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

[User]
[Comics/Star Wars] Given a year of prep time, how would Batman beat Darth Vader?

Conditions:

* The Batman from the current Prime Earth timeline knows he is going to be transported to the Star Wars universe in 6 months' time.

* He knows he will have to face Darth Vader six months after that.

* The fight will initiate in a Star Destroyer hangar bay.

* This fight will occur in the Star Wars universe between the events of *A New Hope* and *The Empire Strikes Back*.

* It is mano-a-mano. Neither is allowed to call for back up. (No Justice League, no stormtroopers.)

* A win is defined by death, total incapacity, or forfeit.

[Assistant]
Batman's worst enemy here isn't Darth Vader, but his own moral code against killing. There are no reliable ways, short of discovering that he has Force abilities, to stop Vader. And, since he can't call on backup, the option to lace the battlefield with ysalamiri.

This is, of course, assuming he can even FIND the critters in six months. He'd have to devote too much time to finding them, and we're not sure he's got unlimited resources/good will in the Star Wars universe.

However, if he looks at all Vader has done and decides that this is the time to suspend his vow of no killing, he stands a better chance. A powerful enough EMP device will shut down much of Vader's electronics. From there, Batman still has his work cut out for him, and his best options are to just bombard the Sith with explosives. His usual stealth tactics are not an option against someone who wields the power of the Force and can sense his presence. And, given the power of Star Wars' handheld explosives, there's little question that Vader would survive.

Since Star Wars exists as a fictional medium on Prime Earth, there's no question of Bruce not knowing that Vader is a cyborg and reading up on his weaknesses. And the deck is very much stacked against Vader, he has no way of knowing about the fight or who his opponent is.

If Vader even had the knowledge of how tricky Batman is, it's likely he'd kill the vigilante as soon as they met. Or, at least, deflect all of Wayne's attacks before closing to lightsaber distance. However, since he's going in blind, he's likely going in arrogant and assured that a lone human stands very little chance against him.


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

[User] ELI5: what is the .net framework?

[Assistant]
It's a set of libraries for creating software for Microsoft Windows. It includes standardized ways to represent different types of information, from the simple (such as numbers and text) to the complex (a file on your hard drive, a web address, a database connection). It also includes standardized ways of manipulating this information and interacting with the Windows operating system, such as creating a new file on your desktop, formatting a number according to the user's locale settings, or communicating with a file server.

These are things that a program could in principle do all on its own, but having this common functionality available both saves a tremendous amount of time and effort and helps to keep behavior consistent among different programs. For instance, if a program uses the .Net framework's locale-based number formatting, then it's using the *same* formatting as many other programs and as Windows itself.

The downside is that in order for such a program to run, the computer will have to have the .Net framework installed as well. The .Net framework is periodically updated with new and improved functionality, and newer programs may require a newer version of the framework. Modern versions of Windows should have the latest versions auto-updating, but a lot of older software was written to explicitly make sure that the right version is installed, or even bundled with an installer for that version.


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

[User] ELI5: Where did the F1-12 keys on a keyboard come from?

[Assistant]
Function keys originate from the late 60's as a way for the user to quickly give commands to a program. Unlike other keyboard keys the function keys do not have a specific purpose, what they do will change between different programs. These keys were, and still are, very helpful when a user is in a text only environment. Instead of remembering specific commands those commands can be mapped to the function keys.

Function keys are less useful when using a graphic user interface (GUI), but are still used along with keyboard shortcuts. In a program that could have dozens of possible functions there's no possible way to map everything to the keyboard. A GUI allows a user to access an unlimited number of functions without needing to know specific commands to access a function.

Other keys on your keyboard also come from the 60's and 70's. Print screen would litterally print out any text on the screen. Scroll lock was used to change between moving a cursor with arrow keys and moving the text up and down with the arrow keys.


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

[User]
[Kung Fu Panda trilogy] What if Po was raised by his panda parents in the Valley of Peace, but was still chosen to be the Dragon Warrior?

Assuming they survived the Panda massacre, and they all made their way onto the Valley of Peace. Po still develops a love and fixation for kung-fu and the  How different does Po turn out with their influence instead of Mr. Ping?

[Assistant] Were the movies even about Po, or were they actually about Master Shifu learning patience? To truly be a master of any given discipline, you must be able to effectively teach it, which requires patience, especially with a student like Po. Master Oogway knew this, and selected Po as the Dragon Warrior. If Master Shifu can turn Po into a this great Kung Fu warrior, then Master Shifu will truly be a master of the art of Kung Fu.


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

[User] ELI5: why haven't the large and heavy lead batteries in cars been replaced with newer lithium or nickel battery technology?

[Assistant]
They work, they're robust, they're cheap, and for the starting battery in a car, their inferiority to more modern batteries doesn't translate to a large difference in overall performance for the car.

Electric cars haven't used them for years, because in the case of electric cars, the battery is much larger and maximizing battery performance is critical.

[edit] One related topic to mention.  Airliners have used NiCd batteries for a while now.  (They only use them to start their generator, or in emergencies to run various avionics.)  With the 787 Boeing decided to upgrade these to lithium ion... and we all know how that went.  Someday all airliners will use Li-Ion batteries since, well, they're better, but that illustrates the dangers of upgrading from something that works fine to something that's a little better, but different.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do our bodies take a while to become fully functional when we first wake up?

[Assistant]
Because the brain wakes up in stages and not all at once. Those stages progress essentially from the back of the brain to the front. The areas in the back are the basics and the ones closer to the front are more complex. That's why we're at first able to stumble around and sort of see things, then maybe mumble a few words and finally have a coherent thought.

Also factored in is what stage of sleep you're in. If you woke up from deep sleep it's going to take longer to become functional than if you were in light sleep.


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

[User]
[Avatar] Does bending require chemical energy from the bender? Do they burn calories when bending like someone would exercising?

Earth benders can levitate massive rocks out of the ground and throw them with incredible speed. To physically do that would require a huge expenditure of energy accelerating that rock.
But are earth benders expending all the energy necessary to move that rock? Is chemical energy from the bender being converted into potential/kinetic energy of the object?

If so, how does a bender like toph manage such energy output without eating 10 meals a day? Is there an alternative source of energy from the spirit world?

If benders are not using their own energy, what is preventing a fire bender from creating a heat engine that uses little to no fuel?  They could attain unlimited power generation from such technologies by breaking the laws of thermodynamics.

[Assistant]
The Mind, Body, and Spirit are all tied to together in ways that aren't always understandable. Bending usually involves all three working in harmony (the exceptions are those such as Sparky-Sparky Boom Man who could bend with just his mind). However, the energy behind a thrown rock or a burst of flame does not come from the individual bender, but from the cosmic energy that permeates reality. It requires physical and mental exertion to shape that energy; we see benders sweat and grow tired with continued action. Thus, it's actually more efficient to burn fuel with a firebender there to regulate the flame than have one work a steam engine 24-7. In Republic City, we see that Mako has a job lightning-bending into a generator at the power-plant, but the size and machinery involved seems to indicate that he was either enhancing or regulating the conventional machinery.

TL,DR:  Blah-blah, spiritual mumbo jumbo, blah-blah, something about space.


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

[User]
[Warcraft]- The Culling of Stratholme

So Uther and Jaina get all self righteous about Arthas wiping out the citizens of Stratholme, but is there any viable solutions that does not  lead to Mal'Ganis getting a brand new horde of undead, or killing off all of Startholme.

[Assistant]
Not really, no. That's why it was the perfect trap.

Arthas was already at the end of his rope, and barely able to listen to reason by that point. What he should have done was slow down, take a breath, and explain his experiences and very correct opinions about how dangerous the situation was. If he were his normal, (mostly) balanced and kind self, he would have gotten Uther and Jaina to see reason, and they would have found a way to mercifully end the town.

Instead, Arthas had been run absolutely ragged in his quest to save his kingdom, and he was in no mood to listen to anything that might slow him down, or worse, stop him. He threw his weight and anger around like his hammer and made a bad situation worse, alienating his allies while at the same time steeling his resolve to accept more and more extreme solutions to problems.

Just as the Lich King had planned all along.


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

[User]
Monty Hall Problem (10th Grader With No Understanding of Statistics)

So in the Monty Hall problem, switching should increase your odds of winning, but what I dont understand is how that really works. The way it was explained to me is that you have a 1/3 chance the first attempt, and once one door is eliminated switching gives you a 1/2 chance. Assuming that the person explaining it to me explained it correctly, shouldnt the 33% chance become a 50% chance of you getting it right by not switching since the prize itself doesnt move and eliminating one door would basically be the equivalent of there being two doors to begin with? Thank you!

[Assistant]
> shouldnt the 33% chance become a 50% chance of you getting it right by not switching since the prize itself doesnt move and eliminating one door would basically be the equivalent of there being two doors to begin with?

Kind of, but not quite.

The prize isn't moving, and you are getting down to just two doors, but an important consideration is that you are not re-picking your door from scratch. Your selection of an initial door affects how the host will reveal doors. The host will reveal a door that you did not pick, but will NOT reveal the prize, right?

If you picked the winning door (1/3rd chance), then the host can open either of the other doors, it doesn't matter, since they are both loosing doors.

