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

[User]
[South Park] Does Eric Cartman have any genuinely redeeming qualities? Has he ever done a good deed out of true altruism?

We all know the kids a complete prick. Everything he does is for his own selfish desires, and hes the antichrist of PC people. But has Cartman ever shown any kind of behavior that marks him as somewhat redeemable? He seems to genuinely love his mom at least.

[Assistant] In "Major Boobage" he goes out of his way to hide cats (which had been declared contraband) in his attic despite risk to himself. Despite Kyle pointing it out, Cartman does not see any similarities to anything in history.


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

[User] [Arrested Development] So Tobias is shown having more than one pair of cut-offs, implying that he must change between them. How does he achieve this without ever being nude?

[Assistant]
The sensible answer? He wears a long robe of some sort so he can get them off underneath.

The more likely for Tobias? He cuts the cut offs off under a new pair of cut offs so that they can be removed in the most awkward way possible. Or he cleans them in the shower/climbs into a washing machine.


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

[User] Why are most of the large impact craters on the moon located on the side facing the Earth? Wouldn't the other side be less shielded?

[Assistant]
There is a very big impact crater on the far side. Probably you meant lunar maria. They formed when impacts were big enough to break the lunar crust and reach the molten interior, so lava came out and later solidified in a relatively smoother and darker surface. The impact on the far side just created a big crater with no mare as the crust is thicker.

There are two theories about this. They do not contradict each other so they could even be both true.

One of them says that when the lunar maria formed, Earth was still hot and emitting lots of infrared. So the near side of the Moon was kept warmer, with a thinner solid crust.

Another theory is based on the giant impact hypothesis. Some background: A Mars-sized body (called Theia) is supposed to have impacted Earth at a relatively low speed. The collision created a disc of debris that eventually coalesced and formed the Moon.

Back to the maria: the other theory says that from this disc of debris it was actually *two moons* that formed. But since they were sharing the same orbit in an unstable configuration, eventually they crashed at a low speed and the smaller moon "pancaked" over the larger one, creating a thicker crust on that side. Then the Moon gradually became tidally locked and the thicker crust happened to be on the far side.


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

[User]
[MCU] Why didn't 616 Wanda and 838 Strange have a third eye?

Granted, there's not a lot of canon info going around for that, since only two characters have shown the third eye. The common factor being the Darkhold. But 616 Strange barely used it for long.

What do you guys think?

[Assistant] They may have had them, as we see you can close your third eye. But assuming they didnt have them, Wanda is special and IIRC we dont know long it was before 616 Strange developed his so 838 Strange may have just died before it appeared.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Best lightsaber form against Darth Sidious?

What form would you choose against Sidious? I think this is a tough one. Ataru was probably a failure. Obviously Vaapad is the best, but with only one master who was dead, it wasn't possible.

Sidious was a master of all the forms, as well as a master of several Sith forms. However, Yoda was also a master of all of them (not vaapad), so perhaps he combind his forms and still couldn't slay Sidious. Unless he fell back exclusively on Ataru? It certainly looked like it.

Perhaps Yoda should have considered using Jar Kai against him.

Thoughts?

[Assistant]
There's a very, very strong argument that Sidious' ability in battle mostly does not involve weaponry or martial arts, it's about influence and clouding the minds of his opponent. Did you see how easily he defeated very powerful Jedi, how they seemed unable to defend themselves? There's no reasonable explanation for that aside from them being mentally and/or emotionally compromised in that moment. The only Jedi Sidious had trouble with were Yoda and Windu, both of whom were master Force-wielders and likely had built up defenses against mental and emotional Force attacks.

There's no lightsaber form that can defend against a mental Force attack of the type and intensity of Darth Sidious. For that, you need wholly different training.


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

[User]
[Invader Zim] How does an invisible vehicle that doesn't cloak it's operator work?

In the episode "Megadoomer", Zim gets a massive battle robot with a cloaking device that makes it invisible, but doesn't make Zim invisible inside it. So Zim just awkwardly floats in the air while untold destruction erupts around him. How does such a thing work?

[Assistant]
The Irken invaders steal technology from planets they subjugate and also enslave the planets original inhabitants. The Megadoomer was likely designed and constructed by one of these planets, it's builders would have sabotaged the design in some way that doesn't technically count as disobeying the irkens and whoever was overseeing the production didn't notice or care about the flaw.

As for how it actually works, there are several methods of attaining a cloak. Make the material not interact with light, project an image of what would be there if the material wasn't, or just convince everything looking at it that it isn't there. In any case it would be relatively simple to leave the pilot on display.


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

[User]
Why are shadows left after being vaporized?

When Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed with nukes, why did peoples vaporized bodies leave a shadow?

[Assistant] The initial burst of light and heat from the explosion would bleach things like concrete. If someone was casting a shadow on something, their body would be blocking that portion of the concrete from that bleaching so it remained somewhat unchanged compared to the area around it.


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

[User]
ELI5: What is different about my butt muscle that stops it from cramping!

If I tense any muscle in my body for too long, it loses strength, or cramps. But my butt muscle (anus, sphincter - whatever - not my glutes) is "tight" and tensed almost all day. What is so special about it that allows it to remain tense all day without cramping or relaxing?  Is there anything about it's abilities that could be used to allow other muscles in the body to work longer/harder?

[Assistant]
Believe it or not, your external anal sphincter that you can voluntarily control (skeletal muscle) isn't contracted all day. It is in fact relaxed most of the day. Your internal anal sphincter is contracted all day. When the stretch receptors in your rectum are activated by feces, your involuntarily controlled internal anal sphincter relaxes and you have to voluntarily contract your external anal sphincter in order to prevent defecation.

TL:DR You only use your butthole muscle when you have to actually take a shit.

Btw, The internal anal sphincter is made up of smooth muscle, which works a little differently than skeletal muscle and can work all day without cramping.


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

[User] ELI5 - Why do detergent pods dissolve in the water in the washing machine almost immediately, but dont dissolve from the water present in the detergent theyve been holding for months in the box?

[Assistant] The liquid in pods has a much lower percentage of water than regular detergent.  The shell does dissolve a little, but there is only so much that can dissolve in the tiny confined space before its saturated. The much larger amount of water in the wash can hold more dissolved shell so it softens the shell and washes it away.


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

[User]
[Marvel] If you cut off Wolverines head would it grow a new body?

Also would his now headless corpse grow its own head? So you'd have two Wolverines (kind of like cutting a worm in half?)

[Assistant]
Probably not. He has difficulty regenerating limbs because of the metal in his skeleton. In one universe his legs were torn off and he had to climb up a mountain to retrieve them.

The fact that his blood, hair, and skin cells don't stay alive shows that there are definite limits to his regeneration. In theory you could suspend a tissue sample in a nutrient solution and see what it grows into. But that will either turn into mutant cancer (see Henrietta Lacks) or another Deadpool. And nobody wants another Deadpool.


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

[User]
[A Quiet Place 2] - is New Zealand okay?

>!Or Madagascar, or any other isolated smaller landmass really.!<

>!It seems they arrived on rather uncontrolled meteorites, and we know they can't swim, so I'm assuming so unless they got a lucky hit in, but did either movie have info (newspaper clippings in the background etc.) about known impacts?!<

[Assistant]
Almost certainly, assuming it didn't have a meteorite impact the mainland. Seems like the weakness to water was realized quickly enough that the national guard was able to evacuate quite a lot of people and equipment off the mainland.

Based off what we see in the second film it appears that the apocalypse wasn't quite as total as the first film suggested. For all we know the UK, Taiwan, Ireland, Iceland, NZ, and so on are still doing just fine.


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

[User]
How is the electricity that your brain uses to transmit signals throughout your body generated?

EDIT: for that matter, how is any electric signal in any animal generated?

[Assistant] In simple terms, in nerve cells there is a membrane that separates groups of ions (electrically charged versions of atoms) of potassium and sodium. These ions can only pass through special protein gates and do so when triggered by an impulse. When enough ions cross the membrane barrier, an electric gradient is produced because there are more positive ions on one side than the other. Once a certain electric threshold is reached, a chain reaction is produced and the gradient is passed along a nerve. Afterward, protein pumps reestablish the electric gradient by moving the ions back to their original positions and the nerve will be able to fire again.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] I'm an Empire Admiral and I don't understand why the Emperor gives us so few Star Destroyers

I'm an Admiral of the Empire in charge of hunting and destroying Rebel Alliance fleets, but I do not understand why my fleet only receives between 3 or 5 Star Destroyers and a couple of support ships. In the records we are supposed to have 35k of them and hundreds of thousands of other types.

[Assistant] Space is like really big.  Between defense fleets like those at kuat and scariff and the thousands of anti piracy patrols in the mid and outer rim territories there just aren't enough star destroyers to go around.  They aren't meant to be used like destroyers or patrol boats but as force projection ships.  Each one carries enough troops and tie fighters and walkers to effectively garrison a single planet each or ensure the empire has a presence in a system that  can't be easily ignored by a bunch of pirates.  The tarkin doctrine emphasizes superior strength and intimidation factor over flexibility and speed in the navy.  While you may find the handful of star destroyers given to you to be inadequate for hunting very mobile single pilot fighter craft just notice how the rebels always run when facing you.  It'll take a large effort on their part to face you in a fight and while it may not be a swift victory against the rebel scum eventually they'll run out of hiding places and you'll be thankful for the massive amount of firepower and troops each star destroyer represents in a fight that will give you 3 to 1 odds against any rebel forces you may encounter.


