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

[User]
ELI5: What is so bad about communism?

American's have been raised for many years to despise the concept of communism. Is it truly a bad system, or simply contrary to American style capitalism?

[Assistant]
It's not inherently bad, in fact it's a great system in theory. The issue is it has failed miserably every time it has been put into practice. One big way communism differs from capitalism is there isn't any competition in enterprise because there is only 1 "company," the government, which employs everyone. In capitalist society, Ford improves their cars every year so they can compete with GM. Samsung improves its TVs to compete with LG. In Communist society, the governments car factories produce all the cars and they get no better because they don't need to.  The biggest issue arises for necessity items, like food. The government doesn't need to improve its food supply chain because they aren't competing with anyone else. Even within the government agencies that are responsible for different things, there is no competition. It doesnt matter if Joe's farm produces more food than Jack's, they get paid the same amount of rations from the government. Communism counts on everyone to do their part, but history shows us its not exactly in man's nature to do their part without an incentive.

The reason most Americans hate even the mention of it is because many of America's enemies in past wars have been Communist states, the former USSR being the biggest example. During WW2, the USSR and communism were heavily vilified and that is still apart of modern American cultural consciousness. Communism = bad was such a common idea that even villains in comics and Disney cartoons were linked to it. It was especially useful in army recruitment because it united the soldiers against a common enemy "the commies." A lot of people who lived during ww2 are still alive today and the elderly population is has one of the highest rates of voter turnout.  Politicians play to this anti-communist message because they'll get votes from the elderly and younger people who likely have been influenced by their (great)(grand)parents' opinions.


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

[User]
How do insects with queens (ants/bees) develop genetic diversity?

If a colony has only one female that makes offsprings, genetic diversity will not be strong. Wouldn't that be a major setback for evolution?  Yet, ants are thriving.

[Assistant] Beekeeper checking in...a virgin queen will leave the home about 7-10 days after emerging. We can this her "nuptial flight". She will fly to what it called a "drone congregation area" and enjoy in-flight sex with 15-20 drones over a two or three day period. When she returns she will fatten up and begin laying up to 1,500 eggs per day.


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

[User]
[DC] Why doesn't Bane fix his perpetually-obvious weakness?

Most if not all incarnations of Bane show him with hoses and pumps attached to him which deliver Venom into his system, and most if not all incarnations of Bane show him getting his ass handed to him after Batman slices through those hoses or short-circuits those pumps.

After all this time, why doesn't Bane wise up? Conceal the hardware under a layer of body armor, for example. Get a delivery suit similar to Mister Freeze's refrigeration suit which keeps him bathed in Venom and multiplies his strength. Hell, implant all of the hardware inside his body; we know the comic universe has some badass medical tech available.

[Assistant]
Canonwise, Bane's kicked his addiction to Venom while still managing to be slightly more physically powerful than the Batman, purely through good old fashioned hard work and training.

If he were to still consistently be on Venom, there would still be issues. Body armour would be bulky and restrict movement, a problem that would only be exacerbated by his expanding musculature when he's actually on Venom.

There would in all likelihood be negative side effects of constantly bathing/exposing his body to Venom. And again, the expanding muscles would make a rigid exo-suit difficult to use.

Implanting hardware inside the body would be difficult, due to the fact that placing tanks, tubes, and machines beneath the skin, next to muscles, organs, etc., would likely impede natural body movement patterns. Can't be easy walking around with artificial objects inserted literally everywhere inside one's body, let alone fighting.


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

[User]
ELI5: Cant our body just produce way more defenders so it can be ready in the case that it is ever attacked by a potentially life-threatening disease?

By defenders I mean, strengthening our immune system so it is practically unbeatable.

[Assistant]
Well as a metaphor look at the vietnam war. Just having more dudes and material on your side doesn't guarantee that you win in the end.

The most critical part of the immune system is the coordination. Recognizing what is a pathogen and what isn't (false alarms are basically allergies, and potentially deadly). Also tailoring the answer to the pathogen in question. The general purpose part of your immune system is good to buy time, but the fight is won by specialists produced to fight exactly this threat.

If just producing more defenders would increase your chance of survival then your body would do that. Deseases have always been a major force in natural selection.


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

[User] ELI5:WHY is the self-employment tax rate higher than the regular tax rate?

[Assistant]
I assume you're talking about FICA taxes, which pay for social security and medicare. For employees, 7.65% of the employee's paycheck is put towards those taxes and the employer pays 7.65% of the paycheck out of their own pocket. (Actually, 8.55% for the employee if the employee makes over $200,000/year).

When you're self-employed you have to pay the full 15.3% for social security and medicare taxes because you don't have an employer covering the other half. However, you get to claim business deductions, which can help lower your taxable income.


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

[User]
Do the gas giants have a solid core?

Sorry if this is an obvious question.

[Assistant]
Nobody really knows for sure.  However, satellites have measured gravity of some of the gas giants (non-spherical objects have non-spherical gravitational influence), and these measurements have suggested that solid cores exist in all the gas giants.

However, the inference of these cores is both very difficult and uncertain.  For example, Jupiter is thought to have a "rocky" core comprising somewhere between 5-15% of its total mass.  However, the term "rocky" is used loosely, because we know very little about the actual composition (in part because we simply don't know all of the properties of the materials at the temperature and pressure of Jupiter's core).  The story is pretty much the same with the other gas giants.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Are wizards like Dumbledore/Grindelwald/Voldemort so powerful because they studied more magic than the average wizards?

So my understanding is that, to an average wizard, there really is no point in going above and beyond when learning magic. They might go to school, get an education and then get a job. Sprinkle and spells and magic here and there and you really don't need to be the "best", just "good enough".

So my question is, is that how majority of the wizarding world mindset is, and exactly why people who go above and beyond, such as Dumbledore, Grindelwald and Voldemort are seen as godly wizards? They never stop learning, they always want more and more knowledge and power.

I mean, even if you are an auror, just how much spells do you need? A couple of stunning spells? Defense spells? It seems any wizard can be like the caliber of Dumbledore if they just learnt more or tried. Is the wizarding world just poorly educated and no drive to learn beyond what they do in school?

It seems the lack of ambition is why most wizards aren't so powerful. After all, everyone can equally cast a spell, so what makes Voldemort casting a spell any different than some Joe schmoe off the streets? The spell would come out the same from the wand, no?

[Assistant]
It's not just wrist work, and or not just intelligence, you need a fair amount of cognitive flexibility and resilience to perform some spells.  Expecto Patronum required you to think of something happy. Ridikulous required you to think up, on the spot, something funny about a boggart (your worst fear)

It's like most other abilities, training will make you better, but  some people are simply more talented.


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

[User] ELI5: During a panic attack the fight or flight response is activated. Why is it called the "fight or flight" response if it leaves you feeling so weak, scared, short of breath and faint. Surely feeling like this is not very effective if you actually need to fight or flee?

[Assistant] It's the time scale that messes it up. It's a bunch of physical changes that are supposed to make sense when a tiger jumps out of a bush and you have 4 seconds to bash it's face in or get half a mile away.  It all falls apart when instead of a tiger it's worry about unpaid taxes or something that lasts for hours or days, or just unrestrained terror getting worse and worse. Hormones that make sense for 'yeah, do this thing right now!" start to screw you up when the right now goes beyond a few seconds or minutes.  You get a second of 'put all your energy into this!" then use it to just vaguely panic because there is no physical threat then five minutes into the "put all your energy into this" all your energy is none energy and you are weak and out of breath and still trying to run at max power.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do lawyers refer back to interpretations of the law instead of the actual written law?

Why do lawyers argue that a case should be settled in their way because of XvY, instead of the plain words that the law is used?  I ask in regards to constitutional law specifically, but other law in general.

[Assistant] Because precedent is everything in the (American) legal system. The surest way to convince a judge that what you're doing is okay is to show that someone else did it first. Trying to push a new interpretation of the law, even if it complies with the letter of the law, is comparatively much harder.


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

[User] I encrypt a message with keyA, then with keyB. Is there now a keyC that could decrypt the message in one go, instead of using keyB and keyA?

[Assistant] It depends on the encryption scheme used. In the simplest scheme, the one time pad XORed with the plaintext, the answer is yes. XOR is associative so ciphertext = key_A XOR (key_B XOR plaintext) = (key_A XOR key_B) XOR plaintext. So the expression  (key_A XOR key_B) becomes the new effective key. However in most other cryptosystems there will be no such simple relationship and so the only way to decrypt will be with each key separately.


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

[User] What would happen if the 100 richest people on earth all died instantly?

[Assistant] Their fortunes would likely just be broken up between their spouses, children, charities, etc. (the places they designate their fortunes to go), and depending on the exact person, there could be some volatility in the markets as they adjust to a world without these business titans.


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

[User] [Batman] I'm trying to rob a bank at night. Batman come in and takes out two of my friends. If I toss out my weapon and surrender, would he still beat me up? We haven't hurt anyone.

[Assistant]
He would not beat you up for surrendering if you truly haven't hurt anyone. However you still will be detained/bound for the police.

There is one possible exception: that Batman needs to leave immediately but doesn't want to risk you freeing your friends and finishing the crime. Say he saunters up to you all brooding and pulls out handcuffs, when suddenly there's a huge explosion down by the docks. He'll look over and realize something bigger is happening, and proceed to knock you unconscious with a single punch before running to the scene.


