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

[User] ELI5: Why do some websites need you to identify trucks to prove you're human when machine learning can easily allow computers to do so?

[Assistant]
Machine learning can't do it without feedback telling it whether its prediction was correct.

And that's what you're providing.
Google can take a bunch of images from streets around the world, run their own machine learning software on it to try to guess which ones are trucks, and then they ask you to pick out the ones with trucks on them.

And hey, they've gotten you to provide error correction for their machine learning *for free*! Isn't that great? If their software guessed wrong, they'll see you point out "that one is not a truck", and they can feed that back to their software to make better guesses next time.

Meanwhile, they can monitor your mouse movement and response time to see if you're reacting like a human.


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

[User] ELI5 : How a vending machine knows when you insert counterfeit money?

[Assistant] Wrong size, wrong weight, doesn't respond the way it should to an electric current, etc. Coins and notes/bills all have exacting technical specifications, and if something inserted doesn't meet them, the machine is often going to be better at determining it's a fake than the human eye.


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

[User] ELI5: What kind of information do dogs get from sniffing each other's butts? Why do they do it?

[Assistant] Dogs have sweet smelling anal sacs and the scent of which is unique to each individual dog.  It's a way dogs can get to know each other.  Dogs can also identify other dogs they've met by sniffing the feces or urine they've left behind and it's why most dogs seem to wipe their feet after peeing or pooping.  They sweat through their foots pads and it smears their own scent over the territory they've claimed.


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

[User]
[DC/Marvel] If Superman were to don the "black suit" a.k.a Venom, would he still be affected by Kryptonite?

Would he have the weaknesses that he usually has? We know for spiderman it enhanced him, I don't know how it would enhance Supes, since he's well.....pretty powerful already.

[Assistant] Quick look through Venom's wiki page doesn't show any protection from radiation, which means that kryptonite would still get through. In fact, if that's a corrupted evil Venom, it might be even beneficial to it, weakening Superman enough to get a proper hold on his mind. Then Venom would be able to use it's own tendrils to get rid of it and then continue as all-new all-venomized Superman.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why didn't Anakin get freaked out when Palpatine told him about Darth Plagueis in such a creepy way?

I would think he would have wondered why Palpatine knows such things and why he would bring it up in conversation out of nowhere? Wouldn't he have at least told Obi-Wan that Palpatine was acting strange today?

[Assistant]
He does, he figures the whole thing out and goes to Mace Windu about it (Obi Wan was on Utapau at the time).

The reason it takes so long is that Plapatine was one of Anakin's most trusted confidants, he had been mentoring the young Jedi for years.  Palpatine supported him when the jedi did not.  Furthermore, he touches on something Anakin most wanted to hear.  When Yoda is telling him to let go, Palpatine says "oh yeah, you can totally stop people from dying".


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

[User] Eli5: why does a scissor not work for left handed people but does for right handed?

[Assistant] scissors are actually made for right handed people typically, it's the way the right hand applies pressure on the handle aligns the blades. When you try and use your left hand, the blades separate and nothing cuts.


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

[User] [dc] would martian manhunter be affected by godzilla's atomic breath?

[Assistant]
Even if he didn't have a weakness against fire, it'd hurt him pretty bad cause it packs hell of a wallop no matter how you cut it.

But since his weakness to fire is largely psychosomatic, the fact that it resembles fire and causes actual fiery explosions would be enough to trigger the same physiological response as a normal type of fire anyways.


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

[User] When black or otherwise colored plastic is bent or cut, why are the stress marks white?

[Assistant] The plastic doesn't actually change color. Depending on how it's made it happens for different reasons. Plastic is actually crystalline. When you bend it, one of two things happen. You either make lots of little cracks in it, which changes how it refracts light and makes it look white. Or, the crystals in the plastic get stretched out, which makes them absorb and reflect more light, again appearing white.


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

[User] [ELI5] What makes a router different from a modem? If they're going to be compared to another object as an example to be explained (like comparing a phone storage to water butt or RAM to washing machine) what will they be and how do they work differently?

[Assistant]
A modem is a modulador/demodulator. It basically translates from one language to another. It allows a computer to speak in a way a phone line can handle, for instance.

A router is something that routes data -- it plugs into multiple networks and chooses which data goes where. An equivalent would be a phone exchange, or a distribution center (for physical goods).

They're often combined in the same physical device.


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

[User]
[1408] What if a huge crowd of people went into the room?

Olin has been fired, so theres no one on-staff who believes in 1408s powers.

A famous rock group books 1408, and they decide to throw a massive party, bringing along so many guests that the room is trashed and theres almost no space to move around.

Would 1408 be able to do anything in this situation, or can it only work on single guests?

[Assistant] The interior of the room expands to fit all the guests comfortably and proceeds as normal. 1408 is most likely home to a semi-sentient break in reality that leads to the dark between universes called a Thinny, who's goal seems to be pulling living beings into it.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do different images from the same camera vary in file size?

Wouldn't a camera with a constant resolution capture images of the same quality and therefore file size? How is it possible that some images on my camera can be 1.5 MB, and others 2.5 MB?

[Assistant] Basically, most images are in a compressed format. If a photo has a huge amount of pixels of the same color in a given area, the file format can record this as one piece of information. It's like when you're remembering a phone number: it's a lot easier to remember a sequence if you have two or three numbers that are the same in a row. So, a picture of a blue sky is going to be smaller than a picture of a Jackson Pollock painting.


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

[User]
[Batman] Assume Joker never came into existence. How would Batman's crusade have changed?

Let's ignore the whole metaphysical "the universe needs balance, so Batman must have Joker" argument. Batman appears on the scene, starts fighting crime, and Joker literally never comes into existence  in *any* manner. Would Batman's quest to save Gotham succeed? Who would Batman's arch-enemy have been if Joker never came into existence?

[Assistant]
The Joker has pushed Batman more than any of his other Villains. As damaged as Batman has become thanks to the Jokers antics, he has become stronger for facing his nemesis, and definitely more capable of adapting on the fly.
Batman may not have survived this long is he didn't Have the Joker pushing him.

As for who would take the mantle of Arch Nemesis, there is one option that stands out to me:

Two-Face: Our once brilliant DA is a great foil for Batman, a man of law who has had his faith ultimately shattered by circumstance. Where Batman made it his mission the make something out of the wreckage of his life, Harvey has been twisted into a bitter shadow of who he once was.

You get a similar conflict, with Batman ultimately fighting for Justice and Harvey fighting to make justice fit his warped perspective. Two-Face would have to step up his game in a pretty big way, but he is well placed to be an Agent of Chaos.


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

[User]
CMV: Trump will not accept the election even if multiple recounts are done.

His main goal is to try and expose as much "fraud" as possible, or find enough mail-in votes (which he encouraged his followers not to do, while Biden encouraged them to do) to push him to a victory in Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Georgia. Let's say the recount is done, and the results are identical (within a few hundred) or more ballots are counted towards Biden, and he still loses. No matter how many times the vote is counted, he will still cry fraud. We can recount the election results 5, 10, 50 times and if he loses on each recount, he will demand another because the election was "unfair", and "stolen", and had "massive voter fraud".

Edit: Maybe for clarity's sake, he will not *publicly* accept he lost, nor will he admit to his followers that he lost fair and square.

[Assistant] Doesn't matter. The only "accepting" needed from him is to be gone from the White House on January 20th. Doesn't matter if he's dragged out kicking and screaming. He has no power once Biden takes office.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why aren't the force powers such as the jump and dash used more strategically in the films?

After rewatching Empire Strikes Back and remembering the somewhat entertaining fight scene in The Phantom Menace, I saw a few instances of Luke and Obi Wan using their "force jumps" (I assume that's the canon term):

1. Luke uses it to escape the carbonite trap during the ending fight with Vader.

2. Luke uses this again when descending into the Sarlacc pit in Return of the Jedi.

3. Obi Wan uses it to ascend to the platform where Darth Maul awaits.

4. Anakin uses a force jump in his final fight with Obi Wan in an attempt to gain the higher ground.

After that, I can't remember if these are ever used at any other point. My question is, it seems that Jedi have this unique ability that is underutilized throughout the films. One scenario that continues to bother me is why Obi-Wan couldn't use force dash to get through the security area quicker in order to prevent Qui-Gon's death?

It seems that the powers are only used when it's convenient to the plot, but in a universe where Jedi are extremely intellectually gifted, you'd think these powers would be used more effectively. Why are they not?

[Assistant]
Obi-Wan was still a Padawan in his fight against Darth Maul so it is possible that he hasn't mastered the Force Dash to a degree to be able to use it in the stress of a fight, after facing Darth Maul and the temptations of the Dark Side his connection to the Force grew dramatically allowing to become a Jedi Knight.

As to why the Force Jump isn't used more often in fight. There are two reasons:

* The Force Jump is a boosted version of telekinesis with some fine control to direct you but basically you push yourself from the ground and from that moment you are airborne and it is very hard to change you trajectory by yourself, this makes you a perfect target for all kinds of attack, a well placed Force Push in to the abyss/stream of lava/sky from you enemy included

* Secondly the Force is an energy field created by all living beings, beings sensitive to the Force create this energy in a greater manner. The Jedi purge with Order 66 actually weakened the Force throughout the whole Galaxy making access to Force abilities more difficult hence the post-purge fight are not so flashy anymore.


