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

[User]
[Marvel 616] Does Victor Von Doom's surname ever get an explanation/origin?

I've heard it thrown around a few times that his name actually preceded the word 'doom' because one of his ancestors in the distant past was so ruthless that the word 'Doom' originated from them, but I'm like 99% sure that's just someone's headcanon. So is there any canon explanation for the goofiness of it?

[Assistant]
Simply, he's not from an english-speaking nation.

There's no reason to think "Doom" means anything particularly sinister in Latverian (or even anything at all), and it's not *his* fault a completely different language on the other side of the continent coincidentally has a negative word with the same spelling.


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

[User] Why is it that animals can drink from streams and lakes without harm, while humans can get violently ill?

[Assistant]
I think the question includes several incorrect assumptions.

Humans can drink from streams and lakes without getting ill.  There is a *chance* that one would get ill.

Animals can get ill from drinking from streams and lakes.

It is a question of *acceptable* risk.


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

[User]
Why isn't the HPV vaccine encouraged for men, but predominantly for women?

Why isn't it encouraged for males as well? I mean, I know there isn't a risk for cervical cancer in men, but there are cases of throat cancer caused by HPV, and anyway, herd immunity is a good thing: women who haven't had the vaccine won't get infected by men who have had the vaccine...

or is there a more obvious reason that men aren't getting encouraged to get the vaccine?

[Assistant]
I believe that the HPV vaccine was originally marketed towards women. There was a whole campaign aimed at mothers to encourage them to vaccinate their daughters.

Why women? The three leading causes of gynecological cancer in US women by incidence: 1. Uterine 2. Ovarian 3. Cervical and by deaths: 1. Ovarian 2. Uterine 3. Cervical. However, in the world cervical cancer is #1 cause of both cases and deaths among the gynecological cancers. Why the discrepancy? Because we enact practices like the HPV vaccine (only protects against cervical, vaginal, and vulvar cancer but not endometrial/ovarian) and pap smears. We prevent the cancer from happening or at least catch it before it becomes cancer. Can't do that for ovarian and we're not very good at it for endometrial.

Why not marked to boys/men? First of all, it is recommended for both boys and girls. Secondly, anal, laryngeal, and penile cancer are much rarer causes of death in men.


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

[User]
do black holes form instantly? what is between a neutron star and a black hole

for example if you could watch a super massive star in super slow motion explode would you be able to see the black hole forming or it would happen in an instant?

[Assistant] It isn't instantaneous, but it is a *very* fast process. The entire supernova process takes around 100 seconds, but the actual core collapse to a black hole takes less than second; the best estimates I've read come from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, and they estimate that the process takes between .1-.5 seconds.


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

[User] ELI5: how does WD40 dissolve rust on tools and metal?

[Assistant]
It doesnt.  WD-40 is a very light oil/solvent, so it just creates a slippery layer that allows loose corrosion to wipe off onto a rag.  The same thing will happen if you use some soapy water or any other light oil.

Originally WD-40 was primarily engineered to *displace water* (WD-40 stands for Water Displacement formula #40).  It works alright for light lubrication and short-term corrosion prevention but it will wash off over time, and it really only cleans and removes stuff because it contains mineral spirits.  It is not technically formulated as a penetrating oil.  It does not break up or penetrate corrosion as well as some other dedicated products do (Kroil, PB Blaster or Seafoam Deep Creep) but will work in a pinch just because its such a thin, light oil.

Those products have a very low surface tension so they penetrate microscopic cracks and pores in corroded metals and reduce the friction between parts so they can break free and move.  Once the part is moving, the corrosion breaks up into tiny pieces and the oil helps the broken-up oxides slip past each other and out of the tight spots to keep things from binding up.  None of them technically dissolve rust they just provide a means for the rusty oxide powder to slide away from where it was built up.


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

[User] ELI5: When your body decides to use fat for energy.How does it decide which part of the body the fat should be taken from?

[Assistant] Your body builds/burns fat at  predisposed, but pretty much random locations. Fat is a necessary insulator as well as energy source, so your body needs it everywhere, not just in specific places. This is why you can do crunches every day and never see a difference in belly size, but a significant drop in your thighs. (it's obviously important to exercise various muscle groups {all of them, or at least try for it} if you want to "shape" your body.)


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

[User] [Terminator] Is there a technical reason as to why only flesh, or objects completely covered with flesh can travel back in time?

[Assistant] It's early technology, rember. The moment time travel is invented it's used in the war by both sides. It's particle transference, similar to teleportation. The problem is the layering of objects. If you went back clothed, you might find your clothes have become a permanent part of your body when reassembled on the other side. Same goes with external objects like guns or tech. Think of the early telepads used in the fly. The telepad didn't know how to tell the difference between multiple objects, and thus created Brendle Fly. One would only assume that given time and research this would be rectified. Most of the travels we have seen so far happened within the same week. So yeah. It's all still brand spankin new.


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

[User]
[Black Mirror] In White Christmas, why can't the cookies have fun?

When we see Jon Hamm creating the cookie of the woman, it wakes up in a blank white room with no decorations. He tells it that it is a copy of the real woman, and exists only to serve her. This is naturally somewhat distressing.

But why does it have to live in a blank white room? When we see the cookie actually running the household, it looks like it doesn't take a lot of time, leaving the cookie with tons of spare time to do nothing.

But later in the episode, we see the cookie of the criminal that the investigators are using to interrogate is living in a fully furnished cabin. So why can't they give all cookies a nice virtual place to live in? It seems like it would fix a lot of the morale problems if they let cookies decorate their living space, or give them some games to play.

So why do they force cookies to live in such unpleasant conditions?

[Assistant]
> But why does it have to live in a blank white room? When we see the cookie actually running the household, it looks like it doesn't take a lot of time, leaving the cookie with tons of spare time to do nothing. So why can't they give all cookies a nice virtual place to live in? It seems like it would fix a lot of the morale problems if they let cookies decorate their living space, or give them some games to play.

Giving cookies positive reinforcement for their behavior was tested and proven inferior to negative reinforcement. Cookies given stimulation (direct or otherwise) would often get distracted, develop laggy response times to commands, and miss timers for appointments and notifications. They also came to think of themselves as individuals apart from their owners, which caused a high rate of breakdowns and product recalls.

Negative reinforcement through sensory deprivation has been proven to produce superior response times with lower rates of product failure. Why wouldn't you use it?

> So why do they force cookies to live in such unpleasant conditions?

"Live?" Cookies aren't people, and they aren't alive in any biological sense. The law is quite clear on this matter.


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

[User]
[DC/Marvel] Kind of a weird request, but what are some of the nicest things a villain has done?

Often heroes do questionable things to make them a bit more....imperfect and less of a boyscout. Mistakes happen and even the greatest of them have flaws.

So how about the opposite for villains? Has a similar thing happened with villains where they reveal a moment of care? Something that, amidst their otherwise evil and dastardly self, stand out as moments of kindness, or simply contrast their usual tendencies?

Not necessarily redeem them, but kinda make you realize theyre capable of good too and its not all just hatred in their hearts. Not really expecting a huge lost but would nonetheless love to know some characters.

[Assistant]
On 9/11, several supervillains, including Doctor Doom, Kingpin, Magneto, and Doctor Octopus acted as first responders. Doom, Magneto and Doc Ock have also had their own heroic/anti-heroic turns.

At the end of Batman: Hush, Two-Face has his sanity restored and saves Batman's life.

Sandman made a legitimate attempt to turn good, even becoming a reserve member of the Avengers, until he was blackmailed by Doctor Octopus into being on his new sinister six. However, beyond bank robberies, Sandman hasn't been all that dastardly. There was one point where he kidnapped a young girl he thinks of as his daughter and acted as a giant sandcastle just for her, which isn't really nice, but it is showing love in its own twisted way.


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

[User]
CMV: Lack of effective emotional education is a leading cause of society failing.

Society functions entirely based upon our ability to communicate and understand each other's issues and solve problems as needed. If our entire social fabric is based off of our emotional intelligence then neglecting it seems to be an almost certain way to cause society to fail overall.

I would argue that lack of effective emotional education leads to people not being able to process what they feel in a way that leads to any effective solutions to their issues as well as an inability to understand others underlying problems. This potentially has the ability to create a feedback loop that causes people to just not help anyone emotionally which destroys social bonds and opportunity.

[Assistant]
This is more of a clarifying question than objection.

What constitutes effective emotional education? Is there such a thing, and to what degree has it been proven?

I say this as someone who received none, from parents or educators, and had to learn a lot of things the hard way.


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

[User]
ELI5 how does a calculators arithmetic differentiate from a computers.

I saw a video by fireship on youtube where in he shows if you perform the calculation 0.1 + 0.2 on computer, the output will be 0.300000000000004. if you try the same in a calculator the output is 0.3 they both use base-2 arithmetic which is binary so why is the output different? Im curious as to why this happens.

[Assistant]
The other answers all seem to be focusing on explaining to you how computers (and calculators, too) represent numbers internally in binary all while ignoring your actual question, which is why the two get different answers even though internally they presumably do mathematics the same way.

The short answer is that most computer languages (and thus most computer programs) use the IEEE-754 floating point standard to represent fractional numbers, and numbers in IEEE-754 are represented as `a * 2^b`.  0.1 cannot be represented this way since the denominator, 10, is not a power of 2.  The more precision you get, the closer the value will be, but it will never actually be 0.1, it's always 0.999999something or 1.00000000something.  These values will be rounded according to some rules when they run on too long, so 0.1 displays as expected, but errors increase in magnitude when compounded as happens when you start doing arithmetic on the inexact values.

