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

[User]
[Star Trek] The morality of teleporters

Lets say that I was stuck on a remote moon with nothing but a malfunctioning teleporter that every time I used it it would accidentally duplicate the signal and produce two of me. I don't have a replicator and I'm running out of food. Would it be okay if I used it to produce two of me and then we flipped a coin to decide who lived and who died to feed the other one? Also the killing myself over and over and constant splitting starts to drive me a little crazy so I keep a few copies of myself around to keep me company. When I am eventually rescued what happens? Would they arrest me for murder and cannibalism even though nobody technically disappeared? What would they do with all the copies? Would we all go to jail for an equal amount of time or would it be split between us? What about the guy we just made yesterday who although is an exact copy of me who did all of this, never technically participated in any of it? Also I'm pretending to be him and is there any way to differentiate between us?

[Assistant] According to Federation law, duplicates created by transporter malfunctions have the same rights as any naturally created individual. They are regarded as separate individuals, and are not held accountable for the actions of the original or any other copies.


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

[User] What do the prions in a neuron/nervous system that make eating primates dangerous for humans actually do?

[Assistant]
Essentially, prions are proteins in a pro-aggregative conformation, meaning their shape makes them want to "clump up" with other proteins like them.

It is thought that prions can make it to the central nervous system (perhaps through tonsils) and induce normal healthy conformations into this pro-aggregative state.

These accumulations of proteins prevent a cell from carrying out necessary biological processes, and it dies, leaving a "hole" where the neuron used to be.  When viewed histologically, the tissue has numerous, numerous holes, resulting in a spongiform appearance.


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

[User]
[DC Comics] Billionaire Bruce Wayne just adopted another orphan... does the media think thats weird, or is it just me?

I mean, sometimes he adopts, sometimes they become his ward. Why the different approach, and what are the logics involved? Does he pay big donations to social services or what?

[Assistant]
Bruce Wayne suffered a childhood trauma that makes him particularly sympathetic to young orphans, sort of like how Michael J. Fox takes a special interest in Parkinson's Research. There's nothing weird about it, plus its not like he spends much time with them as he's always gallivanting around as the playboy that he is.

Not sure about the logistics.


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

[User]
ELI5: The rainbow hat riddle, please explain how the solution makes 100% sure that at least one of the prisoners are right about their hat color?

This is the original version of the riddle:

Seven prisoner are sat around a table and each wears a hat which is either Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo or Violet. There is no guarantee on how many of each hat there is; it could even be seven of the same colour.

Each prisoner can see every other prisoner, but they cannot see the colour of their own hat. Each has a piece of paper in front of them and they have to write down a single colour which is their guess as to which  colour hat they are wearing. If anyone gets it right then everyone goes free, otherwise they are all killed. As always, the prisoners are told the situation beforehand and they are given an opportunity to discuss a strategy.

How can the prisoners guarantee success? You might want to start with fewer colours and build up to a general solution. Answer below.

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Answer: Label each person from 0 to 6 and assign ROYGBIV to 0 to 6 as well. Each person finds the sum of the hats that they can see and then works out what number they would have to add to the sum in order to get their personal number mod 7. (If you haven't seen mod before, I mean what remainder would you get if you divided the number by seven.) Whatever the number is that you have to add is what you convert back into a colour to guess. This guarantees success.

For example, let's say the seven prisoners are wearing ROGBRIG. Their sums of what they can see are [16,15,13,12,16,11,13]. They need to guess the numbers which, when added to these sums, give 0 more than a multiple of 7, 1 more than a multiple of 7, up to... 6 more than a multiple of 7. So in turn they guess [5,0,3,5,2,1,0] which corresponds to IRGIYOR of which the third person guesses correctly.

This method guarantees that all seven possibilities are covered by making sure everyone is just out of sync. A similar method works for n different colours worn by n prisoners.

[Assistant]
When you take the sum of all hats according to your assignment of ROYGBIV to 0 to 6, when dividing that sum by 7, the remainder has to be one of 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6. That are 7 possibilities. You now assign each person one of those possibilities.

Let's assume that one of them covers the correct possibility. That means that he knows the remainder of the sum of all hats, and he also knows the remainder of all hats except his own. There can only be one color for his hat so that both of these remainders are correct. This only produces the prisoner's own color if he assumes the correct remainder for all 7 hats.

But remember that there were only 7 possible remainders, and that we assigned each of them to one person. This means that at least one person works with the correct remainder, and as I've described above, this allows that person to correctly guess their own color.

(In fact, there will only ever be exactly one person that guesses correctly, as everyone else uses a wrong assumption for the remainder of all hats)

As you've correctly stated, this works for any number of colors and prisoners. The mathematics behind it is called modular arithmetic.


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

[User] ELI5: Why can't only certain pixels light up on a phone, for example only the pixels necessary for displaying the time, why does every pixel need to light on the screen just to see the time?

[Assistant]
Depends on the display technology.

In an LCD, pixels don't light up. There's one big light behind all of them, and the pixels are basically chemical "shutters" to block it.

On an OLED screen, individual dots do light up, so they can really do what you're describing.


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

[User] ELI5 Why my computer can be running along fine, and then suddenly slow to a crawl for a few minutes?

[Assistant]
Your computer is doing a lot of things in the background.  You have things running to index files in the background so searches go faster, software updates, virus scanners and countless other things happening without you actively trying to access them.  On top of that, any random activity might just push your memory usage up to the point where you have to start swapping RAM to your hard drive.

Let's say you're at a restaurant and your waitress is prompt and always filling your coffee.  What you don't know is that the dishwasher got sick so at some point she has to go wash the dishes.  If you want more coffee you're stuck wondering why you're not getting service with no explanation.


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

[User] Could Magneto disrupt a force call to Jedi's lightsaber?

[Assistant] Depends entirely on the power of the Jedi. Weaklings would find themselves utterly helpless, but someone of Magnetos equivalent power would find themselves engaged in a tug of war that would likely destroy the lightsaber.


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

[User]
CMV: Who the US president is makes very little difference in the lives of US citizens

The US President is often called the most powerful person in the world. This is technically true, but fails to consider the power of groups. Both congress and the supreme court as groups have much more power than the president at a federal level. Long term change comes from these bodies instead of the executive branch more often than not. The broad trend of elections into congress makes much more of a difference than the presidential election. The president will often have an agenda which changes things, enact it, then mostly do minor and expected things. These agendas are almost always things congress or their parties were planning on doing anyway, just made slightly easier. Often times, big agendas are reversed by the next president or congress put in power.

This is only at a federal level, however. State and local elections arguably make much more of a difference, and change on a state level is much less inevitable and linear than change on a federal level. In the personal lives of most Americans, the budget and laws of their state impacts them much more than anything at a federal level.

Therefore, the actions of the president have almost no direct effect and very little indirect effect on most Americans most of the time. Where there are sometimes big changes, these occur more often at the state or local level.

[Assistant]
Rapid change requires the Congress & Presidency to work together.

More importantly, its *mostly* the Senate & President.  Just those to bodies can determine the makeup of cabinet departments and the Supreme Court, which have major immediate & long lasting impact (respectively) without the need to actually pass legislation.

This is alarming because the Senate & Presidency are fairly non-representative of the electorate, given that the senate (vastly) disproportionately represents rural states and the presidency is routinely decided by 2-3 states.

So, when you have a hyper-partisan president aligned with a hyper-partisan Senate leader those checks and slowdowns are bypassed.

Trump being president wouldnt matter if not for McConnell and *vise versa*.

Short term, national legislation tends to have the most immediate impact to the top 1% and bottom 20%-ish percent due to immediate changes in taxation and social program funding.

For the rest of us, the impact is longer term and more indirect - but just as important.  Trade deals and education funding might not change the middle class day to day, but theyll shape our economic prospects long term.


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

[User]
authorship- is this normal?

Im a data analyst in academia (bs in stats), so I get opportunities to help on manuscripts and earn authorship. A senior PI and student (MD) were working on a project together and asked for my assistance performing the analyses. For context, the study was basically just taking survey data someone else already collected and analyzing it. I guided them through/performed the analyses.

Shortly after this the student graduated, started a residency and completely ghosted us. The student had started a draft of the manuscript, but had only gotten through the introduction. I took complete control over the project and in the process changed some of our analysis methodology. I proceeded to write the entire manuscript (didnt end up using any of the intro the student wrote) with the analyses and visualizations that I generated.

As I was in the weeds of taking control of the project, the senior PI said she was making me co-first author. I was fine with this as I have never been first author before. Now after finishing the paper, I asked if my name can be listed first (still co-first author with the student) rather than second. The PI acknowledged that I carried this study, but says she isnt sure its appropriate since the student conceptualized the study and attempted the analyses, even if their work wasnt utilized. Since the student didnt collect the data, they pretty much just decided what the outcome variable would be (which I evolved over time). The student has been copied on all communication for the last 6 months and has not reached out once.

To me it seems crazy for someone to be granted first authorship after completely abandoning a project, especially since most of their work wasnt included anyway. As we are co first-authors, im not asking the student to give this up, I just wish to be listed first. Is this at all justified?

