutrons are present in almost all nuclei that act as a buffer between the protons. Neutrons and protons are attracted to eachother through the strong force, but there is no Coulomb repulsion between them.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does everyone have a morning face? You can always tell when someone has just woken up. What causes this to happen physically?

[Assistant] Most people sleep laying down.  Fluids in the body have a chance to equal out so the face looks a little fuller, eyes a bit more shut etc...  ever notice how ankles are swollen usually at the end of the day?  Same thing, all the fluids have drained downwards.


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

[User]
CMV: The scene in Black Panther where the white guy tries to speak and some of the black people starts making monkey noises and the leader says YOU do not get the speak here is pretty racist.

Im not even talking about this movie as a whole, and Im not even talking about the fact that theyre making monkey noises because the leader MBaku is the leader of a group whose mascot is an ape. (Although I think an argument could still be made.) Im mostly talking about the fact that they wouldnt let the white guys speaking seemingly just because he was white? Perhaps it was because he was not from Africa or even just from Wakanda. But I have to say I saw this movie in a theatre and the reaction of the crowd towards this scene was honestly scary. People were cheering and excited. I cant help but feel that if the roles were reversed, a black man tried to speak and the white people told him hes not allowed to speak, either A. People would be angry and it would be wildly racist, or B. It would be racist within the context of the film and the white people would essentially be the villains of that film.

[Assistant] Yeah it's meant to be uncomfortable, that's why it's in the film. Thematically *Black Panther* is pretty simple: it presents three ways to resist imperialism - xenophobic isolation, counter-imperial aggression, and cooperation. It sets up the idea that Wakanda has resisted imperialism through xenophobic isolationism that is so extreme they would let an outsider die rather than bring him to Wakanda. The plot gets going in earnest on the one hand when they violate this rule to save Martin Freeman and on the other when their isolationism bites them all in the ass as it leads to the creation of Killmonger. Who seizes power and wants to take the aggression route. The Jabari are in the film because they represent a microcosm of Wakanda within Wakanda: they are so isolationist that they don't even come down from their mountains for any reason but to screw with Black Panther at his coronation ceremony thing. The Jabbari doing what they would never do and coming down from the mountain to save Wakanda is a mirror to Black Panther realizing that isolation is bad and that Wakanda must cooperate with the world if it is to survive. But in order for that to work thematically the Jabari have to be set up as extremists.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do addicts veins collapse from using injectable drugs?

There was a previous question related to this, but there were only a handful of answers and they were contradictory, and no one identified themselves as a reliable authority.

So, what happens?

EDIT: thanks everyone for the great answers.

[Assistant]
There are multiple factors to this:

*  The veins have to heal after every puncture. If they use drugs a daily or multiple times a day, it becomes too much. It will become fragile and it can burst.
* The drugs they use hurt the inner lining of the veins. In medicine, there are guidelines to what you can put into a vein, how much do you have to dilute it and how fast you can give it. Drug users will not care about these things.
* The inner lining of the vein is what keeps blood from clotting. If it is damaged, blood will clot and the vein will collapse.


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

[User]
Differences in programming between "programming languages", and "0's & 1's"

I'm (clearly!) not a computer scientist but have really wanted to understand this for ages and it dawned on me that /r/ has all these awesome Ask_______ subs, so here I am :)

I'd tried learning basic coding when I'd "gotten into" the ideology of free software/linux/etc (still use linux, no longer bother playing with nmap or my `terminal` as I now "know what I don't know", lol) and had long wondered *"who the heck is doing the 'hard work' of 0's and 1's, to feed all these programming-languages into an actual comp processor?"*, since then many years passed and I've met plenty of computing professionals but, upon just noticing something in a show that reminded me of this difference, I realized that not a single professional I've met "works with 0's & 1's" but simply do languages-on-top of these "deeper programming [languages?]" that actually turn text/alphanumeric commands into the 0's&1's the processor interprets, and also realized I don't even know what such professionals, or any languages(?) they work with in this area, are called (ie, I don't even know a keyword to google/wiki to begin to "know what i don't know" vis a vis the chasm/differences between working in syntactic languages, and working in-numbers....but expect Comp Sci redditors could ELI5 it for me if they'd be so kind!)

Thanks for anything to bolster my understanding.  I'm under no illusions of playing with computers again (beyond tweaking my HTPC media setup, lol), am actually honing my skills as a climbing arborist, but am still deeply curious so even some keywords would be appreciated so I can 'get' things, maybe even specific iconic professionals in the arena that I could read wiki's on (only thing I could think was "compilers" which gives a glut of info that I can't parse for my life, I see 'machine code' and suspect that's synonymous w/ my crude phrasing of "0's&1's" but not positive... I know it'd be simple for you guys to toss me a bone here though so hoping this is an OK question, seems in-bounds of this sub's rules despite how amateur/rudimentary the Q is to those replying to threads here :) )  Again thanks for any&all elucidation here!!

[Assistant]
There is a difference, and it's more gradual than you might think!

The "0's and 1's" level of programming is called "machine language". They represent the physical state of the machine. That is, whether a wire going to a chip is high or low voltage. The various arrangements of semiconductors produce output which, when interpreted by a human being, are logical or mathematical operations.

One step up from this, but not too much further up, is "assembly language" (sometimes just called assembly). There is an exact correspondence between machine language and assembly language. However, assembly uses human readable mnemonics instead of plain bits. For instance, you might see "mov ax, $8000" which represents getting some memory into a place the computer can use it for another instruction.

Quick note: the assembly and machine code obviously depend on the chip set you use. There's different assembly for 8502 than x86_64 or ARM or PowerPC. Maybe you've heard of 32 bit vs 64 bit architecture; this is where that difference makes sense.

Most programmers don't want to care about architecture, so they use high level languages like C or Rust, which compile into assembly. Compilers translate the concepts into machine code, and you can also choose any architecture so you're not tied to a single hardware system.

Some languages, like Java, are compiled, but they're read by an application (the Java virtual machine, or JVM) which translates them into the underlying system machine code. Other languages, like Python or Ruby, are interpreted by an application which is written in another programming language. You can make a brand new programming language entirely in your web browser if you wanted to!

I hope that helps. Let me know if you need any clarification or if there's other questions you have.


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

[User]
CMV: Vegans who purchase bean burritos from Taco Bell, or other vegan items from fast food restaurants, do more damage to animal welfare than people who purchase responsibly raised meats.

A large portion of vegans Ive met, admit to eating fast food on a regular basis. Taco Bell bean burritos seem to be a popular choice, but there are vegan options at most fast food chains. I believe that giving money to restaurants who exclusively source factory farmed meat, does more damage than purchasing responsibly raised meat.

