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

[User]
What was the peak population of dinosaurs?

Edit: thanks for the insightful responses!

To everyone attempting to comment at least 5, dont waste your time. You arent the first person to think of it and your post wont show up anyways.

[Assistant]
That would be...almost impossible to determine. We only know of about 700+ dinosaur species and wed be shooting in the dark regarding how big of a dinosaur population the various ecosystems throughout all of the Jurassic, Triassic and Cretaceous eras could support. We dont have the information needed to really accurately guess that. Itd be tough to even ballpark it.

We could probably assume their peak population was just before their mass extinction but theres the real possibility of that being inaccurate. The big limiting factor here would be how many plants there were and how many herbivores could they support? Then wed use that base as a guess into carnivore populations. The biggest problem here is we have no idea what percentage of the dinosaurs we have discovered as fossils and the same holds true for plant fossils and non-dinosaur fossils, which could also be prey items.

Any guess would be just that, a total guess.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are salt & pepper most commonly used together as opposed to salt and garlic, or other spices?

[Assistant]
Salt because it's a mineral that is essential for life, and we developed a specific taste for it.

Pepper because of France, and French cuisine, and everyone wanting to emulate French cuisine.

FYI, in Hungary, paprika is often in place of pepper.


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

[User] When I read an article on my phone, do I drain my battery significantly faster when I scroll a little as I read each line of text, compared to only scrolling once I've read a whole screen of text?

[Assistant]
'Significantly' is somewhat of a difficult term here.

Would you save power by displaying a static screen (a block of text) and only 'refresh' (scroll) the entire page in one go, only to stop and wait while the user reads? Yes, of course.

Scrolling takes up some power through both changing the screen display *and* the touch screen and CPU processing touch events and gestures (scrolling).

That said, you would save more power by dimming your phone screen by 15% (100 > 85, 60 > 45, etc) than by scrolling differently.

Bonus note: reloading a web page, such as when you're reading a 10 page article with just 2 paragraphs per page will use battery much faster. The WiFi chip is very power hungry, and constantly trading data (such as streaming music/video, or reloading web pages over and over) will use up quite a bit.


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

[User] ELI5: It seems like WWII is more prevalent in pop culture than WWI. For example, why are there way more movies about WWII than WWI?

[Assistant]
For one thing, Hollywood is an American industry that likes to make movies about American characters.  Since American troops only arrived in the final year of the war, there isn't much time for a story.

For another thing, the Western Front was pretty much stagnant for most of the war.  "We're in our trench and they're in their trench, and we're both getting blown to bits by artillery" doesn't make for a very compelling action movie.  The Eastern and other fronts were much more active, but again, a movie about Russians fighting Germans is a hard sell to Hollywood executives.

Finally, WWI didn't have a Hollywood "win".  Audiences want a happy ending, and "we decided to stop fighting, and Germany conceded some territory" isn't very satisfying.  The complicated politics that led up to the war also makes it more difficult to paint the Germans as villains.  With WWII it's much simpler: "Nazis = evil" is the easiest villain story there is.


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

[User]
Why is ice formed under slight pressure extremely brittle?

Ive experienced this with multiple ice cube trays in multiple freezers, that if you stack 2 ice cube trays to freeze, instead of making room to put them side by side, the top one works fine, the cubes pop right out, but the bottom one, the ice is really brittle, to the point that twisting the tray just results in a bunch of ice chips and a big mess.

Does the slight pressure from the top tray interfere with the crystal formation of the ice in the bottom tray that much? Is there a name for this phenomenon, are there examples in nature?

[Assistant]
It is not a matter of pressure, it is a matter of heat transfer.  An ice cube tray is designed to freeze the water from the top down, and being open on the top makes this the easiest place to remove heat from the water.  Also notice how the individual "cube" holders are slanted so they are smaller at the bottom.  As the top layer of water freezes, it pushes outward on the container and lifts itself up slightly.  The next layer down freezes, pushing the ice a little higher and this process continues all the way down.  What results is a strong cube that is relatively free from the sides of the tray and come out easily in one piece.

The tray on the bottom, however, cannot follow the same path since you have essentially insulated the top of the water.  Instead, the coldest area will be sides and bottom of the tray, and so freezing will happen on the surfaces of the tray first and move inward.  As this happens, the newly formed ice in the middle pushes outward on the older ice on the sides, creating a lot of stress and jamming the ice up against the side of the tray.  When you go to pop the ice out the twisting of the puts a lot of stress on the already stressed ice and it fractures.


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

[User] Do nuclear bombs create shrapnel (albiet useless), or is the metal casing instantaneously vaporized?

[Assistant] The material of the bomb itself is indeed instantly turned into plasma and accelerated to tens of kilometres per second, any shrapnel is generated by the shockwave once the distance from the epicentre is large enough that solid materials can stay solid and not vaporise.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does making movie cost so much money?

For example, Endgames budget is $356 million. What are the cost of it?

Also for animation movie, for example, Frozen 2s budget is $150 million. It might sound stupid but I really need to get it out. If the entire movie are made in computer, why is it cost that much?

[Assistant]
It takes a lot of people to make a movie.

Pay attention to the credits and you will see how much people work in the process of making it.

Aside the millions the actors earn, there are other hundreds of people working.

CGI demands expensive hardware and software and there are other production  costs.

They must travel, rent places, etc.

Marketing costs a lot in order to make a successful movie, and we can't forget the distribution costs.


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

[User]
What is meant by "weapons grade" uranium/plutonium?

I'm not sure if it's just common slang or military talk. Is there an actual difference? Does the uranium and such used in weapons actually differ from that which naturally occurs or is used in energy. Also, tag on question - what is depleted uranium used in weapons such as artillery shells?

[Assistant]
There is an actual difference. The difference is that "weapons grade" material is highly enriched with the fissile isotopes of the uranium/plutonium.

Natural uranium has less than 1% concentration of the naturally-occurring fissile isotope (uranium-235). For a uranium fission bomb, you need at least 80-90% uranium-235. So "weapons grade" material has to be highly enriched in order to remove a lot of the uranium-238 and increase the concentration of uranium-235.


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

[User] [General Fantasy] Has there ever been a case of a wizard/necromancer resurrecting himself? How would something like that be accomplished?

[Assistant] Liches, basically. It involves storing ones soul or essence in a specially designed and enchanted receptacle, a phylactery, so if the body is killed you can basically reform another one, so long as the phylactery is intact. Its relatively common (or, at least commonly encountered by adventurers) in many fantasy settings.


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

[User] ELI5: If we know that movies and shows are fake, then why so we still get teary-eyed or scared during certain scenes?

[Assistant]
One: because humans are storytelling creatures. Two: because humans possess empathy.

Firstly, humans are evolutionarily accustomed to receiving important, even life-saving info, from other humans in the form of a story. Before the bard told us about the hero's fight with the werewolf, bob was telling us about how he got away from a bear. Stories are part of our past, thus we pay attention to ones that have a lot of emotional power.

Secondly, humans can empathize with characters, because after suspension of disbelief the brain starts to think it's just watching an actual event unfold. We can put ourselves in characters' places and thus feel their emotions.


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

[User] ELI5: How are magnets made?

[Assistant]
To make modern strong neodymium magnets, first you've got to turn what starts out as powdered material into the magnet shape: this is done by pressing powder into a mould. A magnetic field may be used to line up the grains, but it does not hold this field.
Then the shaped powder is heated and kept at a temperature until the grains start to fuse together without melting in a process known as "sintering".

Now you have a solid lump of neodymium-iron-boron alloy in the shape of the magnet you want, but it isn't magnetic.

To make it magnetic, it is placed inside a coil of wire or "solenoid", which acts as an electromagnet. A current is passed through the coil and a strong magnetic field is produced, which causes the many magnetic "domains" inside the material to align so that when the external magnetic field is removed, the lump of metal has a net magnetic field.

It's as if the magnet is filled with lots of tiny bar magnets. Before the field is applied they are randomly oriented and their fields end up canceling each other out, but when a very strong external field is applied, they move to align with that field, so instead of canceling out, they add together to create a larger stronger magnetic field.


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

[User] What's the thickest atmosphere that Earth could conceivably support? Would each kilogram of atmosphere have enough gravity to hold another kilogram of atmosphere or is there some upper bound?

[Assistant]
There is an upper bound - stellar ignition when the pressure is high enough to start fusion and instead of a planet you have a star.

This close to our parent star, though... the solar wind stops us from accumulating any more atmosphere and what we do have is due to the shielding effect of our magnetic field.


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

[User] [Jessica Jones] Was Kilgrave always a monster or did his parents' experiments twist his sense of morality?

[Assistant]
Kilgrave wasn't always a monster.....

Children are monsters.

Children are still developing morality. They're learning empathy, and the golden rule. They're learning cooperation, and quid pro quo.

Kilgrave was a little boy who suddenly was unencumbered by the will of other people. Never had to share. Never had to compromise. No one to hold him accountable. No one to tell him what he was doing was wrong. Kilgrave went from living in our world, to living inside Grand Theft Auto.

On some level, Kilgrave doesn't believe other people really exist.

And why should he? Sure, They seem like they have their own desires, but with a mere utterance he can make them abandon their children, or jump off a building, or kill their parents. How real could these people really be inside? He's not cruel for doing that: he's generous for letting most of them live.

