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

[User] ELI5 How does an EMP work, what exactly would it effect, and what could you do to protect your must have electronics?

[Assistant]
An EMP ( Electro-Magnetic Pulse) damages/disables/disrupts electronic devices by inducing current into the circuitry. this causes all sorts of issues with the electronic device( hardware is seeing current/voltage in places it shouldn't and doesn't know how to handle it) and if the induction is strong enough it can cause the circuitry( or really any conductive metal) to heat up and potentially melt.

In order to protect your must have devices that aren't already designed to handle it you would have to put them into whats know as a Faraday cage. essentially a cage of very conductive metal that will 'absorb' the inducted current. The cage should not be touching the electronic device, or if it is the contact point should be insulated from the cage itself.

>That is the real explanation if i were to try and do a true ELI5 it would probably look like this

think of electricity as a bunch of angry pixies running around in wires, the go from place to place and tell the device what to do.

An EMP is basically an explosion of **really** angry pixies. They get into the electric device and disrupt all of the other pixies and cause the device to break because there are too many pixies telling it to do something different.

you can protect a device by putting it into a metal cage that will keep all of the pixies out so that cant bother it any more.

-source- i am a medical device technician and had to learn a lot of electrical theory. Also i call 'em angry pixies because they look pretty when they come out of the wires but they tend to bite alot.


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

[User] ELI5: If you are meant to chew aspirin when having a heart attack because it works faster, is there any reason you should just swallow regularly instead?

[Assistant]
Yes. A possible side effect of Aspirin are minor hemorrhages (bleeding) in the stomach. Taking the tablet whole decreases that risk, especially if it has a stomach acid resistant coating. (Side note: the tablets with stomach resistant coating should be taken on an empty stomach, the ones with regular coating after eating some food.)

In an emergency, acting faster is more important than decreasing side effects. For head aches or daily use as a platelet aggregation inhibitor ("blood thinner"), saving a minute or two is usually not worth the risk.


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

[User] What are the gravity related functions of the human body and how they are effected and overcome in a zero gravity environments?

[Assistant]
Sinuses need gravity to drain. In zero gravity, your sinuses fill with mucus.

Burping is impossible. Without gravity the contents of your stomach cant settle into gases on top of liquids and solids, so if you try to burp youll vomit.

As a result of no burping, people are WAY more gassy in zero gravity. But thats ok because everybodys sinuses are blocked, so nobody can smell.


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

[User]
CMV: People should not be shocked by Cambridge Analytica

First, let's look at the act of data collection: Facebook, being a company, has a goal of making money through their revenue streams. Our data is valuable and we already know they sell it (or, anyone who has seen an ad on Facebook should!).

We give up our right to our data once we trade it (our product) as a means of exchange for their service (Facebook).  What happens to it after that is no longer our business - we no longer own it, even if we are continuously creating it.

OK, now let's look at where it gets shady: an app collected data who didn't install it; however, those who didn't install it did agree to be connected via Facebook to people who could (and did) install this or many other apps.

The app that collected the data (allegedly intended for research, originally) then did something else with it it, other than what it said it would: namely, sold it.

Here's the only part in this that I see as an issue: Facebook found out and didn't advise users that their data ended up being used in a way that it wasn't advertised it would be.

That said, I'm still off the opinion that once sold/exchanged we give up our right to what is done with it. I didn't lease the data, I traded it.

Perhaps the commotion is largely because people now have to face the fact that they're a product and they gave themselves away cheaply. Still, then why not push to be paid to use Facebook, instead of taking your marbles and running home?

Edit: I don't trust entities in positions of power to follow the laws or behave ethically all the time. An abuse of power does not shock or surprise me.

[Assistant]
No, you didn't trade it.  The entire concept behind your personal data, the European Union regulations on personal information (along with much of the world) and arguably US law (much less clear) is that it's _your data_ and you're granting specific use licenses, you always retain the right to have it deleted or corrected and your grants of use are only what you've granted - not some later imagined, not disclosed use.

Why?  The law.


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

[User] Why Walter Benjamin concluded that the "aestheticization of politics" would lead/has led to war?

[Assistant]
The problem with mass reproducible media is that it formally creates communal, utopian experience (e.g. via everybody adopting the perspective of the film lens) without necessarily creating the substantive conditions which can realize that communal, utopian experience in the real world (e.g. outside the theater). Thus, we have a tension in that people desire the communal, utopian experience given to them by mass media but cannot actually have this experience because they live in a fractured, alienated, exploitative world.

There are two solutions to this problem. The one Benjamin advocates is overthrowing the existing order of things which prevents the realization of communal, utopian experience - in other words, communist revolution. The contradiction is resolved when we politicize aesthetics to recognize that its fantasies cannot be fulfilled without genuine social-economic-political change, and then go on to enact such change.

The one Benjamin warns against is the aestheticization of politics. Instead of attempting to change the material conditions of our existence to realize the communal, utopian dream of mass media, we aestheticize reality to extend unto it the utopian illusion. War, Benjamin argues, is a prime candidate for a mass, communal experience - nationalistic fervor of the sort mobilized by the Nazis made people feel like they were a part of something larger, after all. War for the glory of Germany (... or America, etc.) is an aesthetic remedy to a political problem. As such, we get a temporary, bloody, and futile "solution" to a structural problem.


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

[User]
[Horror Movies + DC/Marvel] Would the villains in horror movies ever get the attention of the DC/Marvel superheroes?

I was randomly wondering this. Villains like Freddy, Jason, Chucky, etc. seem to always keep their killings to small towns, for the most part.

They never do anything world ending.

However, they always come back to life and kill again. If they existed in the DC/Marvel universe, would any superhero notice? I dont expect the entire Justice League or Avengers to fly in and investigate or something, but maybe a hero or 2?

[Assistant]
Absolutely.

The comic book stories that are most well-known tend to be big, world to universe threats, but theres plenty of heroes who focus on the street level woes and a supernatural serial killer would be right on their radar.

Stylistically, people like Moon Knight, Constantine or Doctor Strange would be among the better fits for supernatural killers, but pretty much any hero who had a string of murders in their sight would zero in and do something, even if it was to admit they were out of their depth and call Doctor Strange.


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

[User] Is a tiger any smarter than a house cat?

[Assistant]
It depends on what you think smart is. They have pretty much the same instincts, and will react similarly to any stimulus that is related to hunting, mating and other natural things. The size difference does have some control over sheer processing power, and cats have been bred to lose certain wild traits, in exchange for human compatible traits.

Short version- They are pretty much equal, but tigers should be smarter. Cat's may seem smarter because they're used to people and have lots of traits that humans associate with intelligence.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is belly fat soft and cushy but a beer belly is solid?

[Assistant] There's two types of fat: Visceral and subcutaneous. Subcutaneous sits under the skin, and in normal amounts is good to have. Visceral fat, the fat which creates that hard "beer gut", accumulates around the organs and usually starts building up as you age depending on diet and activity level.


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

[User]
What does Nietzsche mean by "What after are all these churches now if they are not tombs and sepulchers of God?"

I'm writing a paper and my friend who was reviewing it pointed out that this may be Nietzsche saying he thinks churches are unnecessary and he is skeptical of their value, but I had interpreted it as a legitimate concern of whether these valuable community centers and places to connect and feel belonging with others will simply disappear now that god is dead.

Full context:

>Have you not heard of that madman who lit a lantern in the bright morning hours, ran to the market place, and cried incessantly: "I seek God! I seek God!" -- As many of those who did not believe in God were standing around just then, he provoked much laughter. Has he got lost? asked one. Did he lose his way like a child? asked another. Or is he hiding? Is he afraid of us? Has he gone on a voyage? emigrated? -- Thus they yelled and laughed.
The madman jumped into their midst and pierced them with his eyes. "Whither is God?" he cried; "I will tell you. We have killed him -- you and I. All of us are his murderers. But how did we do this? How could we drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon? What were we doing when we unchained this earth from its sun? Whither is it moving now? Whither are we moving? Away from all suns? Are we not plunging continually? Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there still any up or down? Are we not straying, as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Has it not become colder? Is not night continually closing in on us? Do we not need to light lanterns in the morning? Do we hear nothing as yet of the noise of the gravediggers who are burying God? Do we smell nothing as yet of the divine decomposition? Gods, too, decompose. God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him.

>"How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it? There has never been a greater deed; and whoever is born after us -- for the sake of this deed he will belong to a higher history than all history hitherto."

>Here the madman fell silent and looked again at his listeners; and they, too, were silent and stared at him in astonishment. At last he threw his lantern on the ground, and it broke into pieces and went out. "I have come too early," he said then; "my time is not yet. This tremendous event is still on its way, still wandering; it has not yet reached the ears of men. Lightning and thunder require time; the light of the stars requires time; deeds, though done, still require time to be seen and heard. This deed is still more distant from them than most distant stars -- and yet they have done it themselves.

>It has been related further that on the same day the madman forced his way into several churches and there struck up his requiem aeternam deo. Led out and called to account, he is said always to have replied nothing but: "What after all are these churches now if they are not the tombs and sepulchers of God?"

>[Source: Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science (1882, 1887) para. 125; Walter Kaufmann ed. (New York: Vintage, 1974), pp.181-82.]