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

[User] [40k] does the emperor have a helmet to go with his armor? If so, what does it look like?

[Assistant]
The Emperor generates a constant psychic field that warps his own physical form, allowing him to take on any human appearance and a rather diverse range of sizes. It also creates a near impenetrable psychic barrier that protects him from harm.

He doesn't need a Helmet. He doesn't even need the armour. It's just for show. His own psychic wards are superior to Terminator armour anyway.


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

[User]
What tips and tricks worked best for you when you started to feel unmotivated?

Ive been struggling to find the motivation to study and complete coursework for the past year now but I only have a few more courses left until I get my degree. I need to power through this and am looking for tips and tricks that have helped others to bring back their motivation.

[Assistant]
* Avoid social media, internet etc.
* Do productive meditation make plan of action, i.e. go on a walk. Research supported.
* Mix up your day, novelty goes a way.
* Socialize a bit with peers in the field.
* Don't overthink action, the brain can replace action with thinking action to your demise.


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

[User]
Eli5: How does Bamboo grow so quickly and why?

Ive heard stories about being able to watch Bamboo grow, but how does it grow so quickly and why?

[Assistant]
Plants need sunlight to create energy. The process of photosynthesis turns sunlight into sugar and that sugar fuels the energy the plants lives off. The stuff a plant takes from the soil doesn't provide it with energy but it does provide it with building blocks to grow.

That's why plants grow upwards. They absorb building blocks from the soil using their roots. And then they grow bigger to catch more sunlight and taller to try and outcompete the plants around them. After all, it's better to catch sunlight and throw shade than it is to be in someone else's shade.

Bamboo tends to grow in dense forests there is not a lot of sunlight that reaches the forest floor. So bamboo evolved to put all of its efforts into growing tall as fast as possible to break through the undergrowth and get to that sunlight.

It's also why bamboo grows in thin tall poles. It wastes no energy growing thick, it puts all its effort into growing tall.


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

[User]
ELI5: If "The Hobbit" was critiqued for having more frames per second than usual and looking like a television show, why TV shows don't lower they FPS to look more "professional" like movies?

Many say (not me, I liked it) that "The Hobbit" looked like a cheap soap opera because their highers FPS (THAT IS NOT THE POINT, THE POINT IS IN THE NEXT SENTENCE).

So why television shows do not lower their frames per second in order to look like movies, that have lower FPS, since that high frame rate is somewhat strange for our eyes?

[Assistant]
Some do. 30 Rock does this. You can see the difference easily if you compare the two live episodes they did - filmed in higher "TV" fps - with a normal episode. They even make a joke about the difference at the end of one of the live episodes ("Something feels different", or something like that).

Breaking Bad, HBO shows like Game of Thrones, etc also shoot at 24 fps.


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

[User]
ELI5:Why does english have the same word "you" for singular and plural?

I'm not an english native speaker. Doesn't it sometimes lead to confusion?

[Assistant]
English originally had a singular/familiar *thou* and plural/formal *you*, a distinction that exists in many European languages (e.g. French *tu* vs. *vous*), but lost it by the 17th century in preference for using *you* in all cases.

Just like in other languages (in French, *vous* can be singular/formal, so it's not always plural), context generally makes it clear whether it's singular or plural, but we also can be specific and say "both of you," for example. The dialectical "y'all" is also used as a plural "you."


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

[User]
Would it be more practical to assemble mega-spaceships in orbit?

I'm referring to spaceships of a caliber we're not even close to building right now. Large "super-ships" capable of being carriers or transport shuttles. Something that big seems like it'd be near-impossible to launch from Earth. But would it be possible for, one day, humans to send the pieces individually into orbit to assemble? It seems it'd be easier to do that there and easier to move forward afterwards.

*EDIT: Thanks for all the responses. Great read.

[Assistant]
The "super-ship" we're technologically most able to build would be an Orion drive.

There are some obvious arguments against building such ships, but they are more efficient the larger they are and we could make 8 million tons of steel (80 aircraft carriers) fly all at once. Just saying. Pity about the fallout though; maybe when we have cleaner nukes and more relaxed international treaties about willy-nilly use of hundreds of bombs just to make a ship fly.


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

[User] [MCU] How will Justin hammer react to the news about Tony stark? I'm not sure if he'll be pleased or genuinely upset?

[Assistant] I think he'd be pissed that he could never conceivably win against Tony in any way, shape or form after Tony went out so firmly on top. Plus seeing Tony's face everywhere would just salt that particular wound.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Can superheavy/vehicle-grade lightsaber-like weapons exist? Could something like that deflect turbolasers or other heavy bolt weapons?

I'm asking for a friend. He likes to tinker.

[Assistant]
Lightsabers can already block heavy blaster cannons, and in Legends, they can also block turbolasers.

In canon, the Death Star is basically a gigantic lightsaber, as it uses the same types of crystals that regular lightsabers use.


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

[User] [Star Trek] Why do Romulans only have one hair style?

[Assistant]
Imagine you're from a culture that highly prized styling their arm hair. They dye it difficult colors, shave patterns into it, wear it at different lengths, etc. A wide variety of these styles are culturally significant, and some are just for fashion/vanity. Then you meet humans. You ask: "Why do all humans wear the same arm hair style?"

Romulans just don't have any cultural significance to hairstyles the way other some cultures do. They cut it the way you'd brush your teeth - a routine grooming thing, not an identity thing.


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

[User] ELI5 what bleach (Clorox) does to organic things.

[Assistant] Bleach is most commonly sodium hypochlorite. The hypochlorite ion ClO^- is a very strong oxidizing agent, meaning that it steals the electrons off of other things. This is why it is such a good disinfectant, because ionizing (stealing electrons) from an organism's body is deadly. For things with a tiny body like bacteria, this is even more quickly fatal.


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

[User] ELI5:Why does it feel so much better when someone else touches rather than you touching yourself?

[Assistant]
When you touch yourself your brain plans the movements required to make the contact. When this movement is planned, 2 copies of this information are sent; one towards the part of the body performing the movements and one is sent to another part of the brain (the efference copy). When the movement has happened, your nerves 'report back' the outcomes of the movement and this is 'compared' to the efference copy, and if they match up then the planned movement has occurred as predicted and it is very difficult to be surprised by the outcomes to that movement.

Now, if someone else does touches us, then we do not have the predicted outcome and the sensory information is novel and gets a lot more attention and has a greater effect on us.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does shipping something from the USA to NZ have around triple the price of shipping a similar item from NZ to the USA?

It costs me around $15 (NZ) to send an item from NZ to the USA, but around $30 US (which is about $45 NZ) to ship a similar size/weight item the other way.  Is this perhaps due to some sort of taxes behind the scenes?

[Assistant]
No it is not an import tax thing, it has everything to do with the volume of things going what direction. There are a lot of tings that ship from NZ to the US. There are very few things that ship from the US to NZ.

While you may think that ships would just move back and forth, that is not actually how shipping works. Ships will run a circuit of destinations, and shipments that have low volume must make up the cost with higher costs of shipping.


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

[User]
If E=MC^2 and M(photon) = 0 then how does light contain/transmit [E]nergy?

From what I understand, light travels at C because it has no mass. Anything with mass >0 cannot attain a speed of C. How, or why, then does light carry energy?

I also feel correct in thinking that light (gamma radiation specifically) is indeed   the medium through which fusion of lighter elements (e.g. hydrogen into helium) loses mass in the process and gives off energy.

But something without mass can have no energy[?]

What am I missing? Some sort of quantum physics aspect? Does the very fact of moving through space at C endow an object with energy?--the energy of 1 photon? Do photons vary energy-wise or can "photon" be considered a unit of energy?

[Assistant]
The energy equation you're looking at is incomplete, as it is the energy for a particle at rest. When moving, there is an energy associated with the momentum, p:

E^2 = m^2 c^4 + p^2 c^2.

At rest (p=0) this reduces to E = m c^2 for a massive particle. For a photon, which always travels at v = c, the momentum is given by p = h(freq/c) = h/wavelength, where h is the Planck constant. Therefore:

E = pc = h freq = hc/wavelength.

So photons can have a different energy depending on the wavelength. For example, an X-ray (or gamma photon) with a wavelength of 0.1 nanometers has an energy equal to about 12400 eV. A photon with half that wavelength 0.05 nanometers, has energy 24.8 keV.


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

[User]
ELI5: What exactly happens when a lightning strikes causes the power to go out, and what happens that causes it come back on again after a random amount of time?

Happened a few times last night. Very close lightning strike, power dies, 10-90 seconds later it would just come back on like nothing happened. If nothing is damaged, what makes it go off in the first place?

[Assistant] Voltage and current spikes cause circuit breakers to open, interrupting service. This is to protect the grid, transformers and systems from failure. After a while, the breakers are closed, restoring service to impacted areas.


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

[User]
CMV: All these surface-level reforms like making sure black characters are not voiced by non black voice actors are a near worthless distraction.

I can't say it any better than the title. Whether it's deliberate or not, all this performative action like changing the name of streets, removing Ben from Uncle Ben's rice and actors stepping down feels like a distraction and a waste of time when there's still little accountability for police action. Very little societal change will come from The Simpsons changing up their cast. But I've seen more media coverage of these changes than I have of currently ongoing protests. I understand the stated benefit for some of these actions but it feels so cheap and worthless.

