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

[User]
Why did my bottle of water freeze after sticking a straw in it and taking a drink?

I got a bottle of water this morning. I always drink it with a straw, but, this morning something strange happened. Why after sticking a straw in a fresh bottle of water and taking a drink... Why did my water mostly freeze over? :/ Now I have to go thaw my water... When I first opened it it was all water, realyl liquidy, now trying to drink it's a really thick slushy.

[Assistant]
the water was probably slightly below freezing temperature. this can happen when the water is quite pure and in a smooth walled container so that there is no convenient starting point for the ice crystals to begin forming. when you introduced the straw it provided a surface on which the ice crystals could form. you can also sometimes start the freezing process by tapping the bottle of super cooled water on a hard surface

the opposite can also happen. heating distilled water in a smooth walled container in the microwave is dangerous because it can be heated to above 100 C without boiling. if the super heated water is disturbed it will boil explosively, and cover you in scalding hot water.


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

[User] ELI5: All cells in a living organisms share the same DNA but develop into different types of cells. What mechanism tells these cells which type of cell to become? How does it work?

[Assistant]
It all goes back to when you were conceived. The fertilized egg begins to divide. The cells start out undifferentiated, they could turn into anything. Then as the cells work through the genetic instructions they start designating certain cells for performing certain functions, making them "differentiated". Once differentiated those cells basically turn off all the parts of their DNA that doesnt work towards fulfilling their new role. So a muscle cell and a nerve cell may have a copy of the same instruction manual but each is working from different chapters.

As an adult a stem cell divides creating a new undifferentiated cell. That cell then responds to signals being sent out from surrounding cells. Skin for example. It is made of many layers of skin cells which are being produced on the bottom layer,then gradually get pushed up by newer cells and eventually reach the surface, die and flake off.

The stem cell is like your mom or dad, and they just made you and they tell you "you can be anything you want" and then the other skin cells are life and they say "no you're going to be a skin cell", so you become a skin cell.


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

[User]
Is it possible for someone to get PTSD from witnessing a suicide attempt, even if they werent there in person? (Over the phone, a loved one, etc)

I saw somewhere that it was possible to get PTSD from witnessing a suicide/suicide attempt and was just curious if its possible if the person didnt see it in person? What if you were talking to them on the phone when it happened? Or werent there in person but it occurred to a loved one?

[Assistant]
Indirect exposure is definitely a way to develop PTSD

From the DSM:

The person was exposed to: death, threatened death, actual or threatened serious injury, or actual or threatened sexual violence, in the following way(s):

Direct exposure
Witnessing the trauma
Learning that a relative or close friend was exposed to a trauma
Indirect exposure to aversive details of the trauma, usually in the course of professional duties (e.g., first responders, medics)


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

[User]
ELI5: How does the birthday paradox work?

The birthday paradox vaguely states that the odds of having the same birthday in a room of 20 people is about 50%. I tried finding the answer alone but no explanation I read helped.

Edit: Thank you everyone for your great expectations. I think I get the gist of it now.

[Assistant]
So. Let's talk about probability for a second. We're trying to calculate the probability that at least two people in a room share a birthday.

At first glance, it looks like a problem that's hard to even state in words, let alone compute.

But one of the fun things about probability is that you can solve a complex probability question P(A) by instead solving its *complement,* P(A') -- its opposite.

In this case, our P(A), what we want to find out, is the probability that at least two people in the room share a birthday.

Its opposite is "The probability that *nobody in the room* shares a birthday." This is our P(A'), and it's *much* easier to solve -- either nobody shares a birthday, or at least two people do.

For two people, the probability that they do not share a birthday is given by:

    P(A') = 365/365 * 364/365

This is because the second person can have any birthday that isn't the first person's.

Adding a third person gives us

    P(A') = 365/365 * 364/365 * 363/365

and so on. It turns out that, after adding the 23^rd person, P(A') becomes about 49.27%. Because this is the opposite of what we want to solve, subtract it from 1:

    P(A) = 1 - P(A')
    P(A) = 1 - .4927,
    P(A) = .5073

From there, we conclude that if you have 23 people in the room, the odds that at least two of them share a birthday is just over 50%.


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

[User]
ELI5 Why someone would want ALL drugs to be legalized

I am pro-legalization for marijuana and other "soft" drugs, but why would legalizing drugs like meth be a good idea?

[Assistant] By some measures, outlawing of popular recreational drugs results in considerably more societal ills than if we just regulated and taxed them. Because drugs are illegal, they are used to fund organized crime all over the world; they force partakers to get involved with shady people; they are not sufficiently researched for their effects on human health; they are not regulated, so people end up buying and injecting all kinds of horrendously danger chemicals; they continue to fuel the very expensive and very ineffective "war on drugs", which results in prisons full of people who've committed non-violent, victim-less crimes.


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

[User] ELI5: how is Alzheimer's disease fatal?

[Assistant]
Alzheimer's disease is a progressive neurological degeneration. Basically it causes the progressive loss of neurons, which are the cells in your brain that make up your nervous system.

While the early symptoms of Alzheimer's disease are the common forgetfulness, loss of abstract thought, etc., as the disease becomes more severe you start to pretty much lose the ability to take care of yourself at all. Complete lack of speech, total apathy, exhaustion, etc. Patients tend to die "with" Alzheimer's more than they die "of" it - dying of a complication like pneumonia or an infection that they get from being bedridden.


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

[User] What does Mr. Bean do for a living?

[Assistant]
He was part of an abandoned Soviet cloning experiment, one of 300 similar lab-grown people released secretly into the UK.

Developed during the Cold War, the project called for the covert integration of over 2,000 manufactured "citizens," genetically modified to be uniquely incompetent and unpredictable into several capitalist countries on the assumption that the ensuing chaos would be disastrous, or at least distracting enough to give the Soviet Union an edge should war break out.

The project was deemed unsuccessful and abandoned after 57% of clones were killed at crosswalks, in swimming pools, or by other people, and 12% were elected to various local and national political offices in their respective countries.


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

[User]
For COVID, What is the range of times from "below the PCR LOD" to onset of fever?

President Trump is reported to have tested positive for COVID Thursday (presumably evening) but also had a fever Friday afternoon.  He also has said he's tested at least daily.

This seems like a very fast progression.  My understanding is that PCR is sensitive enough to detect at viral loads well below what's necessary to trigger an immune response.  So is 24 hours from negative result to fever within the confidence interval?

I assume a negative test on Wednesday was a true negative, i.e. the viral load was below the limit of detection until Thursday.  I also assume the President's COVID samples are fast tracked so the result is known around 8 hours after the swab.

[Assistant]
Each PCR analyzer is given its own limit of detection. You do a serial dilution of a target and find where you can't detect it anymore. Then you do replicates of the smallest amount you can detect to be sure you can consistently detect it. There are a good number of other proving tests, but you asked for lod.

I know for CLIA monitered states, each individual lab has to do this themselves for laboratory developed test status. Unsure where Trump's samples are being run.


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

[User] ELI5: How are birds not a major problem at airports?

[Assistant]
They are! That's why airports go to extreme lengths to keep birds away.  Airports use many techniques to keep the area clear of birds, such as:

* Eliminating bird habitats. Birds usually come to the airport  area due to the availability of food sources. Denial of food to birds by  eliminating the sources (like landfills, garbage, crops, dumps etc)  will reduce the chance of birdstirke by eliminating the source. It also helps to keep the airport and surrounding areas unattractive  to birds (for example, by eliminating water stagnation, vegetation cover etc) as it prevents the birds from nesting there.
* Scaring them away. A number of airports use a number of bird  repellents like pyrotechnics, cannons (mostly just prior to aircraft  approach to prevent bird habituation), chemical repellents etc.
 In some cases, specially trained animals (like falcons, dogs etc) have been used to scare away the birds or they are trapped.
* Killing the birds in the area, though this drastic step is usually not implemented except in the most extreme cases. In general, the nesting sites of birds are destroyed to prevent them from staying permanently near the airport.


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

[User]
What's the smallest object you could 'stand on' that would have the same gravitational pull as earth, but you wouldn't have to worry about getting sucked/collapsing/spaghetification ?

Just something I was thinking about...

[Assistant]
You have two constraints to deal with:

1. The gravitational field g=GM/r^2 = 9.8 N/kg

2. The tidal field f=2GMh/r^3 where h is your height.

You can combine these into a restriction on r, independent of mass: r=2hg/f. If you're 6 feet tall and you want a tidal force less than 0.01 g (let's say), then this gives you a radius of 1200 feet.


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

[User]
How does NASA tell a deep space satellite like the Voyagers where to go in our solar system?

How do we send it that message? Also, what kind of coordinates do we give the machine?

[Assistant]
Probes like the Voyager are actually just following a pre planned trajectory, NASA never has to send them coordinates of where to go. When a probe like that is launched it is given enough velocity in order to escape the gravitational pull of the Sun, this is called the escape velocity. NASA just timed the launch such that it's escape trajectory would take it by certain planets on it's way out of the solar system.