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

[User]
CMV: The first people who will go to Mars will go insane

The group that goes first to establish a base colony probably will not be big. They will have to work all day in a hostile enviroment with the same people everyday.

Most importantly, over time they will realise what they left behind on Earth and that they will not return. They exchanged their life on their home planet for a pioneer status and an unbearable slave life in the desert with no hope of return. They will feel that the glory and having your name in history books is not worth it amd they will miss every trivial thing Earth has to offer.

This will slowly nag on every single one of them, giving way to conflicts in the group, the atmosphere in the group will become worse and worse over time as you cannot take time off and relax, or leave the group. This will lead to someone snapping and doing something bad.

New people will be sent after them, but no one will be willing to go, because they know they will go insane too. This will be the end of the Mars mission.

[Assistant]
This is actually a very relevant concern that NASA has spent a lot of effort into studying.  NASA has run a number of isolation experiments where they isolate people from the rest of the world and put them into a confined space alone and in groups and have psychologists study the results.  They have done these experiments several times with periods longer than 6 months.

When the chilean mine collapse happened, due to this exact research, NASA had the most qualified psychologists in the world for helping the miners deal with being trapped in a confined space with others for an extended period of time and actually sent those psychologists to Chile to help.

> Most importantly, over time they will realise what they left behind on Earth and that they will not return. They exchanged their life on their home planet for a pioneer status and an unbearable slave life in the desert with no hope of return. They will feel that the glory and having your name in history books is not worth it amd they will miss every trivial thing Earth has to offer.

I think you're likely right that the average person might experience that kind of emotional rollercoaster, but there are people who would also do fine, and so its simply a matter of being able to identify and screen for those individuals.

For example, there are hermits who live in total exclusion and prefer that.  As you properly stated, someone who is going to Mars to seek glory is going to end up very disappointed as that initial wave fades.  That is why you need to find people who aren't excited about the glory, but rather are excited about doing the actual work.  There are people out there that would legitimately love every minute of that kind of hardship and also wouldn't mind having just a handful of companions to do it with.

The kind of people that set out on a solo sailing trip around the world or venture out into a remote area of the woods to build themselves a log cabin by themselves. Another good example of this would be the early antarctic expeditions who for *years* at a time would give up contact with the rest of the world and only be able to be in touch with the other people on their expedition.  Being an early explorer of antarctica was probably similarly treacherous as someone on Mars with modern technology. Mars will actually have better contact with earth than someone on an early antarctic expedition.

>  worse over time as you cannot take time off and relax, or leave the group.

Some people relax by working harder.  People that build boats in their spare time as a hobby or people that workout to relax.


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

[User] [MCU] Vulture has no abilities of any kind without his technology handy. How could he be so delusional as to sit four feet away from a kid with superhuman reflexes and strength, and threaten to murder his whole family, to his face?

[Assistant] Because, at the end of the day, Peter's still just a kid. Despite being superhuman, some stuff like being scared of an angry adult just doesn't go away so easily. Hell, look at Cap - dude is a godlike hero and he still has a hard time talking to girls because of how he was a scrawny shrimp who never got the time of day from one before the war.


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

[User]
ELI5: If an atom splitting causes a nuclear explosion, could a natural coincidence cause one?

I suppose this question boils down into two factors:
A) Are nuclear explosions something only mankind can do (a specific reaction that may never happen naturally)?
B) If not, does that mean an atom could suddenly be split by some freak coincidence and create a nuclear explosion, possibly in a populated area?

Thanks in advance!

[Assistant]
Instable atoms split all the time in nature.

What causes a nuclear explosion is a chainreaction where one splitting causes multiple more.

This is only possible if you have enough instable material gathered in one place (critical mass) wich will instantly explode. Thats how they are triggered. Take something below critical mass and smack a little more Uranium on it.

It's a statistical property but the chance of Uranium below the critical mass getting a chainreaction going is just too low to think about it. Imagine you roll a dice and whenever you have a 6 you roll 2 more times. How high is the chance to get a billion throws before each chain ends?

Atoms lighter than iron (so most we see in our daily life) do not release energy when they split. Other heavy atoms do not split spontanously because they are stable. It's really just a few radioactive materials that work for this process because they are large and instable.


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

[User]
[Batman] What would happen if Batman swapped Two-Face's coin with one that always landed on its non-scarred side?

In Batman the animated series, Batman once swapped Harvey's coin with a trick coin that always landed on the edge and Harvey nearly ran off the side of a building flipping the coin again and again.

But what would happen instead if Batman swapped Two-Face's coin with a trick coin that was weighted towards the non-scarred side? Would Two-Face eventually catch on to the trick or just believe it to be random chance each time?

[Assistant]
First, let's realize that Dent is kind of fixing the results anyway.  For example, in Nolan's The Dark Knight when he is in the car with Maroni, he flipped a coin.  It spared Maroni's life.   But, in a "do-over", he flips it again and gets the result he wants, but excuses it that it's for the driver, so kills him, resulting in the car crash.  -- So even without a fixed coin, he strives to get the result he ultimately wants. That said...

Dent isnt stupid.  Even he would know that the coin cant land on the same side 100% of the time if it isnt fixed.   Eventually he'd figure it out.  But for the sake of argument, let's assume he doesn't and continues to believe it to be still random, just extremely coincidental... he'll eventually re-fix the process in his favor.

For example. --- if you flip a coin, catch it in the palm one hand then flip and slap it on the back of your other hand, you're in essence changing the flip of the coin from the way it landed in your first hand.

So, he would then just orchestrate the toss and the catch and (depending on how it's fixed) either flip it onto his backhand, or not -- however he decides to achieve whichever outcome he actually prefers.

If it landing in his palm results in non-scarred side up, and he wants the scarred side, he can slap it onto his backhand (flipping it to the scarred side.  -- or if it was fixed to land in his palm scarred side up (so that flipping it would result in the non-scarred side up) then he can just chose to not flip it and let it rest as it landed in his palm.

Either way, the outcome is rigged by his choice versus the coin's land.


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

[User] [Marvel] Who is the least virtuous/unworthy to lift and utilize Mjolnir?

[Assistant]
Superman. He used it briefly when the Justice League teamed up with the Avengers to stop the mad Guardian of the Universe Krona from using Galactus' corpse as a weapon to destroy everything.

It turned out that Mjolnir lowered her standards of what counts as worthy because it was an emergency, and after the battle ended Superman was no longer considered worthy.


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

[User]
I believe that human needs are always more important than animal rights. CMV

Note that I used the word "needs" very broadly in this context. When I say needs. I meant anything that would give a human or humanity even the slightest amount of benefit or comfort.

Now I hold mostly libertarian values, which means that I support the notion that anyone should do anything they want when it does not hurt or disturb another person. This, again can be interpreted in a manner of ways, but in the context of animal rights, it is pretty straight forward. Because no human being is being harmed, then the action although appalling, should not be illegal. Many of you may argue the "animal abuse leads to human abuse" argument, but its really a slippery slope fallacy, and even you were right most of the time, its still irrelevant because we have laws against harming another human being. We should arrest people who harm humans, not individual animals. Just because some action may lead to a crime, doesn't mean it warrants an arrest due to an generalized assumption.

I do not however support killing animals to the point of extinction. I care about the collective existence of animals as a whole as it pertains to ecological stability and public ownership. I do not support the hunting of endangered species because I value their continued existence as a whole, not because I care about their rights. I believe that humans who kill endangered species are destroying public property and disrupting the ecological balance in some cases, and thus their actions are harming other people. This is why I believe that factory farming and sustainable whaling are perfectly fine, while poaching engendered animals is not.

I mentioned factory farming in the last paragraph. Factory farming has, without a doubt, made meat a cheaper to the average consumer. I acknowledge that livestock is being tortured for meat, but because it benefits, or at least does not harm humanity, I still believe the practice is perfectly legitimate. Some of you may argue that factory farm meat may have certain health problems, and that is a reasonable argument, but it doesn't really address my main point. If you think factory farming shouldn't continue because it produces poisonous meat, then you may have a point, but if you oppose factory farming for the treatment of animals, then I would not consider your argument with any seriousness.

Some of you may argue that treating animals with respect is a part of human empathy, and I agree with you. I would never torture an animal, and I find the act rather appalling, but I believe the state should not intervene and arrest a person which has done no harm to another person. If someone enjoys harming animals, then all we should do its criticize, but in the end, human needs should always trump animal rights.

[Assistant]
Why?

You wrote that entire explanation and never stated why you actually think this difference should exist. All you did was describe the difference. You started off saying that human needs should trump animal needs. Then you listed a few areas where you think that should happen, but nowhere did you explain *why* you think human suffering counts more than animal suffering. Nowhere did you give an actual argument. You just told us what you believe as if believing it and stating it was justification enough.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why can "waves" of gasoline fumes emitting from the pump be seen in the shadow of the pump on the ground, but when looking directly at the pump in the car, these waves are not visible?

