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

[User]
[Firefly]How in the hell do the people of Earth have the resources to evacuate 250 million people on generation ships and bring with them enough resources and tech to colonize can terraform dozens of worlds and even turn gas giants in the stars, but still have resource scarcity problems?

The amount of resources needed to get 250 million people into space is not impossible, it is just ludicrous. Keep in mind that these people were not frozen but put on generation ships that took generations to reach their destination, that is a massive material investment. The reason we are told this happened was because the Earth system was running out of resources.

I... beg your pardon? What? How!? With that sort of technology it should have been able to directly mine the deep mantle and cores of the planets.  Apparently other planets in the solar system were not terraformed but that does not make sense, wouldn't those have been the first terraforming targets?

Something about the story does not make any sense, can anyone clear it up?  The only conclusion I can draw is that the story about the reason for leaving the Earth is not true. resource scarcity does not make any sense given what we know about the circumstances and technology.

[Assistant]
Resource scarcity was the excuse given (likely true that the earth was used up, bit mining other planets or asteroids/comets would have been easy at that tech level).

But the system was designed from the get go to give the new combination China/US government a perminants serf class who didn't have the resources required to rebel, and who could just be exploited for resources basically forever.

The core world's have it great, they get an endless inflow of cheap resource/servants etc from the non-core world's, who don't have the ability to fight back.


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

[User]
[MCU] What kind of prosthetic arm does Bucky have?

It's pretty clear he lost his entire arm yet his prosthetic makes him seem to be able to bend his arm and pretty much have complete control of  its movements as if he still had is actual arm in tact. Even before the Vibranium arm he could still shoot, fight, and even catch Cap's shield so how was all that possible on an amputee?

[Assistant]
Science in the MCU advanced much faster than it did for us. We don't know the specifics of Bucky's original arm, but it was clearly an advanced, durable alloy connected to him through the nerve endings in his shoulder; when they remove the arm, it causes him extraordinary pain.

This kind of cybernetic-neurological link is a precursor to the mind-machine interfaces Stark developed for his Iron Man armors, at least indirectly.


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

[User]
[X-men] Where does Magneto get his energy from?

So, I was just watching X-men Apocalypsis and I cannot help but wonder from where does Magneto gets the energy necessary to do the world-scale stuff he does. The same question can be applied to many other mutants (Jean, Scott, Storm), but Magneto was the one that struct me as the most unconceivable.

Thanks!

[Assistant]
Magnetism from the Magnet Dimension.

But seriously, mutant powers almost all violate the conservation of energy. The leading theory is that there is some base mutation, common to all of the more powerful mutants, that allows them to tap into some latent energy field that science has yet to discover.


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

[User]
How do parasitic wasp identify their prey?

Thinking about, for example, the cicada hawk, how does the female identify cicada adults as her prey? Is it based on odor or some other chemical signature from the prey animal? Is it based on visual cues like body shape? Is it based on sound?

And building on this....could a parasitic wasp be trained to identify a different prey animal? For example, could they be taught to lay their eggs in different insect species? Or, if an egg is transplanted to a different species, would that egg hatch into a wasp with a taste for that new species?

[Assistant]
Remember, insects don't have brains per se, they have ganglions, bundles of nerves throughout their body that process everything. They are not smart in a way that they think about stuff, they just do it. It's basically programmed into them from birth via genes, the ganglions react to certain stimuli in a certain way, a fly senses the smell of rotting meat and and the nerve bundles say "go there,eat, lay egg" (oversimplified), as those are 3 reactions triggered by the stimulus. Same with parasitic wasps, they might smell their prey, or react to the way they look or move. Some stimuli trigger certain reactions, like reflexes.

Edit: to answer the 2nd question, if there is a prey animal similar enough to what they are used to they might recognize it as such, or if they have a mutation that makes the "lay egg in that animal" part trigger easier they might go around and lay eggs everywhere, if it works then great, you just witnessed evolution as the new wasps will probably keep that trait, if the larvae or wasp die then it has been naturally selected.


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

[User]
[General SciFi] What's your favorite future money?

In name at least, what some cool names.  I hate how boring and generic the term 'credit' is for future moneys.

[Assistant]
From the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy:
>MONETARY UNITS: None.
In fact there are three freely convertible currencies in the Galaxy, but none of them count. The Altairian Dollar has recently collapsed, the Flainian Pobble Bead is only exchangeable for other Flainian Pobble Beads, and the Triganic Pu has its own very special problems. Its exchange rate of eight Ningis to one Pu is simple enough, but since a Ningi is a triangular rubber coin six thousand eight hundred miles along each side, no one has ever collected enough to own one Pu. Ningis are not negotiable currency, because the Galactibanks refuse to deal in fiddling small change. From this basic premise it is very simple to prove that the Galactibanks are also the product of a deranged imagination.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is it 1366x768 that became such a common laptop screen resolution?

Is there any particular reason?

[Assistant]
1024x768 was a standard resolution for square aspect ratio monitors, so the 768 presumably comes from keeping that consistent and easily manufacturable.

The 1366 is just brought about from the aspect ratio of widescreen 16:9. Since DVDs were often widescreen it became a standard choice. There was a phase of 16:10 monitors for computers, mine for instance is 1680x1050, but mass production wins out and the decision to use the same resolution across TVs, laptops and monitors drove the price down. That in turn meant other designers went with the lower cost screen...becoming standard.


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

[User] ELI5 The piano-looking keys are obvious, but what do all those other buttons on the side of an accordion do?

[Assistant]
Each button plays a chord (a combination of notes that sound good together). Like when you strum all of the strings on a guitar.

So you can play the main tune with the piano looking keys, and give yourself some backing chords at the same time!


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

[User] [Marvel] The Earth is trapped in a cosmic bubble: no one in, no one out. Human, Mutant and Inhuman kind can no longer reproduce. In 10,000 years, who are the last beings alive?

[Assistant]
Mutants and Inhumans have the potential for immortality, humans don't.

At least a few of them will make it into the third century after the bubble.

After that, it's a big Earth, full of the corpses of several civilizations. Those that won't fall to mortality only really have one foe, and that is each other. Mutants are mostly phobic of war and struggle and will likely seek peace in what to them will be a utopia, the greatest dreams of Genosha writ large. That is, until Apocalypse decides he is to be the arbiter. Eventually he will rule, even if it is over an empire of one.

The Inhumans have always had a regal structure, and the current Regent will direct the Inhumans in much the way that they have over the last 10,000 years. With few pressures upon them and no concerns over territory or resources, the Inhuman civilization will be much like it was before, reclusive in their hidden city, with dissidents free to re-locate to areas of their own making.

It is when Apocalypse's minions meet with the Inhumans that En Sabah Nur will see new vistas to conquer and a new race to enslave. The Inhumans will find that awfully disagreeable, and it is that which will lead to the bloodshed that one way or the other, will settle the issue finally.

This assumes the Eternals or Deviants do not decide to simply relieve themselves of the pesky remains of the Homo genus entirely and take the world back for themselves.


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

[User]
Is the term Libertarian "stolen"?

        I've mostly came across random posts saying that the term libertarian was originally a socialist term, but the libertarian party took it and redefined it as a propaganda move. How true is this?

[Assistant] The French term *libertaire*, as used by anarchist communist Joseph Djacque, is generally recognized as the first use of libertarian in the political senseentering English first among anarchists as well. Constructions like libertarian socialist (anarchist), as opposed to authoritarian socialist (state socialist, marxist) predate the voluntaryist, free-market uses that are now also familiar. Like all of these histories, the story has some additional twists and turns, particularly as terms like socialist have their own complex histories, but, generally, it is safe to say that the term arose among figures we would now consider socialist.


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

[User]
ELI5: Does repeatedly flicking a light on and off damage it?

I was told flicking the lights on and off quickly damages the light (maybe the bulb, maybe the switch?).

Any truth to this?

[Assistant] Probably.  Sending pulses of power into things causes a lot of stress on them.  This is particularly a problem with delicate things like light bulb filaments.  Plus it annoys the other people in the room and if someone throws a shoe at the lamp that could also damage it.


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

[User]
[Marvel] Over the course of their rivalry, how many straight-up 1v1 fights have Mr Fantastic and Doctor Doom actually had?

Like, actual physical fights?

[Assistant] Not too many. They're both men of science at heart and a significant amout of their conflict comes from Doom seeing that Reed invented something new and cool then yelling "RICHAAAAAAAAARDS" off his castle balcony.


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

[User]
ELI5: why does a repeating sequence of notes sounds different depending on what note i start on?

If, on a piano, i play A-B-C-A-B-C-A-B... And so on, why does B-C-A-B-C-A ... Sound completely different, despite being the same pattern starting on a different initial note? Why does my brain make the first note i play seem more "dominant" on each playthrough? And why does the music sound different, despite essentially being the same?

[Assistant]
Congratulations! You just discovered different musical modes. If you pick C as your "tonic" and go up to the next C, the sequence of whole and half steps results in something called a Major Scale, or Ionian mode. If you start on A, you get a Minor Scale, or Aeolian mode. The other modes aren't used as often. If you play the 1st, 3rd, and 5th notes of a mode, you get something called a "triad" or "chord". These chords, in major or minor, are the basis of all Western music.