[Assistant]
The problem is that the other person did a certain amount of work under the assumption of gaining a first authorship. Unless they specifically give up that position it can turn into a lot of drama should they want to fight for that spot.

An unfortunate reality is that a lot of research remains unpublished because the original first author stops working on it and doesn't want to give up the spot either.


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

[User] [MCU] What would happen if Thor smacked an Infinity Gem with Mjlnir?

[Assistant]
Probably much sound and fury, signifying nothing.

The gem doesn't break and neither does Mjolnir. Everyone within 100 feet gets knocked on their butt by the shockwave, and the wielder of Mjolnir tries to get the feeling back in their arm.


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

[User]
[Avengers: Endgame] The Avengers grab the Sceptor and the Tesseract from the past but Cap returns with just the stones. Doesn't this cause a continuity issue?

Did they manage to get the stones BACK into their original devices or did they just plop the space stone back in Shield HQ without the Tesseracts cube shell?

I'd think this would cause major timeline issues (as well as 2014 Thanos & Friends being dusted)

[Assistant]
I think it's likely that Cap's first stop was to return the Time Stone to the Ancient One, and then she could use magic or the reversal ability of the Time Stone to recreate the vessels for the rest of the stones.

However, even if she didn't restore the vessels, it's possible that Cap wasn't interested in continuity. We know that Cap was returning the Stones either to eliminate the changes in the timelines or to prevent those timelines from being doomed by losing their Infinity Stones. If the former was his goal, then, yes, this would create continuity issues that would have changed those timelines even further away from what we saw in the movie. But if his goal was the latter, then he really doesn't care about continuity. It doesn't matter if the stones are back in their proper vessels as long as they're simply returned to their own timelines somewhere.


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

[User] ELI5: When I'm on a cell phone, and I can hear the other person crystal clear, but they say the quality is so bad on their end that they can hardly understand me, what's going on?

[Assistant] Cell towers have more power than a phone, so "tower to phone" is more reliable than "phone to tower".  For example, if you are close to your tower and the other person is far away from their tower, they can hear you fine, but their return signal may have trouble reaching the tower.


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

[User]
Why are planets almost perfectly spherical?

Why are there no odd shaped planets, or planets shaped like cubes etc?

[Assistant]
Planets are held together by gravity and once an object is heavy enough its own gravity is strong enough to pull it into a a spherical shape.

Our moon is large enough to be spherical but the moons of mars retain a shape that has been formed some other way.


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

[User] ELI5 Why are seafood's smells so strong and why are they so hard to wash off?

[Assistant]
Two chemicals inside fish flesh - trimethylamine and dimethylamine. When they are exposed to air it reacts and is processed into something called amines (aka the fish smell). The longer fish flesh is exposed to air, the stronger the smell becomes. Fish from the ocean have a stronger smell because they have more trimethylamine and dimethylamine levels than freshwater fish.

Amines are strong and require something to neutralize/absorb the smell. Usually baking soda and white vinegar are strong enough to trap the fish smell.


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

[User]
Does locking your knees while standing actually cause you to pass out?

And if so, what is the scientific explanation for this?

[Assistant]
Sortof. Strictly speaking it isn't locking the knees, it's standing in a rigid unmoving position for long periods. Standing knees locked means your muscles don't have to work to support your weight.

What happens is that the blood flow coming back up from your feet is assisted by natural muscle movements squeezing the veins, and little one way valves in the veins that act to pump blood back up the legs. No muscle movements means your circulation in general is worse, and that leads to an increased risk of fainting.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is it that when I am at work i feel really sleepy, but once i go home and relax I feel wide awake and cant sleep.

[Assistant] There may be poor ventilation in your office, which increases carbon dioxide, which makes you feel sleepy. It's a common problem in big office buildings, and it is one of the reasons why there are live plants around some offices. The building maintenance or facilities crew should be regularly testing carbon dioxide levels and adjusting the ventilation accordingly.


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

[User] ELI5: why do most animals hate eye contact/eye locking? Even we humans feel uncomfortable and awkward, why is this?

[Assistant] Its a dominance thing. If you lock eyes, it is taken as a challenge/threat. Dogs often avoid it because they recognize in some way, we are their owner. Thats also, why you ARENT supposed to stare down a gorilla, because then they try to punch your face in.


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

[User]
[The Boys/DC] How would the Flash react if he did what A-Train did?

I'm pretty sure that this can't happen to the Flash because of Speedforce shenanigans, but assume that something went wrong and he ran into Robin and Hughie like A-Train did.

How would The Flash handle the situation? I don't doubt that he would have handled it better than A-Train, but what would be actually do in the aftermath?

[Assistant] He'd hop on the Cosmic Treadmill, go back in time, put an atomic banana peel in his way, save her life, and accidentally create a race of Kryptonian Super-Nazis that the Justice League has to dimension-hop to defeat.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do our body require so large an amount of energy to survive?

An average body use up 1500-2000 kcal just to keep the organs running. To put in perspective that's enough energy to boil 15-20l of water from 0 degree. So what processes require such an amount of fuel?

[Assistant]
The biggest energy hogs are our muscles and brains. The electrical activity that powers both takes a huge amount of energy. Our nerves force ions together against the natural arrangement, generating an electric differential (like compressing a spring). When the nerve fires, the differential is released, but it has to be set back up again. Your muscles also need energy to move and repair themselves.

However, the biggest energy hog of all is our warmblooded nature. We need a constant body temperature, but we radiate excess heat to the air, so we need to burn Calories to maintain our temperature.


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

[User] Why do my hands get sweaty when I watch people climb?

[Assistant]
Same reason you can feel someone else's pain when they get hurt, e.g. Guys can feel another guy's pain when he gets kicked in the testes.
We have mirror neurons in our brain. When you do a certain activity or feel a certain emotion, a network of neurons in your brain fire. Now when you see someone who is doing this activity or going through this emotional experience, a subset of those neurons fire in your brain!
This probably evolved so that we can feel empathy and relate to what other people are going through, since this is important for living in large societies like humans do.


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

[User] ELI5:Why is it better for states to close down a school that isn't doing well in poor area than it is to improve them?

[Assistant]
Nobody wants to say this, but the populations that fill schools have a lot to do with their success or failure.

You think inner-city schools are just poorly staffed and underfunded, whereas suburban schools can afford to make school magically great? No. If the suburban kids and the inner-city kids traded places, then inner-city schools would be great and suburban schools would be shit.

There's only so much that can be done from the outside. If a community doesn't respect and value education, there's little hope of improving their schools.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do temples on top of mountains or cities built in the side of cliffs get their building materials to these remote locations?

It cant all be carried by hand, can it?

[Assistant]
Short answer, yep, labor. Enough humans, with enough time, and enough motivation (money, religious conviction, slavery, etc) can move  an almost unimaginable amount of material.

Of course we've harnessed beasts of burden, but when it boils down to it, 100s-10,000s of people, with enough time, can build amazing things.

Think about it, a dude can carry a 50lb block, 10 dudes can wrangle a 500lb block, etc etc.


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

[User]
CMV: it's not inherently transphobic to not want to date transgender people

So one of the biggest counter-arguments I hear is that transgender men/women come in a wide variety and you can't have possibly met them all, so to exclude transgender women/men as a group from your dating pool is transphobic.

I think this argument falls flat because men also come in a wide variety and you can't have possibly met all men, so how come it's not sexist to exclude men as a group from your dating pool?

Trans activists believe that it's not transphobic to not date a trans person for reasons such as genital preference or wanting biological children, but not dating a transgender person because they're transgender is transphobic. How is not dating a man because they're a man not sexist then?

You're not saying trans women aren't women, you're just saying that they are a type of women you don't want to date.

I do acknowledge that transphobia in society leads to some people who are attracted to transgender people to exclude transgender people from their dating pool. Just like how homophobia in society leads to some people who are bisexual or even gay to identify as straight and exclude people of the same gender from their dating pool.

That doesn't mean all straight people aren't dating people of the same gender because of homophobia though.

[Assistant]
>I think this argument falls flat because men also come in a wide variety and you can't have possibly met all men, so how come it's not sexist to exclude men as a group from your dating pool?

Are you attracted to men? That's the difference.

We know heterosexual men can be attracted to trans women just as much as they can any other woman. If they weren't, we wouldn't get guys coming on here all the time with "CMV: You should have tell someone you're trans before dating them." If straight men couldn't be attracted to trans women, there would no need for someone to tell you they're trans at all. You would just know by whether you're attracted to them or not.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is it so hard for the body to fight off cancer?

If cancer is composed of our own cells, then why can't the body just kill it off with ease? (Probably easily answered and I'm just uneducated but still)

[Assistant]
>why can't the body just kill it off with ease?

Your body isn't designed to fight with itself. It does have mechanisms for cells to kill themselves, for instance If the cell's DNA is damaged. Cancer is a result of those mechanisms failing.


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

[User]
ELI5-How do naval ships/subs know when a torpedo has locked on to them?

In TV and movies, during a fight scene, the people working on a ship or submarine say something along the lines of "Captain, a torpedo has locked on to us" and they can determine the distance, etc. How are they able to do that?