This was a hard question to word. But basically I was pumping gas into my car the other night. The fluorescent lights were on above me, and I looked down and noticed the shadow of the pump in my car on the ground. In the shadow I could see that there were obvious waves/ripples seemingly coming from the sides of the pump. When I looked back up at the actual pump in my car and looked closely, I couldn't see anything similar. I'm assuming they were fumes from the gasoline, but what I want to know is why was I able to see them in the shadow, but not the actual thing?

[Assistant]
gasoline vapor has a slightly different density than air. as light passes through the vapor, it changes direction slightly as it passes through the areas of differing densities. we see this as the visible shimmer, and the shadow thereof. Heat shimmer and rainbows are caused by the same mechanism- light changing direction (refracting) at the interface between two materials of different density.

Lighting and position will affect whether or not you see the effect, but it is still there.


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

[User]
[Spiderman] How committed to the truth and journalistic integrity is Jay Jonah Jameson and the Daily Bugle?

We all know that Jameson has it out for Spidey and will spin every story he can to make it look like Spidey is a menace. But I also remember in the 3rd movie that he printed a front page retraction when it was brought to his attention that his gotcha article was based on doctored photos. Just how far is he willing to stretch the facts to crucify spidey and where does he draw the line?

[Assistant] The Daily Bugle is at times seen as National Inquire level trash but most often it is newspaper with strong integrity.  JJJ doesn't publish his rants as actual news articles but as editorials which lend a lot more leeway.


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

[User]
[Fairly Odd Parents] Why doesn't Tootie have Fairy God Parents?

It's said multiple times that she's more miserable than Timmy is since she lives with Vicky.

[Assistant] Why does Superman stop bank robberies instead of any number of humanitarian problems he could solve in an hour? It's all a scam, man. Fairies go to kids who are unhappy, but not so unhappy that their wishes would change the status quo. It's all about placating the middle class.


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

[User]
Why does water cause iron to rust faster?  Are water molecules directly oxidizing the metal or is the water catalyzing the reaction with oxygen in the atmosphere?

Just askin'.

[Assistant]
Rust is a form of corrosion. Corrosion consists of a transfer of electrons from the anode to the cathode. For rust to occur, there needs to be a donor of electrons (the metal) and an acceptor (oxygen). However, oxygen in the air is in the diatomic form of O2 and will not readily accept electrons. It is actually monoatomic oxygen dissolved in water that will accept electrons by the following equation:

12 O2 + H2O + 2e- --> 2OH-

Water is actually required for iron to rust, and it also results in the production of OH-. As the iron gives up its electrons to oxygen, the surface becomes positively charged. These iron ions are soluble in aqueous solution and will combine with oxygen to create rust.

So there are two things required for iron to rust: water and oxygen. Deaerated or nitrogen-saturated water will not rust because oxygen will not be able to dissolve into the water and receive electrons.


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

[User] [Despicable Me] Are minions immortal? And how come they speak some amalgam of Romance languages when they predate civilization?

[Assistant]
The language spoken by the Minions is actually the original form of Proto-Indo-European, as spoken by the Neolithic steppe dwellers of the Kurgan culture. The Kurgan, of course, learned it from the Minions.

As such, it's not so much that Minions use Romance words, but rather that the Romance languages echo the Minions' ancient tongue.


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

[User] ELI5: What is diplomatic immunity exactly?

[Assistant] Its a legal immunity that protects the diplomats from the laws of the country they are sent to. They cannot be prosecuted under the laws of the host country if they are accused of violating them. They can only be expelled from that country.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do pregnant women get specific and unusual cravings? Do they serve a biological purpose?

[Assistant]
There are two thoughts on why it happens, both are probably somewhat correct. One is that hormone production changes during pregnancy and that stimulates the desire for certain things. For example, as a woman's insulin levels drop or rise their body wants certain things that will adjust those levels. Some women report that they experience changes in tastes or desire for food in relation to menstruation, another time that hormones fluctuate.

The second reason is that pregnancy is very physically demanding and it's necessary to increase both blood volume and nutrients. The brain is a very greedy organ and initiates cravings to not only supply the body and baby with nutrition, but to meet its own needs.


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

[User] [Dark Souls] Why are some people like Gwyn, Vendrick, and Lothric so much bigger than you and the friendly NPCs you meet?

[Assistant]
Dark Souls goes through different ages kind like alternate universes where different peoples/species rule. A lot of them literally just aren't the same kind of being you are and thus are huge.

Gwyn and his Kin are gods from a previous age. And you're... A human kinda?


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

[User]
ELI5: How can ISP's tell when you're downloading legally (e.g., iTunes) vs. downloading copyrighted files (torrents) ?

I just downloaded around 20gigs worth of a TV show from iTunes. In the wake of the recent news that ISPs will start to send warning letters to those who allegedly download copyrighted files, how can they differentiate?

[Assistant] When you torrent, you basically ask a bunch of other computers for small parts of the file.  To do this, you have to give them your IP address.  Anyone else who is downloading or uploading that same torrent can see your IP address.  The company who owns the copyrighted material hires people to find and sit on those torrents and record every IP address that connects.  They then send cease and desist letters to the ISP, who then usually passes it on to the user.


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

[User]
Why do some allergies only affect certain parts of the body?

Many allergies seem to only affect the respiratory system or the digestive tract. Why can the same allergen be rubbed on skin in some cases and no reaction occurs, or post stomach not cause reactions throughout the rest of the digestive systems?

I am assuming there is no reaction after leaving the stomach due to the acid denaturing the protein responsible, but why is this the case for other parts of the skin/body?

[Assistant] The antigens have to be bound to IgE and then end up activating immune cells (mast cells especially). That's just much easier to accomplish in the respiratory and digestive tract. Unbroken skin is an excellent barrier for entry, and the respiratory and gastrointestinal tract make up most of the rest of the barrier between "outside" and "inside" of the body (the gut lumen etc. is topologically outside the body).


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

[User]
Can we get a consensus on whether Captain America is peak human or superhuman?

I feel like we either have to call his above peak human feats PIS/WIS or we have to stop calling him peak human.

[Assistant]
Well it was called the *Super* Soldier Serum. But, the Marvel wiki says

> The Super-Soldier Serum (SSS) metabolized and enhanced all of Rogers' bodily functions to the peak of human potential. Dr. Reinstein described this potential as being "the next step in human evolution," while still remaining completely human but often called the "Perfect Man."

***

> Rogers has no superhuman powers, although as a result of the Super-Soldier Serum, he was transformed from a frail young man into a "perfect" specimen of human development and conditioning. Rogers is as intelligent, strong, fast, agile, and durable as possible for a human being to be without being considered superhuman.

At the same time, though

> This strength also extends to his legs, enabling him to leap 6mt/20ft out in a single bound and 10ft/3 meters into the air without a running start. He can snap steel handcuffs and chains, and is capable of breaking through wooden walls and steel doors with a single kick.

Which sounds pretty ridiculous.

> He can run at speeds of up to approximately 48 kilometers per hour (30 miles per hour) or higher, and has run a mile (1.6 km) in 73 seconds (49 mph/78 kph). When under duress he can run a mile in just over a minute (60 mph).

30 mph is the fasted speed Usain Bolt has hit, so that's believable as peak human. The 60 mph, though...

> His bones and muscles are denser and harder and so are amplified to the highest human potential, which makes him very durable compared to a normal human. He is durable enough to the point that if a person beats him with a thick wooden stick, the stick would eventually break and Rogers would show little discomfort.

That sounds more than peak to me.

> This level of durability is how he survived other forms of extensive punishment throughout his career such as falls from several stories like when he landed on a car from 6000cm/200 feet with no discomfort.

200 foot fall *with no discomfort.*

> Rogers' reflexes border on superhuman level. His reaction speed is 20 kph, which makes it possible for him to dodge gunfire even in point blank range from multiple gunners at the same time.

Once again, they keep *saying* he's peak human, but then giving examples that sound pretty super human.

> He once said that he is able to dodge bullets because he sees faster than them.

_

> The SSS dramatically slows Rogers's aging due to extensively healthy cells. Sersi once stated because of this it is possible that he may indefinitely maintain his youth.

This is another one of those times where they *say* that it's peak but it's not. Slower aging is peak. Immortality is super.

It also says Fury ranks him at power level 8. I'd like to see how that compares to other humans and super beings.


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

[User] Are some cells more greedy than others? Do some cells use more resources than their benefit to the organism?

[Assistant] Yes, this is what happens in cancer. Essentially, through mutation and selection, cancer cells have lost their "restraint". They consume nutrients and grow in a way that benefits the cancer cells (temporarily) at great cost to the host body.


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

[User]
Why do we hear that they discovered water on Mars every month? What is different each time?

It seems like once a month or so, evidence of water on Mars makes headlines.

Why is something that has been known for a while newsworthy? What additional information is being discovered each time?

Even just a few examples would be helpful, if possible.

[Assistant]
There are lots of different types of water, and different types of evidence. The evidence can be more or less persuasive, and imply water existed at different times.

So, you can find evidence of ancient, brine like water. Or ancient, acidic water. Or ancient, neutral pH water (note that evidence of all of these have been found). Or modern subsurface ice. Or modern subsurface brine. Or features indicating rare occurrences of liquid on the present day surface. Or clay minerals that are probably formed in water, but we can't be sure. Or evidence of water eroded features like rivers and lakebeds. And so on. Each tells a different facet of the history of water on Mars, and the planet's potential habitability.


