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

[User]
Does gravity have a range or speed?

So, light is a photon, and it gets emitted by something (like a star) and it travels at ~300,000 km/sec in a vacuum. I can understand this. Gravity on the other hand, as I understand it, isn't something that's emitted like some kind of tractor beam, it's a deformation in the fabric of the universe caused by a massive object. So, what I'm wondering is, is there a limit to the range at which this deformation has an effect. Does a big thing like a black hole not only have stronger gravity in general but also have the effects of it's gravity be felt further out than a small thing like my cat? Or does every massive object in the universe have some gravitational influence on every other object, if very neglegable, even if it's a great distance away? And if so, does that gravity move at some kind of speed, and how would it change if say two black holes merged into a bigger one? Additional mass isn't being created in such an event, but is "new gravity" being generated somehow that would then spread out from the merged object?

I realize that it's entirely possible that my concept of gravity is way off so please correct me if that's the case. This is something that's always interested me but I could never wrap my head around.

Edit:  I did not expect this question to blow up like this, this is amazing.  I've already learned more from reading some of these comments than I did in my senior year physics class.  I'd like to reply with a thank you to everyone's comments but that would take a lot of time, so let me just say "thank you" to all for sharing your knowledge here.  I'll probably be reading this thread for days.  Also special "thank you" to the individuals who sent silver and gold my way, I've never had that happen on Reddit before.

[Assistant]
Yes, gravity has infinite range and changes in gravity propagate at the speed of light. It's a very analagous with electromagnetism, ie electric/magnetic fields and electromagnetic waves.

Every piece of matter in the universe is attracted to every other piece of matter in the universe. And when wild things happen, like neutron stars merging, the hiccup in gravity you feel from them spiraling into each other at half the speed of light arrives in almost lockstep with the light from the explosion from the matter they fling off.


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

[User]
[MCU] Pre Infinity War, what is Thanoss relationship with the rest of cosmic community?

In the glimpses of the space side of the MCU we get, The Kree Empire and Nova Corp are powerful entities who know who Thanos is, and what he does to planets. Asgard doesnt seem to be aware of him, and if they are they dont seem to care.

While the Kree and the Nova Corp have had their hands full with each other, wouldnt either or both see him as a secondary threat of some type? He may not have the same resources as those civilizations, but has conquered and decimated plenty of worlds on his own.

Would there be some realpolitik tacit agreement that as long as Thanos doesnt threaten their domains the Kree and Nova Corp, they wont confront him? Or has their war been so draining that they ignore him and hope for the best?

[Assistant]
He was a force of nature, but in the grand scheme of things not really something to be worried about. There are billions of worlds, but only one Thanos. The odds of him showing up to your planet are astronomically small. Besides, he only seemed to target planets that were going down the path of Titan. Too many mouthes and not enough to go around like Gamora's homeworld. Keep your population fed and happy and he's unlikely to pay you a visit, which societies like the Kree and Nova Corps were fully able to do.

But when you have something he wants, like an Infinity Stone, *that's* when you should be worried.


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

[User]
ELI5 - Why is it that the hold music for all companies (including tech and telecom) sounds as though it's being played on a wax cylinder, captured by a tin can phone, and broadcast through stripped telegraph wires on a windy day?

Seriously. How is this possible? It's LOUD. It crackles. What the f*ck crackles anymore?

EDIT: Thanks for the responses, but I'm still baffled. So everyone seems to agree that the phone system isn't built for music, too little bandwidth, etc. That being the case and with it being clearly so pervasive despite the fact that a huge swath of people seem to understand the issue, I'm left wondering how every single company (c'mon... hyperbole is fun) could possibly have come to the same conclusion when they hooked up their on hold music and found it to be totally broken: namely, "Meh. Good enough."

Sorry. This has now become a rant, but I would still honestly like to hear from someone who is responsible for that aspect of their company's business. Justify yourself!

[Assistant]
Because it's being transmitted at a bitrate between 5.6kbps (kilobits per second) and 64kbps depending on all of the systems involved, whereas 128kbps is considered by many to be the lowest ok-quality mp3 and 320kbps is considered to be close to CD quality.

Lower bitrate = more compression = crappier sound. It works ok for voice (mostly because they've discovered a ton of technology to make it that way), but not for complex recorded music.


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

[User] ELI5:How were modern day scholars able to translate works written in archaic English (e.g. The Canterbury tales) so accurately when the language used is so different from the English today?

[Assistant]
You have a lot of texts written in Old English, Middle English, Early Modern English, Victorian English, etc., so you can trace the evolution of the language and backtrack. By now, Old English is an easy language to learn since we know so much about it.

Things that help:

* Having the same text in multiple periods (the Bible)

* Having translations of earlier texts done in different times (English doesn't rely on this as much, but for example we know a lot about Japanese and its evolution thanks to people adapting Genji Monogatari every 50 years or so starting the 12th century)

* Having repetitive texts drawn out over the centuries (census data, tax books, etc.)

* Having a fairly straightforward evolution that you can explain using historical context (Sudden French loanwords? Go figure, it was after France became a cool place. Sudden Latin influence? Go figure, it was around the time that the church had a say in written language)

* Having a lot of text to work with

You can also figure out pronounciation based on linguistic analysis and old songs which use rhymes (Ever notice that Shakespeare sometimes randomly doesn't rhyme? That's recorded language change right there, and you can figure out the pronunciation of old words based on the fact that, in Shakespeare's time, they used to rhyme)

It's harder with languages that don't have as much data to work with, but fortunately English started writing down things pretty early.


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

[User]
[General Science Fiction] Realistically, what starship has the most ideal space ship design?

For either general space faring and/or combat!

[Assistant]
A Bug rock from Starship Troopers.

Seriously - You take a rock, fill it with eggs, mount a plasma bug on it (or just fire plasma at it from some other location) and just let it arc into the target planet.  Imagine if something like a Bombadier Beetle evolved its' chemical weapon into something akin to rocket propellant.

1. It's cheap - The bugs expend very little resource to create these vessels  - Just melt a hole, drop some eggs, and fire. Sure, a few individuals die to propel the ship, but who cares about a few bugs when you have millions.

2. It's Low Maintenance - Once the propulsion bug dies, it's ballistic. The eggs either hatch and infest the next planet that catches the rock in its' gravity well, or they stay in the rock in orbit - a preserved sample of Bug genetics, waiting for some unsuspecting alient to mine the asteroid and find them, and possibly take them back to their homeworld (free transit to an infestable world!)
3. Asteroids are great insulation against radiation. Why build a structure, when you can use something that already exists in great number in most star systems?
4. Asteroids are camouflage. It's hard to tell, just by looking at it, that a given rock has a gooey center of Arachnid Warriors just waiting to hatch.


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

[User]
ELI5: Taxes for rich, and what cutting them (like the republicans want) and raising them (like the democrats want) entails?

So to be completely honest taxes in general just confuse me (only 18, never really paid any) and i am trying to understand this argument between the two political parties in the US.

So like, i get that your tax rate gets higher as your income gets higher.

When people talk about republicans cutting taxes for the rich, does that mean lowering the amount that the percentage increases?

and why is this fair and/or unfair depending on who you ask?

[Assistant]
The specifics of the legislation being proposed vary widely... and most of the little snippets you hear aren't backed up by a real proposal, just talking points.

But I'll give you the low down of a few pieces of tax law that are being discussed:

1) The "Death Tax", aka "Estate Tax", or "Inheritance Tax".  This tax happens only when someone dies, and everything they own is transferred to the people they specify in their will.  The rate of the tax is progressive - just like income tax in the US - and caps out at 40% for the highest tier.  Democrats want to leave it as is. Republicans are trying to remove this.  The thing is - the first $5 *million* of any estate is exempted, so only a tiny percentage of people would ever have to pay this anyway.  Only the top 0.2% have estates that qualify.  This is literally a tax that only affects millionaires and billionaires - and Republicans want it gone.

2) Tax brackets.  The current system is tiered - your first $10k of income is only taxed at 10%.  The *next* $30k is taxed at 15%.  The *next* $50k is taxed at 20%.  Etc, etc, all the way up to a ~40% tax rate for income earned over ~$400k.  Both sides want changes here.  The least progressive being a flat tax (everyone pays the same percentage - whether they made $10k or $100k).  The more progressive taxes would increase the top tax bracket percentage.

3) Social Security / Medicare / Unemployment, aka the "Employment Tax".  This is a flat tax that is applied to your income of around 15% - you pay half of that and your employer (if you have one) pays the other.  Unlike the other tax brackets that are tiered, this one has a single tier - and that tier has a cap.  The current cap is about $110k, meaning that this tax is a regressive tax.  Democrats generally want to remove the cap - to make it not regressive or less so.  Republicans mostly support Social Security and want to keep the tax as is, however there is also strong Republican support for removing Social Security and Medicare completely.

4) Tax breaks/exemptions/credits.  The variety of these is immense.  We give tax breaks to all sorts of people/businesses for all sorts of reasons, and both sides want to cut them or provide them to different people.

As far as what is "fair"... that's a question with a lot of opinions.


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

[User]
Can someone teach me about the COVID19 antibody test? What types of biomarkers are we looking for and what does that tell us?