But if you picking a losing door, then the host has two options: Open the other losing door, or open the winning door. They are not going to open the winning door, so their choice is constrained to the losing door. This means that the other door MUST be the winning door, so that if you switch, you win.

Now, just seeing a losing door being opened by the host doesn't let us know whether switching will make us win or not. It's impossible to know. But we can go back to that original probability: We only had a 1/3 chance to pick the winning door off the bat, which means there is a 2/3 chance we picked a losing door, and in that 2/3 chance, the host opens the *other* losing door, which means if we switch we *have* to win. Hence, switching gets us the 2/3 chance to win. It's not a certainty, but it tilts the chances in our favor.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do websites make you have a complicated password when most account breaches come from a hack and not just guessing?

[Assistant]
When people hack sites for passwords, they usually get a list of the hashed passwords. That means when you put in your password, the site can check if it's the same password you signed up with but it doesn't know what the password is. It's like a one-way secret message.

The way hackers figure out passwords is they know common hashing techniques and they guess common passwords using those techniques. Since "password123" is a common password, they'll put that in the hash, see what comes out, and match that output to the stolen list of hashed passwords they got. If they can't guess your password to input, then they won't be able to know what it is.

Complex passwords make it harder to guess the hashed passwords once they're stolen. The biggest factors for making a password hard to guess are the total numbers of characters you can use and the length. So forcing you to have three special characters and two capitals and a number doesn't really help, but allowing you to use any character and requiring your password to be long does help. In other words, "a%6L7" looks like a more securepassword than"!XthisismypasswordforthissiteX!", but the latter is actually more secure since it's longer and can possibly use just as many symbols. Longer passwords are harder to guess because the possible combinations of guesses increase quickly as you add additional characters.


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

[User] [Star Trek Next Generation] Why would an animal evolve to have only one leg? Specifically why would a Rectyne Monopod exist and how would it survive?

[Assistant]
Snails have one foot and do fine. Ive heard some snails might even be immortal and super intelligent.

Anyway, they were allegedly large creatures, maybe they hunted / defended by stomping and that let them use all their weight in one attack?


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

[User]
[Mr. Freeze] How does he go to the bathroom?

First off he lives in freezing environments, so all the water in the toilets would be frozen. Unless he uses an outhouse style toilet.

And wouldn't the urine in him be frozen anyway? What about the fecal mater? That would be like trying to pass out mini icebergs. It would be quite painful. Maybe that is why he is so cranky.

[Assistant]
Dr. Thomas Elliot, Arkham Asylum.

Victor Fries has most of his bodily functions slowed to a stop, due to his frantic experiments in cryogenics more or less turning him into what he is today.

He exists in a sort of conscious cryogenic suspension and has no real need to eat, sleep, or expel waste.

During one of his very brief periods of confinement, the doctor more or less stated his body had adjusted to such low temperatures and prolonged exposure to heightened temperature (ie, room) he would become hyperthermic, suffer irreparable tissue damage and die.


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

[User]
If a woman ovulated off the right ovary and had an early miscarriage, is she more likely to ovulate off the left ovary in the following cycle?

Hey all!  I have a question, I tried asking in some pregnancy related subs and got radio silence.

Basically: does it take some time for an ovary to recover after a chemical pregnancy? Thus making it more likely you will ovulate off the opposite side in the cycle following the loss?

So backstory as to how I started wondering... Im 27 and started my cycle at 9. Since I was 13, Ive been able to feel my ovulation (Mittelschmerz).

However it is almost always on my right side! Ive also had two pregnancies with early scans that confirmed I had ovulated off the right side to conceive them.

In December I had a chemical pregnancy. In January I felt unable to confirm ovulation (I dont temp) because I did not feel that pain. I ended up with a positive test about a month after my chemical started.

Now Ive had an 8 week scan on that pregnancy and the tech told me I ovulated off my LEFT!!! perhaps that explains why I didnt feel it?

Thoughts?

[Assistant] A miscarriage shouldn't affect where you ovulate from next. Often at the point of the miscarriage, the embryo has already implanted into the uterine lining so everything that happens after that does not influence the ovulation cycle. Hope this helps answer your question!


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

[User] Eli5: When a guitar sits unplayed for a length of time, why do the strings tend to go out of tune to a higher frequency instead of "loosening up" to a lower one?

[Assistant] Most likely humidity. If the weather is more humid than the last time the guitar was tuned, the neck will have expanded/lengthened over that time so the strings will be tighter and sound sharp.  The opposite would occur if its less humid. If you tune regularly, youll notice youre usually tuning down in the hot, humid summer and tuning up in the cold, dry winter.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are so many news websites formatted so badly?

It seems like it's intentional.

[Assistant] They're designed around two things- making you click on ads, and making you click on more articles. The confusing layout is, indeed, somewhat intentional. They don't want you to just read the article and close the webpage- they want you to get distracted by another headline, load another page, and possibly click on an ad or two by accident.


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

[User]
Outside of choosing a minor what other options help get undergrad applicants into somewhat unrelated master's programs?

Sociology Undergrad student, Graduating spring of 2019, had a rocky start with an undiagnosed learning disability, doing stellar after treatment and discovery.

I'm more curious how I could get into Enviromental sciences  or sustainability programs at the master's level as a current sociology student.

[Assistant]
Get involved with research. Go find the faculty page for the department/field you're interested in moving toward. Read every professor's page, bio, CV, etc. Look for 1) topics that interest you, 2) topics related to your current undergraduate major, and preferably 3) topics that connect those two.

Reach out to these faculty by email. Brief bio that says you're interested in their research and would love to chat. Meet up with then and ask about their research, tell them what interests you. Tell them your goals and that your like to get involved with their research.

 They'll likely suggest you take XYZ requisite courses to get an understanding of the field. Take them and ask about other things you can do in your free time. Hopefully, they'll eventually bring you on to an existing or new project.


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

[User]
CMV: Older generations act far more entitled than Millennials

IMHO, older generations, like those of my grandparents age and maybe a little younger, act much more entitled to things than Millennials.

I won't say this is true for absolutely every situation, but in most it seems to be. For example, when my grandmother or grandfather goes to a store or a restaurant, they sort of expect to be waited on hand-and-foot. They're used to the "old-fashioned" way of doing things to where you'd almost consider a waitress or a retail clerk to be a servant without feeling or emotion. Or even aside from that situation, they feel that they're automatically entitled to be demanding of younger people in genera, regardless of how they treat them in return. In some sense I get that, being automatically helpful to someone elderly because they may require assistance, but at the same time...shouldn't they be the ones to show an example of kindness and appreciation for others?

For example, in mine and my coworkers experience in healthcare, the elderly were far and away the most difficult, argumentative, and unreasonable clients we encountered. In regard to what exactly? They thought they were dismissed from following regulations of the facility in regard to insurance, paperwork, and wait times. They would be the ones we would have to have near fights with to get them to listen to reason when it came to simple requests which other patients, albeit younger ones, would comply with without a fight. The elder patients would be the ones to assume they had to make no effort to make sure that we had their insurance information and had little knowledge of the basic functioning of health insurance, believing that their information should automatically appear and if it didn't, it was our fault. They would also be the first to throw a fit if they weren't tended to immediately, even if they were waiting behind other patients.

Perhaps I'm not explaining this as well as I'd like to, but I hope I'm getting the point across. I suppose I'm saying that to me I feel like Millennials are actually more willing to take care of things themselves, that because we have so many resources for solving our own problems, that we don't expect to have someone else solve them for us as if we deserve to be helped without question.

CMV: Older generations act more entitled and lazy than Millennials.

[Assistant]
The older generation is used to "upwards" respect. They grew up at a time of military and industrial growth, where importance was given to "do what you're told, and do it perfectly" or the whole system falls apart. They never complain to their superiors or elders and hold the same expectations from their subordinates.

Millenials work more "Horizontally" through collaboration, consensus-building and feedback. Our times place importance on innovation, self-expression, and strong sense of personal boundaries. Our society is more egalitarian and disconnected.

So both generations think the other person is entitled or disrespectful, simply because we view society and social relations differently. Older generations view Respect as appreciating Loyalty, Cause and Commitment. Millenials view Respect as appreciating Personal Space, Validity of Personhood and Human Dignity.

You can clearly see why this is not only incompatible but diametrically opposite expectation of social interactions.


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

[User] ELI5: What causes people to wake in the middle of the night, without any disturbance?

[Assistant] We have natural sleep cycles that are generally around 3.5-4 hours.  At the end of the cycle, you're susceptible to being awoken by any number of things.  Most commonly I've found it to be dehydration, having to pee, too cold, too hot, or a loud noise from a pet/person/thing indoors or outside.  Trick is, if it's just a loud car driving by or someone cursing at their own mortality, it usually takes you longer to become fully conscious than it does for the noise to cease, leaving you wondering why you woke up.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why don't people learn and fight Jedi with weapons other than blasters?

Jedi/Sith can deflect blaster bolts and yet everyone tries to kill them with those weapons. Practically anything else would work - from a net to a flamethrower to a hand grenade... and yet people rarely make this jump.