And then there's Jessica. She was great to have---useful, pretty and strong. She was like an exotic pet.

But then something amazing happened: she became real. Someone who could push back, who wasn't immediately absolutely compliant.

It was intoxicating.

In what had been a single player game for decades, Kilgrave had found a player 2. That's why he pursued her. Bought her childhood home. Spring her from jail. Had her followed.

Don't you see? He was just trying to get her to play....

So no. Kilgrave wasn't born a monster. He's just behaving how anyone would if they were the only man on Earth.


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

[User]
[General Sci-Fi] Which singular (normal-sized) alien would cause the most problems for earth?

Whether it's an alien like The Thing, a xenomorph or a 40K Ork, it doesn't matter. I suppose even Sith or Thanos (without the gems) would count in this question. But there's only one of them and it's teleported to the middle of a major city. It's only goal is, naturally, to destroy earth.

Which alien would cause the world to go to hell the fastest?

[Assistant] Anything that is a bioweapon, or could be considered as such, including due to alien microorganisms. So, The Thing, Xenomorphs, Orks, Tyrannids and any alien diseases. Orks are probably the worst, as they cannot be gotten rid of.


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

[User]
CMV: The probability of a successful penalty kick is too high

During this World Cup (if not all football matches) the issue of refereeing and judgment calls was enormous. In most situations, a goal is a rare and difficult achievement. In a penalty shot, however, the shooter has a tremendous advantage over the goalkeeper. Therefore, drawing a penalty shot in the box is clearly the best option in terms of chance of success of getting a goal. This statistical imbalance leads to high stakes and controversial umpiring, flopping, and skews the results of matches. A foul in basketball is not usually a big deal, as the odds of getting a basket are pretty high anyway. In soccer, since the odds of scoring a goal even under ideal conditions are low, the price of a penalty is extreme and frequently changes the outcome of games. This imbalance is also obvious in penalty kicks tiebreaker scenarios.

The obvious solution is that the shot should be significantly further away from the goal than is currently the case. Nothing else would need to change to correct the statistical imbalance and reduce the consequences of calling a foul in the box. The player should be far enough away from the goal that the goalkeeper should be able to stop all but the most extraordinary shots, as in the game itself when play is underway normally.

The current system introduces too much serendipity to the outcome. A quick whistle on a nervous ref, a momentary or slight touch by a defender that is exaggerated by an attacking player - its all relatively random.

If the distance from the goal were set such that the odds of a successful shot were reduced by 75%, given the relative improbability of a goal in active play, the deterrent effect on defenders would still be sufficient to stop gross fouls in the box. Games would be decided in a way more consistent with how the game is played 99% of the time (involving running, passing, and shooting). In short, I would like to see penalties significantly harder to turn into goals.

[Assistant] The low probability of goal is the very reason why penalties exist the way the do. If you remove them as a clear opportunity to score, you are basically giving defenders free range to faul attackers as much as possible. The better system would have 100 fail proof system to call a penalty from diving, but thats sadly still not possible even with video refereeing.


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

[User] When Nietzsche wrote "I love the one who does not want to have too many virtues. One virtue is more virtue than two, because it is more of a hook on which his doom may hang. " What does this mean?

[Assistant] It's also translated as 'I love him who desires not too many virtues. One virtue is more of a virtue than two, because it is more of a knot for one's destiny to cling to.' He's saying that in the quest for the overman one strong knot is more useful than two weaker ones, that by having just one virtue you will be able to do it better than if you had several.


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

[User] Why does our hair turn white/grey when we age? Why do young people get some random grey hairs?

[Assistant] As you age, the pigment cells in our hair follicles start to die off.  These pigment cells produce the melanin that colors your hair (much like your skin coloring in the sun). With a lower number of pigment cells there's less and less melanin being made and so your hair starts to lose its color.


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

[User] [Godzilla2014/Monster-verse] In memory of San Francisco and Janjira, what other natural or unnatural accidents of history do you think were covering up Monsters?

[Assistant]
We have mostly American records to go on.  Theories include:

1694: HMS Sussex destroyed by Kraken at Gibraltar.

1776 - American East Coast - Area affected by wanderings of a squidlike kaiju Gezora, emitting cold for several years.  This has an impact on the American Revolution.

1865 - Steamship Sultana explodes trying to evade "White River Monster", form of deep sea kaiju out of its natural environment in the Mississippi River.  Accounts differ if the kaiju attacked, or its presence inspired the crew to overtax the boilers out of desperation.

1874 Plague of Locusts in American MidWest - Actually a secondary result of a flying giant Praying Mantis.  Sightings of the Mantis are associated with native American 'Thunderbird' legends.

1906 San Francisco 'Earthquake'.  Giant Ants undermined the entire city.

1917 - Halifax Explosion. Only King Ghidorah attack documented in North America.

1940 Tacoma Narrows Bridge - Rodan overflight.  Considered unintentional.

1947 - Monte Serrat Funicular accident attributed to presence of a giant anaconda.

1975 Loss of the Edmund Fitzgerald on Lake Superior from irradiated 7 armed giant octopus.  The octopus was successful destroyed afterwards with assistance from Dr Benton Quest.

1986 Chernobyl - Unclear, but competing theories point to major kaiju mishap.  Continued quarantine of area suggests threat was only contained, not neutralized.

1998 - Cavalese Cable Car accident - A US aircraft may have been flying recklessly in pursuit of a flying kaiju. NATO protocols for these events have been revised, and training intensified.

Contrary to popular belief, an investigations of the Atlantic coast off the southeastern United States in the late 1970s did not yield any evidence of kaiju activity to explain the 'Bermuda Triangle'.   Dr Jon Quest's team is requesting funding to investigate with modern equipment.


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

[User]
Why does the air above heaters wiggle?

Like above heaters and hot things the air kinda moves? Also why does this only happen with hot things, the air doesnt do anything noticeable in the cold.

[Assistant]
It happens when an object is significantly warmer than the surrounding air. As the air warms it expands and becomes lighter than the cold air. When it rises up and the cold air falls, this distorts the light passing through causing it to appear wavey.

When an object is colder than the surrounding air, the air close to the object sinks into it creating an insulating layer so there is very little air movement and so no distortion.


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

[User] ELI5: Germany payed off its WW1 debt in October, 2010. How has this ceasing of payments affected the economy of Germany and the countries which were receiving these payments?

[Assistant]
Probably very, very, very little. The final payment was only 59 million pounds spread across several countries. The German National budget was 1.7 trillion in 2014. This has a lot to do with inflation and a reduction of the initial debt.

They got to spread the initial amount across 92 years.


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

[User]
[Batman] With so many secret societies operating in Gotham what kind of relationship do they have with one another?

So off the top of my head you've got the Court of Owls, the League of Assassins, and the Order of St. Dumas regularly operating in Gotham and tangling with the Batman. To what degree do these organizations and any similar ones I've missed interact with one another? I would think at a minimum the Court of Owls and the League of Assassins would come into conflict given the influence both try to exert over the city.

[Assistant]
Court of Owls and Church of Crime hate each other and were engaged in a secret war in the late 19th century. AND JONAH HEX WAS THERE.

The Order of St. Dumas is aware of the League of Shadows' existence and they are not on good terms; while searching for his father, Bane went after the Order and wound up stepping on Talia al Ghul's toes.

Doubt the League would like the Court since the Court is all about preserving Gotham's corruption and decadence, while the League is all about ending it catastrophically.


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

[User]
Is copper conductive in gas form?

If you had copper gas contained in a vacuum, could it conduct electricity and if so would it glow like neon? What color?

[Assistant]
Not in gas form, but as plasma it can. (Same goes for neon)

Lamps using sodium (pure yellow) and mercury (bluish white) metal vapor are the most common kind of electric lights these days, they're used in fluorescent lights and street lights.

There's usually some argon in there, which initially gets ionized to a plasma and then heats up the metal, which also starts to excite/ionize and glow.

Copper lamps aren't made often or used for much except as somewhat obsolete light sources for chemical analysis. The light from the copper is greenish.


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

[User] What keeps Jupiter, a gas giant, from collapsing under its own gravity and becoming a dense solid?

[Assistant]
Hydrostatic equilibrium is what you want to look into. It's what keeps big round things round, from planets to stars.

In Jupiter's case, the gas at the center is hot from the extreme pressure exerted by gravity. The heat and pressure causes the gas to rise, so there's an equilibrium between gravity pulling down and the heat and pressure pushing out.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] How do blasters work in terms of ammunition?

Looking at the Star Wars movies, we NEVER see anyone reloading or even saying they need a new weapon.

Is the ammo capacity infinite or what?

[Assistant] Some of this is sourced from Legends, but basically, your common blaster has two consumables: blaster gas and a power cell. There are multiple types of gas, including tibanna, which is harvested on Bespin. The different types explain the different colors of blaster bolt you'll see. As far as power cells, they're essentially a battery. There are some that are rechargeable and some that are disposable and replaced. With both the gas and the cells, however, a full load typically lasts long enough that you won't need to address it in the midst of a fight.


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

[User] ELI5: Why doesn't every plane have parachutes for every passenger in case of emergency?