Ive been reading all about the effort for antibody testing and learned that there are different types of antibodies such as IgM, IgG. What are the different types? What can they tell us? Do you need a certain level of each antibody to correlate to a 95% immunity against the next infection?

[Assistant]
An antibody is a Y-shapes protein with two binding sites for some antigen, which hopefully are foreign particles. This is called the variable fragment or sometimes the Fab. If this binds to self proteins, this is what leads to autoimmune reactions. The two binding sites on an antibody are identical, which means that both of the Fab need to bind to the same antigen. There are different isotypes of antibodies, which are used by different parts of the immune response. IgG is the most common in the blood, and it has the typically Y shaped structure. IgM actually is like 5 IgGs put together so there are actually 10 antigen binding sites, which we say has an avidity of 10. However, since the avidity is higher, the affinity is usually lower. This is because IgM does not go through affinity maturation, which is a refining process that IgGs go through. There are other isotypes of antibodies, is such as IgE (important in allergic responses/parasite detection) and IgA (important in mucosal surface protection).

When an unknown particle (antigen) from the virus appears in our body, the objective is for those particles to end up binding with high affinity to immune cells in the spleen or lymph nodes typically (although this can occur in other places such as mucosal layers MALT). After an immune cell binds, there will be various processes that will lead to the proliferation of that cell so that the antibody it created can be used to fight the antigen.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] How much is a Jedi Master worth to The Empire in terms of bounty?

Let's say I'm a bounty hunter, a really good bounty hunter, in fact I'm so good as a bounty hunter that I've managed to capture a Jedi Master that survived Order 66, hiding out in the Outer Rim and out of Imperial Space.

What kind of price can I negotiate with The Empire to turn this Jedi over to them?

[Assistant]
You don't negotiate. They will offer you a price, and you will take the price. Otherwise, you need to now deal with the Empire.

It will be a price worth accepting, though. Eliminating rivals is high on Palpatine's list of things to do.


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

[User]
[Marvel] Are there super-powered people or mutants that don't use their powers for good or evil, and just use them as a job?

Like are there any super strong people that work construction?

What about some one with water/ice powers working as a fireman?

Or what about someone using super speed as a courier service?

[Assistant]
It might have been DC instead of Marvel, a low-tier supervillain with super-strength was wrecking an apartment building and a hero jumped in and pummelled him.

It turned out the villain, out on probation, had started a demolition company and had been hired to bring down the building.  As the villain had a lawyer literally standing on the sidelines ready for the hero with cease-and-desist and other legal paperwork pre-printed it was pretty much a setup to screw with the hero.


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

[User] Could an atomic bomb be destroyed with some type of non atomic bomb, such as dynamite, and not detonate the atomic bomb in the process?

[Assistant]
Easily. Indeed if a nuclear bomb is fully armed with all safeties removed it would still be almost impossible for an outside explosion to cause a proper nuclear detonation.

All known current nuclear weapons use chemical explosives to compress a subcritical mass of plutonium or uranium, the increased density turning it supercritical creating the nuclear explosion. This requires the chemical explosive to be detonated from multiple points with precise timing to create a shockwave moving concentrically inwards. A shockwave from an outside explosion will not do that.

For gun type fission weapons all that's needed is to shoot the "bullet" at the "target". An outside explosion of the right strength from the right direction *might* do that but it doesn't seem likely.


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

[User]
[Dragonball Z] Why are there never enough Senzu Beans?

It seems that every time the Z fighters need a Senzu Bean, there is a severe shortage of them, but when they conveniently need a new bag of beans, they can get them dead easily.

For example: They had a full bag of Senzu Beans when they fought Android 19 and 20 and it was apparently a big deal that they had them. They then have another full bag of beans when fighting Cell in the Cell Games, which was arguably less than a month later? Not to mention that they had a full three years to prepare for The Androids, so Korin should have been growing those beans like a champ!

Also, when they're fighting Cell and he steals the Senzu Beans, they think it's all a big shock. Goku has instant transmission, so why the hell didn't he just teleport to Korin's tower and get some more?

Fast forward a further seven years and they're still running into the same problem of running out of beans. Korin had seven years to stock up on beans! He should have entire closets full of them, and yet he always gives out a tiny little bag with barely any beans.

Throughout the Buu Saga, there were only two situations where Senzu Beans were used. Videl gets one and Majin Vegeta gets the other, with the understanding that there are no other beans. What the hell, Korin? What have you been doing in seven years that makes it so you only have two beans?

The same applies in the Saiyan Saga when Goku gets back from being dead and gets some beans from Korin. He eats one to get his strength back and then realizes he only has one left? Why the hell did Korin only give him two beans?

So why is it that there are supposedly so few beans available that they're a valuable resource, but it's clearly possible to grow a whole bag full in less than a month?

[Assistant] Yajirobe and Korin eat the beans as their main source of nutrition. They tend not to set aside any in times of peace. Korin had a stockpile from the androids preparing for the androids, but was not prepared for Buu. Also, the entire Buu saga happens over only a few days iirc.


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

[User]
Can you generate electricity from the earths magnetic field?

This has always been a curiosity of mine.

As people know, if you move a conductor through a magnetic field, a voltage is produced across the conductor and a current will flow as a result, all proportional to length of conductor, field strength, etc..
Classic generator theory.

Now, this is where I'm confused.
I'm pretty sure of my theory, but need some reddit advice! Here goes-

The earths magnetic field runs north-south (or vice versa, I don't know), right?
So, if you string up a long piece of wire in front of you spanning East-West, and dropped the wire parallel to the ground, will a voltage be produced on the ends of the conductor from the wire cutting through the earths magnetic field?

I understand the energy produced will be absolutely miniscule at the most, but is my theory true?
Ive thought of a couple concepts to aid with the efficiency by using an electronic compass to stay perpendicular and using sustainable kinetic energy for the movement of the conductor.

But, really-

...Will it work?

[Assistant] Yes you can and it has been done before. In the space industry, an alternate way of generating electricity is to have a conductive tether that can generate electricity because it is a piece of wire moving at +8km/s through the magnetic field as opposed to using solar panels. It is rarely used because it degrades your orbit tremendously but it is an alternative for certain missions in low earth orbit that have a very low mission duration, low power requirements and low budget.


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

[User]
ELI5:Artificial food flavoring

How do scientists figure out how to get some chemicals to taste like something else, specifically a certain flavor? Example: Propel watermelon flavored water. Has no mention of anything watermelon-y, yet tastes like watermelon.

[Assistant]
Well, "watermelon" can be re-described in terms of chemically-sounding names. Everything is made of chemicals, so you can think of it like two languages: everything has its common name (watermelon), and it's technical, chemically name.

Any naturally-ocurring chemical can and has been recreated in a lab. One day, a scientist decided, "I wonder what makes watermelon taste like watermelon". He got some watermelon and his analysis equipment and figured-out what chemicals are in watermelon. He identified which specific one is responsible for the taste, and "presto". Synthetic watermelon flavoring.


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

[User] Can bugs with an exoskeleton (ants, beetles, scorpions etc.) survive a cracked skeleton or heal themselves?

[Assistant] Yes. Arthropods do have a simple immune system. Some orders and families may not be able to heal a cracked shell, but some may. For example: a butterfly is very vulnerable for the first few hours or days after it emerges from its chrysalis. It has a soft shell, its wings are damp and weak, therefore, it has to heal itself and gain strength before it can function normally.


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

[User] Why are clouds flat on the bottom? And when it rains do clouds get smaller?

[Assistant]
Generally speaking (that is, the common/simplified model of cloud formation), because the "bottom" of clouds usually represents the condensation line where rising moist air has cooled enough to condense into cloud droplets.

While it looks like a "hard" line, it's not like one side is moist and the other is bone dry. It's just on one side it's not quite cool enough to condense droplets out of air, on the other it is.


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

[User] Is there a term for that delay when you hear something but don't understand it for a few seconds?

[Assistant] I don't know if there is a specific term for that delay, but it is related to sensory memory. When you ask your friend "what" and then realize a second later what they actually said, you are retrieving information from your sensory memory. You have sensory memory for each of your senses. For hearing, the term is "echoic memory", whereas for touch and sight, the terms are "haptic memory" and "iconic memory", respectively. What happens is, you brain retains an exact replica of the sound you heard, and for a very short period of time, you're able to retrieve that information by "replaying" it, even if your brain has not interpreted it yet. So if you're not paying attention during lecture, and your professor says something followed by "You should write that down!"... you use echoic memory to retrieve what s/he said, despite the fact that you weren't really paying attention before.


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

[User] ELI5: How do people die from jumping off a bridge into water?

[Assistant]
The answer is a combination of deceleration and water density (NOT surface tension as other answers say), with the latter causing the former.

When you hit the water at speed, you go from passing through a low-density substance (air) to a very high-density substance. Because it's dense, the molecules in it can't get out of the way when your body hits it.  This isn't a problem when you dip your hand in some water - the molecules are easily shoved aside - but it is a problem when you take that same hand and slap the water, resulting in it stinging because most of the water doesn't have time to move out of the way. So you feel the force of your slap just as if you swat a table. So the water feels much more like a solid surface, and the more of your body that contacts it at once, the more this is amplified, which is why bellyflops hurt so much more than clean dives.