[Assistant]
A large part of it is just people changing what they can. The company that owns Uncle Ben's doesn't run the police force, and the people that produce the Simpson's don't have real political power, but both of them changing is a statement that they side with the protestors. Sure, it's pretty much useless compared to politicians actually doing something, but it's better than both continuing as is.

You can't expect one company changing their racist mascot to change society, but you can appreciate the fact that doing so is the company saying "hey, this mascot is probably problematic for people, so we'll change it". They're not changing it thinking it'll bring about complete systemic change, but them changing it does, ever so slightly, help the systemic change along.


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

[User]
[Nolan Batman] why is batman so righteous? where does that commitment to not kill comes from?

I might be misremembering the dark knight but he goes to such lengths to not kill the joker or people in general. why? yeah his dad instilled good morals into him but that was like what 4-6 years of what bruce would actually remember before his dad got killed. after that he wasnt a high standing citizen in what i can remember of the beginning of batman begins. He tried to kill joe chill. why the sudden change? yeah joe killed HIS parents but still. why did he became such a moral person? i know it might be because he amplified what his parents thought him but is there another bigger reason why? he goes through such great lengths to not just kill the joker, he risked the lives of hundreds, possibly thousands, of people all because he didnt want to bent to jokers level.

[Assistant]
Bruce was on the fence about murder until he confesses his desire to kill Joe Chill to Rachel.  It's Rachel who shames him about killing, who sets him on a path toward righteousness.  Rachel's opinion matters far more to him than his own, and he adopts both her desire to fix Gotham and her desire to do it without murder.

Then Bruce has a conversation with Falcone, and Bruce learns the depths of his ignorance about the city, crime, and fear.  He realizes that to fix Gotham he has much to learn and much to do.

It's Rachel and Falcone together who set Bruce on his path out of Gotham toward becoming someone who fights crime.  He takes his purpose from Rachel and his direction from Falcone.  It's also Falcone's heart to heart that causes Bruce to seek to learn from the League of Shadows.  However, it's Rachel's influence that lead him to refuse to kill the caged criminal for the League.


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

[User]
Are there different types of electrons?

According to the standard model, each particle is an oscillation in a quantum field. There are different energies of photons. Similarly, can an excitation of the electron field have different levels?

I know that electrons have different energy levels in an atom, is this a separate concept from the one I described above?

[Assistant]
That is a separate concept. Every electron is fundamentally identical to every other electron, and same for photons.

Each of these particles can have whatever energies you want (although an electron can never have an energy smaller than its mass), but they are still the same particle. Two electrons with different energies are still identical particles.


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

[User] [A Quiet Place] Why the fuck doesn't that family set up camp by the waterfall???

[Assistant] Good luck trying to maintain a liveable homestead there with no way to safely and quietly transport all the shit you'd need. A temporary campsite could work, sure, but no one would want to live that way permanently, especially considering how exposed you'd be to everything else.


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

[User]
ELI5:What causes car engines to increase in noise and vibration over time?

New cars are usually silent with little vibration. Over time they become shaky and audible. Why? Is there a way to return them back to what they were?

[Assistant] Part of why it seems that way is because cars are always getting smoother and quieter. If you bought a new car 10 years ago, it would seem much quieter than an old car at the time, but it was louder than a new car today. The other part is mostly due to breakdown of noise insulating materials (both on the engine, and in the exhaust), and worn down motor mounts. Noticeable vibration in most older cars (assuming the engine is in good shape) is usually caused by bad motor mounts. One other thing is that engines lose compression, and therefore power, as they get older. This usually doesn't happen in every cylinder evenly. Some cylinders will wear more, and some less. This difference in compression will cause a difference in power output in each cylinder, causing vibration. This really shouldn't show up in a relatively modern engine until at least 150k miles or so.


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

[User] [Advanced Dungeons and Dragons: First Edition] Why can't anyone but humans be paladins?

[Assistant]
Humans have such short lifespans.  This lends itself to a near zealotry towards pursuits where gods could empower them to burn hot and bright until they burn themselves out in service.  Palidans need change "right now".

 Longer lived races are just to laid back in comparision, i.e., they have all the time in the world to do what they need.  Their service to the divine takes a long view.


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

[User]
[Marvel and DC] How would another Amalgam-Event look like nowadays?

Anyone remembering that Access-Guy, who merged our beloved universes back in the nineties? I wonder how an Amalgam-Universe based on the actual "Marvel" and "DC" events would look like? Which merged heroes can we expect?

[Assistant]
Expect to see a lot more characters driven by the success of the MCU, like

* Iron Bat
* Thor-El, the Last Son of Asgard
* Marvel Woman
* Guardians of the Green Lantern
* Black Beetle
* Captain Shazam AKA Billy Rogers

Etc.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do egg cells know not to accept more sperm once fertilized? How do they keep the rest out?

This question is courtesy of my ten year old daughter who meant to search cornception on YouTube but got autocorrected to conception. The videos that came up were fortunately educational in nature. Thanks for reading this far!

[Assistant]
The cortical reaction!
To ELI5 it:
First, you need to know that egg cells are surrounded by a thick layer of jelly-like goop (Zona Pellucida) Sperm cells have to burrow through that goop to actually reach the egg itself. The first sperm to make it through the goop to the egg sends its genetic information into the egg cell. This triggers a kind of intruder alarm, which releases chemicals (enzymes) that turn the jelly-goop into a hard, thick shell. Any sperm that was still in the goop is now trapped, and any sperm that is late to the party has found the door closed. This makes sure that only one sperm can actually make it to the egg.

Edit: Because a lot of people are asking about twins and how they come about:

Identical twins are the result of 1 egg + 1 sperm- very early on in development the ball of cells that will become a baby (these are stem cells, cells that can become any part of the baby or the placenta, they havent chosen a job yet) splits into two balls of cells, each of which develop into their own baby. Since these babies started from the same fertilized egg, they will be genetically identical.

Fraternal twins are the results of 2 eggs + 2 sperm, each fertilized egg will develop into its own unique baby. This can happen because Mom ovulated two eggs at the same time (the tendency to do this runs in families!). This also means that you can have fraternal twins with different dads, if Mom had more than one set of sperm around when the eggs were available. Fraternal twins are no different than any other set of siblings (genetically) except that they happened to share a womb.

Bigger sets of multiples are usually a combination of both processes, or the result of fertility treatments like IVF. For example, triplets may be caused by 2 eggs + 2 sperm then one of them splits (so 2 identical babies, plus a 3rd fraternal triplet), 3 eggs + 3 sperm, or, most rare, 1 egg + 1 sperm that then splits, and splits again to make three identical embryos.


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

[User] ELI5: What is non-Euclidean space or geometry?

[Assistant]
So, to consider this properly, we need to consider what Euclidean geometry is.

Euclidean geometry is any framework in which the following five postulates are true:

1. A straight line segment can be drawn joining any two points.

2. Any straight line segment can be extended indefinitely in a straight line.

3. Given any straight line segment, a circle can be drawn having the segment as radius and one endpoint as center.

4. All right angles are congruent.

5. If two lines are drawn which intersect a third in such a way that the sum of the inner angles on one side is less than two right angles, then the two lines inevitably must intersect each other on that side if extended far enough. ***This one's the important one!***

The first four postulates can be used to describe an entire geometric system, along with a series of definitions and notions.

Euclid's Fifth Postulate, also known as the *parallel postulate,* has mainly to do with triangles, because that's the shape you get if you construct three lines in that manner.

However, Euclid was never able to prove the fifth as a theorem. In 1823, mathematicians Janos Bolyai and Nicolai Lobachevsky figured out that ***you could ignore the parallel postulate*** and make geometries that made sense!

*Non-Euclidean geometry, then*, is any framework in which the Fifth Postulate does not hold -- that is to say, where the interior angles of a triangle do not sum to 180 degrees. Further, as a consequence, parallel lines don't stay the same distance from each other forever.

Edit for clarity regarding parallel lines: Under Euclidean geometry, the following is true:

* Given a two-dimensional plane P, a line L, and a point A not on L, there is exactly one line that can be drawn through the point A that does not intersect L.

In hyperbolic geometry, there are infinitely many such lines that can be drawn; in elliptic geometry, *any* line drawn through A will intersect L.


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

[User]
How do directions work in space?

On Earth we have north, south, east, and west, but those are relative to Earth. What directions, if any, do people use for space?

[Assistant]
There are a few different celestial coordinate systems, which tend to be used in different applications. Astronomers usually use an equatorial coordinate system, which describes the location of objects in the sky using two angles.  Right ascension describes where an object is along the celestial equator (basically longitude), while Declination describes the angle from the equator (basically latitude). The equator is aligned with the Earth's spin axis to make observations simpler.  Ecliptic coordinates work similarly, but align the equator to the plane of the Earth's orbit to work better within our solar system.  There's also a galactic coordinate system, which aligns with the galactic plane and center.
For describing orbits of objects in a solar system, such as asteroids, usually a set of six orbital parameters is used.  These parameters can be used to calculate where an object will appear in the sky at a particular time in an ephemeris table.  For small objects, these parameters have to be updated frequently to account for perturbations by larger planets.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Is there some sort of wizarding television?