There are animal welfare certifications that ensure the animals are treated well, and slaughtered humanely. I have visited many local farms that treat their animals with respect, and have beautiful pastures for them to roam. The cows eat fresh grass all day, and the pigs are fed whole vegetables grown on site. This is a stark contrast to the horrible conditions of animals raised on factory farms. Buying meat from these small farms, does more to support the ethical treatment of animals, than buying a salad from McDonalds.

Buying food from any chain that exclusively sources factory farmed meat, should be considered unethical to any vegan. Its likely that their non meat choices will contribute more profit to these chains because of lower food cost. You vote with your wallet, and eating at Taco Bell is a vote for animal cruelty and unsustainable farming practice.

[Assistant] There are people who's job it is to look at taco bells sales and calculate supply needs appropriate to their demands. If the demand for vegan alternatives increases, then they will produce more vegan foods. They wont see an increase of vegan purchases as a reason to up nonvegan production. All of these  business men just follow the money. Basic supply and demand principles in economics.


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

[User]
[Physics] I have a couple of questions about gravitational waves?

Idk if this is the right sub for this and I'd previously posted on the megathread a week or so ago but here goes:

I was reading an article on the NY Times app, and at the end of it it says "only three days before the black hole chirp...antenna readings were plagued by radio interference."  and earlier was mentioned how a group known as Bicep "claimed to have detected gravitational waves...They later acknowledged that their observations had probably been contaminated by interstellar stardust."

So could it be possible that LIGO's readings were polluted by radio interference?

Also, did VIRGO or any of the other interferometers detect the same as LIGO did?

Thank you in advance.

[Assistant]
In reverse order:

Unfortunately, there were no other gravitational wave interferometers running that could have detected the signal that day.  This would have not only provided more data, but also allowed better spatial localization of the source.

Could this be radio interference?  Very, very unlikely.  The black hole merger signal is very distinctive, and would not be simulated by things radio interference.  In addition, radio interference would not take the same form at Livingston and Hanford with a 7 ms separation.

One of the initial possibilities, which was ruled out, was whether the signal might have been an accidentally unlogged data injection -- a simulated signal which can be sent through so they can see how the whole process is working -- as other than that, it's hard to imagine how a signal of the given form would be generated.  But radio interference just wouldn't create something that looked like two black holes merging.


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

[User]
[Avatar:2009] What will the humans do now?

After the events of the movie what will you think the humans do next, would they come back to Pandora or do something else (If you pick the second option explain what will they do instead, and why?)

[Assistant] Send a second fleet. Though the initial expedition to Pandora was a failure, the extensive surveying done of the world's biosphere has proven helpful, leading to the development of a pathogen that is expected to destroy annihilate all native life within three standard weeks.


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

[User] ELI5: Why can't human eyes slowly pan from side to side?

[Assistant]
They can, which really shouldn't be shocking to you. Look at your finger and slowly pan it from one side of your vision to the other... See how smoothly that works?

But our eyes are adapted to focusing on something and maintaining that view so it can be tricky to just slide your vision around. It works best if you aren't focused on the background and just try to control your eyes, and they aren't likely to be focused on the same point during this pan. But you can certainly do it.


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

[User]
Why does rock salt make ice colder?

You don't have to explain like I'm 5 exactly, but explain at like a  high school level? Thanks!

[Assistant]
I don't really like the other answer.  When you take ice out of the freezer, it will slowly warm up until it hits the melting temperature.  From this point, any heat energy that enters the ice/water mix will go into melting the ice, rather than heating the water.  The temperature will only start increasing once all the ice has melted.

So, by adding salt to the mix, you effectively lower the melting temperature.  This way, instead of the ice/water mix staying at 32 degrees F while it melts, it stays at something closer to 0 degrees F as it melts.  Also, if the ice was already at 32 degrees when you add the salt, energy has to go into melting the ice.  Since this energy has to come from somewhere, the temperature of the whole system has to get colder until it reaches the new, lower melting point.

I also believe alpha1028's explanation about why salt lowers the freezing point to be incorrect.  The reason why salt lowers the freezing point is because as water freezes, it normally forms crystals.  However, ions from the salt don't fit well into the crystal, so the temperature has to be much lower in order to lock the impurities into the crystal.


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

[User]
[Mario] Why is there a massive network of tunnels and pipes seemingly running under pretty much the entire planet even in the most obscure and remote areas? They don't seem to be used to move water or anything. Who built them?

Could they actually be made by some natural process and only resemble pipes?

[Assistant] The Mushroom Kingdom of the past covered most of the known world, and warp pipes were installed as a form of mass transit. Their knights and custodians were called "plumbers," which was only partially in jest.


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

[User]
[Fallout] What discovery in Fallout would benefit us the most? (Spoilers)

Fusion? Advanced AI? RadAway/RadX? Teleportation?

[Assistant] Definitely fusion. Consider how poorly the fallout universe actually uses it, with near infinite clean energy we could remake the world into something so much better. Having fusion would directly or indirectly remove almost all of the reasoning for having wars.


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

[User]
ELI5: Does food sit normally in your stomach in space?

I continually see videos of astronauts eating different foods in space like pudding and obviously due to it being space it is in an interesting form. Does it return to a normal state in their stomach?

[Assistant]
So, the problem is, if everything is falling together, how can food 'fall' through the digestive system?

The simple answer is that it dosen't! It dosen't in space and it dosen't on earth either. The food in your mouth is pushed to the stomach by muscles in the lining of the tube between mouth and your stomach. Then, in your stomach the digested food is pushed again into your intestines. While in the intestines it is pushed all the way to the, well, to the end.

As a simple experiment, try drinking water while standing on your head. You will be amazed that you can indeed swallow the water. You could even eat a full meal on your head and you would have no problem getting your food where it belongs. You might want to get on your feet, though, before it all gets to. . . . the end!


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

[User]
[MCU] How phsically strong is Loki

I know Loki's forte is magic, tricks, and illusions, but he is still a frost giant raised by asgardians. We hardly see him fight using his strength, and often when he does, it turns into a comedic effect,  ie hulk slapping him around and stuff.

But Loki has had a lot of feats, hus durability is amazing, taking blows an angry hulk and thor only to get back up again later. And in the Avengers he fought hand to hand with thor and looked to be winning until he got distracted. Even if Thor was going easy, that's no mean feat. He even punched Thor so hard in the stomach, he doubled over with a look of severe pain.

So how strong do you think he is in the physical sense?

.

[Assistant]
As you've noted, he's pretty strong, but then again, many asgardians are pretty strong, like when Loreli showed up on Agents of SHIELD - she's definitely not an asgardian powerhouse, being an seductive enchantress, yet she still had more than enough strength in her to punch a dude into the air. And similarly there a humble asgardian stonemason, who for centuries pretended to be human and most likely didn't work out still was strong enough to casually bend combat knives with no harm to himself.