If anyone with some knowledge on the subject could shed some light on what Nietzsche's intended meaning was it would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Assistant]
It seems like Nietzsche could have a lot of things in mind.

I would think that Nietzsche is playing on the double-meaning (for Christians) of saying that churches are "the tombs...of God."  That is, if God is Dead (as the madman proclaims) then churches are merely monuments to this dead God (and all He stands for), but, more literally, for the Christian who thinks their God (as Jesus) did *actually* die and is all over the place memorialized on the cross (etc.), the church really is, in a way, a tomb for God.

So, both for the theist and the madman, the church is an appropriate place for a *requiem aeternam deo*.

In this way, the madman has been cast out by both the atheists and the theists for strange reasons.  The madman's coming is everywhere untimely.


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

[User] Why can I take tin foil out of a 350 degree oven with my bare hands?

[Assistant]
Aluminum foil is incredibly thin material, so it really can't hold a lot of heat. This is because it has *a lot* of surface area compared to its mass, which means it has many many places through which it can lose heat, but its low mass means it cannot store much heat. (Aluminum also has a somewhat low heat capacity - about 1/4th that of water - which means that for a given number of grams, water can store more than 4 times as much thermal energy as aluminum can.)

To reiterate: it holds very little heat, and the heat it does hold it's able to lose very quickly. So quickly, in fact, that even though it's touching your nice, hot, freshly baked potato only 2 inches from where you touch the foil to pick it up, all the heat that it picks up from the potato is summarily lost in the short distance between the potato and your tender little fingers.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do artists (musicians, photographers, graphic designers etc.) predominantly use Macs to produce their work?

[Assistant] Nowadays, there really isn't a good reason to use macs over pcs, unless one only knows how to use the mac exclusive software. Its largely a holdover from the past. A lot of the best creative software was only available on macs, or had mac exclusive features. Not the case anymore. Macs also tended to use relatively high end components, thats not to say you couldn't build an equivalently powered pc. It has pretty much been the case for a very long time that you could build an equivalent pc for less than a mac. However apple simply had a reputation for customer service and quality components, that was important to people who were less tech savvy but still needed good performance out of your machine.


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

[User]
I love smoking. I think it feels great, I think it is worth the risk and I think it's cool. CMV

Ok, so why do I think it feels great?

It's a relaxing process. You're carefully tending a flame and it forces you to be mindful of your breathing. I think the chemicals are also relaxing but I'm no chemist. Taking a break to smoke forces you to stop and pause. It gives you a small moment to think whilst doing something methodical yet simple. You can clear your mind whilst packing a pipe, rolling a cigarette or lighting a cigar with a match. It's almost meditation.

So why do I think it's worth the risk?

It's not that I don't think that there's a risk. The odds are high that something unhealthy will develop and it's probable that it'll be something really nasty. As for the risk to others, I would never smoke around children or anyone who didn't want me smoking. I'm not going to pretend smoking is healthy. I just think the benefits outweigh the risks. The benefits are the ones I've described above but also simply the feeling of throwing caution to the wind. It feels liberating. Another way of putting it would be this, the taking of the risk is in itself a benefit so great that it outweighs the risk itself.

Why do I think it's cool?

It's that risk taking that's cool. It's cool to drive at 300mph everywhere if you never crash and never get caught. It's cool to do a backflip off a building if you can land it. And it's cool to do something life threatening casually, especially when that thing is itself a symbol of a contained risk. It's a fire that you hold inches from your face without flinching or even considering it.

Even before we knew it was dangerous it was cool. The image of smoke curling through the air like a whisper-thin sheet of silk caught on an intangible breeze in front of a calm, still, collected figure is a cool image. I've also heard that cigarettes and cigars were subconscious symbols of penises, masculinity and power. I don't know much about that sort of thing, but it meant that when a man smoked a cigarette, he was affirming his power and when women smoked cigarettes they challenged the idea of a male dominated society. So no matter who you were you were either cool because you were a powerful member of an influential group or a rebellious upstart looking for a revolution. Both are pretty cool.

So, can you change my view? Unless someone specifies, we'll assume we're talking about tobacco. I'll be more than happy to clarify my views to anyone looking for a more expansive explanation of anything.

[Assistant] You can do the exact same thing with an eCig(the good kind not the ones you can get in Walmart) and eliminate the damage you can do to yourself or others while still feeling a rush and the meditative mindset.


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

[User] ELI5: How can asking a sample size of 1,003 people give an accurate view of over 250 million people?

[Assistant] It assumes that you have a properly random sample of the population. Suppose you have a (very large) bag full of millions of balls. You draw out 1003 without looking, and get 600 reds. How confident would you be that close to 60% of all the balls in the bag are red?


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

[User] [DC Comics] Who are some Superman-esque knockoffs that are actually stronger than him that people hardly acknowledge?

[Assistant]
Augustus Freeman, aka Icon, has been described as *at least* as strong as Superman.  Superman once described Icon as the strongest person ever to hit him, other than Darkseid.

Lar Gand, otherwise known as Mon-El, was a Daxamite.  Daxamites are believed to be a Kryptonian offshoot; they're known to be stronger than Kryptonians in yellow sunlight, being able to process the energy more efficiently.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why don't the Jedi try and improve the lower levels of Coruscant?

From what I heard, lower Coruscant sucks. Did they even try to help?!

[Assistant]
There's only so much that a few thousand can do. The lower levels of Coruscant are home to literally hundreds of billions - Coruscant's "official" population is 1 trillion (but unofficially there's probably 4 trillion there at any given time), and there's only ten thousand Jedi before the Clone Wars starts.

A lot of the issues with the lower levels are ones that can't be solved by swinging a lightsaber or through diplomacy, anyway. Best case scenario is that they get some fractional tax added to help the underprivileged on Coruscant, but that's pretty unlikely.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do dreams seem to last so long???

but in reality they say it lasts for only few seconds, why is that?

[Assistant] Your brain doesn't process the flow of time in a dream state. Instead the perception of time passing in your dream is directly correlated to the experience you are having. The rules of reality don't really apply, ill illustrate. If you have a dream where you are watching a baseball game that last ten minutes it will seem much longer. This is because your brain understands how long a baseball game usually takes to play and uses your experiences from real life to simulate the passage of time in your dreams. So the dream is ten minutes but seems to last hours.


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

[User]
[scifi] I've read Dune and 40k codices, what other settings blend technology and swordfights well?

With Dune they give a neat explanation for knife fighting with the shields.
With 40k they just go rule of cool as ninja star railguns and bolts already do a great job shredding power armor, but chainsaws are thematic to the setting. I'm familiar with Star Wars too.

I've been looking for more books to read with scifi/sci-fantasy sword fights in space. Been enjoying the Vampire Hunter D novels right now.

[Assistant] The *Barsoom* series by Edgar Rice Burroughs mixes swords and guns through an honor system.  Honor dictates that you match your opponent's weapon and not cheat by outmatching a sword with your gun.  The first in the series is *A Princess of Mars* and should be public domain.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] What percentage of sentient beings are human and what allowed them to become so numerous?

What stopped species like Rodians, Duros, Twi'leks, etc from expanding as much?

[Assistant] Long ago on a distant world, humans were enslaved by an ancient race, and so were spread across the galaxy to almost all the worlds of the Infinite Empire. When that empire fell, humans were just... basically everywhere. So when hyperdrives were invented, and the planets became able to interact again, humans were the majority race in the galaxy, not counting microscopic lifeforms.


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

[User] ELI5:What exactly is happening when one is unconscious?

[Assistant]
Typically it's because a grave stress has been or is being endured by the body (getting knocked out by a blow, too much alcohol, etc.), and the body has stopped some of the more energy consuming parts of the brain (frontal cortex) in favour of focusing on the vital functions (heart beat, breathing, etc.). This allows the body more energy to put towards recovery processes to deal with whatever stress has happened or is going on.

Medically induced coma's use this as it shuts down all but the vital functions of the body to focus on recovery.


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

[User]
[Batman] How on earth has Two Face managed to become an active crime boss in Gotham?

First of all, the guy is an ex-district attorney. Surely the moment any criminal laid their eyes on him they either ran the opposite direction, or attempted to gun him down on the spot. At what point did any of them decide to work with him?

Second, how did he manage to fund his criminal activities? With the other crime bosses, Penguin is already rich, Riddler and joker are geniuses, Bane is a beast of a man. Two face doesn't have any physical, intellectual or financial advantage over your average criminal. The closest thing he has to a super power is his quirk, which brings me to...

Third. His coin flipping would be nothing but a horrible disability in the criminal world. To be a mob boss, you need to be able to make the right decisions or you will end up arrested or dead. How can leaving all important decisions up to coin toss work out well for anyone? Even the logical decisions that have an obvious choice, he will still flip for.

How has this guy, not only become a crime boss, but lasted as long as he has?

[Assistant]
(This doesn't apply to every version of Two-Face out there, obviously)

For the most part, Two-Face doesn't base EVERY decision on a coin flip. Most of his coin based decisions are centered on killing. Sometimes he sees it as the only honest way to render judgment, sometimes he's conflicted on cold blooded murder, other times its a scare tactic.