You are trained to hear the first note played as the tonic, because it almost always is. When you start on A, your brain assumes that whatever follows is meant to be heard in the context of A, so you hear it as the first notes of an ascending Minor scale. When you start on C, your brain assumes that whatever follows is meant to be heard in the context of C, so what you hear is the first notes of a descending Major scale. Similarly, when you start on B, you hear a cadence in the Locrian mode, which is wierd and almost never used in Western music because it contains a diminished 5th, which we've all kind of decided sounds really really bad ("the Devil's Interval", C to Gb, or in your case, B to F)


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

[User]
What Happens In American Psycho?

I've watched American Psycho twice and I still don't understand what happened at the end.

[Assistant]
The ending is left ambiguous. The viewers never know if all the violent acts committed were real or whether or not they were delusions of the main character.

One of the running themes that's a lot clearer in the book than the movie is that the characters are always mistaking people for someone else. This is kind of important because at the end, one of the people that Bateman supposedly killed (the guy he killed with the axe) is reportedly alive because another character says that he had lunch with him only a few days ago. It's unclear if the victim was really alive and attended that meal, or if it was just another of the many, *many* cases of mistaken identity.


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

[User]
[Hawkeye] how did hawkeye get the pym particle arrows

in the one of the epsiodes with all the trick arrows it is shown that hawkeye has a pym particle arrow does anybody knows how he got this i understand him and antman have a co worker relation ship knowing that they were on the same side during civil war but still how?

[Assistant]
Probably from Hank Pym.

Hawkeye did help return Hank, his wife and his daughter from the snap and, with respect to Clint, he's not a scientist so he's not going to be trying to investigate the particles.


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

[User] ELI5: What can't you inhale when you have your "breath knocked out of you"?

[Assistant] Your diaphragm is thrown out of sync, and it's what gives you that methodical inhale exhale ability.  If you get your breath knocked out of you it takes a couple seconds for the diaphragm to readjust and you can't inhale while that's going on.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is red the republican color in the US when it's the symbol of socialism in the rest of the world?

In a lot of countries right wing politics are blue and left wing are red.

[Assistant]
In the 2000 election, most major news networks used maps where states that George Bush won were red and states that Al Gore won were blue. The 2000 election coverage dragged on for a long time, so by the end of it, people associated those colors with the parties of each candidate.

Contrary to what a lot of people seem to think, this was *not* a thing before the 2000 election. Red was the color of socialism as much as in any other part of the world, and neither Republicans nor Democrats had a standard color.


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

[User]
[Halo Reach] How did the UNSC not detect a covenant supercarrier arriving at Reach?

How did the UNSC not detect a covenant supercarrier exiting Slipspace over Reach then deploying at least two Corvettes and setting up the cloaking towers until after Noble Team investigated the communications relay that went offline?

[Assistant]
I always assumed that the Supercarrier only arrived after the Spires and their cloaking field were established. The "dark zone" the Spires created hid the Solace's massive slipspace rupture.

In other words: Smaller, sneaky ships slip-spaced in stealthily to set up the sensor-scrambling Spires. The Solace slip-spaced in second.

(Try saying that ten times fast.)


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

[User] ELI5: How is it decided how much memory a picture takes. Like what makes a difference and why do some pictures take more memory than others.

[Assistant]
This depends on the type of compression used and with many compression algorithms depends on the complexity of the photo.

If the photo is comprised of simple shapes and solid colors then it compresses better than a complex scene with many colors.


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

[User] ELI5: If a bot on reddit can read text on a meme, why can't they read captcha codes?

[Assistant]
Short answer: They can.

Now, image text recognition is rather difficult. Memes usually have a simple, bold font, making recognition rather easy. Captchas tend to have distorted characters and other forms of interference, making it a lot harder. However, even Google's very popular reCAPTCHA has been beaten by bots before.


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

[User]
Is there a conflict of interest between personal finance and the economy?

I may be wrong about this, but why does it seem like there is a conflict of interest between what's best for individual finance vs the economy? For example, it's best for a person to live frugally and use the most money to invest (education, health, retirement, etc.); whereas, it's better for the economy if everybody spends all of their money on not just essential but also luxurious goods. A society where people save more than they spend is a deflationary one. Likewise, a society where people invest more than they spend would probably cause a market bubble since more people buying a company's stock than it's product just drives its PE ratio through the roof

Another example is having kids is expensive. It's best for a poor couple to not have kids or only one if they want to get out of poverty as fast as possible. However, in economics, every couple should have 2 kids to sustain the future workforce and consumer spending.

[Assistant]
The general idea that individual household prudence can be bad for the economy is absolutely correct - this is called the Paradox of Thrift, and while it was heavily popularised by Keynes (1936), it's been part of mainstream economics for a long time. Keynes himself notes that Adam Smith (1776) refers to it in The Wealth of Nations, saying "*What is prudence in the conduct of every private family can scarce be folly in that of a great Kingdom*", and John M. Robertson (1892) wrote a whole book called the Fallacy of Saving, saying "*Had the whole population been alike bent on saving, the total saved would positively have been much less... industrial paralysis would have been reached sooner or oftener, profits would be less, interest much lower, and earnings smaller and more precarious. This ... is no idle paradox, but the strictest economic truth*."

The formalised version is essentially a prisoner's dilemma. There is some intertemporal balance of savings and consumption in each period which is optimal for the economy, and another one which is optimal for the individual. There is no requirement that the two are the same. Some economists bicker over how different they are, for example there are those who argue that savings represent investments and are also conducive to growth; which is not wrong, but from an intertemporal optimisation point of view, investment returns come with significant lag, so they are not optimal in each period. Consequently, no one really disputes that it would take a dramatic coincidence for the individual and collective optimums to be exactly the same even in one period for one individual, let alone in every period for every individual. This is made even worse in a recession, where greater economic uncertainty motivates higher precautionary savings, but higher savings would sink the economy into a larger hole.

On the specific examples you choose to highlight though... some are more relevant than others. Overvaluation of the stock market isn't necessarily related to overinvestment, but rather inefficient allocation of investments. If the total value of investments increases dramatically, but the threshold for required returns remains the same, then there's really no change in valuations; instead, capital flows to underinvested companies, or to new opportunities. If there are no new opportunities but investment inflow continues to enter the market, that's not a problem in itself either, all it does is lower the expected market return and hence valuations continue to remain fair.

There are actually a bunch more economic paradoxes; most kicking in when the economy is in a recession or otherwise impaired. The paradox of toil argues that an increase in willingness to work can have the effect of lowering wages, but if nominal interest rates are at a zero lower bound then total demand falls instead since people have lower spending power and no further available credit, workers just spend less and the economy shrinks. The paradox of flexibility argues a similar angle, but points to low wage stickiness (perhaps from having good-natured and understanding workers) making it easier for wages to fall, also causing the economy to shrink. The paradox of deleveraging focuses on banks, who when faced with economic recession, tend to reduce the risk on their balance sheet; but in so doing, tighten credit and magnify distress to the economy.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do sunburns generally take a few hours to 'set in'?

Pretty simple question. But to give an example, today I spent about an hour and a half or so at the pool. I intentionally sat out to get a tan. Unfortunately, though, you never know how long is long enough, until a couple hours later when you start getting red and sore.

What causes this delay? What is happening in those few hours that changes everything?

btw, I searched the sub for this question, didn't see anything pertaining to the sunburn delay. Most other sunburn questions were about skin cancer and the warmth your skin retains when sunburned.

[Assistant] UV radiation is absorbed by the outermost layers of your skin and does all the damage there. This does not create immediate damage around nerve endings so you don't feel pain. However the cells that die in the outer layers leave a lot of debris and signaling molecules that summon a cleaning crew (immune system) to pick up the debris and start the healing process. This is causes inflammation in the area which stimulates nerves to generate a pain response. So you experience a delay until the inflammation starts.


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

[User] [Hitchhiker's Guide] Is Marvin's brain actually the size of a planet (to which he connects wirelessly, somehow) or is that an equivalent size that's been miniaturized to fit to his body (like saying a 16gb SD card is the size of a factory)?

[Assistant]
Most likely it's just hyperbole, the android bragging somewhat.

However we know that at least one planet was built (and rebuilt) to serve as a computer, prior to having the works mucked up with the unexpected arrival of the Golgafrinchans. So it's possible that Marvin is claiming that he has the equivalent computing power to that machine.


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

[User] [Warhammer Fantasy] What does the super fast metabolism of the Skaven give them? What would happen if their metabolism was slower?

[Assistant] They think faster, move faster, heal faster, and reproduce much faster. Numbers and generally just being faster than other races is their primary advantage, if they weren't able to restore their numbers as fast as they do the race would likely just be minor nuisance instead of fucking around in major events and causing massive problems for everyone else.


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

[User] ELI5: Its said that cars are "weaker" because they're now made from a softer material proper to receive impact, thus providing safety to the driver. How will safety work with cybertruck's 30x 'ultrahard' stainless steel when crashing?

[Assistant]
Hard is not the same as tough is not the same as strong.

Cybertruck's stainless steel body panels are hard; they're probably also tough, although that's usually not very relevant for body panels. They're not any stronger than they need to be though (since that's what drives weight), so their crash behavior shouldn't be meaingingfully different.

