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

[User]
[Cthulhu Mythos] What can I do with the Necronomicon?

So a buddy and I found this magic book called "the Necronomicon". He stole the book and disappeared a few months ago... I found the book on my doorstep yesterday morning, and the cops found what was left of his body last night. I'm kinda going through a rough patch right now, so I was wondering if anyone knew what I could do with the book. I know it's magic, but what are its capabilities? Could I use it to gain abilities, summon something expensive? Or is there someone I should contact to take this thing off my hands?

[Assistant]
The Necronomican is not a book of magic. It is a book of knowledge. In its pages lie truths beyond the understanding of science, beings beyond the faiths of man, and knowledge that pushes the thresholds of the human mind.

It alone does not enable you to do any more than a chemestry textbook allows you to split the atom. The potential was already there, the book simply opens you mind to the possibilities within its grasp..

To most men, the book is gibberish. To a minority it is a maddening contradiction of human comprehension and the truth of absolute reality. To a very small hand full it is a piece of enlightenment and a referential tool to expressions and actions beyond the borders of science..


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

[User] While most of world are being quarantined to slow down the spread of Covid-19, will it stop other virus as well? When the quarantine is over, will the general public be less easier to get sick?

[Assistant]
Yes, the quarantine is probably slowing down the spread of other diseases that also spread person-to-person, like the flu.

But when the quarantine is over, people will still be able to get sick just as easily as before, unless measures are taken to continue to slow the spread. These measures include social distancing, limiting large events, actively testing people, and continuing to quarantine anyone who is infected.


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

[User]
ELI5: If the Bible forbids idolism, what is the idea behind the crucifix?

Not attacking anybody's faith. Just trying to find some answers.

[Assistant] The crucifix isn't an idol because christians don't worship the crucifix, it's simply a reminder.  an idol is both a representation of a god **and** an object of worship, the crucifix doesn't meet the second part of that definition.


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

[User]
What is the significance of an 7 nm node and what happens when we cant go any smaller?

I read that AMD announced a 7nm GPU. What does 7nm architecture mean and why that over a larger number? Also, what happens when we cant go any smaller? I heard at one time people thought anything smaller than 10 was impossible.

[Assistant]
The numbers don't really mean much of anything at this point. Nominally, it corresponds to the size of the components the CPU is made of, but it has been basically replaced with marketing wank.

But you want the transistors as small as possible for a variety of reasons. For one, it makes it easier to fit more of them on the same size chip so you can make a more complex, more capable device. Also, historically, reducing the size of transistors let us decrease the voltage and power so that you can get more computation done with the same amount of energy and also increase the frequency so you can compute faster. That hasn't worked out as well for the last several node shrinks as it tended to for the preceding several decades though.


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

[User]
Is the net amount of energy of the universe zero?

I thought I remembered in A Brief History of Time that Stephen Hawking says something about the net energy of the universe being zero because gravity is a negative energy that cancels out the positive energy in the universe.  I don't have the book now, but this came up in conversation with a friend, and I realized that I didn't have a very good grasp of this idea and its broader implications in cosmology.  So my questions are 1) Am I characterizing this idea correctly? 2) How does this relate to the Big Bang and the origin of everything?

[Assistant] If 1) You calculate the Newtonian energy and 2) If the universe is *exactly* flat, then yes. However, condition 1 isn't really sensical because we should use general relativity to calculate the energy of the universe - but because the metric of spacetime isn't time translation invariant, you can't construct a globally conserved energy. Condition 2 is questionable, because the universe might just be "close to flat" rather than "exactly flat".


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

[User] ELI5: Why does the Lobster have to be alive when cooked?

[Assistant] It doesn't, but lobsters begin to spoil quickly after death. The best solution is to buy a fresh living lobster than stow it in the fridge for a few hours until the cold has slowed them down. A quick stab behind the eyes will then dispatch them and save you the trouble of listening to it thrash about in boiling water.


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

[User] [Steven Universe] If home world gems were to invade earth, would man made weapons be able to shatter them in defense?

[Assistant] In hand-to-hand combat humans would probably do okay (especially with modern military hardware). They're not invincible, even the ones with stronger supernatural abilities. Unfortunately, they are fully spacefaring and can just drop rocks, bombs, and lasers on us from orbit, so we would certainly lose any long-term engagement. And that's ignoring some of their more game-breaking powers like precognition.


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

[User] [Star Wars] When a Jedi master dies while he or she has a padawan, what happens to the padawan? Does the padawan get a new master?

[Assistant]
The padawan gets sent back to the temple and awaits their new master.

in Yoda: Dark Rendezvous, where Tallisibeth Enwandung-Esterhazy was originally the Padawan of Chankar Kim, but after she was killed at Geonosis, she spent the next two and a half years at the Temple waiting to be selected by another Master before Jai Maruk took her after losing a bet with Yoda. When Maruk was killed soon after as well, she returned to the Temple and stayed there until Order 66.


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

[User]
[Goldfinger] Why did Oddjob go to all the trouble of crushing the car with the dead Mr Solo in it then loading up the watse on to a truck then taking that back to Goldfinger who then had to extract the gold somehow out of it?

He could have just you know driven back with the dead body and stuck it with the dozens of others Goldfinger had just gassed.

[Assistant]
Oddjob knew there was heat on the whole operation and didn't want to risk being caught with the dead bodies and he knew a chop shop nearby that could crush it.

Oddjob is very loyal to Auric Goldfinger and didn't want to risk the whole job.


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

[User] ELI5: How did the US and the West help rebuild Germany and Japan but sucked with Afghanistan and Iraq?

[Assistant]
For Japan, it's because the Emperor ordered the Japanese people to cooperate with their occupiers, and most of the Japanese Army leadership that would have been capable of forming an armed insurgency were either arrested or killed themselves.

For Germany, an awful lot of it had to do with the fact that an overwhelming majority of the German people who *weren't* fighting (and a hell of a lot who were) had *no* idea about Hitler's "final solution" and were just as horrified at the discovery of the concentration camps as the rest of the world.  They knew that the Nazis had rounded up the Jews, of course, but as far as most people knew the Jews were working in factories somewhere, not been slaughtered wholesale.

In either case, Japan and Germany had what Iraq and Afghanistan have *never* had: a national identity.  The Middle East is still a *very* tribal area, and even though the nations of Iraq and Afghanistan have existed for decades it wasn't the people who lived there that drew the borders.  You have to understand the culture of the people in the Middle East: they take care of themselves first, then they take care of their neighbors.  It also doesn't help that the dominant religion in the area specifically orders them to lie to "infidels," either.

So what you end up with is a people with absolutely *zero* stake in their "country" not giving a good Alah damn about what infidel outsiders think is best for said country, let alone for *them,* personally.  That whole Iraqi and Afghan National Army collapsing as quickly as they did against ISIS and the Taliban after the coalition forces left?  Anybody (under the rank of Major, at least) who had spent any appreciable time with those forces knew that was *exactly* how things were going to go down.


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

[User]
ELI5: why is there electricity but no "protonicity"

What makes the flow of electron (negatively charged particle) special (capable of being a mode of power) and not flow of proton (postively charged particle).

[Assistant] The energy bonds of the protons are very, very strong.  While we can remove outer layer electrons with ease to achieve current, it's literal alchemy to remove a proton - it changes the underlying atomic number, the substance is no longer the same substance.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is staying up later than normal so much easier than going to sleep earlier than normal?

[Assistant] Your body has a natural autonomous process that makes you more sleepy the longer you stay awake. You can resist this process (stay up late), but you cannot consciously force the process to happen more quickly (go to sleep early). There are ways to help induce this process but, short of burning energy throughout the day (such as through exercise), it generally requires external help (through chemicals of some form such as melatonin supplements).


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

[User]
ELI5: When drinking, why do I feel sober after puking

If the alcohol is in my blood, why do I immediately feel "sober" after puking (while drinking, not day after)?

[Assistant]
Here is the correct answer:  When you throw up, your body releases endorphins and adrenaline, which are two substances that your body releases when it is under sudden and/or physical stress.  The endorphins are like your body's natural pain killer, and adrenaline boosts the supply of oxygen and glucose (energy) in your brain and muscles.

Unfortunately, these things wear off eventually but they, together with the fact that by throwing up you have decreased the amount of poison (alcohol) in your body combine to make you feel better.


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

[User]
ELI5: What Happens to "Non-recyclable" Materials When They're Mix Into a Recycling Bin?

Is it a 'big' problem?  Does it matter what material it is or if it's big or small?

EDIT: **explained** is that right?

[Assistant] A recycled material is sorted. After the truck picks up your recycling, it takes it to a transfer station. It's dumped onto a conveyer belt and passes several workers that pick out incorrect materials. Non recyclable materials go straight to the trash.


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

[User] ELI5: Why can they genetically engineer seedless fruits (like oranges, grapes, and watermelon), but not pitless fruits (like cherries, peaches, etc.)?

[Assistant]
You'll notice with pitted fruits, the stem connecting the fruit is directly in contact with the seed pit and the fruit grows outwards from it. The pit becomes both the gate for nutrients and the scaffold for the rest of the fruit to grow.

In fruits with seedless varieties, the stem does not directly connect to the seeds. The seeds develop inside part of the fruit. Interrupting the seed production still allows the rest of the fruit to grow.


