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

[User] When the LHC was created there was an expectation that it would lead to the discovery of the Higgs boson. Do we have any similar discoveries we are expecting to make in the near future?

[Assistant] The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is launching in 2018.  Just think about how much the Hubble Space Telescope has discovered in 20 years, and think of having a telescope with 7x more light collection.  Plus JWST will work in infrared which is much more advantageous for seeing through dust clouds.  With this we will get much more detailed findings on exoplanets and for the first time detect liquid water.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does the can of compressed-air dust remover gets so cold if used continually at once?

[Assistant]
So, when you're dealing with gases, you have to understand that, in order to expand, a gas must heat up.

When you use compressed air duster, there's more room in the can that the gas then has to occupy. In order to do that, it has to absorb heat from its surroundings; in this case, the can, which we sense as the can cooling down.


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

[User]
Are the emission and absorption spectra of anti-atoms the same as of normal atoms? And if so, how do we know that stars and galaxies far away from us aren't made of antimatter?

I understand that even though it's relatively simple to make a positron, for example, it's much more difficult to make an actual anti-atom here on Earth, but that doesn't necessarily say they aren't prevalent in other areas of the universe. However, I often hear people asking the question as to why there is more matter than antimatter in the universe. But if anti-atoms do emit the same spectra as regular atoms, how could we know if we're looking at hydrogen, or anti-hydrogen, for example? And how do we know that there aren't entire galaxies that happened to form from anti-matter?

Or are the emission spectra different? And if so, why would they be different? It seems like the Coulomb potential would give you the same quantum energy levels regardless of whether the charges were switched, no?

[Assistant]
1) they should be

2) because if there was any region of our observable universe that was antimatter, there would be a boundary somewhere where the anti-matter is annihilating with matter. We don't see the signature of that annihilation, so we can conclude that such a boundary doesn't exist, and thus the universe is all the same matter.


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

[User]
[Guardians of the Galaxy] Was Yondu really going to kill Peter?

After Peter and Gamora were captured by the Ravagers and were getting beaten up, would Yondu have actually killed Peter if he didn't talk his way out of the situation?

*My hypothesis*: After the second movie, it's clear that Yondu really cares for Peter so it's  hard to believe he would have killed him earlier.

Upon rewatching the first movie, I arrived at the conclusion that beating him up was a way of buying Peter time to think of something so Yondu would have an excuse not to kill him, while at the same time putting up a show for his Ravagers goons. What are your thoughts?

I aware that on a meta level Yondu's character might have been changed from the time in-between movies and he was kind of retconned into a much nicer guy.

*Semi-related follow up question:* When Peter tricked him by swapping the Orbs, did Yondu know he was getting conned. Did he agree with the Guardians that the Orb should go with the Nova Corp but realised he couldn't do just let them off in front of the Ravager? I mean he's a master at this and there's no way he wouldn't see through Peter.

In fact, I think when Peter said "don't open it Yondu, you've seen what it does to people" he was actually giving a secret message that he had swapped the orbs and telling him not to look until well after they had left. That look he gives Yondu makes it seem like he was doing that.

[Assistant]
Yondu cared enough for Quill to not give him up to his father after he found out what Ego was up to. He also cared about him enough to show the kid the ropes of combat and how to fly.

Yondu just was a hard ass who didn't know how to raise a child, so instead he raised him like a crew mate. His crew, however, pointed out Yondu always made exceptions and forgave Quill, even if it meant losing a massive payday.


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

[User]
[gen fantasy] Is magic constrained by the speed of light?

If a magic user casts a spell on a distant object, is the effect instantaneous or is there travel time to the affected object?

For example, some wizard on Earth casts a spell on Neptune. Does it take a few hours to get to Neptune, or does it get there instantly?

I'm not talking about the results of that spell, just the speed of magic itself.

[Assistant]
Depends on the world, but generally magic seems to circumvent the laws of physics (or perhaps uses undiscovered laws).

Teleportation, for example, has no perceivable speed.  A wizard should be able to send a radio signal from Earth to Neptune, teleport to Neptune, and wait a few hours to receive the message he sent.


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

[User] ELI5: How did glow in the dark happen? And where did it get its source of energy to glow in the dark?

[Assistant]
Around 1669, there was a German alchemist named Hennig Brand. He was in search of gold, and thought that it came from within man. What color is gold? It's a shade of yellow. What else is yellow that everyone is familiar with? Urine. So off went Hennig on a quest to extract gold from pee. He boiled down 5,500 liters of the stuff, and what was left over was a bunch of phosphorus. Phosphorus, for those who don't know, has a tendency to take in light, and hold it for a while, which makes it glow. This is why Hennig named it phosphorus, for the greek "light-bearer".
So glow in the dark resulted from a scientific fluke. The dude was trying to make gold in an early stab at chemistry.


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

[User]
[Looper] Why send the older Looper to be killed by their younger self, instead of sending an older Looper to a different, younger, looper.

In the film *Looper*, Loopers are individuals in the past who killed individuals sent from the future and are paid for their efforts. This payment comes in the form of silver bars.

However, when the Looper has been deemed to have his contract finished, is a threat, etc. their employer sends back the Looper's future self. When they kill this individual they find gold bars in lue of silver bars and know that they have killed themselves.

This backfires when the main character realizes what is happening and the rest of the film ensues.

Why in the hell would the employer send the older version of the Looper back to their younger self? Why not send back the older Looper to an unrelated Looper, pay that Looper in silver and then send someone to the younger version of the recently killed Looper and give him the gold bars. It would go as follows

* Looper A, in the future, has served his purpose and the employer wants him killed.

* Looper B, in the past, is sent yet another person with a bag over his head. He kills Looper A and takes his silver.

* Another individual arrives at the residence of Looper A and gives him bars of gold.

This still gives Looper A his "bonus" for being killed but doesn't leave the security flaw that goes into being sent back to yourself.

This plot-hole has bothered me to the point that I actually hate this film. It just seems so stupid and such a gaping flaw in the Looper system.

[Assistant]
When a looper kills their future self they know they have about 30 years to live it up, at which point time travel is invented and the criminal organization ties all their loose ends.

If another looper were to execute you, you would have to live with that murderer for 30 years. While it might present less of an opportunity for you to try and cheat death, it also increases the likelihood you'll try to find your executor and exact revenge, or do something else that screws it all up.

Having loopers close the loops themselves helps minimize the effects of causality, and compartmentalizes operations. Each looper is a contained agent that erases the evidence of their existence. If loopers have to kill other loopers, you'll now have a web of interconnected agents, which is much easier for the police to sniff out. And if the whole web is exposed it will have huge repercussions for the past and may even result in major changes to the future.


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

[User]
Why can't you divide by 0?

What exactly is, or isn't, happening when you attempt to divide by zero?

[Assistant]
ELI5 answer:

If you want to split an apple so 2 people each get some, you divide by 2 and get 1/2.

If you want to split an apple so 5 people each get some, you divide by 5 and get 1/5.

If you want to split an apple so 0 people each get some, you find that dividing by zero doesn't really work.


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

[User]
CMV: In the age of Uber there's no point in having any taxi regulations

I understand why taxis were regulated in the past: it was extremely easy for taxi drivers to scam their clients, so the government stepped in and introduced various levels of regulation. However in the age of Uber it's literally impossible for a driver to scam his customers: no cash changes hands, the routes are logged, the drivers are verified, etc.

Since it's now 100% (okay, 99.9%) safe to ride a taxi, why would voters support the implementation of *any* taxi regulations? Even if Uber somehow goes crazy tomorrow and starts ripping people off, there's more than enough competition to drive them out of the market.

Note that I'm not talking about removing *driving* regulations, such as having a valid license or insurance. As long as your car is good enough to drive in city X, you should also be able to take passengers in city X. Neither am I talking about removing *business* regulations, such as having the drivers (and Uber itself) pay tax from their profits, but the level of taxation should be exactly the same as for any other business.

[Assistant]
There is a *huge* difference between a taxi, which is hailed on the street, and an uber, which is hailed using an app.

Taxis are much less safe. They are identified by markings and there is no real verification at the point of use that it is legitimate. There is not GPS tracking or record of the trip. Therefore, it is necessary to regulate the shit out of these-they're prone to scamming and worse-physical violence.

Uber is a different ball of wax. Can't really fake an uber like you can fake a taxi. There's dual party verification and a record of the transaction and the trip, there is easily obtainable recourse if something goes wrong.

Different services, they require different rules.


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

[User]
[LOTR] How fast do the various species reproduce and replenish their population after events causing a lot of deaths (e.g. war, famine)?

Can a recovering population of orcs overwhelm a recovering population of men or elves given they were both similarly affected by the event? Do elves even try to replenish their population?

[Assistant]
**Men**: reproduce quickly due to an inherent desire or need, and if factors are favourable (peace after conflict, or uptick in food production) there will be a conscious effort to replenish families and populations.

**Elves**: in the absence of a desire, they would only respond to a need and even *then* it would largely depend on individual couples who thought themselves ready. In order words, any spike in population would be negligible, no matter which previous event.

**Dwarves**: difficult to say, but probably not much more than Elves in terms of a spike in population.

**Orcs**: ???

**Ents**: no entwives, so not going to happen.

**Hobbits**: like bored Catholic rabbits, regardless whether they were aware of the conflict.


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

[User]
ELI5:Why do harps have that curve at the top?