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

[User]
ELI5: why are cordless tools rising in voltage?

Ive owned cordless tools of various kinds since I was a teenager and they were always marketed by voltage. In the nineties, 9.6 volt was the big thing. Then in the 00s it was twelve volt, and eventually 24. Now it seems like the larger tools are all 40 volt and above, but not all; my chainsaw is 24 volt and cuts down small trees just fine, and my string trimmer is 40 volt and doesnt seem to be any more powerful than the chainsaw but the battery lasts longer.

What I dont understand is why these things seem to be growing in voltage rather than amperage, and in marketing it seems like the voltage is supposed to be a proxy for how powerful it is. I understand the larger tool needs more power but why are the cells wired in serial rather than parallel?

[Assistant] The higher of voltage you run, the smaller of conductors your need to pass the same amount of power. So 100W of power at 12V is 8.4 amps. But if you jumped it to 24V, it would only be 4.2 amps. And 48V would be 2.1amps. So raising the voltage will let you get the same amount of power out of a tool but not need big copper wiring on the inside.


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

[User] [Marvel] How would Latveria under Dr Doom face Covid crisis?

[Assistant]
Effeicient and harshly. The lack of foriegn travel and trade will eliminate the largest spread of the virus before it travels to Latveria. Mandatory screenings of everyone on a regular if not daily basis. Enforced quarantine for anyone with the virus and full provisions and medical aid rendered to them. People will gladly follow Dooms orders and it'll be a very minor crisis to them. More like New Zealand in it's response only faster and more completely accepted and enforced. The hardest aspect will be dealing with the rest of the world still managing the pandemic long after Latveria has eliminated it completely from their territory.

And Doom himself would likely have a cure or vaccination created in a few weeks using his science and magic to protect his people completely rather than constantly having to introduce new or amended procedures.


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

[User] ELI5: What the term "remastered" means in relation to movies, and what does it actually do?

[Assistant]
Generally it means they find the best original copy they can, digitise it, and run image processing to bring out the old color and remove evidence of damage like flashes and spots.

They also digitise the audio, and remove pops, crackles, adjust the levels etc.

e: a master is the original which copies are made from, so a re-master is making the best master you can out of old stock.


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

[User] ELI5: The maximum limits to human lifespan appears to be around 120 years old. Why does the limit to human life expectancy seem to hit a ceiling at this particular point?

[Assistant]
Imagine making a copy of a document with a scanner. Every time you scan a scanned document to make a copy it gets degraded. That's what's happening in your cells, a scanned copy of a scanned copy of a scanned copy.

Now your body is doing that every few days or weeks depending on they type of cell. After 100+ years, it just gets degraded to the point where your organs start to fail.

That's also how we get cancer, if you get a smudge on one of the photocopies and can't read it anymore, then keep photocopying it.


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

[User] ELI5: Why isn't iron in your blood affected by strong magnetic fields like an MRI?

[Assistant] Two reasons. The iron content is far too low (~1 mg of iron per liter of blood) for any observable effect. Iron in blood is not in a metallic state, but instead contained within hemoglobin, which has no net unpaired electrons.


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

[User] [The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim] How much stronger is Skyforge Steel than regular steel?

[Assistant]
It's the best steel you can get without doing smithing with more durable metals like ebony, orichalum or dwemer metals.

Norse Cultures believed that adding the bones of their dead would transfer the spirits to their blades, which had a basis in science because adding carbon (from bones) to their smithing created decent steel out of their shit iron.

Similarly for the Nords, and specifically the Companions, they would hold funeral pyres for their Great Heroes on the Sky Forge. It is said that the Skyforge would "awaken" after such an event allowing for the forging of higher quality metal equivalent to those produced by ancient Nords.

It's not that it's many times stronger or anything, but in Skyrim, it's the best steel you can get aside maybe something from the Orc Strongholds.


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

[User]
[DC] Why is Eobard Thawne so stuck-up on hatred of a man who died 400 years before his time? He ruined his own life, so why does he think he's the victim?

I just don't understand, I know he goes back in time and finds out he is destined to be Flash's arch nemesis.....so why not CHANGE it? Its not like he HAD to be his nemesis right?

[Assistant]
> so why not CHANGE it? Its not like he HAD to be his nemesis right?

He tried and it led directly to him becoming Reverse Flash.

Eobard Thawne was *not* a stable individual to begin with; he wanted to be a hero but lived in an almost perfectly safe era... so he started engineering disasters so that he could step in and save people. He was bonkers *long* before he learned of his eventual fate... then Barry showed up, initially befriended him and then learned the truth.

Barry beat Thawne who promised he'd reform... and he did too. After years of therapy and effort he came back in time to work with Barry, even reversed the colors of his suit *because those were the colors Kid Flash wore,* but when he realized that his friendship with Barry wasn't special, that Barry treated *everyone* that way, he snapped.

Eobard, for all his power, is an obessed fan-boy. He tries to be the reverse of Barry but he's not; he's the reverse of Wally.

(Flash #25-#27 Rebirth era)


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

[User]
ELI5: What does an investment banker do?

I am not in any way trying to make points about Wall Street, I'm just interested in what investment banking is and how things actually work.

[Assistant]
If you want to sell your house, you may decide to hire a mortgage broker to help you figure out how much your house is worth on the market and then show your house to potential buyers. If you want to buy a house, you may decide to hire a mortgage broker to show you different houses based on what you want and can afford. Instead of houses, an investment banker helps *companies* buy or get a acquired by other companies.

Most investment bankers spend 80-120 hours a week staring at Excel to model out what the financials of the combined company would look like (that's seriously the industry standard hours; most people quit within a year or two). At the highest levels, however, it's basically a sales job. The managing director knows a lot of people in his specific industry, what companies are worth in that industry based on financial metrics he's memorized over the years, and basically helps arrange buyers and sellers. If the deal goes through, the banker gets a small cut of the transaction.


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

[User]
CMV: Tiktok should be banned worldwide.

I think that tiktok should be banned because:

1. Its a privacy nightmare. The second you open the app it connects to over 120 websites for data collection. Including their own. Its so insecure that (my mom does classified work) I cant have it even if I wanted to. (I dont)

2. Its for their own good. Seriously, I went up to some tiktok users and told them that China was spying on them and all I got was a little oh. Nobody cares. It needs to be banned for the good of the people.

For clarification, the sample size of people I asked was small, but I dont have access to a large group of people. I would say that for the good of the people is a questionable phrase, but Im using it for the purposes of this. Also, this isnt a reason, but the content isnt even that good. All it is are people youve never met singing.

[Assistant]
If people want to give away **their** data why shouldnt they be able to? It is generated by them. As long as they are adequately told of the risks, why should it be banned.

I understand the risk for confidential data and government data. But the average person, what is the risk?

Confidential data is obviously restricted, because it isnt your mums data, its the governments (or companies), so she doesnt get to choose wherever it goes away or not.


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

[User] ELI5:I frequently see people make the point that net-worth isn't cash, so what's the best way to estimate how much money the mega-wealthy have access to at any given time without liquidating assets?

[Assistant]
Net worth is a headline with no substance.  Low quality "journalists" do a quick checks of public record stock holdings and multiply by the current stock price to create clickbait.

The mega wealthy (bezos) own stock in their companies.  If they did actually liquidate, it would lower the value of that stock, and they would owe half of the proceeds in taxes.

So, to be more accurate, instead of declaring Bezos has $200 B net worth, the headlines should state Bezos theoretically could have ~$70 B after months or more of selling his company, but his departure could lower the value even further.


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

[User]
[MCU] If the mutations in Wade Wilsons (Deadpools) body were Killing the cancer cells as fast as they can form, how come Deadpool gets sick when the mutation disappears?

When the collar in the second movie is around his neck, how come he suddenly gets sick again from cancer?

The mutation killed his cancer as fast as it could form, would it not have killed the original harmful cells? If so, why not? If he can regenerate limbs and whatnot, couldnt he just cut out the cancerous cells and they would disappear? On that note he DID blow himself up to smithereens in a self destructive suicide attempt, and cancer isnt coded into his original DNA, I would have thought the cancer would have been gone by now, replaced by healthy tissue.

Maybe cancer is somehow stronger than the mutation, but id have a hunch blowing yourself up to bits would be, too, and it wasnt.

[Assistant]
He's not invulnerable, he just heals rapidly.  Much like if he gets cut, shot, stabbed, etc.   The injury still exists... but his mutation allows for rapid healing from that injury.

The mutation isnt a cure for cancer... it's a consistent "healing" that is going on to undo the damage the cancer is doing. -- The cancer and the mutation co-exist in an essential "stale mate" situation.

Once you inhibit the mutation, the rapid healing stops.   The cancer can continue to do it's damage without him healing.


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

[User]
How can certain bacteria and viruses be deadly to one species but completely harmless to another?

Edit:  Wow. Thank you all for the great answers!

[Assistant]
You could potentially get many answers to this question! One example is if the pathogen's surface proteins recognizing specific cellular receptors that exist on one species but not the other. If they cannot recognize and attach to the cell, they are not infectious. Another variation is the immunity of the species and whether it can keep the pathogen in check. For example, bats have sophisticated anti-viral mechanisms that keep them safe from otherwise deadly viruses (like SARS!).