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

[User]
Was the cosmic microwave background once visible light?

From what I understand of the CMB it was initially very high energy and high frequency and as the universe cooled and expanded the light was shifted down to microwave radiation. Does that mean that at some point in the history of the universe the night sky was lit up in a specific color of light that we would be able to see?

And going further was that point in time a time when there were solid planets and the universe pretty much as we know it now?

[Assistant]
Shortly after the Recombination era - the era from which cosmic background radiation originates - the cmb was bright orange.

To understand what exactly happened, let's backtrack a bit.
Until 380 000 years after the big bang, the universe was too hot to form neutral atoms. Electrons and protons whizzed through space which such high speeds, that electromagnetic attraction wasn't strong enough to bind them together. Thus, space was filled with a hot plasma, that gave off thermal radiation. During this time, the universe was opaque to photons. Photons would bump into electrons frequently. This scattering of photons results in a mostly in-transparent universe with a visibility of a few thousand lightyears at most. (Which sounds a lot but is very small at cosmic scales)

Due to the expansion of the universe, this plasma finally cooled down to around 3000K. Which is cool enough to form neutral atoms around 400 000 years after the big bang. Since neutral atoms don't interact with photons that willingly, the universe became transparent. Thus, the thermal radiation of the plasma in the recombination era was emitted into all directions and from all points in space. And since the plasma was around 3000K at that time, and the black body radiation at that temperature is orangy, the hole universe was filled with orange light for a few million years.

The universe during the first few million years after the big bang saw the first stars being formed, but during this time, the only radiation emitted was the hydrogen line.

Over time, as the universe continued to expand, the cmb got redshifted. Now, ~13 billion years later, the cmb is redshifted down to around 2.7K, which is in the microwave part of the spectrum.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are there different types of blood?

On top of that, how can some people's blood be universal?

[Assistant]
Evolutionarily speaking, diversity within the gene pool is good. Imagine a virus developing that is fatal to everyone with blood type A. Having B and O blood types allows the human race to survive.

As far as different blood types being universal, think of blood types as keys. Type B keys don't fit into Type A locks, nor vice versa. Type  AB locks can accept either key. Type O is like a master key that can fit in every lock.


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

[User]
CMV: income inequality is not important. All that matters is that society's poorest have their basic needs met. This is not mutually exclusive with CEOs earning millions.

I don't quite understand all of the discussion relating the poorest and the wealthiest. No one in our planet should suffer lack of food, healthcare, shelter, etc. That is our problem to fix. I don't see why the fact that the top 1% own 90% of wealth (statistic made up but you know what I mean) is important. Why can't we have billionaires who are earning more and more every year and a planet where no one suffers unnecessarily? I think we can. Why does it matter if the wealth gap is growing if the people at the bottom have enough?

It almost seems like it's a distraction. We have enough resources to meet everyone's needs right now. We are set back by widespread government incompetence, greed, religion, lack of empathy, corruption, etc. And before you point out that I just listed 'greed,' any and all people of all financial means can be greedy.

Please change my view.

[Assistant] The problem is that even if the workers are working hard and that successful product was made/designed/etc. by them, their pay hasn't gone up. The top executives are getting more money while the workers that actually made it happen gets no change. Also, the cost of real estate and food is rising, but their wage isn't.


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

[User]
How long would it take to safely accelerate to the speed of light without experiencing G-forces that would be destructive to the human body?

Assuming we ever do master lightspeed travel (or close as makes no difference), how long would the initial acceleration to that speed have to take for it to be safe for human passengers without any kind of advanced, hyperbaric safety mechanism?

[Assistant] It's a big coincidence that one year of Earth's gravitational acceleration classically gets you to the speed of light (however taking relativity into account, only 76%). So, to approach the speed of light, you need to accelerate with around 1 g for a bit more than a year. But you will never reach it.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why can't we freeze people and revive them in the future?

It's one of the staples of science-fiction, yet I'm fairly certain it doesn't quite work the way it seems. Help ELI5!

[Assistant]
When you freeze bodies, the fluids form ice crystals which expand and break cell walls.

The freezing process damages everything essentially.

They are looking for some form of natural antifreeze to prevent this but they don't have anything that works for humans.

There are some animals/frogs that can be frozen and restored due to a natural antifreeze they create.


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

[User] ELI5: Whats the physiological process of certain people feeling totally drained after going out and socializing with other people while others are the exact opposite?

[Assistant]
Eysncks biological model of introversion vs extrovertion states the difference is corticol arousal.

Inrtroverts have a lower arousal threshold so need less stimulation to be entertained and process information quicker. This leads to them becoming overwhelmed in busy environments faster than extroverts.

Extroverts take longer to reach the same state of arousal. This also means they become bored easier when alone, so crave the stimulation that comes from socialising.


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

[User] [Lovecraft] If I ever awaken in the Dreamlands, how likely would it be that I would be driven insane?

[Assistant]
A visit to the Dreamlands is a dangerous journey that is usually undertaken by experienced dreamers.  People with low sanity would likely not even make it past the gatekeepers, let alone down the Seven Hundred Steps of Deeper Slumber.

Travelers who make it that far are already experienced, and have grown a bit more accustomed to the strange sights experienced there.  If one were to awaken there with no knowledge of what the place was, one's sanity would be greatly imperiled.

This would make survival very difficult in the Dreamlands of course, likely causing "dream death" - one would be cast back into consciousness suffering from shock and unable to ever enter the Dreamlands again, *if* any of your sanity remains to even consider it.

Without knowing the person making the journey it's hard to tell, but most would likely not return with sanity intact.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Can high-ranking Imperial Officers casually shoplift on Coruscant without any repercussions?

Since the Empire ruled supreme, what if Director Krennic decides to steal alcohol in the capital's supermarkets, can he get arrested? Will Coruscant Police or Stormtroopers be brave enough to arrest Director Krennic?

[Assistant] Most likely any and all items taken will be charged to the local imperial garrison to be reimbursed formally.  As to whether or not anyone would report it remains to be seen as in some ways it could be considered part of the imperial taxes which could be used as a write off or could be leveraged as a sign that the person who took the item(s) was disrespecting the uniform and what it represents.  On a core world it'd be ignored on a mid or outer rim world it'd be reported and ignored.  Officers act like gentleman directors and generals and admirals and moffs act as kings.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do artificial flavors like Apple, Cherry, Banana, etc taste exactly like real Apples, Cherries, Bananas, etc but Grape flavored anything just tastes like the color Purple instead of real Grapes.

[Assistant]
They taste like Concord grapes, the purple-colored grapes that are commonly used to make grape jam and grape juice.

Green and red grapes that you typically find in a supermarket are juicier and sweeter, so they're better for eating as-is, but they taste very different than Concord grapes.

Also, I'd argue that artificial fruit flavors don't taste "exactly" like real fruits, but they are reminiscent. Artificial grape is certainly no worse in that regard.


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

[User]
[General Fantasy] Will the real troll please stand up?

There's been a crime in my kingdom.  As part of our investigation, we're not allowed to divulge specifics, nor are we allowed to use magic to find the culprit, with one exception:  Species identification.  Our staff magician was consulted and stated that the offender was a "true troll", and "definitely not an ogre, goblin, orc, etc."

Not knowing what constitutes a "true troll", our Watch has gone through the kingdom, asked everyone what a troll is, and brought back a sample of each one our peasants pointed out to us.

We've got quite a lineup, with so many different characteristic that I can't list them all.  They range in size from gigantic to the tiny.  Some turn to stone, some don't, some are made of stone.  Some eat people, some are vegetarian, some only eat goats.  There's one with a wand stuck up his nose, one with colorful hair, one that's afraid of cats, one that's green and smells like onions, and one that carries a portable bridge.  Some are intelligent, some are incredibly dumb.  Some can communicate, some are practically animals.  Some have weapons, some don't need weapons, and some are peaceful.  Some can use magic, some are immune to it, and some cannot exist without it.

(There was even one overweight human male causing trouble, but we sent him home to his mom's basement and told him to stop being such a stereotype.)

The Watch is at a loss.  How can they pick the "true troll" from this extensive lineup?  Is there such a thing or should I hand our staff magician to the torturers for messing with us?

[Assistant] Have you consulted any taxonomists?  Maybe "true troll" is just an arbitrary name that some monk applied to a subcategory of trolls ages ago, and the name stuck.  These egghead scroll-rollers often try to inflate the importance of the kinds of life they 'discover' by giving them important-sounding names, but a 'true troll' may be no more true than any other kind of troll.  It could just be the name some musty scribe gave to that kind of troll.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Why were giants such a big problem during combat such as in the "Battle of Hogwarts"?

I've read about the Battle of Hogwarts in the new edition of "Hogwarts: A history", on the 'recent history' addendum pages that were added by some lawyer turned politician called "Hermoine Granger" (why they allow politicians to make changes to our books is beyond me. Education should be beyond petty politics trying to push an agenda, but that's another point entirely).

She writes that the death eaters had some giants at their side which were supposedly terrifying and created a lot of casualties on the other side.

My question is this: How can you miss such large creatures? Reportedly, the use of the death curse on allies of voldemort had been allowed. Other spells should have easily had a large effect on such huge creatures as well. Why weren't they easily slain, compared to the fast and small human wizard opponents, who were much easier to miss?