Doesn't that create discrepancies in the lengths of the strings? Wouldn't it make the harp harder to play because pitches are switched around?

[Assistant]
If you used the same type of string for every note, then there would have to be a geometric curve as the length would need to double every twelve notes. Over a few octaves this would be unworkable because you'd end up with a 12 foot high harp.

Luckily, there's more ways to change the pitch of a string than to change its length. You can also change the thickness of it. However, thicker strings don't produce as nice a sound as thinner ones, so you have to strike a balance.

That balance is struck by having a curve. You can choose the curve with various criteria including making it pretty, making it sound a certain way, and also lining up a particular fraction of the length of the strings which is the optimum plucking point.


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

[User]
[Game of Thrones] Question about Viserys Targaryen (spoilers)

SPOILERS

Suppose that Viserys *did* have the blood of the dragon, and couldn't be burned. What would have happened when Khal Drogo dumped the molten gold on his head?

[Assistant]
All Targaryens can be burned. Daenerys was performing some fantastic and old magic when she did that dragon-hatching thing.

So he did have the blood of the dragon in that he was a Targaryen. He just wasn't getting molten gold on his head as part of a life-giving ritual.


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

[User]
ELI5: Since you can always cut a distance in half, is there infinite distance between any two points?

So let's take an inch for example. Cut an inch in half and you have 1/2 an inch. cut that in half and you have .25 then .125 and so on. Does this mean that there is truly an infinite distance between any two points in space?

[Assistant]
No. Even if you kept halving those distances an infinite amount of times until the distances became infinitesimal, if you added up all those infinitesimally small pieces you'd end up with the original length.

Edit: This is essentially the basis of calculus. You take something, chop it down to tiny tiny bits and then add up all those bits.


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

[User] ELI5: Would you die if you injected water into your bloodstream?

[Assistant] Depends on how much water you injected. A small amount (a drop or so) probably won't kill you. A larger amount would cause your blood cells to rupture because the concentration of water inside and outside the cell would be different. Water would rush inside the cell and blow up the cell membrane. If you kept injecting water eventually enough cells would blow up that you'd die. Even assuming that the cells could survive blowing up, you'd still die from your cells not being able to perform certain functions which require exact salt and sugar concentrations in your blood.


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

[User] How many people might I have killed by inadvertently passing on an virus like the flu that didn't hit me hard?

[Assistant]
Well you could calculate how many deaths per thousand cases of flu there are, but its pretty low.  The odds seem good that most cases of flu never end up killing anyone even if they get passed on a few hundred times.

That said, the answer depends on how many times a given flu virus is passed from one person to the next before dead-ending, how often it dead ends, and how far into the future you're allowed to consider it still having been "passed on by you".

I suspect we don't know most of these answers, so we can't say for sure.

For example, say you have a flu that doesnt die out, but infects a lot of people...without killing anyone, for like 50 years.  Then at year 55 it has some mutation and an older person dies from it being slightly more deadly.  At this point it's 55 years later and probably been through a million other hosts even in a direct line between you and the person who died.  Flu mutates so fast that its probably completely different from the virus you got by this time, anyway.

Whether thats still "your flu" is an academic debate at that point.


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

[User]
I firmly believe that mathematics is given far too much priority over arts, humanities, and even science. CMV?

**Edit:** Some elaboration.

Where is the culture in overemphasizing mathematics? Sure, did can do trigonometry in the eighth grade, but can he appreciate a good novel, or is he taught the important of walking and riding a bicycle versus taking a vehicle? He can find the volume of his pencil if it were hollowed out, but does he know about the mass deforestation and global warming? Can he simply sit and be present for ten minutes, thinking of nothing? Does he know what to do if his bicycle experiences a chain derailment or if his vehicle starts making a knocking noise below his feet as compared to the passenger side of the engine bay? Does he even know the state bird or flower? Can be name *three* literary geniuses of the 20th century? The 19th? Does he know of Bach? Vivaldi? What of John Nash, even? What about Home-Ec? Sure, you can do quadrilateral whatcha-call-its, but can you bake a loaf of bread? Do you know that you should not use a credit card if you don't have the money already? Do you know when to pay that card to avoid interest?

I could go on. Truth has it that mathematics is being placed at far too high of a priority than all other fields. Mathematics is *not* the soul of the universe (okay, so, it is...). Where are we if what we are most focused on is that of *technological* advancement and not even cultural *maintenance*?

**Note:** Thank you all so much for some great discussion and viewpoints. I can see some reasoning behind the value of mathematics, for the most part. Maybe, then, we should look at the value of our educations and its delivery methods.

[Assistant] Music and other art forms are often heavily influenced by math. BPM and the longevity of notes all flow mathematically. Science could not be understood without math either. Mathematics basically are part of everything in our day to day lives, maybe not in a geometry or algebra question, but math is always in our lives.


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

[User] ELI5 Could you "carbonate" water with other gases? And would they behave in a similar way (like building bubbles and causing the bottle to explode when shaken)?

[Assistant]
You can. Guinness beer is impregnated with nitrogen gas rather than carbon dioxide; this results in a creamier texture and smoother mouthfeel since nitrogen is extremely stable and doesn't easily form new compounds the way carbon does.

As for the rest of your question, the properties are similar as far as exploding when agitated.


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

[User]
[General] How do spaceships deal with heat?

No system is 100% efficient and some waste heat is generated, even on a spaceship. So how do ships across the multiverse handle this, how do they dump their excess heat?

The UNSC uses a multistage cooling system for their fusion reactors, where by hot coolant can be dumped and new cold coolant added to the system. Ships in Citadel Space use systems that convert heat to light and direct that away from the hull, other ships use heat sinks to store the heat to be purged later.

[Assistant]
The weird twisty shapes that a lot of ships have are actually designed to give them a high surface area, which makes radiative cooling easier. It's why advanced civilisations don't really build their ships around a rocket-shaped design: unless the ship is very small or only meant for short trips outside the atmosphere, it's just not an efficient way of cooling them.

It also helps to put the engines and generators on struts away from the living space, so that habitable areas don't heat up too fast.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Is there any logical reason for jedi NOT to carry an extra lightsaber?

We see jedi drop their lightsabers all the time in the movies. For such an important tool that could save their life, why not carry a backup? What Palpatine did was smart, he carried an extra lightsaber, so when he lost his first one to Mace Windu, he still had another to fight Yoda with.

[Assistant]
Well, they don't exactly hand out kyber crystals like candy, so there's an element of expense to a backup saber.
That's part of it, but the bigger part is that you shouldn't be using your lightsaber all that much anyway, so situations in which you lose a saber and need another should be exceedingly rare in a Jedi's career.
Rare enough that a backup doesn't make sense.


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

[User] One of the main reasons so many die from the flu and coronavirus is because of pneumonia. Since we have pneumonia vaccines, why is it not standard procedure to have the public get vaccinated for pneumonia?

[Assistant]
Pneumonia isn't a single illness, it's an umbrella term for an infection of the lungs. Pneumonia can be caused by a wide variety of infectious agents: bacteria, viruses, fungi.

Consequently, there is no single "pneumonia vaccine". Vaccines exist that help against some of the causes of pneumonia (for example the flu vaccine), but not all.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do almost all creatures prefer sexual reproduction? Surely being able to reproduce at any time you like without a mate would significantly increase survival odds?

[Assistant] Genetic diversity. Sexual reproduction is a roll of the dice to decide the traits passed on from the two parents. Over many generations, better traits win out and less desirable traits die off. This natural selection leads to higher probability of survival for the species.


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

[User]
[Raimi Spider Man] Does Peter still have some blame for Uncle Ben's death?

If he stopped the robber, he wouldn't have ran out and spooked Marko, does or should Peter still feel guilt over that?

[Assistant]
I think his guilt comes from that his last words to the man who helped raise him and treated him like a son, tried to have a heart to heart and said I know, Im not your father and his response was stop pretending to be

He never got the chance to apologize or anything. His uncle basically was killed because Peter selfishly wanted to get money to buy a car to impress a girl and lied where he was going.


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

[User]
[Thor: Ragnarok] Questions and spoilers within?

1) How come Thor and Loki can take beatings from beings that can tear apart steal with their bare hands, but can also be easily incapacitated by an electric shock chip.

2) Was Thor seriously planning on flying the Quinn Jet (a veichle clearly designed for atmospheric flight) through a wormhole and in to space?

3) If the God's powers come from Asgard, will Thor lose his mojo now it is destroyed? If the answer is no because Asgard is a people not a place, why did destroying it do jack all to Hela?

4) Does every Asgardian have a millenia long life span and super strength? If so that's a hell of a refugee crisis Thor has created by bringing that ship to Earth.

5) Why the hell did Strange think it was a good idea to play mind games with two gods? Sure, he wanted Loki off earth, but he's a smart guy, there was a more diplomatic way to operate.

6) Why is Asgard flat while all the other realms are clearly traditional planets?

7) If Odin won the 9 realms through conquest did he happen to chose the nine that were connected by intergalactic legend trees, rainbow bridges and secret portals, or were those pathways added later? If it's the latter, how did Bor get around?

[Assistant]
1. The chip clearly isn't just administering an electric shock, given that an area underneath the skin around it turns a dark blue when activated.

