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

[User]
[Greek Mythology] The Twelve Olympians are dead. Out of all the other gods, who should replace them?

Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Ares, Aphrodite, Hephaestus, Apollo, Artemis, Hermes, Athena, and Dionysus are dead. No-one knows how it happened or who is responsible. All we know is that we need 12 new gods to take over and rule Olympus before the world collapses into chaos. Who should these New Olympians be, and why?

[Assistant]
* Hades, as the brother of Zeus and Poseidon, is the natural choice for the new patriarch of the gods, and also assumes Hephaestus's role as the god of smithing-- he is already the ruler of the Earth's riches, now he oversees how they're utilized. And where he goes inevitably follows...

* Persephone, taking over some of the role of Hera as well as shepherding the seasons-- she takes Zeus's aspect as the new goddess of weather, and takes over for her late mother as goddess of agriculture.

* Heracles in his strength and virility comes next, emphasizing his role in trade as the new Hermes, as well as continuing to represent strength and masculine fertility.

* Either Triton or Amphitrite replace their father/husband as the ruler of the sea.

* Nike expands her profile of victory to war in general-- she is closer to Athena in her martial aspect than Ares.

* Hestia, the only remaining former member of the Dodekatheon, resumes her seat, representing the hearth as the center of civilization (and any aspects of that generally unclaimed by the rest.)

* Likewise, Gaia is roused to oversee any unclaimed natural aspects left over.

* Helios takes over for Apollo as god of the sun.

* Eros takes over for his mother as the god of love, and of revelry, which takes on a more orgiastic nature.

* Calliope, as chief of the Muses, replaces Athena in her wisdom and Apollo in his craft.

* Asclepius takes Apollo's healing and knowledge aspect.

* Rhea takes over Hera's former role with regards to female fertility.


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

[User]
[Halo] In the Halo 4 prologue, it was said thatnthe Spartan IIs were made to fight humans. If so, why were they made so powerful?

I mean, the average Spartan II is a one man army capable of doing physical and mental feats far beyond any human, and raised as a literal human weapon. Why make these soldiers so powerful (and indoctrinate them as soldiers from so young) when the intended enemy was humans?

[Assistant] What Patao_king said. Sure they are overpowered for fighting humans, but the war against insurrectionalist forces was taking too long, too much money, and too many lives. Even worse, the rebel forces were getting stronger. They weren't a big enough threat to take down the UNSC, but they were a surprisingly large danger in the outer colonies.


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

[User]
[Discworld] Who named Great A'Tuin and the Elephants?

Bonus quesetion: What's so mighty about T'Phon?

[Assistant] The first people to go over the edge of the Disc and come back gave them the names we know them by, today.  Little known fact, but A'Tuin is actually a word in their native tongue which means, "By the gods, that is one bloody huge turtle!"


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

[User] ELI5: why do we start flailing out arms and legs almost uncontrollably when we're free falling?

[Assistant] This could be due to the moro reflex. The moro reflex, also known as the startle reflex, is an instinctive human trait seen in infants. When they feel like they are falling or not being held tightly they flail their arms out to grasp and hold. It is believed to be an evolutionary trait, in that babies who grab and hold when falling survived at greater rates than those who didn't. There is some speculation that the moro reflex is a holdover trait from prehuman ancestors who lived in trees. Flailing and grasping are a good way to survive a fall when among the branches of a tree.


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

[User] [The Office] How is it that Dunder Mifflin and its employees seem to be doing pretty good, Michael seems pretty well off financially, considering it's a dying business?

[Assistant] A business slowely dying usually doesn't affect its existing employees pay, as cutting employee pay has significant enough negatives that the buisness is guaranteed to fail even faster. The company pays comparable wages to similar businesses and, at Scranton specifically, their strong sales numbers drive up their commissions to good levels. In addition, Scranton has very low cost of living, which means their money goes further.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are boys commonly named after their fathers but girls not after their mothers?

[Assistant] Usually males also pass on their surnames, so there is a long western tradition of fathers passing their names down to their sons to show lineage. For example, can you guess the name of Henry VIII's father? This wouldn't normally work for females as their surname would change when married.


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

[User]
CMV: It doesn't matter what the founding fathers of the United States would have done in any given issue.

I'm not sure what the popular view on reddit is about this, but in the real world, I hear arguments from both sides of the political spectrum regarding what the founding fathers would have thought.  I don't really think it matters because the founding fathers were not gods who could prepare for any problem or know everything, they were just people.  We live in a different time than the founding fathers, and even if we didn't, it isn't like the founding fathers were infallible.  I'm not saying the founding fathers were always wrong, but I don't think a view deserves any more merit just for being the view of one of the founding fathers.  I believe political scientists should focus on what would be the best solution to an issue instead of interpreting what the founding fathers would have done.

Edit: Someone pointed out that the title is a bit different from my actual opinion.  I believe it is ok to respect the founding fathers as experts, but not to elevate their opinions above that.

[Assistant]
We still hold the US Constitution to be the law of the land.

The US Constitution was drafted by the founding fathers.

US Constitution is relatively short document that needs to be interpreted when particular circumstances occur.

Intent of the writer is a common tool used when interpreting documents.

Thus, it does matter what the founding fathers thought, because their intent is relevant when interpreting the Constitution.


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

[User] [Game of thrones] what would wesreros and all the other countries look like thousands of years in the future to the point that they have modern day technology and cities etc?

[Assistant]
Youre assuming that technological progression would mirror our own, and that time is all that is needed for Westeros to become technologically advanced, when theres no evidence that this is the case. All indications point to Westeros being technologically stagnant.

Look at the universe of Star Wars  the technology available in the Old Republic is largely the same as that available at the Battle of Yavin so even the pew-pew laser gun world of Star Wars is technologically stagnant.

In 2000 years, mankind has made huge technological progress. In Westeros, the technology has remained largely unchanged for 12,000 years. Sticks and stones have given way to swords and shields perhaps but even with that, there is still about 8,000 years of castles, swords and horses.

Theres no reason to believe that the inhabitants of Westeros would ever end up at a level of technology comparable to our own.


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

[User] Why does SiC have a larger band gap than most semiconductors?

[Assistant]
A material with no band gap is called a conductor. With a large band gap it'll be called a insulator.

Materials with an in-between band gap are thus semiconductors.

There isn't an exact cutoff, just that enough electrons can rise into the conduction band at the temperature you're interested in. (And temperature can also change a material's band gap.)

SiC has an indirect band gap of 2 to 3 eV, so you'll still have a few electrons in the conduction band. Much fewer electrons than compared with Silicon with a band gap of ~1.1 eV, but many more than diamond (Carbon) with a band gap of ~5.5 eV.


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

[User] ELI5: Why did Saruman the White defect to Sauron?

[Assistant]
Initially Saruman wanted the One Ring for himself. In somewhat simplified terms, he was jealous of the respect and admiration given to Gandalf. So he wanted the Ring and its powers to make himself greater.

In the events leading up to and including The Hobbit, he hasn't yet begun to be controlled by Sauron, but he does want to leave Sauron alone in the hope that the lost One Ring would turn up as well (hence, he counsels against attacking Dol Goldur at the 2851 White Council).  Saruman then goes off to start looking for the ring, at Gladden Fields where the Ring was lost when Isildur was killed.

Then at a later White Council meeting, at a time when Bilbo has found the ring and events are moving forward swiftly, Saruman switches course and says they should attack Dol Goldur to keep Sauron from reaching the river. Sauron leaves DG, the Battle of the Five Armies happens.

Only 50 years after those events does Saruman use the Palantir, establishing the mental connection to Sauron.

So you could say he doesn't really "defect" since from very early on, he's trying to gain power for himself.  He was never a truly stand up guy, in other words.  But, he only begins to be controlled directly because of his desire for power when he uses the Palantir.

Edit: pushes glasses up nose, adjusts pocket protector. Thanks for the gold!


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

[User] ELI5: How did the very first sets of global traders and explorers sailing into a foreign land learn to communicate with its people?

[Assistant]
Drinking and whoring.

There are always pubs and brothels by the ports.  Bartering items for alcohol and sex don't require words to be spoken, and both are good places for learning words, phrases, and cultural norms.  Complete immersion in a foreign culture allows you to pick up conversational fluency in a relatively short time.  Once the basics are established, learning about what goods are desired or offered in a port becomes the basis for further trade.

Soon, offices are established, and emissaries are posted to look after the shippers' interests during their absences.  They teach others, and soon there can be thriving trade between the cultures.

...or they get slaughtered as soon as they land, and no trade is ever established.  That happened as well.

But the short answer really begins and ends with boozing and whoring.


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

[User]
[Back to the Future] What exactly is the time machine travelling through that causes it to frost over completely?

The very first time that Doc Brown tests it (and the others too, I think), the time machine arrives completely frozen over, to the point that ice cracks when he opens the doors and it's painful to touch.

The parking lot is wet, meaning it didn't freeze naturally from the air temperature, either.

Additionally, where does the water come from? The DeLorean was driven to the lot inside a closed truck and the rain has obviously stopped, meaning that it couldn't have been wet beforehand.

[Assistant]
Theoretical: the time displacement field extending from the aluminum body of the car on outwards saps all energy right down to an atomic level, resulting in the body of the car becoming quite close to absolute zero. One the field is gone it begins absorbing the ambient warmth around it again (there was some delay before Doc reached the car to touch it) but it's still extremely cold for a short while.