He's also not quite a typical Gotham mob boss. His intelligence and years prosecuting Gotham's villains left him versed enough in the criminal underworld to make intelligent decisions, like how to avoid getting arrested, how to fund his operations, etc. He's often driven by some sort of single-minded (heh) goal, so he doesn't need long-term stability like a normal mob boss would or elaborate setups like the Joker does sometimes. He's rarely interested in forming a new gang and taking over territory like most organized crime in Gotham, he's usually crusading one cause or another. Though few of them are ever really good for the city.

It was relatively easy for Two-Face to establish himself in Gotham after Harvey Dent turned. His first acts as a new man are often extremely violent, even moreso than other super criminals and established Gotham criminal royalty. He shocks everyone with his brutality, gaining him a modicum of respect and a lot of fear. Criminals who knew him as Harvey are confused and terrified at the same time so are often unable to defend themselves when Two-Face comes calling. And if they survive his coin flips, they tell their frightening stories to other people. Cops are either paid off to ignore him, they respect his direct methods of killing bad people, or they just can't bring themselves to take out the fallen idol who ALMOST saved Gotham. He gets a lot of free reign from his past reputation and his new one, which gives him a unique benefit. Yes, there are a lot of people who would shoot him on sight based on what he did as Harvey Dent, but they'd have to get close to him and survive what Two-Face would throw at them first.


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

[User]
[Raimi Spiderman] A wrestler known as the "Human Spider" (called Spider-Man by the announcer) displays superhuman strength and acrobatics to win a sold out exhibition match. Weeks later, a superhuman hero called "Spider-Man" appears in New York. Did no one makes this connection?

Following up, was no one, including the skeezy wrestling promoter, able to connect this character to Peter Parker? Did the promoter not care that this nineteen year old dweeb could perform a triple backflip twenty feet into the air?

[Assistant] Someone probably did down the line. But you have to remember, wrestling is a staged show where suspension of disbelief is required, so someone flipping about, using a bunch of special stage effects, and beating up the title card wrestler, while exciting, wouldn't be too unexpected. The audience probably thought it was the introduction of new character, but the staff is probably freaking out as the script isn't being followed.


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

[User]
[Aliens, AVP] What does a pure Xenomorph look like?

During the Xenomorph attack on Gunnison, Colorado in 2004 there were reports of an Xenomorph-Yautja(Predator) Hybrid among the hive. Does this mean that what we commonly know as the Xenomorph is a Human-Xenomorph Hybrid? And if that is true what does a pure Xenomorph look like?

[Assistant]
That's like asking what a pure Y-chromosome human looks like. Just like how all humans require at least one *X-*chromosome for viability, a Xenomorph can't exist without taking the genetic information of another species.

*E: Humans require at least one X-chromosome. They need a lot more than one chromosome in general.*


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

[User] If the Earth stopped spinning immediatly, is there enough momentum be thrown into space at escape velocity?

[Assistant]
Nope!

So we're going to pretend the Earth is a perfectly rigid body that can stop on a dime, while the people on top are not attached at all, and also there's no atmosphere. If the Earth suddenly stopped moving, the people would continue to move forwards at their current velocity. Is that fast enough to escape the Earth?

The emphasis here is that you would continue to move *at your current velocity*. If you're not escaping the Earth right now, then your speed is below escape velocity. The Earth stopping won't make you speed up. Think of it this way: if the surface of the Earth was moving close to escape velocity, then the Earth would be basically flying apart.

I'll give you some numbers to get the scale of it anyway. The Earth's equator is about 40,000 km around (that's more or less the original definition of the metre). The Earth rotates about once every 24 hours (it's actually slightly faster than that - a day is 24 hours because that's relative to the Sun and we're moving around the Sun, but 24 hours is close enough for this estimate). 40,000 km/24 hours = about 460 m/s, or 1,700 km/h, or 1,000 mph. It's somewhere between mach 1 and mach 2 at sea level. By contrast, escape velocity is about 11 km/s - that's about 40,000 km/h, or 25,000 mph. And just to orbit in a circle means you have to go at about 8 km/s. The Earth's rotation is fast enough that it *does* matter which direction you launch your rocket - it makes like a 10% difference in speed - but it's still on the level of a supersonic jet rather than an interplanetary rocket.


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

[User]
[Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen] How did the US government coverup the events of the first movie from the public?

A big battle to place in Downtown Los Angeles, countless people were caught in the cross fire, a chase on the freeway and yet it was all swept under the rug?

[Assistant]
There's different level of coverup, you know?

Something like "Malfunctioning robots escape labs and go on rampage" would be a big news story, and likely have significant effects on tech industry, but its not worldview changing- something like it would happen eventually with increases in robotics, right? We put more restrictions on AI research and so forth but it's not going to reshape society and more importantly, it's far more plausible then *giant space robots*.

That something happened is impossible to cover up, but that it was a war between alien shapeshifting magic robotcarpeople is.


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

[User] [Steven Universe] Exactly why was Garnet so entranced by the game Meat Beat Mania?

[Assistant] Think about how many individual choices you have to make in a game rhythm game like DDR or rock band. For most people they just have to learn to memorize the pattern or they learn to hyper focus. Garnet, however, has future vision. Each possible beat/choice she has spawns a realm of other choices/possible futures. It has a powerful hold on her because it is able to overload her future vision with the multitude of possible outcomes, keeping her focused on the multitude of choices coming her way.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does 90 degree heat feel hot while a 90 degree swimming pool feels amazing?

[Assistant]
Water is way better at transferring heat than air is.  First off, it's got a higher heat capacity (It takes 4.2 KJ to warm a kilogram of water by 1 degree, whereas for air, it takes about 1 KJ to do the same). It's also a more effective thermal conductor - water has a thermal conductivity of 0.6 W/mK, air has a thermal conductivity of .025 W/mK.

In layman's terms, it takes more energy to heat up the same mass of water, and it's easier to give up your heat to water than it is to air (because it's a better conductor).  Your body has a hard time giving off its heat to 90 degree air, but it can easily give off its heat to 90 degree water.

The other thing that makes it hard to cool yourself on a hot day is humidity.  Your body cools itself in air by sweating.  If it's humid, there's nowhere for your sweat to go - instead of evaporating, it stays on your skin, because the air is too saturated for your sweat to evaporate.  In water, you don't need to worry about the fact that your sweat isn't going anywhere, because the cool water will gladly take the heat from your sweat and from your warm skin.


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

[User]
[DC] Weve heard about Batmans insane sleep schedule, but when does Alfred sleep?

Sure, Bruce is peak human and takes micro naps, but Alfreds doesnt share his exercise regiment and is older. How does he get any shut-eye with the unenviable task of being the most trusted ally of both Bruce Wayne and Batman?

[Assistant] He has special forces and/or military training in the past and has learned the enviable skill of being able to fall asleep on command and wake up to full alertness in a very short period of time. If he could not anticipate the arrival of Master Bruce and anticipate his needs, what kind if butler would he be? (No it's not cheating to put up geofences around Wayne manner to alert him when the batmobile enters or leaves).


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

[User]
[General fantasy/horror] Why do so many people worship openly evil gods?

To be clear, I know that there are evil gods who lie and pretend to be good, or have cultists pretending they're good. That's fine, people get tricked.

But there are also lots of fiction that have evil (or at least, destructive and hostile) gods who openly and outright show up and say they're evil, but still get large churches.

D&D has self-proclaimed Gods Of Evil who use titles like The God Of Tyranny and The God Of Slaughter. HP Lovecraft has  loyal worshipers of the Great Old Ones who are fully aware their gods are amoral alien monsters will kill them and never notice. Christian Fiction has entire conspiracies of Satanists who know Satan is an evil demon who will drag them to hell to suffer forever and seem totally down with that. World of Darkness has followers of the Wyrm who put huge effort into making the earth an uninhabitable polluted wasteland. Khorne from Warhammer leads with "I'm the murder god and I want indiscriminate murder".
There are countless other examples among fiction-  the Apokolipsians ,Mehrunes Dagon and Molag Bal, the First Evil's harbringers...

I can see the odd misanthrope or sociopath siding with them, but large cults? Outright religions? National churches?

Why are so many people pledging allegiance to evil abominations who openly want to hurt everyone, including the faithful? What do you get out of worshiping the God Of Betrayal, Deceit and Cruelty? How do they think this is going to end?

[Assistant]
Some followers believe they will receive power or favors for supporting the evil deity in their attempt to rule over everything. Others believe that they will be spared (and/or reborn/recreated) when the evil deity fulfills its desire to destroy the universe (especially if said deity wishes to create a new universe after the destruction of the original), filling such a new universe with its followers.

And then you've got the groups of nihilists and misanthropes who just desire destruction and oblivion.


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

[User]
How does the American national debt effect the American economy and why is it important to pay it off?

I'm writing a compare/contrast essay for my College Writing class on the economic policies of Obama and Romney, specificly the national debt and need to know why the national debt matters. Please, no political opinions; they don't matter for what I need.

[Assistant]
It's actually important *not* to pay off the national debt.  Alan Greenspan warned about this back when Clinton had a big surplus.

The existence of the national debt means that treasury bonds exist.  If the debt goes away, then there are no treasury bonds any more.  Our nation's banking system uses treasury bonds for a huge number of things.


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

[User]
ELI5: how does the elevator work in the St. Louis arch?

From pictures it looks like a Ferris wheel, but how does the entire contraption stay in balance not being a circle?