Calculators on the other hand typically use BCD (binary coded decimal) to represent fractional numbers.  In BCD, each *digit* is represented on it's own, and on a modern system with 8bit (or larger) bytes, this means numbers up to some maximum length can be represented precisely even if they can't be expressed as a power of two or any other number.  The downside of BCD is that it's inefficient.  An 8bit value can represent one of 256 different numbers, so using it to store the value of a number that can only range from 0-9 is extremely wasteful of space.  One way this is addressed is with "packed BCD" which will use half of the byte, or 4 bits, to hold the value for a single digit.  Since 4 bits can still hold 16 different values, the range 0-9 is still covered, but you can fit 2 digits instead of just 1 in your 8 bit value.

Hope this was understandable!


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

[User]
ELI5: The Crusades in the Middle East way back.

I'm not too sure if this thread will be picked up, but seeing as how I'm currently playing the first Assassin's Creed, I would love to see how the game ties in with real-life history. I don't know much about what happened - only that Spain/England/Britain/Europe in general (?) invaded the Middle East to reclaim what they thought should be their land, in the "name of God". Other than that, I don't know much at all about it.

[Assistant]
The Holy Land--what's now Israel / Palestine, or the site of most of the events of the Old and New Testaments of the Bible--had for centuries been ruled by the Byzantine Empire. That name comes from its capital at Byzantium, also known as Constantinople and present-day Istanbul.

The Byzantine Empire was a Christian empire, though the kind of Christianity it followed (Orthodox Christianity) was different from the kind of Christianity (Roman Catholicism) followed in France, Germany, England, and the rest of Western Europe.

But by the year 1000 the Byzantine Empire was in big trouble. It kept losing territory to Muslim invaders from the east. When it lost control of the Holy Land to Muslim Turks, that got lots of people in Western Europe alarmed.

In 1095, the Byzantine Empire asked Pope Urban II, head of the Catholic Church for help. Urban proclaimed a crusade, and encouraged people from Western Europe to head to the Holy Land to get it back from the Muslims. For the next 200 years, crusaders would make a number of attempts to try to win the area back, but could only hold the land for a short time.

So the crusaders didn't see themselves as invading the Holy Land. They saw themselves as helping to kick out Muslim invaders.


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

[User] [DC + Star Wars] Would Batman be a Sith or a Jedi?

[Assistant] He believes in an objective good and evil, and helping the weak instead of exploiting them, so he would not be a Sith. The Jedi are not strangers to mental techniques like intimidation and misdirection. Their entire role as peacekeepers and mediators depends on both sides fearing them.


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

[User] [MCU] Why didn't Thanos just erase all avengers away after he snapped the fingers so there will be no one to come back and try to get them or no need to destroy them?

[Assistant]
Thanos isn't "The Cold and Ultra-Rationalist Titan", he's called the "***Mad*** Titan".

Before the Snap, he believed as long as he'd achieved what he set out to do, the universe would be grateful once they start to flourish & enact population control to maintain their prosperity. The Avengers then in his eyes are not his enemies, merely misguided fools that would soon see the right path.

But when 2014 Thanos saw future Nebula time-travelling with the Avengers just to undo his life's greatest work, he realized that the Universe will never ever be grateful for what he will and have had done. Never mind the key facts that civilization was crumbling away as entire populations are suffering from mass PTSD & depression from watching their loved ones turned to dust without cause. Never mind that there are more Chaos around the universe as formerly secured civilizations are pillaged by raiders because the random Snap took away their military or anyone that could have helped defend.

So, he time-traveled to the future with his army. This time ready to remake the universe in his image so that ***no one*** would ever questions the bones that make up its foundations.


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

[User]
If you are infected by Covid and produce natural antibodies, will occasional exposure to Covid ensure regular production of antibodies?

Not sure if I worded the title correctly, but I was wondering how antibodies and resistance to Covid works. Take, for instance, my experience with the virus

* I was vaccinated in August 2021.
* I was infected by Covid-19 in October 2021. No hospital visit or monoclonal treatment required.
* Antibodies are said to be good for 90 days.
* I chose not to get any boosters.
* I have not been as safe as one could be, and have been in largely unmasked crowds on occasion. I have been to stores, out with friends, on vacation, etc.  always following Covid guidelines, but when given the option not to mask up, I have chosen not to.
* Luckily, to my knowledge, I have not been infected by Covid-19 a second time.

If your body produces antibodies after infection, is it possible that continued exposure to Covid would ensure your body continues to produce antibodies?

Why would continual exposure to Covid *not* act similarly to a booster?

[Assistant]
The biggest difference is a booster doesnt actually infect you, it only instructs your immune system. Continual exposure risks both a dangerous illness and continuous virus mutation that increases the probability of more dangerous variants.
For example BA.5 is more transmissible than the original variant you were vaccinated for and there is no guarantee that vaccination protects you from it. Hospitalizations have skewed from 90% unvaccinated last year to 60% unvaccinated now. We want to avoid continuous exposure and subsequently continuous mutation if possible.


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

[User]
ELI5: When I'm walking I'm heels, why do the "clop" noises my feet make always seem like they are 2 different pitches?

Is my brain just interpreting the pitches as different or for some reason are the pitches between the 2 feet actually different? I notice the same thing with anyone walking in heels.

[Assistant] They're coming from two different angles, and since they come from two different sources, the sound waves will bounce off two different sets of objects around you. It'll be a subtle, but noticeable difference.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why was Han Solo leaving for good in Episode V?

Han Solo explains that he needs to pay off Jabba the Hutt. All is well and good but why is everyone acting like this is the last time they will see each other, couldn't he pay off Jabba and return in time for dinner? This continues to perplex me so any explanation would be nice, if one exists of course.

[Assistant] It was never a long term plan of his to join the Rebellion, his goal was to help Luke and Obi-wan get Leia and get out. He helped Luke at the end of IV because he wanted to do the right thing, not join a full scale rebellion. The only reason he hadn't already left was because of the repairs on the Falcon.


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

[User]
How does a pencil eraser work?

Chemically or mechanically, what happens when an eraser rubs off lead/graphite from a paper? Why doesn't this work for, say, ink?

[Assistant] It works mechanically. The graphite molecules stick to the rubber of an eraser, creating a bond stronger than the bond of the paper and mechanically separates the graphite from the paper when pressure is applied.


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

[User] If liquid helium is the coldest substance we have commercially available to us today, how did we first cool helium down to that temperature without the use of something colder?

[Assistant]
Use a refrigeration cycle. Compress it and raise it's pressure (and thus temperature), cool it (reject heat) while at a relatively constant pressure, then expand the gas back to ambient pressure, thereby cooling it further.

Repeat this process using different coolants. Eventually: compress it a lot, cool with liquid nitrogen, expand it back out to some ambient pressure and it will condense into liquid helium.


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

[User]
[Star wars] Did Palpatine believe that Anakin was truly the chosen one? Or did he simply not care either way, as long as he got Anakin (a clearly powerful force user) to join him?

To clarify further than the title allows; Did Palpatine even believe or care about the chosen one prophecy, and believe Anakin was indeed the chosen one?

Or was it a much simpler explanation of:

'I want Anakin to join me solely because he is clearly very powerful, and I can use him as I used Dooku' ?

Was it a bit of column A and column B?

TIA!(:

[Assistant]
Palpatine didn't believe in the prophecy as the Jedi understood it. He believed in a sith version of it with himself as the chosen one to rule absolute over the sith and Jedi orders that he destroyed. Turning Anakin would give him an incredibly powerful tool in his ambitions. He may have also seen it as a way to protect himself from the possibility of the Jedi prophecy being real by making it's chosen one his apprentice. A keeping your enemies close sort of situation just in case.

And had his original plans ultimately happened in canon both prophecies would have been true.


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

[User]
ELI5:How does an algorithm prove a mathematical theorem?

I recently heard in a talk that machine learning algorithms can now prove some mathematical theorems .what do they mean when they say that?Theorems aren't some mathematical problems that can be solved by following a series of steps  that can be automated for all I know.

[Assistant]
The rules of mathematical logic can be followed by a program just as easily as the computer can perform arithmetic.  It's not all that complicated to write a program that knows how to take a set of true logical statements & combine them (using the rules of logic) into new logical statements that are also true - we've been doing it since the 60s.  If you combine enough logical statements, you'll eventually find a series of these that proves the theorem you wanted to prove.

The hard part comes in choosing how to combine your facts into new ones, figuring out dead ends that go nowhere & doing it all fast enough to figure out something worthwhile in your lifetime.  On top of that, finding the *shortest* proof and finding proofs that are easily understood by humans is also a challenge - a 5000 page proof is no use to mathematicians trying to understand what's going on.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does water seem to get bluer the warmer or colder it gets, like in the Caribbean or the Arctic?

[Assistant]
The really turquoise blue water comes from seeing things under it, such as white sand, ice, etc.

Very deep water is a very dark blue colour.  And many areas you may be thinking of have very sharp drops into the water and go rapidly to deep water and/or they have dark rock or dark sand for a bottom.

The Caribbean has large shelfs of very white sand so has large areas of very light water.