The DeLorean isn't actually traveling through anything between the two points of spacetime, as seen when we're along for the ride to a different time. A quick flash of light from the formed time displacement field and then you're in the targeted spacetime once it fades down again.

The moisture is just condensed humidity from the air flash frozen to the body of the car. Like your windshield frosting over in winter.


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

[User]
How do pure C programmers deal without some sort of STL containers?

Hi all! Being interested in programming in pure C I wonder how pure C programmers deal without having some sort of containers in the C std. Vector may be replaced with C-style arrays, although with some limitations, but what about queues, trees, hashtables and other interesting data structures? Do the C programmers have to implement them every time from scratch?  How does Linux kernel deal with it,  for example?

[Assistant]
There are a couple of strategies:

* Implement reusable data structures that always store the value as a `void*`. Basically like you did in Java before you have generics and had to use Object for everything. This is pretty common, but you lose some performance and type safety. In return, it's simple and you get code reuse.

* You *can* implement reusable generic data structures using big preprocessor macros if you really want to, but it's kind of a chore. Some codebases do that.

* Many others just implement the data structures they need for the types they need. You only implement the actual functions you need for each particular use of a data structure. So if you need a hash table but don't need to ever delete anything from it, don't bother implementing a delete function.

    You'd be surprised how few different data structures you actually need and how few operations on them.


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

[User]
ELI5 - why does Venus spin in a different direction than the other planets in our solar system?

From what I just read, Venus spins clockwise while the other planets spin counterclockwise. Why is this?

[Assistant] We don't really know. It's presumed that it was due to a very large impact event from the early days of the solar system, when things were much more crowded (this same era is why the Moon exists; a planet roughly the size of Mercury formed in the same orbit as Earth and eventually slammed into it).


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

[User] Who is richer, Tony Stark or Bruce Wayne?

[Assistant]
It depends on which incarnation we're talking about. Wayne, in every movie franchise, is a 1%er but not the richest man on Earth or anything. In most comics incarnations, though, he and Luthor are the richest men on the planet, and their companies both have privately-held deep-space exploration budgets. In the Justice League cartoon, the gigantic, state of the art Watchtower satellite was made via "an earmark in the Wayne Enterprises space exploration budget."

An *earmark*. He can build the most sophisticated space station in human history and launch it into space *in secret* using money that his company *doesn't even miss*.

Comic/cartoon Batman is atrociously wealthy. Stark has nothing on him.

Movie Batman is fairly wealthy. Stark could buy Wayne Enterprises and build a machine that lets him fart hundred dollar bills in Wayne's face at will.


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

[User] What happens in our brains when we are asked to say the first word that comes to our minds? How does our brain choose?

[Assistant]
Studies show that part of what is happening is priming from whatever came before it.  For example, if you hear "money" and "Finance", and then are asked to say a word related to "bank", it will be a word related to a financial institution, whereas if you hear words like "fish" and "river", and are asked to say a word related to "bank", you'll say something related to a river bank.

Also, if people are asked to say a string of nouns as quickly as possible, they will all tend to be related: "tree, leaf, grass, dirt, road, car, tire" etc.  It's far less random than we believe when it's actually studied.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is vanilla considered the "neutral" or "natural" ice cream flavour?

[Assistant]
It was so good, so versatile and so available that it became boring.  It was overexposed, overdone and copied poorly so often and for so long that the general population forgot how good it really is when done well.

It got buried under a mountain of its own success.


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

[User] ELI5: When a US judge rules something as unconstitutional, why is it not automatically the same ruling for all other states? All states have the same constitution right?

[Assistant]
Often those rulings will be used as legal precedent to help overturn the law in other states, but it can't automatically apply everywhere for two reasons.

First, it's often a state law being overturned.
Second, the state court only has jurisdiction over that state.

Plus, it may be unconstitutional in terms of the state's constitution - most if not all states have one in addition to the federal one.


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

[User]
Does evolution happen quicker in species with a short life span?

Since being able to pass on certain characteristics to offspring is key to evolution, Have animals that reproduce & die quickly  been able to speed up evolution?

[Assistant]
Yes. Organisms like bugs evolve much quicker than mammals, and bacteria evolve even quicker. This is why antibiotic-resistant diseases are such a problem. Humans introduce a threat, the disease respond within a matter of years. People usually believe evolution to take a long time, but it isn't time but number of generations that matter.

Edit: **Check out the answers below me guys. Most of them are much better/more complete**


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

[User]
eli5: Why do old recordings (tv / audio) sound so nasally?

Watching old movies or broadcasts always sound the same. Everyone has a very muffled and nasal sound to them. What caused microphones to produce such a uniformly weird sound?

[Assistant]
One factor is the recording media, which in combination with microphones can dramatically roll off frequencies at the top or bottom.

Older recordings were on film, tape, or vinyl, which introduced their own artifacts like compression and graininess.

You end up with a reproduction that is missing much of the nuance in human speech, like chest resonance and sibilance, so you get that nasally quality.

It was also a factor in how broadcasters spoke, as someone speaking normally would not be as well understood.


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

[User]
[MCU] Why Not A Left-Handed Infinity Nano-gauntlet?

Statistically, more people are right-handed than left.  They saw that Thanos' gauntlet hand was seriously f'd up from his Snap, don't you think that Tony or Rocket or Professor Hulk would have planned and instead made a left-handed nano-gauntlet to not permanently disable Hulk's dominant hand/arm?

[Assistant] Between going for another gauntlet, going for another snap, following Thanos' theatrics near-exactly, it's hard to know how much of the mechanics of the Infinity Stones they really understood. With such broad unknowns, it's probably safest to go with what you know works, and stick to what Thanos did as closely as possible.


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

[User]
Eli5: Why do muscles atrophy after extended periods without use?

The human body is remarkably efficient at self-preserving and maintaining important parts of the body, like the heart or liver. Why do our muscles deteriorate?

[Assistant] They are deemed unnecessary. Imagine a huge corporation that has an entire department running without any actual tasks. After a while they'll decide that there is no point wasting the money on them by paying for doing nothing so they let go of most of the department.


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

[User]
ELI5: Cecil the Lion

Before people say "Google it" I tried, everything right now is about this dentist.

[Assistant]
Cecil was a national favorite in Zimbabwe and was huge for tourism.  Officials in Zimbabwe are saying the lion was lured off of the reserve and intentionally and illegally killed.  Dentist is apologizing and saying he is blameless and he simply payed guides.

Then there's the whole ethical debate of killing for sport on top of the hunting of an endangered species.


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

[User] Why do we have two sets of teeth in our lifetime?

[Assistant] Notice that it's not just two different teeth for each position it's two entirely separate *sets* of teeth. 20 baby teeth and then 32 (or more, depending on wisdom teeth) adult or permanent teeth. If you kept your baby teeth growing older you would have a mouth that was missing 3 full teeth per quadrant (12 total teeth). On the flip side, there simply isn't room in an infant's skull to cram 32 full sized teeth. Thus the compromise, a set of 20 teeth to fill out an infant sized mouth and enable them to be weaned off breast milk and onto solid food in as little as a few months of age. And then those teeth get replaced piecemeal by a larger set of permanent teeth that are more appropriately numerous for a nearly adult sized skull. You'll note, of course, that the skull and head grows much faster than the rest of the body, reaching very nearly adult size by around age 6-7 (and becoming disproportionately large relative to the body until the body catches up in the teenage years), precisely the age that permanent teeth come in.


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

[User]
[Vampires] How far away from the sun does a vampire have to be to not suffer negatively?

For example, Pluto, where the sun is slightly larger than the average star.

[Assistant]
I read one scifi short story about an alien from Pluto that traveled to planets closer to the Sun, and was surprised to find life on Earth as he believed nothing could survive in light so close.

In the end, he was killed because people thought him to be a vampire. He had to avoid sunlight because it hurt him and had to survive on blood of animals, because cooked food would burn him.

I thought it was a real neat explanation of vampires.


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

[User]
[Warhammer 40K] could WAAAGH!-Energy resurrect the Emperor of Man?

Let's say that all Orks in the Galaxy believe, simultaneously, that the Emperor rises from the Golden Throne. Would it be possible? It seems like Orks could do almost anything if they believe in it hard enough; including making people (Commissar Yarrick) almost unkillable.

Wouldn't that mean that they could, theoretically, resurrect the Emperor in all his glory?

[Assistant] There's an ongoing theory that Waaaagh energy is the only thing that actually keeping him alive. Since Orks are vaguely aware that humies are worshiping the great golden dude, so there has to be one, and it keeps him up.


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

[User] ELI5: If Coca-Cola uses a coca-leaf based flavoring in their soft drinks, what do they do with the excess cocaine no doubt produced as part of the decocainization process?

[Assistant]
This was posted in TIL (I think) a few weeks ago. Here is a copy-paste from Wikipedia.

Coca  cocaine

Pemberton called for five ounces of coca leaf per gallon of syrup, a significant dose; in 1891, Candler claimed his formula (altered extensively from Pemberton's original) contained only a tenth of this amount. Coca-Cola once contained an estimated nine milligrams of cocaine per glass. In 1903, it was removed.