[Assistant]
It isn't really an elevator.

The cars are attached together into a train, and then pulled up a track by a cable attached to a motor. The inside of each car can swing independently of the outside shell which allows the passengers to stay upright as it travels up the curved arch.


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

[User] Eli5: Why do crash test dummies have those black and yellow checkered circles on them?

[Assistant] The circle serves as a reference point to track how the dummy moves in a crash. It can be hard to tell a cheek from a chin in a video of a featureless dummy disintegrating, but if you have a brightly colored, high-contrast reference point it becomes much easier to track, for example, the movement of the dummy's head upon impact.


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

[User] [Elf] If Buddy was the first human to reach the North Pole, then what is Santa? He's clearly not an elf, a gnome, or a troll, the three mythical beings we know exist in this setting.

[Assistant] Santa is a revolving door of saints and anointed persons to play the role of Santa. A being blessed with longevity and vitality to bring cheer throughout the world. He once was a man made a saint for his deeds and continues to this day. In the unlikely event he dies through happenstance or malice his next of kin or his killer must take his place keeping Christmas alive.


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

[User] Do radioactive elements decay at the same rate if said elements are traveling near the speed of light?

[Assistant]
Good question.  They decay at the same rate *in the reference frame that they are at rest.*  This means that to an outside observer who sees the element going really fast, the decay happens much slower due to time dilation.

This is a well observed phenomena; cosmic muons have observed lifetimes that are quite a bit longer than the relatively slower ones we can get in a lab.


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

[User]
[John Wick] What's with the dress code?

So I'm a hitman up from Bogota working for the Russian Mafia, and usually when I need to do a job I just wear jeans and a t-shirt or a hoodie or something. But up here, everyone wears suits all the time, even when they're in a shootout.

This seems really weird to me.

Wouldn't wearing a suit during a fight constrict movement and cause a strangulation risk with the tie?

Will I be required to buy a suit?

Will the other assassins make fun of me if I keep using casual clothes? I feel very underdressed.

[Assistant]
It is more of a cultural thing than a hard-and-fast rule.

Also, the suits that many of these people are wearing have been custom tailored to both fit their form and to provide a more comfortable range of motion, similarly to what secret service members might be wearing.

You would not be required to wear a suit, nor dress particularly "nice", but you will definitely stick out like a sore thumb if you don't. Again, it's a cultural thing. It's just what is expected. You will probably continue to be made fun of until you gain some renown and respect, because, with those, your character is what people begin to see rather than your clothes.


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

[User]
[Attack on Titan] Why don't people live underground?

They have gun powder or black powder technology, why haven't humans adapted to live underground in bedrock or mountains, rather than in extremely vulnerable and concentrated dwellings?

They could have huddled up in a cave and expanded it over time.

Or even occupying old abandoned mines?

It seems like a narrow cave opening would provide infinitely more protection and require a LOT less maintenance than a 300 foot wall in an enormous open field?

Plus it seems like they would be able to incorporate offensive hit and run tactics more effectively through strategic placement of tunnels (i.e. In wooded areas).

[Assistant]
They need to farm. It doesn't benifit you any thing to be in a secure place with if you have no food and will starve to death shortly.
Given the population size they must require quite a lot of farm land which would require walls to protect. Basically they require the current system for food so living in a cave doesn't increase your chance of survival just your chance of a slow lingering death of starvation.


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

[User]
[WH40k] What are some common religious practices in the Imperium?

I know that things differ from planet to planet with how the God Emperor of Mankind is revered and perceived, but what are some common religious practices in the Imperium? Plenty of people say prayers, burn incense, and create effigies, statues, and other art in his image, but what are some rituals and traditions that go beyond that?
Does anybody fast on certain holidays?
Is clothing with religious significance worn by citizens (besides Ecclesiastic officials)?
Are there feasts, festivals, and other celebrations held in honor of him?

Also, I've heard something about some of the more rabid followers of Imperial Cult doing something with their spleens. What's that all about?

[Assistant]
There are only one Common Religious practice that is Common all over the Imperium Citizen, The Santified Worship of the God-Emperor Of Mankind!

The Imperium is Large citizen, so large the Adeptus Administratum have problem with all the paperwork, the Adeptus Ministorium can't possibly keep check on it all, so they keep it all to a minimum working level.

All the different rites and ritual varies greatly. Sure, there are common things like prayers, incense, Images created by the Remembrancer Order that was discoverd and so on. But even these common things varies greatly, but the Emperor is above it all!

The seond most common Practice is  Sanguinala, A Day of honor for the sacrifise and loss of Sanguinius, The Most beloved Son of the Emperor. Naturly, some worlds were survival is the most important, such a celebration would be... difficult.

+++ Ava Imperator, The Emperor Protects +++


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

[User] ELI5 Why can you drink carbonated soda and beer straight out of a bottle with no backsplash, but champagne shoots everywhere?

[Assistant]
Because people love to shake Champagne bottles and spray Champagne around at celebrations.  If you vigorously shake a bottle of beer or soda before opening it, itll spray everywhere too.

Properly chilled and unshaken Champagne will open with a barely noticeable pop.

You can certainly drink Champagne directly from the bottle, as athletes and hen party attendees demonstrate pretty much daily.

You can also pour unshaken and chilled Champagne into a glass as easily as you can pour beer.


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

[User]
CMV: People who can't afford kids shouldn't have them.

I've seen this sentiment expressed from time to time and quite to my surprise it often generates a lot of anger and controversy. Why? According to the USDA it costs around $230,000 to raise a *single* kid from 0 to 18, and that figure doesn't even include college. That figure averages out to a little over $1,000/mo.

*EDIT 4: I brought up these figures more to highlight the so far practically unargued point that having kids is expensive. As several people have pointed out, using the $230,000 figure is a bit misleading because that's just an average (some would say over inflated) for a certain category of people in one country; some kids will take less to raise, some will take more. So to kind of move away from a specific number I'd rather frame this issue in a series of questions. Questions like: can you afford to feed your child three meals a day? Will you be able to afford to house and clothe your child? Will you be able to cover healthcare costs when you child is sick, injured, or just needs routine check-ups? Will you be able to pay for some baseline extracurricular activities for your child so they can grow up to be a functional and well rounded adult? Will you be able to be present as a parent for your child or will you be too busy working three jobs? If the answer is "no" to these sorts of questions, that's what I'd define as not being able to afford children, not a specific $/mo.*

If, say, it was possible to engage in an 18 year lease agreement (one it's almost impossible to get out of) for a quarter of a million dollar car, costing the driver $1,000/mo for almost two decades, it would be a totally common sense and uncontroversial thing to say that people who cant afford that lease, particularly poorer and struggling people, should not enter that agreement, much less two, three, four, five + seperate agreements at $230,000 a pop. If someone is broke and struggling but also was leasing an Aston Martin and a Lamborghini, youd probably think they were making very poor financial decisions. But swap out that luxury vehicle with a child or three and suddenly people get upset when you suggest they're making poor decisions. Why? If anything, I'd think that it'd be better for poor people to pay for the car than the kid - having a kid, even beyond the sheer cost, makes your already struggling life even harder arbitrarily, and also worsens the quality of life for the child i.e. another human being; a luxury vehicle isn't going to wake you up crying every night, or your job doesnt have to be structured around what time the car gets out of daycare; the child's quality of life, in terms of health, academics, enjoyment, etc. is obviously lessened by having parents who cant actually properly afford their existence.

And then, because (rightly) we dont want children to suffer unduly or die due to their parents irresponsible procreation choices, society has to step in and help foot the bill for their wellbeing. I'm not opposed to this happening, but it is worth noting it wouldnt generally even have to be a thing if people who cant afford kids didnt have them.

**Also I'm not advocating for any kind of mandate, ban, or law. I just think it's a shitty financial decision. I think the same of a lot of financial decisions, but for whatever reason it seems there is pushback when these poor financial decisions pertain to children... I've never seen someone get up in arms over the suggestion that people who are struggling and poor probably shouldn't invest in bad timeshare contracts or whatever.** *(EDIT 6 was bolding this for emphasis - several people have responded like this paragraph didn't exist)*

Y'all know what to do. Cheers.

*EDIT 1: Should also note I'm viewing this subject through a lens of a concurrent, developed nation, particularly the US, which is where I live. Obviously in other parts of the world $230,000 could be enough to raise a thousand kids.*

*EDIT 2: We are currently experiencing higher than normal response volume. Your reply is important to us. Please be patient and a certified OP will be with you as soon as possible.*

*EDIT 3: One delta awarded so far for someone pointing out the utility and practicality of having children to stave off a low birth rate which is vital for a strong and functioning economy. My view was very much focused on individual choice and I hadn't considered societal need.*

*EDIT 5: Many people are bringing up that I ought to be more focused on creating a society where everyone who wants kids can afford them, and people have access to the education/birth control aspects of family planning. I don't disagree with those goals at all. BUT, until we create that society, if we ever do, we ought to be wise about the decisions we make in the current system, which is the gist of the OP.*

*EDIT 6: Frankly I'm not going to be able to get to all these replies, but there seem to be plenty of people chiming in from both sides of this issue, so hopefully this discussion will continue! I'll keep at this until my laptop battery dies (currently at 52%) and then I'm calling it quits for at least a few hours. Thanks to everyone for the good conversation so far.*

[Assistant]
1) By the time they grow into working age adults, they will on average put more back into the economy than they took out.