Even if we assume that Loki's giant heritage gives him an edge, it's safe to say that he's at least as strong as them, and probably stronger. Being afraid of Hulk shows pretty well the upper limits of his self-confidence. He didn't flinch when SHIELD agents shot him in the face with bullets, or when Hawkeye shot an exploding arrow at him, but it's pretty clear that he doesn't want to have an encounter with Hulk again.

I think it's safe to put him at least in the same category as Warriors Three in terms of strength.


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

[User]
[BATMAN] What does Alfred actually do as a Butler?

Granted, he is BATMANS butler, but he still only has to look after a single person in a mansion. What are his day to day responsibilities?

[Assistant] Cooking and cleaning come to mind, though the manor probably does not see a lot of use, people are always coming and going (for example all of the Robins would likely have a room set aside and appropriated for them) and it would fall to Alfred to maintain those living areas.  He'd change linens regularly, and dust surfaces on a daily basis.  He would also likely tend to any plants in the manor as well.  Cooking for Master Bruce is a daily task, regardless of whether or not he eats it, Alfred is responsible for providing meals for Bruce, and any of his guests.  This of course would include preparation, as well as tidying up of the kitchen areas.  Alfred would also be responsible for cleaning and laundering Master Wayne's clothing.  Despite the suit he wears when the sun goes down, Mr. Wayne still requires a suit to attend to his business during the day, and Alfred would take it upon himself to have a fresh clean suit for Bruce every day.


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

[User] Eli5 why a person with A.D.D (ADHD) is unable to focus on something like studying, but can have full focus on something non productive?

[Assistant]
The disorder isn't always that you can't focus on anything at all. It's that the part of your brain that lets you *control* what you focus on is broken. So sometimes, you really need to focus on something and your brain decides it just won't. Other times, the thing it decides to fixate on is the least important thing and you can't make it focus on anything else.

If a person with ADHD could control that, they wouldn't have ADHD.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do Americans need to file tax returns each year?

Why do we need to submit complicated paperwork to the government each year before we get our yearly net tax refund/bill? Why doesn't the government just calculate how much tax we need to pay for each paycheck based on basic information (salary/wage, pay frequency, state of residence, etc)? It seems that the only reason someone should need to file anything is if he/she had additional things to deduct, such as mortgage interest, student loan interest, or other special items. It doesn't make sense how someone who pays taxes with each paycheck could end up owing the government thousands of dollars more at the end of the year with basically no warning.

[Assistant]
>Why doesn't the government just calculate how much tax we need to pay for each paycheck based on basic information (salary/wage, pay frequency, state of residence, etc)?

Because that's not enough to determine your taxes.

Are you currently a student? Are you paying back student loans?  Are you paying off interest on a mortgage? Did you buy an electric car?  Did you install solar panels on your house?  Did you earn income from gambling?  Did you earn interest on savings accounts?  Did you donate to charity?  Did you have a child?

All of those factors (and many more) will change your tax obligation, and the government needs you to explicitly list whether or not those things apply to you.

>It doesn't make sense how someone who pays taxes with each paycheck could end up owing the government thousands of dollars more at the end of the year with basically no warning.

The only way that can happen is if you **really** screw up your deductions when you fill out the W-4 form that your employer gives you when you begin employment (or fail to update it when you have a change in life circumstances).


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

[User]
[Warhammer 40000] I'm a Lieutenant Stormtropper in the Imperial Guard. What are my expected duties and what are some of the perks I have?

Let's say we're going after a group of genestealer later on. In the mean time what are some of the perks I have as a lieutenant and what are my duties. Aka what is the live of an Imperial Guard Lieutenant from say a forge world? Also what is their standard equipment?

[Assistant]
Are you a member of the Militarum Tempestus (Imperial Stormtroopers) or of the Imperial Guard proper?

If you are a Lieutenant in the Militarum Tempestus, you would be in command of a platoon of Tempestus Scions (Stormtroopers), a section that includes your command section and 2-5 squads of Scions. You also would have been trained in the Schola Progenium, the Imperium's elite training school that trains the likes of Commissars and Sisters of Battle.

If you are a Lieutenant of a "standard" Imperial Guard regiment, you would be in command of a platoon of Guardsmen or an armored section, depending on the regiment. Hailing from a forge world would probably mean your regiment has ties to the Adeptus Mechanicus, so expect a lot more cybernetics and probably more armored units.

Regardless of your origins, your duties as an Imperial Guard junior officer include being in charge of your platoon, commanding them in battle, meting out discipline when necessary, and dealing with any other issues that might come up in your platoon. You would also report directly to your company commander.

Perks would include increased pay, better rations, access to the officers' mess (if your regiment has one at the time), access to more wargear, and a command section who you can directly delegate to in and out of combat. Equipment is dependent on the regiment and homeworld, though the standard for Imperial Guard officers is a laspistol, close combat weapon, and flak armor. For Stormtroopers officers, it would be a hot-shot pistol, a close combat weapon, frag and krak grenades, and carapace armor.


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

[User] ELI5 why is it that my newborn kitten can learn to use the litter box in a day but my little brother poops in his pants till he is 2?

[Assistant] Because we are human. Humans are smart and we use tools. To use tools we need to walk upright so our hands are free, and to be smart we need big brains. To walk upright we need narrow hips, and to protect a big brain we need big skulls. But the skull of a human child needs to pass through the hips! This conflict of factors pushes human children to be born relatively undeveloped and grow outside of the womb. This is why they are comparatively helpless and incompetent.


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

[User]
How do we explain using microeconomics theory why gas stations within close driving distance of each other charge different prices?

I often see gas stations within a mile or two of each other charging 20-30 cent differences. I live in an area where United Dairy Farmers night charge $2.55 per gallon versus BP charging $2.89 per gallon.  If your tank is at least 12 gallons, thats like $3.60 difference at least. In terms of perfect competition, shouldnt we expect these gas stations to sell at the same price?

[Assistant]
I can think of two reasons. The first is imperfect information among consumers. Many drivers who are low on gas don't take the time to google where they can get gas and at what price. They just pull off of the highway and fill up. Locals will know where to get cheap gas and generally fill up there, but the sheer volume of people stopping at the first place they see (and generally as close to the highway as possible) will incentivize gas stations in prime, heavily trafficked areas to raise prices.

The second reason also relates to location. There are both financial and non-financial costs to traveling farther to get cheaper gas. Perhaps most obvious is the cost of expending gas to travel that extra distance. Probably the most salient though is time. To many people, it's not worth an extra 5-10 minutes round trip to save $3.50 on gas. Particularly for high-earners - for whom $3.50 is essentially $0.00 - or for people who work long hours and so highly value their remaining free time.