[Assistant] It's not that you can't miss. It's that it takes a lot more magical power to take down giants. When they were trying to take down Hagrid in the 5th book (I think?) they kept hitting him with spells but it didn't bring him down. He was only a half giant.


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

[User] [Marvel] Would Dr. Doom have an issue with MF DOOM using his image as a hiphop persona? Why or why not?

[Assistant] Doom will not suffer his image belittled in such low-brow way by insolent noise-makers. If this charlatan doesn't stop after his first Cease and Desist note from Latverian embassy... Well let's just say that his albums will raise in price after his sudden and violent death.


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

[User]
[Marvel] How aware of danger is the Hulk inside Bruce Banner?

The Hulk doesn't let Bruce kill himself, for example, because he hulks out and takes the bullet. But if I have a silenced sniper and I go for a headshot on Bruce Banner-- could the Hulk possibly react fast enough to save Bruce's life? Does he have some sort of omniscience or super awareness?

[Assistant]
No, he doesn't. The Hulk only comes out when Banner is under extreme stress. If he's angry, scared, lustful, all that kind of stuff, that's what brings the Hulk out. The Hulk can't just come out at will.

When he tried to shoot himself, he was stressed as fuck.

If you shot him without him knowing you were there, and got a kill shot, he'd never have time to work up the brain chemistry needed to let Hulkamania run wild on you.


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

[User] [Seinfeld/MCU] What were Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer doing when the Chitauri attacked New York? What are their opinions on the Avengers?

[Assistant]
Elaine would probably date some really boring guy who she incorrectly believes is a super hero's secret identity.

Kramer accidentally wanders into various scenes of super villainy, being mistaken as The Mastermind.

George puts himself in harm's way and tries to sabotage super hero efforts to rescue him, to prove that all superheroes are "schmucks."

Jerry refuses to acknowledge them as "super" heroes, insisting they belong in the same respect tier that FDNY and NYPD belong to.  "They aren't Superman!  They aren't *super* men!"

It comes to a head as George is hanging from a window or something, being ignored by a superhero while Kramer tries to pull him up.  Elaine's boyfriend mistakes Kramer as a super villain trying to kill George and tackles him.  Elaine swoons, begging to know his super hero identity.  When he reveals that he isn't a super hero, but an ordinary grocery cashier, she dumps him.

As the cashier walks away, grocery apron blowing dramatically in the wind, Jerry derides Elaine.  "Well.  There goes a real... *super man*."

---

It isn't what they were doing exactly as the city was attacked, but a glimpse into their lives in a city they share with Marvel.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are webpages white by default rather than black?

I know obviously its easier to read text on, but why wouldn't the computer interpret a lack of input as black, seeing as #000000 and rgb(0, 0, 0) are both black?

[Assistant]
The background of a web page isn't determined directly by some absence of data.  The earliest widespread browser, Mosaic, used grey as the default background.  But it didn't take long for white to be chosen as the default by other browsers, matching the defaults on both Windows and Macs.

In other words, the people who implemented the early browsers made a conscious decision that if they weren't told by the web page to use a specific background color, they'd use white.


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

[User]
[MARVEL] How does one counter a superhero that claims they're in a comic book?

Uh. Hi. I'm Bee-Man. I have a stinger gun and a bee costume, real quick parents were famous apiarists and I wanted to be a dancer and they died in a bee accident and I sought vengeance.
Against the world. ..using bees.

I do mostly bee-related crimes and capers. Last week, a "Gwenpool" stopped me during a routine bee-reaking and entering and said she saw my reddit post where I "accidentally killed Spider-Man" and laughed at my old ambitions to be a dancer and then we argued for a beet and she got *really* snippy about how I wasn't even canon and I didn't understand and long story short, I'm not sure I exist and things are getting way too meta for me to tolerate.

How does one counter metafictional awareness? Also less important, if one only exists in comedic reddit posts, *does* that individual have a soul?

[Assistant]
Ok, so whats more plausable?

That your entire life, and the life of everyone in your universe, is made up, and consists between the pages of a 2 dollar comic...

or, your universe exists, and her universe exists, but the only super powers in her universe are the powers to peer between the veil, and record your universe's actions down in entertainment form?


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is it with all the advances in digital technology does "on-hold music" still have the broken, terrible, staticky, playback quality it did in the 1970's?

So I called UPS the other day (not to single them out -- lots of companies including phone companies have the same problem) and due to "unusually high call volume" was placed on hold for an interminable ten minutes all while being subjected to  that dreadful broken record music soundtrack that has been around since the 1970's in some form or fashion if not earlier. What gives? Couldn't we have a nice pseudo-hi-def sound experience while waiting?

[Assistant] It's because of the audio fidelity of telephone networks, which is garbage. That has to do with a combination of backwards compatibility with a hundred year old system and lack of competition among telephone providers so there's no incentive to make it any better.


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

[User]
[Halloween H20] What was Michael Myers doing for 20 years?

Since all the Halloween sequels between Halloween 2 and H20 were retconned what was Michael Myers doing in the 20 years between films? Does it really take him 20 years to track down Laurie Strode, even after he goes to Loomis assistant house and stealing a file on her, seems like that would be the first place he looks.

Btw, I haven't seen H20 in a while, so iy might've been mentioned, I've just forgotten.

[Assistant]
You have to remember that Michael missed out on a lot of his childhood. While other kids were playing catch with their dads, dating their high school sweethearts, and illicitly drinking at keggers, he was sitting in a psych hospital being asked whether the picture of three dead teenagers looked more like a butterfly or a rabbit.

Once you understand this, it should be obvious where he went in the interim: Disneyland.


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

[User]
[Children of Men] Would there be any upsides or surprising benefits from living in the world where the Human species is going to be extinct in 100 years time?

I was thinking about it and thought of alot of job opportunities and a cleaner environment.

What other sort of benefits would there be?

[Assistant]
well in the movie the youngest person alive was considered a global celebrity. and got murdered. so there's that

really the only place left in the world that doesn't look like The Road is England. And it looks like V for Vendetta.

EDIT: probably some awesome parties going on though.


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

[User]
Can a rod with length (1 LightYear/2*pi) ever obtain angular velocity of 1 rotation/sec?

Spinning perpendicular to it's length of course.

Imagine little rockets pushing the rod at both ends, say in clockwise direction. Now, close to the center of the rod, we're travelling very slow. As the radius increases, so does the angular velocity. So much so, that if travelling at 1 rotation/sec, the ends of the rods would be travelling at the speed of light.

How does relativity apply to this situation? The rod is one straight solid object.

[Assistant] There is no such thing as a perfectly rigid solid object, and you've described one reason why. Any rod, no matter how rigid, will have some elasticity to it; and, if you attempt to spin it at the rate you describe, would inevitably break apart before it got to that speed. In other words, a corollary of the fact that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light is that perfectly rigid objects do not exist.


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

[User]
After putting down a hot plate, why does the pain persist, is it because of swelling?

I just held a pretty hot plate of food, but after putting it down, my fingers are still stinging a little, with slight swelling.

I get that because it's hot, the heat receptors in my fingers have sent a signal to my brain: is it correct to say that my brain then processes this and 'says' that it is dangerous, so I feel pain because I'm being made to stop holding the hot plate?

Are there different receptors for 'okay temperatures' and 'not okay' like there are for cold and hot relative to our body temperatures? Do these temperatures change? Like chefs have 'abestos hands' is this a receptor/nerve thing (one post suggested the nerve endings here may have been damaged), or is it really thickened skin, or is this a mental thing?

Then, after I put down the plate, I notice a little swelling on some of my fingers. Apart from the temperature differences across the bottom of the plate, does acclimatisation to the high temperatures also impact the degree to which I experience swelling? Is this swelling the reason I feel slight stinging even when I do not type, or is it residual heat?

Lastly, if it's not residual heat, could you also explain why without the hot plate as the stimulus, we feel pain? eg. not just with a hot plate, but when we accidentally whack our toe into a table leg, and quickly jump off, why does our toe throb even after the impact has ended like a couple of seconds before? -> has the pain been extended by our brain to make us remember, or is the signal continuously coming from our sensory neurones in our toe firing like crazy? -> I've done a quick reddit search and but only found the gympie gympie plant post about prolonged pain.

Sorry for the multiple questions, thank you very much!
(re-post with question mark in title)

[Assistant]
There are basically 2 types of temperature receptors in our skin. One detects hot temperature and one detects cold.
But the associated pain is not due to response from temperature receptors of the skin. Pain is carried by a different set of receptors and nerves. The damage to the tissue (skin cells) causes them to release certain chemicals in their surroundings. Substance P and bradykinin are most common of these chemicals. These chemicals cause the stimulus of pain.
The swelling in the area occurs due to damage to capillaries (these are very small blood vessels) which then becomes leaky and the plasma part of the blood leaks out in between the skin cells.
Any area of inflammation would show features of 1. rubor ( redness) 2. dolor ( pain) 3. calor ( increase in the temperature of that area due to dilatation of blood vessel) and 4. Tumor (swelling)
The pain you experience would last till those chemicals (which came out of the damaged cell) are cleared from that area.

Upon repeated exposure to a painful stimulus regularly such as playing the guitar callouses may develope on the finger tips which is basically dead skin cells. But these dead skin cells prevent the activation of pain sensing nerve fibres.
However, if the pain stimulus is more traumatic where a larger number of cells are damaged, such as  burns on the skin, repeatedly giving the same stimulus would not cause lesser pain.
But in case where the burns are deep enough to damage the nerve fibres, that area of skin may turn into a scar tissue and would have lesser sensations.