2) The economy needs a growing population to function.

3) Therefore the government subsidizes childbirth, even for the poor, by footing some of the expenses associated with having children.

The government should be doing more. The more spent on children early on, the more productive they will be later on.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are dogs' noses wet?

[Assistant]
There are several reasons, actually.  The first, and most important, is that the chemo-receptors (the things that actually pick up smells) on a dog's nose are more functional when wet.  Similarly, our tongues can't taste anything when they are dry (stick your tongue out, let it dry, put something salty on it).  Same idea.  So the dog excretes a mucous that keeps the dogs nose wet, allowing the chemo-receptors to pick up smells.

Less importantly, dogs don't sweat, but they need to shed heat.  The nose is a piece of exposed (not furry) flesh that can be easily licked to take advantage of evaporative cooling.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do power lines buzz?

Out on an essential walk and I just walked under some power lines, why do they make that loud buzzing sound?  Thank you!

[Assistant]
Some power lines have pretty high voltage. It can be enough to cause corona discharges. They happen when the air ionizes and conducts current. Think of them as brief mini-lightnings. The sound is like a very weak but continuous thunder.

In transformers a reason is also because switching magnetic fields vibrate the components.


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

[User]
[Warcraft] What's the deal with these Orcs?

How many times did they try to invade and how many are waiting to come over and fight?

[Assistant]
They only invaded once, and the majority of the species came over. After Warlock Magics accelerate the maturation of their young. A relatively small faction of Orcs remained behind under the command of the fallen Shaman, Ner'zhul, which was subsequently devastated by the Alliance Expedition led by Grand Marshal Turalyon. A few stragglers survived, along with the small city of Garadar in Nagrand.

There was a second invasion, caused by a bridging of alternate timelines by the rogue Bronze Dragon Kairosidormu, but that was notably less successful, and only amounted to a small percentage of the Orcish population before a counterattack cut them off.


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

[User]
[Metal Gear Solid 5] how do soldiers that Snake Fultons/Kidnaps get convinced to join mother base?

Like do they get offered a job once extracted and can either accept or refuse or are they basically enslaved?

I was playing before and i just decided to kill everybody in an outpost. When I was done, I noticed a soldier who was only wounded and not dead. I scanned him and saw he didnt have bad stats so I fultoned him out of there and he survived. Is this guy pissed at me now for killing all his men?

[Assistant]
One of the biggest things the Diamond Dogs (and before them MSF) have going in their favour is Big Boss's dream: a warrior nation of soldiers who can choose what they want to fight for rather than being pawns of the government. This is what would eventually become the idea of Outer Heaven. It's very tempting to any soldier.

On the other hand there is a degree of psychological manipulation and brainwashing, but also breaking whatever brainwashing they went through before you captured them.


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

[User]
[[Halo]] My spaceship just crash-landed on a halo ring? How do I survive? What do I do with my free time? Where do I go?

My One-Man corvette just kinda "ran outta gas" after I forgot to fill the tank up, and now I'm trapped, seemingly forever on this big ring thing. Theres some robots floating around, and this one spherical one that keeps calling me a "reclaimer". He keeps asking me to get this key from a library, but that seems pretty hard. Any advice?

[Assistant]
You should have no real problems.  The surface of the rings are made to support life, you'll be fine.

What you do on your own time is up to you, but there's not going to be all that much you really have access to.   Also, unless you've released the Flood somehow, your ring's monitor shouldn't be bothering you about the index or the library.  It should just be taking care of you in  case you're needed later.


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

[User]
Why don't we just coat windshields in superhydrophobic coatings instead of using windshield wipers on cars?

It's 1am and I'm tired.

[Assistant]
Because it wears off, Andi's ineffective when dirty or in very heavy rain.

Rainx is a widely used hydrophobic compound, based on silicon that people buy and apply.

It works a treat in light rain, but in heavy rain or at very low speeds still needs windscreen wipers.


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

[User] Why do we vaccinate people instead of injecting them directly with antibodies? Is there a particular reason people need to generate the antibodies themselves?

[Assistant]
Antibodies are proteins that will eventually degrade. You could get regular antibody infusions but they would not last as long as having your own immune cells to produce them as needed (which you get from a vaccine). Immune cells can last decades, even entire lifetimes, antibodies last weeks to months at best.

There is more to the immune system than just antibodies. Vaccines can also activate immune cells called T cells which have many important roles. There are different types of antibodies, with different roles, including antibodies in the mucus membranes which you would not get from an infusion. Additionally, the cells that make antibodies can make better antibodies with each exposure, selecting variants of antibodies that bind antigens best (which is important when the antigens themselves are also changing).

So yes you could give antibodies, and in some cases we do give antibodies, but vaccines are generally going to be much better.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does CO2 seem to stay suspended better in some liquids more than others?

I have a bottle of club soda on my desk and I was noticing that there are no bubbles around the edge like with soda or beer, yet it is highly carbonated, so much so that aggressive sips nearly shoot out my nose.

I would think something like soda would hold carbonation better than plain water, yet if I leave a coke out overnight it will be flat, while club soda will still pack a fizzy punch.

My question is, why so much variation between carbonated products?

[Assistant]
Without writing an essay on solutions thermodynamics to give a rigorous explanation, the basic idea is that CO2 (and other gases) have a certain equilibrium solubility that they would "prefer" to be in. How much CO2 a liquid can hold depends on its temperature, pressure, and composition. If the temperature and pressure of your proverbial coke and club soda are the same, the only remaining difference is the composition. Perhaps something in your soda (like the sugar or phosphoric acid) interacts with the CO2 in a way that "pushes" it out of solution more than plain water would.

Another explanation could lie in the container you're storing your drinks in. While it won't affect the amount of CO2 in your drink at equilibrium, a rough container can make your drink approach equilibrium faster than a smooth container.


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

[User] ELI5 Why all prion-caused illnesses are incurable and have a 100% mortality rate?

[Assistant] Prions are misfolded proteins (same sequence of amino acids but a different 3-d shape) the regular version of a protein exists in your body and is needed for normal function. So the question is how do you destroy something that is almost identical to another protein you need. Additionally the prions dont do any jobs they just clog up a cell and convert regular proteins to prions. All these things combine to cause serious problems especially in the brain where areas clogged with prions are segmented and die to to lack of functional proteins causeing death.


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

[User] ELI5, how does Pi never repeat when there are only ten different numbers (0,1,2,3 etc.)?

[Assistant] It's not that you can't find repeating sequences, it's that any such sequence is guaranteed to end, and not match the digits that came before.  So there is no sequence of digits in there that just repeats forever.


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

[User]
Why do some medicines give you an upset stomach or nausea unless it is taken with solid food?

I took some pain medication (Aleve) on an empty stomach. About 30 seconds later, my stomach became very upset and I was going to throw up. I ate a few crackers and I felt better almost immediately. What exactly is causing this to happen and why does solid food help?

[Assistant]
Pharmacist here.
NSAIDs inhibit the COX-1 and COX-2 pathways to varying degrees. Prostaglandins produced by the COX-1 pathway increase gastrointestinal mucus and bicarbonate production. NSAIDs harm the gastrointestinal mucosa directly through irritation (as the NP was saying)  but also by blocking the production of protective prostaglandins by inhibiting the COX-1 pathway. Inhibition of COX-1 by NSAIDs deprives the gastroduodenal mucosa of prostaglandins protections against acid, enzymes, and bile salts, thus increasing the risk of ulcers.


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

[User]
ELI5: The idea of mental competence in or in avoidance of court cases.

How is it determined whether someone is mentally capable of standing trial in court, and what is the underlying idea behind stopping/altering a case for those reasons?

Also what happens to a case where the defendant has been found to be incapable of standing trial?

[Assistant]
> How is it determined whether someone is mentally capable of standing trial in court,

Anyone can call into question the defendant's competency to stand trial. Ultimately the judge makes the decision. If the judge rules that there is a legitimate concern, they can hold a hearing to determine competency. They can call for psychological evaluations, but the judge still makes the final call.

> and what is the underlying idea behind stopping/altering a case for those reasons?

American citizens have a right to competent defense, to address their accusers and call witnesses for their defense. They cannot do this if they are incompetent.

> Also what happens to a case where the defendant has been found to be incapable of standing trial?

The trial will be postponed and the defendant held under mental observation and evaluation till such a time as they become competent.


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

[User] How do "homing pigeons" know where to fly?

[Assistant] In addition to the other comment, sending a message via pigeon is a one-way communication.  The pigeon will only fly home, it won't fly back or anywhere else.  If you wanted to reply to a message received by pigeon with another messenger pigeon, you would have to already have a pigeon on hand for the location you received the message from.


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

[User]
[Alien vs. Predator] Was the Xenomorph Queen expected to be freed from her shackles?

We see the Queen get thawed out and later freed by other Xenomorphs who injure her to use her acid blood to dissolve her restraints. Does this occur every hunt and do the Predators have to also kill the Queen for the hunt to be successful? Do they replace the queen every time or is the queen supposed to remain restrained and then refrozen until the next hunt? If the queen is supposed to remain restrained, why did the other Xenomorphs know how to free the Queen during this hunt but not previous hunts?