Hard = how easy it is to scratch. This is obviously really relevant for vehicle body panels, we want them to stay looking nice, harder materials are harder to scratch and stay good looking for longer.

Tough = how easy it is for a crack to grow. Body panels don't usually crack so this isn't a big deal. It's a huge deal for fatigue-critical structure (stuff that goes through a lot of stress cycles) but that's also not usually a big deal for body panels, they're mostly decorative and not carrying nearly as much load as the chassis.

Strong = how much stress it can carry without yielding (permanent deformation). Cybertruck doesn't need to be 30x stronger...it might be 1 or 2x stronger because of the extra battery weight, but nowhere near 30x. That would just be wasted weight, which drives down range and drives up costs, so there's no reason to do that.


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

[User]
[Supernatural] What five things can the Colt not kill?

After Dean blasted Lucifer in the face with the Colt, Lucifer said that "There's only five things in creation that gun can't kill," which I would assume includes Archangels, probably all of them or if not, then maybe only Lucifer and Micheal.  I doubt it could kill God or Death, but could it kill a Leviathan?  Or Eve?

[Assistant] That we know of, it cannot kill Lucifer. Suspected, but not confirmed, are that the other four consist of God, Death, possibly Eve (as they used the Colt to get ingredients to kill Eve, as opposed to using it directly), and an unknown fifth being.


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

[User]
ELI5: After discovering the Rosetta Stone, how is it that Egyptologists could understand so much of the hieroglyphs based on the limited vocabulary and time period of the Rosetta Stone?

From what I know about hieroglyphs, apparently Egyptologists can translate and understand hieroglyphs and the different meanings they have over the centuries that these hieroglyphs later adopted. All hieroglyphs are understood since the discovery of the Rosetta Stone by the French during the advent of Orientalism in Europe. Apparently, even regional differences in pronunciations and meanings of the hieroglyphs are known as well. How is it that Egyptologists could understand so much of the hieroglyphs based on knowing the meaning of a single document fixed in a specific time period?

[Assistant]
The Rosetta Stone is a piece of a large stele which has the same text in Ancient Greek, Demotic, and Hieroglyphs. Once it was discovered that the Demotic and Ancient Greek texts were effectively the same, work began on translating the Hieroglyphs. The initial translation took twenty years, and it took many more for a more-or-less complete lexicon to be developed.

Demotic script was based on Hieratic, which was based on Hieroglyphs, which made work easier. Demotic and Ancient Greek are phonetic, allowing for the first time for Egyptian names to be read as they were pronounced. Hieroglyphs are both phonetic and logographic (characters represent concepts), which provided researchers with clues as to where they were in the text at certain points. This was also how the Ancient Egyptians were able to represent both foreign names and regional differences in their dialects.

The translation of the Rosetta Stone was only the first step. The translations had to be cross-referenced with known Hieroglyphic texts to test and refine them. More glyphs were added to the known lexicon as this work continued. Other trilingual stele were discovered, providing additional material for checking translations.


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

[User]
I believe that people who pick a highly saturated major shouldn't complain about a lack of jobs, CMV.

A crisis that has been occurring over the past few decades has been an influx of college students in a broad range of fields while respective job fields haven't changed accordingly across the board. For example, someone with an art or humanities degree will have a much more difficult time finding a job related to their field with a Bachelor's degree than an engineer would with the same degree.

This has caused a lot of people to gripe about the lack of jobs. People feel that they are owed a job for going to college. I'm well aware that this is a result of a promise of the "American dream" and the indoctrination in teens that they have to go to college to get a decent paying job, but neither of those outright declare that any college degree will result in a well-paying job.

If you're going to college merely to get a job right outside of graduating with a Bachelor's, then you should focus your study on a major that has a lot of jobs available. If you just want to make money, then become an engineer or pick another STEM field (even though science isn't necessarily the best way to make money).

If you want to work in your field because you have a passion for it, then you need to work hard. A Bachelor's degree simply won't cut it - you have to be willing to put in more time for school to earn a better degree if you truly want to work in that field. Competition is prevalent everywhere, and you aren't simply guaranteed a job because you graduated college.

This isn't to say that I don't think we shouldn't have people studying all of the subjects that are prevalent in the world - I value all fields of knowledge. However, I don't feel that people should believe they are *owed* a job. Instead, people *earn* it.

[Assistant]
Why do you believe that people pursue these degrees?

Maybe, if you understood why people intentionally chose majors with less applicable use in private industry, you wouldn't be so frustrated with their complaints.

One of the reasons that these people feel entitled to their desired occupations in an oversaturated market, is that they were only ever told that they "could do it if they wanted to." That's it. No intense career advice, no special programs, no parental discipline, and especially no market realism.

Another reason that people major in the humanities and social sciences is NOT because of a natural disability in physical sciences, or possibly even a natural dislike for the subjects. Post-Cold War America's trend of increasing demand for technological skills and better equipment has not changed, however, the government sponsored push for quality educational tactics and funding most definitely did.

You see, the arms race with the Soviets included not only nuclear warheads, but a struggle to produce the biggest bunch of smartest technical minds that the superpowers could extract from their populations.  Educational funding was at all-time highs between the fifties and the late eighties. Math and the sciences were rigorously applied in public school curriculums. Students had to work harder because teachers had better incentive and funding to allow for time and better programs.

The sad truth is that teachers today are less skilled and have less time due to low incentive granted by educational funding in the US. Math and Science, being complex to learn for most without guidance, are easily given up on without heavy teacher encouragement. Instead of concentrating harder and working to pass classes, students may give up on their abilities to perform this work at an early age. Most people are afraid of math and science because, at a tender learning point, they were abused with poor teaching, impatience, and little guidance to understand how much they would need these skills later in life.

People are smart. We are curious. We also have emotions and egos. We want to learn, and if attempting to learn math and science is made too difficult, people will turn their attention to social sciences because they come a little more intuitively. Then they will wrap their egos around these subjects and think that this is where their skills lie. That is how the market for these professions became especially oversaturated in an increasingly technical world.

Can you imagine how hard that must be for these people? Everything they thought they could do, that made them special, all seems untrue now, and they *have* to blame it on themselves. Who else can they blame it on, society? But really, they can.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are these realtime high resolution colorful super X-Rays from the airport not used for medical X-Raying?

[Assistant]
X-rays at the airport are trying to look through your clothes. They are not trying to go deep into the skin.

X-rays at a hospital have to be able to go through the skin to see what's underneath, often with some level of adjustable "depth".


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

[User]
Why does the human anus have heat(spicy) receptors?

Why would the human body evolve to have such a terrible mechanism?  I was always led to believe that spicy food was good for humans and this seems like a negative enforcement.

[Assistant] In a short explanation, Capsaicin (the chemical that makes the spicy/heat feeling) interacts with any sensory neurons in the body. Human anus requires sensory neurons because: we need to poop, and control that poop.


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

[User] [Superman] Does Superman need to do a specific pose to fly, or can he fly however he wants, like say, upside down?

[Assistant] The second one. Doing a specific pose might make it a bit easier to fly at high speeds without causing dangerous shockwaves, but he's powerful enough that he has no real need to. He just does it to look cool, because in addition to saving people directly, he cares about being a symbol people can look up to.


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

[User] ELI5: If energy can't be neither created nor destroyed. How did it came into existence?

[Assistant]
No idea... and it's a big open question. Answers are all some version of kicking the can...

*Cyclic (It's always been!)

*Cyclic Ecpyrotic (It's always been, because of higher dimensions interacting!)

*Eternal inflation (Ceases to be a meaningful question, "it's always been!")

*The universe is a simulation (God did it!)

The thing is though, conservation of energy isn't a law that applies to whole universes, it's part of a set of constants that is a feature of the universe we live in. Conservation of energy doesn't mean much, if anything, when you're talking about the entire system, from the outside.


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

[User] [Star Wars] If Vader's suit design was so garbage, wasn't he a good enough mechanic to fix it on his own over time?

[Assistant]
It wasn't garbage except in earlier Legends works. Later Legends material showed it as really pretty fantastic, and that sentiment carried over into canon, where he's explicitly as fast and agile as he ever was before the suit, and stronger to boot.

And in fact, he did work on it over time in both Legends and in canon.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do humans need to learn how to swim while many other mammalian species seem to know by instinct?

[Assistant]
This roots into the whole "why are human babies so defenseless" it's because of our intelligence.

If we were to be born with our brains fully formed and ready to go, with the skull to encompass it, along with our ability to walk upright, we would never fit out of our mother's uterus.

So we get born at what seems to be an earlier stage of our development and develop fully outside.

This means that we have to learn things that are innate to other species, such as walking, communicating, swimming, hunting, etc.


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

[User] ELI5: If we can make sets of gears go faster or slower by adding different types of gears to them, why wouldn't it be possible to make a set of gears where the last one could spin as fast or faster than the speed of light?

[Assistant]
Because speed does not 'add up' exactly like we think it does.

Let's say you are on a train going 100 miles an hour.

You have a model train on a table on that train.

It's an expensive model that can itself go 100 miles per hour.