Messages are still sent and received to and from deep space probes though they just serve other purposes. Information is sent by something called the Deep Space Network which is a group of large radio antennas separated around the Earth which was designed to communicate with deep space probes such as the Voyager. Information is received on the spacecraft by a radio antenna, a probe like the Voyager has a pretty big dish in order to receive signals that far away from Earth.


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

[User]
[Star Trek] Why is it so easy yet used so rarely for Starfleet to use surgery to disguise personnel as Klingons or Cardassians or Bajorans or any other species? Shouldn't this be far more widespread in its use?

Though, I also wonder if there's ever any complications from the surgery or the transition back to your normal body.

[Assistant]
A) It's superficial, a basic medical scan will instantly be able to tell.
B) It's only looks, the person has to be able to talk the talk (both language wise ad cultural wise) and that's not easy.
C) Espionage can be considered an act of war, and the Federation is not in the habit of starting wars.

That said, all of these things can be overcome, which shows why the technique is sometime used, but it's not used often.


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

[User]
Are film clips still "moving pictures" when recorded and stored digitally, or does the recording of a digital video work differently from analogue recording?

I put computing as flair, but I'm honestly not sure in which category this belongs. Feel free to mark it with more appropriate flair, admins.

[Assistant]
The basis of digital video formats is still a sequence of still images, just like analogue film.

However, for efficiency purposes, various optimizations are made, because storing a full resolution still image for every single frame would require a large amount of storage space (and a large amount of bandwidth to transfer).

The main way that digital video optimizes storage requirements is by not storing each frame as a full still image. Instead, a frame will only contain the differences between that frame and the previous. For most video clips large parts of the scene remain unchanged between two consecutive frames, which allows the next frame to be constructed using a relatively small amount of data.

In order to facilitate actions like forwarding and rewinding through a video, a "key frame" is inserted at regular intervals. Key frames contain the full image rather than only the differences between two frames. That way it's possible to start playback at a different point than the start of the video without having to first reconstruct the entire set of frames leading up to the selected starting point.

There are various techniques that further optimize the tradeoff between storage, quality and processing power needed, but the basic idea remains the same: Just like with analogue video, digital video still consists of individual frames that are recorded, stored and played sequentially.


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

[User]
ELI5: What are the psychoactive effects of nicotine and what is the chemistry behind them?

I recently read an article saying that nicotine is the "world's most popular placebo", in that it only produces a different effect depending on what the individual desires from tobacco. Is this true? Is it known that nicotine actually has any psychoactive effects? If so, how does it do this? Thanks!

[Assistant]
Nicotine has several effects on the brain; first and foremost is an increase in dopamine that stimulates "reward pathways" in the brain. This basically makes you feel good and happy.

Another effect of nicotine is a "rush", an acute increase in adrenaline that stimulates your body and mind.

Lastly nicotine can cause a sedative effect and make you tired or less energetic. This follows the initial rush or stimulation initially found in nicotine.


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

[User]
Why doesn't DNA get tangled inside the nucleus?

We've got about 1.8m of DNA in our nuclei and for most of the time it's not condensed so why isn't it just a single hypercomplex knot like my headphones when I put them into my pocket?

[Assistant] We actually have enzymes called topoisomerases that prevent our DNA from getting too knotted, by passing strands through each other. Viruses don't have these enzymes, so occasionally when they splort out their DNA, it's knotted.


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

[User] Just as theres a sonic boom by going faster than the speed of sound. Would something similar happen if we moved faster than the speed of light?

[Assistant]
There is a phenomena called 'Cherenkov radiation' which has an exact analog to sonic booms.

Nothing goes faster than light in a vacuum, but in a medium light moves slower. This is what the index of refraction tells you about a material- it's the ratio of the speed of light in a vacuum to the speed of light in the material.

If a charged particle moves faster than this speed in a material then it will produce a cone of electromagnetic radiation exactly like a sonic boom. This is commonly seen in physics experiments and nuclear reactors, if you watched 'Chernobyl' they showed a halo of blue light around the facility following the accident, which was this specific effect.


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

[User] Why does fire change colour with certain chemicals inside it?

[Assistant] The color represents electron transitions between orbitals on the vaporized material (i.e., the fuel, the combustion byproduct etc.) Different materials have different energy levels for their electrons.  The transition between these levels produces unique wavelengths of light.  Taken in aggregate, these are the colors you see in the flame.


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

[User]
[Lord of the Rings] What would happen if the one ring was encased in a block of iron or some other similar material?

Would it still be able to exert saurons will? How would it affect the ring bearer.

[Assistant] You'd have a block of iron with a ring in it. The ring's influence on it's wearer is most powerful with touch but in the end the ring also has a mind of it's own. It wants to be found so it'll find a way out of the iron block.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is wood so good for construction?

Since its an organic substance, shouldnt it deteriorate over time and eventually become too weak to support the weight of a house?

[Assistant] Wood actually hardens over time, so long as its kept dry. It can easily be treated with a variety of chemicals for mold resistance. Its a very cheap, easily sustainable resource. Its very strong a lightweight. It comes in a wide variety of types with different properties. It can flex and return to its original shape without permanent damage.


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

[User]
CMV: Objective quality does not exist in art.

Im a musician, so I hear this kind of talk a lot, from fellow musicians and non-musicians alike. When I share a piece of music that I like, I often hear this is shit, or this other song is so much better, and even positive reactions such as this is so much better than that dubstep garbage! And so often, I hear that terrible, terrible word...

Objectively...

There are things that you can say objectively about art. You can tell me what key a song is in, or what kind of paints were used on a canvas. But I really dont see how you can ever speak objectively about the quality of a work. Art is, at its core, about the individuals reaction to it. It is based on emotion. There are no quantifiable measurements that can determine if something is good or not, or better than something else.

Now, I agree that there are often cultural standards by which we judge art. A Monet painting is generally considered to be better than a stick figure. But is that because of some innate quality within it, or is it because we have been raised in an environment that teaches us a preference? Someone who grows up listening to rap will probably think that rap is better than jazz, for instance. As further evidence, entire artistic movements throughout history have been dedicated solely to destroying these standards. Dadaism and the music of John Cage are conspicuous examples. These movements were never about making bad art, but rather art that doesnt fit the societal standard.

I guess the summary of my belief is that elitism is dumb, because there is no objective measure of quality in art. I think people need to recognize that if they dont like a piece, its not because that piece is bad, but because they have not had the cultural background needed to appreciate it.

Anyway, let me know what you think.

[Assistant]
You're trying to grade art objectively on a scale of "good/bad" which is a paradox- an objective measure of a subjective scale? Objective taste? Obviously that's an oxymoron. However, there are plenty of other scales you could apply to a work of art. In a performance piece like singing or playing an instrument, you can objectively measure how close a human is to accurately producing the correct notes and the correct timing for the sheet music which is objectively written in ink. For a painting you can objectively measure things like how precise someone's brush strokes are (think here precision sign makers, calligraphers, people who copied books by hand looking like print in the medieval period). In film you can objectively note things like how clean the audio sounds (is there a ton of clearly unintended hiss, pops, distortion etc...?) poor use of the camera and light resulting in blown out images, etc....

There are ways to objectively, not just subjectively, compare the production values that go into a piece of art which separates works with the quality, experience, and motivation of a high school class project versus a professionally made work of art.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do you have to put in your debit pin in person, but not online?

[Assistant]
The Idea of a PIN as a cardholder verification method relies on the two sets of data involved (card number and PIN) not being transmitted in the same way.

For online websites, it's easier to use some other form of verifying the cardholder, such as with a billing address, CVC2 code, or two factor authentication, than to create some standardized way of transmitting pins in a secure fashion separate from the card number.


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

[User]
Does the Higgs Boson have more mass than the protons that were collided to create it?

My search attempts seem to suggest that it does have more mass than an individual proton at least.  But Im assuming thats at rest (if it matters here)?  Does this mean that its a demonstration of the creation of mass?  Is this creation of mass seen elsewhere in particle physics?  I apologize if this is all so confused as to be unanswerable.

[Assistant]
The Higgs boson mass is greater than the sum of two protons masses (it's about 125 proton masses).

However the invariant mass of a system of particles is not simply the sum of the masses of the individual particles.

The invariant mass of a system is equivalent to the total energy of the system in a reference frame where the total momentum is zero. In this frame, E = mc^(2).

So as long as two protons are collided in such a way that the energy in the center-of-mass frame exceeds the Higgs boson mass, production of a Higgs is energetically allowed.

Each of the beams at the LHC has a maximum energy of 7 TeV, meaning that the energy in the center-of-mass frame at the maximum is 14 TeV, which is well above the 125 GeV threshold for Higgs production.


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

[User]
[Marvel] Why do the ultra-powerful, cosmic beings allow the infinity stones to be freely available?

We see that the infinity stones have been collected and used by beings like Thanos, who although very powerful, are still just mortals.

Which means, ultra-powerful beings like Galactus or Eternity should have no problem finding and collecting them. So my question is, why do they not do this?

I could understand them not wanting to use the stones, because they wouldnt want to mess up the natural order of the universe, but why allow mere mortals to have access to them and potentially completely destroy all of reality?