There's the Daily Prophet, but what about a way to watch quidditch matches live? Do you have to get a ticket? And what about the news?

[Assistant]
They seem to get news mostly from newspapers.  There is magical radio though, they listen to it while on the run in the Deathly Hallows.  Their society is hesitant to adapt to change, so television, being new even in our world, hasn't made it's way there.  We've had television for less than a century, and 24 hour news only for the last few decades.

As for sports, they can listen to the radio.  But in a world where you can instantly transport places you want to go, why would you settle for sports on TV?


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

[User] Is there a part of the brain responsible solely for coordinating communication between all other parts of the brain?  If so, what happens when that region is damaged (i.e. a stroke)

[Assistant]
There are many different structures solely responsible for conducting signals in the brain and destroying those structures can either result in very little impairment or death.  For instance, the corpus callosum is a structure containing 300 million nerve fibers which connect the two sides of the brain but destroying it results in very subtle problems.  In some difficult cases of seizures, surgeons will cut the corpus callosum to prevent the seizure from spreading and those people will still function almost perfectly.

If you damage the Arcuate fasciculus, you can have a very strange effect on language.  This structure connects a part of the brain responsible for understanding language and the part of the brain responsible for performing language.  Disruption of this pathway will leave people unable to repeat words said to them.

Also, the spinal cord which extend all the way down to your middle back is part of your brain in every sense of the word.  If you damage that, you will get varying degrees of paralysis and possible respiratory paralysis in which you cannot move your diaphragm.


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

[User] ELI5: How do blue-light filters for glasses work? And what is the purpose of filtering blue light?

[Assistant]
**The Belief**: Blue light reminds our brains of daylight, and therefore causes our brains/bodies to produce chemicals that keep us awake

**How glasses work:** Just like any type of light filtering, the glasses are just made of materials that block blue light from passing through them, but still allow other colors to pass through. This is usually done by tinting them yellow-ish.

**In reality**: Probably snake oil. As more information comes out, it's likely that the original studies weren't representative of the actual data and blue light probably doesn't affect anything outside of the margin of error.


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

[User]
What's the point of rockets in space?

In many movies that deal with space travel you see ships that constantly have their main rockets engaged. Wouldn't this keep the ship at a constant rate of acceleration and not just propelling the ship at the same rate? Or is there a force, even in space, similar to friction that keeps ships from constantly accelerating?

Edit: thanks for all the great responses. You guys have certainly answered my question but not only that you put it in terms I can easily understand lol I'm by no means a science expert just someone who has seen their fair share of space movies and a lot of free time on his hands.

[Assistant]
Most movies don't care too much about being scientificly accurate vs apealing to look at. Let's ask it like this, if you want an impressive action shot, would you blast the rockets at full thrust or have it just sitting there doing nothing?

And yes you're right, the small resistance you get from space dust isn't a big factor as let's say  air resistance. You don't keep  your engines on because that would use up way too much fuel.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do pigeons thrive so much better inside cities than any other bird?

Every city I ever visited had an abundance of pigeons but rarely other kinds of birds and definitely not as many/openly running/flying around. Do pigeons just thrive better in cities than other kinds of birds, if so why?

[Assistant]
Pigeons are common in cities because buildings more closely resemble their natural nesting sites.

Rock doves nest on the side of cliffs. Not in trees or shrubs.

Human buildings provide lots of ledges for nesting.

Combine that with the fact that they're harmless, (so we don't kill them for being pests) not tasty (so we don't kill them for food) and their natural predators cannot hunt well in cities (falcons end up nose diving into walls using their usual tactics, larger predators avoid humans) and you've got the perfect combination for a species to cohabit our cities with.

Seagulls are also very common in cities in the UK for the same reason.


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

[User]
[Halo] Was the Halcyon-class a bad design, or did it just arrive right before major technological development?

So I'm something of a Halo lore nut. The Halcyon-class is a pre-Covenant war design, at the time of its manufacture it's the smallest ship to be called a cruiser. It has very good armour and massive structural reinforcement, but it has only 1 MAC and 6 Archer missile pods. Its engines had only 10% of the output of "modern" engines as of 2550ish, which is admittedly a full generation later. Still, a 1000% improvement in reactor output is... Impressive, to say the least. The Navy considered the design to be something of a joke, because of these negative traits.

So, was it just a bad design with poor reactor output, bad armaments and too much armour and reinforcement, or was it developed right before greater reactor output was possible and more armaments were required?

Is it possible that the design preceeding it might have been faster and better-armed? Seems unlikely to me, but thought I'd ask anyway.

[Assistant]
Humanity had a huge technological leap after first contact. They may have been on the edge of some great technology (mjolnir, shields, etc) but reverse engineering and then improving upon covenant and forerunner goo gaws advanced the unsc decades or centuries in a fraction of the time.

The halcyon class was built prior to this, and it was designed to be cost effective while bullying innies in ships that the halcyon laughs at. It's not a bad ship for what it was designed to do, but it wasn't designed to fight a superior (numerically, technologically and tonnage) force like the covenant.


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

[User]
ELI5 why it matters in which currency crude oil is traded.

I mean, we give oil a certain value that can be easily expressed in each local currency. So why should it matter if we trade it in, say South Korean Won?

[Assistant]
When you sell a product internationally, you want to use a currency that is easy to exchange, and that will hold its value well.  That means dollars, euros, yen, pounds, and maybe Swiss francs.

If you are Venezuela and just sold a billion dollars with of oil and took won for it, you are going to have a problem.  No one in Venezuela wants won, and even if you showed up in Seoul money in hand, exchanging that much won at once is going to shift the market and give you a bad rate.

With the other currencies, there are plenty of people locally who want them, and the economies are large enough to absorb as much as you want to exchange.  And since they are so widely accepted, you may not have to exchange them at all, and just use them to buy something else.


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

[User] Can someone simplify the NBA strike?

[Assistant]
NBA owners are losing money. Less than five teams turned in a profit last season. They feel this is mainly due to overspending on players' salaries. While the NBA has a salary cap (the maximum amount a team can spend on all its players; it's set at around 55 million) to prevent overspending, it's a "soft cap," which means certain circumstances allow teams to exceed the cap (this usually includes trades and contract extensions).

Some owners have been giving out superstar contracts to average players (one player received roughly a 120 million over six years contract) and the precedent over the last few years has been to overpay for simply average players. The owners want to rewrite the rules as to how to sign players so this doesn't happen anymore. Instead of being allowed to sign a player for six guaranteed years for 120 million dollars, they want the max to be more like four years for 50 million, no guarantees. They feel like cutting player salaries by about 50% is the best way to help them save money, and thus, turn a profit.

Additionally, the owners want the soft salary cap to become a hard cap, meaning that under no circumstances can teams exceed the cap.

The players, on the other hand, do not want a pay cut. They believe that NBA owners should not be entitled to make a profit just for owning a team, and believe that it's an owner's own person financial responsibility if they offer an absurdly large contract and thus lose money.

Now the two sides are meeting to create a new agreement. Owners want to cut salaries by 50%, eliminate guaranteed contracts, and impose a hard cap. Players are only willing to budge on a very small salary decrease, something like five percent. NBA won't resume until the two come to an agreement.

Considering how far away they are in bargaining, it's probably going to be a long lockout.


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

[User] [Middle Earth] Do those corrupted by the One Ring still have free will?

[Assistant] I would say so, in the sense that they make their own choices. The One Ring ultimately serves only Sauron and wants to rejoin him, influencing its host to do whatever it can to get that to happen. Gollum was probably the most affected by the Ring and he would never give it up, but it changed and manipulated him to get to Sauron. Gandalf wasnt worried that he would become Saurons slave with the Ring, but that he would become corrupted into becoming the *next* Sauron.


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

[User]
If I leave my postdoc for a non-academic position, would I be able to re-join academia later on?

I have a job offer for a science communication- outreach position. I am thinking of taking it because I want to see if that career path would make me happier. The position involves grant writing and fieldwork, but no opportunities for publishing. I am on my first postdoc. If I leave my postdoc for this position and then decide that I miss research, would I be able to get another postdoc and get back in the game? Or am I really shutting the door on the academic career track? I do have some trailing papers from my PhD so I will probably still have publications coming out for the next year or two.

[Assistant] The vast majority of postdocs in most fields have no realistic academic career prospects, so likely you can't actually decrease your chances very much. But yes, it will be difficult to get back into the game. When applying for jobs, you will likely be judged by people who have never known anything but the very linear career paths that academics are meant to follow and will look down on any deviation from that path. Many will think that you went into a non-academic position because you were not good enough to get a tenure track position, though many will think that if you do more than one or two postdocs anyway. Academia is very social status oriented and non-academic jobs are for many academics low-status. It is not impossible though. Ones chances are never zero.


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

[User]
[The Walking Dead] What if the Governor had been the man he pretended to be? What if he worked out an alliance with the Prison group?

What if he was a rational yet at the still time, strong individual, willing to work with other survivors, and wasn't secretly a maniac?

I mean, we see throughout the TV series that he isn't entirely a psychopath.

His treatment of the family he meets in Season 4 is evidence of that.

