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

[User]
[Pokemon] What makes a pokemon be considered a Fairy-Type?

Every Pokemon belongs to a type because of their nature. For example, fish Pokemon like Magikarp are considered Water-Type because they are creatures that live in the water and Beedrill are Bug-Type because they have Arthropodadal properties and so on. But what about the Fairy-Type? What is a Fairy Pokemon?

[Assistant] Pokemon types aren't directly related to the living arrangements of the pokemon, though it can be common. Typings are human classifications of natural properties of Pokemon physiology. As an example, though the legendary Pokemon Lugia lives beneath the ocean and apparently breathes under water, it's physiology and interactions with its physiology more resemble those associated with Flying and Psychic type Pokemon rather than Water. Fairy type Pokemon are marked by association with natural energies and total immunity to the powers associated with the so called Dragon type. They are also marked by being harmed by mineral compositions common to Steel types, and a susceptibility to toxins associated with the Poison type. It is possible such Pokemon also have connections to the energies released by the ultimate weapon fired in Kalos so long ago. Pokemon taxonomy has yet to fully nail down the exact reasons for the existence of this typing.


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

[User]
ELI5 What is the difference between Displacement, Distance and Distance Travelled?

Displacement is a vector and distance a scalar, but how else can you differentiate between them in the easiest possible way?

[Assistant]
Displacement is the difference inbetween your starting location and your ending, including th direction.   If you run around the block and end up back home your displacement is 0

Distance traveled is how many meters your feet or whatever actually moved you. If you run around the block and end up back at home your distance is a block.  No direction.


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

[User]
Can someone explain to me this joke about Sartre?

I read the following joke and am curious to see if I understand it fully...

The French existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre was sitting in a cafe when a waitress approached him: "Can I get you something to drink, Monsieur Sartre?"
Sartre replied, "Yes, I'd like a cup of coffee with sugar, but no cream".
Nodding agreement, the waitress walked off to fill the order and Sartre returned to working. A few minutes later, however, the waitress returned and said, "I'm sorry, Monsieur Sartre, we are all out of cream -- how about with no milk?"

I basically understand existentialism - is it a joke that nothing of something is in itself something, because existentialists believe that lack of meaning is in itself meaningful? Am I getting close? Some help would be appreciated...

[Assistant] It's a way to understand the meaning of nothingness. To negate milk is actually a different situation than to negate creme. The fact of the coffee with sugar remains the same, but its context and meaning is different because of factors like expectations, which are a real part of the experience.


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

[User]
[Puella Magi Madoka Magica] What are the limits of Kyubey's wishes?

Raise the dead? Change history? Alter fundamental physics? I know the girls he typically contacts would never think of most of the truly big things but there is a chance right?

[Assistant]
So the main thing is that apparently they are limited by the magical potential of the girl in question. Madoka infact DID alter fundamental physics and change history with her wish, but that was only possible because she was given near-infinite magical potential due to Homura's temporal manipulations.

Without similar manipulation, it seems no magical girl could grant a wish that has universal consequences.


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

[User] [Harry Potter] What would happen if a student with a pacemaker walked into the school?

[Assistant] the pacemaker would probably fail due to the proximity to so much magic...the student would be whisked away to madame pomfrey who would give him/her a concoction of whale toes and weasel fins to fix the problem that warranted having a pacemaker to begin with.


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

[User]
[WH40K] Just how powerful is a Living Saint?

They certainly *look* like they're the holy equivalent of a Daemon Prince, but how strong are they?

Could they go toe-to-toe with a Daemon Prince, a Primarch, a Daemon Primarch?

[Assistant]
Despite them being divine beings, their powers vary as it is determined by how much of The Emperor's essence is bestowed upon them. Often they are only given enough power for the mission that The Emperor has chosen them for.

For the most part, they are comparable in power to daemon princes and greater chaos champions, but it is unlikely they could go toe to toe with a primarch.


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

[User]
ELI5 What is the purpose of a stuffy nose?

Coughing is for clearing airways, sneezing is for clear the nose, fevers to fight infections, what is the purpose of a stuffy nose?

[Assistant] It depends on what you mean by a stuffy nose. Sometimes it's an increase in the mucous in your nose in an attempt to clear pathogens. But it can also be the inflammatory response of your nasal tissues. Because of the infection (or, in the case of allergies, the mistaken belief there is an infection), there are changes in blood flow, an increase in permeability of blood vessels, and the migration of fluid, proteins, and white blood cells (leukocytes) from the circulation to the nasal tissues. This allows your immune system to better attack the foreign bodies.


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

[User] eli5 Why do diabetics sometimes have to have limbs, particularly their legs, amputated?

[Assistant]
Diabetes is a disease in people where the body does not produce insulin (type 1 diabetes) or does not use glucose properly (type 2 diabetes). In both instances, there can be a high level of glucose, or sugar, in the blood.

Uncontrolled high blood sugar damages nerves and interferes with their ability to send signals, leading to diabetic neuropathy (tingling and loss of feeling$. High blood sugar also weakens the walls of the small blood vessels (capillaries) that supply the nerves with oxygen and nutrients.

The combination of poor circulation and lack of feeling in the limbs leaves those areas prone to infection or cell death (from not receiving oxygen or nutrients). Infection can go unnoticed for quite some time, past the point of recovery and would require amputation so the infection does not spread. It is difficult/impossible to get an appropriate amount of antibiotic/antifungal medication to an area with poor circulation.


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

[User]
As a control, why not fire both photons and neutrinos simultaneously at a distant target?

In order to rule out systematic errors, why not fire a pulse of neutrinos and a pulse of radio waves at a distant target at exactly the same time? Presumably any difference in arrival times would then be a compelling result. Ideally, fire them at a detector floating in space a few million kilometers from Earth? I'm not a scientist so there are probably eighteen reasons why this wouldn't work, or on the off chance it's valid, eighteen people have already started working on it. I guess I'm just wondering.

[Assistant]
It seems there are quite a few questions popping up on here roughly translating as "maybe we dont know the speed of light". The truth is there is no need to measure the speed of light at a distant target, as it has been done many many times to incredible accuracy.

Clearly the neutrino result is very unexpected and will need to be verified by other neutrino detectors. But it is very important to realise that we know the speed of light, it has been measured countless times and forms part of numerous fundamental equations which have themselves been tested to incredible accuracy. The speed of light is not the issue here, it is whether there is a systematic error or not in the neutrino speed measurement that is of importance. The way to test this is to use different setups built by different scientists and check their results. Add to this that a neutrino detector is a very large instrument that is built deep underground to block out cosmic rays, launching one into space would be both vastly expensive and likely the noise from cosmic rays without even the earths magnetic field to protect it would render it useless. Nice thought tho!


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

[User]
[Avengers Endgame] Are villains grateful... (spoilers)

Are the villains who were brought back into existence in the blip, thanks to the Avengers, grateful to the Avengers at all? Or thankful for Tony Stark's sacrifice in any way?

[Assistant]
Probably not (far from home spoiler). >!Mysterio thanked him by stealing the defense system he bequeathed to Peter.!<

Vulture might be more cool about it.

Hammer wasnt the type to show more than poorly faked appreciation.

Most of them are dead though, going through the list of previous rogues.


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

[User]
[General] Why do nearly all beings, from alien to robot to monster, store critical components in their topmost extremity?

It seems that battle robots, at least, would be built with a decoy 'head' that can be lost with almost no repercussions. The instincts of many creatures would misfire if the head was a non-vital component.

[Assistant]
Physics plays a role.
Signals only propagate so fast, so it behooves a creature for its sensory organs/devices to be as close as possible to its central processing apparatus.  It is also advantageous for sensory organs to be on extremities, particularly elevated ones.
Combine those two things, and you get 'brains' in 'heads' a lot, because they 'eyes' are also in the 'head'.


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

[User]
[MCU] Does the War Machine/Iron Patriot suit have a JARVIS-like interface?

(if this has already been answered in canon, please direct me towards it)

Tony gets a some feedback and control over the suit with JARVIS and Friday. While they're not really AIs, they provide a very natural language interface.

Does the War Machine/Iron Patriot suit have a similar interface?

[Assistant] Tony was able to do google searches and get status updates with voice command after Jarvis was removed and before he installed Friday.  It would make sense that the War Machine would at least have that level of automation.


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

[User] If nuclear waste will still be radioactive for thousands of years, why is it not usable?

[Assistant] Radioactivity, by itself, is not that useful for generating power. What is useful for generating power is the induced splitting of _lots_ of atoms at the same time, not the slow trickle of energy release you get from radioactive decay alone. To put it another way: nuclear reactors don't work because their fuel is radioactive, they work because their fuel is splittable by neutrons. Those are not the same thing (all fuel splittable by neutrons is radioactive, but not all radioactive atoms are splittable by neutrons).


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

[User] ELI5: why are jar lids smooth and round as opposed to an easier to grip shape?

[Assistant]
Cost, standardising the shape makes it cheap, if a product decides to use a non standard shape the set up cost will be huge.

Ideally a nobble around the perimeter of the lid like a tyre track would help but it isn't going to happen .