Like, these beings must be aware of the stones and how they could easily be used against them if they fall into the wrong hands. So why not just find them, hide them away, and protect them so that the stones could never be a threat to their own existence and the natural order of things? As it stands, surely someone like Galactus would be paranoid that some dumb mortal could find them and wipe him out with the snap of their fingers, so he should have a vested interest in ensuring that doesnt happen.

[Assistant]
In the comics, before Thanos, nobody knew what the Infinity Gems could do.  Thanos was dead, and Mistress Death assigned him a task -- kill half the people in the universe.  Thanos told her he needed to do some research on that, and she let him use the Infinity Well (sort of a "magic mirror on the wall" in her realm that can answer any question if you know what to ask and have the patience).  So he basically spent several years down there asking it questions, until he got to the *right* question.  And that's when he learned the true power of the Infinity Gems.

Thanos was the first person to figure it out.  Now arguably, beings like Galactus or Eternity might have known what the gems could do.  But either they didn't know, or they didn't think anybody would ever do it, or they just didn't think about it.  The Infinity Gems are sources of great cosmic power, but individually they don't do much more than bump you up to a high tier superhuman (like Thor class).  And that's if you really know how to use it, which most people don't.  There are lots of cosmic doohickeys out there that are more impressive than a single Infinity Gem.

And as far as hiding them, the Gems *were* hidden.  Not only were they hidden, they were guarded by incredibly powerful defenders.

The Soul Gem was possessed by the In-Betweener, an entity that can sometimes rival Galactus in power, and at the least is a Silver Surfer-level being.  He didn't even know what the Soul Gem did, but he's a petty bastard and he's not going to give it up to anyone voluntarily.

The Champion of the Universe had the Power Gem.  Imagine a cross between Superman and the Hulk, he's immortal, and all he likes to do is fight.  He also doesn't know what the Power Gem does, it's just a good luck charm/trophy to him.  Secretly it augments his strength.  The only person who ever defeated him in direct combat was the Silver Surfer.  So he's pretty tough.

The Gardener had the Time Gem.  He's an Elder of the Universe and has vast cosmic powers.  He has tangled with the Hulk before.  Like the others, he used the Gem subconsciously.

The Runner is Marvel's version of the Flash, except he is immortal and runs in space.  He holds the Space Gem, and is the fastest being in existence.

The Collector had the Reality Gem, and he doesn't part with anything valuable, pretty much ever.  He's also got a bunch of amazing technology that he uses to protect his stuff.

Finally, the Mind Gem was held by the Grandmaster.  He is not quite Galactus level, but he's the ultimate schemer and game-player.

Each of these guys is an Avengers-level threat by themselves, without the Gems.  Normally the Gems would be safe in their hands.  It just so happens that Thanos is actually even more dangerous, and even then it took a very long time for him to become aware of the capabilities of the Gems.


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

[User] ELI5: When a movie is set in a different decade, how does a director gather the cars from that time period for all the scenes?

[Assistant] There are actually companies that specialize in providing vehicles for film use. They may own some vehicles(Plain everyday cars, emergency vehicles, etc) but for specific vehicles they just go find what they need. I've known a few people whose cars were rented to studios for film work.


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

[User]
ELI5: What does the United States gain by supporting Israel?

I have my thoughts but I ask this to get a better idea of  how others think regarding this situation. I feel like it gets us in a lot of predicaments... is it only to have a foothold in the Middle East, or is it our duty after WWII...? Let me know what you think.

[Assistant]
An essentially Western Liberal Democracy smack dab in a region filled with dictatorships, unfree democracies, and religious extremism. And one that has fought every country which borders it multiple times and come out on top.

So if you are going to be friends with a nation in a key region which shares essentially your social values and thoughts on government you could not really do better.

Seriously if we ever get into a real war we had better have them on our side with NATO.

The Saudis then are just to get shit done in the meantime because after too many ass whoppings the Arab nations dont like talking to Israel.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why that TV clip is not available in my country

Seriously. Why does SNL or the daily show not want to show me their stuff or advertize to me. I can understand them not actively seeking to advertize since I'm not in America, but why do they *actively* block videos outside the US?

[Assistant] Because TV shows are licensed for use on a country by country basis. If some network in your country has paid for the right to air SNL there, they'd get pretty upset if someone could watch it for free somewhere else.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do ads attached to videos tend to load faster with better quality than the actual video I'm trying to watch?

[Assistant]
The ads are presented to many people in your area for many different types of requests so they are kept in a local cache while your specific video likely is not.

Think about going to a car parts store and requesting a specific part. They need to go find it on the racks of many different parts. Also they give you a flyer of coupons with your order, a stack of which is kept at the front counter because they always need them for every order. The coupons are easy to get ahold of just like the advertisement is kept handy.


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

[User] Why are horns / trumpets shaped the way that they are? How does the flair increase volume?

[Assistant]
The "optimal" horn grows exponentially in diameter.  An exponential horn creates an impedance match between the small diameter tube and the open air.  It's effectively a hydraulic link- the small end of the bell has higher pressure (which you can push easily with your lungs) but low airflow (so you can blow longer).  The big end of the horn has lower pressure but moves much more air.  In the end this lets you create much more sound.

Most instruments don't have an exactly exponential horn, but it's close.  The length of the horn might be shorter or longer- this changes the frequencies that get amplified the most, changing the sound of the horn.  Long horns, like the winding, gradual increase in a sousaphone, cause longer wavelength, deeper sounds to be amplified the most.  Relatively short bells like that on a trumpet amplify higher pitches.


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

[User]
Why don't we get cancer in our muscles?

My biology professor and I couldn't figure it out. At first we thought it could be to multiplying tissue, but brain cells don't multiply and we can get brain cancer. We also thought of energy usage, but our brain cells also use a lot of energy. So I thought to ask reddit what they thought of this question. Why don't we get cancer in our muscles, and only in our organs.

*Thank you all for you input on this topic. You have taught me a lot. I will most definitely bring this research to the attention of my biology prof. Thanks Reddit!

[Assistant]
Cancer of the muscles (or other connective tissue) is called sarcoma.  Sarcoma is rare because cells within connective tissue divide very rarely.  In your brain counterexample, while the neurons don't divide, the support cells *do* divide, and these are what develop into brain cancer.

The reason that slowly dividing cells develop into cancer less frequently has to do with how cancer arises.  A cell is cancerous if it is able to divide uncontrollably, and this requires a series of successive mutations, breaking the many redundant "safety systems" that our cells express in order to prevent this behavior.

Here's a simple example - let's say that there are 5 genes that must be mutated to cause cancer.  You go out in the sun and get a bad sunburn, and it turns out that one of your skin cells has acquired a mutation in one of these genes.  That skin cell continues to live its life, dividing as normal.  Over time, there will be a *cluster* of skin cells that all contain this one mutation.  Years later, DNA replication in one of these cells causes another cancerous mutation, and now that cell has acquired 2 mutations.  This cell will form a colony of its own, creating more cells with both mutations.

In this way, the more rapidly a mutated cell divides, the more populated your body becomes with cells that contain this mutation - and there are more targets for further mutations that would lead to cancer.  Some of the most rapidly dividing cells form the *epithelium* of organs or other tissue - this is the layer of cells that replenishes tissue.  Cancer in this tissue (carcinoma) is much more common.


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

[User]
When is an island an island, and when is it big enough to be "land"?

Sorry but this stupid question is in my mind since this morning.

[Assistant]
There isn't a hard definition. But generally if the above-water landmass is on one continental plate, like Australia, and is reasonably depicted as an island on maps, then it is an island.

To depict Europe as an island, you would need a map that stretches halfway around the world to the Bering Strait and would include all of Mainland Asia and the Middle East, spanning multiple distinct tectonic plates.


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

[User]
[The Lion King] How is Simba, a growing male lion, getting enough macros from just eating insects?

His gainz are enough for him to grow from a cub to a full grown lion; strong enough to be mistaken for king of the jungle Mufasa. Is that possible for a loin on just a diet of bugs? Adult Simba beats Scar in a fight, and Scar is shown to be skinny and weak specifically because he didnt have access to dem choice grindz of antelope and hippo.

[Assistant]
The blue whale, the largest animal in the world, is able to get to that size by only eating krill. Krill are no larger than the size of a fingernail, but the whales just eat a LOT of them.

I can only imagine that Simba did the same thing. Lots and lots of bugs.


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

[User]
What are the current major challenges for developing an Alzheimers treatment based on amyloid inhibiting drugs?

This is a naive question. I was wondering if anyone could shed some light on it or point me to relevant articles/videos that speaks to this.

Since I presume a amyloid inhibition treatment is far from a novel idea, I was wondering what are the current the challenges with this approach. E.g. how many of these are valid statements? what other high level problems are there?

* It is largely unknown what regulates amyloid production,
* It is known that many separate processes produce amyloids, making inhibition a large scale problem,
* Insufficient knowledge to design something that inhibits amyloids without affecting other biochemical processes,
* No evidence that inhibting amyloids itself prevents/treats alzheimers

Thanks!

[Assistant]
>No evidence that inhibting amyloids itself prevents/treats alzheimers

This is the main problem, and obviously it is a sufficiently huge problem that none of the others are as important. The antibody aducanumab, which has been in the news the last few months, has essentially overcome the other problems you mention. It's reasonably well tolerated (albeit with side effects like any drug), and reduces amyloid plaques successfully. The problem is there's no compelling evidence it actually improves clinical outcomes.