You and I, from simple grade school math, would figure that the model train on the real train would have an actual speed of 200 miles per hour.

Right?

Well, it doesn't!

The actual combined speed ends up being 199.9999999-ish miles per hour.

The WHY of this is more complicated, but it's one of the things Einstein and the folks of his time figured out, and every test we've ever run proves his calculations right.

The same not-quite-adding-up effect will happen to those gears.


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

[User]
If there was a rubber sphere (like a balloon) that was completely round and uniform, how would it pop?

If a rubber sphere like a balloon had no imperfections, how would it theoretically pop?

[Assistant]
First of all, it wouldn't pop unless you are doing something to it to make it pop. So I'll assume you are magically getting air into it to blow it up without causing any imperfections.

Assuming the balloon had a perfectly uniform thickness and perfectly symmetric polymer structure and was at absolute zero temperature (so there are no stochastic molecular movements) and in a perfect vacuum and insulated from cosmic rays and did not obey quantum mechanics... (note all of the above is completely unrealistic and impossible)... then at a certain point the polymer would stretch to the point that air can fit through the cracks between the rubber and the balloon would deflate without popping, or if the balloon's inflation were fast enough to overcome the molecular bond strength, the balloon could "pop" completely symmetrically, ripping apart in every direction at once...


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

[User]
How do trees fight off disease?

I'm assuming trees don't have an immune system, so do they have any protection against disease?

[Assistant]
Trees *do* in fact have an immune system, as all plants do! Plant immunity is an innate immune system, while animals have innate and adaptive immune systems.

Plant immunity is, in general terms, concerned with detecting pathogenic proteins and/or pathogen-associated molecular patterns that would signal the presence of a potential plant pathogen.

Once detected, plants activate a number of processes designed to make the plant tissue inhospitable for a plant pathogen. A classic hallmark of plant immunity is the production of reactive oxygen species (or ROS) that will kill pathogens or drive them to dormancy. This is analogous to a fever in animals.

Another molecular response that occurs in plant immunity is the creation of barriers to the diffusion of pathogens. Deposition of callose - a complex polymer - prevents pathogens from growing or moving freely in the interleaf space. In more serious immune reactions, plant cells around the pathogen will kill themselves in a process known as the hypersensitive response (HR). This denies the pathogen living tissues and nutrients.

Another important barrier that prevents plants getting sick is physical barriers. The bark of a tree is an excellent barrier, much as our skin is, to prevent pathogens from getting anywhere near the important parts of the tree. This is why the vast majority of tree diseases are seen after the tree is damaged by pruning, weather, or by burrowing insects.


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

[User]
[MCU/Doctor Strange] why didnt Dormammu just restrain Strange and.... go somewhere else?

Dormammu has this god knows how long string of PLANETS in this dimension he can go anywhere within. Why doesnt he just string up Strange with his dimensional goo powers (we see him kill strange with this in numerous ways), cover his mouth, and ignore him? He knows Strange can only use his powers with hand movements, he can restrict his body entirely. If there are vocals only spells, he can cover his mouth. He also shows that he is aware of Stranges time repeat before Strange walks up (he shows this after a few of the deaths, when he gets pissed about the repeat) so he can just restrict Strange the moment time repeats for any reason without even having to engage with him.

Its unclear whether the timeloop is for when Strange dies or after a set period of time (btw it doesnt make any sense that theyre stuck in a timeloop when they are outside time but whatevs) but either way, Dormammu can restrict and mute strange immediately and just... go elsewhere in his vast dimension of planet sized trophies that Strange is a flea in comparison to and thats being kind about the size difference. Strange is a fraction of a fraction of a speck on a trophy in a trophy hall, seems pretty easy to ignore.

[Assistant]
It's entirely likely that in some of the repeats that we don't see that this happens. Dormammu ties up Dr Strange on sight, goes to carry out his plans and then...

Back in the Dark Dimension with Strange walking towards him. Okay, next time don't even engage the human, just try going somewhere else in the Dark Dimension to get away from this guy, this is so annoy-...

Back in the Dark Dimension with Strange walking towards him in exactly the same place.

We know that the spell isn't directly related to Doctor Strange being alive, and we see him cast it before the time loop begins. It's probable that Strange activated the loop to act over a certain area unless he personally chooses to deactivate it. Dormammu has no idea how to deal with time, let alone weird all-powerful time magic. It doesn't matter what Dormammu does after the time loop begins because 5 minutes later, he'll be exactly where he started watching a puny human with a glowing green bauble walking toward him.


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

[User]
[DC] If the Flash is hurt, why dont he just run away and...heal?

He can heal faster then a normal humans cause speedforce, why, if he gets hurt in a fight, cant he just run away, take a rest and heal for a few nanoseconds. He can live a trillion years in one second, and sleep when sped up on speedforce, why dont he just take break to heal when hurt?

Or does he do that, and my Flash knowledge is really lackning?

[Assistant] He'll probably be able to at some point when he can consciously get close enough to the Speedforce without being engulfed by it. Otherwise, his 'fast healing' tends to be healing in a matter of minutes or days instead of weeks or months - definitely beneficial, but too long to leave a villain to their own devices for.


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

[User]
What's stopping Open Access journals

Can someone explain to me why publishing research papers can't just be like submitting code to Github? Why do you have to go to a publisher when you have to pay them and they put your paper behind a paywall?

[Assistant]
Who coordinates peer review? Who pays for web hosting space and ensures that all articles will be available online forever?

There are lots of open access journals, but they require publishing fees to cover the costs of publishing, even online.


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

[User]
Why do children with a higher bmi start puberty earlier?

I read that obese children, or children with a higher bmi start puberty earlier, and children who are underweight or have a lower bmi start later. Why exactly is this?

[Assistant] Quick answer: additional fatty tissue can supply increased lipid levels, including cholesterol, which is the basis for sexual hormones synthesis. Moreover, fat tissue can itself synthesize some feminine hormone lookalikes that can trigger early puberty (this is also why obesity is a factor influencing male hormones).


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

[User] ELI5: Why was Chernobyl so much worse than other nuclear disasters?

[Assistant] The reason that Chernobyl was worse than Fukushima (for example) is that it failed in a less controlled way. Imagine a bottle of soda that got shaken up. In Chernobyl the bottle top was basically just a heavy weight instead of being fully screwed tight. It didn't help that a power surge that happened due to the way they tried to shut it down was like adding mentos to it. When the pressure increased during the meltdown it shot the cap straight out of the top of the containment structure and rained heavily radioactive dust and debris all over the place and high up into the air. In Fukushima, the bottle had valves that released the gas into tha building around the reactor. That ended up being bad because the gas is flammable Hydrogen (and not CO2, like in soda). That's why the roof blew off Fukushima, not because the containment for the actual "really nasty" stuff failed catastrophically. Instead there's a leak and the soda is mixing with the water that they're pumping through it to cool it off. That's a big problem too, since even a little bit of radiation mixing in can make a whole lot of water radioactive, but in the ocean is a bit better than in the air where it can be inhaled and travel in clouds where it will literally rain down over large areas of russia and europe.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are credit/debit cards not coded with the card type?

Frequently when I purchase something with my credit card, the machine asks whether I'm using a credit or debit card.  I've even chosen the wrong one before out of curiosity and the transaction went through just fine, and showed up normally on my statement later.

So if it's going to work regardless of which button you press, is there a reason this information is necessary in the first place?  And is there a reason the card type isn't just encoded on the magnetic strip or chip?

[Assistant]
It seems you misunderstood. It's not that the terminal is stupid, it's because the terminal is smart.

The reason some payment terminals ask you the type is because your card is of both. It has credit side which means your bank pays for you and then sends you a bill later, and debit side which is attached to an account with your own money and no one bills you for that transaction later. The system is merely giving you the choice to select which part you want.

This is quite typical in Europe.


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

[User] [Harry Potter] [Walking Dead] One year after Voldemort's final defeat, the dead rise. What happens to the muggles? What happens to the wizarding world?

[Assistant] Muggles die en masse as usual.  Wizards most likely could find a cure, what with their magic and extended lifespans.  Zombies are no biggie either, because the Ministries will finally be trained for Voldemort and his Inferi, IE magical zombies.  Worst comes to worst, everyone willingly becomes werewolves.  The zombie virus works on homo sapiens but not animals IIRC.  Problem solved.


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

[User]
Why would the synthesis process of large amounts of dimethylmercury cause photographic film to fog up?

I just read *Ignition! An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants* by John Drury Clark and in it there is a section where he wants to investigate dimethylmercury as a possible rocket fuel. He writes about it in the following paragraph:

> I thought that it would be an excellent idea to have somebody else make the compound for me. So I phoned Rochester, and asked my contact man at Eastman Kodak if they would make a hundred pounds of dimethyl mercury and ship it to NARTS. I heard a horrified gasp, and then a tightly controlled voice (I could hear the grinding of teeth beneath the words) informed me that if they were silly enough to synthesize that much dimethyl mercury, **they would, in the process fog every square inch of photographic film in Rochester**, and that, thank you just the same, Eastman was not interested. The receiver came down with a crash, and I sat back to consider the matter. An agonizing reappraisal seemed to be indicated.

Why would the synthesis process fog photographic film especially in such quantity?