If you struggle try inserting the handle of a spoon or blunt table knife under the rim and lever a little bit,  there will be a little pop when you let air inside the jar and it will then open easily.


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

[User]
ELI5: this wonky jet stream giving planes the extra speed from a tailwind. What happens if a 777 breaks the sound barrier?

How bad can this extra fast jet stream really be for commercial travel? Is it dangerous? Do planes have ways to slow down if they get caught in it?

Edit: wow. Lots of information. Thanks people.

[Assistant]
We can measure the speed of an aircraft in two ways - ground speed, and airspeed.

Ground speed is how an observer, stationary, on the ground would perceive the aircraft. Airspeed is how fast it's going relative to the air that it's in. If you have an aircraft that's doing an airspeed of 500mph in a 200mph tailwind, it'll give it a ground speed of 700mph.

It's rather like if you're on a 100mph train and start to jog down the carriage at 4mph - to an observer by the side of a track, you're doing 104mph, but the effect on your body is no different to you doing 4mph.

It's the airspeed that's important when it comes to deciding if an aircraft is going to hit problems. It may be really fast to a ground based observer, but it's quite normal for the aircraft.


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

[User]
ELI5: How is it more profitable to produce new porn instead of recycling overabundant available supply?

At this point it feels like porn is everywhere and in limitless supply. From a purely economic perspective how is it still profitable to produce new videos when producers could simply rerun or recycle what they already have and never run out? The sheer quantity available is already enough to guarantee that someone could never watch every video of a particular fetish (nothing too specific).
Enlighten me !

[Assistant] because 4 billion people are still trying to find the perfect porn video where the guy behind the camera keeps his mouth shut the entire time and the stunt dick also doesn't say anything stupid during the money shot.


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

[User]
are current gas prices the result of price gouging?

I recently saw a comment that points to increased fuel company profits during the current gas/oil crisis to be evidence that these high prices are primarily caused by price gouging and corporate greed.

I've heard that during the pandemic oil companies had to drastically reduce supply as demand plummeted, now that demand has soared as we exit the pandemic we see that companies are not increasing their capacity to supply (or are unable to pehaps). I've seen some argue that they are able to raise supply but simply choose not too as they are making a killing off of the high prices.

Is this a fair analysis or is it misleading?

[Assistant]
Its a combination of the two factors.

Most forms of oil production require fairly substantial investment to get up and running, so you need significant price rises and the prospects of prices staying high for a prolonged period to tempt new supply into the market. Its also not that quick - if you need to drill a hole in the seabed, thats not something you can do overnight.

That said, you also have the OPEC (organisation of petroleum exporting countries) cartel, the largest member being Saudi Arabia. These countries coordinate production quotas to maintain oil prices. OPECs influence has declined a bit recently, but they still have influence. While Saudi does not disclose much about its maximum potential output, its likely that they have significant spare capacity, so could increase output to lower prices, but choose not to.


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

[User] Eli5: what is energy exactly?

[Assistant] Think of energy as the capacity or power to do work, such as the ability to move an object (of a given mass) by the application of force. Energy can exist in a many forms, such as mechanical, electrical, thermal, or nuclear, and can be transformed from one form to another.


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

[User]
ELI5:What would happen if a country dismisses it's army?

Suppose a country decides to stop investing billions of dollars in soldiers, building war tech and maintaining military equipment.  In stead it will have lots of founds to focus on health, social imporovement and science. Are there repercurions for this action?

[Assistant]
The question is, which country ?

For a smaller countries in many parts of the world, there would be little effect in the short term. No one would attack them, and if that did happen a larger neighbour would probably help. However, other countries would like them less, because they can no longer help with UN missions. There is also always a chance that neighbours become more aggressive and do attack them.

For a larger countries, they would lose influence in the world. Countries like being friendly to them because it is very nice to have the USA, Russia, China, UK, ... on your side when there is any threat of war. If these countries don't have an army any more, there is little reason to be their friend.

For some countries, no longer having an army would mean that a warlord would take control (Somalia/Congo like countries) or that regions would declare themselves independent (Chechnya / Kurdish areas in Turkey).

Finally, there are some areas in the world where more than one country claims an area belongs to them. In these cases, dismissing an army might lead to the other country occupying that area. (Kashmir area/ Some island groups in Asia/Falklands)


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

[User] What makes heat a more highly disordered form of energy than say potential energy?

[Assistant] This really comes from the defintion of heat.  Heat is energy whose precise origins we aren't paying attention to.  Have one billiard ball collide with another, and we'll talk about the energy transfer in terms of kinetic energy.  Have two gases come in contact with each other, we'll talk about the energy transfer in terms of heat transfer.  Microscopically, the heat transfer is just a bunch of atomic collisions, but instead we don't pay attention to those and instead lump the microscopic phenomena into the macroscopic one of heat transfer.  The notion of disorder comes from our lumping together of various microscopic states into a macroscopic state, and thus our macroscopic description doesn't tell you everything you could in principle know about the system.


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

[User]
ELI5: Does pregnancy delay menopause?

If the number of eggs women have is finite,  and you drop 1 egg per month during the standard cycle, do you delay menopause by 9 months every time you get pregnant (assuming full term pregnancies)?

[Assistant] No. One follicle is matured and released as an egg, but other follicles die in the thousands every month regardless of ovulation. Same idea works for using birth control - just because it prevents ovulation, it doesn't mean it will delay menopause/prolong fertility.


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

[User]
Why does 1-propanol has higher boiling point than 2-propanol?

They have the same intermolecular forces, but their molecular structure is different.

[Assistant]
They do not have the same intermolecular forces.  Since oxygen is by far the most electronegative atom in the molecule, electrons are delocalized from the other atoms, decreasing their electron count and making them more positive. Since the oxygen is made more negative, a charge forms in the overall structure. We call this a polar molecule.

2-Propanol has a centralized alcohol group, so we can imagine the flow of electrons to the center.

1-Propanol has a *decentralized* point of electronegativity. The alcohol group here is on one end, which pulls the electrons to one extreme. The molecule becomes like a tiny magnet, so to say, that pulls very strongly on both ends to their opposite charges. With many 1-propanol molecules, you would see them stack nicely and tightly.  It stacks and compresses more nicely than 2-propanol, for instance.

Now, why does 1-Propanol have a higher boiling point?  Well, the definition of BP is when the vapor pressure of the substance equals the atmospheric pressure.  Since 1-propanol is more tightly packed than 2-propanol, fewer molecules are sent into vapor form for a given temperature and pressure. Thus, it has a higher boiling point because it takes more energy to break the stronger electric dipole between molecules of 1-propanol than 2-propanol.

Hope that helps :)


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

[User]
[WH40K] What purpose/role did each Primarch have?

So i remember reading that each had a certain role in the eyes of the emperor, for example Leman Russ was his 'executioner' whilst Horus was 'warmaster' etc. I'm just wondering what each individual one was.

[Assistant] Horus was the only one with a "special" job, i.e. Warmaster, which is why he got a lot of resentment and jealously from the other Primarchs. He was seen as being favored and, in the eyes of some, for no good reason. Russ got a reputation as executioner because of his and his Legion's willingness to put the boot down on other Chapters in his name, not because it was his official job.


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

[User] Does every material have a solid, liquid, and gas state?

[Assistant]
At least every element has (apart from many others) a solid, liquid, and gas state. [Although for some this might be very difficult to observe, e.g. Helium is liquid even at T=0 for normal pressure, one needs at least 100atm]

As concerns "meterials": Probably there are many molecules which become unstable before you reach one of those states ...


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

[User] Crocodile bite strength is far higher than any other animal, over 5,000lb of bite force compared to 800lb bite force from a Great White. Yet you never see a crocodile outright bite something in half or at least fatally crush it. Why is that?

[Assistant] Crocodile teeth are meant to capture and hold prey, not sever. When you pull a victim into brackish or muddy water, you want the whole thing, because a loss of a piece means you might not find it again. So yeah, the bite strength is meant to create severe internal trauma and snap the spinal cord but leave the body intact so that the meat remains fresh and whole but no longer poses a threat.


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

[User]
ELI5: Does drinking a caffeinated drink actually dehydrate you?

So I know caffeine is a dieretic (tough word for a 5yo), but when you drink a soda or coffee, you are also taking in a fair bit of water. So does it just hydrate you *worse* than drinking the same volume of water, or does it actually make you less hydrated than if you'd drank nothing?

Or is there a cutoff point, where drinking a certain amount of caffeinated drink goes from hydrating to dehydrating?

[Assistant]
No.

Caffeine is a mild diuretic and will cause your kidneys to process water and produce urine faster than not consuming it. But the concentrations needed to counter the volume of water consumed in the drink would be close to a lethal dose.


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

[User]
ELI5: What happens when females with hemophilia go through their menstrual cycle?

No this isn't a set up for a joke, I am genuinely curious.

[Assistant] That's not really blood, not all of it. It's the lining of the *endometrium*, the outer layer of the uterus that holds the egg after fertilization. If there's no fertilized egg, the body discards that tissue.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do children and adolescents "see" the passage of time slower than adults?

[Assistant] When you do the same thing over and over again, day after day, year after year, the brain puts them all together in a "boring memory" box at the back of the garage to save space. When you think back over the last year the contents of that box aren't included, so it seems you haven't done many things. Something to look forward to huh?