2. Thor might not know it isn't spaceworthy (although the comics Quinjets are), given that all he knows is that Banner got to Sakaar in it.

3. Nothing says all the gods got their powers from Asgard, only Hela is directly given this attribute. But like they said, Asgard is the people, not the place.

4. Yes, everyone does. This was actually first shown in Agents of SHIELD season 1.

5. He was purposefully keeping them off-guard - he may be powerful but these are actual gods, and his closest (known) encounter with a being of such power was with Dormammu - who pretty effortlessly was able to wipe the floor with him. While Thor and Loki might not be *that* powerful, they are still strong enough to be a significant threat if not dealt with promptly.

6. That is a good question we don't have an answer to.

7. More than likely Odin decided to "trim the tree" so to speak and left only bound those nine realms together. Hela made it clear that they had enough power to expand farther, but Odin didn't want that.


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

[User]
[Witcher] Geralt said he adopted the name 'Geralt of Rivia' because it sounded simple and in the books he even mastered a Rivian accent. Why then, do Eskel, Lambert, Vesemir, and Triss Merigold also speak with Rivian accents?

Asking again since I got downvoted yesterday.

In the books, people instantly recognise that Geralt as a foreigner from his Rivian accent. It is described as distinct from Temerian and Redanian accents. Triss Merigold hails from Maribor, a city in Temeria, so her accent should be fairly distinct from Geralt's despite it's portrayal in the games. The games treat the books as canon, so this should also apply to Geralt's character in the games.

Geralt also mentioned that he once wanted to take the name of Geralt Roger Eric du Haute-Bellegarde, which Vesemir dismissed as being too long. He then took up a Rivian identity. If witcher initiates had a choice in their identity, why do Eskel and Lambert also have accents similar to Geralt's? Do they like to pose as Rivians too?

In Blood And Wine, Prince Anseis of Lyria and Rivia also has an accent completely different from Geralt's. It even sounds more Nilfgaardian. Which of these two speak with genuine Rivian accent?

[Assistant]
It's important to remember that Geralt is nearly a century old, and has spent most of that with Lambert.  It makes sense that he'd sound very similar.  Likewise with Eskel and Lambert, they've both spent decades with Geralt and Lambert.

That's also enough time for culture to shift in the ebb and flow of borders and battles and migrations.

There's many reasons why noteable figures might have different or similar accents, not least of which is fostering and tutors, and just plain old affectation.


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

[User] [American Gods] Since gods derive power from worship, Yahweh should by far be the most powerful Old God. But He never appears during the war between the Old and New Gods. What was He doing during that time? Didn't He have a stake in the outcome too?

[Assistant] Actually if you read one of the expanded editions, there's a deleted chapter where Shadow meets with a man heavily implied to be Jesus. He's doing very well for himself and is in no danger of losing worshipers, so he doesn't join in the fight.


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

[User]
What happens in a Platonic sense when I add 1 and 1?

How is the addition or adding to be understood in a Platonic sense? As a fusion of two numbers? This would perhaps only result in another oneness. 1, added to itself, could result in 2 units that are identical with each other, so that the number 2 refers only to 2 identical units and does not represent a unit of its own as a twoness. Is that how it's supposed to be understood? Or in a completely different way? 1 + 1 is maybe 3? Because we might have three Platonic units here: 1, 1 and +.

[Assistant] You probably should read *Phaedo* 96a-102a. There, Plato actually uses addition of one to one as an example of how he thinks explanations should be given. He thinks that when you add one to one, the resulting sum is larger than either of the two original units because it has come to participate more in the Form of Largeness. What you said above about 1 + 1 possibly amounting to 3 made no sense to me, so you want to rephrase that. But if you are really interested in this, reading those few pages of the *Phaedo* would help you out a lot.


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

[User]
[Star Trek] Dose Starfleet know what's at the edge of the Milky Way Galaxy and/or beyond it?

Just looking at all the series, we have the 4 Quadrants.

But nothing beyond that.

[Assistant]
The four quadrants are just what we use to divide the galaxy into components that are easy to reference. Like the hemispheres of the Earth.

We know that there is a harmful energy barrier surrounding the edge of the galaxy (much like the one surrounding the galactic core).


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

[User]
[Bioshock] Why did Fontaine pretend to try to save his family when he had total control of the player in the first place?

Why the song and dance?

[Assistant]
He wasn't in constant contact with the player. If the player was actively resisting there would have been points where he might have escaped.

Hedging bets was way smarter. Have a literal slave who didn't even know he was a slave.


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

[User]
[MCU] How would Zemo have planned for Thor and Banner/Hulk?

Although Thor/Banner would not agree to the Accords, Zemo would still feel that they were responsible for the death of his family.

Even if Thor/Banner joined a side, they would easily overpower the super soldiers, leaving Zemo without a viable plan.

[Assistant]
Zemo's plan *never* was the supersoldiers. He's barely interacted with Cap and Tony by the time they find him in the bunker, and he's already shot the soldiers in the head. He has absolutely no intention to revive them because he realizes that he can't reliably control them.

His plan was to use the Avengers against each other, full stop. So if you throw Thor and Banner into the mix, then it's much the same as before. His plan hinged on Tony and Steve growing distrustful of each other, and the rest of the Avengers aligning themselves ideologically with one of the two, hopefully resulting in a fight.

The reason Thor/Banner wouldn't really impact this plan is because it was predicated on emotion *and Cap following the breadcrumb trail*. Zemo used Bucky because it would draw Cap in emotionally (isolating him from the other Avengers) and would put them at odds - Zemo knew Cap wouldn't hunt down an innocent Bucky, and he knew that he'd break the law to go against this conspiracy to frame his friend. That's why Cap got all the valuable "Bucky is innocent" stuff, and Tony Stark saw bombs going off and diplomats being murdered.

Banner would likely side with Tony, if only because he understands how dangerous they are and how necessary legal protections are for the people they're.... protecting. Thor would likely stand with Steve, seeing it unfit that the capable should be fettered by anything other than their own wisdom and good judgement (though you could argue that Thor, being in a monarchical line might see the value in authoritarian measures like the Sokovia Accords)

So his plan: Do nothing and wait, just like he planned for the rest of the Avengers.


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

[User]
[Tomorrow War] SPOILERS

Okay, so *why* draft people in the past to fight in the future instead of sending back all your data to help prepare for the invasion?

At the very least they could've sent info on how to build a more stable time portal so that the past could establish a better connection to the future. And maybe send the specs to make those guns with limitless ammo so they could flood Russia with millions of them in anticipation of the alien arrival.

[Assistant]
The way that they try to take people who they know are due to die means presumably paradoxes are a concern. Since the tech is in its infancy its possible they don't know how much the timeline can be changed or if doing so would be catastrophic.

But then it turns out it can be so its all fine.


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

[User]
ELI5:Does making eye contact go against your biological instincts (in cases where you're not trying to be threatening)?

Throughout the animal kingdom, eye contact is considered a form of aggression. Many human cultures also do not consider eye contact to be an appropriate behavior. However, Western cultures generally expect eye contact and attribute a variety of negative traits to those who don't maintain it (most of the time). This could indicate that in humans, eye contact is related to culture. But even many Westerners have trouble maintaining eye contact, which would indicate that Western culture is only masking biology.

[Assistant]
I think in Western Culture it is seen as a sign of respect because you are looking at the person who is speaking and visually paying attention to the speaker.
This is different from starring someone down, or "shooting daggers". This is also different from the don't fuck with me stare.  All of them involve looking at the subject the difference is facial expressions.  Squinting pinching tensing of your facial muscles tells much more than your eye movement.


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

[User]
[Spider-Man 2099]How far reaching was Miguel's mutation, were there other changes in his body besides the ones we know about, and why didn't he mutate any further like Seth Brundle in "The Fly"

And what was actually happening with and in his body during the mutation and
how much of the original human was left after it?

[Assistant]
Remember that all versions of Spider-Man, or any other Spider-Person, are avatars of the Great Web of Life. While the individual may experience becoming a Totem as an accident (bitten by a spider, get your DNA re-written), they were chosen to serve as an avatar.  So, Miguel did not continue to mutate because his mutation was controlled by a Spider-Totem.

As to how much of him remains human, it's a 50-50 split between human and spider.


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

[User] ELI5: On TV, why is closed captioning always "provided in part by" something, IE a certain company? Why isn't it just part of broadcasting standards that closed captions need to be present by default?

[Assistant] They are required on all broadcasts in Canada between 6am and 12 midnight, although most broadcasters do them 24 hours a day.  The sponsorship is just an ad like any other, some companies just want to tie their ad to something positive like accessibility.


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

[User]
When alcohol evaporates, does it leave any residue?

If i make 96% edible alcohol evaporate from an herbal extract, will the remaining dry residue be free from alcohol, or does alcohol leave something behind when it evaporates?

[Assistant] There will be the 4% herbal extract. Unless the alcohol reacts with the extract to form another compound before evaporating, then you will get the other compound. This is under ideal lab conditions. In reality getting a 100% pure product crystallisation is rare.


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

[User]
ELI5: How can Germany abolish tuition fee for university students while we are paying thousands of dollars or more each year?

see title.

[Assistant]
The German political culture is not opposed to socialist policies like the nationalization of a university system.