[Assistant]
It's not planned for her to be freed, but it's also not unanticipated.

Queens are smart, and they want to be free.  The idea is to complete the hunt and kill the drones before the queen figures out her circumstances and orders drones to free her.  If you fail at that, well, you've got a new kind of hunt on your hands.


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

[User]
[Marvel] How exactly is Wolverine's adamantium poisoning him?

Adamantium is indestructible. It shouldn't be getting into his blood or any other system to be able to poison him.

[Assistant]
Adamantium isn't indestructible, it's *virtually* indestructible. After all, an Adamantium bullet travelling at sufficient velocity *can* pierce a sheet of Adamantium grafted to your skull. Unstoppable force meeting immovable object type deal. Something has to give. Even if that's the substrate that the Adamantium is grafted to is what gives.

But Wolverine is also likewise *virtually indestructible*

Meaning that his body *does not want the adamantium in it*

It is constantly trying to reject it, remove it, adapting.

You see that he gets mildly better at healing *every time he gets injured prior to the adamantium being injected into him*

Likewise, bone isn't solid, it's porous, the adamantium likewise doesn't seal his bones, it still leaves them porous so the bone marrow can do it's thing and, you know, heal him.

But the immune system is fighting the adamantium, and is slowly eating it away, atom by atom, it may only be ae to detatch one atom (of trillions of trillions of them) every hour, or every day, but slowly and surely, as he lives, sleeps, exists, his immune system is trying to purge it

But it's a heavy metal, doesn't matter if you're Joe Schmuck, or Wolverine, your body just isn't good at getting rid of Heavy Metals, they literally get stuck in membranes in your kidneys and liver.

So once it's off the bones, it gets lodged in his liver and kidney membranes. His body then has to attack *those* organs and rebuild them to purge it, and even then, where does it purge it to? The kidneys can't get it into the urine, the liver can't get it into the bile and into your digestive tract, you just can't get it out.

So it ends up in his kidneys, liver, lymph nodes, causing then to falter, fail, and slowly break down.

There's nothing to dispute that adamantium is any more than a standard metal with specific properties, which means is has good strength in *no more than two planes*, which means there will always be a shear plane by the way it arranges it's lattice.

So it's super super strong, in the same way steel is harder than lead, titanium is harder than steel, and uranium is harder than titanium.

But you can cut lead with steel, you can cut steel with titanium, you can cut titanium with uranium.

Likewise *something* can destroy Adamantium.

Plus, we know that Adamantium is *MAGNETIC*, therefore it has weaknesses that wolverines immune system can exploit, he's adaptive, therefore his immune system simply needs to disrupt that magnetic bond along shear lines.

Plus, we can see when it's injected, it is impure. It is contaminated, it is clearly shown that there is impurities in the metal as it goes into him.

Pure Adamantium is like Pure Vibranium, a practical impossibility, theoretically plausible, but practically unobtainable.

And *that* is how his body breaks it down, he's still flesh and blood, and the science in the XMU isn't *that* outlandish.


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

[User]
CMV: I think "person of color" is no better a term to describe a human than any other 'politically correct' term...

...because it implies that "white people" are the only people that aren't "of color." I call bullshit. "Person of color" seems to me like a term invented by white people to make themselves feel better about describing the color of someone else's skin, and to avoid having to use words like "black" or "Hispanic". It groups everyone who can't identify as "white" into one huge group of no-one-gives-a-fuck-what-your-nationality-actually-is. I'd like to hear some thoughts on this. Maybe you'll change my view.

[Assistant]
Of course it's not. We don't even need to look at the meaning to determine this; it's a collection of sounds, and collections of sounds do not have any sort of inherent moral value.

What we really want to do is find good terms for social concepts. The social concept referred to by "people of color" is very useful, because "people of color" have historically been treated as deviations from the default of whiteness. So we need to have some term for it; do you have an alternate suggestion?


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Im just your average everyday guy in his early 20s. How different is my life now that the Republic has been reorganized into the first Galactic Empire?

I work a regular job, have my own modest bachelor pad. Ive never really paid attention to politics but I just woke up and logged into the HoloNet, and apparently some crazy shit went down last night. The Jedi Temple is up in smoke, apparently they tried to overthrow the Republic and Chancellor Palpatine is talking about re-structuring the government.

How different is my life going to be once the Empire is formed? And how much of a difference does my planet of origin make?

[Assistant]
Depends. If you from the Core Worlds, not much different from the heyday of the Republic except for the heavier presence of the Empire's new Stormtroopers.

In the Mid-rim, you'll be looking at a more heavy handed approach by the newly appointed Moffs.

In the Outer Rim, say goodbye to whatever political self-determination you have. Cuz the Moff assigned to your sector will be treating it as their personal kingdoms.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is some thunder longer than others?

[Assistant]
There are a few factors here.  Thunder is created when lightning zips through the air, causing a sudden heating up of the air, that causes a blast wave to go out from that point.

Not all lightning is straight down from the clouds.  Some of it kinda does a zig zaggy thing which will cause longer thunder.  But also, sometimes there isn't a single strike.  Sometimes there are 2+ strikes all within just like 1 or 2 seconds in the same area.  So this action causes several waves of thunder to be really close in time to each other.  So you hear it as a longer rolling thunder.

The other thing that can happen in a very active storm is that a lightning strike can happen way off in the distance and then one closer a couple second later, so the sound waves hit your ears pretty close together.  So they sound more like rolling thunder.


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

[User]
[LOTR] How did the elves in Middle Earth know that Samwise, Frodo, Bilbo, and Gimli had permission to go to Valinor?

There seems to have been no communication from Valinor in the Third Age or after the destruction of Numenor except for the arrival of the Wizards. Did Valinor give standing orders to the Wizards that any ring bearer is welcome in Valinor? Did Gandalf just make the call that the Ring bearers should go to Valinor and planned vouch for them/sweet talk the Valar should any problems arise? And how does Gimli fit into this, given he isn't a ring bearer?

[Assistant]
Gandalf made the initial call with Frodo and Bilbo yes, and that dispensation was extended to Sam.

Gimli is a less clear-cut case. The book text makes it ambiguous (just that he sailed west with Legolas) but the letters are more explicit.

But, once Gandalf left with Frodo and Bilbo, he could directly make any case he needed to for any other exceptions.


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

[User]
Could plasma (state of matter, not blood plasma) be a solvent?

So, I'm a chemistry major in college, and last week I was randomly thinking about more abnormal solutions (normal being liquid-liquid or solid-liquid), when I came up with this question, which managed to stump my professor. Now, we all know gases can dissolve gases, but what if you made that gas into plasma? I imagine another plasma could dissolve into it, right? But could you possibly or even plausibly dissolve a gas into a plasma without the solute gas converting to plasma?

[Assistant]
Plasmas are unstable in general, and adding a neutral gas to them threatens to cool it down to a point of recombination, and the ions and electrons would recombine into regular atoms and molecules

If you maintain the plasma while adding a neutral gas, the plasma would ionize the gas and you would have new ion species in your plasma.

The sun is a giant ball of plasma that is very stable (it isn't going to just turn into gas anytime soon). Anything you want will definitely dissolve in the sun, but molecules will be broken into their constituent atoms and those into ions. For example, if you wanted to dissolve ethelenol in a plasma you would most likely end up with carbon ions and hydrogen ions and oxygen ions.

TL;DR plasma will dissolve stuff, but the stuff doesn't always remain very stuff-y.


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

[User]
Batman Begins - If the water gasifier weapon Rhas Al Ghoul used to gasify water, Wouldnt that kill everyone near it?

Batman Begins - If the water gasifier weapon Rhas Al Ghoul used to gasify water, Wouldnt that kill everyone near it?

[Assistant] The weapon used *directed* microwaves, so it would only affect people that it was directly pointed at. It was placed on the train because the train ran directly above the main water line in Gotham, so pointing the weapon down would focus the microwaves on the water line and vaporize the water directly beneath it.


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

[User]
[Marvel/MCU] Jennifer Walters appears to have a very loving family, unlike Bruce. Why didn't Jen's family (i.e. Bruce's aunt and uncle) ever adopt him, or get him away from his abusive father?

Hulk is Hulk, largely because of Bruce's abusive family life. Jennifer, on the other hand, is relatively well-adjusted. And any decent person, especially with family, would want to get a kid away from abuse. So why didn't Jen's parents, Bruce's aunt and uncle, try and remove Bruce from an abusive household? Whether it be via adoption or otherwise.

[Assistant]
You can't adopt someone if their parents never agreed to give him up.

Also, it's not clear whether Bruce had an abusive childhood in the MCU.  And even if he did, it appears that Jennifer and probably her family isn't aware of it, based on their conversation in episode 1.


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

[User]
ELI5: How can audiophiles tell the difference between an max quality MP3 and a FLAC file just by their ears?

When you use a computer to analyze the compression factor in a file it's very obvious that there are lots of frequencies lost. But, in real life can audiophile people really spot the difference just by their plain ears?

Edit: it seems I'm dyslexic.

[Assistant]
They can't is the short answer. But people like to convince themselves they can if they have bought a bunch of expensive audio equipment and spent time converting their audio to flac.

Saying that hard drive space is so cheap you may as well use flac and transcode it if needed on your portable player.