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

[User] ELI5 What is the survival strategy of moss? It seems to be everywhere, especially when there is shortage of resources.

[Assistant] Well it depends are you talking about a moss or a lichens? Mosses tend to grow in moist environments where lichens (which are a combination between a moss and a fungus) tend to grow in dry places. Mosses will grow on the trees and ground and thats where they get their nutrients from, vs lichens that grow on rocks. Lichens breakdown the rocks that they grow on and that is where they get their nutrients. They literally eat rocks if that isn't a neich im not sure what is.


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

[User] ELI5: If certain illnesses go dormant in the warmer months, how does it ever exist in a hot area in the first place (Arizona, Florida etc)?

[Assistant]
They don't really go dormant, so much as they're harder to spread around. If a germ needs to be in water to remain infectious, for example, an arid environment will dry it out and leave it exposed, making it harder to spread from person to person.

Separately, some atmospheric conditions help people deal with symptoms, so diseases are less painful or noticable to the infected. For example, a way to help alleviate symptoms of many respiratory diseases like COVID is to breathe in warm, humid air, like in a hot shower. So depending on the environment, people might not know they're sick so people assume there's not much going around.

We don't know enough about SARS-COV-2 yet to be truly sure about any of those things for it. The variation in symptoms from person to person seems to be immense. We do know that warm, humid weather isn't a cure-all: Brazil is likely going to be a major epicenter very soon given it's poor management of the crisis thus far, and Florida is shortly to be a disaster zone of epic proportions for similar reasons. New Orleans, a notoriously hot and humid city, is also a major epicenter right now.


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

[User]
What's up the academic track in Europe?

I'm a bit curious (and confused) about the career path in academia in European countries. I see people have jobs as lecturers, but others having a full Assistant Prof./Prof. designation. In the US, a lecturer does not need to have a PhD, but apparently in Europe they do? Is a lecturer position in Europe lesser than Assistant Prof or are they the same? Thoughts?

[Assistant]
A UK lecturer is like a US assistant professor, except that they may have a permanent contract, unlike a person on the tenure-track.

In the UK, the standard progression is lecturer, senior lecturer or reader, professor. All of these positions are potentially permanent, it's possible to retire at the lecturer rank without ever getting promoted, unlike in the  United States, where tenure-track assistant professors who fail to achieve tenure get a terminal year, and where promotion to associate professor and tenure are usually concurrent, although there are examples of tenured assistant professors, and untenured associate professors.


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

[User]
ELI5: What happens to electricity from my charger when my phone is charged?

Does it enter the phone as quickly as it's used?

[Assistant] Many modern phones will stop the charging cycle when the battery is full to prevent damage from overcharging. Basically, the phone just completes the circuit back to the charger without sending it to the battery.


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

[User] [Marvel and DC comics] Why haven't humans begun to colonize other planets yet, they seem to have the tech for it in both universes?

[Assistant]
In Marvel they've made forays into the Negative Zone, which is a goddamn nightmare. As far as other planets, you've got to deal with the multitude of alien races that want Earth exterminated. Once you get outside our solar system (Which is in a contested territory between Kree and Skrull space, hence the invasions) you're going to be in enemy turf. Either the Shi'ar, the Kree, the Skrull, the Badoon, The Dire Wraiths, The Phalanx and et cetera.

In DC it's kind of the same deal except there are literally THOUSANDS of other alien races out there and a lot of them really really hate Earth in particular. You've got the Khunds, the Durlans, The Manhunters, Thanagarians, the Okaarans, The Dominators, and on and on and on and on. And thats not including the various Lantern corps.


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

[User]
Is it easier to accelerate at higher speeds?

I've done some googling but seem to be getting mixed answers. I was wondering if it would require less energy to gain speed when you are already travelling at high speeds than it would take to increase speed the same amount but if you were going slowly or not moving at all.

For example would a 5kg rock need more energy to increase speed by 10m/s  if it already travelling at say 50m/s compared to if it was only moving at perhaps 5m/s?

[Assistant]
In a vacuum, all speeds are equivalent (except light speed). So if something is going at 50 m/s and increases its speed by 10 m/s, that is the same as a reference frame where the thing is at rest and starts moving.

In air, drag forces increase with the square of velocity, so going from 50 to 60 m/s is a lot harder than going from 0 to 10.


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

[User] ELI5: Please explain why Tupac deserves to be revered? (not criticizing, just really curious)

[Assistant]
Tupac advocated strongly for communities to take care of themselves, since the government had failed them so spectacularly. He was an inspiration to a lot of poor children who could see no way out of their situation except for crime.

 He attempted to unite a lot of inner city gangs, to try and end the violence against each other, and instead turn it against the police and government officials who he saw as actively oppressing poor black people.

 This message was not well received by public officials, and it is widely suspected that Tupac and Biggy smalls were assassinated by "the feds" in an attempt to divide the gangs and turn them against themselves. A tactic, which if intentional, largely worked.

 It has been further speculated that the commercial "gangsta rap" which sprung up soon after Tupac's death was an extension of that plan, to distort the original rebellious message of rap, and turn its appeal to inner city youth into capitalist propaganda. Again, if this was intentional, it has been very successful.


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

[User]
How can the constituents of carbon-12 add up to more than 12 u?

The unified atomic mass unit (u) is defined as a twelfth the mass of a carbon-12 atom. According to Wikipedia and other sources, a proton is about 1.007 u and a neutron about 1.009 u. That means carbon-12 should be about 12.10 u, even though by definition it is exactly 12 u. Using more significant figures or accounting for the electrons doesn't change the fact that the result is more massive than 12 u. What gives? Shouldn't a proton, a neutron and an electron together add up to exactly 2 u?

edit: Thanks for your replies, everyone!

[Assistant]
The mass of a bound system is not the same as the sum of the masses of its constituents. If it were, it would not be energetically favorable for the constituents to bind together in the first place.

The difference between the mass of the system and the sum of the masses of the constituents is called the *mass defect*, and it's related to the binding energy of the system by E = mc^(2).


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

[User]
[Game of Thrones/ASOIAF] Can somebody explain the deities that exist in this setting?

It's a lot to keep track of. Out of the ones that are worshipped, which ones have actually shown some sort of proof of existence, or proof of directly meddling with the affairs of GoT characters?

[Assistant]
To give you a rundown on all the gods (at least, the significant ones in the setting):

* The Old Gods: Originally worshiped by the Children of the Forest and later the First Men to inhabit Westeros, and currently still the majority religion in the North. An animistic religion, with a heavy focus on the Weirwood trees (the weird trees with faces in them). Wargs and Greenseers (like Bran) are closely connected to the Old Gods.