[Assistant]
First. It would scare the passengers.

Second. Not everyone knows how to free fall, deploy a parachute in the right position, then land on the ground safely, it would be a nightmare explaining this on every commercial flight.

Third. It could be a liability in the case someone needs to use it and the parachute doesn't deploy correctly.

Fourth. Commercial airliners fly way at a very high altitude, the cabin has to be pressurized so opening a door is not feasible without repercussions and the air is very thin and hardly breathable.

Fifth. Ensuring the parachutes are in good working order would incur more fees that no one wants to pay for a flight.


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

[User]
Does the First Law of Thermodynamics imply that energy is eternal?

I've heard this mentioned in several debates as well as that if energy cannot be created nor destroyed, it sort of implies that energy has to be eternal.

Am I right in that assumption, at least regarding the Universe in its current state?

[Assistant]
Energy isn't a substance. It is a number associated with the kinematics of a system which remains accounted for as the system changes. More deeply, this conservation results because of the time symmetry of the physical laws via Emmy Noether's theorem. The first law of thermodynamics is a consequence of this theorem. Bad science fiction has really polluted people's views on what energy is and you often hear stuff like "made of pure energy" or somesuch nonsense. Energy is "eternal" in the same sense that if you throw 3 marbles in a paper bag, shake it up and leave it in your closet for a hundred years, you'll still only have 3 marbles when you finally open the bag again.

Here's a extra kicker, this conservation is broken in general relativity, only to be replaced by a generalized energymomentum conservation law which formally looks like,

    T_ab;b = 0

Or written in English, changes in stressenergy along the spacetime (curved or otherwise) is zero. However those familiar with this equation will know that it deceptively hides two terms which represent the exchange of energy and momentum with gravitation.


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

[User]
CMV: It is wrong to shame people in relationships with a significant age gap

Ive noticed that a lot of people on Reddit feel comfortable characterizing romantic relationships with a large age gap as creepy. Let me create a bit of a straw man here. Has anyone ever seen an exchange like this on Reddit?:

*OP  Im a 24-year-old female and Im having issues with my 38-year-old male partner focusing too much on work.* *He comes home stressed and exhausted and often doesnt have time for affection and conversation.* *When I bring up my concerns, he says that hes burning the candle at both ends and, hes doing the best he can.* *Am I being unreasonable here?*

*Redditor 1  First of all, your bf is a total creep.* *Theres a power differential here and hes gaslighting you.*

*Redditor 2  Eeewww!* *24 and 38!* *Yuck!* *Get out of there as soon as you can!*

I think I have that about right. If anyone feels that I have mischaracterized such exchanges, please let me know.

Ok, now that we have established that, Im going to say that I find the language used by Redditors 1 and 2 to be highly problematic. Why is it OK to dismiss the validity of a relationship out of hand simply based on an immutable trait like age? It wouldnt be OK to discriminate so blatantly against someone based on race or gender. What makes age different?

I suppose I understand the concept of power differentials in theory but in practice people mature at dramatically different rates. There are people who are pretty much all grown up in their early 20s, there are people who never really get the adult thing figured out. I think we have all met people who fall into either category too. Discriminating on age seems completely arbitrary to me.

This is why we should just accept the fact that if two adults are in a consensual relationship that they find mutually fulfilling we should avoid using judgmental language. To do otherwise, is to engage in prejudice.

Also, just to get this out of the way, I personally am pansexual (check out username), I had sexual relations with many different races, genders, sizes and of ages that range from 25 years older to 18 years younger than myself. I find sex to be a very healthy and wholesome activity and I think people are way too uptight about it. So, I know of what I speak.

All right, change my view people. Why is it OK to shame some people for their sexual decisions and not others?

[Assistant]
I mean, the different power dynamics at play *is* a pretty significant factor that your cant just hand-waive away. When theres that much of a difference in age, people can be more easily manipulated and taken advantage of.

Its especially weird when someone who just turned 18 is dating someone significantly older, because then theres the issue of was there any grooming involved.


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

[User] [The Matrix] Do the machines clone humans or do they harvest sperm and eggs to put in their artificial wombs?

[Assistant]
The latter.

Since there's somewhat of a genetic connection between human parents and children, it's easier to assimilate the program if any given offspring is the biological offspring of the parents.


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

[User]
ELI5: Saying random things in your sleep

What is the premise of sleep talking and why do people say completely random things in their sleep? Do names mean anything? And is it possible to say a name you don't have a connection to in some way?

[Assistant] Usually when you're asleep all of your voluntary muscles are turned off, this includes your vocal chords. For some reason, usually due to stress, illness, medications, or mental illness, your vocal chords and the skeletal muscles that help with speech aren't turned off. Usually when people sleep talk it has nothing to do with reality, and isn't always linked to what that person is dreaming about.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does the NBA draft work?

I'm Australian and drafts aren't done over here so it's a completely foreign subject. Over here, teams just offer people a place on spot much like you might be offered a job in the real world.

[Assistant]
The draft exists in the interest of competitive balance. The NBA wants all 30 of its teams to offer a product to fans worth selling, and that can't happen if incoming players are free to sign contracts with whichever team they want. The good players would be more likely to sign with teams that are already good, or teams that are in bigger markets. The skill gap between the top 5% of NBA players and the bottom 95% is simply too large to allow all the best players to go on a few teams.

So the basic idea is that all teams go through the draft before free agent signings, and they can use the draft to obtain the exclusive right to sign a player. And the order that teams go in the draft is largely determined by the reverse standings from the previous season (so the worst team in the NBA from the previous season is guaranteed a very high spot in the draft, which means they can select a player they think will be very good). Obviously, there are ways to change draft order; there's a lottery now, so the worst team isn't guaranteed the top spot in the next draft, and teams can also choose to trade away their picks in upcoming drafts. But most spots don't change.

So if a team selects a player in the draft, they have the exclusive right to sign a contract with that player (I believe that right lasts for one year). And players almost always sign a contract with the team that drafts them - higher draft picks get bigger contracts, after all, as well as being able to play on a team where they probably won't be overshadowed by another player.


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

[User]
If earth was on a collision course with a planet 2x our size, would we (our bodies) get sucked up and get hurled towards the other planet due to it's gravitational pull as the planets got closer?

What if the other planet was the exact same size as earth? Would we be off the ground but in suspension (floating) at some point?

[Assistant]
The key thing here isn't the total gravity of the planet, but the *tidal force* - that is, the *gradient* of gravity. Basically, the planet is pulling the Earth and you by about the same amount. So if the planet's gravity is stronger than the Earth's gravity, that just means that the whole Earth - you included - is accelerating towards the planet more than the planet is accelerating towards the Earth.

However, the force on the Earth and the force on a dude on the surface is only *about* the same. Gravity drops off with distance, so if you're on the near side of the Earth, then you feel slightly more gravity than the Earth does. So you will get pulled up. However, to actually get pulled off the Earth, this *difference* in gravity needs to be stronger than the *total* gravitational force that the Earth is pulling you with. This means that the planet would need to be extremely massive - really, something like a black hole - and not simply double the mass of the Earth. Then you could get people ripped off the surface of the Earth - and probably the Earth getting ripped apart too.

Alternately, if the planet was *really* close - like touching the Earth - then yes, at that point the gravity on the surface would cancel out. But that's like a single instant before the planets smash into each other.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do fluffy, soft blankets feel warmer to the touch?

[Assistant]
Baiscally, It is because they insulate our skin to dissipate heat.
Some material are good at conducting heat like most metals. Since our body is usually at a higher temperature than the object we touch, those material will grab the heat from our skin resulting in a cold sensation.
On the other hand , if our skin touches a material that prevent the heat to escape, our body heat doesn't escape and we get the sensation of warmth.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Does Snape know who's Cursing Harry's broom? Spoliers for the 1st book

During the Quidditch match Quirrell is cursing Harry's broom and even says he would have succeeded even with Snape preforming a counter curse

so did Snape know Quirrell was the one cursing it?

[Assistant]
Edit: The Gryffindor vs. Slytherin match occurred in November. By Quirrell's account, Snape already knew who he was by at least Halloween.

~~I don't recall if Quirrell states exactly when Snape discovered him, but he clearly does early on. So, it is reasonable to assume that he did know Quirrell was behind it.~~


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

[User]
CMV: "Woke" progressives and overt racists share a lot in common

By 'woke progressives', I mean activists who think having "black only zones" in colleges, or having a day when only people of color are allowed to be on a college campus is a good idea.

By overt racist, I mean the person who practices dictionary definition racism. Nazis, KKK, etc...

\- Both are obsessed with race

\- Both have a problem with the phrase "all lives matter"

\- Both don't consider Jewish people to be "white"

\- Both see race as a character trait

\- Both see the world through a racial lens

\- Both treat racial groups as monoliths

\- Both would like it to be legal to hire and admit to colleges based on race

\- Both don't think white actors should voice black cartoon characters

\- Both think that being white is a privilege

\- Both take issue with cultural appropriate (EG - white people shouldn't have dreadlocks)

\- Both would like it if black people only shopped at black owned businesses

To be clear, my view is that they share a lot in common, not that 100% of the things I've listed is 100% correct. IE - Pointing out a single flaw in this list won't change my view, but analyzing this on a wholistic/overall/general level could change my view.