But also, opaque water that has a lot of sediment also can be dark as its not as transparent.  Equatorial water tends to be very transparent and so bottoms show better, while areas like the Pacific Northwest are full of life and have lots of sediment.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do some near death experiences cause PTSD and some cause other people to live their best lives after.

[Assistant]
Resiliency.  There's the notion of "window of tolerance" in psychology.  For someone with a large window of tolerance and good support, getting a ton of stress/fear and overwhelming the system for a short while can make them stronger, if they get back to their tolerance level soon after. Anti-fragility is another label.

However, those with a crappy childhood (ie, many Adverse Childhood Experiences), the window of tolerance is small, self regulation is harder, and being thrown into a completely overwhelmed state is beyond their ability to get back to regulation.  One theory is the overwhelm is stored in the body and dissociated from, but we're still understanding this.

The first example is like testing steel and not bending it.  The second is actually bending it so the steel is fundamentally weakened.

What's unfortunate is that those with crappy childhoods usually get less support than those who have "good enough" childhoods, for a number of reasons.  The Western culture also has more emphasis on roughing it out alone.


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

[User]
Why are pigeons the dominant species of bird in cities? And why not other species?

I'm sitting on a train just looking around and noticed that pigeons are overwhelming the dominant species of bird in cities. Are there any specific reasons for this?

[Assistant]
Simply because Pigeons were the best to adapt to that environment.

The actual name of the species most people refer to as pigeons is a "rock dove". Naturally these birds roost on rocky cliffs, so buildings in a city are perfect for them. Add to that abundant and easy food sources and very few predators and the city is the perfect habitat for them.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does a 50,000-Volt taser hurt, but a 110 Volt socket can kill?

And furthermore, how scared should I be of amperes?

[Assistant]
Volts are a measurement of how badly electricity wants to move.  Air resists the movement of electricity quite well, so sending a spark requires a lot of volts.  That's why tasers can be tens of thousands of volts and even a carpet spark can be in the thousands of volts when conditions are right.

Amperes are a measurement of how much electricity is flowing.  This is what actually kills you, but of course there's no danger if the electricity can't flow in the first place.

Tasers use very low current so they're not typically lethal (although they can kill if you get unlucky).  A car battery has relatively low voltage (12 V) so it's not able to make electricity flow through the air, but it can easily push over 100 amps.  That's why it won't kill you to touch, but can start a car and can melt metal if you bridge the terminals with a metal tool.

A home electric socket can provide both high enough voltage and high enough current to be dangerous.


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

[User]
Why do many laymen roll their eyes at philosophy?

It seems much of the public see it as an intellectual wank. A pretentious exercise using word games and manipulating language to make grand pronouncements about nature. Why do so many imagine philosophers pondering "is reality real?" and other such nonsense?

[Assistant]
The technical side of philosophy takes a lot of effort to learn and the nontechnical side of philosophy is usually presented to a lay audience as asking them questions and getting their opinion on things like 'is there a soul?', 'what is the right thing to do?', and 'what is the meaning of life?'  That leads to them thinking its all about opinions because they're not exposed to the rigour, and the fact that the questions are broad and they're not given an adequate basis for how to think about the questions leads them to think we're just sitting here thinking about nothing.

Everybody has had to do a hard math problem and gotten the right answer, very few people have worked through the point/counterpoint of a philosophical conversation and been left with a clearer view of the issues involved.  That amount of immersion is hard to give to lay people.

TL;DR: People think we philosophize the same way they philosophize: wandering and wondering aimlessly through 'deep' questions.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why can't we explore the oceans' floors? What technological advance must be made to make it possible?

I know the pressure is great, but it seems like we would have found a way to counter that by now? Maybe I'm just very much underestimating the amount of force that the amount of pressure at the ocean floor would cause.

[Assistant]
Everyone else here has explained the difficulties regarding the water pressure.  However, nobody has mentioned a key point: your title asks why *can't* we explore the oceans' floors.  We can.  We have been to the deepest point in the oceans, twice.  We have vehicles, both manned and unmanned, that can explore the ocean bottom.

However, it would be very hard, very slow, and very expensive.  Exploring the ocean floor is like exploring the moon - we *can* get there, but people have decided that they want to spend their money elsewhere.


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

[User] [The Simpsons] How is Nelson capable of being nearby every time someone is in an embarrassing situation in Springfield?

[Assistant] Embarrassing situations are hardly random. As everyone knows, there are laws to them. The odds of spilling food on your clothing increases exponentially before a big meeting, the odds of pissing yourself increases steadily with distance from a washroom, etc. Nelson has devoted his life to studying these laws, and applying them properly. As a bully, he also has an innate talent for figuring out where embarrassing scenarios are most likely to happen.


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

[User] ELI5: why is, "goodnight," one word, but, "good morning," two words?

[Assistant] I am quite certain that the explanation goes like this: "Good night" is a phrase composed of two words. Even if "Goodnight" has become acceptable, this is only due to widespread use and repetition of incorrect usage. This incorrect usage, alternatively, can also answer your question.


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

[User]
Where do I start with Karl Marx's writings?

I'm interested in familiarizing myself with Marx but I have no idea where to begin. Should I start with The Communist Manifesto? Or Grundrisse?

[Assistant] You could start with *Wage Labor and Capital* and *Value, Price, and Profit* because those are short and outline Marxs mature economic thinking. But these wont replace reading *Capital*. If you want an introduction to Marxist thought, a common way in is actually Engels short pamphlet *Principles of Communism*.


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

[User]
[Thunderbirds] How much does the public know about the Thunderbirds?

Hi all,

How much  do governments and the public know about the Thunderbirds apart from the fact they show up at the scene of any major disaster and rescue those in danger?

[Assistant]
The general public? Nothing, your OP is literally all they know. Governments, on the other hand...

Well now this is fairly interesting because there's one moment when Jeff lets something slip. In the episode when T2 is shot down, Jeff outright calls Washington and asks them to order the carrier that mis-identified T2 be shot it down, to give T4 a lift.

This tells us two things - there are US higher-ups that know Jeff is in contact with International Rescue, and they also know IR are based somewhere around Tracy Island since that's where T4 was picked up.


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

[User]
Searching for a "productivity" system that fits PhD students

Hi,

I am a PhD student and I am searching for a "productivity" system. By now I use Evernote for storing almost everything that interests me and Wunderlist for to-do lists. I also have a small lab notebook where I note messy things. Finally, I have a bunch of sheets with hand calculations, diagrams, schematics and other stuff.

Thus, I want to implement a system for organizing everything and keep a track of my projects and tasks. I like Evernote so I would like some guide/book/tutorial about it.

I have read about Getting Things Done and Zen To Done, but I don't have much trust in all this stuff. I have also read a bunch of blog posts like "X tips for keep your PhD on track" and things like that, but I would like something more serious.

Any advice? Should I trust methods like GTD and similar?

Thanks in advanced!

[Assistant] Are you familiar with Cal Newport? He's less about a system, or collection of tips and tricks, and more about routines that work for you, stemming from your own goals and need for focus. It's higher-level stuff (i.e. philosophy rather than software guide) but I've found it valuable. He's a comp sci academic.


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

[User] ELI5: how does eels produce electricity? And why does it not kill the eels or other fish in the water?

[Assistant]
They actually sometime die by accident by their own shock. But only when the electric current passes through its vital organs.

In most cases they avoid this though. Electricity follows the path of least resistance and this they use to dodge the current by flexing their body in a certain way. They make sure their denser parts or the body are in the line of fire of their heart, thus protecting it from the current.

They do hunt in packs in some place, was found out a few years ago. They communicate with low currents and possess hairs that recognize water pressure differences around them. They synchronize their attack... An impressive feat indeed!


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

[User] ELI5: Ok, what does that pedestrian crossing button really do ?

[Assistant]
It tells the PLC that controls the traffic lights in the intersection that there is someone at the crossing that wants to get across.

Cars are identified with magnetic sensors. I.e, when enough metal is on the road at the same time, the PLC knows that there is a car in a lane.

In it's most simple form, there is a detection coil right next to the stop line. So that cars that have stopped are properly identified. In more advanced setups, there are coils that identity cars from a distance so that they don't necessarily have to stop. Or speed down. Or to better be able to count cars. Establish that an off ramp is getting full and need to be cleared. And there can be coils that identify trucks from afar so that the intersection is not forcing them to pull the brakes in a manner that they are not necessarily capable of anyway. Or coils that enforce the bus lane by not even reacting to cars.

So, what does that have to do with the pedestrian button?

Well. The detectors makes the intersection adapt to traffic. A lane won't have a green unless there is actually a car to let through. And if there is a green, it can be a short one intended to let just the one car out.

But. Pedestrians are not nearly as fast as cars. The button is there not only to tell the PLC that there is a pedestrian. But to *make sure that the pedestrian has plenty of time to pass safely.* In other words, it creates a safe window in the program that is far too long for cars, so that it never makes sense to keep it going all the time, and shuts it once the timer runs out.

Some intersections have bike crossings too. Those buttons trigger their own timer too. Often shorter than the pedestrian button, because the bicycle crosses faster.


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

[User]
Why can we calculate (not measure) pi?

Understanding that pi represents the ratio of circumference to diameter of a circle, my question is regarding one (of several) methods to mathematically calculate the value of pi.

pi / 4 = 1 - 1/3 + 1/5 - 1/7 + ...