[Assistant]
Some people do.  The thing is that at the height of their rule, there were approximately 10,000 Jedi in a galaxy of approximately 100 quadrillion sentients.  Most people have never even heard of Jedi, let alone had to think about preparing to fight them.
Also, throwing a grenade at a Jedi is a pretty bad idea since they could just force push it back at you.  A lightsaber could easily cut through a net.  A flamethrower could work.  Slughthrowers are actually the most effective way of fighting Jedi.


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

[User] Eli5 Why is kelp not classified to be a plant but moss is? Kelp seemingly have more plant parts but it is classified as a algae, but moss is a plant?

[Assistant]
Down at the cellular level, algae and plants are different. There's a ton of confusing overlap so it's not really clear cut but, basically, although kelp has parts that "look plant-ish" like "stems" or "leaves" or "roots", if you look at the individual cells that make up those parts kelp and plants look really different.

Meanwhile, although moss might not look much like a palm tree, they both have stems and leaves and roots and if you get down at the cellular level they're basically the same types of cells.

Basically, plants are using one set of building blocks and algae are using another. Imagine plants are Lego...you can build all kinds of sizes and looks of Lego models but the individual building blocks are all basically the same. Algae are some other building set that's not Lego-compatible, let's call that Algo...you can also build all kinds of sizes and looks of models out of Algo, but you can't connect Algo to Lego.


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

[User]
Those with chronic disease in graduate school, how do you manage?

I was diagnosed with one chronic condition before I got to graduate school. I thought I had it managed (in hindsight it's definitely been a hindrance), now I'm looking at a diagnosis of another one.

I don't know if I can keep this up. Does anyone have any anecdotes, tips, or stories of triumph of their own?

[Assistant]
If you haven't before, Google spoon theory and read the story. Understand that sometimes you just won't be able to do as much as you'd like. Stop comparing yourself to others. Take the time for self care as needed, and be kind to yourself about your limitations. And make up for low-output days when you do have a little more energy/are feeling better.

You also have to learn to be more productive with less time/energy. Eat and sleep properly. Don't take on more than you know you can handle.


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

[User] ELI5: Does butchered meat from a slaughtered animal go through normal death processes like rigor mortis? Is it different for fresh slaughtered butchered meat vs. meat that has been left on carcass for a few days (like to bleed out?)

[Assistant]
Rigor mortis occurs in chickens, making it important to pluck and process them immediately after slaughter, as chicken does not benefit from aging.

Game birds can be hung until rigor passes, enhancing the flavor and making them easier to dry pluck.


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

[User]
Wait, so whats the difference between Semiotics and Semiology again?

Ive read that semiology is to semiotics as a part is to its whole, but that really tells me nothing and makes me sort of upset, so can somebody give me a more exact insight into how these two fields differ?

[Assistant]
Semiology was the name proposed by Ferdinand de Saussure as a specific name for "a science that studies the life of signs within society", and it would "show what constitutes signs, what laws govern them". He relates it to psychology, claims it to be about particularly human phenomena, and himself was interested in linguistics.

Semiotics is the general umbrella term which just refers to anything and everything to do with the study of signs (things that refer to something other than themselves), meaning making, and communication. It also refers generically to things like animal communication (and biosemiotics, e.g. Thomas Sebeok); Charles S. Peirce turned it into the foundation of logic, etc.

In general, Saussure is more applicable to cultural matters, and there are other theories for biology and for social stuff. But there are of course overlaps and mixing of perspectives and theories, in semiotics as much as everywhere else.

So in a sense there isn't much to the distinction. Semiology relates to semiotics like molecular biology relates to biology, or whatever. But today the word "semiology" is really not much used , even by those making use of Saussure's stuff.


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

[User] ELI5: How do all those horror stories from North Korea, like "Turtle farmer executed because he did not take good care of the turtles" get leaked? Wouldn't giving this information to a western journalist mean certain death?

[Assistant]
Keep in mind also that some of the more sensational news stories often come from South Korean sources, which may not be the most objective in the world regarding North Korea. Some of it may be propaganda.

For instance, there was a widely circulated story that Kim Jong Un's former girlfriend was executed for engaging in pornography. However, she appeared on TV several months later.


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

[User]
[DC] What is Batman?

Hi. I'm a new member of the Justice League. My power lends itself to support, so I've been working with them quite a bit. You naturally learn about your teammates as you go  some of them love to announce their powers to everyone with fancy names; others just fill the new guy in quietly before a mission. You absorb all you can to help you work better together.

My question is about Batman. I haven't spoken to him directly, but I've been on missions where he's been involved, and I've gotten a good look at what he can do. People who should know have told me in no uncertain terms that he has no powers.

OK, Batman is *clearly* not human. People train all their lives to be fast or strong... he's faster than literally any human can possibly ever be without powers, stronger than literally any human being can ever be without powers. You can train your muscles, but how do you train to dodge a bullet? Chemical reactions in the eyes and nerves just don't happen fast enough; it's not about steroids or hard work or winning the genetic lottery.

I've been told things like, "His superpower is that he doesn't know how to quit," and I trust the people who told me, but determination alone doesn't let you hit hard enough to harm things that no human has any business harming. Determination gets you a broken hand if you try that. He's physically not human, in so many different dimensions at once. It's not at all subtle when you get a look at him in daylight. And no one will tell me what's really going on.

What *is* he?

[Assistant]
Batman is Human.
There are almost 8 billions of humans. And statistically speaking, one of them is THE BEST HUMAN. Ubermensch you can say. That is the Batman. A Human that have almost unlimited potential realize.
IF you asking how anybody can dodge bullet that is coming ad them, than nobody can do it. But you can see were gun is pointing, and start moving out of bullet way before finger pulls the trigger.
Batman is human. But ALL his stats are in top. Than add insane training, and one of the most advanced technologies that earth can offer, an you have Batman.


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

[User] Why are there no nuclei consisting exclusively of neutrons?

[Assistant]
There are no bound nuclei, but there are resonances like the dineutron. There is also the more controversial tetraneutron.

But these systems are unbound, and decay with half-lives on the order of 10^(-21) seconds.

If you take a system of two neutrons at low relative momentum, there is an attractive interaction between them due to the residual strong force. However the attraction is not strong enough to form bound states.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do most of the 4-leg robots (see: Boston Dynamics) have their knees look backwards?

[Assistant]
Because they are not knee, they are Ankles.

The robot reproduce the articulation of a 4 legged animal. Human are bipedal so we use our heel and toes to walk and run. 4 legged animal usually only use their toes to walk and the ankle is higher and help to run.


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

[User]
Why is accessing some random element near the start of an array FASTER than accessing a random element near the end?

I know they are both O(1) complexity, i'm talking at the hardware level here.

I know the difference is also very, very, very small.

Just recently I was doing a leetcode challenge one of which was a solution where lots of random access is done near the end of a 2D array. I found doing the exact same solution except from the front was \~10-20 ms faster and i'm talking consistently faster. This was in C++ with vectors

I then setup a test in python, and initialised an array of size 1 million, with random elements. I timed random element acccess near both the front and back, and the front of the array consistently produced faster results. I made sure the access was random to eliminate the compilers ability to optimise via caching etc.

Why would this be? I have always had the assumption accessing anywhere in memory should be roughly consistent.

Thanks for any input. Happy to share code if requested.

[Assistant]
The vector itself has some metadata, such as total extent, bucket size, and an array of said buckets(buffers), and this metadata is allocated near the start of the memory block.  So, you access a vector, it has to touch the metadata (object properties) first, then access the proper place in memory.  Elements near the start are already in the L1 cache since the object header was just accessed.  Elements near the end are on different pages / different places in the RAM bus, the mother board's memory controller typically has a RAM cache too.

TL;DR: Similar place in memory accessed twice is faster than two vastly different pages of memory accessed in succession.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why didn't The Empire recycle the Clone Trooper armour for the Imperial Army?

It's often acknowledged that The Republic's Clone armour was of a higher standard to the armour commonly used by The Empire, So given that (to my knowledge) the majority of the Clones were being discharged by the time of the Empire's Induction, why not simply reuse the suits? It's obviously the cheaper than manufacturing several million new inferior suits and there's not much other use for them since there aren't really any other armies that size, all they need is a coat of paint to differentiate them from the armour used by The Republic.

[Assistant] Clone Trooper armor was basically fitted for a single person, albeit mass produced to the billions of clones operating across the galaxy. This tends to lower the production costs and allowing more improvements done for the armor. Storm Troopers however, aren't clones and therefore multiple variations such as body type and height need to be taken in account during mass-production. Despite the drop in quality as compared to Clone Trooper Armor, Storm Trooper armor is adequate for the needs of the Empire and even robust enough to turn many lethal blaster shots into survivable wounds.


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

[User]
ELI5 Why are teenagers often played by actors who are in their twenties?

I just started streaming Netflix and have noticed that a lot of teenage characters are played by people who are 6-8 years older.  Break it down for me.

Update: Thanks for all the responses. I feel thoroughly educated.

[Assistant] There are a number of legal issues regarding employment of teenagers (especially in California, where many works are filmed) that can make it very difficult and inconvenient to use them in a production.


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

[User]
[Thomas the Tank Engine] So my train has a face and can talk, have I gone to hell?

I have to take train to make the last leg of my trip, but turns out my train has a face and speaks. Why? If I didn't have to make this business meeting I'd walk, but did these people sign a dark pact to gain technology and infrastructure?