Yet another variation is the part of the world the host lives in; many pathogens thrive in a specific environment, so it makes sense that they would adapt to recognize hosts that live in a similar environment.

The short answer to your question is evolution. The host and pathogen co-evolve together which reinforces their relationship. Occasionally, however, the pathogen can mutate and cross species, like what happened with SIV and HIV.


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

[User]
CMV: The difference between gender and sex is incoherent

I hear trans activists say that people just dont understand the difference between sex and gender. I admit that I am one of those people, but I think that its because the difference is incoherent. Ill start with what I do know:

Gender is man and woman.

Sex is male and female.

I got that. I understand that much.

But everything gets incoherent after that.
Are trans women still male? If so, what does MTF stand for? If not, then whats the difference between female and woman? If you can change your sex AND your gender, what does gender even mean? What does sex even mean? Some trans people say that a surgical change is necessary to be considered the opposite sex. Other trans people say that penises can be female. Who is right?

Is it possible to be a trans woman and identify as female? And if so, can a cis man identify as female without identifying as a woman? Could a trans man do that? Is any combination of cis/trans, male/female, man/woman possible or only some of them? If both sex and gender are changeable, then whats the word for the identity that isnt changeable?

Ill be honest. I dont understand the difference between sex and gender. But I dont think anyone else does either.

[Assistant]
"Gender" is the psychological aspect, "Sex" the physical one. That is the only real distinction.

The terms "man", "woman", "male" and "female" are not as clear-cut as you think they are. They are often used interchangably to use both gender and sex.

For the example of transgender people: the transgender person is born as one of the two sexes (ignoring the case of intersex people for now) but feels like a gender identity that does not conform to their sex. Later in life, they might want to undergo procedures to change their sex (the physical / biological part) to match their gender (the psychological part). After that, their sex and gender are "the same".

Now, there is a lot of debate about whether this is valid, whether one can truly "change their sex", whether gender and sex influence one another, etc.

There is, however, a clear distinction between psychology and biology, even if there are interdependencies.


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

[User] How do we know how to pronounce ancient Egyptian and Sumerian names?

[Assistant]
For Egyptian, at least, it's because of the Ptolemaic pharaohs: Greeks who were pharoahs of Egypt.

During analysis of the Rosetta stone, which had Greek, Demotic, and Hieroglyphs on it. linguists realized it contained the exact same message in three languages. The importance is that they could read the Greek in its entirety because it's a known language. So, they knew the entirety of the message written in the other languages (though had no idea which symbols meant what yet) and could use that as a starting point. The Greek text contained the name "Ptolemy" and the Egyptians had encircled words in their hieroglyphs on the Rosetta Stone. The meaning of the circling wasn't known, but one guy thought that it might be because the word was an important name. Further, the only important name in the Greek text was "Ptolemy" and it stands to reason that the pharaoh's name would be pronounced the same in both Greek and Egyptian. So, he assigned the letters inside the cartouches to the sounds in the name "Ptolemy".

Fast forward a few years and someone notices an obelisk with the same word from the Rosetta Stone thought to be "Ptolemy" and another unknown name in a cartouche. Applying the sounds for the symbols in the "Ptolemy" cartouche to the new cartouche, the sounds matched up with what they should be if the name in the second cartouche was "Cleopatra", another of the Ptolemaic line with a Greek name. Following the same reasoning that the pharoah's name will be the same in Greek and Egyptian, The "Cleopatra" cartouche allowed them to match a couple more symbols with sounds. Now, people started looking at cartouches and applying this technique of replacing known symbols in the cartouches with their already identified sounds looking for partially translated words that could possibly be known famous Greek and Roman names of the time that could then be used to assign more sounds to remaining unknown hieroglyphic symbols in the cartouches.

Still, people believed that hieroglyphs were still not all phonetic and had some pictographs. Further, they thought that these cartouches may only be used for foreign names. Along the way, people naturally encountered more words in cartouches and when they started filling in the phonetic sounds for them, they usually made no sense because these were four thousand year old texts and not everyone who was important enough to get a cartouche then was important enough to be remembered all these millennia later. However, someone stumbled on a name in a cartouche that had some unknown symbols with some "esses" at the end. It had a sun symbol at the front and the guy (named Champollion) made a leap of intuition. He knew the Coptic language and knew that the Coptic word for sun is "re".  What's important is that Coptic is a language spoken in the near East well after the Egyptians who wrote hieroglyphs were gone, but Coptic was derived from Egyptian. Making the leap of applying that Coptic "re" sound to the sun symbol, he saw that the word in the cartouche he was working on could possibly be "Ramesses", the name of an EGYPTIAN born pharaoh with an Egyptian name. Making that assumption, he was able to assign a sound of "em" to an unknown symbol in the middle of that cartouche. He turned his attention to another name and saw an ibis at the front. Knowing that the word for ibis in Coptic was pronounced "thoth" and applying the sounds for the other symbols he thought he knew, he came up with the name "Thothmosis". These were both known to be names of ancient EGYPTIAN pharaohs. This not only proved that the cartouche was not just for foreign names but were also used for Egyptian names with Egyptian phonics. It also hinted at a close connection between Coptic and Egyptian Hieroglyphics. Champollion went back to the Rosetta Stone and would find a word in Greek and translate it to Coptic. He'd then find the word in Hieroglyphics that should match the Greek word and apply sounds to the symbols he knew and discovered that the sounds were in the proper positions for many of the Coptic translations. Ancient Egyptian was not Coptic, but he had proven that the two languages were REAL close.

The realization that Coptic held the key to the unknown sounds of the Egyptian language was huge; it allowed Champollion to read a word in Greek off a tablet like the Rosetta Stone, and use what he knew about the Coptic translation of the Greek words to start confidently filling in sounds for words that didn't have a name attached to them. It would be analogous to you speaking Russian and Italian, having a stone with the same message in Russian and French, making the connection between Italian and French, and using your knowledge of Russian to Italian translation to fill in unknown sounds in the French text. Over time, as he used Coptic translations to fill in more and more sounds, he got a fuller and fuller knowledge of what each symbol sounded like.

Still, because Ancient Egyptian wasn't Coptic and was only closely related, not every sound they assigned to a symbol was correct. They'd often come across words that were gibberish using this method and over time learned that some of their guesses at sounds were flat wrong. However, as more texts with repeated messages were discovered, they were able to use new cartouches to get new names they could verify and error correct the assignments the Coptic translations were generating. Further, the language DOES have pictographic elements, as well as some symbols that could be different sounds in different uses (think of how many ways you can pronounce the English letter 'g'), also some sounds that have different symbols in different uses (like English 'c' and 'k'), groupings of symbols that sound different from their individual sounds put together (similar to the english letters 'ght' in words like 'height'), etc. Over time, they could error correct and fill in these details as they really started to uncover the secrets of the langauge and ultimately master it.

That's the rough bastardized version of how Hieroglyphs went from an inscrutable pictorial language to a completely deciphered and known semi-phonetic language.

Read up on Thomas Young and Jean-Francois Champollion for the full story. It's fascinating if you're into codebreaking, which is literally what they did to decipher the Egyptian language. They had a plaintext in the Greek, a ciphertext in the Hieroglyphics, and cribs in the form of the cartouches and the Ptolemys and the connection between Coptic and the Egyptian language.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] How Much Better or Worse are Wizarding Transportation Methods Compared to Muggle Transportation Methods?

So in the Wizarding World there are plenty of magical transportation methods. Apparation, brooms, floo powder, a train, flying cars, a super-speed bus, portkeys, etc.

Meanwhile, Muggles have cars, boats, planes, and rockets.

Which ones are better for travel? It seems obvious that for short distance apparating is the best, but what about intercontinental trips? Floo powder only works with fireplaces, portkeys seem great but they seem to only work with handheld objects and go along with them for the trip, so it's limited to only a certain number of people. Do planes turn out to be better?

And what about space travel? A top-tier wizard can apparate across continents, so he could go to the International Space Station, right? What about further out? Would it always be better to keep sending rockets to new destinations or could wizards work out something better if they decided to cooperate with Muggles?

[Assistant]
Wizards can get just about anywhere faster and don't require entire industries to be built upon them doing so.

There are *legal* restrictions to making portkeys, but anybody *can* make them. And though apparating *huge* distances is difficult and ill-advised, you can just make a series of jumps. Far faster than a car, likely comparable to a plane for a skilled apparator, and again, doesn't require a multi-hundred-billion dollar global industry to make it happen. You just decide where you want to go and start going.

For space travel, you probably need a rocket. If for no other reason than that you need something to keep your air in.


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

[User]
[General Fantasy] How would Modern Humans Compare to Traditional High Fantasy Elves?

In most Fantasy works with elves, humans are seen as significantly weaker, more rugged, and less advanced than the elves. My opinion is that this is because, generally, most stories with elves take place in a roughly medieval time
period when nutrition and health was at an all time low (at least in Europe).

[Assistant] Traditional elves would likely still look down on modern humans with some disdain.  They'd still see humans as short-sighted, short-lived rabble gluttonously consuming the natural world with too little restraint.  They'd note that compared to elves, modern humans still have blemished complexions, preoccupations with sex and money, physical infirmities, unhealthy lifestyles, disgusting habits, and poor taste.  Even modern humans' technological advances over medieval humans would likely be frowned upon by elves because of the heavy ecological footprint, ugly capitalist practices, and unrestrained consumerism involved in the production of these technologies. So, typical elves would probably dislike modern humans, too, for a lot of the same old reasons plus some new ones.