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

[User]
[Pirates of the Caribbean] Is the Kraken the only one of its kind?

If so, where did it come from?

[Assistant] As far as we know, the Kraken is the only leviathan of its kind. No other PotC movies or books have even shown other leviathans, so it may be the only one in existence for all we know. The Kraken simply is. Asking where it came from is like asking where did Calypso or any number of gods come from, which considering there's such thing as magic, gods, and monsters it may have simply poofed into the ocean one day.


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

[User]
How is the environment/ecosystem affected by the energy that is removed by wind and solar power?

Wind and solar power convert solar and wind energy into electricity. This energy is removed from that ecosystem. Instead of sunlight hitting the ground and heating the ground up, it hits solar cells to generate electricity. Instead of the wind blowing dust and seeds around, it is used to blow wind turbines to generate electricity. Is the energy removed negligible? Is the effect measurable? How is that ecosystem affected by this removal of energy?

[Assistant] I actually took a class on this in University 2 years ago. There is very minor local effects on the environment, the biggest problem with wind power is birds, and bats flying into the low pressure behind the turbine and exploding. Otherwise there is no major effect wind power. Solar power is only useful right now, in places like Nevada where they get a large amount of sun year round, nothing grows there so the absorption of the sun energy affects nothing majorly. Both these power generation techniques are still in their infancy and in time we may start to see larger effects; however at the moment they are the cleanest and friendliest power generation techniques.


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

[User] [SW] Darth Vader's powers don't seem useful for anything on than for killing people. What exactly IS Vader good for?

[Assistant]
He's the living embodiment of everything the Empire stands for - discipline, technology over nature, technically human, and authoritarian in the extreme. He's basically the Empire's equivalent of Captain America.

With that in mind, his actual purpose is keeping the senior military in line. You can't run a colossal military dictatorship without some fools trying it on and he's the guy you send to sort it out. It's one thing to disobey some mad torturer, but Vader *is* the Empire, standing in front of an Imperial officer, asking him if he's loyal. *Ultima ratio Imperator*, the last argument of the Emperor.


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

[User] [DC] Since Gotham has so much crime and so many villains and methuman villains, why hasn't Batman asked Superman to lend him a helping hand?

[Assistant]
Because all Superman could do is put a band-aid on it.

He could fly around stopping crimes all day and all night, and it would do nothing to resolve the causes of crime - the poverty and lack of prospects that so many Gothamites face, and the massive amounts of organised crime that has roots in the city.

Remember, Batman is primarily a detective who happens to be good at punching, not a punching machine who happens to fight criminals; he spends much of his time going after criminal networks and evil conspiracies.

And further remember, Batman is only half of what Bruce Wayne does; the efforts of the Wayne Foundation in alleviating poverty and providing opportunities for Gothamites are just as important in his war on crime.


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

[User]
CMV: Being technologically non-savvy in 2022 is not excusable for most people, nor should it be a badge of pride.

Here's the background story that sparked this:
I have a planned meeting today with a future employer. For the last 5 or 6 days, the mutual understanding was that this meeting was to be held virtually, presumably over Zoom or some similar software. I called the assistant today a few hours prior to the meeting to confirm all details and the assistant asked
- "Do you have an iPhone?"
- "Nope, I have a Windows PC and an Android phone."
- "Oh. Is it possible for you to get your hands on the iPhone?"
- "That's not possible."
- "Oh, okay. Do you think you can come in to the office in person then? [Employer] is not really quick with technology, basically I just set it up so I Facetime him and he answers."
- "So we can't just do a Zoom call?"
- "No, you're going to have to come in person to meet with him if you can't Facetime".

This post isn't about me being mad about an in-person meeting; I'm honestly fine with coming in, and the office is located pretty close to where I live. It's only a minor inconvenience. And they have a right to change the location of the meeting. This really isn't a rant about what just happened to me, that just the background info for what sparks this rant.

All little more background about me, so you know my perspective. I'm a mid-to-late Millennial born in 1993. I remember a time before we had a modem in the house, but I had Internet access for most of my childhood. I have owned a smartphone since I was a teenager and I believe I registered a Facebook account in 2008 or 2009.

Now you might argue that this employer deserves some credit for at least owning an iPhone, and knowing how to swipe to answer a call, but that is, I would argue, lower than the bare minimum that can reasonably be expected in 2022, for someone being paid to work in an office. This employer can't be older than 55. It was clear from the assistant's explanation that the assistant has to go out of his way to set up virtual meetings so that the employer just has to answer the phone with a swipe of his finger, otherwise it's not possible.

My opinion is that this is absolutely unacceptable in the modern age, for those who live with regular access to technology. If you argue that "Well, this company obviously doesn't require this employer to embrace technology, so he's off the hook", I'd say that you're missing the point of my opinion.

This line of reasoning brought me to the second part of my title, thinking about those people who express pride in not being proficient in the use of ubiquitous technologies.

By this statement, I don't mean people that dislike/distrust social media or other tech trends (TikTok, etc.) and are proud of it. I myself no longer use Facebook and have even been recently cutting myself off from Reddit, the only real "social media" site that I use. I think there are so many good arguments against the regular use of social media and I don't blame anyone who avoids it.

I'm talking about people like my law school professor, who is in his early 40's and "doesn't bother with email, I don't understand it and I'm proud of it." Meanwhile, the course I took from him last semester was very unpleasant, because contacting him was nearly impossible, and required a combination of a phone call to his office number (he owns but almost never uses a cellphone) and very good timing. My classmates and I were up in arms about this lack of communication, but he was set in his ways, as a middle aged man, and refused to glance at his email. There is absolutely no excuse for this. This man is an instructor. I think many of you probably know someone like this. I would say the same of, say, a schoolteacher who still doesn't know how to use Zoom and just laughs it off and says it's "no big deal", even though learning how to use Zoom is now arguably a crucial part of every schoolteacher's job.

Now there are exceptions, obviously. Your 103-year-old great grandmother doesn't have the same expectations as most other people. Although I would warn you that my grandparents, in their mid-80's, are extremely proficient with technology and use their smartphones regularly to play games, video chat with their relatives, etc. So you might have a hard time convincing me that automatically, boomers and older generations = technological incompetency, and that's just a fact of life.

Another possible exception may be someone who lives a genuinely secluded life and doesn't have daily interactions with people might have no reason to own a cellphone, because they are not immersed in modern technology. I'm not trying to claim that this rule is for everyone, just mostly for the people who live a normal life and interact with others at work, among friends, etc. but remain ignorant of basic technology use.

You might change my mind by re-contextualizing about the actual scope of this issue. Perhaps these type of people are so rare that it's a silly point to bring up. Or, you may redefine "proud" or "technologically incompetent" in a way that changes how I view the issue. Anyway, that's my opinion. Thanks for reading!

TL;DR People who interact with others on a daily basis and live an otherwise normal life, but who remain obstinately and proudly ignorant in the use of ubiquitous, essential technologies like email or Zoom (though not social media).

[Assistant]
People take pride in difficult accomplishments. As technology becomes more and more a part of life, being able to function without gets harder and harder. Therefore, continuing to function without technology becomes a difficult accomplishment.

The issue with pride is that the accomplishment doesn't have to be useful. Defeating a video game with a silly handicap can be a source of pride. All that's needed is difficulty.


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

[User] ELI5: why do mirrors reverse left and right but not top and bottom?

[Assistant]
They dont reverse left-to-right *or* top-to-bottom. They reverse front-to-back, such that the distance to the mirror is the same for an object and its reflection, except in opposite directions.

Stand in front of a mirror and point left/right/up/down, and your reflection will point the same overall direction. Point towards or away from the mirror, and your reflection points the opposite direction.


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

[User] what would happen if a healthy (stable) person took a shot from an EpiPen?

[Assistant]
Elevated heart and respiratory rate, mostly.

It actually happens more than you'd think. Plenty of badly trained first aiders (or properly trained first aiders acting under intense stress because they are aiding someone they care about) inject themselves with the stuff by accident. The most common mistake is to put the thumb at the end of the stick when pressing against the thigh of the casualty, if they try to insert the wrong end (yes, it happens), then the needle pops out in their thumb. It's not life threatening by itself, but in the meantime the casualty is suffocating.


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

[User] Does your brain hold all the memories of your life but only chooses to show you a few hundred, or does it overwrite itself, "painting over" the older memories with newer ones?

[Assistant]
As far as we know, our brains are capable of storing unlimited amounts of information. The problem is that each time we remember, the memory will be decoded, experienced and encoded once again. During this proces, information gets lost or changed. The next time you remember, it will be a different memory, but youll still think its the real deal (not all lies are on purpose).

Memories are stored across your entire brain. A certain memory may involve sounds and feelings which, when remembering, will activate the same areas of the brain as were active the moment you encoded the memory. These areas are connected to each other, but as time passes without activation, these connections grow weaker.

At times you may find yourself remembering something you thought you had forgotten. This is due to something around you (anything you senses pick up) triggering the connection that got weakened. The information is never truely lost, but you might need some help remembering.