[Assistant]
It's just a weird abberation resulting from the collapse of a super advanced technological society. As humanity rebuilt they decided trains were a great idea, this was also around the time researchers uncovered a buried warehouse of giant cyborg spiders designed to act as transporters (hence the boxy shape).

Cracking the legs off and replacing them with wheels seemed like a great idea, plus as beings designed to serve the repurposed spiders were perfectly happy working till they broke down. No one questioned the masters once they were awakened, and those who did not wish to work were relegated to disused tunnels and trapped indefinitely.


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

[User] What makes certain things bounce and what are the factors that determine if an object is "bouncy"?

[Assistant]
rubber scientist here.
The thing which makes a rubber ball bounce is the ability to store elastic energy. there are several physical parameters to to describe the "bouncyness of a material". Most of all it is the dissipation factor of the material, which is the ratio of the dissapative and nondisipativ fraction of the elastic modulus. The elastic modulus describes the stiffness of the material. If you throw a rubberball on the ground and meassure the height to which the rubberball returns, you get a good sense of how much energy dissipated. It corresponds to the missing height.
Another important parameter is the glastransition temperature of the material. You need to set up this temperature properly in regards to your application.  At high Tg it might be that your rubber only bounces when it is warm.


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

[User]
Is it possible that humans percieve colors differently?

I have been wondering about this for a while now. Is it possible that each person see colors differently? For example,  when I see the color orange,  is it possible that my wife sees it as what I would call purple? We can both point to it and say,  "That is orange!",  because to us,  it is our version of orange. But if I were able to see though her eyes,  with my current perception of colors,  it would appear to be purple.

How could this be tested. Has it been tested? Any thoughts or comments?

[Assistant]
Yes, what you describe is absolutely possible. What you are talking about the is "qualia" of a sensation, that is the internal representation. The same question could be the case for all sensations, pitch, roughness, taste... we could all experience different qualia from the same physical interaction.

With out current level of understanding, we have no way to test whether this is the case, nor even imagine how we COULD test if this was the case.


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

[User]
[Pokmon] What happens to the Pokmon of a trainer that dies?

Since the Pokmon form a co-operative bond with trainers upon being caught, and it is clear from testimony at Lavender Town and Mount Pyre that humans clearly mourn their Pokmon that pass on, what happens if the trainer is the one that dies first? To cover some bases, I will provide scenarios.

1. The Trainer dies of natural causes at an old age.

2. The Trainer perishes from a terrible disease, surrounded by their partners as they pass on.

3. The trainer is killed by wild Pokmon.

4. The trainer is murdered by another human.

5. The trainer dies in an accident (hit by a train, falling off a cliff, etc.)

These scenarios assume the Pokmon are not in their pokballs or in a PC, and witness their Trainer's end. What would happen?

[Assistant]
>1. The Trainer dies of natural causes at an old age.

Likely mourns the trainer's loss, but having had time to acclimate to the trainer's advanced age, is ready to move on far sooner. Assuming the Pokemon isn't also about to die of old age, they remain either in the local area of where the trainer lived their final years, or they get adopted by friends or family of the deceased.

>2. The Trainer perishes from a terrible disease, surrounded by their partners as they pass on.

Given by the hospital or Officer Jenny (depending on whether they died in hospital or were found at home) to the local Pokmon professor for care and study until they get adopted by an up and coming trainer or a friendly family (depending on the Pokmon and its nature).

>3. The trainer is killed by wild Pokmon.

Depends on the Pokmon's nature. Mourns the trainer's death, and either tries to flee for its own life or tries to kill the other Pokemon out of revenge (successfully or dies in the process). If it survives, wanders the world wracked with guilt for years. If it ever trusts itself with a trainer again, becomes very protective (maybe even forcing itself to evolve) to protect their new trainer from the same fate.

>4. The trainer is murdered by another human.

Same as the above scenario, with a much higher rate of success for killing the threat. However likely has much less trust in humans, probably takes a truly kind person to gain its trust and help it recover from the trauma. Likely to start off very violent towards humans.

>5. The trainer dies in an accident (hit by a train, falling off a cliff, etc.)

Same as scenario 2 for the most part, but feeling much greater blame on themselves for not helping prevent the accident.

>These scenarios assume the Pokmon are not in their pokballs or in a PC, and witness their Trainer's end. What would happen?

So in most scenarios the Pokmon will either go immediately into foster care with the local Pokmon professor, Pokmon Daycare, adoptive family, or relatives/friends of the deceased. Might be an interim time where the Pokmon is by itself in the wilderness due to not being found by humans yet, or due to personal blame and self-imposed isolation. But typically the Pokmon will get readopted at some point.


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

[User] [Alien] Did the Xenomorph have a plan once it had killed the crew of the Nostromo?

[Assistant]
The xenomorph on the Nostromo was a drone.  They don't have plans any more than an ant or a bee has a plan.  They just work on instinct.
Queens show some planning ability, but the drones just do what they do.


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

[User] Why are some charging cables faster than others even when using the same power supply?

[Assistant]
Wire length, wire diameter, and wire material all effect total wire resistance.  If you know the resistance of the cable, r, you can calculate the maximum theoretical power transfer across that cable to a phone, which is a maximum when the phone appears to have the same resistance as the cable (for an ideal power supply, which isn't the case, but we'll ignore that fact.)

Total Power = v*i

Power in device = 1/2 v*i

i = v/(2*r)

power in device = 1/2 [v] * [v/(2*r)]

power in device = v^2 /(4r)

For a 5v charger, you get

power = 6.25/r

r = 6.25/power

So, if you want to transfer 10 watts to your phone, you need a cable that has no more than 6.25/10 ohms or .625 ohms.

A 1-meter cheap thin cable might have .6 ohms and be able to charge at 10W (slightly more than 2 amps).  A cheap thin 5-meter long cable might have 1.4 ohms and only be able to charge to 4.5 watts. (just over 900ma).

Real power supplies aren't ideal and have an internal resistance that must be added to that of the cable.  That means the situation is a little worse than we just calculated.  The good news is that while their resistance isn't generally published, it is typically small for a good charger.  Also keep in mind that this is the maximum theoretical power, and not all phones can achieve it.  Between the phone and charger and cable, short cheap cables generally work fine, as do longer heavy-duty cables, but cheap cables longer than about .5 meter may restrict your charging rate.

Whether they are generic or not, the main thing to look for in longer cables is thicker wiring (low AWG).  Harder to check, but also important, are the quality of the USB connectors at the ends of the cable and the quality of the soldering that joins them to the wire.

Incidentally, USB-C generally eliminates this problem by adopting higher voltages as part of the official standard.  Higher voltages mean more maximum power for the phone and less wasted power through the cable.


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

[User]
[ATLA/TLOK] How much of Tophs earthbending skills come from her own innate power versus learning from the badgermoles?

Toph was taught by the badgermoles, who are supposed to be the first Earthbenders. Because of her blindness, she was able to compensate by learning the Seismic Sense from them. This is one of her greatest strengths as a bender, on top of already learning the pure earthbending. But how much of her skill actually comes from her power? Is she supposed to be above-average like Zuko, getting the chance to learn the proper earthbending? Or is she more like Azula, a born prodigy?

[Assistant]
Toph has very unique relationship with Earthbending. Not only through learning from the badger moles, which grants her a unique perspective on Earthbending by itself, but it's also literally how she perceives the world and largely how she defines herself.

Bending allowed her to be something other than "that poor little blind girl" that her parents treated her as, first as the Blind Bandit, which gave her release and affirmation that she could take care of herself. Then as the teacher of the Avatar, which reaffirmed her image of herself as the best Earthbender in the world.

Earthbending is almost literally everything to her, even in LoK she uses Earthbending to keep tabs on essentially the whole world.

All of this is said to say that it's pretty much impossible to tell how much of her "power" is innate raw ability and how much is honed skill. But also she is very, *very*, ***very*** skilled because she's constantly Earthbending, every moment of every day. Even in her sleep, she perceives vibrations through her bending.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is the combination of salt+pepper so integral to nearly every western savory dish?

[Assistant] Salt is common in the cuisine of every country that had ready access to salt. Peppers (of various types, not just black pepper) are also very common ingredients the world over. Add to that the fact that pepper was considered a luxury good during most of the development of European cuisine, and it's not surprising that it's as ubiquitous as it is today.


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

[User]
[Fallout] Were there any significant shelter builders other than Vault-Tec?

It appears that every vault one finds in 2281 was constructed by Vault-Tec. This seems strange, since the threat of the Great War had probably been hanging over the heads of Americans for many decades.

It's likely lots of companies, local governments, and even well-off families would have commissioned survival shelters. But they don't appear to be in the wasteland, and everything looks to be built by Vault-Tec.

Are there any small shelters, and why does does it looks like everything was built by Vault-Tec?

[Assistant]
Maybe the other vault-building companies were not complete monsters and built vaults that actually worked and that actually were designed to safeguard their inhabitants, and that's why there's noboy coming out of them ;)

Also, what about Europe, India, Russia and China? But that's a question not just for the vault-building topic


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

[User]
Why is it so hard to stop cheating in online games?

Im specifically thinking about PUBG, Battlefield and Apex type games, but also in general. It seems like if you can solve this problem youd be rich.