* The New Gods/Faith of the Seven: A religion brought over by the Andals when they invaded Westeros and displaced the First Men. It is now the majority religion of the Seven Kingdoms, and focused on the worship of a diety with seven major aspects (sometimes considered separate gods). No significant supernatural events have been attributed to them in recent history.

* The Drowned God: God of the Iron Isles, allegedly responsible for the survival of a newly-crowned king during their ritual drowning, but otherwise not widely significant or impactful on recent events.

* R'hllor, the Red God: AKA the Lord of Light, Heart of Fire, God of Flame and Shadow, etc, etc; the main religion of Essos, and of Stannis in Westeros. Probably the most active god of late - visions of the future, shadow wraiths, melting snow, and bringing people back from the dead are all things credited to R'hllor.

* The Many-Faced God: Worshiped by the Faceless Men of Braavos, who believe the Many-Faced God to be the God of Death across all religions. Possibly responsible for the Faceless Men's face-changing abilities, but not much is firmly connected to Him (although the Faceless Men seem to like throwing around a lot of demands in His name).

There are of course many other religions and gods to go with them (the Dothraki and their horse-based religion, Tyrion and the God of Tits and Wine, etc), but those are the "major" ones referred to in the series, and the supernatural events they're connected to. Of course, whether or not there actually are higher beings directly responsible for the magic and supernatural acts we've seen is still a matter of debate.


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

[User]
Why can't we send radioactive waste and other dangerous chemicals into space insted of storing them on earth where they will eventually leak?

Seems like sending them to the moon or just out to drift away from us would be the safest thing to do. Other than the cost is there any reason we can't?

[Assistant] Other than cost, a disaster would be much worse. Transporting highly radioactive waste can be done with huge, nearly invulnerable casks that can withstand collisions with trains and aircraft without breaching. Launching them into space would involve putting waste into light craft which occasionally fail, exploding and scattering bits all over the place. That would be a horribly bad thing.


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

[User]
[DC] How would an albino Kryptonian work under a yellow sun?

I asked this question in the superman subreddit a few days ago about how could an albino Kryptonian work if they were under a yellow sun like Clark and only got a couple of answers.

One was basically saying they are aliens and why would they have them, and the other said that since Kryptonians did centuries of genetic tempering, that it should be impossible.

To be fair to them, I didn't engage in the post because I genuinely forgot to about it until now, and I had a feeling I wasn't going to get any more questions there.

But what do y'all think? Would they get unique abilities somehow? Be ironically sickly? Can absorb even more yellow sun rays than Clark? I'm really curious.

[Assistant]
Sorry to say its pretty much as the dudes on superman forum said...

He is an alien whose biology, specifically his sun absorbing powers mechanisms are essentially unknown to us... As far as we know skin color might be irrelevant in the process...


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

[User]
[Alien] So how intelligent are the xenomorphs?

Obviously, they have an incredible cunning and a relentless drive. But are they "smart" in the way, say, the Predator species is? It seems the queens are greatly intelligent, but what about the rank-and-file xenos? They seem more on the level of the raptors in Jurassic Park, if that -- able to learn and reason to some degree, but more driven by instinct than intellect.

[Assistant] They're at least as smart as raptors. Then again, xenomorphs are like that right out of the box. Who knows what the more experienced ones are like? The ones that hatched out of humans are bound to be smarter, and if we take *Alien: Resurrection* as canon there's a chance they may have some of their hosts' actual memories.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is it that we cant superduper charge our batteries with a super shock like one of those heart rescue thingies and itll be full?

[Assistant]
Because you charge a battery by triggering a chemical reaction with an electrical current as the energy source.  High voltage or amperage will just cause it to heat up too quickly and explode/catch fire.

Kind of like if you fill up a container with water through a sieve from a tap, the container will slowly fill up.  If you instead try to use a fire hose, the water will most likely bounce right off the sieve, possibly destroying it and the container in the process.


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

[User]
Why are the largest black holes we know of so far away from us?

The YouTube channel Kurzgesagt recently uploaded a video on some of the largest known black holes, and I noticed that most of the larger ones they discuss seem to also be the furthest away. OJ 287 and TON 618 are both in the billions of light-years away from us.

As we look into the distant universe, we are also looking back in time, due to the time it takes the light to travel to us from there. Therefore, we are seeing these ultramassive black holes as they were billions of years ago. But black holes, as far as we understand them, tend to only grow over time. Shouldn't we therefore expect to see smaller black holes when we look back in time, and larger black holes closer to the present, nearer to us?

[Assistant]
Black holes don't grow uniformly at the same rate. The growth rate depends on how much material is nearby, and how much of that stuff gets close enough to the black hole to accrete.

Most massive galaxies seem to have a supermassive black hole in the centre. For this to grow, you need to get gas to the centre of the galaxy. This takes time, because the gas needs to lose angular momentum to fall inwards, and that happens slowly through viscosity and turbulence. But stars *also* form from gas. So as you fuel the central supermassive black hole, you also fuel the formation of stars in the core. As a result, there's a correlation between the mass of a central bulge and the mass of a supermassive black hole - the black hole is about 1/1000th of the mass of the central bulge.

So it comes down to the particulars of how a galaxy gains its mass and how it transports it to the centre. Galaxies vary a lot in their mass and in their history. An interaction or even merger between galaxies can stir up the gas and cause it to fall "downhill" into the centre of the galaxies, fuelling a "starburst" of star formation and dramatic growth of the black hole - the accretion disc around the black hole can become bright enough to become what we call a "quasar". So the black hole growth will depend on the details of not only the mass of its own galaxy, but also on what galaxies are nearby.

This growth isn't steady at all, and has also slowed down over time as more and more gas gets locked up in stars. Only the most massive stars go supernovae, and even then they leave a massive neutron star or black hole remnant, and don't return all their gas to interstellar space. Other stars only eject a little bit of mass, or basically none at all, so we run out of interstellar gas over time. As there's less gas around these days, stars form less often, and black holes grow more slowly. The peak of star formation and black hole growth was several billion years ago. So most things grew dramatically at that point, and haven't grown much since then.

The other thing is that if we're looking for rare objects - the most massive black holes we can find - then you're more likely to find them when you look over a large volume. This is part of what we call "Malmquist bias". In general, massive bright stars and massive black holes are rarer than smaller stars and smaller black holes. The further you look, the larger volume you are searching over, and the more likely you are to see something rare. This means that, even if the universe was static (it isn't), you are more likely to see massive black holes at a larger distance. This can come out as quite a nice correlation, where the maximum mass increases quite tidily with distance. A the same time, smaller objects are harder to see when they're far away, because you need more resolution and sensitivity to see them. So you see fewer small objects and more large objects as you get further away, and it *looks like* there's a correlation between distance and mass, but it's really just a bias from our observations. But this does mean that the most massive black holes we see are most likely to be further away.