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

[User]
[40k] Do Chaos Space Marines have friends/relationships?

In a world where everyone is insane, murderous, and obsessed with getting to the top (and usually getting there by stabbing somebody in the back) it seems like a horribly lonely life to go through, but on some level these people are comrades that show some care for each other right? Are there any examples of CSMs being bros with each other maybe even (with Slaanesh's urgings) getting together?

[Assistant]
Yes.

To what degree depends on the CSM in question.

Some are comrades, loyal only to each other, some are friends in degeneracy, others just get along.

 Fabius Bile, for example, has plenty of relationships with Apothecaries from other chapters (even from the world eaters).


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

[User]
ELI5: If a photon does not experience time and exists in its full trajectory at a given instant, how does it "perceive" a body moving to cut its path?

OK maybe ELI12 would do.

[Assistant]
In this way of envisioning the universe from the point of view of the photon, movement does not exist because time doesnt really have meaning. The object that intersects its path can be visualized as a 3D object smeared through the 4th dimension, and that smear at some point intersects the ray of the photon in the 4th dimension.

To make an analogy, imagine you are looking at a road that crosses a railroad line. How does the road see the rail line move and interact with it? It doesnt, they exist simultaneously with a particular point of intersection.


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

[User]
The temperature in space is about 3K, however there are almost no atoms in space. My understanding is that heat is essentially atomic vibrations. If there are almost no atoms, how can there be residual heat?

Also, as I understand in space there is no heat transfer via convection and it is mainly through EM radiation. In this case, why is it that if i were to go into space with no suit and just an airtight helmet through which I could breathe, I would still freeze to death very quickly?

[Assistant]
Heat can take a lot of forms. In the case of matter, it's the kinetic energy of the particles. In space, the temperature is determined by the energy density of photons.

Put another way, if you put a block of matter in space and let it cool by radiating photons it will eventually find equilibrium at about 2.7 K. It will absorb energy from photons from the cosmic microwave background at the same rate that it emits photons, thus reaching equilibrium.


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

[User] ELI5: How do multi-million dollar companies end up paying $0 tax?

[Assistant]
A few ways. First thing to know is Company's only pay tax on profits, not revenue.

1. Setup headquarters in low taxing country and shift profits there. One of the big mining company's in Australia sells it's own coal to a Singapore based company they own. In Australia then pay tax on the heavily discounted rate they sold it for or possibly make a loss and pay no tax. The coal is then on sold at full rate out of the Singapore company and hey presto you've got taxed in Singapore at a lower rate.

2. There is a thing called "carried forward losses". If you make no profit in a year then you pay no tax but if you made a loss then you can use that loss in future years to offset your tax. So if a company lost $500m in a year and have taxes of $100m for the next 5 years they pay no tax.


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

[User]
Does gravity effect wavelengths or energy? such as radio, light and so on.

Could something like a blackhole effect the wavelengths and energy of radio signals, light and turn them into different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum?

[Assistant]
In fact, this partially explains why black holes are black. As you know, the speed of light is invariant. So if you shoot a beam of light away from the singularity, what happens? With massive particles, you would say that no matter how fast they go, if they're within the event horizon, they will slow to a stop and then fall back instead of escaping.

But what about light? Light cannot slow down. So how can the gravity prevent light from escaping? Well, photons don't get slower, but they do lose energy. The equation works out the same: no matter how energetic, if a photon is emitted within the event horizon, it would need to lose all of its energy (i.e. have an infinite wavelength) before escaping. So we see no energy escape, thus no photon.


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

[User]
[The Office] How did Micahel Scott ever become a manager?

Seriously! I paid a visit to some of the smaller region of Dunder and his office is so completely miss managed. He is incapable, sexist, and quite frankly, not as funny as he thinks (although if you don't laugh at his jokes he gets all sad and the office seems to care about him when he is sad) Put aside the fact that he hasn't gotten fired yet, how did he get promoted in the first place?

[Assistant]
> his office is so completely miss managed

Not from a financial standpoint. He was a very successful salesman and his branch was the ONLY branch that remained profitable regardless of economic and business issues.


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

[User] ELI5: How do companies such as LaCroix, Bubly, Perrier etc... Have flavors, but contain no fruit juice, no sweeteners and no calories?

[Assistant] They typically contain something called natural flavors which La Croix states is from the natural essence oils from the named fruit used in each of the flavors which is created by heating the fruit at very high temperature to create a vapor that is then captured. Basically, they heat the fruit so it releases the oils/water into the air, and that is condensed into a scented (and arguably flavored) liquid. It creates just enough of something that you can taste and smell it, but since it isnt really from the fruit directly, it has no calories.


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

[User] ELI5: why do we "uhh" when we're trying to find words?

[Assistant] When you are in a dialogue you open up for others by not talking. However if you just pause to think you do not want to allow others to start talking so you need to fill the pause with something. A simple utterance like "uhh" or "mhh" or filler words like "you see" or "right" is often used as they do not require the speaker to think about what to say. One of the things people who are good at holding speeches do is to just let the pauses be silent as you do not need fillers in a monologue.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Lets say Vader is successful in bringing Padme back to life. What the hell was his plan after that?

She obviously hated when Anakin indulged in his darker side (See the Clovis series in The Clone Wars), and that was before he began to butcher not just the men, but the women and children too among any group that opposed the empire. Did he have a plan in place for convincing her, or was simply too blinded by love? On top of that, what the hell would Sidious do if he was successful?

[Assistant] One of the recent Vader comics covered that somewhat.  Padme was absolutely disgusted with what anakin had become and what he'd done.  She completely rejected him and refused to soothe him in anyway.  Vader for his part refused to believe he'd seen something real and that it was a trick.  He was lost in his grief he couldn't be the person padme loved and couldn't bring himself to even admit he'd killed her.  Assuming he was successful she'd turn on him and either force him to kill her again or kill herself to deny him any satisfaction.  If sidious found out about it he'd most likely put her into a medical coma of sorts to keep Vader under his heel but wouldn't outright kill her or vader.


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

[User]
[Breaking Bad] In an alternate universe where the police or DEA gets a hold of Walt's confession tape and end up believing it to be true would that be enough to even arrest Hank let alone convict him?

I may be wrong but I feel like aside from Walt's word the only real evidence would be Walt paying Hank's medical bills which I'm pretty sure any lawyer could reasonably argue that Hank had no knowledge as to the source of the money.

[Assistant]
As an LE officer himself, and a high up one at that, Hank probably has numerous methods and connections to make it go away.

While it seems like it is damning, there is really nothing in there that connects Hank to Walter other than Walter claiming that Hank forced him into it.

Generally, it doesn't take much to lead to an arrest, but again, Hank isn't your typical Joe Schmoe. Some DEA grunt isn't going to waltz into Hank's office and arrest him. But, let's say it ends up in some IA investigation and Hank, for whatever reason, can't make it go away.

The letter itself isn't particularly compelling and, in fact, is self contradictory, and any skillful lawyer will get this tossed out:

1. If Hank has connections in the drug world, why would he rely on his brother to cook meth? That makes no sense.
2. If Walt was so hard up for cash that he can be sold into indentured servitude, how did he get $177k to pay Hank's medical bills?

All Walt really does here is confess to his own crimes with an added "but Hank made me do it". Not particularly compelling.


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

[User]
[Marvel] What's the deal with Mysterio's magic?

I'm new to the city, and someone told me that Mysterio doesn't actually use magic. They said it's all just special effects. Is this some sort of conspiracy theory or is it common knowledge? From all the crazy stuff I've seen on the news over the years it definitely seems like magic is real, so why are there people doubting this guy?

[Assistant]
The confusion comes from the fact he turned out to be a disgraced practical effects artist  the first time the capes busted him. Other effects artists were able to testify in court as to how he executed a lot of his "magic", and this was before there were as many magic users operating openly, so at the time it made more sense than not to write him off as a fraud.

These days it's a bit less clear, because he's consistently scaled up in the size of the stunts he's pulling and the convincingness of those effects. To people who aren't following closely, he's still that "special effects villain," but he's gone well beyond what you can plausibly write off as convincing fakery.

The leading (conspiracy) theories floating out on the web are that he either developed innate illusion powers from exposure to terrigen or MGH or something, or he went the extra mile and learned some practical magic to spice up his arsenal. The wildest theory is that a lot of the big name terrorist groups slip him experimental tech, or that he went  to another dimension and came back with some fun supertech that *looks* like magic to the untrained observer.

One way or another, though, Spidey keeps handing him his ass, so no one cares enough to dig too far into any of it.


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

[User]
[The Walking Dead] If walkers are just decaying bodies, why are they so strong?

We have seen countless times with walkers how weak they are. A small tug on their arm and the whole thing pops off! So if their bodies are that weak, why can they tear open someone's skin so easily. By that logic, their fingers should rip right off applying that much force. Or their teeth should just fall right out trying to bite though muscle.