[Assistant]
A lot of your points basically boil down to "they are both opposed to raceblind status quo apologism".

Sure. But two people being opposed to the same third thing, isn't automatically a *similarity* between them.

If it would be, then you could present ANY two radically incompatible people or ideologies, as semantically "similar", either by wordplay, or by pointing it out that neither of these opposed parties would like half-measures.

Adolf Hitler and Anne Frank had it in common, that neither of them wanted the jews to be hiding in attics.

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are similar, in that four years and a month ago, neither of them were hoping that today we would see the closure of the Trump presidency.


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

[User] ELI5: CyanogenMod for Android, What is it and why do so many people like it?

[Assistant]
It is a clean implementation of Android, done by volunteers based off of Google's reference model for the OS.

People like it because it's clean - it has none of the crap that phone makers tack on top of their own implementations of Android.


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

[User]
[DC Universe] Why was the Green Lantern's Oath made by the Guardians to rhyme in American English?

Presumably, there are millions if not billions of languages in the universe, many of which existed before the human race existed.  So why would the Oans create an oath in that rhymes in English, or is it just a near infinitely unlikely coincidence?

[Assistant] The oath in English rhymes, but it also rhymes in other languages. That is because the oath itself is not just verbatim translated, but translated for flow and feel as well. This is a testament to the power of the translators in the ring, they not only can make you understand most languages they will help you to understand all the nuances in those languages.


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

[User]
Would it be possible to design a spring with variable stiffness depending on an applied electrical current?

Say I want to design a constant force translational spring with a decent amount of play. For a constant force Fc, I guess the spring would have to obey Hooke's law F = kx, where k would equal to Fc/x.

Are there any materials where one could vary the stiffness using a current, or otherwise achieve a similar result? Current designs for constant force springs seem to have very little play. I could use an actuator but want to keep it as light as possible.

[Assistant]
Not quite what you're looking for, but there are magnetorheological dampers, which are hydraulic pistons filled with a ferrous fluid. An electrical current is applied to an electromagnet- usually just a spiral of copper wire inside the piston, and this causes the ferrous particles in the fluid to align, thereby increasing fluid viscosity. The piston becomes more difficult to move. If the electric current is relaxed then the fluid looses viscosity and the damper becomes more able to move. The amount of electric current can be fine-tuned in order to fine-tune how much force is resisted by the damper.

So you could have a spring next to an MR damper, and by modulating the damper you could modify both the apparent stiffness of the spring as well as the apparent restoring force. The problem with this setup is that the maximum restoring force is limited above by the natural stiffness of the spring (when fluid viscosity is zero), so you can have the spring's natural restoring force or you can reduce this. However, the apparent stiffness can be much larger, since the natural spring with a high viscosity state would lead to an overall resistance to compression that is greater than either the spring or MR damper individually.

In other words, you're going to have to do active control and you've got options for force response and this is going to make the entire system a look lot more complex that just a spring with a variable stiffness. Because you need active control you probably want to figure out whether the spring is being compressed or is relaxing, so you'd probably need a linear distance encoder or an LVDT in the system as well.


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

[User]
ELI5: [NSFW] Why are the breasts and the butt now sexualized body parts of women, when their biological purpose is not sex related?

*No misogynistic comments, please.*

It's clear why the vagina is sexualized, but why the breasts and the butt? If it's just because of the round, protruding shape, then why aren't pot-belly stomachs regarded as highly as the former?

Legitimately interested; inform me Reddit!

[Assistant]
The shape of the breasts and buttocks in women are considered secondary sex characteristics. This means that they are not directly related to reproduction, but are used as an indicator of sexual maturity, viability, health, etc.

A man looking at a woman cannot know directly if she is fertile and will make a satisfactory mother, but it happens that women with large breasts are, on average, better at providing children with nourishment, and women with particular fat distributions are likely to be of prime reproductive age (fat distribution changes with age).

As a result, brains find these things desirable. And culture responds to this desirability by relating it back directly to sex.


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

[User]
[Dragon Ball] As early as mid-DB, Goku is capable of jumping up to catch a dragon ball right before they all get scattered. So why don't the gang just do this every time, one can have their eye on each ball to do it?

Goku has the strength and speed to jump up and catch his grandpa's ball. So clearly every single Z fighter has the capability to easily eye one of the balls and do this. So why don't they? That way they have the dragon balls forever and ever without having to look for them. No need for any more dragon radar, no need to worry about anyone bad getting their hands on the balls, game set and match.

Why have they never thought of this?

[Assistant] Once they hit the point where they can travel around the world in the blink of an eye and they have the dragon radar, they don't really consider the dragon balls scattering to be a serious obstacle.  Collecting them is a minor inconvenience at worst.  They didn't think of doing that because that would be coming up with a solution for a problem that isn't really a problem.


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

[User]
[Ghostbusters] If ghosts are so obviously real, visible and pervasive, how are the ghostbusters the only ones?

The ghostbusters live in a world where paranormal entities are much less subtle, causing large amounts of damage to public property and being responsible for a large amount of panic and harassment. They're constantly clearly witnessed by people (there's one jogging in a park in broad daylight, for example), so why has no other scientist or institution done anything about them?

[Assistant]
The Ghostbusters created breakthrough technology to allow them to be able to catch ghosts.

Not even considering the years of research they invested to find the scientific principles behind the ghosts themselves. The have backpacked sized particle accelerators with the power of small nukes they use to catch ghosts. Those things are usually hundreds of meters long and need a constant high voltage energy supply to work.

Simply no one else has the technology and knowledge to do what the Ghostbusters do.


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

[User] [Star Wars] Would having a Death Star in orbit affect a planet's tides?

[Assistant]
The first Death Star had a radius of about 60km. The volume would be about 11000 km3. Our moon has a radius of about 1737km. The volume of the moon is around 22000000000 km3. Also we see lots of empty space within the Death Star in forms of corridors, rooms and the vast space to hold the generators and laser. We can assume it is much less dense than the moon. Therefore the mass of the Death Star is virtually nothing compared to the Moon.

So would having a Death Star in orbit effect a planet's tides? Probably not. The extra gravity pulling on the oceans would be too little to measure with anything but the most precise instruments.


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

[User]
When you are sick they tell you to cough up as much "infected" phlem as you can and get it out of your body, is coughing up and then swallowing it as effective?

There are many situations where it is not feasible or socially acceptable to get rid of the phlem you just coughed up so people just swallow it, is getting it out of your lungs and into your stomach as effective as out of your body? does it just get stuck in your throat again when you try to swallow? Also, I realize phlem might not be the right word but you all know what I mean.

[Assistant]
Normal lung secretions are designed to end up in the stomach.
They are tracked up through the bronchioles and bronchus by cilia (small rhythmically-flailing processes). They reach the oesophagus and are then swallowed. Any pathogens trapped in these mucous secretions are then destroyed in the highly acidic environment of the stomach.
As long as there are no breaches in your GIT integrity you should be able to do the same with mucous containing a higher viral/bacterial load with little consequence. Acid plus a thick mucous wall protects you, and will effectively remove the "infected" phlegm from your body.


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

[User]
CMV: The Highschool experience is a illusion

Everybody talks about how high schools are going to be some of your best years of your life and youll learn so much about yourself there. Well it isnt, also isnt it kinda ironic people say the same thing when you go college?

While I get it, high school is what you make of it, it truly isnt anything special that you arent going to do any other time of your younger life. Party? You can do it in college/ anywhere else. Sports? You can do that anywhere? Clubs? You can do that in college or anywhere else. The only thing I could potentially see going for HS Is senior prom. But thats a big joke, I have to pay for something really nice Im only going to wear maybe once or twice in a lifetime to go I guess party with friends? Whats the fucking point? I know Im not going to remember this night. Its completely ridiculous. High school is way to overhyped and I feel the complete opposite of how everyone portrays it.

[Assistant]
High school is unique because it's basically the only period in your life that you'll have access to some of the rights and privileges of an adult, but you're still a minor and only very nominally responsible as an adult, basically the only time in your life people are going to expect you to be a bit of a troublemaker and make some mistakes, once you're out of HS that privilege rapidly falls away.

The other thing I'd say is HS/college are unique in that your peers are also coming into their own as adults. While it's true people transform and grow their entire lives, the foundation of who you are as an adult will be the pillars you build in those years. Your relationships during this time, platonic and romantic, will color your perspective on relationships to some extent for a large period of your life. You're also starting to have a relationship closer to an equal than a subordinate with adults and how you go on to treat them will play into how you treat your elders/authority later in life. Stuff like that.

It's a very unique time.


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

[User] If I have a block of aluminium with a hole in it and i warm it up. Does the hole get smaller or larger?

[Assistant]
**If the aluminum block is unconstrained and you heat it uniformly, all features will expand uniformly**, regardless of whether they consist of metal or the lack of metal. Any holes or other features will expand at the same percentage as the entire block, estimated by multiplying the thermal expansion coefficient of aluminum (around 0.00002 per C) by the temperature increase.

**If the block is constrained and/or heated nonuniformly, it's possible for any particular hole to grow, shrink, or remain approximately the same**, depending on the specific conditions. Finite element analysis may be needed to predict how the size and shape changes for a certain feature.