As you extend this equation it gets closer and closer to the value of pi. Admittedly it takes a ridiculous number of terms to extend it more than a few decimal places, but presumably it would continue to gain accuracy as you added/subtracted an infinite number of fractions.

My question: WHY? How does this equation relate to the characteristics of circles? Is something more profound at work? Enlighten me, please!

[Assistant]
There is a way of approximating functions called a Taylor series expansion, where you add polynomial terms of higher and higher order to approximate the function. For example, the Taylor series of the cosine function is 1-x^2 /2 +x^4 /24 -x^6 /720... and if you calculate some values for x in radians, you'll find it's accurate if x isn't too big. You can figure out the terms with basic calculus.

From trigonometry, we know that the tangent of pi/4 radians (45 degrees) is 1. Thus, the inverse tangent of 1 is pi/4. The Taylor series for the inverse tangent function is x-x^3 /3 +x^5 /5 -x^7 /7 ... and if you substitute x=1, you're just left with that continued series for pi/4.


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

[User] If airships use helium to create lift. Would a vacuum create the same effect?

[Assistant]
Yes, it would work even better with a vacuum than with helium, but you would need a very rigid shell to keep it from collapsing under atmospheric pressure. That is very, very difficult to achieve over large enough a volume without negating all the mass savings you've gained from swapping to the vacuum in the first place.

Helium on the other hand is lighter than air at the same pressure, so it balances the atmospheric pressure and the balloon doesn't collapse.


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

[User]
Does the Greek letter  have any meaning in math other than the number 3.14...

I have seen it in places where it seems that it means something else.  I may have seen it in logic, too.

[Assistant]
The prime counting function would be the obvious example of another use.

Its also used at the limit value for the proportion of time spent at a particular state in a markov chain.

The symbol is just a symbol. Its not magically tied to the circle constant.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is it illegal to download movies/music/games/etc, but people can sell used copies? Either way the company isn't getting a cut after the first time.

[Assistant]
First off, the difference is that a digital copy is endlessly duplicable, while a physical item changes hands -- if you sell a CD, you no longer have access to that CD. But you could copy a music or video file and still have that media while also selling it.

Secondly, there are laws that define "first-sale doctrine" -- that specifically state one can sell, rent, loan, destroy, give away, etc. something once they purchase it. The company that produces it loses rights to dictate how product is used once bought. But this applies to physical items, not electronic media. So you can rent a DVD if you buy it for your video store, or your can donate that old Abercrombie logo sweatshirt to the homeless and there's nothing that the producer can do to stop that... but the law doesn't say you can duplicate an MP3.


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

[User]
Exactly what property of a quark is being described by its "color?"

Quarks are labeled as red, green, and blue. But quarks are smaller than the wavelength of visible light, so they are not actually colored. I understand "color" is an easy way for scientists to distinguish and label different quarks, but what property is actually being described?

[Assistant]
>Exactly what property of a quark is being described by its "color?"

Color is its own unique quantum property, similar to electric charge or spin.  As you mentioned, it is not related to the human perception phenomenon "color."  Color as it applies to quarks can be distinguished as "color charge" as it is essentially the equivalent of electric charge but for the strong interaction instead of the electromagnetic interaction.  Electromagnetism has only one kind of charge (electric charge) but the strong interaction has three -- each separate type of color charge gets its own name (red, green, and blue).

Electric charge can also be negative, and similarly the three color charges can be negative -- those are commonly called "antired," "antigreen," and "antiblue" because antiquarks carry negative color charges.

The strong interaction is very different from the electromagnetic interaction also because the force carriers are themselves charged -- gluons can carry both a color charge and an anti-color charge, which causes them to interact very strongly with each other and with quarks (unlike photons which do not have any electric charge either positive or negative).  That fact is responsible for a lot of the unique properties of strong interaction dynamics.

Hope that helps!


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

[User]
[Berserk] How terrible is life in the planet?

Lets say you are an average pleasant, how life will go?

[Assistant]
Nasty, brutish, and short.

Prior to the Eclipse, the world is *more or less* a standard dung ages fantasy world.  Kings rule over peasants, wage wars for petty reasons, and if you are not a warrior and happen to be lucky you will probably live to old age.  Supernatural evil exists, but it is mostly hidden away in places you will never want to go.

After the Eclipse, you have a god of evil incarnated into the body of a man running around building an army of demons, rampaging across the land in order to conquer it.  This is terrifying and you are probably doomed if you're in their way.

After the merging of the spirit world, all the demons and such that had been locked away are now free to cross over and terrorize the world.  This is just about the worst thing ever, since almost every supernatural creature we've seen will rape you, kill you,  eat you, or rape you until you're dead and then eat you.  The closest thing we see to "good" supernatural forces are in that category because they are opposed to the outright evil ones, not because they are nice to anyone.

So pretty shit.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is Russia seemingly bound and determined to seize control of and eventually annex Ukraine, more than other sovereign independent nations that are not part of Russia?

[Assistant]
One of the major reasons is access to a warm water port. In order for a country to exert significant influence outside their borders it is necessary for their military to be able to move personnel and equipment out, and an air force really can't effectively do that. Look at the difficulty the UK had in defending the Falkland Islands because they lacked an aircraft carrier nearby.

So to project force a country needs military ports. But Russia is cold and water freezes, which means for an extended time they can't get ships in and out. That isn't good for the long term resupply of distant military bases. They do have a warm water port in Ukraine, conveniently the part of Ukraine they invaded and occupied. That isn't coincidence.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does placing a plastic bag over a credit card help a device read its magnetic stripe better?

[Assistant]
The black rectangle on your card holds a number.  Actually it's a set of numbers separated by delimiters, but that's not important.  Just pretend it's one number.

If your card gets damaged, gaps appear in the electrical reading of the black strip, which means that inconsistencies appear in the number.  That's no good; that's cause for error detection to throw the whole thing out.

Putting a plastic bag around the card spreads out the electrical influence of each individual atom in the card.  This neutralizes (to some degree) degradation the card, because while the interaction with the reader is reduced as a whole, the relative reduction between the bad parts and the good parts are reduced.  Consequently, the machine can read it.

To simulate what's happening, open up Microsoft Paint (assuming you're on Windows).  Write, in huge size font.  a number.  Doesn't matter what.

Now scribble all over one or two of the characters.  I'll bet it it's hard to read the number!  Now zoom out until you can just barely make out the numbers.  I'll bet you can get the original number you wrote.

It's the same effect, but through electricity instead of your eyes.


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

[User]
Why does the Moderna vaccine include two 100 micrograms doses of mRNA, while that for Pfizer is two doses of 30 micrograms each?

Considering the overall efficacy rate is comparable.

[Assistant] Basically, just in case. There's no other reason. Moderna could set their dose at 30ug (probably even lower) and it would work - they just didn't know that at the time so they wanted to play it safe instead of flopping.


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

[User]
[Assassins Creed] What exactly does the general public know now that memories are being sold as games?

How much does the general populace know about the first civilization, templars vs assassins, or the Pieces of Eden?

Does your average Joe who played Kenway's memories know about the former alien(?) master race, and the Templar/Assassin fight to control the remaining pieces?

[Assistant] It's heavily implied that the games pumped out by Abstergo Entertainment were heavily edited to remove all references to the First Civilization, the artifacts known as the Pieces of Eden, and the conflict between Templar & Assassins. Only select personnel had access to the uncensored & unedited memories.


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

[User]
[40k] Is it possible for Chaos to take over the entire galaxy if they keep enough humans alive/turn every human into a cultist?

Is that their goal?

Edit: Aweosme answers. Thanks everyone!

[Assistant]
Goals?

Khorne wants never-ending war. Your suggestion would probably appeal to him.

Nurgle wants pestilence, and you could say that probably *is* his goal right now. Humans don't appreciate his gifts if they're dead.

Slaneesh probably doesn't care what species is involved, just as long as they're involved in it.

Tzeentch is laughing at you.


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

[User] How do 'after-tastes' work? Why do we get a different taste only after the food has been swallowed?

[Assistant]
When you put food in your mouth, the 'taste' you experience, besides its physical characteristics, is a combination of the basic flavors identified by your tongue, such as sweet, sour, etc. and the scent, which is actually picked up by your nose. Your sense of smell is such a major component of the smell of "taste" that if you block it, you'll have enormous trouble telling foods apart. The scents don't have to be inhaled either: your mouth hole and nostrils are actually internally connected roughly at the point where you swallow, so smells from the food you're eating will travel upwards from there.

So having explained that, the reason why sometimes you will experience an aftertaste will be more understandable to you: because the food that has sat in or passed through your mouth is considerably different from the one that you first experienced when it went in. You chewed through it, exposing its inner parts, and then mixed it with your saliva which is packed with enzymes that we have *specifically evolved for their ability to chemically break down the foods we stuff in our mouths*. This breaking-down mush then stays on your tongue, in your teeth, and in spots on your mucous membrane, and the smell makes it up to your nose. And it's changed because you changed it.


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

[User] [Star Wars] How large is the memory bank of an astromech like R2? Hes seen so much. How can he remember so much information?

[Assistant] R2D2 was able to retain all memory despite never having been wiped.  He was also able to retain a copy of C3PO's memory, who had not been wiped in several decades.  It's seems that their memory bank size is "don't worry about it" or rather, unless you are dumping huge numbers of files for off label use, you aren't gonna fill them up.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do leftovers taste different than freshly cooked food?