Now the deceleration part. You're going very very quickly from a high speed to a low speed, resulting in massive deceleration of different parts of your body. Besides bones possibly breaking because arms and legs get torn straight back or ribs get crushed in depending on how you land, your brain gets knocked around and the air gets knocked out of your lungs. These usually make you go unconscious or at least become massively disoriented, so you can't get to air and thus drown.

There can be other contributing factors like cold water causing hypothermia, or currents causing you to not be able to swim back to the surface, but these are the two "instant" ones.


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

[User]
ELI5: What makes the observable universe "observable"?

And what makes the rest of the universe "unobservable"?

[Assistant]
It is "observable right now from earth." It takes light time to travel. If thigs in the universe are so far away that they haven't been in existance long enough for their light to get to us, then when we look their direction there is nothing to observe.

And the kicker is that it appears that space is expandingat these distances faster than the speed of light, so there are probably objects beyond the observable universe that will never make it to us.


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

[User] ELI5 Crows are all over the world, but where are crows naturally from and what kind of effect did they have as an invasive species?

[Assistant]
There are a lot of related species of dark-black colored corvids that we collectively call crows.  The North American Crow, the European Carrion Crow, and the Australian Crow all look similar but are not the same species.

Youll have to see what species are in your area and if theyre all native.  Theyre a smart, adaptable group so they can worm their way into other habitats, but most of the world has existing species that already fill that slot.


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

[User]
[Fallout] What did the army of the old world look like?

So, with more weapons than you can shake a stick at, as well as kinetic (bullets), Direct-Energy, and plasma weaponry, it makes me wonder what did the army actually look like back then? Did your standard soldier just lug around a plasma rifle? Direct-Energy? Was it reserved for special troops? How prevalent was power armor? Where they grouped in their own little squads and used like shock troops? What was the makeup of your average squad?

It honestly boggles my mind!

[Assistant]
Interesting question, Nuka-fueled Wastelander speculation incoming.

Plasma were definetively not standard issue. Just look at the things! Either they are hilariously big and bulky like the Winchester P94, or a mess of exposed cables and components like Winchesters more conventional-shaped urban plasma rifle.
They still are common enough in the wasteland, though, so them being reserved for special occations sounds fair.

Power armour were developed as a means to easily carry heavy weaponry, essentially turning an infantryman into a bipedal tank.
Power armour were used, at least intended to be used, in seperate squads. loaded up with heavy weapons like miniguns, fat men and other stuff a regular infantryman would have a hard time carrying, they would spearhead attacks like a conventional tracked tank would.

The US military were moving towards making energy weapons standard issue, but it is slow to replace the weapons of an entire army, and frontline units like those serving in China were surely prioritized over the home front, so regular bullet-spitters like the  R91 were commonplace.
However, the US military were moving towards making the AER9 laser rifle standard issue. Makes sense. Lasers pack a bigger punch than the old assault rifles, and a "point and shoot" interface as opposed to the slow plasma projectiles.
The AER9 is not top of the line laser weaponry, but the sturdy case and more reliable design are needed to survive the harshest enviroment known to man: the hands of an US grunt.
The Sole Survivors old war footage lend support to this. He and his squad are all equipped with laser rifles.

So, to sum it up, and assuming we are talking frontline armies, not home front/national guard units fighting civillians, an assault would be spearheaded by power armour units lugging around miniguns, rocket launchers, fat men, and probably stuff like plasma rifles if it were deemed advantagous.
Then comes the rest of the spear, the bulk of the army. Regular grunts equipped with combat armour and likely a laser rifle. Frontline units get priorities on the good stuff, so if you are serving behind the lines, you might have an assault rifle instead.
Finally, as we see from the Sole Survivors footage, assigning power armour units to regular squads to carry heavy weapons are not completely off the books, but it is hard to know if this was intended to be a permanent replacement for the shmuck lugging around a light machine gun, or just a temporary replacement, to give patrols extra firepower when the power armour units are sitting on their asses anyway.


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

[User]
[ATLA] How would the other nations have done if they tried what the fire nation did?

Air, Water, Earth, how would the efforts to take over the other three nations have gone?

[Assistant]
Not so well.

The key thing about the fire benders succeeding was that their element gave them an upper hand over the other nations to engage in combat inall terrain .

 With the exception of air benders, all the other nations require a natural source for the element.

So if water benders strayed too far from a viable water source, they would have been rendered useless. The same for the earth benders who try to invade the poles.

But aside from that the other nations simply would not have faired to well even despite bending.

The air nomads, simply wouldn't want colonize any body because their pacifist.

The water tribe was kind of under developed and the tribes weren't particular united.

The earth nation lacked unity and they were underdeveloped.


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

[User]
Why is sitting bad for us and how often would a human/primate sit naturally?

Hm, this might be a strangely-worded question.
We've been hearing a lot about how sitting is (or can be) causing so many health problems because how stationary our lifestyles have become.

I guess I'm a bit curious as to why sitting is such a health risk. Is it only because the amount of exercise we get throughout the day is limited? (spending more time watching television, video games, computers, sedentary occupations-less time outside walking, running, exercising)

Or is sitting itself causing issues?
If humans were not exposed to technology or jobs that require regular sitting, how often would we be sitting? Is there a difference to how and how much we sit now compared to our past ancestors and other primates now?

As someone who works in animation, I do a lot of sitting which got me thinking.
Anyway, thanks to any and all answers!

[Assistant]
Sitting, as it turns out, has played an important role in the evolution of our species. In fact, our body structure is well designed for sitting.

Not just us either. Resting is an important part of what all animals do on a day to day basis, and we all have strategies for doing it to our best advantage. Songbird feet, for example, are built in such a way that when weight is placed on the foot, the weight of the bird tightens the tendons of the foot, and the bird can perch without using any muscle strength.

Compared to monkeys, Apes spend less time lying down or hanging and more time sitting. As a result, all apes execpt for humans have what is called an ischial callosity, a large callous on their ass that allows them to sit for long periods of time without getting ass-chap.

Humans take it a step further than the rest of the apes. Because we walk upright, we need large muscles on our ass. We fill these muscles with a lot of fat on purpose because it helps us sit comfortably for long periods without bruising. We are built to sit.

So why is sitting a risk factor for heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes, and a whole host of other epidemic conditions? The answer: we spend too much time sitting and not enough time walking. As much as humans are built to sit, we are built to walk, AND RUN! We should naturally spend a good portion of our day walking and running. EVERY DAY! But we don't. Most of us sit too much and eat too much, and that's why the statistics suggest that sitting is a risk factor.

.

tl;dr sitting isn't bad, what's bad is not being active enough.

.

PS: There are ways sitting can be bad for you. Especially among elderly, it has been noted that long flights can be a risk factor for thromboembolisms (essentially a blood clot that forms somewhere in your distal arteries, makes its way to your heart and beyond). Such long periods of sitting causes the blood in your legs to circulate less. If the blood pools, it can clot, and those clots can disrupt the function of your heart or brain if they find their way to either of those places.

However, if you have been getting good exercise lately, this shouldn't be a problem for you, as your strong heart will continue to move the blood through your legs sufficiently for the duration of the flight.

Edit: Breaking up your sitting episodes to walk around a little can certainly go a long way.


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

[User] ELI5: Why isn't time in base 10?

[Assistant] In the days before pocket calculators (most of human history, that is) dividing numbers was a pain in the ass.  Using 60 and multiples of 60 (such as 360 degrees in a circle) made life easier because 60 is cleanly divided by the factors 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, 30 and 60.  That's a lot of useful, easy-to-divide fractions.


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

[User]
Which fundamental force does dark energy use?

Do the forces of dark energy propagate with gravity, electro magnetism, strong or the weak force? Or a combination of these?

Could it be that there is some unknown 5th fundamental force for dark energy?

[Assistant]
>Which fundamental force does dark energy use?

Dark energy doesn't have or experience forces.  Dark energy isn't a physical thing, it is a property of spacetime or possibly of a field defined on spacetime -- it is not an object that can experience forces.

>Could it be that there is some unknown 5th fundamental force for dark energy?

There are proposals that model dark energy as something like a 5th fundamental force (a new fundamental bosonic quantum field), but there are problems with many of these proposals and to date they offer no value over standard general relativity with a small cosmological constant.

Hope that helps.


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

[User] Eli5 Why cant something be theoretically be faster than light? Why is that considered the absolute speed limit when we dont even know whats out there or what could theoretically be faster?

[Assistant]
There probably isn't an ELI5 or even ELIPhD answer to this question. Nobody know why our universe is set up this way.  What we do know is what we have observed. You can make very small things like say a proton go really really close to the speed of light. But what we observe when we try to push those things faster is that the more "push" you give them, the less boost you get. You push twice as hard and now its only going a tiny bit faster. you push a hundred times harder and now its only going an even tinier bit faster. Pretty soon you are using all the pushing force in the world. Then you get another surprise, the little proton suddenly seems to act like it's gotten really heavy. And the faster you push it, the heaiver it seems to get. Imagine if you stepped on your gas pedal in a car and the car got twice as heavy!

Basically the rules for our universe say that if you are an object, a "thing" you can't ever go at the speed of light. You might get pretty close. But it takes more and more energy and at some point the amount of energy it takes becomes greater than all the energy in the universe.