Any answers that state unequivocally that the hole will grow are interpreting your question to mean the former case.


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

[User]
[DC Comics] What do other villains think of Lex Luthor?

In a lot of incarnations, most people dont know that Lex Luthor is a villain. He is mostly seen as a regular businessman/philanthropist/scientist who is actually known to be a pretty cool guy. Even when people do find out about his villainous habitats, its often after a lot of encounters at the hands of Superman and the Justice League.

So what do villains think of him?

Other than the ones he personally employs and hires, what do supervillains think of Lex Luthor?

Thanks!

[Assistant]
Short version: he's the smartest guy in the room, and they all know it.  This is the guy who throws down with *Superman* and sometimes even wins.  This is the guy who (sometimes) invites the *Joker* to supervillain teamups - and somehow gets him to play nice.  Do they like him or admire him?  Most villains are low on those qualities in general, being megalomaniac jackasses and all.  But almost all of them have a healthy respect for Lex's intelligence and managerial capabilities, in the same way almost all of them have a healthy fear of the Joker - because lacking those emotions is typically *not* healthy.

And yeah, if you're at all involved in the supervillain community, you *do* know Lex has his fingers in supervillain business - because he does hire supervillains to do his dirty work all the time, and he pays well enough to keep them from squealing but not enough to keep them from gossiping.


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

[User] Is it possible for a planet to have a perpetual solar eclipse if a satellite orbits at the same speed as the planets rotation?

[Assistant]
Kind of, but it's not very stable.

In this arrangement, the satellite is at the "L1 Lagrange point". This is where the gravity from the planet, the gravity from the star, and the effective centrifugal force from movement of the planet and the moon all cancel out, and the moon is at an equilibrium point in-between the planet and the star.

However, this is not a *stable* equilibrium. Although all the forces add up to zero (in a rotating frame), if you give the moon a tiny push, then it will drift away further and further and faster and faster until it's not near the L1 point anymore.

This means that you don't get moons naturally hanging out at the L1 point. But you can put an artificial satellite there. You do need to constantly give little boosts to correct the orbit to keep it there, but they only need to be small boosts.


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

[User]
How is it that Hegel managed to influence both far-left and far-right thinkers?

As the title says - both Karl Marx and Giovanni Gentile claim influence by Hegel, yet the two thinkers are explicitly opposed (note: I know Marx makes an explicit break with Hegel, but his influence is profound nonetheless). What is it in Hegel's work that influences them both?

[Assistant]
Hegel influences basically everything that comes after him, so we can expect his influence would span the political spectrum.

Less generally, the basic logic of Hegel's system intrinsically includes as a fundamental feature both conservative impulses and progressive impulses, in the sense that the key move of "sublation" involves both a preservation and an overcoming of what was. Such that it's understandable why people looking for either side of this move will find something worthwhile in Hegel.


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

[User]
[Spiderman] How has Spider-Mans identity been revealed sooner?

We see that in TASM and even TomS spider man they he carrys his phone with him where ever he goes so how has google or his cell provider see that he is traveling large distances in a short amount of time?

[Assistant]
Cell phone companies aren't in the business of tracking specific user's locations for no reason. Spidey's data is just one of millions that unless someone is specifically looking for abnormalities for some reason.

GPS Spoofing also exists, and are used for very mundane reasons. For example people used them to play Pokemon Go by tricking the game into thinking they are somewhere they are not .

Spidey's data wouldn't even be that far out of the ordinary. He travels by swinging, which isn't as fast as you'd think. He operates in NYC where the citywide speed limit is 25 mph, which is around how fast he casually swings around. His data would just seem like that of an overly enthusiastic delivery driver on a motorcycle recklessly zipping through traffic.

Parker also works as a photographer and part-time delivery driver who travels around the city for work.


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

[User]
[Marvel] In terms of spider-man's durability, can average mooks really hurt him?

Playing countless spider-man games and a few comics have taught me that if enough bald headed thugs land a dozen or so punches on him, he can be knocked out. But then Spidey has also survived insane amounts of force that would kill a normal person. Explain?

[Assistant]
Spider-Mans durability is in a weird place. It seems to be around city-level with a specific weakness to bullets and bladed weapons.

Throw him into a building at Mach 20? Hell shrug it off and crack a joke about it. Stab him with a small knife? His life is in legitimate danger and hell immediately go into panic mode.


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

[User]
If sodas like coke break down enamel, do they not also remove plaque?

We know the acids and such in soda breaks down the enamel of teeth, but if it does that, why does it not also clean them? I am aware the sugar in the soda will continue to feed the bacteria that produce the plaque, but shouldn't the soda break the plaque down too?

[Assistant]
Plaque is a biofilm of bacteria and extracellular matrix.  Biofilms are characteristically harder to kill, as it confers a survival advantage on the bacteria within it.  You need a physical force to remove the adhesion of the plaque to your teeth, like brushing or scraping.

Before you go to bed, instead of brushing first, use a mouthwash and see how much plaque that gets off.  Keep in mind mouthwash is 20%-25% ethanol, as well as a lot of other "physical killers" (it just rips up bacterial cell walls).

While it may remove some of the plaque, it will never remove enough to make your teeth feel clean.  It can *prevent* the build up of plaque, but only once you've physically removed the biofilm.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is assisted suicide illegal but DNR's are legal?

They are both to end potential suffering and both require you to be mentally capable to choose that option.

[Assistant]
The first is a request for someone to harm you and kill you. The second is a request for people to not give you medical treatment.

In general we acknowledge adults have a right to refuse medical treatment.

In the first example the action is taken by a doctor (or otherwise) and it leads to your death.  In the second **in**action happens, the law generally considers action and inaction differently, that's the main point.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why cant normal airplanes go to space?

I saw that our atmosphere is ~300 miles in depth. Normal airplanes can fly much farther than that so why cant they just fly straight up for 300 miles at a slower speed than a space rocket? Or why not a supersonic jet? Theres something Im not thinking about.

Edit:  Thanks for all the info everyone! I knew ELI5 would know the answer!

[Assistant]
Consider, why can't a swimmer swim into the sky? Because there is no water in the sky, and the water is what supports the swimmer.

Airplanes "swim" through the air. The air is what supports them. So they can't fly somewhere without air.


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

[User] [Star Trek] How does the crew of Enterprise know who to beam up, with only the phrase "(number) to beam up"?

[Assistant]
Transportees tend to cluster together, apart from non-transportees, when calling for extraction.

If you hear "five" and see that the guy who called it is standing next to four other guys you can probably just intuit who wants back up.


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

[User]
[MCU] why didn't the Avengers, especially Thor, take the scepter after the Chitauri invasion?

Why would they let SHIELD have it?

[Assistant] Thor's mission was to aquire the teseract from Loki, he didn't need to take the mindstone with him. Plus the other avengers would have trusted SHIELD to keep the scepter safe as SHIELD is after all a massive government agency with massive amounts of resourses. Also take into acount that back then the Avengers program was still under SHIELD so they were technically part of shield.


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

[User] [Judge Dredd] What would happen if a Megacity Judge chose to use their authority as judge and jury to be as soft on crime as possible, while still following the law?

[Assistant]
Judges are empowered to interpret and enforce the law as they see fit. Within the prescribed guidelines, leniency is an option open to them. One of the first ever sentences by the Judges was against "Smoothie" Booth, the last president of the United States, an irredeemably evil man who frankly deserved death if ever any human being did, and they all considered it; but in the end they opted for the arguably more lenient option of cryopreservation.

Later on Dredd himself would commute that sentence to a lifetime of community service, possibly even more lenient (though Dredd had cause to regret this later on)


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

[User] Why does plastic turn white at the creases when folded/bent?

[Assistant] Plastic is a polymer, meaning that it is a long chain of molecules bound together forming a structure. Now when you bend or fold plastic you are stretching out those chains, which then trap air in the gaps. That air distorts the color forming the white creases you are describing.


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

[User]
which one is bigger? 2018^2019 or 2019^2018

i don't know how i can calculate this, can someone help?

[Assistant] This is equivalent to asking if 2018^(1/2018) < 2019^(1/2019) (can you see why?). The function f(x)=x^(1/x) can be found, by using derivatives, to have an absolute max at 'x=e'. So after the x value 'e', the function decreases. What does tell you about the relationship between f(2018) and f(2019).


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

[User]
What's the distance between atoms in a solid?

Just wondering how close together atoms are together in a solid item or molecule. I know that electrons are far from the nucleus but say i have two atoms next to each other, are the nuclei seperated by the electrons or are the electrons just kind of interlocked and the nuclei next to eachother?

[Assistant]
Atoms are surrounded by electrons, yes, but only the outermost electrons participate in bonding.

Therefore yes, there is a "wall" of electrons between the nuclei of two atoms that are close to each other. (Meaning every electron that DOES NOT participate in bonding is still "AROUND" the individual atoms.)

Most bond lengths (the distance between adjacent nuclei) are on the order of 100-250 picometers. (10^-12 meters) The radius of the nucleus of an atom is about 1-10 femptometers (10^-15 meters).

So if the question you are asking is "how far apart are the electron clouds" the answer is 0 because they literally overlap.