[Assistant]
A torpedo uses active sonar to find the target.     It's basically blasting the party rock anthem to find you.   It's hard not to know you're the target.

A submarine navigates underwater using microphones listening to sounds.  You're listening for things that sound like propellers.    A torpedo has a really fast one.


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

[User]
ELI5:How does water put out fire?

I get that smothering fire cuts off the oxygen, does water work the same way, or is it something different?

[Assistant] Water has an extremely high heat capacity. This means that water can cool the fire until it is no longer possible for the area on fire to maintain the on fire state. There are videos of things like red hot lead balls being dropped in ice and they are rather quickly cooled as they sink into the ice demonstrating the massive thermal capacity of water.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do we get car sick looking at our phones or reading a book?

This has always floated around in my head. I'm usually always doing something so I'm always in the car. I often use my phone, so why done get car sick?

[Assistant]
Basically, it's down to a mismatch between what your eyes are seeing and your body is feeling.

Your body senses that you are moving forwards. But your eyes are focused on a book, so they don't report that you are moving. When this reaches your brain, it recognizes that there's a mismatch there. One sense says you're moving, and the other says you aren't. As far as it's concerned, it's not possible for you to be stationary and moving at the same time, so you have to be hallucinating.

It then makes you nauseous, because it thinks you've eaten something to make you hallucinate, and wants to make sure that you throw it up if possible.


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

[User]
[Hobbit/LOTR] How does the economy of Erebor work?

The dwarves of the Lonely Mountain seem to have some form of near-perfect communism. They all work for the greater good of their people, and as far as I could tell, most of the wealth and treasure either belongs to the King Under the Mountain, or the dwarves as a whole. Is there even a concept of personal wealth among the dwarves, or is everyone pretty much equal?

[Assistant]
Oh no, not all men are equal. It's probably more accurate to see Erebor as a city state.

The people there work and get paid for their work. They pay taxes to the king, and the king spends those taxes on among other things, giant golden statues.


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

[User]
When a photon is created, does it accelerate to c or does it instantly reach it?

Sorry if my question is really stupid or obvious, but I'm not a physicist, just a high-school student with an interest in physics. And if possible, try answering without using too many advanced terms. Thanks for your time!

[Assistant]
This is a cool question with a complicated answer, simply because there is no framework in which you can actually sit down and calculate an answer for this question.

The reason why know that photons travel at "c" is because they are massless. Well, but a photon is not really a particle in the classical sense, like a billiard ball. A photon is actually a quantized excitation of the electromagnetic field: it's like a ripple that propagates in the EM field.

When we say that a field excitation is massless, it means that if you remove all the interactions, the propagation is described by a wave equation in which the flux is conserved - this is something that you don't understand now but you will once you learn further mathematics. And once the field excitation obeys this wave equation, you can immediately derive the speed of propagation - which in this case is "c".

If you add a mass, then the speed of propagation chances with the energy that you put in. But what happens if you add interactions?

The answer is this: classically, you could in principle try to compute it, and for sure the interaction would change the speed of propagation. But quantum mechanically, it's impossible to say exactly what happens "during" an interaction, since the framework we have for calculating processes can only give us "perturbative" answers, i.e.: you start with states that are non-interacting, and you treat interactions as a perturbation on top of these. And all the answers we get are those relating the 'in' with the 'out' states, they never tell us anything about the intermediate states of the theory - when the interaction is switched on.


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

[User] ELI5: During the PS1 era, one of the upsides the N64 had that the PS1 didn't was that cartridges had no loading times as opposed to CD's which had more capacity but had to load all the data. Why do now the cartridges on the Switch, for example, have to make use of loading screens?

[Assistant]
Back then, the ROM storage on the cart was about as fast as the RAM in the console. So there wasn't really a need to load data, because it was already readily accessible by the CPU.

Since then CPU and RAM speeds have increased significantly. The speed of permanent storage has also increased a lot, but not by as much. Modern flash based carts are much faster than an optical disc or mechanical hard drive, but they're still significantly slower than RAM. So Switch games need to load data from the cart to the RAM in order to use it.

I suspect for some games ported to the Switch from other consoles the loading times are really bad because they have been optimised for the other consoles. PS4/Xbox One in comparison to the Switch have much more CPU power, but slower storage devices.

So for them it makes sense to compress data because then there's less data to read from the hard disk, therefore faster loading times. The decompression won't increase the loading times because it can do that while it's reading the next bit of data. So as long as the CPU is fast enough that it can decompress at at least the same speed it can read it from the hard disk, load times will be improved.

If you port that game to Switch you might have a problem. Now the CPU isn't fast enough to decompress the data at the same rate its reading it, so that decompression might hold up reading the raw data from the cart. Maybe they try not compressing the data. That might improve load times, but those carts have a much, much smaller capacity than a PS4/XB1 game can use so it will be a struggle to get the game to fit. You face the choice of having to cut bits out of the game, reduce texture quality further, or have slower load times.


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

[User]
CMV: Self-driving cars don't need to solve the trolley problem

A recurring theme I see is that self-driving cars will need to solve the trolley problem or some other forms of ethical dilemmas. I find this absurd.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining about ethics or philosophy. Those are worthwhile endeavors and even when they are just playing word games, it's no worst than some mathematicians having fun with weird structures.

My complaint is with the view that self-driving cars will in the near to medium term need to solve ethical dilemmas. (I make no claims about what will happen, say, 200 years from now)

The design and implementation of self-driving cars is limited by scarce resources. You need engineers, statisticians, mathematicians etc to do the design. You need a lot of computing power to create good models, run simulations, etc... Then the car has limited computing resources it must use in order to execute its program in real time.

My contention is that with very high probability, if you have the choice between allocating any of those resources for further reducing the risk of a collision vs designing and implementing some ethical theory, the ethical theory in question will mandate that you spend those resources on reducing the risk of a collision. (For reasonably-common ethical theories.)

To put it another way, instead of having your self-driving car try to identify who is a child and who is a heart surgeon and who is an elderly person on the edge of death so it can decide who lives and who dies, it could be spending those cycles looking for a way to avoid a collision or reduce the impact. And the programmers who worked on that problem could have spent their time working on preventing that situation from occuring in the first place. And you could have hired better mechanical engineers to put better breaks on your car and a better airbag for the passengers.

In other words, the most ethical thing to do is not to make your car ethical when it has to get into a collision. It's to make your car gets into fewer collisions and reduce collision speeds.

Change my view.

PS: I work for a company that builds self-driving cars. I have not insider knowledge on this aspect of the company. It is not something I work on. I also don't speak for my employer at all.

Edit: Thank you all. I will likely stop responding now on account of having to work so I can afford my internet connection to go on reddit. This has been informative, frustrating and overall valuable. My view moved a little bit, but not much. I think I did a poor job of explaining my focus on resource allocation which led to a lot of misunderstandings. Lesson for me in the future.

[Assistant]
You just gave a particular answer to the trolley problem that you're saying self-driving cars should use in your claim that the car doesn't need to solve the trolley problem.

> the most ethical thing to do is not to make your car ethical when it has to kill people. It's to make your car kill fewer people.

That is one of the classic answers to the trolley problem.

If you think your own prompt is correct, then your view that solving the trolley problem is unnecessary is wrong.


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

[User]
What is it about grapefruit that has some medicines say "Do not eat grapefruit or drink grapefruit juice while on this medicine"?

I was recently given some samples of Seroquel XR by my doctor, and it has a grapefruit warning on it.

My dad takes several medicines for his heart and I believe several of them have the "no grapefruit" warning on them too.

What is it about grapefruit that isn't in other citruses?

[Assistant] This is a great question and a very important one. Grapefruit juice (and some other fruit juices, but to a much lower extent) contain molecules, such as bergamottin, dihydroxybergamottin, and paradicin-A, which inhibit the metabolism of drugs that are metabolized by a specific liver enzyme (CYP3A4). Drug dosages are carefully calculated so that you have a specific concentration of the drug in your blood (plasma concentration). This concentration is affected by the rate of removal of that drug from the blood (metabolism is one way in which drugs are eliminated). When these molecules in grapefruit juice are processed by the liver, it reduces the metabolism of the drug. When the rate of elimination of the drug is decreased, it will reach a higher plasma concentration that predicted for a given dose. This can result in an overdose.


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

[User] ELI5: If my pen runs out of ink when writing a letter, why is it so difficult to try and write over the patchy bit of the word, even after the ink has resumed?

[Assistant]
A ballpoint pen needs the friction of the paper to roll the ball, inking it.

It leaves an indent in the paper after being drug across it that smooths the paper out and reduces the friction available to roll the ball a second time. No rolling, no new ink on the ball.

Also oils can reduce the friction on the paper preventing proper inking.


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

[User]
Why is it that for some things (like pulling the seal off a milk bottle), you need dry fingers or rough textures, but for other things (like opening a plastic carrier bag) you need wet fingers and smooth textures?

Why do two seemingly similar surfaces need such different approaches to generate grip?