[Assistant]
Two (of many) reason:

1. A game has to send certain information to your computer to work (for rendering graphics, getting inputs, etc).  Since it is on your computer, you have access to it (memory inspection, etc).  As a result, you can use this data to automate responses (create inputs for aiming quickly, etc).  You can make a program do this faster than you can do by hand.
2. A lot of online games have little tricks to appear smooth on your PC (even though in reality there is lag/latency more than you end up experiencing).  But, to do this, you get data sent to your PC that you can't even see yet.  This is how some games get "wall hacks" and other things implemented.  Asset data is sent to your screen before it is actually rendered for viewing for some of the predictive movements stuffs.

There are more issues than this, but this is just an example of two problems that are very hard to solve... and solving them causes games to compromise other experiences that people complain about more.  Hope that helps.


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

[User]
[LOTR]What's beyond middle Earth?

They work on a Gregorian calendar as the date October 24th is said in the fellowship meaning the Earth is at the same distance from the the sun and revolving at the same speed.

So the Earth is the same size as we know now but is there a West Earth or a East Earth?

[Assistant] Middle Earth is more so the continent that everything takes place on. The name of the world itself is Arda. BUT, Arda is also earth. The Lord Of a the Rings is a historical retelling of our ancient past as told by the prophet JRR Tolkien (no really, he wrote it with the mentality of it being an ancient epic of our world much like the Epic of Gilgamesh and/or Beowulf)


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does anger and frustration make you feel very hot?

Often I find myself having to take off my coat during particularly difficult tests, or feel myself boiling in lab when something refuses to work for any explainable reason. I wasn't feeling hot at all before becoming frustrated.

Does it have to do with dilated vessels? If so, why does that happen when angered/frustrated?

[Assistant]
It's part of your "fight or flight" instinct. Getting angry is the natural response to a potential physical threat on your person (getting attacked), so the body does some really interesting things to itself to get you pumped up for the fight.

One of the things it does is dilate your blood vessels to allow more oxygen to flow through your body. It will flood your brain with pain-killing chemicals, too. It raises your temperature as well, likely as a byproduct of burning more calories.  There are lots of other interesting effects.

You just have to remember that human evolution has primarily taken place during periods before all this technology and safety made these responses difficult to deal with. We never used to get "angry" or "frustrated" because of silly stuff like driving or taking hard tests.  Anxiety and anger are really great evolutionary responses in the wilderness. Not so great in the workplace.


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

[User] ELI5: What actually happens when you suffer a brain aneurysm, and how does this result in death?

[Assistant]
A Blood vessel ruptures causing bleeding into the brain (hemorrhagic stroke). Most often a ruptured brain aneurysm occurs in the space between the brain and the thin tissues covering the brain.
The blood can cause direct damage to surrounding cells, and the bleeding can damage or kill other cells. It also increases pressure inside the skull.
If the pressure becomes too elevated, the blood and oxygen supply to the brain may be disrupted to the point that loss of consciousness or even death may occur.


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

[User]
[LOTR]What do underground dwarven cities, like Moira, do for food?

Dwarven cities are often built deep underground, sometimes in very inaccessible locations.  Importing enough food for everyone would require a massive infrastructure, both underground as tunnels and above ground as roads. Erebor had the lake nearby, but how did a city like Moira feed its people? I don't recall seeing any large roads nearby, and the main entrance isn't very large.

[Assistant] They probably had small farms that grew everything they needed for staple foods and imported more exotic luxury foods from the surface. The dwarves are very pragmatic and stubborn so eating a diet of largely dark dwelling foods like tubers and fungus wouldn't be a major issue. And they possessed enough light sources and engineering know-how to keep something akin to hydroponics and greenhouses viable.


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

[User] [General] How could bones be altered to be stronger, have higher tensile strength, and generally higher durability WITHOUT making them heavier?

[Assistant]
how much stronger? How much of an increase in tensile strength and durability?

The least invasive way would be to genetically modify the osteoblasts to lace the bone with carbon nanotubes - making the bone into biological high strength carbon fibre.


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

[User]
[Avengers Endgame] When Tony snapped, why didn't Thanos just run upto almost dead Tony, take the stones and snap again while he still had time?

Like, I get it. Thanos was probably in shock and was still processing as to what just happened. But I think Thanos is a really fast and smart thinker like how he defeated Captain Marvel. I think he had enough time.

One theory I have is that Thanos has his principles and he just accepted his loss.

[Assistant] Another possibility is that like spiderman,  he could feel it coming. Everyone shambles around a bit before finally becoming dust, so it's possible it took all the strength he had left just to sit down. As the leviathans showed, running at your enemy doesn't work and may just dust you even faster.


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

[User]
[The Matrix] What aspect of Neos life in the Matrix made Morpheus suspect that Neo was The One? His hacking ability? His physical resemblance to the first man to free them?

morpheus says when the mayrix was built there was a man born inside who could edit the matrix.   did mr anderson look like that man?

why did morpheus think neo was the one?

[Assistant]
Cypher told Neo that Morpheus claimed 5 others were The One before Mr.Anderson was discovered. All five of them were hyped up as being the hero, tried to take on an Agent, and the expected happened.

In original cuts of the script of the story it was made even more clear with Morpheus flat out admitting he just claims people be beleived are chosen. Morpheus is a being almost entirely running on belief.


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

[User]
How we will take energy from future fusion reactors?

So far the pilot experiments are focused on just creating plasma inside the chambers. So I think that the energy eventually created by successful tests is just lost.

But are scientists and engineers already thinking on how to extract/convert this energy in future systems?

Will it be through a heat exchanger (pipes) inside the chamber? Will this affect the plasma generation which is already difficult by itself even with no obstructions?

In general, which are the challenges related to this further step in designing the next systems?

[Assistant]
The steam turbine still remains the most efficient way of turning heat into electricity, which is why all fission reactors and other fossil fuel plants use it for electricity generation.

The same would apply to fusion reactors, it's only a matter of transferring the heat from the plasma to some cooling pipes.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do feel more comfortable sleeping with our entire body in the blanket/sheets? Is there some psychological aspect behind it?

[Assistant]
Among many other reasons biologically, our core body temperature tends to drop when we fall asleep; so having something to bundle up in (blankets, sheets) helps keep our body temp regulated and also allows our brain to recognise were in sleep mode so it can produce yummy relaxation chemicals like serotonin and dopamine.

If we didnt have something to bundle up in, we lose our microclimate; when this happens, we become more susceptible to sleep disturbances like temperature fluctuations and other environmental factors like noise and light.


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

[User]
[Nightmare Before Christmas] How did Jack know Sally?

The professor has apparently just made her, he tells her as she sneaks out she isnt ready for such excitement. Yet while Jack hands out assignments he had one specifically planned for Sally so he must know her and new she would be coming. Also the interactions between the two throughout the film it seems as if Jack had known Sally for a while. He never treats her like a stranger or acquaintance, he treats her more like a friend.

[Assistant] Jack seemed to be on very good terms with everyone in Halloween Town, including the professor. You can see that the professor knows and likes Jack a lot when Jack comes to borrow science equipment. So, Jack was probably aware of the professor's efforts to create Sally.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is it that some old TV shows on Netflix, like "The West Wing," look like they're in HD, while other old shows, like the British "House of Cards," look like they were filmed on video?

[Assistant]
Some shows would have been recorded on tape (in which case you are pretty much limited to what they recorded) or shot on film - 16 mm (which is going to be sub-HD) or 35 mm (which is going to be better than HD). They may or may not have been captured with a 4x3 (SD) or 16x9 aspect ratio. This matters because you frame the shot differently: a 4x3 shoot may show stuff on the sides of the frame you don't want is you are looking at 16x9.

Now, you have this content on film. It has to be scanned, frame by frame, and possibly edited and or processed with FX to remove artifacts and whatever other problems came out during the process. Then there are things like the sets would have been poor quality because nobody could tell the difference in SD.

So, long story short, you may or may not have high quality content which may or may not be convertible to HD based on how it was recorded. Assuming you can get the original film and it is good quality, converting from film to HD can be expensive and time consuming and you may not want to pay for it depending on demand.

The good news is substantially everything is captured in digital HD or UHD now.


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

[User]
[DC] I'm a moderately high-level speedster who isn't really a 'hero', I break the law for personal gain on occasion and I'm certainly no virgin saint, but when the SHTF I'm a pretty okay person. Where should I live to avoid getting my kneecaps broken or worse?

Currently, honestly, I'm thinking Central City or Metropolis. I don't victimize people when I decide I'm gonna disobey local ordinances, I pretty much never have to to get what I want and if it's unavoidable I'll give up the game. Superman and Flash.... I've never really *met* either of them before, I've occasionally seen them on TV or when a bunch of supers was gathered together for something, but they seem like good people. People with much bigger fish to fry, too.

I'm probably getting a little ahead of myself. Hey everybody, I'm Julian, also known as MegaJoule. I'm a speedster, and a pretty powerful one from my experience. I top out at around 3x lightspeed, but I don't have much of that 'speedforce' shenanigans that Flash has. I can only transport myself, have to be careful not to destroy the ground I'm running on, etc. I have the required secondary powers to keep myself alive under the conditions of my speed, but no one else.