[Assistant]
Someone put this an easier way, but the human body is actually much stronger than you realize. You can bite your finger off like a carrot! But why can't you? Your brain is like "no don't do that." Its also why you cant do things for extended periods of time, you get tired and your body begins to hurt.

Walkers dont worry about this. They have no mental blockage, nor do they feel pain, or get tired. Pretty much, zombies can work at 110% muscle use all the time, at the expense of mental capabilities, which include problem solving, or even basic coordination. As time goes on though, walkers DO begin to decay and get weaker. The average lifespan of a zombie is estimated 2-5 years before decay simply renders there body useless. Any further questions?


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

[User]
ELI5: How do Whipped Cream Cans Work?

This question popped into my head while I was putting whipped cream on the lava cake I probably shouldn't be having. How do the cans spray out the whipped cream when you press your finger on top?

Hope my first ever Reddit post goes well...

[Assistant] The cream has nitrous oxide dissolved into it. Nitrous oxide is a gas at room temperature and *pressure*. Emphasis on pressure, because pressures affect boiling points and such. The pressure is much higher inside the can, allowing the nitrous oxide to remain a liquid at room temperature. Pressing down on the top opens a valve, allowing the liquid to flow from the higher pressure environment to the lower one (outside). With regular atmospheric pressure restored, the nitrous oxide boils out of the cream and "whips" it.


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

[User] What exactly determines whether a substance is absorbed through the skin into the bloodstream? For example, why do nicotine patches work, whereas deodorants are (assumedly) not absorbed into the bloodstream?

[Assistant]
It depends a lot on the lipid (fat) solubility of the drug, as well as it's pH, the size of the molecule, what it might be encapsulated in, etc. Its generally safe to assume MOST drugs won't be absorbed into the bloodstream in their "normal" form to any significant amount. Some drugs (nicotine, fentanyl, codeine) can be prepared in such as way that they can pass through the layers of skin.

The difficulty is that to pass through cells, the shortest distance (transcellular), a substance must pass multiple fat and water layers. Since its very hard to make something that can dissolve in both without disrupting them, this route is rarely if ever used. Instead, must drugs go "intracellularly", meaning they weave in between cell-cell junctions. This limits the size of the molecule, the pH, the temperature at which it can be used, etc.


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

[User] ELI5 Why does the discovery of Kepler-452b is such a big news even though it is so far that we won`t ever reach it ?

[Assistant] What's exciting to me is that this planet is Earth-like, orbiting a sun-like star, and has been in its habitable zone for a few billion years *more* than we've been orbiting our sun. This means there is a very high chance that life has existed or does exist on this planet. A higher chance than any other planet we have discovered AFAIK. That's huge to me. It's exciting. We now know more about our universe. We know that planets that can potentially sustain life aren't quite as rare as we thought. What *isn't* interesting about that?? It's really fucking cool. Yeah, we can't go there quite yet but that isn't the point. Discoveries fuel the flames of discoverers. Galileo was discovering shit in the sky left and right 300 years before humans figured out how to fly. Maybe in 300 years we will have the ability to get to Kepler-452b. But of course that wouldn't happen if no one knew it was there to begin with.


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

[User]
ELI5: Canned tuna. Why does it stay good for so long? Why is light tuna low in mercury?

How is canned tuna cooked, and why is storing it in a can with a bunch of water keeping it good for so long, whereas without the can cooked fish goes bad pretty quickly? And what is light tuna, and why is it lower in mercury than, say, white tuna?

[Assistant] I don't know about tuna specifically, but canned food in general lasts a long time because the canning process kills all the microorganisms that were in it. Usually you put the food in the can and seal it, then heat it up, cooking the food inside and sterilizing it at the same time. Without the bacteria and fungi breaking things down, the food takes a lot longer to decay.


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

[User]
The definition of a "purebred" dog should be liberalized to improve health. CMV.

While certain breeds of dog (Labrador retriever) are sufficiently popular that it is easy to find genetically diverse parents and breed healthy puppies, this is far from true for all dog breeds.  Some, such as pugs and bulldogs, suffer from serious congenital health problems.  These breeds would benefit from the selective addition of out-of-breed DNA, but current rules prevent this from occurring.  There should be some sort of liberalization that permits breeders to create a certified purebred pug with only 7/8 great-grandparents who are pugs (or some other such loophole).  That way people who want a purebred dog rather than a mutt can get their wish, but can nevertheless reap the benefits of genetic diversity.

[Assistant] I feel that a better way of handling this problem would be for the AKC to start enforcing breeding health requirements. At present, any backyard breeder can become AKC registered, oftentimes with nothing more than an official pedigree. Not requiring health standards in breeding is essentially what allows devastating congenital problems such as hip dysplasia to be reinforced in the gene pool.


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

[User] Didn't the person who wrote world's first compiler have to, well, compile it somehow?Did he compile it at all, and if he did, how did he do that?

[Assistant]
Early on in the history of computing, programs would be written as a sequence of operations in assembly language, which basically means they would be written in terms of actual physical operations for the computer architecture to perform, e.g. copy this numeric value to that memory location.

That's obviously very time consuming and difficult, and it means that programs have to be rewritten for each new type of processor that you run them on. So to make it easier, higher level languages that are more human readable were created, with commands that basically work as shortcuts for all the repetitive number-juggling required in assembly language. So you have to write a compiler in assembly language, which doesn't require compiling.

It's interesting that you ask "did **he** compile it at all", since the first person to write a compiler was actually a woman, Grace Hopper :)


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

[User]
ELI5: What in the brain differentiates between romantic love and platonic love?

What in the brain actually causes the different feelings? I'm not asking how one's feelings differentiate, only their brainso a scientific *reason*. How does the brain respond differently and cause different chemicals to be produced or whatnot?

[Assistant]
The short of it is, when something excites your brain, there is an increased frequency of charge distributions that occur over the neuron. The more exciting something is, the higher frequency (more often) the charges zip back and forth, telling the neuron to release the happy neurochemicals. It is not equal, because your Amgdala and Hippocampus perceive simulations as requiring a different amount of each neurochemical. If you romantically love someone, you have a high frequency of complementary neurochemicals (dopamine, oxytocin, and vasopressin), operating when your central nervous system is excited from your perception. Contrasting this with plantonic love, you will simply have a decreased amount of activity, and much much less vasopressin. The amount of interactions to successfully trigger the next response (temporal/spatial summation) will be lower, and so the signal doesn't travel as vigorously. This leads to A) the message not completing a "full circuit" and B) a decreased overall volume of chemicals.

Hope that helped.


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

[User]
Has a gravitational force been observed between massless particles?

Light is attracted to mass by gravity (black holes, gravitational lensing). Due to Newton's 3rd law (For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction) the light will assert a force on the mass via gravity. Extending this, is a gravitational force between photons? And is it large enough to be observed?

I understand at high energies, pair production will be a factor, but I was thinking about lower energies than this.

Additional question: If you shine two lasers of wavelength X metres in parallel, Y metres apart, how long will it before the beams converge due to gravity.

I'm not sure about my logic here. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

[Assistant]
> Extending this, is a gravitational force between photons?

Yes, if they are not perfectly parallel (that also answers your last question).

> And is it large enough to be observed?

Not with today's technology, and not with any planned or even proposed experiment.


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

[User] [Infinity Gauntlet/Thanos/General Marvel] Why did Death spurn Thanos? How could Thanos win Death's love? Does Death have big ones?

[Assistant]
Thanos is basically just a "niceguy." Besides her interest in Deadpool, Death is a pretty rational lady. She knows exactly how sociopathic, narcissistic, and generally lacking in compassion Thanos is.

If he wants to win her love he needs to be more compassionate and heroic like Deadpool.

I don't know what you mean by big ones. Do you mean her boobs? Well she's a comic book character and she's female. Of course she's got giant titties.


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

[User]
[Power Puff Girls] Does Professor Utonium get tax breaks?

The PPG are his children, but they're not really. Would he still get tax breaks?

[Assistant] They're registered as his dependents, and they're enrolled in school. Yeah, he probably gets tax breaks. He also probably gets a Townsville Superhero Tax Exemption card for stuff like sales tax as well.


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

[User]
Is there any possibility that meteorites/asteroids have some new material? Like a new metal that doesn't exist in earth?

(I'm not sure if that's the best flair)

[Assistant]
This depends what you mean by "material".

If you mean element, probably not, as the majority of elements have been discovered and those that haven't have been theorised (i.e the periodic table).

However a unique alloy or composition of elements with a unique structure that we haven't seen before is definitely possible.


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

[User]
[MARVEL] Shouldn't most of the universe be absolutely terrified of earthlings by now

Like earth power level is busted. Even though most of earth is lower the a type one civilization. They have a ridiculous amount of cosmic level beings on one planet and a bunch of geniuses that can bend science into whatever they want.Not to mention they literally have actual gods and advanced magic on their side.

They have already beaten some of the strongest army's in the universe and taken down cosmic gods that have terrorize the universe since the beginning of time

I think on the comic scale earth is probably the biggest threat to the entire universe.

[Assistant]
Earth itself, and its people, are really not that serious of a threat. Most of the universe tries its level best not to kick the fucking hornets' nest, and most Earthlings are only passively aware of a wider cosmic community beyond their planet. Most heroes and villains either don't have a reason to go out into the wider universe, or don't have the means to do so.