If you whack your toe, the pain sensing nerves of the area get activated, and send signals to the brain. The persistence of pain is due to those pain chemicals which were released by the damaged cell.


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

[User] ELI5: My brain can triangulate most sounds, but with certain, high-pitched sounds (like a watch beep), I cannot figure out the location at all.

[Assistant]
This is not only because the duration of the beep but also the pitch. High frequencies (like a watch beep) are attenuated (dampened in air) much faster than low frequencies. They dont echo and therefore dont give you the extra info you need to help triangulate the sound.

Edit: Trilaterate more so than triangulate.


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

[User] ELI5: What happens in my brain for me to forget huge chunks of a night out when drunk?

[Assistant]
Its not that you're forgetting those huge chunks, its that you are not committing them to memory in the first place.

You can tell someone is blacked out by asking them to remember something like a 7 digit number.  Then ask them to repeat it a few minutes later.  If they're blacked out, then they won't commit it to memory in the first place, and will be unable to repeat it back to you.

You still have all your regular memory though, so you can find your way home or remember old phone numbers, but you will not be putting new memories into place.  So when you wake up, there's really nothing there to remember.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do human babies cry so much as opposed to chimpanzee or gorilla babies?

I'm watching a documentary and noticed how chill great ape babies are. They're quite content just holding onto their mom, and you never see them crying in the same shrill, oftentimes excessive way human babies do.

Swaddled wrong? Cry. Gassy? Cry. Hungry? Cry. Too full? Throw up, then cry.

What gives?

[Assistant] One anthropologist (Sarah Hrdy) posited an evolutionary mechanism. If an ape or monkey puts a baby down for a bit, it's best chance of survival is to stay quiet and hope mum comes back. It can last for a good bit. A human baby is basically fucked if mum does not come back, very quickly. So make lots of really penetrating noise (babies' cries are tuned to maximum annoyance), to remind her.


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

[User]
[Lord of the Rings] Is there a reason Hobbits don't wear shoes?

I mean I understand that they have pretty tough feet, but is there more to it? you'd think that not matter how tough your foot is, you could always make a shoe that is tougher.

[Assistant]
They don't need them. The Shire is pretty nice and their feet can handle the worst that they are likely to encounter there - maybe some thorns or a small spike or something. It's pretty rare for a hobbit to *ever* leave the shire, remember what a big deal it was for both Bilbo and the Hobbits in  the LOTR?

Sure shoes could be tougher but why bother when their feet are tough enough anyway?


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

[User]
Do we know anything about the patients which get COVID19 in spite of the vaccination?

So the COVID19 vaccines, especially the mRNA ones, ar highly (>90%) effective at reducing full-blown cases of COVID19.

Do we know anything about why they don't protect the <10% of patients?
E.g. are they simply people that have general problem creating antibodies (as happens in long-term COVID19 patients, it seems)?

[Assistant]
Just to clear this up, when you hear 90% effective it doesn't mean 10% of people who get the vaccine will get covid.

It means that if say 10% of unvaccinated people get covid, then only 1% of vaccinated people will get it.


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

[User] [WH40k] I wish to become an Inquisitor in service of the God Emperor. How do I accomplish this?

[Assistant]
The first thing you need to do is enter the service of an Inquisitor. The best way to do this is probably to get yourself caught up in some vile and horrifying situation involving aliens, witches, or daemons, and not only survive, but show exceptional courage, fortitude, and faith in the Emperor. Then, if you're lucky, an Inquisitor will eventually turn up to investigate the incident; if you're really lucky, he'll recognise your purity and refrain from ordering your immediate execution for knowing too much ("too much", in many cases, means simply "that aliens/witches/daemons exist"), and if you're extra super double lucky he'll recognise your exceptional talents and add you to his retinue.

After that it's a matter of working hard, obeying every order you are given, showing intelligence, initiative, fearlessness and ruthlessness, and never giving your new master the slightest reason to doubt you. Fight hard, pray harder. Purge the heretic; slaughter the alien; smite the daemon. Accept that, sooner or later, you are going to lose one or more body part, and make sure you get good quality cybernetic replacements. Try not to go too insane (this will be difficult). Try not to be corrupted by the horrors you encounter (this will be even more difficult). Outlive your colleagues.

And if you can keep this up for long enough - and we're probably talking a minimum of ten or twenty years here - your Inquisitor may promote you to his inner circle, and name you an Interrogator. At this point you are effectively a trainee Inquisitor; you will be given vast power and responsibility, and all you need to do is to survive (and to avoid failure, but under the circumstances any failure will almost certainly be fatal), and eventually he's bound to grant you the rosette. That, or sacrifice you in some horrifying heretic ritual as he finally jumps off the slippery slope to radicalism. Try not to let that happen.


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

[User]
[MCU] How do the TVA approach the situation when they have to arrest a Variant who has Infinity Stones?

Once they bring the variant over to the TVA headquarters, the Infinity Stones don't work.

But the TVA need to initially arrest and transport the Variant there to begin with. So what is the game plan when a team of TVA agents need to enter a universe and stop an Infinity Gauntlet-powered Thanos Variant?

[Assistant]
The single most overwhelming force multiplier is speed.  Very few techniques or defenses are truly instantaneous, and even those require that the threat be detected.  Someone who moves fast enough can disarm and incapacitate an enemy before they even realize they are in a fight.

The TVA's time compression technology lets them freeze a target in place, preventing them from taking any action.  From there, they can simply portal the target into a secure location and disarm them.  We know implicitly from the success of the TVA that no alien or superhuman is beyond their power.

(At least, until we get Squirrel Girl in the MCU.)


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

[User]
[MCU] Is Ego actually a celestial?

So it's fairly established that celestials are big rock monster things with 6 eyes and Ego is basically a dude with God powers.

So is Ego actually a celestial or is he just very powerful and very old and therefore assumes he must be a celestial?

[Assistant]
This is a bit like meeting a group of human sisters and one daughter and assuming all of humanity is women.

Besides Ego, by his own admission, has never met a celestial and would have no idea how they normally shape their physical selves.


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

[User]
Why does an object become radioactive when in proximity to a radiation source?

My understanding is that when you have a radioactive material, e.g. Uranium, it decays which causes it to emit high energy particles, i.e. ionizing radiation. But say for example you leave a piece of clothing next to said Uranium for some time, the clothing will then become a radiation source itself.

So how does this work? Is the piece of clothing now decaying as well? Or are the high energy particles emitted from the uranium somehow getting trapped in the piece of clothing and then being re-emitted?

Thanks!

[Assistant]
Ignoring contamination since thats not what youre asking about, there can also be *activation*, where the material itself is made radioactive by radiation.

Any type of radiation, at sufficiently high energies, can induce nuclear reactions in matter, and the products of those nuclear reactions are not necessarily stable in general.

So youre producing radioactive nuclei inside the object, which then decay and emit more radiation.

However under most circumstances, the only type of radiation where this is really a concern is with neutrons.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does f.m. radio sound pretty good and a.m. sound like it's coming to us live from the 1920s?

[Assistant]
Because FM is a newer and better technology:

Imagine the radio waves are light. AM transmits by changing the brightness of a light (Amplitude Modulation), FM transmits by changing the colour of the light (Frequency Modulation).

If you have a clear view of both lights then they both sound good, but imagine if you're driving and trees get in the way of the light beam. You can still see the light through the leaves, but not as well.

With AM the brightness of the light keeps changing as leaves block it so the volume keeps going up and down. With FM it doesn't matter how bright the light is because you only care about the colour, which doesn't change.

The reason you still have AM as well as FM because AM is much cheaper to broadcast and the signals travel further.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do men's pants have more specific sizing than women's?

I can get my pants in a 33/30(waist and inseam) but my wife is just a 4.  Since women generally wear more form fitting clothes, isn't this backwards?

[Assistant] A lot of misinformation in this thread. The answer is much more simple. Woman's fashion started with dresses. It's kind of hard to label a dress with a waist size and inseam. Designers came up with an arbitrary scale to label the various sizes of dresses. When woman started wearing pants that method continued. That way a woman who wore a size 6 dress could expect to wear size 6 pants.


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

[User] [Star Wars] What is C3PO's physical prowess? He runs really slow but he was able to carry dead Jawas and throw them in the fire and get an unconscious Padme back into the shuttle.

[Assistant] He had R2's help to move Padme - in fact, he was out there first. I'd say he's probably weaker than an adult human. He's not designed to carry anything heavier than drinks trays, and people can be intimidated by droids.


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

[User]
Is it possible for wind to travel faster than the speed of sound, and if so what does it act/sound like?

Are there any examples/observations of this occurring? For a follow up question, is there a sonic boom of any sort? I know that sonic booms are caused when an object is traveling faster than the sound waves propagating away from the object. The waves cause an immense pressure and collapse on themselves, creating a "boom".

[Assistant]
You are comparing apples and oranges. Wind speed is the speed of the bulk motion of matter relative to an external stationary observer. In principle, wind speed is no different than the speed of a train or of a comet aside from the fact that the matter is air. There is no limit to speed of wind (other than c) and it is frame dependent. In contrast, the speed of sound is the speed of a mechanical wave propagating in a medium, relative to the medium itself. It is therefore an internal property of the medium and is frame independent.