Another huge factor is that German education is much more rigid than in America and the standards for being in a path towards University are very high. This means that a large volume of Germans that are not serious about furthering their education are not running off to University as in America.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do so many British actors get cast in roles as Americans but Americans playing Brits is almost unheard of?

Yes I'm aware of Brad Pitt in Snatch.

[Assistant]
It's not unheard of at all, it happens all the time. Ever see *The Lord of the Rings*? Elijah Wood, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Astin, Liv Tyler, Hugo Weaving (Australian) all playing vaguely British-sounding characters.

How about Natalie Portman in *V For Vendetta*? RDJ in *Sherlock Holmes*? *Bridget Jones Diary*? The cast of *This Is Spinal Tap?* Johnny Depp in every other movie he's in?


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

[User]
CMV: Gender, as a concept, is useless

Gender is defined as being the social roles or personal identity of a person.

But I think that there is no reason to even use gender as a way to define yourself. This is because:

A) Gender is used to define social roles and your personal identity, through those roles. For people that define their gender as being something other than male or female, this is useless as there are no social roles for people that are neither male nor female gender-wise, because our biology has determined the natural roles of both sexes, and therefore also has determined social roles, and intersex people typically identify as either male or female anyway.

B) Too often, people think of their gender as being their personality, or they choose theirs as a result of it. I think this is entirely unnecessary. No one needed and no one needs to use things like gender to describe who they are, you just need to be yourself and not put yourself into vague categories.

[Assistant]
>Too often, people think of their gender as being their personality, or they choose theirs as a result of it.

Then gender is **clearly a useful** **term** for sociologists describing these people's behavior.

Gender is a useful term, because it is a widely influential effect on social behavior.

It's the same as with "race".

Is being "white" a vague, wishy-washy category with no objective limitations, or usefulness in strictly hard science based measurements? Sure it is.

Is it a useful term for describing a cultural idea that deeply influences social divisions to day? That too.


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

[User]
Why is the concept of infinity so hard to grasp?

Let's say, theoretically, that there is life after death. In this "afterlife" you will live... Forever. Permanently. To no end. Whenever I think about how this would just keep going and going and never finish is like a strain on my brain. But why is it so difficult to comprehend?

[Assistant]
Human experience is limited by certain conditions. We are unable to grasp anything that transcends the limits of time and space, because the world is given us through these forms, and cannot be given in any other way. The infinite would transcend these limits.

At the same time, infinity seems necessary, as we cannot imagine a border that does not separate.

This is answer is found in Kant.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why cars are getting much heavier these days?

What makes them heavy? Different kind of steel? Extra electronics? Heavier cushions?

I know that EV batteries are heavy, so theres that.

[Assistant]
People want taller and heavier vehicles these days. Subcompact econocars are selling less and less, and compact SUVs are selling more and more.

Also, safety features like more elaborate crumple zones and better roof support tend to add material and weight to the vehicle.


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

[User]
[X:Men DoFP] A few questions about the ending.

When Wolverine's mind returns to the present day, how did that work?

Was it a different mind in Wolverine the whole time that wasn't aware of his time travel?

 How did his consciousness being transferred effect his personality or any personal growth he might have made. Does he still keep his memories from his new timeline he created or will he just have the ones from the original future?

How does professor X know about the time travel? Would it be because it's the young professor x assuming when the Wolverine he met his back in his readjusted time?

Why is Jean Grey alive? And as a side question, would having her around have given them better odds against the Sentinel Mark X's?

[Assistant]
There was a different Wolverine from when woke up after drowning in the past, till when he woke up in the future. This Wolverine is now dead, so the 'current' version only has memories from his original timeline.

Prof X knows about time travel because it was explained to him in the past, and he remembered it.

Jean is alive because all the previous movies didnt happen the way we previously saw them, or just not at all. The Jean we were used to seemed to primarily a telepath, and didnt really use her other powers much until she 'died'. She is an Omega level mutant though, and she wouldve been very useful against the Sentinels if she could control her power.


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

[User] ELI5: 360 degree video.

[Assistant] The material is recorded as data that when played back through a software player allows the user control of the viewing direction and playback speed.  You use multiple cameras to take video shots at the same time. Take each video at the same frames per second. Then take apart each video frame by frame and arrange and distort each video frame into a flat spherical view to create one larger video frame. Then put it all together in one new video.


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

[User]
[DC/Marvel]Doesn't running around the world really suck for speedsters?

This has always bugged me about characters with super speed. A lot of the time they are shown running around the world, passing pyramids, monuments, whatever, and just being completely fine.
However, many portrayals of speedsters show that from their perspective, they are moving at a regular speed and everyone else is really slow. If that's the case, then from the Flash's perspective, he's just running at a normal pace around the planet.

If this is the case, how are they not completely exhausted?

>Plus, boredom. It's about 5000 miles from Tokyo to San Francisco. If it feels like he's jogging at an easy clip, like 5mph, that means subjectively it will feel like 40 days to cross the Pacific Ocean.
How do they navigate? It's not like they can stop and get a GPS signal.

[Assistant] Speedster powers generally come with selective perception of speed. If a speedster is having a conversation with you they're not taking notes because it feels like a month to them. So if they want a quick jog across an ocean to feel like a quick jog they can.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is it recommended to not sleep for a while when diagnosed with a concussion.

Was diagnosed with concussion yesterday, have been several times before (sport-related). When I tell people, they often tell me to make sure I don't go to sleep for a while. Where does this come from? Is it based on any actual medical advice?

[Assistant]
A concussion is a functional injury, which means you'll have difficulty operating at 100% for varying amounts of time. Sleep is the best way to heal said concussion.

Staying awake right after a concussion is helpful in assessing if there is also physical damage, such as swelling or bleeding in the brain. But if you have no issues walking, or holding a conversation, and neither of your pupils is dilated, rest is your best option for healing the concussion.


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

[User]
[Star Trek] Can I modify a transporter to create an army of clone soldiers?

So transporter duplicates are a thing, like when Cmdr Riker accidentally got a copy of himself. Is there anything stopping me from modifying a transporter to do it intentionally and creating an army of clones? Also did I just uncover where all the expendable red shirts come from?

[Assistant]
Sidestepping the ethical quandaries, probably not.

What happened to Riker was a million-to-one fluke. The fact that his molecules didn't get scattered across the planet's atmosphere is nothing short of a miracle. If the Federation *really* wanted an army of clone soldiers, they'd just make them in a vat which would be way easier.


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

[User]
Can I be tasered while I am touching a lighting rod?

The lighting rod I just mean my body is grounded.

[Assistant]
Tasers fire two electrodes that stick into you.  The current flows in a closed circuit: taser -> electrode -> you -> other electrode -> taser.  Current flow in that circuit is not affected by touching a grounded object.

EDIT:  What would probably work to some extent is wrapping your entire body in aluminum foil.  The foil would provide a low-resistance path between the electrodes and divert most of the current flow away from your body.  It still wouldn't matter whether the foil was grounded or not.


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

[User] [LOTR] I'm an elf that decided to sail back to Middle Earth from Valinor to reclaim the Kingdoms of Old (Rivendell, Lothlrien, etc). The date is 2017 AD. How is this going to turn out?

[Assistant] Can you even go back? The song has long since faded, magic has left the land, Arda belongs to Men now. For you to go back would violate the will of Iluvatar (and we know how that went) and doom you to a slow fading away.


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

[User]
[MCU]How is the Sokovia Accords doing so far? Do we know if it's working?

So with the passing of the accords, the UN has some control of where the avengers can and cannot go, if the MCU's UN is as useless as the real one, that showed itself to be a terrible move, but we don't hear about it.

What are some fair assumptions to make about the state of the world with the accords in play? From what we've seen so far that is.

[Assistant] Well the thing to remember is the accords cause the avengers to split into two teams, which means there's actually one team that works under the UN and one team that works rogue.  I'd say that this dynamic would probably make them pretty effective, since one is going to satisfy all the political opinions on the avengers acting under their own jurisdiction, and the other is actually going to work in the dark and fight against anything that the main team couldn't. Publicly, it seemed like the accords were a success until Thanos attacked earth, but even then the Avengers pretty much just ignored them once a serious threat was present.


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

[User]
ELI5 Why is it that we can breathe in steam/water vapor, and not worry about small amounts of water getting into our lungs?

I take a lot of hot showers, and sometimes I find myself wondering why I am able to breathe in the steam around me and not worry about any water-in-lungs related health concerns. How is breathing in steam different than breathing in small amounts of water droplets?

[Assistant]
Water is always in your lungs. A tiny bit more won't hurt. So long as you don't add enough to significantly change the water content of the lungs it's no trouble at all.

Think about all of the water you breathe out. That's all water that was in your lungs and evaporated.


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

[User]
Is energy conserved in the redshift of cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation?

If I understood correctly, the CMB originated at a time when the universe was much hotter and denser than today, and originally consisted of photons of much shorter wavelength than today. As the universe expanded and cooled, the photons comprising this background radiation did too, and at present it appears to us in the microwave range of wavelengths.

I don't understand how the law of conservation of energy holds for the total amount of energy carried by the CMB. The number of photons comprising the CMB can't increase. It can only remain the same or decrease (some photons will get absorbed by matter), and their wavelength is continually increasing. The total amount of energy carried by the CMB should therefore decrease (photons will longer wavelengths have less energy). If energy is conserved, where did this energy go?