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

[User]
[DC] Does Superman Need Limbs to Fly?

This is kinda weird but my friends and I were having a discussion on whether Superman could fly if you broke his limbs or cut them off. Would he just be a flying torso of death that shoots lasers?

[Assistant]
He probably could fly without his limbs, but he would need to relearn how to do so, since most of the muscle memory Superman uses to navigate in flight is based on arm movements.

Which means we'd have a flying torso of death that shoots lasers but couldn't aim for a week or so.


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

[User] How do they measure the core temperature of the sun?

[Assistant] Can't actually measure it since we don't have instruments that can withstand that type of heat. However, we can infer the core temperature by applying physical principles to other measurements. We can determine that mass, volume, composition, etc. of the sun and based off of this information and certain assumptions we can calculate what the core temperature should be.


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

[User] ELI5: Where does the idea of multiple universes come from? Is there any scientific proof backing it? What exactly does the idea of "alternate/multiple universes" entail?

[Assistant]
There are various places in physics where the idea of multiple universes arise, for a bit different reasons. I'll write a bit about two of the main ones.

First, lets talk about the one coming from an interpretation of quantum mechanics, which roughly says that every time a quantum measurement is performed, the universe "splits" into multiple branches, where each branch has its own result of the measurement. This is called the many world interpretation, for obvious reasons. That somebody came up with this comes from how the math of quantum mechanics looks like: the state of a system is described by a wave function. The wave function "spreads out" over different classical values, and normally we think of this as giving probabilities of the various possible outcomes. When we then take a measurement, we see just one of the values, and the wave function "collapses" to the value we found. But the many world interpretation says that the wave function is actually real; so all the different outcomes actually all happen, they just happen in different "branches" that doesn't talk to each other. Then there is no collapse. So in a way this comes out of taking the math of QM very seriously.

The other version of multiple universes comes from cosmology (the study of the very early universe). The common model believed today is that of inflation, which roughly means that the universe underwent a very rapid expansion closely after the big bang. This seems required to explain various observed features. Then some people observed that it is natural for this inflation to actually go on forever, something that is called eternal inflation. In this model, the rapid expansion only randomly stops in small "bubbles", that because of quantum fluctuations "freeze out" of the surrounding inflating universe. Each such bubble becomes its own universe, and the randomness of the freezing should give each new bubble some new random laws of physics. This also ties in with the anthropic principle, which is an attempt to explain why the universe looks the way it looks. The logic of this goes that of course the universe has to look this way and be such that it supports human life, since if it was any other way we wouldn't be here to ask the question. This combined with a multiverse is a possible answer for why the laws of physics look the way the do and so on. Of course many (probably most) physicists are not satisfied with this "answer". Some people also use the anthropic principle to argue for a multiverse without pointing to any particular physics model.


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

[User]
Animals that camouflage themselves - how do they know?

I feel like every question I ask here is derp, but here goes:

I wonder about animals that camouflage easily - how aware are they that they are doing so? I assume the majority of the answer is that they evolved to be great at camouflage, but at any point is it known to be a conscious thing? Would an insect that resembled the leaf of a particular plant, if given a choice, gravitate toward that one for safety? Is it that they evolve to resemble the plants that they are most likely to hang out on (ex: their food source) and that's all there is to it? Would a pink fish choose a pink coral to hide in over a white one?  What about higher animals? Does a brown rabbit know that it's harder to see in brown grass than in green?

[Assistant]
A pink fish probably became pink because it probably hangs around pink coral a lot. After these fish evolves pink scales, some may have also hung around white coral, but those ones may have been more likely to be eaten. This promotes pink fish staying near pink coral.

As for whether or not it's conscious, we can't determine universally, and even then it's difficult. A fawn's mother is likely to hide their child in shady grassy area and it's likely to know this is where it's safest, but we'd have a hard time determining whether or not it knows its spots are the reason why. For something dumb like a fish it's highly unlikely they're conscious of what they should chill by (pink coral) to improve survival.  Instead, the pink fish that survive longer have evolutionary bred instinct to chill there.


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

[User] ELI5: Why won't the human body build up a resistance toward insect bites such as fleas or gnats?

[Assistant] When something gets inflamed on your body, like at the site of a bug bite.  That's not the bug's doing.  That's your immune system's reaction to the bite.  Keeping you safe from whatever the bug's mouth brought with it as best it can.  We can't build up a resistance to that, because that reaction you get that's the body resisting.


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

[User]
ELI5: Meat that is "aged" for 30 days?

ELI5: Why is "aged meat" a good thing? I see a 30 day aged meat on a menu, and it's like HOW!? WHY!? Wouldn't it be "bad meat" by that point?

EDIT: Holy wow I learned so much about aging meat!! Thank you for all the comments and videos!

[Assistant] Its aged in specially controlled rooms to maintain an optimal temperature and humidity level, but the exterior still does rot. However the way the interior meat breaks down makes it tender and flavorful. The rotted exterior gets trimmed off, and that loss of meat plus the evaporation of moisture from the meat help explain why the cost per pound for aged meat is so much more than un-aged meat.


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

[User] ELI5: Why don't bugs try to fly towards the sun or moon?

[Assistant]
They use bright light like the sun or moon to know when they are flying straight. If they want to fly straight, they just keep the sun or moon in the same part of their view.

Now imagine youre a moth using that technique with a candle flame to your left. You try to fly straight, but the bright light moves backwards in your vision. Oh no! That must mean youre curving to the right. So you fly more to the left to keep the light in the same place. And you unintentionally circle the flame.


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

[User] ELI5. In mangroves how do plants filter out the salt water and what do they do with the salt?

[Assistant]
It depends on the mangrove.
Some mangroves use osmotic pressure in their root systems to limit the salts that are absorbed into the plant. Red mangroves do this-they are called excluders

Other mangroves (like the black and the white mangroves) have glands that will collect all the salt and extrude it. These are called extruders. For a black mangrove, the glands are on the back of the leaves...if you turn over a black mangrove leaf, its encrusted with salt...

BUT the red mangrove can ALSO extrude using sacrificial leaves. The tree will funnel what salt IS absorbed into one leaf per branch. That leaf will die because of the salt and then when it dies and falls, the tree will use a different leaf while the first one grows back.

Red mangroves are special...


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

[User]
[Young Justice] Why would Darksied have a truce with someone as insignificant as Vandal Savage? Can he not take earth by force?

A literal God coming to a truce of Savage?

[Assistant]
Respect.

Darkseid tried taking over the earth in it's past. And was held off by the Mongols. Primitive monkeys using bows and arrows, sabers and lances, against his technology armed invasion forces.

Those mongols were lead by Genghis Khan. Otherwise known as Vandal Savage. His metahuman powers, and those of his lineage, along with his spectacular leadership and tactical skills, impressed Darkseid.

Enough so that he was willing to make a truce. Not just a truce, a pact. Darkseid thought Savage as the only one worthy of also conquering the universe. So he'd let him. Even help him.

And when the Universe was finally split between just the two of them, they'd battle it out for the whole pie. Its a gentleman's agreement between immortals.


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

[User]
[Dark Souls] Did Gwyn and The Painter kill the Age of Man?

In Dark Souls, when the Age of Gods went, the Age of Man was supposed to come, but Gwyn postponed the transition and cursed humanity with the Dark Sign, so our everlasting Dark Soul would leak out of us.
And since Slave Knight Gael collected all the fragments of the Dark Soul at the end of the Age of Fire, and The Painter used it to create a painting, did they alltogether stop the Age of Man?

[Assistant]
The Age of Man as it was meant to be ended when Gwyn rekindled the First Flame, trapping the world in the endless cycle it is in. Even if someone would ensure that the fire fades, Gwyn made it impossible to extinguish forever. What we see when we meet Gael is the product of this. A world utterly ruined and exhausted by a cycle of ages that was never meant to be.

The Painter is creating an alternative to that. A world away from the Fire, free from Gwyn's actions.


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

[User] ELI5: Why isn't stainless steel attracted to a magnet? Stainless steel contains a high amount of iron. Isn't that enough to make it attracted to a magnet?

[Assistant] Some stainless steel is magnetic. Austenitic stainless steels are not magnetic and are made with extra elements like nickel and the atoms are arranged in a very specific way. There is also ferritic stainless steel which is magnetic.


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

[User] ELI5: How do our brains convert low voltage electrical signals into thoughts?

[Assistant] No one really knows!  We can see how neurons convey sensory information, how converging and diverging signals can organize, process, store, and retrieve this information.  We can model complex behavior of vast assemblies of these neurons organized into functional areas, but that *still* does not answer your question about how this translates into the qualitative experience of having a thought.


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

[User]
[DC/Batman] How old is the Joker/whats the age difference between him and Batman?

2019s *Joker* shows The Joker as a fully grown man and Bruce as a young child. The show Gotham on Fox/Netflix also shows most Batman villains including its two Jokers as adults and Bruce as a child.

In the current comics or other media do they ever mention just how old Joker canonically is or at least how old he is compared to Bruce?

[Assistant]
It's kind of hard to definitively state the age of a man whose identity is completely unknown.