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

[User]
[Fallout 4] How is the Glowing sea still radioactive after 200+ years?

Hiroshima and Nagasaki were basically cleaned up and habitable again after a couple years, but the Glowing sea is still basically uninhabitable by regular humans. What gives?

[Assistant]
The bombs that hit Boston were much larger than Hiroshima and Nagasaki by many orders of magnitude. There's also an abundance of fissile materials from car reactors to nuclear powered toasters all over. That and the radioactive waste storage around the area was dispersed and activated into more volatile forms by the initial blasts. It's like someone setting off a firebomb in a gas station where the secondary explosions are just as deadly as the first but leave more residue and destruction behind.

There's no clean up efforts or any kind of reclamation attempts so that fallout left behind is kicked up constantly by winds and storms influenced by the high heat from the radioactive decay in the region.

So it's partly a larger explosion, partly more radioactive debris and fallout, and partly from constant weather phenomenon stirring it up.


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

[User] CMV: Smoking a bunch of weed every day is perfectly fine, as long as you're healthy and productive.

[Assistant]
I'd say the biggest problem is that the way you're ingesting that marijuana is by smoking it. Weed may not have all the harmful additives of tobacco, but smoke is smoke, there's still carbon monoxide and even *more* tar than there is in tobacco smoke when you inhale it. Ten joints a day is a pretty significant amount of smoking too. Imagine how coated in resin a pipe would get if you smoked that much weed out of it every day. That's going in your lungs.

The other big problem is that smoking that habitually could affect your brain's ability to produce dopamine. Since you're constantly getting that reward response from smoking, your brain doesn't have to work as hard to make it on it's own. That can lead to dependence, and can make other activities you enjoy seem less rewarding.


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

[User]
Why does gravity assist work?

I understand what gravity assist is but I do not understand why the object using the gravity assist gains so much energy after passing into and out of somethings SOI. Wouldn't the object in question lose just as much energy as it gained falling towards the body as it would traveling out of it's SOI? Educate me please.

[Assistant]
Frames of reference matter. With respect to the planet, what you said is right. The object/spacecraft arrives with a certain velocity to the planet (called v-infinity) and leaves with the *same* velocity in a different direction w.r.t the planet. The planet changes the direction of the velocity vector.

Now, if you look at the velocity of the spacecraft relative to the Sun (which both the spacecraft and the planet are orbiting), the velocity will have changed drastically due to this flyby. This simple change in direction of the planet-centered velocity vector, can either decrease or increase the magnitude and also change the direction of the sun-centered velocity vector depending on how you did the fly-by.


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

[User] When exercising, why do they recommend to breath in through your nose, and exhale through your mouth?

[Assistant] Another reason that people haven't mentioned is that air is humidified and warmed as it passes through the nose, preventing your lungs from drying out. The effect is much less when air passes through the mouth, so if you breathe in through the mouth you may get a dry lung feeling.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is being overweight so much more common now than it was 40 years ago?

[Assistant] A few reasons.  Food has gotten a lot cheaper, and as prices have decreased most restaurants simply increased how much food they give you rather than lowered prices.  It's cheaper and/or less time consuming to eat unhealthy foods than healthy foods, which impacts lower income people who have to work more than one job.  With TV, computers, video games, and other reasons people are moving around and getting exercise a lot less than they used to, but eating more because of the previous reasons.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] The child of highly notable parents, such as Prince George turns out to be a wizard. How would this situation be approached given his highly visible nature and future importance and role in the Muggle world?

Bonus question: How would the Wizarding world react to the news that an upcoming King of England was one of their own?

[Assistant]
I'll awnser the bonus first:

Same way they did last time.

The process is not new, the children of prominent non-magical people have just as much a chance as anyone of turning out to have the gift.

Basically once the child is of age the family will releases a statement saying they will be attending a private boarding school and that the details of the school will not be disclosed in order to ensure the child may remain anonymous. They disappear from public life outside of school holidays while they get their education and any paparazzi who get too close are dealt with in the usual manner.

Happen all the time.

Now the real question is; will George renounce his claim in order to pursue a life within the magical community?

Or will he remain in line and take the crown when after outliving her children and grandchildren, Queen Elizabeth finally decides to die?


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does electricity not flow in an open circuit?

Take a wire, put the positive terminal (or negative) of a battery on one end, attach it to an industrial leafblower, but don't return the wire to the battery. Why will I not be able to blow them leaves?

[Assistant]
A useful analogy for most basic questions about electricity is water.

Imagine you have a river and a waterwheel in that river. If the river is flowing, the water wheel turns. But if you block off that river, you end up with a lake. The water stops flowing and thus the wheel stops turning.

The 'circuit' in the case of the river is some water at high elevation that flows down to the sea where it evaporates into the atmosphere and is dumped back as rain onto the high elevation. As long as the water within the system is in motion, we can steal some of that motion to power our devices. Stop the motion, there's nothing to steal.

The same is true of electricity. If you've got electricity flowing through a circuit, you can steal some of the power for your leaf blower. Stop the flow of electricity and all you've got is some static charge.


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

[User] [Chrono Trigger] What in-world event (in what might later be known as 0 AD) was so great it caused them to start a year-numbering system?

[Assistant] The Kingdom of Guardia was founded that year. Guardia seems to have based their year numbering system on that event, seeing as how they celebrated their 1000th anniversary (the Millenial fair) in 1000AD. By that point they had been of the longest-lasting and oldest cultures in the world, so it's unsurprising that their numbering system would have become the standard.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does my 160GB iPod only have a capacity of 148,79GB? Isn't this false advertising?

[Assistant]
1. The operating system on the iPod takes up space.

2. The storage is advertised as 160 Gigabytes, which is 1b bytes. But actual storage would be instead measured in Gibibytes, or 1b and a bit bytes. 160 GB = 149.01161993848 GiB.


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

[User]
[Horror] is there any media where the police aren't useless?

whenever i see the police in horror media, they are unreasonably useless most of the time. like a trained officer with a gun responds to a call about some serial killer murdering people in a cabin and then they just casually walk in likes its their house and then proceed to somehow get ambushed from behind. is there any media where the police act realistically or at least  try to be useful? (eg use their gun).  thanks!

EDIT: wow this blew up! I tried responding to  each comment personally but there's just too many now lol so sorry if I dont give a reply but please know that its very much appreciated! thanks for all the replies! it really gave me some insight on a lot of useful officers in media!

also to clarify, when i say useful officers, I mean pretty much any officer that actually does something when they show up. they don't need to be the main character or even live, but it would be nice to see an officer that pulls up to the scene and does some noteworthy things to help out instead of just becoming another victim to the count and then being forgotten for the rest of the plot.