[Assistant] When you are separating two similar surfaces which are not fixed(hard surfaces), there is cohesive force between the surfaces and you need wet fingers but when you need to pull something slippery off of hard surface, you need rough textures to counter the adhesive force between the surfaces. Example of the former can be counting currency notes.


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

[User]
[Pirates of the Caribbean] Why was the Black Pearl cursed in the first movie?

Through out the movie the Black Pearl is always bound by the same fog that surrounds the Isla de Muerta, as well as having no problem sailing with extremely torn apart sails, like the clothes of the crew when under moonlight. We see in later movies that this wasn't part of the abilties the Pearl gained when Davy Jones rised her from the depths as the mortal crew had to fix the sails and there's never any supernatural fog following her.

How did that happen?

[Assistant] The pearl had technically two cursed captains and an entire cursed crew. And a whole boatload of cursed gold on board at one point. The ship without davy Jones protection was only floating because of the hexes and curses on her. Once those were gone she was still a supernatural vessel just no longer a cursed vessel.


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

[User]
[BvS] Why would Luthor try so hard to kill Superman if he believed more aliens are coming?

For most of the movie I thought Lex simply didn't see Superman as necessary (anymore) but a potential threat, but after he went to prison he started rambling about Superman's death being a dinner bell for other aliens, so why the hell did he do it at all?

[Assistant]
Because he's batshit insane.

Or, to be more precise, he's been *driven* batshit insane by Superman's very existence.  Superman's presence and deeds fly against almost everything Lex believes in.  Most importantly, Lex believes that Superman cannot possibly be a benevolent entity, and so must be eliminated, whatever the cost.

This is why Lex manipulates events so that Batman would fight Superman.  He's got files on a bunch of metahumans on Earth, but he picks the Gotham vigilante because he thinks the Bat's got the best chance of victory, and because Batman's gradual descent into darkness had made him the easiest to manipulate.  But when Batman failed to kill Superman, what was Lex's backup plan?  To unleash a super-destructive unkillable Kryptonian monster.

Let's just think about Lex's Doomsday plan here for a second.  What was Lex expecting to do after Doomsday killed Superman?  Just let Doomsday run free?  He's got no way to put the cat back in the bag.  Doomsday would quite possibly lead to the end of the world, and someone of Lex's intelligence had to recognize that. But he didn't care.  As long as Superman was slain, Doomsday could bring about Armageddon for all Lex cared.  All that mattered was that there would be no more Superman.

So yes, Superman's death will leave Earth far more vulnerable against future threats from the cosmos.  But Lex doesn't care.  Superman is dead, and so now Lex Luthor is content.


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

[User] [Batman] Does Gordon ever intentionally divert his eyes so he can allow Batman a chance to sneak off?

[Assistant]
Gordon's a busy man. He doesn't have time for such game playing.

If Batman isn't good enough to evade a chronically-stressed-out middle-aged man with glasses in the dark, then it's probably time to can it quits. The criminals he faces are going to be younger, more alert, and have a lot more at stake than just social embarrassment.


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

[User]
[The Matrix] Does technology progress in the simulated reality?

We know from the Oracle and the Architect that the Matrix has been active for a long time, and that chosen ones come and go.

What I want to know is whether or not technology progresses and if not why does nobody notice this sudden massive technological stagnation.

[Assistant]
Technology might progress a little, but every so often the Matrix gets "rebooted" and everything resets. We think the plugged-in humans have their memories wiped and replaced when this happens, but programs like the Oracle retain their memory.

This is not super-explicit in the films, but it's hinted in the Architect's speech, and it seems to be the prevailing theory 'round these parts.


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

[User]
ELI5: What is going on with You Tube?

Why do they want me to use my full name?  Why do I have to use Google+?  Why do they keep asking me?  How do I comment without putting my full name on all my videos?

Please advise.

[Assistant] They are trying to clean up the youtube comment section to combat the notorious reputation youtube comments have developed over the years.  They are doing this by prioritizing comments based on relevancy and taking away anonymity to discourage trolling, etc.  Unfortunately, they have also taken this opportunity to integrate Google+ into the comment system to try and cram it down our throats.  It's just something you're gonna have to deal with.  Your youtube will now be tied to your social media through Google+.   There is no anonymity on youtube.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do European trucks have their engine below the driver compared to US trucks which have the engine in front of the driver?

[Assistant]
The length of European trucks is limited as a whole.
To maximise load capacity, the engine is under the cab to save 2 metres of length.
America did have cabovers, but as there are less restrictions of the cab in America, the conventional won over.


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

[User]
[Beneath the planet of the apes] how do the telepathic mutant humans sustain themselves?

 What do they eat?

How do they maintain the population? There are so few of them and its been 2000 years since the nuclear war. It doesn't seem feasible.

[Assistant]
The nuclear war didn't happen without warning. The population of New York City had years to prepare for the worst, so there was a huge stockpile of non-perishable food and water.

Since they were horribly mutated and resistant to radiation, it can be assumed that they'd also be able to survive on rad-rats, sewer water, glowing moss, and other scavenged supplies.


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

[User]
[Portal] GLaDOS claims that she is immortal and will live forever, long after Chell has died. Is she correct?

If yes: how? If no: what would kill her first? For example, if the facility's nuclear reactors ran out of fuel, if they can.

You can answer in the context of Portal (wherein the facility is fully stable, albeit empty) or Portal 2 (wherein it is more damaged, though she is clearly able to repair it).

[Assistant] If her personality is pure data, then there would be nothing to stop her from copying herself onto new hardware whenever her 'body' becomes obsolete or she feels like an upgrade, or could pre-set copies of herself as backups. Even if Aperture's computer/storage tech is 100% proprietary, the building has on-site manufacturing capacity. Barring some manner of sudden system failure or massive physical attack on Aperture, she's got a good shot at outliving any human. And if she goes mobile, like she builds a core setup that could be installed in a vehicle, then not even that is guaranteed to take her out.


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

[User] ELI5: How can any court find that a child needs $58k/month for expenses?

[Assistant]
Is this about child support?

In which case, child support is not strictly about the amount a child needs (which is always going to be a debatable thing). The courts also aim to give the children a continuous standard of care. Meaning that if the child is already used to going to a private school, for example, when the parents divorce, the courts aim to set child support at such a level where both parents can continue to keep sending the child to private school. They also try and eliminate huge disparities between the level of care the child would have at one parent and what they would receive at the other, which can also be done through a higher than normal child support contribution.

Of course, the kind of people who are paying 58k a month in child support, are also earning money in such huge quantities that this is just a drop in the bucket for them.


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

[User]
ELI5: As humans we seem to have an instinctual desire to be entertained, with videogames, boardgames, TV, jokes, the internet, etc.. Is there a scientific explanation detailing the evolutionary value of entertainment with humans and possibly other animals?

Title.
Also are there any unique ways that animals entertain themselves?

[Assistant]
Survival wise a huge amount of species play 'games' to hone skills that they will use. This is why so many animals play-fight (among other activities).

It would seem logical that the games we play perform a similar role of hones our intellect/reasoning/mental skills in a way that helps us be more effective at survival.

As for jokes - they are likely slightly separate and to do with forming close bonds with your group, given the tribal/group nature of humans (I think it's fair to say all human groups ever discovered had tribal / group hierarchies of some form).


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

[User]
Why is botulinum bacteria not in environments with normal-high oxygen levels?

I always read botulinum bacteria live and grow in low oxygen conditions. How about in oxygen rich environments, can they still survive in it?

If not, is this because oxygen kill them, lack of oxygen is conducive to a certain chemical reaction, oxygen rich environments allow other types of bacteria to thrive and deprive them of resources, or  what?

[Assistant] No, they generally cannot survive long in oxygen-rich environments because they lack the enzymes necessary to degrade toxic oxygen byproducts. Oxygen is highly toxic and forms reactive oxygen species such as hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), superoxide anion (O2), and hydroxyl radicals (OH), all of which damage DNA. Microbes that are strict anaerobes lack some of the enzymes that break down these toxic byproducts, and so they don't survive long in oxygen-rich environments.


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

[User] [Avatar] If Lion Turtles give water benders the ability to bend, why is all water benders dependent on the two fish spirits?

[Assistant] The Lion Turtles gave them the abilities to bend, but the source of their power comes from the spirits. Metaphorically the Lion Turtles taught you how to drive, but killing the moon spirit removes the gas.


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

[User]
How is it that acne can be caused by heredity if it's just dirt in the skin?

I heard that acne can be caused by stress and hormones and such, but how does that happen?

[Assistant] Acne is caused when pores on your face are blocked up and become inflamed. This could have genetic roots, because, if your genes make you produce more oils in your skin, the extra oil could clog up your pores more easily than someone who does not have that trait. Thus, you would have a lot more acne than that other person, purely due to genetics.


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

[User] ELI5: why is the Canadian dollar falling so low?

[Assistant] Because our economy was too dependent on oil being $100+ a barrel, and because as the American economy recovers from the 2008 financial crisis their dollar will strengthen, so ours by comparison has to weaken.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do antidepressants take several months to build up proper levels but only a few days to metabolize out?