I like to generally think I'm a good person. When Superman knocked down that building on 19th and Luthor Avenue, back about two years ago in that big fight with Darkside or whoever, I happened go be in town at the time so I did my thing and evacuated the civilians in the building before it finished collapsing. I get the warm fuzzies from helping people, what can I say?

On the other side of my coin, though, is that I'm broke as sin. I'm not exactly.... Financially responsible, if you catch my drift. I typically live from one bank job to the next, because they're victimless, y'know? The money's all insured anyways, and damn near no bank can resist a determined speedster. I'll snag a few hundred G's, live for a few months off it, then find another when I'm running low. Part of it's the thrill, I guess, of doing something so utterly selfish. It's fun to let loose once in a while, y'know? Like I said earlier, though, people's health comes first. If I can't grab the goods while refusing to harm anyone in my way, I'm not grabbing the goods. I'm running.

This has been a kinda long and roundabout way of asking, but what city do y'all think I should set up in? I already know Gotham's off my list, because honestly that place is just scary. And I don't like the idea of Batman. He creeps me out.

My main deciding factor in where to live is, obviously, the local hero/villain scene. I don't really have to worry about getting mugged by Joe Schmoe, but even I don't know what I'd do if Joker or someone like that got his hands on me. That freak punches way above his weight class. Eugh.

Thanks for all your suggestions!

[Assistant]
Flash is never going to put much effort into taking you down - you'll be more like a sparring partner to him than a major foe - but Central City may still not be your best bet. See, in Central City new speedsters show up *a lot* and most of the villainous ones want to prove they're the absolute fastest - which often means killing other speedsters. Flash isn't a problem but Reverse Flash, Godspeed, Zoom or some other random arsehole sure will be.

Metropolis is a decent shout - depending on just how fast Superman is in your world you may well be able to outrun the guy, and even if you can't you'll just end up in prison with all your limbs attached and unbroken.

I'd lean towards just picking a less well known city though - just somewhere that no-one big really cares about. Better to be the biggest fish in a small pond you know?


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

[User]
CMV: Banning smoking is not a stupid idea and would actually be a highly effective public health measure.

It's the most common topic in high school debating, and usually it's far easier for the side arguing it shouldn't be banned; it doesn't address the real problem, it raises good money through taxes and people will still smoke (see alcohol prohibition). Indeed it often seems like an exercise in understanding why even though smoking is reviled, it needs to be legal.

So I feel like an idiot for believing that if smoking were to be banned, there'd be a rapid drop off in usage. While some criminals will profit from getting into the illegal cigarette business, it seems like the majority of smokers are law abiding citizens who otherwise have no involvement in the criminal world. Many people addicted to smoking are older and have families; would a mother really begin associating with criminals just to continue something she knows is a destructive habit she's been meaning to quit anyway.

On the flipside, how far a length would people go to obtain a drug that gives a mild buzz, especially if you can't do it with your friends in public. Whatever purpose young people seek from smoking seems to come just as easily from energy drinks. I would think that, if it has the same accessibility as marijuana and ecstasy, which are statistically safer drugs as far as overall health effects, people would seek out those other drugs.

With banning smoking comes a decline in the social factors that contribute to the continued transition to addiction. Smoke breaks at work, going out the back of the bar for a smoke and a quiet chat, making a friend with a lighter. Society will find a way to achieve all those things, and gone will be the cross purposes of smoking.

Sure, those who are already addicted to smoking will continue to smoke, and it will be criminals profiting instead of small business and government. But this would be a small portion of smokers.

Also on the government point, is it really ethical for our government to be profiting from something so destructive? It's good that taxes are used to discourage smoking, but I'm not sure if it works all that well for something so addictive, nor will it be easy for the government to give up.

I have been up against people with those arguments in debates and trounced them every time. But those are my views, and I never quite understand why they're so silly.

I didn't make this topic to argue whether smoking is a good thing or not. I don't want to change that view. Nor do I want to argue whether it's someone's right to smoke or not; that's an issue for another thread and comes under a similar umbrella to other drugs. What I'm seeking to change is my view that given smoking is bad, banning it is the best move for public health, rather than the commonly accepted status quo of disincentives like taxes, warnings, plain packaging, advertising bans and other measures.

[Assistant] Since there is a huge user base of highly addicted smokers (nicotine is often *the* most addictive substance in studies, sometimes second after heroin), the only effect such a law would have would be the instant creation of a huge black market. Since our societies all over the world have had a 0% success in curbing the black markets of other illegal drugs, there is not really any chance we'd contain this one either. So, people wouldn't stop smoking. The life of a smoker would just suck even more (and yet not enough to quit, trust me). Cigarettes would become more expensive, have less quality control. Smokers would have to smoke at home only, which would give them terrible withdrawal symptoms during the day and probably ruin their productivity as well as making them highly irritable. The black market would lead to more gang violence, as it always does. Lost tax revenue would take a shit on the economy. It'd just be awful in every way.


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

[User]
Why does kant insist that math are a priori? Why can't math be both necessary and a posteriori?

It seems that philosophers who dont agree with Kant on the  a priori nature of math, either hold that mathematics are just the working out of definitions, or (like Mill) that they are inductive generalisations and thus uncertain. Why is it wrong to hold like Locke, that arithmetic at the very least is a generalisation of experience and that we acquire the concept of numbers by counting off the objects that are around us and abstracting them in our head. If you have counted four objects you're in a position to concusively say that 2+2=4 simply by bringing the image of two and two objects together in your mind. There is nothing to porhibit you from just repeatig and repeating these images to get bigger numbers.

I haven't seen this being adressed anywhere so i feel like i am missing something, from the way I see it its perefectly reasonable to suppose that math at the same time come from experience and are necessary.

[Assistant]
>Why is it wrong to hold like Locke, that arithmetic at the very least is a generalisation of experience and that we acquire the concept of numbers by counting off the objects that are around us and abstracting them in our head

The kantian notion of the a priori *strictly* concerns the manner of justification of a proposition and *never* its origin. In other words, Kant's theory is perfectly compatible with a roughly Lockean theory of the *origin* of mathematical concepts. This conflation between a priori justification and the origins of our ideas was popular in early modern philosophy and led to a lot of confusions.

The question is: can a theory of the origin of mathematical concepts provide a *justification* of, say, arithmetical propositions? This seems less obvious. After all, we don't justify propositions like 1+1=2 as we do in grade school where we put one cookie next to another cookie and then proclaim that we now have two cookies. The theorems of arithmetic involve *no reference whatsoever* to empirical objects. What I've sketched is roughly the Millean view but your own "Lockean" alternative seems to vaccilate between this and something that's closer to the Kantian view.

Kant's claim is that mathematical propositions require a "construction in intuition", specifically an *a priori* intuition, as an empirical intuition would not be able to ground the generality of these propositions.


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

[User] ELI5: How do blisters form? And what is the purpose of the liquid inside of the blister?

[Assistant] If you were 5, I'd explain: "Blisters are nature's band aid."  They form to protect the underlying layers of skin from an irritant.  The reason people will tell you to never pop a blister is because the fluid within it is sterile.  Not only that, but our outer layer of skin is our "first line of defense" against pathogens. When you pop the blister, you break that line of defense and release the protective sterile fluid - leaving the underlying layers susceptible to infection.


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

[User]
[Raimi Spider-Man films] When Peter fights Flash Thompson in the hallway, each of Flash's moves from Peter's POV is slow mo. So does this mean in all the fights against Goblin, Doc Ock, Sandman, Venom he was perceiving them in slow mo?

I mean, it makes sense, Flash is a human, and so was Norman, Doc Ock and Sandman, I am curious about Venom because since Venom had already bonded with Peter before, maybe he also had the same slow-mo perception as him.

So that makes me question if everything Peter is perceiving is actually taking place waaay slower in his head?

[Assistant]
Yeah, that's his spider-sense in action.

>I am curious about Venom because since Venom had already bonded with Peter before, maybe he also had the same slow-mo perception as him.

In Spider-Man 3, Venom has been able to get the drop on Spider-Man. While it isn't confirmed in the movie, it may be a reflection of how spider sense works in the comics. Venom doesn't have spider sense, but Spider-Man's spider sense doesn't work on Venom since he used to be a host.


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

[User]
If I accidentally cut or graze my finger and I also have a cold or the flu, am I more likely to suffer an infection in the wound because my immune system is already being challenged elsewhere?

I wonder whether having one relatively manageable infection prevents you from mounting a sufficient response to another, different kind of infection. I understand that different parts of the white blood cell roster may be involved, but in terms of complement and other factors, how much is my body's innate immune response affected by multiple infections.

[Assistant]
Unless you are immunologically compromised or deficient then you are not likely to suffer an additional infection. Your body's innate immune system recognizes specific molecular patterns on bacterial cells that are not present at all in eukaryotic cells which is why it can respond so quickly but with non-specificity while your adaptive immune system recognizes specific antigens and mounts a very controlled response which takes a few hours-days. If you already have a cold or flu your adaptive immune cells would be the ones fighting it. Of course your innate immune cells would probably also contribute somewhat but they would be free to start staging a response at the new site of injury while the adaptive response catches up.

TL;DR...No you are not more likely to suffer an infection if you get cut while already sick.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are hotel bed sheets almost exclusively white?