[Assistant] Dimethyl mercury is highly volatile. It can permeate through organic polymers very easily. Thus, manufacturing it in large quantities will contaminate all photographic films (made from acetate polymer) in the area.


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

[User]
If scientists uncovered something that would demoralize the entire population, should they refrain from publicly disclosing it?

And by demoralize I mean to the point of possibly driving people to suicide.

[Assistant]
If you could turn this question into a more specific example(preferably if its something you already had in mind), we could run the thought experiment together,
or perhaps even be able to give more relevant sources.

Are we talking about an asteroid coming that will certainly eliminate all life on earth?
A disease epidemic?
Impending zombie apocalypse?
Some sort of undeniable verification that life truly has no purpose or meaning?
Trump wins a second term? (Hey, perhaps an argument can be made that such a thing shouldnt be broadcast)


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

[User]
[Fantastic Four] Why is Invisible Woman considered the strongest member of the team?

Just started reading the new X-Men/FF crossover, and they call Sue one of the most powerful women on the planet. Surprised by this, since I don't know much about the team beyond the basics, I did some research that confirmed this, in addition to identifying her as the strongest member of the team.

Why is this? Maybe I don't understand her powerset well enough, but isn't she basically just a telekinetic with extra steps (and plus invisibility, I guess). I can't see, from reading a variety of wikis, anything that suggests she's more powerful than Jean Grey or Storm, for example, let alone one of the most powerful women on the planet.

"Most powerful member of the team" makes a little more sense, I guess, since the other three have... fairly straightforward (or even unimpressive) powers. But everything I read suggests she's MUCH more powerful than them.

Just looking to understand better.

Thanks!

[Assistant]
It is hard to explain but let me try... in a way she is a little bit like an invisible Green Lantern. It is not just telekinesis but she creates bubbles or causes impact with her invisible fields. She can hypothetically do things that are incredibly precise, or massive feats of invisible strength.

To say she is the strongest FF member feels consistent with her power set for sure. She is also somebody who has had time to grow into her powers, from feeling invisible among big egos with big powers to leaping past them and becoming their protector.


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

[User]
[MCU] Are there copycat heroes?

So I was watching this movie called The Dark Knight and in the beginning a bunch of dudes who have no business fighting crime dress up in hockey pads and try to do what Batman does. Does this really happen? Are there guys trying to build Iron Man suits in their garage or trying to get superpowers to be like the Avengers? What happens to them? Any memorable stories?

[Assistant]
It's happened a few times, but in the MCU you can kind of sort of get *actual* powers if you try hard enough.

Consider a young Peter Parker who tried to stand up to the combat drones when he was like 8 years old wearing a Halloween mask.  Six years later he's swinging around on webs.

Karla Gideon grafted scalpel blades to her finger tips and used them to protect herself from her abusive boyfriend.  After she killed him she went crazy and went on a murder spree.  SHIELD categorized her as "enhanced".

Calvin Zabo made his own super soldier serum by mixing a bunch of weird things together, like gorilla testoserone and peppermint, to become super strong.

Trish Walker really, *really* wanted superpowers like her adopted sister.  She spent her life training in the martial arts and ran across combat enhancement drugs a few times.  Finally she forced the guy who gave her sister powers to give her some of her own.  We have yet to see how that plays out, but it looks like she's definitely got heightened reflexes now.


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

[User] ELI5: How is a leech or tick able to get lots of blood from anywhere, but a nurse with a needle has to hit a vein?

[Assistant]
The nurse with the needle is trying to get a lot of blood. Poke your finger with a small needle and a drop of blood will come out. A drop is quite a lot for a small animal.

(also, the saliva of these animals has anti-clotting agents preventing the wound from closing, keeping the blood flowing)


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

[User]
Is there a way to tell if a single AA, A, C, D, etc. battery still has life in it, using something around the house or work?

I have a label maker that takes six AA batteries and I just put 6 "new" batteries in there, and its indicating that the batteries are low.

Is there some trick to test which batteries are lowest without throwing them all out?

Thank you very much.

EDIT:   Thanks for all of your responses!  I was hoping to forgo buying something to test the batteries, but I will if necessary.  You know how you can test a 9V buy putting the prongs on your tongue?  That's what I was kind of looking for.  Thank you again!

[Assistant] If you press the positive terminal to your tongue tip and the negative to your upper lip, you'll know. It immediately begins to taste like metal. It's very distinct, and you can even tell how dead the battery is. It won't hurt, it can't harm you, and it requires no real tools.


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

[User]
[BATMAN 1989] What kind of malpractice led to Jack Napier's disfigurement?

The doctor only stated that the nerves in his cheeks were completely severed, which may explain the rictus grin, but how could it shaped such way?

[Assistant] Short version is that he got his face all tore up, and the guy trying to put it back together wasn't skilled enough or equipped to actually do it. He wasn't in a proper hospital with a "real" doctor, he was in a back alley clinic being cut on by the kind of guy who only has work because he's crooked/shady enough to not report gunshot injuries to the police. Most of this type aren't the best at their job, and it shows in the outcome.


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

[User]
[DC] The Lantern rings are essentially just pieces of hardware, right? Could I modify one to use energy from two or more different emotions?

Say I'm the DC equivalent of Marvel's Forge (I don't know if this exists already). I get ahold of a Green Power Ring (someone lent it to me?) and I attempt to modify it to be charged by both the Green Lantern and the Blue. Do I now have a supercharged ring? Or does it blow up in my face? If it works, what are the possibilities of my newfound styles of rings?

Yellow and Red?

Violet and Orange?

Black and White?

[Assistant]
It's not impossible to wear two different rings at once, but running two emotions through the same ring at once doesn't really work. The white ring is a bit of an exception ...kind of. Even so, you can't just go out and get a white ring.

To put it as basically as possible: The hardware can only support 1 OS at a time.


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

[User] ELI5:I have O-Negative blood, I can donate to anyone in the world, but only another O-Negative can donate to me in emergency. Why?

[Assistant] Your blood is special because it lacks any of the common markers which would make a body unused to them react with force from the immune system.  The downside is that your body is accustomed to blood without any of these markers, and will identify blood with any of them as foreign and react accordingly.


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

[User] [Dragon Ball] [Future timeline] Isn't future trunks going to die once Majin Buu shows up? Why weren't the androids destroyed by Majin Buu?

[Assistant]
Majin Buu required a large amount of energy to be summoned. Earth's fighting force has been eliminated.

The androids themselves don't have actual power levels, or life force to drain.

I would theorize that Babidi never brought Majin Buu to Earth because he could sense no great powers there to exploit.  Or he brought him there, saw nothing he could use to summon him, and instead went looking elsewhere.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do plants crack rock and concrete?

How can a plant get enough leverage to break a huge rock or a piece of concrete apart? What's happening on the cellular/molecular level?

[Assistant] If you think about breaking a rock with a hammer, it's a finite amount energy required all being conveyed at the same time. In the case of a plant, the cells divide on a microscopic level with each division requiring a small amount of energy for the process and expelling a small amount of kinetic energy during mitosis. Once a plant's vine or root starts growing within a crack it not only moves forward into space but also expands as a cylinder along the stalk. Instead of the instant force of a hammer, the plant exerts the same amount of total force over a longer period of time.


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

[User]
Why don't freight trains use turbine engines?

Freight trains in the US use diesel-electric drive trains where the engines act as a generator that then drives electric motors. These trains are supposedly extremely efficient, with a commonly-cited figure of 400 mpg per ton.

However, I'm operating under the assumption that turbines are the most efficient way to produce electricity as they're used to produce electricity for the grid. If this is the case, then why aren't trains using turbines, since they're trying to turn fossil fuel into electricity at peak efficiency? If it's not, then why do power plants not use diesel?

[Assistant]
Because trains do a lot of idling as well. Turbines are ungodly inefficient at low speed (power)

There are several examples of turbine locomotives though. The opitomy of which were Union Pacific's General Electric turbine locomotives (GTEl's). Flooring 8500hp (and by some accounts capable of up to 10k.)

The main disadvantages comes in their size, and the massive amount of fuel.

The GTELs used a 3 unit consist for each motive into. By today's standards it would be underpowered (8500 vs 13k in flagship locomotives), they also used more fuel. The reason that UP's GTELs were economic for the time was that bunker C fuel had no other use (This was a time before advanced refining techniques) and it was first cheap.

They are/were also exceptionally loud.


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

[User]
Lysosomes - are they more specialized than what I am led to believe in basic physiology lectures?

hi!

there have been several different times when I came up with a version of the same question: *how do lysosomes "know" what to digest?*

example to illustrate what I mean:

* in thyroid hormone production, thyroglobulin (TGB) is taken up by the follicular cell. the endosome, full of TGB, fuses with a lysosome, which digests the TGB to release free T3/T4.
   * how is it that the lysosome does not end up digesting the T3/T4 as well? do follicular cells express only certain kinds of enzymes that only break specific bonds within TGB and leave T3/T4 intact?

basically - we're taught that lysosomes are these enzyme-filled bags that just digest anything they come across, but that seems very simplistic, and I am curious to know more about their heterogeneity!