If the Governor didn't have his dark side, what would the rest of the series look like?

[Assistant] They would have stayed at the prison forever. Slowly picked up more and more survivors until they reached a critical mass. Eventually would have bumped into the terminus group where they would have gone to war and won. Maybe met Abraham and company. A group would have ended up going to DC and maybe finding Alexandria and others.


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

[User] Why does Britain not have the same culture of mass protest that we see in countries such as Spain, Brazil etc?

[Assistant]
Some recent examples of large protest in the U.K within the last few years. Numbers taken from Wikipedia

2011 London anti-cuts protest: Various sources estimated that the demonstration was attended by between 250,000 and 500,000 people.

The 2010 British student protests:  Approximately 30,000 to 52,000 protesters attended the demonstration on the streets of central London.

February 15, 2003 anti-war protest: Police estimated attendance as well in excess of 750,000 people and the BBC estimated that around a million attended.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why was Anakin so willing to kill Obi Wan?

Probably a dumb question but why was Anakin so willing to kill Obi Wan on Mustafar? He been a great mentor and friend to him since he was a child. They been through so much together and Obi Wan has never done him any wrong. I can understand Anakin hating the Jedi order due to the council not making him a master and Palpatine's corruption but I see no reason for him to want to kill Obi Wan. And throughout the fight Obi Wan was clearly trying to help him rather than kill him. Did he think he stole his girl Padme or something?

[Assistant]
> Did he think he stole his girl Padme or something?

Actually, yeah. But not in a romantic sense.

At the time, Anakin fully believed Palpatine's lies and his own deep-seated insecurities about the Jedi. He hated them for holding him back for so long, denying him the power to save his wife and by proxy his mother, and for using him so blatantly for so long.

He already was in a shaky mental state after everything he had done to the younglings, fellow jedi, and the separatist leadership. That's a lot of murder in a very short amount of time, and Anakin was totally consumed by the dark side. The thing with doing that is  that it warps your thoughts, and clouds your judgment into an extremely self-centered and malicious mindset. Anakin already hated Obi Wan for being part of the Jedi and the embodiment of their holding him back for so many years. And then seeing him walk out of the same ship that Padme was on utterly convinced him that the Jedi, Obi Wan specifically, had turned his wife against him. Anakin thought that only his new Sith powers would save her, and if Padme was turned against him, it meant that she would reject his gifts and thus die. Making his visions come true no matter how hard he fought.

One of the last things Anakin says to Obi Wan before their duel was "You will not take her from me!" which just goes to show where his priorities were, and how completely deluded he was by lies and self interest. He must have been just as heartbroken as Obi Wan at the time, but instead of expressing sorrow or confusion, he lashed out in rage.


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

[User] [Hunger Games] if each tribute is allowed to bring one small personal item with them into the games, and the mines around the starting plates are sensitive enough to be triggered by them, whats stopping someone from throwing their personal item at another plate to kill them before the games start?

[Assistant]
Not an answer to your specific scenario, but one year a tribute used a small wooden ball to do just that... only she dropped it onto her *own* plate to detonate the explosive device, killing herself. The gamemakers now check all personal items before the events.

But in case of such a scenario, then the one who performed such a scenario would be executed on the spot; either their podium would be remotely detonated or a Muttation would be sent to kill them.


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

[User]
ELI5: What is happening when power flickers like its going to shut off when a storms approaching?

Wife and I just noticed a flash of lightning outside and a couple seconds later heard thunder and our lights flickered like we were going to lose power. What is happening here?

[Assistant]
Basically there is a voltage drop. Voltage drops if there is a short in the system (or when more power is used than produced, but that isn't the case here). A short is when the high voltage line gets connected to the neutral line (or ground) without proper resistance. Imagine you stick a paper clip in a plug so you connect both sides. Sparks, and current. Your house has a breaker that will trip if you do that, but for a breif second the voltage will drop and high current will flow through the wires.

In the case of a storm, kind of the same thing happens, at a bigger scale.. like some wires crossed and there was a short causing the voltage to drop. Could be a branch pushing wires together, or a pole falling and ripping wires down. Like the breakers in your house, the power company has breakers that will prevent the short taking out the whole grid. But for a second the short effected your power by reducing the voltage to the point your lights didn't work.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Why are wizards/witches limited to wands?

It's well known that wands consist of a wood rod and a magical core, but why do wizards stick with a footlong stick that channels their powers when they could use a staff which would allow for a much larger or multiple items as it's core to better channel or even amplify their power? Say something like a willow sapling with a dragonbone core.

[Assistant]
They aren't. According to Ollivander, a wizard or witch can channel his or her power through any instrument encasing a sufficiently magical substance. However, after his research, he came to the conclusion that the combination of wand wood properties, shape, flexibility and wand core (Ollivander is very adamant that only phoenix feathers, dragon heartstrings and unicorn hairs are appropriate cores) gives the best magic over everything else.

So sure, if you want, you can use a staff or orb or iPod to use magic, but the spells won't be as effective as if you had used a wand.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] If Princess Leia was somehow the ambassador of Naboo, would Grand Moff still recklessly destroy the planet without seeking the Emperor's advice first?

I know this would mean a lot of plot issues would be made different, but if Vader and the Grand Moff have in custody a royal member of Naboo (or if Princess Leia was an ambassador from Naboo), would Moff Tarkin have used it as a demonstration for the Death Star, without seeking any consultation from Emperor Palpatine (since it's his home planet)?

[Assistant]
In the original Battlefront 2, the 501st actually puts down a rebellion on Naboo that includes assassinating the current Queen.

Emperor Palpatine does not give a fuuuuuuuuuuck about his home planet, or life and civilization in general. Dude is just a black hole of greed and hatred.


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

[User] ELI5: If energy cannot be created or destroyed, what happens to the energy and matter that gets sucked into black holes?

[Assistant]
Black holes do not violate these conservation laws.

Think of a penny that you drop into an ocean. For any practical purposes, that penny is gone, but that doesn't mean it just disappeared, it's still somewhere deep in that ocean.

Black holes don't destroy energy, they just "trap" it, if that makes sense.


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

[User] [Harry Potter]Dementors make humans experience extreme depression, that being the case how do they keep people in Azkaban from just lying down until they die of hunger/thirst?

[Assistant]
The effect of a Dementor probably isn't on/off so much as an intensifying area of effect enhanced if the Dementor is focusing on you... If you're further away and there's only 1, and it's not actively draining you it'll take longer to set in and probably won't be as profound.

There's a passing comment by Fudge, when he's explaining the Black situation to Madam Rosmerta in "The Prisoner of Azkaban", and he says Black was given maximum security, with Dementors outside day and night.

Extrapolating from that statement, there are patrols of Dementors throughout the place, with at least standard and high-security, maybe other denominations. The Dementors may not necessarily enjoy feeding on someone 24/7 as much as letting them recover somewhat before bringing another crashing wave of cold, despair, misery and eventually apathy on them. So, some of the prisoners may be largely left alone and only experience a partial or cyclical effect. It'd probable still be pretty horrific, even if it's not as intense as having the Dementors there all the time.

And Black did mention that within a few hours people went from defiant, to miserable to screaming for someone to help them. Eventually even the strong-willed ones succumbed to apathy and stopped screaming. Some of them stopped eating. He also said the Dementors could sense when death was approaching, and behind excited, gravitating towards the person they'd managed to tip over the edge.


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

[User] ELI5: Over 800,000 people go missing in the US every year, the vast majority people under the age of 18. Discounting the runaways, resolved cases, and other causes, how many of these missing can be attributed to psychopaths and sexual slavery?

[Assistant]
Your question is flawed and that's why you are getting widely different answers.  let me ask you a question.  If a teenager runs away from home, that's a run away.  If that run away falls in with a bad crowd (because, homeless) and ends up being sex slave in a far away place.  If that person's disappearance attributed to sex slavery or is she a run away?

Very few kids who are in happy healthy homes are abducted by strangers.  Much more likely is that the home is shit, the child leaves that shit home and gets involved in another dangerous situation. This person is now considered "high risk" because no one is looking out for them.  It's now relatively easy for sex slavers to abduct them.


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

[User] Acne, why the face and the back?

[Assistant]
Short answer: inflammation of hair follicles which are located in those areas. Areas like the face and back (and chest and butt for many others) are particularly prone to build ups of excess dirt, bacteria, and sebum  all of which contribute to the formation of acne pimples and cysts.

Acne causes are complicated and can be multi-faceted. Seek consultation with a dermatologist if youre suffering from any kind of acne. There are many solutions, so theres no need to suffer!


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

[User]
ELI5: This Ancient Athens quote about women.

Thucydides rounds off the funeral speech attributed to Pericles: " The greatest glory of a woman is to be least talked about among men, whether in praise or blame".

I am doing literature study about Ancient Athens and that's the quote I found in one of the books, could someone explain it with the context of the women's status in those days?

[Assistant]
The Athenian ideal for women was to remain invisible to society. Athenian women as a rule did not engage in public life (politics, philosophy, science, poetry, drama, athletics, war) and did not own property. At the extreme, women of the upper class were encouraged to remain isolated at home (though very few probably actually did this).