[Assistant]
Yes, the CMB loses energy. There are two perspectives on this:

First, because time translation is not a symmetry of an expanding universe (no timelike Killing field), we may take the perspective that energy just isn't conserved at cosmological scales.

Second, we can quantify how much energy gets lost, eg using Noether's *second* theorem. If you have your observers follow the Hubble flow (energy depends on the reference frame), this gets you the first Friedmann equation. In case of a spatially flat universe (and using units where c=1,G=1), the changing energy densities of matter, radiation and dark energy will sum to 3H/8. If we interpret this term as the energy density of the gravitational field, total energy will exactly balance and hence be conserved.


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

[User] ELI5 how does copper kill pathogens?

[Assistant] Copper is a metal. When metal reacts with water - either in liquid form or through air moisture - it oxidizes. We call this "rusting" when it applies to metals. The first kill mechanism is this rusting, when the process of creating rust molecules, copper pulls electrons from the membrane of the bacterias cell wall lipids, oxygen or proteins. Oxidizing copper atoms weaken the bacteria when they pull these electrons from the atoms that make up the cell wall. Just like pulling bricks from a wall, eventually the cell wall breaks, killing the bacteria.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does driving exhaust you so much? Youre sitting, barely moving any muscles in a comfortable air conditioned rectangle.

Thinking about exercising for 3+ hours versus driving for 3+ hours.
Id have more energy it seems after the exercising.
Driving makes me tired.

[Assistant]
Part of it is mental. Driving typically takes a lot of constant concentration and small adjustment. You're also more or less sitting immobile for that whole time, so your body gets stiff.

After a few hours of that, stiffness plus mental exhaustion feels pretty similar to physical exhaustion.


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

[User]
[Fallout 4] What happened to the Nightkin?

I've explored the majority of the Commonwealth. Killing dozens of Super Mutants along the way. Although I've already leveled to the low seventies, I still haven't encountered a single one of those blue  psychology damaged at stealth Boy addicts. Is there any possible in game reason why they appear to either be missing entirely, or have a strong presence in the previous games?

[Assistant] There never were any nightkin on the east coast. They were part of the Master's Super Mutant army, which is the source of the west coast Super Mutants. The east coast Super Mutants come from FEV experiments in Vault 87, and there weren't any nightkin created there.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why accelerate ageing by only twice the natural rate?

Especially as the Clone Wars raged on - and leading to a great number of soldiers dying. Is it some kind of a compromise value?

As in, any faster and the clones would be old men before you know it; too slow, there would be a great net loss of clone troopers. Was it because of clone instability - whether the instability was mental and/or physical?

It seems to me that twice the natural ageing rate seems far too slow against an army that can produce so many, in such a short period of time.

[Assistant] Probably because of stability, in part, and maybe simple physical limitations. The Kaminoans are scientists dealing with genetic engineering, not gods or magicians - they clearly have some limits. Otherwise they'd just make clones that grow in a day and stay at peak age for years.


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

[User] ELI5: How are scientists able to track the birthplace and movements of diseases like AIDs or the Black Death, even after people are long dead?

[Assistant]
Through studying the remains of the dead, written records and genetic studies.

When it comes to remains, in case of ancient plagues this is usually restricted to the bones, usually found in mass graves indicating people had no time nor want to properly bury their dead.  With more recent diseases, scientists can often study older preserved samples of blood or tissue, this way they found cases of people who had HIV/AIDS as far back as the 50s for example.

Then there are the written records - even if people didn't understand/recognize the disease, description of sympts are telling. We know for example from records of social workers in the 70s about an illness they then dubbed junkie flu/pneumonia which pretty well matches AIDS. With the black death, mentions of symptoms like thee emblematic buboes, among others in historical records is how historians can track where the plague appeared.

Finally, modern genetic studies allow modelling how the germ evolved and spread. Rates of mutation are thought to be constant, and so researchers could determine approximately when and where did HIV evolve from it's predecessor SIV.

All in all, historical research of diseases is a fascinating field that requires a multidisciplinary approach from a variety of experts pooling their knowledge together.


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

[User] ELI5- Why can someone be arrested for refusing to answer questions from police, but the first thing a person is told when arrested is that they have the right to remain silent?

[Assistant]
I think it's usually "arrested after refusing to answer questions".  They didn't get arrested for "failure to answer police questions" because that's not a crime in the US.  The police can arrest you any time they suspect you've committed a crime.  If they ask you questions and your answers convince them that you did not commit the crime, you avoid being arrested.  **HOWEVER,** that's the most risky approach.  It's much safer to get a lawyer, your answers won't be any more convincing without a lawyer, and you might convince them that you did commit the crime, **plus** "Anything you say can be used against you".

Getting arrested isn't the end of the world, in the US you're still innocent until proven guilty.  Make them work for their proofs.


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

[User] ELI5: Why did Andrew Jackson oppose banks?

[Assistant]
Hopefully someone will give a better explanation than me...

AJ did not hate all banks. He hated the idea of a centralized, national bank. Basically, he believed a central bank would wield too much power over the credit of the United States, and that instead each state should control its own monetary policy. When Jackson abolished the central bank - the *Bank of the United States* - he redistributed the money back to the states.

The problem with a system like this is that there is no uniform monetary policy across the country. It could easily lead to runaway inflation if each state was printing its own money, or worse, making loans to other states ~~(see: Greek debt crisis)~~


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

[User] [ELI5] How is crypto in any way stable? What prevents someone from creating a crypto and immediately generating tons of their own coin for themselves?

[Assistant] You can. Just like you can print Monopoly money. The challenge is getting other people to recognize it as a meaningful currency. And as the market has provencrypto is not the most stable of currencies; not as bad as some troubled countries, but not as stable as most paper currencies.


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

[User]
Why does it appear most craters on the moon are fairly true circles?

I was looking at a video of the moon and noticed that all the craters I could make out appeared to be nearly perfect circles.  I would think that an object striking the moon at an angle would form a less perfectly circular crater than a direct hit.  If the moon's gravitational pull isn't very large, and it has no atmosphere to slow objects down, why does it appear that most impacts come at a very high angle?

[Assistant] It doesn't have to be at a high angle to create a circular crater. If the object is moving fast enough (and it will be, since it's falling at interplanetary speeds), it will create a massive explosion when it hits. The shock wave is circular, and will be much much larger than the object itself. That's what creates the crater, not the actual path of the meteorite.


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

[User] [Resident Evil] If the Tyrant is supposed to be the ultimate biological weapon, why is it's heart outside it's body?

[Assistant] The Tyrant T-001 was a prototype B.O.W. (Bio-Organic Weapon) meant as a proof of concept, for which other Tyrant-class B.O.W.s were derived. Aside from the heart sticking out of its chest, it really was one of the top B.O.W.s that Umbrella had designed.


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

[User]
[MCU] Is there a based on a true story MCU in the world of the MCU?

It seems the general public has a grasp on the events of Civil War, Infinity War, etc. And I think there has been posters for a Stark biopic shown in the background somewhere. Do we think MCU film studios are cranking out films based on what we see in the MCU?

[Assistant]
Hawkeye spoilers: >!There's a Broadway musical called "Rogers" that depicts the events of the first battle of New York. It's "based on a true story" in that they seem to have gotten most of the details wrong!<

Eternals spoilers: >!One of the titular eternals, Kingo, makes the Eternals themselves the plot of an ongoing film series. He stars in the movies as... one of the other Eternals. It's unclear how "based on a true story" the movies themselves are, but he does have a flair for the dramatic!<


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

[User]
[witcher: Wild hunt] in the game there is an in-universe book describing a species of insects living in a form of "arachnocommunism", does that imply the existence of regular communism in the Witcher world?

The book's called " *Wondrous World of Insectoids*"

And te text says:

" *One is hard-pressed to think of a creature more hard-working and better organized than the endrega. Ants, bees and termites are no match for them in this regard. Endregas best even humans when it comes to foresightedness and industry.
In fact, the human race could benefit a great deal from following their example, resigning from the primitive and obsolete social structures of feudalism and adopting instead a form of arachnocommunism.
In arachnocommunism, every individual has a specific place and performs a specific labor for the common good. The roles are as follows: worker, soldier and queen. Each comrade contributes to the necessary daily toil according to his special abilities, and takes from the common fund of wealth according to his special needs.* "

[Assistant]
Very possibly. while Capital C Communism was invented by Karl Marx, what would seem to modern observers to be communist ideologies have existed for a very long time- at least ancient greece. The idea that a classless, propertyless society would be better is something that can be  invented any time an oppressive upper class owns everything.

In the witcher world, it's likely just a ivory tower philosophy with little influence, or at best  something a few weird villages do.  But it might very well exist.


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

[User] Eli5:If heart is a muscle that never rests why other muscles need rest?

[Assistant] The heart actually does need rest. Every time your heart beats it goes through Systole which is contraction of the muscle, and diastole which is a resting period in which it refills with blood. Systole lasts about 0.3 seconds and diastole lasts about 0.5 second. So even though it seems like its constantly working it is actually resting more than it is working.


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

[User]
[I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream] How it's AM's complex able to hold over 387.44 MILLION miles of circuits when the earth is only roughly 3,900 miles around?