[Assistant] Lysosomes are indeed enzyme-filled, acid bags. The main enzymes they contain are hydrolases however, which will hydrolyze your typical macromolecular bonds like peptide bonds, sugar-phosphate bonds, or glycosidic bonds,  thereby mainly digesting proteins, dna, and polysaccharides respectively. Small molecules with few or no hyrolyzable bonds will remain pretty safe. So T3 and T4 can be recycled out of the lysosome and may or may not get digested elsewhere, while the functional molecules like proteins will be digested away.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why after downloading some applications, do I need to restart but others work straight away?

^

[Assistant] Because some applications use low-level resources which are already loaded into memory and used continuously by other applications and the operating system as well. Since reloading that particular resource in to memory is way too hard without crashing other applications or the OS itself, the best is to make the user reload the full operating system, hence the need to restart.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do we have silent letters? What made them add them in the first place?

[Assistant] It's not that they were added, but rather we neglected to remove them when our ways of pronouncing them changed. For instance, it is believed that the word Knight was actually pronounced ke nig hit or something like that in medieval times.


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

[User] [Wolfenstein] Just what in the hell is going on with the war given that hitler is dead?

[Assistant] Britan's empire didn't fall apart every time a monarch died. Remember that there is no war anymore, the Nazi's won. Hitler's death would just result in the promotion of someone else. Iirc we haven't seen the current leader of the Nazi Empire.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] What if the Zillo Beast killed Palpatine?

We all know the Zillo Beast ultimately dies before it kills Palpatine, but what if it lived long enough to finish off the Sith Lord? In this scenario, lets say when the Zillo Beast grabs the ship Palpatine is being escorted in, it simply crushes it rather than just holding onto it, killing everyone inside, including Palpatine. How does this affect the Clone Wars, as well as beyond?

[Assistant]
A big part of why the Clone Wars lasted for so long was that Palpatine was manipulating both sides, giving critical information and help in order to not only gain more and more power for him to eventually become Emperor, but also to put the Jedi through a meat grinder.

I think that this hinges on what Count Dooku and Mas Amedda do. Dooku was the CIS leader and Palpatines secret apprentice (he believed that the war would end with him surrendering and the CIS defeated, from where he would create a new Sith Order to replace the Jedi in the Empire and keep it free of the corruption he saw in the Republic) while Amedda was the Vice Chancellor and Palpatines chief advisor (along with being a co-conspirator to the Empires formation and being fully aware of his identity as a Sith Lord).

They both are smart enough to realize that theres no point to continuing the plan with Palps dead, and decide to end the war together. Dooku orders a ceasefire and opens up negotiations with Amedda as interim-Chancellor, merging the Seperatists back into the Republic while addressing some of the grievances he originally had in the first place. The Jedi are glad to accept the peace, Anakin never falls without the additional molding and temptation from Palpatine, Ahsoka stays and becomes a Knight, Padme doesnt die, and a new era of peace, justice and security is brought to the Republic.


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

[User]
[Doom Eternal] Can the Slayer ever...

Get back to the original Earth he is from?

Since the Earth in his current universe has never run into demonic invasions before DOOM 2016, that means he's in a different/parallel reality than the one he is from, right?

Will he ever be able to go back with the insane portal technology that he has? Does he even have the desire to go back?

[Assistant]
1. The Doom Slayer sealed his home dimension's portal to prevent the next Hell invasion. So going back means bringing back the threat again.

2. This is his home universe, just a century into a future where humanity only remembered they beat back a Hell invasion, not the actual method of how.


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

[User]
[MCU] Why did the serum not mutate anybody else?

The serum mutated Red Skull, giving him his name, because he was a bad person, and that makes you mutate with the serum, and thats why it was so important to give a "good person" the serum.

But there's been other people who got the serum that weren't exactly good people, like the Flagsmashers and Red Guardian. Why didn't they mutate?

[Assistant]
Where did you get your info from?

The serum red skull got was a prototype and obviously had some side effects as a result, the one Steve got was the perfected version and the flagsmasher version is made using whatever information survived of the original serum with some modern technology to fill in the blanks.


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

[User]
[Marvel] Where were the Asgardians during the Annihilation War?

I would think that Thor, at least, would have taken part once it became clear that the Wave was heading in the direction of Earth.

[Assistant]
Asgard was dead at the time, thanks to Ragnarok. Thor didn't come back to life until after the War was over.

Also: Reed didn't share the news about the Annihilation Wave with anyone, for whatever reason. Tony heard something 'vague'. As far as Earth knew, there was no danger.


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

[User]
CMV: Criminals who are given life without parole should be given the option for the death penalty.

I'm of the opinion that prison should be to rehabilitate criminals. to reform them and to make them better people when they are released. I'm aware that people are against the death penalty for things like false convictions and the cost of appeals. But what if they were given the option.

Benefits would include: Less money spent on housing and feeding inmates, Violent offenders that choose this route would not be able to harm others who have a chance of life on the outside, and while the death penalty would technically still exist, it would be a much more affordable means compared to the current system with it where there are appeals after appeals for every death penalty given out.

The downside that some might mention would be it being inhumane to sentence someone to death. But if that's what the person wants, why let them live with no hope. If you're stuck in prison for decades, with no hope of getting out, what's there to look forward to? What is there to make yourself a better person for?

If there's no reason for someone to rehabilitate and reform in prison, and they dont want to live in miserable conditions that have been noted in US prisons, with no hope of ever getting out, why not let them take the death penalty instead of possibly suffering a painful death at the hands of themselves or another inmate? Reddit, do your thing. Change my view.

[Assistant]
>CMV: Criminals who are given life without parole should be given the option for the death penalty.

The sentence is punishment. For some, it is an appropriate punishment to have a person live out an entire wasted life more than it is to save him money keeping them alive.


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

[User] What are the most promising scientific discoveries of the last decade?

[Assistant]
New massively parallel sequencing technologies will soon allow us to routinely sequence everyone's genome. Ultimately, this is going to lead to personalized medicine, where appropriate treatments can be based on your unique genetic profile (or the profile of your tumor, in the case of cancer).

Though a few diseases are being impacted already, it's going to take many years for the mutations we find by sequencing to be translated into understanding of the molecular mechanisms at work. Then, there will be another lag time as we develop drugs for targeting different cellular processes.

In 25 years, though, medicine is going to look a lot different.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why has the United States not invaded North Korea (in recent years), especially after having been threatened repeatedly?

I have a feeling it has to do with the Russians upstairs, or with the danger of repercussions in South Korea. But I feel a little ignorant on the topic (to say the least)

[Assistant]
Because while N. Korea might talk a mean game, they're basically harmless. Much of what you see in terms of N. Korea is purely spectacle make to build this image that they are this badass. In reality, N. Korea probably wouldn't be able to take over a Walmart in Texas.

They're basically like a child who's threatening to hold his breath. Sure, he could do it but he'd only hurt himself.


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

[User]
Did the atoms that make up my living body exist as atoms of a stone/tree/animals etc before I became me?

I hope this is the correct "science" sub-reddit to post this question which has been bothering me for a while. I don't think this is a metaphysical question as I am talking about physical attributes (if you can consider an atomic particle physical).

Obviously we are "dead" for a long time before we are born into this life (at least our physical bodies do not exist until we are incarnated). If all matter has existed since the big bang, does that mean the atoms that make up my living body right now have over the billions of years since the big bang, been atoms in rocks, trees, earth, animals etc and when I die the atoms will once again take up a different form? So the minute component atoms that make the physical "me" me were part of something else before they were "me"? I hope that makes sense? My science teacher always said that nothing cannot become something and vice versa.

[Assistant]
Yep, you pretty much answered your own question there. The atoms in your body had to come from somewhere after all.

It would be fun to trace out the 'memberships' of all atoms in your body, and see where they have been (as well as what they were part of) before they ended up as you. But alas, all atoms of a particular element are alike. We do know that elements heavier than helium (and a minute bit of lithium) were predominantly fused in stellar cores and supernovas. Some serious recycling right there. :)


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

[User] ELI5: How does cardiovascular health improve through cardio/aerobic exercise? Especially for those with clogged arteries from years of a sedentary lifestyle and poor dietary habits. What does the body do to correct this?

[Assistant]
In order to move, your muscles need energy. A key piece in making energy is oxygen (like how you have to blow on a fire to get it to start burning). That oxygen comes from the blood. The blood comes from the heart.

When you exercise, the heart pumps harder. If you keep exercising, the heart gets better at pumping like all the other muscles in your body. With a better pump, you can get more blood with oxygen to the muscles.

But what about the clogged arteries? The blood cant get there if the arteries are clogged. So your body can literally make new blood vessels to get to the muscles that are working.

These are called collateral vessels if you want to learn more.


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

[User]
ELI5: Are insects still "alive" or "conscious" if they are infected with a parasite?

Specifically a Horsehair Worm in a Preying Mantis. Does the insect have any voluntary control or is it just a puppet for the host?

[Assistant]
It really depends on what you mean by 'conscious.'  Yes, it's alive.  Horsehair worms use chemicals (possibly ones that mimic other insects' pheromones to guide the insect around, it's not fully understood) to influence the host's brain and make it do what it wants, usually jumping into water to release the worm.