Joker sometimes appears middle aged (many depictions give him sort of a widow's peak that would imply receding hairline, not that that can't start earlier in life), while Batman is presumed to have started his career sometime in his mid twenties.


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

[User]
Why is the central carbon atom in Allene not hybridized?

Took a chemistry test today, and got stumped by this question. I figured it would be hybridized given the double bonds on both sides. I know Allene has a "twist" in the figure at the hydrogen ends, but I can't figure out why the central C atom isn't hybridized even though it has sigma and pi bonds on either side of it. I also attempted to google this, but every site says it is in fact hybridized. Help?

[Assistant] I believe the test may have been wrong. The two end carbons are both sp2 hybridised, and the middle carbon is sp hybridised. This sp hyrbridisation arises because the molecule is linear (due to the two double bonds) and undergoes the equivalent hybridisation of an alkyne. The 2s orbital on the middle carbon overlaps with only the 2px p orbital leaving the others to form the pi bonds.


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

[User]
[X-Men/Marvel] How much of a mutant's powers are genetic, and how much of them are environmental?

On one hand, you've got people like Cyclops who seem to have the same powers in every alternate dimension, or how X-23's genetics are predetermined enough to have explicit sexual dimorphism (her foot-blades versus Logan's purely having hand-blades).

On the other hand, you've got things like different secondary mutations in Emma Frost versus her clones, or Scarlet Witch not having explicitly-magical powers without exposure.

So how much does the X-Gene respond to environmental factors? Is it particularly vulnerable to magic? Are secondary mutations purely environmental? And so on.

[Assistant]
You cannot have mutant powers without the X-gene; that's what *makes* you a mutant.

But the X-gene doesn't always express itself. The X-Men are sometimes called "children of the atom" because there is speculation that the use and testing of nuclear weaponry activated the X-gene in a subset of the population.

Since mutant powers are genetic, there is a bit of chance in the equation. A clone might have slightly different genetic material, due to contamination or whatever, which leads to a varying outcome.

However, the X-gene isn't an accident of evolution; it is a result of an alien race (the Celestials, IIRC) tampering with early humanity as an experiment. The Celestials laid the seeds for mutant powers in humanity's ancestry millennia ago.

Because the X-gene is an artificial part of the genome, it seems to behave a little differently than most genotypes. This is why you get *different* mutations - like foot blades in addition to hand blades - but usually not *negative* mutations - like a blade that shoots up through your cranium if you yawn too loud.


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

[User]
[Dune] What was actually stopping the Atreidies from launching their own monitoring satellites.

The spacing guild declined but why couldnt they do it themselves.

[Assistant] The Spacing Guild had absolute control over what could and could not be placed into space. Anyone attempting to put satellites into place without Spacing Guild Permission would find themselves on the wrong side of the Guild and that would result in being a very very dead house with absolutely no way to run away.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do pH indicators work?

How do pH indicators, for example hydrogencarbonate indicator, work? What determines the colour they change to?

[Assistant]
PH is one measure of acidity based on hydrogen ion concentration in a solution.

Some kinds of dye molecules gain a hydrogen ion when the acidity increases, and this changes the shape of the molecule.

When the shape changes, the color of the dye molecules changes.

The color is determined by the shape of the molecule.


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

[User]
CMV: The phrase "it's apples and oranges" is an invalid argument because fruit can totally be compared.

In a discussion where analogies or comparisons are used, the response of "it's apples and/to oranges" makes absolutely no sense. Nobody ever said fruit can't be compared; in fact, if they did they would be semantically inaccurate. Apples and oranges have multiple similarities and multiple differences. The similarities (sweetness, use for desserts, juice byproducts, seed interference when consuming, ability to peel, inability to eat certain parts (core/orange peel/seeds) etc.) provide enough substance to actually hash out a comparison between apples and oranges. Just because they taste different doesn't mean they can't be compared; indeed, the very fact that they taste different *within the same category of foods* makes them more fitting for comparison. Saying "it's apples and oranges" is the functional equivalent of saying "it's steak and chicken." We compare steak and chicken all the time: when making your decision for the protein you'd like in your Chipotle burrito, or the topping on your salad, or the main course of your fancy dinner -- we constantly compare the taste, structure, and the culinary palette identity of our foods within their categories. Thus, it makes no sense to say that apples are so different from oranges that they can't be compared. Their difference and similarities among fruit make them ample for comparison.

I would understand it more if we said "it's apples and steak" or "it's orange and chicken." That is, to make the phrase more accurate, you would have to say something where the foundation of the the items mentioned lack a basis for comparison. In it's logical end, it'd look like this: "it's apples to car engines." Here, the nature of the two things are so different that comparison would be useless. So there it is, CMV, and feel free to compare your favorite fruits in the comments because Im here for it.

[Assistant]
We can compare apples to oranges in specific situations, but an apple and an orange are trying to be different things, and you can't compare them on the same criteria. We can't compare their skin because their skin does different things, we can't compare their texture because they're not supposed to have the same texture. Or rather, we can compare them, but it's always going to be totally subjective rather than objective, because the perfect apple and the perfect orange are always going to be fundamentally different.

We can't even really compare different kinds of apples to each other, because a granny smith and a pink lady aren't trying to taste the same, so any comparison is going to be a matter of taste rather than truth. Except for Red Delicious, which are objectively garbage by any standard of anything.


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

[User]
ELI5: How can my nose produce mucus at such an alarming rate when I have a cold?

It seems almost impossible that my nose could produce so much mucus in such a short amount of time.

[Assistant]
Nobody has bothered to answer this, so here goes:
Mucus is made in your body by combining a type of protein called mucin with water. Mucin will combine with water to form mucus roughly twenty times the volume of the original protein, that means you don't need much mucin to make a lot of mucus you just need water (which your body has lots of).


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

[User]
Does how hydrated you are effect how strong caffeine effects you?

This is a question that came out of a conversation about how transgender hormone replacement therapy for MtF people can decrease alcohol tolerance because you have less water in your body. This lead to the question of whether or not the amount of water in your system can effect how much caffeine you absorb from coffee. I looked it up and besides the mass of articles saying coffee dehydrated you, I only found one source that was kinda close which said that if you're more hydrated when you drink coffee you'll get better effects from the caffeine, and another article saying that drinking a lot of water will help flush your system of caffeine. The only remotely close article was written 6 years ago and lacks any medical sources.
I'm just a barista with a very basic understanding of how caffeine effects the body, mostly through my own experience. The somewhat contradictory information isn't very helpful and I was wondering if there was anyone who knows this stuff who could help me out.

[Assistant] Caffeine is absorbed by the gut and dissolves in both the body's water and fat molecules. The "strong effect" of caffeine is dependent on your body's tolerance and how quickly it takes for the caffeine to peak in your blood. As far as how long it takes for caffeine to peak in your blood, the biggest factor will be whether or not you have food in your stomach. Drinking coffee on an empty stomach will have a more dramatic caffeine effect. As far as your question on hydration, the caffeine will dissolve and travel through your blood stream more quickly if your body is hydrated.


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

[User] So I wear a platinum wedding ring. What reactions am I catalyzing on a day-to-day basis?

[Assistant]
Platinum is a noble metal, and generally a pretty good biocompatible material, so it should not react with anything. Cochlear implants and deep brain stimulating electrodes, for example, regularly run voltages up to 6 volts through platinum stimulators without irreversible reactions for decades.

I am guessing your drinking problem doesn't have anything to do with the ring...


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

[User] Eli5 why does the flush sensor on a touchless toilet go off and splash my butt at the slightest movement while Im sitting down, but the touchless sensor on a sink wont turn on unless Im in JUST the right spot?

[Assistant]
The flush sensor on a toilet faces toward the front of the stall, and the sensor spreads out in a V. It expects to sense 3-4 feet away. It works when it senses a bounce back (which could be anywhere bouncing around the walls as you move).

The flush sensor on a sink is facing down into a curved reflective surface which is constantly bouncing back the signal. It works when it _doesn't_ sense a bounce back, so you have to block the entire sensor.


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

[User] [DBZ Abridged] What exactly was the Jockstrap Incident?

[Assistant]
Once upon a time, an intergalactic assassin set out to kill Frieza.

This assassins main advantage (or disadvantage, depending on who you ask), was that he was very small, no more than an inch tall. He was putting all his hope into his trusty laser rifle, which had never failed him yet.

One day, when Frieza was getting changed to go work out at the gym, the assassin hid in Friezas gym bag and crouched down, waiting for the right moment to jump out and attack. Little did he know, he was right inside Friezas jockstrap.

Frieza (suspecting nothing) put on this jockstrap and continued getting dressed. This was, as you might expect, an altogether terrifying experience for the poor assassin. Seemingly out of options, he fired off his rifle in all directions, hoping against hope to make it out alive.

The energy from the blast did little more than irritate Frieza; however, upon seeing tiny energy blasts shoot out of his lizard wang, he jumped in horror, thinking he mightve come down with space syphillis after that one night at Frieza Planet 69. In his manic burst, he fired off  his own energy blasts anywhere and everywhere.

This barrage killed the assassin, assuaging Friezas fears of space syphillis. Unfortunately, it also destroyed the gym and every living being on the planet.

Frieza called Captain Ginyu for help digging graves for all the planets inhabitants. Once they were finished, they agreed never to speak of the Jockstrap Incident ever again. And they all lived happily ever after...until that dirty simian bastard Vegeta happened.