Yes, some Earthlings CAN do some pretty incredible things and YES some of the things those individuals might choose to do can have devastating effects on the universe at large, but more often than not these individuals either don't care about the broader cosmos, or wind up self contained by the efforts of other Earthlings.

So, Yes, Earth is potentially very dangerous, but really it only shows up on the wider cosmos when some arrogant fucknozzle with more ego than brains decides to throw down with the Florida Man of this particular branch of the universe.


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

[User]
Are neonicotinoids 'bee killing' pesticides?

The EU is talking about banning neonicotinoids, and everybody is raving about how this is evidence based policy.  I can see there is some evidence that neonicotinoids kill bees, but it's not obviously conclusive (from my very quick scan of the literature).

These kinds of questions have been asked a few years ago, but I believe significant new evidence has come out since, so I think it's worth asking again.

Edit: thanks for all the answers so far.  I just wanted to clarify: I suppose the point in the question is - if they ban neonicotinoids, would that have a significant positive effect on bee populations?

Of course, many of the answers have addressed that, and answers to the unclarified question are still appreciated.

[Assistant]
"Neonics" are insecticidal chemicals that will kill pretty much any insect including bees. The problem is with application. No one is spraying bees with insecticide (maybe some peoole are idk) but their use leaves large residual ammounts in the environment which eventually get back to the bees since they tend to get around. Neonics are used to protect crops from crop pests but guess who is pollinating thise same crops? Its the bees. So even without targeting bees with insecticides they still get adequate contact and dosage to have an effect on their health.

Source: Im an entomology grad student that works on how to kill social insects (ants).


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

[User]
If all knowledge were destroyed and had to be rediscovered, how would philosophy look different? How would it look the same?

For context, I'm from physics/mathematics where I think that the same concepts would be discovered and the same theories would be developed and organized in largely the same way. There might be different 'strange coincidences' between seemingly disparate subfields discovered at different times that are later reconciled within a larger theory but the fact will remain that the fields of math and physics divide themselves neatly in a way such that if any one subfield were missing, we would still stumble upon it at roughly the same point in history and it would illuminate the remaining subfields.

Is the same true in philosophy? Is it possible to imagine an alternate history where X subfield never developed? Which subfields would always arise? Which wouldn't? Could some emerge in fragments or as hybrids?

[Assistant] This may be interesting to you, because Alisdair MacIntyre would say that not only would philosophy be completely different, science would be as well because of the lack of a proper cultural context to situate a proper methodology and facts in. Think Canticle for Leibowitz if you know it. This was a famous point he made in the opening pages of After Virtue, where he argues that this scenario has indeed happened to moral philosophy, which has been at a dead end because of it. Hes a bit more optimistic of the ability to actually do proper moral philosophy if we return to a proper cultural context though.


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

[User]
[MCU] Which movie caused the most property damage?

Not counting either of the Avengers films, which dealt with much bigger problems, so had much more damage. Would the destruction of Pym Tech have a larger effect on the economy than Hulk "breaking" Harlem? What about Thor destroying a small town? Or the destruction of an oil rig by Iron Man, including environmental damage?

EDIT: don't include GOTG, The Collectors warehouse was probably more valuable than earth

EDIT 2: I'm asking about damage done on earth that we could make a reasonable guess on its price or economic damage. So no GOTG or damage done in other realms.

[Assistant] Winter Soldier must be up there. 3 helicarriers isn't cheap, and the triskelion is a huge building with some of the most advanced technology in the world inside, and the hangers that Insight was built in.


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

[User]
I believe Ed Snowden is a hero, but still has to answer for breaking the law, CMV

He did a good thing, but broke the law. Tell me why he shouldn't go to jail.

[Assistant]
/devils advocate

Even though he broke the law and released classified information. If the information proves to reveal unconstitutional activities. He should not go to jail because the government was engaging in something against the law and he had a duty to bring that information to light.


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

[User] Eli5 how headphones with 40mm drivers reproduce low bass notes convincingly, but it takes a very large loudspeaker driver to reproduce bass notes?

[Assistant]
Volume, essentially. Amplitude captured by microphones and processed through digital audio equipment is very, very low. Anything that processes and produces sound captured on a microphone uses a series of amplifiers that add gain to a signal to boost it to audible volumes. The raw signal is very, very quiet.

Producing volume takes energy. To produce a bass note at high volume takes a lot of air movement through a pumped large speaker. At the level of your ear, with a speaker directly inside your ear drum, far less energy is required because you can pick up far quieter volumes from that proximity.

In essence, the nites frequency is the easy part, producing it at an audible volume is the part that requires large speakers and energy.


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

[User] [Marvel] Would Magneto be able to use his powers to lift up Thor's hammer without too much of a struggle?

[Assistant]
What the people who keep asking these questions don't realize is that Mjolnir isn't exceptionally heavy.  It weighs about as much as a hammer that size would weigh. What makes it impossible to lift is the fact that, when someone tries to wield it, the magic resists this and pulls it back down to the ground, which is the simplest way to stop someone from wielding it. Despite the fact that Magneto wouldn't have to touch it, trying to lift it via magentism would still be with the intent of wielding the weapon, and therefore he would be unable.

However, it is possible he still would, as other indirect methods of wielding the hammer have worked before. For example, the Hulk has picked up the ground around the hammer in order to throw it at people.  However, the amount of metal in the hammer is relatively small, and Magneto wouldn't get any of the hammer's magical properties by wielding it this way, so it would be more effective for him to simply use the other large amounts of metal that are almost certainly around him at all times.

On a side note, it is feasible that a being with greater power than the enchantment would be able to lift the hammer.  However, the enchantment is extremely powerful, so this would take something stronger than the Hulk (and likely stronger than Odin) to do. This being also would be unable to use the magic porperties of the hammer, and the enchantment would resist their attempts to wield it in combat, making it a pretty useless weapon overall.


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

[User] [Star Wars] Imperial Officers have a vague idea that Vader has special powers or unique abilities. Do the Imperial Officers also think Vader is immortal?

[Assistant]
No, they don't think that he's immortal.
That's a really weird and specific thought to have about somebody. Even somebody with weird powers.  Especially somebody with weird powers reminiscent of a religion whose members are all *dead* now.
Of course they don't think he's immortal.  Why would they?


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

[User]
[Zombies] How can zombies tear human flesh so easily?

Have you ever tried biting another human with your HEALTHY teeth? It is really hard to make a mark, let alone take a chunk out! How can zombies do it so easily?

[Assistant]
You lack practice or jaw strength, from experience I'd say that it's extremely easy to draw blood by biting, just most people would prefer not to be biting as a day to day interaction and most people that want to be bitten would like you to stop *juuust* before that point.

People lose fingers to bites in fights all the time so small bones aren't an issue to someone that seriously wants to bite you and the strength in the average human jaw and neck are greater than the force needed to tear flesh away from your bones but it'd stress them. Your body is capitulating to the feedback from your muscles. Also humans don't typically use their mouth as a weapon unless something is very wrong survival-wise, you'd only snap at someone to get back into punching or weapon using range.

Zombies have no pain to fight and no cares about tomorrows health and no solid instinct for self preservation.  They have no social qualms about biting and directly wish you harm. Not being tool using level thinkers biting is the go to weapon for them.

Tearing the living flesh from a human would  be hard work but doable but for a mindless biter that work wouldn't even register.


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

[User]
Does my cooking spoon sterilize itself as I use it to cook? Is it safe to serve the food with said spoon?

I have large wooden spoons that I sometimes use to cook.  Let's say I throw in some uncooked ground meat into the pot and stir it around with a spoon, and then set it down on the spoon rest.  Then as I cook I add in other in other ingredients, stirring with the same spoon each time, but then placing back on the rest.

At the end of the cooking, is that spoon safe to use to serve food with / use to taste a sample of the dish?  Is the spoon rest "re-infecting" my spoon with raw foods?

I think about this every time I cook (pretty much daily), but then again, I've never been sick after eating. Thanks guys.

[Assistant]
When you are stirring the food the surface temperature of the spoon rises high enough to kill the germs. You would not have a problem.

Most germs of the kitchen, especially the kinds that gets you sick, can be killed by heating them. Quick spikes of heat of the levels found in the kitchen may not work but long exposure to heat will.

Regardless, you will never kill all the germs in your food. You are trying to kill enough that eating the germs in the food does not stress your body when you eat it. Think of those commercials where they say something cleans 99%, cooking just kills a large percentage so it is safe to eat.

One bit of warning, lots of germs can make toxins that will not be destroyed even after cooking. So even if you cook old rotted food enough to kill the germs you still have the toxins to worry about.

Source: ServSafe certification from the National Restaurant Association.


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

[User]
[Raiders of the Lost Ark] How does the light trap work?

It was the last day of Archeology at college and Professor Jones told his story of his excursion to recover the Ark of the Covenant. It was even more fun than upperclassmen have insisted for years, particularly the fantastical parts where he goes a bit off the rails (like the climax of the adventure).