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

[User] ELI5: Why is CNN so widely disrespected?

[Assistant]
Because they pretend to a serious news station, yet pander to the lowest common denominator US-centric gossip masquerading as news.

For example, in 2009, there were pro-democracy demonstrations in Iran at the same time as there was a coup in Honduras.  CNN gave us a week of 24/7 coverage of Michael Jackson's death.

They also gave Nancy Grace her own show, for that alone they can never be forgiven.


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

[User]
As Voyager is outside of the solar system, what is it's trajectory in the galaxy?

What is the future of voyager in millions and billions of years?
Will it continue to orbit the galaxy if it doesn't hit anything in that period?
How much will its orbit drift from the sun's? Is it possible that it could crash into a planet one day?

[Assistant] The most likely long-term fate of the Voyager is that it makes about 100 orbits around the galaxy, never hitting anything of consequence. That takes around 25 billion years. Some time after that ... maybe another 25 billion years ... it gets a gravity assist that flings it in some random direction. And almost all random directions are OUT of the galaxy. So then Voyager drifts out between the galaxies for 10^(20) times longer than its previous history. If it loses one (just 1!) atom per year to X-ray impacts, then in 10^(28) years it will have disintegrated to a cloud of gas (mostly iron).


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

[User]
CMV: International opinion on gun control law in the USA is irrelevant.

With the recent shootings in the US, an awful lot of opinion and criticism from the international english-speaking world regarding their gun control laws are flying about on social media and elsewhere.

I personally think that gun control in the USA is nobodies business but theirs.  If I was american, and however I regarded guns, I'd probably be quite annoyed at people in countries like the UK for being so opinionated on these internal matters.

Gun control in the US is not like human rights violations that we see around the world and that, quite rightly, we should criticise and be vocal about.

This view does not detract from the tragedy itself, or criticise those condolences from any and all who choose to express it.

Given the scale of the criticisms I see, I may be missing something - so I am absolutely open to changing my opinion on this!

[Assistant]
Well cultural osmosis acts in such a way that at the very least people should proactively defend their own countries from adopting ideas they consider bad like the availability of guns.

And it's good advice, doesn't matter if we are overseas we don't like kids dying and as people where it becomes possible to help save lives it's relevant that we do so.


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

[User] ELI5: Are there any biological advantages to being overweight? Could it allow you to survive longer without food?

[Assistant] That is the advantage, yes. Scientists believe the reason why humans evolved to store excess food as fat is that it allowed people to survive times of famine easier by having reserve energy. The issue is that our bodies were optimized for lifestyles where the idea of having plenty to eat all year round wasn't possible.


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

[User]
CMV: Fallout Vault or any Underground shelter can't house 100 people for a prolonged period of time.

Just to preface, Fallout Shelters are the only underground bunkers that I have knowledge on. I will be using the general concept and what I have observed in-game (Fallout series) to argue.

Food: Realistically, there isn't going to be enough space to store the amount of food needed to feed one hundred people for years. Even if we are taking in Hydroponics to grow food indoors, you would need the supplies, water, and the space to grow ample amount of food to feed that many people.

Water:  Getting clean water is going to be a challenge. In the Fallout series, the vault had some special technology to have purified water, but the chips aren't easy to come by. In the real world, I don't even see how we can get clean water in a post apocalyptic scenario.

Supplies: Stuff likes clothes and other necessary materials  will be extremely scarce. The bunkers/vaults would need parts for maintenance and there wouldn't be any feasible ways to produce these materials without factories.

[Assistant]
> Food

Some quick calculations here. The average American (i.e. well above bare minimum) consumes 1000kg of food a year. Suppose we take this as potatoes (an underestimation, since potatoes are quite energy-dense). Potato yields per year on normal soil are anywhere from 12 tons to 30 tons per acre. Suppose that we take 25 (again, an underestimation because vault conditions allow for ideal conditions), then we need four acres, or 16000 square metres of space for 100 people. Hydroponics has anywhere from 5 to 10 times the yield of soil-based crops, so that cuts things down to 3200m2 to 1600m2. That's quite achievable.

> Water

Building the vault at the right place avoids this. Wells, especially ones tapping into deep, isolated aquifers, can provide a lot. Recycling water is also a must.

> Supplies

This is an absolute non issue. Clothes last a long time, especially if you build them for durability. Adopt a less custom-fit size system, and you can manage this very easily.

Multiple redundancies would make having spare parts a minor issue at best. Having a blacksmith in the group renders tools a non-issue, since you can recycle almost everything. We have built much more failure sensitive habitats than a vault already.


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

[User] [Star wats] My Jedi master says only the Jedi can activate a lightsaber is that true?

[Assistant]
Some lightsabers.
Some have a switch.
Some have a dial.
Some have a knob.
Some have an internal switch that's telekinetically activated.
Your Master must be pushing you towards constructing a lightsaber with an internal switch.

The Jedi council's stance on Jedi Masters seeming strange or unorthodox in their methods and teachings is to just do as they say.
Question them, but trust their words.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do abrasions weep?

After hurting myself, I noticed that abrasions on the skin always produce a lot of fluid. Cuts or scratches usually never do that. What has a abrasion that something like that happens?

[Assistant]
When tissues are damaged, part of the body's response is inflammation.  Inflammation includes increased blood flow to bring in nutrients and oxygen to start repair and white blood cells to clean up damaged cells and catch any invaders that may be in the wound.  Also, the surrounding blood vessels getting slightly leaky so that plasma (the clear, straw-coloured part of blood) get right up around the damaged area to provide a good environment for the white blood cells to work in and more direct access to the nutrients that are dissolved in the plasma.

When you get a cut or scratch mostly you see blood, but sometimes you might still get a little plasma seepage after the bleeding stops.  In abrasions you haven't damaged deep enough to get good bleeding going, but still get the inflammation related seepage.  Abrasions also tend to be over larger areas so it takes longer for clotting to take place and stop all the leaking.


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

[User]
[Westworld] How Often Do Guests Accidentally Hook Up?

I'm referring to the HBO series specifically. The Hosts have been perfected to the point where it is practically impossible to tell who is real and who isn't. So it would seem to be an inevitability that two Guests could wind up sleeping together, thinking the other is a Host.

[Assistant] The hosts intervene when guests fight each other and don't let things actually become dangerous . They'll break character or the storyline if they have to. Similarily, Since there's lots of reasons why guests wouldn't want sex with another guest, like the risk of pregnancy or diseases, the hosts are programmed to cockblock all guest on guest action.


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

[User] [StarWars] The Kaminoans made the clone army, but did they also supply the republic with loads of star destroyers, tanks and other vehicles? Did the republic just happen to have an armada lying around?

[Assistant]
It's a lot easier to find and buy hardware than it is to instantly gain a massive army of trained personnel.

Most nations have a surplus of military hardware, not a shortage. But clone facilities that produce soldiers with accelerated growth that can create one battalion after another. That's something else.


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

[User]
ELI5: why does thepiratebay.org never get taken down, if all their other domains do?

It's fairly well-known that The Pirate Bay changes TLDs quite quite regularly, as its domains get seized by whatever country's TLD it is under. For example, the most recent one taken down was thepiratebay.gs, but it's currently available at thepiratebay.la, .vg, .am, .mn, and .gs.

Yet at the same time, thepiratebay.org has been going strong for a long time. How does it never get taken down, when almost every other domain has?

[Assistant]
It's because .org is a generic topdomain that isn't owned by anybody, so it's free to use without getting taken down.

However, most countries have a ISP based block towards TPB.org, so TPB choose to go out searching for other domains, like country based and mostly small countries that aren't that advanced in technology to get the most value out of the domain.

They then use the .org to re-direct people to whichever domain they are currently using, so that you, as a customer wouldn't have to always get to guess or having to research what domain they are currently using, while at the same time they are avoiding most blockings towards their website.

Therefore, .org stays the same, but the actual domains for the website keep changing.


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

[User] [Halo] So can anyone give me a timeline from 2015 to the year 2552?

[Assistant]
By 2080 we had a developed and robust space program and had colonized Mars to a large degree. About 80 years later, in 2164, the first major rebellions on Mars began, after the second and third generation colonists became disillusioned, which would lead to the formation of the United Nations Space Command, or UNSC, to counter them. While the fighting is rather intense, the rebellion is almost completely subdued. In 2291 we develop the Shaw-Fujikawa Slipspace Drive, an FTL technology, allowing Humanity to reach out into the stars. Over the next 200-ish years we colonize over 800 worlds.

In 2517 the ultra-secret SPARTAN II program starts, largely in response to a resurgence of insurrectionist activity, and a six-year-old John begins his journey to become Master Chief. Less than 8 years later, in 2525, we would encounter the Covenant. Relations become violent almost immediately, and the newly created SPARTAN IIs are mobilized against them.

In 2552 Reach is invaded, and the Human-Covenant War swings heavily out of our favor.