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

[User] If I'm in a noisy room, when I open the window will sound escape and make the room quieter?

[Assistant] Yes, if reverberation is making it louder in the room in the first place. If you were in a mostly anechoic room, opening the window to a street would make it louder inside the room. So really depends on the room in question.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] If the Trade Federation BattleDroids are all remote controlled by a central computer, why do they need to talk to each other?

When the Droid Control ship is destroyed in the Battle of Naboo, they immediately stop moving. If they have a constant, wifi like data connection to the control ship, why would they use verbal communication, which is much slower and less accurate?

[Assistant] The droids have some degree of autonomy to adapt to battle conditions in the field, which is why there is a command hierarchy. The central computer in orbit handles the stuff that generals and support would, like battlefield intelliegence, strategy, mission objectives, etc.


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

[User]
Does antimicrobial resistance (AMR) apply to viruses? Or is it just a bacteria thing?

I understand the general concept of AMR and how it arises when microorganisms gain resistance against antibiotics. It seems many AMR cases involve bacteria though, like *E. coli*. Can and do viruses also become resistant to antimicrobials?

[Assistant]
Antimicrobes dont work on virus's as they are not cells and not living. So no, AMR does not develop within them.

However virus's can evolve to bypass defenses. Hence why immune systems and vaccines can be bypassed with enough time. So in principle yes, virus's can undergo selection pressure and develop resistances to thinhs that stop them.

EDIT: as some replies pointed out, even though virus's are not microbes, antiviral medication is still an antimicrobial. So its not just in principle, they actually can get AMR!


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

[User]
[Lord of the Rings]How would things have changed if they sent Faramir instead of Boromir?

Gondor sends Faramir to the fellowship meeting, How do things change?

[Assistant]
Boromir finds a boat wading down the Anduin River. He sees the body of his brother Faramir, to his utmost grief. During an ambush on the Haradrim, he stumbles upon Frodo and Sam. He is surprised and takes them to questioning. Frodo identifies himself and Sam as Hobbits from Imaldris, alongside Faramir and the rest of the Fellowship.

Boromir eventually discovers the presence of the One Ring. He takes it from the Ring Bearer and manages to fight off the Orcs at the Battle of Osgilliath. He enters Minas Tirith to celebrate his victory with his father Denethor, the Steward of Gondor. Days later, Gandalf bears news of Rohan to Gondor about the movement of Sauron. He finds a new king has been crowned, one who bears a *precious* power. A new Dark Lord arises.


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

[User]
[Batman/Marvel] How would Joker react to having these superheroes as his archenemy instead of Batman?

These heroes are

Spider-Man

Daredevil

Punisher

Captain America

Wolverine

Hulk

Black Widow

Deadpool

How would Joker react to having one of these heroes as his archenemy?

[Assistant]
> Spider-Man

Badly. Joker went from completely dismissing Terry McGinnis (Batman Beyond) to raving lunacy when Terry started heckling him. Since Spidey makes up quips easier, Joker will be gunning to kill him instantly.

> Daredevil

Probably the same as Batman.

> Punisher

Would be interested due to his no-nonsense attitude, but unlike Batman Punisher *doesn't* have a no-killing rule which takes away most of the fun he has with Batsy.

> Captain America

Joker's entire schtick here is going to be making Steve see that America is a total shithole that doesn't need saving. It won't work on Steve since Steve is patriotic enough to try and save the values the country was founded on.

> Wolverine

A toy that fixes itself after it breaks?! Joker's going to have a field day with this one!

He's also going to be dissected alive and screaming by a very pissed off Canadian, but that's a minor inconvenience.

> Hulk

Joker likes to get into people's heads and fuck with them, meaning Bruce Wayne is a massive target - force him into a public place, piss him off and run while Hulk tears it apart. Effectively, he's going to use the Hulk as a bomb to commit terrorist acts. This will have everyone from the police, SHIELD, the military and other heroes gunning after the Joker *with express orders to kill him*.

> Black Widow

This is a tricky one. He'll try his mind games in order to screw with her head and it'll get under her skin... or so he thinks. She's known for taking the demoralising rant of other villains and using it against them (see what she did to Loki in *The Avengers*) so it will be a massive cat-and-mouse psychological game between the two of them.

> Deadpool

Here's the thing - Deadpool is kind of like a male Harley, in that he's a chaotic character who loves causing destruction and mayhem. Hell, he once sucker-punched Shadowcat with a Shuryuken in order to goad Wolverine into a fight. Joker will want to *recruit* Deadpool.

But he made the mistake of threatening Spidey, so for that he must die.


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

[User] [Fallout 4] How can a fusion core power a building for hundreds of years, but it can only power a suit of power armor for a couple of hours?

[Assistant] Are there any actual buildings that are powered by fusion cores? In the game, if you take a core out of one of those generators, the lights in the building dont turn off. One nearby will flicker but the rest of the building remains powered. It could be a back up generator of sorts. In which case it would go unused barring damage/loss of the buildings main power source.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why don't we point Hubbles and/or all other "magical" telescopes to our closest celestial body and show everyone once and for all, the artifacts of human Lunar landing?

If we purport to see something more than 13 billion light years away, we should be able to a lunar lander if not the flag, right?

[Assistant] The distant objects Hubble can see are inconceivably huge. The flag on the moon is not. Hubble could resolve approximately a football field sized object on the lunar surface but it's nowhere near powerful enough to resolve the flag.


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

[User]
[LotR] Why couldn't Arwen just leave on another boat to Valinor later on in life?

I'm watching Two Towers right now, and the whole tragic bit with Arwen and Aragorn just went by, when she is talking to her father about either leaving for Valinor or waiting for Aragorn. He talked about her living forever in Middle Earth after he aged and died.

But, doesn't another boat leave for Valinor at the end of the War of the Rings? Why couldn't she just tell daddy, "No, it's cool, I'll live here until Aragorn dies, then head on over to Valinor." Do you only get a once in a lifetime boat ticket, as it were? What gives?

The wiki for the story of Arwen and Aragorn tells me nothing about this, and it just seems so weird to me.

[Assistant]
She can't.

By marrying Aragorn she chose to share his fate of mortality and eventually leaving Arda.  She is still half-elven but her 'affinity' is that of man, thus she is mortal but long lived, effectively a Numenorean in all but name.

The path to Valinor is cut off to mortals except for the very few with a special dispensation (Frodo, Bilbo, Sam and arguably Gimli).  She wouldn't be able to find the path even if she had a boat, she could sail the ocean west for the rest of her life, but for her all paths are bent and the world would be round.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do most goods have relatively stable prices, while gasoline fluctuates on a daily basis?

[Assistant]
Mostly because gasstations decided it's worth the effort to inform people of daily price changes.

Fuel supply and demand change a lot, so with a constant price it would have to be pretty high to prevent the risk of selling at a loss for gasstations.

With other goods supply and demand are very stable, and the effort to inform people about the daily price outweights the gains for the seller. (Imagine a grocery store would keep up some digital board with all the current daily vegetable rates instead of printing a pricetag)


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] What was Dumbledore using the Deluminator for before he bequeathed it to Ron?

The Deluminator does two things: captures and stores all the the sources of lights around it, and acts as a homing device allowing you to zero in on and listen to them even through protection spells.

One of those things seems way way more useful to a man like Dumbledore. What'd he make it for that he needed that combination of magic abilities.

[Assistant]
Nothing at all says that the Deluminator functioned as a... whatever it did for Ron all the time.

We only ever see Dumbledore use the Deluminator to turn off lights, so it's quite possible that he changed the Deluminator before he gave it on.

As for what he used it for... Turning out light when he didn't want to be seen.


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

[User]
[Batman] What college degrees does Bruce Wayne have?

Me personally, I'd like to think that he has a Bachelors of Science degree dual majoring in Forensic Science and Chemistry, with a minor in Genetics or something like Mechanical Engineering. Maybe an MBA thrown in there as well.

[Assistant] I dont think he has ANY. It was canon for a while that he went to many of the finest colleges in the world to learn what he wanted to, and ONLY what he wanted to, and then hed leave. Never got a degree at all.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] What if Windu killed Palpatine then Anakin killed him?

So lets say Anakin didnt make it time and Windu killed Palpatine then Anakin kills Windu for taking away what he believed could save his wife. What happens next?

[Assistant]
The biggest, most immediate impact of this would be that Order 66 would not have been executed.  With Palpatine dead and Anakin unaware of the plan, the Jedi Order would be safe from the biggest immediate threat. With Dooku, Grievous, and Palpatine taken out, the war would wrap up quickly in any case.

As for Anakin, killing Windu is a big, fat step towards darkness.  And one that it might not be possible to come back from.  But without Palpatine promising to save his wife to tether him to the Dark Side, his resolve might not last.  And without the power of the Republic's army and Senate behind him, Anakin wouldn't be able to lead a new Empire as Palpatine planned to do, especially with the Jedi Order still alive and ready to stand against him if he tried.

Best guess?  Anakin would flee, maybe to plot against the Jedi, maybe just to stew in his darkness.  Obi-Wan would be sent to find him and might succeed.  But in any case, it seems likely that Padme would give birth without Anakin by her side.  And that might be something he could sense.