After 1904, instead of using fresh leaves, Coca-Cola started using "spent" leaves  the leftovers of the cocaine-extraction process with trace levels of cocaine. Coca-Cola now uses a cocaine-free coca leaf extract prepared at a Stepan Company plant in Maywood, New Jersey.

In the United States, the Stepan Company is the only manufacturing plant authorized by the Federal Government to import and process the coca plant, which it obtains mainly from Peru and, to a lesser extent, Bolivia. Besides producing the coca flavoring agent for Coca-Cola, the Stepan Company extracts cocaine from the coca leaves, which it sells to Mallinckrodt, a St. Louis, Missouri, pharmaceutical manufacturer that is the only company in the United States licensed to purify cocaine for medicinal use.


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

[User]
CMV: Without additional security measures, gun-free zones are completely useless.

Although in general I support less guns on the streets, background checks, and the like, I have always been completely baffled when any location makes a policy that it will be gun-free. For instance, when a location places a sign on the door that no firearms are allowed. What seems to occur is that law-abiding people follow this rule and do not bring guns into that location, whereas a criminal with bad intentions will bring their gun in whether or not there is a sign on the door stating that no firearms are allowed. It simply makes every law-abiding citizen there sitting ducks with no way to defend themselves, making it much easier for the shooter to create a massacre.

That being said, if it is a gun-free zone where every entrance is closely monitored and everyone entering is searched for guns, then this would obviously work and most likely make it a safer place, since the policy of no guns would be actually enforced and all inhabitants of the building have no weapons.

In short, gun-free zones that are not ensured to be gun-free zones by additional security do absolutely nothing to improve the safety of that location. Change my view.

[Assistant]
Your point is perhaps effective if only considering mass shootings. A lot of gun violence doesnt involve someone specifically looking for a large, vulnerable gathering of potential victims.

A place designating itself as gun free allows them to enforce the prohibition of guns in their venue. Absent some sort of enforce mechanism this might not stop a terrorist, but it might allow them to ask someone to leave a bar or a concert or classroom and return without a gun, which could then prevent an unplanned instance of gun violence resulting from, say, an argument or altercation.


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

[User] ELI5: How do you pay taxes in the US? If I owe $5000, for example, would I need to have a $5000 check ready on tax day?

[Assistant] For the vast majority of Americans income taxes are deducted automatically from their pay. At the end of the year you file the paperwork and usually get some money back from the IRS. (Most people deduct a little too much). If for some reason not enough was deducted then you'd owe taxes and you either send the IRS a check or work out some kind of payment plan.


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

[User] [Marvel What If] How was spoiled only child thor worthy of Mjlnir? And by having an infinite number of universes to draw from. Why couldn't the watcher find a version of thor that is more competent?

[Assistant] This version of Thor was never banished to Earth by Odin, like the main timeline version. As such, there was no worthiness enchantment on the hammer, it functioned just like any other magical weapon. The worthiness requirement was only added by Odin to teach Thor a lesson.


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

[User] [Terminator Salvation] How did Skynet know about Kyle Reese before he was sent back to 1984?

[Assistant]
Marcus.

John Connor knows Kyle will time travel and become his father, and because of that so does Marcus. Marcus is secretly linked to Skynet, and so anything he knows up until he tears out his transceiver Skynet knows.

Also, outside of the events of Salvation, it's a matter of historical record that Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese had John Connor, and that fact has not really ever been secret. The problem wasn't that the information wasn't available, it was that Sarah Connor was never believed except by a small cadre of people, some working for what eventually would become Skynet and some not.


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

[User]
CMV: Diversity doesn't matter. A job, especially one with certain and specific skill sets, should go to the most qualified person, without bias on gender or race, etc.

I want to clarify this does not racism or sexism in any sort of way. I got this thought when I heard something about unnecessary diversity on the radio today, and it annoyed me in kind of way.

People are not getting the recognition they should be because of the job that they do, but rather becasue what they were born with. For example, a black lady doctor has more pats on the back these days for being a BLACK LADY doctor over a black lady DOCTOR.

The recognition of one's career, and the likelihood of getting that career should be based on the skills and attributes that they bring to the job, not the person in that job.

If this isn't clear enough I'd be happy to expand.

[Assistant]
So diversity can be important.

Take these scenerios:

- Microsofts voice API was made predominantly by men. As such couldnt recognise higher pitch voices of women.

- in the 1960s and for a long time going forward (still a problem today) crash test dummies are moddled after men. As a result, women were 47% more likely to be seriously injured in a crash. Because none of those designers (predominantly men) thought about it - a result of unintentional bias.

- Googles picture recognition AI couldnt tell apart black people. Googles development team was predominantly white, such bias influenced their design.

- Apple healthkit, a thing made predominantly by men, failed to include a period tracker, a fairly basic thing until IOS 9.

Unintentional bias effects design a lot.

And the thing is when it comes to just hire the best person. When it comes to high level jobs or jobs with lots of applicants, lots of them have the same written qualifications. And then it comes to an interview. And frankly, an interviewer is going to be influenced by already exisiting bias and unintentional bias. We can see this a lot.

Two applicants with a male vs female name the female is likely to be denied. Amazons hiring AI which learned from their own hiring practices highlighted their own bias agaisnt hiring women.

When it comes to looking at a crowd of people, a study showed, that men percieved it as 50/50 gender split when actually it was only 17% women, and percieved a female majority when it was only 33% women.

On the black lady doctor thing, its more of a way to congratulate someone for going past institutional and personal barrier related to them being a women and being black. There is a problem still in healthcare of women doctors being ignored for their less trained male counterparts.


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

[User]
ELI5: How come it's possible to cryopreserve things like sperm and very young embryos, and to later thaw them out so that they can live, but it's impossible to do that for older humans or anything that consists of more than a few cells?

I mean, sure, there is mummification and and some bodies being naturally preserved due to coldness or dryness, but I'm talking more about the idea of cryonics- the idea that you could stop a biological organism's entire metabolism in some kind of suspended animation and then later thaw them out and be able to continue living. Most of this is just science fiction though and greatly exaggerated. All of the people who have gotten their bodies cryopreserved as adults are people who have died and it's essentially just mummification instead of suspended animation.

[Assistant]
The big reason most living things can't survive freezing is because large, sharp ice crystals form in their cells and pop them like balloons from the inside - that's basically what frostbite is. When something freezes really quickly all at once, the resulting ice crystals are a lot smaller than if that thing is frozen slowly. For a more accessible example, that's part of the reason why ice cream is smooth but if you put cream in your freezer it'll turn out slushy - commercial ice cream is frozen extremely quickly so the ice crystals are small enough that you can't detect them.

So the reason we're not currently able to cryopreserve, say, a whole human, is because it would take a lot of time for the parts in the middle of the body to actually freeze and you'd get large ice crystals which damage the cells beyond repair. You'd really effectively preserve the skin while causing massive internal frostbite. Small things like sperm or embryos (or lots of other cells that we freeze to preserve) are small enough to survive that process because they freeze all the way through so quickly. Additionally we tend to use compounds called cryoprotectants in that process which also reduce the size of ice crystals.


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

[User]
[FTL:Faster Than Light] Why can missiles go past shields?

Why is it that missiles can bypass shields (except Zoltan shields) but other solid objects like Flak and meteors can't?

[Assistant]
Shields provide a steep energetic gradient to dispers incoming energy like laser blasts and vaporiza and deflect incoming projectiles such as asteroids and flak shrapnel.

Missiles are designed to counter this and when they reach the shield they discharge a brief donut-shaped energy pulse that creates a brief opening in the shield allowing them to pass through.


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

[User]
Why are earthworms more prone to going on the sidewalk during and after rain?

I have noticed they also like to go on the sidewalk in the morning, too.  Why is that?

[Assistant]
Apparently there are two theories on this, but the both theories are based upon the fact that earthworms do not have lungs to breathe, but rather they breathe through their skin, in a process called diffusion. For diffusion to occur, the earthworms skin must be kept moist, so they release mucus to keep their skin moist. **Damp** or **moist** soil also helps this process as it prevents them from drying out.

So the first theory is that they surface so that they don't drown! After/during a rainfall the ground becomes saturated with water (far beyond the point of it being moist).  Too much water doesn't help the process of diffusion as the air in the soil is replaced with water.

The second theory is that the earthworms use these periods as an optimal time for "migration". The higher moisture content in the air provides an opportunity to move greater distances across the soil surface than they could do through soil. It is less work to move on the surface than burrowing through the soil.

This second theory appears to be gaining more ground and also helps explain why earthworms make their appearance at night when the moisture in the air is higher.


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

[User]
[LOTR/Hobbit] How does Sauron manage to maintain such a large army?

It seems to me that orcs always outnumber the human/elven/dwarven forces that try and stand up against them. How is this possible? Historical documents paint a bleak picture of Mordor being a dark barren wasteland. Nothing grows there, and yet the countryside is swarming with orcs. How are these hordes being fed? Where do they get materials for weapons?

[Assistant]
The Sea of Nurnen is an inland large body of fresh water that had lands about it that were fertile enough to support agriculture.  Human slaves were used to work the farms around this sea in order to produce food to feed Sauron's armies.

Additionally, Mordor receives tributes from foreign human lands who serve Sauron, sometimes in the form of finished goods, materials and weapons, but also in the shape of food.