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

[User]
Why don't the Vita-Chambers revive anyone but Jack or Delta? [Bioshock Spoilers]

So, I understand that it is a video game, and that, 90% of the time, requires some kind of resurrection function.  Usually, that's not an addressed part of the game, it's just something that happens when you die.  In Bioshock, however, the Vita-Chambers are clearly visible, permanent aspects of the environment, and their function is one of the very first things explained in game.  It seems like, if Rapture has such a technology, that others would want to take advantage of coming back from the dead: Ryan, Fontaine, literally every character in the entire game.  Why don't they?

[Assistant] When Rapture fell the Vita-Chambers had only just been installed, and the system was only attuned to the genetic keys of a few individuals, One of whom was indeed Andrew Ryan, (And due to genetic similarities The Vita-Chambers mistook Jack for Ryan, allowing him to be resurrected as well) However Ryan had intentionally deactivated the Vita-Chamber in his office before he ordered Jack to beat him to death. As for Delta, Eleanor Lamb (via a little sister) added his genetic key to the system, allowing him to use them as well.


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

[User] Eli5: Why do some people shake their legs when sitting down? What are the benefits?

[Assistant]
People's muscles 'twitch' constantly to keep toned. Lack of twitching leads to loss of tone over the entire body. Some people's 'tone twitching' is at a lower frequency but higher strength than others. So they are shaking their legs to maintain toned muscles - they just shake them more but less frequently than most people do.

In fact most people 'twitch' in such a fashion that it's undetectable and they don't really know they are doing it.

Same reason behind fidigting.

The only benefit of being a 'slow twitcher' or fidigter is burning slightly more calories a day. So they tend to be thinner.


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

[User]
Are babies physically able to speak?

I was having a discussion with a friend, and the topic came up. We understand babies mentally lack the capacity to speak. But if they mentally could, would they be entirely capable of speaking? Have their vocal chords and other necessary parts fully developed to make the plethora of sounds necessary for speech?

[Assistant] Theoretically, yes. The PHYSICAL components of speech should be able to perform the actions necessary to produce the sounds, but it's the neuronal connections that actually matter. It's not even a matter of 'mental capacity' as it is strengthening and pruning synaptic connections in all the structures required for speech and associating them with the correct areas of higher processing. If, for example, you could exogenously stimulate the lungs, vocal folds, tongue, lips, etc in the correct sequences, the physical structures themselves could produce speech.


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

[User]
ELI5: File names. Why can't Microsoft Office save or open files that have slashes or colons in their names?

Sorry - more questions!

* Why can't Microsoft Office save or open files that have slashes or colons in their names?

* Why can I *rename* a file to something like "30/60.doc," which makes it un-openable, but then when I rename it back to "30 60.doc," it suddenly opens?

* What is the benefit of saving a file with underscores instead of spaces? i.e. My_Awesome_Song.mp3 instead of My Awesome Song.mp3?

Thanks!

[Assistant]
Slashes and colons are used as part of the *file system*; that is, the thing that tells the computer where to look for a file with that name. The Windows OS has been updated to distinguish between a slash in a filename and a "meaningful" slash, but MS Office has not.

Before things like Windows and Macs existed, you had to make a computer do things by just typing commands. Spaces were "meaningful" when you typed in those commands, so it was impossible to have a filename with spaces in it. Because of that, some very old programs cannot handle filenames with spaces.


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

[User]
ELI5: NBA structure explained to an European

As an European just approaching the NBA, I keep struggling to understand how the conference's and divisions work, I've seen posts here from 2016 but I Know some things changed since then.

I thought I understood but now I see the Chicago Bulls played the Golden State Warriors, the only game between two conferences, and it's not playoffs... What did I miss?

[Assistant]
Two conferences, with 3 divisions in each, and 5 teams per division.

Each year, every team plays:

* 4 games against the other four teams in their division. (16 games total)
* 4 games against 6 other teams in their conference. (24)
* 3 games against the remaining 4 teams in their conference. (12)
* 2 games against each of the 15 teams in the other conference. (30)

Total: 82 games in the regular season.


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

[User]
[Marvel] When and how did Jubilee become a vampire?

And if possible why?

[Assistant]
This really isn't what the sub is for, exactly, but...

*When* - X-Men volume 3, 2010

*How and why* - vampire suicide bomber blew himself up near her, she got infected by vampiric blood. Then she got bitten by Xarus (Dracula's son) and fully turned.


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

[User]
[DragonBall Z] Can Vegeta read?

I know that Vegeta could read the information on his scouter when he first appeared on earth, but what about earth languages? He never had any sort of formal earth education, so it would make sense to assume he can't read English or Japanese, right?

[Assistant]
It seems like there's a universal language, similar to Galactic Basic from Star Wars. Because how would King Kai be able to talk to Goku. Namekians talk to the Earthlings and Frieza be able to give commands amongst the various aliens under his command?

If there's a universal language that Earthlings universally speak it makes sense that their written language would also be the same.


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

[User]
Article Revisions in the Footnotes?

I want to get a feel for whether this is *socially* accepted in academia.

I recently got some feedback for an article I hope to publish. The revisions the reviewer wants me to make are beyond the scope of my thesis. I focus on Country A, B, and C, and this reviewer has said "Hey, you know Country X did this, this, and this".

I'm happy to incorporate these comments, but not in the main passage of the article. Would it be ok to make these revisions through footnotes?

[Assistant] In the fields and journals Im familiar with, totally. People often use footnotes to explain why reviewers are wrong, too. When youre resubmitting, Id just briefly explain your rationale (basically as youve put it here) for relegating the Helpful Insight to the footnotes instead of expanding the paper more substantially.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is it that during takeoff, you are not supposed to be using laptops and phones on a flight? Does it really mess with stuff in the cockpit?

[Assistant]
Your cell phone is not going to make a plane crash.  Trust me, we put a lot of work into these things.

What you might do is cause some noise on some of the communication lines, if a bunch of people are all doing it at once.  You're not going to kill anything, but when the pilot keeps having to ask the tower to repeat what they said, that means you having your phone on is delaying flights and driving up the cost of air travel and possibly making some people miss their flights and get stuck somewhere overnight when that couple minutes per flight adds up considering the number of flights sent out of an airport in an hour.

When you're at altitude, not a problem.  When you're in airplane mode, great.  But if you're actively using the device when the pilot would need to be in communication with the tower, not fantastic.


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

[User]
Can maglev trains go uphill?

Conventional trains are incapable of going up very steep hills because of the low friction between its wheels and the track.

So how would a maglev train with zero friction and only gravity and drag to worry about perform going up an incline? Would the linear motor be able to drive the train up a steep hill? And how steep? What's the limiting factor? Heat, power, weight, etc?

I'm excited to see what you guys have to say!

[Assistant] sure.  The magnets both levitate and propel the train.  It's just a matter of having enough power to overcome the incline.  In this regard the maglev train would perform better than a traditional train because a maglev train does not rely on wheels and friction.


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

[User] ELI5: What would be the properties of a universe which was mostly antimatter instead of mostly matter?

[Assistant] For the most part, they'd be identical. The difference between matter and antimatter is generally only important when the two come into contact with one another. This isn't *always* true (formally speaking: CP symmetry isn't absolute), but it usually is.


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

[User]
ELI5: What is Adaptive Immunity?

I'm struggling to understand the activation of T and B lymphocytes and what they are exactly. And also how antibodies relate to antigens.

Even any resources would be great if they explain university level concepts easily.

I'm in my first year of my Nursing degree but am really struggling with this whole shebang :(

[Assistant] So you're in a war against an alien enemy you've never seen before. A scout party (Dendritic Cells) manages to destroy one and yanks off a piece of their armor (Antigen). They report back to their base (Lymph Nodes) to show (present) this piece of armor to everyone and to see if anyone has any answers on how to defeat them. He bounces around all the different weapons inventors (B-Cells) whom all test their weapons against this armor. Most of the B-Cells find that their weapons don't match the armor and will be unable to stick to it. One B-Cell in the Lymph Node finds out that his special rocket launcher (Antibody) is the exact match to defeat this alien armor. The B-Cell then starts making clones of itself (activation and replication) so it can go out and fight the aliens.


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

[User]
[DC Comics/Movies] If Superman gains his powers from Earth's yellow sun, and is "normal" in Krypton's red sun, then how does he travel in space?

Wouldn't he run out of gas every time he flew near an older star?

Even if he sort of stores energy like a plant with photosynthesis, does he run out if he's kept away from a yellow sun for too long?

I'm not super familiar with Superman beyond movies and cartoons I watched as a kid.

[Assistant] He can store it for a while. The reason red sunlight depowers him quicker than his store drains is the photonucleic effect operates on a last-in-first-out basis, so he gains a useless charge that has to wear off before he can use his power again. But as long as he isn't right up in the star system he's fine. Space is pretty big and there's more than enough empty void on the way to wherever he needs to go for him to fly through.


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

[User] ELI5: How can Banksy create an entire themepark (Dismaland) if nobody knows who he really is?

[Assistant] Banksy has an agent, and all communications with him go through that agent. The agent is the one who confirms if something is really done by Banksy and is generally accepted as the authority on his works in the art community.


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

[User]
[Spider-Man] How thorough is spider-sense? Does it hijack Peters motor functions to get him out of danger, or does it just alert him?