To be praised for one's beauty was to invite charges of infidelity, to be praised for one's mind was to be seen as masculine. To be talked of negatively , as promiscuous, or shrewish or whatever, was obviously bad. A woman therefore should be essentially unknown to male society.

There were women who engaged more directly with male society. Foreign women were permitted to own property and engage in business. And the haeterae were a class of courtesan, many foreign, who provided entertainment to men. In addition to sex, they composed and read poetry, played music, discussed philosophy and politics, etc. Some, in fact, made fortunes without providing sexual services. The most famous of these women was Phryne, said to be so beautiful that when tried before the Areopagus on blasphemy charges all she had to do to be acquitted as display her naked body to the judges.

But these were not ideal women. They were immodest, masculine, promiscuous and often foreign. They were frequent topics of discussion among men, but not for "good" reasons.


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

[User] [DC]What would be different if Batman publicly admitted he was Bruce Wayne?

[Assistant] He'd be sued a million times over and the GCPD wouldn't politically be able to work with him anymore, since they rely on the plausible deniability of 'oh we totally can't arrest this vigilante we don't even know who he is.'


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

[User] [DC] Can Starro the Conqueror infect Darkseid?

[Assistant] It could possibly infect his avatar (highly unlikely though because Darkseid is at least top 5 in the verse for mind control resistance). But Darkseids real form is a 5th dimensional consciousness so there's nothing starro could do to control the real body, it'd be like a person drawn on a paper mind controlling a 3D human being it just wouldn't be possible.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are picture frames so expensive?

So I recently decided I wanted a poster and because I'm an adult, and didn't want my $15 masterpiece held up by tacks I figured I'd get a frame for it. My first stop was a local frame shop where I explained I wanted something inexpensive for a poster. They told me they had a cheap poster package. Simple black stained wood and a basic pane of glass (uv protection, but not anti-glare). Just what I was hoping for, but the total was $80. So I hit amazon and found a basic wooden frame, a sheet of plastic with a cardboard back and they still wanted around $35 (and required you to screw in the mountings yourself). In the end I did exactly what I wanted to avoid and tried walmart where I found exactly what I needed for $16.00. I'd have been willing to pay more for a better frame (something wood would have been nice) but the prices are way out of line when you're just trying to hang a simple poster. What is going on with the pricing on this stuff? Are their intricacies to picture frames I'm missing that make them cost so much more than the sum of their parts?

EDIT: It's so cool to hear from folks with experience in the framing business. I'll leave this post unsolved for the weekend in case anyone else shows up to chime in and then mark this one explained. Thanks guys! I feel bad for the folks who really do have something they want to protect because it seems like everyone gets gouged, but it's a necessary evil if you want your stuff to stay nice and look great on your wall.

[Assistant] Those cheap frames are far far far from archival. If you don't have uv glass, the art is going to fade quickly. If you don't have non-acidic backing, it's going to discolor and hurt your image. Then there are things like museum glass that eliminate glare almost completely. You don't realize how nice that is until you see horrible glare on your poster from your lamp.


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

[User]
[Into the Spider-Verse] Why is Gwen enrolled at the private school?

Gwen is at the school before Miles gets powers. Not just there, but apparently enrolled and having a desk assigned.

Why was she at the school taking classes? Miles hadn't gotten powers, and it's a private school requiring enough tuition that Miles' parents are struggling. Also shouldn't there have been an application process/period to get in?

Why is she enrolled and taking classes, and how is she paying for it?

[Assistant]
I have a few theories:
1. she could have hacked her way in.
2. She could have taken some other girl's place, potentially her  alternate universe self's (we don't know if that universe has a Gwen, only that Peter B. Parker's and her's did).
3. Gwen may have had a connection in her own universe she exploited to get through the process - for instance, knowing enough black-mail material from one of her father's (Police Captain Stacy's) busts of a high profile individual to black-mail her way in.
4. The school's security is absolutely terrible, and no one is watching for just another blonde girl. Spider powers make her a ninja, and she stole the uniform from the locker rooms or someone else's dorm.


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

[User]
Does DeVos influence higher ed?

I've Googled, of course, but everything I've found is focused on primary/secondary education.

Would anyone 'in the know' share their knowledge about the effects her appointment might have on higher ed?

I'm currently interviewing for PhD programs and expect I'll go to a private university, but this could have far reaching effects beyond my years in grad school, and I would like to be informed sooner rather than later.

[Assistant] Yes, the Department of Education deals with higher education as well. The biggest involvement is through the Pell grant program which provides part of the support for many, many college students. That also means it's the agency responsible for issues involving the role of for-profit colleges. It's also the agency which handles most federal regulations about universities (for example, DeVos was asked whether she'd enforce regulations about how universities handle sexual assault cases).


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

[User]
CMV:Whites are more racists against black culture than black skin color

When we talk about racism in America, more often than not it's based around culture rather than skin color.  A black man that acts white, while still somewhat disadvantaged, does MUCH better in society than a black man that speaks in ebonics, has black culture mannerisms and generally gives off a vibe of highly ingrained black culture.

White culture, on average, is much more quiet and docile compared to black culture, which is often perceived as loud, arrogant and annoying by whites.

If you are black and are proud of your black culture and heritage, that's great, but don't expect white culture to embrace it.  If you want to have a better life, assimilate into white culture.

Edit: my view that blacks should assimilate into white culture has been changed.  That was a terrible view.

[Assistant]
I'd like to point out that the main reason blacks have a separate culture is because slavery, segregation and skin-color racism excluded them from mainstream, white culture, to the extent that they ended up developing their own form of English. You'll notice that England does not have a separate black culture, or not to the extent that America does.

So skin-color racism caused blacks to have a separate culture, which now white people are discriminating against them for having. It's like burning down someone's house, then complaining about the homeless person living in the neighborhood.


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

[User]
[Avatar: Legend of Korra] How would things have played out if Aang was still the Avatar during the events of LoK?

Lets assume that being in the ice for 100 years hadnt decreased Aangs lifespan, and he was still alive and kicking during the events of LoK. How would things have changed?

[Assistant]
For the most part, Korra's enemies would have chosen not to do what they did, or at least waited until Aang passed away.

Amon was raised on his father's stories of the avatar's power, and would have been too wary of Aang to start an uprising during his lifetime. Aang would have been easily able to reverse Amon's bloodbending trick, and thus expose his lie with little effort.

The Red Lotus might not have even formed if Aang hadn't died so (relatively) early. Their founder was disgusted at how the society had become "the avatar's bodyguards" while Korra was young, and eventually its members became dedicated to intentionally disrupting balance that the avatar tried to uphold. But if Aang survived a few decades more, that initial split would not have occurred. And without the Red Lotus, the Earth Kingdom would not have crumbled. So Kuvira wouldn't have had any reason to leave and become a dictator.

The only outlier is Unalaq. He was already a fanatic about harmonic convergence and creating a dark avatar with Vaatu. The water tribe civil war might not have happened without Korra, since she was being manipulated by Unalaq the entire time as part of his bigger plans. If anything, Raava would have communicated with Aang directly as harmonic convergence approached, and he would have stopped Unalaq before Vaatu could be released.


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

[User]
[RPGs] How come the stronger and healthier you are (more hit points), the longer it takes you to heal up to full strength? Shouldn't it be the opposite?

Whereas a rookie adventurer can be injured to near-unconsciousness, but then very quickly heal up to full strength.

[Assistant]
Suppose there are two adventurers. "Rookie" with 10 health, and "Veteran" with 100 health.

They both take an axe-to-the-face, which equals ten-damage. It's still the same wound here. It's not as if the Rookie is *completely destroyed* at 0/10, and the veteran is only mildly inconvenienced at 90/100. The difference is that the Rookie can't take as much damage as the veteran before reaching unconsciousness.

It would take both of them the same amount of time/healing resources to heal the same amount of damage. The only difference is that the Veteran can take 'more' without being knocked out of battle.


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

[User] [Star Wars] What is human language called? What is its origin?

[Assistant]
Every human in Star Wars speak Galactic Basic, which is the trade language derived from Old Coruscanti with a pidgin of words including Durese and Bothese.

Basic first appeared after the fall of the Rakatan Infinite Empire and during the Formation of the Galactic Republic.


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

[User]
[Marvel] What would happen if Juggernaut ran through a pool of molten adamantium which then started cooling?

The adamantium would become cool enough to solidify while he is in it.

[Assistant] The heat from the friction caused by Juggernaut moving through the liquid as it becomes more viscous would cause the adamantium to never solidify but instead reach a steady state of temperature/viscosity according to what speed Juggernaut entered the pool.


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

[User]
What are some lesser known traits of narcissistic personality disorder?

I know about the obvious traits, such as having a grandiose sense of self, being secretly insecure on the inside, and placing a great deal of care on their public image. I'm wondering what some of the lesser known traits of clinical narcissists are.

[Assistant]
Not realizing other people have feelings, or at least failing to understand feelings in others.  Narcissists tend to be empathically clueless or clumsy. They're the sort of person who says something incredibly offensive and then is confused or even angry at everyone for being offended.

Dr. Sam Gosling also noted this can show up when you give them compliments they clearly don't deserve or are obviously hyperbole:  They will react as if they deserve all of them and that the complimenting is normal, even if non-NPD observers can tell it's really sarcasm and/or mockery.