[Assistant]
Imagine your brain is a natural environment, like a field. The good chemicals in your brain (the ones that help you feel calm, happy, satisfied, etc) are like a small river flowing through. All around the river grow lots of plants and trees (or, that is to say, hobbies, things you enjoy, etc). Those can grow big and tall next to the river since they have lots of water flowing past.

Now in someone who's depressed (due to lack of chemicals), their river is barely a trickle, barely enough to support some shrubs and small trees or grasses. What SSRIs (Selective Seratonin Reuptake Inhibitors) do is build a dam in the river. Over time, that small trickle of water adds up and forms a small pond. Now there's plenty of water, and once the pond is established, trees and bushes can grow along the banks and we've got a nice environment going.

But what happens if you tear down that dam? All of the water in the pond rushes away, and you're left with a large, bare area where it used to be. The little trickle of water is still flowing, but it's not enough to fill the pond, let alone to keep the large trees alive. So you have to rebuild the dam and let that trickle of water slowly fill the pond back up, which will take a little while, depending on how much of the water flowed out, or leave it gone and let the small bushes and grasses go back to where the creek flows, which will probably take longer.


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

[User]
ELI5: How can people be sure of a message sent in morse code? What if you missed a blink to write it down or only noticed after a while?

I never understood it in the movies. Then a TIL popped up a second ago about how a captured person did morsecode with blinking over the television. I just dont get it.

[Assistant]
Believe it or not (according to what I've read), it's not that hard to pick up once you're trained to do it. In WW2, morse operators were often able to recognize and distinguish between the morse code signals of different senders.

It becomes no different than any language. Occasionally, when we speak or write, we misspell a word or drop a word or mix something up, but we are still able to completely understand what is being said and written. Morse (once you have learned that "language") is no different.


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

[User]
In my culture many women have no idea of sex prior to marriage. Even if they marry by their own free volition, do they have the capacity to consent to sex for the first time given their lack of knowledge of the act?

I live in Bangladesh which has a highly conservative culture and society. It seems some women have no idea of sex prior to entering into marriage.

From my understanding, the more of the society is that, at a minimum women and men must be walled off from each other. THere should be only civil communication and no one should have any sexual fantasies, no one should ever look at the opposite sex sexually, there should be no romantic or sexual feelings---anything more "vulgar" is unacceptable. People might deviate from the above transgressions but then they must repent.

The general biology textbooks in Bengali medium seems to only talk about chromosomes and nothing else. No description of the act and not even those "coitus" and "genital" diagrams, available in GCSE textbooks most likely.

There seems to be a number of women who never know what the deed looks like. I can't find the article now but I remember some news articles confirming this.

However, most women today do have boyfriends and even though they get into an arranged marriage, the arranged marriages are not forced and they choose voluntarily.

Assuming a situation where a woman (or even a man) who has no prior idea of what coitus looks like (but does marry someone on her own free consent)---does she or he have the capacity to consent to sex from an ethical/moral philosophical point of view because of the lack of knowledge?

[Assistant]
I doubt there's anyone who really has *no idea* what sex is. Bangladesh is fairly rural; surely they could've observed sex in domestic or stray animals? Aren't there urban monkeys there?

I imagine most poor people live in small homes, they could've been exposed to sex through their parents. In medieval Europe, many peasants lived in single-room homes, and there was no particular effort made to hide sex from children, who may have been in the same room or even the same bed.

There's also a good argument that people have biologically inherited knowledge of sex, even if they were never taught about it conceptually. Two sufficiently interested partners with no idea what sex is would still figure it out. Every living organism has primal, evolutionary drives of the *four Fs*: fighting, fleeing, feeding, and reproduction.


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

[User] [Star Trek] I am teleported to Earth in the Trek universe (TNG era) with nothing but the clothes on my back. I have no ID or anything else to my name. What happens to me? Where do I go, what do I do?

[Assistant] If you're in a city, there will probably be a public computer terminal somewhere around. It will have an extremely intuitive verbal interface. Contact the Department of Temporal Investigations and explain your situation. They will have the necessary equipment to verify your story, and they will assist you in acclimating to the time period.


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

[User] [ASoIaF] Oberyn doesn't fuck up and wins the trial by combat. What happens next?

[Assistant] Dorne is now in a much more politically tense situation. Tyrion probably needs to flee the city to avoid assassins from Cersei and possibly his father, and would probably go to Dorne because Oberyn would probably invite him in his unceremonious flight from Kings Landing. Much of the same would follow, but the Dornish internal politics would be very different. There would be no motivation for the sandvipers to rebel, and, if Marcella is already there (idr when they actually sent her...), she'd probably be a very well-cared-for hostage.


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

[User] ELI5 How do video game developers incorporate custom characters into cutscenes?

[Assistant]
The cutscenes are rendered in real time. A static cutscene can be rendered beforehand and the game basically just plays a video, but for dynamic cutscenes that have your character in them for example, the game renders them in real time, i.e. it basically runs the normal game graphics but controls whats happening on screen and where the camera moves.

You might notice that dynamic cutscenes usually look similar to the games graphics while pre-rendered cutscenes tend to look more cinematic.


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

[User] Is there a limit to the amount of computing power we can have?

[Assistant]
Yes depending on space, resolution and time that you use to compute.

You can approximate the number of electrons in the visible universe and still make up a maze large enough to be unsolvable if every electron since the big bang would be dedicated to solve it by communicating states.

---

increasing accuracy often is not worth it. it is all about making a good model.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] When and Why did R2D2 separate from Anakin Skywalker?

When Anakin went on his rampage, R2D2 was no longer by his side. Did the droid make a moral choice to not accompany Anakin any longer, or was Artoo assigned to someone else just prior to Anakin's betrayal?

[Assistant]
He's there in Revenge of the Sith.

R2 went with Anakin to Mustafar to wipe out the Separatist Council. Anakin told him to stay with the ship as he went inside to carry out the order.

After Anakin choked out Padme and began his duel with Obi-Wan, R2 and C3PO took Padme inside her ship. When Obi-Wan returned he took both droids and Padme to Polis Massa to meet up with Yoda and Bail and witness Padme giving birth. Afterwards he and C3PO entered into Bail Organa's service.


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

[User]
is all electrical energy really mechanical energy, due to it being the movement of electrons?

Because, if the electrons aren't being destroyed/converted into anything, and are actually just moving around, then the energies they can be converted to (ie. light) must be something else?  all i can figure is, it's the movement... am i wrong?

[Assistant]
Yes, it's the movement.  Nope, it's not KE, Kinetic Energy of electrons.   Their masses are way too small, and an electric current is far too slow a motion.

We can easily store significant energy in the rim of a spinning flywheel, since the flywheel is massive and moving fast.

But say we have an electric current in a thick ring of metal (or better, superconductor.)   A closed loop of conductor with a circulating electric current does resemble a flywheel.   But the mobile electrons of the metal are tens of thousands of times less massive than the metal atoms.   And, if we store kilojoules of electrical energy in the ring, those electrons move extremely slowly:  milimeters per minute.  As a "flywheel" the electron population in the conductive ring is way too slow, and way too light.

What the hell is going on?

Your conductive ring of course is an electromagnet.  The energy is actually stored in the surrounding magnetic field, and not stored inside the individual moving particles.  (And if we embed the ring in iron powder, we can store far more energy while keeping both the drift-speed of electrons and the value of electric current the same.)

Here's a weird concept: with the above ring, if we know the electron drift speed, then we can rotate the ring backwards just fast enough that those electrons remain still wrt Earth, while the positive metal ions are now flowing in a circle.   The kilojoules of stored magnetic energy isn't changed significantly, but now the flow is composed of massive positive-charged particles, while the light negative electrons have stopped flowing. The stored energy remains about the same, yet those flowing atoms (ions) are extremely massive!   For inductive energy storage, the important thing is the charge of the moving particles, and not their mass.

E&M is weird.


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

[User] ELI5: What exactly is escrow?

[Assistant]
Escrow is like a third party referee who makes sure that payments are made as agreed to.

If you're buying a property, you'd put the money into escrow, and this guarantees to the seller that if everything else proceeds as planned, they will be paid. You wouldn't give the money directly to the seller, because there may still be other things to take care of before the sale is finalized.

The escrow prevents the buyer from changing his mind in the middle of the process.


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

[User] Why is Hokkaido, Japan so much colder than the state of Oregon, on the other side of the Pacific and at the same latitude?

[Assistant] For the same reason there are palm trees in Ireland despite being north of Newfoundland. Warm ocean currents and the prevailing winds coming off the ocean warm up Oregon (and Ireland), where as Hokkaido (and Newfoundland) get their weather from across a large continent that doesnt store warmth like the ocean.


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

[User]
In a Marxist sense, what are dialectics?

Ive had trouble understanding what dialectics are and I would appreciate if anyone could explain.

[Assistant]
When (many types of) Marxists talk about dialectics they're usually talking about a *material dialectic*. That is, a dialectic that manifests itself in our economic system. Different people think about dialectics differently in subtle ways but, more or less, the materialist dialectic is a kind of 'tension' (or, contradiction) in the interests of opposing social classes that manifests in what is called "class conflict" which will eventually resolve itself in a revolutionary upheaval of the prevailing economic system. And thinking about history in these terms is something that Marxists tend to want to do.