Finally, orcs are mutilates elves, so they reproduce after the manner of elves and men.  So they can feasibly reproduce all of their life, which is potentially forever.  Orcish women may be forced to live as eternal breeding partners while the males go off and fight.  Who the women breed with may be of little concern, so long as she continues to breed and produce more orclings.  It's a miserable existence, but the orcs have never had easy lives and their masters never seem to care.


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

[User] [Any] What super power would best translate into bedroom prowess?

[Assistant] Probably several telepathic/empathy powers since bedroom prowess is all about personal preference, and being able to coax/tickle all of them no matter what with picture perfect accuracy is the way to go.


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

[User]
[inception] Why doesn't Cobb's team give themselves the upper hand in dream heists?

They have almost unlimited creative potential in the dream, right? Why would they send themselves into a dream with small arms, going toe to toe in a shootout on the street? Why not give themselves a tank?

[Assistant]
The more you affect a dream on a large scale, the more dangerous that the dream begins to 'push back'.

Sure, they could dream up a tank. Hell, they could dream up a sci-fi Invincitank. But that raises the risk of the dream kicking back; a small arms fight is just believable enough to the dreamer to avoid retaliation, but a tank is not.

This is what makes Cobb such a good dream thief: He can pull off robberies without needing to pull in exotic situations and imaginative weapons, leaving the victim with no intuition they were robbed (let alone risk of dream retaliation while he works).


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

[User]
[TRON: Legacy] What were Clu's realistic plans once he got the real life?

It doesn't really seem to make sense...would his ship even fly?
How would it they get to the real world, since there's no way Clu's ship will fit in the basement of The Flynn's.
How would programs act in the real world? Since they don't have DNA(or the psuedo-digital DNA Qorra had), would they just die?

[Assistant]
Honestly, he didn't think that far ahead.

Clu was obsessed with seeing beyond the fourth wall which he knew was there. Despite having Flynn's brilliant mind (of which we see few feats) he is obsessed with escape and will disregard rational avenues in this endeavor.

His resources and his mind are dedicated to one goal. Overthrow the established order and his father. Escape, and be free. The freedom of which a program can only dream.


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

[User]
ELI5:Why must a country "declare war" before attacking?

Is it just a moral thing to do? wouldn't they take the advantage by attacking without notification?

[Assistant]
It's part of an agreed treaty from the Hauge convention

> The Contracting Powers recognize that hostilities between themselves must not commence without previous and explicit warning, in the form either of a reasoned declaration of war or of an ultimatum with conditional declaration of war.

And was adopted by the United Nations after its founding.
It serves multiple purposes

1) All native and allied citizens are being informed to leave the country

2) It informs citizens of said country, thus limiting loss of civilian life

3) It informs allied and neighboring countries what is commencing so they can either not get caught in the cross fire or join in if they have an agreement with one of the nations

4) Is considered morally right in many eyes, the goal of most modern wars isn't the decimation of a country, but a specific action or actions. A formal declaration of war would include a list of demands, with the hope being a coup will take place to meet those demands.


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

[User]
[The Boys] Why are these hearings happening in the Judiciary Committee?

Legit question. (Spoilers for S2 ahead)

Why the heck is the Judiciary Committee, of all things, holding hearings on Vaught and Homelander and all this? Doesn't this seem more like... I dunno, the Commerce Committee or something?

[Assistant] Due to the events of prior episodes in season 2 vought is facing legal scrutiny in it's culpability regarding compand v injections in infants and use of unregulated medication and medical procedures. A commerce committee wouldn't have jurisdiction as several laws and ethics violations have occurred. The hearings are to determine is madelyn stillwell acted alone or with consent and support of vought in these practices.


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

[User] [Comics] Which superheroes can play musical instruments? What instruments do they play?

[Assistant]
The man who would become Drax the Destroyer, Arthur Douglas, could play the saxophone.

Kate Bishop (Hawkeye) is a cellist.

Lila Cheney, former X-Man, plays guitar.

Echo (Maya Lopez- RIP) was a pianist.

Rick Jones (formerly A-Bomb) plays harmonica and guitar.

Doctor Doom plays piano.


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

[User]
Why is programming difficult?

Hi all,

I'm trying to find a research project to do with regards to programming, and I've gotten advice from faculty as part of a research class to gather data from experienced programmers on what makes programming difficult. Would love if people here could help me out by replying with what you think are the top 3 things which you think makes programming difficult, and whether you think novices would agree with your responses, why and why not. Examples from your experience would be great, and some information about your experience programming, or teaching programming, would help a lot too.

[Assistant]
You never fully understand the problem or the requirements

You never fully understand the tools you are using

You never fully understand all the potential failure modes of every line of code you write or use

And yet you gotta ship a working product that makes the users happy. It ain't easy.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Jango Fett got paid something like 20 million credits to be cloned and live on Kamino right. Why did Boba have such a hard life then instead of living off of Jangos money in a fancy palace?

what i am asking is, why is Boba running around the galaxy being a bounty hunter and doing odd jobs when Jango was already rich? Is it ever explained why he had no access to his fathers money?

[Assistant] Upon Jangos demise Boba, and his fortune and material assets, were entrusted to Count Dooku as their steward until boba came of age. Being a despicable monster, Dooku promptly confiscated the financial assets and would likely have disposed of Boba had the boy not grabbed Slave 1 and jangos armor and fled, eventually falling in with Aura Singh.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do men go bald but women dont?

[Assistant]
Hair follicles are sensitive to dihydrotestosterone (DHT) which men produce at much higher levels.  Two consequences of that: men grow more body hair, in more places, and after years of exposure to DHT, mens' hair follicles start to inactivate, especially on the scalp.

Hair grows in cycles, with each follicle producing hair for a while, then pausing for a break.  Over years, DHT accumulates in the follicles, and in high amounts it starts to screw up the cycles - the follicle spends more and more time at rest and eventually becomes unproductive.


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

[User] [General Science Fiction] If the invisible person eats something, can you see the food get digested or does the food become invisible too?

[Assistant] Some short term ways of granting invisibility only make you and what you are in contact with at the time invisible. But in most cases anything under your skin is invisible otherwise you world constantly be detectable by the foreign substances that are always in your body.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does the beam of the flashlight fade out after a few meters typically, when the light travels much farther?

[Assistant] The beam gets wider as it gets farther from the flashlight, so you have the same amount of light being spread over a larger and larger area. Eventually it gets spread so thinly that your eyes cant tell the difference.


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

[User]
[Avatar] When is the next Avatar selected?

Watching Legend of Korra and it seems that the new Avatar is born when the previous one dies.  This means that there's a good chunk of time, say at least 15 years, where there is no Avatar.

However, this wasn't the impression I got when watching Last Airbender.  It seemed to me that Aang was being trained to be the next Avatar, but that Roku was still alive and Aang fled when Roku died because he knew it meant he had to step up to his responsibilities and couldn't.

Otherwise, the Fire Lord Soujin had like 10+ years to find Aang and kill him.  Not only that but Aang was able to travel to the Earth Kingdom and hang out with Boomi. Wasn't there a war on already?

[Assistant]
Avatars are born as soon as the previous one dies. We go straight to Aang's birth after Roku's death in episode 6 book 3.

The reason Firelord Sozin waited 10+ years after Aang was born was because he was waiting for Sozin's Comet so he could use its power to deal a deadly first strike not just against the Air Nomads, but also the other nations

Plus, he couldn't prepare and plan for his invasions when Roku was still alive, thus he needed to use some of this time to prepare.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] How do the Sith meditate?

I know Darth Vader would meditate while in his Bacta tank, and Sidious and Plagueis both used Force meditation to offset the need for sleep, but what are they actually doing there? Meditation calms you down, and thats pretty against the Sith philosophy.

[Assistant]
Sith meditate a little differently than Jedi. Generally there's two types of meditation: Mindfulness and Insight.

The goal of mindfulness is to focus on one thing and let it fill your mind, removing any and all distractions. This is a very simplistic summary, but it's enough to explain the differences. Jedi love this one (eg let the force move through you and whatnot).

The goal of insight is to reflect on your past and yourself, using it to help define your goals and shape who you are as a person. Again, simplistic, but helps illustrate the differences. Sith love insight meditation, instead of focusing on bettering themselves they focus on their hate.

Of course, both the Jedi and Sith can and do use both types, but their own variations to help connect them to their preferred connection to the Force. But they do generally have a preference.

Sith use their hatred to fuel and increase their connection to the dark side and insight meditation is a very useful tool in molding and reshaping your hatred and keeping you focused on your goal

When Darth Vader is in the bacta, he's not clearing his mind, he's remembering the pain of betrayal from his order, the heat against his bare flesh as he lay dying on Mustafar, and the death of his wife and how powerless he was to stop it. He endlessly reignites his hatred for weakness and Jedi.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Luke Skywalker once mentioned the use of teleportation in a conversation, are there actual canon examples of this technology being used?

I'll accept examples from EU/Legends as well if there are any.

[Assistant] To be fair, Luke could have been speaking rhetorically, even if teleportation doesn't exist in his universe. After all, at the time he didn't know of any tech to alter time or speed up harvests, either.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do lightbulbs take a small moment to power on in certain cases, but turn off instantly?