To answer your question: of course wind can travel faster than the speed of sound in the air, and it does not lead to anything bizarre, unless it collides with stationary objects which would then create a sonic boom. Look at it this way: a jet flying through stationary air faster than the speed of sound and creating a sonic boom is equivalent to wind blowing faster than the speed of sound past a stationary jet. That is the fundamental operating principle behind wind tunnels.


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

[User]
(Warhammer 40k) How did the Dark Age of Technoloy humans compare to the Eldar Empire at its height?

The early 20th millenium was a time when both humans and Eldar were at their zenith of power. So how did these two empires compare with eachother. The DAOT humans were said to be so advanced that they viewed all Xenos threats im the galaxy as trivial matters, and the Eldar were said to be the most powerful civilization in thr galaxy before their fall. According to the lore, both these Empires apparently dominated the galaxy, so my question is who was better?

[Assistant]
The Eldar were a unified race for one.

The Humans were a bunch of planetary nations, that occasionally had an alliance with other planets. They didn't share their technology with each other, they rarely traded, they were scattered to the wind.

To put it in 3rd Millennium (year 0 was 1st millennium) talk, the Eldar are the US and Europe, Humanity is if you took every city, town and village in Africa, South America and Asia and made it it's own country.


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

[User] ELI5: Whats the difference between a therapist, psychologist, and psychiatrist?

[Assistant]
A therapist is a generic term for someone who provides counseling services. Pretty much anyone can be a therapist (although laws vary).

A psychologist is a slightly more specific term referring to someone who holds a licensure that normally requires a Graduate-level education in psychology (normally clinical psychology).

A psychiatrist is a medical doctor with a specialization in mental illness. The most notable distinction is that psychiatrists can prescribe medication, while the other two categories cannot.


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

[User] ELI5: How does the US credit rating that went down from a AAA to AA affect me, the average consumer?

[Assistant]
Your dad is the head of the household. He's is real good on paying back people and makes a lot of money and is rather wealthy, so people trust lending him money. In the last couple of years, your dad did some irresponsible things and even threatened to not pay even though he can. Finally, one of the community leaders/experts said that your dad may not be as trustworthy as everyone thought.

So either people ignore that suggestion or people start asking more money (interest) when not only your dad asks for money, but when anyone in your family does.

So anything with interest from credit cards to variable rate mortgages to private student loans COULD, but may not, increase. What if you don't owe any money? Well states and cities may also find their borrowing rates higher and may struggle keeping things running while maintaining services and not raising taxes.


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

[User]
[Marvel] Is MCU Thanos without the Infinity Gauntlet just a great military leader with superhuman strength and durability?

I get with the gauntlet he's a demigod - to the extent he doesn't need his armour with it. But his 2014 version just seems to be a guy with his own army who's really strong. Is he able to achieve ANYTHING on an intergalactic scale without the gauntlet?

[Assistant]
> Is he able to achieve ANYTHING on an intergalactic scale without the gauntlet?

Yes. He achieved the gauntlet without the gauntlet. Nobody else could even conceive of that. If he put his mind to something else instead, he would also achieve that.


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

[User]
A gas becomes a plasma when there is so much energy that the electrons break away. Does this mean that plasmas cannot react chemically with other substances?

A chemical reaction is determined by the amount of valence electrons on an atom, right? So, if all those valence electrons get pulled away, can no chemical reaction occur? And on that note, wouldn't that mean plasmas can only exist as pure elements?

[Assistant]
Plasmas are actually super reactive in many contexts.  In biological tissues, plasma generation leads to several processes that are very disruptive and used to do things like opthalmic surgery.  We use them in the lab to blast individual brain cells and kill them.  The nice thing about plasmas is you can use lasers to generate them with very high precision, so you can do 'nanosurgery' and cut things on the micron scale -- for example, individual microtubules.

The free electrons are highly unstable and will often produce reactive oxygen species (ROS) which is very nasty and can cause all kinds of damage to biological tissues (disrupts membranes, breaks DNA).  The free electrons will also displace, due to their very high energy, electrons in lower energy states, thereby reacting with and almost certainly altering nearby molecules.

Unless there is an energy source that sustains the plasma, the electrons will quickly want to reduce their energy and to do so they will react like gangbusters because they have so much energy they can easily break other bonds.  And even if there is input energy, reactivity at the edge of the plasma will be very high.

Basically, tons of energy, so tons of potential for reactivity.


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

[User] ELI5: How do you "look up" words in languages that do not use the Latin alphabet? Chinese and Japanese do not have an "alphabetical order" so how does one look up a meaning of a word or character?

[Assistant]
The Japanese and Chinese go by stroke order. Every kanji has what's called a "radical." Some kanji are just the radicals themselves. In the beginning of a typical Japanese dictionary, there should be a big chart of all the radicals, and that is the order you'll find them in.

The radicals and kanji are ordered by how many strokes it takes to write them. The very first radical, , has obviously only one stroke in it. Every kanji that branches itself from it will show up in the dictionary under it, based on how many strokes it takes to write each one *after* the radical.

A radical such as  may be easier to see, as you might see a kanji with  squished in to one side.  is an example of a kanji whose radical is . You'd find it under +9, as it takes 9 extra strokes to write it after writing the two-stroke radical in it.

Edit: Also in Japanese, words that don't have a kanji simply use hiragana (the basic syllabary) and katakana (same sounds, different writing; used for foreign words). This has its own little order to it.
a, i, u, e, and o  are the vowel sounds, which begin the syllabary, and n is a standalone sound as well. Then you have <ka, ki, ku, ke, ko>, then <ga, gi, gu, ge, go>, then <sa, shi, su, se, so>. That's essentially just something you'd have to memorize. Another interesting bit is that you have pure and impure sounds. Pure sounds are softer-sounding (sounds with k or s, for example), and impure sounds are their harder-sounding counterparts (g and z, for the two mentioned as pure). Some syllable sets have one impure counterpart, others have none. The only syllable set with two impure sounds is the "h" set, whose impure sounds are "b" and "p."


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

[User] ELI5:What exactly is that tingling feeling when your hand, foot, leg, etc. is "thawing out" after being laid on?

[Assistant]
It's your nerves letting go of all the blocked signals before.

You can compare it with your nerve being a garden hose & nerve signals being marbles.

Once in a while the marble dispenser will send out a marble to the end of the hose check if it can make it until the end correctly. When you're sitting in a position that closes of the garden hose all the marbles will start to pile up. Then when the garden hose is unblocked all of the marbles will drop down at the same time giving you the tingling sensation, every tingle is basically an nerve signal that was bunched up.


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

[User] ELI5- how do scientists know that a particular species' (panda, turtle, sharks, tigers) population is getting extinct?

[Assistant] They do studies to see how many of that animal there are in certain areas, and try to extrapolate outward from there. For example, if you know pandas can only live in bamboo forest, and you survey some random bamboo forest and find 1 panda per square mile, and you know there's only 100 square miles of bamboo forest left, you can make a guess that there probably aren't much more than 100 pandas.


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

[User]
ELI5: why voters are attacked in the Middle East?

Who/why are people suicide bombing voters in Iraq, for instance?

[Assistant] People attack those who might vote for leaders they don't like. If you attack voting places, it scares other people and they might not vote at all. This prevents a democratic system from taking hold, and makes it so insurgents can continue to try and take over the country.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] After watching the Mortis arc and concerning the prophecy, how can bringing balance to the force not mean equalling good vs. evil?

Part of this question really involves world of god on the matter and some frequent comments that I've seen on this sub in the past.

Central to this view that I'm disputing is that bringing balance to the force doesn't mean making good equal to bad as I like to view it.  Some people interpret this more along the lines of the dark side being a cancer on the force.

It is far simpler in the end that Anakin was destined to reduce the Jedi to two and create absolute parity with the Sith.

In ROTS, Obi-Wan yells: "It was said you would destroy the Sith, not to join them". From a mythological perspective if you accept this at face value it ruins all the symbolism.  Nearly always prophecies involve some kind of basic twist and some sort of incorrect assumption that drives the plot. If you were to accept, "Hey Obi-Wan said it so that is what we are all supposed to believe", you miss the irony that the Jedi were completely blind about their expectations for Anakin.  It loses all of the tragedy if you actually think that he was supposed to destroy the Sith.

After watching the Mortis story arc in the Clone Wars series how can you really justify this perspective that the prophecy is about ensuring that the Sith are destroyed.?

For a moment try to forget that the same source that gave you that idea was the very same who gave you Jar-Jar, and try to argue it without that basis.

[Assistant]
The misunderstanding here comes from the word "balance".  Balance here doesn't mean equality or parity, it means tranquility and peace, like a scale perfectly balanced on both sides.

Picture the Force like a big lake.  Force users immerse themselves in the lake, where the water flows over them in hidden, unseen currents underneath the surface.  These currents are the will of the Force.  The Jedi try to exert minimum influence on these currents, instead surrendering themselves to the will of the Force and allowing it to guide them.  If viewed from above the surface of the water, the lake would be placid, silent, and clear.  In perfect balance, in other words.