(I should note that Marx himself didn't talk much about "dialectical materialism" as such. Other thinkers are attributed to this, like Engels.)


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

[User] [MCU] Does Kurt Russel exist as an actor and if so did Ego consciously decide to look like him?

[Assistant]
> Does Kurt Russel exist as an actor

Probably.

> and if so did Ego consciously decide to look like him?

I love the idea of Ego hitting Earth, and the first thing he sees is *Elvis* (1979) playing on a television in a store window, but it's probably a coincidence that comes from him trying to shape himself into a form desirable to Earth women, and then adapting that form to appeal to Star Lord's mental image of what he thinks a dad should look like.


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

[User]
[Star Wars EU] The power of the Son and Daughter

Are the Son and Daughter abnormally weak for being members of the Ones? They are weaker then Anakin on Mortis where he likely achieved his full potential for a short period of time. Luke, who is said to achieve the full potential of his father was way weaker then Abeloth who is probably equal to the combo of the Son and Daughter. Why is this?

[Assistant] You have to keep in mind that Anakin Skywalker was the *Chosen One*.  The one being in all of creation that could bring balance to the Force.  One interpretation of that balance, as interpreted on Mortis, is that he was to take Father's place to keep Son and Daughter in line and in balance with one another.  When you call them weak, remember that not only are these beings capable of feats otherwise unseen in other Force users, but that you're comparing them to the one that fate had destined to bring them to heel.


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

[User]
ELI5: Is the solar system really disk like (all stuff circling the sun at the same angle, like Saturn's rings), like it is in all the pictures of it? And if it is, why is it like that? What causes all the planets, and asteroids to be at the same angle, and not orbiting at random angles?

Sorry if this isn't very intelligible, I had a hard time putting it into words.

[Assistant]
The solar system is mostly "flat", although some planets orbit at slightly different angles.

The reason is that the planets in our solar system accreted from the same rotating disk of dust that was on  a single plane (more or less).

In order to have planets that orbit the sun at a crazy angle, they'd have to be "foreign" planets that came from another system at an odd angle and got caught in the sun's gravity well.


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

[User]
Eli5: Why, when I'm driving along even a slightly busy highway, does the traffic build up to a complete stop, then slowly get back up to speed for no reason?

It's the oddest thing!

[Assistant] Traffic congestion moves in waves backward from the source. If traffic stopped a few miles up the road an hour ago, the wave will have moved backward, and when you arrive at it, there will be no visible source for the problem.


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

[User] ELI5 : why are some burgers wrapped in wrappers(hamburger for example) while others are packaged in those boxes (fillet-o-fish for example) ?

[Assistant]
Much of it is perceived value - a customer will pay more for a product that looks like it's worth more. Plain cheeseburgers and hamburgers are cheap consumables - wrap it with paper, toss them onto the bag, and customer unwraps and eats it.

The more expensive burgers might not cost that much more to make, but they have to increase the perceived value to encourage customers to spend a few dollars more. Boxes are better at displaying the burger when the customer opens it. We know that a Big Mac is really two small patties stacked with a middle bun and a lot of lettuce, and a Quarter Pounder is really a glorified cheeseburger, but the perception of value when it comes in a box means customers will pay more for what they think is more.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do power bars provide enough power to each thing that is plugged into them?

Some power bars have more outlets than others. How does a power bar provide enough power to any number of things that are plugged into it?

[Assistant]
The power bar is basically a splitter, it's taking all the power in through one cord and dividing it out among the outlets. They are limited to the amount they can flow through the main cord, and to the capacity of the circuit they're connected to.

Going the other way, to each connected device the power bar "looks like" the wall plug...they can't tell. The power bar just adds all the power demands from all the connected devices and that's what it pulls from the wall.

If you try to draw too much power through the power bar, it will either trip its own internal circuit breaker (to protect the power bar) or the main circuit breaker will trip (to protect your wall wiring). The power bar does \*not\* change the power capability of the main circuit, it just gives you more outlets to plug into.


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

[User] ELI5: Does driving high speeds with the windows open damage our ears in the same way really loud music does?

[Assistant]
In short. Yes.

In a bit longer way, yes. Motorcycles have this issue as well. The motorcyclist after a few years on the road starts getting some hearing loss, and while at first some assumed it was the engine, measurements show that in highway speeds wind easily surpasses 100+ decibels, which is well within the "damage" threshold. Add a couple of hours of that constantly, and you have a perfect recipe for tinnitus.

With cars you could get a tiny bit of absorption because of the...well...windshield, but that bwop bwop bwop that occurs in rapid fire is still pretty much as damaging as.


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

[User] ELI5:Why can we use WINRAR for free even though it constantly requests us to purchase a license?

[Assistant]
It's called "nagware" and this particular approach is used by someone that doesn't want to force users to pay for the software, but they *really* hope that they will.

So they make the program "nag" the user over and over and over in the hopes that they will get so annoyed with the nagging that they'll fork over the cash, even if they'd originally planned not to.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is a 'swiss bank account' such a bigger thing than other countries bank accounts?

[Assistant]
Switzerland has very strict privacy laws regarding banking - it is illegal for a bank to reveal the identity of an account holder. It also has a very stable economic and political position which means it is generally a safe place to keep your money.

EDIT: the court can order the bank to reveal the identity of an account holder if it is deemed necessary. This includes account holders from overseas.


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

[User]
I would like to get a cat, but my husband does not. Please either CMV or change his!

My husband and I have entered an impasse. I'd really like to add a cat to our household, but he isn't a fan of them. He doesn't dislike cats, but just isn't interested in having one.

We're a consensus couple, and don't guilt trip, etc. and I'd never "surprise" him with one. I love cats, grew up with them, and even though we've got a young kid and a couple small dogs, I think a cat would be a blast to add to our home. Problem is, now that I've got my mind to it I'm having a hard time letting the hope go!

I've already tried to persuade him by sending him every cat .gif I could find on the Internet. That was a fun couple hours. I thought that would do the trick, but no dice.

Please give me some fodder (humorous or legit) to change his mind... Or change my mind about why I should want one, so I can feel better about his stance!

Edit: I should note that I had cats growing up... We were a cats and dogs family. I had many cats live long, grumpy old lives and I loved them dearly--even more so as adults.

I also wanted to note that rescue/adoption is the only option I'd consider, and would never accept any animal I didn't plan to care for its entire life.

[Assistant]
The simplest way to put this is that its hard to undo the decision of getting a cat. Basically, let it go for now. You can always get a cat later. Ask him a year from now and his feelings may change.

On the other hand if you get a cat now and change your mind, its a much bigger problem. Plus, he might build a resentment towards you for rushing him into a decision like that.


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

[User] Eli5: Why is jogging on the spot a lot easier and a lot less tiresome than actually jogging?

[Assistant]
On the spot its just moving your weight up and down. Actual running involves the same upwards movement + movement to the front.
While the upwards movement is roughly the same no matter how fast you go, the forward movement needs more and more power the faster you go.
Same thing on a treadmill. It takes less energy than actual running.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why are Y-wings slower than X-wings if they have bigger engines?

Just looking at the ships and it popped in my head.

[Assistant] On the basic level, X-wings have four engines compared to the Y-wing's two.  Additionally, Y-wings were dated technology, developed during the Clone Wars, while X-wings were more recently produced star-fighters.


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

[User] After exercising do all proteins (meat, vegetable) have the same effect on muscle development?

[Assistant]
Proteins are made up of "building blocks" which are called amino acids. Muscle repair/growth is limited by amino acid availability. To elaborate on that, the essential amino acid (essential AAs must come from the diet, whereas non-essential AAs can be synthesized by our tissues) which is least abundant sets the cap on muscle growth/repair. For example, if you had 10 units of each essential AA, but only 5 units of one of those essential AAs, you could only synthesize 5 units of protein, and all the excess AAs (5 units of each other essential AA) would be deaminated and burned for energy.

Different proteins will provide amino acids in different ratios, so to answer your question, no, all proteins do not have the same effect on muscle development. This is why it's important to get protein from varied sources, and to seek sources that are known for having relatively complete amino acid profiles, such as eggs and milk.


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

[User]
[The Mandalorian] Who were the people guarding Grogu? And why were Din and IG-11 given conflicting orders?

In the first episode, Din was ordered to bring Grogu in alive, and found him heavily guarded. Who were the people guarding him, and why did they have him in the first place? And when him and IG-11 actually got to him, IG was going to shoot him as he was told to kill him. Why was IG told to kill him when Grogu was wanted alive?

[Assistant]
The ones guarding Grogu were probably just some random pirates and they probably just took him when they raided an Imperial transport or something. There were so many of them there because that was their pirate base, not specifically for Grogu.

IG-11 is a bounty hunter droid so the only instructions he followed were those directly from his client who said termination was acceptable. Dr. Pershing was the one who pushed for Grogu to be captured alive but he's not the client.