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

[User]
ELI5: The slow motion effect in videos, but in real time

Ever seen a music video where the singer is singing along with the real-time track, but it looks like it's all in slow motion? ELI5.

[Assistant]
The music track is played at double speed, and the singer/band practices lip syncing to the faster speed.

While filming, you shoot at a higher frame per second, and have everyone lip sync to the fast music track.

Finally, you play back the film at normal speed, so everything looks slow motion. But the music was fast, so it's now normal.


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

[User]
[Superman] Do Kryptonians see in a different light spectrum than us?

Okay, so they have no yellow sun. Their sun is whatever, I was always a batman fan.

But being as they have no yellow sun, doesn't that mean that their star has a different make-up in terms of lighting? And if so, do they see a different light spectrum?

[Assistant]
Krypton's sun is red, so you'd expect that the world would have a shade of red all over it. Perhaps like it is here early in the morning, with a shade of red/orange?

As for the vision part - at least Superman sees a much, much wider part of the spectrum (like, the dude can see radio waves). Just how much of this is due to him being born a Kryptonian and how much is due to his vision given a boost thanks to our sunlight is hard to say.


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

[User] ELI5: I read in an enviromental awareness chart that aluminium cans take 100 years to decompose but plastic takes more than million years. What makes the earth decompose aluminium and why can't it do the same for plastic?

[Assistant] This "decomposition" is really oxidation. Think of the oxidation like "eating". Aluminum is like a hamburger so it's really really easy to oxidize, so easy in fact that if other metals weren't added to it, the can wouldn't make it out of the factory. Other things are added to keep it from being "eaten" so quickly. Plastics on the other hand are very complex molecules that are very hard to eat. They're big like a huge bowl of jellybeans but also complex, like each one is in it's own wrapper that's really hard to open, so oxidizing plastic is very hard. This is partly by design so that the plastic will last. We can make Plastics that are easy to decompose. Compostable plastics are available, do a Google search for them.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] What if the prime minister had believed the minister of Magic

Assuming the minister of magic is nonetheless wiser to the prime minister believing him. The prime minister in this scenario wants to help.

[Assistant]
The most he could/would do, I'd imagine, would be to swear a handful of SAS troops to secrecy and put them to work alongside the Aurors.  No reason to cause mass panic, after all.
It'd have dubious effectiveness, though.  Tom Riddle most likely knows what firearms/grenades are, having grown up like Harry.  After an engagement or two with Death Eaters, the game would be up, and a modified inertia charm would make firearms useless.


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

[User]
After the solid rocket boosters are jettisoned, how does the space shuttle continue to fly straight? Wouldn't the center of thrust have moved relative to the center of mass?

The main engines and the SRBs are required to lift the shuttle and the center of thrust is roughly inline with the center of mass. After the SRBs run out, the center of thrust is entirely in the main engines though the external tank still has a lot of mass. How does the shuttle continue accelerating straight?

[Assistant] The engines on the shuttle aren't fixed - the're capable of something like (and this is based on a vague memory that is probably completely wrong) 10 degrees of movement, and so they can adjust the direction of thrust after the SRBs are jettisoned to make sure it remains pointing through the center of mass. So the direction of acceleration isn't actually in line with the nose of the shuttle, but a little bit below that, and under constant adjustment as the external tank is used up.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does dehydration make you think you're hungry, when in reality you need more water?

[Assistant] Pure liquid water is not the only source of hydration, fruits and vegetables can also be sources. During evolutionary history there were plenty of times where the liquid stuff was not available but food was still available. Increasing hunger can thus encourage getting other forms of water.


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

[User] [SW-AOTC's] Why did Boba Fett, a Bounty Hunter hire another Bounty Hunter to kill Padme and then when she messed up let her try again which she also messed up. Wouldn't it have been easier to just do it all himself from the off?

[Assistant]
Jango, not Boba, but in any case its part subcontracting out what should've been one of the easier jobs, and part limiting his exposure to risk.  Add to that Zam's skill set was suited for the task, and Fett had successfully worked with her before on several occasions.  Basically it's just good business.
Neither Jango nor Zam suspected the decoy trick, and other than that the first attempt was a successful attack.  No reason to doubt Zam's abilities on that count, so might as well use her again.
Edit: A letter.


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

[User]
Professor passed away

Not a question for academia exactly, just needed some place to get thoughts out/looking for ways to cope I guess. This professor taught me my freshman year & was a big inspiration for me in choosing what I am studying now. We loosely kept in touch after the class and they were so helpful and encouraging in my academic pursuits. I am so shocked and sad but don't know people in my position I feel like I can talk to; it wasn't like we had a tight personal relationship so it'd be weird reaching out to their acquaintances. I just don't know where I can express my grief appropriately and fully.

Not sure what I was looking for here, but thanks for reading.

[Assistant] Sending an email or a message expressing your condolences and explaining that the Professor was a great inspiration for you will not be taken amiss. People will understand. If the Professor was in the same university as you were, they might do a condolence meet or even a memorial event. It will not be weird to attend that either.


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

[User]
I don't think women are objectified in comic books. CMV.

I think the sexuality and physique of an idolized, athletic female body is often portrayed, and is exaggerated in comics, but I don't think the characters are made to be objects at all. The most iconic superheroines like Wonder Woman, She-Hulk, Invisible Woman, Catwoman, and what have you, all have terrific character build up, and by that definition alone they are not made to be mere objects in comics.

EDIT: Score just got unhidden, thanks for all the downvotes. I didnt't realize having a different opinion means having a lower quality comment.

[Assistant]
Because male characters can have a large variety of personalities, and even body types. You have your Volstaggs, your Kingpins, and your Blobs. Wolverine is a short hairy Canadian for crying out loud. For female characters, no matter what their personality is, they wear hilariously revealing costumes and have exaggerated bodies. Caring mother of two? Skintight spandex suit. Confident green lawyer? Leotard. Even characters like Jubilee, who is supposed to be a regularly proportioned Asian teenager, had her physique exaggerated over time.

Heroic male poses aren't over sexualized, they are empowering.


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

[User]
[MassEffect] Why was nukes not used more in the reaper war?

So, i would argue that  nukes would work very well against reapers, better then  the pure kinetic slugs they use now.

So, the codex says that it takes substained fire from 4 dreadnaughts to take down a reaper capital ship, as this overwhelm their sheilds faster then they can regenerate them. A dreadnaught fires a slug that hits with 38 kilotons every 5 seconds, 4 of these would put output 152 kiloton every 5 seconds. Say it takes 20 seconds for them, thats a total 608 kilotons, spread over 20 seconds. The codex also says that weapons that produce a lot of heat works better against kineitc barriers then just pure kineitc force. A nuke not only hits hard, its incredibly hot as well. A nuke of, say, 1 megaton, twice that of those 4 dreadnaughts, all in one blast, should be able to take down the sheilds of a reaper, shouldnt it?

I know, there are some limitations. You dont want to nuke a reaper guarding a prision camp, or harrasing a city filled with people. And nukes wont hit as hard in space due to the vaccum. But still, there is pleanty of times where a nuke would be helpful.
I know that they said that by the time the war begun, most of the nukes from our time had been decomissioned, and one of the reapers first acts when they arrived to earth was to destroy or bury the remaining nuclear silos, which just proves that it was a threat to them. And when a reaper in on the ground, a lot of its power is used to make it lighter, which weakens it sheilds.

Still, shouldnt be too hard to whip up some nukes, would it? The only ones i know that used nukes was the krogans on tuchanka.  Why wasnt they used more?

[Assistant]
Missiles, of all kinds, are inefficient weapons in ship-to-ship combat because of point defence lasers. A missile can be shot down with relative ease by VI operated defences because they simply don't move fast enough. That's why all fleets rely on Mass Driver weapons instead and use Missile Systems primarily as anti-fighter screens.

Nukes are useless when they can't reliably make it to their targets.


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

[User]
ELI5: What happens to a child if they are found to have psychopathic tendencies?

I remeber my university was running some program at a nearby school looking for young children with psychopathic or sociopathic tendencies. What does socitey do with these children?

[Assistant]
Psychopaths can function normally in society and many do. They're characterized as having anti-social behaviors and a lack of empathy, and this doesn't have to be a negative trait - for example, a well balanced and functional psychopath can make those hard decisions that will effect many negatively for the greater good, as in matters of policy in government or in business; not everyone can make the right decision that will cost some people their jobs, for example. They tend to seek positions of power and go into government, law, police, banking, business, and politics. Many political leaders, police officers, lawyers, bankers, and corporate executives are all psychopaths.

Psychopathy != crazy cannibal murderer. Not always, at least.


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

[User]
How exactly do contagious disease's pandemics end?

What I mean by this is that is it possible for the COVID-19 to be contained before vaccines are approved and administered, or is it impossible to contain it without a vaccine? Because once normal life resumes, wont it start to spread again?

[Assistant]
One of three things.

1. The disease is fully contained and erradicated through quarantine.

2. Conditions change such that the pathogen is less infectuous (mutation/environmental changes). It then either dies out or becomes part of a seasonal disease cycle.