Suppose someone throws a rock at Spider-Man. Does his spider sense say incoming object behind you, or does it say small stone coming from 2 oclock at a 10mph velocity, you have 1.5 seconds to duck?

And furthermore, can he choose to ignore it? Or is it an instinctive override to pull him out of danger?

[Assistant]
It depends on his training and experience levels. Usually it's instinctive, with some basic control of his motor functions. The first time it went off he jumped out of the way of an oncoming car without thinking. There have also been situations where he was around a super villain's alter ego (Hobgoblin, IIRC) and his Spider-sense was wailing without giving him anything specific. The longer he's been Spider-man, the better he gets at interpreting it, and reacting appropriately. He's been warned about things like unmasking in front of a security camera, which wire to cut on a bomb, and when someone is bluffing in a game of poker.

In the case of someone throwing a rock at him, the most experienced versions of Spidey would be warned as soon as you started thinking about throwing it, earlier versions would know as you picked it up, and all of them would get an "incoming" warning as soon as you started the windup.

There are some exceptions; Venom is famously immune to the Spider-sense, and it gave no warning when Aunt May once clocked him with a vase.

In *No Way Home* >!Dr. Strange pushes Peter's astral form out of his body, and his body is able to dodge without his input, presumably because of his Spider-sense.!<


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

[User]
CMV: If you think not all men trivializes the issues women face by men, then you should feel the same way about not all immigrants.

Let me start off by saying that I think both of these statements are stupid for various reasons. Im also not some altrighter trying to bait this subreddit so mods be nice. Thats not the point here though.

On social media I often see women make fun out of men who say not all men in response to women sharing their stories of being harassed, catcalled, etc. 99% of all women arent stupid and obviously know that its of course not all men who do this, but its significant enough that they feel like its a story worth sharing.

How about this then. During New Years Eve 2015/2016 over a thousand women in Germany were sexually assaulted, primarily by immigrants from the Middle East. What do people respond to this with? Not all immigrants. Particularly, there seems to be an overlap with the same people complaining about r*pe culture who also suddenly decide to say not all immigrants.

So which one is it? Because you cant say one without saying the other. Youre generalizing an entire demographic and you cant minimize one without minimizing the other, or vice versa. Either you say not all X in both cases or none at all.

Change my view.

[Assistant]
The speaker and the point of the conversation are important here.

In the first case, you have a woman sharing her personal story about being assaulted, harassed, catcalled and some guy making it about himself and commenting "not all men." And not only is he making it about himself, he's not so subtly accusing the woman of sharing her story as being sexist.

Now your second example isn't about a personal experience is it? It's a conversation between two observers of the event, a political/social debate, rather than between a victim and a random commenter, yes?

One observer who uses this story as an example to support their anti-immigration views, and another observer who disagrees with the anti-immigration agenda.

In this case, saying "not all immigrants" is acceptable. This is not a person trying to drown out someone else's story, it's a person making a point in why they disagree with you about how you want to respond to immigration in Germany.


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

[User]
[DCEU] From an evolutionary perspective, wouldn't Aquaman be pale?

Asking purely from a scientific/evolutionary perspective: If the Atlantians evolved underwater for tens of thousands of years, wouldn't the lack of constant direct sunlight leave them without any melanin in their skin and hair?

[Assistant]
There may be countervailing selection at work here - traits that are beneficial in certain circumstances, but are deleterious in others.

For example, pale skin may attract more predators in the depths and so the genes for them get weeded out even though it's metabolically more expensive to produce pigmentation.


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

[User]
What happens when you go in space without a suit?

I've heard/seen many different answers ranging from blood boiling, eyes exploding, and severe freeze burns, or whatever happened to them in Sunshine.
But what is the truth?

[Assistant]
Space is a near-perfect vacuum. You would not, however, explode.

Your eardrums would rupture. Your blood would "boil" in the sense that the loss of pressure would cause vaporization. Your tissues would inflame to the extreme. Many of your small blood vessels would burst from inflammation. Breathing is also a problem.

Holding your breath is actually the quickest killer. The air inside of your lungs would expand in the vacuum, causing your lungs to burst, air bubbles to form in your blood, etc..

Thus, your body would use up all of its oxygen in ~15 seconds, and you would pass out.

The extreme cold of space would seem to be a problem, but the vacuum of space insulates your body. The extreme cold would be the least of your worries.

All of these effects would kill you, rather quickly even, but not immediately.

If you were able to get back into normal pressure within 15 to 20 seconds, the combined effects of the vacuum would probably not be fatal.


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

[User]
If I switch a bulb from a 65W incandescent to a 7W led, where are those extra watts going?

Hey there. Kind of a newb to electricity. I've been looking it up a lot, just so I understand it  I realize volts are like the "pressure" of the electricity and amps are like the "volume" of electricity coming through. Here's what I don't get. A light bulb can power both a 65W bulb and 7W bulb, and the lesser bulb doesn't explode when used. Is the lightbulb controlling this with resistors? Are they lowering amps or volts? Where is the extra going? Is some being restricted then some being given off as heat energy?

Lastly, and the biggest question. How does the electric company see this?

Edit: Thank you guys all so much for the awesome answers. You really cleared this up for me!

[Assistant]
A 65W incandescent powered by 120 VAC draws 65W / 120V = 0.54A of current.

A 7W LED powered by 120 VAC draws 7W / 120V = 0.06A of current.

You could think of that as being because the incandescent has resistance of 120V / 0.54A = 222, and the LED has resistance of 120V / 0.06A = 2100.

That's not exactly right because the LED bulb is not a pure resistive load. The LED is controlling this though some complicated circuitry that amount to a constant-current driver, which is beyond the scope of this comment.

Roughly speaking, a power source controls volts, and a power consumer controls amps. So the only option the LED has is to control amps. Volts are determined by whatever it's plugged into.

There is no "extra". Each draws exactly as much power as it needs. The difference between the two never enters your house, and it stays with the power company, presumably going to other people as needed.

The electric company sees this because a single electron coming out of your wall outlet carries more-or-less the same amount of energy. (There are some subtleties here because your wall power is AC, not DC, but it works out fine for the purpose of this paragraph.)

Since your LED bulb is using less energy, and it's getting that energy from electrons, what happens is that your LED is pretty much asking for fewer electrons (that's what lower current means, as calculated above). The electric company has a counter between your home and the rest of the grid that effectively tells it how many electrons you used up.


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

[User] ELI5: How do we know the size of planets in our solar system and how far away they are?

[Assistant]
We can measure their position as they move through the year.  Earth goes from one place to another, and the motion of other planets can be measured relative to the fixed background stars.  It's a lot of math to reduce that to their orbital parameters, but Johannes Kepler did that math in the 16^th century.

We've gotten good size measurements be sending spacecraft to visit every planet + Pluto in our solar system.


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

[User]
Do poorer people have larger social networks?

I read a lot about sociology and poverty. And one thing that pops up frequently is how poor people with kids call on their parents or sisters or cousins to watch their children. Among my college-educated friends with children sometimes the grandparents watch the kids but it's not this endless list of relatives who hang out with their kids. It made me wonder if being poor gives you more options for a social network when it comes to your children?

[Assistant] Ruby Payne talks about this a lot in her book, *A Framework for Understanding Poverty*. She writes that people in poverty rely on social networks for survival. Middle class people rely on social networks for social capital, and wealthy people rely on social networks for connection to power. Because poorer people rely so closely on their social connections for survival and managing life, they tend to have closer and more codependent relationships. You work nights, so your mom takes the kids to school, your aunt picks them up and takes care of them until you wake up, etc. Family and friends are built into the fabric of day to day existing, where as a middle class or wealthy person doesnt need to rely on social networks in the same way.


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

[User]
ELI5: What causes a guy to have "Shy Bladder Syndrome" in a public restroom?

Here's the problem. It's common from what I've read. When I use a urinal in a public restroom that has as occupant at the adjacent urinal, I'm not able to pee. What's going on? Explain it to me. And is there a trick to hack the syndrome.

[Assistant] I don't know why it exists, but someone once told me if you do really big math problem in your head, like 6,302 X 453, or whatever, it's easier to pee, because similar parts of the brain are engaged. Not sure how true it is. You could also watch the movie " Waiting" with Ryan Reynolds for another possible solution.


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

[User]
What is soil like on the Moon?

Is the chemical make up of soil on the moon novel and only found there? Or are there places on earth that have similar or the same soil type?

[Assistant]
The moon's surface is composed mostly of anorthosite and basalt, two fairly common igneous rocks. Anorthosite doesn't form much on Earth anymore--most of what can be found is billions of years old--but basalt is still formed in great quantities in certain volcanic regions. Chemically, both are primarily silicates with some metals mixed in.

When soil is formed on Earth, water often plays some role, which alters the chemical composition of the material--for one thing, it often tends to lead to a greater ratio of quartz to feldspar. However, there are still dry areas where this doesn't happen much, so the soil will be a pretty close match.

But perhaps the biggest difference is how fine lunar soil is. On Earth, moisture in the air will tend to bind smaller grains together into larger ones, but this doesn't happen on the moon or Mars, so both are covered in extremely fine material that can pose a hazard to both astronauts and equipment.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why would a collapse of the electrical system send us back to "the stone age" when, prior to electricity, we had what were essentially modern buildings, fancy clothing, manually operated machinery, cities with millions of inhabitants, and a globally connected society?