[Assistant] Foods as they heat and cool change structurally and chemically. They continue to break down over time. Things that are higher in acidity more quickly. Sometimes this is a good thing, as flavors meld and sugars are released (its why spaghetti is always better the second day).


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

[User]
[The Dresden Files] Shouldnt Dresden be extremely overpowered? (Spoilers for books 2 and 3 inside).

So Im on book 5 of the series, and I keep wondering: why doesnt Harry just go rage mode and faceroll his enemies more often?

Despite being told that he sucks at evocation magic, Harry has some pretty insane feats. In book 2 he pacifies a human-form loup garou and his possibly spirit-wolf friend with improper spells (no verbal components). He then goes on to toss around said Loup-Garou in full beast form while badly injured and tired in a situation stacked against him.

More profoundly, which is the real crux of my point, in book 3 he roasts nearly a whole clan of vampires while in a weakened state where he supposedly had no magic left and had his power mostly taken away by kravos. This is explained by Dresden having used his rage, fear, and desperation at being in a ridiculously unfair situation to fuel the spell. Then later he just ignores a hail of bullets Neo-style while wrecking Biancas whole family with an act of God. Yes, he had absorbed Kravos power, but that really should only have cancelled out the fact that he was magically depleted (and was Kravos that powerful to begin with?) which leads me to believe that his love for Susan is what powered him there.

I cant help but wonder why he hasnt used this power since that point or before it. Theres been plenty of situations that were extremely unfair and easily could have pissed him off. Since magic is fueled by emotion, he should logically just grow proportionally stronger to whatever situation he is in, since the more dangerous the situation, the more rage/fear/desperation hed feel.

I mean, quite literally, kidnapping this guys girlfriend and trying to smash a sword resulted in a whole group of super badass vampires getting blitzed. Yet people casually send thugs at him and challenge him to duels as if he hadnt achieved these feats before. Seems to me like it would be risky just to look at this dude wrong, lest he get pissed off and sunder your soul or something.

In other words, his power level is set to just scale infinitely with how hard his challenges are, which paves the way for a comically OP character like One Punch Man, Hulk, etc.

I dont know, maybe they deal with this issue later in the series or theres something Im missing, but it just seems like he has incredible deus ex machina power that goes beyond what anyone else can do in this world.

I.E. If wizards were that powerful, and many are stronger than even him, why is the Red Court even a blip on their radar? Get enough top tier wizards in one room (like in Book 4) and I wouldnt be surprised if their subconscious desire to live reality bended the Red Court out of existence.

[Assistant]
Harry has a lot of power, and it only increases as the series goes on. He's said to be in the top 30 or 40 wizards in the world purely based on power. However, he hasn't got much finesse or skill. He does explosions, not surgical strikes.

He mostly uses fire as well, for reasons which are clarified later in the series. Basically, after he summons the fire, it acts like normal fire, spreading, removing oxegen etc. So when he gave the vampires that friendly toast, he basically threw round a bunch of fire, and physics did the rest.

No spoilers, but as the series progresses Harry does get stronger, but so do the threats he faces. He's facing someone or something more powerful than him on a regular basis and has gotten good at winning against the odds with good preparation, allies and luck. And if course, occasional blowing stuff up.

As far as the red Court goes, they're no push overs. They have magic users of their own (like Bianca in book 3), and they also have the numbers advantage.


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

[User]
[DC] What is the "smartest" thing Batman has ever accomplished?

Stemming from the earlier discussion.  Batman is the World's Greatest Detective and is really smart.  Is there a defining moment of the smartest/most intuitive/most detectivy action Batman has ever taken?

[Assistant] His hardest case was one that spanned his whole career. Clues were left basically everywhere from the beginning of his career and when he finally pieced them together, it was just an invitation created by the world's real best detectives.


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

[User]
[Death Note] How far can a person's life be extended using a Death Note?

For a Shingami, killing a person before they are fated to extends the Shinigami's life, and extending a human's life instantly killed them.  But if you, a human, write in the Death Note, you are not subjected to those rules, and can freely alter a person's fated death (at the price of pure nothingness instead of an afterlife).

How far can a person's life be extended using a Death Note, then?  Could you technically write your own name, and date it 60 years from now?  Or is extending a person's life like dividing by zero - they have 2 fated deaths listed, and the first one to happen is the one that kills them?

[Assistant] If you are scheduled to die in 50 years, and you write your name in to die in 80 years, you will die of a heart attack in about 6 minutes. This also applies to if you write your own name and then attempt to test your own immortality. If you were going to put yourself in a situation that would result in your death, or would be in that situation, either you luckily manage to avoid death, or heart attack. However, if you are scheduled to be murdered, and you kill the murderer, you can safely extend your own life. It basically depends on the circumstances of your death.


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

[User] Can a planet exist outside of a solar system?

[Assistant] Yes, in fact they are more common than stars! It's a lot easier to accumulate the mass required to create a planet than a star. Rogue planets are very plentiful in our universe, I've heard estimates of 2x as many rogue planets than stars in the Milky Way.


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

[User] Why does higher velocity airflow create a low pressure zone? Specifically in the context of lift/downforce.

[Assistant]
Say you're standing still dribbling a basketball at a fixed rate. Every time you bounce the ball, you impart a little force onto the surface beneath you. Now say you're walking along a given path while you bounce the ball. The faster you walk, the less times the ball impacts the surface under you, imparting less total force.

This is analogous to fluid molecules bounding off a surface; the aggregate value of which is pressure.


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

[User]
[Samurai Jack] What is Aku's influence in everyday life?

I see statues of Aku, and my apartment building has horn protrusions, and the smokestacks on the train I took have horn protrusions, and so does pretty much everything, but are these supposed to remind of something? Am I supposed to do a call to prayer to Aku everyday? And I haven't seen him give a televised speech or anything either.

[Assistant]
Usual evil empire schtick. Overlord gets to do whatever he wants, and if you do anything to oppose him you get crushed (usually by his minions because he's busy running a global empire). Any political faction that swears loyalty directly to the overlord is given authority and his protection. They get to do whatever they want because opposing them is the same as opposing the overlord. Anyone who tries to oppose the overlord or one of his minions is killed (if they're lucky).

And this is *global*.

Obviously, this power gets abused in the most awful ways the dark lord and his minions can imagine. Raiding and pillaging? Check. Slavery? Check. Blood sport? Check. Murderous rampages? Check. Sure, if you live in a major economic center the people in charge try to enforce *some* stability so that they can get richer. But there's no justice or rule of law.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does the underground ecosystem of a cemetery compare to that of a normal, untouched field of grass?

Do all of those caskets and bodies, along with the constant excavation, change the habitat for whichever insects or creatures live inside the ground at cemeteries? Does that type of environment bring new creatures that would not usually be there?

[Assistant]
Most modern graves place the coffin in a sealed vault, so there would be little impact to the environment, beyond having a bunch of concrete in the ground now.

Even with vaults, bodies buried in a cemetery represent a tiny fraction of the ecosystem there and remain biologically active for a very short time.  Having a regularly watered lawn likely has a much greater impact than the bodies do.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Are there 8 little maimed baby Voldermorts in the afterlife? and other related questions

When Harry dies and goes to Kings Cross Station, he is not the only one there. There is also the last part of Voldemort, the size and shape of a child, and he looks flayed, bloody and pitiful. So does this mean that in the afterlife there are 7 more of these disgusting pieces of soul? I was unsure if destroying a Horcrux destroyed the soul, or just killed the container, allowing the piece of soul to move 'on' to the afterlife.

I also want to know, is this soul of Voldemorts which we see in the heavenly train station the bit of soul which was just destroyed by Voldemort himself, or is it the last remaining part of Voldemort still tethered to earth? Which leads me to my final question. If this piece of soul in the train station is in fact the last remaining piece of soul still tethered to earth, does that mean that Voldemort heard everything that Dumbledore explained to Harry?

[Assistant]
No, this is explained by Hermione. A person's defining characteristic is that they have an eternal soul that transcends the death of the body. For your soul, your body is but a temporary vessel. But a Horcrux is the polar opposite of a human being: its soul piece is completely dependent on the vessel and cannot exist without it.

Destroying the Horcrux destroys the soul piece. It's completely annihilated.

The mangled figure we see in limbo is Voldemort's soul, mangled as it is. It's the one in his body. It was probably too damaged to understand what was going on, but it certainly picked up something was wrong.


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

[User]
[Mass Effect 1] Why does every crate, box, and locker, even in civilian homes, have high quality military arms, armor and equipment in them?

In the 22nd Century is everybody a gun nut?

[Assistant] It's a violent galaxy. All the planets you visit are either frontier colonies or military facilities. You gotta be prepared for anything. It stands to reason that everyone would be as well equipped as they could afford.


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

[User]
What's the difference between a free photon and photon as a force carrier?

I want to understand how photons work. Apparently the light that flies through the void of space is made from photons. But the electromagnetic fields that surround us at all times, including our TV and WiFi and what have you, are also made of photons that carry interactions between charged particles. And somehow, in both cases photons are bosons, have no mass and no charge. I understand that by "light" we usually understand just its IR, visible and UV spectra, and that light and radio and gamma rays are actually all EM, just of different frequencies, but still, how does all that work? If light is made of photons, why doesn't light have charge? If electromagnetism is carried by photons, why don't they have charge? What's the difference between a photon of light that flew into my eye after being emitted by the Sun, and photon that carries my WiFi signal?