Does his complex expand into space or something?

[Assistant] The circuits are likely very small with plenty of overlap. The US alone has over 4 million miles of *roads* with plenty of space to spare, so you can definitely fit plenty of circuits into a relatively compact space. Plus, AM has the whole world to work with, so the size of the complex shouldnt be too much of an issue.


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

[User]
Tips on writing reference list ?

I have 2 problems :

1. I read an author A 's work, who cites author B, I paraphrase the ideas of the author B into my own work but I forgot to copy his entry into my reference list. Then I close my browser or my PDF and now I dont know the entry for author B. Most of the time I don't cite author A as well so I dont know where I took the idea from.
2. As the previous example, I always copy reference list from author A, but sometimes the format is different from my intended reference format. Is there any way I can change the format using software?

[Assistant]
You are plagiarizing in point one. You cannot put anything on your reference list that you haven't actually read and you didn't read B. And by not citing B you are pretending that the ideas are your own.

You need to do what is called a secondary citation... Something lije this..

Smith 2012( this B) as cited in Jones 2014....(this is A) .

Google seonday citation + whatever citation style you use.

Also, If you are a postgrad student you shouldn't be using secondary citations. If you want to cite the ideas in B, you should actually find B and read it. How do you know A is accurately representing B?


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

[User]
Can statisticians control for people lying on surveys?

Reddit users have been telling me that everyone lies on online surveys (presumably because they don't like the results).

Can statistical methods detect and control for this?

[Assistant]
Yes. It's easier to do in a large (read: lots of questions) assessment. But we ask the same question a few different ways, and we have metrics that check that and we get a "consistency score"

Low scores indicate that people either aren't reading the questions or they are forgetting how they answered similar questions (I.e., they're lying).


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

[User]
Since m = E/c^2, how can photons have energy, but no mass?

If I understand correctly, mass is actually an indication of the amount of net energy an object contains. How is it then possible for a massless object to contain energy?

[Assistant] E=mc^2 is true for objects at rest, but photons are never at rest. The full equation is E^2 = (mc^2 )^2 + (pc)^2 , where p is the momentum. So, for massless particles like photons E=pc, i.e. their energy is related to their momentum.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Are the other Wizarding Schools as safe as Hogwarts?

Hogwarts is apparently so safe, members of the Ministry of Magic keep stuff there. Are the others as safe? As in, If I was an American or Canadian Wizard, would I go to MCUSA or the Canadian Wizarding Governemnt, or to Ilvermorny to keep a magical doomsday weapon safe?

Asking for a friend.

[Assistant] Probably not. Hogwarts is mainly safe for 2 reasons: the first being the many secret-keeping locations within, and the second being Dumbledore (i.e. the guy who could stomp approximately 100% of the wizarding world like cockroaches in a fight if he so desired).


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

[User] ELI5: Why do we feel hot air when we expire air with our mouth open, but we feel fresh air when we blow air with our mouth "closed" as if we were whistling?

[Assistant]
The air is actually hot, having been warmed by your body temperature. That's the warm "Haaaaaaaa" version.

A more closed mouth, though, pushes the air much faster, and it feels cool because fast blowing air wicks away heat & moisture (like an electric fan). It would not be cold to a thermometer no matter how fast you blow it out.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Which would be more expensive the destruction of a droid or the death of a clone?

I can see arguments for both. What do you guys think?

The clone army has to eat and sleep that's food, beds, etc. They obviously get paid because there are clone bars on Coruscant and more than likely throughout the galaxy. They're also trained by bounty hunters who have to eat and sleep and more things.

but while the droids have massive factories and stuff. They'd need to be repaired and more.

so what does Reddit think of this?

[Assistant]
Droids are essentially a commodity; you can grab one from the Jawas if you aren't particular about the quality. It seems like every menial task is handled by droids, and nobody gives it a second thought.

Clones, on the other hand, only come from one place, and there are only 3,000,000 of them. That might *sound* like a lot, but consider that in light of the population of the entire *galaxy*.

There are probably more people in a single district of Coruscant than there are clones in the entire galaxy.


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

[User]
How come the Milky Way and Andromeda dont affect each other much more?

According to Google, Milky Way is 105,700 light years in diameter, Andromeda is 220,000 light years in diameter and the distance between the two galaxies is approximately 2.5 million light years - thats just ~11 times the diameter of Andromeda. For comparison, the diameter of Earth is 12,742 km and the distance between Earth and Moon is 384,400 km - so just over 30 times the Earths diameter, and the Moon has an enormous impact on Earth.

Thats the same as if I stood just over 2 m (assuming my head is 20 cm thick and that Im only my head) from someone and that sure doesnt seem like much. I understand that 2.5 million light years is a lot (more than a lot), but still - when put into such perspective, it seems unbelievable. How much closer would the two galaxies have to be in order to start stretching each other? Thanks for the responses.

[Assistant]
Well the big difference is the density of the Milky Way and Andromeda when compared to Earth. The galaxies actually have densities comparable to a hard vacuum, 10^-23 grams per cc. Which makes sense since they are mostly vacuum.

While the Earth is practically a solid ball of iron with a density of 5.5 g/cc.


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

[User]
[Sabrina-verse] Zelda and Hilda are sisters, how is one British and one American?

EDIT: people keep going on about the accents. My point is not about accents, it's about WHY DOES ZELDA CALL HILDA "BRITISH" AS AN INSULT IN EPISODE 6 WHEN THEY BOTH LIVE IN THE USA?

[Assistant] They're a lot older than they look. They could have been born decades apart, in different countries. They could have simply lived in separate countries for a prolonged period. Or they may both have been born and raised in England, but when they moved to America one of them assimilated better than the other.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is it that just before I sleep I think deeply about things but during the next day my level of thought decreases?

[Assistant] The darkness allows your mind to focus inward - your eyes arent processing a bunch of different sights and colors, your ears are likely processing less information because you are in a quiet room - you're likely in a familiar, comfortable setting that isn't a shock to your sense of smell - you're also lying in a familiar position your body has come to recognize as the place where you sleep. So all in all, your brain is processing less information than it has to when you are going about your daily routine in daylight. Without such distractions, you'll find yourself deeply involved in self reflection and thought.


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

[User] What is the minimum amount of matter that may form a black hole?

[Assistant] There is no real minimum of what *could* form a black hole if it is compressed into a small enough volume (except possibly below the Planck mass...not sure of this), however, the smallest amount that will *actually* form a black hole due to gravitational collapse is roughly twice the mass of the sun, although the exact value isn't known.


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

[User] ELI5: How the heck a pully system makes a 2 ton safe light as a feather.

[Assistant]
Imagine trying to lift a 2 tonne car a metre. Can't do it?

Now imagine pushing it up a very slight 1 metre hill. Much easier. You've done the same amount of work, but spread over a longer distance, so the force required is much less.

Pulleys do the same. Smaller load over a longer distance.


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

[User]
ELI5: When you burn fat on your body by exercise etc., does your body burn newer fat, or any fat?

If you only burn newer fat, does that mean that there is some really old fat in your body?

[Assistant] Your body has a fixed number of fat cells that store liquid fat inside of them. When you burn fat what's happening is your fat cells are being told to release energy in to your bloodstream. So it's sort of like if you had a bucket of water that you sometimes add water to and sometimes take water out of. Technically some of the water molecules may have been in there a long time just like how some of the fat molecules may also have been, but there would be no way to know exactly.


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

[User] How come RNA uses uracil over thymine. What is the benefit of the change? What is a possible mechanism for the evolution of the change?

[Assistant] The question is really, "Why does DNA use thymine?" because RNA came before DNA, and cells actually synthesize the thymine deoxynucleotide from uracil deoxynucleotides. The best explanation is that thymine is more stable than uracil. Thymine is less sensitive to radiation damage. It also is much more selective in pairing with adenine than uracil is because of how it enforces the conformation of the DNA helix -- uracil is actually not that picky. Deamination of cytosine (which happens a *lot* in cells) transforms it to uracil, making the AUGC set of bases more susceptible to mutation than ATGC; in DNA, any uracil is clearly a mutation, and is excised.


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

[User]
[Dune] How does a still suit deal with poop?

You lose less than a thimble of water per day in a still suit. If you poop, does it get dried out by the suit or whats going on here?

[Assistant]
From Dune:

>"It's basically a micro-sandwich  a high-efficiency filter and heat-exchange system. The skin-contact layer's porous. Perspiration passes through it, having cooled the body ... near-normal evaporation process. The next two layers . . . include heat exchange filaments and salt precipitators. Salt's reclaimed. Motions of the body, especially breathing and some osmotic action provide the pumping force. Reclaimed water circulates to catchpockets from which you draw it through this tube in the clip at your neck... Urine and feces are processed in the thigh pads. In the open desert, you wear this filter across your face, this tube in the nostrils with these plugs to ensure a tight fit. Breathe in through the mouth filter, out through the nose tube. With a Fremen suit in good working order, you won't lose more than a thimbleful of moisture a day..."

TL:DR; Yes it gets dried out by the suit, there is a special material in the lower butt/thigh pads for dealing with waste.


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

[User]
[MCU or Earth-616] Would it be possible to make a much cheaper, less powerful version of the arc reactor for civilian cars?