3. Herd immunity is established either through a vaccine or natural immunity.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Why weren't the shenanigans against the Dursley's considered to be breaches of the secrecy laws concerning revealing magic to muggles?

Like having thousands of letters shoot out of the fireplace or giving the uncle a pig's tail?

[Assistant]
Because they already knew Harry was a wizard and that magic exists. He was to attend Hogwarts for his magical education and needed his acceptance letter in order to confirm his attendance.

As for the pig tail, the Ministry allowed Hagrid to use just enough magic in order to deliver Harry's letter. They probably didn't bother to keep track of the specific charms and stuff.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does the hair on your head continue to grow while hair on your arms reaches a max length and no longer grows?

[Assistant] All hairs on your body go through cycles of growing and then falling out.  The hair on your head happens to have a longer cycle than other parts of your body.  Depending on the exact length of your cycle, everyone has a maximum length their hair will grow to.  Also, each individual hair is on a slightly different timing, so they don't all fall out at once.  That's why you never really notice it.  You're constantly losing and regrowing hairs, but it happens so smoothly that it looks like your hair has just stopped growing.


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

[User] [Marvel] Which earth-based villain (other than Doctor Doom) could do the most good for humanity if he/she decided to help humanity?

[Assistant] He's not always on earth (and he's not always a villain), but for sheer power it's hard to go past Molecule Man, someone who Galactus was wary of, and who can shift reality around to his liking, and so could presumably make deserts into fertile farmland, polluted lakes into crystal clear water, and really fix pretty much anything up.


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

[User] ELI5: If everyone is so against racism, why do we label races, offer benefits and scholarships to certain minorities, and expect certain ethnic groups to like certain politicians just because of their ethnicities?

[Assistant] In many ways, minorities are still at a disadvantage in the United States. The idea that racism would no longer be an issue if we stopped talking about it sounds good, but it relies on everyone not being racist/prejudiced, which is simply not the case. The programs you speak of are imperfect ways of dealing with the fact that there is absolutely no way to put everyone on even ground.


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

[User] ELI5: How does our body know/learn not to wet the bed when we're sleeping?

[Assistant]
As an infant our bladders just fill and release.  As we grow and our bladder increases in size and the muscles controlling it get stronger we learn to control that impulse.

At night, two things happen.  One is we release a hormone called  vasopressin that suppresses the formation of urine during sleep.  Instead that liquid gets reabsorbed into the bloodstream and less goes into the bladder.

And secondly as our bladder fills, it sends a signal to the brain. The brain sends a signal back to the bladder telling it to relax so it can fill with more urine.  As it fills that message to the brain *should* eventually result in us waking up so we can eliminate appropriately.

With kids with bed wetting issues, they often have issues with either not producing enough of the hormone, not getting that signal to wake up, or other issues.


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

[User]
ELI5: I don't know anything about Basketball.  How big of a deal is Jeremy Lin?

Any help appreciated.

[Assistant] He is pretty impressive - not just because of his race. Coming out of Harvard, not necessarily known for producing NBA superstars, he has shocked most people. He came off the bench to score the highest first 5 games of a person's career point total. Or, he has scored more points than has anyone else in their first 5 professional games. It will be interesting to see if his hype dies out, or if he can live up to it and continue to be a better than average player in the NBA.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Can I transfigure my wand into something more discreet/harder to lose and still use it like a wand? Basically can I turn my wand into a glove and cast spells by 'swishing and flicking' an extended finger?

If yes, can I cast the killing curse by giving someone the middle finger if I want them to die enough?

[Assistant]
Not easily- if you transform your wand intoa  glove, what you have is a glove instead of a wand.

The closest analogy would be transforming humans into animals. Normally, you turn into a dog, you can't turn yourself back because you're a dog now and dogs can't do magic.

It *is* possible to become an animal with a mind of a human, but it's apparently very difficult. It's probably more difficult here because the thing you're changing  is the thing doing the magic.

So i'd say the same thing here. it's possible, but you'd need to be very advanced at transfiguration to avoid simply destroying your wand.


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

[User] ELI5: Muslim Terrorist groups - what's the difference between ISIS, Taliban, Al Qaeda etc?

[Assistant]
Taliban - Tribal alliance from Afghanistan. They want control of Afghanistan/Pakistan, as that is the territory they are present in.

ISIS/ISIL - Product of the Syrian Civil war, their organization is attempting to create a unified Islamic state throughout the Region they are present in.

Al Qaeda - International organization without (apparent) statehood aspirations. Their professed motivation is the removal of non-Muslims from the mid-east, including, but not limited to, US and Israeli citizens/military.

As to why they are different, they are different in a similar way to how Coke and Pepsi are different. They have different leadership structures that to not answer to a connected chain-of-command or state.


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

[User] ELI5: What do the 'H's, 'N's, and numbers mean in bird/swine flu viruses? Eg; H1N1, H7N9, etc...

[Assistant]
H and N stand for the names of two proteins on the surface of virus cells (Hemagglutinin and Neuraminidase). What they do is not particularly important, except that they have to be on the surface of every flu virus for it to survive, and antibodies are able to target them. Different versions of the different surface proteins mean new antibodies are needed, so a new vaccine is necessary for viruses with different versions of the surface proteins. So vaccines generally work for a specific H/N combination.

TL;DR: Surface proteins on the flu that are important for antibody targeting.

Edit: spelling.


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

[User]
Are there some direct descendants from dinosaur ages in plant world?

We are often talking about dinosaurs, what they looked like and have become, but are there plants that have lived from those times up until today?

[Assistant]
Several plant lineages have survived through the Cretaceous extinction, although the relative abundance of each has varied greatly since.

The first flowering plants emerged during that time, but were relatively less abundant than in modern floras. Magnolias in particular are one of the oldest lineages of flowering plants.

More abundant were conifers (pine and spruce for instance) and ferns (including tree ferns), as well as ginkos and cycads.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do planes fly at high altitudes? Wouldn't flying higher increase the duration of the flight?

[Assistant] No, they actually decrease the length and fuel consumption of the flight by decreasing air resistance. At 35,000 feet, you're higher than Mount Everest, and you have something like half the air around you. Half the air means half the air resistance, which means you can go faster with less fuel.


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

[User]
I think my boss has been playing me and as a result my career is likely ruined. Help?

I want to stay in academia, and I have a specific vision for my work. When I joined the lab (2nd postdoc), my boss made promises of mentorship and support to reach my career goals. Since then:

\- I had a big grant rejected, which could have been avoided had she not pressured me to add more and more experiments that I have no expertise in, claiming that the collaborators would be enough to convince the reviewers. I found out the hard way that that's BS

\- I then got another grant for 2 years with the possibility to  hire my own PhD student, if she had promised to pay the third year. She told me she had no idea if she would be able to pay, which ended up in me getting a TA instead. I then found out that she offered a PhD student to another postdoc with the same funding as me a couple of months later

\- She was dismissive of my ideas to the point that I was seriously doubting myself, until I received good feedback from our collaborators. Then she was interested. Now she's trying to push her own unfounded, sloppy ideas into my story and is threatening me that if I don't work on this aspect she has no interest in keeping me

\- She blocked a collaboration that I made with an industry partner at a conference, saying she has no interest in it and the idea is 'stupid' (its not). She then uses my contact to ask for something completely different and not related to my research and expects me to do the experiments. In the emails she switched from english to her mother language and even sent one without me in Cc which I later saw in the thread, saying that I work for her in a very condescending tone

\- I have been asking her consistently for other projects since I didn't publish since my last postdoc (4 years, hoping to submit this year). She keeps giving me dead-end mini projects she knows won't be published. There are other opportunities in the lab that she is not including me in, saying I will get 'distracted'

\- She blocked me from publishing because we got 1 (ONE) editor rejection from a high impact journal, so now I am working overtime for more functional experiments that would make it 'interesting enough' for publishing, so I can finally submit and apply for other positions while in review

\- she's arguing with me in front of other people, via email or in online meetings, anything I say is wrong, she's constantly putting me down given the chance and it's awkward and embarrassing.

\- she argues with me for not telling her absolutely everything, even though I started with the aim to build up to independence. This includes applications for conferences and discussions with other PIs in the institute

\- she yelled at me several times for spending too much money for my project, whereas another colleague is spending 10x more but that's apparently ok because it's my boss' ideas. We are working in one of the most funded institutes where money shouldn't be an issue

\- if I confront her about anything she gets super defensive, aggressive even, and I'm afraid to say anything in case it makes things worse.

I told her I am applying for faculty positions (with a preprint), and she sent her references, but now I am really worried that she will ruin me. I always had good feedback from other PIs and collaborators but she broke me down so much, I am doubting my abilities as a scientist, and I am getting bitter  and jealous of other postdocs who have OK projects but are getting ahead because they have the right support/ contacts (as I said, well funded institute).

Ultimately I feel like I am missing out on productive and fun scientific discussion and real mentorship, scientific and otherwise, and I am worried that I am not equipped for the next step because of it. I still have a tiny slither of hope but I don't know for how much longer. Several people have left the lab already for similar reasons apart from her now 'star postdoc' who is wasting tons of money. Her PhD students all left (or will leave) academia. Am I doomed?

[Assistant] I feel like I've known this PI... anyway, you need to make plans to leave the lab even if you don't get an academic job this cycle. This will only get worse. Are you 'doomed?' lmao no. PhDs need to respect themselves more and leave these trash labs. You have your degree and are not in the same situation as one of this woman's students. Presumably you have other contacts.