If you're asking how far apart the NUCLEI are, the answer is 100-250 picometers.

It's worth noting that while you may THINK the nuclei make the "solid" part of matter, that really isn't true. Things appear and feel solid to us because of electron-electron repulsion. It's the electrons that make things "solid." The electrons in the atoms of our fingers don't want to get close to the electrons in the table that we're touching, so there is a "force" created there that pushes back when they get close.


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

[User]
ELI5:Why is digital privacy a big deal?

I understand that other countries with authoritarian governments could control their citizens if it's non-existent. Why is it a problem in the US?

[Assistant] Because we are supposed to be in charge of our government, not the other way around. Our constitution grants the government very limited power. Attempts to reach beyond that are interpreted as affronts to our freedom. Our basic right to liberty literally means to be left alone.  A government snooping into every email, text and phone call is not leaving us alone.  It can collect and use that information to effect political change (why was Watergate such a big thing?) to smear or intimidate / coerce people, or arrest people on suspicion of being a terrorist. (Can anyone really explain to me what a terrorist is? Sounds conveniently nebulous). Our privacy is a really really big thing. Its right up there with free speech and owning guns.


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

[User]
[The Boys] Who pierced Starlight's ears?

They had a hard enough time taking out he chip from her neck and didn't know if it would work. Also she has several ear holes, why don't they heal?

[Assistant]
Two possiblities.

A: Her powers wan if she's away from electricity and her powers have also developed since she was a child.  Basically its possible she wasn't always as durable as she is now.

B: Her skin CAN be pierced, it just takes special tools.  Its entirely possible that Voigt has a ear pirecing device for superheros. Nefarious reason, it tells them exactally how hard it is to pierce that child's skin if they ever become a problem.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do wheels appear to be turning backwards at certain speeds?

[Assistant]
This is caused by sampling their position at certain frequencies. For instance, if the wheel revolved 30 times per second but you sample it 31 times per second, each time you see it it will have *nearly* reached its starting point. When you join up those images, it appears to be moving backwards. Slight differences could cause other similar effects, such as the wheel appearing to rotate slowly.

Because this is a sampling rate effect, it can be seen any time there is such a sampling bias. Most obviously, film recordings sample at a set framerate, which is why you can see it in TV programs. Your eyes are not really susceptible on their own because they don't have a framerate in the same way, but environmental factors such as flourescent lights (which flicker very quickly) can still cause you to see a series of samples.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do nerve cells in very muscular/fat people accommodate for the increased surface area of skin?

Are more nerve cells created? What happens? Does touch sensitivity decrease due to reduced density?

[Assistant]
The same way nerves cover increased surface area as we grow from babies to adults, the axons grow. The tension being pulled on the axons as they are stretched to accommodate larger areas actually promotes growth of the axons

Edit: more eli5 explanation.  Nerves are composed of multiple fibers called axons.  An axon is basically like a usb cable communicating between the computer (neuron)  and another device (communicating neuron). Neurons do not usually multiply in number after early development,  however the axon coming off of the neuron has the ability to grow if stimulated to do so. When you get fatter and your skin begins to stretch this also pulls on the axons which will then be simulated to grow.


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

[User] If the sun were to suddenly turn 90 degrees, making its equator a meridian, what would happen to the solar system?

[Assistant]
Since the Sun is the most massive body in our solar system and also has the highest gravitational pull (due to its distance to the other bodies in our solar system), the effects of the rotation of the Sun must be examined in two cases:

If the Sun rotated about its center of gravity by 90 degrees, nothing appreciable would happen to the solar system because the Sun's center of gravity would exist in the same position in space.

However, if the Sun rotated by 90 degrees around an arbitrary point that was not its center of gravity, the orbits of the bodies in our solar system would change due to the stronger or weaker gravitational force. This is due to the respective increases or decreases of the distance between the center of gravity of the Sun and the orbiting bodies' centers of centers of gravity. Elliptical orbits would similarly have to be reevaluated, as the Sun may no longer exist at the foci of the ellipses.

**tl;dr** The answer depends greatly on whether the rotation is about the Sun's center of gravity.


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

[User] ELI5: What is the difference between hard and soft water? And why does soap not wash off as well depending on the type?

[Assistant]
So, basically, "hard" water means that there are dissolved bicarbonate minerals present in the water. This usually happens when the water in question filtered through limestone or chalk, which contain calcium and magnesium, though it can also occur with sulfur compounds.

These ions prevent the formation of lather because they destroy the soap's ability to lower the "surface tension" (known as the soap's "surfactance") between the liquid water and whatever you're trying to clean off. This is what gives soap its ability to remove dirt and grime.

While drinking hard water might carry some health benefits due to the mineral content, that same content is very bad from an industrial standpoint because of its tendency to form deposits, known as "scale," inside pipes and heat exchangers. Therefore, the practice of "water softening," removing these dissolved minerals, is very important.


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

[User] [Star Wars] What if anything could the Jedi have done to keep Anakin from joining the dark side?

[Assistant] Not *leave his mom to die in slavery* before raising him in a cold, emotionless environment devoid of affection and true interpersonal connections? Maybe paid a little attention to him every now and then... Seriously, everything about the Clone Wars era Jedi made them hard to sympathize with. They were horrible!


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

[User] Before ~1850, did people know the effects of drinking while pregnant? Or were many children just born with fetal alcohol syndrome?

[Assistant]
The effects of alcohol on pregnancy have been known since alcohol was introduced to humans.  The thing is fetal alcoholism syndrome is not caused by daily light use of alcohol.  It is from frequent heavy use.  Depending on the culture she lived in it would not have been appropriate for a lady of child bearing age to get drunk often, mostly because of the known association.

This also would have been further complicated by the fact that there were no commercially available pregnancy test until the 1960s so women had to rely on symptoms and knowing their body to confirm pregnancy.  So even if they knew there was a link they often did not know they were pregnant until after the sensitive period in the first trimester.  That is why many cultures discouraged heavy drinking during the child bearing years.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is it that chainsaws need a pull cord to start? Couldnt they just be turned off or on with a switch?

[Assistant] In order to do that it would need to have a battery, an electric starter motor, and a coil to generate electricity to recharge the battery, all of which would add a bunch of weight which you don't want with a handheld tool.


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

[User]
Can you Find new prime numbers by multiplying all of the known prime numbers and adding 1?

Our teacher showed us the proof to that there is an infinate number of prime numbers by using Euclid's theorem. If you add 1 to the product of all known prime numbers is it garanteed to get a new prime number? And if so why are people still looking for new prime numbers?

[Assistant]
If you multiply all known prime numbers and add 1, you won't necessarily obtain a new prime number. Another possibility is that you obtain a number that is the product of prime numbers that are all larger than the set of numbers you multiplied.

As an example: Suppose we consider 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13. If you multiply these and add 1, you obtain 30031, which is not prime, but rather the product of 59 and 509, both of which are prime numbers.

So the application of Euclid's Theorem is not a shortcut to finding new prime numbers. But it does guarantee that there are always more prime numbers to be found.

So why do people still look for prime numbers? Here it's not so much the destination that matters, as it is the journey. The efficient computation of prime numbers can have important applications in computer science (for example in encryption). Researchers that compute extremely large prime numbers aren't that interested in the actual number they find, but more in the methods used to find it.


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

[User]
[Fallout 3] How are They Playing Baseball in Vault 101?

There is a reference to baseball in the G.O.A.T., the *little leaguer* perk says the Vault Dweller was the little league MVP and baseball equipment can be found throughout the vault. A flyer says that games are played in the atrium. Theres enough evidence that there is a familiarity with the game and that there is some organized play.

Is enough space in the vault for this to work? Are there any modifications to the rules?

[Assistant]
It's likely that there is more to the vault than we see.  Maybe an elevator reaches floors that we haven't seen ourselves.

It wouldn't be huge, but they had a recreation area in Vault 81 down where the generator was that they repurposed.


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

[User] How is glass made, which is a mirror from one side, and a window from the other?

[Assistant]
You basically coat one side of glass with a reflective coating (thin, semi transparent reflective material like aluminium). This is done very sparsely, so the reflective molecules don't cover half of the glass.

The glass works as normal and people see each other, but if the surrounding area on the side with the coating is brightly lit, the reflective material does what it does best, reflects. The reflection is far brighter than what you see through the glass, and it dominates your eyes.

No such mirror exists which is a perfect mirror on one side and a window on the other.


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

[User]
ELI5:How did the Neanderthals die off ?

And how did Homo Sapiens contribute to their extinction.

[Assistant] They were gradually assimilated and outcompeted by Homo Sapiens. They had a lower brain capacity, and were less adaptable, and natural selection favored humans, who outcompeted them for food and living space. We do know that humans also interbred with them though, and it is estimated that up to 4% of our genome material is Neanderthal.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] What would have happened if Ron ran away?

In the first film (I am not sure it's exactly the same in the book) Ron rides the knight Chess piece during the wizard chess game. The last 3 moves in the match go as follows: Ron moves to check the king; the opposition queen moves out of Harry's way and takes Ron's knight piece; Harry moves to checkmate and wins the game. Harry and Ron both know all 3 of those moves are going to happen before they happen.