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

[User]
[X-Men] Could Charles Xavier use his powers to make humans stop hating mutants?

Charles Xavier has the power to manipulate and control the minds and thoughts of any living being, and with or without Cerebro(depending on the continuity) he could access every single mind on the planet. This got me thinking, could Charles theoretically use this to erase anti-mutant thoughts and feelings from human minds? That way, it would ensure that anti-mutant systems and programs would be discontinued and mutants would have any right, freedom, and privilege as anybody. Plus, by erasing these thoughts and memories, nobody would ever again know any different, so those sentiments couldn't come back. Just a thought.

[Assistant]
He absolutely could do that, but he explains on more than one occasion things like that won't work because it would take constant reinforcement.

Like he could convince a guy he's a woman but the effect wouldn't be permanent, the mind would find a way to circumvent his suggestion.


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

[User] ELI5:What is the purpose of Nautical Miles and why dont we just use regular Miles or Kilometers for ocean or air travel?

[Assistant] Nautical miles are useful because 1 nautical mile is 1 minute of latitude, or 1/60th of a degree of latitude.  It makes them useful when navigating on charts, where latitude and longitude are in degrees and fractions of degrees.


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

[User]
[Mass Effect] How many dreadnoughts do the Turians have?

I've never played the games myself, but I am very into all the lore and fluff of it.

I've tried looking at wikis and playthroughs of it, but have found no reference to the size of their fleet.

Was wondering if anyone knew the numbers, or a general idea / speculation of it.

[Assistant]
The Treaty of Farixen places limits on the numbers of dreadnoughts each species can produce on a 5:3:1 scale.

For every 5 dreadnoughts the turians build, the asari and salarians can build 3, and anyone else can build 1. In order to open an embassy on the Citadel, you have to sign the treaty and become subject to its limits.

As per the wiki article for "Starships":

>As of 2183, the turians had 37 dreadnoughts, the asari had 21, the salarians had 16, and the Alliance had 6 with another under construction.

>As of 2185, the dreadnought count was 39 turian, 20 asari, 16 salarian, and 8 human. By 2186, humans construct a ninth dreadnought, and the volus have built a single dreadnought of their own. The geth, unbound by the treaty, possess almost as many dreadnoughts as the turians.


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

[User] [Doctor Who] Did the 4th Doctor give Davros the idea that the Daleks could suppress the universe rather than just just the planet Skaro itself?

[Assistant]
He did yes, he told him of the entire future of the Daleks. How they would conquer and kill billions.  Before the Doctor's interference Davros believed it impossible that there even was life on other planets.

I guess you can blame the Time lords overall. They sent in the one man who they knew wouldn't have the will to do what needed to be done, without any weapons or backup, it's little wonder the Doctor messed things up. It's lucky he even got out alive, hardly anyone else did.

If the TL's wanted the Daleks stopped a quick, simple execution of Davros BEFORE he created them was what was needed.  They bottled it as did the Doctor. End result, trillions dead, including ironically all of them eventually.

What a mess up from the oldest civilization in history.


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

[User]
ELI5: how can law Enforcement track people using their phones?

Watching movies i get this question a lot
If a person throws his phone away , how does the police know who is the owner of the phone?

[Assistant]
Phones don't just magically give you the ability to call people, it is a service that you pay for. If you toss your phone away, the phone you pay the cell company for service, then someone who finds the phone can ask the cell company who pays the bill. That will lead back to you.

Of course there are temporary prepaid phones which can be bought with cash leaving no paper trail, and these make tracking down the user of the phone much more difficult if not impossible. This is why the police were peeved at Saul selling such phones out of his car in Better Call Saul.


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

[User] ELI5: If before the universe there was nothing, then the universe was created, shouldn't there be a field of nothing at the possible edge of the universe?

[Assistant]
A common misconception about the expansion of the universe is to imagine it's expanding in all directions in three dimensions. You envision a balloon that we're inside. The balloon is getting bigger, and you say 'there must be an actual balloon around this space'.

In reality, the universe as we know it *is* the surface of that balloon. The balloon is expanding into the fourth dimension. Like two dots on an inflating balloon, any two objects in the universe that aren't locked together are getting farther and farther apart. The speed of this separation is always proportional to the distance between the dots, with more distant dots moving away faster. Space is essentially being created everywhere at once, from our perspective.

Because of these observations, we know that the universe is expanding in the 4th dimension. But we have no idea what that looks like beyond that. Maybe, somewhere, not up, not forward, not left or right, but some fourth direction perpendicular to all of these there is a great wall of the universe. But we can't see it.

In the three dimensions we perceive and move in, the universe is boundless, like the surface of a ball.


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

[User]
CMV: Pickles don't belong on a burger

I just don't get how people like pickles on burgers. When you bite into a burger with pickles all you taste is pickle. When there is no pickle you get an even distribution of flavors. You can taste the condiments, the beef, the bun, the lettuce, tomato and onions. When there are pickles, the flavor profile changes to 80% pickle and everything else is muddled.

I do like pickles on their own. Going to a movie theater is not the same without getting a giant pickle to eat.  But in that case its OK that the pickle is such a strong flavor because that's what I'm eating... a pickle.

I've never had a burger I liked with pickles. None of the major fast-food chains nor homemade burgers. Am I doing something wrong or do people really like the overwhelming pickle flavor on burgers?

Edit: I should also mention that I *WANT* to like pickles on my burger. Hence CMV. I appreciate everyone's recommendations so far!

[Assistant]
IMO, you need some kind of acidity to cut through the fat of the meat and cheese and balance the flavours, be that tomatoes, pickles, and/or condiments.
OP, is it the taste of the dill you don't like?Maybe try slightly pickled red onion. Easy to make for a homemade burger at least and adds a nice zing.


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

[User] Do your cells stop dividing the second you die? If not, how long do they divide after you are dead?

[Assistant] Well that will vary for each cell. Most will die once they no longer have enough oxygen for aerobic respiration and thus can't power their necessary functions. If your someone like Henrietta Lacks scientists have kept your cells growing long after death.


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

[User] ELI5: Why and how does a panic attack occur? Is it describable by words?

[Assistant]
Basically it's your 'fight or flight' mode going into overdrive. The psychology is a bit more complicated, but essentially because of a mental condition such as a phobia or panic disorder, your brain decides that there is an immediate and very serious threat to you even though there isn't. Your brain then tells your body to prepare to either fight or run away.

This involves the release of adrenaline and the stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system. Your heart rate goes way up, you start breathing much faster and you sweat.

The fast breathing (hyperventilation) is quite important in a panic attack. Your body is preparing you for the sudden strenuous exercise involved in fighting or running away, but of course you don't actually end up doing any strenuous exercise. This means that you expel loads of carbon dioxide out through your lungs without much of it being produced from exercise. A loss of a lot of carbon dioxide changes the pH of the blood, and this can cause some of the other symptoms of a panic attack, such as lightheadedness and dizziness. You may then interpret the combination of all of the symptoms as "feeling like you're going to die".


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

[User]
[Bladerunner] - Why do replicants need to be retired?

As i understand it, they have a manufactured artificial lifespan, so whats wrong with just letting them live out their remaining 12 months??

[Assistant]
Remember, Roy and his cadre of escaped Nexus 6 replicants werent trying live a quiet life under the radar. They were living stealthily while working on a specific mission to seek out Eldon Tyrell and force him to expand their lifespans and when he told them he couldnt, the result was that Roy slowly shoved his thumbs into Tyrells eyes up to the palms and crushed his skull like an eggshell, then he went on to murder J.F. Sebastian (whose only crime was trying to help them and possibly being the genetic base for their senescence).

Replicants are super-strong humanoids with artificially limited lifespans  and the emotional experiences of a toddler. Beings who were made flawed on purpose, many of which have been actively traumatized during their short lives as workers, soldiers, servants or sex toys.

And you want to let them run loose for an indeterminate length of time before they die of system failure? This seems like a perfect recipe for suicide attacks and generally violent chaos. With no future to live for, replicants live for revenge against their creators.

For every Sapper Morton keeping it quiet, theres an Iggy, a Roy, a Trixie or a Priss they are stronger, faster, more clever, less restrained, and they are *righteously angry*.


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

[User] Does a container with a perfect vacuum in it float?

[Assistant]
It would if the container weighed less than the volume of air it has displaced. Lets assume we have a 1 meter cube of pure vacuum, this would displace just over 1kg of air, and hence, if the container itself weighed slightly less 1kg, it would float.

However, at sea level, air pressure is about 100000 pascals, or 100000 Newtons/m^2 . So each wall of our cube would be experiencing 100000 Newtons of force on it, trying to crush it inways, equivalent to 10 tonnes, 2 times the bite force of a T. Rex or the thrust of an F22 Raptor.

So if you can make something that weighs 1kg, and can withstand 10-60 tonnes of weight, you've got yourself a floating vacuum.

FYI, for these calculations it makes essentially no difference if we're talking absolute vacuum, or a practical, 99% vacuum.


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

[User]
[MCU] What do the Wakandan elites and general population think of Bucky during and after his stay with them?

Was he well received?  Respected and reviled in equal measures?  Did he develop any intimate relationships with anyone in the country while he was there?

[Assistant]
I doubt most even knew he was there. Those that did know he was there, knew that T'Challa was rehabilitating him as part of his new vision of Wakanda that is more interested in helping the world than isolating their country.