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

[User]
CMV: Promoted posts shouldn't be locked.

There are posts on Reddit that are Promoted - just ads. (This is some peasent view that you are too rich to understand)

But these ads are locked, and can't be up- or down-voted. They can't have comments put on them.
As a result, we get crap ads.

So, I think they should be under the regular rules of Reddit - up votes if good, high quality ads, and down-voted for garbage content.
And a big part of what makes Reddit great is the comments. Having comments would even make it interesting to open the ad, to see what people commented, to comment yourself.

EDIT: I think the placement of the ad shouldn't change based on the votes - they are paying to have their ad on the page regardless. But that the stats on the ad would reflect the quality of ad, and would drive traffic to interact with the ad, instead of just seeing it.

It could also lead to people sharing stories, or telling what they think about the product or service (and with Reddit's history being available, gives an idea if the credibility on the commenter).

(Sorry about the delay in replying. Its my first CMV, and I did it right before falling asleep)

[Assistant]
Advertisers arent looking for interaction with their ads. They just want visibility. They dont care if consumers actually like their ads theyre paying for people to see their ads.

Also vote manipulation would fuck things up anyway. It would be cheaper for smart companies to pay for a low level ad and pay for upvotes to bring it to more viewers than it would to pay for guaranteed viewership.


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

[User] ELI5: How do pencil erasers work?

[Assistant] Pencil erasers work as a very mild abrasive. They used to contain cornstarch, which is abrasive, but not more than paper. They also contain rubber and oil. When you rub the eraser over the pencilmarks, the eraser essentially sands off the layer of graphite, the rubber also gently rubs off and with it, the graphite is carried away. Leaving eraser shavings on the paper.


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

[User] ELI5: If the big bang happened 13.8 billion years ago, and the universe is 93 billion light years in diameter, how did the universe expand faster than light?

[Assistant]
Draw some dots on a deflated balloon, then put some ants on the balloon. The ants can move at some max speed, which we'll call C, and they walk between the dots because they're made of food.

Now start inflating the balloon. If you do it fast enough, the distance between an ant and the next dot  will increase rather than decreasing, even though they are walking towards the dot. The space between the ant and the dot is expanding faster than C.

Now imagine the surface of the balloon is 3 dimensional, and that it is expanding along a fourth dimension. That's how the universe expands.


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

[User] ELI5 What is it that specifically makes the new car smell and why is it the same in every car?

[Assistant] Offgassing plastics. There is some concern that plasticizers and solvents released from many industrial products, especially plastics, may be harmful to human health. All the car companies use the same types of plastics so thats why the smell is the same.


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

[User]
How do I help my struggling partner finish his dissertation?

My partner and I are both students.  He is currently finishing up his dissertation.

I live halfway down the coast from him.

He's having a hard time finishing up his dissertation.

I have told him these things:

- 3-5 pages a day
- don't start with your introduction (he did this initially)
- try writing something like the lit review first or one of the paper summaries (he's incorporating 3 first-author papers)

I sent him a metric asston of writing center links that are geared toward grad students.

He hasn't done a whole lot on his dissertation, he's not done anything in about a week, he's horrifically stressed, and his dad and grandma are harping on him to get things done and not being constructive about it.  He wants to get the PhD, but oh man is he dragging his feet about it.

What else can I do to help him?

[Assistant] Start with the methods. That's the easiest part to write, since you're describing what you did with no commentary.  After that it becomes easier to write the rest (eg why did you bother telling us these methods?).


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

[User]
CMV: The US court system is a horrible, illogical system.

I don't know how anyone can defend the US court system.

1. The jury selection system ensures that a *biased* sample of the US population is chosen, because Americans are filtered out according to what Prosecutors/defenders believe are the "ideal" jurors.

2. The Jury size is always too small to be a statistically valid sample of the US population. The current system ensures the selected pool can be biased enough to meet whatever ends the prosecutor/defender desires. Why don't courts use a huge pool of jurors (say greater than 30) and then forget about jury selection? I think it's a right for all Americans to participate in our Court system, whether or not we are an "ideal jurist". If lawyers keep complaining about how biased jurors are.... why do we even use a jury system then??? I just don't understand how anyone can think a biased selection of 6-13 jurors (yes, only 6 people sometimes!!) can result in justice.

3. The obvious money imbalance in all Court cases ensures that every defendant and plaintiff will be treated better when they have more money. How the fuck can anyone support a system that lets people with better lawyers win more cases? How can anyone support a system that most obviously supports the rich against the poor? At least, why aren't there limits in place for how much money can be spent at the court house??

4. "The US Court system sucks but is the best we got". I don't know, the Dutch and Germans and Norwegians all have different systems that people seem to be more happy with.

Anyways, I think the US court system is a horrible travesty that is an insult to "Lady Justice" and the scales of balance. Then again, I'm an ignorant layman and not a lawyer and am not too familiar with the justice system anyways.

[Assistant] You do realize that if both the prosecutor and the defense attorney have a say in jury selection, then the process of that selection isn't biased since both legal sides have the opportunity to choose favorable jurors.


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

[User]
[Lord of The Rings] How many troops did Aragorn bring to the Battle of the Pelennor Fields?

In the Lord of the Rings (books), The great turning point of the Battle of the Pelennor is Aragorn's arrival with a fleet full of soldiers from the southern regions of Gondor - men who were held back as a result of Corsair raids in the South. But numerically speaking how many troops would Aragorn have been able to muster before setting off to Minas Tirith?

[Assistant] I would imagine he could have brought upwards of 1000, based on how many soldiers the people of Minas Tirith were originally expecting to come help them. He also brought lots of Rangers, though, who are pretty fucking badass on an individual basis.


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

[User]
Will flying in the opposite direction of the earth's rotation make you travel farther in less time?

It's just something I was wondering. If two airplanes are traveling at the same speed, one in the opposite direction of the earth's rotation, the other with the rotation of the earth, will the first airplane (against the rotation) get to a certain equidistant destination faster?

[Assistant] No. The plane's frame of reference is rotating at the same rate as the Earth and the atmosphere, so its ground speed doesn't change if it flies east or west. In order to achieve what you're describing, you need to have a frame of reference independant of the atmosphere's rotation (i.e. in space).


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

[User] ELI5: What does CC and horsepower actually mean in cars?

[Assistant]
CC means cubic centimeters and describes the volume of the engine cylinders.

Horsepower is a measure of the rate which work can be done. 1 horsepower means that you can move 550 lbs 1 foot in 1 second. 2 horsepowers would either be 1100 lbs/1 ft/1 second, 550 lbs/2 ft/1 second, 550 lbs/1 ft/0.5 seconds or any combination thereof.


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

[User]
Can raccoons contract tetanus?

I work with wildlife, and I am aware that after being bitten or scratched by a raccoon a tetanus shot is recommended. I recently came across a raccoon that was stiff as a board but obviously still mentally present. I was thinking it may have had paralytic rabies, but also wondering about tetanus. Google could not give me even one resource that answers this question.

[Assistant]
Really any animal with a nervous system that uses acetylcholine can be affected by tetanus and botulinum toxins.

Fun fact: botulism (a very close cousin to tetanus) can cause huge avian die-offs because maggots aren't affected by the toxin but can concentrate it in their gut. Waterfowl that become paralyzed have "limp neck" syndrome and end up drowning. This makes more bodies and more maggots and even more dead birds.


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

[User] ELI5: Why, when our ears pop, does it seem like we suddenly have HD hearing?

[Assistant]
Only because your hearing was very gradually being worsened until the pop.  So gradual you hardly noticed.

The pop is when air pressure on both sides of your eardrum is equalized after gradually being unequal, allowing your eardrum to function correctly again.

I.e. The pop returned your hearing to normal very suddenly.


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

[User] If someone was to have a tank of oxygen and a separate tank of helium under water and they released one bubble of each, which one would get to the surface faster?

[Assistant]
It would depend entirely on the relative size of the bubbles.  Larger bubbles rise more quickly.  The effects of the different gas densities are completely negligible.

The bubble will reach an equilibrium velocity, much like the terminal velocity of a body falling in air, governed by the following equation:

buoyancy = drag

(weight of displaced water - weight of gas) = (0.5 * density of water * velocity^2 * drag coefficient * cross-sectional area of bubble)

g * (4 * pi/3) * r^3 * (rho_water - rho_gas) = 0.5 * rho_water * v^2 * Cd * pi * r^2

g * 8/3 * r * (rho_water - rho_gas) = rho_water * Cd * v^2

v = sqrt(g * 8/3 * r * (1 - rho_gas/rho_water) / Cd)

Cd is roughly 1 (dimensionless)

g is 9.8m/s/s

rho_water is 1000 kg/m^3

rho_gas is about 1.4 kg/m^3 for oxygen and 0.2 kg/m^3 for He at room pressure*

Look at the dimensionless term (1-rho_gas/rho_water).  This represents the buoyancy and is 0.9986 for oxygen and 0.9998 for He.  The difference between the buoyancies is only 0.1%!

This illustrates that the buoyancy in this case is completely dominated by the absence of water rather than the presence of the gas.

It's pretty obvious from the last equation above that even small changes in the radius of the bubble (r) will totally outweigh the tiny difference in buoyancy between helium and oxygen.