It's not like the worm is physically manipulating its body like a puppet, so it's alive.  Does it have voluntary control?  Is it conscious?  Was it ever?  Insects have very simple neurology.  It's a biological machine acting on instructions embedded in its neural makeup and the parasite is introducing chemicals that alter those instructions.  More like driving a car than hijacking someone's brain, though keep in mind the worm isn't any more aware of what it's doing than the bug is.  The worm is just releasing chemicals according to instructions embedded in even simpler neurology.


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

[User]
CMV : In most cases, the pirates that only download but do not upload copyrighted content are causing no loss to the copyright holder.

Think about it. **If they have no means to pay the copyright holder, either because they have the money but not the compatible payment media (for example, Sony doesn't accept debit cards, at least from many countries), or they have no money at all.**

All they're doing is downloading something that is available on the internet. **They would not have been able to pay the copyright holder even if they wanted to, and thus they are causing no loss to the copyright holder.**
Whether it is moral to enjoy something without paying for it is questionable, I would allege, as much as overcharging for goods and services, as is the practice. However, that is not what I want a discussion on. I want only to discuss about whether and if yes, then how loss is caused to the copyright holder by people who illegally download copyrighted content without paying, as they have no means to make the payment.

[Assistant]
**(1)** The implication of your question is that pirates who upload *are* hurting copyright holders.

**(2)** Without people who upload, nobody could download.  People who upload, do so because the infrastructure exists (P2P sites).

**(3)** The infrastructure exists because it's profitable, which is why all these sites have ads.  It's profitable because people download, thereby causing the traffic.

**(4)** People who download incent the advertisers.  The advertisers incent the P2P sites.  The P2P sites incent the uploaders.  The uploaders hurt copyright holders.

**Conclusion:**  Downloaders are the basis of an economy which hurts copyright holders, even if they themselves never uploaded anything.


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

[User] ELI5: How do noise-cancelling headphones actually block out 99.9% of all outside noise, even though they seemingly are structured the same way as regular headphones?

[Assistant] If you take a waveform and inverse it, then play it along with the original, they'll cancel each other out (+1 combined with -1 equals 0). Noise canceling headphones actually have a little microphone on the outside that it uses to listen to the noise around you, and then it produces the inverse of that noise and plays it through the headphones, negating much of the noise outside.


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

[User]
How did the horseshoe crab, a living fossil, survive ocean acidification of the climate event known as, Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), a period that exhibited large amounts of carbon, which occurred 56-58 million years ago?

The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) is studied to draw corollaries to modern day global warming. The horseshoe crab has fossils dating back 450 million years ago.

[Assistant] Horseshoe crabs are pretty tough, they made it through the end-Permian extinction and the K-T extinction  that wiped out the dinosaurs.  They are apparently quite capable of continuing to form shell even in acidified oceans (which isn't too surprising, lots of arthropods form hard shells in fresh water environments that are much more acidic than the ocean will ever be).  Arthropod shells are made mostly of chitin, not calcium carbonate, so they are less sensitive.


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

[User] ELI5:  When your body loses weight, where does it actually go?

[Assistant]
Losing weight is burning more calories than you take in.

Burning calories is basically sugar + oxygen = energy + carbon dioxide + water.

So you will lose your weight by exhaling it as carbon dioxide and excreting it in various ways as water.


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

[User]
[MCU] Why is the Super Hero alluded to in the post credits of Avengers Infinity considered so powerful to be considered as a last resort? [Spoilers]

What powers does she posses that would pose a threat to Thanos that other super heroes don't have?

[Assistant]
We don't know yet why Captain Marvel hasn't been called before or if it even has anything to do with her powers.

Captain Marvel is very powerful though. She has super strength, super-sonic flight, precognition, can fire powerful energy blasts, and can absorb energy to increase her own strength.

In the comics, Carol Danvers most powerful form was as Binary. She could tap into the energies of stars and thus could control heat, gravity, and electromagnetic energies.

We have yet to see what Captain Marvel's powerset will be in the MCU.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is plugging mulitple power strips into each other a bad idea?

[Assistant] The strips are rated for a certain amount of current through them based on the number of sockets. By chaining them together the socket total can be increased arbitrarily leading to potentially stressing them beyond the point of failure.


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

[User]
[The Expanse] Just how does the Epstein Drive work?

What is the nitty gritty of how the Epstein Drive works?

[Assistant]
It's a fusion torch. It's similar in principle to a conventional rocket, but except instead of a combustion chamber, it's a fusion reactor. A high efficiency continuous fusion reaction produces a large quantity of high velocity plasma and radiation that's magnetically directed out the back of the ship.

But that design was created before epstien; his contribution was cracking the problem of reaction mass expulsion. Before, the reactors would spit out perfectly fusible hydrogen and helium along with the heavier exhaust plasma species due to limitations in the magnetic containment field technology.

By stabilizing the reaction mass with cyclotronic superconducting coils that generate bidirectional electromagnetic vortices in the boundary layer between the actively fusing reaction mass and the "cold" exhaust, epstien dramatically increased the power output and efficiency of older fusion torch design.


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

[User]
ELI5:Why do some vaccines "last" longer than others? What's the difference?

I'm thinking of the flu - we need to get a flu shot every year because there's a different strain predicted to be the most prevalent, and because those strains keep evolving.

But then I think of, say, diphtheria. We only get that vaccine once or twice (by my recollection). Same for measles-mumps-rubella. Tetanus is only every 10 years.

What's the difference? Is it something about the diseases themselves that make them easier to vaccinate against, or is it something about the vaccines that make them generate longer-lasting antibodies?

[Assistant] The primary difference is the disease.  The Flu virus is more prevalent and it also mutates quicker than some other viruses, and so a vaccine that worked last year likely won't work this year as the virus has reproduced so much that it's too different from the previous version.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does a big sheet of thin metal make wibbley wobbley sound?

As stated in the title, why do big sheets of thin metal make a wub wub sound when manipulated?

[Assistant]
It's about resonance. Waves move across the sheet, like waves across the surface of water. These waves move from one side to the other, bounce off the far side of the sheet, and move back across. When the reflections match up - when a certain number of 'wave crests' fit across the sheet, they resonate. As these waves push the air around, they cause pressure waves in the air - sound.

The note, the tone, of these waves depends on how fast they move across the sheet. This is influenced by how stretched the sheet is. As the sheet wobbles, it is slightly stretched by a small amount. This slightly speeds up and slows down the waves moving across the sheet, making the pitch of the sounds they are making rise and fall. This is the 'wobbling' sound we hear.


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

[User] [General Magic] I have a sword that can teleport to my location, and allows me to teleport myself to *its* location. What happens if I activate both of thees abilities as the *exact* same time?

[Assistant]
"-and that's how the universe was created."

"What, from an ancient warrior with a magical sword?"

"Yup. That's the First Story, of FingerBangYourFears, the hero before time. He had a magical sword he could appear next to, or make the sword appear next to him. He tried both at once, and tore apart reality. It's called the Big Finger Bang."


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

[User] ELI5:why are all bodybuilders too tanned when most don't find this aesthetically pleasing?

[Assistant]
Dark/black shows shadows from muscle definition better. White just looks white/less white. If they get it right it will look dark brown in the light and black where the ripples cast a shadow.

Basically the human eye is better at telling the difference between a 15w and 10w light bulb than a 100w and a 95w light bulb. So they use that to their advantage.


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

[User]
Have viruses ever become a permanent part of human DNA? If so, what function(s) do they add/augment in humans?

I have read before that viruses have become part of human DNA, but little more is said about it.  So many questions...  Are these viruses subsumed whole, or just parts?  Have we located specific sequences that are provable used-to-be-virus?  What kinds of function(s) do these sequences perform?  forget apes, are humans just really evolved cooperatives of viruses?  I mean anything that seems pertinent to this topic is game.

[Assistant] YES! Theyre called human endogenous retrovirus or HERV and theres a LOT. In fact, the amount of your genome that is viral is EIGHT times larger than the part that actually encodes proteins, which is about 1%. Most are broken almost beyond recognition and definitely beyond being able to make a protein. There is one gene, syncytin, that is important in the formation of the placenta.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is only one person in the Bible named Adam, whereas there are other names with multiple people associated with it. Wouldn't a lot of people use the "original name"? When did it become popular again?

There aren't any popular historical stories about a King Adam or Adam the Great. What happened to this name and why did it become popular again?

[Assistant] Well, the name didn't show up until the spread of Christianity because Adam isn't a name in Hebrew. It's a word that means "man", as in "humankind". It wasn't until Europeans started reading the Bible that they decided to take Adam's name, because in Hebrew it would sound absurd.


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

[User]
[Captain America: Civil War] What happens if all the avengers said no t the accords. What could the government actually do to them?

I mean we saw what Cap and Bucky can do to hit squads multiple times, Ironman can literally make an army and we have seen with Jarvis before that he has the means to hack all of the U.S Nukes if he so wished, Vision is basically indestructible and as seen in his fight with Ultron he also seems to have the ability to hack on a greater level then Ultron and so again THEY CAN CONTROL ALL THE NUKES! Or pretty much all the Internet and online information networks.

Thats not even getting into all the assassinations they could pull off with both Black Widow and Hawkeyes, the brainwashing they could do with Scarlet Witch and heaven forbid just imagine what would happen if they had a Hulk as well as Thor and the allegiance of Asgard.