Einstein famously said that WWIV would be fought with "sticks and stones," while other noteworthy figures have made similar declarations. It seems like the stone age warning is more than just a metaphor or a euphemism. It receives a lot of emphasis when it's used.

[Assistant] Because all the stuff we used to have that didn't require electricity is gone.  After one season where nobody can plant enough crops to feed everyone, or get enough water to where people need it, there will be a massive and sudden depopulation. The survivors will be scattered, randomly selected for skills, without access to much knowledge about how to operate a pre-electricity agrarian society, and will be forced to learn it all again, with continuous waves of further depopulation from starvation and disease.  Pretty quickly you end up with a very small population barely hanging on at the edge of the survival margin.


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

[User]
How do imported commodities affect GDP?

Hi!

I'm new to economics, and still don't have a grasp of some of the basic concepts.

If a Norwegian store sells clothing for 10,000$ a month, but all the clothes are produced in Bangladesh, and the store imports them for $2000$ a month, what is the store's net contribution to Norway's GDP?

Thanks in advance! Feel free to ELI5.

[Assistant]
GDP = Consumption + Investments + Government Spending + Net Export (Exports - Imports).

Since Consumption would increase with $10,000 and Net Exports would decrease with $2,000, the change in GDP is +$8,000.


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

[User]
Ten No Bullshit Facts about College?

So I taught our departments most basic, introductory-level course for the first time this semester and was a little blown away.  I have taught other lower level courses before, but they were mostly to sophomores, not to kids that were in their very first week of school.  I spent so much time explaining things that I thought were very fundamental how to function in college sorts of things, that when I teach the course again, Im going to give a Ten No Bullshit Facts about College talk on the first day.  Things I plan to include:

Why I dont like to be called Miss

I judge you by your emails

It really is in the syllabus

Research: what my university actually cares about

Student Evals: How to use the power you have for good

What other things would you include?  What shocks you that they dont know?

[Assistant]
A major reason why minority students (racially and first-gen students) have worse outcomes than average is because of the "hidden curriculum." There's all of this institutional knowledge that we expect our students to come in with, but don't recognize that they're never formally taught these things and that not all students have the same background.

The hidden curriculum ties into all sorts of things including how to speak to professors, where to seek help, where to find information, how to use (and access) online tools, what quality of work is expected in college, and how to interact with their classmates.

I think that teaching an introductory-level course gives you a wonderful platform to provide students with this information that they may not be getting elsewhere, but I'd recommend not approaching it in a sarcastic way that will alienate those students who don't know.


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

[User] ELI5: Why a person cant survive upside down (head down - legs up) for a long time?

[Assistant]
Our hearts have evolved to pump blood with a specific amount of pressure, utilizing gravity to assist us. We've always had gravity to help, and many of our bodily functions are dependent on it.

Our hearts are not powerful enough to continually pump our blood through our veins when the force of gravity is acting against us.

This isn't a big deal in microgravity (like the ISS or space in general), because the force of gravity isn't acting against us in any way, so we're able to pump blood relatively normally.


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

[User] ELI5 - why is it so common for people with illnesses to die suddenly in their sleep?

[Assistant] People often sleep alone, or with one other person who is also asleep, and they're also less aware of their own surroundings, so if something happens to them overnight they're less likely to notice, and they're less likely to have help available right there.


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

[User]
[DC] What would happen if Superman killed Batman?

Batman is always prepared for everything. He probably always carries Kryptonite around, just in case Superman goes rogue. Most "Superman vs. Batman" fights then devolve to "Well, then Superman could just one-shot Batman with heat vision from orbit without giving Batman any time to think or react." Since this is one of the most commonly-raised responses in such discussions, clearly Batman must be prepared for the possibility that Superman would go rogue without warning and kill him without any chance of reaction.

So... what is Batman's contingency plan, should Superman unexpectedly turn murderous and kill Batman?

[Assistant]
We here at Wayne Enterprises would like to announce our latest project, a joint venture with Queen Industries, our revolutionary new K-Power. Using the various deposits of natural Kryptonite that have landed on the planet, as well as synthetic Kryptonite we have created a nearly endless clean energy source that only creates minimal amounts of waste Kryptonite dust that can easily be ejected into the atmosphere. This K-dust has no foreseeable effect on any life form from Earth.

After our leader Bruce Wayne went missing, it was revealed that the last project that he was working on was this, a gift to all of humanity to save us. We have put into motion a plan to hookup plants on all continents and a revolutionary North Pole Wayne Enterprises research facility that will be powered for eternity with clean, efficient K-Power.


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

[User] When I put my iPhone next to my clock radio, the speaker on the clock radio occasionally makes this static-like sound, especially right before an email comes in. Why?

[Assistant] When your phone is just siting around, the antenna is just receiving information from the cell towers. When your cell phone gets a message or email it sends a response back to the cell tower to confirm that it received the message. The confirmation message from your phone uses the antenna to send radio waves back to the cell towers. This generally uses a lot of energy because cell towers are far away. all cell phone antennas and transmitters are not made perfect and generate harmonic frequencies of lower power than the main frequency. These lower power harmonics generated by your phone can sometimes be picked up by radios.... to sum it up. You are hearing the electrical signal given off by your phone when it transmits data back to cell towers.


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

[User] How come I rarely, if ever, see thunder/lightnings during snowstorms and only during rainstorms?

[Assistant]
Because the way snow storms are generally formed is different than rain storms. Rainstorms are usually tall clouds that produce lots of upward/downward motion. All of that motion rubs ice particles together to create an electric charge, and then once the charge gets strong enough it finds a path to the ground.

Snow storms are usually much flatter and don't produce the upward/downward motion, so little to no charge builds up. The snow also acts as a sound insultor, so even if it does happen you will only hear it from within a few miles compared to lightning in rain which will be heard from 20 miles away or more.


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

[User] ELI5 How come junk food taste better than healthy food ?

[Assistant]
It contains lots of fat, sugar and salt.

For most of human history, we didn't have access to a lot of those, so our evolution made it top priority to get them (by making them delicious). Now we have an abundance of them, and our evolution hasn't caught up yet.


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

[User] [Star Wars] Why can't Sith become force ghosts like Jedi can?

[Assistant]
When someone becomes "one with the force", it means they have achieved have died and become part of the great collection of life that is the force. All life must die and return to the force.

Jedi who appear as Force Ghosts have achieved a level of emotional and spiritual balance that they are still able to retain their individual traits, even once they have returned to the force.

The Dark Side is imbalance in The Force. Such peace is impossible for a Sith to achieve, and they know this. They know once death claims them, they have no ability to manifest their will once more. This is why their is an obsession amongst the Sith for immortality.

The Sith can level dark reflections of themselves, twisted memories and untold anger that can be exerted on an item or a physical locations that can last for millennia. But they are still just reflections. The mind and will of the Sith is long gone, all that is left is their misery.


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

[User]
What is the difference between the six types of quarks?

I know that there are 6 different types of quarks (up, down, charm, etc.) But what exactly is the difference between them? How was it determined which combinations make up protons, neutrons, and so on? On a side note, are they small enough to be considered on the Planck scale? By throwing h = E in Einstein's E=mc^2, m=2.281 x 10^-42kg for something with one quantum of energy, so are quarks small enough to be on that scale? (I'm sure I'm not making much sense, but if you get what I'm trying to ask, I'm curious about it)

[Assistant]
There are three "generations" of increasing size, and in each generation there is a quark with 2/3 the charge of a proton and another with 1/3 the charge of an electron. The first generation is up/down, the second is strange/charm, the third is top/bottom.

Starting in the 1950s, more and more particles were being discovered and it was thought that these were fundamental, but by grouping them in terms of common properties like charge and spin it was deduced that all of them could be explained as being made up by a small number of constituent particles, which were termed quarks.

Quarks aren't really Planck scale; their interactions relevant over femtometers, which is much much larger than the Planck length, and their mass is much much smaller than the Planck mass.

Planck's constant has units of angular momentum, not energy, so you can't equate it to an energy to determine a mass.


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

[User]
[Batman] If Batman ever killed someone, would Joker quit being Joker?

People always talk about Joker quitting if Batman were to disappear, but what if he won? Would he be bored? Find a new goal? Get him to kill him?

[Assistant] More than likely the last one. A few incarnations treat it as a sick game for him, to see if he can goad Batman into killing him. If Batman killed someone else, Joker would either mockingly be hurt and demand to know what made that other victim so special, or just push Batman til he murdered him too.


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

[User]
[Dune] WHat does spice acutaly do?

I mean in laymans terms what does it do? Paul can sort of see into the future but no one else can, except the merchant guys become weird creatures that have to live in a tank and everyone else just gets blue eyes so i mean i am a little confused.

[Assistant]
It basically does the following for everyone:

* Grants longer lifespans

* Makes you more healthy, basically a better, stronger and smarter you.

* Better reflexes and perception.