And if she survived (which she might do without Anakin choking her or any of the Sidious lifestealing conspiracy theories taking place), the knowledge that his visions hadn't come true, that his wife and children had all survived, might be enough to bring him back.  He would turn himself in to the judgement of the Council.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does water stop evaporating when it reaches cloud-level, instead of floating into space?

Actual question from my actually 5 year old son, which I tried to research but couldn't understand the answer myself. Hoping someone can explain to both of us.

[Assistant]
Cloud level itself is dependent on things like the temperature and moisture content of the air mass, and it varies widely.

Moist air rises until it reaches its dew point, the temperature where that moisture condenses out as visible water vapor that we know as clouds. Whatever altitude that occurs at (based on the atmospheric conditions) is "cloud level". There can be many such layers of clouds at any given time.

Vertical development, where the clouds are lofted much higher than they would otherwise be, is seen in atmospheric disturbances like thunderstorms that pump warm, humid air up into the atmosphere.


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

[User]
Why doesnt the fed give money straight to the people instead of adjusting interest rates to keep inflation in check?

Instead of lowering interest rates, the federal reserve could send money to people directly to set inflation targets and skip the middle man altogether (banks and federal government).

[Assistant] If the fed made direct payments to public, it would be creating liabilities (new base money) without increasing its assets. This is bad because if inflation were to rise, the central bank  may not have sufficient amount of assets to sell (sales destroy base money) to control inflation. So helicopter money (what some economists call direct payments by the fed to the public) may lead to an inability to control inflation. The fed also provides the role of a lender of last resort meaning it lends to banks that are insolvent (dont have enough reserves to meet depositors demands for withdrawal). If it gave up that role, banks would have a higher probability of failing.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do throwing knives have a handle if you hold the blade while throwing?

[Assistant] As someone who has thrown knives for around 15 years allow me to clarify some things. First and foremost, you do not always throw a knife by the blade. The position of your grip on the blade is dependent on your size, the size of your knife, and the distance to the target. As you move closer to the target your grip should move closer to the balance point on the knife until you reach the center. At this point, you would generally flip the knife around to the other side and begin that same process again. Some throwing knives are designed with a point on both sides, but these are less common and even more uncommon among experienced hobbyists / professionals. The reason for this is IMO twofold. It makes the chances of sticking the target much easier which is seen as cheap and a cop out. And it is generally less safe in the event of a bounce back.(twice the chance of getting stabbed too)


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

[User] What is the origin of spin, from the perspective of quantum field theory?

[Assistant]
Spin arises directly from considering quantum mechanics with rotational symmetry, even without introducing field theory. In any quantum theory with a symmetry, you can arrange all states in irreducible projective unitary* representations of the mathematical group describing that symmetry. For rotations, these representations correspond to states which carry spin. Adding special relativity enlarges the symmetry group, introducing chirality and the fact that states carry a mass (and zero-mass particles have helicity instead of spin). These representations are naturally associated with/defined to be "particles."

Nothing says that you *have* to have particles with a given spin. But our own universe does take advantage of the ability to have particles with nonzero spin.

Relativistic quantum mechanics does end up leading you to introduce quantum fields and quantum field theory - you make all of the operators in your theory into operator-fields which transform in some (not necessarily unitary) representation of the Lorentz group. One usually matches fields with a certain representation with the particles which they create when acting on a state. But these are tools you use to describe spinfull particles, they're not really the "origin" of spin.

\* Or anti-unitary, which usually concerns time-reversal symmetry.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are certain items (like cars and mattresses) sold with such flexible pricing but other items are not?

I just bought a mattress and was able to negotiate and bring down the price on every element of the deal. But, why are certain items sold this way while other things have much more rigid pricing?

Are there specific market factors? Historical reasoning? Or is it just an anomaly?

And, would it benefit or hurt consumers if more or less items were sold this way?

[Assistant]
Some would argue that all items have negotiable prices.  As an example, you can totally negotiate with Walmart and end up paying a lower price.

The difference is that a car or mattress is a large dollar value purchase that is not made very often.  So you (the consumer) has fairly large power because once you've bought you are unlikely to buy another for a long time.  If you are just buying bread, well you buy bread all the time as does virtually everyone on the planet.  So your power as a consumer is virtually zero.


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

[User] How do we recognize what language we hear is even if we don't know it?

[Assistant]
All languages have characteristic sounds and sound patterns. This is called phonology. Languages also have characteristics beyond just sounds such as stress pattern, length of each sound, and pattern of intonation.

If you've heard the language before and had it identified to you, you probably picked up on some of the characteristics and can recognize them again.


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

[User]
[Fallout] Would the Enclave consider the Sole Survivor pure enough for recruitment?

For the sake of the question this is the male SS and he has been in the wasteland for 1 month now give or take. feel free to imagine why or how the Enclave end up in the commonwealth.

My question is, if meeting, would the Enclave be more like "A pre war survivor? That has spent 200 years in a vault safe from radiation? And is an army veteran so he already fought for the USA?! GIVE THIS MAN A HELLFIRE POWER ARMOR"

Or more like "well yeah that's cool but you've been living in the wasteland for a while so you are now irradiated, kill him"

[Assistant]
It may depend on which version of the Enclave the Sole Survivor encounters.

The "OG" Enclave, the ones hiding on the Oil Rig, do not consider anyone outside the Enclave to be worth recruiting.  Even individuals who had been born in a Vault would not be eligible.

The Enclave based in Raven Rock, on the other hand, are a bit more welcoming.  They contacted the Overseer of Vault 101 to ask if the Vault would be interested in cooperating with them, and it appears that the Enclave is receptive to recruiting wastelanders; for example, Project Purity scientist Anna Holt was able to join the Enclave at Raven Rock.  This branch of the Enclave were led by Colonel Autumn, and Autumn's philosophies were much less focused on genetic purity than President John Henry Eden's, so that might explain why the Raven Rock Enclave were a bit more receptive towards wastelanders.

Therefore, if the Sole Survivor somehow made it onto the Oil Rig off the coast of California, the Enclave members there would consider him an outsider and would react with hostility.  If the Sole Survivor met members of the Raven Rock detachment, though, and submitted to genetic testing, then there's a good chance the Enclave members there would be quite happy to recruit him.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do you not suffocate on an airplane during a long flight?

I know that an aircraft cabin is pressurized while at low elevation, but how is there enough air for a really long flight? Ex. Dubai to San Francisco on an A380 with over 500 passengers.

[Assistant]
It isn't sealed air tight, far from it.

Air is constantly pumped into the cabin through the climate control system. The jet engines take some of the air that passes through their compressors (bleed air) and sent it to the plane's HVAC system for the passengers.


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

[User]
[Matrix] If the agents can fuse body parts together (Mr. Anderson's lips.) Why can't they fuse his heart valves together when it matters?

Was this an inconsistency or was it simply an illusion?

[Assistant]
They can... until you take the red pill. While you are connected to the Matrix and have an intact carrier signal the machines can kill you at will. They probably wouldn't melt your anatomy together (that's the sort of thing that freaks out bystanders enough to reject the program) but they could give you a 'heart attack' or convert you into an Agent.

Once Neo takes that pill he's largely disconnected from their controls and they have to resort to more overt methods like gunfire, which usually tricks people's brains into thinking they've died when they're 'shot'. Of course Neo eventually transcends that too, realizing that there are no bullets, just as there is no spoon.


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

[User]
ELI5: why can't a power plant "dump" extra unused electricity?

Some countries produce too much electricity at a certain period of the year, and have to pay another country to get rid of their extra own unconsumed electricity. Why can't a power plant produce more electricity than consumed, what's the physical obstacle to do so?

Also, what will the receiving country do if this surplus of electricity is again not consumed entirely?

[Assistant]
The energy has to go somewhere. Power grids can deal with small mismatches in supply and load by allowing the frequency to deviate. A drop in frequency has the effect of reducing the load due to non-ELI5 effects like inductive reactance.

For large mismatches in supply and demand, simply pushing more energy into the grid will increase frequencies until the grid becomes unstable. The only way to dump the energy is to attach more load to dump it into. This could be in the form of batteries, pumped storage, hydrogen generators or anything else. The limiting factor is often the cost of installing new transmission lines. The cost of transmission is often much higher than the cost of generation for renewables.

Some thermal power plants are able to dump the excess energy into their cooling system without it ever being turned into electrical power but really its best to switch off or throttle down in most cases as its just a huge waste of resources unless there is some kind of combined heat and power system.


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

[User]
Am I Mentally Prepared for Grad School?

Heyo, I work as a lab/field tech for a couple ecologists at a University and theyd like to make me one of their masters students. I am interested in a graduate degree and I do love ecology. However, I am concerned that I cannot handle the workload and the stress.
I have a pretty severe issue with depression (daily suicidal thoughts and the usual perpetual feeling of despair garbage). Fortunately, this has been improving for the first time in my life and I do not want to loose all the progress Ive made.

I work with a handful of grad students and I hear a ton of complaints about how stressful the journey is and the occasional story of mental breakdowns.

My bosses are basically dropping this opportunity in my lap and I feel like it would be insane to pass it up. I dont want to give this a try, fuck up, and loose this solid job and/or harm my relationships with my employers.