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

[User] If 9-THC has effects on core brain reward circuits that are fundamentally similar to cocaine and heroin, why is Marijuana said to be "non habit-forming?"

[Assistant] "Non-habit forming" is really bad terminology.  A better terminology would be "not physiologically addictive."  The euphoric qualities of marijuana can certainly make people seek it out more, and this can turn into a habitual behavior.  But ultimately marijuana (unlike many other drugs) doesn't create a neurological situation where its continued presence is needed to avoid discomfort, sickness, or other negative effects.  The only negative effect of being a long-term marijuana user who is suddenly deprived of marijuana is that you don't have something in your life that you enjoy, much like being a football fan who suddenly can't watch the game.


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

[User]
ELI5: What is cultural appropriation and why is it bad?

Is white people rapping considered cultural appropriation?

Edit: And why is it that people say that it is a bad thing?

[Assistant]
There's a difference between blending cultures and mocking it. Blending cultures is good and necessary for countries like the US because we have such a diverse population. However, some people choose to "steal" things from other cultures, not out of respect.

For instance, take those people who went to music festivals wearing the Indian war bonnet. They didn't wear it because they respected their culture and wanted to pay tribute to it. If they knew what the war bonnet meant, they wouldn't have worn it. The war bonnet is a symbol of courage similar to the Purple Heart. Most people would be offended if someone created a knock-off Purple Heart and wore it around "because it looks cool." It needs to be the same for other things in other cultures.


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

[User]
[Jimmy Neutron] The Yolkians are completely helpess without their suits. How could they have gotten so advanced with no hands, legs, or anything but a slug-like body?

Their suits are specifically designed to hold their phlegm-y bodies, so I doubt the suits came first and they eventually evolved into Yolk.  At the same time, their entire culture, even their names, are based on their egg-like appearance, so it must have been like that for quite a while.

They worship Chickens as gods, which could explain their egg-focused culture, but the Chicken used in their ceremonies is unintelligent and brutish, I can't see one of THOSE being the source of their robotic bodies either.

[Assistant] They're like the inhabitants of The Axiom in Wall-E: technology became such a part of their lives that their bodies began to devolve into a more primitive state, and as it occurred they built incrementally more advanced machines for themselves, until they eventually arrived at the state you see them in now. They've been that way for so long that they've lost all memory of what their previous bodies were like.


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

[User]
[Death on the Nile] Why didn't the killer just kill Poirot?

In one scene, Bouc is about to tell Poirot who the killer is, but she (Jackie) shoots and kills him. But why leave it at shooting the witness, when she instead could have killed the detective who's actively trying to solve the case?

Why couldn't she have either prioritised Poirot, or shot both?

[Assistant]
She didn't have a good line on him from her limited firing arc.  If she could have just shot the detective, she absolutely would have.  Further, after she fired Bouc, who knew who the killer was, would have spilled the beans so killing Poirot there wouldn't have saved them.  After that point, Poirot really never exposed himself properly again where either of the killers could do anything without implicating themselves.

One thing to remember is that if either of them got caught, they both got caught so there were probably a few missed opportunities where a single killer could have been successful.


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

[User]
[Cyberpunk 2077] What exactly are "lobos"?

I was driving around listening to the radio and heard that Switzerland is trying to automate their military 100% by 2080, with over 90% of their current military automated. The newscaster listed "lobos" as automated units in their army. Is this what I think it is - a similar thing to the servitors in the 40k universe?

[Assistant]
LOBOS -- in certain terms, means "**L**ots **o**f **b**oxes **o**n **s**helves" -- imagine a warehouse full of inventory ready to be sold/shipped, etc.    In the I.T. world, it can also mean an entire array of clustered computers (think like a huge server room, for example)

Given the context, this could mean all of these automaton units are sitting and waiting for deployment.


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

[User]
There were once less than 30 California Condors left. How does this affect the species, genetically?

All future California Condors will necessarily originate from those few. Is there enough generic diversity with those 30 subjects for the species to recover and thrive?

[Assistant]
Yes actually!  There were three distinct families that were left over and when breeding programs were started they made sure to breed condors to those who were least like them.  Condors were transfered between breeding facilities on a regular basis and the condors that are alive now have the broadest "range" of genetic diversity.  The condors that survived would also, theoretically, be the strongest and most able to survive meaning that any of their offspring have the greatest chance of survival.

The bad part is diseases which arise when both parents are carriers.  By testing the population for these diseases and only breeding pairs that would select against this, the condors alive now are very healthy and stand a great chance of recovery.


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

[User]
Is there a *theoretical* maximum velocity for a mass with a constant thrust traveling through a vacuum?

I understand basic relativistic physics and know that as we approach the speed of light, the the effective mass of an object will increase until it will take an infinite amount of energy to keep accelerating that object.

That being said, is there an equation to determine at which velocity does an object's increase in mass render the acceleration generated by a constant thrust negligible?

Edit:

Maybe I should rephrase my question. Is there an equation to help determine at what point a ship should stop producing thrust because the acceleration generated is no longer worth the energy required?

[Assistant]
You know how for that situation, assuming Newtonian physics, the velocity is equal to the acceleration times time?

In relativistic physics, the velocity as a fraction of light speed is equal to the hyperbolic tangent of velocity times time, and that asymptotically approaches one.


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

[User]
Sociology says people with friends who are friends among themselves are happier. Is there any science on what's the most effective way to create or enlarge an interconnected group of friends?

Christakis and Fowler argue in their book "Connected" that people who have friends who are also friends among themselves tend to be happier.

I was wondering if there's any science on what's the most effective way to create and enlarge such tightly knit networks. For instance, what's the best way to make the group interconnected? You just put everybody in a room and facilitate conversation? Or you start out with a small group and enlarge it as you go on? In which case what's the best way to introduce new friends to your already well-connected group of friends? You introduce new ones one at a time?

This kind of things...

[Assistant]
Have you tried looking into studies regarding the psychological/social benefits of team sports/activities?

I believe the "unified goal" aspect of team sports/activities could facilitate the quality of "interconnectedness" you're seeking to foster.

Also, you probably want to clarify how (if at all) Christakis and Fowler talked about these interconnected friend groups numerically (e.g. - is there an optimal amount of interconnected friends, and at what point does the benefit of adding people to the interconnected group plateau and/or start to diminish?).


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

[User]
If so many fossils from Morocco were formed before the breakup of Pangea, why don't we see the same quantity and quality of fossils present in New England?

Morocco and New England were once part of the same area of Pangea, and from googling it the trilobite fossils found so famously and abundantly in Morocco are from between 500 mya and 245 mya. Pangea broke up around 250 mya, so why don't we find the same trilobites along the northeast coast of the US? Is it just random chance? Different geological processes at work? Erosion?

[Assistant]
Rocks exposed in and along Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island, have some of the best exposures.  Conanicutt Island is rich in these fossils once they are recognized after metamorphism.

Erosion to a near plane, sea level, by time and multiple glaciations greatly reduces the chance to observe fossils.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do photographs look so hideously wrong when 'flipped'?

It can't just be me - fairly often my phone flips a photo after I have taken it, and suddenly it looks awful to me. Why is this?

[Assistant] If you're talking photos of people, it's because our faces aren't symmetrical.  So when you see a picture of your friend, you see them in the picture how you see them in real life.  When the picture is flipped, you see their mirror image.  It's also why people think they look odd in photos, because you are used to seeing your own mirror image.


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

[User]
Eli5 Why do powdered donuts feel cold?

Why do powdered foods (powdered donuts, cornstarch, etc) feel cold when you touch them or eat them despite not being cold?

[Assistant] It feels cool to your tongue but not your fingers. The powdered sugar takes some heat from your tongue as it dissolves into your saliva thereby making your tongue cooler. Your fingers are dry so no dissolving happens and heat transfer is minimized.


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

[User]
Does boiling water in a low pressure atmosphere still kill pathogens?

Reducing the atmospheric pressure will reduce the boiling temperature of water, so will boiling in low pressure still kill pathogens in the water?

[Assistant]
One of the reasons boiling water works to kill pathogens is the denarurarion of protein, and the disruption of phospholipid bilayers with increasing temperature. These elements of physical biochemistry are linked to temperature, not the evaporation of the water.

This means that as you enter a lower pressure environment, boiling will be less effective. However, both of these processes start at comparatively low temperatures (~45C, which is why slow cooking works), and depend on the pathogen in question.

To extend the concept, some places (including hospitals) use high temperature and pressure steam to sterilize equipment for surgical use (the devices used for this are called autoclaves).

*tl:dr* ability to remove pathogen is bases in temperature, so boiling at lower pressure will work less well.


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

[User]
CMV: The NHL should amend Rule 78.3 and allow a player to be credited with more than one point for a goal.

Currently, the NHL explicitly and arbitrarily has a rule that prohibits a player from being credited with more than one point for a goal. Points are awarded the goal scorers and up to two players who last possessed the puck prior to the goal scorer's shot. So each goal can result in 1-3 points. Not every goal is scored with an assist and some are only credited with one assist, it is never more than 2, however.

So, in a situation where Player A passes to Player B who passes to Player C, who then shoots and scores, A and B are given a point for their assist and C is given a point for the goal. However, if Player A passes to Player B and Player B passes it back to Player A, who then scores, only Player B would get an assist, Player A would get a point for the goal but not credited with an assist.