[Assistant] One of the later Friday the 13th movies actually *started out* with Jason getting mowed down by the FBI as soon as he arrived at Camp Crystal Lake. He got better, but they couldnt be expected to know how to deal with the supernatural elements.


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

[User]
I am considering going to grad school for philosophy

I am considering going to graduate school for philosophy. I have my Bachelors in math, which, as a career, would seem to offer fine job prospects, but I really dont care much about mathematical problems. I like the argumentation aspect, writing proofs, etc., even though it was mainly an applied math school and that element wasnt emphasized as much. Even so, I have been doing independent study and have been getting tutored by one of my former professors in some abstract algebra stuff bc it was what I was most interested in, and I still really dont see myself doing this.

I have always wanted to study philosophy. I think about philosophical problems most of the day, and I feel my brain is wired for it. I love argumentation, working with concepts, and I am pretty open to reading and thoughtfully considering a diverse range of perspectives on any topic of interest, from both the analytic or continental traditions. Some concerns I have are:
1. Getting and keeping jobs
2. Having social anxiety and OCD (relevantly, with existential, perfectionism, and religious themes). I have been through therapy for this and am on medication, albeit I am still figuring the latter part out. I would say that I find myself thinking on philosophical topics not as a compulsion anymore but because I genuinely like it. Still, I do have a bit of concern over this that it might be a triggering situation for this to become my career path. On the other hand, maybe thats a good thing. And it was, in some ways, a form of philosophical boot camp. And as for social anxiety, thats much better too, but it rears its head again every once and a while, especially in public speaking settings.
3. My bachelors is not in philosophy, albeit mathematics is not unrelated to philosophy (through it I have experience with logic including symbolic logic). However, my primary areas of interest concern human endeavors (i.e. ethics, aesthetics, action theory, free will, philosophy of psychology, philosophy of religion, philosophy of language, mainly). I would say philosophy of mathematics, logic, and other math-adjacent areas do interest me as well, but not as much as the others and more to the extent that they have implications for the fields previously mentioned.

Any considerations I should have when looking into studying philosophy in grad school? Any advice on applying for schools, especially as a math major? Dont do it is also welcome advice, provided you be sufficiently specific.

[Assistant] Have you thought about how the social anxiety stuff may affect things like presenting in seminar, doing oral defenses, giving talks, and then later teaching and doing team work with colleagues?  You wouldnt be the first socially anxious phil student, but there can be rather a lot of public speaking and high stakes performance.


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

[User] Is there a point where something cant get any louder - i.e. the loudest something can be on earth, or can something just keep getting louder?

[Assistant]
Sound is a pressure vibration of the medium that its traveling through. The wave oscillates around the normal pressure value, and pressure cant be negative, so the maximum amplitude is when the wave goes from 0 to 2x. In air at 1 atm, this corresponds to 194 decibels. Any energy above this creates a shock wave instead of a sound wave.

Sounds can be louder underwater, and cant get as loud at altitude.


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

[User] ELI5: How do huge companies bank accounts work, are they literally like the bank accounts we have? also are the bank accounts with Normal banks or specialized banks?

[Assistant]
For most businesses it is more or less just like a personal account. When you start getting into larger corporations they have dedicated employees that manage their money in investments, then many smaller accounts tied to different departments within the company. However it is usually easier to just have company credit cards where all the bills just go to one place. The biggest difference with most business accounts is there may need to be more than one person's approval to initiate any large transactions.

 And yes they are mostly the same banks dealing with businesses, in fact most of your everyday banks make more of their money off of businesses than personal accounts. They actually use the money from what are essentially long term savings accounts collectively to loan out to businesses (along with personal car/home loans) at a higher interest rate than they are paying you to keep your money at their bank, which is a large part of how they make their money.

What most consumers think of when they think of a bank is just a place to hold their cash safely isn't primarily how the bank makes money. By offering free or low-fee checking and savings accounts the bank really just wants you to be a loyal customer when it comes time to take out a mortgage for your first house.


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

[User]
[STAR TREK] Is earth really a Utopia where money doesnt matter, if so why do we see so many people doing dead end jobs?

From my understanding Earth is described as a Utopian society where anyone is free to peruse any goal they like and money isnt an issue.

If this is true why do we see people waiting tables at cafes or serving drinks in bars or picking grapes for Picard on his vineyard in sweltering heat.

Is that really what they want to be doing with their lives?

[Assistant] Some people just get bored sitting around all day so it's nice to do a couple hours at a coffee shop to socialize.  Also there is likely pretty heavy societal pressure to do something but sit in t eh holodeck all day.


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

[User] ELI5: why is vomiting a symptom of dehydration, it seems counterproductive?

[Assistant] When youre dehydrated, basically your body cant function properly. You fail to flush out toxins through sweat and urine like normal. Vomiting is one of the bodys mechanisms to rid of toxins that have entered the body.


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

[User] With popular meteor showers diminishing in intensity: Are new sources created - and how often?

[Assistant]
Meteor showers are caused by debris from comets as they pass near to the sun and break up due to tidal forces. The Earth passes through the debris clouds in its orbit, and the fragments burn up in the atmosphere. Comets are a lot more common than you may think, its just that most are too dim to notice.

Do you have a source that theyre diminishing in intensity? Are you sure that youre just not noticing them as much?


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

[User] [Godzilla] if the MUTOs feed on radiation, how did Godzillas atomic breath kill it?

[Assistant]
They can feed on some radiation, like the radiation stored in a nuclear weapon. But Godzilla's breath is awesomely powerful in comparison.

You eat burgers, and can thrive on a burger, but a stream of ground beef coming at you at mach 10 would not be considered food.


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

[User]
ELI5: How/why did Los Angeles, the second-largest US city, not have a home NFL team for 20+ years?

I am not a very sports-savvy person and I feel like it might be the case for a number of reasons.

[Assistant]
3 primary reasons. 1 - The NFL has TV blackouts in the area if the local team doesn't sell out their home game. LA had two teams in two different divisions, so games would be blacked out all the time when one of the teams wasn't great and didn't sell out. So when the two teams left, and LA could watch all the football it wanted, it was kind of nice.

2 - La refused to build a stadium. If someone wanted to move a team, the owner had to pay for it themselves.  Smaller cities felt it was more important for civic reasons to keep a team, so they would help build a new stadium.  When teams threatened to move to LA, the current city would offer help in building a brand new stadium and LA would not, so the teams would stay. And LA did not in part because...

3 - There's a ton to do in LA; lots of other professional teams, multiple high-level college teams, the beaches, hollywood, etc. So LA didn't care as much about having a team as a city that is more defined by its sporting program to get on the map. So in general, the attitude from LA was "sure, we'd like another team, but we're not going to make a huge effort over it because we're kind of too cool to show we care"


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

[User]
ELI5: The ridiculously high and growing suicide rate in Japan.