*I neglected compressibility effects on the gas.  If they're deep underwater that could be important.  Maybe one is more compressible than the other.


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

[User] [WH40K] What exactly is on a, "Paradise World?"

[Assistant] Usually, Paradise Worlds are very lush worlds filled with plants and animals that aren't especially dangerous to Humans. Usually you'd get to go to one of these worlds if you're a respected member of the Imperium. People go there to relax, train, hunt game, meditate, etc.


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

[User] ELI5: How do we know that an asteroid killed the dinosaurs?

[Assistant]
1. All the large dinosaur fossils suddenly stopped 66 million years ago.

2. We found a massive asteroid crater dated to 66 million years ago. The crater includes a large amount of iridium, which is uncommon on Earth.

5. A thin layer of iridium is spread all around the planet dated to 66 million years ago. All the dinosaur fossils stop at the iridium layer.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do people try to strive for maintaining eye contact while communicating?

I see this come up often enough as an issue online, people want to learn how to maintain eye contact during a conversation. Why bother? I consider a somewhat confident and well rounded person but rarely strive for this. It makes me feel a little uncomfortable so I just don't do it at length. What are the benefits of this "skill"?

[Assistant]
Some people (not me) think that eye contact is a form of respect because it indicates that you are giving your full attention when talking.

Also, it helps when you're adding nonverbal cues to the conversation.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Honestly, what anger was Yoda sensing in Luke?

In Empire, Yoda states that the anger in Luke is comparable to the anger in Anakin...in what way? Sure, Luke outright does genuinely hate Vader and seeks vengeance against him, that is very dark, but, even then, Luke isn't really like Anakin. Anakin at the height of his Jedi career during the Clone Wars was willing to *torture* when he got a tad bit pissed, whereas Luke doesn't seem to have such a capacity at his most enraged. For the most part, in both the EU and Canon, when Luke fights, he seldom does so with rage. He doesn't seem to be fighting with anger during the Cloud City duel, never does throughout the comics. In fact, the only individual Luke seemed to hate was Vader, and he let it go when he learned the truth. Luke honestly has a softer temperament than some Jedi we've seen, particularly Ahsoka, and she never willingly turned to the darkside. Long before Anakin became Vader, he had already slaughtered a Tusken village in rage, had no qualms about killing his enemies, and desired power (Luke wants to be a jedi, but not for the power, mostly just to be like his father at first). How are they comparable?

[Assistant]
Luke was constantly frustrated by his simple, peaceful life on Tatooine and impatient to leave and fight in the Rebellion. The Empire killed his aunt, uncle, and best friend leaving him wanting vengeance (this and his father's legacy were his only motivations for becoming a Jedi, something Yoda takes early notice of).

Luke was also prone to drawing his lightsaber first and kept it with him when he entered the Cave of Evil (this is such a persistent flaw that he would later throw away the sword entirely after he drew it on Ben Solo). When Darth Vader threatened his friends he felt their pain through the Force and recklessly rushed away to save them. On the second Death Star, when Vader threatened Leia, Luke immediately attacked in a rage.

Above all, the trait Yoda most often ascribes Luke is his looking to the horizon, and never being content with where he was and what he was doing, always wanting more, like his father.

And Yoda considered Anakin a friend and didn't learn the full extent of his inner darkness until it was too late, he's naturally much more cautious with Luke.


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

[User] How can photon interact with anything since photon travel at speed of light and thus from the photon's perspective the time has stopped?

[Assistant]
Photons don't have a "perspective." It's impossible to define a reference frame for a photon, since massless particles must move at the speed of light in all reference frames.

But even if a photon could have a perspective, if it were to interact with something, it would "see" itself being created and simultaneously interacting. Nothing wrong with that.


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

[User] [The Princess Bride] What's a holocaust cloak?

[Assistant]
>holocaust: destruction or slaughter on a mass scale, esp. caused by fire or nuclear war

The name derives from the "fire" part.  It's a cloak made of a fairly thick, mostly non-flammable fabric.

The Dread Pirate Roberts figured out that if you run a razor aligned perpendicular to the direction you're running it along the outside of the cloak you can fray the fibers just enough that the cloak gets a little bit of a fuzzy aura.  This fuzziness - unlike the rest of the cloak - is highly flammable (sort like how flour is highly combustible only if widely dispersed).  But, because of the specific fabric its made of, the small loose ends will burn for longer than you'd expect: about 30 seconds to a minute.

It's a neat party trick, but you have to be very careful when wearing it while lit.  Basically, you have to stay as still as possible or else you might burn your hands/legs/face.

This is why the Dread Pirate needed a cart to push around his Giant, and why he had to delay lighting it for dramatic effect.


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

[User] [X-Files/SCP] Given his acceptance of the fantastic along with his well documented case experience was Fox Mulder ever considered for recruitment as a Foundation operative?

[Assistant]
It seems very unlikely that Fox would be willing to work with a shadowy organisation that has been tasked by governments around the world to cover up supernatural events and beings.

Fox has suspected the existence of just this sort of organisation his whole life and his purpose is to bring these sorts of things into the light and expose them to the world, if he found out about the SCP, he would do everything he was able to in order to bring it down.


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

[User] ELI5: My 12 year old brother wants to know why the debt between all the countries in the world cannot simply "cancel each other out."

[Assistant]
The debts that most governments have are bonds not loans, governments have two ways of raising large amounts of money, taxes or bonds. This won't be very ELI5 as it's quite hard to do since governments operate very differently financially than normal people and it's a damn mess of mutual indebtedness.

A friend Bob wants to borrow $100 (a bond) off you he says he will pay you back in a month with an extra $10 (interest) as thanks. You trust him, Bob has a good reputation (AAA S&P rating) for paying off his personal debts with interest and on time (the bond matures), it's an easy and safe way to make an extra $10, you'd be pretty stupid to not lend Bob the money as it's 100% guaranteed he will pay you off with extra $10 or risks his good reputation next time he asks for money.

Lets say you are so confident that Bob will give you the money on time plus the extra $10 that you borrow $100 from another friend Fred, this way you have the cash in your pocket to spend now, you say you will pay Fred the $100 and an extra $5 when the times comes to pay him off for the trouble of lending the money. This isn't a bad deal you have $100 in your pocket still and even with the extra $5 you offer you to pay Fred you will still be $5 better off when Bob pays you back. Fred does the same thing with a friend of his called John, he borrows say $95 and will pay an extra $5 to John when the time comes to pay off the money.

Now here's the problem you are relying on that $100 + $10 from Bob to pay off Fred, if Bob doesn't pay up or can't pay the whole amount you won't be able to pay off Fred, and Fred won't be able to pay off John who might not be able to pay off someone else, it's a huge chain of mutual indebtedness that relies on Bob's excellent reputation for paying off his debts on time.

In the past Bob had a machine that let him print money if he couldn't pay you off, say Bob only had $90 at the end of the month, he would print off an extra $20 so he could pay you and protect his excellent reputation, you didn't mind this as you and all your friends do it and it guarantees you get all the money you were promised originally and you didn't do it very often, only as a last resort. Bob borrowed money from lots of people and most of the time he paid off the debts fine, sometimes printing money to pay the debts but only as a last resort.

Recently Bob and everyone else lost the ability to print money as a last resort, when the time comes to pay off debts he doesn't have a last resort any more, so he starts borrowing more and more money from friends to pay off other friends as he can't do it himself any more (for whatever reason, pay cut at work or something). He has a good reputation so people keep lending to him (multiple chains of debt), they are all relying on Bob to keep his word so they can can keep their word when it comes to paying debts.

Can you see the problem? It's a house of cards that will collapse if one person can't pay up since no one can print their own money any more, they are all relying on one debt to be paid so they can pay off another debt.

Bob comes clean and tells everyone he was lying all along about his income and that he can't afford to pay off debts any more, he was using the money he borrowed poorly, spending well beyond his income. His friends all say that if he doesn't find a way to pay his debts they won't lend him money again for a long time but because they all really need Bob to pay the debt so they can pay theirs they agree to help Bob get the money to pay off the debts and save his reputation. Now all the friends get together as a group and agree to borrow money from someone else (they will issue bonds to raise money) to pay off Bob so he can pay them off, before they do this they make Bob agree to a contract that limits his spending and he has to cut back his spending (Austerity measures), bob and his family don't really like this but have no real choice other than to lose their reputation.

Now if this all sounds like a real clusterfuck it's because it is, replace Bob with Greece in that and his friends as other European countries, the group they all belong to near the end is the European Central Bank which is the only place allowed to print money any more, individual countries can still issue bonds as can the bank itself. Essentially the Euro Central Bank ends up selling bonds to China and the money for those bonds will go to Greece to pay off its debts, but that money came with a lot of conditions which the Greek people don't like.

As for cancelling the debts, well anyone can buy bonds, governments, businesses, anyone even you and me. You might be able to cancel some mutual parts of the debts between countries but that won't work with multiple non-government parties involved. A country can write off the debts but that destroys their reputation as a trustworthy investment and no one will invest in them again, they'd have to rely solely on taxes for income.

That's pretty long and i don't know if it answered the question, i was more curious if i could write a simpler version of a current debt crisis.