The Sith, on the other hand, have a philosophy of domination.  They prefer to exert their own wills upon everything in their domain, including the Force.  They do not bend to the will of the Force, they bend the Force to their own will.  Picture them actively waving their limbs around under water, creating their own currents.  Perhaps there's a Sith in the northern quadrant of the lake, stirring up the water and making it all muddy.  There's another Sith in the southern part, doing barrel rolls, and splashing the water all over the place.  And in the middle of the lake is Sidious, spinning in place like a defective top, creating a massive whirlpool that's affecting everyone else's ability to use the Force.

If viewed from the surface, this lake is no longer quiet or peaceful.  It is chaotic, it is dangerous, there is no harmony or tranquility.

So, how do you restore the lake to its previous balanced serenity?  Get rid of all the Sith in the water.


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

[User]
ELI5: how the slightest tap on my balls hurts like crazy, but they feel no pain while flailing around during sex.

Though I'm not sure this would (or more importantly should) ever be explained to a 5 year old...

[Assistant]
Your testis are "hanging out" most of the time; relaxing.

When you do the deed, the muscles controlling them are tensed, providing a level of protection, similar to tensing your muscles before a hit in order to lessen the impact/damage.

Additionally, if you go too hard, you can "feel pain".


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

[User]
[Inception] Why is Saito just instantly fine after waking up from a decades-long dream?

Always kind of bugged me. Saito appears to have aged drastically in his mind-pagoda before Cobb finds him. He spent decades living in that world, nearly going senile or mad. Then Cobb helps him escape, they awaken on the plane, and Saito's just like "Oh. Weird. Lemme make a phone call."

What gives?

[Assistant] It might be an elaborate, weaponized dream, but it's still just a dream. The parts of his brain that shut down during sleep weren't off for any longer than usual. When he wakes up, his conscious mind reasserts itself just like it normally does.


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

[User]
Is Batman a terrorist?

His whole deal is that he inspires terror in criminals, right?

[Assistant]
Terrorism by definition would mean acts designed to cause terror, but usually directed at a civilian populace. Now, seeing how Gothams civilian populace have a decent chance to become criminals, maybe?

Nothing like what today-governments brand terrorism, attacks like 9/11 and 7/7.


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

[User] ELI5: Can you consume coffee beans by cooking them (heating them in water)? Will they get soft and tender like other beans?

[Assistant]
coffee beans aren't actually beans. They are the seed of an edible stone fruit (it has a pit, the coffee bean is the pit) known as "coffee cherry" or "coffee berry".

You can eat the pit raw but they taste bad and are much harder than when they are roasted. I'd presume you could boil them though there's no readily available information about that practice.


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

[User] What's worse for your health - smoking or being fat?

[Assistant] I like this question. Let's refine it. At 18, one person starts smoking one pack a day. Another person immediately becomes 75 pounds overweight on their 18th birthday. Which one is most likely to live till the average age of 77? Assume both are white males from similar family history and backgrounds.


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

[User]
[Dark Souls] What exactly is the difference between a Humanity Sprite and a soul?

As I understand it (please correct me), each human is essentially a meat robot piloted by a humanity sprite, sort of a semi-conscious and semi-immortal blob of Dark Soul energy birthed by the pygmy's chunk of the first flame. In this sense, they function as sort of the traditional description of a soul.

But then what are "souls" the currency? In the games, they seem to be simply markers of power, akin to a Dragon Ball Z power level, with no consciousness or ownership attached. Whereas humanity can only really be played with by unique creatures like the Ashen/Unkindleds or the gods, souls can apparently be transferred freely between anyone, even lowly hollows and rats. And since killing even the weakest enemy usually gives you a few dozen souls, so its not a 1 to 1 thing like humanity.

Whats the relationship between Humanity Sprites and souls? Whats the difference?

[Assistant]
Humanity isn't what we would call a "soul" in the Dark Souls universe.

It's never explained in great detail, but Humanity seems to be what anchors the mind (and sanity) of the Human race, since it is an integral part of their being. It's less of a "soul", and more of Humanity's "essence", since Humanity was originally created from the Dark Soul.

Souls are different, as every being in the world has a soul, but not every being in the world possesses Humanity. Souls are transient, and can be absorbed by the Undead,.

I always took it as the "soul value" you absorb after you defeat an enemy is how many enemies they have defeated prior to your passing.

The Chosen Undead/Bearer/Ashen One is a very, very special being, since each succeeds where countless Undead have tried and failed.

Remember, we straight up kill a Demon before we even start empowering ourselves with the souls we gather, so we are already something very special to the Cycle, and abnormally strong compared to the other Undead, even at our baseline.

Even lowly Hollows and Rats are very dangerous when encountered in numbers, so it stands to reason they could overwhelm people and "kill" them, absorbing their power. However, since they do not have access to the Bonfires/Fire Keeper, they cannot utilize these souls to empower themselves. So they simply hang onto them until another, stronger being comes along and claims these souls for themselves.


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

[User]
Why is it always said that all living species need water and food to survive? Can't there be a super-evolved alien species that can survive with just sunlight?

I've always wondered this. Thanks!

[Assistant]
Well, one thing that you learn about the universe when you start looking is that it can be incomprehensibly weird, which is why instead of saying "absolutely not," I'll say "pretty bloody unlikely."

Let's say you have an alien life form who's skin is made up of photovoltaic cells, which in theory could provide all of the power needed to run the alien's body.

But wait! How did the alien's body make that skin? How was the body made? Sunlight alone does not provide the raw materials necessary to make structures. The alien needs to ingest those raw materials somehow for later conversion into the solar-cell-skin... This raw material the alien ingests is also known as food ;)

(edit) Or, to bring it closer to home, we already have species who's "skin" (not really skin) is made up of solar collectors - they're called plants. The leaves harvest sunlight, but then have to combine the solar energy with raw materials to actually make more plant (which is why you can't just stick a seed in a clean jar and expect to get a tomato out of it - it needs nutrients delivered through the soil, etc, to make the actual plant).


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

[User]
ELI5: Why can't people seem to smell their own body odor when it's over-powering to everyone within nose-shot?

It's mortifying to think that I've been on the wrong end of a smelly pit and didn't know it.  Considering that we seem to be immune to our own brand, Is there any way to tell if you smell?

[Assistant]
Your body is very good at adapting to things. As a side-effect to this we sort of become incapable of noticing things that we've been exposed to for a long time.

This is why:

- Mint chewing gum loses its taste the more you chew it faster than it actually lose s its taste. If you were to give a chewed gum to someone else, they'd still taste it minty.

- Music in your car starts sounding lower and lower the more you listen to it as you drive. By the end of a long drive it's so loud that if you were to leave the volume as is and get in the car the next day, it will be too loud. This is also a problem at live concerts where guitarists tend to keep upping the volume if they were left to their own devices.

- If someone comes into your house and smells gas, believe them. Don't say "I can't smell anything." It's there. You've just gotten used to it.

Your body gets used to stimuli. Smell is one of those things, but everything else works mostly the same way.


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

[User]
What is Aristotles unmoved mover?

I have seen Aristotles god described as an unmoving mover and this mover is thought thinking of itself.

Im very confused on how Aristotle came to the conclusion that thought thinking of itself would be a kind of god?

Im sure Im misunderstanding some key elements here, any corrections are much appreciated.

[Assistant]
> Im very confused on how Aristotle came to the conclusion that thought thinking of itself would be a kind of god?

Note: not "a kind of god" but "God". Aristotle's thought on this has been one of the formative influences on our understanding of what the term 'God' means, so the relation here is to some extent the other way around: to some extent, it's not that we had a concept of God and then there's a question of whether Aristotle's thought matches this concept, but rather that we had Aristotle's thought and this taught as the concept we refer to with the term 'God'. Given this historical priority, there is some prima facie oddity in being very confused as to how Aristotle could be speaking of God, so it may help if you spelled out your thinking here a bit more and clarified what exactly is causing the confusion.

For instance, Aristotle's God is immaterial, self-sufficient, contemplates itself, is pure rational activity or something higher which is the condition of pure rational activity, eternal, unchanging, self-caused or uncaused, perfect or complete, the first cause of the cosmos, engages in the greatest activity and does so in the greatest way, by virtue of this activity is happiest or in a state elevated beyond what we can conceive of happiness... These are all notions, or iterations of notions, that we think of as central to divinity.

That said, there are some features of Aristotle's theology which would strike us as idiosyncratic. First, while it is a cause of the cosmos, it is only the *final* cause of the cosmos - Aristotle distinguishes between final, formal, material, and efficient causes, and when we imagine God being a cause of the cosmos we're probably imagining more than just final causality. The reason why final causality would be particularly important is buried in the specifics of Aristotle's broader philosophy, but the result is that we get a kind of primordial dualism in Aristotle: to explain the cosmos we need both God and matter. (In Aristotelian terms, perhaps even a trialism, insofar as we need matter organized into forms.) This dualism often struck subsequent thinkers as untenable, so attempts to reduce the cosmos to a single underlying causes tended to involved making God a cause of the cosmos in a broader sense than it is for Aristotle.