Could Stark make a very cheap arc reactor that's just powerful enough to run a Prius or Tesla Model S? Would it be cheap enough to be considered cost efficient?

[Assistant]
Don't your recall?  He made his first one on the cheap "in a cave... with a box of scraps".  It powered his Iron Man suit with boosters, thrusters, repulsors, weapons and a complex AI operating system and electronic console.

Surely to God, it could power a simple automobile.


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

[User]
ELI5: If large buildings are made of concrete, shouldn't they be able to build it so a fire can't spread from one floor to another?

As has happened with the london tower block fire for example.

[Assistant] They do. The big, heavy steel doors to the stairways that close automatically are designed to keep the fires from spreading from floor to floor. That's why bldg security goes apeshit when they're propped open or the hydraulic closer is broken or disabled.


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

[User] ELI5: How does a solid state battery work? How do electrolytes move through a solid transfer medium?

[Assistant]
The common lithium-ion batteries we use today are made up of mostly liquid, with lithium-ions used as the electrolyte.

Electrolytes are basically electrically conductive substances.

To create a solid state drive, a highly conductive glass formed from lithium hydroxide and lithium chloride and doped with barium, creating a solid form of the liquid lithium-ion battery. The glass here serves as a kind of substitute for the liquid in the lithium-ion cell.

This allows for fast charging of the battery without the formation of metal dendrites (one of the reasons lithium-ion batteries are unstable and occasionally explode).


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

[User] Since photons have no charge, what force or mechanism causes them to deflect/scatter when coming into contact with matter?

[Assistant]
Photons dont have charge, but that just means that they dont couple to each other. They still couple to particles which *do* have charge. And thats usually whats happening: a photon is scattering off of a charged particle.

Scattering of light by light is possible due to higher-order effects, but its very rare.


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

[User]
CMV: People are not exclusively mouthpieces of their social and economic upbringing

Jordan Peterson was talking on the Joe Rogan show about how his view of the views of academics such as Derrida and Foucault was that they thought people are pretty much only mouthpieces of their social and economic upbringing rather than having an authentic, individual voice. Although there is of course some influence from environment (a white male from USA is likely to have more similar views to another white male from USA than a female from a tribe in the Brazilian rainforest).

Many people would probably say me bringing up Jordan Peterson whose main audience is white males proves that I am a mouthpiece for that social group, however my view is that people can have a valid view on any other social group or a valid opinion on politics if they are well enough informed and should not be dismissed simply due to being in a particular box society has delineated. The view is not particularly about white men, that just seems to be the current example at least according the media who probably sensationalize it a bit.

Away from the social justice side of things and at a smaller scale, Yuval Noah Harari talks about the idea of 'dataism' and that biological phenomena such as the brain are based on algorithms and therefore the data inputs to these algorithms would lead to products based on the inputs with no 'ghost in the machine' to give an individual voice. I guess this one is harder to argue against although surely there is room if not for free will to formulate individual opinions, at least the machinery to observe other social and economic phenomenon and make a personal opinion based on valid data?

[Assistant]
What does a glass of water consist of? Is it a liquid, or is it a ball pit of bonded hydrogen and oxygen atoms bouncing off of each other?

Really, it's both, it's depending what your purposes are, and what level of detail you are looking for.

You are right, that the output that a single brain makes, is essentially best described as a kind of "free will". That's why we punish people who commit crimes, or reward people who act excellently. Even if there is no "ghost in the machine",  as long as you have a working brain, that brain, and the body that it controls, is for all practical purposes a moral actor that appears capable of reason, self-control, and judgement.

The problem with Jordan Peterson style approach is that it doesn't just say that individuals *have free will*, but keeps applying it to the field of sociology where large scale demographic trends are simply more relevant.

If you try to interpret demographic trends like "why do poor people commit more crime?" or "Why are women pursuing less profitable careers than men?" then the answer that "they are making personal choices" will be profoundly useless, because these groups are not hive minds that decided to do this or that in the same way as a single brain does.

Answering questions that way, essentially invalidates the field of sociology by it's unwillingness to investigate what could be the variable that is pushing one subset of people in a different direction than another one.


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

[User]
[Assassin's Creed] I used to be a Templar, before I decided to join the Assassins. But as more time passes, I'm starting to hate both organizations with equal measure. I want to break away and start my own organization, but what would I have to do to take them both down?

I can't stand the fighting between the two orders! It has brought nothing but strife and suffering to innocents! Why hasn't a third order risen to defy both? Either way, I plan to put a stop to it.

What would it take to destroy both orders and take control? Should I recruit individuals who have been spurned by both, or start fresh?

[Assistant]
Take into account these are both global organizations having bases and members all over the planet. Destroying such an institution isn't as simple as killing a few people, you would literally have to destroy all the bases, and people within each.

The likellihood of you succeeding before either organization knows about you and comes for you is poor. They are both well funded, politically connected, and have access to literal armies. If you can recruit enough people to help you on your suicide mission, then congrats, they are crazy enough to probably be alright with dying for your cause, but honestly, that's just more lives lost.


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

[User]
Is there a theoretical limit for human performance?

This question is inspired by a Roger Bannister quote:

It is a paradox to say the human body has no limit. There must be a limit to the speed at which men can run. I feel this may be around 3:30 for the mile. However, another paradox remains  if an athlete manages to run 3:30, another runner could be found to marginally improve on that time.

Is there any scientific evidence that there is indeed a performance limit for the human body as it currently exists? Or is it that marginal improvements can always be made?

[Assistant]
The answer would came from mathematics, specifically convergence of limits. Long story short, there are two ways a series of numbers can go if you let it run a long time. Stuff like:

1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5... will keep getting bigger, and eventually reach infinity (or make a bloody good attempt, anyways).

On the other hand,
1 + 1/2 + 1/4 + 1/8 + 1/16 ....
will not. Think Zeno's paradox. No matter how much you keep running the series, it'll still be a tiny bit less then 2.

You can track the improvements the athletes make to the record as a series, and it's quite likely that the bigger the record gets, the smaller the iprovements are, eventually leading to a finite limit.


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

[User]
ELI5: How many adrenaline shots can a EMT administer to resuscitate?

I finished watching the movie The Dirt about Motley Crue (awesome movie) but Im confused about Nikki Sixxs overdose. Do paramedics usually administer more then 1 adrenaline shot or was it because it was Nikki Sixx they did it???
Ive been wondering about this for awhile...

[Assistant] ACLS protocol for cardiac arrest calls for 1mg epinephrine every 3 minutes for as long as the arrest persists. Usually if a patient hasnt achieved ROSC (been revived) after 30/45 minutes of attempting, the resuscitation efforts are terminated.


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

[User]
ELI5: why do I feel like everything is more quiet in the morning so that I have to turn the volume down from last night.

When you have your tv set to a certain volume at night and you wake up and it seems way to loud, it seems weird to me. Edit: front page, thanks guys, shout out to Lars Tim and Mallory for reading this.

[Assistant] Your ears are more sensitive because you've been sleeping in what is presumably relatively quiet conditions.  As the day goes on they grow less sensitive because of all the noise they handle on a daily basis.


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

[User]
[Comics] Were Peter Parker and Clark Kent devoid of girlfriends during high school? Even if they were or pretended to be nerds, even a blind girl would notice their physiques no?

hope i made sense in the title

even if they intentionally or naturally came off as dorks during high school, all the girls would probably notice their amazing uber Olympic bodies.

wouldnt they?

[Assistant] Peter Parker became less of a dork after he was bitten by the spider. After becoming Spider-Man his body became very muscular and he started to become a bit more outgoing, though he still retained his introverted characteristics. Peter did start attracting women's attention after he became Spider-Man. His first girlfriend was Betty Brant who worked as J. Jonah Jameson's secretary. He also flirted with the Human Torch's girlfriend at the time and even Liz Allen, the most popular girl at Peter's high school developed a crush on him, though they never hooked up. And once Peter got into college he got a lot of attention from women including Gwen Stacy, Mary Jane Watson, and the Black Cat.


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

[User]
How have tardigrades survived five mass extinctions? Also, what makes them so resilient in extreme environments?

I was watching Cosmos and Neil Degrasse Tyson mentioned that tardigrades have survived five mass extinctions (meaning that they've been around for hundreds of millions of years). They can survive in the most extreme conditions, including the cosmic radiation of space, 10 years without water, and intense volcanic heat.

What makes them so good at surviving?

[Assistant]
Well, Tardigrades have the distinct ability to enter a really intense kind of hibernation. They eliminate nearly all the water in their systems before going into "hibernation", replacing it with a sugar trehalose, which both protects membrane as well as serving as a retainer for the water thats left in the tardigrade. This sugar, Trehalose, is the glue that keeps this magic together. Its incredibly stable, turns into a gel, and stops cells from splitting or disrupting. And best yet, all it needs is water, and it'll return to a more liquid form, releasing the bonds it had on the cells it encapsulated, and returning it to full functioning form.

Turns out, being nearly completely empty on water also makes them incredibly resistant to lethal doses of radiation, mostly because less water content provides less reactants for ionizing radiation (that kills things). And to tack on to that, tardigrades only have 75-800 base pairs of DNA, but their DNA effectively repairs itself in event that the radiation does damage.