[Assistant]
Fluorescent light bulbs (and Compact Fluorescent bulbs) need to do a couple of things before visible light is produced.  A high voltage electrical arc passes through the tube, which separates electrons from their parent atoms in the gas in the tube.  This creates a situation where a lower current can then travel through the gas (since the electrons are now free to move about).  That allows UV light to be produced, which excites the phosphor coating on the inside of the tube, generating visible light.

The arcing process is what takes a moment.

Incandescent bulbs need to heat up the filament to glow white hot, but that takes only fractions of a second normally.  And the mechanism used in LED bulbs is even faster.


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

[User] [ASOIAF] I'm a poor farmer in the Reach. What do I know about The War of Five Kings?

[Assistant] More likely than not you know the basics. Robert died and his brothers are fighting over his throne. The Stark hand turned traitor and got himself executed and now his son is fighting to avenge him. Thanks to Stannis you've probably heard rumors that Joffrey and his siblings are bastards. The only king that you'd really have any real knowledge about is Renly because of his marriage to Margaery. Depending on your age, it's entirely possible that you still see the Targaryens as the true kings, though you're probably smart enough to keep it to yourself.


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

[User] ELI5: When restarting a computer, how does the computer know to turn back on after shutting itself down?

[Assistant]
When shutting down a computer, it starts a long list of operations, such as close files, terminate programs, and so on, with the very last instruction being "turn off power".

On a restart, it does exactly the same thing, except that last instruction is "reboot".


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

[User]
ELI5: What exactly is glass?

How does glass become transparent if its made of sand. My lil brainy cant make sense of small rocks (my knowledge of sand) becoming transparent by any process like melting or pressure.

[Assistant]
Okay, so this is really cool. First, clear glass can't be made of just any sand, it needs to specifically be quartz sand, basically. Quartz, as you might know, actually is clear. However, if you look at quartz sand, it still would look a sort of pale tan color, like most sand. This, however, is precisely BECAUSE it is in tiny pieces. At the edges of clear objects, light often gets bent and bounced around to make the edges look white, especially if the surface isn't perfectly smooth (think of the edges of a frosted clear plastic straw, for example). Multiply that effect by super tiny size of sand grains and millions of little pieces, and even pretty clear sand doesn't look clear. But if you melt them all together and cool them in a way that doesn't allow for crystallization, and you get one, big, clear piece. That's glass!

Please note that this is simplified a lot, but accurate to the basic concepts.


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

[User]
ELI5: How are big firework shows (NYE, Independence Day, etc) implemented? Obviously, there are no trial runs before the big show, so how do they know how it will look like, and guarantee that everything is in place and will work as intended?

Happy new year everyone!

[Assistant]
The expense of a massive, nationally-televised fireworks display buys a lot of professional experience, reliable technology, and redundancy. Just like surgeons don't "practice" surgery on a patient before they cut them open, but they don't need to. They've done it so many times that they're prepared for any eventuality. Any highly-skilled professional brings the same skillset to their job.

Also, in many cases, you won't know if something did go wrong. Let's say that eight fireworks pop instead of ten for a given frame. Well, that's okay, because you won't likely miss the other two. It's like if a politican skips a line in a speech, you probably wouldn't know unless they react to their own mistake. The devices are also pretty reliable, provided they're dry and high-quality. Experts know how they work down to the grain.

Finally, unit tests help. By ensuring that each charge fires as expected in isolated shots (probably in isolated areas, too) these guys make sure everything will go according to plan.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why Communism/Marxism often fails and results in dictatorships?

I always wondered.

[Assistant] Because the larger the group you have operating under communism the more authority those running things have to have.  The more authority they have the more likely they are to abuse that authority to get more privileges or goods than others.


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

[User]
[The Shawshank Redemption] Why was Red released after insulting the parole board, but not earlier?

During his earlier hearings, he acted completely remorseful, and was denied. Later, he just decides, "Fuck it," and tells the board he doesn't really care. Why did this convince them to release him?

[Assistant]
In the earlier attempts he was clearly trying to say what they wanted to hear.  He was still playing the con and, thus, was still a danger to society.

His last try he was finally broken by the system, too weary to even fight for his freedom.  He clearly sees his role in the scheme of things, all narcissistic delusions stripped away.  Such a man is no longer a threat.


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

[User] [General Anime and Sci-Fi/Fantasy] Why are half-human hybrids often more powerful than their pureblood brethren? Is there a logical reason as to why mixing with a weak and pathetic species like humans causes such an incredible power boost?

[Assistant]
Because most universes don't have humans as universally weaker. In DBZ for instance humans have the ability to vary power levels without anything as showy as a super-Saiyan transformation. Krillin and Tien are able to produce and use attacks way beyond their base line but at the expense of utter exhaustion (and even shortening their lives). During the scenes on Namek it is made clear that Frieza's forces have never seen anything that could vary power levels quite like what the Z fighters were doing. It is a distinctly human technique designed to take advantage of the one crucial strength human fighters have in that world.

When you mix this ability with a Saiyan base line then you get something which is stronger than either race could be alone.


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

[User] How is a raisin chemically different to a grape? What has happened to everything in the grape when it turns into a raisin?

[Assistant] A raisin is a more concentrated grape...when the grape is dried all of the water (well almost all of it) is removed so the compounds that make the 'grape' flavor and all the sugars are more concentrated giving you the raisin flavor.


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

[User] ELI5: How do waterfalls freeze while in motion?

[Assistant]
They don't. They freeze over time.

First the water mist that is deposited on nearby surfaces freezes. Where the water is flowing slowly, droplets can freeze while still attached, and films of water flowing down over the top of those frozen droplets can also freeze, causing icicles. Eventually the river starts to freeze over and form ice dams, which slow down the flow of the river, until the flow even in the middle is slow enough to form these icicles. Eventually there is no flow, and what was a waterfall is all icicles. But this has happened over some time - hours, days, weeks or months.

It just happens to still look something like our normal impression of a flowing waterfall.


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

[User] ELI5: why do people get incredibly nauseous reading or looking at a phone in a moving car but not on a moving train or airplane? what makes the car so unique?

[Assistant]
Motion sickness comes from your sense of balance detecting movement, but your eyes insisting that nothing is moving (because you're focusing on an immobile object). If your brain can't reconcile receiving both "we're moving" and "we're not moving" signals at the same time then it freaks out, and for many people the brain's default reaction is "sensory input is all fucked up, we've been poisoned, expel everything".

It's more obvious in cars because your sense of balance detects *changes* in motion, and cars speed up and slow down and change lanes all the time. People can also be affected on trains and planes as well, though, depending on the person.


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

[User]
[Snow White] What is the Magic Mirror?

Is it a bound demon?  Trapped genie?  Sentient artifact?  Video conference screen to hell?

What is it and where did it come from?

[Assistant] Its unclear, being a fairy tale, but the logic seems to be:a mirror that answers questions, nothing more. Its probably most like some kind of magical computer: it cant make decisions, but it takes inputs and outputs. A lot of items in older fiction can talk, but they arent characters, just talking things. Items that share their thoughts.


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

[User]
What are some fundamental books on sexuality ?

Hey I'm pretty new to this topic but my asshat flatmate won't stop making weird arguments (redpill-lite) on this topic and I want to be armed with something substantial. What are some important books I can read on this massive topic  ? Any important books under this umbrella is good for me.

[Assistant]
*Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality* by Sigmund Freud

*The Second Sex* by Simone de Beauvoir

*Gender Trouble* by Judith Butler

*The History of Sexuality* by Michel Foucault

*What IS Sex* by Alenka Zupani

Some of the works mentioned are not strictly philosophical, but they are essential readsafter all, sexuality cannot be conceptualized without psychoanalysis.


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

[User]
Why does a lens perform a Fourier transform on light?

I've been through the derivation and my understanding is still very much in the 'because that's what the math tells us' territory.

Is there a more intuitive explanation?

[Assistant]
Maybe this gives you some hand-waving intuation:

Spatial Fourier transform takes position space into wavevector space. A lens focuses parallel bundles of beams into a single point. So everything that was described by the same wavevector beforehand shares the same spatial coordinate in the focal plain of the lense.

So the spatial coordinate after the lens contains the information that was encoded in the wavevector before the lens which in mathematical terms corresponds to a Fourier transformation.


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

[User]
[DC] Why does Batman hate letting other heroes come to Gotham?

TV Tropes defines this as "Superman Stays Out Of Gotham", but from what I understand, Batman outright bans Superman or other members of the Justice League from visiting Gotham. The only time I can really remember off the top of my head was when Batman had Superman pose as him to fight off Bane. So I wonder, why has Batman declared Gotham off limits to other heroes? I feel like the extra sets of hands would work wonders around there.

[Assistant]
Because bad as it is, Gotham is more or less under control and therefore has other uses. Low level and violent crime is harshly punished and yet there are clearly vast organised crime structures alive and well in Gotham. Why? Because ultimately its a honey pot. Wayne Enterprises and its many many many subsidiaries primarily operates there and represents all the shopping the criminal underworld could want. More than anything else Batman relies on information. You know the saying the House always wins? Through Wayne tech he can know who is bribing guards to gain access to what plans or who made off with what during transport. From these pieces of information he can draw conclusions on broader criminal enterprise, why do you think he shows up in (other) town just as shit is coming together for somebodys big plan. By the same token he can orchestrate things like oh Mr Freeze escaped? Sure is convenient there will be a train full of refrigerant passing through town next week or Ivy is on the lose? WayneTech is going to show off its exotic plant experiments...at night....at a gala with lots of rich people. Now you bring in some big muscle and start cleaning house? Crooks are going to go to ground, scatter as far and wide as they can, rate in Gotham May go down but everyone else is going to get a bump up.