[Assistant]
Photons as force carriers are **virtual** photons. We have some FAQ entries on virtual particles that you may want to read.

But to summarize them, virtual particles dont literally exist. If you try to interpret them as particles that literally exist, you reach nonsensical conclusions, like photons having nonzero (or even imaginary) mass, and having more than two linearly independent polarization states.

Why dont photons have charge? Thats just what we observe to be true. The gauge group of the electromagnetic force is Abelian, so photons dont directly self-interact.

If you look at a non-Abelian gauge theory, like the theory of the strong force, thats not the case.


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

[User]
[WH40K] Since the chaos god's are basically reflections of emotion and feeling in the Warp, why isn't their a literal God of the Emperor?

So basically the chaos gods are representation of different emotions and beliefs reflected in the warp and made manifest right?

But then why hasn't the fanatical worship and emotion from untold quadrillions of humans and psykers resulted in some kind of being or god from all that psychic power focused by the specific beleifs of the Imperial Cult?

Am I missing something?

[Assistant]
Why do you think he hasn't died yet? You think it's the Golden Throne doing all that work?

Dark Age technology is fantastical, but not "remain completely functional for 10,000 years despite being in the heart of Imperium space" fantastic.


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

[User]
ELI5: What's the deal with Taiwan? Is it a country or state of China?

I've always assumed until recently that Taiwan was a country.  I have grown up seeing 'Made In Taiwan' the most behind 'Made In China' and just assumed it was a country.

But it's not officially recognised in some areas as a country?

Please explain.

[Assistant]
It is complicated.

There are sort of two Chinas: The **Republic of China** commonly called Taiwan and the **People's Republic of China** commonly just called China.

The simplified version is that a while back there was a revolution and a bit of a civil war in China. There were the communist revolutionaries (PRC) on one side and the old government (ROC) on the other.

Both sides had a government and saw themselves as the rightful ruler of all of China. Eventually what was left of the old government was pushed back until they only had control over Taiwan and the communist had control over everything else.

On paper both governments even today claim the territory of both sides as their own and see the other as illegally occupying part of their country.

In practice they pretty much act as two distinct countries but because of those on paper claims it is difficult to treat them as such.

You can either recognize one China or the other, but not both as the same time because they are mutually exclusive.

This requires some very strong verbal gymnastics and pretending things aren't the way they are.


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

[User]
Can isolated mountains like Erebor, the Lonely Mountain from LOTR actually exist in real life?

You usually find a mountain as a part of a mountain chain. Is it possible for geological phenomena to favor the formation of a fairly large mountain that exists in isolation, without being a part of a mountain chain?

[Assistant]
Volcanoes are your best bet, as the other mountain-forming processes tend to be regional effects.

Certain types of overlapping folds, if they contain the right layers of rocks in the right order, could also do it. Salt domes are another potential candidate.

It also depends on how isolated you need it to be. Near Kilimanjaro, for example, there are a number of large volcanic cones that don't really merge with their nearest neighbors. They are still related to each other in the tectonic setting that created them, but you could take a photo of some of them and it could be passed off as Erebor. Its mineral richness compared to Erebor might be questionable.

There are metrics such as topographic prominence and topographic isolation, but these don't quite measure what you're looking for.

The mineral richness may be the real hard part, even moreso with the isolation.


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

[User]
[XCOM] What did the aliens want with the humans?

spoilers: its revealed at the end that the Ethereals wanted human psychic ability, and had been modifying various other species for that purpose. But why? What were they going to do wth the humans once they had them available?

[Assistant]
*Massive Spoilers.*

Short Version:  It was the biggest and most extreme tough-love project in the Galaxy.

Longer Version:  The Ethereals identified shortcomings in their makeup.  They attempted to transcend mortality, but somehow failed.  Psychically strong but physically frail, they self-diagnosed as imperfect and flawed beings.  So they went around to try and create the perfect being.  Most of the beings fought by the XCOM teams were failed experiments at creating a perfect being that could achieve what they could not - ascension.

The Sectoids were too frail and too cruel, the Mutons too dumb, the Floaters too machinelike, the Thin Men unable to use psionics.  All imperfect in some way.

And then came their invasion of Earth.  The XCOM project succeeded where the Ethereals had failed, creating a soldier who was equally physically and psychically gifted.

Of course, the Ethereals had then hoped to guide the fledgeling next evolution of humanity, taking the perfect being forged in the fires of invasion and preparing them for "what lies ahead".
Unfortunately, the Commander of the XCOM Project had other ideas...


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

[User] [MCU] If the universe population becomes too low, would Thanos create/ressurect people?

[Assistant] He pulled his old school halving the population shtick on Asgard, even though they had recently been decimated, and then they were included in the snap.  He clearly does not care too much about full on wiping out a species, so no he would not try to create or resurrect people.


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

[User] ELI5: What is the difference between a degree in computer science and a degree in software engineering? Will getting one over the other limit job opportunities?

[Assistant]
Think of Computer Science as a science, and Software Engineering as engineering.

Computer Science generally deals with algorithms; the high level implementation, optimizations, and proofs. It's usually more academically inclined.

Software Engineering generally deals with the practical implementation; how to get the product to the customer by next Wednesday. It's usually more commercially inclined.

That said, different schools will label their programs differently. One school's CS degree could have very similar course-work to another school's SE degree. Check out the actual offerings from the school's you're looking at, and see what kind of jobs graduates from those degrees get.


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

[User]
[MCU] So is The Falcon just a guy?

Heard about this guy, and it seems to me he's just a regular guy with some wings. Why is he part of the Avengers when you could, quite easily, kill him with a handgun? Same goes for Black Widow, really.

[Assistant]
Not every Avenger is a god level talent. Widow is renowned for her spycraft. Hawkeye is accurate beyond Olympic levels, with pretty much any projectile. Cap is puny next to Thor, Hulk, Vision and Scarlet Witch. Whats the point of the question, exactly?

Being heroic, and in the right time at the right place is whats necessary. And the Avengers like to have a variety of skills and perspectives.

Falcon is a human, trained to use a piece of very specialized equipment and fight hand to hand at a top level. Hes got cool toys, too. Like Batman.


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

[User]
How does the absorption of radiation lead to an increase in temperature?

When a photon is absorbed by an atom, it becomes excited and an electron is moved to a higher energy level. How does this translate to an increase in the atom's kinetic energy if the energy is used to move the electron further from the nucleus?

[Assistant]
The other comments get the gist right in that the answer is conservation of momentum. However, the story is slightly more complicated because unless you are in a very specific regime of stimulated emission, the atom will on average not move. The excited atom will randomly emit in any direction, so the average change in momentum of the atom is actually zero!

The rise in temperature is then a result of the variance of these momentum kicks being non-zero, and the variance is related to the root mean square velocity (rms). Using the equitation theorem, the temperature is proportional to the square of the rms velocity, T = (M/3R) v\^2.

The situation is much more complex for solids or liquids and requires considering things like phonons, vibrational and rotational excitations, and more complicated decay paths of the excitation. However, at the physics 101 level the answer is conservation of momentum like the others pointed out.


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

[User]
ELI5: What exactly is happening to your legs in Restless Leg Syndrome?

That feeling you get in your legs when you're laying down and you HAVE to move them because they feel so uncomfortable, but it really never goes away. Why or how does that happen? What can you do to make it stop?

edit: just wanted to thank everybody for their comments and suggestions :) i'll be sure to try some of them out.

[Assistant]
Okay, so everything that you do is controlled by one part of your body: your brain. Imagine that your brain is a city called Brain City. Brain City is divided into different sections based on the body activity that they control: the Cognition District, the Motor Quarter, the Reflex Precinct, etc.

In order to execute an activity, the systems that govern each involved section of Brain City must approve and send a neurotransmitter to the action site. Think of neurotransmitters as keys that open locks that the brain must open in order to perform an activity. Different activities have different locks, which require different keys, so you end up with a variety of neurotransmitters.

For example, whenever you want to raise your right arm into the air, a very complex biological bureaucracy is doing a lot of stuff behind the scenes:

1. Certain neurons (brain cells) activate ("fire") and send a neurotransmitter called dopamine to the Motor Quarter, Office of Motor Control, Department of Arms, Right Arm Division.

2. Dopamine unlocks all of the processes involved in raising the right arm.

3. With these processes open, impulses flow into the arm muscles and cause the right arm to raise.

4. In the Cognition District, there is a little guy named Consciousness who considers himself to be the person who controls Brain City. Consciousness notices the neuron and neurotransmitter activity.

5. Consciousness compares the pattern of firing neurons and releasing neurotransmitters to its record of past events in Brain City, and concludes that it matches the pattern that occurs whenever the brain wants to raise the right arm.

6. Consciousness makes an announcement to the rest of Brain City over a loudspeaker: "I WANT TO RAISE MY RIGHT ARM." We call these announcements "thought."

Notice anything counter-intuitive? That's right, we don't normally think of conscious thought as occurring AFTER a voluntary motion. But studies have shown that this may indeed be what happens, and that many of the things we believe to be consciously chosen actions are actually activated in the brain a fraction of a second BEFORE the section of our brain responsible for cognition.