For those who haven't taken the class yet, he introduces the story by telling another, shorter story, about recovering a pagan deity bust made of solid gold from a lost temple in Peru. He describes entering an ancient stone tunnel, dealing with spiders as big as your hand, and a number of relatively advanced mechanical traps put in place by the temple builders. Some of the traps seem plausible enough, like having floor plates trigger the release of small missiles or having a balanced scale holding up the bust, but one part of the story has had me wracking my brain and I can't figure it out.

As Prof. Jones was making his way through, he warned his companion not to cross a specific light. To prove his point, he puts his own hand in the light and out from a wall come a latticework of spears. Later, after the companion double-crossed Prof. Jones, he forgot and fell victim to the ancient trap. How might an ancient civilization have accomplished such a trap? There's some degree of sophistication in the traps, but none of them are electronic in nature, so I'm uncertain as to how interrupting light might trigger a trap.

[Assistant] It was really a pressure trap triggered by stepping on a floor tile.  Much like a magician using misdirection, Indy stepped down at the same time is putting his hand in the light because he suspected he would be double crossed. Upon running out the other guy avoided the light but stepped on the wrong stone.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Are there documented cases of Jedi suffering from PTSD as a result of either the Clone Wars or the Great Galactic War?

As some of you may know, the Great Galactic War and the Clone Wars were both huge wars which involved the use of Jedi Commanders who fought on the battlefield alongside troops.

I understand that most Jedi will have had some training to strengthen their minds, but I doubt that all of them could hold off the stress of thousands of living beings, all connected to the force, dying in a war that never seems to end.

Obi-Wan Kenobi was visibly shaken when he felt Alderaan being destroyed from thousands of miles away. Imagine how that must feel for the Jedi commander on the ground when thousands of Clone Troopers/Republic Troopers are being slaughtered under that Jedi's command. Double that in the Great Galactic War, where both sides had living beings fighting, instead of just droids.

They may have superpowers, but a majority of the Jedi are still human, and I suspect they can still fall victim of the same traumatic experiences that regular soldiers can.

So! Have there been any cases of Jedi who have PTSD, or Jedi who have just broken down as a result of war?

[Assistant] Obi-Wan was shaken not specifically because of the loss of life, but because large loss of life creates a large disturbance in the Force which can have a profound effect on Force sensitives. The most notable example is Meetra Surik, the Jedi Exile. The violent destruction of Malachor V and everything on it severed her connection to the Force, and she wasn't able to reconnect for years. In general, Jedi do not have psychological issues with death. According to their beliefs it is a thing to be celebrated, as that person becomes one with the Force. They are more likely to be physically affected by the loss of life than mentally.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does the moon's gravitational pull have such a strong effect on the incredibly heavy and massive ocean, while it has no visible effect on a glass of water?

Or a small pond even.

[Assistant]
The moon changes our gravity by about 16 millionths of a percent.

The pacific ocean is about 40 million feet across.  16 millionths of a percent of 40 million is about 6 feet.  This is roughly the magnitude of tides you should expect in an ocean.

Your small pond is 500 feet across.  16 millionths of a percent of 500 is 0.0008 feet, or about 25 microns.  This is about the thickness of a human hair, and is the magnitude of tides you should expect in a small pond.

Your glass is 4 inches across.  16 millionths of a percent of 4 inches is about .01 microns or about 1000 water molecules laid end-to-end.

So the moon's gravity is moving thousands of water molecules around in your glass of water.  It's just hard for you to see it because .01 microns is smaller than the wavelength of light.


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

[User] [Robin Hood: Men in Tights] How did Robin Hood's father get the key to "the greatest treasure in all the land."?

[Assistant] The key doesnt open Mariams belt at the end. We can therefore assume it was just a similar key for a different chastity belt of the same brand. Theres probably some poor lady waiting for Robins dad to give her the ol tumble.


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

[User] How can computers generate random numbers?

[Assistant]
Generally what you think of as a random number is actually what is called a "psuedo-random number".  What this means is that the number isn't really random, but that you should be unable to guess what the next number is simply by seeing what number it has given you in the past.  Even with something like this though, you need an original random number (called a "seed") to start off the pseudo-random number generator.  To get a seed, your computer might measure something that seems random enough (like the amount of time in between your keystrokes, or the amount of time in between requests from the internet).

For things that need *true* random numbers (like some internet security things) they will often use an outside source of data that should be random, and hook that up to a computer (like a geiger counter measuring radiation, or a something sampling weather data).


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

[User] [General Fantasy] Would it be considered cannibalism if I ate the flesh of a Centaur or a Mermaid?

[Assistant]
>Cannibalism is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh or internal organs of other human beings. A person who practices cannibalism is called a cannibal. The expression cannibalism has been extended into zoology to mean one individual of a species consuming all or part of another individual of the same species as food, including sexual cannibalism.

No. In fact, certain legends suggest that the flesh of a Mermaid grants immortality. Unconfirmed, of course.


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

[User]
[MCU] Was there any colleateral deaths caused by The Snap?

Like pilots of airplanes being snapped, and thus the plane crashing? Surgeons being snapped in the midst of an extreme surgery, etc?

If so, were these people all brought back at the end of Endgame aswell?

[Assistant]
Said it before and I'll say it again: urban fires must have killed millions.

Think about it. People snapped in the middle of cooking dinner. Snapped in the middle of smoking or lighting candles. Snapped while fixing electrical stuff.

Fires started. At least a few in every major city on earth. Fires with nobody home anymore to put out. Or report.

So those fires burned.

Everntually, they'd be noticed. When a whole apartment floor was on fire. When an entire house was engulfed. When kids trapped parent less in adjacent condos started screaming. Finally someone would report the fire.

But the firefighters wouldn't come.

How could they? Half their people were snapped. Their dispatchers in some cases, all snapped. With entire cities burning and half staffed, it would take HOURS to respond to fires that previously took minutes.

After hard work, the firefighters who remained finally got in their trucks. They loaded up. They opened the station garage doors. And then they realized, everyone was going to die.

The roads. The roads were full of cars. Crashed cars, yes. But mostly empty cars. Millions of cars with no drivers. They couldn't be swayed out of the fire truck's way with sirens because nobody was in them.

Worse, some of the cars weren't empty. They had babies in the back seats or disabled relatives confused and upset that mommy (who was driving) just disappeared. The fire fighters couldn't even plow through cars without killing innocents.

So the fires burned. They spread. They engulfed whole buildings, then while blocks, then whole neighborhoods.

The death tolls are not remotely fathomable.


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

[User]
What stops our bodies from decomposing while we are alive?

We constantly have flesh eating bacteria living in our bodies. But somehow, they wont start decomposing out bodies until we die. Why is that? What is in out bodies while we are alive that keeps up from stopping to decompose, alongside other animals across the world?

[Assistant] Your cells replace themselves regularly, and dead matter is collected by your immune system and either disposed of through various excretory processes or broken up into constituent parts and re-used. Your whole body is constantly repairing itself -- in fact, this is one of the reasons you need to sleep, so your body can run the cleaning-and-maintenance cycle in your brain. Your immune system also keeps the number of bacteria and other not-you organisms in check so they don't start decomposing you while you are still alive.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do life insurance companies make money when they sell $750,000 policies for $22 a month?

$22 a month \*12 months= $264 a year. If the person lives for another 50 years, thats still only $13,200. Thats a $736,800 loss for the life insurance company.

[Assistant]
It's called "term life insurance" because it only covers a fixed period of time.  It's not like signing up for a utility that you'll have until you stop paying the bill/cancel.

If you buy a 20 year policy, it ends with no payout if you're still alive in 20 years, and then you have to get a new policy, which will cost older you a lot more money, if you want to continue coverage.

Then you factor in the number of people who will keep it a few years but stop paying before they die or the end of the term, and it manages to keep them in business.

It's kind of like gyms.  A gym that can hold at best 200 members might have 5,000 paying members.  They can do this because most people who sign-up quit using the service very shortly, but continue to pay because it's a hassle to cancel and doesn't cost much (also why they insist on making you pay with your bank account, so they don't lose you as a customer when the credit card expires).


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

[User]
[Mass Effect] Why the stagnation in technology?

Most of the nonhuman races have discovered the mass effect relays centuries ago. But there have been very few technological advances for these races. Humanity quickly catches up to their level once they discover the mass relays.
How come there seems to be this stasis?

[Assistant]
"Your civilization is based on the technology of the mass relays. Our technology. By using it, your civilization develops along the paths we desire."
-Nazara AKA Sovereign

The Reapers have built an artificial plateau for the Galaxy to stagnate in. If a race continues advancing too quickly, then the cycle will simply cull them faster than usual.

Noticing this odd inactivity in the Galaxy is a case of survival bias. We are only alive to notice it because it already happened. It might be that the Asari and Turians were just very conservative in their research. If they had taken a crowbar to the first relay they found, the Reapers would likely intervene before they started building their own. Humans coming along may or may not have spurred the cycle, because we were much more aggressive than even Salarians in our pursuit of technology.


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

[User]
Aerobic respiration in bacteria? How does it work if there isn't neither any mitochondria nor any structure related to it in the prokaryotic cell?