This is ludicrous. Players should be awarded for their accomplishments. In the first situation, Player A made a pass that lead directly to a goal, same thing in the second situation, yet he gets an assist in one case and not in the other.

I understand this is a rare feat and it would not move the needle in terms of records all that much, but it still irks me and I'm curious if anyone can argue that the status quo is more appropriate.

[Assistant]
I wonder if that might compel some players to push the stats a little with unnecessary passes.

Or, if you changed it up and gave the scoring player an extra point or something, that might compel them to resist passing even when it's better for the team.

Maybe this is already as balanced as it can get.


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

[User] [LORD OF THE RINGS] If The One Ring was put in an unopenable, indestructible (except for fires of Mt. Doom)box. And you didn't know what was inside this box. Would the temptation of The Ring still be there? Could you trust a capable person, or group to destroy The Ring with this encasing around it?

[Assistant]
Likely they would have an indescribable urge to open the box, keep safe the box, and allow no other to take the box. We are shown that simple knowledge of the rings existence is enough to offer temptation, line of sight or knowledge of location does not matter. Should they manage to open the box, game over. Additionally, there is no smith who can forge said box remaining in middle earth aside from sauron himself.

>The ring cannot be destroyed, gimli son of gloin, by any craft that we here possess.

To forge the box you would need to imbue it with power equal to that of the ring itself. Not to mention you would need to forge it in the fires of Mt doom per our understanding of how the ring was forged - it could only be destroyed by the fire used in its making.


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

[User]
ELI5: What is the purpose of having baby teeth that fall out after a few years? Why don't we just keep the same teeth for our whole life?

And also, why do we only grow two teeth in our life? Why not more like sharks and other animals?

[Assistant] There's several ideas why.  A child's jaw isn't large enough to fit a full set of permanent teeth.  Also, baby teeth may serve as kind of a placeholder so that there will be enough space on the jaw for the permanent teeth to grow in.  The baby teeth save the spot of its corresponding permanent tooth until it's developed enough to replace it.  Children that lose a baby tooth early might experience problems with overcrowding of their permanent teeth.


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

[User] ELI5: On suits, why have a flap covering a "pocket" if the suit or jacket has no pocket?

[Assistant] It does have a pocket -- it's just usually stitched shut so suit hangs better in transit and in stores. You should be able to open with scissors or seam ripper. That's the kind of finishing work a good tailor would do if you bought a suit and had it altered.


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

[User]
[Mass Effect] If the Citadel is really a Mass Relay then how come it doesn't contain a massive deposit of Element zero in its core like the other Mass Relays have?

I know that the both made of the same material but other than the fact that they're both mass transit devices there are no similarities between the Mass Relays and the citadel.

[Assistant]
Relays work by creating a mass-free virtual 'corridor' through space between the outgoing relay and the receiving relay. Presumably only the outgoing relay has to have the eezo core to generate the corridor, with the receiving relay acting as just an anchor point on the other end.

When using the Citadel to enter from Dark Space, the Reapers could just use the relay that's at the other end of that connection, the one out in Dark Space, and jump in. It wouldn't be out of their capabilities to then attach a temporary eezo core to use when leaving the galaxy at the end of a Harvest and then have the Vanguard left behind remove it. Maybe the Vanguard even *is* the power supply.

Alternatively it does have an eezo core, its just buried deep within the inner workings of the station and not immediately visible. It does have artificial gravity and barriers so there's definitely some form of mass effect field generators there already.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Who were Darth Plagueiss loved ones?

Palpatine mentioned them to Anakin at the opera: He had such a knowledge of the Dark Side, he could even keep the ones he cared about from dying.

Who were they? Did they even exist? Or was Palpatine just making them up to manipulate Anakin?

[Assistant]
First, "cared about" isn't the same as "loved ones". There are many, many reasons why you'd care to keep someone alive, and not all of them are good intentioned.

With that said, yeah, those words are meant specifically to manipulate Anakin.


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

[User] Just got my first rejection on a paper. One of the reviewers was very sassy and made some unnecessarily rude comments. Is this pretty normal and how do people deal with it?

[Assistant]
If they make a good point, recognize it and incorporate it into your manuscript. If they are wrong, prove it and tell them they're wrong. Some people like to bully behind the anonymity of peer review.

The best revenge is getting published.


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

[User]
Being open about sex...

Why are people so unsettled by the topic of sex? Context: I left Christianity a little while ago, and recently I have begun thinking about the almost pathological fear that our society has of sex and how this fear manifests itself (fear of sexual education, condemning those who are open about their sex lives, thinking that sex is dirty or inherently crude/promiscuous). If there is any biological or evolutionary basis for these phenomena, can someone please tell me what it is? Thanks!

[Assistant]
>I left Christianity

Which sect or denomination? Catholicism, for example, is an entirely different kettle of fish from say Protestantism. This also changes depending on the majority status of your said 'Christianity'.

>that our society

Which society? There are many.

It's quite difficult to answer your question properly and provide you with the best answer without specifics.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why can overclocked CPUs execute incorrectly?

When overclocking, there often is a stability test, such as running prime95 and validating the results. So why can CPUs put out incorrect answers?

[Assistant]
Think of a CPU like you and a bunch of friends passing sandbags in a long line. When executing normally, everyone is working hard enough and working up a good sweat. You all can keep up just fine.  But when the "boss" says to go faster not everyone can keep up, so some bags get dropped, or are late or get doubled up.  So the whole line gets messed up, not getting the bags to the end in time... A "Wrong" answer.

The same happens in CPUs. Every calculation is a bunch of electrical signals (like the sandbags) being passed along.  When you overclock the CPU the signal timing is to fast and some parts (sandbags) get dropped, or passed wrong, or change when they shouldn't, giving a "WRONG" answer.


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

[User]
[Suicide Squad] Where the hell does Amanda Waller get off on asking me to greenlight this crap?

Look, I work for Congress so I see a lot of sausage gettin' made. Backdoor deals, taxpayer money dumped into do-nothing projects and corporate pockets. It's gross, but it's how the system is. And I've known Waller for years, and never thought of her as incompetent . . . until now.She says we need a contingency plan in case Superman goes rogue. That's fine. Personally, I've been providing some resources for Lex Luthor's little projects here and there, and I think he's on to something. And despite Superman's seemingly endless powers, we have the world's mightiest military at our command, and that's not to mention the freakin' JLA that, as far as I'm aware, would be able to hold one another accountable.So can anyone for the love of God tell me why the hell she thinks a- \[checks notes\]  - an alligator man, Joker's ex, some fireball guy, a crackshot (which normally would be great except we know bullets bounce off the sonuvabitch), some schizo lady with magic powers, Joker's ex, some ninja lady, an embroidery expert, and a goddamn guy with a boomerang would do anything but humor a rogue Superman for a hot minute before he rips them to pieces? Am I missing something here!?

[Assistant] You're joking, right? You yourself are no stranger to bureaucrats mislabeling budgets. The Suicide Squad isn't meant to fight Superman, they're an illegal black ops team meant to do Waller's dirty work, which might involve taking down *some* superheroes, but keeping Superman *specifically* in check is *not* her intention.


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

[User]
Could Dark Matter and Dark Energy Be Wild Goose Chases?

Could Dark Matter and Dark Energy, these things we cannot detect, but must be there in order to explain the Universe as we understand it, actually be manifestations of some basic, underlying misconception we have about physics?

[Assistant]
> these things we cannot detect

If we could not detect them, we wouldn't have posited them.

We detect dark matter through its gravitational influence on stars in galaxies, on galaxies themselves, and on the light passing galaxies.  We don't see it using visible light, but that doesn't mean we don't detect it.

We detect dark energy through its influence on the expansion of the universe.  The first measurements came from studying how fast supernovae from different times were moving relative to the Earth.  From this, we can determine the expansion rate of the universe.  The expansion rate changes in a way that fits beautifully with general relativity (which is very well tested in a host of other ways) with a certain parameter (usually called the cosmological constant, which is also what dark energy is) set to a specific non-zero value.

If we had some underlying misconception about physics, it is highly unlikely that it would show up as something that fits neatly into our existing formulation of general relativity.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does bumping your forehead on something typically results in a bump while getting hit in the arm results in a bruise?

[Assistant]
It's because your skull is so close to your skin.  The blood that comes out of your broken blood vessels has nowhere else to go, so it pools up into a "lump".

You get a similar lump in any other place where there isn't much flesh between the skin and the bone: your shins or the backside of your forearms, for example.  And when your fingers swell up after an injury, this is the same effect. Fingers are just too small for a proper-shaped "lump" to appear.


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

[User]
[ELi5] Why can they play movies on TV with explicit language and violence on any channel but they can't play songs with explicit language on the radio?

Always wondered this because children watch tv and have access to all of the channels the same way that they do on the radio.

[Assistant]
There are very specific FCC rules about language and adult content on *broadcast* television. The FCC regulates such content on radio and television broadcasts.

However, the FCC doesn't have that same regulatory authority over cable/satellite transmissions. So, if it's a channel that isn't broadcast, but only available through a satellite or cable provider, then it's really up to the channel itself what kind of language and content they have.

The distinction is the same on radio -- satellite radio can have content that terrestrial radio would never be permitted to air.