But for some people it also unlocks mild precognition. Paul and the Spacer Guild both relied on spice to give them an edge. Spice essentially allowed the Navigators to predict what FTL jump was safe by looking a minute or two into the future. It also changed them from having a human form into, well, the Navigators. If you've committed to spice, you have to keep taking it. Otherwise withdrawal is fatal.


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

[User]
[DC comics] If Batman and Nightwing are examples of normal humans with physical training, rather than superpowers, what are professional sports like in DC?

In a world where people have the reactions to dodge a bullet from a gun held up to their head, is hitting a fastball in baseball trivially easy? Does basketball involve people leaping from center court to slam dunk a three pointer? Do golfers consistently get hole in ones on holes we consider a par 4?

[Assistant]
In DC just being an olympic-level athlete is alone enough to become a costumed crimefighter. A whole lot of golden age heroes had only that, in fact it was the whole schtick for Mister Terrific. Others like Captain Steel (if memory serves me) just started like athletes, before getting some cybernetics or metahuman powers.

I belive the sports do monitor for metagene, but otherwise being ridiculously toned or buff is fair game as long as you've reached your "peak human" normally.

While that would likely imply that tables of world records are more tight in DC Earth, just by virtue of comic version of Olympic level athletes being different from real world ones it should be balanced well enough.


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

[User] eli5: What are the benefits of digitigrade vs. plantigrade feet?

[Assistant]
Plantigrades are generally more stable and able to bear more weight. That's because the weight goes basically straight down the leg to a relatively large surface area.

Digitigrades are essentially walking on their toes. This increases the effective length of their leg, increasing the stride length and subsequently their speed. It's also somewhat more mechanically efficient given the arrangement of their tendons and ligaments, as they effectively act like springs.


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

[User] [Marvel] Let's say the Infinity Gems didn't exist. Are there any other significant artefacts of power that Thanos might have set his sights on in their place to further his agenda?

[Assistant] His initial plan was to utilize Cosmic Cube, and in sequel series to Infinity Gauntlet, quite a bunch of them were assembled into "Cosmic Egg" with power at scale comparable to Infinity Gauntlet. And in general Cosmic Cube is much more universal and easier to handle than an Infinity Gem. What they lack in scale, they make up in being very intuitive and multipurpose in their application.


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

[User]
What did Stoicism evolve into?

Im not big into philosophy, but recently Ive started reading some of the ancient stuff. Among that stuff Ive taken a particular interest in Stoicism, specifically the writings from Marcus Aurelius.

What did these ideas evolve into? Can anyone tell me who are the people that took ideas from Aurelius/Seneca etc. and built off of them? Also, is stoicism still something thats practiced in the field of philosophy? By that I mean, are there a significant number of academics who refer to themselves as stoics?

[Assistant]
Tons of things. cognitive behavioral therapy. Parts of christanity. Neostoicism. There are modern people who claim to be stoics, some even in academia, but the connotations of what it means to be one aren't entirely the same anymore. Philosophy schools in the classical sense aren't really how modern philosophy is done.

If you want to learn about how to practice it in modern day there is a godo book called stoicism and the art of happiness that both details its classical beliefs as well as how to make it useful today. And it is written by a professional therapist.


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

[User]
[DC] How super is Superman's brain? Is he a genius?

Obviously his reactions are super but what about raw intellect? Has he ever had to think his way out of a situation he couldn't punch his way out of?

[Assistant]
Superman almost never simply punches his way out of problems. He's a genius who rapidly picks up skills like weaving and mechanics and even scientific fields geophysics if that's what the situation of the day calls for.

One of the first jobs he considered after coming to Metropolis was as some sort of theoretical physicist and during his interview he astonished the staff with his knowledge of complex differentials (he eventually decided he didn't like the publicity).


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

[User]
[Pokemon] If Pokemon can learn new moves by just "downloading" data onto them with a TM, what is to prevent illegal artificial enhancement?

Like, is there some sort of deep-web in the Pokemon universe where you can torrent illegal "hacked" TMs to download onto your Pokemon and artificially enhance them? What is to stop me from making my own TMs and inventing new moves? What's to stop me from using these "hacked" Pokemon in gym battles or tournaments? Is there any sort of law enforcement on this stuff?

[Assistant]
TMs are artificial enhancement, and they're legal. There's no "illegal" enhancement, because it is already legal. And TMs are cheap, easy to find, and you can buy one and use it on as many pokemon as you like, for as long as you like. There might still be some people who derive some deviant glee from pirating TMs as a way to "stick it to the man", but it's not really a problem.

As for "inventing" new moves, or using "hacked" TMs to force a pokemon to learn a move it couldn't normally know, that's simply not how TMs work. A TM is a repository of knowledge you can use to teach a pokemon how to do a certain move, but it doesn't change what that pokemon is inherently capable of. Like, you could try using the TM for Fly on a Diglett, but it doesn't matter how hard you try or how you may have "hacked" it, No amount of practice or instruction is going to make that Diglett be able to fly.


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

[User]
[LOTR] Why didn't the One Ring turn Sauron invisible when he was wearing it?

Seems like it would have been useful to be an invisible juggernaut in that battle, and he would never have gotten it cut from him if he was invisible too.

[Assistant]
A few answers here.

1. The invisibility of the ring is a side effect of shifting the wearer to the Unseen/Wraith world. Magical beings like ringwraiths, Elves, and Maiar already exist there, so there is nothing to "shift."

2. Sauron has complete mastery of the One Ring. He has full control over its abilities. Also, since he was originally an accomplished shapeshifter, it's likely he didn't need the ring to turn invisible: he could have done that whenever he wanted. ~~In fact, in an ironic twist, it's likely he needed the ring to be visible in the first place since removing it from his finger caused the destruction of his physical body.~~

3. Invisibility, while a short-term tactical advantage, would have been counter to Sauron's long-term goals. He wanted to rule the beings of Middle Earth. So while being invisible would have helped him conquer them with military force, they would have just perceived him as some unknown evil force. He wanted to be known. To show them that he had power over them all.


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

[User]
ELI5: What is it about alcohol that makes me be more social and talk to people.

I consider myself to be a person that keeps to myself most of the time are rarely talks to people about how I feel but when I drink and suddenly gain the ability to socialise with people and tell people how I'm really feeling? What is happening when that happens and there is away to be like that without alcohol?

[Assistant] The brain is made of neurons. Neurons talk to each other by sending chemicals. One of these chemicals is called GABA; of the dozen or so major chemicals used in the brain, GABA is one of the major inhibitors - it causes things to slow down. Ethanol (the alcohol in drinks) makes the chemical receivers for GABA more sensitive, meaning the brain is inhibited overall (CNS depressant). GABA hits hardest on parts of the brain responsible for memory, logical thinking, and muscle coordination; it's the second one that allows you to be more impulsive and talk to people without overanalyzing or being afraid.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does skipping five seconds of a video often take longer due to buffering than just sitting through the five seconds?

[Assistant]
The way online video is compressed, you're receiving data that represents incremental updates from the last frame. If you start playing the video at the beginning, it all works as intended.

However, if you start playing in the middle, you need to process incremental updates for some time period prior to the frame you want to see before you can display it. It takes time to download both the incremental data and process it.


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

[User]
[MCU] Did Ego ever try to have a kid with Hela?

 I mean If I was an immortal Planet looking to spread my seed in an attempt to create an offspring who shared my genetic connection to the light so that I'd have to power to make everything me...

I'd Definitely hook up with the Lady with the Spikey crown hat in the green jumpsuit...

(To be fair, I'd try to do that even if I wasn't Ego...but still)

I mean Ego doesn't even know how old he is, so It's entirely possible that at some point when he was going around, he at some point happened to arrive in Odin's Empire when Hela and Odin were doing there Daddy-Daughter bonding of mass conquest...

[Assistant]
I think Ego was more into quantity over quality.

I would also throw out there he wants to be the dominant.... Parent genetically. If he space bangs someone too powerful they might inherit too much from that partner and be less like himself and more like an Asguardian demi god, for example.


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

[User]
Is it likely there will eventually be a universal language on Earth?

Assuming we don't blow ourselves up, will there eventually be one universal language that resulted from all preceding languages blending, due to things slang/words that are cognates/not translated?

[Assistant]
While there may be a lingua franca, and you could argue that English is already very much it, there won't be a merging of all languages. While many words are borrowed especially for imported concepts  and you can see this very clearly in regards to the word many languages use for "tea"  languages are not otherwise all going in the same direction. If there *were* a single global creole, it wouldn't take too long for that to split up and turn into a situation of many divergent languages again. You can see this in the significant variety even in English, where words can have different meanings in different dialects, not to mention differences in grammar, despite all being quite recently related.

**edit:** Sign language isn't universal guys. Different places have their on signed languages which are not mutually intelligible.


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

[User]
If Matter and Antimatter behave very, very similar, can we be sure that distant galaxies aren't made of antimatter?

To my recollection, recent tests have shown that Anti-Hydrogen reflects light very similarly to normal hydrogen.

Can we still tell them apart over astronomical distances?