In freezing temperatures, the water content of the tardigrade goes down all the way to 3%, meaning when it eventually thaws, displacement is a non factor.

Ironically, in the end, its water that we use to measure future capacity for life, but its really the water that kills everything in extreme conditions.


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

[User] ELI5: how did women shaving their legs/armpits come about and why did men not do it too?

[Assistant] Women shaving their legs came about during World War II when nylon was rationed. Before that women would wear nylon stockings. Razor companies also had the agenda of marketing their product to women since men were off fighting, Thus women were seeking the nylon look (smooth leg) and achieving it by using the razors and shaving cream that the companies were specifically marketing to them with the men gone.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is Eric Cantor's defeat such a big deal?

I am not an American, and keep hearing that the GOP is now going to go more 'to the right' as a result. I gotta say...I thought they already went more to the right with the Tea Party a few years back, and their agenda seems more right wing than ever. So is it going even MORE extreme to the right than before? What's going on?

[Assistant]
Generally, incumbents (those already-elected officials running for re-election) have an easy road to re-election. No one in their party really wants to oppose them in their primary because they're already elected, and doing so would rock the boat, and it's an uphill battle for the opposing party's candidate because the guy that's already holding the position typically looks much more suited to the position simply by the fact that he's already holding it.

Cantor was defeated, not by a Democrat in an open election, but by *another* Republican in his party's primary. This is *huge*, because it means that his party would rather have a Tea Party faction candidate on the ballot than retain an incumbent Republican who is also the House Majority Leader. This indicates that the Tea Party has such momentum behind it (at least in Virginia's 7th district), that the Republicans of said district would rather throw out the enormous advantages that Cantor allows for better representation under another candidate.

It's another slow step forward in the fracturing of the Republican party - with what end result, none can know.


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

[User]
[Marvel] Just How Rich is Thor?

He's prince of Asgard, and sometimes its king.  There have been comics that mention his residence and holdings in Asgard, but they have always been a bit vague about just how extensive they are (at least from what I've read.)

Now we all know Thor is a warrior at heart and is little concerned for money.  Yet when he needs some, he has little trouble coming up with some.  So where does this money come from?

Exactly what holdings belong exclusively to him, what are they worth in term of Earth Money, and what is he entitled to as the heir of Asgard?  Does he have Earthly credit based on his Asgardian wealth?  How rich is he compared to other rich guys like Tony Stark, Bruce Wayne, or Lex Luthor?

[Assistant]
He is the crown prince of an entire dimension, which is full of valuable metals, minerals and gems. All he ever needs to do is go fetch them and bring a sufficient quantity of them to a Midgard vendor for them to give him what he wants. He also has access to seven other dimensions, each full of their own wonders. That also doesn't cover the vast stretch of the Midgardian cosmos he can travel and procure resources from.

That's assuming he is not given whatever it is out of gratitude for his service to Earth, or because of admiration or even worship. Credit can't hard for him to procure, because he has demonstrated repeatedly that he is a man of his word and is not known for shirking on debts. That doesn't even count the very rich and powerful friends and allies he has.

Suffice it to say, money for him is a Midgard problem, and not even a problem- it's more a temporary inconvenience.

As to the actual value, well, what would you say the value of all the valuables on Earth are? Because he has access to that much or more wealth as long as he can make the trip to Asgard.


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

[User] Could there be planets orbiting black holes? What effect would that have on them?

[Assistant]
Anything can orbit a black hole. The planet would be subject to tidal forces which, depending how far the planet was from the black hole, could potentially rip it apart or simply heat it through internal stress like Jupiter's moon Io.

The main thing is that without a star, it would get rather cold, unless the black hole had an accretion disk and jet which were producing sufficient light to heat the planet.


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

[User] [General Fantasy] Do werewolves need the Earth's moon or do any other moons work? Would sending a werewolf to a planet with multiple full moons make it stronger?

[Assistant]
Werewolf curses may need to be specifically tied to Earth's moon and it's effects on our planet, but other forms may vary. As a disease Lycanthropy may need a specific set of conditions to trigger symptoms; and these conditions may possibly be provided by moons on other worlds (shifts in gravity, exposure to a specific amount of indirect light from the Sun...)

Also: in Dragon Ball Z the Ozaru is similar to a Werewolf, and it is an inherited condition of an entire species (the Sayan); they learnt to make artificial moons in order to prompt the transformation to enhance their combat skills (they were *not* a peaceful people in case you haven't seen the series)


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

[User] Why does Loki Not Use His Frost Giant Powers In Avengers?

[Assistant] Shame, probably.  Loki HATES what he is, and in his mind he's the rightful king of Asgard.  Not only that, but he passes off as Asgardian to the Chitauri, and so would likely not want something like his frost giant heritage coming to light.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] What's the rules of engagement for when Vader discovers a notable survivor of Order 66?

Of course, Inquisitors exist and do a lot of the busy-work. Vader also has a lot of involvement when it comes to taking out rogue Jedi Knights and surviving Padawans. But what about Masters and individuals of interest to Palpatine? There aren't too many of them left, but I have to wonder. Does Vader just let his hate-boner steer him into engaging the enemy ASAP, or does he give Sidious an update and *request permission* to engage? Does Sidious ever want to deal with particular individuals personally (or have them captured alive and brought to him)?

I just had some curious thoughts as to different force-sensitives and how Vader and Palpatine might try and call dibs (or if Vader just deals with them all because Palps is busy).

So for instance:

* Yoda. Does Palpatine want to finish their old score and or see the crazed swamp hermit for himself? Is Vader confident about his chances against Yoda?

* Mace Windu (assuming survived). I'd imagine Palps would be invested in ensuring Windu was dead personally, and Vader would have some intense Anakin emotions tied to knowing Mace was alive.

* Obi-Wan. Of course, Vader is almost as obsessed with Kenobi as Maul is. I couldn't see Palps showing much interest in Obi-Wan, besides the risk that Obi-Wan could get through to Anakin somehow.

* Maul. Possibly one of my more curious individuals. Palpatine obviously has personal beef with Maul and would delight in tormenting him some lore. Vader shouldn't have too much to do with Maul seeing as most of their personal connections died with Anakin.

[Assistant]
Vader is Palpatine's right hand man.

If he encountered a Jedi survivor of Order66 out in the wild, he'd dispatch him on the spot, providing current priorities weren't interfered.  (Altough Vader seems quite adept at handling multiple things at once)

The only time he hesitated was with Luke... But that was an obvious hesitation.  That said he did consult Palpatine who encouraged him to bring Luke before him.  (Although it was only a rouse to see the father and son fight to the death so he could claim the victor as his apprentice going forward... Just didn't work out that way)


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

[User]
CMV: Bruce Wayne/Batman paying higher taxes wouldn't be a magical solution for Gotham.

I saw a meme that said, "Bruce Wayne paying 90% taxes on income and capital gains over $10 million would do more to help Gotham than Batman ever could."

To preface:  I'm not against taxing billionaires.  My personal opinion is that billionaires are actively harmful to society.  In either case, that has nothing to do with this, just to inform that I'm not coming at it with a hyper-capitalist viewpoint.

Let's begin at the biggest hurdle.  Gotham has been run by a secret organization of the ultra-wealthy called the Court of Owls for over a hundred years.  They were so secretive they escaped even Batman's notice for a long time.  These are the worst of the worst, those who engineered many of the miserable conditions in Gotham.  They are the puppetmasters of the city council, the mayor, etc.

Then, you have the city officials, who are almost entirely all corrupt.  If Wayne was paying all of that extra in taxes, it would be no help to anyone because those who control the distribution of those funds would engage in cronyism and all sorts of other nefarious stuff.  We've seen this several times.  Even in the most recent Batman, the Thomas Wayne fund was being directed into folks' pockets rather than helping the people it was intended for.

Another thing, not all of Gotham's criminals/Batman's Rogue's gallery were created by poverty.  It could be said that "a lack of mental health resources" is the reason, but that's also not so cut and dry.  Harley Quinn is a great example of this, she was a psychologist working in the mental health field when she up and fell in love with a maniac then lost her damn mind too.

So, Gotham City still needs Batman even if Wayne is taxed at a higher rate.  Gotham is full of madness and corruption from top to bottom.  You're still gonna need a smart, well-trained ninja when Riddler has a room of people surrounded by explosives ready to go if his riddle isn't solved.  You still need Batman when Killer Croc or Clayface get up to mayhem and SWAT is useless.  When Penguin is selling stolen organs on the black market and the cops are on his payroll.  Etc.

Can you convince me that Gotham City, as written, would be better if Wayne quit being Batman and put most of his money into the city?

[Assistant]
>You're still gonna need a smart, well-trained ninja

In the grand scheme of things, do you really *need* a ninja? Like, actually? Is there any scenario where pouring of billions of dollars of tech into *one guy* who runs around and punches people actually makes sense?


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

[User]
(V for Vendetta) How might the experiments given V his gifts?

We are given very little in the way of an explanation other than that V somehow survives and is given altered strength, speed and the like. How might this have been achieved?

[Assistant]
In the comics, there is no word about altered strength or speed, just a great intelligence (which probably was pre-existing) and a very special kind of madness. We are suggested that his face became deformed, probably in a ugly way but he also gain an uncanny charisma and gaze.

All the rest is a combination of knowledge, training and refusal to admit that a thing is impossible.