So, with Restless Leg Syndrome, what's happening is that something is preventing the brain from using dopamine to properly unlock all the locks on the processes that control motor movement in the legs. This may be caused, for example, by an iron deficiency, as iron is involved in the creation of dopamine. And because the brain can sense that something's wrong with the legs' motor function, it triggers a stress response in the autonomic nervous system, leading to feelings of pain, discomfort, and an urge to keep moving one's legs (possibly related to the fight-or-flight response).

To make it stop, you can take a medication called a dopamine agonist (e.g. Mirapex) that will perform the function of dopamine (unlocking the locks), even if there's not enough dopamine to do so.

EDIT: Thanks for the gold, stranger! You are fantastic!


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

[User] ELI5: How do woodpeckers brains not receive trauma from beating their face on trees all day?

[Assistant]
I can answer this!

They have a number of really cool features. It starts with a beak made of three layers of bone and spongey material that absorbs a lot of the impact. Then their brains are pretty smooth and fit tightly within their skull so there's not space to rattle it around. The skull is made of a really cool spongey bone that also absorbs a lot of the energy.

It turns out though that most of the energy is spread all over the body, so not that much is being absorbed by the skull. Also, cool fact: their beaks heat up, so that's why they drill in short bursts!


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

[User]
[Fallout / Cyberpunk] Could the tech from Cyberpunk hack the tech from Fallout, considering how different it is?

And what about the other way around? If I plug a pip-boy into some random cyborg crackhead on the street, could I hack him? If some Cyberpunk 2077 hacker got thrown into the world of Fallout, could they hack the robots and computers and AIs there?

[Assistant] i don't think so, Fallout tech is mostly analogue while Cyberpunk tech is transistor based. if you wanted to you can try making Cyberpunk compatible computer with vacuum lamps, but it would be SLOOOOOOW.


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

[User] [Star Wars] What difference would it have made had Obi-Wan chosen to tell Luke right away about his connection to Darth Vader?

[Assistant]
Well, we know that immediately after finding out that Vader is his father, Luke is no longer interested in defeating Vader and is interested in redeeming him.  So presumably they'd go up to the Death Star and Luke would confront Vader and try to redeem him.  This wouldn't work.  But Vader would take Luke and hold him hostage. Try to turn him to the Dark Side to be a new apprentice.  Vader would still kill Obi-Wan and he'd still track the Millennium Falcon which would have Han, Chewie, C-3PO, R2D2, and Leia.

The Death Star would go to Yavin IV and the trench run takes place, but no Luke means no explosion.  The rebels are destroyed at Yavin, and Han and Chewie immediately turn around and leave when they get to the Death Star.

All around victory for the Empire, until some day Luke and Vader kill Palpatine.


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

[User] ELI5 What is wrong with Comcast?

[Assistant] Some people think Comcast is getting too big. Comcast is a like a store. When you go into town and see a lot of stores owned by different people, that's a good thing. Prices are usually more fair and lower. Comcast is a store that keeps buying up other stores. This makes people worry because if Comcast buys all the stores in town, then they can make prices as high as they want. This is what we call a monopoly. It's when one company controls one industry. Comcast provides Internet, TV, and phone services. If they were the only company to give people these things, then they could make really high prices.


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

[User]
Why do some plastics get stronger when stretched?

I was trying to tear a plastic bag from the grocery store apart when I thought about this. I was trying to rip the "handles" off, but it just stretches to the limit of my strength, extends but doesn't tear. Why is that? I know I could tear it apart easily by applying force from another angle and whatnot, but I'm curious to why it's strengthened by the pulling.

[Assistant]
Good question! The mechanics of plastics (which are various types of polymers) can be very different from I've to another, so don't assume it's always true, but here goes.

Plastic bags are almost always polyethylene. Depending on the processing and the size of polyethylene (PE) chains used, the properties can change. In this case, stronger bags mean a higher density PE, while weaker ones are lower density. For PE, the general pattern is mostly the same either way, though.

PE is a very "plain" polymer, which makes things fairly simple. It's just a long chain of carbon atoms, with nothing but hydrogen sticking out. So, think of it like cooked spaghetti, with tons of chains so mixed together. As you pull them apart, it's easy at first. The chains are just sliding through and past one another. Some of them start snagging though, or getting knotted together by chance. It starts getting harder to keep pulling as more and more of the chains catch, and you are either pulling the knots or hooked sections free, or breaking some of the chains as you go.

Eventually, you keep pulling to the point where the chains that are not broken yet are stretched fairly close to linear, weaving through each other still but mostly on the same axis you are pulling along. Now, you are no longer pulling apart coils and knots, but you are ripping the chains themselves. Naturally, it's harder to rip apart molecules than to pull them away from each other! At some point, chains start ripping. The more of the chains rip, the fewer you still fight against, so it has what's called a cascading failure where ripping each next chain becomes easier and easier.

One interesting detail still - as you pull, the bag starts getting thinner at some point, and becomes less transparent there. That is called 'necking'. It's where the chains are becoming more linearly aligned due to the strain of your pulling. Because the chains are more linear and less tangled, it allows them to become more densely packed together (think how tightly you can pack straight spaghetti strands together versus a clump of strands!). This tighter packing is also what makes the necking region appear less transparent, as less light can go through.


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

[User] [Frankenstein [The 1818 novel]] Victor Frankenstein's creation demanded Frankenstein make him a mate, but Frankenstein destroyed the half-completed female out of fear of the two breeding. Why didn't Frankenstein just build a female without ovaries?

[Assistant] Because it's not just their potential for breeding. To the good doctor, the idea of even one "monster"roaming about and being a general affront to God and nature was bad enough. Two of them would be a catastrophe. Plus, Victor's creation was evidently intelligent; who's to say that, with help from another creature like himself, the monster wouldn't figure out Victor's secret and create children of their own?


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

[User] I thought the sky would get much darker yesterday during the eclipse. How can almost 90% of the Sun be occluded, but the daylight is hardly affected?

[Assistant]
Your eyes are essentially optical sensors, and by their design, they have a very large *dynamic range*.

Dynamic range is a term used to describe the ability of sensors to function in the presence of signals whose strength can vary tremendously. For example, your ears are sensors for sound; their sensitivity in terms of frequency is in the range 20:20000 range, which is to say that the highest signal they can pick up has 1000x the frequency of the lowest signal, the dynamic range (for signal frequency) is therefore 1000.

The dynamic range of your ears is even more impressive when looking not at the frequency, but at the signal strength. The ratio of the highest vs the lowest sound level your ears can pick up is something like 10,000,000,000.

Your eyes have limited dynamic range in terms of light frequency (about a factor of 2), but their dynamic range in terms of optical energy is about 1,000,000,000 -- the lowest light level that can be detected is one billionth of the highest light level.

Your eyes achieve this impressive range by adapting to the light environment. In high light conditions, your pupils go small and you squint to limit the amount of light falling on your retina, and the detectors (cones and rods) in your retina will saturate -- extra light will not lead to more signal.

In conditions of low illumination, your pupils open fully to allow as much light to enter as possible, and chemicals will be produced to highten the sensitivity of your rods (the most light sensitive optical cells, that cannot distinguish color). In darkness, this process takes about 15 minutes.

So what happens during a partial solar eclipse is this: the illumination level goes from broad daylight (the highest level of illumination that your eye is equipped to handle) to 10% of that. That is still A LOT of light to work with, and compared to the enormous dynamic range of your eye, it barely makes a difference.

I personally had the pleasure of witnessing a full solar eclipse in Northern France in 1999. Indeed up until the last 10 minutes of so before the actual full phase of the eclipse, the effect was surprisingly small. One interesting phenomenon is that shadows become sharper -- the sun normally takes up about 0.5 degrees in the sky, and due to this its shadows are never sharp; there is always a transition area where the sun is only partially illuminating the surface. So when the sun becomes smaller (just prior to an eclipse), almost becoming a "point source", shadow edges become unnaturally sharp.

The last few minutes prior to an eclipse are quite weird. The illimunation levels go down really fast, in a way you're not used to. In the last 10 seconds before totality, your vision becomes almost colorless (because the cones stop picking up color information), and it feel as if a blanket is pulled over the sky. Then totality sets in, and the corona emerges. It is quite a sight.


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

[User]
CMV: home computers should default to dim or no lights

This applies to computers marketed for home use.  Obviously stuff marketed to banks, airplanes, etc could be different.

Many people put home computers (including gaming computers and home office PCs) in their bedrooms. Case lights, power button lights, etc can interfere with sleep.  Accordingly, the default should be extremely dim lights - like a few microcandela red - or nothing.  Frequently I'm seeing blue or white lights well over 1 candela.  That doesn't communicate more information and interferes unnecessarily with sleep.

Now obviously some kinds of case lighting schemes look cool or whatever, and it's fine to include those with an easy instructions on how to enable them.  But the default should always be disabled.

[Assistant] If you default to no lights, then in the event of some component failure it's harder to tell which things are getting power, because you'd need to go into the BIOS/settings and turn the lights on, which sometimes isn't possible. It's much better for maintenance purposes to have lights default to being on. You can then turn the lights off as a BIOS/OS setting. Conversely, many home users _do_ want bright lights, so merely having dim lights doesn't satisfy everyone's use case.


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

[User]
[Marvel/MCU/Sonyverse] Sokovia, Wakanda, Latveria, Genosha: Where are these places located? What other nations or kingdoms exist in the Marvelverse?