Long story short; its a lot easier to keep an eye on cockroaches if you dont suddenly turn on the bright lights.


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

[User]
Is Radon Gas in Natural Gas from Hydraulically Fractured Shale Wells Safe when Heating and Cooking in our Homes?

Is the radon gas in natural gas safe when used in our homes?  I should know the answer because I am a petroleum geologist and have fracked hundreds of sandstone formation gas and oil wells,  but never shale gas wells.   The Marcellus and other shales are rich in potassium, thorium and uranium and the natural gas from this formation has a small fraction of radon gas.   A friend asked me this question and I could not give a good answer.

[Assistant]
The Radon level in the Marcellus shale isn't that much different than 'old' natural gas sources. An EPA study back in the 1970s found an average radioactivity of 37 pCi/L at the wellhead for the sources they studied. A 2012 USGS study of Pennsylvania gas wells found a median Marcellus wellhead radioactivity of 32 pCi/L. Just for reference, 4 pCi/L is considered the action level for indoor areas (basements).

The story doesn't end there however. Radon decays pretty quickly however, so those numbers will go down as the gas ages on its way to the consumer. Radon has a halflife of about 3.5 days, this means that typical travel times are a half life or two. But also, no one gets exposed to natural gas (because you know, explosions happen that wy). So beyond that, the dose goes down by an order of magnitude when the natural gas is actually burned, basically due to the fact that it gets mixed with a bunch of nitrogen and oxygen. And then goes down even more when that exhaust is mixed with the 'normal' air in your house. So if you filled your whole apartment with gas exhaust you might push 2 pCi/L but then you'd have other problems.


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

[User]
ELI5 I had my last cigarette on last Christmas. Has my body purged itself of all the harmful effects that my smoking had? Are there any lasting effects which will never be removed?

edit: Thanks guys for your comments.

Here is some more Info: I am male, 24+, I was never a heavy smoker, I averaged at about a cigarette a day. I smoked for a period of about 6 years.

[Assistant] Congratulations on quitting!  You're already in much better shape than you would have been if you continued smoking, but some of the effects unfortunately never go away.  10 years after quitting, your risk of lung cancer will be about half that of someone who is still smoking, but it won't ever drop to the point of someone who never smoked.  On the plus side, some effects do go entirely away over time.  After 2-5 years, your risk of stroke will have dropped to the level of someone who never smoked, and after 15 years your risk of heart disease will have done the same.


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

[User]
[Superhero costumes] So superheroes have awesome powers and all, but how are their masks - like the ones worn by Spiderman and Deadpool - able to squint?

You would think that the masks would be great for concealing emotion in addition to identity, giving you an edge with your poker face. But I just saw Spiderman fight someone and his mask, particularly the eye area, moved the way you'd expect his eyes to move beneath the mask. What the hell kind if material is this? Same thing when Deadpool was fighting, well, everyone.

[Assistant]
As noted by others, it depends on the Universe.

In the MCU, it's explained that Spidey's mask actually needs to do that because Peter is unaccustomed to dealing with as much sensory information as he gets after being bitten (which is why he wore goggles that blocked out some of his peripheral vision to begin with).  Stark probably just gave him more sophisticated armor.

In the comics, where such squinting may happen, some of these costumes may be made out of unstable molecules created by Mr. Fantastic.

It's unclear how Deadpool's squinting worked in the Deadpoolverse, but we might imagine this his squinting is basically his facial expressions breaking the fourth wall of his mask.


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

[User] ELI5 Why When I hit my leg or head I get a bump there.

[Assistant]
Cells in the area get damaged and release signals that cause the blood vessels in the area to basically leak, like a pipe that gets holes drilled into it will leak water.  This causes fluid (NOT blood) to go out into that area, creating swelling.  This leakage allows immune cells and building blocks to get into the area to help repair the damage and prevent infection (mostly to prevent infection).  The immune cells are able to get through because they have special ways of squeezing through the little tiny holes.

If the blood vessels themselves are damaged (if the pipes themselves are actually cracked open, instead of drilled through), then actual blood leaks out through the holes, including red blood cells, which causes the dark color of a bruise.  The bruise changes color over time because the materials in the red blood cells are broken down.  As they are broken down, they become different materials by stages, each stage has a characteristic color.  That's how a bruise goes from dark purple to greenish to yellow, then back to normal.

Over time all of these extra cells and building blocks (proteins) get re-absorbed, making their way back into the blood vessels in the area.


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

[User]
ELI5: How are bacteria created?

Just read a news article about how 3 completely new types of bacteria have been found on the international space station due to it's isolation, if that's the case then how did they get there if we have never observed them before? what created them?

[Assistant]
Some similar bacteria likely travelled up there on the astronauts or some item.

What makes every organism unique is its DNA. bacteria change their DNA a lot, its why they adapt so fast. If they make a change that makes them unable to survive, those DNA changes will not be passed on. What determines if the DNA changes are good or bad is the environment.

For instance, if some change makes you better at surviving in the cold, but you live in a hot climate, it likely wont get passed on. In a cold climate, it could be very useful.

The ISS is a very unique environment. Everything is precisely controlled and does not exchange anything with the outside. This would lead to unique DNA changes being passed on.

A similar situation is observed on islands. Before people started moving around so much, taking animals and diseases with them, islands bred unique organisms because they were isolated from each other.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why did the dial-up sound have to be played out loud?

Hi guys - I'm wondering why the dial up sound was even something we can all remember? I'm sure there are plenty of processes occurring with our wireless networks that could make crazy sounds but the computers specifically don't play them out to us.

Was the dial-up sound mechanical in nature and had to played out loud? like a mechanical hard drive spooling up?

I hope you understand, I found it hard to put down in words.

Thanks!

[Assistant]
It contained diagnostic information- i.e. you'd hear things like "all circuits are busy" or if it was the wrong number, etc.  There are also loads of retraining signals that can give an idea of how fast you are connecting, as well as noise on the line, etc.

Then after awhile (early 2000s) the cheapest software "winmodems" didn't have a speaker, and would instead play a .wav file of a 56K modem connecting successfully, which was pretty evil, IMHO.


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

[User] [Star Wars: The Clone Wars] does the show ever contradict the movies or vice versa? How much time elapsed during the show?

[Assistant]
The show didn't contradict the movies at all. In fact, it went to great lengths to support the movies, including purposefully avoiding having Anakin and Grievous meet.

As for exact length of time that the show covers, it's not entirely known. It picks up a few months after Attack of the Clones ends, and ends a few months before Revenge of the Sith (though the upcoming episodes include an arc set just prior to/during RotS).


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

[User] [ELI5] Why are some eggs brown and some white and what's the difference?

[Assistant]
The difference is the momma chicken. It sounds almost too simple, but white chickens make white eggs. Other-colored chickens make brown ones. Thats it.

If the chicken is speckled or part white, the color of its earlobes is the indicator. Fun fact.


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

[User] [The Mandalorian] Is it in the Yoda species' DNA to reverse sentence structure? If a baby Yoda is raised/taught by a "normal" speaking Mandalorian, will the baby also speak normally?

[Assistant]
Vandar Tokare, from knights of the old republic, while not canon, spoke normally and that's 3000-4000 years prior to the clone wars. Yaddle who is present in episode 1 and some comics however spoke in Yodaspeak. So it could just be a joke the two play on the universe, who knows

Vandar Tokare, From knights of the old republic he is, not canon is he. Normally he speaks. But from 3000-4000 years ago that was. In comics and episode 1, Yaddle was, canon she is. Speak like Yoda, she does. Big joke it may be, unknown it is. Dyslexia, a crime, it is not.


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

[User] ELI5:What are Islamic Terrorist groups trying to do?

[Assistant]
In 2004, Bin Laden released a tape to Al-Jazeera where he laid out the purpose of the 9/11 attacks, and the organizations goals.

We are continuing this policy in bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy. Allah willing, and nothing is too great for Allah,

The theory behind 9/11 was to try to get America to engage in long expensive wars to bankrupt the country and remove it as a super power.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is it safe to touch the electricity-outputting end of our phone and computer chargers with no sort of electric shock on us as opposed to other dangerous electrical outputs?

Exactly as stated in the title. All my life I've been able to touch my phone or computer's electrical charger output (accidentally or for whatever the reason) with no sort of "buzz" or feeling from the electricity going through the output.  At least that has always been my experience with it.

Just in case: Don't intentionally try this of course.

[Assistant] Because chargers have a transformer that lowers the voltage from the full voltage of the main circuit in the wall. That's what's in the little block that you plug in. Even if you were able to touch + and - contacts, that would put 5 Volts across your skin for a phone charger or \~20 Volts for a laptop charger. For comparison, the wall circuit is 120V in North America and 220V in Europe. Charging a phone or computer with that much direct power would fry all the tiny components, so the chargers have a transformer that reduces the voltage.