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

[User]
What is in a rain drop besides water?

When a rain drop is already formed and falling to the ground, is there anything in the drop besides water? Like microscopic organisms or specs of dust or anything else?

[Assistant] Rain drops need something to nucleate off of to condense. This can be anything from a speck of dust to soot from forest fires to sulfur dioxide particles from volcanoes. They'll also react with CO2 in the atmosphere to form a very weak carbonic acid.


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

[User] [LOTR] The rings were designed to preserve the world. What was causing the world to deteriorate and were there alternative methods to prevent it?

[Assistant]
In contrast to how many people view real-world history, a slow decline over time is the natural way of things in Middle-earth. Outside of the Undying Lands, the magic is fading and the world is becoming more mundane over time. Alongside this, great heroes/leaders/craftsmen/etc. are becoming rarer and the fantastic realms of the first two Ages give way to smaller, more mundane kingdoms inhabited and led by ordinary people. This is just one of the fundamental metaphysical properties of Middle-earth, like souls being immortal and indestructible or humanity having the gift of free will.

As a side note, the fact that the Three Rings were used to offset the natural state of the world puts them in a morally grey area. They're not *evil* like the One Ring, but they're not purely good either. They were basically made for selfish reasons by the elves who wanted to have their cake and eat it too: have realms that were preserved from decay (like the Undying Lands) but which also had the elves as the wisest, most powerful people around (like everywhere else in Middle-earth).


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

[User]
[Computer Science] How does a computer decide which wireless access point to connect to, assuming all are on the same network?

I'm looking with respect to wireless standard (802.11 b, g, n, ac), proximity, and radio frequency (2.5 or 5 GHz) (not all at once either, assume only the one whose change is being examined is variable). This is assuming all access points are on the same network with the same network name.

[Assistant]
In an ideal world the wireless client associates with the AP with the loudest signal.  A "perfect" signal is around -35dBm (if you're directly next to the AP) and most wireless cards disconnect around -85dBm.  This range  is reduced if lower data rates are disabled; the lower the data rate, the further away you can be, but this reduces the performance of all clients.

This gets tricky when you mix 2.4GHz and 5GHz.  The 5GHz radios operate at half the power of 2.4GHz radios and the signal attenuates (degrades) faster than 2.4GHz, BUT even with a supposedly weaker signal a client can get faster speeds from 802.11a.

Roaming is also up to the client.  If the client can see two APs at -55dBm then it's pretty much a 50/50 chance on which it will pick.  The client will associate to one and only attempt the other if the signal level drops too far.  Some devices will maintain a death grip on an AP before roaming, while others will hop between APs like a jack rabbit.

A lot of this depends on the driver implementation.  For example, iDevices up until iOS 4 or 5 preferred 2.4GHz radios over 5GHz radios even if the 5GHz could give a higher data rate.  After that point the developers swapped the preference.  The same thing happened with Dell Inspiron wireless drivers.  The drivers also determine how the signal strength is calculated.

EDIT: Quick guide to frequencies and speeds (physical data rate)

* 802.11b - 2.4GHz - 1, 2, 5.5, 11 (Mbps)
* 802.11g - 2.4GHz - 6, 9, 12, 18, 24, 36, 48, 54 (Mbps)
* 802.11a - 5GHz - 6, 9, 12, 18, 24, 36, 48, 54
* 802.11a/n - 5GHz - 15, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, 135, 150
* 802.11b/g/n - 2.4GHz - 7.2, 14.4, 21.7, 28.9, 43.3, 57.8, 65, 72.2

Note that "n" works on both 2.4 and 5GHz.  This is why it is important to look for a/n because a lot of consumer devices that advertise 802.11n are actually running at 2.4GHz.


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

[User] ELI5: If radio waves and visible light are just different wavelengths of light, why do we use antennas for radios and photo sensors for light?Why cant we just use antennas for everything?

[Assistant]
You can use antennae for visible light, they just have to be tiny due to the short wavelength of light vs radio. The issue is what you then do with it.

If you want to produce a recognisable image with that light, you need an array of sensors, which is essentially what we have in our eye, or in ccd arrays in cameras.

If you just want to detect a signal of light in the same way we do with radio, a lone antenna is fine, but we rarely want to do that.


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

[User]
[Half-Life] Is "Gnome Alone" canonical?

From a Watsonian perspective, did Gordon ACTUALLY take a garden gnome from a mine in the middle of nowhere and put it on a rocket? Or was that just an in-joke Valve added later?

[Assistant] I mean, let's face it. Gordon doesn't have the most relaxing life. If he suddenly snapped and decided he needed to carry a garden gnome around for a little while to keep himself sane, could you really blame him?


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

[User] ELI5: Why do kids fall out of the bed/why don't we fall out of the bed?

[Assistant] I would say that it's because their proprioceptive senses are underdeveloped. This is the sensory capacity that allows us to perceive the movement and positioning of body parts related to other parts and external objects (such as a bed). The reason adults don't (usually) fall out of bed is because we have more solid mental maps of our bodies and the space they require as well as the average bed and the space it allows.


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

[User]
ELI5 how is the US such close allies with Germany, Japan, and Italy not even 100 years after World War 2?

Many other countries have struggled to reconcile their differences after lesser conflicts, so what events and policies made peace among us something we most take for granted?

[Assistant]
One of the reasons is the lessons learnt from WW1. After WW1, the allies placed massive punitive measures on Germany. This led to hyperinflation and destroyed the economy. The resulting massive social unrest contributed to the rise of the Nazis and ultimately WW2.

After WW2, the US (primarily) provided assistance to all the economies damaged by the war. Over the course of the Cold war, both Japan (somewhat forced) and Germany (somewhat popular) adopted very pacifist attitudes.

The anti communist stance of the US and allies in the Cold war also made it rather easier for countries like Germany and Japan (bordering the Warsaw Pact countries and Russia) to integrate with the new order.

As rapid industrialization took place post WW2, it became pretty evident to Germany and Japan (both with highly educated and homogenous populations) that they needed trade to prosper. Neither of them are resource rich and military expropriation was no longer feasible given the outcome of WW2 and the rapid breakup of colonial empires.

To have trade, it was always more reasonable (aided no doubt by the thousands of US troops stationed in their country) to align with the biggest economy at the time.


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

[User]
[X-Men] Wouldn't wolverines claws push/cut through the top of his hand when he slashes downward?

I mean he cuts through a lot of things but shouldn't that force be put equally back onto his skin/muscles and other stuff?

[Assistant]
Wolverine's claws are anchored in 6 Adamantium ports when they're extended, which themselves are anchored to his Adamantium laced metacarpals (the bones in the hands).

When he cuts through tough objects the force is transmitted through Adamantium blades to the Adamantium anchors, to the Adamantium ports to his Adamantium hand bones.

If he lacks the muscular strength to complete the cut, the blades will likely just bind in the medium he's cutting rather than to do damage to him.


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

[User]
ELI5; The war in the Middle East (Incredibly embarrassing to ask as a US citizen, but I want to learn.)

I could go on all day about how many excuses I have for not being up to date with the war in the middle east (mainly being that I was in elementary school in 2001) but that's besides the point.

I think a good place to start would be a simple explanation before I read huge detailed articles, so that I have a simple understanding of everything to refer to.

EDIT: Should have said conflict, not war. Also, I am not putting "Answered" yet because I still want more people to enter the discussion, although great answers have been given.

EDIT 2: I love this place, so much time and effort put in to answering the question I was afraid I would just get made fun of for asking (like "wow get informed dummy lol"). Thanks to all who answered.

[Assistant]
There are several conflicts going on in the Middle East. The ones most Americans are thinking of include:

* The War in Afghanistan, which the US is now pulling out of

* The War in Iraq, which the US is no longer directly involved in

* US involvement in Pakistan, where the US uses drone strikes and has a complex relationship with the Pakistani government

In addition, the following conflicts are also ongoing in the Middle East

* Al-Qaeda in Yemen, where the US provides drone strikes and technical assistance to the Yemeni government

* Conflict between Israel and Palestinian groups over the Gaza Strip and West Bank. The US is backing Israel in this conflict with funding and weapons..

* Espionage and sabotage against Iran's nuclear program by the US and Israel.

* Civil war in Syria between the government and opposition groups/rebels. The US is not directly involved, but is indirectly involved through diplomatic and intelligence channels.

And of course:

* The Libyan Civil War, which ended after United Nations intervention in 2011.

Each of these conflicts has a complex background, some going back all the way to World War II. Which do you want to know about in particular?


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

[User]
[Tolkien] How much stronger/fitter than a regular human is a Numenorean/Dunedain? With training could Aragorn or one his people relatively easily best a fit human in just about anything?

I know that theyre big and described as retaining their fitness into their old age as well as being better.  Would their average and peak (respectively) physical/athletic prowess absolutely outmatch the average and peak physical/athletic prowess of a regular human?

How much do you think a guy like Aragorn could bench, squat, deadlift, etc if he had the training and time? How about 100m sprint, run a marathon, long jump, whatever else you could think of?