So again I ask, what could the government actually do if the avengers had said no that wouldn't end terribly for them if the Avengers felt threatened enough to go full force against them?

[Assistant] The government could take away any semblance of a normal life any of them would ever have.  Tony wants to go to a club? nope he's constantly on guard that a government team will take him down.  Scarlet Witch want to visit her brother's grave? That place is under 24 hour surveillance.  Steve want to go grab a beer with Dum Dum Dugan?  Better be in a secret bunker.  Hell they couldn't even have homes.  They'd live like the Winter Soldier did in shitty apartments with go bags always ready.


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

[User] ELI5: What exactly happens when someone donates their body to science?

[Assistant] Read the book "Stiff".  A lot of things can happen to you once donated.   Medical schools, crash test dummies, even rotting for research.  Bodies are left to rot to test how they react and help police determine cause and time of death.  You normally can't choose where your body goes though...


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

[User]
What does Math.Pow(x,2) do under the hood, that is much slower than x*x?

Hello, I am asking about C#

[Assistant]
Math.Pow needs to be able to raise any number to the power of any other number, not just 2. It's instrinsically a much slower computation than just multiplying one number by another. CPUs generally don't even have a single instruction for raising an arbitrary number to an arbitrary power - they have instructions for taking natural logarithms, and raising *e* to the power of some number, so they combine them to do:

y = e\^(n*ln(x))


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

[User] [D&D]Why can humans have offspring with Dwarves, Orcs and Elves, but you cant have offspring from an Elf/Orc pairing, or an Orc/Dwarf pairing? What makes humans special that they can have babies with everyone?

[Assistant]
There have been several dnd setting so it will vary a bit.

But in general there are more half-species, including things like half dwarf, half elf. Their issue is that it is a lot rarer. Humans are way more numerous than most humanoid species. And humans are much more likely to sleep with whatever they can. Elves and Dwarves both tend to be arrogant and despite what the Hobbit movies would have you believe Elves and Dwarves are unlikely to fall in love.


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

[User]
How does a nuclear reaction actually begin?

In a nuclear reactor, how do they get the uranium 235 to actually begin fission? I've tried to find out how but have no idea. I understand that you need a neutron to hit an atom of U235 which then splits into fission products and an average of 2.45 neutrons, but where does the first neutron come from?

Do we just stick the material into a moderator I.e. water,  and let stray neutrons slowly begin the reaction then use the control rods to slow it down once it's going? Or do we inject a big spike of neutrons to begin the reactions? What goes on when we need to restart the reaction?

[Assistant] The fuel is always naturally fissioning.  However, the moderator and control rods absorb resulting excess neutrons keeping the radioactivity of the core close to its natural level.  Once the contol rods start to get removed, those neutrons are now available to trigger additional fission reactions that wouldn't normally have decayed.  Hence the controlled chain reaction commences depositing heat into the coolant loop.


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

[User]
eli5: why isn't the summer Solstice the hottest day of the year?

It is the longest day, so it gets the most sunshine, why is it hotter latter in the summer when the days are getting shorter again???

[Assistant]
The same reason the hottest part of the day isn't noon, but around 3pm. The temperature keeps rising so long as the incoming heat is higher than the outgoing heat. There hasn't been enough time for the temperature to reach an equilibrium.

Lets say you have a pot of cold water, normally it takes 5 minutes to boil on high heat. If you heat it on high for 2 minutes, then turn the heat down to 75%, it's still going to keep getting hotter, despite the rate of heat input going down.


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

[User]
[Star Wars Ep 4, Canon OR Legends] Why was Han Solo in the Tatooine Cantina

From the Original Trilogy, and other Star Wars Media we know Jabba the Hutt is a big time gangster, like Galactic Scale gangster.

We also know that Jabba is based on Tatooine.

From Ep 4, we know that Han Solo owes Jabba the Hutt money, a lot of money.

We know that Tatooine isn't a very large place, with only a few cities (Mos Eisley & Mos Espa)

Tatooine is also a major stopping place in the galaxy, sitting between two major trade routes. It's why so many people end up there (The Mandalorian for example).

So WHY is Han Solo just sitting in a bar, only a few miles away from the galactic-level gangster who wants him dead?

[Assistant]
Because Solo only just fucked up a major job and is looking for work to get the credits to pay Jabba back. He was about to bail to parts unknown had Habba not already put his ship under lockdown.

And in case you're wandering, he was shipping spice for Jabba but dumped it when an Imperial patrol boarded his ship.


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

[User]
If cats can't taste sugar then why do many popular cat food brands add it?

Like Whiskas. Also why does my cat go mad for the sugary brands?

[Assistant]
Sugar is not only about sweetness in flavor.  It's also a quick and ready source of carbohydrates: energy.

With that said:

Not all cat foods contain added sugar.  In fact many don't but some certainly do. It's a cheap and lazy way for manufactures to boost certain nutrition label figures to make the catfood look more healthy on paper than it is in your cats stomach.

Cats don't need added sugar.  They really don't need any sugar at all.  But the empty calories from the sugar are like cat cocaine.  They give your cat an energy rush that will keep 'em coming back for more.  Makers know this and know if you don't have all the info you will be prone to buy your cat sugared food because you think it's what your cat prefers.  Avoid the cheap brands that add sugar and make sure kitty is fed well even if you need to spend a few more tuppence.


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

[User] ELI5: What is Gonzo journalism?

[Assistant]
It's a style of journalism where the writer is the main character in the story they are telling. Instead of being objective, you experience the story from the author's point of view which naturally includes their biases.

I think Anthony Bourdain's travel stories are great examples of modern gonzo journalism.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do big military aircraft like the C130 and the A440 use propellors instead of jet engines like commercial aircraft?

Am I even asking the right question? It just seems...weird to me. Makes them look ancient even though the A440 launched just two years ago!

[Assistant]
Propellers are more fuel efficient at low altitudes where the air is thicker. Low-altitude aircraft use propellers, high altitude craft use jets.

Combat planes need to be able to go high altitude, so they're all jets. But you can more more stuff more cheaply if you use propellers for cargo.


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

[User]
[General] Who is the most evil character who's ever redeemed themselves?

Also, what made them so evil and what did they do to "become good"?

Additionally, as a qualifier, the redemption has to be completely voluntary so no amnesia or mind control or anything like that.

[Assistant]
Vandal Savage in Justice League. When Toymaker created a disintegration beam that sent Superman into the future, Savage managed to create an Apocalypse weapon that killed both the Justice League and all of humanity. 30,000 years later, he regretted that act and stayed in solitude on Earth despite building a starship to leave.

When Superman arrived in the future, Savage brought him in and entertained him as a guest. Superman discovered that Savage had a time machine but Savage himself couldn't use it because the laws of causality would prevent it. Instead, both Savage and Superman worked together, finished the time machine, and Savage himself gave the info on how to stop his past self from building the doomsday weapon.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why can't fresh water fish survive in salt water?

Explain like I'm five, why can fresh water fish survive in salt water and salt water fish survive in fresh water?

[Assistant]
It's the same reason you can't drink salt water: osmosis. Low solute water will flow into high solute water (the solute being salt). Salt water fish have different body chemistry than fresh water fish. So salt water fish lose their body's water to the sea, and will drink sea water to replace it. Fresh water fish, on the other hand, have excess body water and are always excreting (urinating) the excess.

Basically, salt water fish = water flows out of their body. Fresh water fish = water flows in. If you put a fish in the wrong type of water their body isn't equipped to balance their body's water content.


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

[User]
[MCU] Does Doctor Strange teach students?

We saw that a large portion of the Ancient Ones duties as Sorcerer Supreme was to teach new recruits at Kamar Taj. I would think since the titles been passed on to him, Strange would have this responsibility now as well, especially if he is indeed supposed to be the most powerful/knowledgeable sorcerer on Earth. However, we almost always just see him relaxing at the New York Sanctum.

Does Strange teach? Also, is there a reason he bases himself out of the New York Sanctum as opposed to Kamar Taj or any of the other Sanctums?

[Assistant]
We haven't seen that he does, no. And in the MCU he has not yet taken the title of "Sorcerer Supreme."

He bases himself out of the NY Sanctum probably because it was the first he had to take care of and is in a country he's familiar with.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is elbow skin drier than skin on the rest of your body?

[Assistant]
I would guess that relative to the other parts of your body, the skin around your elbows has fewer sebaceous glands. Sebaceous glands secrete oils that cover your skin to protect it from the outside world and prevent your skin from drying out.

When you don't have enough of these oils, whether it be from dry weather, frequently stripping them away with soaps, or other causes, the skin will dry out and might crack.


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

[User]
How much P-Hacking happens in Academia and have you seen it happen?

Since often times with academics under pressure to produce results to get grant money and the threshold or cut off for statistically significant data is often a p-value of .05, Ive read about some researchers needing to manipulate data to fit that .05 so they can publish.

But how often does it happen?

[Assistant] I took a research design class taught by a social psychologist and she actually said that dependent variables are cheap when designing an experiment. In other words, test as many things as possible after doing an experimental manipulation and one of them will be significant.