[Assistant]
It's cheap and easy to clean white sheets even if they get stained - throw them in with some bleach at high heat in an industrial washer and they'll look pretty good.  You can't bleach stains out of sheets of another color and they can fade, so you have to take more care when washing them.

White also has the advantage to the customer that it "feels" nice and clean, like they aren't trying to hide any dirt or stains with a darker color sheet.


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

[User] ELI5: What's actually happening when you get a charlie horse in your calf?

[Assistant]
For those confused: Charley Horse is another way of saying muscle spasm that is intensely painful and can last for several minutes at a time. So, what causes these horrid spasms?

* inadequate blood flow to the muscle

* muscle injuries

* exercising in excessive heat or cold

* overuse of a specific muscle during exercise
* stress, most often in the neck muscles

* not stretching before exercise

* nerve compression in the spine

* taking diuretics, which can lead to low potassium levels

* mineral depletion, too little calcium, potassium, and sodium in the blood

* dehydration

So aside from the common ones such as not stretching and not having enough nutrients/vitamins etc, what is the reasoning behind these causes? Well for exercising in the heat or cold it actually causes your cells to either die (by exploding, gruesome right?). For stress and overuse it causes them to not respire aerobically (with oxygen) so they start respiring anaerobically (sans oxygen due to the huge demand which is what also causes your heart to race and your lungs to take deeper breaths) leading to a buildup of lactic acid (what causes soreness after exercising). Too much acid and the muscle tenses up as a reaction by the cells to prevent themselves from being damaged.

So why does nerve compression cause cramps? It's because of altered neuromuscular control which is science-talk for "The muscle doesn't know what to do so it keeps doing what it was just told to do". If the last command was "contract" then the muscle will keep going until it starts to anaerobically respire and then succumbs to lactic acid.

I hope this helps :)


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

[User] ELI5: How do libraries acquire all their books?

[Assistant] In the UK, they buy them from suppliers. A local government might typically purchase thousands of books in one contractual agreement and share them out between the library branches within its geography.


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

[User]
ELI5: What exactly is Critical Thinking?

I always notice a lot of the  critical thinking  skill mentioned in articles and even some books that I read, I got interested and googled it but still didnt get the information I needed to understand why its so important skill. But then after a while I got a friend who is exceptionally different in the way that he communicates information and how he asks questions, it is so fascinating for me cuz its all practical and crucial knowledge. I always find my self following his decisions. I think its something thats related to critical thinking skills, and if its true I wonder what someone like me has to go through to master this skill.

[Assistant]
It starts fairly simple, then there are some more difficult skills to develop. It isn't a "talent". It takes practice. At the simplest level critical thinking is about questioning and not simply accepting conclusions as valid without understanding the premise and assumptions. Common mistakes are using narrow examples and extrapolating them as representative for larger populations.

First step is to develop some basic logic. For example:

All dogs have four legs. That animal has four legs. Therefore it is a dog.

All dogs have four legs. That animal is a dog. Therefore it has four legs.

One of the above is incorrect logic. These are the fairly straightforward logical errors.

Then you start to develop the ability to break down arguments and assertions to figure out underlying assumptions and then ask or research whether and under what conditions would those assumptions be valid.

The more difficult areas usually surround our own or built in biases. These can be hard to see. This is why critical thinking requires the ability to view issues from different perspectives - "why would this be true for this group/individual".

At some point, understanding some fundamental concepts like Baye's Theorem really brings home how "intuition" can mislead. It is good to have a grounding on basic probability and statistics. It doesn't have to be deep but many/most scientific research use some kind of statistical framework. (it is very easy to get this wrong because the words used in language are seldom precise and can be manipulated/misunderstood)

Then there is the ability to reason backwards. Most people reason forward but a very powerful technique is to do the reverse.

There is also some value in understanding "cognitive breakdowns". Why framing, regret aversion etc lead to failures in reasoning. This gives you some idea how issues can be somewhat manipulatively presented - ie disguising an agenda with seemingly objective numbers/facts. Once you get to this point, it is probably safe to say that your critical thinking skills would be better than 99.9% of the population.


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

[User] [LOTR] What was Saruman's plan if he'd find the One Ring? Did he want total domination over Middle Earth like Sauron?

[Assistant]
Both Saruman and Sauron were created by Aule the Smith and for better or worse had similar outlooks on how existence should work. That is why Saruman fell to begin with. The central point of LotR is none of the Ainur actually agreed with (or at least understood) Eru Illuvatar's decisions with creation (at least as it regards the gift of men). They just broke down into those who had faith and those who didn't. Saruman went from one camp to the other and didn't really change his mind about how things should be.

Anyway Saruman likely had the same outlook on existence as Melkor and Sauron. Preferring an eternal world without mortality, strife and without the gift of men (or maybe with the gift being given only to the strongest and most worthy).


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

[User] How much smaller might IBM's Watson be if it were built with memristors?

[Assistant] Memristors are best used for something like static synapses for analog neural models (which can be scaled up massively, using a hybrid model -- digital systems for long-range signalling, such as routing in a 3d mesh or torus -- this is similar to the local neural computation being analog, and long-distance being done by spike-trains, which are a lot like minimal packets). Watson (DeepQA) doesn't follow a connectionist model at all.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is it perfectly acceptable that a horse owner leaves a giant pile of horse dung on the pavement while it's frowned upon that dog owners do the same with much smaller piles of dog dung?

This thought just crossed my mind as I was riding my bike home and had to swerve around all the giant piles of horse dung, felt like I was training for a bike slalom contest.

[Assistant] They are suposed to have bags to catch that in urban areas but keep in mind horse poop is all plant mater and breaks down fast and is compost and good for lawns. Dog poop on the other hand has meat in it and doesnt break down the same and will kill grass.


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

[User]
What did early humans do in terms of oral hygiene?

Might be a silly question but early humans, they surely got cavities? Did they have a form of brushing, or did they just deal with tooth decay?

[Assistant] I watched a documentary of dentistry awhile back and it had a study a dentist did back in the late 1800s where he went to Africa every five years and took pictures of peoples smile. At the beginning all the smiles were bright and vibrant with little to no dental care but as western influence increased and their diets changed to include more sugar and what not the smiles got worse and worse until their teeth were completely destroyed. It was pretty interesting to see. Before we started eating all the crap we do now days we really didn't need to do much to our teeth.


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

[User] ELI5: How come some shows have to make a knock off character if they're doing a parody, while other shows like South Park can just use characters like the characters from Yo Gabba Gabba or Mickey Mouse without changing voices or appearances?

[Assistant] Legally, you can get away with quite a lot under "fair use" laws which cover parody. However, some shows prefer to play it safe since the copyright holder can still sue as a strongarm tactic even if they have little/no chance of winning.


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

[User] [Mass Effect 2] Why can the Normandy deplete much of the galaxy's planetary resources without noticeable consequences?

[Assistant]
The normandy doesn't strip the location of resources. It probes planets for valuable deposits, and brings back samples to the Normandy to verify the purity/contents. If the concentration is verified, the coordinates are sent to the Alliance/Cerberus/the Citadel Council for further evaluation and processing.

This is why it can seemingly take multiple planets' worth of resources to upgrade a small squad's pistols: Your probe is just taking very small samples for verification, that your crew repurposes for their own use after the necessary channels are notified.


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

[User]
What happens do your photoreceptors when you pass out?

When having a vasovagal reaction, vision starts to fade as your BP drops. What exactly is occurring with your photoreceptors as everything turns dark? Is it the same mechanism as you fall asleep?

[Assistant]
It's mostly in the cortex, not the retina, just the effects of anoxia on the visual part of the brain. Loss of BP often causes "tunnel vision" that closes inward from the edges, sometimes with pinwheels or kaleidoscopic effects.

The photoreceptors aren't really relevant. When you do choke off photoreceptor circulation alone (knuckle your eyes too long) you can see kaleidoscopic effects but these are the brain circuits with gain full up and filters turned off, searching for a signal that has disappeared.


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

[User]
ELI5: How sharp is paper?

It doesn't take a lot to get a paper cut, which makes me think it must be pretty sharp, especially because paper isn't all that rigid. I'm not totally sure how to define "sharpness" but is it comparable in sharpness to a knife? If it were more rigid, where would that place it?

[Assistant]
Sharpness, until recently, has not been a very well defined term. Unfortunately, explaining sharpness is actually more complicated that an ELI5 because it requires an understanding of fracture mechanics.

The good news is that your question can be answered without actually defining sharpness! The first thing to understand is that being "sharp" entirely depends on the shape of the thing doing the cutting. It's a common misconception that "sharpness" depends on hardness, but it does not (for anyone interested, hardness affects how sharp something can stay, but not how sharp it is). For this reason, butter that has the exact same shape as very hard steel knife is technically just as sharp as the knife. So why does this make a difference? Because this also means that if you had a piece of steel that was as thick as a sheet of paper and had a microscopically flat edge like paper (assuming that's the case), it would be exactly as sharp as the paper itself. It may not be intuitive as to what that steel piece would be like, so you can imagine it'd basically be like a very dull razor. In other words, paper is not very sharp because, as thin as it is, its edges are still very broad.