I am not concerned about the financial aspect too much. I have money saved that could cover fees and as an employee of the university, my tuition would only be $25 a class.

The project itself is something I am interested in and the people I work with are pretty great.

Hope this comes thru clear, typed this on a phone while anxiously sitting on the toilet.

Tldr: Im a depressed guy with an opportunity to get a masters thru my employer. Am worried my mental health could get worse if I pursue this and a failure could cost me my job.

[Assistant] If we all tell you don't do it, will you still want to do it? Do you have good coping skills and access to mental health resources? Will the people around you support you when you fail? Things to consider.


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

[User] [Marvel] Scarlet Witch, Legion, and Franklin Richards find themselves alone in a room together. What's the best possible outcome of this scenario? What's the worst? And what possible reason would anyone have to make a meeting like this happen?

[Assistant]
Whatever anyone does, itll only happen if Franklin is ok with it. His full scope of powers vastly exceeds their own.

Legion probably has Legion sort of mental issues; Wanda isnt a walking insane breakdown of reality. Shes been to hell and back and had a couple of psychotic breaks but if no one is committing genocide on her family and people or literally murdering her family and children, shes fine day to day. Think more hanging out and cooking paprikas and less no more mutants.

Plus her and Franklin would have absolutely known each other a few years.

Even if the worst case happens with Legion and Wanda, Franklin can deal with it. Or undo it.


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

[User] [Marvel/DC] Who was the first super hero to come back to life?

[Assistant]
I think it is Jean Grey, who died as Marvel Girl, saving her fellow X-men by piloting a wrecked shuttle back to Earth, exposing herself to deadly radiation along the way. She was reborn as the Phoenix, the radiation and event propelling her abilities to a much more powerful level. Her new name "Phoenix" references this rebirth.

Superman died a little more than a decade later, defending the world from Doomsday. The mantle of Superman was then fought over by several would be Men of Steel: The Last Son of Krypton, John Henry Irons, Superboy, and Cyborg-Superman. The real Man of Steel eventually came back to life, after his apparent death he had been put in a stasis chamber to power the Last Son of Krypton, who was actually an ancient Kryptonian weapon known as the Eradicator.

Not sure if these were the first but they were certainly two of the most prominent.


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

[User]
[star wars] what happened to the droid army after the war?

We know the leaders were wiped out by anikin but are the droids themselves just sitting around gathering dust now or were they dismantled? Would someone be able to reactive them somehow?

[Assistant]
We don't know exactly.

Most were probably scraped, however we do see some repurposed B1s being used as either personal security droids or bounty hunters.

Also a large section of the droid army **didn't** receive the deactivation code and are still out there waiting for orders on some very remote separatist outposts.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are my muscles so weak when just coming awake?

So I have always noticed that upon first waking I have very little strength in my hands and other muscles. My grip is weak and only after waking up a couple of minutes do I get more strength. Is this due to a lack of blood flow, oxygen levels, nerves waking up? Why does this happen?

[Assistant]
your brain paralyzes you while you are asleep. these paralysis hormones take some time to get reabsorbed. they release and absorb in cycles called REM and Non REM sleep cycles.

This is also why you will feel more groggy and heavy when waking up in the middle of a sleep cycle "deep sleep" instead of at the high point of the cycle (when you would typically naturally wake up without an alarm clock). you have more of the chemicals in your system.


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

[User]
ELI5: How can the gravity from the sun keep the planets locked in orbit, but we are weightless in space.

So basically if the gravity from the sun is strong enough to keep the planets orbiting it, why dont we feel that gravity in space? How is it strong enough to pull on the earth but not on a person?

[Assistant]
We are weightless in space because we are in freefall. Imagine being trapped in a falling elevator. You and the elevator would fall at the same rate, so you'd 'float' inside it.

If you're in orbit, you experience the same thing - the ISS, for example, is falling around the planet constantly (that's what an orbit is). If you were travelling to, say, Mars, you would essentially be falling towards Mars.


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

[User]
ELI5: why can doctors restart a transplanted heart with presumably high success rates, while a flat-lined heart is usually fatal?

For the sake of my question, lets assume that cardiac arrest was due to factors that were then corrected (such as massive blood loss).

Why is not having a shockable rhythm in cardiac arrest different than having a heart that was taken out of the donors body and at that point doesnt have any rhythm at all?

I understand that during a transplant doctors are literally inside someones chest and shocking the donor heart to restart it that way. But why do those shocks have a different effect than the shocks from a defibrillator, and wouldnt doctors be able to save someone in cardiac arrest if they took them to the OR and cracked their chest open and shocked their heart in the same manner transplant surgeons do?

[Assistant]
A heart transplant surgery takes 4-10 hours.

The only reason the recipient doesnt die  is because they have a bypass machine pumping their blood for them, and a ventilator breathing for them. That keeps their brain function going.

If a person has a 4 hour long severe cardiac event that requires correction, the odds are that theyve endured brain damage if not brain death. If theres no brain to power the nervous system, theres nothing to make the heart beat.

So a transplant heart can be jump started and then the brain takes over, whereas a brain dead patient may or may not be able to sustain a heartbeat depending on the type/severity of the damage.

It all depends on the brain.


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

[User]
[The Elder Scrolls] Why is every world-saving hero predisposed to prison?

The Eternal Champion - Former prisoner

The Agent - Former prisoner turned imperial agent

The Nerevarine - Exhiled to morrowind

The Hero of Kvatch - Former prisoner

The Last Dragonborn - To be executed

Seriously, why is incarceration such a common thing for world-saving heroes?

[Assistant] Youve got it backwards, world-saving heroes arent predisposed to prison, the Prisoners are predisposed to world-saving. Well, not entirely. The act of freeing the unknown prisoner gives them a blank slate, and frees them from the bounds of fate more or less. That makes it easier for them to slip into certain roles or mantles, some of which happen to be world-saving ones.


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

[User] ELI5: If me and another person are looking in a mirror and I make eye contact with his reflection, is he making eye contact with my reflection also or looking at something else?

[Assistant]
The angle of reflection is equal for you both.  So you're both looking at each other.  With a little thought this will be obvious.

You'll notice that movies will sometimes cheat at this.  A girl will be admiring herself in the mirror but in actuality she's looking at the camera.


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

[User]
CMV: Most of the current rioting/looting is thrill seeking behavior, not 'political' in the traditional sense

While I consider essentially all actions to have a political aspect to them, I think the reasons behind the current rioting/looting falls outside the context of what most people consider to be political behavior and is simply thrill seeking behavior.

Obviously, being OK with collateral damage to small and large businesses in order to satisfy an urge for an adrenaline rush says something about your lack of enthusiasm for our current political/economic system. However, my view is that most people engaging in this behavior are not attempting to make an overt political point about that system.

My view could be changed by pointing me to interviews with actual rioters/looters where they express an overt political reason for their actions, or evidence that they are simply looking to obtain material goods they otherwise would have trouble affording. That said, those most willing to talk to media outlets will also be the most political and not necessarily representative of the whole. If there is any academic research into past mass looting events, I would be very interested in those findings.

I do believe that some of the people involved are provocateurs; however, I find it very unlikely that they consist of more than a small percentage (although with possible outsize influence on how events unfold on any given night).

[Assistant]
Riots often occur in ***reaction to a grievance or out of dissent***. Historically, riots have occurred due to poverty, unemployment, poor living conditions, governmental oppression, taxation or conscription, conflicts between ethnic groups (race riot) or religions (sectarian violence, pogrom), the outcome of a sporting event (sports riot, football hooliganism) or frustration with legal channels through which to air grievances.

Nothing about it is related to thrill seeking behavior.

Can you define `thrill seeking behavior` and provide examples?


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

[User]
[Star Wars] If Darth Vader was to use Force Lightning, would it come from his arm stub or his artificial fingertips?

Palpatine's and Dooku's Lightning comes from their extremities, and since Vader's extremities are his stubs, it would make sense that the lightning would come from there.

[Assistant]
It'll come from Vader's hands as well.  The Force doesn't so much care whether your hand is biological or not as it does whether or not you consider your hand a part of yourself.
Given that Vader uses hand gestures as part of how he uses his other Force powers, they're likely to be involved in Lightning.


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

[User]
[Fantastic 4] How thin can Mr. Fantastic become?

Also, secondary question, how far can he stretch/how much space can he take up?

[Assistant]
He can stretch to about 1,500 feet before it becomes painful for him, flatten himself to the thickness of a sheet of paper, or make himself thin enough to pass through the eye of a needle.

I couldn't say how voluminous he can make himself.


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

[User]
I believe attempted murder and murder should be treated as the same crime. CMV

hypthetical: Someone makes me mad. I bring a gun to their house, and attempt to shoot them. This creates two scenarios: one where I shoot them in the head, killing them, and serve twenty years in jail. In the second I narrowly miss them, they call the cops, I'm arrested, and serve five. If the intent is the same, why should failed murder attempts be treated lesser than successful ones?

[Assistant]
Having a lesser punishment for attempted murder incentivizes would-be murderers in the middle of carrying out their plans from following through because they know the punishment will be greatly reduced if they restrain themselves in the very end and don't actually kill someone.