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

[User]
CMV: Philadelphia's addition of black & brown stripes to the Gay Pride Flag is unnecessary, and creates more division than it aims to alleviate.

The original Gay Pride Flag was created with 8 colors to symbolize the diversity within the gay community. The colors are;

Red - Life
Orange - Healing
Yellow - Sunlight
Green - Nature
Cyan - Magic
Blue - Peace
Violet - Spirit
Pink - Sexuality

From what I've seen, any white person who refutes the addition of black & brown is called a racist. And that seems to be the only argument for the new additions. People want to add black & brown because the flag is racist otherwise.

But I don't see how this makes sense. There is no white on the flag. The colors, together, make white. But only if we're talking about light. The colors can also make brown & black, and any other color imaginable if we're talking about pigment.

My argument is that the following would be a ridiculous symbology for the Gay Pride Flag;

Black - Black people
Brown - Brown People
Red - Life
Orange - Healing
Yellow - Sunlight
Green - Nature
Cyan - Magic
Blue - Peace
Violet - Spirit
Pink - Sexuality

Two of those things don't belong.

TL;DR::: The flag is not racist as it is; black and brown aren't in the light spectrum; the flag is already meant to symbolize diversity

EDIT: This entire thread has taken an unfortunate turn from trying to change my view, to an unnecessary argument about the inequalities faced by groups who were never a part of my original argument. My view has not been changed.

[Assistant]
> The flag is not racist as it is; black and brown aren't in the light spectrum; the flag is already meant to symbolize diversity

What if you wanted a movement that fought for both sexual and racial rights? Some sort of alliance that allowed both groups to exercise more political power? Then this sounds like a decent flag for them!


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

[User]
Why is water tasteless? Since our bodies need water, shouldn't they have evolved to enjoy the taste?

The best other example I can provide is sugar. Our bodies use sugar to produce ATP and energy for our cells. Therefore, anything with sugar tastes sweet and delicious. So why don't we have the same craving for water?

[Assistant] taste didnt evolve to make us enjoy food but to help us distinguish what we are eating. If water had a taste you would be tasting it constantly, as your mouth is almost always wet. Water which is impure does have a taste which registers as either rancid, salty, bitter and so on.


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

[User] [Disney's Mulan] What is the advantage of being "mysterious as the dark side of the moon," and how did Shang intend to impart that quality to his recruits?

[Assistant]
He was suggesting a training in stealth so they could conceal themselves and confound the enemy.

As to how he intended to impart that, it was unclear as musical numbers tend to draw a lot of attention.


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

[User]
ELI5:If you catch a small animal such as a squirrel or toad and move it miles away then release it, what does it do?

does it just make a new home with new animals or what?

[Assistant] Scientific research has concluded that in such instances the animal will attempt to return to its "home", with the stipulation that's it's place of origin is not to far away. If the animal were to be moved to great a distance, say 50 or more miles, the animal will move about for a bit but eventually make its home where it is at, rather than continue searching. As for congregating with other animals, well that depends on the species. Of course mammals are more inclined to socialize with other animals within its species, in comparisons with reptiles or amphibians.


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

[User]
Is it possible to scale down a linear accelerator for it to fit into a spacecraft to power it by firing particles out of the other end?

I was looking at methods of propulsion in space and I was wondering if this was possible.

[Assistant]
Yes - it's called an ion thruster or ion drive. It requires very little propellant, but quite a lot of power. This makes them most ideal for accelerating small probes in space. You can't provide the thrust to, say, launch from Earth or accelerate a large probe, but you can provide a small amount of continuous acceleration for a very long time, because you can continuously power the drive without using very much fuel. So the idea is that you can use this to get probes across the solar system quickly and efficiently.

A few missions have started to use ion thrusters in space, but it's still quite new and not extremely widespread.


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

[User] ELI5: The difference between disease, disorder, and syndrome.

[Assistant]
* disease - a dysfunction in the body, can be used to specifically refer to those caused by an infectious agent
* disorder - a dysfunction in the body, can be used to specifically refer to those **not** caused by an infectious agent
* syndrome - a set of symptoms commonly associated with each other, often used as a placeholder term until the cause is better understood

There is a lot of overlap between these terms for historical reasons.  With a syndrome that has been around for a while, like Down syndrome, that term might continue to be used even if it more properly could be styled a disorder.  Similarly, some disorders are later found to be caused by infections but keep their names.


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

[User]
ELI5: How are scientists able to claim what percentage of wildlife is undiscovered?

When scientists claim that 75% of wildlife in Australia is undiscovered, how do they come up with this? How are they able to know how much of the unknown is out there? I've seen figures, such as for ocean life, as well.

[Assistant] Go to a new area of Australia (or wherever). Comb one acre very carefully, cataloging every species. Figure out how many new species there are. Do this in a few different places, figure out about how many new species there are in general, and extrapolate.


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

[User]
ELI5: Bankruptcy

I've never properly understood bankruptcy. How does it work? When and how exactly are you supposed to declare it? What happens once you have declared Bankruptcy? Does it ever go away?

[Assistant]
If you're in the US, you can file either chapter 7 or chapter 13.  I'll start with 7.

In chapter 7, you tell the court (under penalty of perjury) all your assets, all your debts, your income and your expenses. You only lose property if you have assets over a certain amount, which varies from state to state. If you have assets over that amount, you hand either the property or its value over to the trustee to distribute among your creditors.

Chapter 7 is usually a 3-month process. You usually go to one hearing, called a meeting of creditors. Then 2 months elapse for any of your creditors to object to you getting a discharge (for example, if you had incurred debt through fraud or gone on a shopping spree the month before you file).

If no creditor objects, the judge issues an order discharging your unsecured debts. That's credit cards, personal loans, medical debt, deficiencies on repoed cars, etc.

With secured debt (mortgages, which are secured by real estate, and car loans, which are secured by cars), you basically have two choices: keep the house or car, and keep the debt too, or surrender the house or car, and get rid of the debt.

There are other kinds of debt called "priority debt.". That's recent taxes, child support, etc. Those don't get discharged. You still owe them when the chapter 7 is over.

And yes, generally speaking under current law, student loans are not dischargeable.

And finally, there is an income requirement to chapter 7.  If you make too much money, you have to go to chapter 13.

As for chapter 13, you never lose property. The court puts you on a payment plan, usually for five but sometimes 3 years.

Your payment plan has to be big enough to pay off any amounts you are behind on your mortgage, any amounts you owe on a car loan, and any priority debt (eg taxes). Then based on other factors (assets and income), your unsecured creditors (credit cards, personal loans, medical debt) get a certain percentage of what they're owed.  Some chapter 13 debtors pay back only 1% to their unsecured creditors; others pay back 3% or 30% or 70%. It all depends.

Then, at the successful conclusion of your plan, the remainder of your unsecured debt is discharged.

Why would anyone choose a 5 year process (chapter 13) over a 3 month one (chapter 7)?  Well, if you stood to lose property in a chapter 7, that would be one reason.

A more common reason has to do with the fact that when you file a case, you come under the protection of the bankruptcy court. No foreclosures, no repossessions, no lawsuits, no wage garnishments, no attempts to collect any pre-petition bills.

So, if you're behind on your mortgage or taxes, chapter 13 gives you five years' protection from foreclosure or garnishment, during which time you can get caught up through your plan.

Chapter 13 has other useful tools, too: You can "cram down" your car loan so you pay back what the car is worth, not what you owe. You can also "strip" second mortgages; if you have a second mortgage, but are under water on the first mortgage, there is no equity there to secure that second mortgage. It gets "stripped," and is treated like any other unsecured debt (ie the lender gets only 1%, 3%, 30%, etc).

As to what happens to your credit score, it's not true that bankruptcy ruins it for 9 years. You actually become more credit-worthy because you don't have all this debt hanging over your head. Most chapter 7 debtors already have terrible credit, so their credit scores actually usually go up.


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

[User] ELI5:How did the Greek economy get so messed up?

[Assistant]
Many things,but the two main ones are:

1) an economy that relied heavily on tourism. When the global economy took a downturn, industries like tourism took a very big hit.  A lot of countries, surprisingly, do not have a diversified economy.  For fun read up on Russia and the oil industry.

2) very robust socialist policies....this is not a criticism of socialism, just a recognition that socialism costs money and Greece doesn't have that.  Workers received very generous pensions starting at age 55, usually ensuring about 25-30 years of pension checks along with free healthcare etc.  All this can really add up.  The government was highly corrupt, with many government workers being paid to basically do nothing, which only contributed to the national debt (without actually producing any goods).

All of this of course would not have been so crippling if 10 years ago the Greek people would have adjusted their government spending to match what they could afford.  Instead they kept spending the same, and simply borrowed money to off set the difference.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Do Sith ever use performance enhancing drugs like amphetamines, steroids, etc?

I was thinking because of the way Darth Maul was bisected to maintain his physical prowess he might be reliant on hormone supplements for the rest of his life, seeing how he was effectively castrated; but if someone like Maul would be making a point to use medicines to keep his testosterone levels high it would makes sense that he would use other kinds of drugs too; maybe not things that would turn him into a junkie like spice but combat stims or things like that maybe? Is that ever talked about in the lore?