So here's the question. If Ron had moved the knight to threaten the king and then immediately lept of and ran towards his starting side, what would have happened? The knight would still be there threatening the king and he would have had sufficient space to run, unlike at the beginning of the game.

[Assistant]
>  The knight would still be there threatening the king

No, it wouldn't, because Ron *was* the knight, as far as the game was concerned. The horse he was on was just a prop. At best they would be down a piece for no benefit, at worst it might be considered a forfeit.


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

[User]
Why is it okay to cook beef to varying degrees of doneness but not okay for poultry or pork?

I have been in the cooking mood recently and I bought a meat thermometer. It seems that poultry you should always cook until it is thoroughly done, but I can cook a steak anywhere from rare to well done--and apparently there are some out there who eat some meats raw.

What's the difference? And is fish different? I have had raw fish in the form of sushi rolls before. Is some fish okay? And some not?

[Assistant]
Chicken has a high chance of carrying salmonella, and is prepared and handled in a less controlled manner than beef.  Most strains of salmonella are pathogenic.

Beef comes in a variety of ways: Ground beef should always be cooked thoroughly, as during the grinding process, the bacteria present gets mixed throughout. Steaks on the other hand should be cooked thoroughly, but can be cooked less to taste with minimal risk. The reason for this is when the steak is cut, the bacteria mostly stays on the outside of the cut, so cooking the outside should kill most of the bacteria.  Beef commonly carries E.coli, but most strains of it are not pathogenic.


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

[User]
[Dresden files] How does harry so consistently punch over his weight without dying?

is it just pure plot armor? or is there something about him more special than anyone previous? is he Merlin returned? or a time traveling merlin who hasn't yet gone back in time to make that prison island or something?

I'm rereading the series and, going through if fairly quickly he seems to ramp up his power algorithmically, he goes from a local magician/warden to destroying the entire red court, and gainins the title of winter night after barely holding his own against much weaker players in early books.

And this happens over the course of years (not decades) and it happens with a motley and rag tag crew of buddies, not wardens, not a trained army, not planning strategy and logictics on a grand scale

he's got massive plot armor or what? is one of his talents a luck trait ramped to 100?

I loved the series when I first read it, enjoying it now, but holy this this guy goes from zero to tank in no time  is there an explanation?

[Assistant]
Saying that he's punching above his weight class is underselling him.  Harry is easily one of the top ten in raw power, where mortal practitioners are concerned.

However, when he's going up against something out of his league, he prepares carefully.  He's basically wizard Batman, brooding and all.

When in combat, he's also not above fighting dirty.  After all, nobody expects a wizard to just slug you, and a punch to the face is a punch to the face, no matter how how supernaturally tough you are.


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

[User] [Stargate Universe] What do you think happened to those aboard the destiny after their stasis sleep?

[Assistant] I think eventually SGC would figure out a way to power another gate trip to Destiny, resupplying them, perhaps a few years into the intergalactic journey. In that time, new information gathered from Ancient and Asgardian sources would provided information not just on how to construct ZPMs but a new galaxy the Ancients discovered but were never heard from again and was the eventual target for Destiny.


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

[User]
Why do philosophers like Aristotle value virtue and not succumbing to unneeded desires when they dont believe in anything after life?

Wouldnt not believing in anything after life give you reason to live by your desires, if not for purely surviving but to enjoy life in the fullest?

[Assistant]
Aristotle doesnt view pleasure as the goal of a Good Life. He views happiness, or eudaimonia, as the goal of a Good Life.

Now, one might think that pleasure=happiness, but Aristotle would say that you can deceive yourself about what true happiness is, and that it actually lies in a life of pursuing the virtues, not in a life of pursuing simple pleasures.

Also, just an interesting side note, philosophers like John Stuart Mill would agree with the idea that the higher pleasures (virtue, intellectual pursuit, etc.) bring about more happiness than lower pleasures (sex, drugs, alcohol, etc.).


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

[User] Eli5: why aren't there bodies of other liquids besides water on earth? Are liquids just rare at our temperature and pressure?

[Assistant]
Pretty much. Water is special for a lot of reasons, in a chemistry sense.

The common gasses, Hydrogen, Helium, Nitrogen, CO2, Methane, etc... become liquid at very cold temperatures that we don't naturally experience here.

We have oceans of liquid rock and metal under the surface, because of the heat and pressure.

So then the question is, what other naturally occurring substance is liquid at approximately 300K and 1 atm?

While there are a few, there aren't any in great abundance. Not enough to make a geographic body of water.

You probably know but there are methane oceans on moons in our solar system.


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

[User] [Terminator] Could two humans have been sent back - Kyle Reese AND some dying guy with a high tech plasma gun shoved into his abdomen with skin stapled over it?

[Assistant]
Theoretically? Yes. Practically? No.

As long at the plasma weapon (or whatever) is sufficiently protected by the host's bio-field, it can be sent back. If the resistance had a laser weapon small enough for keister carry, Reese may have had an easier time.

Now, here's where it gets tricky. The resistance has a decent enough R&D department, but they are nowhere near Skynet on a number of fronts, especially the various quantum phenomena that allow time travel. Also keep in mind that the time machine systems are not designed with human operators in mind.

So in order for the resistance to send someone back in time, they need to overrun a Skynet time lab that is in good repair and has been prepped for the time jump. The machine that sent Reese back is the same machine that sent the original T-800; the resistance discovered the time lab shortly after the T-800 made its jump, and some time later they managed to reset it to send Reese.

Now, why didn't they send some more guys? They probably didn't know how to maintain the conditions necessary for multiple users, or Skynet retaliated, disabling the time equipment.

[*OOC: The original script included scenes where the audience saw the other soldiers sent back in time with Reese dying due to appearing inside buildings/solid objects or falling to their deaths. This was scrapped and the idea of the time field destroying the matter around the time jumper was introduced.]*


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

[User] ELI5: Why does the water from lakes not sift into the ground?

[Assistant]
Pour yourself a big bowl of corn flakes. Add milk until the level of the milk has risen about half way to the level of the corn flakes. You cant really see the milk under the corn flakes, can you?

Now take a spoon and dig corn flakes out of *just* the center of the bowl. Now you can see a little puddle of milk in the center of the bowl, right? And yet, you know there must also be milk underlying the remaining corn flakes, right?

This is how it works. The puddle you dug out is a lake. Its the *visible* part of what we call a water table. So are rivers. The rest of the water table is hidden by the soil you stand on. The bowl containing the milk and cornflakes is analogous to a layer, such as clay or bedrock, that the water cannot flow through. We call this kind of layer impermeable. Impermeable layers can slope, with water trapped between, and if you dig a hole in the ground at the bottom of the sloping layers, water will fountain outthis is what we call an artesian well.

Sometimes, the water drains out of the water table. Maybe it hasnt rained recently; maybe too many wells have been dug and water is being pumped out too fast. The soil that previously had a lot of water in it will shrink and collapse; we call this subsiding. Its one of the processes that can cause sinkholes to form.


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

[User] If we don't know the exact value for Pi, how can we know the exact area of a circle if that is 2(pi) Rad?

[Assistant]
We *do* know the exact value of pi. It's... pi. You are most likely conflating "knowing an exact value" with "having a terminating or repeating decimal representation". A number that lacks the latter is no less exact than any other number. Also, we may compute the decimal representation of pi for an arbitrarily large number of decimal places if we really wanted. There's rarely any point though.

(Finally, note that we may show that in planar Euclidean geometry, the ratio of circumference to radius is the same for all circles. So we may *define* 2\*pi to be that number such that C/r = 2\*pi. So whether you were able to calculate a decimal representation of pi or not, we know that C = 2\*pi\*r because we have defined it to be that.)


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

[User] How come the voltage drop across two parallel resistors on a circuit is the same even if the resistors have different resistances?

[Assistant] I see others are using analogies here, I'll just keep it simple. :) Voltage is measured between two points. In the case of your two parallel resistors, the ends of each resistor are effectively shorted together, just one big piece of low resistance metal. As such, they must both have the same voltage on either end.


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

[User]
ELI5 the Northern Ireland Protocol

read about a survey where the majority of the support was for the protocol, a change from when the majority were against it. ELI5 what is it?

[Assistant]
The peace treaty that ended decades of civil war in Northern Ireland was the Good Friday Agreement. Part of the Good Friday agreement said that the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland must be completely open ie people can come and go across it as they please bringing whatever they like with them.

As part of Brexit the UK decided it wanted to leave not only the EU but the European Free Trade Area (EFTA) and so have totally different rules for regulating the manufacture of products than the EU/EFTA.

So here you have a contradiction because the EU obviously has to be able to inspect goods that enter the EU from areas where they are not subject to EFTA rules (to ensure compliance with those rules), but the Good Friday Agreement basically says no goods inspection processes can be allowed because that would make it not a fully open border.

So the Northern Ireland Protocol is an agreement between the UK and EU to square that circle. It has two different parts to it

- Northern Ireland agrees to continue to follow EFTA rules for regulating and manufacturing products to make sure that all products in Northern Ireland are legal within the EU and thus the border can stay open with no checks.

- the UK agrees to institute checks on goods moving from the rest of the UK into Northern Ireland, to make sure that noncompliant goods available in the rest of the UK are not imported in to Northern Ireland.