[Assistant]
The issue is that there really isn't any "empty space".  Even in the space between galaxies you have on average 1 atom per cubic meter.  That's not much, but it's enough that if different galaxies were made of different types of matter (anti- versus regular) there would necessarily be some bright, easy to observe, "cross-over" region where the two types are meeting and annihilating each other to produce photons.  And we don't see that.

Furthermore, as we look back in time towards the big bang, every point in space was closer to every other point in space, that means that the particle densities, even between "clumps" of stuff, necessarily increases.


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

[User] [SW ROTJ] So why didn't the Empire use that rather large AT-AT they had laying around on Endor when the trouble started? ( hell it was right there next to the landing platform ) Could have been at that bunker in minutes.

[Assistant] The AT-STs were better equipped to quickly travel through the forest. But if they moved them all over to the shield generator, then the AT-AT was needed to defend the landing pad in case there was a larger force at work on the planet.


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

[User] ELI5: If jobs are "lost" because robots are doing more work, why is it a problem that the population is aging and there are fewer in "working age"? Shouldn't the two effects sort of cancel each other out?

[Assistant]
The earnings from automation go into the pockets of companies, not into the pockets of the government. So the government has to fund the old population and also the newly unenmployed workers who lost their jobs due to automation.

So automation is problematic if the positive productivity gains aren't distributed to the whole society.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is it that all our other muscles become stronger from tensing them for long periods of time but our bladder becomes weaker and causes incontinence if we hold our pee?

[Assistant]
If you'd only hold your hand in a certain position without moving it, even if the muscles are engaged, it would lead to atrophy. Because muscles aren't meant to stay engaged all the time. Also it isn't the bladder that is in charge of keeping urine in you, it is the sphincter muscle between it an urinary tract. All bladder does it push stuff out with sufficient pressure that it get through the tract.

Bladder doesn't grow stronger with stress, it grows bigger. And here is the problem, since it can grow bigger but not really stronger. It can lead to situation where it isn't strong enough to push the urine out when peeing.

Incontinence isn't just a problem where urine just floods out of you. It is a term for a set of complicated problems. Each of them having a specific cause. One of the causes can be the fact that you can't pee it all out when you do.


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

[User]
Why are heavy troopers ineligible for covert operations? (Xcom enemy within)

Sure they're big but why couldn't they pass as a covert operative as easily as assault soldiers?

[Assistant]
The training for long range explosives is very time consuming to get the accuracy XCOM need from its troops, making covert training difficult to accomplish in a mid alien crisis time frame.

Also, the intense physical training required for a trooper to carry the standard issue XCOM LMG as well as fire it accurately from a standing position makes heavies very bulky, which draws more attention than an undercover agent can deal with. Hard to blend into a crowd when you stand 6 inches taller with arms like tree trunks.

Edit: As for why an assault can, is because their training requires them to be quick and have fast reflexes. The difference in assault and heavy is like a forest ranger to a body builder; both need to be muscular, but one requires more agility than the other.


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

[User]
How come all the planets seem to be on an even plane around the sun?

It seems that In a 3D environment, that the would orbit at all different angles. Another question: why do they all orbit the sun the same way?

[Assistant] Angular momentum. When the solar system was young, it was a cloud of gas & space dust. Although the motion of each individual particle may have been erratic, the cloud had some net rotation in a certain plane. As the dust & gas began to collect into larger bodies  over time, the particles travelling up, through the plane of rotation and down through the plane of rotation collided and cancelled out. As a result, the cloud over a long period of time flattened into a disk, and the rotation speed increased.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is chemo more effective against aggressive cancers?

Ive been told this by a couple of doctors but didnt think of asking why at the time. Why is chemo more effective against aggressive cancers than slow-growing cancers?

[Assistant]
Many traditional chemotherapy drugs work by breaking some part of the DNA replication process. This has the advantage of only hurting a cell when it tries to copy its DNA, so cells which never do that aren't affected at all. Nerves, for instance, don't copy themselves, and are therefore immune to these chemo drugs.

However, the most aggressive cancers are literally always copying their DNA. As a result, breaking that process will break a greater percentage of their cells than any others in the body, killing the cancer faster than you. This is also why chemo is bad for sperm and white blood cell count. Both are rapidly replicating cells, so both will be heavily impacted.


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

[User]
ELI5:How do we perceive so many different tastes while we only have a few taste receptors?

For example, why do different kinds of cheese or different brands of soda taste completely different when they mostly contain the same ingredients?

[Assistant] You're right that we only have a few different types of taste receptors.  However, we can differentiate between a lot of different smells.  Like millions upon millions.  Taste and smell combine together to give us the experience of what we think of as the flavour of food and drinks.  This is why if you have a cold, so you can't smell well, food tastes rather bland.  It's also why hot food seems more flavourful than cold food.  Hot food means more evaporation of what is in the food so more smell.


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

[User]
Recession in 5 years?

I've seen a lot of articles and discussions from economists, business leaders, and bankers about the chances of a recession sometime in the next year. They've ranged from little chance, to 50% or higher. If there's anything that they agree on though, it would seem to be that there's no agreement if there'll be a recession in the next year.

What about in the next five years? From the state of the rest of the global economy, to those wondering if the unemployment rate is (strangely enough) too low, to waning CEO confidence, to how long the current expansion has been going, as well as other fluctuating recession signals, I'm guessing that if you extend the time horizon out to five years instead of just one, that the chances for a recession jump a whole lot more.

Would that be a fair assessment?

[Assistant] No one can give an exact date. There isn't any statistical regularity in booms or busts. We can look at indicators - the Fed monitors those to try to keep the economy stabilized - but just because indicators are present doesn't mean a recession will undoubtedly happen within x amount of time. It means there is a higher chance statistically based on what we know has happened. But otherwise, it's hard to say.


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

[User] How is possible for my cell phone to have zero reception but still give me the option to make "emergency calls"?

[Assistant] Your cellphone gets reception from another network provider which doesn't have a roaming agreement with your own network provider. The other network provider allows you to make emergency calls, but nothing else.


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

[User] ELI5: How do producers prevent child actors in horror movies from getting extremely scared?

[Assistant]
First, they take the time to explain things to them, and prepare them, and they have their parents/guardians present. And kids who can't handle it probably don't survive long in the industry.

Second, when filming a movie it's not nearly as scary as the finished product. Think of it with out the jump-editing, without the scary music, without the sharp, jarring angles. If anything, the kids probably get bored.

On a related side-note: When filming *Maleficent*, Angelina Jolie had to use her own child for some scenes since the other children were afraid of her. Which relates to being able to find the right kid for the job.


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

[User]
[Doom] How DID Doomguy kill the Titan?

I suppose I should ask to keep this as serious as possible, since I am actually legit curious. Maybe I didn't quite understand the lore, but back when he was in hell, he was just like a knight, right? With a sword? So, how on earth did he beat something like that?

[Assistant]
Major internal organ trauma and tissue ruptures.  At that scale, a creature of that size is remarkably susceptible to cascading systems failure.

Which is to say, Titan's a big guy.  Meaning he has big guts.  Rip and tear.  Rip and tear his guts.


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

[User] [Pokemon] Why can't I catch pokemon that have fainted?

[Assistant] oh... um... you are still a young trainer aren't you? Don't tell them i told you this kid but "faint" is a euphnisim for "die" and since wild pokemon are not backedup in pokeballs so are unrecoverable. This also happens sometimes if you are cut off from medical services long enough for the cortal stack in a pokeball to fail.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does inbreeding cause birth defects?

[Assistant]
Imagine your traits in terms of DnD stats. For simplicity let's give you five traits (in reality you have a ton): STR, CON, DEX, INT, WIS.

For each stat, you got one number from your mom, and one from your dad. The better of the two becomes your stat. So for example, your stat table may look like this:

Stat | from dad | from mom | your final stat
-----|------------|-------------|----------------
STR | **15** | 7 | 15
CON | 7 | **9** | 9
DEX | 0.5 | **9** | 9
INT | **17** | 12 | 17
WIS | **9** | 8 | 9

You take the best of what you got from your parents, so you end up with final values of 15 STR, 9 CON, 9 DEX, 17 INT, and 9 WIS. Note that your dad gave you an absolutely atrocious DEX stat: 0.5! But that's OK, because it gets covered up by the 9 from your mom.

Until you have kids, that is. When you have a kid, then for each stat, one of your two numbers gets selected. You pass that number to your kid. So for INT, you could pass down your dad's 17, or your mom's 12. It's 50/50.

Without inbreeding, everything keeps going normally. But, what happens if you have a kid with your sister? Well, now's where that terrible 0.5 DEX from your dad could come into play. Your sister might have that 0.5 DEX gene also. You have a 50/50 shot of passing down that 0.5. With any other woman, it would just get covered by whatever DEX stat she passed down. But with your sister, she also has a 50/50 shot of passing down your dad's 0.5 DEX. And in the 25% chance that you and your sister both pass it down, then there's nothing to cover it up. Your kid will have 0.5 DEX and be a cripple.


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

[User] [300] Does Xerxes take all that stuff off to go to sleep?

[Assistant] No. He sleeps in the soft and pliant arms of many beautiful women (and boys, and weird goat-things). If he experiences any discomfort, they gouge out an appropriate groove in their own flesh to ensure they are contoured to all his piercings.