It just seems insane the amount of suicides, especially in men, and supposedly it's increasing.

Edit: Wow. I didn't know there were so many complicated factors that contributed to this incredibly sad situation.

[Assistant]
Suicide rates among males have always been high in Japan.

The culture praises both a collectivist mentality to supporting the group, plus a strong sense of personal honor. When a man supposes that his utility to the group is less than his contribution (due to age, infirmary, failure or circumstances beyond his control) and/or his honor has been compromised in a way that it can not be recovered, suicide is considered a way to recover that honor or cease to be a burden.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Since love potion is perfectly legal in the wizarding world, do you think that there are many couples out there that are together because one of them is under the influence of a love potion?

I mean I dont think its a whole lot of couples that are in this situation because I think the majority of the people would think its wrong and prefer to have genuine love rather than an artificial one but still, love potions are legal in Harry Potter and relatively easy to get (I remember Fred and George selling them in their shop) or people just brew it themselves. Merope Gaunt and Tom Riddle Sr are a good example but do you think there are more witches and wizards out there who slip someone a love potion and start a relationship with them, perhaps sometimes keeping them under the potions influence for the rest of their life?

[Assistant]
It's unlikely.

If something as heinous as a love potion isn't illegal, there are basically two possible reasons for that. The first is that Wizard society is fundamentally amoral and sees rape by love potion as no big deal (quite possible, given that they were selling it in a *joke shop,* but it's implied that the potion comes in different strengths so it might not be as bad as what Merope Gaunt used.) The second is that it simply doesn't happen often enough that the Ministry felt a need to sit down and work out a specific law about it.

And when you think about it, it makes sense. Wizard society is insular. Most big wizarding families are at least aware in passing of other wizards getting married. Love potions are (IIRC) resource intensive, and it's not hard to infer when someone is under the effects, and if you fuck up administering the dosage your victim'll be out of there faster than your head can spin. If you stop them from leaving there's a good chance their family will show up to investigate. It's completely impractical to use it to maintain a relationship in the long run.

Also, if you are the kind of person who's morally bankrupt enough try to do that, there's an excellent chance that the Aurors are already trying to bring you down for a host of other things.

Long story short, there's a great chance that the social damage resultant from trying to use a potion like that is equivalent to an out-and-out legal punishment, given the size of the Wizarding world and the difficulty in getting away with it in the first place. There's a reason that the only person we ever saw try it was a half-mad Witch who'd fallen on hard times, and even she wasn't dumb enough to try it on another member of the wizarding world.


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

[User] ELI5 How does my iPhone Face ID still recognize me even after I grew a beard and wear sunglasses? How does it know Im not an imposter in disguise?

[Assistant] the ai measures the distances between features of your face e.g nose width, distances between brows, your brow ridges, forehead length, chin length all relative to other features. sunglasses and beard wont change any of that. try prosthetic makeup.


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

[User] ELI5: What is the way economics distinguishes between items that people buy to use/keep, and people just buy to sell at a higher price to other sellers? I see both referred to as "commodities", and both have "intrinsic value" (People will pay for them), but they seem clearly different to me.

[Assistant]
Commodities are goods which are basically uniform; crops & minerals are typical examples (corn is corn, copper is copper).

Intrinsic value is value from actually using/consuming the thing (e.g., using gold to manufacture high-quality electronics) as opposed to value from selling it.


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

[User]
[Independence Day] Why was the President allowed anywhere near the Alien ship, let alone IN a fighter jet?

Kind of seems like the President should be in a bunker in Nebraska somewhere, and the literal last person that should be allowed to get in a fighter jet for the offensive strike.

[Assistant] What's the point in keeping a political head away from the fight, when if you lose everyone's dead? This wasn't some petty political war, this was extermination. Everyone knew the score, and there was absolutely nothing to be gained from keeping a trained pilot on the ground.


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

[User]
[MCU] If Ego had succeeded in the expansion and became the only life form in the universe, would he have eventually started spreading to other universes like Dormammu is doing?

Dormammu appears to have near total control of his own Dark Dimension and as far as we can tell is the only significant inhabitant. Ego would likely have this same level of control if he did became universal, given he has borderline reality warping powers on his own planet.

Dormammu then represents an Ego that was successful and became all powerful in his own dimension, now taking to devouring other realms like our universe.

Would Ego then still be unsatisfied with his universal state and desire to spread further into other dimensions?

[Assistant]
Absolutely that is what would happen.

The other reply seems to assume Ego would grow and obliterate all knowledge and technology, but we know from GOTG2 that he is capable of using spaceships and the like. We also know that the knowledge required to travel to another dimension exists in at least one place - Earth, where the power is gained through advanced skill and the help of a special green rock.

So yeah, Ego would absolutely spread to other dimensions.


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

[User] When pizza burns the roof of your mouth and "skin" dangles down, what is that?  Is it actually skin? Some other type of membrane?  Does it scar?

[Assistant]
It's a layer of mucous membrane that's been killed by heat.  Not skin, but similar.

Wounds inside the mouth tend not to scar too often or very much because most of the tissue in there regrows fast, and is kept moist while regrowing, which prevents scabs (which actually slow wound healing down a bit.)


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

[User]
Does your body hydrate at all when you take a shower?

Does your body absorb any H2O whilst in the shower?

[Assistant]
Nope. You should be thankful for that too. A lot of water is really gross.

>Can we absorb water in ways other than drinking?
In short, no. In a more detailed answer, kind of but not really.
There are a lot of curious people on the internet asking if water can be absorbed via the skin, like if you take a long shower or bath.
While you can absorb things like minerals, nutrients and chemicals through the skin, your epidermis is literally made to be water resistant. This means that no matter how long you stay submerged in water, youre not really pulling in the water into your system.
But what about when you get all wrinkly in the bath? Well that has to do with the most outer layers of skin cells, the stratum corneum, which is essentially dead cells. These dead cells soak up the water, causing them to bloat and wrinkle the skin, but the water really doesnt get anywhere past them. So your 1 hour baths can still make you thirsty.


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

[User] [WH40K] If a new Chaos God were to be created, what concept would it represent?

[Assistant]
In a desperate and brash attempt to bring back the Emperor of Mankind from his injured state, millions of Imperial Psykkers commit suicide to pool their power towards the Emperor to be reborn stronger than ever. Sadly, this does not work as intended, and their beliefs in unity and order at any cost bring about a new Chaos God, Tarnain.

Tarnain is the Chaos God of tyrants, subjugation, order, and supremacy. Those most susceptible to Tarnain are those who want to make other people obey them, and/or think they deserve to rule over others.

Followers of Tarnain have their minds slowly twisted until the only joy they can find is in finding new ways to make people as many people as possible obey them.