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

[User]
ELI5: If sea mammals breathe air normally, why does getting stuck on land result in a swift death?

I saw a headline stating people kept a killer whale alive for 8 hours while it was stranded on land until tide came back and allowed it to go back to sea. If they breathe air, why would 8 hours on land require assistance keeping it alive?

[Assistant] Whales can weigh quite a lot. The blue whale, for example, can reach around 150 tons. This massive weight is supported only by the buoyancy of water. If they were to beach on land, their organs would be crushed underneath their own weight.


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

[User] ELI5: For those that remember VHS and audiocassette tapes - I think I understand how you can get pictures on a tape of plastic, but how the heck did they get sound on there? How is it audible?

[Assistant]
I think you have the wrong idea of how they get images on the tape.

There is nothing on there that resembles an image to the human eye (not even outside of the visible light spectrum) it's nothing like the reels they use in cinemas.

The VHS tape is magnetic, kind of like hard drives (except VHS is analog and not digital). So you store stuff on there by magnetizing the tape in a certain way.

You can do the same thing with audio.


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

[User] [Seinfeld] Seinfeld had a considerable number of enemies, How likely is it that he was shanked in prison after the final episode? Or that on appeal the insane law that required him to rescue a complete stranger from carjacking was overturned?

[Assistant] On appeal it's almost certain that the law will be found unconsitutional as the number of laws that require an affirmative action you could count on one hand.  Also the fact the gang had reasonable belief that the car jacker had a gun would also be an easy defense even if the law wasn't unconsitutional.  They could easily get a mistrial if Jackie CHilds did such a lousy job as a lawyer that he didnt' even mention something that basic.


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

[User]
[Folklore] Can a zombie and a ghost come from the same person?

If the ghost possesses the zombie, does the person come back to life?

[Assistant]
Yes, both can come from the same person.  The zombie is the reanimated corpse of the person, nothing more.  The ghost is the person themselves, in spirit or spectral form.
Possessing the zombie might allow for some communication with the living, but it would be no more actual life than the zombie itself is.


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

[User] [Star Wars] What if Anakin DID go in slowly on the left?

[Assistant] Obi-Wan and Anakin would have kept Dooku busy long enough for Yoda to arrive and then the three would easily defeat and capture Dooku. Palpatine would be revealed as a Sith Lord and the Jedi would deal with him.


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

[User]
ELI5: If my password can be cracked in X years, is that the minimum, maximum, average... Or something else?

Could the cracking computer "get lucky" and find my password much quicker than the estimate?

Ie if they say an 18 character password will take 2 million years to crack ... Could it actually be cracked ANY time between now and then? Or only after two million years has passed?

[Assistant]
of course it can.

this is always "worst case" aka maximum.

say your password is "aaaaaaaa" and the computer starts by doing a stupid bruteforce-attack where it just tries everything starting with exactly that (no one does that, pw-cracking is much smarter than this).


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

[User]
I've heard a few knowledgeable people say that formal education isn't really necessary to be hired as a programmer, so how would one of these people know when they are hirable?

My background: I code on and off for my math hobby, and have worked on personal projects in Python, JS, Haskell, and various scripting languages for  miscelueanous things. I've never made anything with a UI, but I'm fairly proud of the complexity of some of the algorithms I've been able to create and implement. I've never had my code reviewed but tend to make it look nice and enjoy writing comments.

Anyways, I was wondering what people look for when hiring. I'm sure the fact that I've never truly used GIT before is a problem, and the fact I have little experience optimizing. Also when I work for myself I can afford to get stuck for long periods of time and spend days googling; I know that's a big meme but how acceptable is that really? How important is optimizing?

TLDR: I'm just not sure what separates a hobby coder from a hirable one.

[Assistant]
Fundamentally, a job in software development is writing code to solve a companies problems. Because of this, the number one skill you will need to demonstrate to get an entry level position is the ability to produce solutions to problems.

In technical interviews this will come in the form of: here is a problem - write a solution.

In non-technical interviews this will come in the form of an interviewer asking you in depth questions about one or more of the projects you have listed on a resume. They will try to figure out the scope of a problem involved in your work and how you solved it.

Interviewers will consider other skills; programming languages, familiarity with version control (git / svn / whatever), frameworks that they use on the job, code samples (and how well they are documented), and so on, but these will all come second to the fundamental question of "can this person solve problems".

As to whether you are ready or not: can you convince an interviewer that you can solve interesting problems? If you can then finding a job will come naturally.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] If Luke had actually Joined his father. Would he and Anakin still be part of the sith?

The dark side isn't necessary the "Sith" and I think it's safe to say that Anakin more of less regretted his decision but he was too consumed by the dark side and his "ownership" from Palpatine to really do anything about it. But say Luke teamed up with his father and killed Palps. Luke would have falling to the dark side, but would him and vader still be considered Siths? or more of a Kylo Ren situation. Or would it even have made a difference?

[Assistant]
If Luke had joined Vader to take down Palpatine (as per Vader's plan) then yes, they're Sith. Apprentice overthrowing Master has been the Sith's "thing" for at least a thousand years. The Father/Son bond may make them unique among Sith, but once Luke starts using Dark Side power he's going down the same path as dear old dad.

Kylo Ren and Snoke aren't considered Sith because they aren't part of that unbroken chain of Master/Apprentice, whereas Darth Vader and Darth Zoon (lol) would be.


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

[User] Is the eyesight of small animals like mice and snakes as poor as ours would be if our retinas were the size of theirs?

[Assistant] Better or poor are tricky descriptors. Animals evolve their senses to be suited to their environments. Humans colour vision is amongst the best in the world and have some of the most detailed up close vision in bright light. The trade off was poor low light vision. Other animals prioritize low light vision over perceiving colours. Humans have sharp vision in a tight area directly in front of them but the trade off is poor peripheral vision and no vision behind them. Other animals have an almost 360 degree field of view, but lack a region of extreme sharpness. Each of these different sets of abilities is better in a particular set of living conditions.


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

[User] Would flipping your body every 30 seconds for an hour get you just as tan as lying on both sides for 30 minutes each?

[Assistant]
There are two ultraviolet lights at work in tanning: UVA and UVB. UVA causes the oxidation of melanin present in the skin, which causes a short term darkening of the skin. UVB triggers the production of melanin (which takes around 72 hours to have an effect).
Although these processes are very different, they do both respond to damage from UV radiation, and the damage it causes is immediate and proportional to time (so it doesn't need to 'build up' before it begins having an effect). All this comes together to mean that it doesn't matter how you flip, but that it is the total elapsed exposure for each part of your skin that alters the tan.


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

[User]
[The Legend of Zelda] How do Gorons get their calories/calorie equivalent from rocks?

I get that they're made mostly of rock, with the small amounts of non biogeological matter coming from hot springs mineral water, but how do they get energy from the rocks?

[Assistant] Their digestive tract is different.  You might as well ask a Goron how Hyleans get their calories from plants and meat.  Rocks contain plenty of energy if you can break them down properly.  Gorons can.


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

[User] If I were to make a baby, would it make a difference if I had sex while I was fit, or out of shape? Would that have an affect on what genetic traits I pass on to my child?

[Assistant]
Technically, no. That's not how genetics works. Your lifestyle does not effect your genes.
However, your lifestyle does effect which genes are active upon transmission, which effects how the embryo develops and will push into the future baby. So yeah, it might effect the genes of the baby somewhat.
This is called epigenetics.


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

[User] A fly (or any other insect) is trapped in my car as I drive to a new location (let's say 50 miles away) where it then flies out when I open my door. Is the insect going to continue on as normal in this new location? Or has me moving it to a new unfamiliar spot doomed it in some way?

[Assistant] The only insects whose life would be damaged by moving them a large distance are hive insects like wasps, bees, termites, etc. A solitary insect will behave as normal, assuming it can find food and others of its species to mate with in the new location.


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

[User]
[warhammer] How have the vampire counts not succeeded in taking over the empire?

individually they all seem to posses incredible power and they lead an army composed of both living soldiers and innumerable living dead that only grows in number the more people they kill. their death magic seems far superior to the kind wielded by mortals as they gain more power whenever something dies near them which lends itself to warfare very well. i just dont understand how they could ever lose a battle given all the advantages granted to them by their mastery over death.

[Assistant]
- They are powerful but there aren't very many of them.
- They aren't united. They fight among themselves pretty often.
- Many of them don't *want* to take over the Empire. They're content where they are now.
- Being killed by sunlight is kind of a huge hindrance.
- Vampires aren't the top dogs in the world. The Empire has wizards and other heroes that can rival vampires in power.


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

[User] ELI5: How do masks work if germs are smaller than the fabric?

[Assistant]
Many germs and viruses can only travel through the air on water droplets. The fabric of your mask catches those water droplets as you breath/sneeze/cough, preventing them from spreading as far as they would without a mask.

You can easily test this yourself if it's cold where you are just by going outside and breathing normally with and without a mask.  Without a mask, you'll see your breath travel quite a few feet. With a mask, you'll barely see your breath at all.


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

[User] [Harry Potter] Since we know living creatures can be made into horcruxes (Nagini) and horcruxes become extremely difficult to destroy, why not turn a dangerous magical creature like a basilisk into one?