Perhaps what you find jarring about Aristotle's theology is that, for him, God doesn't seem to particularly care for human beings. Now, Aristotle's God is certainly *perfect* and *good*, but these terms have less of a moralizing context in ancient thought than they often do for us. In ancient thought, something is *perfect* principally when it is a well-formed instance of its kind, that is complete, lacking in nothing, and undamaged, and -- by extension -- principally when it is self-sufficient, i.e. requires nothing else to support it but rather is complete in and through itself. And something is *good* when it is a result that attains something like perfection. So to say that God is perfect and good, in this sense, is not to say that it -- say -- would never allow anyone to drink room-temperature pop (or would never allow some other, more dire state of affairs), but rather is to say that God is complete and self-sufficient, and our own natural activity aims at the completion and self-sufficiency of which God is the exemplar.

In this context, to say that God is *good* is, to a certain degree, to say something more about *us* than about *God*. We *aspire* to that which God *is* -- God is, in a certain sense, our aim. This sense of 'good' is like the sense when we speak of "goods" like lumber and porcelain, i.e. things that have value to us, or when we say "It would be good if you did well on your test", i.e. this is something aimed at. (Though, saying that God is good, and the highest good, still *does* say something about God, viz. that he is such as is the highest good -- that he is perfect, etc.)

But this ancient sense of *perfect* and *good* largely endures throughout the medieval period, and to some extent in theological sources since, and consequently a theologically-informed conception of God as understood in the Abrahamic faiths -- nevermind earlier, pagan sources -- is often closer to Aristotle's notion of God (on these points) than common sensical or "folk" theology would suggest. Though, the two are not to be equated, as -- as noted above -- the developments of theology after Aristotle tended to move in a direction of broadening the senses in which God is engaged in the world (and this is true in pagan sources as well as Abrahamic sources).


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

[User] What happens to a body builder's muscles if he suddenly stops exercising?

[Assistant]
As others have said, the muscles will atrophy. The SAID principle states that your body will adapt to the demands placed on it. For a body builder, that is the heavy weight lifting. If the person stops this, then the body will also adapt the other way, recycling the muscles so to speak for other things the body feels it should use the proteins for. This process can actually be measured 48 hours after a sharp drop in activity for a muscle, such as a casted limb. The process is gradual, but with the exception of losing innervation (sch as with paralysis) the lost muscle can be regained with work.

If the diet was maintained, the body builder would also have a large caloric excess, resulting in adipose tissue(fat) being deposited on their body.


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

[User]
How was the Apollo Command Module kept oriented so the lift force acted "upwards" with respect to the Earth?

I'd love to know how the pod was oriented correctly and stably with respect to the earth for re-entry. It had an offset center of mass and flew at an angle of attack of something like 20-26 degrees, flying a lifting re-entry. But to do that it had to be rotated the right way; if it rotated along its longditudinal axis, the lift would act sideways or downward, making it slam harder into the atmosphere.

From what I've been able to learn so far it's a "free body" in physical terms, so the offset center of mass does not naturally "fall" downward to orient the craft with the required angle.

It also seems like the crew were able to guide the pod by changing its rotation in flight, so the lift acted to divert the course left or right and in the process make the re-entry profile steeper or shallower.

Was the rotational orientation done entirely with reaction control thrusters? Or was there some inherent stability at work?

I know aerodynamic stability (center-of-mass in front of center-of-drag) keeps the heat shield pointed at the airflow, but what keeps the craft rolled the right way for a lifting re-entry?

[Assistant] Reentry roll orientation was maintained solely by the CM RCS system. The Guidance computer normally maintained the proper attitude automatically, but the commander or CM pilot could control the attitude manually if necessary.


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

[User]
[Dark Souls]What did the gods rule before humans?

So we had the dragons, then the four lords. The four lords ruled for a while and then Manus the father of the Abyss was awoken and humans came about. My question is what class if beings did the lords rule before Manus woke up? What was Artorias, what were the beings that some up Manus, etc.

[Assistant]
The humanlike beings who populate Anor Londo are the same race as the gods.  They made up the Silver Knights, the four knights, and the common people of the city.  They weren't as mighty as Gywn and the gods because they lacked pieces of the Lords Soul.  None of these people were human because they lacked any trace of the dark.  They were never given a racial name, and are usually just referred to as lesser gods, because of status being above humans.

Humans *did* exist at this time though, they just weren't respected on the same level as the god-race.  They came about *long* before Manus was awoken in Oolacile, and were originally born at the dawn of time when the Furtive Pygmy found the Dark Soul.  Manus was, after all, originally just a Pygmy himself, and other Pygmies existed at the time when he was originally defeated and buried in his grave beneath Oolacile to be later dug up.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do British replace their coins when the Queen or King dies?

I've searched through articles and found some explanations (unfortunately not an official ones) supposing that the change is gradual. By the wikipedia page I concluded that they start minting new ones with the new monarch immediately after change.

Does it mean that old coins are still usable for indefinite period of time? Meaning, if I found somewhere in Britain a pound from 1930, I can go and pay with it in shop, and then when it gets to bank they will send it back and destroy?  Is there a period after which the coin with an old monarch becomes physically unusable as a currency? For me it would be a bit counterintuitive as you can often pay with let's say collectible version of a dollar or other currency, even though it's not an official and one The Dollar.

[Assistant] We don't, coins stay in circulation until they need to be replaced so in times passed you could have a purse with multiple different monarchs on them. At the moment though we only have Lizzy on our coins as in 1971 decimalisation came into effect and all coins were changed so your pound from 1930 could not be used.


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

[User]
[The Simpsons] So Skinner served in 'Nam, in 68. Why isn't he extremely old?

Hell, why aren't Abe Simpson and Mr. Burns dead yet? Sure, Mr. Burns has the devil on his side, but didn't Abe serve in WW1?

Skinner should be like eighty by now.

[Assistant] They exist on a sliding timeline.  Marge and Homer have memories of dating in the 70s thru 90s and life with and without kids in those times.  Every few years we get a different version of the city and family that's a few years younger than the previous version.


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

[User]
Eli5: When testing nuclear weapons underwater. How did the forces released from detonation not cause unintended tsunamis or tid surges ?

What the title says.  Just curious. The amount of force releases from a nuclear detonation is massive. How does this not cause adverse reactions in shore?  Ford the energy dissipate and release through the top of the explosion ?

[Assistant]
>What the title says. Just curious. The amount of force releases from a nuclear detonation is massive.

Not nearly massive enough to be compared with natural disasters like earthquakes/tsunamis, not by orders of magnitude.
Those tests have been known to cause local physical damage to nearby atolls, but that's about it.


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

[User]
What is the most genetically diverse species? Or I should would word it, what species has the most phenotypic variability yet can still interbreed to be considered a species?

This is roughly phrased and rather generic parameters but you get what I mean...

[Assistant] Apparently a nematode worm called Caenorhabditis brenneri is the most genetically diverse that we know of. The DNA between individuals can be up to 14% different. In comparison humans and mice have about 15% variation.


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

[User]
[MCU] Are Black Widow and Hawkeye actually Avengers?

It is my understanding that the outline of the Avengers Initiative was to put together a team of remarkable people to fight the battles that "we" (meaning SHIELD) couldn't.

Prior to the recruiting of Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Thor, and Steve Rogers there is no 'The Avengers'.  Yet at the same time Nat and Clint are both working as spies for SHIELD.

To me this puts them on the same level as Phil Coulson and Maria Hill. If either were meant to be Avengers the team would have started with them.

[Assistant]
They were avengers, yes.

Had Phil Coulson and Maria Hill joined the Avengers, they would *also* be Avengers. This isn't a metaphysical category where one can be a "true avenger". It's just people in this one group, and both Widow and Hawkeye are members.


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

[User]
ELI5: How can explosives like C4 be so stable?

Basically I'm curious how that little bit of matter can hold all that explosive potential, but you can basically play soccer with it and it won't explode.

What exactly does trigger it and WHY does that work, when kicking it and stuff does nothing? (I don't need to know exact chemicals or whatever, I'd rather not be put on a list)

[Assistant]
Let's say you have an extinct volcano with a big caldera at the top (a large pit). At the bottom of the pit is a boulder. It will take so much energy to get that boulder up to the edge of the caldera, but once you get it over, the boulder will roll down the entire volcano releasing many times the amount of energy.

This is the same concept for explosives.

Instead of gravity and hills, we are working with bond strength. The bonds in C4 are pretty strong, so random energy from just sitting around is unlikely to break them and even a surprising amount of physical shock. However, if you can put enough focused energy into some of the substance, the atoms become free to bond in a different configuration and when they do, they release more energy than it takes to break them up. Much of this energy goes into breaking up other bonds in the immediate area, those atoms recombine into other molecules, release a bunch of energy, and continue the reaction.

The easiest way to trigger the initial breaking of bonds is to use a primary explosive (e.g. a blasting cap) but an electrical current can also do the trick.


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

[User] What causes the air to smell when a rain storm is moving in?

[Assistant] Bacteria living in the soil and on surfaces such as pavement and vegetation react with the water and produce that distinct odor. The scent is more pronounced when there is a longer duration between rain events and is scientifically referred to as 'petrichor'. You may smell it before a rainstorm because winds transport the smell over large distances.


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

[User]
ELI5: Is there a reason that concert stages are raised above the audience but sport fields are lowered? Shouldn't they both be easily visible?

For example, the Coliseum floor (where the action is) is below all of the spectators so they can easily see what's happening, but almost all concert stages are raised above the audience. Is there a particular reason or is it just the way it is?