So if paper is not sharp, why the paper cuts? Think about this: if the paper wasn't gliding across your finger and was simply pushing directly into it instead, do you think you'd still get a paper cut? Probably not, since we'd end up with many, many more paper cuts if we could get them simply by pushing. But when the paper glides over your finger, it manages to cut well. The key difference is that it's much easier to break skin by tearing it along the surface than it is to break it by pushing directly into it. You ultimately don't need all that sharp of an edge to cut yourself by drawing the edge across your skin; paper will do just fine!


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

[User]
Eli5: Shaking hand/finger wounds

Why does shaking your hands briefly reprieve the pain from its wounds? I had a big gash in my thumb and I've ways shaken them a bit to help ease the pain, but I don't know why exactly I started doing it or how people discovered it.

[Assistant] Its called Sensory Gating. Basically, the brain can only register a limited amount of sensation at a time, so when gets overwhelmed by a sudden pain in one area, our instinct is to rub/shake/scratch/etc the area to distract our brain from that initial pain. It doesnt fix the pain, it just mitigates it temporarily with a better, less intense feeling. Then, hopefully, once youre done shaking/rubbing/scratching the area, the initial pain has lessened to a more tolerable level.


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

[User] ELI5: Is there a difference between an attorney and a lawyer?

[Assistant] A lawyer is someone trained in law, typically, it refers to someone who has graduated with the basic degree in law from a law school. "Attorney" at it root means "representative;" to be an attorney-at-law you have to be qualified to represent people in court, generally meaning you have passed the bar exam. Most people do not observe this distinction strictly.


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

[User]
How can we know the Sun's surface temperature when the Sun's corona around it is hundreds of times hotter?

I read today about the fact that the Sun's corona is hundreds of times hotter than the photosphere (surface) of the Sun. The photosphere measures around 6000 K, goes over 20,000 K in the chromosphere and way over 1 million K in the Sun's corona.

As I was glad to learn something new, my little science brain started thinking about **how we can possibly measure 'lower' temperatures that's surrounded by such extreme high temperatures?**

The problem I'm visualizing, is like measuring the heat of a warm coffeecup that is hidden behind a larger, hotter campfire (or something hotter). Maybe a bad analogy, but I'm curious about the temperature measurement techniques used **if it's explainable in ELI5 format** :)

[Assistant]
The corona and chromosphere are very tenuous, so most of the light emitted by the photosphere passes right through them. By comparing the emission spectrum of the sun that's observed when looking directly at the central region and the spectrum that's observed when looking only at the outer layers (achieved by observing the outer edges of the sun), we can separate the two.

Note that we we can get a very good picture of the photosphere itself even without doing any of the above. The photosphere is tens of thousands of times denser than the chromosphere and about a trillion times denser than the corona, so without very sensitive equipment (or an eclipse blocking out the photosphere), the chromosphere and corona are invisible. What we see when we look at the sun *is* essentially just the photosphere.

Unlike the corona and chromosphere, the photosphere is opaque so we can't make similar direct observations of the layers below it. Understanding the inner layers of the Sun requires different techniques, including seismology, neutrino astronomy, nuclear and particle physics experiments and computer simulations.


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

[User]
ELI5: I've heard a bunch of gym goers talk about muscle memory, and how if you were in shape before then its easier to get back in shape because of muscle memory. What can some experts tell me about this?

Like if I could bench press 315 a couple years ago but haven't lifted since, would it be like the amusement park fast pass to where I could hit those numbers again, quicker than someone that  never hit those numbers before? Or even like running times, could I hit those numbers because I've done it before, all because of muscle memory?

[Assistant]
scientific answer:

when we gain muscle, we're making new muscle cells. when we lose it, we don't lose muscle cells but the individual cells get smaller. its then easier to get back to our peak strength because we don't need to make new cells again, just bulk up the ones we have.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are some alcoholic drinks shaken while others are stirred, and why is there a difference?

[Assistant]
Hi there, weekday chemist and weekend bartender here!

There are a few "scientific" reasons why some drinks are shaken versus stirred, and one practical reason. First, as others have mentioned, shaking a cocktail with ice vigorously breaks the ice down into smaller pieces which chills the drink much faster/to a lower degree. As you may know, as a general rule clear liquors are best enjoyed ice cold and dark liquors at room temperature (by themselves) - so you *usually* don't shake, say, whiskey cocktails.

Second, shaking aerates the cocktail. It builds up pressure inside of the shaker tin and forces little bubbles of oxygen into the cooled liquid. This is sometimes required for the desired consistency of a cocktail; shaking makes things frothy and "thicker". Typically cocktails made with juice, eggs, or dairy are shaken.

Drinks that are mostly liquor usually get a nice stir! The larger ice cubes don't melt in the drink as fast and won't water it down. When you're drinking fancy, expensive liquor you want to be able to appreciate the unadulterated color, bouquet, and flavors of the pour. Old fashions and Manhattans come to mind.

Lastly, the huuuuge reason why many bars/bartenders will shake a drink rather than pour - because it waters it down! What else? That means a more sober bar guest and more profit for the restaurant. Don't worry though, most of us would be happy to *correctly* make you a stirred cocktail so long as you're polite!


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

[User] ELI5: What's happening with Senator Mike Duffy in Canada? Will we have a new Prime Minister soon?

[Assistant]
So Senators in Canada get expenses like travel and housing partially paid for. Duffy claimed some expenses that were ineligible, like a housing expense for a house he rarely used. An investigation was opened.

Duffy paid the ~$90,000 back, *but* Harper's Chief of Staff Nigel Wright, cut Duffy a cheque for the same amount (with the money probably coming from the Conservative Party itself) to cover Duffy's re-payment.

Now we have accusations and some contradictory evidence about who exactly knew about what was going on. We know that some people lied about not knowing about the cheque, and now Duffy's lawyer is claiming that the PMO approved all his expenses.


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

[User]
[King of The Hill] Does Bill Dauterive get treatment? I hope he does. I understand the series isn't very arc based. It's quite episodic... So knowing that there isn't any real closure on how the characters are doing after the series end. What are the theories on Bill, his mental health and life?

I've just finished the episode Pretty, Pretty Dresses where he experiences extreme dissociation, identifies himself as his ex wife and gets shit on by most of his neighbors. It's sad stuff. Guy needs help, his friends made sure he didn't *die* but I wonder how much progress to health he really ended up making after Hank helped snap him out of the episode.

He really is a sad sack sort of character. I laugh along when he spills pizza all over himself or falls into the lake. But... I do hope he gets help. So, using the clues given within the series. Does he get the help he needs?

[Assistant]
Bill checked himself into a mental hospital once during the series.  Boomhauer had gotten sucked into a sewer after falling asleep while floating on an innertube down a river, then popped up in Houston covered in algae and wearing a tiger-stripe speedo.  This combined with the locals (including a cop who thought he was being threatened) not understanding him resulted in him getting committed for 72 hours.  Boomhauer tried to get Dale to bust him out early,  but Dale just ended up getting himself stuck with him.  They both called Bill, but he realized he *needed* to be there and checked in without helping them escape.

Eventually, they called Hank, who explained the situation: by the time he got there, Boomhauer had already stayed the requisite amount of time and was not deemed to be a threat to himself or others, Dale wasn't supposed to be there at all (but the doctor recommended he keep taking the meds he was given, anyway), and while Bill was free to leave at any time he wanted, his insurance wouldn't cover his stay (so he was quickly kicked out with the others).


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

[User] If light is just a radio wave with a different frequency then can visible light be created using an antenna ?

[Assistant]
At this point in time, no, for a few different reasons, mostly due to the necessary materials.

The way an antenna works, basically, is that electrons are pushed up and down the antenna, made of a conductor, and this change in the antenna's electric field creates electromagnetic radiation for propagate from the antenna in the form of radio waves.

Producing this type of electronic radiation requires an antenna about the same size as the wavelength of the desired radio waves, and circuitry that can oscillate the electrons in the antenna at the desired frequency.

For example, UHF radio waves require about a 1 meter antenna, and circuits that can oscillate at around 300 MHz.

To create an antenna that could produce visible red light, you would need a <700nm antenna, and circuitry that can oscillate at 400 THz. For comparison a human hair is about 100k nm. So from the get-go you'd have to find materials by which you could oscillate electrons in a 700nm antenna 400,000,000,000,000 times a second without melting the antenna.

Even then there is another big problem. Longer wavelengths can pass through the material the antenna is made from more easily, which is why radio waves do not require line of sight and can penetrate through certain materials. Shorter wavelengths, like the ones necessary to create visible light, cannot pass easily. The shorter red light waves produced by this theoretical antenna and circuit would not be able to pass easily through the solid materials the antenna is made from, and instead of being emitted they would "bump" into the material the antenna is made from, so you'd lose most of it in the form of thermal energy, and again, the antenna would melt.


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

[User]
ELI5: If a person dies of organ failure such as liver or kidneys, what alerts their body that the rest of the organs can now stop working?

This may sound like a strange question, Im just genuinely curious as to whether or not they literally just stop running at the exact same time or if that organ quits and then the rest follow it.

[Assistant] There's no signal. The liver doesn't die and send a signal out for everything else to immediately stop. It dies and stops doing its job of filtering out toxins, which causes toxins to damage, and eventually kill, the other organs.