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

[User] [MCU] Since the super soldier serum is described as additive and increases attributes that are already present in the user, is Steve Roger's technically the weakest super soldier ever made since he started out as a walking skeleton?

[Assistant]
No.

It increases attributes of the **psychological** variety, so a man who is already just and heroic becomes more heroic and just while someone whose arrogant and vain becomes more arrogant and vain then before.

**Physiologically** it changes everyone to peak human condition regardless of prior training or fitness.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do throw our hand over our mouth when we see or hear something surprising/shocking.

I just got some surprising news and immediately did this. Does anyone know why this seems to be an ingrained response?

[Assistant] It's to with the fact your jaw drops when you are shocked/surprised. And that fact it's rude (or at least, was rude) to have you mouth agape in public, it became a common and natural response to cover your mouth when surprised. It's a learned response because we've always seen others do it.


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

[User]
[Almost every sci-fi story] How come ancient civilizations or ancient technologies are often more advanced than recent ones?

There is a common trope that whenever there is the word "ancient", it is possible that the civilisation or technology is way more advanced than the current ones.

This ranges from old supernatural artifacts such as the Ark of the Covenant or the Holy Grail in Indiana Jones which is surprising that nobody ever thought of even studying its effects to hopefully replicate its effects, whether it is by people during the Renaissance era or the Enlightenment era where scientific thought had increased, or even the modern era where technology is way more advanced.

Sometimes this even involves ancient civilisations *(similar to popular story of Atlantis)* such in the Halo Lore, ancient humans were way more advanced in technology and civilisations, or in Wolfenstein the New Order, the Da'at Yichud is an ancient secret society that made technologies way more advanced than everything else and yet nobody who ever come in contact with one never actually thought of mass-producing these technologies and sell them to the public

Or even more powerful entities such as in the Digimon Frontier series, the most powerful Digievolution of every hero Digimon in the show has the word "Ancient" on it, or the Primal Zerg in the planet Zerus which is known to be the birthworld of the Zerg is apparently much stronger than the current Zerg race such as every time they actually eat an organism, they immediately evolve and inherit the traits of that organism

This kind of goes opposite to how evolution works *(in a general and simple manner because evolution is not exactly a ladder of progression but more like a big tree with lots of branches)* or even history *(again, in a general manner too because some civilisations in history had technologies that we are still not exactly sure how they worked that and are somehow more advanced than current technologies such as Roman concrete, Damascus steel, the Antikythera mechanism, an apparent 2000-year old earthquake detector invented by Zhang Heng, and probably ever other gathered information in the Library of Alexandria until it was burned down by Julius Caesar)*

[Assistant]
The universe is approximately 13 billion years old.

Recorded History is approximately 5,000 years old.

So , take all of our recorded history, and Multiply that by 2.6 million and you get how old the universe is.  Or another way of saying were are knowledgeable about our tiny earth for 1 in 2.6 million of the time the universe is around.

So that is the answer to your question, how every ancient civilization is more advanced, we truly haven't be around long enough to advance.  Give Earth another million years and we should progress some more if we don't kill each other first.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do we say "Zack and Cody" instead of "Cody and Zack" or "Mary-Kate and Ashley" instead of "Ashley and Mary-Kate"? Does it have something to do with our brains or the way a sentence rolls off our tongues?

[Assistant]
These are called frozen binomials and are pairs that usually follow a specific order, f.i "pots and pans" instead of "pans and pots". Usually it's just what sounds better. while not absolute the general rules seem to be

* short sounds before long sounds
* Few syllables before many syllables
* Sounds that are easy to say before harder combinations
* Alphabetical if neither apply.

So, Zack and Cody rolls better with 1 vs 2 syllables instead of Cody and Zack with 2 vs 1. Mary-Kate and Ashley has 2 short 1 syllable sounds vs 2 longer sounds in Ashley.


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

[User]
[Marvel/MCU] Are there multiversal variations of sub-dimensions?

I guess what I am asking is this, are places like The Dark Dimension, The Negative Zone or Asgard constants? Does each separate parallel dimension have their own version of sub-dimensions? Is there a Limbo-616 and a Limbo-65?

[Assistant] Annihilus of the Negative Zone and Mojo of Mojoverse have been hinted to be the same, um, "people" regardless of what universe we meet them in (*when Annihilus appears in Ultimate Fantastic Four, he mentions having met another Reed Richards before- although this is difficult to reconcile with the fact that he's clearly different than what we're used to in the 616 universe; he uses a different name and dies at the end of that story, only to show up in later 616 stories with no problem*)


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

[User]
[Avengers: Infinity War] Where were all the other Masters of the Mystic Arts during Infinity War?

We see lots of other sorcerers training in Doctor Strange, along with several other masters. Why are Wong and Strange the only ones present in Infinity War? Surely Wong could have sent a few other sorcerers to help in Wakanda or something.

[Assistant]
Their mission is to protect the Sanctums in Hong Kong, New York, and London.  Should these fall, the entire universe could become vulnerable to outside dimensions.

While Thanos is a threat, he isn't going to destroy this plane of reality.  There are many other entities who would, though, given the chance.  The sorcerers are guarding against this eventuality.

Dr. Strange got involved because he wields an Infinity Stone.  He's sworn to protect it and Thanos is specifically targeting it.


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

[User]
[Marvel] Are there any other events that could account for a nationwide or worldwide extension of people's lifespans in the MU?

 In the Marvel Universe, there are many characters who are connected to historical events but are also still active today and in their prime. Many have reasons given to why they are still young, like Captain America being frozen in ice or Namor being Atlantean. But there are many shown who have not had any explanation, like Magneto, who was a child in World War II but was still active in the modern era but before Mutant X restored his youth. Or Doctor Octopus, who met Dr. Strange before Strange damaged his hands in 1963.

Other than the sliding timeline, are there any other events that could account for a nationwide or worldwide extension of people's lifespans in the MU? I know they did explain thin in the DC Universe, when a villain Ian Karkull died, and released chronal energy that gave many of the heroes present enhanced longevity, and it possibly affected the world at large.

[Assistant]
The sliding timeline is in universe: time itself is broken.

Galactus explains this: the sheer amount of often multiverse changing events occuring in such a short time has "unmoored"  the age of heroes  from the normal timestream- it keeps moving forwards. There's a very real possibility people-at least people important to those events- *aren't aging anymore.*  They're just moving further into the future.

For example, magneto is 70ish. As time drags him forwards, he *remains* 70ish, even as he gets further into the 21st century. Time moves with him.

These temporal inconsistencies are in universe, the result of time breaking under the sheer weight of history. A few people have noticed.


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

[User] The average temperature outside airplanes at 30,000ft is -40 F to -70 F (-40 C to -57 C). The average causing speed is 575mph. If speed=energy and energy equals=heat, is the skin of the airplane hot because of the speed or cold because of the temperature around?

[Assistant]
You have to be careful when saying things like "speed = energy" and "energy = heat"; those aren't really true in general.

But anyway, if you assume a steady, isentropic flow of ideal gas around the wings of the plane, we can say that c*_p_*T + v^(2)/2 is constant along any streamline.

c*_p_* is just the specific heat capacity of the air at constant pressure; you can just think of it as some constant that depends on the type of gas.

This says that the temperature along any streamline is maximized at points where the flow velocity is as small as possible. Particularly, somewhere on the leading edge of the wing, there will be a point where the flow is stationary. This is called the stagnation point. And the temperature at that point is maximal.

Taking realistic values for the heat capacity of air, the speed of a cruising airplane, and an ambient temperature of -40 degrees C, the stagnation temperature is just

T*_0_* = T + v^(2)/(2c*_p_*).

Or rearranged, T*_0_* - T is about 33 degrees C. The temperature at the stagnation point is 33 degrees C higher than the temperature of the ambient air.

So does being slammed into the wing cause the air in its vicinity to warm up pretty substantially? Yes. Can it still be very cold compared to everyday temperatures? Yes (in this case, it's -40 + 33 = -7 degrees C, still below freezing).


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

[User]
Can you catch the Omicron and Delta variants simultaneously?

And would you become twice as sick?

[Assistant]
Yes, but it probably wouldnt be much different from catching either on their own though since the same antibodies work on both (to some extent). It would likely be worse to get flu and covid simultaneously since they would bind different receptors and require different antibodies to be made, straining immune system resources.

Speaking of flu, influenza viruses actually count on this happening occasionally as co-infection with two strains of influenza can allow exchange of RNA and rapid formation of a new strain. Influenza has a segmented genome (it is 8 separate pieces of RNA), its possible for the fragments to be mixed up if two different viruses infect the same cell.


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

[User] Why is cloth darker when it gets wet?

[Assistant]
In dry cloth, light gets scattered and reflected mainly by the particles on the surface.  In wet cloth, some of the light gets carried into the material by the water, acting a bit like fiber optics.  The end result is that less light gets reflected or scattered back.

Consequently, this same phenomenon is why you can see through wet paper better than dry paper.


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

[User] ELI5: Is hydrogen fuel a viable (envoronmentally friendly) alternative to fossil fuels, or does its production release even more carbon dioxide/monoxide into the atmosphere?

[Assistant] Hydrogen fuel can be thought of as a battery, its purpose is to get energy from one place to another.  Thing is, you have to burn something or get the energy from another place such as solar or wind in order to make the hydrogen.  Sure burning hydrogen is clean but making the hydrogen is not.