[Assistant]
1. For the Basilisk specifically, it's full of Basilisk ~~blood~~ venom, something known to destroy Horcruxes.

2. Mythical creatures like the Basilisk tend to attract beast hunters seeking fame and glory. That's an unnecessary risk.

3. However much Voldemort overestimated his capabilities, chances are he didn't want to risk his own hide - pre-Horcrox - dealing with these dangerous beings.

4. He did turn a dangerous magical creature into a Horcrux: Nagini.

5. Since living beings have wills of their own, and have the general weakness of being mortal, they make rather unreliable horcruxes.


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

[User]
Academics: Have you ever BS'ed your citations?

I know that answering "yes" to this question is equal to admitting murder in academia. But I'm curious. I'm pulling an all-nighter fixing citations in my senior thesis draft, and it's so difficult to get them precisely correct when I discover new things constantly. For example, I've just discovered that I needed to use DOI/URLs for my digital book citations this whole time (Chicago style), when I've been citing them in regular book form. This is the last thing I want to go over and fix! I hate how URLs look in a draft.

I know I have to eventually, but the temptations to  not cite that a book was apart of an edition, or say that I consulted a physical book instead of a digital one, are great. (Not lazy, just overworked, not nearly as much as many of you regulars). Can anyone relate?

[Assistant] There's a large difference between bullshitting in-text citations that someone hasn't actually read (which is what your title implies but the subject matter does not) and not citing your sources in the correct format in the bibliography, particularly for a senior thesis. Using something like Zotero, EndNote, Mendeley, etc. helps ensure the latter doesn't happen.


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

[User] [The Matrix] before neo went on his journey, what did he think the matrix actually was or is? The convo between Morpheus and Neo implies there are rumors about the matrix.

[Assistant]
Many things.  A shadow government program for controlling the population.  A secret society.  A program or plot to overthrow the government.  A resistance movement.
They couldn't guess at the truth, and all they know is that it's unknown, so the theories would range far and wide.


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

[User] How do fingerprint readers work?

[Assistant]
The simplest ones literally use a camera (usually infrared) to take a picture of your finger. Next, some basic image processing is used to convert the image into a normalized binary raster (i.e., thresholding is applied). Then, an algorithm selects identifying characteristics called "minutiae" from the raster. These minutiae are classified into a few categories (e.g., "ridge stop", "ridge fork"). The locations and types of the minutiae on the fingerprint essentially become a multi-dimensional vector, and similarity metrics can be applied between the collected vector and a database of known fingerprints. If a similar enough collection of minutiae is found, it is treated as a match.

Reference: Mark Stamp. "Information Security." 2nd ed., p. 244-245.


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

[User]
[General Fiction] In worlds where Necromancy/Necromancers are a known threat, why would people ever bury the dead?

Necromancy is fairly common in worlds with magic, and even if it is seen as a taboo, surely it's existence would mean that cremation is a lot more prevalent, since people don't want their loved ones to be desecrated and attack them.

What counters do they have against this, and how is this dark magic even regulated?

[Assistant]
In a fair few settings not only is  necromancy a thing but so are gods and dieties, so many dead get placed into protected tombs or temples with armed followers with the protection of gods who are against necromancy or don't want their followers coming back.

Plus its taboo nature means it likely is both hard to learn and hard to find anyone willing to teach, and anyone seen casting a taboo spell may either face the law or justice by a holy order on a roadside, this is just a general fantasy take tho.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does water taste differently depending on which city you are in?

[Assistant]
That's because of the different concentrations of minerals within the water.
Several things dictate this, including the pipes in your building, the water treatment plants in the city, and the source of which the city gets the water in the first place.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] How much are light sabers on the black market? If a random thug finds a light saber on the ground, what can he sell it for?

extremely valuable money wise?  or just a trinket?

are we talking ferrari money or used bicycle money?

[Assistant] There isn't a market for them. Before Order 66 there were about 10,000 Jedi out of 100 quadrillion people. Given how absurdly rare they are, it's impossible to give a price. Any time they're bought or sold is unique, and it could go for much more or less than the last time.


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

[User] [Invincible] Given all the failed attempts we have seen of different individuals trying to take down Omni-Man how might a master strategist without powers like The Batman have planned in advance to take him down and would they have realised sooner than everyone else what his true intentions were?

[Assistant]
Are you at all caught up on the comics?

There is a fact known in them that Batman would almost certainly have figured out that would give him the ability to win a fight with Omni-Man, even with his standard gear.

As for figuring out his true intentions, that's a lot less likely. Nolan *really was* being a hero, and intended to do so for five hundred years. He genuinely enjoyed it, and it *also* happened to keep people reliant on him - keeping them weak, according to Viltrumite philosophy, which is his only job as long as he is on Earth. It seems unlikely Batman would figure that out when his own family had no idea.

Luckily, thanks to his general paranoia, he would be as prepared for an evil Omni-Man scenario as he is for an evil Superman scenario.


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

[User]
[Batman] Why did the Kane family allow Alfred to raise Bruce and keep the fortune?

Alfred was a bodyguard and a butler. He never had children of his own yet he was trusted to raise one of Gotham's elite children by himself.

Martha's siblings could have raised the child in a healthier household. Even if the will stated that Alfred would be the caretaker, why didn't  the remaining family contest this?

Bruce could have been raised with his cousins. He could have been raised in a military upbringing and perhaps been better than this playboy persona we see today.

[Assistant] It was stated in Thomas and Martha's will that Alfred would look after them. Martha's brother toke on the company finances and Alfred raised the boy. They probably felt it was best as Alfred was already a familiar figure in Bruce's life and played a large role in raising him before his parents death.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does 'getting used' to spicy food actually work?

Is it purely psychological? How does it work?

EDIT: Thanks for the informed responses! Buuut some of you aren't really reading the question... I know how to build up tolerance to spicy food, I've lived in SE Asia my whole life (spices galore); my question concerns the science behind it.

EDIT 2: Grammar. Sorry. I posted this whilst eating Tom Yam. Should be 'getting used to'. Also, new to reddit, and ask science wasn't the first sub that came to mind. (This was kind of a spur of the moment post).

[Assistant] When you repeated eat spicy food you're over stimulating the receptors that sense heat.  The receptors deactivate themselves so they can better handle the heat.  It's kind of like having an annoying younger brother who you eventually just decide to start ignoring instead of dealing with.


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

[User] [Batman Arkham] in Arkham Knight, why didn't the Arkham Knight just put soldiers inside the tanks so that batman couldn't do anything to stop them?

[Assistant]
He possibly felt that having a single drone commander controlling all of the tanks as one was more effective than tank crews.

There's also the fact that the Arkham Knight was not the only strategist behind the occupation of Gotham, but that's a spoiler.


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

[User] [Iron Man movies] How is Tony Stark able to use his gauntlets independently if they are powered by his arc reactor?

[Assistant]
By the time of Iron Man 2, all of his suits had personal arc reactors retrofitted into them so that people other than himself could use them.

By Iron Man 3, he had started experimenting with suits that broke into separate segments, so he built temporary power packs for each piece. He must have miniaturized the arc reactors further to allow for long-distance travel while separate the way the Mk. 42 did. He also experimented with single-shot repulsors that burnt out after one use.

He must have taken the lessons he learned from the Mark XLII and applied them to the War Machine suit and his new Iron Watch/glove, miniaturizing the power further to allow Rhodey partial suit use and himself an emergency weapon good for more than a single surprise blast.


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

[User]
[Marvel] Was Gorr the god butcher's actions justified?

Yeah, murder is bad. Yes, killing the god of friendship isn't a great idea. But isn't he kind of right? Where were the gods during the age of apocalypse? Where were they during Annhilation? They might use the "we work in mysterious ways" shit, but whenever they act it's pretty straightforward and direct. And instead of helping their worshippers, they harm them, kill them, torture them. So when Gorr told humanity that he was liberating them from the god's, was he right?

[Assistant]
No, while the gods in the Marvel universe may not solve *every* problem the do actually help out pretty frequently.   Sure there are some evil gods we could do without, but there was no reason for him to kill the benevolent ones or the ones that just mind their own business.

Also the same thing can be said for superheroes.  Why don't heroes like Superman take down tyrannical governments, use their abilities to end world hunger, give humanity the amazing technologies they possess?   Why didn't Earth send any heroes during Annihilation?   Mr. Fantastic knew it was going on and he told Tony about it.   Why didn't the Avengers help the mutants out after genosha?  Why doesn't a hero out of the Joker's league, like Green Lantern or Wonder Woman just show up to Gotham and take him down? Since they don't solve every problem should they all be tortured, enslaved and killed?


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

[User]
[Dune 2021] Why wasn't Paul Atreides wearing armor upon landing on Arrakis?

 Why wasn't Paul Atreides wearing an armor suit when he arrived on Arrakis unlike his father who was wearing armor?

[Assistant]
The armor is ceremonial; armor does not protect against a lasgun, and shields protect you from everything short of one (and make using a lasgun suicide).

The only risk is from melee weapons and other specialized gear like hunter-killers, and there is a very slim chance of that working when you're surrounded by all your soldiers.