So basically the UK can continue to make and sell goods that don't comply with EFTA rules in the rest of the UK, but it can't move those goods into the EU under EU rules and under the Northern Ireland Protocol it can't make them in Northern Ireland and nor can it make them in the rest of the UK and then import them into Northern Ireland. In exchange the border can stay open with no checks.


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

[User] [General] What are some 'flags of convenience' for starships?

[Assistant] I would guess there's probably a whole bunch of flying saucers zipping around the galaxy right now claiming diplomatic immunity as official ambassadors for Earth. You wouldn't know it, it's a little backwater, Class II civilisation on its best day... but it's got a right to representation and we totally have an Earthling envoy on board right now. We keep him in the anal probing chamber.


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

[User]
[Various Supermans] Why does Lex Luther never realize that all he needs to do to "beat" Superman is to make himself a -genuinely- better force for good?

With his resources he could fight to end poverty, his intellect could cure cancer, aids, or drug addiction, and his tech could be distributed to law enforcement . . . who needs super heroes at all when Johnny PD has a suit capable of fist fighting Superman? Any of these things or a combination of them would lead to Lex being both more loved and acknowledged than Supe, and Superman would fade into obscurity . . . all the while making Supe's skin crawl at the nagging thought that he -wants- Luther to be secretly plotting something.

Seems this would not only be easier but far more likely to work than every other Tuesday's plan to zap Superman with a kyptonite gun.

[Assistant]
Truthfully it wouldn't solve Lex's actual problem.  Lex Luthor was a rags to riches story.  He scrabbled hard his entire life, he struggled, he fought, he won everything he had with his mind and his ruthlessness and his cunning.  He got where he was through sheer, concentrated effort.

Other heroes, they got what they had because of trauma, because they fought for it.  You look at Batman, you know he's been through shit.  Hal Jordan, Martian Manhunter, even Flash, have been through horrible things.  Their power has weaknesses, limits, conditions.

And into Metropolis, into *Lex's* city, into the bastion of power he has built for himself so that everyone will know that Lex Luthor exists, that everyone will know Lex's life has meaning, floats someone that's not a man.  Someone that's a god.

And the thing that sticks in Luthor's craw most of all?  He's *nice*.  He's not the bigger fish that fears Luthor, he's not the smaller fish that challenges him.  He's so much bigger than Luthor that he's *nice* to Luthor.  He would genuinely applaud Luthor if Luthor cured cancer, or AIDS, or ended poverty.  Superman would smile and shake his hand.  Like he, Lex Luthor, was a trained dog who performed a particularly impressive trick.


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

[User] ELI5 : Why is it that smartphone batteries are said to deteriorate if used while charging, but the same is not true for laptop batteries and laptops are encouraged to be plugged in most of the time?

[Assistant]
I have not heard this specific phrase often, but this mainly has to do with heat generation.

Smartphones, as they are so small, develop quite some heat during charging nd during use. Because of the compact formfactor the heat from using the phone will also enter the battery, unlike in laptops where this component is usually thermally quite well isolated.

Modern batteries (lithium-ion) do not like heat a lot, and will deteriorate if heated often/long/much.

A lot of phones even work on lower clockspeed while charging, and are therefore slower while charging, to prevent too much heat build-up.


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

[User]
Is gravity weaker on top of a mountain?

Even though you're still on the ground, you're higher up, so is it weaker?

[Assistant] Yes, but not as much as the 1/r^2 dependence of g would suggest. Since you're standing on more rocks than at the bottom of the mountain you would have more mass under you. This actually leads to gravity being stronger above mountains at equal orbiting altitudes (depending on density of the rocks below).


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

[User]
[Discworld/LoTR] Would Captain Carrot Ironfoundersson have been a good candidate for carrying the One Ring?

Captain Carrot is mentioned to have very little in regard of ambition and imagination. He's (un)subtly hinted to be the true king of Ankh Morpork and the surrounding lands, yet refuses to become king because he believes they're flawed and that it's just not him. He is also willing and capable to follow his duties to the end, regardless of the consequences.

With all this in mind, would he not be a great candidate for carrying the One Ring to Mount Doom?

[Assistant] His personality certainly is well-suited, but part of what made the hobbits well-suited to Ringbearing is their rather limited capacity for personal power. Carrot is incredibly innately powerful, particularly in force of personality. The Ring would have a lot more ways to give him good reasons to use it that it could offer Sam, Frodo, Bilbo, or Smeagal, who bore the Ring longest by far.


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

[User]
CMV: Movie stars all wearing black at the Golden Globes in solidarity is a disingenuous move in order to save face with the public.

Ive been following the news for the last several months, and am as disgusted (but not surprised) as anyone can be. People being taken advantage of and victimized while having their careers dangled in front of them is awful and those in positions of power should be held accountable. That being said, the recent outpouring of support and condemnation from movie stars feels like obvious bandwagon behavior. These Hollywood veterans are no strangers to the system, and theyve all made careers by keeping their mouths shut instead of speaking out until now when its fashionable and wont hurt their careers. I genuinely want to have my view changed because I prefer to see the good in people instead of being a cynical asshole.

[Assistant]
Many actors and actresses spoke out against the abuse before and it didnt work, because lone voices are easily silenced, sued and smeared.

This kind of thing only works if everyone gets on the bandwagon.

Its like complaining that workers striking is a disingenuous bandwagon because each worker had a chance to speak out against unfair conditions earlier.


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

[User]
[Doctor Who] What is the nightmare child?

And why doctor is so afraid of him?

[Assistant]
>And why doctor is so afraid of him?

I think a more accurate phrasing would be 'it', and that sort of gives you part of your answer right there. At the burning heart of the time war millions of Time Lords and Daleks alike are continuously dying horrible deaths only to be resurrected by time itself and die all over again.

Part of this churning maw of death and destruction are the super weapons that have been unleashed by both sides, eldritch horrors like the Skaro Degradations, the Army of Mean-whiles and Never-weres led by the Could've Been King, the Horde of Travesties, and the Nightmare Child.

Only those that have witnessed the writhing heart of the Time War really knows with any certainty what those things could be, if any certainty is possible in that confusing distorted jumble of time and space, and those who have seen the Nightmare Child aren't very likely to want to relive the memory.


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

[User] [Futurama] How did Hermes recover from being a head in a jar? I thought cosmic fate doomed him to thus.

[Assistant]
That was his original head, the other heads and bodies were copies and thus were doomed.

The doomed copies were all destroyed at some point, allowing his original head and body to exist without any doom problems.

So they reattached the head and body and everything is peachy.


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

[User]
[Captain America The Winter Soldier][SPOILERS] Regarding the grenade launcher...

On the bridge fight Bucky shoots cap with a grenade. He protects himself with his shield but the explosion throws him off the bridge and into a bus.

How did it throw him? We see his shield completely redirecting the force of Thors hammer, but a grenade manages to blast him away?

I thought his shield was supposed to redirect energy or something to prevent stuff like that from happening. This is why he didn't get squashed by Thor.

[Assistant] Thor's hammer puts out force directly where it impacts the shield, and only there. The grenade puts out force in a shockwave in front of the shield. That is to say, if Winter Soldier had been right behind the grenade, he would've been pretty well torn up by the explosion, because the shield didn't absorb and redirect *all* of the energy. Steve got thrown by the blast wave that didn't impact the shield.


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

[User]
[Asimov's Foundation/Empire] Why was Aurora abandoned?

It was still perfectly habitable thousands of years later, with the greatest danger being feral dog packs. The Mycogenians lament their Lost World, but nobody ever mentions why it was lost.

[Assistant]
They followed the same path as Solaria, preferring remote social interactions to physical ones. Like most spacers colony they started having severe immunodeficiencies, forcing them to put in place very strict immigration rules, discouraging people to go through this hassle. Later on, they added a layer of xenophobia to their rules.

With very low immigration and very low fertility, they simply died out.


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

[User]
Why do we get "sand" in the corners of our eyes when we sleep? And why do we not get it during the day when we're awake?

Just wondering, can someone help me out?

[Assistant]
The "sand" is actually dried tears.

That is, tears are similar to salt water -- liquid with salts in them. Overnight, when the tears at the edges of your eyes dry, the salt is left behind as "sand".


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

[User] ELI5: Why are drug cartels not treated the same way as terrorist organizations when they pose a larger threat to north and south America?

[Assistant]
Because they are fundamentally different kinds of organizations.

Drug cartels are unlawful corporations. They are interested in making profit, and there will be them popping up because there is money to be made from these unlawful activities. You can fight them by attacking their way of making money. Anything else is rather useless on the long run because even if you take out current players, new ones will pop in their place.

Terrorist organizations are essentially unlawful charity organizations. They need money to operate, but they are not in the business to make money, but to make a change in the world. This usually means they are not long-term sustainable by themselves. This is because they did not arise from opportunity to make money, but from desire to change the world even if it costs them money.

This difference means terrorism is running on limited funds we can exhaust, and limited number of operatives we can kill. This means they're vulnerable in ways organized crime simply isn't. On the other hand, terrorists are dangerous in ways criminals aren't, as their motives aren't self-interest but rather selflessly destroying others.