[Assistant] I think that the strength of Numenorians varies greatly amongst specimens of that race, but all of them would absolutely be considered peak human compared to us today. The upper level of that strength and combat ability is Tuor killing five Balrogs with an axe in direct combat - debatable if it is canonical, but even if we accept much weaker Balrog strength at that point in his works, Captain America-level strength isn't out of the question.


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

[User] ELI5:In the Pacific Theatre in WWII, why did Japan run out of experienced pilots but the U.S. didn't?

[Assistant]
It is often for the same reason that Axis aces had much higher kill counts than their Allied equivalents. Japan had spent much of the lead up to the war investing heavily in pilot training programs for their carrier air forces, and the war in China gave them combat experience. When the war began, the pilots of both the Imperial Japanese Navy and Army were highly skilled and performed well against Allied pilots. However, once the war started, and these highly trained and experienced pilots and aircrews were slowly whittled away. Often, the Japanese would keep their best pilots on the front lines until they were killed, while the United States would often pull back pilots to train future pilots.

Furthermore, once the war started, and resource limitations became prevalent, and the Japanese began taking losses, the Japanese couldn't give their pilots the same amount of training that their pre-war training programs gave. Not enough aviation fuel to fly training missions, etc. Moreover, the US simply had the resources to dramatically expand its pilot training programs, when Japan was basically already at its limits when the war began.

Effectively, this meant that while the pre-war core of Japanese pilots was some of the best in the world, they had little ability to replace losses from this core of pilots. They couldn't spare pulling back pilots from the front lines to train new pilots, and this made their core of pilots was simply whittled away. Eventually, once this pre-war core was exhausted, there was very little left.


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

[User]
CMV: Organ donation should be incentivized.

There should be an incentive to those willing to donate their organs. I believe that incentive should be the option to for the donor's family to have the body disposed of for free after said organs are harvested. No cremation fee. No burial fee. Essentially, it would subsidize the costs associated with death, encouraging more organ donation and therefore more lives saved.

I understand this is a sensitive topic for some people. Some might not like the idea of a body being "disposed of". I get that it doesn't "sound good". I understand that some people in the family may not like that idea. When it comes to death, nothing can make everyone happy. Wills have people written in and out of them. Family members mad. No option is going to make everyone happy. I want to look passed my choice in wording. I want to know why this is a bad idea, other than for family members' hurt feelings.

I look forward to hearing your POV.

[Assistant] Incentivising organ donation would encourage the sale of organs by the poor and would promote suicide and potentially murder. The better option to make the default that you donate and give the option to opt out. lt is basically the reverse of the current system with no freedoms removed and no encouraging of death.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does going to sleep earlier affect your body differently than going to sleep later, even if you sleep for the same duration?

I usually go to bed around midnight. But lately I've been waking up feeling a bit tired and feeling a little off all day. I was told I should go to bed earlier, which I'm sure is sound advice, but how does it make a difference when I sleep the same length of time anyway?

[Assistant]
Your body has a circadian cycle, meaning that certain hormones are released at certain times of the day. For example, melatonin (what makes you feel sleepy) is released at night, and is inhibited by the light.

Similarly, other hormones, such as cortisol (the stress hormone) is released in cycles during the day, including a spike early in the morning that helps you wake up. If you try to sleep during a spike, you won't have as good sleep.

Your body's circadian rhythm can change, but it takes time. If you choose a sleep schedule and stick to it, after a few days, your body will adjust. If you keep changing your schedule, your body can get confused and it will impact how restful your sleep feels.


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

[User]
Is it possible to fully remove all the electrons from an atom?

For example, is it possible to remove the sole electron from a hydrogen atom. If so, what happens to the atom?

[Assistant] Yes, its possible. Its not that difficult, in fact. Youll just be left with a bare nucleus. For experiments in nuclear physics, we often remove all of the electrons from the nuclei we wish to accelerate.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is cannibalism detrimental to the body? What makes eating your own species's meat different than eating other species's?

[Assistant] Your own species meat is infected with diseases that can also infect you, by definition.  (Conversely with other animals, some but not all diseases can be spread by under-cooked meat.) There are also some degenerative diseases that are spread by mis-shaped proteins, which you can generally only get by eating a human brain.


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

[User]
[MCU] Spoilers for episode 5. Did Wanda just massively shift the power balance of the MCU?

Massive Spoilers, not kidding, turn back ye jakanapes.

So in the newest episode, Wanda brings in Quicksilver from Fox's Xmen universe to replace her dead brother. If that QuickSilver has the same power, isn't he now like in the top 5 strongest of the MCU?

He dosen't have any defenses against mind control or magic so unless he speed blitzes Wanda or Dr Strange and kills them instantly, he loses to them. However any Physical characters like no glove Thanos, Thor, Hulk, etc, cannot touch him with the speed he has shown.

Foxes QuickSilver is one of the strongest mutants ever shown. Able to detect an underground explosion from a couple 1000 feet away the milisecond it started, speed laughably faster than sound, strength far above captain america, he completely imbalances that universe.

[Assistant]
A) We're not actually sure Wanda did it. There may be something else manipulating her or boosting her power.

B) It may be that the local laws of physics are different in this universe, and Quicksilver will no longer as godlike as he was in his home universe.

C) We're not actually sure that's the Quicksilver from the Fox X-Men universe. It may be a regular person from Westview who has been brainwashed into playing the role of Wanda's brother, and the fact that he looks like that version of Quicksilver is a coincidence.


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

[User] ELI5: What happens when my arm falls asleep?

[Assistant] You've pinched a nerve and the sensation from that nerve to your brain has stopped, temporarily. When you release the pressure, you, initially, don't feel much of anything from that limb then the feeling slowly returns and your nerve 'reboots', which feels like tingling down that limb.


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

[User] ELI5:Why is the sucking force behind a fan not felt as strongly as the blowing force infront of it?

[Assistant]
Air is pulled into the fan from various angles, not all of which are in contact with your skin, whereas air being blown out of the fan is more concentrated in a certain pattern (i.e the radius of the fan blades).

The air being pulled in also takes the path of least resistance (going around your hand) rather than directly contacting your hand, while the air being blown out is directed in a particular path (by air being displaced behind it) where the air has no choice but to contact your hand before going around it.


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

[User]
ELI5:Bullet sizes

what are the demensions? when someone says 55.6 by 44, is that the tip or the casing?

[Assistant]
Caliber is the width of the barrel of a firearm, which should also essentially be the diameter of the bullet.  You'll see two different naming conventions, depending on where/when a round was invented.

Rounds invented under the metric system will have the diameter in millimeters, followed by the length of the cartridge case.  For example, 5.56x45 has a 5.56mm wide diameter and a 45mm long case.  The length of the cartridge matters because a longer case holds more powder, which means the round will travel faster.

Rounds invented under imperial (standard) units will name the diameter in hundreths of an inch.  For example, .50 BMG is half an inch wide.  Standard rounds do not list the length of the cartridge.  However, most standard-unit rounds have some sort of extra name attached to them to help identify the specific round (.22 "long rifle," .38 "special," .223 "Remington," etc.)


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

[User] [DC Comics] If you skinned a Kryptonian, could you wear them like armor?

[Assistant]
Probably not, no- the superpowers are a result of their metabolising energy. Kill them, you shut down that metabolism and they're no more powerful then any other humanoid. It might be temporarily useful if there's enough residual energy, but with no way to recharge that energy, it would rapidly become just shitty leather.

Luckily, if you can skin a kryptonian, you're probably ok without armour.


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

[User]
(Star Wars) Why can some Jedi (Kyle Katarn, Mara Jade ect.) use the Dark Side often without succumbing to it but others talk about it as if it's this ultra dangerous entity that absorbs you once you put a small bit of yourself in?

Is it based on the person themselves? Are some people just more immune to the effects of the dark side temptation?

[Assistant]
The Jedi stance on the dark side is like the D.A.R.E program's stance on drugs. They spout BS in order to advance their own agenda.

The Dark Side has as much sway over you as you let it, a little dabbling probably won't hurt you and even semi-occasional use can sometimes be fine if you're lucky. And the Dark Side doesn't really absorb you, The Light is the finicky bastard with a mind of its own; Dark Side users have far greater control and power over their side of the Force than their Light Side counterparts. However to use the Dark Side effectively especially if you started on the other side of the coin requires a change in mindset and behavior that from a Jedi perspective is viewed as "corruption" or "succumbing to temptation".


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

[User] ELI5: Why are humans the only species of carnivores/omnivores that needs to heat raw meat before it's safe to consume?

[Assistant]
For the most part we can eat raw meat too. We are the only species that saves are raw meat for days/weeks/months to eat later and that is what makes us have to cook it.

We could eat raw meat assuming we eat the meat directly after the animal was killed. It is not the raw meat that is dangerous, it is what grows on the meat after it is dead.


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

[User] Is there any way to kill Dr. Manhattan?

[Assistant] Even Dr. Manhattan is bound by the laws of physics, so he cannot create new energy and must expend energy to function.  His source of energy is up for speculation, but it stands to reason that it is ultimately limited by the heat death of the universe.  Once the universe dies, so does he.