[Assistant]
The philosophy of the sith dictates power must be your own. A true sith master will sends their apprentice to a monster infested hell-hole to train them because if they survive it will have been through rhe apprentice's own strength. Drugs do not fall under this category as it is the "cheat" method and thus is not beneficial.

Maybe after developing and becoming self-sufficient one or two sith may use some form of physical enhancement but generally no.


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

[User]
CMV: As a vegan I can still support responsible hunting

My father is a hunter, and he offers us moose meat for free. The meat tastes great, it is locally producted, the suffering of the moose is at the minimun (it got to live a great life in the forest and the kill is as quick as posdible) and all that stuff.

But the thing is, at least in my country we dont have many big predators left, so the only way to stop mooses from overpopulating out of control is hunting them. The goverment controls the hunting very closely: you need a permit to kill a moose and every kill is counted.

I have asked this question from a couple of vegans, and generally the answer has been "the nature will control it, hunting is bad." Well, this is both true and untrue.

If we would let nature to sort the situation out, then mooses would overpopulate out of control, and they would take over the ecologic place of many other animals. In the process they would also eat huge amounts of different semi-endangered plants from the forest.

The moose would also run on the roads much more often than now, and that would result in many more car-moose crashes as now.

I think that it is a necessity to continue the hunting to preserve the biodiversity, and that it would be a waste to not eat the meat as well.

Also, the definition of veganism is that vegan should not support anything that causes animal suffering. In my opinion the quick death of the moose is a smaller problem, than the lack of the biodiversity, as the lack of biodiversity could lead to the starvation of some other animals when moose eat all their food as well.

[Assistant]
(I mostly agree with your view but I'll attempt to make a rebuttal for arguments sake)

>I think that it is a necessity to continue the hunting to preserve the biodiversity, and that it would be a waste to not eat the meat as well.

Morally justifying its death doesn't *necessarily* morally justify eating it afterwards.

You're making a consequentialist moral argument here: if the moose is harming the enviroment it must die, and if it must die whats the additional harm in eating it?

But some vegans approach it from a different perspective. From the viewpoint of a vegan deontologist or virtue ethicist eating the flesh of another being is just gross and bad and not a practice that should be encouraged; period.

So even if you *have* to kill it, that killing should be treated as a "necessary evil". Humans partake in necessary evils all the time (in war, in medicine, abortions etc) but we are "supposed" to approach these events with solemnity and not take any joy from them.

We sometimes have to euthanise dogs and cats, but we don't eat them after.


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

[User]
[Encanto] Why doesnt Maribel have a gift?

My wife and I have watched it twice now, and it seems like no matter what the lesson is, Maribel gets kind of shafted.

When someone gets their gift, the house gives them a room of their own. We know this because Maribel has to share a room with Antonio until the house gives him his gift.

Does the house (or the candle, or the miracle, whatever it is) deny Maribel a gift in order to test Abuela? To teach her to love the person and not the gift? If so, Abuela fails, but then learns her lesson. The house is rebuilt, all the powers are restored, but Maribel still has nothing.

Just seems like Maribel knew the lesson all along and has to suffer so other people can learn it.

[Assistant]
Who else in the family doesn't have a personal gift? Abuela.

Mirabel is the only one in the family that really talks to the house in a regular basis. She's the first to notice when things go wrong and the only one willing to fight against the pressure to just be quiet about it. She is the one that brings the family back together and the one who risks the most to protect their miracle. She recognizes what Antonio's gift will be (even if she didn't know it) before it's bestowed because she pays attention to him. She's already the family story keeper - the kids from the village ask her for the run down at the beginning. And when the Casita is rebuilt, she's granted the front door. She will grow up to be the next matriarch of the family, after Abuela.


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

[User]
eli5 why can you not taste when your tongue is numb if taste and touch are two different senses?

After having some dental work, I have found myself wondering.

[Assistant] All 5 of the main senses (a lot more have been identified but thats another topic) require nerves to carry information to your brain. When the area is numb, the nerves are being prevented from doing this. So your brain isnt receiving the information, even if the stimulus is present (in the case of taste, the stimulus is your food).


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

[User] ELI5: How is it that two different species like a horse and a donkey reproduce to make a mule, but other instances of interspecial breeding do not produce offspring?

[Assistant]
There is actually no globally applicable, waterproof definition of what a "species" is. One common definition is "if it can't interbreed, it's a different species", but cases like horse/donkey (and tiger/lion) show its limit. Another problem is that it can only apply to populations that existed at the same time: How can you say that horses today and horses 500 years ago are the same species?

Definitions aside, two populations can interbreed if their genes are compatible, but that is really more a continuum than a yes/no question. There are, for example genetic defects where people who carry the defect cannot have viable offspring with each other, but can with anyone who doesn't. In the case of horses and donkeys, their genes are almost compatible, but there are differences which cause the offspring to be infertile.


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

[User]
[Passengers] Why is there only one autodoc (medical pod) on the ship?

On a ship that size with 5000+ people on it, why is there only 1 Autodoc?   Other than plot reasons, there should be at least a dozen of those autodocs and then they could both wake up 88 yrs later like everyone else and still be a happy ending.

[Assistant] The passengers were only supposed to be awake for a month or so. It was more of a resort than a community. There was other beds and equipment for non emergency or diognostic use if i remember correctly.


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

[User] [Star Wars] Did Darth Vader have any moments of humanity towards his Clone/Stormtroopers, was his relationship to his Clone-Commanders very cold right after Order 66?

[Assistant]
We don't know, as we don't see him working with clones again until five years after RotS. It's not shown that he's a dick toward the few that remain in service.

In the main Star Wars comic by Marvel, his helmet gets removed by an attack and a stormtrooper sees his face underneath. Vader kills him.


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

[User]
ELI5: How painful would dying on Mount Everest be?

  I read on Wiki about how people who perish on the mountain are used as landmarks by future climbers.

That seems pretty metal and a badass way to ensure you are still useful even in the afterlife, how painful would it be?

Assuming no accident, how long would the elements/low oxygen take to do you in?

[Assistant]
Read somewhere that freezing to death -- after initial discomfort, of course -- becomes less painful and you actually feel warm and comfortable and just go to sleep.

On the other hand, if you fell and broke bunches of bones, then that's added pain.


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

[User] [Superheroes/Villians] What are the advantages and disadvantages of revealing your secret identity?

[Assistant]
Advantages:

* Fame.

* It means you can save a lot of time and effort that would be spent on keeping it a secret.

* Heroes can get paid.

* It's often a prerequisite to operating legally, so heroes can avoid having police go after them.

Disadvantages:

* You won't be able to live a normal life.

* Your friends and family might be held hostage.

* Heroes can be arrested if they violate the law.

* Evidence obtained illegally can be thrown out of court, as can evidence obtained because of that evidence etc.


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

[User]
Does a hunter forfeit the right to life while hunting?

I've had an argument about the statement "when a hunter is hunting their forfeit their right to life".
I've based my position on the principle that:
>"every animal has the right to not be infringed upon realized by the moral right to fight back against oppression and moral obligation to not willingly infringe on others" the violation of this principle on another animal gives them the right to defend it at the cost of yours.

I can't get a straight argument why this is wrong but it seems both intuitive and bad to accept it.

[Assistant] If an animal attacked and killed a hunter we might think it was unfortunate (Im sure some people wouldnt, but thats not the point), but we wouldnt think the hunters rights had been violated. Only if the Hunter is attacked by another person is there a possible infringement of the hunters rights.


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

[User]
[Children Of Men] What was it like to be a 10-year-old in 2016?

The crisis started in 2007, so people who were born in 2006 were the last generation, so to speak.

While Baby Diego was a celebrity, what was it like to be a "regular" 10-year-old a decade after the plague started?

[Assistant]
All 10-year-olds would've been celebrities to some extent, at least in their towns or neighborhoods.  Strangers would dote on them and give them gifts.

They would always be the youngest in their schools.  The classrooms they used the year prior would remain empty.  They would be treated as babies by everyone because no one would ever be younger than them.

Their parents would be subjected to regular doctor visits trying to determine why they had remained fertile longer than others.  The stress on their families would be noticeable.

Like Baby Diego, many would have a feeling of entitlement, trapped in the perpetual permissiveness of youth, while the world slowly crumbled around them.


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

[User]
Does the brain send signals consistently to keep a muscle in the same state?

When I, for example, hold one arm straight to the side, does the brain continuously give the signal to keep the muscle extended or does it just make the arm extend once and it will stay extended until a different signal comes in?

[Assistant]
yes - you can think of muscles as huge bundles of motor units, which are small bundles of muscle cells.  Each motor unit has its own motor neuron.  When you raise one arm out to the side and are holding it there, your motor cortex is sending out a consistent stream of signals to keep that arm up.  However, it requires more force to raise that arm to its holding position, and therefore, requires recruitment of a greater number of motor units (more signals sent from the brain) to initially raise the arm.

It is actually pretty interesting how it works.  Motor units can't stay contracted for very long, or else once the arm was raised the signals would stop.  Instead, as individual motor units run out of ATP (the main cellular form of energy), they relax and the force that they were generating to keep the arm up is replaced by another motor unit that was previously relaxed.

To simplify - at the beginning of a muscle contraction, there are a really really large amount of individual signals, the number of signals then decreases but remains consistent until you lower the arm.