[Assistant]
For sporting events, you want to be able to see the entire playing field, because the action might be anywhere on it.  The "bowl" design, with the field at the bottom, makes the most sense for this - everyone is above the action, and everyone can see any portion of the playing field.

For performances (music, theatre), you don't need to see the ENTIRE stage, just the front, where the action is happening.  Also, the performers can only face one direction at a time.  Consequently, the simplest design for a stage that the largest number of people can see is just constructing a raised platform.


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

[User]
Why is there a movement towards 'natural' (organic vegetables, grass fed meat, anti-drug culture) and does it have any merit.

This is really inspired by my flatmate, who berates any remotely processed food, doesn't 'believe' in aspirin and commonly says things along the line of "if something is good for you, it will be natural."  His passionate disbelief and criticism  of  so many things annoys me to no end, but I can't seem to find decent sources to disprove him.

[Assistant] Part of it stems from the industrialized chain of food production in many developed countries. The further you are removed from the site of production, the less control you have over how the production is taking place. Today, most people in the developed world have little or no idea about how food is processed, and it doesn't take more than a few unfortunate incidents to make people sceptic to the 'evil capitalistic corporations' that pump your food full of 'bad stuff' to make a profit. Thus, they turn to products where they perceive the process as more transparent and thus feel they have more control over the risk they expose themselves to.


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

[User]
Is Yamcha from DBZ a planet buster?

I think so as he was training with Olibu who was only slightly weaker than Pikkon. Pikkon beat Cell, Freezer, Ginyu Force, and King Cold in hell effortlessly in under 30 seconds. And First form Freezer destroyed a planet 3x the mass of Earth. What do you guys think?

[Assistant]
Yes. He was a planet buster at the beginning of DBZ. He was stronger than Master Roshi, who blew up the moon once, but broke a sweat doing so. Piccolo, before finishing his training to face the Saiyans, blew up the moon without even straining.

By the time the Saiyans came around, any of the Z-Fighters could have destroyed the planet.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is Daylight Savings Time still a thing??

I've heard some explanations for why it started, which all made sense for back then, but why do we still do it?? Are there any present-day benefits that are worth the effort and confusion?

[Assistant] The main benefit is to be awake during more of the daylight. If it gets dark at 7 and the average person goes to bed at 11, that is 4 hours they are using electricity for lighting. If instead it gets dark at 8, then that is 25% less electricity they use for light.


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

[User] ELI5: Noam Comsky and Edward Herman's Propaganda Model.

[Assistant]
The Propaganda Model is a model explaining the behavior of mass media organizations in liberal capitalist states. It essentially proposes that despite not having explicit government restrictions on the media, societies with "freedom of the press" can and do still use mass media to create and perpetuate propaganda through back-end control of official information, access to sources, and through private control of the corporations that own the media. This control over mass media can then be utilized by elites to shape the boundaries of public discourse, and thereby ultimately control public perception.

It's essentially an observation that the news media delineates the "contours of public debate" by creating two official truths, and allowing free discourse among proponents of either truth, while at the same time dismissing and suppressing all viewpoints that fall outside of them. In societies where the media is privately held, this allows private corporations and their owners to shape the viewpoint of the public, which serves a propagandistic role. Just like the more obvious propaganda that comes out of more authoritarian societies.

For example, the media in an imaginary state might present two official positions that are "acceptable" for people to hold. "The War is justified because they're monsters who need to die," and "The War is being fought for noble ends, but is a pointless waste of resources that could be better spent elsewhere." By presenting these two seemingly opposed positions, people in that society will spend their effort and energy learning to accept one of those two truths as their own. Yet neither of those positions questions the fundamental basis of the War in question--neither of them presents a position equivalent to, say, "The War is immoral and unjustified on humanitarian and ethical grounds." This would serve to guide the population towards one of the two officially acceptable positions.


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

[User] ELI5: How are we sure that humans won't have adverse effects from things like WiFi, wireless charging, phone signals and other technology of that nature?

[Assistant]
I'll address the Wifi part, as that's what I've looked into.

* Wifi operates in either the 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz spectrum.
* Your home router puts out somewhere between 100 mW (milliwats, or 20dBm) to 400 mW.

* Water "resonates" at 2.45Ghz. (more accurately, the too-heavy-on-one-side water molecule will respond and change position when you alternate the field)
* The average home microwave operates at 2.45Ghz centered, but will waffle down to around 2.3Ghz or so (they're not super accurate, and do not need to be).
* The average home microwave puts out around 1000 W (Watts).
* There's no such thing as perfect shielding; 1-2 W escapes from your microwave.

* From this perspective alone, you get more 2.4Ghz radiation when you microwave a cup of tea in the morning, than you would ever get from your Wifi router all day.
* From this perspective alone, if you stand in view of a gigantic fusion reactor for a few minutes, you'll get more 2.4 Ghz radiation than your router would likely provide you in your entire life.  We call this state 'daytime' and 'going outside'.


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

[User]
Why are rocket launch windows so narrow/sparse?

The falcon 9 launch today was scrubbed due to weather, the commentators seemed to think the weather would have cleared 10 mins after T-0, I get that they need to arrive on time to intercept ISS at the right moment, but why not just wait 90 mins for ISS to come back around?

[Assistant] In 90 minutes the ISS might orbit around to the same spot, but the Earth is also turning underneath it so the spot moved about 1500 miles to the east in that 90 minutes.  In space everything is moving at the same time and it's tricky to make everything line up just so.


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

[User] ELI5: How do painkillers stop the pain?

[Assistant] So certain medications such as acetaminophen(commonly found in cold medicine) blocks certain receptors such as COX 1/2 in your body. These receptors are responsible for you feeling pain. By blocking these receptors, the pain response cannot bind to those receptors. The pain is still there, you're just not experiencing it because there is no perception of it. Let me know if you have any questions.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do our eyes water when we choke on something?

[Assistant] When you are choking, it is very dangerous as it can kill you. The human body does many actions to stop you from choking. One of these actions is coughing, pushing air up your throat. This also pushes air up your tear ducts. Where you tears normally "drain" out of. This pushes your tears back up to your eyes, and out. Making them water.


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

[User]
[Batman]Why are all these random ultra-crazy criminals being held in the same place?

Shouldnt the state or federal government have intervened in this situation to have some of them moved to other facilities?

How is the situation at Arkham allowed to continue?

[Assistant]
It's an unfortunate overlap between a few different things.

First, most of their crimes happen in Gotham, which means they're under the jurisdiction of the city. Unless they cross certain lines, the Feds don't have ground to step in; consider the Animated Series episode where Joker freaks out because he's wound up on the radar of the IRS.

Second, the laws in Gotham's home state regarding the legal definition of "insanity" are broader than most of the U.S.. In Gotham, being declared nuts by qualified professionals is enough to kick you out of the normal penal system, versus a more standard definition where you need to be crazy enough to not understand that you're committing crimes.

Third, once you've got these kooks on the hook, you can't just stick them anywhere. For all it's reputation for permeability, Arkham Asylum is *the* center for excellence nationwide for keeping these psychos contained in anything resembling humane conditions. They've got the gear, the staff, and the will to keep these people contained for as long as possible, and only fail because they're a mental hospital squaring off with supercharged freaks, Einstein-grade geniuses, criminal masterminds, and criminal cartels, both from inside and outside. If you tried keeping these monsters in any normal mental hospital, or even any normal jail, they'd tear through them like tissue. The only places that can hold them better are absolute hellholes like Belle Reve, which even then have an imperfect record.


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

[User]
[Daredevil Ntflx] - How would Kingpin react to a "super" hero's involvement with his Hell's Kitchen operation?

Instead of Daredevil who is... Underpowered compared with most of the MCU we've encountered so far. What would be his strategy against Iron Man, or Spider-Man? Or... Anyone else.

[Assistant]
Spiderman probably would be about the same as daredevil. Or maybe kingpin would get a little bit more comic booky and start building anti-spiderman robots.

Ironman would be a different because tony stark is a public figure . maybe he could blow up tony's house again but that would leave a trail back to him.


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

[User]
[DC] Is the Anti Life Equation just an advance form mind control? And why are some resistant/immune to it?

I know Anti-Life Equation is a mathematical formula that proves life is hopeless and meaningless but after reading Final Crisis the Anti-Life Equation seams to just be another form of mind control, is that all it does?

Also some individuals like Metron, Static, Flash, etc seems to have varying degree of resistance to it, why?

[Assistant]
Yeah, basically. Darkseid wants it because he fundamentally *is* on a certain level that principle. He is Tyranny, he is senselessness. A being under the influence of the Anti-Life equation is an extension of him.

It also has a counterpart, a life equation, a fundamental proof that life is meaningful and boundless. Metron understands this on a level that almost no other being can and is immune. The Speed Force is in some ways an extension of the same principles and protect the Flash. As for Static, not sure there.


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

[User] Why don't scientists publish a "layman's version" of their findings publicly along with their journal publications?

[Assistant]
Imagine you're playing Starcraft II, almost done the single player campaign. You want to discuss strategies with your friends on the last mission - how to approach it, what to focus on, etc.

Now imagine you're trying to explain to someone completely new to the game (e.g., your mother) why facing Nydus worms is preferable over Brood Lords. You'll be spending most of your time explaining the basics, or even the story, before you get to the good part.

Most scientists simply _cannot_ write a thorough explanation of the basics before introducing their findings, while keeping the article a reasonable length.