Also attempted murder is a much harder crime to prove definitively than actual murder because it is difficult to definitively tell if someone was trying to kill a person or simply harm them. Both are bad but a less severe crime should have a less severe punishment and since it is less clear with attempted murder that the person wanted someone dead the punishment is less severe.


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

[User]
How close could a machine get to the Sun?

I was reading about the Parker probe and it's amazing just how close that thing is going to get to the sun; but it of course made me wonder how much closer we could get. The Parker probe basically uses a big oriented shield to protect itself, and behind the shield it's more a normal spacecraft.

Is it conceivable that anything could be constructed that could survive passing through the corona? It seems stuff must be whipping around like crazy in there, plus the insane temperatures. To my knowledge the highest known melting points are in the thousands of degrees, but I figure there is also some kind of blast force or something going on there.

*Edit* and if the corona is so easy, can you conceive of a spacecraft passing through the *photosphere* and surviving?

Not that it is possible with any known technology, but is it even physically conceivable that something could survive a close approach towards the surface of the sun? What would be necessary (special materials? some kind of super-magnet?)?

*edit 2*
Thanks all for the entertaining and informative comments! I will let you all know when my machine is completed and ready for launch.

[Assistant] If you have a good heat shield and heat transported to the back of your spacecraft, you can essentially get to the point where friction is a problem. Typically these spacecrafts are in a very elliptic orbit so they are are only very close for hours at a time. Tungsten alloys or some high melting point ceramics will do.


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

[User]
Can we cut wasteful spending by giving government agencies incentives for having a budget surplus?

I'm not sure if this is the correct place to post this, if it isn't, I'll take it down. Bare in mind I'm not an economist, it's just a random thought. So here goes:

I've worked for a private company that is a supplier to different agencies of my local government. It's no surprise that prices of the products are way higher than the market since government contracts are essentially money printers for private companies.

Besides that, an agency/ministry will deliberately blow through their budget at the end of the year. The reason for doing so is avoid budget cuts for the next year.

The way funding is allocated to these government agencies incentives over spending and would increase government debt.

My idea for this goes someting like this:

At the end of the year, budget surplus will be tallied and the agency with the highest surplus will receive priority funding for the next year as well as a budget increase. Those that don't have a surplus will undergo an audit for overspending.

Half the surplus funds will be collected to put back into the treasury and will be given back on the next budget allocation.

Will someting like this work?

[Assistant]
Public choice theory is the study of incentives by government agencies, politicians and bureaucrats. The general idea is that the incentives of those in positions of government dont align directly with the hypothetical benevolent dictator, and choices are guided by self enrichment or other objectives.

In one model by Niskanden, government agencies seek to maximize budgets, not the social welfare of those affected. It sounds like you are implicitly taking this incentive on through a budget surplus incentive.

Sounds like the obvious perversion of incentives here are to maximize surplus by reducing expenditures as much as possible without the agency being penalized for that. So what is to stop a department like housing or education from cutting as much discretionary funding as possible in order to maximize next years budget?  In general, if an agency had the ability to cut services in such a way that was socially desirable, why would we then want to increase those budgets in subsequent years?

At the same time, why not audit all agencies?  Oh, yeah because those auditors are also rational actors in the game. So we then need to audit the auditors. But who audits them?  Its auditors all the way down. Until we reach the turtle shell.


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

[User]
[Physics] What exactly determines how a radioactive isotope will decay?

Physics graduate here, I've got a decent understanding of nuclear physics but I've never seen an explanation of what exactly determines if a radioactive isotope will decay by alpha, beta, gamma or a mixture of the three.

[Assistant]
That's sort of a backwards way of thinking about it. A nucleus is unstable if there is a more energetically favorable configuration which can be reached without violating any relevant conservation law.

So an unstable nucleus is unstable *because* it can decay by one or more of the typical nuclear decay paths.

For every given nucleus, there exists another nucleus which can be reached by each of the various ground state decay paths (alpha, beta^(+), beta^(-), nucleon emission, spontaneous fission, etc.). If the daughter nucleus which is reached by a given decay path is more energetically favorable than the parent, then that decay will occur (assuming no selection rule prevents it).

The sum of the decay constants for each possible decay path determines the total decay constant, and thus the "total instability" of the parent nucleus.


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

[User] How they go about laying the foundation for an oil rig?

[Assistant]
Oil rigs aren't on a 'foundation'. They are an actual metal rig that sits on the existing ground. They will drill out a hole and cap it off with cement for later use after they have reached their desired depth. Think space shittle tracks. The big tracks they use to move around the large space equipment. Things are different on the water. The rig floats over the hole they are digging with anchors laid out for support.

Source: Move those things from time to time.


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

[User]
[fullmetal alchemist brotherhood] what was truth trying to say to father before dragging him back inside the gate of knowledge?

Never understood truth whole monologue to father, I know father gate is completely blank implying that he didnt learn anything but is that all truth was trying to communicate?

[Assistant]
The truth was essentially telling Father that he was wrong, that he wasn't, and never was better than humans. That stealing power from others did not make him strong, and that he was every bit as conceited as the humans he derided earlier when he said Truth existed to punish boastful humans. He was telling him that for all the power he had amassed, he still understood nothing, and that for that he deserved to be, and would be punished.

Juxtaposed with this is his talk to Edward in his final transmutation, where he calls Ed's choice to give up alchemy the right answer. Ed states he doesn't need, alchemy, as long as he has the connections to the people he has come to rely on. The Truth's point, as can be seen across these two interactions, is that what is valuable, what makes someone strong and worthwhile, is not the power they amass for themselves, but rather the connections and relationships they build with others, that trusting and relying on each other is what really matters.

And so, Truth punishes the one who didn't learn to be bound forever, while giving the one who did grow and learn exactly what he wanted for so long.


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

[User]
Am I being fleeced?

Morning all, non-developer here with a quick question. I am having an app built and have just been quoted 16 hours for a button on a webpage that will launch the app (Android or IOS). I have (very) basic knowledge of HTML and do web design myself and 16 hours seems like a lot. However, I am also aware that people often grossly underestimate the work that goes into things outside their own realm of expertise, so am a bit unsure of what to think. Thoughts?

[Assistant]
"The Button" doesn't exist on its own.
One might need to adjust multiple things on that page to make it fit it. You might also want to pass some data from that page into the app, and that's additional complexity (and thus, work).
Add things like tests for that data transfer - and it can easily become 16+ hour job.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does the ocean stay salty?

With rain and all the freshwater rivers flowing into the ocean, how does it maintain a similar level of saltiness? Should't it be getting less salty over time?

[Assistant]
Rivers pick up small amounts of salt on their way to the ocean, but mostly it's a matter of the water cycle. The amount of fresh water flowing in to the oceans and diluting them is balanced by the amount of water evaporating from the ocean (salt doesn't evaporate, so this concentrates salt in the oceans).

Over time the two forces balance each other pretty well.


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

[User] [Star Wars] When Obi Wan saw his master die, was it anger that drove him to defeat Darth Maul?

[Assistant]
Obi-Wan's victory over Darth Maul was his true Jedi trial, and what made him ready to be a Knight. This is underdeveloped in the film, but Obi-Wan's arc is learning to step out of Qui-Gon's shadow and become a Jedi in his own right. This is established in their first conversation, when Qui-Gon says that Obi will take the Trial when returning to Coruscant.

His reliance on Qui-Gon was Obi-Wan's greatest weakness, but his ability to come to terms with his Master's death and, at the last second, let go of his anger is what drove him to victory. This of course sets up Obi-Wan's downfall as well - he never truly feels like Anakin's Master, or that he can ultimately control him.


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

[User]
ELI5: The difference between the different degrees of murder and manslaughter

Just curious as to how one would get charged with each of these offences. Thanks in advance!

[Assistant]
Murder requires:

* intent to kill, or
* knowledge that death is a foreseeable outcome of your actions

First degree murder is premeditated...you thought about it beforehand and still decided you wanted to kill someone.

Second degree murder is a spur of the moment reaction...you get mad or scared, you try to kill someone.

Manslaughter is when someone dies accidentally but your criminal actions contributed to it.  Voluntary manslaughter is acting directly against someone, involuntary is general negligence leading to a death.

Also, different jurisdictions use different names.


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

[User] ELI5: What is happening when I try to hit 'back' on a webpage a thousand times, but it just keeps reloading the page and won't go back?

[Assistant]
some web site builders are jerks.

For some pages, they have 2 pages (or more) instead of one. The first page is just a redirect to the second. You don't notice this when you go to the page, but when you use the back button, you just go back to the first page which redirects you back to the second page so you can't easily go back.


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

[User]
[Assassin's Creed] (Original Game) How did Al Mualim take away Altair's abilities?

In the beginning of the game, Altair has all his equipment and abilities until he breaks the creed and is punished with loss of rank. It's easy to take rank and equipment, but how did Al Mualim manage to confiscate, for example, Altair's ability to Dodge?

Did the potion that made him experience death also wipe his memory? If so, how is Al Mualim able to 'give back' that ability at will? Or did Altair still have those abilities but was forbidden from using them?

[Assistant]
Animus magic.  One of two things was happening:

- The real Altair didnt use those abilities while he was being punished, so Desmond couldn't either.

- For skill-based abilities like dodge, Desmond is not fully synched yet, and is having difficulty using Altair's body to it's full potential.