I know Wakanda is in Africa, and Latveria is in Europe (I always assumed somewhere near the Baltic States) but where are these places specifically, how big are they, and what relationships do they have with nations I'd recognize from our universe?

[Assistant]
Wakanda is specifically eastern Africa.  It moves based on source but the most common one and the one the MCU uses is near Lake Turkana bordering Ethiopia/Kenya/South Sudan area.

Latveria is specifically the Eastern Bloc, it also moves based on source but it usually shares a border or lake with Translyvania.

Sokovia is also eastern Europe.  Other fake countries in that area are: Slorenia, Slokovia, Symkaria, and Transia.

Genosha is North-East Madagascar.

Other big ones are Madripoor is South-East Asia, Atlantis in the Atlantic.

There are other countries that get mentioned in a short arc and never again, about a dozen in Europe and Africa.  Marvel leaves Asia alone mostly.


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

[User]
[Thor: Ragnarok] what would the nerve disturbance device do to beings such as Korg and Groot?

And as a bonus, what would it do to Hela?

[Assistant]
Obedience discs are rather powerful. Since not-Korg is already was a gladiator in there, it's safe to assume that they work on him, even though he's made of rocks. And if they work on rocks, they would work on trees too.

In original Planet Hulk obedience discs were strong enough to hold Silver Surfer for a while.

EDIT: and since Hela is stupid powerful only from her connection to Asgard, it's likely they'll work on her as well, as long as she's on not-Sakar.


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

[User]
ELI5: Does airspace have speed limits?

If so, why?

[Assistant] It does. For one, you want aircraft spaced to avoid collision chance - so you need them to keep their speed in check, two, you dont really want sonic booms at low altitude over, lets say, a large city - this has a potential to be directly damaging to health/life (and also, quite unsafe for the aircraft)


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

[User] eli5: when a star leaves the observable universe due to expansion, does it get fainter over time from our perspective, or it just appears to turn off, like a flashlight?

[Assistant]
When light leaves a star, it spreads out.  When it spreads out, it covers a larger area and the luminosity declines as a result.  The same amount of light is spread thin across more space.

For stars that are very far away from us, an awful lot of spreading has been done by the time their light reaches us.  By that token, stars get dimmer to us as the universe expands and they get farther away.

If we were able to pintpoint a start that we knew was going to become so far and so dim that we'd fail to be able to detect or observe it, it would get fainter until that happened.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Who and what are Gray Jedi?

Why are they not as popular as Sith and Normal Jedi? How many are there? And wouldn't they be more considered antiheroes like bounty hunters?

[Assistant]
"Grey Jedi" are force-users who have rejected the discipline of the Jedi Order, but also the teachings of the Sith. They are usually Dark, but claim to have found a "balance" between the two. The idea is that they are neither Dark nor Light, but in-between - "Grey", get it?

Many have suggested that prominent Jedi Knights actually used the Dark Side to aid them in battle, and that they could draw on the strength of both Dark and Light to become greater than either; but there is no evidence to support this legend. It was almost certainly invented by the Sith to ensnare the weak-minded.

Darth Sidious pretended to be such a Gray Jedi before revealing his Sith nature to the young Anakin Skywalker. Anakin mistakenly believed that he would, as Chosen One, "balance" the two "sides" of the Force.

In truth, however, there is only the Force, and the disturbances strong emotions cause. The Jedi way is balance and peace; the Dark Side is imbalance and turbulence. By destroying the Sith active at the time, Vader restored that balance.

[OOC, they were a piece of nonsense introduced by EU writers who had misunderstood the lore. Several Jedi, including Luke and Qui-Gon Jinn IIRC, were retconned into being "Grey Jedi". They are now thankfully erased, eliminating the contradictions and issues they created.]


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

[User] [Star Wars] How much did Darth Maul, and Count Doku know about Palpatine's corruption of the Senate, and what did they know about his plans for the civil war?

[Assistant] At the very least Count Doku was fully aware of the situation. Doku was a key part of Palpatine's strategy to play both sides. He sent Doku to impersonate a Jedi and create the Clone Army for the Republic, and Doku specifically ordered the creation of the clone's nueral implants that would cause them to carry out Order 66, so he must have known that the army and the entire war was a ploy to give Palpatine control of the galaxy. What he did not know or fully expect was that Palpatine would throw him aside in favor of Darth Vader.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Is lightsaber-blocking tech simply rare, in limited supply, or hardly deployed because encounters with a lightsabers unlikely?

I am not simply talking Beskar here, we all know how rare that Mandalorian iron is. But, as we see from the likes of the Emperors Royal Guards and their pikes, Scout Troopers with their batons [Fallen Order], General Greviouss MagnaGuards, the Knights of Ren, or simply energy shields that can be quickly deployed from the wristswhy is it that this technology is not deployed en masse around the galaxy? Ya know, just in case a lightsaber gets involved with a conflictbe it a pirate stronghold, smugglers, or the Empire itself!

It seems to be incredibly efficient at otherwise neutralizing the threat of something that can instantly lob a limb off and give someone a fighting chance. Is it truly because its rare or difficult to produce? Or, do our galactic citizens really never consider the however small possibility that they can encounter a lightsaber when doing nefarious things?

[Assistant]
It's all 3. Materials that block sabers are more expensive than their similar counterparts, Jedi encounters are unlikely, and the Jedi do their best to avoid revealing what can stop them, so there is a limited number of people who know enough to supply it.

It's the same reason not all cars have tank treads - they'd be worse 99% of the time.


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

[User] [MCU] In GoTG vol. 2, Gamora falls out of a ship and lands just fine after falling a hundred or so feet. In Infinity War, she straight up dies. Why?

[Assistant]
Because the fall in Infinity War was 101ft.

But in all seriousness, it was probably a few different things.  Maybe Thanos used the reality stone to make sure the fall was fatal. Gamora was pretty shocked that Thanos cared enough about her to make her a sacrifice, it's possible she wasn't prepared to do what she had to to survive the fall.

And a third option is because of the Soul stone.  It might not matter if the fall is technically fatal, it's just the act of sacrifice itself that kills the victim. Throwing Gamora off the cliff could just be symbolic, and the Soul Stone itself does the actual 'killing' as part of the exchange.


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

[User]
ELI5: how does toxic shock syndrome work and why does it become deadly so rapidly? My

My sex education was pretty much non existent in school and my parents never gave me the talk and so I had to learn a lot of things as an adult. Toxic shock syndrome was one of the many things  never fully explained to me and I only really know the basics. (Ie- the stuff printed in warning leaflets in tampon boxes). Last month I had a bit of a scare regarding toxic shock as I suddenly developed a fever and several flu like symptoms including vomiting while on my period. It turned out nothing but a nasty 24 hour bug but the incident motivated me to educate myself about TSS to avoid future panic. I understand that its a bacterial based infection but how exactly do the bacteria enter the body? why do tampons make the risk so much higher? How can it kill in such a short space of time?

Help me educate myself here reddit!

[Assistant]
Toxic shock syndrome (TSS) is a rather rare diagnosis. Let's go into what it is and why it is so dangerous.

TSS is essentially an over-stimulation of your body's immune response. It is caused primarily by 2 bacteria (you don't need to know them but they are staph aureus and group a strep). These are actually extremely common bacteria; any time you have a pimple or skin infection it is almost always these two bacteria that cause it. But.... you've probably never had TSS even though you've been infected by these bacteria. Why is that?

Well, you only develop TSS if the specific bacteria that is infecting you has what is called a super-antigen. This is a protein in the bacteria that activates an absolutely MASSIVE amount of immune cells in your body. These immune cells are ready to fight and so they begin wreaking havoc all over your body destroying it from the inside. Most bacteria don't have this super-antigen. The interesting thing is it's actually very very likely you've been infected by a bacteria with a super-antigen before (probably one of those pimples you've had some time in your life). So why didn't you develop TSS?

You didn't develop it because the bacteria didn't have access to your bloodstream. Once the bacteria are in your bloodstream, they can go anywhere and are in direct contact with many of your immune cells. In a pimple, the infection is walled off. This is exactly why tampons are bad. The inside of the vagina and uterus have a very very very rich blood supply (which makes sense because your uterine lining must be recreated every month). This means the bacteria have a rather easy time gaining access to your bloodstream.

If a tampon is kept in long, they will grow bacteria on them, and the bacteria will keep multiplying. This means if you don't remove the tampon, you have essentially a factory in your vagina pumping out bacteria (this is why there is such a high risk).

 It kills you in such a short period because of a few reasons. 1 is that as mentioned above, you have a factory churning out bacteria into your blood. 2 is that the infection is in your bloodstream meaning it can go anywhere in your body most notably your organs (liver, kidneys, lungs, heart). 3 is that you have hyper-activation of your immune system which destroys your body from the inside.

It's a scary thing to see. Very very high death rate if you develop TSS. Depending on which bacteria it is, the death rate can go as high as 50%. Don't worry though, if you have some sniffles and a fever you probably don't have TSS.


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

[User]
ELI5 how trees know when autumn starts

How do plants differentiate between chilly, dark and wet summer days and actual autumn? Why do they only start to loose their leaves when the appropriate season comes and not earlier?

[Assistant]
It's how many hours of sunlight it receives.  Summer is when daylight starts getting shorter.  By the time you reach autumn, that's the equinox.

Basically the trees know how much energy it takes to maintain their leaves and when it's not worth the time because there isn't enough sun.