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

[User]
What ethical system is satisfied by or otherwise explains the treatment of homeless people in USA? Specifically, major cities.

Surely, its not consequentialism as the homeless situation does provide any to minimize suffering or maximize pleasure.

Its not virtue ethics as the only virtue I can see is apathy, which is not a virtue.

Which I guess leaves deontology

[Assistant]
Ethical systems dont explain behavior, either of individuals or systems.

Maybe you mean which ethical system justifies such treatment? Well, we could always make up an ethical theory which does so, the question is whether it would be compelling.

Some rationalizations you see is that theres nothing to be done, or that it isnt the job is the state to deal with the problem, or that its too expensive, or whatever. Again, the big question is how compelling any of that is.


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

[User]
[Futurama] How did Leela and Fry move at all while time was frozen?

I mean they were able to walk on an ocean which means the molecules aren't moving. So how come their walking around and breathing like air is moving? things they touch don't unfreeze leela was able to spin a ball midair without it falling and she blew a snowflake forward.

[Assistant]
They created a 'localized' field around them which enabled them to interact with objects such as air, water and such.

Strong enough to effect small things, not strong enough to work on people and organics.

Also, two points.

1. Spoilers alert!!
2. May as well be magic, didn't Arthur C Clarke say that any advanced technology would look like magic to this who didn't understand it.

So in regards to #2, the tech the professor invents allows a temporally 'stuck' person to engage with the world immediately surrounding them but not the larger world.


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

[User]
ELI5:If a filter-feeding whale swallows say, a turtle, by accident, would the whale be able to digest it normally?

Any size whale, doesn't matter. Just wondering if it's digestive system could handle it.

[Assistant] IIRC, the throat of filter feeding whales is actually very small. The thing I've heard quoted is that a Blue Whale would choke on a grapefruit. If this is correct, then the whale in question would just spit out the errant, confused turtle in short order.


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

[User]
Does the auditory nerves activate, when we hear the voice of our thoughts?

I was wondering whether the nerves that are firing when we process sound activated, when we "hear" sound in our mind. Same could be asked for visualizations.

[Assistant] Higher order auditory and visual regions of the brain can get activated, but not really the primary auditory/ optic nerves. Those sort of need to funnel in physical stimuli (sound/ light stimuli), so they're not active if nothing is coming in. But they're connected to other regions via synapses that are involved in making sense of those incoming sights/sounds. Those regions can become active if you're imagining, rather than physically receiving those signals.


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

[User]
[Marvel] What would happen to Wolverine's claws if he stopped being a mutant?

Would they still be in his body but just can't use them, or would they just magically disappear, or something else entirely?

[Assistant]
When he's had his powers removed or suppressed, he's still got his claws usually.

Presumably, it's that his mutation is *growing* claws, and while he technically loses that ability he's still go the claws.

However, he does lose the healing factor that allows him to safely burst claws through his hands, so he might not want to use them anymore.


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

[User]
[Avatar LA/LOK] Which element do you think is the most powerfull?

In your opinion which one has the most power and most potential?

Edit: I'd say earth has a lot of versatility, but some of y'all are saying air so I agree now that I think about it you can do a lot of things with air (fly,breathe,)

[Assistant]
Earth and metal can change landscapes and protect their practitioners.

Water can flow and crash, heal and in extreme cases control.

Fire and Lightning are said to be destruction incarnate.

But air? Well, everyone needs to breathe. Ever stop and wonder why airbenders are pacifists?


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

[User] [Doctor Who] So what, exactly, fuzzes the memories of a Doctor meeting his future selves?

[Assistant] It's a physiolgical reaction timelords have developed in order to have normal interactions with their crosstime selves.   Without this physical reaction the feedback loop of memories between the two selves would in paradox or timelock, but timeliness are much more comfortable in less static and looser time conditions, wobbly wobbly time if you prefer.


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

[User]
[Batman] As an average Gothamite, how often do I actually see the Bat-Signal in the sky, and how do I feel about it?

Does it happen a few times a week? Once every few months?

When it *is* lit, do I, as a normal law-abiding citizen feel safer knowing that the Dark Knight is on patrol, or am I worried about what could be so bad that the GCPD felt the need to summon him?

[Assistant] It's typically on once or twice a week at most. People in the know are aware that the signal rarely means anything for Batman being around. There's a code in how it's displayed or at what angle that lets Batman know if it's an emergency he needs to respond to or if it's just being put on to confuse and frighten criminals. Average people do feel safer when it's on and crime does decrease noticable when it's visible. That said a few gangs have noticed that the signal being on and batman interrupting their plans aren't related to each other. Many times Batman is around even without the signal and sometimes he isn't when it's on. They just can't figure out if there are other more pressing crimes he's fighting and ignoring them or if he's just lurking at all times and the signal means he's coordinating with police or just trying to scare criminals. Unless you live near GCPD headquarters the signal isn't anything you care about beyond feeling safer at night. If you do live near the headquarters you're gonna want to invest in blackout curtains.


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

[User]
[Mass Effect] How does the Mass Effect field work?

I have heard of other Humans who get biotic implants and being able to do pretty amazing things using the Mass Effect. How do they control it and why do they have a reputation to go crazy?

[Assistant]
Mass Effect Fields are the product of Element Zero, which is basically what it sounds like... It's 0 on the Periodic Table. It's a semi-unstable material which naturally has no mass or charge (and thus doesn't typically react to surrounding elements) but when you run an electrical current through it generates a spatial distortion that can be further manipulated (through variations in current) to increase or decrease mass within the distortions radius.

Biotics are individuals who have trace amounts of Element Zero in their systems. This reacts with the biological functions by creating minute Mass Effect Fields charged through electrochemical interactions in the body. Typically, this is dangerous, leading to organ failure and other medical issues, thus generally being regarded as poisonous, but Biotics are able to exert some degree of somatic control, likely due to the specific localization of the Ezo in their bodies. Implants further refine this, allowing Biotics to apply specific currents to their own 'saturation' to create and manipulate Mass Effect Fields.

Human biotics tend to suffer from mental health issues for several reasons. First, the human implants are relatively new, and while improving are still invasive, inefficient and typically painful, causing constant headaches, seizures, and even hallucinations. Second, the human body is a machine which requires a degree of predictability to function. Minor uncontrolled ME fields within the body, even on a microscopic scale, can have dramatic consequences. Blood clots seem the most common, but minor shifts in greymatter can cause all kinds of issues. Third, they're ostracized as freaks, commonly abused (by civilians and governments) and have few non-military benefit programs. They're outsiders, and subject to all the issues therein.

Finally... Well, it's power. Biotics can play fast and loose with one of the cardinal laws of physics, and in principle there's no limit to their power. Even a moderately powerful Biotic can create a singularity in a man's sskull, causing his brain to compress to the size of am acorn. Powerful Biotics can crush tanks, cause platoons to float into the air, and even fly. That's a lot of power to give to people who typically have mental health issues anyway...


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

[User]
Reviewing a bad book (Humanities)

Has anyone got any pointers for writing a bad book review?

My honest opinion on the book I've got to review is that the research is dated, poorly argued, misses several key areas and is full of theoretical flaws (anachronisms, misundertanding of manuscript traditions, use of old transations etc). The book is also extremely poorly edited: its full of typos, a chapter is misnumbered and a chapter may possibly be missing all together (its hard to tell as the signposts between chapters are quite poor).

I'd really rather not do it but thats not really an option. I've written the review as objectively as possible but its still nothing like any academic book review I've read - does anybody have any pointers for writing an honest and objective review that won't be a hatchet job?

[Assistant]
Are you doing this review for the publisher, reviewing a manuscript that might get published, or are you reviewing (in an article to be published in a journal) a book that has already been published?

If it's the former, then have at it. The publisher needs to know whether or not to publish, and your responses can help the writer(s) strengthen the manuscript to resend out for review.

If it's the latter... Sigh. You might then try to figure out how your review can be most useful to the readers of the journal in which the review will go, since -- in this case -- they are your audience now, not the publisher or the writer(s). It sounds then as though you could use the review to ask questions about how this book ever made it through the peer review process and to emphasize the importance of chapter functions, etc., while also pointing to how the manuscript itself falls short.

You could also perhaps use this as an opportunity to write about research in the same area that does to what it should, in order to have that be the positive side of your writing, so that what you write isn't completely negative.

But please do let *your* readers know why you think this book is not worth their time; that's the whole point of doing what you are doing and your work helps us all strive toward more integrity. It sucks when you can't do a positive review, but sometimes....


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

[User] [DC] What do you think will happen to Superman once every non immortal hero and friend of his dies?

[Assistant] This has had multiple answers over the years. Sometimes, he goes off and lives on his own, helping people where he can. Sometimes he takes root in the heart of a star for a few billion years. Sometimes, he ages and lets others take up the cause, retiring to a quiet life.


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

[User]
How do we know the basics of mathematics are true?

How do we know that 2+2=4? The times tables, square roots, formulas of area, velocity, volume, and the other basics of mathematics are true? How do we know that they are not wrong, and what would happen if some of this was wrong?

[Assistant] The thing about mathematical truths is that they're true by definition or by construction. Mathematics works by starting out assuming certain things, called axioms, are true, and then everything else is of the form "assuming those are true, ...".