He definitely developed some kind of friendly relationship with ~~Okoye~~ Ayo, at least enough that he was comfortable asking her for some pretty big favors.

He also probably became friendly with Shuri as her technology helped with his rehabilitation and replacing his arm. How much so is up in the air at this point.

As for T'Challa himself, its likely they are on friendly terms but since T'Challa is extremely busy being the Black Panther and also leading his people, its unlikely he spent much time with Bucky other than the occasional checkup.


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

[User]
How do we hear sounds in our head that aren't being made?

For example, how can we hear a song in our heads if it isn't actually playing?

[Assistant]
We hear using our brain, not our ears. Your memory stores sounds; like your voice, or a song you heard.
When that memory is brought back to your current state of consciousness (like a song being stuck in your head), you remember it through the part of your mind that hears. Just like you remember what a place looks like visually, by bringing up a mental image in your head.


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

[User]
[General] What would happen to a Dyson Sphere if the star attached began to die?

When I think of a Dyson Sphere I imagine a boundless sort of energy. But I also think that it would be dangerous if the star died.

So what would happen to a Dyson Sphere if a star died? Could a sufficiently powerful empire prevent a stars death and continue the Dyson sphere?

[Assistant]
Stars take a really long time to die (predictable out to millions, billions or trillions of years in advance depending on the type of star), so in most sci-fi settings the Dyson Sphere could probably be evacuated even if they didn't have FTL technology. A good thing about stars running out of fuel (the most common way for a star to die) is that their output increases as fuel runs out and heavier elements start fusing in greater quantities so that would give the Dyson Sphere more power to work with in preparing for the star's death.

A lot of sci-fi settings would have the technology to stabilise the star via technobabble or possibly just collecting more fuel to feed into it (basically just tossing gas giants, brown dwarfs and possibly other smaller stars into it). Even in a really hard sci-fi setting there's several methods to extract the heavier elements in a star (collectively known as stellar lifting) to prevent those elements from eventually poisoning its fusion reaction which can substantially extend the life of any star. A good side effect of that is you're effectively mining the star for massive amounts of potentially very valuable material, likely more than existed in the star system outside of the star initially (e.g. our sun has a mass of just iron in it almost 5000 times greater than the total mass of Earth which is the largest rocky planet in the solar system).

I'll note that any civilisation that can build and use a Dyson Sphere's output is practically by definition powerful enough to substantially alter the star the Dyson Sphere is built around. Any Dyson Sphere should have a good degree of control over its star as far as stars can be controlled.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Why don't AT-ATs have shields?

I know they have armor strong enough to repel vehicle-based blaster cannons, but it seems like the sieges AT-ATs were designed for would include extra-heavy artillery weapons and bombing runs that they're woefully bad at defending against.  And wouldn't a shield stop yokel terrorists from cutting open the hatch with a ~lightsaber~ plasma torch and dumping a thermal detonator inside?

[Assistant]
>Bombing runs they're woefully bad at defending against

In the Battle of Hoth, the Empire has nearly complete air and space superiority. That's why the ion cannon was so important- without it, the transports were space dust.

They were only destroyed with a highly unusual and improvised attack strategy that happened because the rebels just so happened to have tow cables on their snowspeeders.


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

[User] When I recite my ABCs, am I firing neurons from my childhood? And/or am I firing the same network that dates back to my childhood?

[Assistant] Your brain is made up of more-or-less the same neurons as when you were a baby. And you're *probably* using similar neurons, an overlapping network, when you think now about things you learned then. But these neural networks change every time they are used for something; they grow, shift, shrink, etc. So it's certainly not the *same* network. But surely it overlaps in significant ways.


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

[User] [Star Wars] Did Vader find any satisfaction in stuff he used to like when he was a good guy? Did he still "like" fixing stuff, flying, etc?

[Assistant] He kept a custom fighter, and went out of his way to lead the fighter defense at the Battle of Yavin, which would indicate he still had some desire to fly. He wouldn't otherwise have been expected to "lead from the front" during that battle, anymore than Tarkin would have been.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do we safely film deep sea animals

Not our safety, but that of what they are filming. Some of these things never see the light of day and James Cameron over here is blasting it in the face with what must feel like the light of a billion suns, how does this not damage the eyes of the animals that have them?

[Assistant] We don't really know, but the things we see on camera don't seem to mind. The ones who really dislike light are gonna run or hide long before the light gets close enough to be really bright. From what we understand about vision in identified species, even if camera lighting does blind or disorient them, the ill effects should mostly be temporary. Even if the creatures we study are harmed, the assumption is that the ocean is vast enough that a few individuals having a bad time shouldn't cause a major issue for the population at large. These risks are outweighed by the benefits of this research, which can include conservation programs that help the whole ecosystem. There's also the long tail of medical+engineering+other technologies that tend to be discovered when we gain better understandings of new species. So no, perfect safety of the individuals under study is not a requirement for research to happen, but we figure the end result is worth small-scale risks.


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

[User] ELI5: Does a company care about whether it's stock price is high or low?

[Assistant]
Yes, for many reasons.

I'll assume that by "company" you actually mean the executive leadership and board members. A random employee may care indirectly (if the stock price is really low they might get laid off) but the stock price has very little direct effect on them.

The board and CXOs are typically compensated mostly in stock. So for them an increase in stock prices directly translates into extra money for them. For example, every time the price of Activision Blizard goes up by $1 Bobby Kotick's net worth goes up by $4million.

Companies may also need to raise additional financing. Sometimes this is in the form of a "secondary equity offering". Sometimes it's through debt. The stock price matters for both of them.

For the first it's pretty obvious. During an IPO a company typically only sell some of the shares. If they need more money they can later sell more shares. The higher the stock price the more they can get for those shares.

When companies try to take on debt the debtors try to figure out how likely they are to get their money back. If the company has great credit and they're almost guaranteed to pay everything back on time (AAA), they can get a good interest rate. If the company is likely to default creditors will demand compensation for that risk in the form of increased interest.

A major factor in estimating the default probability is to look at what percentage of the companies total assets would be needed to cover the debts. That is, if a company has trouble repaying debt, they can sell stock. The lower the stock price the more they need to sell to cover the debt. If the price gets too low they can't pay their debts even if they sold the entire company.

In addition to a low price making it more expensive to borrow money it can also trigger "debt covenants". Most loans have clauses that will force automatic asset sales if the stock price gets below a certain level.


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

[User]
Why does a person die when their neck is snapped?

Is the brain unable to tell the heart to continue beating, so the brain dies of oxygen deprivation?  If so, would this mean that a person who is hanged appears dead immediately but actually remains alive and alert for another minute or two?

Or am I way off?

[Assistant]
>Is the brain unable to tell the heart to continue beating, so the brain dies of oxygen deprivation?

Nope.  The heart is so cool it has its own nervous system (impulses originating in a structure called the S.A. node) that keeps it beating regardless of all else but oxygen supply to the heart.  Death from a broken neck is generally caused by severing of the phrenic nerve which controls the diaphragm muscle which facilitates breathing.

>If so, would this mean that a person who is hanged appears dead immediately but actually remains alive and alert for another minute or two?

Hanging (and some other forms of neck breaking) also puts pressure on the carotid arteries (blood vessels which supply blood to the brain) which causes unconsciousness in seconds and death in minutes.  That is long/standard drop hanging though and there are some forms (short drop) which are designed to just cut off air supply to the lungs at the trachea (or just severe the phrenic nerve) resulting in strangulation which involves 10min or so of consciousness.

When a good guy breaks a bad guy's neck in a movie they would indeed lie there unable to move or breath for several minutes unless the breakage caused the bone or swelling to interfere with blood flow to the brain or pain caused them to pass out.


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

[User]
ELI5 - If the body's internal temperature is roughly 37 degrees Celsius, why does it feel really hot when the outside temperature is 37 degrees Celsius?

Sorry not in Fahrenheit for our American friends. What is 37 Celsius in Fahrenheit?

[Assistant]
Our skin is a natural heatsink. The heat from our core warms up the skin which is cooled down by the surrounding air. Sweating speeds up this heat transfer process. But if the air tempature and body temperature are both 37C, this process slows down and we are venting less heat whilst constantly producing more heat, making us feel hotter.

Does it help if you imagine trying to cool boiling water down with boiling water?


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

[User]
Why does orbital penetration reduce the energy of an orbital?

I've read that by approaching the nucleus, the electrons lose energy. So i'm guessing that the 2s orbital is lower in energy than 2p since it is more penetrating, likewise for how 1s is lower energy than 2s. I would like to think this has something to do with Coulomb's Law but I'm not too sure why or how electrons lose energy near the nucleus?

[Assistant] In a 1 electron system, the energy of 2s and 2p is identical. However, in a multielectron system the 2s is slightly lower in energy. The attraction between the 2p electrons and the nucleus is screened by the 1s electrons, i.e. the negative charge of the 1s electron cancels out some of the positive charge from the nucleus, so the 2p electron feels less attractive force. Note that this only happens because the 1s electron is in between the nucleus and the 2p electron. The 2s electron, on the other hand, has some orbital density very close to the nucleus, so it is less affected by the screening effect of the 1s electron.