Or is there a structure? I've read that we used to believe mesosome would be related to aerobic respiration, nowadays many believe that structure doesn't exist... so... I am confused... I would appreciate some help. (Sorry if I have commited any mistakes along the text, English is not my main language)

[Assistant]
The entire bacterium itself is the "mitochondria".

Instead of using a membrane-bound electron transfer chain to create a protein gradient on an intracellular organelle membrane, like with mitochindria, the gradient is set up on the plasma membrane of the bacterium.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is running a game (or anything) in Windowed mode more stressful on a computer than running it in Fullscreen?

I've noticed this myself when playing GTA, I was running the game at half the framerate while running it in windowed (borderless) than when I switched over to fullscreen.

[Assistant]
When you are windowed, Windows not only has to draw your game screen, but all of the other things running in windows too.  Plus, it has to convert the resolution you have chosen to something smaller.

When you run in fullscreen mode, All of the graphics power is reserved for the game alone, and no conversion needs to be done.


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

[User]
ELI5:How does an ant not die when flicked full force by a human finger?

I did search for ants on here and saw all the explanations about them not taking damage when falling... but how does an ant die when flicked with full force? It seems like it would be akin to a wrecking ball vs. a car. Is it the same reasoning as the falling explanation?

[Assistant]
Multiple reasons:

The exoskeleton of the ant distributes the force more quickly across its entire body (due to being more stiff than fluffy human tissue), protecting more vulnerable parts.

The small size makes it more resistant to blows - this is because volume (and mass) scales faster than surface area (r^3 instead of r^2). So smaller objects have a larger surface area per unit mass, which makes them move more easily even with light forces (like wind). The mass is what causes inertia ("pushing back" against your finger while you apply the force) and the force is distributed over its surface area. So your applied force is distributed across a relatively large (compared to its volume) surface area (leading to a relatively low pressure), while the low mass (very low, due to aforementioned scaling) makes it easy to move. This means you won't be applying your force for more than a fraction of a second before the ant is moving along with your finger, no longer receiving any significant force. Since you're not applying this force over any time (or distance), the total energy transferred into the ant is very small. This, combined with the effective armor exoskeleton, is why it's difficult to kill insects by swatting them into empty space, but if you push them against a solid object, they squash easily.

TL;DR: Resistant exoskeletons and general properties of small objects make them less likely to be crushed by an outside force.

True ELI5: It's like trying to break a balloon by punching it in midair. The punch is certainly hard enough, but the balloon just kind of gets pushed away.

*edit: spelling*

*edit2: added true ELI5*


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

[User]
How long would it be possible for a human to survive if buried alive in a coffin?

I am writing a short story, and I would like to make it as realistic as possible. I am curious how long someone could survive being buried alive in a coffin before running out of air or dying of other causes. Bonus question: would they drown or be smothered if it were to rain?

[Assistant] There was a Mythbusters on this. They found that the coffin collapses instantly when the full 6 feet of dirt is piled on, even when using the strongest steel coffin on the market. Doesn't make for a great short story but that is what happens.


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

[User]
ELI5 How do governments and militaries test out nuclear weapons without creating disastrous effects on the environment/ecosystem?

Just like the title says, I don't understand how they can test nuclear bombs in the desert, or Bikini Atoll (in the ocean) without permanently irradiating the ecosystem (and consequently, Earth) beyond repair.

They've tested dozens and dozens of nuclear bombs throughout the years, and I'm confused why that hasn't messed our world up?

[Assistant]
The impact of a single nuclear weapon on the global environment is actually very small, and open air testing during the 1900s took place in extremely remote locations. That being said, those locations have been damaged in a big way and the effects are still present today.

A lot of open air tests happened in the early nuclear days. Since then actual testing has been moved to deep underground tests to avoid the issues with fallout, and even underground testing is extremely rare today (North Korea has probably done more live tests than any other nation in decades)

One area of supercomputing has been to simulate and model nuclear weapons performance based on known quantities, which greatly reduced the need for testing in major nations at least. Other than that the expected performance of nuclear weapons is based on analysis more than actual testing. If you look up some history of nuclear tests by the US and USSR in the 1900s, many had yields that were higher or lower than predicted. That body of testing knowledge is what enables the prediction of yields in modern weapons.

And since nuclear weapons are complex, its possible to test components and subsystems without a full nuclear explosion. That allows the controls, detonators, etc to be tested without the need to obliterate anything big.


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

[User] ELI5: Why can't you install Windows/Linux on a PS4 or Xbox?

[Assistant]
Because Sony and Microsoft very strictly control what can run on these boxes. If they didn't then people could install their own applications and use it as a means of copying games or bypassing other protections. Consoles are supposed to be a safe place for developers to make their games and if piracy and cheating was that easy...

It is worth noting that back in the day you COULD install Linux on a PS3. Sony removed it after it was demonstrated how to break out of the virtual machine environment it was running in. (This in spite of the fact that doing so required attaching things to the motherboard and sending it an electrical jolt with millisecond precision)


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

[User]
ELI5: If heavy elements are progressively created by nuclear fusion in stars, but those stars blow up once they start producing Iron, how are heavier elements produced then?

Saw on a documentary the other day that stars big enough that they start producing Fe from nuclear fusion go super nova, how is stuff like, say, Uranium, around then?

[Assistant]
The answers here are incomplete, so here's a more complete breakdown of it.

Many stars go through a series of steps in their lifetime called the Main Sequence. This is what the life of the average star looks like.

At some point, depending upon the mass of the star, it will deviate from the Main Sequence. Stars that are anywhere from .2 solar masses on up will proceed down something called the Giant Branch, where they'll become red giant stars. After they reach the end of the Giant Branch, stars which are between .2 and 10 solar masses will then diverge into something called the Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB), and this is where the magic happens for the production of elements.

There are two main processes by which element production occurs in AGB stars, called the s-process and r-process.

The s-process occurs throughout the time that the star is an AGB star, and stands for Slow Neutron Capture Process. AGB stars have a lot of neutrons flying about inside them, and elements will gobble them up in a process called neutron capture. Once these neutrons are inside the nucleus of the element, they will decay into protons, and its the number of protons is what determines what an element is.

The s-process is slow enough that it can only get elements up to a certain proton count before they become too unstable to survive until they can gobble up another neutron and ratchet up the periodic table any more.

That's where the r-process becomes important. This is the Rapid Neutron Capture Process, and this is what occurs when stars explode. When they explode, there are so many extra neutrons sleeting around inside them that they essentially force-feed neutrons into elements, making them absorb large numbers of neutrons rapidly before those neutrons decay into protons.

The r-process makes all the more unstable elements in the universe.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why was double jeopardy introduced as a law in the US?

Edit: If anyone's still reading this. This question was indeed based off of the movie "double jeopardy".

[Assistant] Double jeopardy protects defendants by only allowing the state one shot at a case. Without it a prosecutor could retry the same case over and over. The state has basically unlimited time and money to do this, but it would ruin the defendant's life to be constantly in court. It also helps prevent prosecutors from presenting weak or frivolous cases. They know they only get one attempt, so they have to give it their best shot. This is why prosecutors and police are often willing to wait years to go to trial on a serious case. They want to make sure they have ALL the evidence.


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

[User]
[General SciFi/Horror] I'm a cop on desk assignment to the archives room; can y'all help me out?

So I've only been on the force a few months, done my fair share of meter maid-ing and whatnot, but after I sprained my ankle I've been put on a desk assignment in the basement of the city archives.

It's mostly the same boring shit--case files and whatnot--but there's a back corner to the basement with a set of boxes totally covered in dust. I was bored, so of course I checked 'em out.

And Reddit, I haven't slept well for weeks. Here's a short list of CCTV or home security or body cam or news footage that was unceremoniously stuffed into the back corner to be forgotten:

- A husband and wife's home video recording of them dealing with some weirdness in their house. It ends with the local PD having to enter the home and kill the wife, since she has become insane. But like...more than insane? I think? Like she gets dragged away by an invisible force at one point. It's completely crazy.

- Home video recordings of a group of friends who...I don't know how else to say it: get superpowers. Maybe the editing is really good, but this file contains confiscated news footage of major property destruction, too.

- A grainy, shaky home video of a group of friends who seem to be lost in the woods? But they're being pursued by...something? It ends very, very abruptly

Look, I can't tell if I'm going crazy or not. This is all like, world changing shit right? Basically proof of ghosts, proof of goddang superpowers? I need to leak this to the press, don't I? Is it all fake? Someone talk me down from the ledge here. Is there a rational explanation?

[Assistant]
First, take a deep breath.  You know there must be perfectly reasonable explanations for all that garbage, right?  It's got to be some kind of prank by the archive staff -- if there really was news footage of massive, unexplained property damage, surely you'd have seen that reporting yourself before this.

Second, note down the case numbers or tag numbers associated with the footage and take it to the local division that nobody takes seriously.  Here in Chicago, it's Special Investigations at the 13th precinct.  They're a little loony, but they're good cops and they could use something to keep them occupied for a while.  If it's a prank, they'll figure it out; if they're real cases, S.I. will figure out how and why all the effects were done.

Third, *definitely do not* go to the press, unless you want to get busted down a peg by your Captain and reassigned to S.I. yourself.  Get them the information and put it out of your mind.  You'll sleep easier.